RAISED BED GARDEN PLANTING FINISHED

So this past weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, was time to get the garden more or less, finished (and the flowerbeds I posted about yesterday).

It was an odd day on Saturday because there was a man, considered armed and dangerous, on the loose in the area.  He had fled the scene of a fatality accident and was on the run since it was a rural area (lots of land to hide on and homes/buildings to hide in).  Once the police officer came to tell 2nd Family, they came up and told me to be on the lookout and as I worked in the garden the rest of the day, I had our gun nearby just in case. I would work on things for 3 minutes and then look up and around.  Then another couple of minutes and look around again.  It was too distracting.  The decision was made not to spend the night because that would have made for a REALLY sleepless night.

Luckily he was captured without incident early in the evening.

So back on track with the gardening...

First up was to get some cucumbers in the ground.  We have never tried them and had an empty bed just waiting.  I pulled back the cover, turned the soil and put the trellis up.  We bought pickling cucumbers as neither of us is a big fan of just cucumbers but we love pickles and since the canning bug has bitten me, I figured it was time to try some pickles.  

Assuming these grow and produce of course, ha.  

I put down the straw around the plants and set up the trellis, which matches the red supports elsewhere in the garden.  This type is supposed to let the vines climb up the outside and the cukes will dangle through the other side.  We'll see if that works like its supposed to, ha.  

Here's the garlic bed.  They are doing great and I guess we have another couple of months before harvesting (end of May).  

Can't wait for that!  Fingers crossed!

In the larger bed, we deiced to try some seeds.  Planted two types of carrots, as well as a section of beets and a section of turnips.   These are all varieties best suited for our climate.  Hoping to see some green sprouts this weekend.

Time will tell!

Also planted a yellow squash and a zucchini.  This was before I got the irrigation set up in this bed.  This weekend I will add some root vegetable seeds to this bed to have some staggered plantings while the squash are still small.  

This was originally going to be Spring greens and then okra, but we missed Spring greens season.  I think we have gone right on to Summer, ha.  We decided to go ahead and plant the okra now.

Here it is in the middle of Winter, just before I got started...

...and here is it this past weekend.  

Let the growing begin!