Garden Ups and Downs

KIA at the garden

Gardening here in North Idaho has been a bit frustrating. I really thought I had a grasp on things this year. I started my seeds at the right times indoors, planted my squash, pumpkins, and cucumbers in peat pots so no to disturb their roots, and started my carrots early, but not too early. Of course the weather isn't cooperative. It turned out the last week or so of may was way unseasonably hot. We didn't keep our carrot seeds watered enough and they came up very sporadically. The long wave of warm weather seemed to bring overconfidence so I planted my tomatoes, eggplants, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, and some of my peppers and tomatillas the first week in June. But then, we got two frosts in a row the second week in June. All my cucumbers, several tomatoes, half of my pumpkins, squash, and eggplants were killed. I had a couple starts still at home, but was forced to start the cucumbers by seed and pick-up a few tomatoes at farmers market. We'll see if the short growing season will be long enough. The next problem to hit were voles. Those little buggers ate the roots of 7 of my brassicas which ended up shriveling and dying.

Now it seems as though things are mellowing out. We have mulched about half of the garden and have planted more carrots (and have been keeping them watered). The weeds aren't too out of control yet. Anyhow, heres to hoping for a good season. How is everyone's garden doing?

KIA's garden teepee-Moh made this with scrap canvas

I'm glad KIA isn't afraid to get dirty