Lush food forest and prepping for the summer

This spring has been wet and hot so far. The weather has been perfect for flowers and fruiting trees in the garden. The pears, plums, nectarines, and peach trees are fruiting in abundance. The grape vines are fruiting as well. And the blueberries are growing plumper by the day. The aronis berries are fruiting for the first time this year.

Patch of Aronia berry, goji, mulberry, and grape vines

Grape vines fruiting 

Besides the fruiting foods, the brassicas are growing strong in the garden as well. Sunday, I sowed cucumber seed amongst them too. Also Sunday i sowed watermelon and cantaloupe in one garden bed. In other garden beds, there's radish, oniond, carrot, lettuce, peas, spinach, and beets sprouting in the garden.

Cilantro and brassicas growing

Radish, spinach, peas and beets 

The garden needs a little manicure, as the weeds are growing as healthy as the vegetables.

Monday, I shoveled, tilled, and fenced this patch of ground. Then I hoed some mounds along the row of fencing and sowed two types of pumpkin seed and four types of cucumber seed. This area is where I have grown beans and peas for years, which has added nitrogen to the soil.

Pumpkins and cucumbers sown 

Tomorrow, I will be tilling my other garden which is where I have also been growing beans for years. The beans provided nitrogen to the soil which will be perfect for growing greens and other heavy feeders. Especially ally since this garden gets a lot of compost added throughout the year, the soil is vitamin rich and healthy.

Here too, I have bags of potatoes growing. I have many more potatoes to plant aswell, so I will also sow more potatoes in this garden.

Potatoes in grow bags

Lastly, I wanted to show you the flowers blooming. Most of the tulips have died off but this little cutey is always the last of the tulips, and it's the most spectacular. The Iris flowers are blooming too as we go into May.

Stay tuned for more garden updates and floral photography.

Sheet mulching food forest & prepping potato bags

Yesterday I bought a truck load of cedar mulch. I used this to sheet mulch around the mulberry tree, grape vines, aronia and goji berry bushes.

There is a flower and herb bed behind these, and I have outlined this bed with glass bottles. And I would like to mulch this bed because I have hibiscus, phlox, mint, and thyme spreading.

In this bed, there's an old toilet I have repurposed. Many people would think a toilet decoration in your yard to grow flowers is trashy, but I'm embracing my white trash, and repurposing the recyclables. I'm not sure yet what I'll be growing in the toilet but I have mulch and compost inside ready to grow anything.

The cedar didn't spread very far. I was hoping to get some mulch around the blueberry bushes, but didnt have enough mulch to do so.

Blueberries & goji berries

I was able to use some of the mulch to mix with garden soil in the grow bags. This Friday I'm off work so I'll take that day as an opportunity to buy another truck load of compost and add to the grow bags. Then I'll sow some of the poatoes. I have a 50 lb bag of potatoes to sow, so I'm going to have to sew more grow bags. As you can see in the photo, I only have 24 bags to grow potatoes.

I'm quickly going through money buying compost and mulch by the truck load. But it's all very necessary when caring beautifying your gardens.

I'm satisfied with these garden beds which I have cilantro, onions, broccoli, and cauliflower growing in. I have the hoops set up and netting as well.

Tulip Spring garden, veggie garden & blooming fruit treed

There's many beautiful varieties of tulips in the garden right now. I composted around them too to help them along.

Plum and pear trees blooming

Peach and nectarine trees blooming

Their enchanting and when I'm feeling uneasy about life, I look at the flowers.

I also have broccoli and cauliflower transplanted in the garden beds, a long with onion bulbs. I transplanted these today and I transplanted a lilac bush today as well.

I have more broccoli and cauliflower that are seedlings I started from seed. They're growing very slow, so I'm waiting to transplant them when they mature, and then transplant them in my other garden.

There's tomatoes and pepper seedlings I started from seed as well, and they're quite small so I'm waiting to transplant them when they mature.

There's strawberry plants I put in pots, as well. I don't seem to have luck with these if I'm growing them in beds. And I have purple potatoes planted in the pots as well.

I bought a 50 lb. Bag of kennebac potatoes to transplant those on good Friday as the saying goes. I'll be planting them in the grow bags again because that seems easy and successful.

If you want to see a little garden tour, go on over to the YouTube channel at vegans living off the land to watch the newest video and others like it. Or you can simply watch below.