Mid-Spring Garden Check-in – How’s it Growing?

The veggie garden is off to a slow start, but the herb garden is doing great. How’s your spring garden?

The herb garden in early May. Clockwise L-R: Oregano, Sage, Rosemary, Borage, and Thyme

Serious question – how’s your garden doing so far?

It’s mid-spring so things should be off and running. Is your garden where you hoped it’d be by now? Ahead? Behind?

Off to a slow start

It’s been a cooler, wetter spring than usual here in San Diego County. We even got rain a couple days ago – and we never get rain after the first couple of weeks in April. As a result, the weeds are particularly obnoxious and I’ve been force to spend a lot of time knocking them down instead of filling the garden with new stuff.

The winter/early spring field crops — cauliflower, broccoli, onions, and lettuce — are all harvested, leaving just a few late bloomers at this point. Once those beds are completely cleared, I’m debating whether to plant bush beans and giving the soil a chance to get some nutrients back after a busy winter, or forging ahead with a later season sweet corn and replacing them with beans later in the summer.

The vegetable in early May – off to a slower than usual start

I did transplant paste tomatoes (Big Mama) and slicers (Brandywine), cucumbers, peppers, and basil into the garden back in mid-April, but they’ve been slow to take off.

Looking at photos from this time last year, which was also cool, but much drier, this year’s garden looks to be lagging by two or three weeks. My hope is the marine cloud cover we know as “May gray” and “June gloom” isn’t as thick as it was last year so the garden will catch up before the heat of summer gets here.

Keyhole garden keeps rolling

Up in the keyhole garden, the peas and carrots are in mid-harvest, so I’ve planted cucumbers, tomatoes, and some French iceberg lettuce that will take over once the harvest is complete.

We also cut back the cilantro a few weeks ago — some for fresh eating, the rest for drying so we still have some later on in the year when it’s too hot for it to grow.

The cilantro plants are starting to bolt now, so we’re letting them flower to bring in the beneficial insects and pollinators that’ll help keep down the pests (especially the aphids that love the sweet peppers) in this very busy garden.

The keyhole garden is in full bloom with peas, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers

After the cilantro goes to seed, we’ll also have coriander that will go into the pickling spice mix we use for our old fashioned pickles.

The herb garden is a bright spot

One section of the garden that really seems to have enjoyed the wet weather is the herb garden. The oregano, marjoram, sage, rosemary, thyme, and borage are all big, green and flowering with gusto.

The herb garden in early May. Clockwise L-R: Oregano, Sage, Rosemary, Borage, and Thyme

Walking through the garden and trimming the plants for fresh herbs and drying is like walking through an open-air spice market. The scent is heady with perfume and wonderful. The bees and butterflies seem to think so as well.

I also transplanted some dill seedlings a few weeks back. They’re now starting to take off and should be ready to harvest right around the same time as the pickling cukes (fingers crossed). As with the cilantro, we’ll let some of the dill flower, both for the beneficial insects and the seeds for planting and spices.

Mid-spring summary

This year’s vegetable and herb garden is off to a slow start, but I’m hoping a sunnier-than-usual last half of spring allows it to catch up before the heat of summer arrives in full. I haven’t had any major crop losses just yet, so it looks like the garden year is on track for a good season.

But, as any experienced gardener will tell you, only time will tell.

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