It’s been such a cold, wet spring that I’ve been unsure when I would plant our garden this year. We finally hit 70 degrees recently, so I figured I’d take the risk of planting and hope for the best.

The past two years, we’ve just stuck a bunch of seeds in the ground without really thinking what we would do with 300 cucumbers later in the summer, so this year we tried to be a bit more intentional about what we planted, and how much we planted.

We did snow peas, snap peas, beets and arugula in April and it is all coming up nicely. Once the calendar turned to May and warmer temperatures were promised – though they have since vanished – we planted zucchini, cucumbers, onions, pole beans, red peppers, broccoli and eggplant.

Our kale continues to love the weather here, surviving more than two years in the ground and producing large quantities. We also planted garlic last fall and it is a really early variety that is supposed to be ready in June, though with our cold weather I’m not sure if that will be the case.

We are trying strawberries in a container to try and keep it away from the deer and rabbits, and we bought starts from the store for our herb garden, including basil, thyme, cilantro, parsley, spearmint, mint julep, sage and dill.

Carrot and brussel sprout seeds just came in the mail, so we have to find room in the bed to grow those, as well as the pumpkins, though I might try those in the ground.

Anyway, hopefully we get to eat more than just kale, zucchini and cucumbers this year.

– Craig Craker