Salad Season

Our long and lovely spring has given us ideal conditions for growing salad greens... and strawberries!  This is the first year that I've had bountiful yields of both. 

One thing I changed this year was purchasing individual varieties of lettuce seeds instead of a mix. I alternated rows of colorful red and green leaf lettuces instead of planting a field of mixed greens.  Not only does this make for a pretty neat looking striped area in the garden bed, but it also makes it a little easier to see what's working and what isn't. And this year, everything is working!  I haven't bought salad greens in over a month and I've had greens to share too. 

This is also the first year that I've gotten a decent strawberry crop from my 6 plants. I know it takes a couple years for strawberries to get going, and the wait has finally paid off. On several occasions I've picked a big handful of red, juicy, sweet berry "candy" from Mother Nature. Last year I never got more than a berry a visit, so this is a triumph in my book. 

The garden is now off and running after a late start. Here's what it's looked like over the past month:

At the start of May, the lettuce in the foreground was just beginning, the strawberries in the top right were covered in white blooms, and that unstoppable kale in the upper left was already going strong. 

By mid May, the lettuce was ready for some thinning, I picked our first handful of berries, and the overwintered kale was flowering. 

Now I have loads of lettuce, the berries are slowing, and I seriously trimmed the runaway kale to make room for radicchio heads underneath. 

What else is growing? Carrots, leeks, garlic, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, dill, melon, and winter squash. Yes, I garden in a very small space. Yes, I make the most of it.