Mid-May Garden Update

I can't believe how much has bloomed already and how much we've planted already - so it's amazing to me that I can even have a mid-May garden update.  Here goes!

As you can see, the rhododendron have started to bloom, and we have a lot of them around our house, so it's going to be beautiful around here. We learned an important lesson this week: rhododenron are toxic to dogs.  One night after work Brad pulled a bud off a rhododendron bush and dropped it on the driveway.  Allie thought it was a cool toy, and apparently it tasted good too.  A couple of hours later she vomited her entire dinner.  A quick Google search confirmed what we now suspected.  We called our vet, who referred us to the ASPCA Poison Control Hotline, who informed us that she didn't ingest enough for it to have any serious ramifications - other than the vomiting and feeling lethargic for a few more hours, she was fine.  But needless to say we were nervous for awhile.  So we learned a hard lesson and are so thankful that Allie's okay.

The irises are also in bloom.  I just love these flowers, especially the deep purple ones.  This one is a medium purple.  Our deep purple variety will bloom in a day or so.

Allie would like you all to know that peonies are going to bloom soon, and she is not wanting to eat any more flowers or plants that make her sick. 

I put these onions in the ground two weeks ago, and they look so fresh and green this weekend that I just had to take their picture.  Today I planted the rest of the onions and the garlic, as well as squash, carrots, and leeks.  Gardening experts will know that I should have planted some of these earlier, but building our garden infrastructure has our planting off schedule.

We had some brrrrrr cold weather this week, but the peaches are hanging tough.  Yeah! 

Today Brad built trellises.  (Thank you, Mel Bartholomew.)  For those of your who are construction enthusiasts, there's about two feet of half-inch rebar in the ground and two feet above ground, with half-inch conduit piping over it.  This picture shows a 2 x 8 bed with two side-by-side trellises, which are for eight tomato plants.  We have another identical bed for tomatoes, for a grand total of 15 tomato plants in total.  He built one more trellis for squash.  (It's in the 4 x 4 bed behind him on the far left.)  The last step is we still have to put the netting on the trellises.  Tomorrow the tomatoes and peppers go in the ground.  WooHoo!