Martin el Jardin

As promised, I finally have pics of the garden (for a reminder of last year's efforts, you can visit my blog archives for the summer months of 2010.) Andy has taken to naming our garden Martin el Jardin (this is Spanish for Martin the Garden, but you can imagine how Mar-TEEN el Har-DEEN is more fun.) I was joking yesterday that it's really like our other child (the cat being first), since I stand out there for hours every week with my arms folded over my chest beeming with pride like a parent seeing their child's accomplishments. So, Andy and I are the proud parents of Marcelle, the cat, and Martin, the garden.

Here's Martin pretty early this summer, I think this was the first week of June:

We had the great fortune of having our mint, sage, oregano and thyme come back from last summer (heaven only knows how because we got 7 feet of snow this winter.) That's why the one end looks particularly well-appointed and everything else looks sad and small. I planted pole beans in the row on top there, that were just coming up, and cucumbers down at the end. The empty patch in the middle is carrots (now) and there are 2 tomato plants and 4 pepper plants. It's been a work in progress, but now, we're looking like this:
I added a trellis along the side for the pole beans and cukes to vine up, and boy did they! I also decided I had a serious deficit of basil, so I've planted 4 varieties over the last four weeks. I also added rosemary and cilantro, cut back the mint and gave it to friends, and then went really crazy and put in garlic, shallots, chives and another pepper plant (now up to 5 varieties.) It's pretty packed! But, everything is looking really good.
We've had a few jalapenos, 3 "gypsy" peppers (a mild yellow pepper), a bell pepper and a poblano, and we got our first cucumber last week.
We have lots of little green beans and cukes and tomatoes, but I have to go out every nite to spray my homemade deer deterrant so that the poor plants will survive the midnite snacking. We have had several infiltrations when it has rained over nite and washed off my special sauce. I look forward to gardening some day where I can just turn our cat loose to scare off the munchers, but in the meantime I whip up a mixture of hot sauce, onions and garlic and then strain it into a spray bottle and then spritz the garden. It works for the rabbits, too, although we've been lucky not to have problems with that again this summer.
That's our update for now, but certainly more to come!