The Raised Beds

Other Edible Beds

My other veggie beds are the border beds that run along the back of my house.

I tried to do a three sisters bed with corn, peas, and pumpkins. The corn didn’t survive the deluge unfortunately, so now it’s just peas and pumpkins.

Well, almost, I also have a mint in there and a whole bunch of volunteer marigolds near the drain spout. I’m letting them all stay to battle the pumpkins later in the season.

In these beds I have a mix of herbs, edible flowers, and a couple of okra plants.

I’m not sure how the okra will do over here but I LOVE pickled okra so if it does work out – hooray! And if it flops, well, I’ve still got the okra in the raised beds.

Herb wise I’ve got chamomile, sage, thyme, lavender, and a second variety of basil. Flower wise I have lots of different kinds of calendula as well as my butterfly bush which is thriving even after the crazy winter we had.

I was so excited to see the butterfly bush and the lavender come back!

The crepe myrtle was a surprise. I was sure it had died after a freak freeze last spring but it’s coming back strong as ever. I’m not a big fan of crepe myrtles, but I’m not going to dig ’em up if they’re doing well either. This one is pink!

Flower Beds

In addition to the edible garden spaces I’ve got three flower beds in the back.

The dahlias are doing fantastic which makes me so happy! I’m a wee bit obsessed with them. If things keep going well with them I may try and do that whole bed full of dahlias next year.

This gas main was covered up by a massive 9′ x 9′ bush-tangle when we bought the house. I took that out last year (that was some WORK) and now I’m trying to grow wildflowers around it instead.

That vining-bush-thing will not quit – Nathan says he’ll take it out for me, but I’m still waiting for that to happen. In the mean time I’m just hacking at it when it gets too big.

This little corner of the yard is shade 90% of the time. I”ve planted an azalea, a couple of astilbe, and a bee balm here as well as a blanket of shade-happy seed mixes.

SO! Now that you’re all caught up on everything we’ve got in the ground this year it’s time to talk about – dun, dun, dun – the Problem.

The Problem

Oklahoma has had a cool, wet, spring season so far which is not our normal thing. (And barely any tornados either – super weird!)

My yard, and my raised beds, were not prepared for 3″ of rain in a night.

So my yard flooded a bit, but then drained.

And I lost about 3″ of soil in my raised beds thanks to compaction. That post in the top left corner? It used to be covered in dirt.

To add insult to injury after that happened it just kept happening!

We had two or three weeks of on-again-off-again rain and cool temperatures and my plants were not thrilled about it. Some of them thrived but most of them flailed around and then gave up – I can’t really blame ’em.

But a solution is in the works! More on that next week, but I can tell ya it involves a lot of replanting.

Overall

All my store bought pre-started plants are doing fine, especially the ones I got from a local nursery versus the box store. My direct planted seeds are about 50/50.

The nasturtium didn’t have issues, or the beans, peas, zucchini but the more leafy stuff has really suffered.

Lettuce, swiss chard, and spinach were all no shows and the carrots and leeks got compacted out. Leeks and Carrots both like sandy loamy soil (which I have) but the rain made everything too tough for these guys.

Ironically my radishes are doing fantastic. Every single seed has sprouted! Now I just need to find some good radish recipes, haha. I don’t have a plan for them – yet.

What do you think?

Have you had any big issues with strange weather this year? Did I pick any plants for the 7b zone that just weren’t good choices?

Comment below and let me know!

For more info about why we’re urban homesteading check out my post Starting our Urban Homestead and to find out how we solved the compacted soil problem check out the post Challenge: Soil Compaction