This week in my side garden has been as busy as the past couple of weeks. Honestly, I’m starting to feel trapped on a neverending day. Basically, every day is the same. I wake up at 4 am, have my morning coffee, and at 5:30am I’m off to the garden, first the main garden and then the side garden where I spend most of the morning. 

Right now, there’s a lot of work in the garden, and I constantly feel like my to-do list keeps getting bigger and bigger. The heat we’ve been having doesn’t help the situation. The temperatures are around 30°C(86°F), which is extremely high considering that our last frost day is actually May 15th. The plants don’t mind the heat as much as I do. I’m not supposed to be in the sun, and that’s why I rush all the work that I have outside. As soon as the heat starts I start feeling weak, and it takes me twice as much time to do simple tasks. Also, due to the heat, I need to water both gardens every single day, and that’s a lot of watering cans that I have to take up and down the slope. I was hoping that the side garden won’t be as hot as the main garden, but I was wrong. The side garden is as hot as the main garden and requires the same amount of water during the drought. 

There hasn’t been any rain during this week, on Wednesday we had a short storm warning period, but all we got was damaging wind without a single drop of rain. The wind broke the whole onion/lettuce cover, which my hubby made to protect the plants from the storm. I’ve fixed the cover for now, but it will probably break again as soon as the winds pick up.

When it comes to plants, they really seem to like the heat and my watering. All of the veggies are growing really well. I managed to clean the radish/chard bed. The new soil turned out to be full of weird-shaped weeds, so I had to wait a really long time until I could really identify the chard plants. Now that I’ve found them, I realize that the chard plants grew excellent in one row, but the other row is completely missing. I will probably either sow some more or start some chard seedlings and transplant them to the garden.

The carrot bed is still full of weeds, I’m still not comfortable with weed pulling. The carrots are still very small, and I have a feeling that if I pull the weeds now, I’ll pull the carrots too. I think I will wait for a decent rain, and then I’ll pull the weeds out.

The tomato/pepper bed is still alive, but the peppers are really struggling. What I thought was a good spot for peppers is turning out to be a great tomato spot and a bad one for peppers. The heat is too big for the peppers this year and they don’t seem to like the new garden. Who knows, if the weather was different, maybe they would love the new garden. I’ve planted some marigolds on the tomato/pepper bed to fill up the space.

The best growing bed is the bean/radish bed. The beans are twice the size of the main garden ones. They are ready to flower, and it seems that I will be able to grow beans here through the year. Radishes will soon be ready for harvest. I’ve sown the ice candle here and they have already started filling. 

The fifth bed is still waiting for the second terrace to be finished. I’ve already prepared all the plants that should grow on the fifth bed, and now we wait for the transplant.

When it comes to transplanting, I’ve finally got the chance to transplant my new Wisteria. The broken branches started growing new branches and leaves, and now I can start to form them the way I want. I’m certain it will grow really quickly, even without the broken branch.

Next to my wisteria plant is the beet bed, which has finally come to life and is enough to be able to remove the weeds. I’ve planted some marigolds here too, and I’ll add some ipomoea seeds next to the fence. This is the shaded part of the side garden, and the morning glory should grow great foliage here.

The biggest issue in my side garden right now is the falling cherries and the flowers which are everywhere. I’m starting to think that we’ll have to place an anti-hail netting on the first terrace too, just to protect us from the cherries. They are bombarding us constantly. I keep on cleaning the petals and cherries, but the next morning the terrace looks like I haven’t touched it for days. 

I’m hoping next week the second terrace will be finished, and I will be able to start transplanting some of the leftover seedlings. There’s still a lot of work around the garden, but I’m hoping once the main construction work will be done, things will start to get easier. If only the heat would calm down it would be easier to work.