My Idaho Garden in May

by Jared Neibaur

A potato just after being "hilled up" in May.

I don't know about you, but I get a lot of inspiration from other people's gardens. I like to look at all the gardens I can see as I drive from place to place. I always jump at the chance to see a garden when someone invites me to see one. I love quizzing my grandparent's generation about their gardens and how their parents grew them. I also spend a lot of time on the internet looking at what pictures I can find. There is a lot out there to learn and it seems like I learn something new from every garden.  Hopefully that is the reason that you are here looking at this article. 

My May garden isn't perfect. It has had insect, animal, and weather damage already. Most everything is just starting out. Many of the wiser generation tell me that I have planted too early that that it is unwise to start your garden before memorial day. I will share my successes and failures so everyone can benefit. Below I have uploaded a gallery of photos and I have  added captions to tell you what is going on in each. Click and browse through them to see my garden in May.

My onions are off to a good start. I planted onion sets in March.

I have three traditional rows of potatoes. I still feel that this is the best way to grow them as long as you have the space.

In this picture you can see that I have just "hilled up" or piled a little more dirt on the potatoes. I only do this once a growing season.

I have a wire trellis for my tall peas and runner beans. These peas look happy to be alive.

These are my runner beans. I'm risking a lot by starting them when the days are still so cool.

They look happy, though, for now. You can see in all my pictures that my garden isn't perfectly weeded.

I tried transplanting some tomatoes at the end of April just to see. They were munched on by some critter. They are starting to come back though.

This is the corn on my hugel bed. It is happy now but really wanting some warm weather.

Here is another view of my hugel bed. You can see corn, potatoes, and peas.

These are the tomatoes that I transplanted a few days ago. They are much more happy.

Here are a few cucumbers that are poking their heads up.

This is our strawberry bed that we started last year. It isn't very thick yet, and it could do with some weeding.

These are my experimental hay beds to replace straw. So far they don't look so happy.

This is a traditional potato tower. The potatoes are happy here.

This is my variation on a potato tower and it is off to a good start as well.

I have also included a picture of a full view of everything you have seen so far. My garden will extend behind me a little as well to include spring wheat, watermelon, pumpkins and winter squash. My garden is much bigger than my family needs but I am doing it to run experiments for all of you! I look forward to giving you all more updates as the season progresses.

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