Coronavirus Victory Garden 2020-Part 2

We’re now into week 6 of the Coronavirus Victory Garden and week 8 of our stay-at-home orders. Things are starting to loosen up out there around the country and the garden is thriving from my undivided attention. I’m not sure what will happen in the coming weeks, but I feel confident that I’ve gotten it to a place where it hopefully won’t require quite so much daily attention.

At the end of week 3 there still wasn’t much going on IN the garden, but in week 4 I started being able to plant some of the items I had started from seed.

I continued to work on clearing the gravel pathways of weeds and made some progress.

Here’s the garden at the end of week 4:

In week 5 we had a drive-by visit from our “garden angel” who had sent us the seeds last month. This time he came with plants! There were 5 new tomatoes, 3 different bell peppers, leeks, kale, and herbs!

I planted the herbs, as well as some green onions I’d rooted in a glass in my kitchen window, in a large pot on the patio. I plated the kale in an old wine barrel half. The bottom left photo shows some stubborn seedlings which refuse to grow.

Even though it was only late April, we had a heatwave with temperatures in the 90s for most of the week. I needed shade so I moved an umbrella down to the garden along with a chair and table. I love this space!

My view from the chair, below.

It feels like the lizard population in our yard has grown exponentially. Either that or I’ve never spent enough time out there every day to notice them.

Garden at the end of week 5:

In week 6 I added new soaker hoses to the raised beds and planted the 5 new tomatoes and 3 bell peppers. The pole beans are growing and the bush beans, planted from seed right in the bed, have really sprouted! The tomatoes are starting to get flowers.

We also added a new fruit tree, a lime, to the yard! This joins our ancient Meyer lemon and a persimmon tree. I’d like to add a ruby grapefruit and a blood orange tree someday.

The new garden bed is really starting to fill in. The ladder propped up on the retaining wall is there in hopes that I can train the yellow squash and zucchini to grow up to it and down over the side of the wall.

Our front yard is filled with succulent plants so I foraged there to find plants to fill the pots on our back patio.

We’ve had some incredible wildlife sightings here in the city, among them lots of different birds. We saw a falcon land with prey in her talons and proceed to eat lunch one day right in front of us, much to the dismay and alarm of other birds nearby.

The biggest pleasure was the discovery of a hummingbird nest with a baby bird in it on our front porch. We got to watch the baby for a few days and then he left the nest. But he didn’t go far, staying around as his mother continued to feed him for at least 3 or 4 days after he left the nest. Below is the baby on the right and mama about to feed him on the left.

Check out the video below I captured of the mama hummingbird feeding the baby!

Check out the progression of the garden, from week 1 to 6.

Leave a comment and let me know how things are going and/or growing for you. Have you decided to plant a Corona Victory Garden too?