The June Side Garden - the before & after baby edition

So following up on my post about the weed growth in the lower garden earlier this week, here is how the side garden was and is looking! Overall, this garden isn't showing the time in weed growth as much as the lower garden. Mostly with the paths being mulched, but also with the soil being disturbed so recently. I think having the drip irrigation also really helps, unlike the overhead sprinklers in the lower garden that really allow weeds to take off everywhere! Here come the pictures:

The new herb area before, and filled in more later. I can tell I'll have to adjust some plants next year as the heights are a bit off, and some of the plants are going to be too big for the space I have allocated for them.

 Here is an after of the sunflower area that Little M and I transplanted from the lower garden. The large one near the right side is one of the ones Little M grew from seed, it looks like it will bloom soon. They have a bit of drip irrigation on them but don't get all that much water, which I'm thinking is why that one is so short to be getting ready to bloom!

This before shows more than just the peas, which you can see in the background, but apparently I did a poor job taking pictures of specific plants for before shots, and did mostly overall shots. The peas are doing really well though, and have been blooming a lot, giving us the start of a decent crop of peas! We've eaten a few here and there since we've been back from the baby's birth, and soon will be getting enough to make more of a serving of them.  I'm hopeful that this totally new and distant spot from the lower garden will avoid the issue of the pea weevils we were infested with last year in the garden! The strawberries have been ripening but a little mouse is eating the berries before we get there up in the side garden unfortunately, so I've got a trap set to catch it (or them!) The raspberries are also doing well, and are blooming and hopefully we will see some berries from them in weeks to come too! So exciting to have this much more garden space than last year!

On the left in the before shot you can see the hastily put in side bed for the dry beans. The irrigation leftovers that we had remaining at that point in the garden irrigation set up were pretty meager, so this area needs extra attention to keep it happy and moist. I'm hopeful that once the beans come in fully the soil will be shaded enough that this lone strand of drip irrigation tubing will be enough to water the plants but we shall see! On the right at the bottom you can make out one of the mounds of squash and pumpkin, of which there are three. One is the most important, pumpkins for the kids' halloween carving needs, and the other two were just planted with leftover sprouted seeds from planting the lower garden with butternut and hubbard squash, cucumbers, and zucchini. Hopefully we get a bit extra food from these for the pigs!

 And of course no post of the side garden would be complete without sharing how the pigs are growing, they are getting larger and friendlier, and Little M still loves to be in with them. The dominance has changed as the browny-orange one (Copper) has grown a bit faster than the white stripey one (Stripey), and now it is Copper who bosses Stripey around, unlike when they first arrived.

In the next week or so of having both of us parents at home before my husband goes back to working nights, we're hoping to get the electric fence set up that we just didn't have time to get to before the pigs came initially, and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of that set up and of the large area the pigs will then have to roam in. Hope your gardens are growing well!