Garden 2009
 

Heh heh! The previous years garden threads went in Quality Images, Home Base, and Nothingland, depending on who started it. Now it goes in Food and Drink.

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And I'm in this year. Having a strapping 22-year-old lad around to haul stuff is a fine advantage. I ordered a yard of compost to fill in what was lost after severe weeding. It's too late to start some of the cool weather crops but we will get those in for the fall. It'll be carrots and some herbs to start, and tomatoes and squash and some other veggies will go in from pre-started, purchased plants.

There was actually a harvest before this, of dill and sage that made it through two years of weed beds AND an earlier weeding. Everyone should plant herbs. They are utterly simple, and some come back every year with practically no work. Your only problem is that you will have way too much. In the 3x8 bed I may try putting in eight different herbs or something, because you ever only need a few leaves of something.

Looking good, UT. I really like the raised beds. We just planted our garden a week ago, so we are seeing things sprout right now. Unfortunately, our soil is mostly clay and some sand. we had a standing water issue in our garden until we amended it with some fertilizer and top soil.

So, that's where the bodies are buried, right?

Makes for some tasty termaters! :yum:

Just keep the raised beds watered - they dry out faster than ground level ones.

nice!

I've got a butterfly and hummingbird flower garden going of sorts. It's viewable outside my floor to ceiling living room window seltered by an ouside divider.
I feel very blessed about this getting my hands dirty activity and potentially drawing in beautiful creatures next year.

Now I wish we had done raised beds. Our garden is in standing water, after 2 days of rain!

How deep do you plant them?

hehehe *chuckling out loud *

FLOWERS silly , thanks for the smile

Wow my little attempt looks so lame next to UT's huge raised beds.


I moved and was blessed with a little patches of earth.
I planted a bleading heart in white...an Oriental Poppy ( in the sunny part and a columbine and some periwinkle close in by the window. I am not sure I am going to appreciate the periwinkle because of it's intrusiveness.

I am not attracting hummingbirds and butterflies yet but the pool seems to be springing up ducks!

I want to start planting my garden but I need to build a fence first. The rabbits here are crazy. I don't trust the squirrels either and they will be able to jump over any fence due to a lot of trees in our backyard.

Peppers, onions, tomatoes, basil I think?

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Tomatoes, yellow squash, cucumber, and pimiento pepper from Bonnie plants; carrots, basil, and dill from seeds.

Pest control is always an issue. I managed the rabbit population last fall by running over the babies with the lawn mower. I didn't mean to, it was horrible, but at least it was a quick death for both of them. In previous years I put up chicken wire, which is easy to do with the raised beds.

We plan on using chicken wire as well. We don't have raised beds so we will just place the chicken wire about a foot underground. I'm guessing that will suffice.

There is also a plastic version and you can make a "door" out of it better. I don't recall the cost differential though. Might be worth a look.

Love the ducks, sky!

The door is the one thing I haven't planned out so I will if any troubles come up. Thanks.

Thanks! I keep waiting for a mama duck to bring over any babies.

Is that a modified version of Mel's Square Foot Gardening? I sure wish I could grow a garden. I don't know what to do with myself - I love growing stuff but I absolutely suck at it.

No but I wish I had thought to put some vermiculite or perlite into the mix before starting. That just makes sense. Well let's see what happens.

Anyone can prob'ly grow a container tomato plant. Get a big ol pot, a bag of potting soil enough to fill it, and a tomato plant that is "determinate", ie, grows to a certain size, which is better for container growing. Some of the tomato plants are even called "bush" as they grow into a bush size, determinate. And then after two months of growing, when you want a tomato, just go pick one.

On schedule, the carrots poke out. Nasty weed fights for dominance... and lost, five seconds after this shot.

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Growing from plants is more expensive but you do get early results. The first pepper is here, and probably angry about the cold, wet weather.

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And the first tomato even shows, from the varietal called "Early Girl". It's meant to be your first crop. The vines are about 2 weeks away from needing support.

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Over here is the newly-planted flower garden, J's section, featuring Asiatic lilies and sunflowers. The sunflowers are the mopey stalky things. We hope they come back. Some of them are standing.

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Aha! This ties back into one of my mystery garden questions -- the asiatic lilies look a bit like one of my mystery weeds (but without flowers, natch). Thanks!

Nice, T. Your tomatoes are much happier than mine. Of course, yours aren't sitting in 3 inches of water for the last 2 weeks, either, so that might explain something. Still, great job on your growing stuff!

I just came in from the garden. Got tons of lettuce, a little spinach (now done for the year and all yanked out), a bunch of peas, about a pint of strawberries (what I get about every other day). Yanked weeds and fed 'em to the chickens. They love weeds!

My perennials and herbs are doing well too, though that front bed is very weedy too. I just don't feel like doing it tonight.

The rain around here has been simply ideal for the early plants. The difference from ten days ago is stunning.

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Carrots await thinning.

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Basil starts up. Even at this point, if you pull a leaf and crush it in your hand, it smells like basil.

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That pepper! And cool: in the background, lower right, you can see how easy it is to grow herbs. It's dill, in an area previously planted with dill... and then completely dug out and had 5 inches of rich soil dumped on top of it. Another patch of dill has been started, but this hardy single survivor is a testament. Can't kill dill!

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Tomatoes are coming out, and the vines will be staked tomorrow.

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And the sunflowers, which seemed to wimpy to survive, all pretty much did survive and have developed secondary leaves.

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I need to get some herbs going. When I get back from Arizona. Which will be in July. *sob*

Dang UT, you've a good harvest shaping up. I just got my first digi camera...yes I am slow. Here's the back fire pit and the small veggie patch. Tomatoes, lettuces, kale, peppers, cabbage, and herbs. lots of shade to contend with. You can see by the brown grass its been very dry this year. I'll water veggies, but not grass.

more pics: a shady garden, the recycled paving, lettuces and mama cardinal hanging out by the veggies. She is tucked into a vine covered fence sitting on two eggs....
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UT. Rain! What's that. None around here in weeks and none in forecast. Sucks. Heat index around 97 today.

Rain keeps going, everything has gone nuts! An early cucumber appears. Now it's time for the sun to come a ripen it all.

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Do you ever eat the squash blossoms?
You gonna make pesto or just lotsa caprese?

Someone on my home school list is giving away their strawberry plants... I'm thinking of going and getting some tomorrow if Jim will help. We gave up on our garden though so I don't even know where I'd put them...

I love the pesto. It's impossible not to grow too much basil.

It had never occurred to me to eat squash blossoms. Have you?

Damn...impressive.

The weather here has been horrible, cloudy days weeks on end with little sun and rain (I water the plants daily anyways). One of my pepper plants are starting to bud but nothing else has started yet.

I don't have a garden this year. But for those who do, be on the lookout for "late blight." Apparently the cool wet spring has provided ideal conditions for this fungus to go absolutely nuts. It will destroy your tomatoes completely before you can pick them. Consider spraying healthy plants now, while you still can.

If you have late blight, be a good citizen and throw your plants away in a sealed plastic trash bag so it won't spread.

A friend in Delaware found these in his tomato plants today.

BOUNTY

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Do peppers only fruit from seed?
I mean, mine are still growing, plantwise, but no flowers or fruit yet :(
I know you live in a hotter part of the world, but I was wondering if maybe mine might fruit next year instead?
Except I have a feeling they grow and fruit and die, meaning even if I can winter them, they won't bear me anything in future anyway.

They're far rangier than yours. Perhaps the lack of sun. And possibly too much water.

Not sure, we bought it as a plant.

Peppers will grow indefinitely. You just need to keep on harvesting the crop. You can prune them pretty harshly too and they'll spring back. They do need plenty of sunshine to bear fruit though.

Aden and I have just built our garden beds and planted them out with seedlings. I'll post some pics later.

So here is the garden Aden and I have done over the last couple of weeks while they've been on holidays (vacation).

The first pic is of the three garden beds. We elected to go with round iron raised beds for a number of reasons. Firstly, we wanted them quite high to keep the dogs out without having a build a fence around. Secondly, the soil quality here is quite poor. Very sandy. Dries out too quickly etc. So in the tanks we first put sugar cane mulch at the bottom, then about 2/3 of organic fertilized soil. We're yet to start our own composting area, but that's the next project now the garden is actually under way. We've put weed matting under the beds for dual purposes. Firstly to keep the weeds out, but also to slow down drainage and in turn save on water. You can see the garden edging at the bottom. We haven't fixed that in properly yet. We just got the pegs for it yesterday, so we'll probably do that today, then we're going to put down pebbles in between the tanks to keep the area neat and tidy.

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In the first one we have snow peas, zucchini, squash, leeks, corn.

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Tomatoes, strawberries, carrots (from seed), lettuce, beetroot.

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cappsicum (peppers), broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce.

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Very nice, Ali!

More bounty, not pictured: we just brought in 7 cucumbers and one more tomato. We had too many cucumbers when we had two, now we have ten. I am preparing to learn how to brine them into pickles. We have enough dill...

The eggs in post #33 have hatched... so have the tomatoes. :D

Those big yellow mouths look like sparrows to me

I think you're right, the eggs look like the sparrow eggs on Google images. :thumb:

I wonder which one is Jack?

Beautiful! And from experience of egg casings, I'd say sparrows are likely - I saw a lot like that growing up, and there are more sparrows here than anything else.

Thanks for the advice re the peppers. I'll hold onto them and hope for more sun next year.
I can winter them in the second shed. It has a window.
They have tiny buds now, but I'm not too hopeful.
I'll stake them up properly, just in case.

Thing is, I can't remember which plant is which.
One is chillies, one is peppers. One looks close to fruiting, the other like it's not even bothered. I'm hoping the larger of the two is the jalapeno. Seems unlikely

Ali - your beds are so space age! And support all the cliches sold to emigrants back in the middle of the last century - the soil being black gold and all that :)

nice shots guys.

Your walkway seems so cool and inviting warch.

Update - 2 weeks growth
 

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BOUNTY BOUNTY BOUNTY

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We are making tomato sauce this afternoon.

Nice T! Our garden is really heavy on the green growth...

Ours is starting to come back from the lack of sunshiney days. So far we have harvested 2 little bitty tomatoes.

Nice UT! That is some phat lewt there.

wow looking good UT.

nice planters ali. What have you got planted in there?

In the first one we have snow peas, zucchini, squash, leeks, corn, rainbow silverbeet, eggplant (which may need to be transplanted to a different spot due to space restrictions.
In the second, Tomatoes, strawberries, carrots (from seed), lettuce, beetroot.
In the third, rocket, cappsicum (peppers), broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce.

So far we haven't had any 'deaths' which has surprised me. I was expecting a certain failure rate, but so far so good. The only problem with this is that I've got more plants than our garden is going to be able to cope with I think. I have some large pots I can bring out though, so that's where things like eggplants and capsicum might end up.

The lettuce looks very nice. The one I recognize besides the tomato.

Me gots tomatoes, green beans, zucchini & yellow squash, strawberries, and pumpkins ripening/picking daily. Corn's doing OK, small ears, hope they'll get bigger. Also just harvested all my carrots and onions. Need to dig my potatoes this week. Onions are drying on racks on the back porch, carrots are sliced up in the fridge awaiting a bath in the canner.

Now, the fruit! Got a few pears ripening here and there. About another week or two and it'll be peach harvest time - last year I had enough to make a dozen pints of peach preserves, and this year looks similar. Apples aren't doing much except for this one tree that's growing little 3" apples - maybe they'll be good for sauce. Two pear trees are laden; should be ready about the same time as the peaches.

And this is my real life garden. I'm addicted to Farmville on Facebook too, in which my rice will be ready to harvest tomorrow about noonish. :D

lol...you put the rest of our piddly little gardens to shame Juni. I think you've got a bit more space than we have though. I know our garden would be much bigger if we had the room for it.

Yesterday on close inspection we discovered several baby tomatoes have set and one strawberry so far. The squash and zucchini are about to throw buds out as are the snowpeas. The rocket is large enough that I'll be able to start harvesting for salads along with the beetroot tops. It's coming along very nicely.

Yay! Reports of the death of my peppers have been greatly exaggerated (by me - what a pessimist!)

They have flowered! Ridiculous plants, really.
They are supposed to dislike the wet, and yet it has rained EVERY DAY since my birthday. No, really, EVERY SINGLE DAY. But I'm happy of course.

First picture - sorry. Photography 101 - don't take a photo of a plant against the background of other plants! Gives you a general idea of their legginess.

Second pic is a close-up to show the blooms, obviously. Which I hope will become my peppers!
I think this is the jalapeno plant - I can no longer remember. The other ones are doing okay - they're like hobbits. Small and sturdy and getting on with it. But no flowers, so no photos. That'll larn 'em, life is a beauty contest!

Oh, and major congrats to the real gardeners out there
I envy your space, your commitment and your climates.

Good stuff SG. :) You'll be eating capsicum before you know it! Once the fruit have set, you need to make sure they get enough water (don't know if this is a big issue considering where you live lol) in order to grow nice big juicy ones.

B O U N T Y

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Look ye upon 15 ripe homegrown tomatoes peeled and seeded, a 1/4 cup of homegrown basil, 1 onion, 10 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup ex. virg. olive oil, salt, pepper, a bit of dried thyme and sage.

Followed by 4.5 hours of simmer, and just 10 seconds of powerful stick blender action.

Enjoy the dirty sides of the pot, where the mix has slopped up and gradually reduced.

This will be combined with thin spaghetti and a dusting of parmesan

and it will be et in less than 1/100th of the time needed to create it.

The only controversy is whether to have garlic bread. I say we're too fat, while J says, we're too fat. If it was just the garlic and the bread, that's one thing, but the amount of rich, creamery butter needed to make the whole thing come together... can't do it.

This is why the garden thread is in food and drink.

B O U N T Y

Nice one UT. We harvested some beetroot tops and some rocket for a salad last weekend. It was very satisfying even though it was only a small thing.

In the end my peppers were quite bitter and with no heat.
I blame the rainy summer.
At least I had the excitement of watching them grow - bearing in mind they were a present, I have nothing to complain about!

Mum was mourning the loss of her baskets and pots, brightening up the front of the house. So I planted two pots up for her. The first has yellow and green painted heather in at present, but is sown with ornamental cabbages and hellebore, so I'll be moving one of the heathers when they being to grow - perhaps even both if I get a good yield. Mum's friend Maureen also adores ornamental cabbages, so if I do get plenty I'll give her some (I've sown 20 after all).

The second pot - closest to the camera - has violas and a blue painted heather. The violas should last a while, but won't really get much bigger once the frosts start, so I didn't have to allow room for growth.

All the painted heathers will return to white, but I figured there'd be a little more colour on display by then. Not as colourful as some winter plants (and certainly not as colourful as summer bedding) but I think some are quite gaudy, like a pick n mix display. It's winter, colours are supposed to be muted. I'm pleased with them anyway, even if they are a simple achievement.