How is your garden coming along?

[runninmommy]

We all live in different zones and our gardening plans must be going at different paces. Where are you right now?

 

I find it amazing that this time last year in Alaska, I was just putting seedlings in the ground that I had lovingly cared for in my garage under lights.

 

Now, in Alabama, I am already harvesting beans, squash and lettuce! The growing season here is so long!

 

If you like visuals, you can visit my blog (below) to see my veggie garden.

 

Please, show me yours and tell us where you live. Or, what zone you are in.

[Wyndie]

Your garden is beautiful!!! The veggies look so delicious and healthy although I do now have that dratted song stuck in my head, thank you very much. lol

 

My dad lives in FL and he has some beautiful zucchini and squash ready to be picked. None of my meager veggie garden survived outside b/c the stupid squirrels dug up every single seed and ate them (including my sunflower seeds!!), except for the one bok choy which is being squeezed out of it's very existence by the wild strawberries. We are building a house and I WILL have a respectable veggie garden there! Your garden has inspired me.

[BikeBookBread]

Languishing. It is just SOOOO hot. We need to figure out some sort of sun shield, which will help with the direct sunlight, but won't help with the actual overbearing heat.

 

Our tomatoes are doing just ok. Our beans have all but died after such a promising start. I'm just planning to keep on watering and tending to keep it alive through the summer, then hope for a recovery in the fall.

[Aggie]

We've had so much rain this spring, which is a good thing, that ours isn't growing too well. The weeds, however, are managing to thrive!

 

As a matter of fact, it's been so wet that we've not been able to plant everything yet. Hopefully we'll be able to get in there this weekend and finish.

[greensummervillian]

Well, I have a picture of my garden near Charleston, SC. I have tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, peas, beans, and various herbs. The spinach and swiss chard didn't make it, but everything else is thriving.

 

http://greensummervillian.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/3458/#comments

[Ibbygirl]

Camille and Julia your gardens look so nice. I wish I had a decent patch of land to scratch. Sigh. I have to content myself with a terrace container garden. I won't be planting anything though until after hurricane season is over. I'll start some seeds in late October to grow over winter. Winter is our main growing season down here anyway. :)

 

Camille where in AL are you?? I've been to Alabama many times in my life, but only the parts that are near GA and FL. The area you live in looks so beautiful. I loved the pic with the fish too! That's a nice catch there! I'll be you had a nice fish fry after that. :)

[MomsintheGarden]

Our spring stuff is going full blast, and since we hopefully had our last frost the other day (Tuesday morning, 5/19/09), I'll get to planting summer stuff early next week when we're done with school. After I get the summer plants in it's time to start things for fall, such as cabbages and Brussels sprouts.

 

Spring plants:

potatoes - We made a new patch and planted 50 lb. of them! They've already been hilled up once and it's time to do it again. We should have enough to feed an army.

strawberries - June bearing & almost ready and alpine

rhubarb

asparagus

mache - fall planted & all done

spinach - ditto

lettuce

radicchio

orach

sugar snap peas - oops didn't get to trellising, now too late; we'll see how it goes

broccoli

cabbage

cauliflower

kale - fall planted, wintered over, we're eating the leaves & the unopened flower shoots (delicious!)

bulbing onions - planted about 800, started from seed in late January, planted out in March, still using ones stored from last year's garden

garlic - planted last fall

shallots - ditto

potato onions - ditto

beets - to harvest later

carrots - to harvest later

parsnips - to harvest much later

many herbs

 

Summer plants:

more lettuce - summer varieties, grown in morning sun on the northeast side of the house

tomatoes - hardened off in the cold frame & looking great

peppers - we like these more and more so we're doing the most ever

okra

eggplant

starting cucumbers soon

basil

lots of zinnias - I love the Bernary's giant ones from Johnny's

other flowers - annual & perennial, winter sown in milk jugs

 

What a great time of the year! We're thankful to have had plenty of rain this season.

 

Happy gardening!

GardenMom

[Ibbygirl]

Our spring stuff is going full blast, and since we hopefully had our last frost the other day (Tuesday morning, 5/19/09), I'll get to planting summer stuff early next week when we're done with school. After I get the summer plants in it's time to start things for fall, such as cabbages and Brussels sprouts.

 

Spring plants:

potatoes - We made a new patch and planted 50 lb. of them! They've already been hilled up once and it's time to do it again. We should have enough to feed an army.

strawberries - June bearing & almost ready and alpine

rhubarb

asparagus

mache - fall planted & all done

spinach - ditto

lettuce

radicchio

orach

sugar snap peas - oops didn't get to trellising, now too late; we'll see how it goes

broccoli

cabbage

cauliflower

kale - fall planted, wintered over, we're eating the leaves & the unopened flower shoots (delicious!)

bulbing onions - planted about 800, started from seed in late January, planted out in March, still using ones stored from last year's garden

garlic - planted last fall

shallots - ditto

potato onions - ditto

beets - to harvest later

carrots - to harvest later

parsnips - to harvest much later

many herbs

 

Summer plants:

more lettuce - summer varieties, grown in morning sun on the northeast side of the house

tomatoes - hardened off in the cold frame & looking great

peppers - we like these more and more so we're doing the most ever

okra

eggplant

starting cucumbers soon

basil

lots of zinnias - I love the Bernary's giant ones from Johnny's

other flowers - annual & perennial, winter sown in milk jugs

 

What a great time of the year! We're thankful to have had plenty of rain this season.

 

Happy gardening!

GardenMom

 

Wow!! Your garden sounds HUGE. Do you have a picture of it? I'd LOVE to see it if you care to share it. :) Do you live entirely off of the veggies that you grow or do you still have to buy the occasional veggie at the store?? Thank you for your reply. :)

[Carrie12345]

I'm jealous!

We straddle the 5/6 line, but our elevation makes us more like a 4/5. We had frost warnings all last week, and we usually get back to freezing by October, so I just spend a lot of time with my fingers crossed.

 

We usually only do tomatoes and herbs, but this year we're trying to add cucumbers, beans, corn, various lettuces, broccoli, carrots, melons and squash. And I think I'm missing something else.

 

I'm not exactly a green thumb, so I don't have high expectations, but it'll be fun to see what comes up!

[mamaof2andtwins]

We are just starting here in NY. I have my seedlings that I am starting to harden off this week. That is about the extent of it right now. So, I am just in the digging phase.

 

Jennie

[mom4him]

We are in the northern part of Black Hills in SD. Our garden is VERY late this year as we had so much snow in March and April and then my husband wasn't supposed to do anything heavy for a time.

We are opening up some new beds to veggies and finally have them almost ready. The guy is going to come and till everything for me tomorrow. I will then go and get my tomato and pepper plants and get everything else in the ground. We did spade up an area and I got about 36 strawberry plants in last night.

Last year it was the end of June before we got our tomato and pepper plants in and we still had a bumper crop so I am hopeful for an even better on this year.

I envy anyone that has your kind of growing season. Here it is truly safe from late May through the first of Sept. Anything beyond that either way is iffy.

[4kiddies]

We all live in different zones and our gardening plans must be going at different paces. Where are you right now?

 

I find it amazing that this time last year in Alaska, I was just putting seedlings in the ground that I had lovingly cared for in my garage under lights.

 

Now, in Alabama, I am already harvesting beans, squash and lettuce! The growing season here is so long!

 

If you like visuals, you can visit my blog (below) to see my veggie garden.

 

Please, show me yours and tell us where you live. Or, what zone you are in.

 

 

Your garden is beautiful!!! That is what I hope to have someday. I have the space for a large garden, I just don't want to bite off more than I can chew! This year I'm doing two 4x4 SFG's. I just got my stuff in yesterday...I did cukes, tomatoes, corn, sugar snap peas, green beans, spinach and romaine lettuce. If it does well this year than I will make next year's a little bigger and so on.

[Tracy in Ky]

We've had a lot of rain too. Add in our clay soil, and you can see how that makes for late planting this year.

 

We do have spring crops of spinach, lettuce, beets, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, chard, peas, radishes, kale, and potatoes (50 pounds of Yukon Gold :D) in.

 

We've put in sweet potatoes (yesterday), peppers, tomatoes and beans as well, plus a few herbs. I threw in a few squash and zuchinni plants for fun; I'll grow the rest from seed. We are hoping to get the rest tilled and planted this weekend.

 

I have canned 10 & 1/2 pints of strawbery jam, frozen almost 19 quarts of strawberries, and made 3 quarts of strawberry vinegar. I love strawberry season!

[runninmommy]

Your garden is beautiful!!! The veggies look so delicious and healthy although I do now have that dratted song stuck in my head, thank you very much. lol

 

My dad lives in FL and he has some beautiful zucchini and squash ready to be picked. None of my meager veggie garden survived outside b/c the stupid squirrels dug up every single seed and ate them (including my sunflower seeds!!), except for the one bok choy which is being squeezed out of it's very existence by the wild strawberries. We are building a house and I WILL have a respectable veggie garden there! Your garden has inspired me.

 

lol. I have the song stuck in my head too.

 

I'm sorry about the squirrels. That's awful! I hope your new property will be more garden friendly.

 

 

I just noticed your tagline. I'm married to the Air Force too. We have been married 14 1/2 years as well. He has been in for 16 though.

Edited May 22, 2009 by runninmommy

[runninmommy]

Camille and Julia your gardens look so nice. I wish I had a decent patch of land to scratch. Sigh. I have to content myself with a terrace container garden. I won't be planting anything though until after hurricane season is over. I'll start some seeds in late October to grow over winter. Winter is our main growing season down here anyway. :)

 

Camille where in AL are you?? I've been to Alabama many times in my life, but only the parts that are near GA and FL. The area you live in looks so beautiful. I loved the pic with the fish too! That's a nice catch there! I'll be you had a nice fish fry after that. :)

 

 

Aw, thanks.

 

I am in the Montgomery area. I live about 35 minutes from town.

 

It took me a minute to figure out the fish picture you mentioned. That was taken in Alaska. The fish are halibut. I love halibut. I really miss it too. I was so sore and bruised after that day. Those suckers are heavy!

I miss Alaska but I like it here too.

[runninmommy]

We've had a lot of rain too. Add in our clay soil, and you can see how that makes for late planting this year.

 

We do have spring crops of spinach, lettuce, beets, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, chard, peas, radishes, kale, and potatoes (50 pounds of Yukon Gold :D) in.

 

We've put in sweet potatoes (yesterday), peppers, tomatoes and beans as well, plus a few herbs. I threw in a few squash and zuchinni plants for fun; I'll grow the rest from seed. We are hoping to get the rest tilled and planted this weekend.

 

I have canned 10 & 1/2 pints of strawbery jam, frozen almost 19 quarts of strawberries, and made 3 quarts of strawberry vinegar. I love strawberry season!

 

Tracy,

 

I just spent a good 30 minutes reading your blog. I love it. I am going to add it to my daily reading. Your cheese looks wonderful. I am so envious of your milk cow. I would love to have one. We have goats but they are not in milk yet. Your strawberries are beautiful! You'll have to tell us how the vinegar turns out.

 

We are turning our land into a small farm as well. We have goats and chickens and are looking to get a pig next. Next summer we'll have horses. We are working on the fence and pasture now. I love this simple, hard working way of life.

[In The Great White North]

My peas just came up today and since the frost date isn't til the middle of June, I'm not taking chances on anything else.

[nandmsmom]

We're just starting here in MA. I've got:

 

Tomatoes Amish Paste, Delicious and Moskovitz

Peppers too many varieties to list

eggplants

tomatillos

onions

broccoli

cabbage

beets

carrots

green beans

sugar snap peas

cucumbers

watermelon

baby blue hubbard squash

butternut squash

zucchini

basil

various perennial herbs

 

You can see pics in my blog.

[keptwoman]

Mine is a neglected mess now. Just about everything has stopped producing. We are supposed to be digging it over to plant winter crops but we haven't quite got there yet.

[BritAnnia]

It's a very fine patch of dirt.

Dh and I planted

16 roma tomatoes, still planting (8) rows of green beans, 4 rows of corn, 4 yellow squash, 4 zucchini, 1 tomato, 2 tomatillos, 4 canteloupe, 1 rhubarb, 8 sweet bell pepper (2 varieties.)

8 basil, 1 rosemary, 3 lavendar, 6 sage, 3 mint, 3 lemon balm, 2 parsley, 2 cilantro, and a small section of leeks.

 

The rabbits ate almost the entire crop within 2 days.

We replanted 12 roma's, 4 sweet bell peppers, 2 squash.

Those were eaten by the next morning.

 

The leeks, rosemary and lavendar haven't been touched. Nor have the rhubarb, tomatillos or corn. Some green bean seedlings are managing to survive the nibbles... everything else is gone. I'm over $100 out of pocket based on purchase of seedlings, seeds, sprayer and sprays for preventing rabbits eating all the seedlings. :001_huh:

 

This year goes to the bunnies... dh and I have given up.

[G5052]

We put in a 7-ft. high deer-and-bunny fence this year around the main part of the garden, and it's helping quite a bit. A few plants put outside have had some nibbling.

 

We have potatoes, tomatoes, cantelope, watermelon, sunflowers, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, radishes, lettuce, zucchini, onions, brocolli, cauliflower, green beans, and various herbs. Thus far we've eaten radishes, brocolli, and some herbs. We had some frost this week that got my basil and damaged some of the green beans, but I think they were big enough that the loss of a few leaves won't hurt them.

 

:auto:

[KellyinPA]

Your gardens are beautiful! I'm such a gardening wannbee, but I keep trying. We have a small 4x4 raised bed which has, so far, sugar snap peas, and 4 pepper plants. I planted some sunflower seeds there yesterday. I have tomato and basil plant in pots on the deck. That's it for the veggies. You ladies have inspired me. Oh btw, we are in south central PA.

[Loupelou]

My husband dug up a giant patch this year. Our strawberries, onions, beans,peas, and broccoli are doing great. We've had a lot of rain, we ended up losing our potatoes to rot:tongue_smilie:. Oh, well. We'll be getting our tomato plants in the ground next week, along with the melons. Thanks to all the rain it looks like we'll need to re-plant most of our squash and cukes.

 

Here's to a wonderful harvest for all!:D

[creekland]

We just had our first meal from ours last night - salad with spinach, onions, radishes and broccoli that were garden fresh (and a few other store bought veggies like carrots and celery). It tasted so good.

 

We're in the midst of planting summer crops now. We're also in South Central Pa...

[Tracy in Ky]

Tracy,

 

I just spent a good 30 minutes reading your blog. I love it. I am going to add it to my daily reading. Your cheese looks wonderful. I am so envious of your milk cow. I would love to have one. We have goats but they are not in milk yet. Your strawberries are beautiful! You'll have to tell us how the vinegar turns out.

 

We are turning our land into a small farm as well. We have goats and chickens and are looking to get a pig next. Next summer we'll have horses. We are working on the fence and pasture now. I love this simple, hard working way of life.

 

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the blog. It isn't going to win any blogger awared :D, but I have fun journaling our activities.

 

Sounds loke you all are busy! Fencing and pasture work is very time and money consuming. It is a lot of work. I think having goats would be so much fun. We've never had any; I suspect we will one of these years, but we've got more than we can keep up with right now! lol.

[swellmomma]

I have not even started my garden yet. It's been too cold, it was snowing on Monday even. Today though is a gorgeous day so I may get a bit of work done.

[LibraryLover]

Technically, according to my mother, lol, one is not supposed to plant any warm weather items before Memorial day here. But yesterday, I did put in a few tomato plants and chards. Last week, I put in a bunch of other herbs. A few weeks before that, I put in peas, lettuces, the onion sets, and a couple of different kinds of kale. That's all fine; they like the cold. I have been cooking with the kale, and we've had garden lettuce several times. Herbs as well. I admit, the basil is not looking so great. I put that in too soon. Maybe sage can take the cold nights, but basil can't. I should be seeing garlic sprouts, but I don't. I put that in last season.

 

This weekend everything else goes in. The season is so short here. No time to waste.

Edited May 22, 2009 by LibraryLover

[OnTheBrink]

I'm in zone 5, and so far, everything is looking good. I haven't harvested anything yet, but they're coming along--except for the spinach. I was transplanted from a friend's garden and it hasn't done well at all.

 

Other than that, I have:

 

2 Roma tomatoes

3 zucchinis

2 cucumbers

romaine and mesclun

onions

3 delicious tomatoes

1 orange oxheart tomato

4 green bean plants

4 pea plants

lemon basil

rosemary

lilac bell pepper

yellow bell pepper

winter squash

 

I'm doing square foot and container gardening. This is my first garden. I'm excited that it's growing!

[TravelingChris]

Does anyone want to hear about my flower gardens? (I can't grow edibles since I don't have sun almost at all). My blue garden that I planted this Spring is doing great. My clematis, hydrangea, blue winky columbine, and campanula are all blooming. A yellow perennial (I forget its name) is adding a bit of contrast and white roses are bordering. My rhodedendron in another part is fading. I will be putting in warm annuals this weekend.

[OnTheBrink]

Does anyone want to hear about my flower gardens? (I can't grow edibles since I don't have sun almost at all). My blue garden that I planted this Spring is doing great. My clematis, hydrangea, blue winky columbine, and campanula are all blooming. A yellow perennial (I forget its name) is adding a bit of contrast and white roses are bordering. My rhodedendron in another part is fading. I will be putting in warm annuals this weekend.

 

I'd love to see a picture of that! It sounds beautiful!

[melissel]

We just had our first meal from ours last night - salad with spinach, onions, radishes and broccoli that were garden fresh (and a few other store bought veggies like carrots and celery). It tasted so good.

 

We're in the midst of planting summer crops now. We're also in South Central Pa...

 

You have broccoli already??? I still only have leaves on mine, and they've been out since the end of April :( They're big and leafy and impressive though! I'm so anxious about them, because I really want them to work. Unfortunately, once the leaves came out this year, I discovered I'm getting a lot less sun than I expected, and a lot less than I did three years ago in that corner. I'm trying to decide if it's worth spending $1,000 every two years on tree trimming to plant a garden *sigh* Too bad, because I have so enjoyed even the container gardening I've been doing this year (my first).

 

 

Does anyone want to hear about my flower gardens? (I can't grow edibles since I don't have sun almost at all). My blue garden that I planted this Spring is doing great. My clematis, hydrangea, blue winky columbine, and campanula are all blooming. A yellow perennial (I forget its name) is adding a bit of contrast and white roses are bordering. My rhodedendron in another part is fading. I will be putting in warm annuals this weekend.

 

I'd love to see a pic of your blue garden! That's a terrific idea. I love any purply-blue flowers. We put periwinkle in our front beds, and now that they've really taken hold, in the early spring they are just loaded with flowers. They make a terrific ground cover.

 

We have giant oak trees shading probably 90% of our property at any given point in the day, which is great for our electric bills and yard play, but stinks for gardening!

[elise1mds]

Mine is growing so well, which surprises the heck out of me because I typically have a black, black thumb (I kill things like philodendron and cactus without a second thought) and this is the first year I've had a vegetable garden! We get to plant on tax day here, and I put in seedlings, so I'm starting to see blooms! We've had a ton of rain and VERY clayey soil (we have an actual pottery only a couple of miles from my house that digs the clay out of a local hill), but thankfully our garden plot used to be a pool area, so I took the sand that we

 

I planted:

 

Cucumbers (first bloom opened today)

Pole beans (staked them up yesterday since the tendrils are starting to curl out)

Red and yellow bell peppers (one bud on one plant so far)

Okra (the only thing NOT doing well because of all the cool temps and rain)

Tomatoes (Roma mostly, but the kids insisted we plant a couple of some called Cherokee purple, and putting out blooms all over the place)

Strawberries (one bloom showed up yesterday)

One squash plant

 

Then my son planted two basil plants, two marjoram plants, an English thyme, and a rosemary

 

And my daughter planted a lot of impatiens

 

We also have two pumpkin plants growing in another area outside the garden so hopefully we'll get some pumpkins for carving this fall!

 

There are photos of most of it on my blog... I'm loving it all!

[OrganicAnn]

Our garden is doing great. I have a new light stand to grow seedlings. We always grow our tomato and pepper seedlings as well as some herbs and other misc seedlings. We have a new irragation system to water our raised beds. So we are doing great. We had lots of time this year to get everything going. Our choices are for fresh eating through out the summer, but we always try to perserve some.

 

We have a "Earthbox" were we grow herbs right outside the kitchen door.

 

Our peas are blooming.

 

We've added more asparagus this year.

 

We are also growing:

a french melon

watermelon

eggplant

peas (2 types)

beans

Christmas limas (as seen on the cover of Animal Vegatable Miracle)

Peppers about 12 mostly red and orange with one Ancho

Tomatoes

Potatoes

Onions

Shallots

Garlic

Zucchini and Patty Pan

Cucumbers

Red Cabbage

Swiss Chard

 

Herbs:

Cilantro - it came up from seed. I'm surprised how much I like it in fresh Mexican dishes.

Basil

2 types Parsley

Chives

Dill

Rosemary

Taragon

 

Fruits

Blackberries

Pears

[MamaAkins]

We are in central NC and got a little bit of a late start in planting this spring.

We have squash, zucchini, okra and cucumbers growing (planted seeds in early May), as well as tomatoes and eggplants (planted small plants for those). We had been hoping to expand (double) the size of our garden this year, but we've just been too busy. We did put in a drip irrigation system though and it really helps us stay on top of the watering, etc. We can't wait until we can "harvest" some of our bounty!

 

Forgot to add that we also have an herb garden going!

[myfunnybunch]

I love my garden!

 

Harvesting: Spinach, lettuce, beet greens, bok choi. They are loving this alternately cool/warm, rainy/sunny spring! We are loving fresh greens on the table, and our neighbors are loving that we've got extra.

 

Growing beautifully: Peas (shelling and sugar snap), chard, carrots, potatoes, onions, beets, strawberries, cauliflower, raspberries.

 

Just peeking up: More carrots and beets, basil, more bok choi.

 

About to plant: Tomatoes (sauce, slicing and cherry), eggplant, melons and squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, pole beans and scarlet runner beans, maybe more onions, and in a couple weeks a third round of carrots and beets. I've got my weekend cut out for me!

 

Cat

[Ibbygirl]

Aw, thanks.

 

I am in the Montgomery area. I live about 35 minutes from town.

 

It took me a minute to figure out the fish picture you mentioned. That was taken in Alaska. The fish are halibut. I love halibut. I really miss it too. I was so sore and bruised after that day. Those suckers are heavy!

I miss Alaska but I like it here too.

 

 

I have ALWAYS wanted to see Alaska. I saw a feature on Alaska in a National Geographic type magazine when I was about 10 or 11 years old and I can't remember ever seeing anything so beautiful. That is one place I would love to see before I die. :) I heard a friend describe it once as "God's country". From the pictures I saw I think he was right. :)

[Amber in AUS]

My garden looks a little bare ATM so i wont put any pics up. We just finished our late autumn crops of corn, lettuce, pumpkins, cucumber, zucchini and tomatoes. We have replanted for our winter crop, broccoli, cauliflour, spinach and we were trying for some late season tomatoes as the weather has still been warm and sunny, but afraid to say we had a massive 4 day storm and the garden is looking very sorry for itself ATM.

[Wyndie]

Well, I have a picture of my garden near Charleston, SC. I have tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, peas, beans, and various herbs. The spinach and swiss chard didn't make it, but everything else is thriving.

 

http://greensummervillian.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/3458/#comments

 

This is beautiful and really gives me hope as we're moving to Summerville soon. :)

 

lol. I have the song stuck in my head too.

 

I'm sorry about the squirrels. That's awful! I hope your new property will be more garden friendly.

 

 

I just noticed your tagline. I'm married to the Air Force too. We have been married 14 1/2 years as well. He has been in for 16 though.

 

I think I'm going to put up chicken wire if I have a squirrel problem at our new house. I heard getting an outdoor cat helps so we may try that first. The rodents here on base are just vicious. No one can grow anything here; even the daisies get their little heads bitten off. lol

 

Hubby's been in 21 years, we got married after he was in for awhile too. :) While I don't love everything about military life, I do enjoy living on Air Force bases.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

Producing: kale, sugar snap peas, lots of lettuce

 

Growing: carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, cucumbers,

 

I just pulled up the spinach and planted squash and zucchini. No sprouts yet.

 

When the lettuce and kale go, I will put in green beans.

 

I'm very happy with my garden this year.

[MomsintheGarden]

Wow!! Your garden sounds HUGE. Do you have a picture of it? I'd LOVE to see it if you care to share it. :) Do you live entirely off of the veggies that you grow or do you still have to buy the occasional veggie at the store?? Thank you for your reply. :)

Certainly! Here are a few shots of my garden. The raised beds inside the fence are only about 1000 square feet total. We get a lot of food from them because I plant intensively. I also try to get at least two crops a year from the annual beds. For instance, when the peas are done, I'll put in cucumbers, then mache in the fall.

 

Unfortunately, we still need to buy veggies from the store. We'd need a much bigger garden to be more self-sufficient. We have the room, and little by little we hope to grow more. Every addition to our garden requires removal of huge amounts of rocks. Also, we have many deer in our area, so we must keep anything tasty to them (almost everything) inside a fence.

 

Thanks for asking! Dh and I had fun taking the pics.

 

Blessings,

GardenMom

 

View of several raised beds. In the foreground: lettuce and cabbages. The lettuce is done before the cabbage needs more room to finish growing.

 

Top: kale, Middle: orach (colorful and tasty for salads), Bottom: onions

 

Top: onions, Bottom: Cold frame containing peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes (hardened off and ready for planting).

 

Strawberries are almost ready for picking!

 

Potatoes: Our main project for this year. This is after the second hilling. They are outside the fence because deer leave them alone - most of the time. We had a little frost damage last week, but most of the plants were unharmed. There are some buds, so we are hoping to have some new potatoes soon!

[gardening momma]

Where are you right now?

I'm ahead of where I usually am this time of year, but I've stalled--lots of things need to be done and I haven't been doing them, so I might not come out ahead after all.

 

I built a new raised bed, but haven't filled it with soil yet. I weeded my raspberry bed, and beside it, in an empty section that I'm going to let the raspberries spread into, I planted grape tomato seeds, but I forgot to water them after the first day, so I might have to reseed. I have pumpkin plants growing from last year's mini pumpkins, which didn't totally decompose over the winter, but I'm not sure if they are where I want them to stay--might try to move them. I still have to plant my other veggie seeds.

 

and tell us where you live. Or, what zone you are in.

Southwest Ohio, zone 6 (can't remember if it's 6a or 6b--it's borderline).

[Ibbygirl]

Certainly! Here are a few shots of my garden. The raised beds inside the fence are only about 1000 square feet total. We get a lot of food from them because I plant intensively. I also try to get at least two crops a year from the annual beds. For instance, when the peas are done, I'll put in cucumbers, then mache in the fall.

 

Unfortunately, we still need to buy veggies from the store. We'd need a much bigger garden to be more self-sufficient. We have the room, and little by little we hope to grow more. Every addition to our garden requires removal of huge amounts of rocks. Also, we have many deer in our area, so we must keep anything tasty to them (almost everything) inside a fence.

 

Thanks for asking! Dh and I had fun taking the pics.

 

Blessings,

GardenMom

 

View of several raised beds. In the foreground: lettuce and cabbages. The lettuce is done before the cabbage needs more room to finish growing.

 

Top: kale, Middle: orach (colorful and tasty for salads), Bottom: onions

 

Top: onions, Bottom: Cold frame containing peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes (hardened off and ready for planting).

 

Strawberries are almost ready for picking!

 

Potatoes: Our main project for this year. This is after the second hilling. They are outside the fence because deer leave them alone - most of the time. We had a little frost damage last week, but most of the plants were unharmed. There are some buds, so we are hoping to have some new potatoes soon!

 

 

Wow!! It looks BEAUTIFUL!! I LOVE your garden!! I have a tiny plot that is loaded with rocks. It takes FOREVER to clear them out so I can only imagine what you are dealing with. Your hard work sure has paid off though. Your garden is gorgeous. I'm so envious. :) BTW, have you ever heard of that plant that deters cats, dogs, deer and other furry critters with a sensitive sense of smell? It's called, cats be gone or dogs be gone or the piss off plant. It goes by one of those three titles. It is a special type of coleus that is completely harmless and it emits an order that is strong but not unpleasant and the smell repels animals. I have one in my backyard because we have a lot of stray cats as well as racoons and I've never seen one since I've put it in. I don't have deer so I don't know if it words against them, but it's worked for me for the other critters. :)

[gardening momma]

BTW, have you ever heard of that plant that deters cats, dogs, deer and other furry critters with a sensitive sense of smell? It's called, cats be gone or dogs be gone or the piss off plant. It goes by one of those three titles. It is a special type of coleus that is completely harmless and it emits an order that is strong but not unpleasant and the smell repels animals. I have one in my backyard because we have a lot of stray cats as well as racoons and I've never seen one since I've put it in. I don't have deer so I don't know if it words against them, but it's worked for me for the other critters.

We need that for outside our front window where a neighbor cat has been marking his territory (and faces off with our cats through the screen). It's smelly out there, and it's right be the front door! How stong smelling is the plant? You said not unpleasant?

[Matryoshka]

Yep, Memorial Day weekend is planting time here. I'm finishing up putting things in this week - corn, beans, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbages, melons, peppers, carrots, garlic, turnips, chard, herbs. I missed the boat on peas and spinach, which should've been in already.

 

I used to have a huge garden, but haven't in years - but now that the kids are older, I think I can manage again. I hope. I've put in raised beds to minimize the weeding - that was always my big bugaboo.

[Ibbygirl]

We need that for outside our front window where a neighbor cat has been marking his territory (and faces off with our cats through the screen). It's smelly out there, and it's right be the front door! How stong smelling is the plant? You said not unpleasant?

 

 

It's no stronger than any herb type plant. It doesn't smell bad (to me), but for animals with a very sensitive sense of smell, they won't go near it. I got mine off of Ebay. It's good to search it by it's botanical name to get the precise plant. It is covered by a patent so you can only get live plants, they won't let you grow it from seed, but I have found that they are easily divided like any coleus so you can buy some and split them up as they get bigger. Here's some info I pulled off of Richter's site about it.

 

Piss-Off Plant Keeps Furry Pests AwayCats, dogs and rabbits won't go near it

 

Much as we love our feline and canine friends, they can be a royal pain in the you-know-where when they carouse in our gardens. They romp around damaging plants, dig holes, and otherwise 'do their business' where they shouldn't. But dogs and cats (and rabbits too) stay away if a Piss-Off Plant is nearby. For some reason not yet understood, furry critters absolutely detest the odour of this plant and won't go near it. When planted three feet apart, the Piss-Off Plant will protect a whole garden.

Surprisingly the plant is not offensive to humans, and it does not harm children or pets. And it has succulent leaves and attractive lavender flowers and makes an impressive easy-to-grow plant for hanging baskets and indoor windowsills.

The Piss-Off Plant was developed four years ago in Germany when a Plectranthus canina plant was crossed with a Plectranthus esculentus plant. The goal was to produce an ornamental plant with compact growth habit. It was only later that the plant's unique animal-repelling property was discovered.

[gardening momma]

It's no stronger than any herb type plant. It doesn't smell bad (to me), but for animals with a very sensitive sense of smell, they won't go near it.

Sounds like what I need.

 

Hey, I found today that, in addition to the volunteer pumpkin plants, I also have volunteer tomatoes and possibly yellow squash! The tomatoes are growing in the same place as the pumpkins, so I'll have to move one or the other. The squash looks very much like the pumpkin plants at this point, but I think I see a slight difference in the leaves, so we'll see. It's nice that I have a little jump on planting after all. :001_smile: