Ha, well I guess I'll have to post more pics here then. I didn't get anything planted, but I did move my horses hay bale from the barn to my garden and mulched a little, and spent hours deweeding my beds and garden. I mulched over the areas I deweeded in my herb bed, but because I'll be planting these roots/tubers pretty intensively I don't feel heavy mulch will work, I'll just have to keep on top of weeding a few squares a day. A little bit at a time is a perfect garden motto.
Looks great! You got a lot done! I'm going to take advantage of the beautiful weather we're supposed to have this weekend (70-75f), and get some stuff done in the garden myself. Even if it's 10 degrees cooler here than what they're predicting, I'll be happy. lol
Pictures whenever you can! I've been harvesting turnips and radishes this week. Hoping for lettuce soon, though I can't harvest what I don't plant. I'm almost out of compost, I've been preparing some 4x4 squares by digging in the compost, and a few I just put a 2" layer of compost over top (no-till experiment). I've got a sunburnt back, though, might have to put some of this aloe and comfrey to personal use. Carrots are actually growing I'm 3 for 3 with spotting the potato beetles and getting rid of that problem. Some tomatoes are blooming and a pepper plant's putting out some buds. I can't wait to have this whole area developed in like 10 years , it will be beautiful. I'll post pics after you do.
Go Steve! Your garden is already rocking! You sound like me - it's gonna be beautiful in 10 years once everything is planted / done the way that I want it. Things are waking up around here, but it's still too early for us to plant warm season crops without issues that I'd rather not deal with. I'm hoping that night temps will allow planting of tomatoes, peppers, cukes, etc...in a couple weeks. I can't wait to have the veggies and flowers planted! So, on with the pics: Bleeding heart for the humming birds. Cherry blossoms filling in. Common chives Purple cone flower coming up. Cutting celery Garlic Grecian wind flower Oregano Parsley Peppermint - Remember what I said about mint spreading? Well, last fall I moved a small pot of mint (10" planter, not very deep) into one of the beds, so it would be out of the way when we were working on a project. I didn't move it to the 'winter spot' after we were finished with that project, and the mint made itself at home in one of the flower beds. My fault entirely. *kicks self* I hadn't cut it back and the mint was draped over the pot, onto the ground. Sooooooo, I'll be digging it up and moving it. On a good note, I'm getting extra peppermint out of the deal! Raspberry spinach This is what you get when you pull weeds in all of the beds now ('established' by previous homeowners). What a beautiful sight to see! Something that we didn't see when we moved in a few years ago. Whooo hooooo!!!!!! Thanks for looking peeps.
lovely started souring some organic materials, most of which i can get locally thank goodness. want to start a garden outside as well as inside not sure if i'll plant any edibles just yet. was thinking some lavender, jasmine and other things like that. maybe a few cacti
FINALLY!!! Wow, looks like you're a few years ahead of me, the only perennials I've had come back are salvia, comfrey, and lemon balm. I have planted a lot more this year, though. Comfrey & clover patch, featuring a sunflower and some squash Just fell a tree the other day and I saved all the limbs I could, split and stacked the wood, and piled the leaves and small limbs to be covered in a truckload of leaves to compost. Trellis is built from that tree and is made for my cukes.I also have bush beans in that square, the square to the left is full of potatoes, diagonal top left is potatoes again, and top right is a mix of squashes and eggplant ( I just planted them last week so they're still coming up). My carrot square Turnip Salad bed, biggest greens are from turnips Hugelkulture bed, I have comfrey, 2 maters and a pepper planted in it, so far \\ Just a few hours more of weeding.... My corner where my recently deceased cat is buried. I planted a mimosa seedling over her as it was one of her favorite trees to climb. I'm filling this area with perennials as well. Pollenator flower garden Red Velved Yarrow Recently upcanned these herbs from rapid rooters. French lavender, mountain mint, cumin, holy basil, and some type of oregano I forgot.
We had a really cold, wet summer. Our average high temp was 65f (18c). It was more like Spring, with the exception of one very hot week. Cool / cold weather crops did very well. Warm weather loving veggies produced little. I ended up buying some paste tomatoes and green beans from the farmers market to make up for what the garden wasn't able to produce this year. I didn't get very many pics during the growing season, but I'll share what I did take. bunching onions chives shallot garlic mint pyrethrin daisy thyme tom's & a few garlic volunteer nast. I planted garlic (Duganski, Early Red Italian, Music) & French gray shallots again. Loaded the beds with mulched leaves. As of now, I still have parsley & other herbs, carrots, kale, swiss chard, and bunching onions growing. Unprotected. In zone 5. No snow. Temps have dipped into the upper 20's a couple times, but for the most part it's been in the 40's & 50's, with quite a few days hitting 60f. My Rosemary has yet to be moved inside, it's doing fine. I'll keep an eye on the weather forecast, and moved it if needed. To date, we have yet to see snow stick around for more than a day (if that long), and only once (last month)! With seed catalogs already arriving in the mail, I'm getting more serious about planning the garden for the next growing season. I've been thinking about it since before I planted the garlic & shallots in the fall (crop rotation, companion planting, and all of that fun stuff ). We're going to have to add some new vegetables, and some herbs to the mix for this coming season. I'm thinking some spuds are on the top of the 'add list'. How did your garden produce this past season? Are you adding anything new to your garden this coming season?
I took a few pics this morning so you can see what's going on in the garden right now. Broccoli Carrots Garlic is coming up Kale, has a bit of damage. Lettuce Spearmint Parsley Rosemary Swiss Chard Considering the fact that it's the end of December, normally everything would have been killed by freezing temps, and covered with snow, I can't complain about having access to some fresh veggies & herbs. I hope that stuff that is normally dormant this time of year survives this insane weather. *fingers crossed*
Just a reminder to check the viability of the seeds that you'll be starting for your garden. I'm 'germ rate testing' various seeds that I'll be starting for the garden this year. I've had most of the seeds around for a few years or more. I always check germ rates for onions, regardless of how long I've had the seeds. Hopefully I don't have to order anymore. lol On that note, don't forget to re-up your seed stash for anything that you might be out of, or for new varieties that you'd like to try. It's also a good time to pre-order things like strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, etc...to make sure that you get the variety that you want for spring planting. Hurry up Spring!
Very nice jmick! Do you have anything else started for the garden? I have peppers / chili's, onions, leeks, English lavender, geraniums, and a couple other things going. More than likely I'll get tomatoes started in 2 to 3 weeks. We had some beautiful weather today, 59f and sunny (almost 30 degrees above average for this time of year). It was so nice to spend a little time outside this afternoon, without having to bundle up like the stay puff dough boy!
I stick to tomatoes only. There are so many insects down here and pathogens in the soil my in-ground gardens have never done well. I use 5 gallon pots for the tomatoes, with 2 plants per pot, and a soil mix of compost and commercial potting soil. Did really well last season, had 24 plants and got 62 pounds altogether. By June it had gotten too hot for the plants to set fruit, they'd flower like crazy, but when it gets up to 85 no more fruit...
We're off to a very strange growing season here, following an extremely weird winter. Zero, zip, zilch for flowers on the apple tree this spring, which means no apples. The cherry tree only flowered at the tip of one branch. I'm still planting stuff that I would normally have already planted the end of May / first week of June. Monday temps were in the 90's, last night the temps dipped into the 40's. Fortunately, my tomatoes, peppers, onions and newly planted herbs have settled in well despite the roller coaster temps. A few pics from a month or so ago. Nothing much going on in the garden at that time other than herbs, garlic & shallots, and strawberries flowering. Garlic Strawberry Peppermint I still have pics on the camera that I need to download. I'm working on getting everything together to share what's been going on in the garden in more detail, along with some current pictures. The Early Red Italian garlic is ready for harvest, I'll get that done within the next day or so. Also need to harvest the oregano, thyme, marjoram, and comfrey. Wishing everyone the best this growing season, hope all of your gardens are off to a good start.
looks like you have good luck at your growing.. im not even trying to grow onions anymore. i never have any luck with them.