How Does My Garden Grow?

 I am re-posting this post from last year... and it is surprising how much behind my garden is this year from where it was last year. We have had so much rain and little sun...  Seeing these pictures from about the same time last year, shows a different picture. It is interesting how things can differ from one year to the next. :)
 
How does my garden grow?  Well, take a garden tour with me and see how it looks here in mid June....

 As I have said before, we live in the city and yet we also have vegetable gardens.... and flowers. :)  For one thing, living in the city, we have to be careful to keep things from looking like a farm.(By the way, I am in no way criticizing farms - I would LOVE to have more property and have a type of "farm garden", but this is what God has provided for us now and we are using what we have.. and I like to mix the beauty of flowers and vegetables, fruits and herbs all together.........

We now have cucumber blossoms and just this morning, I am seeing tiny cucumbers - about 1/2" long. We made quite a few jars of pickles last year and hope to again.... I still have had to also buy pickles, but the jars I did put up were a help.... and we enjoyed eating the cucumbers fresh too!

Here are the carrots growing between the rows of tomatoes..... there are also onions growing in rows in the same area.  

Here are the onions...... they are starting to grow quite quickly. I usually grow them for greens, but this year, I am hoping to also have some large onions to save for the winter months... we'll see how we do.







                                                          The tomatoes are growing quite fast also.... we love tomatoes. I have about 20 plants growing and they are all staked. I use strips of pantyhose to tie them up.... planning a post about that soon...... Anyway,  there are 10 tomato plants in a 4' x 8' raised garden bed. Then there is a 7' long row of carrots in the middle, with 2 rows of onions (one on either side of the carrots). I usually plant marigolds at the ends which helps keep bugs away... and looks pretty. I have 2 of these beds going as we really like tomatoes and tend to eat them as fast as they ripen.... so this year, I hope to can some of them.

Green beans are here in the form of bush beans.... I don't have many plants... as something ate them and only a very few survived. There aren't enough to make a pot of green beans, so I will plan to plant more and will use these cut up into salads.






I have a few pepper plants - mostly the bell peppers, although I also have a pimento and jalapeno plant.

There are 4 beds here and the first and 3rd are the same. The second one has cucumbers, green beans, beets (which have also had the greens eaten off and are just now starting to grow).

We do have to water the gardens and I am afraid we have gotten lax about putting the hose away...  As often as we have to water, it just hasn't seemed worth the trouble. :)

 I tend to use "odd items" to stake and trellis my gardens.  Here is an old metal headboard, coupled with another old metal footboard - for my cucumbers to grow up.

 These beds are 2' wide and there are two that are 8' long and one that is 6' long. I love these beds.... so handy and they frame the back of the yard which increases our usable space.

This is the melon and cucumber bed.... these cucumbers are my second crop and should be producing well by the time the other crop is fading out.

 Yellow straight necked squash and zucchini squash. I planted about 6-7 of the zucchini seeds and only 2 came up.... then something damaged one of them a day ago and I don't think it is going to make it, SO I will plant more and get what I can from one plant.

The red plants are amaranthus.

I have a large red clover plant spreading out in the one garden... doesn't look great, but I want to harvest it for tea, so am letting it grow. I don't have the room to allow it to take over this bed though, so will have to watch it. 

 I LOVE dill!!!  I love to pick off a sprig of it and smell it.... smells so good. :)  Last year, I started eating a sprig of it while gardening and do it many days now..... also started eating the young dill seeds while out gardening.... they taste good and are beneficial to eat.

We use dill in salads, casseroles, dill pickles, and more...  It is a plant that I have to keep planting though, to have some fresh all summer long...

Borage and one of my lavenders.....

 The back garden is in the process of being re-worked.... again. :)  We have compost containers and have moved them to the back fence now... and plan to put another garden bed where they were.

This is the new location of the compost containers, which I have found at garage sales and they work great-we have used them for years.

If I didn't have these, I would compost some other way... there are many ways to make compost.... and I am convinced that compost is one of the very best things for my garden... and it is FREE because we use garden trimmings, veggie scraps, leaves, grass, etc.

 This is the old location of the compost containers. We removed the martin house as we have too many trees to use it right now. I am planning a bed along that fence... not sure what I will put in it yet. :)

Here are baby's breath and garden phlox plants under the peach tree, with some blueberry bushes behind them and blackberry vines at the back.

 We LOVE blueberries.... and have to work hard to keep the birds from taking them all! 

 The blackberry bushes  have been another attraction for the birds... here in the city, we have a LOT of birds... but we are thankful for the fruit we get. :)

Elderberry bushes..... I make elderberry tincture and syrup from them and plan to harvest some of the flowers this year for tea.

 Sweet potatoes are just starting to grow - we started them from a sweet potato from the store and still have more sprouts to plants... there are about 8 plants growing in the garden so far. We really like sweet potatoes and they are so easy to grow... here we planted them in uncomposted compost.... we ran out of dirt, so did something different... working out okay so far. :)

 Echinacea.... a striking looking flower at all times of the year.... early, like this.... and when they are in bloom.......and even when they go to seed.... they also look so pretty against the snow in the winter. All that, plus the plant is great for fighting sickness.

A bit of whimsy...... :)

Some beauty.....

 Looks like a pretty typical suburban backyard.....

It is amazing how much can fit into a small yard... it takes some flexibility on how we grow things... but it works.  I tend to trellis and stake many of my plants as they take up less ground that way....and still produce well.

Our yard has  a LOT of shade, so we have had to be creative in getting "full sun" plants to thrive.

 At first glance, it doesn't look like there is much there........ we have had visitors ask, "Now where is your garden?" This is totally different than a big garden where everything is spread out and in rows... those are nice too, but we can't do that here....  This works for us and the nice thing about gardening is that there are SO many different ways to do it. I hope you enjoy your gardens.

 We have more "gardens" tucked here and there all around the property... I have started naming many of them so that we can discuss them and we all know what we are talking about. :)   We have the raised garden beds numbered 1-8, the back garden, the peace garden, the rose garden, rock wall garden,  herb garden, etc.  It is fun.

No matter how much space you have.... it is possible to garden. Even if you only have a tiny little balcony like we did in our first place... and no grass/ground, you can still container plant. I love how God has made such an abundance of plant life that we can enjoy growing on our property....the variety is incredible.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and "touring" my garden. :) Have a great day!

Shared on:








Gardens Galore

New Raised Garden Beds

Raised garden beds have been wonderful for us. We put 4 beds in about 5 years ago. We used regular lumber rather than treated lumber, which has poisons.... not good for the garden!!  The regular lumber weathers quickly and doesn't last as long, but it lasted for about 5 years for us.... with a few repairs in the last couple of years. :) 

This first picture is from spring of LAST year - you can see that the garden beds (on the left) are weathered.... what you can't see is that the corners have deteriorated so much that we have some plastic straps (cut from milk jugs) around some of the corners and screwed into the sides to hold the beds together. :)  They were getting pretty bad, but I was determined to use them as long as possible.I kept trying to make them last "just one more year". :)  Well, this year, my guys said it was too far gone.... we HAD to replace them. 

So............. Son #2 hunted up some clearance lumber at one of the home improvement stores and found some for 75% off of the regular price. What a savings! He had to keep checking back for when they had more, but eventually had enough to make beds....  He had to cut off parts that were split, but this worked well.
     We have had 3 beds that were 4'x8' and one was much smaller..... He increased the size of that bed so that all are large now.... you can see in the picture how small the original bed was.... a big improvement. :)
After finishing the 4 beds, he found another deal on lumber and I excitedly planned for another skinnier bed and he made that and had bought enough lumber for 2 more skinny beds, but due to his work in lawn mowing and the grass growing so fast, nothing happened on those for a long time. I was careful not to push, but eventually, the other kids and I were cleaning up and making plans to move that pile of lumber..... and maybe have somebody else finish the project... one of the other brothers or dad.....

 You can see my poor little patch of asparagus in the wooden drawers... they need to be transplanted... somewhere....

 He decided to go ahead to make them....  then we filled them in and started planting. WHAT A BLESSING!!! :)

This first skinny bed has flowers (for beauty :) and lavender and a couple of other perennials... and just last week, I moved all of that asparagus from the old drawers.... right down the middle of this bed... my hope is that the feathery asparagus will look pretty as a background for the flowers... we'll see.

In the next bed, I have watermelon, more cucumbers  and cantaloupe.... in the last bed, I planted  yellow straight necked squash and zucchini squash with a couple of Amaranthus plants (here they are in the 2nd skinny bed... I transplanted). Having limited space, I am constantly trying to fit something in here and there... and it usually works okay.

Another view of the large raised beds... things are still small...

I just took this picture today...  the sun isn't out so the colors aren't as pretty as they will be tomorrow, :)  but you can see that things are certainly growing in these new beds.

 It is hard to get all of the beds in, but here are a few different angles....

The skinny beds are about 2' wide and two of them are 8' long, one is 6' long, so we have added a lot of planting room. I have one other smaller raised bed to plant sweet potatoes in and we have lots of in ground beds with herbs and other plants.

We have been in such a drought.... now we have been getting so much rain ... and the weeds are growing - we need to weed the drive and paths... and all of those little plants in the long beds are little river birch trees - we have pulled up hundreds so far and still have thousands of them to remove.....  from all of the pretty seeds that floated off the tree a few weeks ago.... 

This shows the beds a bit more.... City gardens can be challenging, but it can still work. We have never had this many raised beds.... and I will be working to make it all look tidy and pretty....  Need to keep the neighbors and the city happy....  I love these new beds... and we will be using them for a few years to come, unless the Lord allows us to move to some larger property where we can spread out more... then someone else will be using them... My husband and kids laughed that whoever would buy our house had better like gardening. :)  For now, we are enjoying them.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.... I hope you have a wonderful week. :)

Shared on..............

Saturday Soiree
Green Thumb Thursday
The Art of Homemaking Mondays
Show & Tell Saturday
So Much At Home
Essential Fridays
Show and Tell Friday
Creative Ways Link Party
Green Thumb Thursday
Hearts For Home
No Rules Weekend
Thriving Thursday
Think Tank Thursday
Green Thumb Thursday
Hope In Every Season
Wholehearted Wednesday
Winsome Wednesday
A Little R and R
Titus 2 Tuesday
Women Helping Women
Do Tell Tuesday
Thriving Thursday
Homeacre Hop
Someday Crafts
Wise Woman Link Up
Homemaking Link Up

Plant WHAT With Tomatoes???

It has been way too long since I posted and I am sorry for that. In the last month, we had company for 5 days, finished homeschool, planted our gardens, had a BIG garage sale for 5 days, celebrated my daughter's birthday, went on a trip... and more.... and I already suffer from adrenal and thyroid issues as well as sleep deprivation and a foot that keeps going out of joint, so blogging didn't happen at all. :(   I hope to be regular with it again.

Anyway,  I thought I would share about how I plant my tomatoes since it really works so well. I have done this for a few years and it really helps. I had found some of these from different books/sites, but I used some of those and added some others.

We have been saving banana peelings and egg shells in the freezer.... just waiting for time to plant tomatoes... We had so many that my husband said he wanted them OUT of there! :)  We usually put them in the compost pile, but at this time of year, I save them to give the tomatoes extra nutrients.

Both items are so good for tomatoes and help them to grow, providing some needed nutrients.

 Here I am adding epsom salts to powdered milk, and other items... which will end up being part of the mixture I will put into the planting hole for my tomatoes.

Epsom salt has magnesium and sulfur and the magnesium helps to keep the rich green color in the plants....

 More of the items.........

Now, some of you have your own cow manure, but I am a city girl and we have to buy it... so here is a bag of composted cow manure..... it provides the base of my "recipe".  :)

 Using a wheel barrow, we start with the bag of composted cow manure.... then add the other items...............

Here I have added the epsom salts and other stuff I mixed up in the kitchen.

After stirring it all up..... it looked like this.......

This mixture is mixed into the dirt in the hole.... it is an additive and I do not fill the entire hole with this rich mix.... it would cost too much to do so and it doesn't need that much of it.

We are planting the tomatoes quite close together, but that works well for us.... We stake them up so they don't sprawl........ The holes are being dug with a post hole digger.... we try to go down about 18" if possible, but at least 12" deep.... I would love to dig 24" deep, but we can't seem to do it with our beds... roots, hard clay, and rocks prevent it.

In the bottom of each hole, we put at least one banana peel and one eggshell - more is great. As you can see, these are still frozen - sometimes I let them thaw first and sometimes not.... it still works great.

  Now, the mixture gets added over the egg shells and banana peels....  The mixture is pretty powerful stuff and gives the tomato plants a great boost from the very beginning and lasts through the growing season.

I always break off all of the lower leaves from the plant and bury it quite deep.... it will grow more roots on the buried stem which makes the plant stronger and better able to absorb nutrients. I think that keeping the lower leaves from touching the ground helps to reduce pests on the tomatoes and allows for good air flow.... and it looks neater too. Since my space is limited, I have found that doing these things helps to increase my quality and yield... even in a small space.

 I do buy plants - this is one that I just bought and planted today... it was on clearance and was about 18" tall - I buried several inches of it.

One reason I buy plants is that the growing season isn't terribly long and I like to start with plants so we can get tomatoes faster. I am so busy that starting my own plants isn't something I have the time/energy to do, so I do it this way.

These are the tomato plants that I planted a few weeks ago - sorry that I didn't take any pictures when I planted them.... they are doing quite well and have easily doubled/tripled in size since they were planted.






My "Recipe" for planting tomatoes.....
Epsom Salt
Powdered Milk
Sugar
Worm Castings
Composted Manure
Kelp Powder
Bone Meal
Baking Soda
Molasses
Egg Shells (not cooked)
Banana Peels

Mix all ingredients together except the banana peels and egg shells (put those in the bottom of the planting hole). Scoop the mixture on top of the peels and shells and plant tomatoes, adding more of the mixture with the dirt added to the hole. Remove lower leaves of tomato plants.  I have found that this "recipe" is so rich and helpful and if I am out of some items, I just don't put those in and it still does well. I don't want to spend a lot of money doing this... and I found all those bags of ingredients at a garage sale a year or 2 ago or I probably would not use all of them.

I also use this recipe in the planting holes for my pepper plants.... and I have seen a HUGE difference in the peppers that were planted with this recipe and those that were planted later and didn't have the recipe. This year, I have used the extra recipe mixture as a topping on my potted plants that have some worn out soil.

I am so glad to have the garden growing.... and we are looking forward to tomatoes. :)  Even if you are only able to add 1 item or a few items from the list... it should be a help for your plants.


Thank you for visiting my blog today.......... enjoy your gardening. :)

Shared on.................



Dishing It and Digging It
Snickerdoodle Saturday
Scraptastic
Simple Saturday
Friday at the Fire Station
Home Matters Linky Party
Home Sweet Home
Foodie Friday and Everything Else
Thursday Favorite Things
Home and Garden Thursday
Homemaking Link Up
Wednesday AIM Link Party
Homestead Blog Hop
Tuesdays With a Twist
Inspire Me Monday
Cooking and Crafting with J and J
Modest Mom
Art of Homemaking Monday
Over the Moon Link Party

Featured on:

Scraptastic Saturday
Simple Saturday
Wednesday AIM Link Party