Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Lots of Garden Shots

We've had a lot of rain here lately, but the sun peaked out last Friday afternoon, so I ran out and got a few pictures of the garden. I don't think planting out early helped us any, but at least it's beginning to grow a little. Actually, things look even better this morning and some things grew noticeably over the weekend, but I don't have time to take new pics to replace these.

You'll notice in some of the pictures a concrete "ditch" of sorts behind our fence. That's a city waterway for rainwater runoff. We've been told that before they built it (before we moved here) our yard was sloped and flooded often when it rained. I guess some people would have been put off by it and not bought the property, but we considered it a plus. It makes our yard seem larger than it is (because we seem farther away from our neighbor's yards to the west and behind us to the south). If we had our way, we'd have one on the east side, too. It would be almost like a moat, and you know what they say...good moats make good neighbors.

Acorn squash, eggplant, kohrabi and beets.

 Green beans, collard greens and carrots.


Baby spinach.

Tomatoes (not all are caged yet), hanging baskets of petunias,
pansies and vinca vine.

Garden frog and a broken shovel stuck in the ground.

One bunch of chard is growing faster than the rest.  Why?

Salad garden.  Two kinds of radishes, romaine lettuce,
mixed lettuces, peppers and green onions (not up yet).

Blueberry bushes fronted by garlic.

Pair of doves beneath a blueberry bush.

Peas on the fence, fronted by parsnips.

Pea pod.

Baby turnip.

Tater bins.  They're growing fast and we've had to add more soil/straw several times.

Yellow onions, with rhubarb behind closer to the fence.

Tomato started from seed. 
We thought it was a goner, but it looks like it will survive.

Top view of a hanging flower basket.





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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice - I'm jealous of your sunny yard. We have too much shade to grow very much where we live now. I miss my big sunny country yard! Looks like you're going to be busy in the fall! Do you do a lot of canning or freezing?

Sheila said...

WOW--love all your gardening. I sometimes wish we had gone ahead with a garden but we didn't. Hopefully---next year!! Looks like y'all have a little bit of everything. I am fascinated with the potato bins--is there a certain reason for planting them like that? Pa-Paw--and us too--just planted them in the ground like anything else.
I see lots of good eating in your future!! Have a great day.

Annie Jones said...

Jinmo: Did you garden when you lived with you in-laws? Their yard looks nice and sunny. Last year I froze most of our surplus but this year, if there's enough, I'll do some canning.

Sheila: The potato bins are done that way mostly to get more potatoes from the same amount of space. You plant the chitted potatoes in loose soil/straw/compost mix, then every time they break through and start growing on top, you cover them again. The result by the time the bin is full and the potatoes are ready should be potatoes throughout the bin. We shall see...

Sheila said...

That is really neat about the potatoes. I'll have to try to remember that when we next have a garden. Thanks for sharing.

Sonya Ann said...

It looks AMAZING! I have my little plants out the back door. I think that is probably all we are going to do. Den talked about a garden but I think we are a bit late. Oh well maybe my next life time!
And I love your frog.Have you kissed him?

McVal said...

I am so jealous! My garden looks like a weedpit and nothing has been touched in it so far this year.
The potato things have me very intrigued! I've got to try that some year!

Frances said...

Beautiful! I look forward to seeing it grow. And seeing what it grows.

Annie Jones said...

Sheila and McVal: I'm pretty sure I got the idea from Down To Earth, but you can also just do a search for "growing potatoes in a _____" (put cage, basket, bag, barrel, or whatever container you can think of in the blank). You'll get lots of results and the method is about the same for all of the types of containers.

Frances: Thanks! I'll try to keep the updates coming.

Annie Jones said...

SonyaAnn: Oops, I missed you there. I was too busy kissing the frog.

Doug Robertson said...

Very nice. I started my tomatoes from seed, they're doing all right, but I sure wish they were up to where your plants are already. I always bought plants before, they're growing much slower from seed than I had thought.

Annie Jones said...

Doug: Sorry, but I think I unintentionally misled you. Most of our tomatoes from seed didn't make it; we have about 4 that did, and they are in containers. The ones in the raised beds (with cages) are from plants. We've never had luck from seeds before, so if any of them put on fruit, we'll be happily surprised.

Ann Flower said...

Being a great lover of garden art, I enjoyed going through your blog. keep it up the good work.

slugmama said...

Things look like they are coming along nicely.
Did any of your leggy cuke plants make it after transplating? Just curious....

Sorry I am not a very good comment-leaver lately but I am still trying to recover from Sunday. I think the sunburn fried my brain too.lol