Journey11's Garden Journal 2014

[journey11]

I am all caught up in the garden! Now I can kick back on the porch swing with a glass of iced tea and survey my domain with satisfaction. Well, for a couple of days, until it's time to fire up the canner at least....

Pics, as promised. Like Carol Dee, I wanted to pick a day when the weed-eating had been done and everything's looking good. This is the first time ever that I've been able to look out upon my garden without feeling the urgency of being behind! Especially this early in the year. We should be mostly out of the rainy season by now and the weeds have lost this battle. (I wasn't kidding on my zero tolerance policy on weeds this year.) I say, I'd rather spend $50 on straw then spend 50 hours weeding. There's 13 bales on there now.

Tomato patch, 50 plants here.


Main garden and chickens, hubby tilling the last section for me to plant more sweet corn.


Another view, long row of cukes...gonna make lots of gherkin pickles this year. Peppers (and some okra) in the next row over, 36 plants. I did get my paprika peppers too...Alma and Feher Ozon. Squash, zucchini and sweet potatoes in the 3rd row. Special beans for grow-out, beets, eggplant, malabar spinach, rocoto peppers (perennial), swiss chard and bok choy in the 4th row. "Delectable" bi-color sweet corn and lots of cantaloupe down by the chickens.


View from lower end. Watermelon, pumpkins, butternut and other asst. squash. That bush spot is red raspberries. Need to move those...bad spot for them. Ava's stuff. Pole beans for grow-out and Ava's sunflowers toward the top.


Here's Ava's little row. She planted mostly beans and zinnias. There's a calendula in there and a cantaloupe plant in the front.


One of my raised beds. These are brussel sprouts, 2 cabbage, more beets and onions (ready to come out).


Another raised bed around front. This is mostly beans. 2nd planting of Marshall's Powder Stars in front, followed by several rows of bush beans for canning (not up yet), Russ's African beans I'm growing out, and some overflow of leftover peppers and tomatoes. The screens are to keep my stinkin' cats out.


Overview of where everything is. I climbed on top of the cistern to get a better view. That's the corner of the tomato patch in the bottom left, and more grow-out beans up against the garage on the top left. If you want to see all my beans, they're in the Bean thread here, post #361. I still have flower pics to come...

 

[journey11]

Here's my front landscaping that I am so proud of. I started on it last year, but it really wasn't until this year that it all started to fill in and come together. The rocks I have collected over the years, some are foundation stones from my Dad's farm, some are from special trips and vacations.



I put my rhubarb in the flowerbed and it is really happy in there (2nd to last photo). And I am in love with caladiums. Why I never tried them sooner, I don't know. They are very easy and reliable to grow for quick pops of color in the shade. The magenta annual vincas Ava picked out. There's a bunch of wild strawberries in the second photo. Man, they took off quickly! The little tree behind the blue bottle chime is a dwarf magnolia (Jane). Only one of my elephant ears came up.

 

[thistlebloom]

You're my hero Journey! That is an awesome sight, all of those wonderful thriving vegetables! With all of the other things you are also responsible for, I can really appreciate your hard work and organization. You deserve several glasses of ice tea!

 

[thistlebloom]

Oh boy, more pictures! Your front beds are gorgeous, I love the rhubarb! And rock edging is the best. I have a pile here with your name on them No rush. They aren't going anywhere.
You have the cutest house!

(is it possible I use too many exclamation points?!)

 

[journey11]

Ok, last of the deluge of pictures!

My sister got Ava these really cool metal butterflies for her birthday. She always finds the neatest stuff.


Here's Ava's flowerbed, filled with the plants she started from seed. I think they came out of the Turf Builder episode alright. Only lost a snapdragon in this bed. The hollyhocks and sunflower were volunteers and I stuck a couple of my things in there, but almost all of these are Ava's flowers. (She needs to come do some weeding, lol.) I really didn't think those bachelor buttons would do well starting them indoors, but they really took off once she got them in the ground. And I almost threw out the Collarette dahlia seeds because I thought they'd be too old to sprout. The faith of a child!


My roses really need some attention now, pruning and I need to finish laying down the rock border here. But you can see how I used the roofing shingles to edge the bed. They're buried into the soil by about 4-5" then folded over. When I set the rocks on them, it keep the grass from coming up between the rocks.


I normally plant herbs in this bed. The bushy stuff is Greek Oregano. There's some other perennial odds and ends in there and mostly snapdragons to the left. I put all my focus into the veggie garden and left the snapdragons too long. I don't think they'll amount to much since they got so rootbound.


Well, that's it. That's what I've been up to!

 

[journey11]

Thanks, @thistlebloom ! I am really trying to remember to work smarter, not harder around here. All the mulch and edging and everything has saved me lots of time in weeding and upkeep.

And I do need more rocks. And my husband certainly knows that I would drive cross-country to get them too!

 

[Jared77]

I love your place! Great job with it so far I especially like the rock edges and all the color.

 

[ninnymary]

Wow. I can see all the hours of hard work that you put in journey. Everything looks so clean and neat. Just beautiful. Did you also mulch every flower bed? Some beds I was sure if there was mulch.

Mary

 

[Wishin']

It all looks so beautiful! Even if I didn't have all the darn free ranging chickens and turkeys, especially the turkeys I don't think I could get this place looking nearly as beautiful.

 

[journey11]

Thanks guys! Last year was so bad with the grass taking over the garden, I think the memory of that feeling of failure and being overwhelmed was a big motivator. I told myself I wasn't going to plant another thing until I was 100% finished with the first one (mulched, trellised, etc.) I will know next year to collect my cardboard ahead of time and maybe it will go a lot quicker!

@ninnymary , all of the beds were mulched except Ava's flowers. I ran out!

@Wishin' , I've never had turkeys before (plan to try them sometime though). I know the chickens sure did enough damage to the yard, much less what I know they'd do to the garden! DH was mad at me for all of the pot holes and bare spots left behind by the meatie's tractor, but wouldn't you know, that grass came back the thickest and greenest of all. I'm really hoping that rotating the hens over the garden will knock back the bug population. I love having them free-ranging and they are happier that way, but I also hate watching out for droppings everywhere, especially since the kids run around back there. If I had just a little more room...