2012 Before and After Garden Photos

[digitS']

Well, thanks! Soil is kind of neat, gravel for texture - you sprinkle a little green here and there . . .

The plants will grow, if something doesn't eat them. I found a horrid potato bug in the eggplant today! And, for the first time ever - I have learned that rabbits will eat zinnias!! In fact, the rabbit ate the 2nd planting of broccoli. That was the last of the broccoli and since he didn't eat the cabbage - some more of those plants replaced the broccoli . . .

I did manage to get started killing weeds in the dahlias. You know, they are very capable of out-competing weeds but it will be a few weeks before they can cover the ground with shade. By then, some of the weeds will be going to seed! Well, they will be if I don't park myself out there for a few hours and pull them. Getting back to do that will have to wait for a couple days of rain.

Yep, we used to have 3 regular flower shop customers but folks retire! One remaining shop and the FM are good places for them.

The greens just do their thing. I have been very successful at saving seed from several. It isn't much trouble altho' having a few plants off in the corner can make things look a little, "seedy." Once you've got the seed, you may as well spread them around. I don't mind pulling them up and putting them in the compost later. The soil seems to actually benefit just from growing them and the plants compost real good. Oh yeah, I like to eat the greens, too . I had spinach for lunch and ate a few lambs quarters while in the garden . . . oops! Okay, I didn't plant those!

Steve

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

Thanks, Daisy!

Is that your Aunt Pat over there on the other side of that rock pile .

. . waving at you?

Steve

I do believe it might be...
I need to see how I can hook her up w/ some of your produce, come harvest time!

 

[Collector]

Looks like you have been very busy steve. Your gardens are well organized and tidy, I need to do mine more like yours and I may have better results. Are you gonna try and trap that rabbit?

 

[rebbetzin]

Wow!! That is a great looking vegetable garden!! I am green with envy!! I wish we had moved to South Carolina. I am still geting real estate listings from there... so many places for very inexpensive with LAND!! I saw one today that even has a chicken coop already!!

 

[so lucky]

Steve, your gardens look great. I hope you are very proud of your work. I can see what you mean about the rocks. But, hey, they keep the soil loose, right? Our soil here, unimproved, turns to adobe when left alone.

 

[digitS']

Funny how I don't think of them as "neat." Maybe that's because I'm always looking at what there is to do next, or what has been left, undone.

The gardens are all in beds. I am so happy with having done that! The soil is whatever there is that isn't rocks - so, that's not much. I mean, if I've cultivated to 10" and what I've got is 50% rocks - that means I still only have 5" of soil. Rocks are interesting. This must be about 35 years of gardening in rocks for me. I think they really do kind of keep the soil loose. I like to imagine the plant roots moving along, around and below a rock. I know, that's how carrots do it .

The beds in the smaller gardens are so soft - rocks & all. I only walk on them once a year when I'm there with the spading fork or, sometimes, I shovel them out and fill them with compostables. The spading fork work almost isn't work!

There's no way I'd be able to cultivate to 10 or 11 inches if I still had the tractor guy coming in to the big veggie garden. I remember one year (I don't know what happened), he only got down about 4" in much of the garden! He had such a large tractor that he usually did better than that. But, I can go deeper with the spading fork and by moving a couple inches of soil off the 2' paths and tossing it on the 4' beds. Voil ! I've got some soil depth ! Not that it's that easy to get across all that ground with a spading fork/shovel. In fact, I have used my own tiller instead of the spading fork on nearly half the big veggie garden even tho' the shovel has been down every path. But, those beds can stay where they are now and I hope I can be back with the spading fork next season.

By the way, there are several ways that beds can be built WITH a tractor. If the tiller attachment is small (5' is a maximum of what most people want for a garden bed), keep the tractor wheels in the paths and just till the beds. Another way is to use something called a "row builder" disc. The ground is cultivated by whatever means - heavier disc, tiller, whatever. After that, the row builder lifts the soil into rows/beds. They may be somewhat narrow. It depends on where the tires on the tractor fit. Row builders are a heck of a lot cheaper than a tiller attachment but you need to start with cultivated soil.

Steve

 

[digitS']

. . . . Are you gonna try and trap that rabbit?

Dad tried & tried to trap a rabbit. Used vegetables & breakfast cereal. Still, couldn't get it to go into the trap.

The neighbors tolerate the Mountain Cottontail that live in this neck of the woods. I am very frustrated about that - and all the loss in my garden. It isn't as tho' these things are endangered and their population is much higher than where I lived further out in the country with more coyotes around.

One neighbor told me he had no beans last year because of the rabbits. Shoot! I mean, Shoot! Every time I scare a rabbit outta his raspberry/grape jungle that borders my garden - that rabbit runs straight towards his house!

It has been a few years since I've carried a gun to the garden but I can't very well pick that rabbit off while it's sitting outside his backdoor.

My cousin was recently reporting to me on the cute deer showing up at her Oregon home. Her son installed one of those yard cameras for her last year. She sent me some pictures of the fox racing thru and the bear checking things out. Bear!?!

Recently, she lost 1 of her little dogs to the coyotes, she says. It is just her and my 90 year old aunt there in the house. Shoot! I figure if Bambi won't provide them some protection that they're both likely to be carried off by the wildlife soon!

Steve

 

[lesa]

Those gardens looks absolutely beautiful, Steve! I simply wouldn't have the nerve to do all that work, without a fence. You are a brave man! I got my two little dahlias in so late, they aren't even above ground, yet. All those freezing nights made me wait... Happy Gardening!

 

[digitS']

In the 1st post on this thread - updated photo's!

Actually, all were taken about a week ago . . :/. I wanted to weed the dahlia garden now that the veggies have all been removed before posting a picture. But, if I keep waiting for things like that - the other photo's will become more and more dated. Then, I'll have to delay my new pictures of those gardens while I clean things up . . . oh, it is a never-ending cycle!!!

Things are changing quickly in the Land of the Midnight Sun! They are changing fairly quickly here, too . Our spring cold has vanished - replaced by near-record heat! If I can keep some moisture in the soil out there - the next set of pictures should show some plant growth!

Aaannd . . . I'm replacing that dahlia garden picture as soon as the weeds follow most of those Asian veggies into the compost!

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I love your garden pictures!
Such beautiful plants you have Steve! And such abundance! Are those sweet peas your growing? Mine are about 8" tall.
But you'd expect that from a Lilliputian right?

I feel like a complete slacker now. :/

Don't worry, I'll find something to blame it on!