joz
Garden Ornament
I've finally taken some photos of the garden. I'm located in MidCity, in New Orleans. Winter never came this year, so I started all my seeds on Feb 4 (late, even if we'd had winter), and set them out around March 6. We have a weird property line, and my garden is in a piece that's actually behind my neighbor's house. The next neighbor, who shares the fenceline with the back of my garden, has said that there's been a garden there on/off for at least 40 years (house was built in 1914). I suppose that might explain why most of the soil is pretty nice and not solid clay.
The garden is oriented NE/SW; so we're looking toward the SW in this photo:
The beds along the right fence contain tomatoes, basil, marigolds, red bell peppers, and about 10 carrots (out of a million seeds planted... or however many were actually in the packet). I had a germination issue, and a weeding issue, and... well, the carrots didn't really do. I'll try them again in the fall.
The Sungold tomatoes are going crazy.
In the back of the garden, shaded by the neighbor's ornamental ginger and mulberry tree (which I hate, and wage battle with regularly), is my salad bed. I planted once about 4 weeks ago, and had meant to plant it every couple weeks but didn't. Yet.
The left rear corner of the garden is the utility corner. And my compost pile. The mint and ornamentals (Madame Alfred Carriere rose and a Night Blooming Jessamine) are relegated to pots. I'm too commitment-phobic to put them in the yard someplace (and the dogs would dig them up anyway).
Speaking of dogs... This is Riley, who is not ordinarily allowed in the garden.
The beds along the left side are planted with zucchs, volunteer squash, marigolds and sunflowers.
Anyone have any guesses about the squash? I planted zucchs last year, and we had maybe 2 acorn squashes in the house last fall.
Clearly my compost isn't hot enough.
The frontmost bed is for cukes, dill, leftover peppers that didn't fit in the tomato/pepper bed but I couldn't either throw them out or resist hedging my bets, and some more sunflowers after I read (here?) that sunflowers improved cucumbers.
And, in the middle, I made a teeny melon bed. For teeny Noir des Carmes melons. Anyone know how big they get? I've heard conflicting info.
The actual beds total about 105 sf of garden. I've got a bit more in pots. I'm afraid I may have crowded my beds, but everything looks pretty good (with the exception of the spotty nasturtiums and tomato I pulled). I've been removing enough leaves to allow air circulation and access to sunlight.
I'm quite proud of my wee garden this year.... it's the first time I've planted EVERYTHING from seed (open pollinated varieties) myself. Things aren't growing as quickly as they would have with nursery stock seedlings, but they're also not yellowing and wilting either (yet... the season is still young). This year will also be the first time I'm going to try a fall planting. Eeek!
The garden is oriented NE/SW; so we're looking toward the SW in this photo:
The beds along the right fence contain tomatoes, basil, marigolds, red bell peppers, and about 10 carrots (out of a million seeds planted... or however many were actually in the packet). I had a germination issue, and a weeding issue, and... well, the carrots didn't really do. I'll try them again in the fall.
The Sungold tomatoes are going crazy.
In the back of the garden, shaded by the neighbor's ornamental ginger and mulberry tree (which I hate, and wage battle with regularly), is my salad bed. I planted once about 4 weeks ago, and had meant to plant it every couple weeks but didn't. Yet.
The left rear corner of the garden is the utility corner. And my compost pile. The mint and ornamentals (Madame Alfred Carriere rose and a Night Blooming Jessamine) are relegated to pots. I'm too commitment-phobic to put them in the yard someplace (and the dogs would dig them up anyway).
Speaking of dogs... This is Riley, who is not ordinarily allowed in the garden.
The beds along the left side are planted with zucchs, volunteer squash, marigolds and sunflowers.
Anyone have any guesses about the squash? I planted zucchs last year, and we had maybe 2 acorn squashes in the house last fall.
Clearly my compost isn't hot enough. The frontmost bed is for cukes, dill, leftover peppers that didn't fit in the tomato/pepper bed but I couldn't either throw them out or resist hedging my bets, and some more sunflowers after I read (here?) that sunflowers improved cucumbers.
And, in the middle, I made a teeny melon bed. For teeny Noir des Carmes melons. Anyone know how big they get? I've heard conflicting info.
The actual beds total about 105 sf of garden. I've got a bit more in pots. I'm afraid I may have crowded my beds, but everything looks pretty good (with the exception of the spotty nasturtiums and tomato I pulled). I've been removing enough leaves to allow air circulation and access to sunlight.
I'm quite proud of my wee garden this year.... it's the first time I've planted EVERYTHING from seed (open pollinated varieties) myself. Things aren't growing as quickly as they would have with nursery stock seedlings, but they're also not yellowing and wilting either (yet... the season is still young). This year will also be the first time I'm going to try a fall planting. Eeek!
