Gardeners' World presenters: Rachel De Thame, Monty Don, Carol Klein, and Joe Swift.
The Flower Gardens:
Things have been progressing nicely in the flower beds. I have been very pleased with the second year progress and I continue to move things around and hopefully attain the balance I am seeking. I doubt however that I ever will, which is ok.
Year two back porch planting with knock-out roses, crepe myrtles, and daylillies.
Shed garden I installed last year. I hope to extent this area in the coming months.
View from the back porch.
Poolside garden.
I am really pleased with the overall progress of the garden. Plants that did reasonably well last year are doing exceptionally well this year. I sowed some California poppy seeds last fall and had quite a few come up this year, hopefully they will reseed and continue to make more.
The Veggie Garden:
Last fall I decided to expand the vegetable garden so I used our old swimming pool cover to kill the grass on the area I wanted to expand. I left it until last spring at which time I removed it and incorporated several loads of compost/gin trash in the new beds. The garden is now approximately 30x80 and I have plans to expand it a little more this coming fall. The veggies did reasonably well last year but they have gone bonkers this year. Everything has done exceptionally well and I am using fish emulsion and epsom salts as fertilizer this year. So far, I am really happy with the results.
In April we took a road trip to the Amish Community in Ethridge, Tenn. to purchase vegetable plants at really great prices from several Amish farmers who had greenhouses on their property. Each house had a sign in front of the house which indicated what they had for sale. Eggs, quilts, canned vegetables, hand made soaps, birdhouses and plants were just a few of the items offered for sale. I bought heirloom tomatoes, banana peppers, jalapeños, bell peppers and eggplants. We had a great time and will plan to go again next spring.
Ground cover removed for the new garden expansion.
After composting, cultivating with garden fork ( my new best tool) and planting.
Squash and Cucumbers
Tomatoes, cabbage, kale, broccoli.
Fresh from the garden.
This week, I continue to harvest kale, cabbage, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, in addition to rattlesnake pole beans, and okra. The first of June I harvested garlic I planted last October. Cynthia braided it and it is now hanging in the barn to dry for storage.
Today we harvested some honey from the bees in our original hive that we installed last Spring. The new hives continue to do well and we have already added supers to both hives. We will not harvest any honey from these hives this year, but hopefully will be able to next year. We also helped our good friend and mentor Mike McMahon process the honey he collected from his three hives, which yielded almost 18 gallons of honey. We hope to do as well with our hives in the next couple of years.
1 comment:
Hey David and Cynthia
Your gardens are simply beautiful !!!
What a masterpiece !!
Your old neighbor Ann.
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