Gardens vegetable, flower or other?

[retrogirl1941]

thanks I love my garden.
When we lived in our apt, we used big pots and had a cool container garden. the tomatos did "OK". they got root bound towards the end of summer and didn't produce as much fruit as a garden planted one, but, we got tomatos from it all summer anyway.
so you don't need a lot of space.

Thats what I am doing right now. My lima and green beans are in very long window box planters. They work very niceley. I would prefer to have a true in ground garden but living in an aprtment does'nt allow that.

Samantha

 

[leaette]

i've never planted green beans. let us know how it goes. i wanted to grow sugar snap peas this year, but we didn't. maybe next year.

 

[MaryDeluxe]

My garden mostly consists of perennials but I always save a small spot for veggies. This year I put in tomatos/broccoli/cucumbers/peppers.

I love growing herbs too. I have a variety of mints..apple, spearmint,black peppermint...then there's lemon balm, sage, basil, dill, oregano,cat nip...lavendar.... so many wonderful things to grow such little space.

Maybe next year instead of perennials in my front garden I'll plant some veggies there too! Would you dare plant the front yard?? I did...made the neighbors think I was crazy at first, but now they love it. Some people have no vision. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...rdens_0831liv.ART.State.Edition1.42ef5a5.html

 

[leaette]

mary, that is a really cute backyard. Looks peaceful.

 

[cassylynn]

My Raised Beds

I grew up with my mom having had a 4 Square German Herb Garden but I now live in a small townhouse and room is an issue. So to give myself maximum space and growth room my husband built 2 raised beds for me.

Green Beans are just coming up in this one and I'm going later today to buy some herbs to put behind them....

And in this one we planted lettuce and potatoes. The potatoes are starting to bloom and will be ready here shortly but has overtaken my lettuce plants so next year I won't be doing that again lol lol lol

 

[cassylynn]

Today I picked up a few herbs. I got some thyme, lemon thyme, garlic chives and some basil (since my sprouts aren't growing fast enough for my tastes). I was severely tempted by the lemon balm, but didn't know how to use it, so I passed. Yea herbs! :eusa_clap

Joie DeVive - Lemon Balm is wonderful in homemade vinegars. Also you can add it to sugar to flavor your sugar for tea. I know it also have medicinal properties to it too but at this moment I can't remember what they are :eusa_doh: But be warned it will take over every space it can get lol . Garlic Chives make a beautiful homemade vinegar as well and it turns the vinegar into a wonderful purple color it looks absolutely divine sitting in your kitchen window. Lemon Thyme is wonderful on fish & chicken.

 

[Joie DeVive]

Thanks Cassylynn!

Now does anyone know how to keep earwigs off of stuff??? I went out last night and there were 12 or so of them eating my poor little basil to bits!

The only thing online I found that looks helpful is a can of cooking oil nearby. I guess they like oil better and will fall in and drown. I'll be trying that tonight, if anyone has better suggestions I could use them. $2.50 in basil plants chewed nearly to the nub. I'm not a happy camper!!

 

[cassylynn]

Thanks Cassylynn!

Now does anyone know how to keep earwigs off of stuff??? I went out last night and there were 12 or so of them eating my poor little basil to bits!

The only thing online I found that looks helpful is a can of cooking oil nearby. I guess they like oil better and will fall in and drown. I'll be trying that tonight, if anyone has better suggestions I could use them. $2.50 in basil plants chewed nearly to the nub. I'm not a happy camper!!

Earwigs like dark, humid places. Roll up a damp newspaper secured by a rubber band or string and place it near your herbs but not to close. The insects will crawl inside. You can also fill a small can with hamburger or bacan fat too which will lure them as well. The morning after you set your traps, shake the captured earwigs into some hot water or ammonia to kill them. Hope this helps.

 

[Joie DeVive]

Thanks again! The wet newspaper didn't seem to work for me, but our relative humidity is so low that the paper that I thoroughly soaked an put out at 11 PM was dry in the morning when I went out to see what I'd caught.
The oil/grease traps did work however. My garlic chives and thyme thank you!

My final solution was to bring the pot of basil in for the time being. The night I first did that, I left it in a dark room and then came in every hour or so to pick off my visitors. It seems to be earwig free now, and I'm going to keep it inside for a while until it's big enough to fight back. lol

 

[rumblefish]

Compare to post #63

A bit more green?

Can anyone get away with not netting blueberries? The cat birds around here are waiting in line in the trees above as these photos were taken. For some reason they leave the raspberries, but they'll poke holes in tomatoes and wipe out the blueberries.

 

[MaryDeluxe]

Rumblefish your garden looks amazing! That's right it's blueberry season!

 

[MaryDeluxe]

Summer garden

My front garden....I have now been promoted to "crazy vintage garden girl" on my street!

 

[RIOT]

Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?

 

[MaryDeluxe]

Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?

With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

 

[Dagwood]

MaryDeluxe - nice garden!! It really adds a touch of class to your neighborhood.

By the way, the perennials I planted a couple of years ago (see page 1 of thread) are going absolutely crazy!!

 

[Miss 1929]

The barest beginnings!

Mary, your front garden is inspirational!

We tore up the weedy concrete in front of our house the last week of April, and got a load of topsoil on it:

And I added stepping stones, all my small succulents from pots, and a few little plants (and a mess of seeds) to augment the geranium and roses that were there...

Much progress since then, but it took me months to get these pictures from our camera to my computer, and now hubby has taken the camera out of the country. Watch this space for updates, all the seeds are plants and there's flowers galore! It's so much fun, and we can pretty much garden year-round here.

EDIT: My hollyhock and my nastursiums both bloomed today for the first time! Yay!

 

[rumblefish]

^ Why thank you.

Watcha pickin' these days?

 

[Smithy]

I second that, beautiful garden Chris. Always like a good vege patch as well, good job :eusa_clap

 

[nobodyspecial]

Your gardens look great. I had the week off last week and spent the bulk of the time expanding our garden; dig up sod, haul in 10 yards of black dirt, plant and mulch. By Thursday evening I was exhausted. We've been expanding our gardens for a couple of years, I figure I have five more years of the heavy lifting projects - cutting sod and hauling dirt and expanding beds. Our back yard has had about 25% of the grass converted to a garden and I'd like to take out another 25% of the grass before I'm done. When I get home today our pergola should be done being built. I'll post pictures eventually.

 

[MaryDeluxe]

Miss 1929...that's a very nice beginning to your garden. I bet it has grown a lot since you took the pictures.

Nobodyspecial....I'll be expecting pictures sometime soon! lol