Sunday, June 9, 2013

Hopefully, This Will End in Delicious Noms

 My garden is finally, properly getting sorted.  I'm a little bit behind this year (and as a result, there will be no potatoes *sad face*).   On the upside, getting anything done other than cutting the grass is a huge amount of progress over last year, where we barely even did that.

I thought I might give you a little tour today.  I'm going to apologize for photo quality in advance as there were issues related to a tiny human being strapped to my front.


This,clearly, is the front of our home.  I put up 2 hanging baskets of yellow begonias, and 2 planters of petunias.  The petunias are a lovely purpley-red colour, with white edges.


The little flower bed in the front came with purple irises and dark pink peonies.  Last year, we added an English lavender, a pink columbine and a variegated hosta.  This year, I also stuck in a gerber daisy, but it hasn't really bloomed yet.

From left to right: lavender (the gerber daisy is behind), irises, peonies, columbine (back), hosta (front)
The backyard still needs quite a bit of work, but we're making progress.  The previous owners had filled all the flowerbeds with daylilies, irises and lots of hostas.  The only interesting plants were the lilac bush, rhubarb, horseradish and grapes.

You can just make out the horseradish & rhubarb in the lower right corner.  The fancy-pants BBQ is in the lower left!
You can see in the above photo that we put in a raised veggie bed (and surrounded it with pots) at the end of the yard.  This was the one that was my delayed shipment!  It is a neat modular system where you can leave hook them together to make a larger unit, or stack them to make it deeper.  We used two 4'x4'x6" units and stacked them to make it one foot deep for the veggies.

 
 
In the main bed, I'm growing long cayenne peppers, Black Krim tomatoes, golden cherry tomatoes, an Italian heirloom variety of sweet pepper, easter egg radishes, french breakfast radishes, little finger carrots, chioggia beets and two kinds of bush beans - a snap bean and a yellow wax variety.
In the pots all around, I've got cilantro, dill, spearmint, chocolate mint and a lettuce mix.
 
I'm very excited to see how this vegetable bed turns out!  If the planter works well, I might get another one next year so I can plant more things!
 
However, this is not the only food we've put in!  We ripped out the flower bed along the north fence and put in ever-bearing strawberries.  I love strawberries.  They just went in this morning, so hopefully they do well there.
 
Further along the same fence, under the cedar trees, I've put in two highbush blueberries.  This is the bit I'm very excited about!
 



I know they don't look like much now, but eventually these babies should get up to 1.5 meters tall!

Have you planted anything this season? How is it coming along?  If you have any suggestions for the flowerbed we have on the south fence, let me know!  So far, I've only managed to get some chives and some thyme in it - otherwise, it is all hostas and daylilies.  Yuck!


6 comments:

  1. Looking good! :) Sadly, I haven't planted a single thing this year. Just never got around to it. :(

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    1. Aw, that's too bad. It's not to late to do lettuces or radishes though, if your munchkins will eat them. Plus, they're easy to do in pots :)
      If you really can't, if I have a surplus, I'll share :)

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  2. That looks so promising! Well done!
    I always like to have something in the garden to eat but am lousy at growing anything or maybe lazy at growing anything...but still I always get a nice surprise when nature throws up some lettuce, cherry tomatoes, passion fruit and all sorts of stuff I've had nothing to do with :)

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    1. Surprise, no effort plants to eat are the best! We quite often get surprise tomato plants in the spots where we shake out the guinea pig bedding.
      Also, I wish it were warm enough here for passion fruit!

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  3. Everything is looking great Tasha!! You have a nice space in the backyard. Growing food is the best! We haven't really gotten into it this year, just growing basil, oreg, cilantro, and some tomatoes.

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    1. That sounds like plenty to me, since it is just the two of you :)

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