Remember the Fennel my neighbor gave me a few months ago?
Monday, July 13, 2009
I'm still standing!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Tasteful Garden
Before Artichoke
Hello all, just a brief touching base and shameless advertisement!!
I wanted to order some artichoke plants, so I got them from Tasteful Garden! I also got Horseradish as well. I wanted to show the progress of my lovely delushious plants!!
Artichoke now!
Okay, so I love my Artichokes! A bit advice when growing them in the SouthEast section of the country. First, slugs love them, so sprinkle a little red pepper flakes around them to prevent this glutenous behaviour. Make sure you have chosen a spot where they can get about 4 feet tall and several feet wide, like an overgrown zucchinni plant. Then plant at least 1 plant per consumer, as I know I can eat lots!! When fall rolls around, dig up your plant and store it in some peat moss in your garage or basement, and pull out and plant next year. This should give you 5 years of crops from this one plant! Amazing eh?
Also pics of my Horseradish I got from Tasteful Garden.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Wahoo for Wattle!!
This is sure a work in progress! With the help of two fellow Wattlers, we managed to cut down quite a few Mimosa trees that were taking over my garage, (along with tons of honeysuckle and other various weeds). The limbs from these trees were from 9 ft to 15 ft long, and quite subtle, making them perfect weaving material. I love the wonderful curve they have helped me to produce in the wattle fence.
I believe my cucumbers, peas, and nasturtiums will thoroughly enjoy their adventurous climb in and out of the limbs to the sky. One poor cucumber baby was actually trying to climb in mid air before the wattle was up, and he finally decided to curl his little tendril around his own stem/neck! The poor baby was choking himself! Whew! Got that fence up just in the nick of time.
A Little advice on Wattling a fence. FIRST post placement is very important. Mine are around 3 1/2 - 4 feet apart, which I find is really too far for weaving unless you have boundless access to wattling materials around 15 feet or taller. This "weave" needs to be at least 15 feet, and around 2 to 4 inches at the thickest part and a bit green and pliable. I have corrected this space in my lower garden, and feel it will make finding the weaving materials a bit easier with my posts only about 2 feet apart. I like to be able to weave through at least 3 or 4 posts to get a good strong hold.
Then just start at the bottom and alter each weave as you would with a basket or place mat. Don't fret over thin tops to your materials, just tuck them in where ever you can fit them. I even leave a few limb sprouts at the tops, to tuck in and out as I go. It really adds personality and flair, as well as stability. On the end post to your left (in the pic above), I used honey suckle vines to tie the weave to my tall post to anchor it all together, this worked quite nicely!
THE GARDEN FAIRY!
Okay, at the risk of sounding insane, I think I have a garden fairy! I was taking pictures of my Wattle Fence for this blog, and happened to captured these images. In the first photo, I see to have captured a purple figure with a misty underneath, hovering in the center of my garden, watching me with great joy. The next image, the fairy seems to suddenly become camera shy, and bolts to the right of the garden, causing it's poor lovely purple head to become pointy!
Okay, believer or non-believer, I choose to belive this is my own personal Garden Fairy. Maybe she will bring good fortune to the garden and help us to produce a bountiful yield all summer!
Anyway, until next week, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
Have a great week! Gertie
Monday, May 4, 2009
Lasagna Garden
This will soon be surrounded by a wattle fence, and a lovely natural gate. I am planning beans, corn, various squashes, p-nuts and potatoes in this garden. The fence to the left is my old garden that will soon be my "Mystery Garden". I found it didn't get quite as much sun as needed, so this year my plan was to retire it and use it as a compost bin. Of course, as I earlier stated in a blog, I just so happen to have a mixed bag of orphan seeds that really need a home, thus the "Mystery Garden". However, for today, both plots patiently waiting for new plantings while my upper garden near the deck is receiving new plants on almost a daily basis. .
This plant just in!! My neighbor Rick, grew fennel last year, and it came back this year. He has no clue what to do with it, so he gave it to me!! YES!! Always a place for adopted veggies in my space!
Friday, May 1, 2009
April was a busy month!
Let the Posting begin!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Gertie is my nickname!
For starters, I have been gardening for most of my adult life, and still have a lot to learn. So, I practice gardening, like attorneys practice law, doctors practice medicine and so on. This is an ever changing art from season to season where you endure downpours, drought, varmints and bugs, friends who pick way too much stuff, and pigs. Okay, in my world pigs. I have 2 potbellies who live outside, and if they can get their little snouts through the fence, they chomp to their delight on cucumbers, Swiss Chard, and a number of other unfortunate plants that have attempted to reside by the fence.