Vegetable Gardening

[badger]

Badger, that looks like a Royal Paulownia tree to me (Paulownia tomentosa), also known as an Empress Tree. It originated in China. It grows fast and has pretty flowers. It's considered invasive because those seed pods drop seeds that sprout prolifically. The tree also sprouts right back when cut down. Down here, in the SE US, it's considered a weed tree. But up north, it doesn't grow so fast. It will provide shade, so that might affect your garden plans.

thanks Tulip! I believe you found its name!! who knew it was a weed tree - one seed did drop into a nearby pot 3 years ago and now I have a smaller one in the corner of the garden. I transferred it into the raised bed last fall and it quickly withered up and dropped its leaves - I thought I killed it. But it came back this year and grew about a foot!

I'm not concerned about the tree getting too big as it's got the "bonsai effect" going on, it hasn't grown any bigger since I moved in 10 years ago. Now, as for the smaller one in the corner, THAT might get big as it's got a whole lot more room for its roots to grow. I wonder if I should dig it up now before it gets too big?

[spokewench]

So, here I go, I will try to attach my garden pictures!

This is my garden on August 28th. My flower patch is starting to bloom - I'm so excited! There are sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, four oclocks, dahlias, marigolds. A little crowded given the rain we got; I started all these from seeds. I'm just so pleased with that this year.

Everything else just grew way too fast and big this year with the rain, but who's complaining, not me. Here are the first 5 pictures.

[spokewench]

Here are the rest of the pictures

[spokewench]

I posted my garden pictures finally and I'm so sad that no one commented

[Catrin]

I posted my garden pictures finally and I'm so sad that no one commented

I didn't see this come up when you posted your pictures...but the sunflowers are lovely! Also love your patio, it would be great to have something like that - thanks for posting the pictures!

[spokewench]

I didn't see this come up when you posted your pictures...but the sunflowers are lovely! Also love your patio, it would be great to have something like that - thanks for posting the pictures!

Thanks for looking! I'm very proud of the flowers since everyone of them was started from seed this year! Actually, that is my next door neighbor's deck, but I have a similar one on my house - actually I think it is nicer, of course!

[PamNY]

Your photos are beautiful! I don't follow this thread since I'm not a gardener, so I didn't see your photos earlier.

You should be proud of those flowers. Do your sunflower seeds attract a lot of birds?

[smilingcat]

I posted my garden pictures finally and I'm so sad that no one commented

Because I'm very jealous. You have a beautiful garden and a beautiful back yard. Wish mine was like that.

Still wondering how you managed to get four photos to go side by side in your post. Maybe something isn't happy with my Linux system.

[GLC1968]

Spoke - it's beautiful! So lush and goregous! I'm very jealous of your sunflowers. We live in a valley, get full sun all summer and yet we cannot seem to get those things to grow in our yard. It's depressing!

And I think I see a summer squash that needs picking!

[badger]

I'd love to live in a place like that, plenty of trees and a big yard. *sigh* Very nice place you have there!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

So nice to see everyone's gardens- they all look great.

I am continually ripping out old weary lettuce and bolted cilantro and rusty leaved things, throwing it in the compost bins, and planting new seed so we can have fresh things this Fall.
I actually have not stopped sowing seed all year. Good thing I ordered lots of seed for this year! As a result, we've been eating LOTS of good stuff for months now.
Many beautiful lettuces, also tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions, radishes, spinach, green beans, beets, swiss chard, kale, kohlrabi, carrots....all at various times and in various combinations. I have not had such a harvest that I canned or frozen anything though. Except bags of wild blackberries I picked last month. I gave away many armloads of beautiful lettuce all summer. A packet of lettuce seed is such a bargain!
I've made a few miscalculations, but mostly it's been good.

If i can manage to keep the cold loving greens like kale and chard and cabbage coming til December, then we'll be eating from the garden all the way from April to December- 8 or 9 months' worth.
Through mid winter I grow a constant small supply of fresh sprouts in the kitchen and living room in jars...I think of the windowsills full of glass jars as my 'cold frame'.
Here is a photo from a couple weeks ago- mounds of string beans in the middle, kale on the right, and anise hyssop (for the bees) blooming in front. Chard and carrots behind the kale. The garden is naturally a bit overgrown and jumbled at this point, though I've been merciless at hacking out the old tough stuff.
It's been quite a gardening year!

[spokewench]

Lisa, it is lovely!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Just picked these beautiful French Breakfast radishes, and i cooked the green tops and had them for breakfast, broth and all...YUM!
I love Fall.

[spokewench]

We are going to freeze any night now; so I got my tomatoes and last harvest into the house. Wow, what a year! I've never seen this many tomatoes in Flagstaff ever! One bowl is full of little pear (yellow) tomatoes, a bunch of celebrity tomatoes, some yellow tomatoes (don't remember what kind).

[badger]

aaah!! so jealous!!

my growing season this year was a total bust. None of the tomatoes ripened on the vine, no zucchini, just little nubs that fell off, and carrots never got any bigger than a baby size. I had great luck with beans and snow peas, but they kind of had a boom then busted really quickly. All in all it was quite disappointing this year.