Vegetable Gardening

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

That's an ambitious garden! Grow some zinnias too - my grandmother did, just for color. In my mind, a vegetable gardens still needs flowers if my practical grandmothers did it (they fed their families from the garden).

I have plans to sprinkle in some nasturtiums, borage, and calendula... then we could eat them in salads!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Laid out and shaped the beds and the paths today!:
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/0...and-paths.html
Gosh it all looks so neat- but of course the weeds will get wind of the new virgin real estate soon.

Can't do much around the perimeter because the fence people will be making a big mess there....but I can start planting seeds all around in the middle now...I'm so very excited!
It'll be my first time ever planting things like turnips, beets, spinach, carrots, kohlrabi, etc. I used to always be a flower and herb gardener with just a sideline of tomatoes and maybe one or two other veggies. This is a big step for me, and hopefully a big healthy step in our lifestyle too.

[GLC1968]

Wow, Lisa - that looks wonderful! How beautiful it's all going to be when all full of greenery!

When planting flowers in with veggies - marigolds and lavender are good choices because they repel lots of bad-for-veggie bugs.

[smilingcat]

so here are pics from my yard and yard itself.

5 round one on the left are lemon cucumber. The little black spec is hard spiky thing so we rub it off with a sponge. When fully ripe, it does have a hint of lemon. The two in the middle are Aremenian cucumber. When we first grew them, I thought it had crossed with a mellon of some sort. fruit is pale light green. Very mild refreshing taste. yummm... And dark rough looking thing is one variety of Japanese cucmber. Yes we do eat the skin on that one. It does have bit of bitter cucmber taste but even my partner really loves it.

Second pic: crooked neck squash and two kinds of zuccini

[smilingcat]

front yard with owl kachina, sun and the moon. Big tomato plants, taller than me but the fruit is languishing because its been overcast for the last three weeks. I think we've had two sunny days here. Cool too with highs only in the 70's. My side or back yard where its the squash and zuccinis are growing. Acorn, Crooked neck, two kinds of zuccini, and lemon cucmber. Out of pic are the red bell pepper, ginger, raddishes... Also we are having terrible bouts with aphids so we have been releasing thousands of lady bugs every other week. And the ladybugs are staying around. We also have marigolds scattered amongst the plants...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, Lisa - that looks wonderful! How beautiful it's all going to be when all full of greenery!
When planting flowers in with veggies - marigolds and lavender are good choices because they repel lots of bad-for-veggie bugs.

Thanks GLC- I am so excited I can't stand it!
Unfortunately, lavender usually dies here every winter if left outside- unless it's planted in a very protected place like next to a sunny wall or an interior corner of walls meeting. I have never had lavender survive the winter- it can get as low as -25F or -30F here sometimes. I can't growe it in pots to take in during the winter because I have a large cactus collection inside my house which takes up literally every single window space inside.

My first planting here will be sort of an experiment of Fall crops. When Spring comes I will be able to plan and time everything much better. And the blueberry bushes and strawberries will go in their bed in the Spring as well.
I'll be able to start pole beans from seed and make bean teepees as well in the Spring. But for now I am happy to try out some Fall season root vegetable seeds and also succession planting of quick cool growers like lettuce, spinach, radishes, etc.

front yard with owl kachina, sun and the moon. Big tomato plants, taller than me but the fruit is languishing because its been overcast for the last three weeks. I think we've had two sunny days here. Cool too with highs only in the 70's. My side or back yard where its the squash and zuccinis are growing. Acorn, Crooked neck, two kinds of zuccini, and lemon cucmber. Out of pic are the red bell pepper, ginger, raddishes... Also we are having terrible bouts with aphids so we have been releasing thousands of lady bugs every other week. And the ladybugs are staying around. We also have marigolds scattered amongst the plants...

Cat, that is just lovely! Oh, you Californians with your mystical moons and suns and katchinas... . I love seeing the diff kinds of cucumbers. Such a pretty garden you have!
A friend once served us a big pitcher of ice water that had been steeped with cucumber slices overnight in the fridge- it was SO REFRESHING and tasty! And then we ate the slices in our glasses too.

I might need to make a scraggly scarecrow of some sort, since the crows have been hanging around here in the back yard way too much lately and I'm about to plant lots of seeds! I can't put any wind chimes as they would drive my husband nuts. Not sure I could deal with the 'look' of aluminum pie plates or CDs dangling on strings. This garden is our Main View from our kitchen and back porch. What do others use for shooing crows away?

I now need to read all my Fall seed packets to determine the best timing of planting seeds over the next two months. Everything pivots on the date of our first frost here, which averages around Sept 20 in our area. (so early!) Though of course many things like spinach and turnips will be ok beyond that depending on the conditions.

[tulip]

Lisa, you have plenty of room for an awesome greenhouse like GLC has...perfect for overwintering the lavender...yeah, I'll spend your money for you!