Vegetable Gardening

[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.