Late Spring Garden

Home & Garden
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I thought I would share some garden photos here. Please ignore the weeds. I do, it’s not that hard. :smile:

Here’s an overview of our raised bed area. There are six beds of heirloom tomatoes that we start from saved seed indoor in February. We added deer fence pretty early then bought taller deer fence then added chicken wire around the bottom of the deer fence because rabbits chewed their way in. FYI we found a nest of rabbits inside this enclosure this spring. Nature always finds a way.
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This makes me insanely happy. It’s a flower on one of our many cucumber beds. Gonna be pickling time before I know it. The last time I planted this many cukes I got 150 quarts put up. We only grow Snow’s Fancy pickling cucumbers (which are also good raw in salads).
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These are bush beans. We are also growing Chinese yard long beans again this year. Highly recommend those if you have something for them to climb on. These are in a bed previously dedicated to sunchokes which we grew and didn’t care for. Fun fact. They grow 12 feet tall and are impossible to get rid of. Every bit of dirt was replaced in this bed and they are still coming up.
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A few of the jalapeño plants we ordered from Amazon this year. They were more expensive than buying them in a garden center but, huge 2020 bonus, it kept me out of a garden center… Also they came in 6 inch pots, every plant was a double and they all survived.
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Zucchini started from seed directly in the bed.
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Soybeans. We always plant them. We harvest them all at once and freeze them.
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Our potato bed.
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Something new for this year. We covered this large open spot with weed cloth and planted blueberry bushes.
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Kohlrabi in the greenhouse.
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Our back deck has herbs in pots. Close to the kitchen that way. image
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We’re in garden zone 7 and I am happy to answer any questions new gardeners have. We do not grow pumpkins although it’s a dream of mine. I have fought the good fight against squash bugs for years and finally gave up. Around here the only way to deal with them is to take a class in how to handle commercial insecticides so I gave up.

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Oooh, look at all those yummies! We don’t have a garden yet. We’d also need to put up a deer fence and we just haven’t commited yet to where or how we’d want a garden. So, I’ll just drool over yours!

And,

weeds, what weeds?

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I :heart: you

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Wow, it’s huge!!! It looks great. I really hope to have a garden like that some day.

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I’m really good at ignoring weeds! just like dust.

I have a super tiny back yard and am only growing 2 cherry tomato plants and 2 cucumber plants. I wish I had room for zucchini but those plants get so big and spread out.

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I am green with envy over your garden. I can’t wait till the hubs retires and we can have a garden. I love canning but I only have fruit trees now.

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Love your garden, it always makes me want to move back to the country! (Until I remember the endless snow plowing 6 months of the year in my part of the world haha) Did you just lay down landscaping fabric between the boxes? I have some small garden boxes with grass in between that I’d like to get rid of or cover in some effective way. Way to grow @MissingWillow :heart:

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This is so fab! I love your gardens.

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Thank you. We have peach, plum, cherry, apple, persimmon and pear fruit trees and have never gotten a single piece of fruit off of them thanks to the squirrels and deer. Jealous over here of yours!

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Thanks! Between our raised beds we put down greenhouse flooring. The weeds still poke their ugly heads through it on occasion.

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We are lucky we have several owls living on the property. They build nests in our Joshua trees. We have a pair that lay eggs Every spring and she’s a good momma she manages to keep 3 owlets alive. It’s pretty amazing. My gd calls them Mr. and Mrs. Hoots.

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I hear owls here a lot super early in the AM. One of the advantages of living in the country. I have no clue where they nest. Have you ever been fortunate enough to get a photo?

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I really need to get a herb garden sorted, I would love to build one like this - https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/herbs/herb-spiral-zm0z11zhun

Our veg garden is slowly taking shape out of a very overgrown area, so I need to persuade him he needs to go in with the chain saw and clear an area for this :thinking:

I have gone slightly mad with the various courgettes (zucchini) - I have about 20 plants :crazy_face: I was not expecting such a high grow rate on a couple of very old packets of seeds and hate to compost healthy plants!

I will have to find out if I have any chance with soy beans in the UK. I love eating them, so would be great to grow them.

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That spiral herb garden is fantastic! You are going to be swimming in courgettes this year, best start searching ways to use them

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This is all sorts of wonderful. Can’t wait to see what you do with those blueberries!

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I just came across a video of a lady who wraps/drapes tulle around her plants (in containers and beds), and she swears by it’s effectiveness in keeping critters off her plants. She said that when they go to climb on it, their claws/nails get caught and they think it’s a trap, so they stay clear.

I’m going to be planting up my tower garden this weekend, I hope, and I ordered up some tulle (in 40 yard bolts) . It’ll be a grand experiment, and if I can harvest anything, it’ll be a bonus. I really just want to see if I can keep the squirrels at bay.

If it works, next year I’m going to try blueberry bushes in containers! And, strawberries in something! And pickling cukes…And who knows what else!

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I already have a pinterest board dedicated to courgette recipes :rofl: :rofl:

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Please report back and let us know if it works!

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I will! I don’t mind the rabbits quite as much, because they can only reach so high. But the squirrels can climb and take a bite out of every tomato. While I applaud their ingenuity and tenacity, I really would like to have something left for me :slight_smile:

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Oh wow. I love your garden! This is my first year to start one and I only have room for a couple of raised beds. But… first lesson I’m learning… I can’t plant all the plants. :laughing: I got excited and started so many plants that I simply don’t have the space for them. I’ll pull it back next year. lol

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