Garden pictures
This year we're actually on time with most of the gardening chores for once. It's really a combination of several things that has gotten us here:
- We're both recovering from injuries, so we aren't trying to fit in backpacking and kayaking trips at every opportunity.
- We have a much improved selection of tools, and have learned how to use them.
- 6 summers of bed prep is finally paying off. We are also building new beds around the inside edge of the fenced lawn, not just out through the garden gate. More beds give more options.
- Straw and landscape fabric mulches. We covered several beds with straw overwinter, and there was virtually no weeding in those beds this spring. We also got landscape fabric down between all the beds.
The new bed in the fenced lawn area, to the right of the garden gate. It's currently 22 feet long, but we are expanding it this year to run the full length of that fence, 62 feet. Inside the more traditional fenced yard is the only place we plan to use new concrete blocks. Out in the garden area, and other places around the property, it's all wood or recycled rock/concrete.
This is the bed to the left of the gate into the garden. It's 28 feet long and at it's final length. There is one more section of fence where we can put a bed about 30 feet in length after this. These in-the-yard raised beds are really handy for growing greens that you want to be able to pick quickly for dinner, while the garden area is better for things that you harvest a lot at once.
This might be the last year for that old, cheap coldframe. More and more things are going wrong with it, so I think it's time to build my own out of better components.
The mix of greens are getting a good start, but the weeds are going faster. The pac choi is already starting to bolt, while the lettuce that was planted at the same time is finally reaching harvestable size. Also in this shot: spinach, tatsoi chard, snow peas pansies and sweet alyssum.
I tried a few different ways of growing potatoes last year, and decided that I like the cage method the most. I make a cage out of 3 or 4 foot tall fencing, and put the seed potatoes on the ground in the middle, then cover them with a few inches of straw and soil mix. As they get taller, I add more straw/soil till they flower or the cage is full, whichever comes first. The plants will form roots anyplace the stem is covered, and will set more tubers. This also gives me about half a yard of very high organic matter soil in each cage at the end of the season. I'm growing about 18 different varieties this year, each in their own cage.
Most of the chile plants are grown in agribon tunnels. You can see the leftover straw from the winter mulch. This 18'x3' bed took all of about 30 minutes to prepare for planting, and most of that was removing the straw. I still need to put in more support sticks and tie them up. By mid July, the tunnel will be completely full, and be quite a jungle.
Here are about half our tomatoes in their cages. I break lots of the traditional tomato growing rules, but I'm over it. I place tthe cages right next to each other, and plant two of the same variety per cage. We have landscape fabric in the paths, but eventually it will be all straw or wood chip mulch in areas like this. They are watered by an automatic drip system that gets fish emulsion added once per week. The only maintenance is shoving the branches back in the cage and harvesting. I'll leave trimming suckers to the anal-retentive types.
Here is the garlic bed. It was covered all winter with straw and leaf mulch that we pulled off when it started warming up. You can see how the grass and weeds are all around the outside between where the straw was, and the edge of the landscape fabric. That is all the weeding we had to do on most of our beds. In the foreground, there are some leeks that are mulched with straw. Once I get the drip tubing in, we will work straw mulch around all the garlic plants as well.
- We're both recovering from injuries, so we aren't trying to fit in backpacking and kayaking trips at every opportunity.
- We have a much improved selection of tools, and have learned how to use them.
- 6 summers of bed prep is finally paying off. We are also building new beds around the inside edge of the fenced lawn, not just out through the garden gate. More beds give more options.
- Straw and landscape fabric mulches. We covered several beds with straw overwinter, and there was virtually no weeding in those beds this spring. We also got landscape fabric down between all the beds.
The new bed in the fenced lawn area, to the right of the garden gate. It's currently 22 feet long, but we are expanding it this year to run the full length of that fence, 62 feet. Inside the more traditional fenced yard is the only place we plan to use new concrete blocks. Out in the garden area, and other places around the property, it's all wood or recycled rock/concrete.
This is the bed to the left of the gate into the garden. It's 28 feet long and at it's final length. There is one more section of fence where we can put a bed about 30 feet in length after this. These in-the-yard raised beds are really handy for growing greens that you want to be able to pick quickly for dinner, while the garden area is better for things that you harvest a lot at once.
This might be the last year for that old, cheap coldframe. More and more things are going wrong with it, so I think it's time to build my own out of better components.
The mix of greens are getting a good start, but the weeds are going faster. The pac choi is already starting to bolt, while the lettuce that was planted at the same time is finally reaching harvestable size. Also in this shot: spinach, tatsoi chard, snow peas pansies and sweet alyssum.
I tried a few different ways of growing potatoes last year, and decided that I like the cage method the most. I make a cage out of 3 or 4 foot tall fencing, and put the seed potatoes on the ground in the middle, then cover them with a few inches of straw and soil mix. As they get taller, I add more straw/soil till they flower or the cage is full, whichever comes first. The plants will form roots anyplace the stem is covered, and will set more tubers. This also gives me about half a yard of very high organic matter soil in each cage at the end of the season. I'm growing about 18 different varieties this year, each in their own cage.
Most of the chile plants are grown in agribon tunnels. You can see the leftover straw from the winter mulch. This 18'x3' bed took all of about 30 minutes to prepare for planting, and most of that was removing the straw. I still need to put in more support sticks and tie them up. By mid July, the tunnel will be completely full, and be quite a jungle.
Here are about half our tomatoes in their cages. I break lots of the traditional tomato growing rules, but I'm over it. I place tthe cages right next to each other, and plant two of the same variety per cage. We have landscape fabric in the paths, but eventually it will be all straw or wood chip mulch in areas like this. They are watered by an automatic drip system that gets fish emulsion added once per week. The only maintenance is shoving the branches back in the cage and harvesting. I'll leave trimming suckers to the anal-retentive types.
Here is the garlic bed. It was covered all winter with straw and leaf mulch that we pulled off when it started warming up. You can see how the grass and weeds are all around the outside between where the straw was, and the edge of the landscape fabric. That is all the weeding we had to do on most of our beds. In the foreground, there are some leeks that are mulched with straw. Once I get the drip tubing in, we will work straw mulch around all the garlic plants as well.