Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Garden and Yard Photos

Two of the 4 main garden beds. The one on the left has broccoli, kale, rainbow chard and peppers. The one on the right is my first attempt at a "lasagna" bed -- layers of mulch placed right on top of newspaper-covered sod! It's doing great, with a sprawling pickling cucumber plant in the foreground, basil, cilantro, tomatoes and parsley. Firmin has started building boxes around these beds. Eventually, he'll do all four beds. They will look very neat when he is done. They already add some sharpness to the garden! In the extreme foreground, you can see the edge of the dying pea patch on the right and a corner of another tomato bed on the left.

Looking from the new blueberry patch (planted this year) toward the apple trees (last year) and the main garden beyond that, next to the house.


Another tomato bed (the one you could see the corner of in the first picture.) My tomato plants are doing very well this year. A bit of leaf spot, but not too bad. Many, many green tomatoes and still many flowers as well. The bed in the foreground with the spent peas will be my fall bed. Just planted carrots, with lettuce and spinach to come.

Another view of the garden with the big tomatoes in front hogging most of the view. All my tomatoes this year are heirloom. I'm going to try my hand at seed saving this time around.

In this picture you can see the blueberry patch on the left, the garage on the right, and into the back yard. We have let the far back grow wild, with paths mowed through the tall grass. (Ethan loves it back there -- the grass is higher than his head!) My plan is to eventually have another garden plot behind the garage for space-intensive things -- pumpkin, corn, melons, broccoli, etc. (I really need a much larger stand of broccoli, since we eat a ton of it!) It's a long way from the water spigot, but some rain barrels by the garage should take care of most of the water needs. The biggest obstacle is fencing. Right now, this section of the yard is very wildlife friendly -- we have rabbits, deer, skunks, raccoons, woodchucks, and more visit or live in our yard. Needless to say, any garden back there will need a good fence!

3 comments:

huddtoo said...

WOW, you have a ton of stuff. And it all looks great. I haven't had a garden in a few years because of our living situations. Can't wait to see if I can next year. We'll see tho, we still have NO yard, it's all just dirt and leftovers from the house. Gotta get moved in, then cleaning up! :)

My stuff never really looks good though. Tastes good, but I have a hard time keeping up with weeding and watering it seems. Tends to get patchy and the weeds start to overpower!

Wendy said...

You have a great space! I bet there's lots of sun in your yard. I love the little boxes. Are you going to build them all around the perimeter and then fill the center section? They look great!

Anonymous said...

Your garden and yard look even prettier in person! I love the way you and Firmin have made such good use of your space. What a peaceful sanctuary in the city, and it's great that you are growing so much of the food that you eat! You have certainly inherited the green thumb genes of the Freed side of your family, although there were some awesome Fraser gardens in the past, too!

Love ya!