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2019 Gardens
It's almost time to be thinking about this year's garden.
I've decided to add Kale to my garden, since I have a "Kale stew" recipe that's really good. I also have been making some smoothies out of it. I like growing swiss chard too.
I swore I wouldn't grow spinach and lettuces again, but I get that spring fever and do things I swore I wouldn't. haha
I still have frozen tomatoes from several years ago, so I'm going to cut back on those.....Maybe 4 romas, 3-4 Rutgers, and several cherries.
I'll grow red, yellow and orange peppers again. I'll grow romano bush beans and maybe hericot vert beans again.
My cucumbers did great on my cattle panel arch, so I'll grow them there again.
I'm cutting out my Blue lake pole beans and just growing more of the Kentucky blue pole beans. I sure hope the bugs don't get them again.
And my favorite from last year.......waltham butternut squash up and over fencing that's on my kids' old swing set. A wren (or it's progeny) has returned to the top tube of that swingset for about 10 years to nest. I look forward to it every year.
And then rosemary, which did great last year.
If you remember, I have raised food-grade stock tanks for most of the stuff I grow. I put way too many drainage holes in the bottoms, so hopefully, DH will help me plug some of them so I don't have to water so often.
Also, a big pile of compost is ready and I'll add more to all the stock tanks.
Now, if I can just keep the moles away. They dig under the stock tanks and then the cement blocks holding the stock tanks start to sink. DH used some jacks last year to raise the tanks up, while I shoved another 2x4 under it, and that has done a pretty good job.
Last year I broke down and got a solar charger and put up electric fencing, after some coons destroyed some stuff. It's done a great job.
Oh, and since I discovered making zucchini into noodles, I started growing it it big pots in the back yard.....away from the garden, since they always attracted huge numbers of squash bugs, that ruined the zucchini and the butternut squash.
Then on to my back yard and my stock tank water gardens........I'm trying to simplify some things, since it's a lot of work and I'm not young anymore. I have a 300 gallon in-ground stock tank water garden that I usually grow a marginal and a water lily in. The frogs come every year. I used to have northern water snakes, but haven't seen them for a couple years. The frogs are grateful for that. :) Then I have another in-ground 300 gallon stock tank that is filled with soil and some water for a lotus bog. But it needs totally thinned. DH is real excited to have to dig it all out and dig up new dirt and re-fill it. But it will be great having lotus blossoms again. I figure they will produce for the rest of my life now.
Then I have an above-ground 300 gallon tank for a water lily and marginals. The tree frogs sing like crazy in the summers, because of these little water gardens. Oh....and I have a 40 gallon stock tank for 2 miniature lotus.
I have a 50 gallon in-ground preform pond, just for fun. Nothing really lives in it, but I grow hostas, jack-in-the-pulpit and some foxglove around it. I have a circulating pump in it and a stone fairy overlooking it all. It's right outside my bedroom, so in the summer I can hear the water bubbling.
How about your gardens?
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I got my seeds a few weeks ago (Territorial Seed out of Oregon). Last weekend, even though it was freezing it was bright sunshine-y, so I went out and cleaned up two veggie beds. My hands were frozen! But the sun just made me want to be out!
I will grow bush delicata squash (love that it's a winter squash but you can eat the skin), tomatoes (cherry, several roma and slicers), carrots, and several varieties of leaf lettuce. I have a salad greens table just off the deck by my kitchen door. Love going out and snipping fresh lettuce minutes before serving. This year for the first time I am also growing eggplant, Traviata variety. It does grow successfully here and we really like it. I have 3 3-foot square beds of garlic which have been in the ground since October. They're doing nicely.
In the middle of my garden I have a structure (can't think of the name of it--obelisk?) where I'm planning to grow sweet peas---if it ever stops snowing. I like to do peas on St. Paddy's Day.
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Isn't it funny how at the end of the previous gardening season, I come to the conclusion that I just absolutely, positively, have to cut back with the gardening. Then spring comes and I order a bunch of new things to try!
I decided to only grow one type of pole bean that I like the most, and not grow the other one too that I've always grown. Then I heard about 2 other kinds of pole beans. And what do I do?.........I order some of each! And I swore I would just buy spinach and other greens, and now I've ordered those seeds. haha I guess hope really does spring eternal. :)
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Isn't this a cool idea? I found it on the internet. You'd have to water it often, but I think it's a great idea. It's a "stair step herb garden".
Attachment 2696
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How do you keep the risers from splaying out? Or are the window boxes somehow secured to the risers?
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I was wondering the same thing herbgeek. I suppose you could nail/screw down the boxes, but I don't know if that would stress the boxes and they might split. My guess is you could run some 2x4 sections in a couple places from side to side underneath or maybe one in the front at the bottom and one at the top would be enough? Maybe someone here with more construction savvy might be able to help us.
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I suspect there are some kind of horizontal braces connecting the two risers, which we cannot see.
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The snow has finally melted off half of my raised beds. I hope to get some cold-tolerant veggies planted this weekend (since we have had accumulating snow into May on occasion).
Last spring I had a large quantity of overwintered kale and collards. Not sure if my plants made it through this winter, when we had subzero cold with no snow cover.
I want to plant a lot of basil this year, to freeze many small containers of pesto to take us through next winter. Summer in the freezer.
I planted two types of asparagus last year and am hoping it all survived the winter... if so, I should be able to cut a few spears this year.
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I planted arugula and Swiss chard on Sunday. Most of my garden will be fallowing this year, but I will also grow tomatoes and basil.
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Planted 20 strawberry starts last Sunday.