October Garden

Now that it’s colder out and we’ve had a couple freezes, my garden doesn’t look as good as it did a couple of months ago.  Here are some pictures of my garden from mid-October:

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Garden Shade

The Sun and heat have been intense on my garden.  My garden box that is partly shaded by a pecan tree is doing fine.  The plants in the one with no shade has been looking quite wilted.  Since I’ve been using a cage on it to keep animals out, I decided to use one of my winter weather sheets (used to keep plants from freezing) to provide some shade.  Within a day, I noticed my plants perking up a bit.

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Garden Herbs

After going to three places, I finally found plain mint.  I didn’t realize that you could get peppermint, orange mint, chocolate mint, and candy mint plants, among other types.

I put the mint in its own pot, because I didn’t want it taking over my garden boxes.

I also decided to re-pot my oregano.  I’m so glad I did.  The soil at the bottom of the pot was compacted clay.  I ended up taking a portion of the oregano plant and putting that in a smaller pot full of homemade compost.  The plant has been with me a few seasons, and it hasn’t been at its best lately.  I hope its new pot, “haircut,” and new soil will help it to get more vitality and hopefully more of an oregano aroma and taste.

Oregano on the left and mint on the right.

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Summer Garden

I finally got around to planting my summer garden.  Since I got started so late, I went with transplants instead of seeds.  I mixed in homemade compost, so I hope that helps things grow well.

I didn’t plant too much, just a few things.  Last summer, nothing survived the drought and heat, so I was a little cautious this time.

I already had thyme, rosemary, strawberries, and oregano (separate pot to keep it from taking over the garden).  I added parsley and basil.

I added green, orange, yellow, and red bell peppers.

On the left, we have zucchini squash.  On the right, grape and full size tomatoes.

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Spinach from the Garden

Last year, I had the hardest time growing spinach.  This year, the spinach leaves are bigger than my hand!  I like to pick them from the garden for an impromptu breakfast or snack.  They’re also great added to salads and the juicer.

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Garden Salad

Here are some of the greens (butterhead, romaine, Farmers’ Market blend, kale, spinach) from my garden that I picked for a lunch salad.  I added chunks of mozzarella, some sliced carrot, and some fajita chicken.  No dressing was needed!  Yum!

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Kale from the Garden

Mmmm!

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Garden Update – January

Spinach, rosemary, thyme, swiss chard, broccoli, strawberries

 

Broccoli is coming along!

 

Butterhead lettuce, Farmers’ Market lettuce

 

Kale!

I’ve harvested quite a bit, so it’s not as full as it was last week.

 

Carrots, romaine, spinach

 

Romaine

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Updated Compost Bins

See the board at the back of the right compost bin?  I was using that to keep compost in (where the front mesh screen is).  It didn’t work out, because animals kept knocking it over.  I had a roll of chicken wire, so I stretched it across the front of both bins.  Using a staple gun, I stapled the wire to the board in the center front.  When I need access to the bins, I just unroll it from either side.  While I was working with the bins, I went ahead and turned the soil.  It was pretty packed on the left and hard to separate the soil, so I’m glad I turned everything.

If you plan to make a compost bin, make sure you use chicken wire with small holes so that dirt doesn’t fall through.  My wire at the back of the bins has wide spaces, so I have to put boards up against it to keep everything from falling through the holes in the wire.

 

 

On either side of the bins, I used a piece of wire to keep everything from unrolling.  It’s easy to remove the wire and open up the bin for shoveling out dirt.

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December Garden Update

My garden is coming along well.  We’ve had a lot of rain lately, so we actually have grass!  I’m glad I added homemade compost.  Everything seems to be growing better than last year.

Above, we have a mixture of lettuce (butterhead and farmers’ market mix)

Spinach, carrots, romaine

Broccoli, spinach, swiss chard, rosemary, thyme, strawberries

Yummy kale!

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Gardening, October 23, 2011

We had a major drought this past year, with really high summer temperatures as well.  I finally got my fall garden planted this weekend.

First, I turned my compost heaps.  I have a side-by-side double bin near my kitchen door and another double compost bin near my garden boxes.  I was able to get about 10 gallons of compost soil from the bins.  I added it to my garden boxes and turned the soil, and then stapled down new twine to mark off the square feet.

We kept basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and strawberries alive over the summer, so I planted broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, carrots, spinach, and several types of lettuce.  It being so late in the year, I didn’t want to plant things that wouldn’t have a chance with a frost.  Plus, with the drought, I wanted to go frugal (in case we lost everything again), so the only thing I purchased was a 4-pack of broccoli seedlings.  For everything else, I used seeds that I already had.

This picture above shows everything after it was planted.  Look at the grass (or lack of it) around the boxes.  Due to the drought, we don’t have much grass right now.

 

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Gardening, June 13, 2011

I worked on my garden today.  I made sure to get outside as soon as I was awake.  Even so, it soon became quite hot.  Luckily, I finished my work before sunscreen was required.

I’ve tried not to plant anything new the past month or so, as the heat has been about 100 degrees each day now.  Today, I moved anything still alive into one box that gets some shade from the house and a pecan tree.  That way, things will be easier to water as well.  I also harvested onions, potatoes, and swiss chard.  There were still some onions that were not big enough for harvesting, so I transferred those to the main box.

Everything moved into one box.

Top row:  strawberries, rosemary, and basil.

Second row from the top:  multiplying onions, empty square, regular onions (just replanted), and thyme.

Third row from the top:  cucumber, empty square, regular onions, zucchini.

Bottom row:  yellow squash, bush tomato plant, empty square, cherry tomato plant.

Before washing:  basil, onions, potatoes, and swiss chard.

After washing (a bit more organized).

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