Showing What I've Got

Here are my TTs filled with MM. I haven't planted anything in the tables yet. One of the small boxes has strawberry plants in it, and the other has been seeded with mint. No signs of mint sprouts yet, though.

The strawberry plants are loving the MM! In the two days that they've been in there, the one plant has put out five flowers. They are two different varieties of strawberry, and the other plant has buds, but hasn't flowered yet.

I really like the principal of SFG that says keep the garden close to the house. Every time I walk by, I pause to take a look at my strawberries. I can only imagine how much fun it will be when the tables are full!



I was also inspired to plant some boxwoods in the empty beds, and to fix up the main path. It used to be pea gravel with some round pea gravel stepping stones, but it was hard to navigate for people who can't see their feet. I used some leftover slate tiles and planted some scotch irish moss in between. It should look pretty snazzy when the moss fills in between the tiles.

BOOkemdano, you have done a great job, that is so attractive and so close

Every time I walk by, I pause to take a look at my strawberries. I can only imagine how much fun it will be when the tables are full!

You are really going to enjoy this!

Everything looks so nice and tidy. Great job!

I like having my garden close to the house too. I look forward to seeing it every time I open the blinds on my kitchen window. When I had my broccoli planted there, it was like a beautiful scene from a snow globe, what with all the pretty white cabbage moths fluttering around.



But in all seriousness, it is indeed a good thing to have it nearby, as you've already noticed. And I'm jealous of your strawberries. I got lots of plants last year, but no flowers. I planted from root cuttings, so I'm assuming they just had to grow last year and this year they'll flower. *shrug*

That strawberry box looks cute, any chance of a close up picture of it? It looks like something my daughter would love to have all to her self!

Thanks,
James

Thanks everybody! I have a four year old and an almost two year old, and they are excited about the garden. Especially the flowers on the strawberry plants.

Here's a pic of the 1x1 strawberry box. With my four year old for scale.





I just put the 1x1s on some stacked bricks to elevate them out of bunny reach. They also have the weed fabric / hardware cloth bottoms.

It is so hard for them to keep their hands away from the flowers, you just know he wants to touch!

The good thing is that he's learning from it! He knows that the flower will turn into a fruit if he just waits. One flower has lost its petals already and we were carefully looking at the teeny tiny strawberry that's growing there.

Thank you so much, I'm sure my almost 3 year old daughter would love one, she's already excited about "daddy's green things" (her words for my plants)

She has adopted a Neon Red Swiss Chard and I think if we put that and some radishes and baby finger carrots in a 1x1 for her she'd spend all summer watching and nibbling

James

That is so COOL! and BEAUTIFUL! If you get birds near your house, you may want to put some netting over it that is large enough to allow the pollenators and small enough to keep the birds from swiping your baby's strawberries. LOVE LOVE LOVE the pic!

Thanks for the tip, Walnut.

We feed the birds out back, so there are always a lot of birds around. I was thinking about putting some chicken wire over the strawberry box, but I thought I'd see how it went without it for a while. So far, (knock wood) they haven't been eaten by anything.

Once those berries start to show just a bit of red, they are goners if the birds aren't kept from them.

Summer of 2010 I was watching my little red berries popping up here and there and thought "I need to get some netting over them" but unfortunately never got beyond the thought. My berries, except for about a half dozen, were cleaned out by the birds the very morning I was going to cover them. So last year, I covered, and got 6 qts. Be careful. Those birds will be watching.



Above: Berries showing in mid July 2010.