SFG Garden - Fayetteville, GA 2015

I thought I posted this picture here on this thread.... somewhere there's a phantom iris in the forum.  I planted it in an oasis of 5 compost mix and some vermiculite (surrounded by our dreaded GA red clay).

This just opened yesterday.

Anyway, here it is where it's supposed to be in the forum.  I planted this variety for my wife in Oct 2014.  Of all irises she saw in nursery bins, this was her favorite:




And here is the latest honey do for my wife.  The soil that was in the center of this path was a rich mixture of 5 compost and GA red clay (but mostly compost).  Actually all this soil is like that.  I was NOT going to bury that rich soil under the gravel that will eventually fill the center of the path... so all of it has been relocated to another future flower bed.  That's some very young garlic and asparagus on the right (that is in a proper MM mix).

I just need ONE MORE path border block... argg back to Home Depot (so dangerous when there is a sale).



Oh and a specialty of the south... the ephemeral azalea...  such a short blooming period (these also in 5 compost amended soil):

pretty flowers.  Have you thought about mini pine bark nuggets in your pathway.  They would look fairly natural in that setting.  I love the looks of your pathway border.  Did you get those path border blocks from the home depot in Fayetteville.  are they individual blocks or are they connected in some way.  I want some for a pathway leading up to my garden.

I just found out yesterday that the dog's electric fence is buried right where I was going to plant my fruit in well amended ga clay.  Blackberries, blue berries, raspberries etc.  I decided to build a pathway right over the top of where the electric fence is buried and those path border blocks might just look nice there.

yolos wrote:pretty flowers.  Have you thought about mini pine bark nuggets in your pathway.  They would look fairly natural in that setting.  I love the looks of your pathway border.  Did you get those path border blocks from the home depot in Fayetteville.  are they individual blocks or are they connected in some way.  I want some for a pathway leading up to my garden.

I just found out yesterday that the dog's electric fence is buried right where I was going to plant my fruit in well amended ga clay.  Blackberries, blue berries, raspberries etc.  I decided to build a pathway right over the top of where the electric fence is buried and those path border blocks might just look nice there.

Thanks yolos.  Yes the border blocks are from Fayetteville Home Depot.  A hefty 3.47 (if I recall right) each.  They are individual, but there are indentations where they connect to make it look continuous.  The blocks for this path ended up costing about $100.

Thanks for the idea for pine nuggets.  I like that.  However, my wife decided on pea size gravel with brown tones (especially when wet).  The gravel is 2.50 for 3 sq ft. (also HD).

There is also a sale on solar accent lights.  My wife got 2 boxes of six to line the path.  I can't remember how much those were though... but it was a good price.  The man who helped me said he bought same kind 2 yrs ago and they still work well and have not yet required battery change.

In HD parking lot are an enormous amount of mulch coverings for really cheap.  I think they will go on sale tomorrow... not sure because I'm not in the market for it.

Yolos (and everyone else), this is a photograph that my daughter took of the finished path (minus the solar accent lights).  Here's the thing that is killing me... after going to HD for the ONE BLOCK.... we opened our trunk and saw one block staring us in the face.  I don't need to tell anyone that that special trip for the block resulted in ... well, more purchases.

My goal is to fill this area in with flowers with heavy leanings toward things that pollinators will especially like.

Very pretty pathway though.

LOL.  But it ended up looking very pretty, Windmere!

Lovely

Thank you ladies.  My wife and daughter really like it a lot.  Last night, when the solar lights came on, we oo'd  and ahhh'd.  It looks so pretty lit up at night.

I bet you guys did!

Everything looks very lovely thanks for sharing the pictures. Made me smile.

Today is a day of rest for me.  Since I'm down for a moment, I thought I'd update this post.  My garden is coming along:

My garlic is getting mature.  I planted this Early Italian in early October.  I'm thinking it should be harvested in June.  I'm not sure when I should cut down on water though.  I've heard irrigation should be light handed toward the end.



My asparagus EarthBox has some huge ferns:



I'm letting my kale go to seed.  We LOVE the Red Russian kale, and now I won't have to buy seeds!



I am not sure how my carrot crop will be this year.  I've found that some are woody.  I know why too:  I sometimes did not water when I should have.  Here is a Lunar White being rinsed off by my daughter:



My daughter wanted her box to be a strawberry patch with two tomatoes.  She's got a Sungold and a Kumato.  I've completely converted her box to MM (previously this was a flower box).  This photo was taken right after transplanting.  They were in shock...  however, I noticed that today they look better (oh, the large ones in the front are two years old from an EarthBox and the small ones are the result of a trade with a friend... tomato plants for strawberries):



I've implemented an SFG approach to some of our flowers.  While I can't afford to convert all my flower space to SFG, I've terraced a section around a tree and created "capsules" of MM:



Even though the above red clay soil has been heavily amended, it still can be molded like mortar to create mini capsules of MM.  I'm trying to help the bee situation (coincidentally, I read in the news today that bee keepers lost 40% of their hives this year).  I've also got some milkweed growing nicely.  Well, that's all for now. 

Windmere, your garlic sure looks a lot better than mine.  I am getting yellow leaves already.  Not sure if it is underwatering, overwatering, under fertilizing, or just getting ready to bulb out.  I think I will do some careful digging this weekend to see what is going on underground.  Yours look real healthy.

yolos wrote:Windmere, your garlic sure looks a lot better than mine.  I am getting yellow leaves already.  Not sure if it is underwatering, overwatering, under fertilizing, or just getting ready to bulb out.  I think I will do some careful digging this weekend to see what is going on underground.  Yours look real healthy.

My daughter tested a small garlic.  It looked healthy, but was too small... it looked like a well developed green onion.

bnoble turned me on to using a self watering box for garlic.  He had good success his first year, so I followed his lead and also had good success last season.  He, however, had problems with his own garlic last season.  It might have been because he did not rotate his crop.  I guess with self watering, there is less chance of over or under watering.

Looks GREAT, Windmere!

I wish I could say I have more done than I do.  I still have many tomatoes to get to their final spot.  The squash and cucumbers are sort of waiting for the garlic to finish.  Only a few garlic bulbs are large enough to harvest.  My daughter and I picked a couple whoppers a few days ago.  These are Early Italian soft necks. 



Most of my garlic needs at least a couple more weeks.  I do, however, remember that these two above are from some of the larger cloves I planted.  We have them drying in the kitchen right now.

Beautiful big garlic bulbs.  I will have to try some Early Italian next year.  I pulled one garlic and took pictures and everybody said to wait to harvest the rest.  So I have about a week or two more until I harvest the whole bed.

everything looks great Windmere!
LOVE the updates and photos!!

happy gardening
rose

WOW, Windmere!

Well, I finally feel like I'm done setting up for this spring/summer season.  I thought I'd post some shots of my work.

This is an updated photo my daughter's strawberry patch with two tomato plants in the back:



These are my two raised beds and twelve EarthBoxes:



This is a patio eggplant
.


This is a regular Black Beauty:



Yolos, perhaps these eggplants look familiar? 

Sure looks wonderful, Windmere. And wow you must love earthboxes!

Marc Iverson wrote:Sure looks wonderful, Windmere.  And wow you must love earthboxes!

Thanks Marc!  I do enjoy working with EarthBoxes.  They are forgiving on those days when I'm not feeling well enough water.  However, when temps are in the 90's/100's, they must be filled in the morning and in the afternoon after the sun has passed.  I did not realize that until this year when I finally read some literature from the company (I had only been filling in the morning).

Windmere wrote:
This is a patio eggplant
.


This is a regular Black Beauty:



Yolos, perhaps these eggplants look familiar? 

Yes, they look very familiar to me.  Both of those look about twice as big as mine. Look at the size of those leaves.   I have one black beauty ready to harvest and have already harvested about 5 of the patio eggplant. 

Your garden sure looks nice.  And your lawn looks nicely mowed and looks like you weedeated around the boxes.  Must have been a lot of work in this heat.

Thank you yolos.  The eggplants in the EarthBoxes were much more resistant to flea beetles than the store bought Black Beauty in my 4x4.  I'm wondering if the elevation of the EarthBoxes makes a difference.  Last year  I had some Asian eggplants that never amounted to anything because of flea beetles (while the store bought Black Beauty in the EarthBox produced many eggplants and had hardly any flea beetle problems).  

Yolos, thank you so much for your comments about the lawn and weedeating.  My wife appreciated that you had an eye for it.  It nearly kills me to keep it up.  I do it in small batches and rest like crazy afterwards.   When it rains, 5 days later it's time to cut again.   As much as I hate it, I do get some exercise that helps my strength.

It's been over a month since I posted pictures of my garden.  I've had terrible fungus problems with my tomatoes.  I took some drastic measures (don't judge), and the results were very good (in some cases).  In other cases, depending on the variety, my tomatoes are on death's door.



A few spritzing sessions of peppermint soap and water (thanks for suggestion Sanderson!) took care of my eggplant's flea beetles, aphids (and their ant entourage).  I've found that the Ultomato style stakes really compliment the PVC pipe domes on my 4x4's.  My tomatoes are all very well supported, so that REALLY helps with fungus... everything is well off the ground.  Based on all the young fruit on these tomatoes, I think I might some harvests that are almost as good as what yolos got (yay!).  I have a young Parthenon zucchini, some young strawberry plants, some Queen Sophia marigolds and some "volunteer" kale in this box too.

Here's a Black Beauty eggplant that yolos gave me during our last trade (it was just a youngster at the time).  Oh, and off to the right you can catch a glimpse of the patio eggplant she gave me.  I'm reevaluating planting French marigolds in my EarthBox planters.  While they are beautiful, in Mel's Mix they become monstrously big.  I mean, like County Fair contest entrant big!   This is happening for the third year in a row.  Their root systems become enormous and eventually crowd their companion plants.



This is my herb pot.  This large pot is filled completely with Mel's Mix (at no small expense!).  Living in this pot are rosemary, thyme and oregano.  Nestled in the rosemary are two small pots, each containing an aloe vera plant.  I didn't know what to do with them after my wife brought them home, so I just stuck them in the rosemary for now.  In the bottom left is dwarf mulberry (in a self-watering pot filled with Mel's Mix).  On the right of the pot you can see just a portion of a Blue Mist "hedge."  The pollinators love this stuff when it blooms.



I know these will need to be thinned out soon, but so far it's ok.  It's a joy to be able to come out and pick fresh herbs for whatever dish needs it.


This is ginger.  Last fall, a friend of mine gave me a small amount of ginger roots (like two or so).  Anyway, they ended up here and overwintered... and now it all looks like this!  Evidently, the hot humid conditions of the south suit ginger well.  I haven't uprooted any yet, but next time an Asian dish calls for fresh ginger, I'm gonna have a go at trying this.



So, these are some of my successes so far.  I hope you all are having some good results this season.  I'm already preparing for fall planting.  Seeds have been ordered, received and they are just waiting for their turn!