Pics of my MN SFG - 2nd Year!

Hi all! I hope every body's gardens are growing well! I just wanted to share a few pics of my garden in process.... we are doubling it in size from what it was last year. Thanks for looking!

This is the original garden plot from last year. Isn't that fence just terrible? It had no gate to speak of... I would just lift the front right stake and lay the fence aside, and then jam it back into place when going and coming in the garden... at least it kept out the varmints! The chives have come up nicely, in this pic, and the snap peas have JUST been planted.


Old fence removed and new fence posts in place! Lovely weeds, eh? Here the rest of the squares have all been planted with carrots, onions, scallions, leeks, kohlrabi, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, marigold seeds, and viola seeds (which tried and couldn't, apparently).


Newly built boxes, awaiting greatness! Thanks goes to DH for being my handiman!


New fence, installed by yours truly, complete with respectable gate, built by yours truly, with working latch! The weeds are nearly all trimmed.


As of today.... The weed cloth is down and the perimeter is lined with bricks (something has been sneaking under and snacking) to help discouraged freeloaders. Now I just need to place the boxes, fill and plant, oh yeah, and get more wood chips - free, hopefully. A lot of the local parks that usually offer free wood chips have stopped this year due to a bad ash borer infestation.

Looks great! You and your hubby are very handy and doing a great job!

I love it!! It is so neat and tidy! I would love a nice flat space like that. And great job on the fence

Thanks! I'm quite proud of that fence... hehe! I did by myself while DH was away on a business trip... got quite the sunburn on my shoulders and the top of my back while at it, too, and got razzed by my MIL about skin cancer and sunscreen! Oops...

Beautiful job!

Your garden area is awesome. I think you did a great job on your fence too. I am visiting MN this week. Hubby and I are staying at McQuoids on Lake Mille Lacs or Mille Lacs Lake. Anyway, this is a beautiful area. We came through Minneapolis on the way up, so you must be fairly close to here.? I watched for gardens on the drive. Are most people in this area just planting? (too many questions!)

Happy gardening!

PS Take care of that sunburn!

Very cool. Are you going to have a two tiered box? It is really coming along.

Alright.... how did you secure your round-and-round strings to your tipi??? Enquiring minds want to know! (And, what a beautiful garden!!)

Looks amazing!! I love the boxes at an angle too! I also had to put bricks around the edge of part of my fence to keep the dog out!

Lovely garden and good job on the fence! I especially like your garden box with the deeper boxes at the corners. Very attractive!

Great fence....very nice!

Can't wait to see it with the new beds in place and filled with growing plants! Looks great.

Wow! Such lovely compliments for my humble little garden!

Junequilt, thank you!

Sweetmama, welcome to MN! What brought you here? We are having quite the sticky weather this week... don't know if it's sticky on the lake where you are, but the Twin Cities sure are humid! Yes, MN is quite beautiful, what with all of its lakes and whatnot... I ADORE the north shore of Lake Superior... just gorgeous! I'm not a native Minnesotan, but I like it well enough to have lived here for over 10 yrs. now. Yeah, a lot of folks around here don't do much planting until around Mother's Day and/or Memorial Day.... those two weekends see a lot of yard/garden work. Mother's Day can be iffy though, as it's still possible to get frosts around then.

Chopper, the three extra small boxes are for my tomatoes to give them a little extra leg room, and the other 2x4 box is the "high-rise" for my potatoes and parsnips, which will be in half of one of my new 4x4's. Here's hoping it does the trick...

Megan, LOL! I didn't secure the string, and the loops didn't look so nice when the next healthy gust of wind that hit them... they all kinda bunched up at the bottom of the teepee... so I took it off and kinda re-did it yesterday. I ended up re-wrapping it in sections and securing it to my "grid" which is made out of the same twine (Target Dollar Spot! hehe!). I'll have to take a pic....

Shocks, thank you. I kinda liked the angle too.... I did it to give a bit more room around the boxes, but I thought it was asthetically pleasing as well! And I sure hope the bricks do the trick to keep the critters out!

Carol, thanks! The two "high-rises" on the back box are my carrots... I'm hoping for much better success with carrots this year than last. Last year was a wash (literally! my friend's toddler got a bit over-zealous when he was helping water and pretty much washed the mix half-way out of my carrot square... it was sad! ). I'm very much into things being symetrical... one of my quirks.

New2this, thanks, can you tell I am quite proud of my fence? LOL! A lot of window shopping, pricing and planning went into it! I originally wanted to have a 4ft. fence (MAJOR deer population around here... I've seen over 2 dozen in my backyard at times, and there is a herd of approx. 75 that roams the area), but couldn't find anything in my price-point, or asthetically pleasing enough in that heighth, so DH talked me into the 3ft. green plastic poultry fencing. Can I just say, hardware cloth (which would have been my 1st choice) is $$$!!! But I am quite pleased with the end result... that plastic was actually very easy to work with, and a lot less pokey than wire would have been! And we recycled the old 4ft. chicken wire fence into box bottoms!

Tim, I can't wait either! LOL! If the weather would just cooperate.... if it isn't raining out then it's HOT and HUMID... you know, the kind of weather where if you spend even 15 min. outside, you are completely melting! Yesterday, the heat and humidity were just brutal! I'm not holding out much hope for today, but I'm going to try to get my MM mixed up.... *crosses fingers* *holds breath* *passes out*

For Megan... here is a closer pic of my pea teepee and the twine I re-wrapped around it... the peas were having trouble with the plain bamboo, and needed a bit more to grab on to.



Close up... attatched to the grid....


4x4 #1 planted with sugar snap peas with romaine lettuce under the peas in the center, broccoli on the left and right sides, cauliflower on the top and bottom, cabbage at the 4 corners and a few marigolds here and there.


Baby Broccoli!


4x4 #2
front row: romaine, spinach, spinach (a couple didn't make it), carrots
2nd row: kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli, scallions
3rd row: kohlrabi, broccoli, onions, onions
back row: carrots, leeks, leeks, chives
random marigolds here and there


New boxes down and ready to go!


If it weren't hotter-n-blue-blazes outside right now, I'd be getting a lot more done today.... *sigh*

jkdistad,

We are in MN for my husband's company (Pradco Outdoor Brands) annual sales meeting. They bought Lindy, a MN company, a couple of years ago so they still have ties to the area. My husband is the saltwater brand manager and does most of his work in the coastal states...oil spill is really wreaking havoc for the people in those areas with no end in sight. Anyway, it is lovely here and we are enjoying the lake and the beautful outdoors. Haven't noticed the humidity too much, but I'm a southern girl and used to high humidity. Eventhough having a great time here I miss my SFG! My sister is tending while I'm away and I am nuts wondering about all the details! Ha!

Thanks for the reply and happy gardening!

jkdistad,

Thanks for the picture of your tipi, looks great! I used 3 pieces of bamboo to make a tipi for a yellow pear tomato a few years back. I had a really hard time keeping my cord anchored in place on the bamboo without it sliding down, even when it was knotted on there. I forget what I did exactly, but I think I wrapped it tightly around the bamboo 4-5 times before going on to the next upright.... and since my yard is on a slope, I ended up having a really tough time keeping the spacing even, etc. I think I ended up wrapping the whole thing (plant, tipi and all) with several go-rounds of more twine to keep it all together in the end. Yours looks MUCH nicer!

Love your pics. I love how neat and tidy everything is.
How many peas did you plant in each square below you teepee?

Megan, it's all about trial and error, my friend!

I just spent 2 straight hours working in my garden, mixing the MM (by myself) for one box and getting that all set up, along with keep a sharp eye on all 5 of my kiddos! I'm BUSHED! Dominos for supper (the kids certainly didn't complain, hehe)!

Sassy, thanks! I have 4 peas planted in each square... 2 at the base of each bamboo pole... don't know if that's an SFG sanctioned amount or not.... LOL... but that's what seems good to me.

What great pictures. Your garden will be a showplace and that's always good. I envy those that can make their gardens so picturesque.
Great job.

Thanks, quiltbea, I'm big into asthetics... LOL! maybe too much so sometimes.... I'm hoping it stays picturesque throughout the season.... !

Well, here are some pics of how my garden is doing.... I've gotten all 4 boxes filled and planted now.




I can practically see my peas growing on a daily basis! No buds yet, though...


My kohlrabi is getting HUGE, or at least the leaves are! The bulbs (or whatever you call it) are getting bigger now... probably about the size of a pecan.


Tomatoes are in.... along with the basil, and summer squash and zucchini (those are planted where you can see the soil slightly disturbed... yes, I was checking progress....


Potatoes are just now beginning to send up little tiny sprouts, so is the chard. Peppers are budding, and the beans are sprouting.


Pole beans breaking ground!


A few herbs... L to R: Mint, Spearmint, Stevia... all the makings for a lovely iced tea for the dog-days of summer!

I love, love, LOVE your garden! Very well planned and organized. Looks like things are taking off nicely! I look forward to updates!

Ali, thanks for your generous compliments! Things are doing quite nicely for now... as long as I keep the icky cabbage worms picked off and as long as the birds don't get too hungry!

this pic was taken on Wed., June 9th.... things are greening up in my new boxes and getting bigger and bigger in the older boxes....

Question: to those of you who eat the kohlrabi greens.... how do you prepare them, and will snipping a few of the leaves hurt the plant before harvest? The leaves are getting HUGE and starting to completely shade one of my carrot squares!



Last night (june 10th, we got big rain storm with HUGE forceful raindrops that did a number on my broccoli heads... guess I should have picked them a few days ago... I was hoping they'd get bigger, but I think they just got more loose, and close to out-right blooming... now they are destroyed... 2 of my 3 heads (out of 6 plants total) look like this:



Not sure if it's the mourning doves, the grackles, the robins, or the blackbirds that are pecking at my veggies... this morning, my oldest son spotted some birds fighting in my garden... a pair of mourning doves and a blackbird (immature red-winged blackbird, I think)... here's one of the doves:

YOur pictures look great.
We too, have been getting some heavy rains, but not too bad to disrupt my plants like that. Who, knows...maybe it's strong enough to bounce back- they're tough!
I am wondering with your broccoli....sorry if this is a silly question as I've never even grown it....but has it already come to seed? Or are those yellowish things the new heads?