Middlemamma's 2nd try: 2011 Garden

Middlemamma,

Collards will stand up to the heat of summer, so don't write them off. When I lived in Northern VA, I put in my collard plants on Memorial Day and harvested the outside leaves all summer and right on until a hard freeze got them. I'll admit the taste was best after the frost hit them, but collards have always been a staple summer crop for this southern gal.

And from what I'm reading on the forum, kale will last all summer too. So all is not lost.

Could use some of your rain down my way.



Kay

We finally had a whole day of sun today! And I had appointments all morning!

But when I finally got home I got some stuff done.
Joe got the drip system in, I got the potatoes planted (tubs at the far end).

I have one more box to fill with MM. Then I can plant some seeds!

Everything is still a mess...lots of debris laying around, and these are crap cell phone pics...but for now it will have to do!

Still in progress but here are garden improvements so far.

2 kind of sugar snap peas

one 4X4 with garlic and potato onions

2nd bed with potato onions and garlic

Wow! That's a beautiful garden, mid'mama! Love the way you angled the two 3 x 3 boxes. I might steal that idea next spring. :-)

And something else I noticed in that top photo -- What a gorgeous view of the mountains you have!! Is that snow I see on one of them?

pattipan

Looks GREAT middlemamma!

Love it! Nice to see the mountains in the background, too. Some of us only have muddy rivers in our backgrounds...lol.

Hey, its lookin' good. You've done a wonderful job with your garden.
Good luck.

It is beautimous!

To think you had never done anything like this just 15 months ago.

Wow! Beautiful boxes and a great garden! I hope that I am able to make this much progress in 15 months!

green stuff in your boxes...FINALLY! But...

haven't you got to the part in your photography class where they teach you not to take a picture of your shadow?!

The overview of the garden is facing due east. Those mountains you see there are the far away ones. Directly North (so to the left in the photo) are the close mountains....and there is a lot of snow still on them. I love where we live 99.9 % of the time...it is so beautiful.

Boffer....I so know better than that! I was just in a hurry. Wasn't paying attention.

The two diagonal 3X3's were Joe's nifty idea....steal away Pattipan.

It IS amazing what I have learned since the beginning....and even crazier what I still have to learn! Haven't even scratched the surface!

Thanks everyone for the nice compliments. I will post more pictures as it all comes together.

boffer wrote: green stuff in your boxes...FINALLY! But...

haven't you got to the part in your photography class where they teach you not to take a picture of your shadow?!

Boffer:

Middlemamma is just a shadow of her long ago non-gardening self.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

Got some more stuff done in the garden today.

I stood about 20 feet away from Joe when I announced I think I need 2 more boxes.

Well Joe built me 2 more boxes (bringing my expansion to 6 more boxes not 4)....squeezed them in the day before he started his new job. Bless his sweet dear heart.

I spent about 2 hours I got free today making Mel's Mix but I am still not done filling all the new boxes.

I had a huge one of these guys buzzing around me the whole time.

I don't run around flapping my arms and screaming or anything...but I do stand so rigidly still that it makes my muscles ache and whisper to them. "Please go away Mr. Bee, please don't sting me. Oh Lord please take him somewhere else. PLEASE MR. BEE...I am not a flower, not particularly sweet, NOT what you are looking for...please buzz away. Mr. Bee there are 1000's of yellow flowers all over this property called Dandelions....please go find them, they are the BRIGHT YELLOW things all over the grass."
He buzzed around for a good long time while I mixed...landed right in the compost bag I was shoveling out of a good handful of times. Finally I finished the bale of peat I was working out of and called it quits.

I am foretasted for rain tomorrow but I would be thankful if they were wrong! Another couple of hours out there would do me good, body and soul. But, alas, as I type I can hear the wind picking up and rustling in the trees...the breeze in the window is cool and smells sweet and clean like rain coming. I doubt they are wrong, unless we get it overnight instead of tomorrow...That would be wonderful!

So the grand total in my garden comes to:
SIX 4 X 4's
TWO 3 X 3's
ONE 2 X 12
SIX 1 X 1's
a corn box (won't have grid or MM just compost) 3' 4" X 12'
6 tires
4 DIY self watering tomato totes (experiments)
Plus various pots and containers like my 5 potato buckets for example. I also have mints and chives on containers. More to come!

I am looking for at least one more HUGE tire, I just haven't found it yet.

I can almost smell the tomatoes now.

Wow, MidMom, can't wait to see your layout of new boxes.....full of veggies/flowers! You inspire me. BTW, in addition to our present 4 beds, and 2 new 4x4s (as yet unfilled), I'm completing a hay bale bed in which to experiment with three sisters planting (corn, beans and squash). The url for the article that inspired me is here: http://blog.oregonlive.com/homesandgardens/2009/10/a_better_straw-bale_raised_bed.html Great advice from a gardner so well known in this area that there's a fig tree named for him: Vern's Brown Turkey!

I finally got all my Mel's Mix completed and all the boxes filled.

The last thing I am wrapping up is the corn box...which is not MM, at least not this year. It is 5 X 12 X 8'....I need a few more bags of compost to get this puppy done for this season.

So today I took an afternoon to just mosey along see what has popped up and how things are growing before I planted a few more squares. Spent a few hours out there just soaking up some . So far my tan is coming along nicely...farmer's tan that is. Need to wear a tank top next time and even that all out!

I have an old rusty archway that leads into my garden and I wanted to plant some viney thing on either side this year, in the dirt, no MM, nothing fancy. I planted about 15 scarlet runner beans on either side of it over a week ago...had those been in MM I think they would have sprouted already, they are really working hard to pop out of the soil, but today I saw a few breaking ground! It is exciting to me because I have never planted anything in the ground before...Last year was my first year ever to plant a thing and it was all in MM. I also planted a "row" of sunflowers along my neighbors fence line and so far I only see one little guy popping out...we'll see what happens.

Everything else is doing well. Cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, walla walla onions, potato onions, garlic, lettuce is starting to really grow, kohlrabi and radishes are growing fast. I have 8 squares of snap peas all growing well...16 in each square...I sure hope to have lots of snap peas.

Today I planted 2 squares of Kentucky Blue Pole Beans and Malibu Pole Beans. I planted some Nasturtiums and Borage, as well as some cilantro and parcel. I have a wooden planted I stuck some allysum and daisy seeds in. I also planted some Japanese mixed greens and some Alfresco lettuce blend.

My chives are starting to pop up out of the ground, but so far my potatoes have yet to shoot up... . I have been hardening off all my pepper and tomato seedlings over the last few days...hopefully in the next day or so I can get them in their permanent homes.

All in all things are going well, in another 2 weeks everything should be planted and I can just sit back and watch it grow.

Jennie-so glad finally made it.

middlemamma wrote:
All in all things are going well, in another 2 weeks everything should be planted and I can just sit back and watch it grow.

Jennie-so glad finally made it.

You've been busy! It's looking wonderful. I'd say more but I'm like the guy in your Spring smilie running backwards and forwards to get everything done.

Today will be a major update as I nearly have everything in the boxes now with a very few exceptions. It feels so strange to barely be getting started when our friends to the south are nearly harvesting summer crops already!

The weather was crappy picture taking weather today, we are having a storm blow through. It is completely overcast, cold and wet. I also just used my point and shoot camera because of the rain, didn't want to take the good camera out in the weather.

Here is an overview of the whole area, don't mind my dog, she certainly wasn't when I told her to get out of the shot. LOL


Here is one of my beds with snap peas in the back, kohlrabi and radish in the second row, lettuces in the third, and closest to me would be spinach and some sad looking green onions.


Here is my second bed with snap peas planted later, again in the back. The next row is lettuces, the third is shallots on the left and swiss chard that hasn't taken off on the right. The closest row to me are all walla walla onions.


Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts and Cabbage here:


Cabbages and Cauliflower here:


Another planting of lettuces and radishes here:


One of my 2 garlic and potato onion beds (plus a thyme plant):


The other garlic and potato onion bed:


Newly sprouted Kentucky and Malibu Pole Beans:


A new little Nasturtium:


The bed farthest away in the pic is my corn. The long skinny bed in the middle will be peppers, cucumbers and more pole beans. There will be a trellis along the north side. In the tires will be pumpkins and flowers.



Away from the garden area our hops set up:


And a little climbing hops:


It's coming along... As soon as we get some heat I expect it will explode.

Wow, you are an inspiration! Thanks for the pictures. Nonna

Gorgeous pictures and garden! It'll be overflowing before you know it!

Lovely SFG beds. The weather has been tough for a lot of us, but you look like you are pretty well set up for cooler plants now.

You are going to be so happy you went with really sturdy trellises for your hops, because you are right, when you get a bunch of sun and warmth, they will take off. By the way, really nice trellises too! What variety of hops did you plant?

Hey Furbalsmom!!

I have no idea what kind of Hops they are...LOL from what we understand only one kind is legal to sell where we live and that's the kind I got. They were bought at the farmer's market.

It is hard to believe they are going to take over the garage like I have seen in photos these tiny little plants...I sure hope you are right. Joe built the trellises...and boy are they sturdy ever. Some things I read said they can grow a foot in a day! I can't wait.

OH I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED I CAN BARELY STAND IT!!!!

I have FOUR! Count'em, FOUR baby broccoli heads!! That is the most exciting news ever!!! I have tons of beans coming up all over the place, I have edammame sprouting everywhere, I have corn sprouts galore....I just have to be the happiest gardener in the world. How can you want to jump up and down and shout at the top of a mountain over friggin' veggies? ROFL...I dunno! But I do!

It's like the best feeling in the world to put a seed in the Mel's Mix, water it and love it, talk to it, and then it sprout, grow and give you a meal. Everything in my garden is growing marvelously with few exceptions (the celeriac never sprouted, planted it 2X, the swiss chard isn't moving too fast, and there are a few things I haven't planted yet so those definitely aren't doing to well! HA!)

I am ready to pitch a tent out there in the garden just to sleep by it!

Pictures coming soon....stay tuned.

Jennie-now if it would just get warm enough for me to wear my cool floppy gardening hat I would be the happiest girl in the world.

"It's like the best feeling in the world to put a seed in the Mel's Mix, water it and love it, talk to it, and then it sprout, grow and give you a meal."
I know just what you mean, seeing a stony little seed spout and grow is one of the most magical and beautiful things in my life. I never stop wondering at it. Sometimes I feel like a little kid.
May I dance the the dance of gardening joy with you?

shannon1 wrote: Sometimes I feel like a little kid.

Gardening ALWAYS makes me feel like a little child...Nothing else in my life gives me that. I love it!

shannon1 wrote:May I dance the the dance of gardening joy with you?

Dance away sister!

Congratulations, Mid-Mamma, on your successes. It gives us all hope. BTW, wonder what's with Swiss chard, mine is moving slow, too, this spring. But the kale is growing great and giving us lots of greens. Hmmmmmm.