We have little space in which to grow our food so every spot counts.
You might notice that we still have a long way to go on the soil.
Everything went in late this year because the physical therapy
I was doing really tied up my time.
On the large primitive trellis that my husband built
for muscadines, I put one of the Fedco mixed
organic heirloom tomatoes on the unused side.
It is now about 4 feet 10 inches tall. I planted
it in late May. Muscadines in the background.
This is in one of my flower beds being used this year for food.
Note the pine cone to keep vermin and snails at bay.
Except for the couple of tomatoes that are in dry spots,
this is my only one having trouble. It was doing so well
at first! The area next to the house is under construction.
Michael wants a stone path and I haven't decided what to
plant right up against this north side of the house yet. In the
summer it gets about 3 hours of sun but those three hours
are brutal given the heat from the bricks.
Again we're looking south on the east side of the house. Because of
the drought, the tulip poplar is loosing its leaves early. Red roof belongs to neighbors with large pond. That pine tree is really about 200 feet beyond where I'm standing... its big. To the left of the basketball court is a chestnut.
Elderberry flowers. The last of them. I already have ripe fruit on most bushes for this season's flu and other viruses.
This is the tomato that I was asking about. I couldn't get a good photo of the larger fruits but you get the idea.
Another view of same broccoli. The bucket is a 5 gallon one so you can see the size and health. Maybe its raab but it tastes more mild like broccoli. This is growing in the melon hugelkultur bed pictured to the right.
Penny Mac just couldn't stay pink, could she? Our soil is SO acid!
I was wrong, the tubs are 80 some quarts large. I paid $1.48 for them at the thrift store. I'm thinking squash would be good in them but haven't decided. I have 110 more days of frost free weather. I'd better decide soon.
I tuck extra pots of plants around the perimeters of the garden. Notice more pinecones. They have worked very well this year. The cucumbers are terribly hot but I'm out of mulch.
Better growth on all peppers as of July 25.
Sick tomato closer
Another view of the same trellis. Muscadines are three
years old. Note garbage can under down spout for water.
The lantana that volunteered isn't red after all but red, orange and yellow.
Luckily it smells not too bad.
This is a view of the garden on the east side of the house
looking south. That mountain in the background is slated to be
bulldozed for 800 homes.
The oak tree stands about 60 feet from where I'm shooting though you
can't tell that in the photo. There is a driveway, sunken, between the garden
and the tree. Bennnings Green Tint squashes sit on the slope up to the house.
Corn on the bottom left of photo sits in my wide row bed sized 22 feet by 30 some feet. The redbud on the left side of the photo is actually standing right by me and isn't all that big. It volunteered and I forgot to dig it up this past spring. I'll find a better spot for it come fall. You can see that I really have a lot competition from my trees. That rock you see center bottom took us a year and a half to move by rolling it once in a while from the bottom of the drive up. You're only seeing 1/4th of it.
Peppers are finally growing faster.
This brocoli was the one that volunteered and started growing in early June. It never formed a decent head but we're eating the side shoots right and left and its still going even in 100*F weather.
Pride of Wisconsin Melons taken early July. In background you see the poles we're using for the tomatoes. We cut small pine trees that were encroaching and put them down in the blueberry bed. Once the needles fell off, we cut off the branches to use the trunks for poles. The melon bed is our newest hugelkultur bed. I planted the melons in paper pots and set the pots down into the new hugelkultur bed.
The Bennings Green Tint is always my best squash.
I just pulled weeds this morning. I put the pulled weeds on top of the lawn clippings to dry and add to the height of the mulch.
Hugelkultur bed with melons and pepper pots. Two tomatoes are tucked to the side where they won't cast shade. I don't expect the pepper pots will do all that well but I had extra plants, no space and decided it was worth a try.
A view from our front porch. Messed up apple is left over damage from hurricane. You can see the beautiful view that we are about to lose with the 800 homes planned to sit on those mountains and about to encroach on our area. The rural area we loved is about gone.
And even closer is this scan of a tomato leaf. (I put it on my scanner since my camera is so unwilling to do decent close ups.... too bad you can't put bugs in the scanner! <lol>)