Pictures of my garden

[crispini]

My garden -- by the back area near the "outbuilding" (used to be a garage, now storage)


Veggie bed on the right -- all kinds of experiments, tomato, eggplant, beans,


Peppers, beans.


Letting my radish seed out so I can collect it -- we'll see if this works. :) The blue thing is my knee. Haha.


Cardoon, garlic chive


Herb bed in the middle -- all kinds of goodies, rosemary at the back, lemon balm, chamomile, rue, stevia, parsley, fennel. Today I planted thyme in the open concrete blocks all along the left side. That's either garlic or onion that's big in the front. It just grew there, I haven't yet dug it up to see. My expansion plans for this bed are to take the middle walkway down to a narrow walkway but big enough to sit and work on to get more bed space.


My back porch where I can sit and look out at the garden, with the accessory stray cat who has adopted me. :)

[NMDemDist2]

1. how lovely!!

:yourock:

the kitty accessory is nice too :rofl:

[crispini]

2. He gets fed on the back porch, still too shy to come more than a few feet.

The side effect of this is that I am feeding half the wildlife in the hood now, including some fat looking raccoons and the squirrels. :rofl: I need to take the food up at night, maybe, the raccoons are going to get too used to coming by for a snack. I really need to catch him and take him into be vetted, but that would mean I'd have to borrow a trapping cage, and I'm still not sure where to do that.

I'm sitting on that couch right now and there's a squirrel sitting on the fence looking at me very resentfully. He won't come down and get a snack while I'm here. Haha! Wish I had a camera, the expression on his face is priceless. I swear he's sulking! :)

[NMDemDist2]

3. better make sure there's a 'critter fence' up around that garden

my stepmom's squirrels take one bite out of every tomato if given the opportunity.

and raccoons will devastate your garden! maybe just feed kitty while you sit there, and pick it up the rest of the time?

if you feed him every day at the same time while you sit, it will be much easier to get him to come up to you too I bet

:hi:

[crispini]

6. Thanks, I'll have to start looking into ways to protect it.

And I'll definitely start picking up the kitty snacks. He will eat while I'm there, so that's good.

Haha, he just ran across the yard with two bluejays attacking him. He was up to no good I'm sure! :D

[Kolesar]

13. Thanks for putting up the garden pictures, they were great

As for the raccoons, I think the kitty will wait for you to put the food out in the daytime and be happy. That situation got totally out of control next door and the raccoons tore through our neighbors screen door to the porch once they got used to coming there. I think they attacked their "outside" cat that they had been feeding after he came by and adopted them.

[wildeyed]

9. Oh, that happened to me last year.

A single bite out of each mater, just as they were starting to get ripe. :mad:

[japple]

16. Mockingbirds will do that, too. Last year, during the drought,

my tomatoes were precious and few, and those blasted mockers ruined a bunch. Can't be too hard on them, though. I think they do that so the tomatoes will attract bugs, then they can eat the bugs. They are great birds, though, and I love hearing them sing and seeing them when they visit the bird bath.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Regarding catching the kitty...

Good luck! I'm in a similar situation right now and I've set the trap 6 times and 4 times I caught a racoon and twice a possum. Not a single kitty yet and there's two of them. My strays also need a trip to to the vet to get spayed/neutered (ones a girl the other a boy) and get their shots. I keep hoping they'll just tame out enough I can sweet talk them into a carrier.

Your garden looks fabulous by-the-way!

[crispini]

7. Ha, Thanks.

Poor guy, I'm sure he needs his shots and I'd like to get him fixed so he won't spray around the yard. :eyes:

[Inchworm]

4. Looking good!

I aspire to your wonder! Hehe.

I finally started planting yesterday. I sort of cheated hehe. I went to the greenhouse and bought tomato, bell pepper, and hot bananna plants already started. At least I have something to water now.

Your garden looks great, and I want to scritch that kitty's belly so bad :D

:hi:

[crispini]

8. Oh, I didn't start ANYTHING from seed this year.

So I guess I 'cheated' too, heh. I'm going to try that next year. Actually I sort of double-extra cheated, because I bought a lot of stuff from the Dallas Organic Gardener's society plant sale, so THEY picked out the nice heirloom stuff and did all the work and raised it organically -- and I just came along and bought it, haha.

I've been reading this absolutely crazy gardening blog here: http://www.elementsintime.com/Blog.html

This gal and her husband moved to the country and they put in like 1500 square foot of garden! Crazy! I just realized I have maybe 200 square feet if that!

This fall I am going to do potato barrels. Also I think I will take out that walkway and give myself more space that way. I am a bit more slowly slowly with the gardening, but perhaps I am getting there! :)

[ThomWV]

10. I love it!

To my mind that is the way a garden should look, and I love to see all that mulch. Beautiful, just plain beautiful.

[crispini]

11. Thanks!

Looking forward to the food! :D

[hippywife]

12. Wonderful!

I'm jealous of all the cinder blocks. I wanted to build our square foot garden boxes out of them so they would never rot and I could also plant things in the holes. Husband has a bad back and didn't want to lug them all. Oh, well.

Enjoy! :hi:

[Kittycat]

14. Nice space. What kind of mulch are you using?

We still need to mulch in (just got the last of everything in the ground this weekend). DH says to use Hay, instead of the stuff I use on the other beds. I'm not sure though.

[crispini]

15. I just get cedar mulch, but I have heard good things about hay.

Good luck! :D

[demnan]

17. Nice Siamese you got there

I don't think he's a stray anymore. Nice garden too.

[crispini]

18. Thanks. Meezer is a good buddy now.

Still pretty shy, though. I wish I could catch him and take him in to get vetted. I'll have to borrow a trap from the city.

[crispini]

19. Update -- Wow, what a difference!

Vegetable bed -- BEFORE


Vegetable bed -- AFTER


Herb bed -- BEFORE


Herb bed -- AFTER


Little Beans!


Little Squash!


No maters yet.


The eggplant isn't looking too well. Today everything got another dose of Garrett Juice, plus some liquid fish, plus a liberal sprinkling with cayenne. Hopefully that will help.


The cardoon is still refusing to have more than three leaves.


Looks like the feverfew got et!


Something new -- melons on the side of the house! Last of the spring planting.


If anyone knows what this weed is, I'd be interested. I haven't been able to figure it out. I have a lot of it, I wish I could eat it or something.


Closeup of weed


And of course, Meezer is still hanging out on the couch. :)

[Botany]

20. The "weed" you have is Canadian Goldenrod

You now owe me big time .... if you get a 1" foam paint brush and dip it
in round up it will kill the goldenrod very nicely ..... plant Texas native plants
when possible .... do you have any bluebonnets?

BTW I just got the last of Tomatoes in ...
Jet Star
Sonata
Mariglobe
Brandywine
Early Girl
Yellow Girl
Roma
German Quenn

and canned up some native wildflowers
New England Aster
Sky Blue Aster
Woodland Sunflower

[EstimatedProphet]

21. Hey, thanks for inviting me to the forum!

You have a good-looking garden, and a pretty cat!

[crispini]

22. Thanks! Welcome, and come by often!

Plant people are good people.