At the Water's Edge

Showing posts with label plants. Show all posts

2015: The Volunteer Garden

Now that it's nearing the end of August, I suppose it's time for a 2015 garden update. One of the things I've learned to love about gardening is how each year is so different. The first few years, I found this very frustrating: what grew well one year didn't grow well the next. However, I've learned to instead appreciate the things that do grow -- especially the surprises, which this year was full of. My mainstays did not do the best this year. Lettuce grew okay, but not great. Radishes didn't produce much. For the first time, my carrots did not grow (I think the seeds got washed away!). The nice neat little rows that I had last year were not existent this year. The green beans grew pretty well, and some of the plants got huge!! The peas also grew well for the first time in a few years, so that was exciting. The tomatoes did not do as well as I'd hoped, but I've gotten some -- at least enough for salsa, bruschetta and a small batch of tomato sauce so far. Cucumbers were abysmal, as usual. What was most fun about this year were all of the surprises.

True Confessions of a Plant Hoarder

Really, I enjoy gardening because I like playing in the dirt!

I think I have a problem. In my desperate attempt to get things to grow in my garden and with my love for all things green and flowery, I think I have become a plant hoarder. Let me back up just a bit. When I was a child I always wanted a garden. I loved plants and animals and the earth and the environment (click here for evidence). I was allotted a small plot one year, and got a small yield. I failed at container gardening and without anyone to teach me how to do it properly, I didn't try again. My love for plants never did wane, though. When we bought a house, one of the things I was most excited about was the chance to really try my hand at gardening. I think the root (no pun intended) of my problem is two-fold: 1) Having always wanted to grow things and not having the opportunity, I am eager to get my hands on (and keep) as many plants as I can; and 2) Not being good at growing things has made me extra possessive, thinking that if I have more plants, surely some of them will do well.

Gardening 101: Ten Lessons Learned

This week marks three years since we’ve been in our house. That means I’ve now had three years of gardens, and with those three years of experience has come a lot of learning! I didn’t really know anything about gardening, and still feel like I don’t…but I do know that I’ve learned some things along the way. Here’s a collection of 10 things I’ve learned as a beginner just starting out with a flower and vegetable garden:

Garden Inspirations

I realized that I’ve been really slacking on the blog this month. I don’t know what it is, but I just haven’t felt the urge to write and I’ve been lacking in ideas for topics. So, naturally, I turned to Twitter hoping to find someone willing to offer a suggestion. Sure enough, Gina came through for me. Here’s what she said:

I'd like to know how your gardening inspires your life as well as your table.

Oh, Deer! (and other tales from the garden)

I have had a new visitor to my vegetable garden this year: deer. We have a field-ish type area behind our house, scattered with trees, and there are deer that live back there. From time to time we'll see them in the backyard, but until this year, they'd stayed clear of my garden. A couple of weeks ago, I was doing my daily garden "walk" and pulling a couple of weeds, when I noticed a couple of deep indentations in the soil. Upon further inspection I realized it was a hoof print!

What's New in the Garden...Since Yesterday!

garden pathway - perennials and vegetable garden

When I come home from work in the evening I like to take a stroll through my garden. I find it relaxing and peaceful and fun. I say that as if I actually had a large garden to spend time walking through -- my garden area consists of a path about 20 feet long, leading from the back door of our garage to our deck behind the house, with perennials on one side and a vegetable plot on the other. But, I examine my flowers and my vegetables to see how things are growing, etc. and can easily spend a considerable amount of time out there. I was about to head out the back door tonight when Tom asked where I was going. I told him and asked if he wanted to look at the garden with me. He replied that he had just seen it...like yesterday. Had anything changed since yesterday? I told him I'd report back.

Spring Flowers and Planting

I have been thoroughly enjoying the mild March we’ve had this year. I say mild, but what I really mean is HOT! Not only has it not been cold, but we had a couple of weeks of 70-80 degree temperatures. That’s weather we’re lucky to get in July! Needless to say, I’ve spent some time in my garden, and I’ve captured some photos for your viewing pleasure.

My perennial garden is starting to grow, with tulips and daffodils blossoming. Also peeking through the ground are irises, salvia, hostas, black-eyed susans, delphinium, phlox, chives, creeping thyme...and probably some things I'm forgetting. Here’s my first set of early bloomers:

Getting an Early Start on Gardening

I was planning on the beginning of March be the start of my gardening season—meaning, I would start some seeds indoors to be transplanted into my garden after a couple months. I did start some seeds: tomatoes and several types of peppers. I also put some lettuce seeds in a container, to hopefully get an early crop of baby greens. I was planning on doing the first actual sowing in my garden in the beginning of April, but with 70-80 degree temperatures over the past week or so, I got an early start--in fact, I started my garden a whole month earlier than last year! I planted some peas and carrots the other day – one small row of each in my little garden. I will do a follow up planting in another week or so to try to stagger the harvest a bit.

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