New Beds

More new vegetable beds for the garden! I am happy to be adding more vegetable beds to my backyard! I have wanted these vinyl raised beds for about a year, but I was concerned with how they would look with my wild, natural rock garden setting. I decided to keep all of the existing rockwork, and just drop the garden beds in where I could find room. I have to step over the rocks in order to access the beds for planting and cultivating but at least it still has it's original character.

Here is the other new bed. I am going to cut down the Eucalyptus tree. It is going to have to go because of the vegetables and their need of sunlight. Two fruit trees that are already planted will fill in the edges of this area, growing to just barely cover the ends of the bed in the picture above.

It will be a big change!

Thanks for stopping by! To all of my gardening friends, Garden on!

Random Thoughts

Penstemmon can be amazingly rediculous.

Happy Easter to everyone!

The iceplant blossoms are beginning to multiply.

The carrots were harvested to make room for Turk's Turban Squash which just seems fun to grow.

Here are the carrots after a good scrub and they are quasi pale, which is curious.

The peas are producing large quantities each day. I am blanching them and freezing them in gallon sized ziplock bags. They separate nicely after being frozen.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Freeze Passing Through

We took off to Phoenix to see Bret Favre play Minnesota Vikings vs the Phoenix Cardinals and before we left I brought the self-sowed tomato that was growing in homemade compost into the house. So here it is with blossoms, looking for some 60 degree weather.

Well it's not going to find it outside, because we got back and it is winter now at Black Mountain Garden. There is ice in the birdbath leftover from the rain last weekend. And with all of the rain and overcast skies, it froze the last few nights.

So lets walkabout and see the effect of freeze on the winter garden. Here are the Mesclun Lettuces. They all look fine, with the addition of yellow leaves from the apple tree.

The Basil bit the dust due to the freeze. The tree stake pole segments are chunky mulch/feline guard, (my own invention) and quite effective I might say. They are temporary, and some things are just temporary.

I commandeered the unused trash bin from the garage and it's a new rain barrel and it is over half full from the rain from the weekend. This picture qualifies as ugly but it is okay, it is educational.

Here is another ugly picture, but with the addition of rainwater being captured in a clay vessel it is elevated to "ugliness transcended".

Here is frozen water on the leaves of the "Mother of all Hens and Chickens" (for lack of it's true name) and this can't possibly be good.

The spinach are getting bigger. They have taken a long time to get to this size but the freeze passing through didn't bother them a bit.

Against the south side of the north facing wall is where the Green Beans are located and they did not get hit by the freeze. This is the location where Leslie the garden expert suggests planting Lemon Trees because the reflected heat from the wall is retained well into the night.

The freeze whacked the Purple Heart Wandering Jew located in the Cactus Bed.

There are a few unusual things to mention, like this Penstemmon with flower buds forming,

And this California Poppy hiding out under the Penstemmon leaves which will be the first to flower, long before the others that haven't even started germinating yet.

The New Zealand Spinach bit the dust, got whacked, met it's frozen demise, you choose.

But the chard looks like no frost here.

So here is a panorama of the garden in early December after the first freeze. All of the salts that consolidate on the surface of the soil in the fall, (seems more predominate) have been washed away.

Hose art is provided by Laura who now recuperating from a cold, thought the idea of carrying around a frozen hose to get it out of the picture didn't seem too appealing, so she left it there. Watch for more hose art in upcoming posts! Can you see the color in the leaves of the Eucalyptus?

Now this is what Heavenly Bamboo is all about! There are alot more garden pots gathered around then there have been in previous updates. It's a sign, spring is going to be amazing!

There's a sign of freeze on the Peach Tree and the Lantana in the sunning bed, freeze that was just passing through.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

What's Going On

The pots in the greenhouse are really flourishing.

The four brocolli are growing larger, and eventually the turnips will be harvested. There are recently planted lettuce and peas hidden beneath the leaves so the appearance of this planter will change soon enough.

Here is the New Zealand Spinach. It is growing in complete shade and seems to be happy.

I've pulled off the cricket cloches, and they will be stored in the garage. The carrots don't seem to mind the reduced light, and additional carrots were planted today for a later harvest.

In the herb garden, the Purple Basil has changed to green with purple splashes.

The hottentot is flowing over the edges of the bed and tempts me to let it take over.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my garden friends, carry on and hurry back!

Bean Shreads

Radishes make me smile. They must be sown repeatedly, so put that on the list somewhere.

Jim from mg class gave me a bag of roasted green chile. It was really hot but delicious, so I am retaliating with bags of fresh herbs.

The basil can be dried for later use, and the chopped chives are ready to go into the freezer to be used anytime.

Here is the update on the purple top turnips. DTM is 55 days which will be Oct. 27th. They seem to be on schedule.

The beans are not happy in the windy location by the apple tree. I pondered what could be done. When a plant is not right for a particular location, there is no good to come of it, and you are postponing the inevitable. With that in mind, I contemplated my choices. They beans look healthy despite being ripped to shreads. I remember reading that green beans will not set fruit if it's windy. Oh great! So it looks like I either scrap the green beans, or the traveling pots will have to be moved to get out of the wind.

So my options are to transplant some of the newly sown seeds to a new bed down on the ground, where they will be somewhat protected from the wind. I removed the rockpile that surrounded the cactus garden, and potted up the cactus for destination unknown,

and started another raised bed out of redwood. Lettuce can go in the front, and this bed is suitable for a coldframe later on.

Of course there was a huge rock right where the center post was to go. (Pickax gardening to the rescue.) I am going to remove the inside dirt a few inches, install a plastic liner on the interior and waterguard the outside of the wood. Then I am going to fill it with Tomato Lady Soil, and it will be ready to plant.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Wordless Workday

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!