Sunday, June 5, 2011

Edible landscaping: The first year

Hey friends! Welcome back :) Here are a bunch of photos from our first year of transforming our yard into an edible landscape. I don't have any before pictures, but just imagine lots of grass!


Herb Container Garden: Chive, lavender,rosemary, golden oregano, peppermint, Greek oregano and dill. We especially appreciate the rosemary and peppermint- They keep the mosquitoes away if we rub the leaves on our arms and legs.
 Veggie Container Garden: Plantains (for green smoothies), tomato, hot pepper, eggplant, mint, tarragon & red basil. All but the basil were started from seed. I bought the basil at the farmers market
 Phase I of our deck corner garden- The big item is rhubarb, and I have seeds popping up of Zinnias (to attract beneficial insects), fenugreek (for tea), cosmos and columbine to attract butterflies, & sesame (for the seeds). Mostly I'm just trying to get the beds ready for next year, and filling them with on hand seeds ;)
 Main Veggie Garden: Front to back- mesclun lettuce mix, casper pumpkins, beets, cucumber, zucchini, broccoli, bell peppers and many many varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Everything started by seed. There are also carrots, celery, chamomile, black beans, swiss chard, spinach, cabbage,  and red potato plants (started from basic red potatoes), but there is almost no way you can see those in this pic!  
 Another view, from above the retaining wall:
 3 of our 7 fruit trees, left to right: Belle of Georgia semi-dwarf peach, Elberta semi-dwarf peach and a Golden Sweet semi-dwarf Apricot. There are actually peaches on the peach trees! 
 A baby beet :)
 One of our heirloom "Lynwood" tomatoes. Just waiting for blossoms!
 Another view of the main garden- Mesclun mix upfront, tomatoes in the back
 Right side of the main garden: Beets in front, eggplant behind, some marigolds to keep certain pests away, and tomatoes
 A peach! 
 Front walkway: Strawberries, kale, romaine, swiss chard, edible flowers. Man, I need a better picture of  this. 

Blueberries. Man. I need to learn how to use my camera! :/


CR's garden- sugar snap pea Pea Teepees and sunflowers. Every morning we harvest just enough for us to share :) Soon they will be pulled out and green beans will go in! 

 Deck Trellis, left to right: Black tomatoes and Green grape tomatoes (can't see them), pie pumpkins, spaghetti squash, a lone zucchini plant (I lost it's label and just threw it in when I planted), cannonball water melon, black zucchini and Caroline Raspberries. We harvested our first one the other day! It was DELICIOUS. 
 A baby spaghetti squash! I can't wait! 
 Zucchini
 A beet, ready for the juicer tomorrow
 Me, in my sweet new  (on clearance!) shades. Had to throw that in- It's important to protect your eyes in this bright southern sun ;)
 A sugar snap pea
 Sweet potatoes- Now hows this for an experiment. Started from Trader Joe's organic sweet potatoes, and plopped in our front raised flower bed. I'm pretty sure there is nothing but fill dirt in there, plus the compost I added. We'll see! I really am just hoping the pretty chartreuse leaves cascade down the front of the box.
 Romaine in the front walk. You can see the kale behind it
 Snapdragons- Edible flowers! 
 A view from the front porch. I figured I'd leave you with a nice relaxing pic of where we spend our afternoons after working in the garden :). Ahhhhh. Iced tea anyone?

How is your  garden going? We don't have much produce yet, but I know some of you southerners got started earlier than I did!

Megan

2 comments:

  1. Looks awesome seester! I love your deck, the space underneath could be such a fun little place for Caspian when it gets all covered with vines. Very cool garden spaces

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  2. Wow, Megan, I'm impressed! And just this year, too! I didn't expect to see any peaches the first year--way cool! Gma H will be so proud to have a real honest-to-goodness gardener in the family--someone else who starts things from seed. :-) The only thing I have planted is two tomatoes that Gma H brought out--the "Early Girl" has two little green tomatoes on it. It's been too wet and now we're too busy.

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