Things are starting to grow quickly now. This is a great time to visit before the warm weather crops of tomatoes, cukes, and squash along with asparagus ferns make it a jungle of plants. I hope you enjoy it.
Approaching my garden gate.
Entering the garden and looking to the back border. (looking east.)
North end of the garden looking Southeast toward poppy beds and back and side borders.
Entering the North gate looking south to the blueberry bushes.
Middle of garden on west side looking south to blueberry bushes. Tomato seedling at the bottom of picture have just been put in.
Almost at blueberries in south west corner looking north.
Thanks for stopping by.
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Organic Gardening is easy, effective, efficient — and it’s a lot healthier.
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How beautiful!! Your garden is huge. I am awed that you can manage such a large space (even if it is mulched and organic)
Thanks for the tour.
Beppy
Thank you so much for sharing the photos of your garden. I suddenly realized I have the perfect spot in my veggie garden for an iris bed. I am so excited. Now to get the soil ready. Will level off an area (we are on a hill) and cover with straw and leaves and it will be ready to plant by fall. We have to put some type of border protection because of strong winds this time of the year. Every afternoon and sometimes all day the wind blows. I keep the straw damp until it settles and then it stays in place.
Your plants look so healthy. My onions are not that big. Might give them a shot of fish fertilizer (liquid) to give them a boost. The garlic I planted last October is doing great. Picked lettuce, aruguala and spinach again yesterday. Thanks again for sharing
Thanks for the tour. I just put in my tomato seedlings yesterday. I read on the Southern Exposure website (which is where I purchased some of my seed) is that they recommend not mulching heavily until the really warm weather comes in June. The rationale is that heavy mulching now would prevent the soil from warming up. I see you have quite a bit of straw around your tomato plants. I was debating about this yesterday but ended up leaving most of the mulch on. Let me know what you think.
Also this is somewhat off topic but I have had horrendous problems with slugs this year on my peas and dill seedlings. What is your preferred method of dealing with them?
Thanks!
Steve
Beppy, how wonderful to hear from you! Hope all has been well.
To tell you the truth — as much problem as I have getting around (sometimes are worse than others) — I am in awe that I can manage the garden and borders. For the last few days the pain has made things difficult and when I look around at all the bloom and everything growing I say to myself — “Surely I didn’t do all that!” 🙂
The next thing I say to myself is —“Boy! if I can do it as slow as I am —- anyone can do it!” That should be encouraging to many!
That’s so much for commenting Beppy! I’ve missed you.
Theresa
Hi Alice,
I put your comment about keeping “the straw damp until it settles —” in bold. Lots of folks seem to have that problem and I thought what you do might be of help to them. Thanks on their behalf for the great tip.
Sounds like your garden is in full swing and doing great. Your onions may not be as big as mine — perhaps because you planted them later than I did? I planted at the end of February and again the middle of March.
Do you already have iris elsewhere on your property? Have you grown them before? I’d be interested in knowing more of your plans. Sounds like it will be lovely. You can email me (theresa@tendingmygarden.com) if you don’t want to leave a reply here.
Thanks for such an interesting comment.
Theresa
Hi Steve,
I’ve been mulching heavily for 34 years. I’ve never had any trouble with tomatoes. They’re one of my best crops and I grow lots of tomatoes.
I have no means to water anything. I am totally dependent on my straw to keep needed moisture in the soil. I don’t want to loose any of it.
I’ve never waited until June to mulch.
There have been times over the years that various “pieces” of the garden have — due to wind or lack of straw — remained unmulched — or mulched only lightly. When that happened — the soil there was so dry by June I could forget planting anything in it. And after it’s dry — mulching won’t help much — because for the most part it stays dry under the mulch until after many, many soaking rains.
This year I waited until March 15 to start my tomatoes. I am just putting them in the garden in the last few days. I mulched right up to the stalk and then put my tomato stake in. It sorta holds that close mulch in place. If I don’t do this, I find it hard to mulch close “after the fact”.
Regarding slugs: I use Escargo for slugs and have for years. It works very well and is not harmful. (In spite of that — I still am moderate in using it.) But it definitely works. One of my lettuce spots must have had baby slugs hatch out in the area the other night and that lettuce was covered with those creepy things. I sprinkled escargo all around and I have not seen any more damage. Here’s the link to Garden’s Alive that will save you $20. $20 FREE off your first order at Gardens Alive!
. Put Escargo in their search box and the information you need will come up.
One note:They’ve been pushing Escargo Supreme which has a chemical that might be harmful to beneficials — so I suggest sticking with the plain Escargo rather than Escargo Supreme.
Let me know how you do.
Theresa
Wow! Your garden is always so inspiring. Thanks for the pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words!
Appreciate that Diane. One of the reasons I didn’t say much — is because I felt the pictures would say it all.
TMG is filled with pictures of my garden but I think everyone wanted to see the “entire” garden so-to-speak.
Good hearing from you!
Theresa
Hi Theresa!
Do birds ever mess up your straw mulch?
In my garden, a part of my morning routine is trying to put back mulch after the crows, mocking birds and various other feathered friends have scratched it off my raised beds and thrown it on the lawn… I am using seaweed for mulch in my ornamental beds and borders and composted grass clippings for vegetable beds.
Hi Kiskin,
Birds are in my garden all the time. I try to discourage the crows however, and thus far have been successful. There seems to be a gang of them, but they usually make so much noise that when I hear them I go out and run them off.
Yes, the birds do scratch a lot. And my guess is they eat a lot of the wheat seed in the straw. (A good thing.) But my straw is on so thickly that they really don’t make that much difference. Maybe more mulch is your answer.
Let me know what you decide and what happens.
Theresa
Ohhhhh, this makes me homesick! Everything looks so beautiful, just wish I could see it and smell it and breath it in person.
This year is the best and prettiest garden yet, Ann. And I miss my favorite garden visitors!!
Your garden is so beautiful. Keep making it beautiful. How long have you been gardening?
Thank you.
Have been gardening 42 years.
Theresa