My garden is doing well this year thanks to all the heat and rain. I only grow the basics, nothing fancy. Just what I need, and this year, even less of that. So come behind the fence that divides the back yard, and I’ll show you around.
The first bed with the tepee stakes are tomatoes, of course. I’ve got 12 plants and that is half of what I usually grow. I grew up helping and watching my Mom can tomatoes, so I have always done it too. It’s not a job I necessarily enjoy because they always come in mass on the very hottest days of summer and canning with a hot water bath on a hot day is a hot job. So . . . by cutting the tomatoes in half this year, I should get enough to make sauces, casseroles, and BLT sandwiches, but not enough to can.
Tomatoes love hot weather and it’s been an unusually hot May and June with lots of rain, so they are doing well for this early in the summer.
Sharing the next bed over are the cucumbers . . .
. . . and zucchini, or as our European friends call them . . . courgettes.
And in this same bed, is one cherry tomato plant that was doing very well. I could almost taste those sweet little cherries that were coming right along.
But one dark night, some roaming neighborhood deer snacked on them first, and now I have none left. I guess I’ll have to throw a net over this plant too.
The next bed is a mixture of red, yellow, and white onions that I planted in a diamond pattern. Inside the diamonds and triangles, I planted cilantro, kale, zinnias, and snap dragons.
The first of the snap dragons just opened and that is exciting. I grew these from a purchased market pack, but the zinnias, which are not blooming yet, I grew from seeds.
And the last raised bed is planted with one market pack of annual salvia that is starting to bloom . . .
. . . and the rest of the bed has about 50 snap dragon plants that I grew from very expensive seeds that were mail ordered. I’ve been babying these little snaps for weeks. They are coming along and I think they’re “in the clear” as far as surviving. I don’t really enjoy growing things from seeds that much, but I wanted to be able to have a lot of flowers for “just cutting” for summer bouquets and these were supposed to be impressive snaps. It will be awhile yet before they bloom. Don’t look too close at this bed as it needs weeding . . . again. The snaps are hooped and netted because after all that work and waiting, the deer or rabbits are not eating my $20 worth of seeds if I can help it.
So that’s the tour and how my garden grows. I told you it wasn’t much . . . but it’s all I need, and I’m really excited about harvesting flowers this summer as a crop.
It’s beautiful, Cindy! I love it!
Thank you kindly Mary! It’s all I need as I get older. Just enough to be fun without being too much work. Do you have a veg garden?
Far from “not much”! The love you have for your garden is obvious, and how wise of you to tailor it to your needs. Why not grow snapdragons instead of too many tomatoes? I hope the snaps are as beautiful as promised. We’ll all look forward to seeing them!
It doesn’t seem like much compared to all the other garden bloggers who grown a million kinds of vegetables. I have just found that all those other things don’t grow very well for me and take up too much of my precious little room. I used to grow lots of kinds of lettuce, but realized I just like growing it, but not eating it. I think they are pretty, but I’ll stick to romaine and iceberg lettuce from the store. They don’t come with bugs.
I’m anxious to see the snaps too. I babied them for weeks and thought they were “goners” a couple times, but here we are, growing right along. They were so very tiny when they came up, it seemed utterly hopeless that they would turn into anything at all.
Your garden looks like a lovely place to be. That’s a really pretty way of protecting your flowers and veg in a raised bed. My snapdragons are looking a bit pathetic – I think I need to water them!
Thank you Ali. I made the transition to raised beds about 7 years ago. The only downside I’ve found about raised beds is you have to replace the wood about every 7 years, but other than that, you have more control over the dirt inside the beds, watering is more concentrated, and you don’t have to bend quite so far down. Except for the snap bed this year, my weeding time out there is very minimal. Happy weekend!
Absolutely charming gate and entrance to the garden. I loved the tour! I would grow all cut flowers over all vegetables, if I had to choose.
Thank you Katie! I’m looking forward to having more cut flowers this summer – a crop that feeds the soul.