I Love Dandelions

Long Overdue Garden Update #1

Woweee - haven't updated in a while.

Biggest storm ever caused some big damage to the property. We lost a couple of big trees, but mostly everything else stayed in tact. We did end up with a big pile of firewood as a result, and the city came by and took away all the rest. They have also commited to planting a new tree in it's spot - very cool and totally unexpected.

Veggie Garden:

Successes: Snow peas and Beans are the best - I'm never NOT doing them again - so easy, and we're already harvesting crops. Next year I'm definitely doing successive planting of beans. Tomatoes are looking good, I've been trying to keep up on the watering. Surprisingly some last minute additions of cucumbers have done really well. I will start more of them way earlier next year (probably on a dedicated trellis of some kind - they are just climbing the fence this year). Onions are yummy and so easy - I'm going to plant more varieties next year.

Unsuccesses: Absolutely no luck with the green peppers. I've heard many others saying the same thing, so either it's a bad year for peppers, or we're all doing something wrong. Lettuce, carrots and radishes were a disaster. I think in my eagerness to conserve water I let a nice crusty layer form on this bed, and the seeds couldn't break through. Note to self for next year.

Perenials:

Things looked alot better this summer in general in this bed. Yarrow is going crazy right now, and the Phlox is just about ready to bloom. They are both pink and definitely look good together. I ended up adding tons of stuff over the spring and early summer, so it will be interesting to see what happens next year. What's new: Feverfew, Lavender, Bee Balm, Purple Coneflower, Monkshood, Mint, Liatris, Maltese Cross. Hopefully I'll see most of it again next year.

Shrubville:

Since I cleaned up this bed, I bought some awesome cocoa shells for mulch, but then realized that this is toxic to dogs, so I'll be digging it up this week, and giving the rest of the bag away to Science Nrrd. It smelled SO nice though, and the birds seemed to love it.

I got a nice clump of Stonecrop from a friend of mine at at work. I think it's Sedum herbstfreude 'Autumn Joy' if I'm not mistaken. Here it is. It will grow to roughly 3' x 3'.

Other:

The Sweet Pea trench worked out well, as did the Sweet Peas that I planted in the pot. I think I may continue to use the trench, but seed them a little thinner next year because they were tangling around themselves like crazy this year.

Potted Herbs are doing well except the SEED TAPE BASIL - no surprise, only one measly plant popped up. I also completely forgot about it after I planted them and never watered them so that MIGHT be part of the problem.

posted by The Sauce at 2:00 PM