Side Yard Wisteria Walk

Along our front fence line we have a great purple wisteria plant that shades the south side of our house during the summer. It has not been cooperating with my plan for it to grow up over the top of the pergola that Mark built for me last year. Instead it is trying to take over the fence line and the rest of the neighborhood along with it. I keep trimming it back hard in the hopes that it will eventually cover the pergola like it is supposed to.

We have tons of Agapanthus growing all over our yard. I am a great believer in free plants and when Mark and I decided to landscape for our wedding we had very little money to cover a huge area. I learned how to devide and propogate plants very quickly. One huge Agapanthus I devided turned into over 50 1 gallon plants. The ones pictured above will be devided this fall. They are very hardy, drought tolerant and the cut flowers last for weeks. The one thing that I hate about them is that they are snail breeding grounds. the snails love to hide between the leaves. I have been picking them off and feeding them to my chickens. The hens just adore escargot.

In the far background of this picture you can just see the pond that we will be installing later this summer. It will be surrounded by plants and have a little seating area next to it so that we can relax and enjoy it.

That is one of the best shady areas in our garden and it is rarely used. Adding the pond and seating will create a new outdoor room for us to enjoy.

Grape Vines

Grape Vine Fence



Baby Grapes
Planted along the fence line that separates our yard into smaller sections are 10 grapevines with an assortment of different types of grapes (some wine some table). I was thrilled to see some nice little grape clusters formed. The grapevines do a nice job of disguising the wood and wire fence and make a very pretty green wall. We planted the grapes right before our wedding last June. They were a little stressed out last year and did not produce many edible grapes. I work for a big winery and have all of the wine I could ever drink, however I am considering trying to make some homemade wine this year and lots of grape jelly for PB&J's.

Heirloom Tomato Rows

I've added a nice rice straw mulch over the entire garden. I'm hoping it will work to keep the weeds down and some extra moisture in. The photo above is of 2 rows of heirloom tomatoes we have growing on a tomato fence. The plants are secured to a wire fence supported by T-posts. It seems to be working well so far. I waited longer than I should have to support the plants and they were pretty out of control when I finally got around to tying them to the fence.
I've realized that I have been way over watering the poor plants so I am trying to cut back to every 3rd day. The leaves were starting to yellow and get a little curly which is a bad sign. Under the tomato plants I've planted carrots and baby spinach as well as beans and beets.

July 30, 2008 Harvest

Here’s what Mark and I harvested out of our garden tonight: Beets, Chard, Armenian Cucumbrs, Squash, Nectarines, Radishes, Beans, Tomato, Broccoli

I also picked this 6 bouquets of Roses, Dahlias, Lavender, Bells of Ireland, Agapanthus, Liatris, Artemisia, Hydrangea and Butterfly Bush.

Grabbed some fresh eggs too:

Not a bad shopping trip to the backyard

Back Garden Tour

On the east side of our green house we have planted Corn, Squash, Melons, Okra, Cilantro, Basil, Lettuce, Radishes and more....

South of the green house we have Beans, Peppers, Eggplants, Beets, Chard, Black Basil, Tomatoes, Onions, Strawberries and Rhubarb
Everything is doing really well. There are volunteer Tomato's, Melon, Eggplant, Cilantro and Bells of Ireland coming up all over the garden. I've been digging them up and moving them around as best I can.
This weekend I started some Lettuce, Peas, Kale, Beets, Turnips, Radishes, Carrots, Chicory, Broccoli, Cabbage and Cauliflower in 6 packs and 4 inch pots. They should be ready to put in the ground in a few weeks. The weather has been strange. It is still smoky from the wild fires and has remained overcast long into the day. It has not been hot enough to ripen may tomatoes (I've only had 2 ripe ones). I did not plant any early varieties, instead I chose all crazy colorful heirlooms. I'm regretting not having planted a couple of early girls. I bought a tomato from the Farmers Market Saturday morning. It was the most beautiful Pineapple Tomato that I have ever seen. It weighed a full pound and was $4. worth every penny.

The Pumpkin Patch

Here's a shot of our little pumpkin patch. It is located to the west of our green house next to the chicken coop. Mark had to raise up the sprinkler on to a pole because everything grew tall very quickly. There are about 10 different kinds of winter squash and pumpkins planted here.

All of my favorites like Golden and Blue Hubbard, Cinderella Pumpkins, Butternut, Sweet Dumpling , Potimarron , Musquee de Provence, Galeux d'Eysines , Red Kuri, Jarrahdale and more (Mark refuses to eat squash of any kind). I have already spotted some giant Golden Hubbard squash growing in the corner. According to the seed packet they only get to be 12 lbs, but I estimate that they will be at least 20-30 lbs when ripe. They are enormouse already.

I'll be eating home grown squash all winter. I can hardly wait!!!

Lavender Harvest

I invited my mother over this weekend to harvest some of our lavender. We have over 100 plants. I absolutely love the scent as I walk around the garden. It has been so alive over the last couple of weeks with the buzzing hum of hundreds of bumble bees busy at work. I sat on our lawn at the edge of the lavender watching a bee sip nectar from the tiny little blossoms. It was absolutely amazing. My mom took a wheel barrel full but there is much more. I am on a quest to find some really good uses for it this year. Last year I let it go unused. I'm thinking dryer sachets to add lavender scent to my linens. Anyone have any particular suggestions on how to use 3 more wheel barrels (at least) of dried lavender? If so please share :)

Why I love Roller Derby:

On Saturday night I took out an entire weeks worth of frustration, hostility and stress on the unsuspecting players from the Central Coast Roller Girls. Crashing into the other team as hard as I can on skates is extremely fun and it feels really good despite the sore muscles that go along with it. Sure, I took my fair share of hard hits too and I ended up on the ground more than once. I did what I had to do and I kept on skating even after taking a skate to the face in the 3rd period. I’m happy to say that I only got thrown in the box once and that was just for some elbows.

I feel quite serene now like all of the stress for last weeks flower show craziness is gone. It is a really good outlet for me and I’m happy that we won by over 100 points. I’ll be going to the chiropractor tonight to get adjusted, but it was all worth it.

Flower Show Results

I am excited to report that we won 1st Place, Best use of Summer Annuals and Best use of theme at the flower show.

The Best of Show award went to a beautiful garden that I will be posting a picture of very soon.

Minute Mans Meadow

I'm done with this years flower show entry. It took me and a few helpers around 15 hours to install. The judging takes place on Sunday Morning. I'm looking forward to finding out how we did. I think it came out lovely. I will snap a few pics of the competition tomorrow morning to add. That's one thing checked off this weekends work list:)