2016 Garden thread

Great to have this thread back! 

We've moved from downtown Baltimore (where I had a rooftop container garden):

We now live in suburbia and I have a backyard...maybe 1,000 square feet or so.  Lots of sunlight and clay soil.  We're probably not going to do a food garden this year but I'm working on designing the landscaping:

We had like a month straight of cool, rainy weather and now it feels like summer out.  So, maybe fall before we plant.  We do have an herb garden in our breakfast room window:

Thanks - we had good moisture this spring - I will get peaches this year for the first Time(yr 3).  The white and yellow irises had been in the front yard in the shade - I didn't know what they would turn into when I moved them (planted over Princess McKitty's grave).   I devote much of it to veggies, but have some perennial flowers.   And always sunflowers.   We are doing tomatoes (that center bed gets the best sun) eggplant, peppers lemon cuccs, , and winter squash.   I think there is a yellow patty pan squash in there too.  I seeded the lettuce and the kalE, and the poppies will really bloom in a few weeks.   There are also carrots and beets coming.   I think it will be a good year.

i really like the Indigo bush in the corner.    And the catmint really is the lowest maintence plant ever.  And the bees love it!  The bees have already found the purple flowers in pots (how did I forget the name already)

I'm sad - I can't see your photos

in my front yard, I have mostly shade.  On my porch I have pots and plant flowers.  Nothing expensive - just impatiens and coleus, and lobelia - cheap bedding annuals.  Heck - the pots are cute on their own.

 In VA, I think you could go a lot As you have more humidity.   gardenias!    I tried once and couldn't keep it moist enough, but it sure smelled pretty while they lasted.     Hydrangeas Don't want a lot of sun! but can get pretty big.    Try to find a local garden shop and ask their experts.  I hate it when I buy something I think is neat only to find it is not destined for high dessert conditions.   If you you have some sun, you might get some lettuce if you wanted to plant something you eat.   

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Just built and planted a raised veggie garden.  Pretty happy with ow it turned out.

That's really great...what's growing?

I think my HOA would have a fit if we built something like that.  LOL

Thanks, it was a bit more work, and more costly then I thought it would have been.  That is usually the case though isnt it?

I do have some wildlife fencing, it is hard to see in the picture.  It's a synthetic fiber of some sort, it is a pain in the butt to work with but once up I think it looks a lot better then chicken wire.  I am mostly worried about rabbits.  The deer in the neighborhood would just ignore it, there are plenty of easier options for them.

i have lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, several different types of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peppers, eggplant and peas.

I spent waaay too much time working in my garden last year.  Only to watch a hellish heat wave kill almost everything...I was crushed.  This year I took a more casual approach.   However, I have volunteer crops popping up EVERYWHERE.  I'm afraid to yank them up cuz...it just don't seem 'right'.  So what if I have potatoes in my beans and cukes in my tomatoes, right??

Jake are y'all's  gardens doing?  I on,y have tomatoes, Dukes and blueberries.  

I will finally get peaches

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My tomatoes.... I guess I shouldn't store my uranium next to them!

The plants are >5ft tall.  I've never seen tomato plants like this. I'll have to upload some pictures.  I am going to have plenty to can.  Makes me happy.  We have had some great weather.  It's been warm, sunny and wet.  I live in North Central Wisconsin too, so the growing season started not long ago.  I put them in the ground just before memorial day.  Lucky they never got nipped by a frost. 

Good tomato harvest today (hadn't picked in about 3 days).  We are going to make and can salsa.  I've been searching salsa recipes on line and it is information overload.  Anyone have a salsa recipe for canning that they like?

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I love your peaches.  We had a peach tree that took 10 years to grow to maturity and finally start producing peaches....and a year or two later it got some disease and died.  How long did it take your tree to mature and start producing?

Oh, I forgot to mention....and this is very important.....I've read where you need to have at least 2 peach trees for best results for cross pollination.  My guess it one of my neighbors has peach trees because all we ever had was one.  If I buy another peach tree, I will buy tree of them.....in case one dies.

this is our trees third year.   Aphids got them last year.   It is a self pollinating variety, so only 1 is fine.   Reno had a lot of rain in the spring and all the fruit trees are hanging low with fruit.   A friend has two apricot trees that are load d.   We preserved some, and made jam with some more, and they are still full of fruit.   I am going to make a BBQ sauce.