A Rose City Veggie Garden: May 27, 2009

I planted my little back-yard garden just a bit over a month ago now, around April 24. Now, at the end of May, things are looking green, fat, and happy, if a bit slug-munched [contented sigh.]

My garden, for the most part, is a little square outside the back door, under the kitchen window. There's a pink climbing rose called 'Eden' that's in bloom now, above the door. It graces the corner of the square, and has been there for six or seven years now. I think it's one of the sweetest, most adorable roses, and grows with very little fuss.

In the garden, I have peas, garlic, a bean, leeks, broccoli, cabbages, lettuce, spinach, and an onion. This weekend I got a pumpkin start (not a great pumpkin [remember that?], just a regular-type pumpkin) and a butternut squash, to replace the spinach, which is about done. Around the border, I've planted about a dozen lily-pad-leafed nasturtiums, and their floaty stems spill out onto the sidewalk. The blossoms top a salad with pure sunshine.

The bluish-green of the broccoli is the prettiest color in the world. Near that cabbage-green and against the dark soil, the color is deep and cool. The stems sturdily make their ways up, up. I can hardly wait for the bouquet of tiny florets. Its a miracle. You feel that way, watching things try.

The cabbage moths are making eyelet of my Napa cabbage. I think I was supposed to put a collar around the little cabbages, but I didn't. I'll learn. The hard way, but oh well.

This is an organic garden, with soil sweetened by compost, fed with a bit of organic fertilizer before planting. I watered in some beneficial nematodes that my mom got for me, but otherwise, nothing. It is what it is, at least this year, as I learn how to grow things.

Well, hallo kitters. You've come to keep me company. Thank you.

I took the little patch of hay-mulch out very soon after it went in. It quickly turned into a a really gross mat of scuz [wistful sigh].

I still wish I had the hay. And a sprightly dapple-gray Connemara pony named Musette [wistful double-sigh].

But a little spot of country green'll do.

*

So that's the willow-edged garden.

*

Over toward the back, there are the containers, in the sun.

Here we have all the ubiquitous herbs, along with a lot of basil, a few tomatoes, a bit more lettuce, four potatoes, and two pots of strawberries.

Here is a potato!!!!!

This is a cape mallow called 'Very Cranberry.' I LOVE THIS THING.

Strawberries:

Jeesh. They're pretty.

Oh. It's another kitters. Sleeping beauty.

 

Comments

[Emily]

GORGEOUS! Well done. The yard looks beautiful.

[kate]

... so beautiful...

[Natalie]

It's like a breath of fresh air for my soul.

[Misty]

Just lovely. It looks like a marvelous place to dream.

And now I want to plant nasturtiums and strawberries.

[rachellake]

I envy your garden so much, I cannot wait to have some space for green and growing. So beautiful, thank you for sharing :)

[Badger]

Your garden is just lovely! It's all a learning experience, even when you've been doing it for a while (or that's what my dad tells me, and he's been gardening for 40+ years).

I'm growing potatoes for the first time this year, too! SO EXCITING! I dug one of them up too soon and it really did have teensy red potatoes on it, about the size of my pinky fingernail. Hard to believe that big plant with the pretty flowers is making real, live potatoes down under there!

[Tania]

We are slowly plotting in our heads our vegie patch - done true Aussie style, I think, using round water tanks without their tops or bottoms as raised beds. But while we are still plotting, what a delight to see the possibilities - cabbage moth and all!

[Laura A.]

Bee-youtiful! I am letting my garden run wild this year as I've gone back to school and freelancing. Thanks for giving me something to aspire to next year!
And nematodes are great! I found they really cut down on slugs.

[Dave]

Man, I need to get out and take some good pictures of our garden - we have lettuce and spinach and chard and radishes and yellow onions and carrots and beans and peas and tomatoes and both wild and domestic strawberries and some volunteer beets in our veggie garden. Then in front of our apartment, we have (amidst various flowers and bushes) thyme, two kinds of oregano, three kinds of basil, chives, dill, garlic, a red onion, sage and cilantro.

It's been so much fun getting more and more into planting things, and I was just saying to my wife the other day, that it seems somehow so comforting and just nice somehow, that things just grow, often without any intervention. They grow, it gets cold, things die, it gets warm, and up they come again, just as if nothing ever changed. Many of our herbs, our onions, our beets, some lettuce all did this. Life is overflowing.

[Dianne]

LOVELY! You will have such fun at harvest time. I'd love to do that but the DEER here would think I'd planted a candy store for them!

[Chris Howard]

My parents used to put out little containers of beer for the slugs. At least they died drunk and happy.

[Megan]

Beautiful pictures of your little garden. It is so amazing to watch it all come up and the be able to eat it! I love it.

[Leslie]

oh my, alicia, this is so exciting and just darn lovely...you are even tempting this little black thumb a bit...perhaps some herbs this year at least :)

[Julie]

It looks so great! I really love your little fence.

[Gemma]

Just beautiful! I especially like your comment - "Its a miracle. You feel that way, watching things try." I keep trying to remember...that it is the trying, not the success (although that is nice, too!) that is important. Thanks for the reminder :)

[Elaine/MuddlingThrough]

It looks like you have a little piece of Eden there. Isn't it great to have your very own vegetables and flowers growing!

[Hungarican Stephanie]

I think I may have to try containers next year for a garden, I'm green with envy. I do know that the fruits might fall victim to voracious forest wildlife though. ::grumble::

[elenka]

Lovely, lovely photographs. I love the way camera can capture the fantastic colors of nature. So nice.

[Rebecka Ryberg Skött Vintage Fairy Tales]

I love the little "fence" that surrounds the plants!

[Candice]

Oh Miss Alicia, how does your garden grow?
With cabbages & strawberries & kitties all in a row!

Is everything you do gorgeous?
Even your laundry basket {in a previous post} is gorgeous! And your messy fabric cupboard is gorgeous. And that sweet Clover Meadow doglet is double delicious gorgeous...

Thank you so much for my daily dose of gorgeousness :o)

[Aime]

Your yard is what I keep telling my husband we should use as inspiration for ours. One of these days we will get around to starting the overhall. I also really like that you left the labels on the tomato cans ~ pretty cute!

[Kelly]

it's absolutely divine, lovely!

[Susan]

Gorgeous! Did you make the willow border and trellises?

[KellyA]

What a beautiful garden. Just lovely.

[Tess Burns]

I gave you a blog award. I have enjoyed your blog for many years. Thanks!

http://hopscotchstudioblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-feel-so-loved-blog-awards.html