Show Us Your Vegetable Garden Long Views

Calalily,
You feedin' all of South Padre Island???!! Very nice garden patch(es)!

This is my first summer of real gardening -- just grew tomatoes and peppers last year. This year we have 3 kinds of squash, bush beans and pole beans, red and green peppers, two kinds of tomatoes, two kinds of melons (hopefully, I got them in the ground late!), and herbs.

What a nice garden, Happygirl! And what are those lovely blue flowers? I tucked flowers here and there amongst my veggies and noticed that I really liked the combination of blue lobelia and orange marigolds. I'm not normally a fan of the color orange but in this setting it's gorgeous. You have the same thing going in your garden with your nasturtiums and the blue flowers. Pretty!

I am now thinking that I overdid it a bit with my garden. The beans are exhausting me! Usually they don't come up that thickly, but this year everything is going nuts. I can barely find my squash and cucumbers under all the foliage. Maybe it was all the rain. But I have a freezer full of beans, squash, peas and asparagus already!

what a great thread! I've totally enjoyed seeing everyone's gardens - wow some of you have some serious space!

Greenhouse_Gal, the blue flowers are petunias, planted to attract bees. I have nasturtiums and marigolds as well. The petunias are acting as a nice trap crop for pinchers as well. But they are kind of a pain to deadhead... sticky! I'm also drowning in green beans this year - harvesting about 1/2 a pound a day. My husband and I just bought a chest freezer, and I bought a "dummy's book" on canning... The garden is a lot of work, but I'm having the time of my life. It sure feels good to sit down to dinner and be able to say that I grew 80% of what is on the plate! And the tomatoes are finally coming on! WoHoo!
-Patty

Patty, I usually don't do petunias because of the deadheading, but those are beautiful. And I love blue flowers.

Sounds like you're better than I am about keeping on top of your beans. I discarded almost as many as I kept this morning because that patch got away from me a bit and the beans got too big. I had harvested Fortex and Fin de Bagnol yesterday; these were my Pelandrons and the plants were loaded. I planted them thickly because they often don't germinate 100%, but these were seeds I saved myself and it looks like each one grew. This morning I blanched and froze seven 10 - 12 oz. packages. Yesterday I think I did about ten of the two other varieties.

We have geese and chickens and my husband sometimes gets a deer on our property, so we can often sit down to a meal that's all from our place. It's a very good feeling, you're right! And besides, it tastes so much better than anything you can buy, doesn't it?

Beautiful thread! I love looking at other people's gardens.

Here's the garden plot I'm borrowing from my brother. I have about 12 different herbs around two sides that I purchased as plants from the nursery. Other than that, I did everything from seed. Watermelon, pumpkin, bush beans, pole beans, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, nasturtiums, basil, thyme, onions, peppers on one side of his strawberry patch not shown in the picture. So far I've harvested only squash, but everything is coming along nicely.


This message was edited Jul 5, 2009 12:27 AM

The tomatoes are my favorite gardening achievement this year. I started them under flourescent lights in my apartment. They didn't look like much when I put them out, but they've really taken off.

One more . . . I made a playhouse (for my two-year old nephew) out of unwanted saplings that my brother cut out of the treeline.

Planted seeds for vines, and I'm hoping they make their way to the top and cover the branches. Cucumbers, moonvine, and nasturtiums. (The nasturtiums are lovely but don't seem to be climbing.)

Lorraine on DG organized a seed give-away for first-year members, and I planted cypress vine and hyacinth bean that I got in that. (Such thoughtful, generous people on here!) I'm especially excited about the hyacinth bean vine, which you can see making its way up the right side. (And I plan to remove the pods to prevent the little one from having a chance to much on them.)

Also planted a couple of sunflowers outside the door of the playhouse.

Nice garden, dividedsky! I like the way you've mulched everything, too.

We used to make bean teepees for our kids. I have an old photo (not on the computer, of course!) of them crouched down inside their teepee munching on beans.

very nice .... love the playhouse! I planted some scarlet runner beans to cover a trellis for the kids (and hummingbirds) will post a pic when they grow a bit more. My son thinks they are Jack and the Beanstalk beans :)

Thanks! The straw looks nicer than I thought it would. It's the most economical way to go, but I was afraid it would look too much like . . . animal bedding, I guess. I cheated and put newspaper underneath to keep the weeds down.

I'd love to see the runner beans.

WNYWillieB, the soil was variable. Some of it was silt, some clay. We added tons of compost, made raised beds then covered with mulch of partially decomposed grass clippings. I planted the melons to cover the ground during the summer. They've covered everything! It's a jungle out there.

Dividedsky, are those teepees over your tomatoes? We bought the biggest tomato cages we could find and they still blew over in the wind(we have terrible wind) and the plants grew out the top, fell down and are now growing back up again. We tried putting a post between each four cages and tying them to the post. That helped some, but it's still hard to pick the tomatoes.

Gymgirl, today I picked summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots, okra, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, canary melons, honeydews, cantaloupes and 10 watermelons. There was enough for 4 or 5 families. I gave it all away. I'm out of room, the fridge and freezer are full and the farmer's market is closed till October. I'll pick more tomorrow. Plus I have two 30' rows of sweet potatoes that I dig "as needed" and green onions that are left till needed.

Here is one happy lizard in the cantaloupe patch.

Yep. Four, six-foot bamboo stakes. Seem to be working out fine so far.

Here's a discussion on staking tomatoes: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/953870/ Someone there talks about making tripods with the bamboo and stabilizing a row of them with a pole across the top. If you have a lot of wind, though, maybe you need a permanent structure? They talk about how to do that, too.

That's an amazing harvest you're getting!

That was me! I actually use 8-foot bamboo poles, and I got the idea for the structure from gardens in the south of France. Here's a picture of my tomato patch earlier in the season:


This message was edited Jul 6, 2009 6:44 AM

And here they are now. You can see the cross-pieces going in the other direction in this photo.

I wish I'd seen that earlier! Someone I know cut their bamboo, it must have been 20-25' tall and was nice fat poles.

They are really handy. I also use them for my bean fencing. They're strong and attractive. Does your source have more bamboo? Maybe next year?

I know someone who used to live on South Padre Island - she's an artist. It's funny to see the name here.

I belong to the Laguna Madre Art League. There are several artists from SPI.
They just extended water and electricity on the north end of the island, I want to say five miles which means more development. I wish they'd stop. I love the wildness of the north part of the island.

Yes, she moved because her place wasn't going to be viable much longer; with the storms it was just a matter of time. It sounded like a beautiful location, though. I also know some birders who go there.

greenhouse_gal - thanks for the info about uploading photos. My camera is due here today - hope to have photos soon.

I usually lurk here, but all the great gardens have lured me out. We are in Yorktown Va zone 7b. Here is our "back 40" --feet that is...well, maybe a few more than that. We've been in this house for about 4 years and you can tell by the plants. The greener part of the garden has been 'worked' with compost every year to loosen the crappy clay contractor fill we had to work with. the yellower and more stunted part was just added this year. Amazing what good soil can do for a plant. You are looking at zucchini and several types of green and yellow beans and a few peas.

Here's another view

I don't know what these green things are...but we have a lot of them!!! :)

Some Hibiscus 'Lady Baltimore' in the rain garden

Back 40 - feet. Haa!

Looks nice.

When someone at work catches me on DG, I just tell them I'm looking at my garden porn. :o)

I'd say you've done wonders in only 4 years. Looking very good.

What a nice garden, fasteddy! You've really got it looking good for only four years of toil. Very neat and pretty, too.

Fasteddy -

Thanks all for looking and Honeybee....I was just kidding :)

Fasteddy - Thought so, never heard of anyone having "too few" zucchini - one usually has to bribe someone to take them off your hands :)

hee hee! Several people in my office are fresh veggie fans, so they were enthusiastic about my initial squash offerings. We'll see how they are by the end of the season. I might end up having to leave them on their desks after hours and running. :o)

Wow .... stay away for a day or two and look at all y'all!!

Lookin' good!

Happygirl, looks like you have happyplants, too!! I like putting flowers in with the veggies, too!

I overdid the planting, too GreenhouseGal! Next year, as many plants, just more varieties, I think!!! Those tomatoes look great! I was thinking about teepees with bamboo this year, but never got the poles, so I am stuck with my usual wire fencing.

I like DividedSky's situation using tree branches as supports!

CalaLily, it looks like you have done really well amending your soil! Sounds like quite the produce coming out of your patch! Lovin' the lizard, too!

Nice back 40, there, FastEddy! I think I have 'bout 40, too!

Here's a shot of the main, long bed of veggies.

I think it will be about another week or two before things get into serious production out here.

We tried veggies in raised beds this year. So glad we did too. We have had lots of rain and lots of folks can't get in their gardens to work them. We will be adding several more for next year.

We have watermelon, Ambrosia cantalope, okra, tomatos, peppers, sweet basil, beans, cukes, summer squash. and an eggplant.

Looks great, PineView! I am thinking I want to try to grow okra next year, though I have never used it before.

WillieB, your garden looks great. It's so inspirational to see all these wonderful setups! PineView, you've got a lot in those beds, and they're so neat!

Great to see all the different vegetable plots. Very enjoyable thread, Thanks!

View from the other end!

Beans and Sweetcorn

courgettes