Friday, August 2, 2013

How does your garden grow?

First, thank you all so much for your wonderful (and sometimes hilarious!) comments on our bathroom renovation! It's been great reading what everyone thinks about it. :)

Now let's talk gardening for a little bit, shall we? I'm not a huge gardener. After living in a condo or apartments for pretty much all of my adult life, it wasn't until we bought our house last year that I had a garden of any kind and grew anything more than a basil plant, indoors. We have a nice, petite city yard that's a great size for us. Big enough to dip our toes into gardening, but small enough that we don't get bored with all the yard work. Sure, I'd love more privacy, but that comes with having a city neighborhood house. So what if I sometimes run for cover when the neighbor comes out and I'm taking photos of myself? But I digress.

I thought I'd show you a few highlights from our garden this year. I haven't yet done much planting in the two main backyard beds we have. One bed has gorgeous well-established peonies in the spring and Asiatic lilies in early summer, with some gaps (and obviously, weeds). I can't tell you how much chives I pulled out this spring. And yes, I like chives just fine, but I don't need to grow enough for the entire Midwest.

In this bed, I'm still learning what comes up where, and what I'd like to add in the future.




Just for kicks, I did try to grow a few other things in this bed this year. I only got one little loney anemone early in July, pretty as it was...


But the gladioluses have been much more successful! Except they were supposed to be red.

Yeah, totally not red.


The other bed is next to our chain link fence on our neighbor's side, and is kind of a hot mess. It's a mix of four rose bushes, one random hibiscus, a big patch of day lilies, and some sedum. All spaced really far apart, with old-as-dirt lava rocks between them. There's also lots of weeds growing, some of which (like practically prairie grass) grows over from our neighbor's yard and drives me bananas. The other weeds in the bed don't really bother me much right now since we haven't really done anything with this bed, so we just pull the really bad ones.

We have to do some serious thinking about this bed for the future, but at least in the meantime we have some pretty bloomers.




The hibiscus (a luna rose, which I was able to identify last year from some sleuthing) is just starting to bloom today!


This bed, because of all the weird gaps, is also where I put my container tomatoes. So far we've had some delightful cherry tomatoes!


Our juliet grape tomatoes are just starting to ripen, and we've had our first large patio tomato, which was twice the size of our largest last year!


 With a second soon on the way!


I also love to fill our deck with containers of annuals and herbs, since it's a favorite summer spot for us.


Our thyme is growing nicely from seed...


Earlier in the summer we had cilantro and our first crop of radishes, plus catnip for Dinah, all grown from seed as well.


And two kinds of basil plants (sweet and Greek) are going to town. We've already made yummy pesto and need to again!


Now see those huge leaves on our lattice, to the right of the basil up there? That's our pole beans. When my dad was here to remodel the bathroom, he made us a cedar bed, where I intended to grow annuals each year, switching things up if I wanted. Here's what it looked like at the beginning of June, before we completely turned over the grass and filled in with soil and some peat moss...


I planted pole beans and zinnias from seed, and have been very patient. The pole beans are now growing like crazy, and the zinnias are just starting to bloom. I'm so excited!


Let's not forget our favorite gardening assistant!


The zinnia seeds are a mix of red, pink, yellow and white, and it's delighting me to see which color blooms next!



Since lots of other colorful things in the garden have come and gone or are fading, it's so much fun to see the zinnias just kicking off!



How about you? What are you growing this year—in your garden, on your balcony or deck, or in your home?



19 comments:

  1. Ohhh lovely! I can't wait to have a garden of my own someday :) p.s. Peonies are my fav!

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  2. You have a great garden. I love growing plants from seeds. It's such an exciting experience. At the moment I'm growing some heirloom tomatoes and tomatillos. They're both flowering and I can see the tomatoes budding. I just hope that there's enough time for them to grow and ripen.l

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  3. The peonies are gorgeous, and I adore the photo of the rosebud unfurling, it's just a perfect image of natural symmetry! Thanks for sharing your beautiful garden with us.

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  4. I have an absolute black thumb and couldn't keep a plant alive to save my own life (does it go without saying that my dad was a landscape architect? Just like the barefoot children of the cobbler). I love your garden - especially those peonies!!! WOW!

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  5. Great job! your garden looks so beautiful :) I LOVE the exotic Lilies! I wish I had a real garden, even a small one.

    I put some Dahlias and Verbena on the balcony this summer, but for some reason I just can't seem to get them to survive very well. Part of it might be the difficult weather conditions (long dark cold winter, and rainy summers), but then it's easy to put the blame on something else than myself :D Perhaps I should have started with something easier, like cactus.

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  6. The peony, what a beautiful plant !
    I love gardening ! For the moment, with the nice weather, I spend more time in the garden than sewing. I know my blog is in French but I have a lot of pictures of it in the "garden" category: http://popupmonster.wordpress.com/category/garden/
    I'm trying to give it a tropical feel even if I live in a very temperate climate.

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  7. O.M.GOODNESS for someone who hasn't grown much, you've got the green thumb! I'm terrible and we have quite a big block that's ripe for gardening, but I just don't have time! I'm planting succulents and perhaps really simple Australian bush scrubs or rock scrubs and plants so they can survive without watering!

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  8. Your garden is absolutely fantastic! I love the vibrancy and diversity of blooms at work here, as well as that you're growing some scrumptious produce as well. We've never had a place with a garden of our own yet, but if we ever do, I hope to follow your lead and plant both flowers and veggies (and perhaps some berries).

    Tons of hugs & joyful weekend wishes,
    ♥ Jessica

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  9. Wow, for someone who professes to not be a huge gardener, you certainly seem to have the magic touch! Beautiful flowers and the veges and herbs are great too. I have never had any luck with cilantro, don't think it likes our climate. However my lemongrass is going great guns!!

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  10. Looks great.
    Can only imagine what it is like finally having a garden, I so wish it was me!
    But, but, I do have basil, parsley, chives, thyme and coriander in my kithchen window. Though all from plants and not seeds. But last year I mangaged to kill them all fairly quickly, so I am very proud they are still alive this year!

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  11. It looks like you're a natural at gardening Tasha, your garden has so much interest, it's really lovely. We have a shady London garden which I love, but my big gardening news is that we now have an allotment! If you're not familiar with them in the US, they're patches of communal land that you rent from the council for the sole purpose of growing fruits, vegetables and flowers. I can't take any credit for anything grown in our garden or allotment as my husband's the gardener in the family, but I'm enjoying eating everything that grows (courgettes, peas, beans, strawberries, raspberries, potatoes...) You've inspired me to take a few pictures of our allotment, I may share then in a blog post soon. Keep up the good work! x
    ps. My favourite flowers are tulips, I LOVE them

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  12. How wonderful! Your roses are beautiful. I LOVE roses! Here in TN knockout roses do well and I planted 3 bushes that are now full of pink roses. My joy is sitting out on the porch in the evening pruning, picking, and admiring them. I always think back in the 40s and 50s and how homeowners just adorned and cared for their roses :).

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  13. I love your zinnias! I planted a great little Victory garden this year and everything is going wild! I have so many zucchini I'm passing them off to neighbors and the basil is like a tree! Hello, pesto!!

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  14. Oh, I'm a little jealous now, you have a gorgeous garden :D I live in building, so I can't have all these beauties :D

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  15. Oh I love your deck! Your herbs look great. My basil is practically a tree but that's the only one I've had good luck with in our Florida climate. I also haven't gotten a ripe tomato...the raccoon's keep taking them!

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  16. Goodness, you have a beautiful yard! And you say you're not really a gardener?? I don't believe it :) For the first time I have a little back yard (city lot as well), that consists of mostly cement slab, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it. I love my houseplants though!

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  17. Wow, what a nice deck and yard! Really lovely! My mom helped me put a flower bed in my front yard last summer after we moved into our new apartment, and I added some flowers this spring. Predictably, everything she did looks great and the stuff I put in is all scraggly and dying!

    Your peonies are so beautiful! They're my favorite. :)

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  18. Oh,how I long for a garden!! Yours is lovely x

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  19. Wow, you have some really pretty and colourful flowers growing in your garden, and what a fab selection of edible items!!!

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