Welcome to my Community Garden, year 2015.
Also welcome to my picture post. The garden is so big and there's so much to show and explain about it that I'm breaking it up into two posts. This first post which is a HEY look at the garden post, and then another post next week which will be a HEY look at the garden post. With more words and different pictures. It'll explaining why I did certain things, how I did certain things and how much certain things cost.
But for now it's just a show and tell. Actually that's not true at all, it's just a show. Tell will be next week. Well, there's a little bit of tell right now but it won't be funny or entertaining. It will be the kind of words you'd find in a regular blogger's post where they actually do things efficiently and get right to the point.
Left side of the garden
(carrots, red onions, bunching onions, red and yellow shallots, potatoes, broccoli, red peppers, jalapeno peppers, flowers)
Centre of the garden
(swiss chard, fennell, Kelsae onions, cauliflower, rutabaga, dinosaur kale, sweet potatoes, potatoes)
Right side of the garden
(beets, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, radish, peas, green beans, pickling cucumbers, corn, flowers)
I tell everyone who wants a neat tidy garden to grow cabbage. They fill out quickly so no weeds grow underneath them and they always look perfectly round and ... perfect.
Rainbow swiss chard. Slightly more tender than the traditional white stemmed variety.
And way nicer to look at. I mean seriously, LOOK at that. That's a pageant vegetable if I've ever seen one.
The sweet potato bed. As you can see the near end has bigger, fuller plants. The far end the plants are about ¼ the size. The near ones are slips I started myself, the far ones are slips I ordered online.
Cutting broccoli.
The broccoli. It had cabbage worm. If you can still stomach the thought of eating a vegetable that may or may not be infested with caterpillars that are the exact same colour as the thing you're eating ... just soak the vegetable in cold water with a handful of salt for at least 20 minutes. The worms will come away from the broccoli.
That's in theory anyway. I did it to my broccoli when I got it home and the bottom of my sink had about 6 cabbage worms when I was done soaking. Yet ... the head of broccoli still remains in my fridge where it will probably die a slow death due to my dreaded worm fear.
I've already picked jalapeño peppers and I'll keep doing that until the fall at which point I'll pick ALLLL the jalapeño peppers and then make these to keep in the freezer over winter.
One of 3 potato beds in my community plot. I. Heart. Potatoes.
This is the russet bed. There are also Kennebecs, Chiefton reds, Banana fingerlings and Peruvian Purple potatoes planted prior to picking the peck of peppers.
Zucchini. Zucchini plants always croak, so I planted 4 to help make sure I get more than 5 zucchinis. They're susceptible to wilt, rot, and vine borer to name a few.
At the back of my garden on both the left and right side, I have raised bed cutting gardens. I grew all the flower varieties from seed so I could have control over the colours and types I grew. This is the first pink/purple Zinnia.
And this weedy looking thing is the flower I've been meaning to grow for a few years now.
Big Hairy Balls.
Lime green zinnias.
A place to work.
Bulb Fennel from Cubits. For making Apple/Fennel salad.
Tomatoes. Hmm. Smaller than a field, larger than a patch. My tomato fatch.
16 San Marzanos for making sauce in the fall and 5 heirloom varieties for eating tomatoes.
San Marzano is the "in" tomato right now. The reason I'm growing it is I'm a sucker for testing whether something that's "in" is actually worthy of being "in". What probably makes a true Italian San Marzano tomato great is the fact that it's grow in Italian soil and climate. Growing it here probably produces a tomato pretty much like any other tomato. Although it is an heirloom which a Roma is not and it is supposed to be less acidic ... both things that I like.
Now get the hell out of my garden. I have work to do before you come back next week.
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brenda
Your community garden is unbelievable. And to think you have a home garden also. Boggles my mind.
Also, I'm so jealous of your Hairy Balls. I ordered the seeds (because i saw them on your blog), planted them, forgot where I planted them and assume they never sprouted.
Maybe you'll share some of your balls with me? I'll pay for postage : )
Safetydog
Your garden is gorgeous! I had to resort to containers this year, as the raised bed had to make way for the new shed, to get the shed out of the flood zone. We'll put another raised bed in next year. Until then, my plants are barely surviving. And after a big storm blew my tomato plants over yesterday, all of the tomatoes had fallen off the plants. So we start again. Even the jalapenos are struggling this year, and they usually flourish, producing well into the fall. If I were a homesteader, we would starve. :(
Ella
BEAUTIFUL! LOVE THIS! What is that cool peg board with leather straps, in the 2nd pic?
Karen
All things like this explained in the next post Ella. :) ~ karen!
Cred
Serious envy!
Linda
I am so jealous of this beautiful garden plot.. my garden failed this year due to all the rain in Illinois. It's the middle of July and I don't have a single healthy plant. Next year with any luck, I will be able to can something. I love your raised beds.
Mary W
One short sentence - A Thing of Beauty. One question - does the outside fencing keep coons out? One wish - that I could smell this garden especially after a rain. One special picture that I want to watercolor? that most gorgeous "says it all about gardens" picture of the pageant goddess. One hard working, inspiring, wonderful blogger? - Karen
Karen
LOL. Feel free to watercolor away. :) And thanks for the compliments. The fencing is technically supposed to keep raccoons out, but we'll see. It didn't last year! It's dug into the ground by 3" or so and is kind of flimsy so it's harder for them to maneuver. If your fencing is super-tight it's like a tightrope for them. Easy to climb. ~ karen!
Jan in Waterdown
Don't hold your breath. I mean about the raccoons! They'll climb anything . . . they're little a$$holes!! They climb up the most delicate branches on my service berry trees which snap under their weight, then poop fruit all over my deck. My neighbours feed them corn . . . grrrrr . . . then they come over to our place for dessert.
Patty
How are you keeping your garden pest free? I know you mentioned the worms on your broccoli but everything looks great. I've got bugs munching my kale and basil (not sure who is having the salad buffet yet), zucchini and summer squashes (damn squash bugs), etc.
Karen
The kale is probably also being eaten by cabbage worms. I hand pick everything but really my only nemesis is the cabbage worm. And cucumber beetles, not because they eat everything but because they carry disease that'll make anything like zucchini or cucumbers wilt and die overnight. :( ~ karen!
Su
I love and grow zinnia too! I usually take a few packets of them (and always include the lime green) and mix them together and throw them in a patch with cosmos...... :)
your veggies look fabulous!
Edith
Karen....it's so beautifully bountiful.....
You did a great job!
marilyn
wowsa girl!! now that's a garden
Ev Wilcox
Beautiful garden! I am now officially the laziest gardener I know. The shame of it....
IRS
No you're not. I'm still finishing up my Spring cleanup. From 2006.
judy
ErmaGawd! I have often wondered how humans like you get to be Humans like you. I am always reading Blogs and Books about being efficient, productive and still not looking like a crazed driven, anxious version of my former self which happily stumbled through my ADD riddled existence paying more attention to the unanswerable questions of Life while ignoring laundry piling up, dishes unwashed, and dinner begun when dinner should be on the table. Looking at that garden it has all become crystal clear to me that you are very smart, very organized and rarely distracted from the task at hand. Kudos to you and you have inspired me to the realization that I can never be you or achieve your level of efficiency so I am going to stop trying and just be content with what I can manage to get done. It would be disastrous if everybody was like me and kinda scary if everyone was like you- especially with the ominous Cleaver as your Emblem.
Tara
Just gorgeous. And your gate! Love it.
Wendy
First: you are a wonder!
Second: I wouldn't keep reading your blog happily if you wrote like other bloggers. I don't do all the stuff you do, but I like your style of writing about all the stuff you do. That's what keeps me in. That and the hairy balls. Love those. What are they really?
Karen
They really are Big Hairy Balls Wendy, lol. No idea what their latin name is, but if you google Big Hairy Balls you'll find them. OMG!!! Add the word flower to your Google search or you'll be in for a real shitshow. ~ karen!
Pearl
Aha! Those are some balls--we encountered other botanical balls a while ago.
Some years ago my daughter and I kept seeing significantly smaller hairy balls on a kind of delicate flowering plant in my neighbourhood. We referred to them as Old Man Balls--they looked a bit dangly...
When we found out the proper [English, not botanical] name of OMB, we were delighted--the plant is called "Love in a Mist." Or, Old Man Balls.
IRS
Yeah......Googled BHB. Forgot to add "flowers". After I threw water on my eyeballs to put out the fire, I checked my browser history. Now I'm heading over to the lake, to throw my laptop in. Can I say "I hate Mindy" now? I thought that was a thing around here.
Tigermom
Wow! Amazing. The gate is perfect. And on to the questions (which you are probably going to answer in next weeks post).
- What is the plant in the cabbage patch with the gigantic leaves with beautiful purple veining and leaf stems?
- I'm guessing the board with the pegs and the leather handles is a contraption for making holes for planting seeds?
And I have been (mistakenly, as I forgot about your post on it) taking credit for a recipe I've been using to make lower calorie jalapeno poppers. I don't wrap them in bacon or do them on the grill though. I add finely shredded cheddar/jack cheese to softened cream cheese that I season with Chipotle chili powder and bake them at 425 for around 20-25 minutes. I truly thought I had come up with this solution for a healthier version of them myself, but now I know the seed for that idea was planted way back when, when I read about your version of them. You are a more prolific gardener than you know.
Karen
Hi Tigermom! Yup, I answer a lot of questions in the upcoming post. But that plant in the cabbage patch is ... cabbage. :) Red cabbage. ~ karen!
jainegayer
Beautiful garden! And I'm intrigued as well as IRS about that board with the pegs and leather straps.
IRS
Truth be told, I'm pretty sure I know what it is. It's used to press into the soil, and the pegs make evenly spaced holes, all of a perfect depth, for planting seeds. But I would still rather use it as a weapon against trespassers. And people who just annoy me. Of which there are plenty.
TucsonPatty
That was the first question I had, and couldn't quit looking at that photo! But why are the amazing leather handles on the same side as the hole punching side? Seems like there might be a surprise on the other side, also?
Winegirl
shared on our city's community garden FB page: https://www.facebook.com/HamptonVAcommunitygardens
Winegirl
Holy moley Karen! Your garden is beautiful! How many square feet total? How long have you had the plot? btw - if you add vinegar to your soaking water, the little bass-tards die and drop off your broccoli.
Oh yeah... coming down to the states any time soon?
Kim
OMG Karen! Your garden rocks! I am so envious. Good for you...we know how you stay so slim tackling things like this. It is picture perfect and thanks for those pics!
Kim
P.S.
If any can grow big, hairy balls you can! Your gate is gorgeous.
Phyllis Kraemer
Is the covering on the sweet potatoes to intensify the heat of heat of the soil, or for keeping down invasive visitors?
Cred
Yep, for heat. Put down early, it can pre-warm the soil before planting and then maintain warmth that sweet potatoes will thrive. It also keeps weeds down. We've used it for strawberries, too.
Karen
It's the heat the soil up Phyllis. Sweet Potatoes need HEAT to grow. The thermal plastic will heat the soil up by an additional 10-15 degrees F. ~ karen!