More Photos From My 2014 Yard & Garden Adventure

June 27th, 2014 - filed under: The Farm » Flora

sunflower

Waits’s first sunflower of the year! So proud of my baby boy gardener.



A few weeks back, I introduced you all to my 2014 yard and garden. But that post got cut short . . . because it was so long! So many pictures and I didn’t even get to my front yard. So here it is! The rest of the tour, over around the front of the house. Here’s what’s been going on . . .


grow kale in wine boxes

All through the fall I grew hardy greens – kale, chard, and collards – in wine boxes on my front porch. Every morning I harvested leaves for our green smoothies, that perfect trio of kale, chard, and collards. They’re pretty much gone by now, but oh, they were good while they lasted!


handful of homegrown greens
♥ Every morning ♥


And as the season warmed up, I began adding other vegetables to my yard. I’ve got quite the collection of wine box squashes and melons:


container garden squash
Pumpkins, pumpkins, watermelon, and honeydew.


Last year I grew a few jalapeño plants, and they provided plenty of fruit for my preservation fun. So this year, I thought I’d do the same. I purchased a single pepper plant:


pepper growth
Growing, growing, grown!


Which was fun, buuuuut . . . one pepper plant just isn’t enough! One night, way too late, I started reading about pepper preservation: homemade chili flakes, homemade hot sauce, and on and on. And, well, it was all over.


IMG_8394

A wine box pepper garden! I’m growing jalapeños, poblanos (to make anchos – for enchilada sauce!), tabasco chilis, and a single Hungarian purple pepper for my sweetheart. I can’t wait to harvest these babies!

And in other news, I’m growing herbs. LOTS of herbs:


herbs in pots on porch
A few of my herbs – oregano, marjoram, cilantro, and mint. I’m also growing parsley, savory, stevia, rosemary, thyme, and this:


lemongrass in pot

Homegrown lemongrass! I’ve had some trouble keeping this plant happy, but I’m really excited to finally use it in my cooking this summer.

I’m also growing some flowers out in the front, and they’re juuuust starting to bloom. I love a bud just before it opens – cinched up tight and full of potential, unable to hide the hint of color that’s just about to burst forth. I love the blooms, but the buds . . . the sweet promise carried in those buds . . . that might be my favorite part of all.


zinnia bud

Let’s see, what else? I’m growing a second round of tomatoes out front! They’re so cute when they’re small.


tomatoes in wooden boxes

And finally, the most exciting prospective project in my own yard and garden. These two:


trellis loofah plants

These may look unassuming, but they are anything but. They are, in fact, the pièce de résistance in my 2014 garden. And you’ll just have to wait to see if they turn out . . . just like I will.

~~~

So now it’s your turn!

What are you growing, and how’s it going? Please share, and if you can, link to your garden updates and photos. We’re all dying to see!! (well, at least I know I am)

Happy gardening everyone!

  • Tara

    I’ve been waiting, for *years*, to get in a permanent place and start a real garden. Well, we just decided to stay in this apartment (a quad-plex house), with a sunny yard, for about another year. So TODAY I am building a raised bed and getting started on my kitchen garden. I just placed a major order for heirloom seeds for things I can start in July and either harvest this fall or tend over the winter. (Zone 7 here) I also ordered a lot of bee-friendly flowers and herbs. I am so excited to get started. I am also jealous of that lemongrass plant! I want to grow it for cooking and herbal use, but they didn’t have it on the one website I’ve been on lately. Also, your new picture up top is gorgeous and long overdue. =D Oh, I thought of you and Waits when I read the sage description of the variety I ordered: it’s used in smudge sticks (or whatever they’re called)!

  • Kathi Vegana

    Your garden looks so beautiful!
    Did you grow the lemongrass from seed or did you re-plant some stalks you bought? And what are the two plants in your last picture?
    I already commented on your last garden-post what we’re growing, so I won’t repeat that here. We just came back from a 3-week vacation and unfortunately a few of my favorite plants died, but the rest of them have gotten huge! Our balconies look pretty wild at the moment. One of the first things I did when we got back was to stuff our vitamix with greens and make a lot of green smoothie. :-) we already harvested some strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries and tomorrow I’ll harvest our radishes. And we also collected some wild greens today, which is one of the most relaxing things to do for me.
    Here’s picture of our “garden“:

  • Kathi Vegana

    Picture

  • Tara

    Also, very eager for your compost post!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Ahhh I LOVE it! So gorgeous and you fit so much in a small space. The multi-tiered box is fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing!!!

    I’ll delete your other comment. =)

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Haha. I was just digging in my compost today! I’ll take photos when I do the bin transfers this afternoon. ;-)

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Oh that’s so exciting! TODAY! yay! Ordering seeds is soooo fun, what sort of stuff did you get?

    I bought the lemongrass at the local farmer’s market, but I think you can start them from food scraps as well. And thanks for the pic comment, I know it was so ridiculously outdated, haha. About page is next on the list, oi.

  • Kathi Vegana

    Thank you! :-)

  • http://sweetteascience.blogspot.com/ Rachel

    I’m loving your gardening posts! My friend and I have a plot in our community garden. Up here in the central valley, we’ve been nomming on tomatoes for a few weeks now, my collards are still big, and I just picked my first cucumber! My arugula has gone round the bend however, probably due to the heat, and bolted up a storm while I was away camping. Can’t win em’ all. Here is a link to my little garden journey: http://sweetteascience.tumblr.com/tagged/garden

  • Guest

    Heirloom, organic Mouse Melon! Itty bitty cucumbers that look like watermelon!

  • RockMyVeganSocks

    WOW!!! Your gardens are amazing. Inspiring really… except I have no green thumb at all…

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Ahhhh! They are SO CUTE! Too much cute! What do they taste like? Like regular cucumbers?

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  • Give Vegan

    Yupper! Sweet baby cucumbers!

  • April

    Loving the wine box planters! And especially guiding the vines upward…inspiration for next year! Here’s a link to my garden: http://mygentlelife.weebly.com/

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    Adorable! And I also am dreaming of rain barrels . . . some day. =)

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/ Sayward Rebhal

    I just got my first tomato this morning, and it was diviiiine! I’m jealous you’ve been getting them for weeks! I’m SO ready for tomato season, nom nom nom