Welcome to Tiger Gardens-Enjoy Your Tour!

It is garden tour weekend and Tiger Gardens is on the tour this year so I thought I'd welcome you all (our virtual friends) with some views some of the live people will see when they visit Tiger Gardens tomorrow. The eagle above was a gift from my dear Uncle when he came to visit me last October. It is close to the road and one of the first things visitors will see upon entry to Tiger Gardens.



We have lots of American flags in the garden. The plants such as native beebalm (Monarda fistulosa) share equal billing with the daylilies this garden tour day.

More daylilies in the Northside Shrub Border.

Hydrangeas and astilbes cavort in the Greenhouse Garden.

More of the Greenhouse Garden, aka Non-Pool Garden.

The potAHger has been cleaned and readied for visitors. I need only dig some garlic (done!) and carrots to show folks just how easy it is to grow your own food.

The Sunny Perennial Border is looking mighty fine. Daylilies, annual rudbeckia (Gloriosa Daisies), veronica, coneflowers, hyssop and a few other plants are blooming for our visitors.

Sunny Perennial Border east end.

Some of the stars of the garden are the daylilies.











The pond with one of the koi looking on at the new floating duck. Can you see the orange colors on the left? There are two koi (Nissan and Datsun) hiding out under the water lily leaves.

View from the front door.



A toad I disturbed while cleaning up some logs in the garden. This was one huge toad who did not mind me working near him at all. 

If you would like tickets for the tour the cost is only $10. Children under 12 are free. Tickets can be purchased at any garden on the tour-including Tiger Gardens. The weather is forecast to be SPLENDID! When have we ever had temperatures  in the 70s for June?? So come on out and enjoy some gardens located in the Clarksville area. I've been working very hard in my garden readying it for you all and you would not believe the issues that get in the way of this job-that's another story. The hours of touring are from 9-3. I hope to see you all....

in the garden....


 There are six gardens on the tour. I have not visited them all but have visited one of my favorite gardens which also happens to be on the tour. My friend Angie's Garden. Previews of her garden from last month (it is now completely different this month because her daylilies are now in bloom) are found on this post. There are several posts on her garden so if you wish to see more just use the search bar to the right and type in Angie's Garden.

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden

Let's Talk About the Pot-AH-ger: It's Been a Long Time

The pot-AH-ger has been soooo very neglected on the blog and is crying out for attention. Okay, not really, tis me who wishes to post about the vegetable garden. The AH in the potager is what I say each time I go to eat a strawberry-ah then yum! The fact that I haven't been posting about the vegetable/potager garden does not mean that it has been neglected. Quite the contrary. In fact I somehow manage to fit in maintenance on the potager as well as a few gardens but all gardens are feeling about as neglected as the potager this spring. It has been a busy spring!

The strawberries are awesome! They are so awesome the chipmunks think so too. Do you see the bite out of the big one? Yup, the chipmunks have that sixth sense and know exactly when to nibble the strawberries. We have had a big problem with chipmunks this year and I hear we are not alone. I have taken to trapping them and the dogs have been killing them. Together we might get the population down a bit so the fruits and vegetables in the potager will be safe for us to eat. 


I grew June bearing strawberries this year. Actually, the plants were planted last year. We really didn't get any strawberries last year but this year we've gotten a whole bunch. I recommend planting June bearers over everbearers. The everbearers are good and sweet and you can pick a few over a period of months but you never really get enough to satisfy the desire for sweet strawberries. At least I didn't when I grew them years ago. With everbearers we actually enjoy strawberries daily and not just one or two. This is in spite of the chipmunks and a mold or fungus that has been attacking the ripe strawberries. If we don't pick the berries fast enough some of them are molding and turning gray; especially the ones inside of the above bed. The mold is very frustrating and I need to figure out the problem. For the most part the June bearers have been easy to grow and harvest and so AH yummy! 

The blackberries are beginning to change colors. Raspberries are also ripening and boy are they good! I ate one on Wednesday and wow they taste just like the berries my grandmother would feed me as child. This is only the second year for both the blackberries and raspberries and judging by the amount of new canes (which will bear fruit next year) the amount of berries will only increase with time. I'm so excited!

The tomato plants are getting big. There aren't any blossoms or tomatoes as of yet. I am also growing three 'Silver Fir' heirloom tomatoes in pots out front. I started those plants from seed and had great luck with the seeds. Those plants already have blooms and I am looking forward to tasting those tomatoes. The 'Silver Fir' tomatoes are determinate and not indeterminate. Normally I grow only indeterminate tomatoes (the plant grows indefinitely) and not the determinate variety (plants stop growing at a certain point and all tomatoes ripen at the same time) 'Silver Fir' is but I received a bunch of free heirloom seeds last year. When I sowed them in the mini greenhouse in March all seeds germinated and have grown into lovely plants. I am pretty sure I got the seeds from Seeds of Change but can't find 'Silver Fir' on their website; which I think is odd. I did a posting on Seeds of Change last year you can find here if you'd like more information. Perhaps they don't carry 'Silver Fir' anymore.

The lettuce was late this year. Odd since everything else was early. Usually we eat fresh lettuce every day but so far this year we've not eaten as much. It is most likely most of the lettuce will be used to feed the rabbits as I suspect it will start turning bitter soon.

The peas are quite tall and are finally producing. I just can't get the knack of growing peas. No matter when I plant them the peas take weeks and weeks to germinate. Then they are slow to get going and before I know it the weather is hot. Note the strawberry plants outside of the potager proper, those are the strawberries for the chipmunks-if only they'd stay out of the potager they could have all they want! Since we have dogs we like to only eat the veggies and fruits from inside of the fenced potager; which makes sense for obvious reasons.

The blueberry bushes are loaded this year. They like the new location of a well watered potager over a dry partly sunny ornamental bed in the Northside Shrub Border. The robins are anxiously waiting for these berries to ripen. I can't walk near the potager without half a dozen of them flying off and scolding me for intruding on their space. The robins are a big nuisance. I will soon be netting the blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. I don't mind sharing but last year we got only ONE blueberry  the whole season. That will certainly not work this year.



I have told you all about our chipmunk problem and I have also alluded to a dog problem as well, but I really haven't discussed the issues in detail. The chipmunks themselves don't cause half as much damage as the moose known as AJ and the ballerina known as Lady. AJ cannot jump so he barrels after the chipmunks-no fence or plant will stand in his way. He has destroyed daylilies, croscomia, hydrangeas, flowering tobacco, and peonies. What he doesn't destroy by trampling on his quest to catch a chipmunk (he never does catch them but does steal them from Lady when she catches them and acts like he caught the varmints) Lady will dig up. She has dug up Japanese maples, hellebores, a kerria, a camellia, and numerous other plants. I have finally gotten so fed up that we have begun outlining the gardens with the underground wire fence that keeps our dogs contained. Soon the dogs will not only be contained but they will also be limited to only grassy areas-that is my hope. That underground wire fencing system works well. Can you see AJ's collar with the receiver on his neck? He never goes outside without that collar on. Immediately after we (okay, Mr. Fix-it and the Jimster) installed the wire the dogs somehow just knew it and wouldn't even come off the deck! So far two large gardens have been wired but now the transmitter is not sending out as strong of a signal as it did when we initially installed it. The signal is enough to keep the dogs at bay for now but as we install more wire Mr. Fix-it is worried about the dogs going through the signal. All I am worried about are my gardens. We love our dogs but they can be really annoying at times. 

I have to tell you a funny story about AJ. AJ tries so hard to be a good boy but he is hard headed and not as laid back as my dear BJ was. AJ cannot jump and doesn't move very fast. He is a big stocky dog with short legs and is not a nimble dog at all. The other day he came up to the back door holding in his mouth what I thought was a stick. I told him to drop it and what fell out of his mouth? A stiff and straight as a board chipmunk! And he acted like he had the best prize in the whole world. His tail was just a wagging and he was smiling at me as if to say, "Aren't I a good boy???? Yeah, yeah, yeah!" He wasn't fooling me though. That varmint he had 'caught' had been dead a while and I'll bet 100 to 1 that Miss Lady killed it. That's okay, hopefully we'll fix the chipmunk problem so the vegetables and gardens will be safe for fresh eating....


in the garden....

Happy Mother's Day to my mother and all the mothers out there!

 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

The Fabulous Ornamental Vegetable Garden (aka Pot-AH-ger)

I must say my Vegetable Garden/Potager has given me my most joy this year. It is not because it is doing fabulously, or looks good, or attracts butterflies and wildlife. I do enjoy all of those things but the main reason I love this garden so much has to do with my husband. He, being of the manly kind who prefers greasy cars and boats to wonderful smelling dirt; does not take much of an interest in my gardens. He enjoys them fair enough and knows they add to our home and property but generally they don't interest him-except for the potager. I always know when he's been browsing in it; which he does daily. I come into the kitchen and the counter will be filled with fresh vegetables from the garden courtesy of Mr. Fix-it. I simply love it that he takes an interest in this garden and this is why my potager gives me so much joy. 


While preparing this post on the potager I happened to look up at my large PVC arbor and spotted the crossvine 'Tangerine Beauty' blooming. Wow on it as it is my favorite native vine. In fact, I will soon (already done) be chopping down my wisterias in order to replace them with this lovely and less aggressive and less heavy crossvine. The crossvine  blooms in the above picture are about 15 high and were very dark so I used a fill flash. I like how the effect of these blooms came out against the cloudy sky. Crossvine is a rebloomer, reliable in sun or shade and not picky about soil or moisture. It is a lovely vine I've been growing many years so I would recommend it to others. It will spread pretty fast once happy so even though it is less aggressive than wisteria it still needs a strong support as it is no wimp in the garden.

Today was the day I finally removed the screen from my upstairs dormer and took a few aerial shots. Here I show you the vegetable garden in its entirety from the second story window. I wish pictures could give you the feel of the whole garden but they don't. However, I do think this long and high picture helps out with the scale of my backyard and the vegetable potager. We live on one acre and the amount of real estate in this picture probably encompasses only about one twelfth of the property. I try to fit lots of plants and gardens into my little one acre as you can tell. The PVC arbor is in the left hand corner of the picture and this is the east side of the vegetable garden proper. To the right of the vegetable garden is my very full Sunny Perennial Border. This border is about four feet wide and traverses the entire northern and eastern sides of the vegetable garden. To the north and south of the gardens there are multiple mature oak trees; which provide shade for the vegetable garden (tongue in cheek because of course you want NO shade for your vegetable garden says I). I'll orient you to what is what as I walk through the garden on my morning walk.

We enter one of three gates into the enclosed vegetable garden from the east under the PVC arbor which holds a crossvine and gelsemium as well as annual vines like cypress vine and hyacinth beans. The brick pathways are obscured by self seeders I allow to grow. The multiple self seeders in this walkway and picture include: 'Chocolate' eupatorium, chives, great blue lobelia, lambs ears, and beautyberries. Additionally catnip, sedums, flowering tobacco, verbena bonariensis, dill, zinnias, cleomes and cosmos grow among the cracks of the bricks in this garden. If you should spot a weed growing amongst the self seeders just let me know! I hate weeds here that's for sure. The plants soften the bricks and help to create a more diverse garden so I leave most of them and pull only those plants that I don't wish to self seed anymore or which are in my way when I walk in this garden. 

Many readers ask about the wonderful metal gates adorning my vegetable/potager garden. I was fortunate enough to purchase three of these gates (two are identical and this one stands alone) at the Nashville Flea Market several years ago. I painted them yellow with a good quality metal paint and have really loved them in my garden. If you are local and have not been the Nashville Flea Market you are missing out. I once read in one of my women's magazine that the Nashville Flea Market is rated as one of the best in the country. It is a wonderful place for great architectural finds for both the garden and the home. If you are not local but planning a visit to the region the Nashville Flea Market is generally held on the last weekend in each month except December. Check their website for more information.

Looking to the left as we enter the garden we see two beds. The first one contains blackberries (only one of two survived) I mail ordered from Farmer's Seed. It is a thornless type but I can't remember the name at this point. I also  transplanted another blackberry from another area in my garden to another location in the potager which will not be shown in this post. Among this bed are self seeding beauty berries. I will soon be digging them for the Montgomery County Master Gardener Plant sale scheduled for 8 October at the Habitat ReStore on Madison street. Directly behind this bed looking to the west-southwest is another bed you'll see better below. The chives, lamb's ears, lobelia and other plants in this area are all self seeders. This bed used to be my nursery bed until I moved the blackberry plant there.

Looking to the right I do not show the three 'Sunny' knockout roses or dwarf irises under the PVC arbor but take my word they are there. That small garden containing the roses is just to the right of the 5 gallon bucket you see in the picture. I leave a few buckets in this garden to not only catch rainwater but to tell me when I've reached one inch of water when I water with my sprinkler once per week.You can also use tuna cans set about in your garden to measure the amount of water your garden receives from sprinklers. 

The bed I focus on in this area contains the cantaloupes and vining crops and is not visible due to the sprawl of the vines. The vines have trickled onto the brick pathways. Normally I would train the vines to grow up my A-frames but for some reason I was negligent in doing this in this particular bed this year. Actually though, cantaloupes seem to do better when left to sprawl and I do not mind their sprawl because those fresh cantaloupes are just so good! We've picked one, lost one due to not picking it in time and still have four more cantaloupes to come. There is also a watermelon or squash vine growing in this bed. I won't know until the fruits are mature exactly what it is that grew but I do know I threw out both squash and watermelons here.

Looking back to the left past the blackberry bed with its self sowers we see a long bed containing carrots and zucchini (in the foreground under the A frame) that were successive sown in late June. They are doing well. On the other side of them are my four 'Better Boy' tomatoes. We are consistently picking tomatoes to eat fresh daily. Mr. Fix-it always eats tomatoes and cucumbers with his dinner. I'm not sure if this is something he established for health or not but it is a healthy habit. We obviously enjoy the fresh picked ones very much during the growing season. I have found that four tomato plants are just about perfect for our family of three. I have enough to eat daily but not quite enough to freeze; which I would like. But nonetheless it works out for us with our small vegetable garden.

This round bed used to hold bananas. It was the focal point of my potager but I decided to remove the bananas last year. It took a LOT of work to completely remove them since they were so well established but I don't regret taking them out. I decided to consolidate my fruits and vegetable all to one location this year so all edibles would be fairly centrally located. Here I have planted two 'Bluecrop' blueberries from another location in my garden then I added two new blueberry bushes last fall. They are 'Powderblue' and 'Climax'. You'll see a ripe 'Powderblue' below. 'Powderblue' and 'Climax' are rabbiteye bluebeerries (Vaccinium corymbosum) and the 'Bluecrop' is a northern highbush blueberry. I have found the 'Bluecrop' never needed a pollinator but I did have two of the 'Bluecrop' and they apparently worked together to produce a good crop each year-once they matured after about four years. The 'Powderblue' and 'Climax', the rabbiteye cultvars (Vaccinium ashei), are recommended for the south but in my experience I like the 'Bluecrop' or highbush berries better for my garden. To be fair it may be that the two new rabbiteyes I just added last fall need more time to mature but so far their ripening dates are a bit out of order for me. The 'Bluecrop' was ready for picking in late June to early July (even though the robins ate them all). I like the large crop at this time. So far this year the 'Climax' really did not produce and the 'Powderblue' are producing but it doesn't seem like the berries are coming at a logical time. They are just now ripening up nicely in mid August. To me that is late but I guess it can be good considering the blueberry season is very long in my garden. Now if I could just get more than a handful or so I'll be content with the rabbiteyes. I'll give all the bushes time to grow. As we all know gardeners have lots of time and so we'll see how it goes for the blueberries. Remember, blueberries must have a pH of between 4.5-5.2 in order for them to do well. Be sure to soil test prior to planting these berries.

Just past the bed that houses my Pumpkin on Stick is another long bed (the northern side of the potager). Here is an ornamental self seeder I did not mention already. It is of course night blooming jimsonweed, aka Datura stramonium. It is a wonderful ornamental that provides the southern nighttime fragrance that is heavenly. The flowers only last one day and bloom in the evening to late morning then they are gone. These flowers positively glow at night. I never know where this night bloomer will sprout up but tend to let one or two of them grow so I'll have plants for next year because this plant is a tender perennial. It will not return in my Zone 6B garden next year. In and amongst its leaves you can see basil that is going to seed, and if you look closely you'll see the cucumber plants growing in this bed. Again, my potager/vegetable garden is an ornamental as well as functional garden for me. I believe in mixing things up in the garden and have the art down pretty well after all these years of gardening here in my Tennessee home. My garden is not going to be a designed garden because I wish to grow everything and anything and mix it all up in different ways. Ways many gardeners might cringe at but as is my gardening mantra, gardens must reflect the gardener and please only the gardener. If they don't and you have a garden then you either have an outside gardener or are a business person looking for curb appeal or to keep up with others or you are not a gardener. But my feelings on gardens might best be left for another post. But truthfully, who would garden if their garden did not please them and they did not strive to produce a garden they like?

Now on to close up of veggies. The pepper plants are growing under the A frame containing the many cucumbers and they are doing quite well. There is a tomato leaf in front of the pepper. I did not plant this tomato-it was a volunteer from last year that self seeded in the bricks and I just let it go to see what I would get.

The cantaloupes are doing quite well. They will most likely all ripen at once like they did last year. Here you can see some cosmos and flowering tobacco leaves. The cantaloupe vines spread into the self seeders but surprisingly all are working well together.

Here is the 'Powderblue' berry I promised you above. I ate this berry and a few others as soon as I was done taking the picture. It was a special treat.

We in the Ramsey family just celebrated a major milestone in our lives. Our baby Jimmy just turned 17! He is a senior in high school and will be graduating next year. It's so hard for us to believe. Here we are singing him Happy Birthday and getting ready for him to open his gifts and cut his cake. He returned home late after having a nice dinner with his girlfriend. You know during the teen years girlfriends are really important to young men. Jimmy had a fantastic birthday and we are looking forward to a good senior year and his graduation in the spring. It will be the first graduation both Mr. Fix-it and I will be able to attend. When the older three children graduated he and I were both deployed. Since our retirements we know that won't happen again. My mother also recently celebrated her birthday. There are lots of August birthdays in our family so let me just say to all a Happy Birthday....


in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

The Vegetable/Potager Garden

Potato with happy worm on February 6th, 2011.

From In the Garden

Potager is a very popular term now a days. You hear it all the time in garden circles but what is a potager? Googling potager on the Internet tells me a potager basically is a vegetable garden that provides food for the gardener but it also has an ornamental value as a garden. Potagers have French and English elements and are not strictly utilitarian in nature. For my purposes I am simply calling a potager a vegetable garden that has a variety of vegetables, fruits, and flowers or herbs arranged in an ornamental way so as to be pleasing to the gardener. That is strictly my definition and it describes my vegetable garden to a T. I, however, like calling my vegetable garden a vegetable garden even though it has many other things growing in it.

Long view of blueberry bed with additional beds in the background.

From In the Garden

My vegetable garden has been on my mind. Not only because it is getting to be spring time and a busy time in the garden, but because this year for the first time in many years I am going to grow fruits in my vegetable garden. Growing fruit will seriously require a cut back or creative managing in order to grow the vegetables I enjoy growing each year and I think I'm up for the challenge. You see, my potager is set up with raised beds in a very limited area (30'x25' at its widest spot) that is shaped like a coat of arms shield. I had to arrange the vegetable garden in this manner due to Mr. Fix-it's hobby of car collecting. Do you see his garage in the above picture? Just on the other side of the vegetable garden is his drive down to his garage. Once upon a time before he got that huge black trailer my vegetable garden was over in his driveway about 10 feet. Once the trailer came in Mr. Fix-it had a great deal of difficulty maneuvering in the backyard due to the gardens and long length of his truck and trailers (usually pulling cars or garden stuff). I think it was in 2007 that I moved the entire vegetable garden over and configured it in the style it is in now. I actually am glad I moved it over because now it is more in the sun and enabled me to have a Sunny Perennial Border on the outside of the vegetable garden. Don't worry if you can't follow me on the design process, I am working on a complete work up of my property and a diagram of the vegetable garden proper and once I have a design complete I'll certainly post the designs and all will be clear as mud=). Today's post is simply about the beds and the vegetables and fruits I am going to grow in my vegetable garden this year. 

Blueberry foliage in Tiger Gardens

From In the Garden

When I designed the vegetable garden I had a finite space within which I could work. I worked in as many beds as I could trying to maximize space while still allowing for walkways. As it were, I shorted myself on walkways because along the perimeter of the vegetable garden the walkways are only about 18 inches wide. This is really not wide enough but I make do. I would recommend at least 24 inches for walkways in a vegetable garden. I do have this amount and more in the interior of the vegetable garden so I can move around okay and don't feel so cramped. In establishing the beds I wound up with five beds that I planned to use for vegetables. I also have a seven foot circle at the center of the garden that I used to grow bananas in. The circle now houses four blueberry plants. There are three additional beds that are not raised. I currently grow a variety of perennials, bulbs, and annuals in these beds. These include three peonies, iris reticulata, columbine, zinnias, bellacamda, cleome, and catnip and whatever else self seeds in the garden I usually let grow. At the base of the very large PVC arbor there are vines and annuals growing. I used to grow Indigofera amblyantha in one of the beds but moved it last fall because it was suckering. I replaced it with a blackberry that had to be moved due to my new privacy fence.

Onions planted in November are doing well. I think we need to grow short day onions here in the south. I've never really looked at that fact when I've planted onions but will in the future. So far I've not been successful in getting onions to bulb. Maybe this year will be the year.

From In the Garden

So, taking out the banana trees and leaving the three small ornamental beds alone I now have six beds in which to plant food crops. This is not such a bad amount of beds but most of the beds are small. All beds are about three feet wide and range from four to thirteen feet long (except the center circle bed which has a diameter of just over seven feet). Certain vegetables must go in certain beds due to the size requirements of the vegetable so rotating vegetables each year has been a juggling act between mainly just three beds. Some years I've had a great vegetable garden and other years I've gotten it all wrong. In order to fix this problem I am promising myself to only grow those things in my vegetable garden that mean the most to me and which will give me the greatest bang for the buck with a caveat. During the winter the garden seems so much bigger because the tomatoes and vining crops are not in it so I can grow all sorts of things then-but only then! Some vegetables that I probably shouldn't waste my time growing at any time are potatoes and onions. Nonetheless, I planted 10 Yukon and 10 Red Norland potatoes on the sixth of February. Can you see the happy worm on the potato above? The soil was literally crawling with worms when I planted the potatoes. Worms are a very good sign in a garden. Some other cool season crops I will be growing are: peas (a must and planted on 14 February after a night of soaking in water), spinach, chard, kale, and lettuce (a must-planted seedlings on 14 February!). The onions and garlic already growing in the vegetable garden were planted last fall. Truthfully, I probably shouldn't grow the onions because they are so cheap at the grocery store. Garlic is a must~! It is so good fresh from the garden and so easy to grow.

Long shot of the Vegetable Garden from the top of a step ladder minus two beds: one small border bed just beneath my ladder that houses three 'Sunny' Knockout roses, and one other bed to the far left of this picture close to me. This bed will house the raspberries. The green pipes you see belong to a fifteen foot arbor I built from PVC pipes and painted green. On this arbor grows 'Tangerine Beauty' crossvine, 'The Pride of Augusta' jessimine, and for some annual color in the summer hyacinth beans take over.

From In the Garden

Back to the beds. Mr. Fix-it and I decided we wanted to grow fruits this year. We have decided on: 2 'Black Satin' thornless blackberries (these will join the one with thorns I transplanted into the garden this month), 25 'Allstar' June bearing strawberries, 3 'Thornless Canby' raspberries, and 4 blueberry plants. You may remember I have posted about my blueberries in the past. They do fabulously here! I expect they'll do even better now that I have put them in the vegetable garden where they'll not only get more sun but will be babied with fine soil and moisture as necessary. I'm not sure of the variety of the two blueberries I transplanted from an ornamental bed because they've been growing here for more than seven years, but the two new ones I added are:  'Powderblue' and 'Climax'. I purchased these two new blueberries from Jason Powell of Petals from the Past out of Alabama. The three raspberries will be planted in the triangular bed directly behind the circle bed and then they will be underplanted with the strawberries. The two additional blackberries will have a bed to themselves on the far left (not visible in this picture) and will be staked. As always whenever your grow fruit it is a good idea to have more than one cultivar to ensure pollination. Hence the four blueberry bushes and two types of blackberries. I may add another raspberry at some point too. Generally speaking  in my garden I've not had problems with blueberries setting fruit-even with only two plants. 

So, from the six beds I started with for vegetables I'm now down to only three. Two are approximately eleven feet long and one is about four feet long. In these I will grow my cool season crops such as peas, lettuce, and garlic. Summer crops for this year will include tomatoes (3-5, I haven't decided how many yet), sweet peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and cantaloupes. There will be no gourds this year, no eggplant, and no beans. I'm sad I can't grow as much as I'd like to grow but happy that I have a plan that will maximize what I do grow. Not only do I have a plan but so far I'm doing well at keeping up records with what varieties I'm growing. This blog is a help in that department.


This post was intended to talk about the types of vegetables and fruits I plan to grow but as I look back on it I see I've rather rambled about my challenges with my small vegetable garden. I must explain that the location of this vegetable garden is the ONLY place it can be on our one acre lot. While we have a lot of space, in addition to Mr. Fix-it's driveway and cars, I have to contend with tons of shade cast by mature oak trees. As it is, the location of my current vegetable garden will one day be completely shaded. Right now it is on the north side of three mature oak trees and only gets direct sun during the summer months. I hope it is going to be enough for my potager/vegetable garden....


in the garden....

Note: I garden biodynamically using the principles espoused by many well known organic gardeners. It is known as the French Intensive Method of vegetable gardening. I first learned of this method in the early 80s when I prepared my very own vegetable garden in North Carolina. Interesting enough and I did not know this, potagers and the French Intensive Method of gardening go hand in hand, so perhaps I should call my Vegetable Garden a Potager? Naw, not saying nothing bad about the French because the country is lovely, but I think I'll stick with the good ole American term for my ornamental garden using the French methods....

in the garden.... 



Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden