Fred's Garden Update

Some of you might recall I've been clearing out my old garden area after letting it go for about ten years. I cleared out even more this last year but the problem of morning glory and blackberries remains. 

I wasn't quite sure what to do as spring came around. I was tempted to let the beds sit and spend the summer trying to clear the weeds that keep popping up. After all, what's the point in planting vegetables if the berries and morning glory pop up right in the middle of them? I finally decided to make a go at planting a few things. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Here's what it looks like now. I started out with bush peas which you can't really see on the backside of the potato plant because there's not much left. They were a flop. Slugs and snails got to them from a start. What was left didn't do well and I gave up.

There's some onions scattered in front of them and in the bed to the back and right. They haven't done well, either. I think it's either a nematode or onion maggot problem. 

You can see the funky trellises I made for Blue Lake pole beans. They're just starting to climb up the netting. They're doing ok but I lost a bunch on the row to the left due to slugs and snails.

Out a bit further, you can see some of the broccoli with a zucchini in the middle. I grew two zucchini plants this time. Hardly any fruit on them yet. What's with that?

The broccoli is doing pretty well, despite a rough start. About the only problem is it looks like most of them are going to mature around the same time. I wanted the harvest spread out a bit more. Funny that I tried planting them weeks apart but they still mature the same time.





We had the large head to the left for dinner last night.

For once I've had no problem with cabbage worms or loopers. Unlike last year, I applied Bacillus Thuringises a couple times this time. Probably in a bit stronger dose than recommended. They say to use it every two weeks, but I sprayed it last time over a month ago and no caterpillars are to be seen.
 



This picture shows the zucchini with some fave beans on the far side. To the left of those favas I just planted another bunch of favas that haven't come up through the ground yet.












Here's from the far side of the yard looking back towards the greehouse. Doesn't look so bad from here, huh?













Here you can see the lame fence the neighbors put up a while back. It turned out to be a bit of a blessing. We helped clear the area for the fence. It used to be filled with a sprawling banksea rose with ivy  and other weeds overgrown through it- never mind the old fence.

Once the fence was up, it actually made the yard look bigger, probably just because of the clearing we did. That gave us the idea to clear out even more to give us a bunch more gardening space. It's taken me a few days but I've cleared it out to the old compost piles (far end of picture). The debris on the bottom right is part of what I cleard. It's laying on the old banksea rose.

We both enjoy artichokes so we're thinking of cramming this whole new area full of artichoke plants. We'll have to wait and see what sort of stuff pops up after the soil gets wet again. I'm sure there will be all kinds of berries and morning glory that I've missed.

Here's a close up of the far end of the picture. Towards the back is my old wooden compost bins (covered with berries and morning glory) and to the left what used to be a cleared area I grew tomatoes in years ago. That's kind of what the cleared area looked like before we cleaned it up. Now I've got to work my way through to the left about ten feet and I'll have yet more freed up space. After that I'll have to fight the stuff growing out of the old compost bins.




Not sure if I'll plant any more veggies in the near future. I will try and start some brussell sprouts in a couple months so we can have some for winter or early spring. I botched my attempt at brussell sprouts last year.

These six packs are my last planting for now. They're dwarf marigolds "Sparky". I like them cause they only grow to about 6" and add color to the garden, along with repelling some pests. I'll fill in some empty spots with them. They should pop up out of the soil by Friday or Saturday.


So that's it for now. I'll be working on clearing the weeds and brambles all summer and beyond, I'm sure.