This is my original plot. You can see the giant Texas bugs that are invading! I don't know know what I'm going to do about the praying mantis. If you look closely, you can see a deadly honey bee that has already killed a lizard, and has started eating it! You can also see the potatoes that are starting to really take off. I planted these back in January, and I'm amazed at how well they have grown in that short time! This is also my original bed. You can see some onions in the very back that I actually planted last winter! These guys are volunteers, and survived our horrible summer last year!
I don't know if you can see it, but there's even more Texas sized bugs in this bed! This is the second bed that I've gotten. Currently it's planted with even more potatoes, some arugula (which I planted in the fall of 2010, and also survived our horrible summer!) and some Louisiana collards. Later on in the summer, when it gets warmer, I'm going to plant some okra in here.
Here's my latest bed. This is the one that is going to hold all the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and basil. It will eventually have mulch in it thick enough to come to the top of the border. I am a firm believer in VERY THICK mulch. Three to six inches is my minimum. In our heat, with our lack of rain, it's the only way that we have even a chance of getting anything to grow.
Here's another view of the tomato, pepper, eggplant and basil bed.
Would you look at that snapdragon? Amazingly enough, this thing will be green all year round, and as soon as the weather cools down after the summer heat, it will be one of the first plants to flower. I've got some at home that are almost waist high now! I've always loved snapdragons, but after seeing how well they survived the summer last year, I love them even more. The grass in the lower right corner is a native Texas grass,
Purple Muhly. It was a volunteer the very first year I had this plot, and I've never been able to get rid of it. It is so pretty! You can see from the photos in the link why I can't get rid of it.
You can kind of see the potatoes that have just started to pop up here. That poor looking little snapdragon was nearly dead, with only the barest of green at the very bottom, by the time summer ended. I've only had two or three nearly die or completely die on me.
Here's a better photo of my largest potato. There is a plot here that has some potatoes that are almost two feet tall! They were abandoned by a former gardener, after being planted last Spring. They also survived last Summer! I learned so much about plants last Summer and this Fall. I'm shocked at what survived.
Here's another view of the potatoes. Those bags in the back? Those are donations to Hope Alliance. Ten pounds of collards, chard, sorrel, lettuce, radishes, spinach, thyme & sage!
Our pomegranate tree! The Baha'i church gave it to us when we started. They have been wonderful enough to rent us the land that we garden on. They are great people!
A flower! This is one of two flowers on the pomegranate tree! This is the first year for flowers! We've had this tree in the ground for almost three years now.
Ahh, current photos of the garden. This is the herb bed. As you can see, it is currently in a state of disrepair. After last Summer, which was the driest and hottest summer on record here in Texas, it fell to ruin. I was also sick all summer, which didn't help much. But , it seems to be coming back fairly well. This is a good photo of how I do my beds now. I'll cover them with a layer or two of cardboard, then cover them with compost, then a layer o
Another view of the herb bed, leading to the backyard. The tree was severely trimmed last year by the utility company, but seems to be coming back just fine!
Oh, how I love my veggie bed! Yup, not only do I have three beds at the garden, I've got four at home! Not counting all the beds along the fence line. But here at home, as you can see, I can let things go to seed. The collards and broccoli have gone to seed, as well as the arugula. I would cut them, but I just don't have the heart. There are so many bees, butterflies and moths that are eating off of them. I can wait. They need the food!
Here's another view of the veggie beds. You can see the little gnome on the rain barrel watching over the potager.
Yet another view. I am so proud of my compost bin system. Incredibly simple! And nearly FREE! Eleven pallets and a little wire to hold them together. I have a firm belief that you should only have to pay for plants and garden art. Even garden art can be had for free or very little money.
I just can't stop taking photos of this garden!
Here's a better view of the compost bins. I use leaves for the brown. For the green I use my kitchen scraps, coffee grounds from the coffee shops around town, various manures (That have proven to not be poisonous to the plants! Some of it can contain an herbicide that will last for years and will kill your garden!), I've used buffalo, chicken, horse & goat, as well as bat from the bat bridge down the street, and spent grains from the local breweries. I plan my shopping route to maximize the number of coffee shops and breweries! I actually have Google Maps of them!
I have almost finally finished the bed around the trash tree in the backyard. This poor thing was nearly dead when we moved in, and we were working on cutting it down. It is the typical tree that is installed when these 'burbs are built. Meant to grow quick, they usually die in twenty or so years. This one has started bouncing back! I think that's because I've stopped using chemicals, planted things under it that I want, therefore it gets water, and other than that, ignore it. It provides wonderful shade for the veggie garden in our hot Summer evenings. My Katrina rose, on the left, has started exploding with growth! It's about to bloom!
Ooh. My rose bed. With lots of snapdragons. And a water bath for the birds and a surfboard. This is one of my pride and joys in my garden. I've got four roses here, three of them my husband bought for me for our anniversary last year. He always gets me tools or plants, or rather, has me get them, for anniversaries, birthdays or special occasions. Love that man!
Wow. This poor thing. This was taken in May of 2010. All of the next photos were taken then. This particular spot doesn't look much better now. I'm in the process of taking all the rock out and removing a very large part of the dirt and grass. (To be composted for at least a year, of course! No waste here!) I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it. I'm thinking that I might put some olive trees, sage, maybe some more rosemary or other herbs here. The one thing that is staying is the pomegranate tree.
This part of the yard is now almost completely covered in beds, glass mulch sidewalks and mulched pathways. The spot in the right corner, with the planters, is now a very nice glass mulched patio. I'm amazed at the amount of work I've done on this thing! And I'm not done yet.
My pomegranate tree. I hope that it blooms this year. it's almost three years old!
This is part of the herb bed and its walkway. Glass mulch doesn't work very well in areas next to plants. They tend to take over, and unlike wood mulch, it doesn't compact too well, thus not smothering weeds as well as wood mulch. This area is now a wood mulch path.
Here's another view of it. I got that little yellow truck when I visited my brother and best friend in Monroe, LA. It's now on the patio, full of Mardi Gras beads.
Man, this little agave is almost three times this size now, with tons of babies! I can't wait to get current photos posted of it!
Oh, this area does not look like this now! The only things that have remained the same are the rosemary and the galvanized washtub. The washtub now holds a Calomondin orange that is currently flowering like mad, and has a couple of pea sized oranges on it!
OH! Here's what the veggie garden looked like two years ago! So different. So much better! I loved when the new neighbors put the wood fence up. As you see, there is another bed, the compost bins, and yet another bed here!
Those chairs are where the compost bins now sit! Just off to the right side is a three foot deep firepit that I dug, which is now filled in and covered by yet another bed.
What a difference two years make! The rue is still there, but that's about it.
Again, here's the rose bed. This really shows the difference between now and when this photo was taken. That bird bath is in the same exact spot as in the above photo!
While I was at Unity Park, I collected chard, Louisiana collards, sorrel, thyme, sage, spinach, radishes, spring mix lettuce, flat & curly leaf parsley, and cilantro for the women at the
Hope Alliance Crisis Center, for a total of ten pounds of veggies. (!!!) When I delivered it, I saw that I need to cut down a little on the parsley and cilantro, but everything else was GONE!! I've been picking about ten pounds of greens, lettuces & spinach for the past month for the shelter, so I am very happy that they are enjoying it so much! I've had to use the services of a battered women's shelter in the past, and I can't imagine not working with them now that I don't need them. Sadly, they will always be in business and always be needed.
I made a short stop at the Goodwill, but didn't find anything. I did, however, see my across the street neighbor, and he told me that he liked what I was doing with the front yard and thought it looked really good. Since he is a gardener, and an excellent stonemason, I consider this high praise.
When I got home, I was going to work on the house, inside, but it was such a beautiful day I couldn't force myself inside. So Shinji and I went outside for the rest of the afternoon. I turned ALL the compost bins, all four of them! (I just started the current layout of bins, so I'm only using four out of five of them right now.) I also built up the rock wall surrounding the tree a little bit more, finished the original glass bottle border in the backyard, and started the final glass bottle border on the north side of the house since a friend of mine dropped off about 4 dozen rum bottles. Shinji wandered the yard, played in the leaves & rested under the porch. I managed to only scrape my knuckles a little bit, which I consider a major win, since I usually end up with a big gouge out of a finger or my hand when I do hard work in the garden.
Thank you so much for making it to the end of this post!
