Good Morning, Gardners everywhere! Outdoors, indoors, large and small. No matter what you grow, we want to hear about it. And see pictures!!! We also welcome those who just like to see photos of beautiful flowers, vegetables, herbs, etc. And please ask your questions. Lots of very experienced folks here with good information.
Let's get started on how my growing season went. OR NOT.
That top photo is from around my backyard patio outside my kitchen. It was late spring and we’d had enough moisture and while the temperature was above normal, it had not hit scorching levels, yet. In the middle is a Japanese Painted fern. To the left and right, that’s Lungwort with the silvery white dots on green leaves. There is also native Foam Flower and Wild Geranium (pink flowers upper right). No Foam Flowers at that point. Ferns above the Buddha head (great yard sale find!) And here are some more spring photos from the back patio garden area….
This angel statue needed an adjustment and the sidewalk a weeding! Mr. CNY did all the rock edging.
If you do a 180 degree turn from the angel, you’ll see the pond. The white flowers with green leaves are White Anemones. That’s about as tall as they get. They are great if you need something that spreads and likes shade.
My favorite Hosta is right by the patio. It survived spring through summer until a couple weeks ago. I had kept it sprayed with garlic/cayenne liquid. I must have missed a day because I got up one morning and a deer had eaten one third of it right out of the center overnight. I trimmed the stems down and sprayed it but we had been having off and on rain. A few days later, the plant was some deer’s meal again. So, I trimmed it all down. I’m glad it lasted as long as it did. I also discovered that Hostas need a lot more water than I realized even though they are shade loving plants.
Early Fall 2021, I transplanted some small Peonies from a neighbor’s yard. With their permission, of course! It’s a rental and the landlord doesn’t maintain the gardens. I didn’t expect to get any blossoms this year but, golly gee, one popped up! That garden spot needs a good clean up. Hopefully, more flowers next year.
I decided to do more container gardening this season. I didn’t have luck with the flowers I planted — I think the weather was getting too hot. The sedums in the small pots on either side of that big pot are doing well and getting pink flowers. They were given to me and I think are the Autumn Joy variety. I tossed various vegetable seeds in most pots to see what would survive in shade that gets maybe 40% sun. I stuck a Bleeding Heart sprout in each of the larger pots as those are nice shade flowering plants. Can move them to a larger garden space. And, yes, that tall thing IS a tomato plant! And the vines with a couple yellow blossoms are some kind of winter squash. I found them growing next to my compost pile, dug them up and put them in the pots. I didn’t want to go out and buy anything. Ruffly edged green at the bottom is Kale (strawbale seeds and, boy, did they SPROUT!).
A close up on the squash vines. That’s Greek Oregano growing in the pot, too.
The mystery tomato plant that came up from seed (I used my own compost in the pots) is some kind of cherry variety. There’s another cluster coming along, too!
The vegetable garden really struggled. The next two photos are after I cleared all the leftover lettuce, radish (all I got were greens but they were great in stirfrys), and green bean plants. We started getting 88-90 or higher days and everything began to bolt. No crisp lettuce, either. Cuke plant had 5 small ones. The Collards, Lacinto Kale, Swiss Chard and herbs did the best. Those dark green Lacinto Kale plants are smushed together because I dumped a large seed starter tray into the garden because nothing was sprouting. Then, of course, the seeds sprouted. I decided I wasn’t going to transplant any as they appeared happy where they landed.
There’s a row of Uzbek Carrots to the left of the row of greens. Those are slow to grow but quite tasty. Pale yellow and mild. I haven’t pulled them all, yet, hoping they get closer to their normal size. I did learn that carrots need their soil to stay a bit damp. In the back shaded corner, is a Limelight Sedum. I moved it there last year as the deer wouldn’t leave it alone.Bright green with bright pink flowers. I had one zucchini plant that produced 4 zukes. Next year, I’m going to plant them in large pots that I’ll fence in. They need a lot more room.
Left side of the vegetable garden has Thyme, Anise Hyssop (tall plant with long lavender flowers), chives. Pollinators LOVE the Anise Hyssop flowers. And I don’t remember what is the cluster of green stuff in front of the tilting Hyssop. Might have been some lettuce that bolted really, really fast. I did get some Dill but had harvested it all before taking a photo. OOPS. I surely need to do better with the weeding and herb/veggie pictures. 😲
I did get a fine harvest of greens and there are more out there. Swiss Chard! The rainbow stemmed variety is very popular and can be found at many seed companies. It just looks so pretty in the garden, too.
Vates Dwarf Collard Greens and Tatsoi (seeds from strawbale). It was near impossible to find dwarf Collard seeds this year. I had a few leftover from last year.
My favorite Lacinto (Dinosaur) Kale! I usually get those seeds from High Mowing Seed Company. I highly recommend them.
Group photo! Those small chunky things on the upper left are the only cucumbers that showed up. Another gardener friend said hers didn’t produce anything this year. The greens made a very tasty stirfry with onions and a bit of garlic.
Later in the season, the plants around the patio/pond out back started to dry up. I tried not to overwater but I think the heat and then humidity when we did get rain was just too much for them. I’m grateful everything did as well as it did, though! Each season is an education with the harder seasons teaching us more.
So, Gardeners, what are your thoughts for next growing season?
And thank you, everyone for visiting us here at the SMGB. 💓