WHATS IN YOUR GARDEN????

[cattales1960]

finally got my garden in this year. running behind. twich your flowers are gorgous. sam, that is an impressive garden. Do you have an watering system installed or do you do it all by hand?

This year I planted the usual assortment of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, zucchini, squash and cucumbers

[sam]

It is all hydroponic with an automated watering system that waters everything with timers and fertilizer injectors. Each plant has a 1/2 GPH dripper so I can give each kind of plant the right amount of fertilizer/water. I tried perlite, rockwool, expanded clay pellets, tree bark and coco choir and found I get the best overall results with perlite. A watering system made for a greenhouse with all the timers and valves cost around $2000, luckily I have a friend that has a lawn care service and he recomended I use a Rain Bird sprinkler control system and valves. I am glad I did because my $150 Rain Bird system does exactly the same thing as the $2000 profesional made for a greenhouse system.

[Twichaldinho]

Monster Lupin


Remember that wee Heuchera I planted last year...


Nearly


Transplanted my tomatae plants outside a few days ago


OK, that is all yer getting for another couple weeks.... busy dude.

[spidergawd]

So a couple of corners of our garden.



The Digitalis (foxglove) at the back left and the Aquilegia (Ladies Purse) I bought at Down House in Kent where Charles Darwin and his family lived and he wrote the Origin Of The Species, and lots of other stuff.

I'm getting a bit into gardens at the moment, in my retirement lesiure I'm doing occasional volunteer minibus driving taking the oldies out on trips (ha ha if only) So this time of year rain or shine it's afternoon tea at some fancy places.

As I'm new to flower growing I thought some plants from the garden shop of such a great naturalist seems a good place to start.



The table was a shipping pallet and the shelves and mirror I made with scrap steel a long time ago and have sat in the glory hole under the stairs until such a time that I felt inspired to stick them on a wall. My grand daughters think it is "kinda, you know, sorta coolish"

[cattales1960]

Very nice SG! Did you also make that shelf that is to the left of the mirror? Thats kind of cool too!

[spidergawd]

Yes thanks Cat, we used to make all kinds of far out metal stuff back in the happy hippy dayz. We sold it to the groovers at the markets . We did all right for a couple of years while it was fashionable
I have a sculptor friend with a forge and I used to help him out so he could make a living. He's a very good artist but like most it's hand to mouth.

http://www.simoncooley.com/



This is called Luis, or Ten Cent Twist after the brown paper cones we used to get in Kingston JA.

[cattales1960]

Yes thanks Cat, we used to make all kinds of far out metal stuff back in the happy hippy dayz. We sold it to the groovers at the markets . We did all right for a couple of years while it was fashionable
I have a sculptor friend with a forge and I used to help him out so he could make a living. He's a very good artist but like most it's hand to mouth.

http://www.simoncooley.com/



This is called Luis, or Ten Cent Twist after the brown paper cones we used to get in Kingston JA.

Hand to mouth is the unfortunate way for liing artist mostly. sigh.

[sam]

Here are a few pics I took today. Besides what is pictured Ihave been picking Oriental & European burpless cucumbers for a month. I will have eggplant ready in a week they are fist sized now.
Cherry and 4oz tomatoes that are just starting to produce ripe fruit.

8oz tomatoes that should start to ripen in 2 weeks.

Light green sweet bell peppers that turn yellow.

Dark green sweet bell peppers that turn red.

[Slip & Sal]

Wow!

[Colino]

that's really amazing sam!

[cattales1960]

IM impressed Sam, and all I do is battle a ground hog.

[25211]

Sam, that is one impressive set up and fair play to you for giving up the rat race for it

spidergawd, that looks a nice patch and I love the look with the table & the shelves on the wall

Twichaldinho, nice lupin hope it fairs better than mine this year, and beware the dredged lupin aphid

Anyway the update......

Overall I am still not getting that much time in the garden
what with the somewhat unpredictable weather & parents to keep an eye on
(on that score things are getting easier now my mum is off the morphine)

Everything was ticking over quite nicely until thurs night last week
the monsoon and wind overnight devastated 2 of the lupins, Boo Hoo!
so here are a couple of pictures showing how they were at the beginning of the month





and 1 to show the view I get when doing the washing up



All the rest of the photos are from today (well it is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere)

Even with the weather I have been managing to keep the lawn cut (notice I am now prepared to call it a lawn)
And am fairly chuffed with the way it is looking
In the last couple of weeks I have managed to work some poultry manure pellets and blood fish & bone in to the herb patch and the top & right hand boarders round the lawn
hacked back the devastated lupins & one oriental poppy that didn't hold up to well
And have just about got the aubrietia cut back
the strawberries are starting to form



and the mange tout peas are starting to produce



And I have also had 2 lots of cut pinks already so the air fresheners are sacked for a few months






















Anyway I am just off to do my bit for the Czech brewing industry with a smoke on the bench, so will no doubt be munching on very fresh mange tout as well

Next update when I get chance
TTFN

[StonedSince67]

and 1 to show the view I get when doing the washing up

ok seeing the garden from the kitchen window angle puts the whole thing into its proper perspective, i also do the design of what i call the kitchen window garden when doing the washing up

and by the way your garden looks quite lovely and is showing all the work you've put into it, well done and you deserve the beer and the smoke and the bench

due to the weather and my performance with getting the potatoes in this year i have declared my garden to be a wash-out and i am now only looking after the 66 potato plants, loads of pot marigolds and the grass everywhere, i now look at the garden with an eye towards how to prepare it for the autumn and then winter, it has changed my garden work schedule completely

anyway keep up the great work, it's looking really good at the moment

[StonedSince67]

Here are a few pics I took today ...
Cherry and 4oz tomatoes that are just starting to produce ripe fruit
8oz tomatoes that should start to ripen in 2 weeks
Light green sweet bell peppers that turn yellow
Dark green sweet bell peppers that turn red

all these plants are looking in good shape and things certainly seem to be coming along quite nicely, you've done a good job getting started on something new

the nice thing about you are doing is that you can see every day the progress and the result of your efforts, it is so immediate and tangible

nice one, good luck for the future

[25211]

ok seeing the garden from the kitchen window angle puts the whole thing into its proper perspective, i also do the design of what i call the kitchen window garden when doing the washing up

and by the way your garden looks quite lovely and is showing all the work you've put into it, well done and you deserve the beer and the smoke and the bench

The thing is it is also the only window I have downstairs
So the view from the sink & the doorstep are an influence on my (sort of) plan for it

due to the weather and my performance with getting the potatoes in this year i have declared my garden to be a wash-out and i am now only looking after the 66 potato plants, loads of pot marigolds and the grass everywhere, i now look at the garden with an eye towards how to prepare it for the autumn and then winter, it has changed my garden work schedule completely

anyway keep up the great work, it's looking really good at the moment

Well to be honest with the weather on top of the unforeseen parent fiasco
I have only got about half of what I wanted to get done this year
& feel lucky that the stuff I have done in the last couple of years are paying off now

Anyway a few more photos from the kitchen sink (as it were)

A general view with the pinks I had just cut from the garden in the foreground



A couple of sparrows enjoying the fat balls



An adult feeding a fledgling on the bush





a video of an adult feeding a fledgling


And yesterday morning I got up to find this young fox on my lawn



TTFN