Let's See Your Garden Pics - 2025

[QSis]

Today, I planted 7 tomatoes (need one more), a jalapeno and a mini orange sweet pepper. Still have parsley and dill to plant but my back has had it for today. Mini cucumbers, Ichiban eggplants, shishito peppers, wax beans, several sunflower varieties, five other herbs (still can't find marjoram), and potted flower plants have already been planted. All in containers.

Second harvest of French Breakfast radishes. They did much better this year than last.

Lee

P.S. I saw that Saliha and John have started their own garden threads for this year. If everyone would like to do that as well, that's fine.

 

[Kathleen]

I have a really small yard, but make a lot of use of the areas where many would have grass or a bed of flowers.

In the front yard, I have a small area with slicing cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. To the side of the porch, I have pole beans, tomatoes, and two egg plant. In two large amazon boxes stashed behind a small bed, I have potatoes. My hanging baskets have strawberries, and there are pots of herbs on the front porch.

In the back yard, I just pulled my failed garlic and replanted some onions. The other half of that bed, which is raised, has beets. Along the wall that is at the back of my yard, I have okra coming up, more peppers, pickling cucumbers, and bush shelly beans. My last small bed are three kinds of melons being trellised and a winter squash.

I call my little yard "Notta-Acre Farms." In the spring, I plan to put in a few dwarf fruit trees, and planted a dwarf mulberry tree this year. The little orchard will be dubbed "Penny-Pincher Grove @ Notta-Acre Farms. If only my HOA would allow chickens. They have warred with me over the veggies, but they cannot seem to find a way to differentiate vegetable annuals from geraniums.

The house was built just before WWII, so I have a sign that is out of frame that reads, "Victory Garden: It's patriotic! It's thrifty." I hope it alleviated the HOA's concern that I was muddling the historical value of the neighborhood.

Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and herbs on the porch as well as wheat grass for the kitties.

Pole beans, eggplant, and more tomatoes with potatoes in the cardboard boxes behind the raised bed. Hanging baskets, out of frame, have strawberries.

I really wanted some potatoes to go with my beans that I had for dinner last weekend, so I dug up one of the potatoes that seemed to be dying back or limping along.

Beets and freshly planted onions in the raised bed. Mulberry is half-way down the wall. Pickling cucumbers in the far corner with the sunflower. More peppers down the wall with okra seed behind them and bush beans in front.

Watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew trellised. A winter squash in the front.

I have some rhubarb in the yard along with a small fig that I thought had died, but it seems to be growing this year. The fig is about a foot tall. I also have a single, lone blackberry cane that promises not to die this year. I also have a few "scrap pots where I am regrowing vegetables like celery, etc.

There you have it: Notta-Acre Farms!

 

[QSis]

Wow, that is so impressive and looks like a lot of work! I'm surprised that your HOA allows you to do all that, but good for you for prevailing!

Looks as if you are not troubled by pests eating your efforts. My little container garden looks like Alcatraz with chicken wire encircling most of my pots.

Lee

 

[Kathleen]

The HOA has written rules, but could not argue the difference between a marigold and a scarlet bean or okra. All are edible, annuals, and pretty. I believe as long as I do not let the fruits rot and attract pests or let it look scrappy, they really cannot differentiate based on the bylaws which clearly allows flower beds of annuals. I had a great time at the HOA meeting when they sent me a letter my first year growing vegetables. It did not help them that their master gardener in charge of the gardening and beautification committee sighed at the first picture of the okra flower and said, "Oh, lovely. Hibiscus." This was more than 14 years ago. They told me that they would get back to me with clarification, but never have.

I do live in the city. There is a fox that lives somewhere close by. I grow clover in the front yard for the bunnies. Now, bunnies are sacred animals to me. We have an understanding. As long as they eat clover, they are bunnies. But when they eat veggies, they are rabbits and rabbits belong in a stew pot. So far, there have been no rabbits in the yard.

Sadly, we also have rats. There is a shopping center over the back wall, and rats will go after the garbage from the pizza place. Last year, the rat got my one cantaloupe before I did. It was very sad. I'd build the fox special living accommodations if it kept the yard rat free ALL of the time. To try to prevent this from happening again, I put in a raised bed and trellis for the melon. It's been a step by step endeavor. The back yard is pretty recent. In prior years, I had a huge tree that shaded the entire yard. When I lost the tree, and after the tears dried, I decided I could plant more things.

Please post photos of your container garden. I struggle to grow things in pots! Plus, I want to know what you are growing!

Thank you for your kind words.

 

[Kathleen]

I found a lavabo online and bought it. It allows me to wash my hands and rinse produce when away from a sink in the garden. When it arrived, the faucet was blocked, but I was able to get the grime and dirt out of the faucet. Now, it works! We put it on a trellis against the shed on top of the hill.