late spring garden happenings

i am always inspired by these tend ladies. their passion for gardening on small plots of land is contagious. in early spring, i found this old stump & planted mint inside amy style. every time i look at our little stump planter, i think of her. thank you, amy, for the wonderful idea! 

late spring is here & we are beginning to prepare for the summer season. we are planting tomatoes & making trellises with twine & bamboo for cucumbers. we are planting zucchini & yellow squash, crossing our fingers aphids & squash bugs don't get to our plants first (we still haven't found an organic pest control solution... any ideas? they are fierce here!). 

for now, we are patiently waiting for our carrots. only a few short weeks left until we can begin harvesting! it is definitely salad season here. we have never grown romaine lettuce before, but our heads are maturing nicely. we are filling up brown bags of lettuce for neighbors, family & dear friends. i sometimes fill up a mixing bowl of salad for lunch. it's so delicious this time of year. 

i found that old red chair at a yard sale for a couple of dollars last weekend. the seat needed to be re-woven, but instead, i decided to make it into a fun planter. 

we also added a new garden bed to the side of our house for mint. i am looking forward to mint tea & popsicles this summer.

it's a wonderful time of year for planting, harvesting, watching & enjoying the bright new greens of the season! happy gardening friends!

a little of this and a little of that

 as i was going through some old photos last week, i found the one above of our backyard when we first bought the house almost 15 years ago. as you can see i had a clean slate to work with-not one plant was to be found! there was just grass which over the years i have eliminated all of, except for one little strip along the sidewalk where we can get out in and out of the car (which soon will be flagstone:)
 
  i thought it would be fun to show you the before and after.

 this week we have been direct seeding several different vegetables including cukes and watermelon right on the front lawn. and i have been popping all sorts of beans in to little empty pockets here and there. bush beans don't take up too much room and can be tucked in between your perrenial flowers. there are many beautiful purple and yellow varieties which look lovely along a perennial border.
i also planted a few different types of pole beans to climb up the chicken run fence and some bamboo tepees. i am growing my friend tim's heirloom beans.

 i also wanted to share with you a little series which i have fallen deep in love with. i have a little crush on gardener, alys fowler who's gardening style is very similar to mine. she lives in the city of birmingham, england and has a small backyard where she incorporates edibles in with her perennials and ornamentals. she has written several books, many of which i have on my wish list. and recently i stumbled upon a bbc series called the edible garden where alys focuses on living off her own home grown produce straight from her little city garden.

not only is her garden charming and her style whimsical but i could listen to her say compost and basil all day long in her beautiful english accent. and i love how she refers to zucchini as courgettes.

you can watch all six episodes of the edible garden here.

both of my daughters are also quite smitten with this delightful little show and want to try all of alys's recipes. i especially have been keeping my eye out for purple sprouting broccoli.

 even though alys lives many miles away i feel as if her garden and mine are distant cousins.

small scale gardening

the time has come when the inside of my home begins to feel a bit neglected and abandoned. dust accumulates on every surface, the floors are in desperate need of a mopping and simple meals of sandwiches and popcorn are made to allow every waking moment to be spent out in the garden.

 i have been teaching a few backyard classes this spring including small scale gardening which i taught this past monday evening. i focused on creative solutions and ideas for those who have limited space. i talked about maximizing space by inter-planting vegetables, fruit, and herbs with ornamentals, incorporating them into pots and planters, growing on top of a roof and even on the strip between the street and the sidewalk. i discussed edible flowers,  edibles that do well in planters, how to make your own potting mix and compost tea and edibles that grow well in part shade (don't worry, i will be focusing on all of these topics in the upcoming weeks).

 i also shared many ideas which i am excited to try myself both at the farm where i work as well as at home. straw bale gardening is something i have always wanted to try and this week i plan to make a vertical garden. I will write a post about making one for next week.