Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Wednesday World of Gardens

 And WHAT--you may ask--do teenaged chicks have to do with gardens ???  Well, I'm glad you asked.  (Here they are--you go first, no YOU go first--coming out of the coop in the morning...) Aren't they precious??

   Chicken manure and straw from the coop are an important part of our composting routine. IF we didn't have so many dogs, cats and coyotes around here, they'd be free ranging and eating up bus from the garden. Maybe. My last experience with that was that I had to fence my garden, because they LOVE tomatoes, all green plants and especially green beans and peas, as well as bugs and weeds.  LOL  As it is, we exploit their waste product, which is very high in nitrogen and ammonia. So, after it's been good and composted, we use it on the gardens...but not before, because chicken poo is very HOT and can burn anything you plant in it. (And yes, this IS the voice of experience talking. lol)

   The gardens are off to a good start, it looks like.  All the flowers that should just be blooming are almost finished (irises and such) the Clematis is in full bloom already, and this morning the first  Stella D'Oro day lily bloomed !!
   I have quite a few of these planted around the place. They're great and they bloom almost all summer long.

  For some reason I'm not seeing the picture I took of the clematis...hmmm...


  Anyway, here are some shots of the vegetable gardens in their infancy (mostly):

Assorted and Sundry Bell Peppers...

 Sugar edible pea pods

Green Beans

French Breakfast Radish babies (the rest of this bed is planted in 2 lettuces, spinach, chard and onions and the 2 bottoms of celery experiment!)

Christmas Pole Limas--not sprouted yet..a lovely maroon and white speckled bean. 2 trellises,7 poles, 3 beans per = 42 plants (Our first time to do this--we'll see.)


  'Maters--4 Big Boy, $ Better Boy and 4 Beefsteaks

Taters--Red Pontiacs, Kennebecs and Irish Cobblers

Edamame bed--no sign yet, and can't pull weeds, just in case. lol

And GOOSEBERRIES!!  In the backyard by a big old dead tree and I didn't even know they were there until Ellyn pointed them out on our stroll yesterday!

  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 The peaches are going to be great this year!!

The apples too!


And this is the quinoa bed-an experiment- and it was just planted 2 days ago.

Ahhh...here's the clematis--came through when I downloaded a second time.

And the evening primrose at the front porch.

And finally---the king of everything, Sir Jinga
 So, there you have it...the gardens at Honeysuckle Hill in the middle of May.   Hope you enjoyed the tour!!!!


Namaste.

8 comments:

the wild magnolia said...

it was a delightful tour.

gardening sets the spirit free and nourishes the soul.
not to mention how spectacular fresh vegetable are for our health.

lovely flowers.....

the gooseberries are my favorite, i like the sound of the word. never tasted gooseberries.

thank you for the tour.

the wild magnolia said...

oh, one more thing, the teenagers.....the picture and your quote, so funny, laugh out loud funny.

Beth said...

Loved the tour of the garden Annie. Jim and I planted the Christmas lima beans too. The beans get so huge and they are delicious!

Tina - Our Rustic Roots said...

Wow, your apples are HUGE right now compared to the teeny things we have!

Mariodacatsmom said...

Wow your garden is coming along nicely., The chioks are adorable. Of course Sr. kitty is the best one of all. What a handsome fellow.

DJan said...

Great shots of a beginning garden. And a whole lotta work too. I love the teenagers looking out at the big wide world. Yes, they are precious. :-)

LindaM said...

Nice variety in the garden. Beautiful flowers. I am about to publish an award entry and guess who won?

Dirt Lover said...

Love your bean tower! Thanks for the tour, and the inspiration. I was out this morning/early afternoon in my garden, planting bulbs that should have been planted 2-4 weeks ago. Too much going on, and it's hot when I want to go out, and my garden doesn't look like I want it to. Oh, well. Slow and steady wins the race, right???
Nice pics!
~~Lori