Every time I visit this thread I think of one of my favorite English comedies. Over here it goes by the title of The Good Neighbors but it originally aired back in the 70s as The Good Life in England.
Tom Good hated his job and tried to find something else. He and his wife, Barbara finally decided to tear out their lawn and plant a garden and go completely self sufficient. Great show.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

Eric took this shot of a part of our backyard yesterday. It illustrates my Darwinian approach to gardening - put in cheap, common, aggressive, low maintenance flowering plants, then let them fight it out!



The "structure" in this picture is a three sided barrier which "hides" my compost bins. Directly to the right of the apple tree are California poppies, our state flower. Nasturtiums attempt to choke out hardy day lilies. Here and there are patches of sweet alyssum which appear (temporarily) to be losing the battle, but don't count them out yet! They seed prolifically! To the right of the compost bin barrier are some Shasta daisies. They had become quite overgrown so I removed most of them this spring and just left a small clump. The clump is doing quite well and will probably need to be dug out again in about three years.

Of course the "dark horse" in this race is something that does not show up well in this shot. Against the long side of the barrier is some mint which I think simply seeded itself naturally from a pot of mint I had around last year. The mint is quite happy there and I suspect it will eventually take over the entire planting area if I don't pull it out once a year or so.

Mint juleps anyone?

While we were in town getting my eye fixed, there was a cold core tornado going on out here with all the intending rain that comes along with it. The rain found a hole in our roof, so I am now waiting for the insurance company to call to see what we are covered for. Wish us luck.
I’ll think about the garden later.
Marie and I like your garden Angie.

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Man we had a storm again, first a tornado last thursday night, and now it's stormin' again to-night. Thunder, rain, hale, who knows what else.
Here is a quick update, the peonies are ready to burst soon, plus Marie's roses are starting to come to their bloom.
http://www.tootpix.ca/green.htm

More to come.

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Ang: Only have one thing to say. Make sure you check your bins often. Don't want the composting to get too hot and catch something on fire.
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex10721

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LOL Gary! I am the world's laziest composter. I worry not about layers of brown and green. I just throw things willy-nilly in there and let them rot. If I wait long enough, I get compost. Also, our bins are super ventilated. Trust me, my compost bins never get hot enough to do any damage.

My lack of knowledge about the origin of Loganberries might be the only thing I have in common with somebody who is under 25...

Thanks for the background information!

just fertilized the tomatoes...
sprayed the roses and tomatoes...
fertilized the roses and hibiscus(es)(?)
sticky humid...
the hummingbirds like the homemade juice...
the squirrels like the tortilla chips..
and i've already got the laundry done.

(sigh)

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This is my next door neighbour; he is a veteran of Canada's army, and a very good neighbour.
The garden is coming along great, as of the rains. There are some new additions to the garden site. Marie's lillies, and the peonies are a day away from blooming.
http://www.tootpix.ca/

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My tomatoes and peppers have been in the buckets fow 2 weeks now. But though they have grown some ,they are not up to speed. I think its the cold nights we have been getting.

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[/quote]

Old James

The peonies are almost ready to go!

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There it is what the rain hath wrought.

http://www.tootpix.ca/

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It seems the plants must have enjoyed it. I don't see any damage.


That reminds me. I havested my first and maybe only bellpepper a couple of days ago. Also havested the first cumcumber and made me a yummy salad.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Lucky you, things tend to be a mite slower here. We won't see food for at least a month.
You are right about the damage. We were lucky.

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Good news, there be radishes there, ripe from the garden. The first food of the year.
Yeah Long Sufferin' Marie!

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Great news Celt.
Well I looked out window last night and noticed that the currents were ready. So today I went out there to harvest them and something beat me too it. Oh well it or they left me enough for one dessert.
This year, I didn't get to dig up the raspberries gone native, so I found one ripe blackberry and havested the pluots.

This should be an interesting salad. The tartness of the currents vs the super sweet pluots.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

I'm having a problem with weeds. The recent severe flooding is forcing the deer into civilization, and I barely have enough weeds to go around.

Work, lots of work. Long Sufferin Marie and I spend parts of at least three or more days a week in the garden.

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I`m sorry guys, but i have not had time for much gardening this year ;-)
I normally have lots of flowers all around the house - but not so much
this year - and now ive even gotten problem with my camera - i cant connect
to it and get the files.. so........ ;-))
Just to participate in your nice gardeners thread - I`ll post a pic of
my natural outer garden ;-)) yeah.. taken 15 meters from my north house wall.
Enjoy your gardening days, folks! ;-)

Click to enlarge ;-)

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Ingrid.... WOW!!!!! WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!! Oh, and did I mention WOW?!!!!

You live in a spectacularly beautiful part of this world!!!

Thank you for posting that gorgeous shot!