Please feel free to tell us about your garden.

I've finally finished planting all my tomato plants. Overboard again as usual, but then I'm only growing tomatoes, potatoes and flowers this year. I have 95 tomato plants, 54 in the greenhouse and 41 outside. Goodness knows what I will do if they all fruit.

My potato plants are already starting to flower and I expect to be harvesting some soon. And finally my hanging baskets have started to flower.

---

flaming balloons

Here are three of my hanging baskets with a forth in the archway leading to my pond. The garage has an established cotoneaster with now established Chilean Vines having grown there and self-seeding for 7 years now. On either side of the garage door I have tomato plants which face south east and usually give a good crop in that spot. You can see one of my tubs also starting to flower - I was very late in planting my seeds this year.

I have 12 hanging baskets, 13 flower tubs and 7 wall baskets/troughs. It's a lot of flowers from my little greenhouse ;)

---

flaming balloons

Hi Ice :] I posted back in February that I would like to try and grow a Giant Pumpkin, but because of some problems and a late planting it is only a little over half a meter high, but hopefully it will grow faster now.

Hi Ice :] I posted back in February that I would like to try and grow a Giant Pumpkin, but because of some problems and a late planting it is only a little over half a meter high, but hopefully it will grow faster now.

Hi ECT, I've never tried to grow a pumpkin. I tried to grow more vegetables than ever last year: carrots, onions, spring onions, artichokes, cabbages, green red and chile peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and some more probably. But they either didn't grow fast enough to be harvestable by the end of summer, or the slugs ate them.

This year I'm sticking to the two crops I was successful at; tomatoes and potatoes. Both seem to fruit/crop well and those slugs don't seem to go for them.

I've grown some giant sunflowers before, so maybe I should have a go at a giant pumpkin next year ;)

---

flaming balloons

When I lived in Illinois I planted six tomato plants in my garden. These were "Beefsteak and Better Boy" varieties. Illinois has the richest soil in the world. It used to be prairie --I have looked across the banks of the drainage sloughs and see that the topsoil there can be about 15 feet thick in places. it is a rich black sandy loam full of organic material--no clay or rocks.

That year I had fried green tomatoes in the early season, ate a one pound tomato every day-giving myself a slightly sore set of lips from the acid. I brought tomatoes in to give away at work. I canned no less than 60 quarts of tomato sauce and gave away 350 lbs of tomatoes to the St Vincent de Paul worker house for the poor (took a tax write-off ).

I supported them with a wire cage that was 6 feet high --they grew above that height. I added fertilizer twice during the growing season. That year it rained about one half inch every other day--ideal conditions. The farmer's feed corn behind my house had three good ears on some of the stalks--yields hit 300 bushels per acre that year.

Here in Tennessee I have not had success with tomatoes. I did have a cherry tomato plant that received the sunlight bouncing off of my concrete pool deck. These tomatoes were the size of golf balls --big for cherry tomatoes. This one plant did yield over 1000 tomatoes--my son would sell them in the neighborhood. I had so many that I just let some of them rot on the vine. Regular tomatoes here in my garden seem to get a blight and require a lot of spraying for insects.

... Regular tomatoes here in my garden seem to get a blight and require a lot of spraying for insects.

It's good the you got some good results William, but there is always the hard work and spraying and feeding that goes with it.

Of course a garden is not only about growing things. It's place we make to relax in, and we decorate our gardens with all sorts of things. Here is my garden geko, from Menorca.

---

flaming balloons

Oh, I was hoping somebody would start a garden thread! I am all about production, but I have some critter competetors.

Out here in California we have these voracious Tomato Horn Worms. I am always on the look-out for them on the two tomato plants I put in. I also am forced to plant in gopher cages, as we have these darling little pocket gophers who think that my garden is their personal farmer's market. From time to time I also have to have a "mole removed" (pun entirely intended!)

My tomato plants have both flowers and small green fruits at this point. I have two varieties of pole beans and two varieties of bush beans that are growing well. My two jalipeno pepper plants and my cucumber plant are all sulking. Not enough heat yet. Just started harvesting small zucchini and summer squash to keep the fruit from stressing the young plants. Lettuce and basil are coming up ok. Other herbs are sort of year-round here in California. Artichokes are dying back for the season. Have more rhubarb than I know what to do with. Lemons are still coming in strong. Our plums will be ripe in about two weeks. The apple tree looks good with a nice harvest expected in September.

Most exciting of all, I'm growing a great crop of raccoon food this year! My little bandit friends always beat me to the grapes. They test them daily and devour them when they finally ripen. We only have one grape vine, but in the evenings of late summer we usually find four or five raccoons climbing the vine - snarling at eachother and scarfing my grapes!

What do you all use for soil enrichers? I've been using bat guano and compost primarily. We have the potential for year round gardening where we live, but I typically let my vegie plots rest for the winter, except for artichokes, mustard greens and herbs.

I also had a small back yard garden in the San Francisco Area (Concord). We had great success with Pomegranates (they grow on a bush). Our fig tree yielded so much I gave baskets of figs away to my neighbors from India. Our cat would sit under the fig tree hoping to catch a bird that came for the figs if it ventured too far down to get the fruit. Fennel grew wild there and was good on Pizza's and as a vegetable. The prevalence of wild purple thistle suggested that Artichokes would be a good crop though I didn't have room for them and could buy ten for a dollar in season.

Purple and lemon basil thrived and I served it over tomatoes and olive oil almost every night. The garden was small enough that we had an irrigation system there in the dry climate of California. Never saw a harmful insect or slug there --maybe one fly all season and lots of bees.

So where are the pics Angela?
Even i feel sorry that we dont have a garden.

---

With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Really disgusted with myself now....

Not only have I failed to plant any type of garden, but after 3 years in my new house, I haven't even finished cutting down the excess crap that was on the property when I bought it :(

and I really DO want to plant some sunflowers!!!

---

What do you all use for soil enrichers?

I only use the mass of compost I produce every year from emptying flower pots/baskets and cuttings from grass and pruning shrubs and climbers, plus some veg kitchen waste.

After accumulating so much, this year I covered the whole of my front and back garden beds with a topping of compost at least 3cm thick, and still had enough for all my flower pots/baskets and 'grow bags' for the tomato plants.

---

flaming balloons

My favorite hobby that I indulge in every couple of years (depending upon where I'm living and such) is hot pepper growing.

I grow some mean cayennes. I mean i really till the soil and till the weeds so that the peppers get nice and strong. I grow Jalapenos also...and regular type banana peppers.

I love them with a meal. Virtually any meal is better with them especially southern style 'soul food'.


One year I went nutz and trucked in a pickup full of horse manure from a local livery. Hehehe. Those things were pretty hot. The gal in charge of training the daily horses was a little hotter....but don't tell her I said that. :-)

---

Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

Don't currently have a digital camera, so I can't post pics.
Growing: currents, raspberries, strawberries, cheeries sweet for us, sour for the birds, tomatoes, blueberries, a less than stellar cantelope, two apple trees, pears, some kind of plum and something else tree, nectarines, grape, bell peppers, corn, beans, radishes, carots, cucumbers and of course herbs.
And of course a great variety of flowers, bushes, trees and fern.

Plus of course the ucky things, weeds.

---

Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

My favorite hobby that I indulge in every couple of years (depending upon where I'm living and such) is hot pepper growing.

I grow some mean cayennes. I mean i really till the soil and till the weeds so that the peppers get nice and strong. I grow Jalapenos also...and regular type banana peppers.

I love them with a meal. Virtually any meal is better with them especially southern style 'soul food'.


One year I went nutz and trucked in a pickup full of horse manure from a local livery. Hehehe. Those things were pretty hot. The gal in charge of training the daily horses was a little hotter....but don't tell her I said that. :-)

I once went out with a girl whose sister worked in horse racing stables on the South Downs of England. The horses were hot, even a Grand National winner amongst them and I have to say, so were they ;) I tried growing a variety of peppers last year, but failed miserably. This was my best attempt

---

flaming balloons

Don't currently have a digital camera, so I can't post pics.
Growing: currents, raspberries, strawberries, cheeries sweet for us, sour for the birds, tomatoes, blueberries, a less than stellar cantelope, two apple trees, pears, some kind of plum and something else tree, nectarines, grape, bell peppers, corn, beans, radishes, carots, cucumbers and of course herbs.
And of course a great variety of flowers, bushes, trees and fern.

Plus of course the ucky things, weeds.

That's a very impressive array of fruit, veg, flower and everything else uli :) Here is my array of water tubs to keep my fruit and veg going in case of drought

---

flaming balloons

My pool area looks good now as the roses were really abundant this year due to regular rainfall in the Spring.

Thanks Ice, I figure, if I have to water it, I might as well enjoy it. Just had a bowl of fresh Blueberries, Currents and Strawberries, yummy.
My dogs love the bing cherries and yes they pick them out of the tree, but some of them haven't learned the art of spitting out the pit.

---

Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Not sure of the rules here: can other folks show their gardens too?

My garden, no so pretty I guess. <giggle> But some of us live in the real world.

Wish I could show my photography in this forum. Beautiful, and, IMHO, even kid friendly, (all my little nieces and nephews have seen my stuff), but, no, instead….




btw: Hi Ice. Remember me? <snicker>

---

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein

. . . here's a shot of the Yard Today - Early Mornin'

Hi Richard,

By yard I assume you mean front garden?

Is that a timber framed house, or a timber clad one?

Looks pretty anyway!

. . . yep - that's the front Garden

My brother in law in Phoenix does his 'yard work' every Saturday. I always thought it was an odd term for a garden, but then all my relatives in Phoenix have a 'yard' rather than a garden. My bother in law is lucky, he only does his yard every Saturday - I have to do mine every day now - the hanging baskets need watering every day or the flowers crammed in them soon suffer ;)

---

flaming balloons

Thanks Ice, I figure, if I have to water it, I might as well enjoy it. Just had a bowl of fresh Blueberries, Currents and Strawberries, yummy.
My dogs love the bing cherries and yes they pick them out of the tree, but some of them haven't learned the art of spitting out the pit.

I'd love to be able to grow more things I can eat than tomatoes and potatoes. But then I can enjoy eating barbecues whilst looking at heaps of lovely flowers ;)

---

flaming balloons