I Just Can't Help Myself

I have been trying to figure out how to get more growing space out of my little backyard. Last week while at work I had a flash of an idea. Re-do the back garden area where the potato beds are.



I would have to pull out the yellow angels trumpet and pull the beds apart. So that is just what I did today.



I started this angels trumpet from a 5 inch cutting a few years ago. This guy grew to be over 12 feet high. Don't let anyone tell you they are hard to grow.



I had Sweet Husband cut down the tree to about 4 feet.



Then I had to get the beds moved out of the way so I could start digging it out.



It took about an hour to pull this bad boy out.



The beds are out and now it's time to lay out were the new wooden potato bins will go. The long season potatoes will go straight back against the side fence where they will get the most sun. The mid season bin will go to the right against the back fence.



This will still give me plenty of room for a 5 x 3 bed along the back fence.



Tomorrow we will frame out the new bins and put them in their new homes...



Photo below: The new bed is completed.

Sweet Husband put up an old trellis I had lying around.



I'm thinking I will use half the bed for early potatoes and the other half for something I can trellis... maybe some winter squash.



Photo below: I put some potted plants in the open area for now. Looks cute.



Other garden news....

Photo below: I still have some cucumbers growing.



Photo Below: My brocolli is starting to form flower heads.



Photos Below: Sugar snap peas are a good Fall crop for my garden.






Photo Below: Pink angels trumpet



Next post... Completed potato bins.

I'm back!

I'm back from my scrapbooking retreat. I had a great time but I'm glad to be home and back out into the garden. Here are a few photos from the retreat and then we will get to the garden photos.

This is the room we were in. Like I said in my last post there were about 30 women there. Most everyone was doing traditional scrapbooking and a few of us were doing digital.



Photo Below: Digital scrapping.

~Garden Update~

Before I left on Friday I gave everything a good watering and harvested some raspberries and lettuce.





Sweet Husband, Son and Son's Girlfriend did a great job taking care of my garden while I was gone. They even picked some more raspberries and weighed them for me before they ate them.

It's a amazing to me how fast things grow when you are gone for a few days.

Photo Below: These strawberries are just about ready for picking.



Photo Below: I hand pollenated three female pumpkin flowers last week. When I got home I was happy to see they are growing.



Photo Below: I was hand watering the corn on Friday and did not see this...



So far there are two ears of corn each on six of my stocks. Today the wind picked up and I gave them a little wiggle. I could see the pollen falling on to the silks. I hope I get good even pollenation.



Photo Below: The pole beans mixed with the sugar snap peas.



Photo Below: Spaghetti squash is getting big. There are five more just a bit smaller than this one.



Photo Below: Bush beans are doing great. They are blooming and I have a few beans that are about 2 to 3 inches long.



Photo Below: One of the two red baby bell peppers. They haven't started turing color yet.



Photo Blow: The English cucumber has two more inches to go and I will be able to harvest.



Photo Below: The baby cucumbers put on a lot of growth while I was gone. When looking at this photo full size I counted 10 cucumbers.



Photo Below: Cherry tomatoes are doing really well.



Photo Below: Finally a tomato on the container bush tomato plant.



Photo Below: Bush bean blooms.



Photos Below: Here are some updated photos from the roof...






Photo Below: Looking down on top of the tomato bed.




And this next photo is for Granny over at Annie's Kitchen Garden. She once asked me if I really get up on the roof to take photos...

~June 1st Harvest~

Raspberries



One of the round zucchini was ready to pick today.





Well today was the day to dig into potato bed 2. If you remember from one of my posts the potato greens were not looking so well. I didn't have high hopes of getting much of anything. I also thought the beds might be infested with wire worms since I have seen them in bed 2 which is right in front of the potato beds. Well I'm happy to report I was able to harvest some small taters. I didn't find any pest's in the bed. Check out the next few photos for my harvest...











I was going to pull potatoes in bed 1 in a few weeks but now I think I might wait until July to see if I can get a bigger harvest. I will try potatoes again next year for sure.


Photo below: Potato bed 1. Not looking so good but I'm hoping for gold under there. We'll find out in about a month.



Photo Below: The red norland cleaned up real good.



Todays harvest weighed in at...
Zucchini 1 pound
Red Norland Potato 1 pound 6 oz's
Bintje Potato 12 oz's
Raspberries 4.8 oz's
Sugar Snap Peas 1.2 oz's

Photo Below: Tonight's dinner and dessert...



mmm mmm good!