We have some big oak trees in the back yard that suck all the nutrients out of the soil. Our space is small because so much of it is shaded. But I have some raised beds in the corners of the fence—as far from the trees as possible. They sit directly on the ground, of course. In one we have planted asparagus and in the other, only onions because seemingly overnight it sprang up with all kinds of volunteers: potatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, MANY tomatoes, zinnias. I already harvested a mess of potatoes. I’m not sure if I’ll get anything else, but the rampicante squash has already had both male and female blossoms, and at least half of the tomato plants are blossoming. I have my “deliberate” garden in grow bags, four of which are 3’ x 6’. The verdict is till out on how well they will do for me. I typically garden in 10 gallon bags, but these big ones were really affordable and I thought I’d give them a try. So far I have yellow squash, spaghetti squash, gray squash, zucchini, marketmore cukes, cucumelon, bush green beans, yellow wax beans, and lots of flowers growing. I had planted some lettuces and greens, but they never germinated, even though the weather was still plenty cool enough. What strange weather this year has brought. A great year for perennials and plants that sow themselves, though.
I also have 2 - 100 gallon grow bags which I’m growing Blue Lake pole green beans. I have sweet potato slips coming on, but they are not long enough in roots to plant yet (even though I started them PLENTY early enough!). My plan is to plant the slips with the beans so they will grow on the same netting which climbs on top of the raised beds that are on legs. In those raised beds I grow lettuces, beets, carrots, radishes (which are about done), cilantro, and nasturtium.
On the side of the house I have a bed with fig trees and herbs: fennel, parsley (volunteer!!!), cilantro, catnip, and garlic chives. Then across the sidewalk from that I have big whiskey barrel pots of mints, parsley, cilantro, chives, onions and a few leeks.
On the back fence I have 10 gallon grow bags which sit in plastic swimming pools with holes in them. I grow a variety of bell and hot peppers. Among all this mess are large pots and bags of dill and more flowers and peppers.
I started most of my stuff from seed or saved it from last year (kale, yarrow, many peppers) and the rest of it came up by volunteering. I think the only things I bought this year were 2 lemon balm plants and a bunch of snap dragons and geraniums because they were cheap. The lemon balm wasn’t all that cheap, but I’d tried multiple times to grow it from seed with no luck. I still have tons of tomatoes and peppers plants that I started in seed snails to give away to anyone interested.
I don’t usually have much success in the garden—given all the work I put in, you’d think I get a bounty crop every year, but I never get much. I hope this year will be different . I try to do everything right, like irrigate and feed and shade the plants when they need it, but I’ve struggled. Still, like most gardeners, it brings me too much joy to ever give up on gardening.
I love sharing about my garden and reading about yours. I’d love to hear your strategies for dealing with garden problems and pests. I’m so far successful with warding off the Texas squash vine borer, but we’ll see how the season progresses.
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