Hello all,

I thought you might like to see the latest work I've done in my veg garden. Today I planted out my tomatoes (larger ones for cooking and salads and cherry toms for the kids to graze on!) and aubergines (eggplants in the US).

The roof tiles are an idea used a lot around here by the locals - we almost certainly won't have anymore frost but they just give the young plants a bit of protection for the first week or two in the big, wide world! And, they look cute, I think! :D

K x

I am jealous, My DH has been layed up with foot surgery and is behind by a month on our garden. But in another week he will be fine and will be getting tomatoes,peas,limas,squash,cucumbers and I don't know what all. Can't hardly stand store bought tomatoes and cucumbers. I will post pictures as soon as he gets it going. For most of my life we had a winter garden in south Florida. Now in Georgia it is a summer one. :D :D Don't matter as long as I have one.
BillsBonBon

WOW! Nice garden

Sorry to here about your DH! How rustrating for him (and you!) I agree with you about store bought stuff - just the smell of the tomato plants makes me drool - tomatoes you buy just don't have the same smell OR taste!

K x

Thanks Bev - wasn't ignoring you, think we were posting at the same time!

K x

I was only thinking just this afternoon how your veggie garden was coming on K, looking very healthy!! :D I love your little pansies that are in the picture, I presume they just seeded off themselves, so cute :D

My mom and I are going to be spending time in her garden this weekend for mothers day! We call it "playing in the dirt". She has six raised garden boxes and grows all types of stuff. I live in an apartment so I grow tomatoes in big pots. They are soooo yummy, but last year the darn squirrels ate them all!!!!!!!!! GRRRR!!! But I don't have the heart to scare off, or hurt the cute little guys. I guess they needed the tomatoes more than me.

My has blueberry bushes and they do great!!! I heard you can grow them in big pots too, so I think I will try that this year out on my deck!!

Yup they did - in fact they're a bit of a weed, along with the chives, borage and calendula that all seed themselves in the paths, but I haven't got the heart to yank 'em up if they're not in the way! ALthough today I was weeding the strawberry bed and nearly breaking my neck trying not to tread on the borage in the path!

I've weeded a long border along the edge and I'm going to sow those seed you sent along there - probably get to it tomorrow!

K x

I've heard blueberries do well in pots - people who don't have acidic enough soil grow them that way! You can also grow 'tumbler' tomatoes in hanging baskets - might foil the squirrels!

K x

PS I also planted 8 rows of new potatoes at the weekend but haven't posted a pic - don't think little humps of soil are that interesting to anyone but me who got the back ache creating them!

K x

We had a visitor yesterday offer to lend me a strimmer to get rid of the 'weeds on one of the slopes in front of the villa..after giving him 'daggers' I said that was my 'nature' garden and I had no intention of getting rid of them, there are some beautiful 'weeds' in there, and the colour is amazing, so I just leave it alone :D :lol:

You're absolutely right Izy - I have to make myself NOT be neat and let things grow where they will - nature always choses a better spot for a plant than I can! I even leave some nettles to grow because they're good to cut for the compost! However, I HATE bind weed and don't like to spray so just keep digging it up but of course it keeps coming back! The worst is when I don't notice some for a bit and it dares to FLOWER!!! Grrrr!

K x

K you are so right about nature chosing the best place for each plant!!

We have beautiful variety of bindweed which is an annual that is not so vigourous and so pretty, here's a picture, it creeps along the ground and is the deepest pinky lilac, plus we get white tinged with pink :D

Bindweed is up here in St. Louis! Have a bunch to pull! The dog brings it in on his bushy tail! :?

I've seen the purple 'morning glory' growing wild in Sardinia as well - yes it's pretty but it still looks like bindweed to me! We had the pigs on the ground where the veggie plot now is - I thought they'd cleared everything but apparently NOT the bindweed; horrid stuff! Sorry, it IS pretty in your pic Izy, just irrational prejudice on my part!

K x

Hey, maybe I could train my Dougal Dog to dig it up? Trouble is, he'd dig EVERYTHING up! :D

K x

Lol, I USED to share your opinion when I lived in the UK, it really was a 'bind' to get rid of it and it choked out everything it grew through, the other worst weed top spot went to the Victorian Knotweed that cracks concrete!! Thank God not got any of that here!! :shock:

Not here either thank goodness! It was all over County Kerry when I lived there briefly. The other nightmare here is that tall thistly type thing with tiny yellow flowers - I think it's called nipplewort but I might have made that up!

K x

I use the purple flowered chives a lot in my cooking...big garden, I will plant more of mine this weekend :D

Well there are several 'huge' scottish looking thirstles that grow to about 4/5' tall any boy are they vicious!! As soon as I see them, they get yanked :lol:

Are those the ones that hang upside-down?? I was thinking of doing that!!! My mom's neighbor did and she got a TON of tomatoes. I think I will try it, we'll see. I think my crazy squirrels will look at it as a challenge :lol:

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/plant.../p86859/1.html

Here they are!

K x

Beautiful Garden! Makes my mouth water :D :D :D

That is going to be one great garden. Keep you busy and fed all summer.

Nice! I haven't had a veggie garden in years! I sure do miss that!!

Thank You!!!!

I love the little houses! Everything looks so neat. You must weed every few days, to keep it like that. Makes me think of gnome homes :wink:

You've just reminded me of the lizard ladders - must go and put them in! I don't know if you noticed the half plastic bottles sunk in the soil, this so I can water direct to the roots, well the first year I did this I found a dead lizard in one, poor little thing had fallen in and couldn't climb out. So now I rest a piece of stick in each one so any fallers can climb out again! The kids are off today - sounds like a job for them!

K x

What a lovely veg garden you have, I love the roof tiles, yes, they do look cute!

Living in a flat I don't have a garden, but I have commandeered some space at my Mom and Dad's house in their garden, and have planted Carrots, Beetroot, Pickling Onions and normal size onions. They are all starting to peek out the ground now, am so excited! My plan is to save money on Christmas gifts this year by pickling the onions and the beetroot, making onion marmalade with the normal size onions, then gooness knows what with the carrots, freeze them, or make carrot cake and freeze that I think. PLenty to give away to people in the winter.

Isn't it exciting growing things?!?!

Yes it really is! Every time a seed comes up, it's like a little miracle! I sowed a long row of beetroot yesterday - my beds are 20' long and 4' wide (so I never have to walk on them!) A friend of mine had a glut of beetroot last year and made chutney which was gorgeous! She gave me a couple of jars and I could eat it straight from the jar with a spoon! So I'm going to get her recipe!

Today, I'm going to sow my courgette, butternut squash, pumpkin and sweetcorn in pots. I'm a bit late with it but better late than never, and we usually have a long, sunny autumn here so things ripen well late in the year.

For your carrots, you could make soup - delicious with coriander! I struggle to grow that for leaves, it just bolts even in the shade!

K x

That sounds nice. Ask her if she wouldn't mind sharing her recipe with us too? :D

Will do Mary - sure she won't mind!

K x

K, LOVE your garden! It is much larger than the one I have now. We had a huge (almost truck patch) at our other house. That thing worked me to death and then there are only 2 of us to eat it! I used to try to give away lots of things...that is until people started asking if I had stringed and snapped the beans, shelled the peas and shucked the corn! I mean....I DID grow it and pick it for them...want me to eat it for them too???

I love you tiles...(Early on, I use buckets and remove them during the day) Are those plastic bottles, like liter soda bottles with the bottoms cut off?? Great idea!

All of my garden is up and doing well too...I'll have to post.

Thanks Patti -the main veg plot is about 30' x 40'; I have 5 beds of 20' x4', 3 x seed and salad beds of 6' x 4' and beds all around the edges for herbs, flowers and so on. The main beds are never wlked on and I just chuck compost on the top and let the worms drag it in; it was all double dug at the beginning and in theory never needs diging again - I like this method! Also means all the goodness is concentrated and I can plant much closer than usual - the tomatoes for eg are only a foot apart.
There is also an 'annexe' of around 25' x 40' divided into two large beds with a path up the middle and around the sides where I rotate potatoes one side and sweetcorn with courgette, pumpkins and squashes underneath. I too give a lot away and make gallons of soup for the freezer - courgette and pumpkin are special favourites! Non one's ever asked me to prepare the veg for them though- blooming cheek!

The plastic bottles are for watering - they'll also get my homemade nettle and comfrey soup once a week - a noxious brew but they thrive on it!

Here's some more pics!

K x

more! just skip by if I'm boring you!

K x

more!

K x

more!

K x

sorry, Bonnie, bout hubby's foot. Hope he is on the mend.
If you weren't in Jaw-ja, I'd go snitch me a mater or two and maybe a cucumber...and is that summer squash? don't feel like shelling peas right now...they make me swell any who, lol..awww, fresh veggies, yum!

K, had to come back to thread. I have to say, your veggie garden is just pretty! Must be a joy to work in, with the flowers, don't care if some call them weeds, they add pizzazz...i'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch...can you tell i been a good girl and taking my iron everyday, like doc said...still salivating over that eggplant dish you described...i love me some mozzarella!!! :D

K, that is soooo cute...lizard ladders! I bet the kids love that! :D

what is courgette?
beetroot chutney, right out of the jar with a spoon...don't care for any chutney that I have come across,...well, never would taste it, lol...but that's ok...I have food allergies...but curious...is the beetroot chutney, sweet, sour...salty? Thinking you really like a lot of different foods. That's why you got that cute figger,...that and you never sit still for long, lol! :D