Gardens

The flower gardens and the vegetable garden are in full swing. I tried to make collages out of some of the flower pictures since I have so many different varieties of the same kind of flower. Do I have a favorite? Not really, I appreciate every one of them, they are all unique and beautiful. It reminds me of a verse in the Bible that speaks about worry, more specifically how we are not to worry. In Luke 12:27, Jesus says "Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his spender was dressed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?" So these are just some of the flowers growing in the yards. There are more yet to bloom.

      
Clematis                               Creeping Phlox                 Lupine and Columbine


      
Calla Lily                       Maiden Hair Fern                ?

     
 Nasturtiums                       Harebell or Campanula



 
Strawberry Begonia                      Peonies


    
Rhododendrons                              Some of my roses


                    
Some of my Columbines                     Day Lilies


We decided to put all the gardens and the vegetable garden on a drip irrigation system. When we stopped to think about all the trips we wanted to take during the summer and all the time it takes to keep up on the watering of all these gardens, it made sense to put in a system. Since we used to do landscaping as a profession, this task was a breeze. I was amazed at how much 1/2" tubing it took to get the water to reach all the parts of the yard-550ft! This was a costly endeavor, we spent close to $250 when it was all done. Luckily we didn't have to pay someone else to put it in for us.

The vegetable garden is a challenge, growing vegetables here is new to me. The previous owners had a vegetable garden but they let it go to weed and by the time we moved in the weeds were thick. It took us 4 days of weeding to "find" the garden. See Hidden Garden post from June 2017.

I tried to start many of the vegetables from seed, some of them worked and some didn't. The peas, lettuces, gourds and pie pumpkins came up inside and I could transplant them outside successfully. And I planted beans-pole and bush, mini pumpkins, and basil in the ground successfully. I started the sunflower seeds in pots outside to transplant-I noticed that they are a favorite of bugs. This way I can monitor their growth before transplanting them. I did have to buy the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, butternut squash, broccoli and brussel sprouts since I was unsuccessful in getting them to start by seed. I bought most of these from a local high school plant sale, I like to support the local growers and the kids and the prices were great! And I had some herbs growing in pots from last year that overwintered just fine. I got the herbs at the end of summer from a nursery at a very discounted price. I knew they were perennials and would probably be fine this summer-and they are-and I got them at a great price! The scallions I start from the ones I buy at the store. I just save an inch of the root part, replant and they continue to grow. I cut off the green shoots as needed and they produce most of the summer-at least they did in CA, hopefully they'll do the same here. So I was trying to be frugal in my garden starting endeavors.

Another challenge is to get the watering right. Since it rains more here I feel I can't just turn on the irrigation to water every day-I'll probably drown something. It'll have to be that way when I'm gone but while I'm here I can have more control over the watering. At least it's just a button I push and the watering is done.

The bugs are voracious. I've had green worms eating my broccoli and brussel sprouts. And something tried to eat my peppers. The lettuces and the beans have had a few bugs on them but not too bad. I've started inspecting them morning and evenings for bugs, getting rid of them as I find them. I'm surprised that I haven't found many slugs. They are around but I thought they'd be worse.



I'm learning about all the different diseases that affect these plants, what really grows here as opposed to what I think grows here, the names of plants-even scientific names, the care of all of them. There is so much to learn. I have a friend here that is very knowledgeable and she helps me out when I have questions. We even take turns weeding each others gardens.

I think gardening is in my blood, it's genetic. My grandmother was an avid gardener. She even wrote books on the subject: Flowering Shrubs and Small Trees, The Woman's Day Book of Wildflowers-of Annuals & Perennials-of Houseplants, and Cooking with Herbs-all by Jean Hersey. My dad (Jean's son) liked to garden, and my brother and I like to garden. It's all a learning process and I enjoy learning about new things. Hopefully it all grows okay.