blueberries and flowers

dogs and garden


blueberry bushes looking much better


the last two chippewa blueberry bushes to leaf out


the two bushes i bought at the store, polaris and north country


duke (big) and chippewa (little)


volunteer milkweed in the strawberry patch


butterflyweed


pretty dark red daylily


bright pink daylily - this is an error too. i only bought red ones. but one was light pink/cream colored, and then this one. definitely not red.


location pic - you can see the bright pink, and the light pink


purple coneflowers that are more red than purple


black eyed susan that reseeded themselves from last year


this sprouted up in the landscaping rocks up against the house


teeny tiny little flowers


the leaves remind me of mint a little bit. i'm told its catnip.

strawberry blossoms

i planted comfrey last year in a pot because i was told it can spread and be difficult to kill. last fall i dumped it out and buried it in the bottom of the raised bed that now has the blueberries in it. i figured that'd kill it. nope. not only did it come back in the place raised bed where i had the pot planted, but it came back in the blueberry bed where it was buried under multiple feet of stuff! i let it grow in the first raised bed. i hope i dont come to regret that.


see the long long roots it sent up! over and over and over it keeps sending up more shoots and i keep pulling them out.


the first raised bed, asparagus in the back, daikon and rutabaga sprouting.


molly resting her chin on the edge of the raised bed where i blocked off access to the asparagus the dogs were helping themselves to.


the blueberry raised bed. still not much happening back in may.


the duke plant is starting to green up


strawberry blossoms


strawberry patch - the fenced in part


the not fenced in part. i've been dumping dirt there for a few years (from leveling the pavers over by the greenhouse) and the strawberries sent out runners and populated the dirt pile. the dogs run thru this area so the plants there arent in the greatest shape. and when the strawberries did come in, puppy was helping himself.


my big maple tree.


my fire pit after the bonfire. i made charcoal! notice all the maple tree 'helicopters'. thats what fell overnight. this picture was taken the day after the bonfire. my whole yard was covered in them.

preparing the second raised bed for blueberries

this raised bed has had lots of stuff dumped into it. i started two years ago with rocks at the bottom.


then i dumped in bucketfuls of weeds.


added shredded leaves from fall two years ago.


but after winter the shredded leaves sunk down nearly a foot.


and continued to sink/decompose


broken up sticks were added. and more shredded leaves from last year.


my stick pile was already 3 feet tall


but i had two wagonloads full of more sticks. the old maple and the ash tree drop lots of dead shit. i didnt want to haul it all to the county dump site for vegetation, so i broke the sticks up and dumped them in the raised bed. they'll break down eventually.


still had a good foot of shredded leaves on top of them from last fall (and a ton more below them from the fall before that).


shredded leaves, and bags of pine bark mulch. which is supposed to break down and help acidify the soil.


4 bags of mulch doesnt go very far. the mulch is also because blueberries like really loose soil. or so my brother told me.


4 enormous bags of peat moss, each bag was 2 cu. ft. but the raised bed is 12' x 4' so 8 cu. ft. doesnt go that far either. peat moss is supposed to help acidify the soil. there is also a big bag of sulfur mixed in there.

garden pictures

This bin was full up with shredded leaves last fall. I used them all for mulching my garden. i probably could have used an entire second bin as well.


newly mulched section of the garden


watermelon vines


cantelope vines


zucchini


onions


tomato plants


baby tomato


raised bed. you can see the tall fluffy asparagus in the back. in front is the stevia and basil.

see how my garden has grown, pictures from the beginning

how it first began in 2005, my second year in my house. its about 5'x5'


2006 doubled in size the first time to about 5'x10'


2006 garden layout. i didnt keep track of what i planted the first year.


2007 adding more space


2007 garden layout


the garden how it looked 2007 and 2008


2008 garden layout.


taking down the fence in 2009 to double in size again


after tilling 2009


new fence up and ready to go 2009


2009 garden layout


2010 newly tilled addition


2010 all fenced in. this is the current size of the garden, somewhere around 15'x25'.


2010 garden layout, in color!


fall 2010 hauled blocks for my first raised bed garden


fall 2010 built a raised bed garden


2011 garden layout, in color! i made tomato sauce this year. can you tell?


2012 garden layout. i was working part time this year and the year before and it was really rough on me. i was unable to plant a full garden, and unable to take care of some of what i did manage to get planted. i couldnt keep up with the weeding. it was just a bad year all around. i finally had to quit the job in june.


spring 2013 replacing the garden fence
taking it down, so many pieces. at least 8 different pieces, patched in each time i expanded.


left side out, pavers overturned to allow me to dig/pull the buried part up.


front edge of garden fence out. the fence has to be buried, and surrounded by pavers to keep the bunnies out.


2013 new garden fence in


2013 garden layout


fall 2013 built a greenhouse from scrap/salvaged materials


fall 2013 greenhouse


2014 garden layout


fall 2014 64 blocks all hauled out and ready for construction, next to the existing raised bed garden.


built a second raised bed garden


the tentative garden layout for 2015 garden. from that free month of garden planning software i mentioned a few weeks back. sorry the printer was running out of ink.