pictures of a giant radish from my garden

while growing


pulled it


it was hollow inside!


monster 4 inch radish

at long last, a garden update!

my garden, 15'x25' for the fenced in section, 12'x4' for the raised bed


the raised bed my dad helped me build last fall




rutabaga is enormous!


a single head of escarole lettuce. those blocks are 16" long! (and puppy!)


monster sweet onions, over 22" tall!


amish paste tomatoes


cabbage, brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi


pineapple tomatillos, pole green beans, and a lot of weeding needing to be done


in back from left, green beans, ground cherries, black eyed peas, tomatoes, in front, celeriac, zucchini, watermelon, cantelope (hidden under the lettuce), and marigolds


garlic


yukon gold potatoes on the right, onions and tomatoes on the left. clover garden paths, raised bed and strawberry patch in the background


pineapple mint plant that smells nifty


potted potato experiment, from the red potatoes i grew last year that sprouted in the cabinet over winter. (wilted from the heat)


strawberry patch (and molly!)


the old raspberry patch, now almost fully in the shade. the red line indicates the area i dug out and transplanted to a sunny location this spring.


transplanted raspberries

monster radish

monster radish (thanks to our obnoxiously and abnormally long cool spring)

pictures of my seedlings that have sprouted so far

i organized my seeds by when they need to be planted


they dont look like much yet


sweet onions


blue petunias


lilac ice petunias


cabbage


kohlrabi


early escarole for the tortoise


tomatoes! (um, i may have gone overboard here... i planted 60 seeds! and most have sprouted! last year i only planted 36.)


nothing yet from jicama or celeriac


i'll be planting broccoli, brussels sprouts, and ground cherries soon too.

Pruning the pear trees

Luscious tree before pruning and after (sorry its blurry, i cant exactly go back and take another before picture)


Parker tree before and after


Summercrisp tree before and after


Patten tree before and after


i followed the pruning advice and pictures from a book on pruning fruit trees that advises to cut the branches back by 2/3 during january or february while the tree is dormant. i suspect that these trees i planted last spring are now three years old. i believe they were two year old baby trees when i got them, but they may have been only one year old, though the Patten tree thats more thin than the others may only be going on two years. they still need to be directing their energy into good strong roots, and pruning so severely will help them to do that when they wake up in spring. i may not have pruned them enough. i'm still uncertain how much i should thin branches to form a good initial shape to the tree so that branches dont cross in the middle and stuff.

edited to add i think the advice and pictures came from this book pruning basics by david squire

finished!

my wonderful raised bed garden! i'm very excited and looking forward to working with it next spring.


a big little patch job my dad did for me on the house foundation.

the previous owner had used some kind of rubbery/plastic-y concrete patch stuff that was falling apart. i thought it'd be just a quick little patch job to use up some of the leftover mortar. my dad had me knock away the old patch job and it ended up being quite a big hole. two holes actually, right into the center of the block. my dad suggested i fill the holes with some styrofoam that i happened to have on hand, and bits of newspaper to make the holes easier to patch over. he did the fine patchwork, using an obscene amount of mortar to fix the crumbling block that had started out looking like just a little patch would be needed. i wished i'd take a picture of the gaping hole(s). trust me when i say it looks MUCH better now.

making a cinder block raised bed garden

today dad came out and helped me put together my raised bed garden.

just a few blocks (66)


and a pallet of peat moss, composted manure, and sand


getting ready, i hauled those blocks out over the previous two days with my trusty green wagon.


the first layer (and my dad) resting on the layer of sand to level them out. glued together with weatherproof construction adhesive for concrete


mixing up the mortar in the dogs old kiddie pool that had a leak


the second layer, mortared to the first


the third layer, as far as we got before we used up all the mortar we had mixed up


we'll get to the remaining blocks another time. lifting that many blocks was hard work and we were more than ready to be done.


i'm very excited!

final pictures over in this entry http://s2.photobucket.com/user/yesididit/media/house%20projects/9-19-10103.jpg.html