Vegetable Garden for 2015.
Still experimenting with the soil and next year I have to make more adjustments.The quality of the soil is better this year than it was last year, but it's still very heavy in some of the beds.
Pleasant surprises:
The 5-in-1 semi-dwarf fruit trees!
I think I planted them last year and they've produced over three dozen of different apples and a half dozen of pears.
Melons in Zone5:
I was suprised to be able to grow watermelons, cantaloupe and honeydew this year.
So, between the fruit trees and the melons, I was able to make a nice fruit salad.
I would have grapes for the salad as well if the raccoons had left it alone.
Disappointments:
Cucumbers, Raddishes and Eggplants.
I think next year I will water them more often and not plant them in a full sun vegetable bed.
Eggplants - I think their problem was the lack of water - it would bloom and then the bloom would drop off. After paying attention what might be going on - I watered them more often and I have one eggplant. :)
Cucumbers - no idea.
In the past - I always grew my cucumbers among my shrubs, but this year I decided to give them their own vegetable bed - and they were pathetic!
Raddishes - I have leaves, but no raddishes.
Vegetable garden May 5, 2015.
The green drum is full of compost tea and the weeds are already up.
In the background of this page that's where I started to train my 5-in-1 semi-dwarf fruit trees.
I couldn't wait for the proper trellis to espalier the fruit trees, so I used bamboo sticks for now.
These are so good and so much fun watching them grow!
Red and Gold Delicious, Gala, MacIntosh and Honeycrisp - grafted on this semi-dwarf tree.
Great flavour and they produce more than enough for two people.
I think this pear tree is a 4-in-1 semi-dwarf as well, but I only bought it for the Bartlett Pears.
See the green tape? I love that tape! It's from the $store. I can tear a piece of stretchy tape without having to search for a knife or scissors to cut a piece out of it.
This is the first year that these grapevines produce any fruit and the raccoons got them before I did. Next year I have to invest in some electric fencing or something.
I would have shared, if they asked nicely. :)
I would have shared, if they asked nicely. :)
Last year I tried to grow watermelons and as soon as they got to about the size of a tennis ball, the squirrels ate them. This year I decide I would grow them in a pot, and see what happens. It worked! The squirrels didn't find the watermelons and it grew to a nice big size. It was sweet and delicious!
This thornless black berry bush is beautiful and easy to grow. Not sure about the fruit though.
I find the berries a little too tart for my taste. I remember the blackberries on the side of the road being a lot sweeter than this. :)
Maybe it's the trade-off for being thornless.
This is a picture of a carrot flower.
When I was going to sow my vegetables this year, I was really sure that I had carrot seeds.
No carrots seeds to be found! I found a carrot in the fridge and now I have enough carrots seeds for the whole neighbourhood.
This is one of the newest tree that I bought this year.
It's a Weeping Larch.
I thought it was an evergreen, but it's like a Tamarack tree.
It's a conifer, but it will lose all of its needles in the fall.
That's ok - it has beautiful reddish brown bark. The needles will turn golden yellow in the fall and fall off. The new growth will be bluish green in the spring.
West side of house!
I finally had enough of the mud around here!
Besides the mud being slippery, the mud gets tracked all over the house even though we remove our shoes at the door. So, this year one of the priorities around here was to clean the area around the perimeter of the house.
Many wheelbarrows loads later of pea gravel, it's a lot easier to get around and cleaner.
Back of the house!
Same thing with the back of house!
We found left-over wood - made a frame and filled it with gravel and now I have a clean place by the back door. Next we are going to bring in gravel and do the driveway.
Backyard lawn started!
At least now we have something green to look at and when it rains we are not sinking into mud.
Early spring!
This raccoon sat in this tree for days watching me plant his garden. He ate all of the grapes and corn that I know of. Had I known what he was planning to do in July I would have taken my garden hose out and give him a good squirt of cold water.
My garden in early September before all of the sunflowers were in bloom.
Next year I'll sow other colours of sunflowers that my sister sent me. I have Teddybear, Italian and Peach to sow. The year after that the birds and squirrels will sow my sunflowers for me. :)
This was pretty good year for growing vegetables and fruit. Next year I will work on the flowers and the year after that on trellises. Need trellises for the fruit trees and grapevines. Cheers! Happy Gardening!