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What are you growing in your garden this year?
I went all out this year, I meant to just grow a couple tomatoes from seed and some basil I had from years ago and it exploded into a whole thing, we’ve got peppers, a rosemary bush, lavender and a fig tree that is a cutting from my friends fig tree.
My tomatoes are just starting to come in!
What have y’all got growing?
We live in Montana, USA, so our last frost date JUST passed. I'm from SoCal originally so it's been... a bit of an adjustment. We tried to start some stuff indoor from seeds as well as buying some starts, and some direct sowing.
We went... maybe a little overboard? But we got here later in the year last year and basically failed at the few things we tried to grow so we tried to start off on a better foot.
https://i.imgur.com/Luh8Y0v.jpeg
Here's a photo of the current setup.
The large wooden planter box is repurposed, stacked rectangles from the previous garden that was here (my father in law's old house). Instead of three very short boxes I stacked them into one larger box. It's about 32 sq ft and 2 ft deep so it was a bit of a project getting it filled without spending a million dollars. This box has various kinds of berries- raspberry in the middle (which will spread), three blueberries around the edges (although I'm not confident two of them transplanted successfully), and three different kinds of strawberries for "grounds ground"cover. Theoretically, these should all act as perennials.
The in-ground patch just below the wooden box will hopefully grow some pumpkins but I don't have a lot of faith in this.
The two long boxes at the bottom of the picture are intended to grow cucumbers and snap peas along the trellis (it's just PVC and "fencing"). The gophers/ground squirrels ate all of our cucumber starts already. Not sure starting some frok seed will work in time but we'll still try. We have some ultrasonic spikes coming that are supposed to deter them but if it doesn't work... it might be gassin' time, unless anyone has better suggestions on getting gophers out of a yard. We're also hoping to grow some mammoth sunflowers along the fence.
The steel raised beds are going to have a variety of things - mostly radishes, carrots, various nightshades (peppers, tomatoes, ground cherries, eggplant).
All beds have been planted with basil and marigolds as pest deterrent/sacrifice plants, and random bush beans to enrich the soil.
Surrounding the garden is like half an acre of lawn. I fuckin' hate monoculture grass, so I'm planning to pull up about 3 feet around the garden and put in some native plants and pollinator friendly wildflowers appropriate for the environment. Got about 200 sq ft of native seed from the local water conservation district, some rocky mountain wildflower mix, and hopefully soon I'll find some will to dig up 300+ sq ft of lawn to get the project started. Step one in an ongoing lawn destruction project my father in law will just have to adjust to 😂
Your fence makes me nervous… definitely not tall enough but I dont know if you have deer or not up there. I’m in SE US and we need like at least a five or six foot fence or the deer will just get in there and destroy the whole lot. Rabbits will also hop right over it if its not at least five feet.
I appreciate the concern - it's a bit temporary. Leftover/repurposed from the fence my FIL already had there. You can see to the left of the trellis it's actually just chicken-wire there 😂
The long-term plan will definitely be to replace it with something sturdier and more permanent, but I'm honestly not sure if we'll go much taller - we do have deer but they don't seem interested in hopping fences. Plenty of other goodies for them to eat around here. We had issues last year when the fence wasn't completely enclosed due to the trash state everything was left in.
Totally wouldn't be surprised if I end up eating my words though. Hopefully we can get something built before it becomes an issue.
I did something similar, Ive had a temporary fence up for a couple years now and I figure when that gets to be in bad shape I’ll make a nice pretty one.
My area has a lot of deer and I always see hoof prints in the back marsh, but I've never seen them in the yard proper, thankfully, because neighbours hunt and maybe they've learned to be shy. I'm one curious deer away from having my entire patch destroyed, but I feel like if I do anything now it'll be tempting Ironic Fate.
Inside I am attempting to grow mushrooms.
Outside wife has...
...we've been joking that the English Thyme is feeling colonial as it is planted on one end of the garden while the Thai Basil is planted on the other end and the English Thyme has been heading straight for the Thai Basil.
What's your inside wife planting?
Just kidding. I've also got last year wooly thyme (tiny fuzzy leaves, tiny tiny purple flowers, creeps) that I'm secretly hoping will colonize the entire side of driveway eventually. My Irish moss also from last year is still here but isn't dominating like I'm hoping they would be
She's a fae, so I don't ask lest she decide to show me and I never reappear.
Worth it to see a fae garden though.
I've decided to embrace some chaos this year. I have a book published in my general area that tells me when to start things, so I'm mostly following that but spending very little time planning out where they will go. I spent so much time on planning last year and it was really frustrating when things failed anyway and I didn't have a backup plan to fill the holes. I've also wood chipped everything and an definitely noticing that everything needs less water.
I have blueberries, raspberries, and asparagus that I can't harvest yet because they're too young. I planted strawberries among the asparagus and hope I can get some before the slugs do.
So far the slugs have eaten my marigolds, tokyo benaka, romanesco, and cosmos. They left the bok choy alone, even though it was right next to the tokyo benaka. Last year they chewed up my corn sprouts, but I've been lucky so far. I'm not sure if the birds are eating my sunflower seeds or if it's been too cold for them to germinate. My cats ate my hibiscus.
I have a pretty wide swath of veggies and flowers this year. Some of the less common ones are ground/husk cherries, hardy kiwi, salal, Oregon grape, escarole, a luffa vine, a collard tree, tarragon, and tobacco. I accidentally ordered WAY too many native roses, so I guess I'm going to have a Nootka rose hedge.
My shallots are bolting. Does anyone have experience with this? The Internet seems to think they're ruined. They're an F1 variety, so I'm not sure if it's worth letting them flower and trying to save the seeds, the sets were expensive.
Edit: Oh, and this happened when I took my plant trays out to harden off.
What a fine Orange sprout you got there, soaking up the sun.
My asparagus have just come back out, and are crazy thick? Last year they were cute and tender spindley looking. They will be ready next year. 🍽️
I'm so excited to eat some of my asparagus next year. Apparently the purples are so sweet people eat them raw.
I didn't expect the fronds to be so pretty! I think they're helping to block the strawberry view from the crows and scrub jays.
Weeds.
I've been slow to weed my garden this year and get it prepped, so it's nothing but tall grass right now. Once I can get off my butt (between kids out of school and me just getting sick, I haven't had a lot of motivation), I'll prep it and definitely plant Cucumbers, probably tomato's and I haven't really thought about what else yet. Last year I did Bell Peppers and hot peppers, but I'm not sure what else will go in this time.
Growing lots of things. The final seeds/seedlings went in this week and now I am bracing for the maintenance and harvests. Right now I am enjoying not having to buy spinach and lettuce every week.
In the vegetable garden we have eating tomatoes, canning tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, drying beans, green beans, peas, okra, basil, sage, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, oregano, lavender, hot peppers, bell peppers, poblano peppers, various eggplant varieties, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, honey dew, watermelon, lettuces, spinach, beets, coriander, and radishes (may have lost count with that list).
In the berry garden we have a lot of varieties of raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, grape, strawberries, and wine cap mushrooms.
In the orchard we have apples, cherries, one peach tree and we added some horseradish under some of the trees this year as well.
In the planter boxes and kitchen garden we have dill, cilantro, Thai basil, chives, lemongrass, ground tomato, chamomile, parsley, and sweet basil.
Also around the property this year I added a fig, rhubarb, and have a bed of various pumpkin and winter squash varieties.
It’s a lot of work every year but we love it. We are already planning which new fruit trees are being added next year. Also while not doing the food gardening we spend a ton of time doing native gardening. We have a meadow project, are trying to replace invasive with natives in our woods, and are always adding new things.
This is my dream! I have resigned to the fact that id basically have to be retired in order to have the time to maintain it.
The time commitment is no joke. There are pretty much of two of us handling it, but it’s still overwhelming at times. Keeping up with harvests is really where it gets taxing. Every year though we alter strategies and make small improvements, and then when we get to source a bunch from the garden it’s very rewarding.
It's been a wet, chilly spring and I haven't got my beds ready yet - happening this weekend. Deer netting is getting staked down in the hope that the darn fawns can be kept out this year. I didn't start my own seeds this winter because I was just generally run down and exhausted.
I bought seedlings last weekend - even the nurseries around here have been slow getting in stock because of the hovering risk of frost.
I did plant out the containers on the deck and they look quite pretty.
Plans for the beds - lots of tomatoes, an assortment of very hot peppers, beans, snow peas, lettuce, kale, annual herbs, and nasturtiums. There isn't really enough enclosed space for curcubits and other big growers - I can get all the squash and corn I want from local farms.
The perennial herb bed did fine - I've got the usual couple of varieties each of thyme and oregano, rosemary, European chives, Chinese chives, and tarragon. The lavender bushes I started from seed a couple of years ago have gotten huge - blueberries and lavender really do make good companion plants. I have hopes that I can keep deer from eating the dill and asparagus. I was surprised and delighted that most of the ramps I planted last year survived, and they may be ready to start harvesting next year.
The berry patch is still recovering from last year's deer baby boom. The new jostaberry planting and the blueberries did survive, and might be spreading. The mulberry trees usually make up any shortfall when jam time comes around. The cherry and apple trees bloomed, though I think the bees might have been stingy with their favors due to frequent rains. My Nanking cherry shrubs were gorgeously loaded with blooms, and have lots of fruit ripening. The cherry shrubs were planted 4 years ago and are now trying to conquer the back staircase - they'll have to be cut back aggressively this fall. Rhubarb will be ready for harvest soon if we get sun for the next week or two.
Unfortunately, the two pawpaw seedlings and the serviceberries we planted last year didn't survive the deer and the winter. I'm never planting a young tree without a tube again. There's a giant Aronia bush whose berries I'm planning to collect for jelly this fall. We're still plotting more edible landscaping, but unshaded areas are hard to come by on our property. Even elderberries haven't thrived at the wooded margin. Raspberries seem to do okay and I'm looking to plant thornless varieties in more places. I like to eat figs, but don't love the look of the plants, and hardy varieties are expensive. Maybe a grape arbor in a sunny dry patch on the front slope that's too steep for anything but terracing.
Black plastic tarps controlled the goutweed where we put them down last summer, so I've got a 20' x 20' bare patch for a cut flower garden. There's still a ridiculous amount of weeding left over from my last year of creaky joints, now (fingers crossed!) under control.
Your garden sounds divine!
Questions for you about the pawpaws and serviceberries: did you have any protection around them the deer got through? What would you recommend for deerproofing?
I have a serviceberry waiting to go in the ground right now, and Im attempting to germinate pawpaw seeds...
We've got a minor reforestation project going. When we bought the house, we didn't realize that half the trees surrounding it were ash, and dying from emerald ash border. We've been replanting saplings from the county nature conservancy and using tree tubes for protection. The tree tubes generally work well against deer, but we'd run out...
The pawpaw seedlings may just have been too small to survive the winter without more protection. The serviceberries were too bushy for tree tubes anyway, so we tried to use staked-down inverted tomato cages instead. The cages worked for conifers. Deer love the growing serviceberry branches so much that they did manage to knock over the cages, and grazed the bushes to death. We'll probably start with more mature plants, using tall metal stakes and hardware cloth if we try again.
Ahh, thank you! I'll keep this in mind in my approach. My serviceberry is fairly small and just a single stem, so I may build a little exclosure from tbars and chickenwire
I didn't know that about lavender and blueberries, thanks for the tip! I've got some lavender sprouts in need of a home.
It's been a weird year for me. I started seeds quite early indoors under grow lights. But it's been so cold and rainy I've been late getting things in the ground and warm loving plants have been really sad. Peppers are extremely stunted and behind, I may give up on them beyond potting a few. Tomatoes and celery are lagging but starting to catch up. Somehow most of my swiss chard (from seed) decided to skip a year and go straight to seed, I assume from a cold snap. One of my zucchinis already got powdery mildew.
But radishes, arugula, and brassicas are happier than ever. I've tried sprouting broccoli for the first time and it's fun, and I'll have collards for days even if the chard is done for. A variety of other plants are doing alright: peas, herbs, nasturtiums, lettuce.
We tried cilantro in 4 pods in our aerogarden seed starter (basically a mini hydroponics setup), and only one of them took and actually sprouted. Everything else we had seemed to do mostly OK.
We tried to start some flowers too (from seeds, not in the aerogarden) and those didn’t work at all. Of the flowers we tried in the aerogarden I think two sprouted.
We also planted bulbs (in big planters, which we kept inside for 2 months) and the flowers haven’t sprouted in those either.
Sounds like you’ve at least had some success, so that’s good to hear. How does broccoli work? I know it’s a plant (obliviously) but I just realized I don’t know how it grows!
I've tried cilantro in the past, but it bolted so quickly I found it to not be worth the effort vs paying a couple $ for a huge bunch at the store. All the 'failures' or hiccups that happen in the home garden make me that much more impressed at the successes of commercial growers.
Typical 'grocery store' broccoli grows from one main stem, with a single, large floret at the top like this.
But it can be really finnicky to get that perfect large floret at home, so this year I bought seeds for a traditional italian cultivar, decicco sprouting broccoli, that intentionally sprouts numerous smaller florets off different branching stems. What you harvest looks more like rapini.
Oh my god, it’s so obvious with them being called “florets” but I would never have actually guessed that the broccoli we eat is the flower part of the plant. I guess it’s technically the flower part before it actually flowers, but that’s wild.
I do really like broccoli though, so I might have to try growing some next year. Thanks for the info!
I am living vicariously through this thread ❤️. I'm stuck in an apartment and can only have a couple of outside plants by the door, so I usually do flowers and a small veg. I've grown and dried cayenne peppers the last few years and decided to try cherry tomatoes this year. The peppers always did well, but I'm not sure if there's enough light for tomatoes. At least my petunias are popping off
Oh what a gorgeous assortment of colours!
We ditched a lot of our leafy greens this year because they always get swarmed by the moths and went heavy on tomatoes instead.
Tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers, cauliflower, raspberries, garlic, green onions, strawberries, green beans, arugula, rhubarb and pumpkins I think is the extent of the vegetable garden.
We started some from seeds inside but we just buy a lot of the plants because basically nothing overwinters here and starting from seeds can be annoying.
Ugh the moths have made us give up on pretty much all the brassicas. They are just miserable.
Yea they are. This my first year trying both cauliflower and arugula so hopefully they fare better but kale has been miserable every year. I have a little mesh tent for the cauliflower I'm going to try but I don't have high hopes for the arugula so we'll probably have to harvest it early.
I still do arugula every year and it’s been mostly fine. It gets a little bitten up but nothing like the others. The biggest issue with arugula is how fast it will bolt, so you really have to harvest as soon as it’s eating size. I think it gets too strong for the bugs, lol.
My fingers are crossed for your cauliflower!
My arugula plan is usually to keep a bunch of seeds and just plant a couple every time I go out to the garden for something (and eat a lot of arugula). It grows fast and needs almost no help so having them on a growth spectrum is easy. Just pull when they bolt to make room.
Yeah that is pretty much our strategy as well. It’s just always wild how fast arugula goes compared to spinach and the other lettuces.
Jealous of your squash collection, I cant grow them here cause the squash worms just destroy every single one every time.
I have a small garden for the first season in my grown-up life, so I have cucumbers, paprikas, supersweet cherry tomatoes, padron chilis, jalapeños, cayenne peppers and some random thai chilies I germinated from seeds from a phô lunch.
Next year I’ll do some kale and some beans and peas hopefully and do some more raised beds.
Oh, and strawberries!
I'm so excited for you and I hope you have a crazy bountiful harvest!
Blackberries, golden raspberries, strawberries. I don't grow anything, I just planted them 5 years ago and now I collect the fruits every summer and do my best to not let overtake the whole (tiny) backyard. Though this year I'll have to aggressively prune the blackberry bush, or it will smother everything else.
Edit: white currants too. I almost forgot them, they've been growing really slowly since we planted them. I removed another plant to give them more light this year, they seem to fare better.
Golden raspberries are so delicious. Do you have to prune the strawberry? My giant patch gave us like, 5 berries last year. Disappointing
I had to move them to a raised bed 2 years ago to save them from woodlice, so they're pretty much contained. Though yes, they're less generous than other berries.
Growing way more things on a third story apartment balcony than you'd expect. Or, at least, trying to anyway.
Various herbs:
We started everything in March inside (in our bathroom...would've looked sketchy if anyone came to visit. We fully grew radishes in the bathroom because they were ready way quicker than we expected them to be. Hah.) or in an aerogarden (countertop hydroponic), and then transferred things outside slowly over the past few weeks. Had to cover everything with some tarps when it hit 40F last week, but looks like things might've survived so we'll see.
Ha, I had my little seedling growop in the basement. I even put covers over thebl windows because it felt dodgy seeing the grow lights shining through the basement windows after dark!
We have a big indoor grow tent that I've been using for seedlings and winter greens. It holds a set of cheap plastic shelving which is strapped with LED grow light panels on timers. I need to add a fan because it gets too warm inside if I don't leave the mesh panel open, but I had way too many plants started successfully the first year I ran it.
Hah, yeah - that could seem sketchy!
We have a bunch of plant lights already for our non-garden plants, but ended up picking up a SANSI stand and 4 more grow bulbs for the bathroom operation.
And now that we moved the garden plants outside, somehow we acquired new indoor plants that are very happy with the new lighting situation.
What region are you in? Reclaiming land from ivy is a pain in the ass but doable, and planting aggressive natives can help keep invasives at bay.
Ooh, yeah that's rough. A low wall to keep it from encroaching is probably the only way then. :/
My fruit cherry trees are just blossoming right now, and we had frost last week. I'm too scared to prune them because I keep reading conflicting things about when, but they're also looking kinda tall now -..- maybe next late winter I'll give it a try, unless anyone can confirm can also prune in summer
Some parsley, chives, onions, and maybe garlic that survived the winter, snap peas and nasturtiums (that I foolishly hope won't just be aphid food), sunflowers if this rabbit repellent works, and adding Siberian miner's lettuce to the backyard native forage spread to join the salal and Oregon grape. I also took cuttings from a mystery rhodedendron and red huckleberry from a cabin property in the family but it's too soon to tell if they've survived the process.
I had been thinking of planting some stuff myself this year. I have what's an above average garden by local standards, but is probably a small garden by the standards of anywhere living anyway rural. The back lawn is about 50m^2 and wondering what to do with that's a little more interesting. I'm in Ireland so it's a temperate climate, and I guess what I'm looking at:
Longer term I've been thinking about maybe planting some type of tree, but I want to have some experiences with some stuff a little smaller before I dig into that.
I'm probably admittedly a bit late in the year to be thinking about growing stuff, we're pretty much in the middle of the sunniest portion of the year here, which will probably last for another month or two, but it's normally reasonably warm until October.