The good, the not too bad and the ugly. By request.
Several readers have asked to see more photos of my vegetable (mostly) garden, including closeups, so today’s the day. Due to tall trees on the east and west side of my yard, my garden has shade issues. It’s recommended that vegetable gardens have an absolute minimum of six hours of direct sunlight per day and most of mine only gets about 5 1/2, so my garden is a little slow to to get into full production. But in the end, most of it produces well.
Shade issues also cause problems with photography. For most of the day, high contrast (a mix of shade and direct sunlight) makes photography difficult in my back yard so most of these photos were taken in early morning or in the evening in full shade.
If you have zero interest in gardening, I wouldn’t blame you in the least if you moved on.
For those of you still here, let’s get on with it.
The west end of my garden is partly beneath two large Catalpa trees so I call this part of it my “shade garden”. I only plant shade-tolerant varieties here.
From top to bottom:
- Shade wildflowers – a complete failure. Like many wildflower mixes, I expected the seed packet to contain a lot of filler. It didn’t, apparently it was nearly all seeds. So I ended up sowing the seeds way too thick, resulting in a mass of greenery with very few flowers.
- Cabbage – largely because of excess heat, I may or may not get any cabbage heads. Several of them are beginning to form but I’m still not sure if I’ll get anything useable.
- Carrots – they’re coming along but not there yet. I intend to leave them in the ground until fall when cooler temps make them sweeter.
- Golden beets (two rows) – a rousing success. I’ve been eating them and giving them away for weeks. The beets and their greens are absolutely delicious. I’ve planted two more short rows elsewhere in my garden for fall harvest.
- Green onions – doing very well. When I need one or more when I’m cooking I just go out and pick them.
- Swiss Chard – Excellent. This year I chose to plant the “Rainbow” variety. The yellow ones have dominated but there are several other colors too.
“Regular” cucumbers. I planted them late so I just harvested my first “cuke” of this variety yesterday. It was very good. The zinnias in the background were planted to attract hummingbirds. It’s working.
Lemon cucumbers – I’ve been eating them for about a week. They’re my favorite variety of cucumber. They don’t taste like lemons, they just look like them. If you look carefully, you can see one of them peeking out at you (it’s still small and mostly green).
Peppers of three varieties – This year I made a rookie mistake with my peppers and planted them too close to other plants. They’re getting too much shade and not producing very well. At least not yet.
Eggplant – four plants that I planted too close together. But they’re forgiving so they’re beginning to produce, as you can see at bottom right.
Zucchini – I swear my zukes are on steroids. I can’t eat them and give them away fast enough and the plant is huge and still growing. As you can see, it’s about to engulf my Sage as if it were a giant amoeba. I believe that even a gardener with a black thumb could grow zucchini and grow it well.
Early Girl Tomatoes – So far it’s been a great year for tomatoes and I believe the 7 yards of compost I worked into my garden this spring has something to do with that. My five Early Girl plants didn’t get very big but they must have put most of their resources into fruit production because they’re loaded with tomatoes.
Here you can only see about a third of the tomatoes on this small Early Girl (some leaves are curling a little because of heat stress.) Last night the larger red one in the center sacrificed itself for the BLT I had for dinner.
I also planted four tomatoes of other varieties. Most of them are huge but they’re only now beginning to produce much fruit. The Sweet 100 on the left is over 6′ tall. I graze on the Sweet 100’s while I’m watering the garden. Yum.
Spaghetti Squash – this year I planted a bush variety of this winter squash so it wouldn’t invade my entire garden, but it still takes up a lot of space. It’s producing well though.
Pole Beans (green beans) – I had trouble getting these beans to germinate so I had to replant them twice. As a result, they still haven’t even begun to flower, much less produce any beans. But once they start they should produce until first frost.
Amaranth – I grow Amaranth every year for privacy and because birds feed on those tiny seeds in late summer and fall. Right now it’s just beginning to flower but it won’t be long until each plant produces multiple flower spikes. Several of these Amaranth are over 10′ tall.
Yes, the kind of gardening I do is a lot of work but dang, it’s satisfying. And nurturing, in more ways than one. This is my evening view of my garden from my patio. I sit there in the evenings with a pre-dinner drink in my hand and just soak it all in – including the songbirds at my seed feeder and the hummingbirds at my zinnias and nectar feeder.
Audrey Hepburn famously said “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” These days very little gives me any hope for the future. But my garden does.
Ron
Note: In case you’re wondering, I haven’t seen a rat in my garden, or anywhere else, for a week.
Your garden is lovely, Ron. You have a healthy green thumb! Watching a garden grow and produce is one of the best things we can do for ourselves. Congratulations on your crops.
Thanks very much, Melanie.
Such a fantastic garden — thank you so much for sharing it! I didn’t realize how big a Zinnia patch you planted and its loveliness is bringing me such joy! Imagining that giant tomato as part of a BLT is making me drool on my keyboard a little bit. 😋
Hoping you can baby your back a little while enjoying your garden. (Perhaps one of your neighbors would trade a little “putting their back into it” for some garden-grown produce to be named later.)
Marty, I actually thought of you when I was making that BLT.
My current back issues aren’t related to working in the garden. I’ve been taking it easy out there.
Colour me awed, impressed and hoping that I can do a fraction as well when I plant our vegie garden (months away yet).
EC, the way I figure it you’d be at about Feb 1st on our calendar. Garden-planning time.
I think your garden is impressive! Well done. I, too, love lemon cucumbers but have not had one (yet) this summer.
Take Care,
Kaye
Kaye, I hope you have one, or more, soon.
Wow Ron you are almost as good a gardener as a photographer.
Lots of work and very well planed and laid out and cared for.
Thank you, Everett.
That is a beautiful garden. I know it’s off the bird topic but could you comment a bit on how you manage such a relatively large, diverse, ground level backyard garden given your history of serious back issues you have also documented here?
Jim, interesting question given that my back has gone south on me in the last few days. I’m quite worried about it.
Before that happened I just worked slowly and carefully and somehow managed. It was often touch and go but I was motivated. And I was pretty creative in mostly avoiding much bending of my back.
Thanks. I just had a second hip replaced Tuesday and have some lower back issues as well. I had to lay off gardening much several years ago but I can already tell I will be able to do much more of “old normal” again soon.
I just know from personal experience that this beautiful spread involved some serious self-sacrifice. The world could use a lot more of that kind of behavior right now.
And there is a name for all these medical discussions people of our “advanced experience” tend to slip into so much more often now (than when we were younger):
Organ Recitals 😉
Looks great.
Thanks.
Beautiful garden Ron. Thanks for the tour. I’m particularly jealous of those beets!
Thanks, Bill. As if you couldn’t tell, I love those beets. I haven’t planted red beets for years. I hate the “bleeding” from red beets while I’m preparing them. Golden beets don’t bleed and they’re slightly sweeter, less earthy.
We can occasionally get golden beets in our grocery store, and I love them. I suspect your home-grown ones are on a higher level. One of these days we’ll get our small garden going again and golden beets will be on the short list.
Beautiful!!! I heard a woman in the grocery store the other day complaining (maybe with relief!) that her zucchini wasn’t producing anything (central Washington) – we had a really cold spring which delayed planting, apparently, and then we’ve had very hot days, so things are all upset.
Thanks, Carolyn. Gardening, just like farming, is a crap shoot.
Absolutely beautiful garden! I’ve helped out with my partner’s mom’s garden for the past few years and until then, I didn’t fully understand the level of effort that went in. Not just planting, but watering, weeding, harvesting, managing…it’s a true labor of love!
The sage almost looks like it’s desperately leaning away from the encroaching zucchini in photo #6.
Melanie, I’m thinking I’ll sacrifice a zucchini leaf or two, in favor of my Sage.
Beautiful! I especially envy your ability to grow tomatoes outside. I live on the coast, and tomatoes are tucked into the greenhouse. Your zinnia display is gorgeous. There’s something here that eats every zinnia I’ve attempted to grow. Snapdragons, which also attract hummingbirds, have replaced the zinnias. I think we only used three yards of compost this year, and it looks like more would have been better.
Catherine, I wonder if it’s been earwigs eating your zinnias. Lots of folks have that problem The old soy sauce and oil trick kills a LOT of earwigs.
That is stunning! And a stunning amount of work. Seven yards of compost!
“Seven yards of compost!”
Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it Kathryn. But my garden is over 1000 sq ft so it ended up being just a little over 2″ deep before I tilled it in.
Wow, this is wonderful. Thanks for the tour, Ron. I had a garden for decades, but I’m now without one. I do miss certain things… Do you rotate crops? That must be a challenge with changing sun and shade. You have inspired me to look for golden beets at our local farmers market!
Ellen, I rotate my crops when I can, as best I can – especially the tomatoes. But rotating is a dance with other considerations (light, plants shading other plants, sprinkler efficiency etc) so I sometimes don’t do the best job of it.
My local Smith’s never carries Golden Beats, but Harmon’s does. You’re right, a farmers’ market is probably your best bet.
Nice garden despite despite the weather and shortcomings. Were do you get the golden beet seed Ron. Roasted golden beets sound yummy. The amaranth I planted is going strong and shading my apartment and helps with my electric bill for A/C. Come harvest I’ll use the seeds for micro greens and leave some for the birds. I have 3 varieties of amaranth. Your varity is very vigorous with large seed heads.
Glad to know you’re growing “my” Amaranth, Steven. I sure sent a lot of seeds to a lot of blog followers.
I’ve bought Golden Beet seeds online in the past but this year (and several other years) I just bought them at Lowes. They’re a little more expensive than regular beet seeds but they still sell out fast, so I start looking for seed in local stores as soon as they put their seeds out.
NICE! My peppers are getting shaded out also. 🙁 Late getting everything in and heat/wind NOT helpful. Do have some zucchini after a couple of years of none (amazed me)
Waxwings are clearing the raspberries as soon as they get “almost” ripe – gooseberries are long gone so…….
Couple of the amaranth struggling to grow – just not thrilled with where they are I guess…… 😉
Watering like crazy as “crick” is dropping fast……
Judy, I kinda thought this heat would help peppers, especially in MT. But heat or not, they still need lots of light.
“Crick” – love it. I still say it that way.
For a man with back problems. -even for a person WITHOUT back
problems- your garden is a magnificent accomplishment !
Do you can or freeze any of it ? If not, I’ll bet your neighbors are
mighty grateful to have you around; I’m sure you’re plenty generous
into the bargain…..What great beauty and deliciousness you’ve
created–congratulations !
Kris, I’m not a canner and I rarely freeze any of it. Yes, friends and neighbors get a lot.
I’m sorry to say that my back has been acting up recently, after feeling much better for quite a while. I’m concerned.
Boy, you got a real farm going there! Your Montana instincts and green thumb are showing.
BLT with fresh garden-ripened tomato. Mouth is watering.
Perhaps your not so subtle message to the rat population was received?
Michael, you’re absolutely correct in stating that the farming in my blood from my years on the MT farm is largely responsible for my gardening efforts. As a young man I was surprised when I realized I missed farming. Gardening is my substitute.
I think you’re also right about the rats. It REALLY got their attention when a ball bearing went whizzing by their head and tore through some of the nearby plants. Their reaction very often made me LOL.
That’s an impressive garden and clearly takes a lot of work. Too bad about the wildflowers but your zinnias are gorgeous!
Thanks, Cathy. I can’t believe I didn’t notice there was no filler in those shade wildflower seeds.