good morning y'all. it looks to be a beautiful day so far, although it is quite early to make such a judgement call. it is 7:35 am when I'm typing this out. I just looked out the back door and the sun is trying to shine. it's kinda strange, I don't hear any of the usual sounds I typically hear of the morning. I guess that means everyone is still unactive as of the moment. I don't even hear the typical birds and frogs talking to each other. those are sounds that I never get tired of hearing. it brings joy to my soul to hear the birds and frogs and just all usual morning sounds. I'm not hearing the train like we usually hear, or road traffic that is the norm for around here. but I guess I'll start hearing it soon enough.
I took pics of my deck garden the other day and finally got them sent to me from my cell phone to my computer and thought y'all might like to take a peek at what's growing out back. lots of tomatoes and peppers. those are just a necessity. I'm not the greatest gardener by any means, but I try. as long as I've been trying to container garden, I still honestly don't have clue, but I keep trying. I keep praying and God keeps answering my prayers. I'm clueless about fertilizer and all that stuff, but like I said, I keep trying.
and, back to first paragraph, just like that, I hear a train on the other side of town, it will be rolling thru here in a few minutes.
Now, on to the garden:
the first pic is the shot from the ramp, just before I step onto the deck. from the back corner to the opposite front corner. you can click on the pictures and it will bring us the full sized version.
this pic below, I'm still standing where I was for the first pic, I just pivoted towards the corner of the house and took a pic back that direction. you'll also notice some colorful pieces on top of some of the poles I'm using. those are pool noodles from the dollar tree that I cut and put on top of the poles to keep the poles from poking holes thru the mesh that I use to cover the containers. the pool noodles work well.
this one below, is down the ramp, to the landing and that's where my 3 fig trees are for now. they are covered in sheer mesh bags to keep from sprawling out and also to keep squirrels and birds from digging around in the containers. I noticed the mesh looks funny, I'm sorry about that. I'd like for the fig trees to show up better. I'm not gonna have any figs this year, I trimmed them last year and cut them back too much and I cut off all the growth that would have had figs this year. that's my thoughts on it anyway. I actually got 36 cutting from the 3 figs and only 1 cutting survived the winter. so I guess it's fair to say that I don't know anything about fig trees either.
the pic below is the front of the deck facing the woods as you can see. the tall containers are "Keter" containers. these were made in Israel. I don't know where they are made now, but I do love the fact that these were made in Israel. I got them at a place called Bargain Hunt about 4 years ago. we kept going and asking about when they was gonna go on sale. the regular price for them at BH was $85 each. (they're about $150 from amazon right now) we went one morning and asked about them, and the lady we asked said I don't know if they're marked down yet, let me ask. she asked the manager about them, and he said that he just got the memo on them this morning and that they had indeed gone on clearance. the lady told me and I asked how much they are now. she told me and I started crying!!! I looked at my husband with tears streaming down my face and he was smiling real big and we both just started laughing and I just had a pretty big Jesus moment right there, praising Him and thanking for such a blessing!! we got 4 for less than the price of 1 at their original store price. $20 dollars a piece!!!!! Yes, thank you Jesus!!!! and these 2 keters have greenbeans in them. there is cane poles with pool noodles in the sides and centers of both to help hold the mesh up that I had put over them to keep birds and squirrels out of them. these are in full bloom and I should have small greenbeans by the end of next week, the first weekend in June. in front of the are tomatoes, peppers and a planter full of stevia. I've got dry some stevia so it can bush out even more.
the pic below is just down from the greenbean filled keters. you can't see it to well, but there are 2 low benches that I have containers setting on. on the back row and up the rail on the side of the deck is where I have watermelons and all kinds of squash growing. some of them, I've replanted the seeds two or 3 times and if they don't come up this time, I'm planting more greenbeans. also, I have 4 containers with corn in them. this is just for fun, I totally don't expect it to make corn, so I'll probably plant more greenbeans soon. we love greenbeans.
the pic below is of my early girl watermelon and you can see peppers and tomatoes around it. I hope it does well. we had 3 or 4 watermelons last year and they were delicious.
this next pic is where I played "I spy" in the garden and low and behold I spied some fresno peppers in my garden. yay!!!
this is one of my little dollar tree stackables with micro toms and orange hat toms. there is 9 tomatoes in this little planter and they are loaded with green tomatoes. the very last tomato that I planted in the top wasn't a micro or an orange hat. it appears to be full sixed and I may have trouble with it if the wind blows. hahaha I've thought about cutting it off some, I'll wait and see.
this next pic below is down the row where I have the melons and squash set. some of the seeds haven't come up yet and I may end up planting something else. I don't know yet. I have 2 containers with squash/pumpkin that have "hull-less" seeds. they are stinkers to get sprouted. the seeds are expensive and I'm just about out of seeds, but I really want to grow some of these.
the pic below is another view of the containers on the benches that we had looked at earlier, but I realized that I didn't get a pic of the sunflowers I have growing. the very last container on the bench is the sunflowers. these are supposed to be a mini variety. I can't wait to see them when they bloom.
now, the pic below is back to the keters that are at the back of the house. this keter is filled broccoli rabe and I don't expect it do much. they just don't look like much. so what I actually done was put more tomatoes and peppers in this keter. so there is broccoli rabe, tomatoes and peppers in this one. this one and the one next to is still has a black mesh over them just to keep birds out. the holes are big enough for pollinators to get it, but not birds or squirrels.
this pic below is looking toward the house where it makes a corner on the deck. that's the backdoor going into our bedroom. it catches the early morning sun and make the bedroom unbearably hot, so I covered the storm door on the inside with light blocking barrier and I use heavy curtains on the inside to keep the heat out, that's why it's black. but, right here is my 2 strawberry greenstalk towers. I had filled them with 50 strawberry plants just before winter. some of them survived, but about half of them didn't make it. that's why there are empty pockets. but these are putting out runners now and I thrilled about that. I'm hoping I can the pockets filled before winter and we can have a lot more strawberries next season. these are everbearing strawberries. they will have fruit all season, but not a huge abundance unless you have several plants.
so the pic below is the last keter, sitting beside the one with the broccoli rabe, tomatoes and peppers. in this particular one is "red rat tail radishes". you don't grow them for the tuber below, you grow them for the seed pods that they produce. they look similar to greenbeans and they are spicy like a radish. this is my first year with them, and upon closer reading about them, I would be planting them in the keters any more. info said that they can get to 5 feet tall. I'll have to use a step ladder to harvest them. they already have a to of blooms and the info said they would keep on growing and making blooms. we'll see how they turn out.
this next pic below is over in the corner of the deck and I have 2 other raised beds containers. they have green peas and onions in them. I've never had any success with starting onions from seed so hopefully these will do something for me. and sitting beside those is my little greenhouse on wheels. it's where I brought my plants from the garage to harden off before I actually planted them. I'll take it to the garden shed after the fall season is over. and then I can bring it back out next year when I start the process all over again. right now it's full of a lot of the stuff I'm using in the garden, so it gives me a storage area.
well, this is a look at my garden, such as it is. I'm sure you noticed a lot of forks. well, they are to keep birds and squirrels and neighbor cats out of my containers. I had to put black mesh on my strawberries too. the birds were trying to build nests and they killed about 4 or 5 of my strawberries that had survived the winter. so I just got the mesh and made a tube and pulled it down over the strawberries. the pollinators can get to the blooms, but the birds don't have anywhere to make their nests. and the squirrels can't bury their nuts. oh, the things we gotta do to have a garden.
I've always said that I plant and pray and God does the rest. I stand by that statement. because I don't know enough about gardening to fill a thimble, but I do know The Master Gardener. and helps me and blesses me and encourages me to keep on growing. as long as He is with me, I'll keep growing a garden. I just think that gardens happen to to be a very happy place. if you remember, it was in the Garden that God walked with Adam in the cool of the day and He spent time with Adam and I think that's why so many people have peace and contentment in the garden. I know it is a special time for me when I'm out on the deck working and just praising God for the time that He has blessed me with.
well, I guess that's about all I have for you today. I hope and pray that you seen something here today that you like and if you did, share it with someone you know who may be struggling with life and tell them that God loves them enough to provide a way for us to be in relationship with Him thru the shed blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. when we spend with Him, it's time well spent.
blessings to you all and happy gardening. hugs and love, patty
please overlook any spelling or whatever, I'm not real good at this either. but if I see something weird, I'll change it. thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment