By MamaLiberty

In a seriously deep departure from the normal post here, I’m going to tell you about my garden! That way, I can send a link to all those I know who might be interested, and save a lot of time. If you don’t care about gardens, or in mine particularly, don’t despair. Nathan will be posting new political things soon.

Finally got the pictures this morning. Almost impossible to see what I was taking a photo of… can’t see the little screen outdoors most of the time. Anyway, they’re mostly self explanatory.

The grapes are concord. Not too many of them, but I was thrilled to get any after the hail damage last year. There is a good crop of blackberries this year too, and all I have to do is keep them watered.

You can see “walking onions,” long green chili peppers, tomatoes, squash and a few other things in the tubs here. New growth from the blackberries runs along the bottom, and I can see it will go simply everywhere in a few years. I have pruners… and I know how to use them!

I plant most things in a jumble, since the insects are mostly confused by this and I always have more damage when I plant only one thing to a tub. The grass and weeds tend to perform the bug confusion, however, which is why I don’t even try for a weed free environment. The grasshoppers, shockingly enough, actually prefer the grass, and mostly leave my vegetables alone this way. I was expecting a bad infestation of grasshoppers after the mild winter, but have been pleasantly surprised so far.

North trees

The trees are all quite young, but I hope for at least a small crop next year. The crab apple tree is nearest, then the cherry tree disaster (severe hail damage), and last the Lodi apple.

South side

On the south side, the other apple (can’t remember the name now) is nearest the fence by the road, and the Chinese apricot is next up. The tree center front is a ten year old Pinon Pine that has finally decided to start growing well. I am not likely to live long enough to get any Pinon nuts, but I can hope.

Tubs in front yard

Everbearing strawberries with rosemary

All of the tubs, in the actual garden and in the front yard, are doing well and I expect to start harvesting snap beans very soon. I finally planted enough of them, in three waves, to have enough to freeze for this winter. Along the fence are several varieties of currents and some gooseberries. The birds have already relieved me of the last of those fruits, and I’ll need to get some bird netting for next year if I want to harvest any. The birds, of course, don’t mind if the fruit is not yet ripe enough for humans to eat.

Lots of tomatoes, but all pretty small. I need to feed them more soon. I had lots of kitchen garbage in these tubs from over the winter, and it didn’t all compost well before I planted, so the composting going on now is robbing the plants of nitrogen. Got to fix that. 🙂

The oak is a “white oak” and is struggling, but will probably survive. Lots of potential new growth indicators, but won’t bud until spring.

Wyoming rose

One of the things that I really hated to leave behind in California was my rose garden. I didn’t even look for rose plants the first few years, but found this one that is specifically bred to survive the cold in this climate. It is not grafted, but lives on it’s own tough roots and comes back each year no matter how deep the snow. They bear no resemblance to formal tea roses, of course, and don’t last long, but they are pretty and they smell like roses, so I am content.

Anyway, this is my garden for this year. Amazing what will grow in the absence of hail!!!