Taming the Garden

These are my hands after a quick washing. I wanted to get them clean enough to handle my camera.   I have been pulling weeds... with gloves.  In fact, I have been pulling weeds for an hour or so for days.  It sure doesn't take long for weeds to get out of hand... or for dirt to get under your fingernails.

This is what I've accomplished for all my time.  I conquered one small area in the garden.  If I only pulled weeds, the weeds would be right back in no time.  I decided to put down newspaper with straw on top.  Maybe the weeds will give us some peace.  I started with this area because it seemed to be suffering the most.  There are peppers (jalapenos, bell, banana...), carrots, basil, and parsley all along here.

Note that I do have lots of help inspecting the garden.  That's Jack in the picture above and Cindy Lou in the picture below.  Oh, they are a BIG help!

We have stakes strategically place all over the garden.  Some are actually for staking plants.  Others are to keep plants from being trampled by 4 legged garden helpers.

Here are some other pictures from the garden and from around our house, where I have only just begun to plant things. 

1 - Carrots.  My sister wanted to try those.  It's fun to watch.  They were a real pain to weed around.  It was so easy to pull up carrots along with the weeds.

2 - Zinnias.  They make good companion plants.  Here they are growing among the beans.  I have enjoyed cutting some for vases in the house.

3- Butternut Squash.  The DH and I wanted to try growing these.  We love eating them.  Little ones are appearing all over the small patch.

4- Nasturtium.  These are also a companion plant, plus you can eat them in salads.  They are good, plus they make the salad look really special.  Ours are not doing that well.  I think they are just too shaded.

5- Basil and Parsley.  These are super easy to grow.  Even with all the weeds around them and the dry, hot weather, they were growing like crazy.

6- Watermelon.  We have baby watermelons.  Not many, but hopefully more will appear.

7- Okra.  Aren't okra blooms pretty?  If you don't have space for a vegetable garden, these would look pretty growing right in the flower garden.

8- Morning Glory.  We have all these morning glory volunteers that grow in with our beans.  I have no idea why, but I'm not complaining.  They add a little joy to picking beans.

The bottom row are pictures from around our house.

9- Black-Eyed Susans.  These are a wonderful perennial giving a big bang for your buck.  Several years ago, I was given a division of these from a friend.  They come back wonderfully each year with no trouble.  They multiply like crazy.  When we moved, I left plenty at the old house and brought 3 small divisions with us to the new house.  This is their 2nd summer here and as you can see, they have really filled in.  I plan to divide these and start new patches in lots of places around the property in the years to come.  Plus, I hope to share with friends.

10- Shasta Daisy.  I think these will do just as well as the Black-Eyed Susans.  I actually prefer the look of the white flowers better than the yellow of the Susans, but the Susans will always have more sentimental value.

11- These are geranium cuttings that I stuck in the ground a couple of months ago.  They have done so well.  There's also a camellia cutting in this photo that's still going strong.

12- This is a knockout rose that I started from a cutting before I found out that this is illegal.  They are copyrighted or something.  I hope the rose police don't come after me.  I love starting new plants from cuttings or divisions or seeds.  I don't sell them.  I might have to go through a 12 step program to help me stop my wicked ways.

I have linked to the following parties:

Outdoor Wednesday #77  at A Southern Daydreamer
Friday Finding Beauty at Dippity Road
Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage