gchick's garden

[gchick]

The garden:

From the front... well, we'll get to the front eventually. But walk around the side of the house, and you'll walk by the kitchen garden, which is made up of square-foot beds, a few big containers, and a bank of native wildflowers. Also the home of compost + rainbarrel.

In the back, you'll find the ongoing adventures in landscaping. Did you know that if you buy too much stone for a project, you end up with an irresistable urge to come up with more stone projects? That explains the rock garden over in that shady corner. On the sunny side, it's the FSM patio, sunny perennial things, and what I can only call my weird garden. Everyone should have one of these: it's the perfect place for the crazy vines and the overabundance of snapdragons and that plant you saw at the garden center with the corkscrew-shaped leaves and the tacky yard art. All those bright colorful things that would make the tasteful types quake in fear. Add a fire pit (another leftover stone bonus), a portable bar, and some seating, and it's garden heaven.

I'm queen of the veg. The other half is the main driver of all the ornamental stuff: I tend to mumble that we don't really need to lay a stone patio in the shape of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and anyway, think of all that space being used for totally non-productive kinds of things; and then he runs with the plan, and OMG SPAGHETTI MONSTER!, and it turns out to be the perfect place for the berry bushes I've always wanted but could never think of the right place for.

The climate:

Southeastern U.S. (zone 7b for USians -- do other parts of the world use a similar system?). Short mild winters, long hot humid summers. For all the humidity, not actually as much rain in the growing season as we'd like, although we make up for it in the spring and fall. At this time of year, it's about 75F/24C, and near-perfect except that we have a pollen season that will eat your face.

What I'm growing this season:

Veg:
Peas! (Sugar Snaps and English)
Beans (green, yellow, purple, yard-long)
(realizes, self is possibly a legume-o-holic)
Salad greens
Spinach
Garlic
Shallots
Peppers (sweet + serranos)
Tomatoes (yellow cherries, red plums)
Tomatillos (the vegetable of my dearest obsession)
Cucumbers
Carrots (Multicolored. fun! At least half of my choices are down to my "well that looks cool! instinct.)

Herbs:
Basil
Parsley
Thyme
Rosemary
Oregano
Mint
Marjoram
Something else I'm forgetting?

Fruits: (all of these went in this year and so won't bear until next)
Strawberries
Blackberries
Raspberries

Huh. I used to think I killed plants just by looking at them.

Comments

[sasha_davidovna]

Sounds lovely!

[cyprinella]

Do you like chives? I have both regular and garlic chives. The garlic chives came with my house and they're great for the Mud Pit That Is The Backyard at the moment because they need hardly anything to grow. (and grow and grow and grow)

[gchick]

You know? I don't grow chives. I always think of them as the finely-chopped green styrofoam that comes on baked potatoes, and I don't bother -- but then when I remember that they really do taste like something, and they're so easy to grow (and, face it, I'll try anything that grows early in the season when everything else is barely sprouting), I think I should give them a shot. Thanks!

[cyprinella]

A suggestion for garlic chives, if you decide to get some: They have a wonderful onion flavor that gets stronger after they flower and it makes a really nice substitute for green onions. I like it in a couple of the Korean dishes my bf makes.

[loligo]

Hey, garlic chives came with my house, too! They are *everywhere* -- they're even slowly invading the woods. But they are pretty and delicious, so I don't mind at all.

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

Sounds delightful. I've never thought of growing tomatillos but it's a good idea.

[gchick]

Growing requirements are exactly the same as determinate tomatoes. And they keep longer. And they're the vegetable of <3!