Garden Update:: June 12

My small flower garden....changes on a nearly daily basis. The window box plantings are definitely growing and getting bigger every day. Still wondering if I should paint my shutters black....

Mark's dad (aka Grandpa) came for a brief but ultra (don't you just love that word?) productive weekend. He helped me get my veggie garden planted....I'm so grateful for his help! Now I've got all my tomatoes- only 10 varieties this year (down from 20 or so in the past)- planted in two beds (with bee balm, borage and basil). The peppers (two varieties), ground cherries occupy another bed. I've also got onions nestled with shallots, carrots and beets in an another bed. Cucumbers (one variety) under planted with spinach in another bed. Then there's the lettuce, spinach (nearly done) and zucchini (two kinds) in yet another bed. Strawberries occupy the seventh bed. Beans for drying and rhubarb occupy bed number eight AND zucchini, scallop squash and onions occupy bed nine. The smaller square beds are filled with giant kale, Swiss chard, pole beans, marigolds, calendula, borage, sage and nasturium. 

WHEW! I'm sure I'm missing something....

Of course....what I actually get will depend on whether or not I can keep deer, rabbit, raccoon munching to a minimum!

Lovely blue borage flowers. I do love blue flowers! The bees go nuts for them too!

View of the freshly planted veggie garden. There are pole beans planted around each of the poles. I can't wait to see what a yard-long beans actually look like! I've also got some beans specifically for drying (called Jacob's Cattle) in the bed at the front of the photo.

My pumpkin/winter squash/melon/watermelon/cutting garden bed. *New this year!*  It's still not big enough but it's about ten times larger than in previous years. I finally have a small cutting garden! I love having cut flowers in my house but I hate cutting them from my small flower garden. I've got gladiolus and dahlias planted. Here's hoping to lots of flowers! I've got a seeper hose on a timer installed.

Tomato beds... cleared of the vast numbers of borage seedlings (I left one borage plant per bed). We installed the cattle panels as a tomato anchoring/staking system. Usually I wait until after the tomato plants are in desperate need of staking before putting up the stakes. I'm actually ahead of schedule this year! WOW! This year I also stuck to tomato varieties that claim lots of disease resistance. I've had some issues in the past growing heirloom varieties. Last year I hardly got any tomatoes (probably due to cool weather but still).

Veggie garden.... with watering system and timers all set up. I can't say enough good things about having a watering system installed. It was a pain in the patootie to install the first time around but it's been a real blessing to have.

Annabelle Hydrangea fully clothed in lovely white flowers...

Resident House Wren (or I think that's what this little brown birdy is). This one sits near my window boxes and hollers sings at the world. How does your garden grow? Do you do companion plantings?