We live inside the city limits and have a small backyard. Our yard is odd as it has a triangle shape and we have a street in the back of our house and the front of our house. The point of the triangle is an intersection. We have a lot of trees, shade, poor soil and often drought conditions. But we have a determination to grow as many vegetables as we can in containers. We have planted as many fruit bearing trees that our limited space will allow. We have two pear trees, one fig, two and a half plum and despite the fact that we are not in the right zone we have one grapefruit, one struggling satsuma, one keylime and one very sparse meyer lemon tree. These are all sharing root space with four pecan trees that are suffering from three years of drought one lightening magnet sweet gum tree and a distant pine tree.
Most recent pictures posted here at the top. The beginning of the year is at the bottom.
December is now here and we are getting to the end of 2011
This is the beginning of the small winter greenhouse. I will make a new page for this greenhouse and post the greenhouse vegetables in that page. Everything below this picture is what we grew in 2011. The Greenhouse page will be called "Our Tiny Greenhouse".
December 2011
Almost all the leaves have fallen now so it is time to clean out the pots and move the lettuce to shelter so they don't freeze.
Cold weather is now here and we have to figure out how to protect the vegetables because we took all the cold frames apart from this past spring. This is one of the 2 dozen cabbage plants that I planted in containers. They made it through two nights of freezing temperatures. I can tell a difference in the color of the plants si they will for sure need shelter.
November update
The summer vegetables have lasted all the way to the end of November. Today we picked the last of the bell peppers that made it through the 30 degree temps this week. There are some small peppers still on a few plants so I will try and somehow keep them alive. This will mean bringing them inside or building a small greenhouse.
Summer 2011
Harvest time is here :)
We have had a great year despite the drought, our container garden did very well this year, with compost tea, worm castings, some organic fertilizer and a lot of water our vegetables came through for us. In our small yard we put up 40 quarts of squash (blanched and frozen), 24 jars of pickles, eight jars of squash relish, several bags of frozen peppers, froze so many bags of jalapeno peppers that I lost count, all the eggplant we could eat and still eating, quite a few meals of okra, we enjoyed 4 beautiful heads of regular cabbage, I would have planted more had I known they would grow so well, six heads of chinese cabbage, enjoyed cauliflower with dressing several times, had a wonderful supply of broccoli, carrots and tops for the bunnies and pet birds. Now we have eaten our first watermelon of the season, and cut into our first of many cantaloupes. The tomatoes continue to ripen and I have put up several bags of tomatoes in the freezer.
It has been a lot of work and sweat but worth it.
Cantaloupe that was grown in a container
Cucumber
Cucumbers, squash and peppers
Canning relish
Squash relish that I made using a water bath canner
We stopped weighing the vegetables due to lack of organization. Next year we will have a book to keep record. We harvested much more than we expected this year and that is a good thing.
Bell Peppers
earlier in the year
We planted early this year and that was a good thing due to the drought that followed. This is the squash patch. All the squash were planted in garden bags.
Stewed squash, ummmmm
Cucumbers growing in pots and climbing fence wire on a arbor
Mint, thyme and chives
Our keyhole garden has done well all winter long
Late Winter / very early spring
Chip spruced up the compost area
We have been eating lettuce for several weeks now
The colors of all the different lettuce makes such a beautiful salad
This year I added new types of lettuce
This is a container of thyme, chives and mint that is very happy that spring is nearing.
A frequent visitor to our backyard
The bees are back and we are happy about that
We have a pair of bluebirds that had taken to this bird house in our backyard. We hope they will stay.
Latter part of Febuary 2011
Spring is in the air
Spring is in the air
A lot has changed around our house this year. We have a new puppy and her name is Elizabeth.
Our sweet Katie has been such a good big sister and so gentle with Elizabeth
They play so well together
There is so much to talk about for 2011
We have been getting the yard ready for this year’s summer garden. I already have sore muscles and cannot sleep at night thinking of all the things I want to plant.
Out in the potting shed, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and other veggies.
This winter I started planting seeds early hoping for an early spring but ready to keep them going indoors if needed to have them ready for when warm weather does arrive.
peppers on the right and tomatoes on the left. I will be Keeping them close to the house just in case the temperature drops too low, which could be at any time.
We are adding a few new vegetables and fruits this year and we will have a new location for watermelon’s.
I have a lot to share from past mistakes and feel so much more settled with my gardening skills. Isn’t spring wonderful!
Right now there is much sun in the backyard due to no leaves on the trees. These are collard plants doing very well under the sweetgum tree. Cabbage growing in pots to the right of this picture.
Young broccoli next to the asparagus patch.
Spring has to be soon because there is an asparagus shoot standing tall.
Cookie and.........
Sugar have been busy..........
Eating and pooping to make the poop........
To feed the worms and the worms have been doing such a good job, I will harvest worm castings again very soon.
Once I get the worms separated from their castings ...................
Then I feed the plants
The plum trees are budding out
A basket of cilantro that survived the winter so far going in and out of the potting shed.
Hubby fixed the leaning arbor and extended it so the carolina jasmin will have somewhere else to explore and attach.
The young citrus trees have survived so far this winter and the rosemary is in bloom.
The bees will be here soon, when this particular rosemary blooms then the bees come. Also when the carolina jasmin blooms there will be bees. BRING THEM ON! There is a lot for them to do this year!!
This is another winter survivor, thyme, mint and chives. They like it much better outside than inside.
The compost pile is in much need of work. It needs to be tossed and we have plans to make a new bin.
Yesterday I planted pumpkin, amish pie squash, zucchini and okra. This container is coming out during the day and in at night. It is much too cold at night for squash and much too early to plant but I am hoping to grow these in cups as long as I can and then move them to large containers when it gets warmer. Come on spring..................
