Nice, aileth! And, well, I sure hope the sheep enjoyed that succulent fruit.

I am not sure if we have Cherokee Purples up here, fantasia, but have made a note of them and will check in our new location. Brandywines are my favourite, but I so enjoy trying new varieties too.

Very cool about your premiere watermelon! And about the grapes (especially for a certain 2-year old, lol).

We had abundant rain last night, so I can't do any gardening today as it's far too wet out there. All the gardens are looking so green and healthy. Oh, except the english cucumber plant, which simply refuses to grow any further, after sprouting a few tendrils, which even have small cucs on them, but by now it should be spread over a fairly large area. Puzzling ...

We decided over the weekend where we will be putting our vegetable garden at our new home. A good-sized outdoor shed has to be moved a few yards, but once that's done (next year), we can dig up the ground. It has similar light in the summer to ours here: the area is in the shade until about 10:30/11 a.m., then sunshine all afternoon until early evening.

My brother was complaining last night about his tomatoes. They are a different variety than he has tried before (sorry, I don't know what kind, except that it's some sort of beefsteak). They are growing like crazy - about six feet tall. They were supposed to stop, like good tomatoes, and just focus on growing fruit. Someone forgot to tell them that and they've gone all jungle-ish. Apparently they're loaded with tomatoes, which is good, but he planted them in a square instead of the usual row, and harvesting them might involve hauling out the good ol' machete

Wow, that's quite the tomato harvest for your brother, aileth. At least they're bountifully producing!

And speaking of tomatoes, because in fixing up the house and prepping to sell, we had taken down the wire fence which I used for my tomato plants (I gently twist-tied the stems to the fence; it worked so well since they grew to a height of 5' or so), I had purchased container tomato plants instead, which aren't doing nearly so well. Very disappointing. Anyway, next summer, I'm totally right back to planting plants ... in the ground, so they can flourish!

As for the rest of the veggie garden, the beans are becoming prolific, as are the peas. The corn cobs have begun with their pretty silk flowing out. I wonder how many the squirrels will nab this year. I picked my first cuc today, but while it looks ripe, it's not what it should be. I wonder if we have had way too much rain this summer for the poor plants. The peppers are coming along nicely.

The floral gardens are gorgeous, if I may say so. But my favourite time for flowers is in autumn when many of my favourites are at their peak. And I adore autumn mums. Such a profusion of colour and scent!

Although the blue and green ones are new to me ... not natural, methinks.

Tomatoes haven't done real well around here either, jo. Part of it is probably the lack of hot weather they love so much (only 3 days exceeded 90F/32C this summer). The growing season was also shortened by record rains in June which delayed planting.

And even that abbreviated growing season may be in jeopardy, with lows around 38F/3C this upcoming weekend. This means possible spotty frost, especially in low-lying areas and locations north of here. Cover those gardens!

Oh dear, the polar vortex that has arrived here is making our garden wilt. Because of school and work, I let my garden go. I had put some fertilizer in it (which I hadn't wanted to do, it being chemicals and all... I prefer doing it organic), and so the tomatoes are doing better than I have ever had them. That's not saying much, but I still got a decent amount of tomatoes. They were my first Brandywines, too, and they are so good!

My herb garden did not do well, except for oregano, I think it is. Basil, mint, rosemary.... nada. I planted a sunflower, which came up nicely, but the squirrels and rain destroyed it.

I've been thinking about joining the Green Club at school, which requires maintaining a garden and/or greenhouse. I feel like that will help me keep on gardening, since I'm there so much. But I will definitely go a little less all-out next year and maybe keep it to only five or six plants.

Well, due to baby drama, my garden completely fell by the wayside this year. But my husband and I took full advantage of our toddler being watched by relatives this weekend, and I think the yard and garden is pretty well prepped for next year.

~Compost has been turned. (There was so much gorgeous dirt down there. Yay!!!)
~All tomatoes, peppers, and asparagus have been pulled and disposed of.
~The herb garden has been properly mulched for the first time ever.
~I planted some rogue garlic bulbs.

The only thing we didn't do was turn the garden, but I usually do that as a spring project anyways.
All that's left is to pick and hang some herbs to dry (primarily my parsley), and possibly cut up and freeze the rhubarb which looks really good. We also need to cover our strawberries and move the potted blueberries and chocolate mint into the greenhouse. That can all easily be done tonight and tomorrow before the cold weather moves in, and then I'll be ready to restart in the spring.

ETA: Oh! We did get a nice amount of yummy sweet potatoes, so I think two plants is the way to go for us.

Speaking of vigourous plants.... about four or five weeks ago I started a potato tuber that was sprouting... Well already it's three feet tall... I knew it was gonna be large I just didn't expect it to grow so fast. I'm not sure I'll be able to eat the tubers since I have it in a cardboard box wrapped by two plastic garbage bags I'm a bit worried about the bags leeching chemicals, not to mention I'm not sure the box is even big enough.

I also have a compost pile going, but it's been so frigid I'm not expecting the good stuff til May or June XD.

I'm trying my hand at container gardening this year. I'm focusing on plants that are edible to humans and/or rabbits And plants that can survive in my dark room (though my desk lamp has proven to be a decent light source.)

So far I've planted:

- Dandelions (currently have 3 immature plants)
- parsley (just planted)
- Garden Sage (just planted)
- Alpine Strawberry (2 sprouts so far)
- Aloe vera (Had this one a while actually)
- Black Dragon Coleus (The cats kept ramming into this one so I'm not sure if it'll survive or not...)
- White Potato (2 plants... I am waiting until late April before I start anymore.)

I'm been saving plastic food storage containers (like soda bottles and cottage cheese cans) as well as glass jars. Overall they have worked great! I don't have to buy expensive pots... Just need to make sure my plastic containers all have drainage holes somewhere... I had a soil mold problem with my dandelions last month

My boyfriend and his family gave me a bunch of seeds for Christmas, so I have more plants waiting for shelf space and spring

I just mowed my lawn for the first time in weeks, because it's been so dry and I haven't watered it. Most of the lawns around here are yellow from dryness, but they'll grow green again once we have a bit of rain. Now I've mown, I can actually put a lawn sprinkler hose on it, and perhaps improve its look!

My whole front garden needs love and care. But the back garden is still a vision - in my head. In November I had a lovely big deck built alongside the sunny side of my house (the living areas are on that side, and both have sliding doors to the deck, very 'indoor-outdoor living') and the old pinkish 'stamped concrete' removed from the back yard. There is a bit of a wasteland out there now, but this week a contractor is going to rotary-hoe it, tidy up and dispose of bits of stone and roots that are in the way, etc. He will take away the old rotary clothes line that served well for 30 years, and I am having a 5-line pullout one instead, which will leave plenty of space and nobody will bump their heads on it.
Then in early March a concrete path will be put in alongside the deck, from the back path behind the house out to the front lawn.
THEN I will lay out and plant the new back garden! My plan is a cottage garden style, with vegetables, traditional English flowers, and a nice strip of lawn. The one remaining feature from the back yard is a large grapevine.
Looking forward to doing all this, and to posting photos!

I planted something over the weekend!!! *pats self on the back* I started two Flavorburst Peppers and a bunch of Celery. I'm waiting on some Big Bertha pepper seeds to arrive to start those and that'll be it for peppers. Every year I plant lots and lots of those and never use them, so I'm backing way off this year. And I nixed all of the hot peppers since I have kiddos playing in the backyard all the time now. Just two varieties.
Next up will be starting tomato seeds and I hope to do that in a week or two.

Time for an update! The two peppers I planted are both up. Yay! Though they look a little worse for the wear, hopefully at least one will survive.
My seeds arrived so here's what I've started so far...
~Flavorburst Peppers (they're up)
~Big Bertha Peppers
~Juliet Tomatoes (my fav )
~San Marzano Tomatoes
~Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
~Black Pearl Tomatoes
~Big Beef Tomatoes
The last two I hadn't planned on, but a cousin sent me the Black Pearl seeds to try, and my sister told me the Big Beef tomato is the best producing tomato plant in the state of Kansas, so I'm testing that one out as well.
We're going to till the garden either tonight or tomorrow so I can start my potatoes. My sister gave me some and I haven't planted any here for a few years so that should be fun. I have Yukon Gold and some purple variety.
Go Go Awesome Weather! Just need some rain.

'Twas a rather discouraging weekend on the gardening front. We confirmed we lost both of our new beehives from last year; one due to mice for sure, and the second was likely due to mice as well. And apparently I didn't water my seedlings before leaving town because they are all crispy and dead.

The good news is that our strongest beehive that we've had for a few years now is still doing great. And it's not too late to start the tomatoes all over again, so I did an emergency planting this morning. I planted new peppers as well, but I don't know how those will do being started so late in the season. They're about a month and a half behind, so we'll see.

Very cool about your new ventures, wolfy! Keep us posted.

coracle, your cottage garden sounds like it's going to be so lovely—a haven, really.

Yay for planting, fantasia! (We're a long ways off from planting outdoors here - May 23rd weekend, earliest, as we could potentially have a night frost up 'til then.) So sorry to hear of the loss of 2 of your beehives but glad one is thriving, whew!

Since I have pretty much a clean slate for gardening at our new place, I have begun planning in my head. I purchased some perennials last fall when they were on sale, and am eager to get them in. The gound's still quite frozen, though, so ... not yet. As for a veggie garden, it may not be huge this year, but definitely tomatoes ♥ and probably beans, peas, and bell peppers, as well.

Ooooh, a clean slate. You know, my sister is for hire if you would like a professional design for your yard. But then again, she's back at work and doesn't have a lot of time.
No cucumbers Jo?

Thanks to my mom and sister coming over yesterday, I got all of my onions and two potatoes planted. Unless my husband wants to plant winter/early spring plants with my kiddos (carrots? Peas?), I'm done with gardening until next month when I can put in the tomatoes and peppers. I might try cucumbers again this year because Evan likes them, but mine always come out really bitter.

It would be fun if your sis lived closer to assist! I'm excited to put my plans into action, although implementing the ideas will be ongoing for a few years, at least. That's part of the fun of it.

As for cucs, not sure how large a veggie garden we'll have this year, and cucs can take up a fair bit of space. Looking towards next year, for sure, and possibly this summer, we'll see.

Yay for getting stuff planted, fantasia! As for cucs, mine tend to be too seed-y, if anything, even the English cucumber types. They're tasty, but I prefer not so many seeds.

I did receive the suggestion to plant columbine, which I have never done before. That's on the list for this year for a new perennial.

Yeah, I didn't even know columbines were perennials until I saw some we had planted on the farm last year coming back up. They're quite pretty.

I had planned on doing a super simple garden this year, but my husband decided that he wanted more stuff for Evan to see grow, so he planted carrots, beets, lettuce, and peas this afternoon. It's soooo gorgeous outside. Love this time of year! I got a lot of stuff done too

Things on my gardening to-do list:
~Continue to clean out the front flower bed.
~Trim my lavender.
~Buy some flowers to make my front yard look pretty.
~Be prepared to weed like crazy. (The garden will probably be a mess due to my letting it go last year when on bed rest.)