Zoner Gardens

The friend who has planted peppers in my yard for the last 25 years wasn't able to do it this year (his wife died after needing intensive caregiving) so the yard looks bare. I harvested my garlic crop a week ago, herbs are doing well, grapes and fruit trees are thriving. I will plant lettuce seeds where the garlic was, but other than that I'm not doing much.

Every year the blueberries almost get ripe, then some critter steals them all.   

Had to pull the mint, it had taken over. 

Rosemary needs a trim....

Time to go weed....

Bad yr. I got started a little late, and critters have eaten all my greens(Kale, cabbage, collards, chard, carrot tops and cilantro). My sungolds are just barely giving any tomatoes. My jalapenos are producing but the serranos aren't. I got a few and no new starts. Zuchini is producing one every couple days ,so that is good.  Other squash, nothing yet.  Pickling cucumbers are struggling mightily. Reg Cucs coming along OK I guess but still not producing yet.   On a up note, my garlic did great over the winter and I had a bountiful harvest. Basil grows well in this heat. Been grabbing handfuls all summer. Hoping to get my raised beds built and functional by next season.  Probably pull out of this community garden after that.  

Great raspberry crop. Tomatoes are blooming. Kale still going strong and basil goodness.

Planted like 40 more dahlias this year

just beginning to flower

And too stir the pot with you hippies, I just tore out my back lawn and recycled some used  Astroturf they took out of a playground

it's amazing how heavy that Stuff was with all the filler

There was never enough sunlight in the backyard and I had already resodded it twice and was tired of the bare spots. Looks clean in open and my back yard art can sparkle even more now!

Peppers are booming, tomatoes are struggling (god damned spider mites!), corn is stalled and it’s too hot for the strawberries.  Grapevine didn’t produce this year but looks healthy, same with the blackberry.

Catnip.....my wife sprinkled about 100 seeds and raked a bare area.....now we have a 15 x 15 foot are a of thick lush catnip.

Cats are in heaven and the nest of cardinals are nervous.

The lil birds are flying off to new and safer location to grow.

Cats are just stoned.

I’m getting a harvest like this about every week or week and a half.  Scorpions, Fresno’s, Serrano’s, jalapenos, cayenne, black cobra.  The habeneros are almost ready, and the Reaper I started from seed is getting close to blooming (I think).

Zoner Gardens sounds a little like a retirement community.

They don't call 'em Fresno's for nothing, eh, Hoover?

Got my first red San Marzano and Cherokee Purple tomatoes today. 

I like that catnip idea, Flashbacks, I oughta rake in a patch for the kitties, too.

I have my garden split between the yard and a nearby new to me community garden plot.   The community garden plot is one of the shadiest in the garden (its a hierarchy with the newest gardeners getting the worst plots) and it kind of sucks.  Except for a couple squash plants, everything else, while not dead, isn't thriving.   I have about 30 of my 50 pepper plants there and the only ones that are doing ok are ones I kept in containers.   I planted six tomato plants down there and they are all spindly and producing minimal fruit.   I suspect its a nutrient deficiency and a failure by me to properly work the soil before planting.

The stuff in the yard, however, is doing much better.   20 pepper plants in containers are big, healthy, and fruiting like crazy.  Kale, lettuce, cabbage, herbs, melons, and tomatoes are all doing well too.   Just harvested some of the garlic, with more to come:

Figs are rocking:

Sorry to hear about your friend Judit.  I was always stoked to see the pictures of the massive pepper harvest in your yard.  Good looking chilis Timmy.  Yes, the Carolina Reaper is a late bloomer and I planted that Black Cobra too this year.  Good stuff.    

Lots of lettuce & kale, squash, a few cucumbers so far, radishes, beets, sun gold tomatoes & plenty of basil/cilantro/parsley/rosemary/thyme/mint/sage.

Peppers(pablano,jalepeno,green bell,italian hot(fryers) are just starting to form, 3 other tomato varieties have fruit, celery filling out, carrots are looking like a nice bumper crop for pickling, broccoli & brussell spouts looking good for fall(unless critters attack)..

I'm sure I forgot a few.

>>>>Nice haul, Hoover! Are you making hot sauce with all those super hots?

Yeah .  I’ll keep about 6 out to use fresh and make sauce with the rest.  Get about 6 cups of hot sauce every 2 weeks.

Not a lot of gardening this year, as every time I do significant yard work, I end up trashing my back.

plenty of basil (in my old smoker - green basil in the pit and purple basil in the fire box.

2 rosemary plants, 1 left from last year is doing great, and another in a container, also doing well.

thyme in a container, doing pretty well, along with tarragon

mint and sage are native. I can't get rid of the mint, no matter how many runners I pull. This has really effed up my back. The mint is winning. Our sage bush came back strong again this year.

Oregano is also native, and is fighting with the mint and african violets for real estate.

We have 6 tomato plants in containers that we really need to transplant. They had germinated in the "rotter" (the vegetable crisper in the fridge), so we threw them in a couple of pots of dirt, and voila, tomato plants!

We also planted potatoes, for the same reason. They were growing in a drawer, so my wife came up with a way to use dual pots, one inside the other, with holes cut out of the inside pot. In theory, we should be able to pull out the inside pot, and the potatoes will be at the bottom of the plants, sticking through the holes. Then, we can harvest without killing the plants.

If I were able to put more work into it, we'd be in better shape, but I need to call a couple of spine specialists this week after having some x-rays last week that didn't look very good. Puts a serious crimp in my gardening and landscaping.

Oh, and the ever-present rose bushes are doing pretty well, although I have to keep clearing the mint/oregano/violets away from them so that they get some of the soil nutrients and don't get choked out.

Critters beat me to the blueberries and strawberries. Birds got the blues, and bunnies got the straw.

I transplanted the baby sundews to their own pots today...  feeling the love!  (you may pepper on) 

The Girls...

Lovely.

I wonder if you'd consider also putting the picture of the Girls in the standalone Cannabis folder? I hope we get to see what's happening in people's gardens through the season.

Will do

I grew a small crop of garlic again after a 4 or 5 year break. After I harvested them a few weeks ago a couple of volunteer tomatoes came up. It'll be fun to see what types they are. Based on last year's tomatoes they could be Sungold, Mortgage Lifter or one I can't remember. It could be Stupice.

The new Bladderworts arrived a few days ago. Bladderworts are actually an underwater feeder, with little bug eating pods that feast on mosquito larvae and the like. And while they're often a sign of a healthy ecosystem, they can also be an invasive species! I got the terrestrial kind, so planet earth is safe... (for now!). Also picked up a new non-pitcher pitcher plant (turns out there are several types that DON'T have a common ancestry, and actually developed from totally different kinds of plants, never heard of that before, pretty badass!!!). So officially; Utricularia Bisquamata, Nepenthes Sanguinea, and Utricularia Longifolia.

Meanwhile, the rest of the garden has survived shipping / transplanting, and most are starting to thrive!

Pepper is all I got, end up with enough to dice up and freeze. Lasts till middle of winter.  

Black Eyed Suzies in the front yard just now