August 4, 2010: The Garden in August; Part 2

Yesterday we toured the "east garden" and the "fence garden". Today I'll take you through the "kennel garden", the "north garden", the "shed garden", the "west garden" and the "patio garden". All but the "north garden" are very small, so it won't take us long.

I've already told about the kennel garden, so for those who do not know the story, you can read about it here.


Fortex pole beans climb up the inside of the 6' chain link fencing, than across cotton clothesline rope strung over the top of the kennel. There is a red cabbage in the back left corner, that may or may not get large enough to harvest some day.

Behind the bench there are blue forget-me-nots and several blue morning glory vines that have refused to blossom so far this year. There were a few borage plants there too, but they got a bit unruly and were pulled before they could smother out the other flowers.

To the right (not shown) is a new planting of pole beans, which I'm quite sure will not have time to mature before we get our first frost. It was a second planting, as the first planting disappeared. In front of them was a double row of beets, which grew to about 3" high and then also disappeared. I suspect the quail took them out, as they have been seen coming from that part of the garden.


Bean vines are forming a shady arbor overhead, and would be a lovely place to rest my weary bones.....except I get bombarded with falling walnuts from my neighbor's tree. Let me tell you, those suckers hurt when they hit!

The kennel also has a pot of cucumbers climbing its south side, with a few marigolds at its feet, as well as a pot of blue (also un-blooming) morning glories climbing the corner post.


As we leave the kennel garden, and enter the north garden, there is a small bed to the right (not shown) that holds a determinate tomato plant, Dragon Tongue and Royal Burgundy bush beans, and a few marigolds. The next bed, a 4'x8' box, holds the everbearing strawberries which, by the way, are finally giving me some decent harvests. I've picked enough in two days to make a batch of jam! There are two half-barrels here, one on each side of the strawberries, that are empty right now. I'll probably be removing them from the garden, as it's really too crowded when they are filled with plants. To the left of the strawberries is the raspberry bed. There are tomatoes in pots all along the edge of this north garden.


Standing at the center of the north garden and looking east toward the kennel, the potted determinate tomatoes are visible, as well as the indeterminates (in the green buckets). On the back side of the green buckets are carrots and spinach. At the front of the buckets are more carrots, that have just germinated. Between the determinate tomato bed and the raspberries, is another half-barrel planter that I'm also going to remove.


Still standing in the center of the north garden, and looking west toward the shed, we see "the jungle". One hill of two butternut squash plants takes up an area of about 12'x20', and that's after I cut back many of the vines. The last potted tomato, at the edge of the garden, has become my favorite. It's a Clear Pink Early, and it's giving me good sized tomatoes daily on a tiny bush.

In the back along the fence are (right to left) Shasta daisies, hollyhocks that should blossom next year, Sweet Williams, zinnias, marigolds, pansies, blue morning glories (more non-blooming ones) growing on a birdhouse topped ladder, a bird bath, two hills of yellow crookneck squash (volunteers), five indeterminate tomatoes and the compost bin. I cannot walk through this overgrown area of the garden. I have to access the back part of it by going through the shed and out the back door. The only way I can get water to the flowers is by setting the sprinkler up on a laundry basket in the middle of the butternuts! The tomatoes, in the very back, have drip lines for irrigation.


The shed garden has three cherry tomatoes and a Kimberly tomato that was supposed to be an indeterminate, so it got an 8' pole to climb. It maxed out at about three feet. The two on the left have topped their poles and are headed up onto the roof. One lone hot pepper plant sits in the center. All the others were moved to the west garden area for more sunshine and less watering. That's my Annie resting under a tomato plant.


The west garden holds the gigantic Black Beauty zucchini, one Market Miracle tomato, cranberry pole beans for drying, and Four O'Clocks.


The west garden is where I moved the three jalapeno plants. They were growing sweet peppers by the shed, where they got abundant water, so now they sit atop the irrigation connections where they must be hand watered. I had my youngest son check out a pepper yesterday, and they are now turning hot. So hot he had to drink almost all of the milk I had in the refrigerator to cool down his tongue.

Across from the west garden, at the west end of the patio, are the Trail of Tears beans. Some of the vines have begun to grow to the top of the lattice, and onto the patio roof.


Around the corner from the Trail of Tears beans, we come to a Black Cherry and an Amish Paste tomato growing up to the roof. In front of them is a Husky Red Cherry tomato. Four O'Clocks, alyssum, roses, thyme and chives can be found in this bed.


On the other side of the patio, I have another dwarf tomato, a Cherry Roma growing up over the roof (I'll need a ladder to pick all the cherry tomatoes), a few strawberry plants that I'm letting run to eventually become a ground cover, some alyssum and a pot of Hungarian Wax peppers.

So ends the August garden tour. Finally!

18 comments:

  1. Glad to hear the peppers are finally getting hot.

    I'm so surprised that the strawberries aren't the first thing that the birds go after.

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  2. Awesome tour, I love how much you are able to grow! The tomato systems seem to working quite well for you.

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  3. Very nice Granny. I can't believe how many strawberries you are harvesting right now. I get about 1/2 cup a day. How many plants do you have?

    Too bad you can't sit under the pole beans without being attacked. It looks like such a nice place to sit. I can lend you a hard hat to wear!!

    So, too much water made your hot peppers sweet? We have not been having much rain here...I guess that is why mine are so so HOT!

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  4. So many tomatoes! Thanks for the giving the rest of the garden tour for all of us. I may have to give that clear pink early a try!

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  5. Things are still looking well, granny!

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  6. I love the tour...except the part where I get jealous of all the space you have and how well you're using it.

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  7. I enjoyed the tours Granny, your gardens are quite beautiful this time of year. I have a dumb question for you, do your beans grow along that string trellis parallel to the ground by themselves or do you have to train them along? I have only grown mine straight up before but can see the obvious benefits of keeping them a little lower.

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  8. Seeing tomato beds in August always makes me laugh... it would seem that we have lost control over our gardens and given up, but it's quite the opposite - now they are coming in by the armloads!

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  9. Ribbit, if only the peppers would now produce more than one or two at a time. I'm finally getting tomatoes for salsa, but not enough hot peppers. The birds don't bother the berries, they just go for my greens!

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    Kelly, the tomatoes around the patio/shed that are tied to the poles are working fine. The ones in the garden got too large, and I can't even reach them by ladder to keep them tied up, so now they are flopping over. They are double caged, too.

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    Robin, I put in two dozen plants last year, but I let the runners fill the bed. Hard telling how many there are now...too many, they need to be thinned out.

    The seed provider for the peppers said rich soil and abundant water are what make the hot peppers sweet. I had jalapenos as sweet as candy last year, so I put them in pots, away from the garden, this year.

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    Kitsap, I'm just now getting too many to eat fresh, not enough to can, not much room in the freezer! I think I'll just puree them and find a spot to keep them frozen until I have enough for canning some sauce. The CPE is a good little tomato, I'll be growing it next year.

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    EG, considering the heat we've had, it's not looking bad. I'm still wondering if I'll get many tomatoes to ripen.

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    Cheryl, sometimes I wish I had more space, other times I wonder why!

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    Mr. H., I give them a start across the ropes, then they only need an occasional tweaking to keep them on course. If they ran east to west, they'd do it all on their own (following the sun), but they vine west to east, so they really want to turn around and go the other way. I like having to duck under those long beans to go through the kennel garden, and it sure makes them easy to pick!

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    Erin, after all the whining, we'll soon be inundated! They are out there, they just aren't red. Yet.

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  10. Old woman, you know how to make me feel utterly inadequate. I have unripened tomatoes, matchstick-thin spring onions, fennel that resembles straw, an aubergine plant with no aubergines, celeriac with bulbs the size of pimples and a courgette with one fruit that resembles a donkey's willy.

    Ah well, plus I live in an over-priced wet miserable land.

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  11. TIG, I'm sorry. Don't read my blog tomorrow, I don't want to hurt your feelings by showing you my gorgeous green beans.

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  12. I love how your tomatoes grow up along the porch. I keep wondering if in this house I ought to put in something that goes up near the front door. It is in a sunny spot, but would need real soil (and the spot doesn't have it) so a container would be perfect. I hate containers though since I have to water them all the time. I never know what to do when I travel. Maybe I can figure out a way to put in irrigation for some pots when I put in the rest of the irrigation system.

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  13. Daphne, the tomatoes don't grow so wild around the patio, they have better manners than the ones out in the garden or by the shed. Not as much sunshine, I suspect. I rather like them, they are easier to see and to pick.

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  14. "Bean vines are forming a shady arbor overhead, and would be a lovely place to rest my weary bones.....except I get bombarded with falling walnuts from my neighbor's tree. Let me tell you, those suckers hurt when they hit!"

    Granny, is it time to invest in a garden helmet, perhaps? :)

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  15. You just need a mini basket pole picking thing to get your cherry tomatoes. Good thing about the hot peppers!

    I'm interested to hear your final verdict on the Amish Paste. I decided not to grow them this year.

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  16. Thyme2, full body armor, I'd say. I bent over to pick up something the other day, and got hit in the back with a walnut, so hard it made a bruise. That's a tall tree, and when those things fall from high branches they're like cannon balls!

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    Stefaneener, I think the Amish Paste has all of three tomatoes on it. I've never grown them before.

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  17. Granny, I stopped and stared at your Black Beauty zucchini plant and had to go back and look again. It is beautiful. Is it giving you lots of zucchini?

    I have been a total failure it seems in my first time to grow squash and zucchini. The second planting was looking good until the SVB hit along with the squash bugs. (sadness)

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  18. Debiclegg, it's certainly giving me enough! So far I've picked 27 pounds from it.

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