It’s that time of year when all the seed catalogs are arriving in the mail, with thousands of different types of seeds and plants shining off of glossy pages. You know you can’t plant everything, but how do you decide?

What you should grow in your garden is up to you, but here are a few tips and questions  to help you decide on the best plants for you.

If you’re growing a vegetable or herb garden plant what you like to eat. If you enjoy cooking with herbs and spices plant plenty of those. If you love salsa plant plenty of …read more

The Christmas decorations are put away, the New Year has been celebrated, the garden catalogs are arriving daily in the mail. It’s time to start planning my 2010 garden.

I usually make a few notes in the fall when I put my garden to rest for the season about what worked, what didn’t work, and what plants I’d like to try again next year, and what I’d like to change up.
I like to take a look back at those notes when I’m planning my new garden, and make some more notes on what I’d like to plant before I look at …read more

I asked my son the other day what I should write about gardening. He said, “It’s fun!” Sometimes in the heat of summer when we’re worried about garden pests, or weeds taking over our precious plants we forget about the fun. Or at least I do.

The main reason I garden is because it relaxes me, and I enjoy it. When my husband or my son join me in the garden, it’s even more enjoyable and fun.
Sure it’s nice to put some fruits and vegetables in the freezer, save on the grocery bill, and have a bouquet of …read more

This was the haul from yesterday from the garden. It doesn’t seem like much, and it’s way less than I usually have this time of year. We also have onions ready, but I’ve been going out and plucking them as I need them for cooking, since at this stage they’re still growing.
 
I’ve been picking the tomatoes when they start to turn ripe, because by the time they get ripe they start splitting and rotting on the bottom. I think it’s from the damp cool conditions we’ve had this summer.
I do have quite the variety of tomatoes going on though. …read more

Happy Fourth of July! I wanted to share some of the fireworks in my garden with you today. OK, so you have to use your imagination a little, but don’t these plants look a little like fireworks? I think it’s my gardens way of celebrating the 4th of July.
The flowering cabbage looks like a firework that just exploded.

The flowering kale looks like those fireworks or sparklers that have lights going straight out.
 
The cinnamon basil looks like fireworks on full display, with the little lights trailing behind.

The lilies look like fireworks just starting to explode.

Have a wonderful 4th …read more

I love Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day during the summer. It inspires me to get out there and capture images of the flowers growing in my garden. I still look back on last years garden images. It’s a great way to remember gardens past.
This month I have one lingering iris still blooming, it’s one of my favorites, and it always blooms a little later than the rest. It likes to keep me in suspense on whether it’s going to bloom or not. Just when I’ve given up hope, there it is! It’s a beautiful ruffled purple and white blooming iris.

My …read more

The cats were following me around this morning on my walk through all the gardens. I just wish they would do a little more to control the rabbit population.

There were no less than 5 rabbits hanging around my garden the other morning when I looked out. I keep trying to explain to the cats, if they don’t get rid of the rabbits, the rabbits are going to take over the world.

They just look at me and rub on my leg, I don’t think it’s sinking in.
So far the rabbits really haven’t messed with much in …read more

I love how the garden takes off in June. It starts the month with new plants, blooms, or seeds, and by the end of the month things are really starting to happen.
Here’s my main vegetable garden. It’s actually right at the edge of a pasture, so that’s why it looks like it’s surrounded by grass (it is).

I have most of my garden planted. I’m still debating on adding a couple half rows of sweet corn, and some green beans. Everything else is in and growing.
At the beginning of this month I’m harvesting some spring greens, spinach, strawberries, onions, and …read more