Things I learned and Things I will Alter for Next Year.

1. Tomato plants take up a lot of space and need to have something like lettuce planted between them, not another tomato plant or vine.

2. We need a lot more peas.  I think I will construct a teepee or shelter out of bamboo and plant the peas in the containers around it.  Then Rachel can play in it.

3. Lettuce in gutters is the only way to plant lettuce.

4. Raspberries need some support and direction. Otherwise, they go everywhere.

5. Same with my blackberry plants.

6. Growing melons on a trellis really works!

7. Carrots are just hard to grow.  I got a few this year, but not many.  Next year, they go in a bed without tomatoes and such so they have lots of sun and room.  I CAN grow carrots.

8. We like cabbage more than I realized.  So, more cabbage plants...staggered a bit.

9. I need to start my own seeds if I want staggered crops.

10. I am going to put in a raised bed for the raspberries...and maybe the blackberries....along the fence.

11. I am going to put in one more bed at the south end of the garden. I suspect it will be for flowers.  I might make it "L" shaped.

12. The calla lilies in the butterfly garden need more space.

Lilies, Glads and Butterfly

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail! (male)

Echinacea and Raspberries

The Echinacea is beautiful.

The raspberries are ripening!

Lilies, Gladiolas and Calla Lillies

The garden (panarama)

More harvest...

Brought in a huge bag of kale, rhubarb, beets and peas.  I'm stunned by how much kale the plants have made.

New Lilies and Shasta Daisy

Two of the new lilies have bloomed!

Shasta Daisy in front bed.

Ginger!

I've never grown ginger, so when I planted the ginger I had no idea what to expect.  Everything I read said it would take awhile before I saw anything.

I was patient.  I present....ginger!  I'll leave it for another 2-3 months and harvest before frost.  I should check that.  Ahh...and after checking, I find it won't tolerate a hard freeze.  Ok, so I harvest in early October.  Next year, I'll put it in a big pot instead so I can bring it inside over winter.

Front, street-side bed

The lavender is lovely.  I've clipped a lot for drying.

This is one of the new lilies I planted.  I think it is the Landini.

And, the iris actually made seeds!  They cross pollinated, so I have no idea what the color might be.  There are 5 pods.  If each has six seeds, that is 30 new plants.  I think they will go in the nursery bed later this fall.

Seeds....

We started broccoli and turnips yesterday.  Hopefully, we can get a fall crop.

I planted the extra thyme seeds I had and lo-and-behold they are coming up.

Wow...growing fast.

I've started the second tier of beds.  The first has nine cherry tomato plants.  They were late purchases from Richters.  They came as plugs and were incredibly healthy plants.  I need to put in the second bed soon.  It will hold the last three cherry tomato plants and the broccoli and turnip plants that I've started from seed this week for a fall crop.  Next year, both the boxes will house blueberry plants.

Rachel's garden is growing nicely.

I've done five gutters of strawberries.  They seem to be doing ok.  The test will be to see how well they over-winter.

The garlic has 1-1.5 loops in the scapes.  In the first row, I've clipped every other scape to see if it makes any difference in the size of bulbs.

Bed 1 has done well.  The cabbage plants are being eaten by earwigs.  I've treated them with corn meal and baking soda.  I've also put out little bowls of beer.

The letters in the gutter is thriving!

We've harvested three or four beets.  I froze the greens and will make beet chips for Rachel out of the actual beets.

The gladiola nursery is amazing.  Silly bulbs may actually make flowers!  Given how small some were, I'm stunned.  The zinnias have grown at an astonishing pace.

The kale plants have produced a lot more than I expected.  I've put away a dozen bags of it.

The herb garden is so pretty.

The romaine lettuce has done really well in the gutters.

And the potato towers grew so fast I couldn't keep up with them.

The raspberry plants are two years old and are putting on berries.  I got bird netting on them this evening.