Not my garden. Great Dixter in England. This is what my garden would look like if I were rich and it rained. Ever. Also, not my picture. I pilfered it from the world wide interwebs at some point and forgot where, so no credit is given here. Sorry photographer, you did a nice job and deserve some credit. The odd looking chimneys are on top of the Oast House, for roasting hops. 
My spring vegetable garden as of last week. The potatoes are in tubs in the background. I can tell, you like my bean trellises. That is butchers twine run from the iron trellises into the ground to the right. On the bed to the left, I wired two pieces of scrap wood together and wired them to my tomato cages (which, after the indeterminate tomato disaster of 2010, were a must) then ran the butchers twine from the wood to the ground. To the right is a can of the native Lone Star, Paupertas cervesisiae, that played a large roll in the design and installation of the trellises.
Turk's Turban, Cucurbita maxima, from seeds that I harvested last late fall. We bought the squash as a fall decoration, used it when through to make a winter squash soup and then I kept and dried the seeds. I am amazed that the seeds were still viable and now I have two seedlings. I may make a gardener out of myself yet. I know, they are early for fall production. I'll plant more in late June.
I did get the chance to go to Dixter. One of the advantages of having family in England. Of course it was wonderful and we did the tour of the house. Mr Lloyd was quite the eccentric bachelor.
ReplyDeleteTell me about your drip system for the raised beds. I have tried everything under the sun and have still not mastered it.
Jennifer - I only have a true drip system in one of my raised cottage beds (the largest one). I laid it out when the bed was still very new (<6 months) and just ran a main line with 1 gallon drip emitters or bubbler lines to every plant. Bigger plants, like the tree, got multiple emitters. I bought the starter kit from Dripworks and that includes one back-pressure blocker / hose hook up doodad and I just hook that up when I'm ready to water. I usually just run it for 4 to 5 hours every two to three weeks that it doesn't rain. My plan was to see how I liked it and then add improved versions to my other beds, that was 3 years ago. Maybe someday.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of my garden I get with soaker hoses.
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