Welcome Back!

After a two year absence, I am once again living in Nashville and working at the Demonstration Garden!  While many things have changed here, one thing is still the same; this is an amazing garden to visit!  These are some photos from a recent work day and I encourage you to visit this page often to see what is happening in the garden!

Chives, the seeds are so fertile that they pop up everywhere and so do the weeds!  This is some speedwell in the herb garden and of course, some chive seedlings.

Daffodils are a sure sign of spring, let's hope it comes quickly.

Hyacinths are so fragrant that you can almost smell them before you spot the blooms!

Over in the shade beds, the Solomon's Seal is thinking it is spring as well.

The Hellebores are in full bloom.

Things are starting to wake up and follow the Daffodil's lead down in the perennial garden.

How can you not love a plant that seems to glow?  Bloody Dock is one of my favorite foliage plants.  When the light shines through it, it glows.  This is proof that you do not need just flowers to add a pop of color to your garden!

The cabbages in the vegetable garden are heading now and before we know it, we will be picking them!  

In the vegetable garden, we also have asparagus.  Ever wonder how they grow white asparagus?  The stalks are blanched by keeping them covered and if you look closely at the tip of this one, you can see it is white.  It grew up with a cluster of leaves and debris on the tip like an umbrella and blanched itself white.  However, as soon as I uncovered it, the plant began the process of greening itself.

And just for fun, some ornamental kale, because everyone needs a hint of color...

wet and soggy weekend weather; update 7/7/13

despite the rain, the garden did not float away!  actually, it seems to have been just what many of the plants have needed to take off.  suddenly, we are seeing lots of growth and fruit being set.  

 zucchini in the keyhole garden

 eggplant in the keyhole garden-the first fruit is on its way

 in three days, we had 5.5 inches of rain!  

 bumble bee in the mountain mint-this plant is a bee magnet.  we easily can count half a dozen different types of bees on the mountain mint at any given time.

 the logs that form the walls of the herb garden are decomposing rapidly thanks to many different types of mushrooms.

 somewhere in that tangle of tansy and st. john's wort is a walkway.

 believe it or not, that is a three sisters garden and somewhere in there are several stalks of corn.

 the signs of summer:  insects, specifically, a harlequin bug.  needless to say, the cabbages and other brassicas were removed from the square foot garden to prevent more from appearing.

 red noodle beans in the square foot garden

 over in the vertical garden, we have asparagus long beans.  both are tasty and easy to grow.  we have become fans of both types and almost always have a few plants in the garden.

 the garden phlox plants look spectacular this year which is nice after the awful time we had last year.  we had the worst infestation of phlox plant bugs and the plants looked terrible.  thankfully, they seem to have completely recovered and even to have spread a bit.

 one of my personal favorites in the garden; a blackberry lily.  we started out with one little rhiozome in the old perennial garden and they have spread out through the one section of the bed.  the seeds are pretty easy to germinate so it is now wonder how this has happened!

 beautiful day lily-don't you just love the color?

 when you have coneflowers, you have bees.  here are a couple of bumbles gathering nectar

 the grapes in the arbor look a little worse for wear.  they have some sort of fungus but we leave them for the birds who do not seem to mind at all.  four years ago, i gathered a bundle of ripe grapes and created a sourdough starter for bread.  believe it or not, that starter is still going.  that reminds me, i need to think about baking some sourdough bread!

and as always, cake.  this is a maple pecan cake with a cinnamon ribbon.  to see the recipe, visit my blogpage, it is posted there.

square foot garden, 5/28

this new addition to our garden is wonderful!  shirley could not have put together a better display if she had tried.  after taking a week off from the garden, i was shocked to see how much the plants in each square have grown.  if you have limited space and want to grow your own vegetables, buy or borrow a copy of mel bartholomew's book and get to work.  to see the progress of our display, check back here from time to time.

gotta love how neat and organized this is

 a reference chart for plants per square is a valuable piece of information and it will help you fill the squares properly to obtain the highest yield.

 swiss chard

 kale

 bloody dock-easily on of my favorites since it is so pretty

 runaway lettuces!

 peanuts!  see the cracks in the dirt?  more are sprouting

 arugula

 the little pepper plant that could

a perfect little red radish.

you go shirley!!!  now go enter that bed in mel's contest, don't make me do it for you...see you out in the garden.

garden update, july 31

 sedum in the rain garden glows as it grows-a striking contrast to the other plants

 eggplants in the junior mg bed

 the enemy-harlequin bug

 basil in the herb garden has exploded!

 a fountain of lemon grass

 passion flowers-they will take over the world if we aren't careful!

 bronze fennel-host plant for swallowtail caterpillars

cayenne peppers

 gladiolus in the memorial garden

 the dish garden is filling in nicely

 chinese lantern

 box elder bug on a black eye susan in the butterfly garden

 carpenter bee

 helianthus in the perennial garden-a meeting spot for the bees-can you see all the different types on the flower?

things are looking a bit like fall in the old compost corral-the squash plant that is taking over is actually several plants and at least one of them is a pumpkin plant that is bearing fruit!