Your garden has done so well! Plants I have never seen before.
Bummer on the potatoes, I have thought about trying them.

I have plans going for mine which involves sierra proofing next yr!

the garden after we cleaned it up.


i put the strawberry back into the ground.


this is after i put everything into the round, ill take pictures as the plants grow.
i planted chills, tomatoes and squashes, and cucumbers that my mom picked out.

So I went to a seminar on raised bed gardening and learned a little something about potatoes and what happens when they turn out really small even though they seemed like they were doing so good. What I was told was that when planting in the ground if you don't have soil that stays loose, mine at my house becomes like concrete once it's been wet and dries out, that potting soil and soil with a mixture of peat and rice hulls or something of the sort that will keep the soil from compacting too much will allow the potatoes to easily move dirt out of their way so that they have growing space. Harder dirt compacts until it can't anymore and the potatoes are then stuck with nowhere to grow. I just remembered you have put a lot of your garden in the ground instead of beds and thought that might be an option on potentially why your sweet potatoes didn't do as you were hoping last season.

I am not yet brave enough to plant too much stuff.

i was wondering if the dirt was too tight, i was also thinking of getting some peaces of wood to make a raised area for planting potatoes but not sure if i can find them small enough to fit in there lol, i might have to make them.

evil snail got one of the cucumber, (sigh). so we are trying the penny around the plants and see if it works to keep them away.

Salt or beer will work for snails Ronin ...I'm having problems with them too, they munched big chunks off of my Amaryllis buds

my moms peach roses have nice big flower this year.


the tiger rose also has nice flours this year didn't have very many last year.


i also planted some kale.


the squash seems to be recovering nicely after the snail attack lol.


tomatoes are slowly growing.


and the other squash is going well also though the snails did eat one of the cumber plants.


the strawberries are growing fast, and the pennies are working so far no more eaten plants by the snails.

I love that tiger rose. I haven't seen anything like that around here. I have a ton of roses but nothing quite like that.

Your tomatoes are coming along nicely. Mine are about an inch tall now. I planted the seeds a week ago. What's the purple flower next to the squash? Butterfly plant of some kind?

Since you are in a drier area, diatomaceous earth may be a good alternative for keeping snails/slugs away. Put a circle of the dust around your plants - the snails and slugs are soft bodied insects and DE should cut their bodies. Also, little pans of beer...if you can keep Leo out of it, will attract and drown the critters (you could put them down at night after Leo's in for the night and pick them up in the morning before he's out). And last, but not least...right at dusk or after dark, go around with a flashlight and pick the little buggers of your plants - drop them into a pail of soapy water.

Or sluggo - an iron phosphate slug bait that is, supposedly, non-toxic to pets and wildlife.

The roses are beautiful!

TwisterII wrote:

I love that tiger rose. I haven't seen anything like that around here. I have a ton of roses but nothing quite like that.

Your tomatoes are coming along nicely. Mine are about an inch tall now. I planted the seeds a week ago. What's the purple flower next to the squash? Butterfly plant of some kind?

i think its a lavender plant my nephew planted , we had to trim it back a bit, it was getting very bushy.

some flowers that bloomed.




some updated pics of the garden.












the cactus are do really well i'll post and updated pic, that have lots of fruit this year.


one of the lilies in the front yard that mom has.

Your garden is coming along great! I need to get my veggies started, I'm so late! I just don't want everything to get eaten by critters like last year so I'm having to come up with some ideas. Roses and your moms lily look awesome!

thanks, one of the hibiscus has flowered need to get a picture of lol its almost the same color of first hibiscus.

some updated pics of the garden.





the garden has stated to bloom but they are growing slow.


the cherry's actually stayed this time, but only 2 of them.






the cactus are fruiting like crazy this year.












the sunflower plants have grown very large.












we got one strawberry so far   .

We have one small cactus that fruits every year but never does so very well. My parents have some that do great if the cows don't tromp on them. I recently dug up all the cactus at the bottom of the hill and moved them up to the house in hopes that they will do better. They are all wild prickly pears that had somehow grown where the yard runs off so they get way oversaturated in the spring with water. They are now in giant containers in the front yard and have started to look more normal. Even have some new growth on them. Do you eat the fruit on yours? I have picked the fruit off the ones at my parent's place but haven't gotten around to trying to eat them.

we were having a similar issue, with them cause they didn't like the spot they were in cause they didn't have enough sun and well draining soil. i hope they do much better there in the new spot.

yeah, i usually get the job of harvesting the prickly pars. they are usually very sweet and taste very good when they are cold. you can eat the new fronds (not sure if that's what the new growth is called) my mom says to cut them early in the morning before noon or they will be sour. you can cook them by boiling them with some salt and onion and turning them into a salsa with onion and tomato or in a shake my favorite way to eat them. my cousins eat them BBQed too.

some garden flowers, i'll post more up dates on the sunflowers they got very big and super tall.









i cleaned up some of the bamboo so we could see the cool striped canes.

I have been thinking about getting a Hibiscus for a while now. My mom used to have one. They are just beautiful, but they are house plants here and I'm not sure I have space for anymore. Well, I'm not sure my husband has the patience for anymore. I can always find space.

yeah they turn into house plant during the winter months out this way too, so much frost will kill them lol.

some flour pictures.

these sun flours are huge, and they have multiple flower as it rises up into the sky.


some of them have brown centers and the other one have yellow centers. the finches like to eat them.


the older hibiscus has its first flower. and the other clover like plant has mini flours.




and it looks like were are going to have a fig this year     .


and we have a few Amaranth plants growing here and there.


my mom's favorite plant the grand duke has its first flowers, it smells almost like a gardenia but it more potent.
not sure that these are called by they have some nice flowers.




we also have are first plums form our small tree.


and some small peaches too.

Your peaches are doing awesome! those flowers! So beautiful! I love all the colors! I have one of those clover plants! They hate the sun though I found out, lol, or maybe I just didn't water it enough. I like Hibiscus, but here in San Diego they can get white fly really bad, so I don't plant them, yours are all very pretty.

wow its been a wail but here are some pictures form august.



we family got some tomatoes growing hahaha.





and some plums too the were very good.

the cactus has a hole bunch of fruit this year.



we had a good hull of cactus fruit.


one amazing tasting fig too.


our orange tree has so many oranges growing.


and one of the butterfly plants my mom ordered finally flowered its so cool looking.


we also found this interesting color mantis.

Wow! You do have tomatoes! Mine died like...2 months ago! They just got cooked from the heat.

Fruit looks awesome, I really need to plant some fruit trees.

Everything looks so lush, Ronin! So - one fig. What a tease - did everyone get a smidgeon or did grower call trump and eat the whole thing?

I've seen cactus fruit in the store but haven't a clue what you do with it.

Nice haul for the year - you're probably able to garden year round, no?

Nice garden! i wish i had room for fruit trees, our growing season in CO is so short though, well not this yr, i still have cherry tomatoes and my basil still going and some random gords im still waiting to see what they are.
I'm with Amy, what do you do with cactus fruit? i saw cactus lemonade in Santa Fe but did not try it.