Coming Right Along..

It is all coming right along.
Mayhaps next year I can just
go out into the garden and plant
without having to start from total scratch.
We have been here about 4 years
and I have moved the garden every
single spring.
I am sick to death of breaking
virgin soil.

But I am liking it so far this year.
We had just great success with planting
in the shade last year
that we have moved it all under the trees,
with the tomatoes being the exception.
If you look at the top pic you can see
a few orange lines stretching
between the trees and poles.
Beans.
Well, gonna be beans as soon as I get
around to planting.
I plan on picking what I can reach and
the vines that go too high
can hold the beans that I will use dry
over next winter.
This is an experiment,
but I have hopes that it will work out fine.




And I am slowing beating back the honeysuckle
and privett jungle to reclaim this dappled grove as my own.
I have cleared a path through it at least.
And in the sunny spot at the end of the path
are new herbs.. Feverfew, Pyrethrum and Sweet Annie.
They can grow and spread all they want back there.
And in the jungle along the path, Foxglove and Marshmallow
are tucked.




And everywhere I stick a shovel
into the ground I come up with
old bricks.
I have them piled and piled
so it doesn't look neat and clean yet.
But there are new Calendula seedlings and
Echinacea there and my Yarrow is beginning to bloom.



Sweet Woodruff under the holly
with Sweet Grass and Apple Mint.
And Valerian in the strange square formed of
chunks of old concrete.




In this bed there is my most favorite herb, Costmary.
It shares the bed with two kinds of Oregano, Parsley,
Rosemary, Evening Primose and an errant Peppermint.
Along the back there are about 70 Basil seedlings
and a new Tansy shared from a friend.
And sprinkled around are some Dianthus that overwintered,
some Sweet Alyssium and a few other little annual bloomers.

Ha!! That line you see stretching across the herb bed
towards the beans.. that's a hair that was blown across the lens.
I just noticed it and I am not going to start this
whole thing all over again.



A hanging pot of petunias, Rocket, which will bloom a
reddish pink border the blackberry patch.
There is a soft curve of dill, my comfrey
and a French Sorrel too.
There is my chard bed that has Lamb'd Quarter
growing in it too.
And peeking on the side is
the red Jerusalem Artichokes.




Chamomile that I found in the lawn in the front.
My White Horehound is taking over
and I need to start sharing it with others.
A lavender that I cannot find the perfect home for
and will transplant for the third time
to location unknown this fall.
A Curry plant, inedible, but very aromatic,
Lime Thyme, plain Thyme, an Anise Hyssop
and my Plaintains.
And a few petunias for color.
I hope that I can get the petunias to reseed.
One of my favorite fragrances is true petunia,
reverted petunia. So heady and sweet. But
you just can't buy them in the stores.
They have to reseed to have fragrance.




My compost pile pumpkins!
They are crowded, but I am not going to mess with them.
Compost veggies grow the best.
There are oodles of little peppers in there too.
But knowing my luck, they are all jalapenos.
I grew and dried so many jalapenoes last summer
that I never have to grow them again.




Chard and coriander and one bed of onions
leading back to the Jerusalem Artichokes.
If you stand and watch for just a moment
you can watch them grow.




From the inside looking out.




From the outside looking in.




And I am a bad, bad, bad gardener.
Naughty, shameful gardener.
Do not let my words and images fool you
into thinking I am on top of it all
and completely organized.
Instead of cutting new paths through the
jungle and planting pretty flowers
and hanging blooming baskets,
I should ahve been attacking the mess of weeds
that are taking over the western edge of the garden.
I have so many tomatoes that need to go in
their beds as soon as possible.
But as you can see, the tomato bed
is an utter disaster that nothing can be
planted in.
My priorities are completely screwed.
sigh...