Nothing fancy about our garden and yard, but it might give you some ideas. We grow many things in “grow bags or pots.” We got a late start this year due to extended colder weather and snow so everything is just getting going.
Our garden is nearly all in pots and mostly veggies and annuals since they won’t have to over-winter in the pots. (more about that later.) And take note: NO advertisements in this article.
Let’s start with some pretty flowers and one of my favorites these days are the supertunia’s and superbell’s. As far as I know, Proven Winners is the only company that sells them. And why are they my favorite? Mostly because you do not have to dead-head them. For any gardener this is a plus but for us getting on up there in years – and having our share of aches and pains, not having to spend time bending over pots to pick off the dead flowers so new ones can grow is big plus in my book. Here is two shades of some we have growing….
We planted a big 13 gallon pot with mostly supertunia’s and a few superbells. Compare the two pictures of about 10 or 12 days difference. I will update later in the year and we will see how they fill out.
The superbells are a lot smaller flower than the tunia’s, and not quite as prolific from my experience. None the less, they can really add some punch to a planter like this combo of bells and lime mint.. As a side note here, I have never seen that big of leaves on any mint plant in my life. To give you some prespective – the pot about about 24 inches across.
Following are two shades of superbells we have growing. The red is so very RED…
I was not going to mention this one but just got to (smile).. This is a huge 100 gallon grow bag. My husband planted it. I believe he used a full packet of wildflowers plus a full packet of poppy’s.. It’s really OK to laugh. I know I did. Can we all say “thinning needed?” I would not even know how to begin to thin it so I am just gonna let it do what it will.
I also love pansys. I know they are not a beloved flower to a lot of people but I enjoy their vibrant colors and unique shapes. Plus, there are so many variations of size and colors. I wish they were like the Johnny Jump Up’s that seem to reseed themselves to come back every year. I also wish they would come out with a superpansy so I didn’t have to dead-head.
Every year my small metal pots seem to end up with the pansy’s.
Poppy’s were my big thing for the past 2 or 3 years. This year, besides the super tunia’s, superbells and pansy’s — I have branched into unknown territory a bit. At least unknown to me. This is Walker Low Catmint and is the focus of this old washtub.
I also decided to give some Phlox a go. This is a “Fashionably Early Crystal”, a hybrid phlox. I am not a big fan of white but like the interesting look of this one. After the summer is gone we will plant them in the yard as well as the Catmint.
Who doesn’t love Roses? Not me, at least not until last year. We had a rose bush growing in our yard when we moved in and I ignored it for years. Yes we watered it but we never fertilized or prunned and it always put on amazing blooms all summer and fall. It has not started yet this year. But look at the hight.. That is a 4 foot fence it stands in front of.
Following is that rose bush blooming last year Wild yes??. I really want to call it a rose tree its so tall. It needs some serious pruning. Hubby did a little this spring but not near enough.
My husband just finished planting two new rose bushes. How could we not? Our favorite greenhouse had shrubs on half price yesterday and we got them for eleven dollars each.
Shall we get on with the “food” part of the garden? I will say right off that we have scaled down our vegetable garden a bit more every year over the last few. We used to have a huge garden. We grew lots of onions, potatoes, turnips and beets that we stored. Sadly our basement is really not cool enough to store for months and we could not eat it all fast enough being just the two of us, nor am I into canning so we gave plenty away to friends and family.
We also grew loads of tomatoes and peppers and I made so much salsa you can’t imagine. We gave a lot away and still had plenty for us all season. But, we get older. We develop more aches and pains. It begins to be more work and less enjoyable, so we scaled down to fit more with what we can use. Thus, we have been able to continue to enjoy it. I will have to do a “past garden” post one of these days. I have so many photos of past years..
Here is a concrete raised bed we made about three years ago. I believe it’s about 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and 2 feet high. It was my herb garden for several years. This year we planted our root veggies in there. Let me add to that. We planted once and one of our little dogs got in and replanted the whole thing. I am surprised to see most are still in a row after all her digging. And now you know why the wire panel is laying on top. Turnips, carrots and beets. I need to thin those turnips real soon.
This is our 2nd year of growing potatoes in these potato bags. Last year we had to many plants per bag and the potatoes were small, but there were a lot of them. This year we cut back on how many we put in .. however .. they send up extra shoots and I need to take a closer look and possibly thin a bit.
We did not plant any of the large tomato plants this year. We both enjoy the cherry sized and went with that. This is a 50 gallon grow bag with 4 “patio” tomato plants and a parsley in the middle. The tomato’s are just beginning to flower. They generally do very well in pots/planters and the two we had last year gave us loads of tomatoes.
Not pictured is the spinach, radishes or cucumbers.
My favorite part of gardening are my herbs. Pictured is a 50 gallon grow bag with 2 varieties of sage, basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme and rosemary. That Rosemary is so small. I do not have very good luck with it and I am not sure why. It lives – it just never grows much. (if there is a secret you would like to share, please do.) Right now these are all starter plants but they are already beginning to take off.. Later I will cut, dry and put up for all winter use. ——— Oh, and we can’t forget that big ol’ horseradish plant. We don’t dig it every year but when we do I make a very tasty horseradish sauce.
Almost forgot. I said I would tell you more about “over wintering” in the grow bags/pots. We learned not to leave perennials of any kind in them over winter because they die. Why? For the same reason they do so well in summer. They are a cloth like material and the air can circulate thru them. This is great during the growing season but come winter and the cold air freezes the roots. I killed a bunch of Hosta’s – among other things the first year we used them. Following photo is last years garden.
Whew.. this is getting long.. Hang in there because I can’t quit without a few random shots around the yard starting with this view looking towards the front yard. We do not have much growing up there because we don’t get much sun due to the trees.. However, those trees keep our front room much cooler that it would be otherwise..
I do have this little garden bed on the south side of this big tree. There are some succulents in there but it looks like the Spiderwort is taking centerstage this year. I neglect this area to much..
The southside of the yard and we have several Nanking cherry trees -the big rose bush and the Canadian Lilac We have a row of Lilac trees out in front of the house on the street side, but we got no lilacs this year with the extended cold. However, this Canadian lilac blooms later and it is just setting on blooms
And finally.. a parting shot of our back yard right off the back deck. We can see the garden, most of the southern part of the yard and the back yard from the deck. Along that far fence are planted rose bushes and a long row of Zenia’s that will come up later.
As I said.. No advertisements in this post.. But I do hope you visit my recommended products page HERE..
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Great blog Linda. Your yard is amazing! Its so nice to see the things that you grow.
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Thank you Monte..
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