Wednesday, April 30, 2014

End of Month View - April 2014

I've decided to join the garden blogging community in posting my first "End of the Month" view of garden. This will allow me to see the progress I'm making in different parts of the garden over time.

Veggie Beds


The spring veggie beds are starting out strong, despite the several late freezes that we've had here in central Texas.  In Bed 1 (furthest left), I have 6 tomato plants, 9 pepper plants, and 3 eggplants.  In Bed 2 I have a variety of summer and winter squash (acorn, butternut, yellow summer, zucchini, pumpkin and gourds).  I also planted radishes between the mounds.  I've harvest all but a few of the radishes, and had to give away about half of my harvest because I just couldn't eat all of them!  In Bed 3 I have sweet peas growing.  I just harvested the last of my fall/winter crop of kale and planted okra, cucumbers, watermelon and cantaloupe in the open spaces in the bed.  Finally in Bed 4, which receives mostly shade during the day has swiss chard, spinach, kale, collards and bush beans.  The swiss chard is still producing from the fall/winter crop.  The rest of the plants are from spring planting.


 

Bed #2 with squash and a few radishes and Bed #3 with sweet peas and marigolds.

Backyard Beds



The bulb bed doesn't have much but the calla lilies blooming right now.  I have many gladiolas that are getting ready for their summer showing, as well as some daylilies, a few Black-Eyed Susans, and a couple of dahlias.  I only seem to have two dahlias that came up this year, so I think it may be time to plant a few more varieties.


The butterfly garden is full of some purple zinnias that were grown from seeds, a scattering of butterfly wildflowers that have not yet bloomed, some milkweed, coneflower, mistflower, and a couple sunflowers from fallen birdseed.  The rosebush is also maxed out in blooms.

Courtyard


My large wisteria that has not yet bloomed in 2 years.  I probably need to do more pruning and alter the soil so it isn't too heavy on the nitrogen.  I've also read that it can take several years for the plant to bloom. I must be patient.





Front Yard

While I've already posted these pictures in my Front Yard Landscaping post, I decided to add them again here to keep track of how much this part of the garden will change as the months grow by.




Thanks to Helen at The Patient Gardener for hosting the End of Month View.  Stop on by her blog to see other gardeners' end of the month garden views.


6 comments:

  1. Hi Rebecca
    Thanks for joining in with the meme. I hope you find it useful. I do like your front garden landscaping it sits so well with the house and it will be interesting to see how it develops.

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    1. Thanks, Helen! I really like our new front landscaping as well and look forward to seeing how it grows out through these monthly views.

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  2. I too really like your front garden, its great to see such a different gardening style to what I am used to. I'm also fascinated by the totally different stage your vege garden is at, my first radishes have only just germinated!

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    1. It is very interesting to see all the different stages of gardens from different locations, not to mention the different variety of plants. I look forward to reading more about your UK garden and seeing all the plants that I could only dream of planting, but would never survive in the Texas heat and drought.

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  3. Wow, your veggie garden is going great! The new landscaping works so well with the house. It will be fun to watch it fill in over time.

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    1. Thanks, Shirley! The veggie garden is really producing well this year. I'm just hopeful that the squash vine borers don't wipe out all my squash this year. We are really happy with the new low-maintenance rock gardens in the front. It will be nice to not have Bermuda Grass growing through my mulch and beds anymore. I'd be lying if I didn't say I took some inspiration from your lovely gardens.

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