Oh and the watermelon and passion fruit are doing a good job on the arch in the back. Gonna have to find a way to support that watermelon at the top of the arch when it starts getting heavy.
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Ooh what is the opportunity of large mulch area on the left for?
RE trellis melon- is that sugar baby? I see people not using anything, but I use old stockings to make slings for my melons. Ask around to grandparent-aged family and friends and you should be able to get a bag full.
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That area has been a mess of dirt and weeds so I finally got a bunch of cardboard laid down and heavy mulch on top to smother the weeds and clean it up. The right side of the yard is a native ground cover called sunshine mimosa and the plan is to let it spread to the left side. Iâll probably put some cuttings in over there too to help fill it in faster.
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Yes, thatâs sugar baby.
The sweet potatoes are in roof top leaf litter and the white potatoes are in the half drum containers that form the wall. The pepper plants are in 5 gallon paint palls. I am in inner city Cincinnati, Oh zone 6B
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Planted my one surviving sugarcane as well as the purple previously aquaponic ones in my greenhouse todayâŠ
This is a couple of volunteer greens that have been chilling since⊠fall? I harvested some leaves for some stir fry tonight, or just a pot of greens. Massive!! Overwintered elephant ear in the back.
Some purple yam starting to sprout!
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Thatâs wild that the sweet potatoes will make tubers (or whatever itâs called) and not just greens.
Your citrus survives and produces? What types?
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The sweet potatoes can be very productive in good/most years.
The 3 in ground Meiwa kumquat trees get greenhoused and heated. The potted citrus go inside under lights. They are a fukushu, 2 lemonades an 8 year old seedling meiwa and a Meyer lemon
these below trees are inground and get the heated greenhouse.
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neighbor lot demoed yesterday and today. Vomit. No damage yet beyond some fence damage when the silt fence went in. Had to pull their (insanely leaky) water hose out of my gardenâŠSun boost for a hot minute and then I lose a lot. Dust and mold abound, hoping for more rain this weekend to keep washing it away and off my veg gardens. I wish it was mine
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I assume a huge house that takes up most of the lot is going to be built like Iâve seen happen so often
Living and gardening next to a demo lot canât be fun.
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Forgive me if youâve mentioned it and I didnât see it- what do you suppose will go in? Have you seen / talked to the owner? I hope they are respectful
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The houses canât exceed 1/3 of the lot. @Katie_didnt_Z4b Theyâll max out the footprint for the indoor space and then add a front porch and likely a large screen in back porch that go beyond the 1/3.
@JakeC.MN itâs not, but it is what it is. Mostly, Iâm being anal about whether they touch my gardens! We have been in touch with the new owners since the start of the year (theyâre nice) and now have the builderâs numberâŠhopefully we donât have to use it again. It was harrowing watching the excavator take it down. I think that side of the house had 5â set back from my property line/gardens. The guys who manage these excavators are good.
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I like the front yard. Stark contrast to the epic foundation hole on the right and the turf lawns all around. I will try to get some better perspective pictures all around to edit add to this in the next few days. It would be fun to have a drone capture it allâŠIâve had a lot of visitors this year from neighbors, to friends, to a local gardening group doing a garden tour. Itâs fun to see people a bit awestruck, especially when they walk into the backyard and unexpectedly see its half vegetable gardens. I have learned this year that while I might have been good at giving a talk/lecture a decade ago, I am totally abysmal at giving an unscripted garden tour! There is just TOO MUCH. And, when you love it all and know the ins and out of it all and each area or even each plant has a story and (sometimes a big story!)âŠI go off on tangents answering questions, and by the end, never give a good overview of any of the areas, and we likely missed what feels like 90% to me. Oh well! Maybe this winter when Iâm bored, I will write up a little something and practice so I can do a better job and it can feel less overwhelming to visitors.
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I put some pictures in other threads, but should here since I started here with some of the garden and trellis pictures, so here are some updated ones that Iâll keep adding to as I get more:
Below- The sungold tunnel that is mostly the monarda tunnel right now. this walkway makes me happy as the little bit of monarda I transplanted 2 falls ago has beautifully filled the huge gap under the deck. Thereâs a kiwano trying to grow onto the trellis (but growing so poorly like like my other one, I donât get them) and a honeynut squash I randomly seeded in the bottom of the greenstalk. The lonicera sempervirens at the top of the picture are from the quick supports we made last year. That failed epically when the snocrete from a low roof opposite it fell. My husband screwed the top of the fence back together this springâŠI had pruned the entire mass of vines off it, but that snocrete was HEAVY. We are supposed to come up with a better answer or some elbows this summer, hasnât happened 3yet. Side note, the vines were excellent for making wreaths with the kids that were decorated with seed heads and things they found around the yard
Below you can see the steps trellis. The bucket idea is not really working out, Iâm guessing a combination of not making the soil aerated enough and putting too many seeds in each. Iâve fertilized and try to keep it watered but the vines are pale and anorexic while theyâre robust in other places. Chalk this one up to a fail this year and redo next spring. This little flower garden was one of two of the first I planted all raspberry colored monarda has come from here ocer the years. And, many echinacea volunteers. Interestingly, the monarda outcompeted the rudbeckia here which used to be between the two pink plants. Some large seedlings at the edge and under the deck left. The group order microscopic razz muscadine is slowly growing at the base of the deck corner it needs to get a lot bigger before it will have more sun. Should it make it, I have an idea for running wire above the deck rail.
A few random veg garden pictures of the back corner where my favorite rainbow trellis is over the sweet potato bed. things are robust there as always. Iâm already anxious about august and the vermin. We took apart this garden for a 2nd this spring and entirely double lined it with hardware cloth so itâs proof from below. But, mice definitely participate in the eating and I could not think of an adequate way to top it and not smother the vines or put holes in the wood that would have to be changed annually. Let me know if anyone has an idea for next year.
The front gardens Iâve posted pictures of elsewhere but have eart pictures of them here, so thought I would update here
Two pictures of unglamorous side âyard.â To the front of the fence gate is an area absolutely packed with plants, but you can barely see anything because one of the elderberries is eating the entire area. Though doing its best job to date abiding by the supports I put in. I love it. Some beautiful blooming monarda hidden under there (it doesnât care about the shade), goose, currant, aronias, raspberry row and a lot of flowering parsley and cilantro. The empty area with the failed tower of doom was blackberries, but not enough sun so I moved them. Now, itâll be more raspberries and currant. I think.
Back half of that side alley opening into backyard. You can see how close the fing foundation goes and how far backâŠI called the builder when it went in. All I can say positive is that the worldâs largest (relative to house) patio is on my side as well as the driveway and thatâs a legit gift. Also, itâs a frickin mosquito breeding ground for the last week plus!!
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@Eme⊠my wife came by to tell me something and I showed her the pictures of all you have growing there. She said to tell you that you have a beautiful garden !!!
She loves all the flowers you have worked in.
She is not into gardening but insist that I plant flowers for her⊠On our front and back porches we have 16 or so concrete planters.
i plant those in flowers each spring for her.. i tweak the soil mix adding compost and organic fertilizer.. and they grow very well⊠months and months of beauty to enjoy.
On the south end of the front porch there are 3 planters there.. and I plant them in bell peppersâŠ. That is my bit of space allowed there. I grow some very nice bell peppers there.. some red and some green this year.
Pretty much everything else I grow⊠is for fruit, berry, veggie production. I just donât plant things for beauty only⊠it has to produce food..
Of course when I look at my 30+ fruit trees⊠especially when they are bearing fruit.. I see beauty!!!
Your challenges with your neighbors⊠Is probably typical for small lot living.
In our early years the first place we owned was on 1.3 acres. To me that was small. I grew a large garden there and built a flower bed along the edge of our front porch.. for my wifes flowers.
Today we own 30 acres⊠3 acres cleared and 27 in hardwood timber.
Our neighbors houses we canât see at all ⊠until the leaves drop in the fall.. then we can see some light from their homes thru the woods some.
Neighbors are much more tolerable when they are about half a mile or more away 
TNHunter
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Wow, your garden is lovely, even the unglamorous side yard.
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Thanks @TNHunter and @Fishsauce I never was a flower person and was the antithesis of garden person, but life is unpredictable and the best laid plans go wrong, and out of the depths new passions emerge. The native gardens give me immense joy and creatively planning out how to fit more and more gets me through city winters.
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Update on what the new cucumber trellis looks like now. Iâm super happy with it. Canât see how wonky it is now! Extremely stable. Meant to install a cross piece about 60% up for the vines as well, but thatâs not happening this year. I think it turned out to be a reasonably good idea and hope it helps others think of creative ways to build into these metal beds.
Also, the new mini orchard that was previously turf in winter - spring and pumpkin and melon patch summer - fall. This is right behind the street garden. Lavina, surefire, pristine and silvergem are in here new this spring and pruned a week ago to keep them tiny. Winter squash are doing well despite the drought (raining today!) and the melons are all sad and stunted from the cold spells that lasted through mid/end May and the drought. I always need to look at pictures from previous years to remind myself that even on good years, things look small this time of year, but will be covered by the end of August. I like jungles. I need to get the soil tested in here ASAP since we excavated and backfilled this area last fall.
Sometimes I wish we didnât have a driveway and just parked on the street. The driveway takes up over 1/3 of my front yard space. I have toyed with ideas of building over it, but itâs just way too wide.
The âelderberry forestâ in an unpictured side of the house. Thatâs the most walkable side for visitors this year, but still involves quite a bit of pushing canes out of the way. It will be impassable for elderly next year. So, Iâm thinking up ways to hold the elderberries back for a narrow walkway. At the moment, posts and webbing or 2x4âs is winning, which is unfortunate because 3 of the posts will require excavating out RC6, again. Or that on the house side and posts behind the plants on the property line with restrainingâŠwebbing just doesnât work well because they get too tall and heavy. A conduit âfloatingâ square of sorts maybe 4 and 7â up would workâŠI have a lot more thinking to do this winter. I would love to put in a tunnel (because walking through tunnels is funâŠ), but then I wonât be able to access the plants.
Anyone else have some updated growing season pictures of their âsmall lotâ? Please share.
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I have not been good at updating much of anything but i did finish a few things today, and remembered pictures! Pruning fruit trees, harvesting mustard seed, and planting a few types of seed. Random basil, shiso, spilanthes, Zapotec jalapeño, Jaloro jalapeño (yellow color), maroon Amaranth, Live Love Lies Bleeding Amaranth⊠I think that was all for today⊠oh! Some cowpeas!
Didnât get the before picture of asian pear.
I hope to make some homemade mustard⊠Into the drying shack my husband made for me!
Garlic scape ferment I started a few days ago.
Bombastic side eye!
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