First summer in this yard and we don’t have a patch that gets a long period of full sun, so it’s all experimental.
I have 3 varieties of tomatoes; Beefsteak, Sweet 100s, and San Marzano. Basil is doing very well, a three year old English Thyme plant is thriving, and my Rosemary bush is doing well also. I planted a pot of flatleaf parsley that was doing okay, but I think a groundhog munched all the leaves and then there is the Habanero pepper plant that seems to be doing very well also.
First garden here as well. Learning process for sure. Started off sowing basil, arugula and cucumbers from seed. Three rows of basil did not sprout; three rows of arugula were scrawny (have only been able to get enough for a measly sandwich); only one cucumber plant came up and is actually thriving and starting to show fruit.
Shortly after Memorial Day, my neighbor and I uprooted a bunch of hosta along our property line and put in some Early Girls, Cherries (Sweet 100s) and Goliaths as well as six ancho chile plants. Two of the anchos weren’t doing well so my neighbor swapped them out for more tomatoes (don’t know which varieties). Almost all the plants are either flowering or showing fruit already. We also put in basil (currently being consumed by bugs more than by us), oregano, cilantro, rosemary and flat leaf parsley. I also put in cherries from seed into pots flanking my front door (they are both doing great and fruit is starting to set). We moved into the house in December so didn’t really know what we had in the yard…in late Spring we learned we have two huge mint bushes which are thriving like crazy.
All we have is our surviving lavender plant, its mate died during the winter. All else we get at the Farrmer’s Market. Water is too scarce here to grow much.
Did anyone else notice that you can rearrange the letters of FREEMOTT and come up with OVERACHIEVER? Sheesh, the man’s got an entire truck farm going there, for crying out loud.
In our veggie beds:
5 tomato plants, 3 heirloom and 2 modern hybrids
Some basil that’s going gangbusters
Herbs (sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, lavender)
Coupla cukes
A pumpkin
Onions, totally gone to seed
Deer tongue lettuce
It’s been a good weather year in OR, not too much rain, a lot of moderate sunshine… things are looking pretty good.
Basil that is going great.
Lavender that is struggling.
Strawberries
Cucumber
Cantelope that is really struggling.
Silver Queen Corn… not much however
More Cherry Tomatos than we can eat.
Better Boy Tomatos
Green Zebra Tomatos
Cherokee Purple Tomatos
Black Crim Tomatoes
Red Spineless Heirloom Okra!
We also have some butternut squash and watermelon growing, and (fingers crossed) male and female kiwi vines that will produce fruit within a year or two.
Basil, thyme, chives, red chili peppers, tomatoes, some kind of lettuce, peas…first year for us.
As we are learning, a lot of the success relies on soil prep in the beginning and feeding.
I divided them into 3 rows of 3 so there are 9 per bed. Because of that I was able to get away with just 2 large nets per. I’ve had these plants for 15 years now so they’re pretty big and most years have lots of fruit.
Thanks for the warning Paul. I had been told about mint beforehand. Fortunately it’s in an area where there’s really nothing else that I care about getting smothered.
and also lack of baby rabbits and deer that will turn your lettuce patch and young tender plants into a deforestation zone.
For that reason I have put up some netting around the garden.
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