Bean patch
Pole for Rattlesnake and Lazy Housewife and the little corn pacth in the background
little herb garden
Scarlet Runner beans, mango melons, turnip greens and some more herbs and flowers
We went from one raised bed to a couple of larger dug beds. Since we live in a historical district some of our beans are ornamental as well as food, we have concentrated on growing mainly beans because that is the hardest thing for us to find locally. We love dried beans and eat a lot of them, and have been searching for a source of local beans for a couple of years now and have had no luck.
So this year we planted Nance and Purple Queen bush beans, Scarlet Runner, Rattlesnake, and Lazy Housewife pole beans. We have also planted several herbs, mango melons, Cherokee Long Ear pop corn (we will see how out little patch does) and turnip greens and some more stuff that I am forgetting. Of course we have the Pecan tree, muskadine vine, blueberry, black berry and raspberry bushes as our perennials.
Next year we want to expand our garden a little more and if some of the beans and food producing plants are decorative too they will go in the front yard and a beehive (either top bar or traditional) and eventually maybe some bantam hens and a dog. I hope to disguise a lot of our food garden as a decorative garden and intersperse a lot of decorative plants in our food garden so we are foodscaping our yard for the next few years.
(It's Mandy)You guys have a nice little garden! These are the first steps to making your food safer! I'm so excited! So far, Kirby and I have planted red and white potatoes, garlic, onions, snow peas, Bright Lights chard, contender green beans, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, purple Cherokee tomatoes (and one hybrid), and bloody butcher corn. We have 15 pecan trees (we live on the remnants of an old pecan orchard), three pear tree, two fig bushes, three blueberry bushes, one blackberry, two strawberry beds, one plum tree with various grafts (peach/nectarine/apricot), concord grapes, muscadines (bronze and who knows what), mint, and some flowers thrown in here and there. Am I forgetting anything? I'll post some pictures when I can. A lot of the garden isn't sprouted just yet as some of our beans like warmer weather.
ReplyDeleteWe decided when we bought this place, that if we were going to plant it, it should work for us. It's working so far and we still have a little room to grow. I see chickens in our future... Mmmm. Free range eggs. Yum.
Mandy how much land do you have? And I would love to see pictures of your place. I forgot that we have onions, peppers and tomatos plus other stuuf that I am forgetting too.
ReplyDeleteGood luck! We don't have quite so much farmable land on the boat.
ReplyDeleteWe have 1.7 acres, so it's pretty tight. It works, though. We're having work done, so I might get some pictures of stinky, dirty men digging up our back yard.
ReplyDelete(It's Kirby) We have 1.7 acres and we'll work on getting some pictures up. 2 of the 3 pears produce. So far only 1 pecan has produced in the last 2 seasons. We just planted 1 of the figs and we have had 0 grapes/muscadines produce. I bought this place partially because of all the fruit/nut producers. If I am going to work at a plant, I want to eat it. We hope to add value to the property by planting more fruit crops.
ReplyDeleteIs that Lucky in the garden?
ReplyDeleteIt's either Lucky or a stray named Pickle that has adopted us
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I looove the coffee cup in the picture of the beans. ...and you guys have much nicer poles/runners than we do. Ours are pitiful. They are about three and a half feet tall sticks with yarn zig-zagging through them. Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteThose are 10ft poles and our beans are starting to climb them, the scarlet runners are already starting to bloom but they aren't climbing yet.
ReplyDelete