Veggie/Herb Garden

[kendrafitz]

Now that the weather is FINALLY nice in my neck of the woods, it's time to garden. Every Mother's Day I get some type of landscaping element - this year it was crepe myrtle trees to hide the kids play area from the street. :) While Jef and the kids plant my gift, I plant my garden.

This year I am trying an elevated garden. The rabbits and weeds make me crazy so I am hoping this will solve that. I have a bunch of herbs (mostly what I need for salsa & guac) and tomatoes. I decided to try corn in my old garden. Fingers crossed, it's a first for us.

Does anyone else garden in the warm weather?

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[jessicas94lt1]

I attempted it. The bugs here are awful and because what we plant also goes to the birds we can't use pesticides... This year we are trying a different approach by starting all seeds in 2ltr bottles to one keep out the bugs and two it acts as a green house. So the plants grow nice and strong before exposing them to the elements. Crossing our fingers lol.... You have a beautiful home and beautiful garden hope the raised beds work good for you.

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[kendrafitz]

What a great idea Jessica!! I hope it works for you! You will have to post some pics. :) What do you plant?

We don't use pesticides either. Bugs don't seem to bother tomatoes that much so I tend to stick with them. They usually leave my herbs alone as well. Corn should be interesting. If it's buggy, we will call it a learning experience. The dogs were rolling around in the corn so we put rocks around them. They never bothered my garden before. Silly pups!

Thank you, I can't really take credit. My husband does all the outside stuff except for the garden. Hoping the raised garden works well. :)

[jessicas94lt1]

Right now we have honeydew, grapefruit tree, orange tree, Apple trees, and bell pepper. The trees will take a few years before they fruit because we are starting them from seeds.. Lol dogs are funny. Corn is really easy to grow and the only bugs we've ever experienced where pincher bugs. So you should have a really easy time with it as long as your pups stay out of them lol.

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[kendrafitz]

Ohhhh.... I am jealous! Fruit trees!!! That is awesome!!! NJ is too cold to have citrus trees. I would love to have some. It would be so awesome to go out and pick an orange!!! My mouth is watering as I type!!

[2birds]

Nice garden Kendra. I've pretty much given up on everything. Even the song birds steal my tomatoes as soon as they can. Love the herb garden, that's my favorite.

[Pinkbirdy]

Jessica - so jealous you have fruit trees too!!!!! Kendra,just planted tomatoes ,cucumbers, squash ,and radishes for the first time.:)

[jessicas94lt1]

Nothing to be jealous over. Lol. You guys can actually have orange trees inside. Ours are satsuma trees and are in every day house pots (The large ones) in the winter they get moved in so they don't freeze at the roots(lost one already due to freezing) . The fruit they produce is smaller but still good. Eventually they will go in the ground but for now they do good in the pots.

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[jessicas94lt1]

Jessica - so jealous you have fruit trees too!!!!! Kendra,just planted tomatoes ,cucumbers, squash ,and radishes for the first time.:)

That sounds like a great garden... I am jealous that you guys can grow tomatoes! After two years in a row of bugs and birds eating them I am about to give up lol.

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[jessicas94lt1]

Now that the weather is FINALLY nice in my neck of the woods, it's time to garden. Every Mother's Day I get some type of landscaping element - this year it was crepe myrtle trees to hide the kids play area from the street. :) While Jef and the kids plant my gift, I plant my garden.

This year I am trying an elevated garden. The rabbits and weeds make me crazy so I am hoping this will solve that. I have a bunch of herbs (mostly what I need for salsa & guac) and tomatoes. I decided to try corn in my old garden. Fingers crossed, it's a first for us.

Does anyone else garden in the warm weather?

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Your garden looks so good. May I ask what type of soil you use?

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[Mare]

Such a beautiful garden, Kendra! We do grow gardens in raised beds because our soil is mostly clay. We have compost bins around the property that we fill with not only veggie scraps but horse manure, lawn and weed eating cuttings. After a year in "the bin", lovely soil appears!:). Unfortunately, we have a wild turkey problem. These guys love our gardens :(

[kendrafitz]

Jessica - that is a good idea, but I kill everything inside. I got Jef a little lime tree last year and it died shortly after it came in. Same with our Hibiscus. I guess we don't have enough sun in the house? As for the soil, we use our dirt and mix in miracle grow soil. We are pretty lucky with our soil here. In this part of NJ the land was all farms before it was sold for developments. So we are very flat and have wonderful gardening soil.

Terri - I tried cucumbers last year and the vines took over. But they didn't ever come in nicely for me. Sigh. I love cucumbers! I also haven't had luck with squash but I blame that on the bunnies. Let me know how your radishes do. Yum!!!!!

[kendrafitz]

Mare - I can't imagine battling wild turkeys over the garden!!!! Lol. We have never done a compost, it is something I have always wanted to do.

How do your raised beds do? This is our first year. Jef looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for it. I am not so sure how the tomatoes will like it. The basil is not happy at all. Which is annoying bc I usually end up with a huge basil bush when I plant in my regular garden.

[Mare]

Our raised beds do amazingly well until the turkeys go after them :(. We need to do some serious fencing to protect all the hard work we put into producing a lovely garden. Last year I started basil from seed, it loved growing in our beds, I had basil all season,,until the turkeys discovered it :(. Swiss chard, too..damn turkeys!