Another Planting Frenzy

I went outside yesterday morning with the intent of putting up a support for my tomato plants that were spread out on the ground. That only took me about ten minutes, and the next thing I knew this overwhelming urge to plant plant plant overcame me! So here is what happened...

This is a view of what the garden looks like from the southwest corner of the garden. Where you see pink "Here" are the three spots I didn't have anything planted. Of course, me being who I am, I couldn't leave it that way for long!


In the middle of the three squares I planted Black Beauty Eggplant. I already have one eggplant that has teeny tiny fruits forming, but it is the white Ghostbuster variety. Even if I am the only one in the family who eats it, I still like variety.

In the last of the three spots I planted cauliflower, Snowball X. I might have to thin it if they sprout; I might have been overzealous. Because I wanted to make sure I got at least one, I planted four.

In the spot where I previously planted the lemon cucumber, only one came up, so I planted another seed in place of the one that didn't sprout.

I also planted Burpee's Golden Beets in the first empty square. I had to soak the seeds for a couple of hours and ended up with more soaked than I intended. I believe I ended up with about six in the one square and two in the middle of the corn squares. After I planted the seeds I actually read the packet and found out they do best in the south from fall to spring. I thought it said spring to fall when I read the packet the first time! Oh well.


This is my formerly blank bed I created with rocks and mostly decomposed compost. I plan on topping it off and making it deeper in the next few months.


Dividing the length of the bed into three rows visually, I planted Long Imperator carrots,

In the second row, I planted Danver Halflong carrots,

Then I planted the remainder of the Burpee's Golden Beet seeds in the third row.

Still not satisfied that I had planted enough, I grabbed my two packets of sunflower seeds. I love the look of sunflowers! There is a farm just down from us with lots of sunflowers, and I admit I am jealous, so I wanted some of my own.
The first variety is Dwarf Sunspot sunflower which only reaches about two feet tall. I planted a row of these along the length of our house. It receives full sun from about midday on, which should be adequate for the plants and the house will provide support if the sunflowers need it.

Next, I planted Mammoth Sunflowers. I don't know if these will be only the yellow variety or if there will be more variation. Time will hopefully tell! I planted these along one corner of the square foot garden to provide shade on the far southwest corner during August or so. This time is generally our hottest (even though it is already in the 100's now with the heat index) so I wanted to provide some eventual shade to prevent scorching.

There were also a few spots in the yard that I planted these at random. Quite a few seeds came in the packet, so I just put them wherever I thought we would see them best. FYI, the seeds are huge! They are about three times the size of the kind people buy in the stores to eat.
After all of this planting, my frenzy was satisfied for another day, so I quit my insanity and returned to the air conditioned living room and recovered from this horrible Alabama heat!

Bean Trellis and Garden Update

My beans are beginning to look very well, but they needed a trellis. So, on the same day I put in my bed around the black walnut tree, I put in a trellis for my beans.

I didn't really have anything to use, so I got inventive. We have lots of small saplings growing around the edge of our yard, so I took our limb cutters and traipsed around the front part of the yard looking for something to use. I found several mimosa trees that I cut off 3/4" branches about five feet long. I then found some old fallen branches in the woods that were about 1" thick. After sticking them in the ground gently, around the beans, I tied the mimosa branches together at the top, next adding the other branches until I had a trellis for the beans to grow up. To make sure the trellis wouldn't blow over, I tied each branch to the grid it was resting next to. It should be pretty sturdy now.


Here is an update view on one side of the bed. The eggplant looked a little worse for the wear, but now has new leaves budding out, so I think it was just shock from being planted. The tomatoes are doing pretty well, and have flowered now. I will be putting in a support for them this week that I will post about later. Marigolds are beginning to come up around the tomatoes. The corn is doing well next to the tomatoes and of course the beans are coming up nicely.


I have started a new bed for my carrots and potatoes. I might even add onions to this one. I didn't have anymore would and money was tight so I gathered up rocks and compost to use in this one. I have to add more rocks to the top to get it deep enough, since it is only about 6" deep right now and I need at least another 3-6".

I hope to add some mulch or something on the black weed blocker so it will look a little nicer, but time will tell. I still have space for another large planting area next to all of this, so I will try to do it in time to actually plant something, even if it is for winter veggies. Post more soon!

Something accomplished

Remember me showing you the before picture around my black walnut tree? To refresh your memory, here is the pic...


After a wonderful morning in the garden it now looks like this,

and on the other side like this,

I tried to label the plants for you to see what they are, but the font did not come out big enough. Oh well, I will describe instead
The purple bush is called loropetalum and will eventually have to be moved as it can get as tall as 12'. But for at least this year it will provide some structure here. It is a semi-evergreen with fushia colored blooms in early spring and late summer.
I also have four daylillies that should all be the orange kind, usually called tiger lillies.
There is lavender lantana on both sides of the tree and this particular one grows slowly through spring and then bounds through late summer and fall. In the winter cleanup, we have had branches as long as five feet from this thing, and the lavender blooms are gorgeous.
I also have purple ruffles basil and some plant I found growing in our yard. It is small, with compact green leaves and yellow cone shaped flower heads. I have no idea what it is, but it is pretty.
There is also a vine I found to grow against the tree, and will find out what it is later.
A butterfly bush and spiderwort are the last additions to this bed.
Once everything fills out I will post another picture.
And by the way, the bed edging is a composit material that I found marked 75% off at Lowe's one afternoon. I bought two containers of it and it took my one entire afternoon to clear the space for the bed, put down the edging and fill it with dirt.