Our Garden Pics
 

Here are a couple of pictures I took this morning. For a bit of background, we just moved here June 2006, and pretty much the first thing we did was put in a small garden. This April my husband expanded it so it is now about 40 x 60.

We also have an asparagus bed, just started this year, as well as a tomato greenhouse, and a squash/cuke/green bean greenhouse.

We are dealing with almost all clay soil here, so we still have a lot of amending to do....but we can sure tell the difference between the "first year garden" and the "second year garden"!

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...enAug82007.jpg

Potatoes are on both sides of lower garden, as well as one row in the upper garden, cabbage, onions, zuccini, kale, chard, lots of turnips and rutabagas, bush beans and climbing beans. I planted some marigolds in there, to try to keep pests at bay.


http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...useAug8200.jpg


In the berry bed, we have raspberries, blueberries (which aren't doing much), high bush cranberries (just planted), and we also have our garlic in there. On the far left are the 2 strawberry beds, with black plastic covering what will be the third strawberry bed. On the right is our greenhouse, holding pumpkin, squash, pickling cukes, and some green beans for insurance! (Green beans often don't make it here, so we put some in the greenhouse hoping we can at least get a few)

Behind the garden is our little "half barn" - we need to get that finished before the winter. It houses our 16 chickens and also (for now) two pigs.

There is always a LOT to do here, we are never bored, and love spending time working in the garden! Our growing season is short, and we have to make the most of it!

I have really enjoyed seeing all the garden pictures on this site, so thought I would add ours to it.

mrs fluidp
Zone 3 in the Cariboo, British Columbia

Oh, it's like a storybook garden. Really really nice.

Thanks for sharing it!

thanks for posting the pics. Your garden and 'stead look really nice! I like your garden fencing and the central area that looks like where you have the watering set up. Really good idea. Everything looks Great! I'm also in zone 3 with quite a bit of clay soil, so things growing might be similar. Keep us posted on the progress. Again, it's really impressive what you've done in such a short time!

Looks like something out of Better Homes & GARDENS.

Patty

You have a beautiful 'stead! I hope someday to have mine look as well kept as yours.
Those green beans in the gh look like they're doing great.
I really envy you view of the hills as well! Looks like something Bob Ross would paint!

Thank You, it is rewarding to get some good feedback! I have always loved to garden, but until we moved here, I focused a LOT more on flowers and shrubs.

But, we moved here with the idea of trying to become self-sufficient (or as much as we can) so I have been concentrating on the food part of gardening first...and as I have time, will then put in more flowerbeds.

Moonwolf, we went with field fence because in the future, we want livestock to be able to wander in the outer yard, without having to worry that they get in the garden. I am finding Zone 3 very challenging, before this we were on the Coast, about a zone 7 or so.


Yes the walkway in the main garden is where hubby set up an automatic water system (thank goodness!)...Wind in her Hair, yes we have our sprinklers set up on rounds of wood, borrowed from the woodpile, in order to raise the sprinklers.

I am not so keen on everything being so "square" lol....I rather like curving beds, etc., but we had very little time, and it was so much easier just to plunk everything in straight rows and beds.

We are also raising food to supplement our pigs and chickens, and plan next year to add another planting area solely for the animals. One huge bonus for me is that, because of this big garden, my hubby is now, for first time, really enjoying the garden, and so he is a huge help to me!

Thanks again everyone for the feedback!

mrs fluidp

Hopefully someday MY gardens will look as nice and neat as yours!!! :)

i am astounded!!!! I LOVE IT! Adopt me?

Wow! I need to print a picture for future reference! Lovely!

Beautiful and inspiring!!!

Thank you for your kind comments....I think my husband will have a big smile when he reads these later today! With only the two of us here, we have time to put in to the garden, but really, it is not that neat and tidy. I think it helped I took the pictures from wayyyy up on our porch, lol...we have lots of weeds!

lol Nickie!

It's a gorgeous garden, fluidp. I hope to do something along that line next year. For now, I'm just experimenting and learning and finding out that gardening is not really all that hard! Thanks for posting the beautiful pictures of your place. For me, they are an inspiration!

I love your garden! You have done a great job :) We have mostly clay here in SW CO, after 3 years the soil is finally getting better. Thanks for sharing :)

Adopt me, and I'll weed it for you!

Very cool, good for you. Very well kept! Congrats

Very nice! What a pretty place you have. Please, please don't let my hubby see these photos...I don't want to move again.

VERY nice! Our garden is about the same size but no where near as organized or as weeded! Your hard work is definately shining through. :goodjob:

what a great looking place and gardens.keep up the good work.

Nickie, my husband asks if you remove snow in the winter? lol.....if so, we will gladly look into adoption. Am I wrong, or have I seen pics of your garden, very bright and colourful? lots of reds and blues - it is hard for me to remember the names of people who have posted pics...

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...dJan2207-1.jpg

Ravenlost, sorry, I did read your thread about Canadian gardens, but keep in mind that my garden looks like this a short amount of the year :( many of us would give an eyetooth for a longer season, I would love to grow corn, but don't think I can.Our days can be very hot, with evenings really cool.

Tirzah, it is good to hear there is light at the end of the tunnel, and the soil will slowly get better, it has been very frustrating. Sometimes we think we are trying to grow dirt as well as food!

Thanks to you all for your comments - it's a good afirmation of what we are trying to do.

Actaully I love shoveling snow!! last year, we had 4 foot drifts and I was out shovelin it and having a blast...jsut me and my dog lol

LOL...I'll just show hubby your garden in the winter...maybe all that snow will remind him what it was like to live in Canada!

Well this is Mr. Fluidp,

I would be very happy to consider adoption, if you will weed and shovel snow. You might have to pack some fire wood too.. LOL, LOL, I am very happy you all like the pics. We have a lot more. We see the extreme seasons and we see extreme temp changes in one day, thats what makes it so hard to garden. But I am building us a nice BIG greenhouse for next year. We will keep you posted, Cheers from the Cariboo

Here in Washington State, we have weather pretty much like you do there,..my garden is at 1600 square feet with 7 foot fencing around it with electric fence on the outside of that,....do you have issues with deer and raccoons like we do here? Beautiful country there you have,...oh,...go Red Wings!. I am a Detroiter as well! :)

Handsome garden and set up... and looks like you might have an adoption ready NickieL ready to be your garden slave too! LOL!

Good work and well done. And... Fluidp... now that you are more focussed on the veggie gardening as opposed to ornamentals and flower beds... don't you find it really rewarding? I know personally that I am much more "garden happy" in the veggie garden than I am messing with the flower beds.

Hi Detmurds, yes we have a LOT of deer here, moose and bears as well....the fencing helps a lot, and we have our dog roaming the property which helps as well. I don't think we have racoons here, I haven't seen any.

Some people here have a problem with gophers, I sure hope they don't come over here!

Hi DoubleD, oh yes we are both finding the garden very rewarding. Our goal is to become as self sufficient as possible, and the garden will help a lot. We will be doing a lot of canning this summer I think, and it will be great to see all the jars sitting in the pantry!

And, in time, maybe next year, I will be able to add a few more flowers and a shrub bed or two!

I showed this to my DH and after we gasped and gaped, he said
"-----holes" and left the computer :eek:

Ya think he's jealous? :D
Absolutely beautiful.

Do you mulch? If so, with what?
If not, how do you control your weeds (hoe, hand pull, etc.)?

That is one beautiful garden. In fact I shared the photos with my hubby and he said it's the nicest one he's seen to date! Beautiful layout, straight lines and all. That's how he wants ours to look some day.

Good job!!

Oh, and fluidp? I can relate to how your DH is finally enjoying the garden - my hubby is the same since this is the first year we are truly benefitting from the garden. We have been eating only garden grown produce for about a month now. We don't have enough to can this year, but next year hubby is intending to "bigger" our garden area. My DH is even more amusing than my children when he finds a veggie that is ready to harvest. The other day he was out there and said it was "like finding gold." LOL. :D

Just beautiful. You must both be hardworkers because everything is as neat as a pin!

What is between the greenhouse and the berry garden?

How long have you been doing this? Or, maybe I should not ask this as it may depress a lot of us here. What zone are you considered to be in?

Yikes! Well, we were able to put in a lot of time getting it ready for planting, etc. And it took a long time to get it planted etc., but we aren't working jobs right now OFF the property. All our time is spent here, trying to get settled...

Yes I mulched with straw, this was the first time I tried it. It worked well, but I did not have enough straw, so I still do have to weed. I use my special hoe, lol, I think they call it a saddle hoe? It has a U shaped bottom on it, and I can weed pretty quickly down the rows with it.

Next year I want to get 5 bales of straw, this year I only got 2. When I realized I still needed more, they did not have any at the feed store.

That is so great! It seems to have happened the same way with my husband, now he loves to go out picking...and it is so nice to have them be willing to share in the work too.

Thank you...it's not that neat really. I should maybe take a close up picture! I have been gardening for a lot of years, but concentrated on flowers, shrubs etc., only putting in a small veggie garden.

We are in Zone 3 in British Columbia. Very challenging for me to learn how to garden here. Root crops all do very well, but there are many things we cannot grow without a greenhouse. And no one can seem to grow corn, which is a real disappointment to both of us. We have very cool temperatures at night, and can be very hot during the day. Apparently, many plants have problems with those temperature swings.

To the left of the greenhouse is one of the berry beds, altho I have my flowers in there too. There are raspberries (won't be picked until next year), highbush cranberries, parsley, garlic, blueberries, rhubarb. The strawberry beds are to the left of that.

The greenhouse is actually last year's chicken run. The little building with the blue roof is the old chicken coop, which still needs to be moved. Another thing on the list to do eventually!

mrs fluidp

Sure, you can grow corn in your location. You just have to be creative! I'm probably 5 or 6 hours north (driving) of you and get at least half a dozen ears out of about 10 plants (outside). This year I decided I would try some Giant corn variety (codename - Frankencorn!) inside my greenhouse (ceiling is about 12ft) and I would estimate the stalks being about 15ft tall (hard to tell because they bent and started to grow back down once they hit the roof). The picture below is from the begining of July.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/100_7310.jpg

Taylormade, thanks for your post and the picture. We went over to your website yesterday and looked at the pictures, very nice!

Do you know what elevation you are at? I wonder if that may have something to do with it, we are at almost 3000 feet here. People have said the elevation drops once u go farther north. Friends who are about an hour southeast of us are at elevation of almost 4000 feet....and friends in Quesnel say we did not go far enough north, lol. Do you have the temperature swings that we seem to have? Hot hot hot during the day, then it really cools off at night.

At any rate, you've given me some hope, thank you for that!


mrsfluidp

Hello Mrs. Fluidp

our local airport is at 2200ft but we are a lot closer to the ski hill which tops out at 6500ft, so I would have to guess that we are about 3000-3500ft on our plot.

I don't know, but the pictures you have would be a good argument that you moved to just the right place.

The temperature lately has been between the high twenties in the afternoon and down to lows of 4 to 6 in the morning. It's been feeling WAY too much like fall in the mornings!

If you look in the picture you will see a circular hole in the wall and that's where I hook up my wood stove to get a head start in the spring. Otherwise the seedlings take over my living room and any other southern facing window!.

Thank you about the website, my wife just started on it recently so I secretly put it on my signature and told her it's official now it on "Homesteading Today"!

Good luck with your crops and by the looks of your garden I don't think it will take too many experiments to get some corn happening!

Thank you
 

Fluidp,

Thank you, beautiful, I love your garden. You did a perfect job.

We drive by the lovely Caribou on our way to our homestead near Moberly Lake, 3 hours north of Prince George and 26 km north of Chetwynd.

Thanks again, keep up the great work,

Alex

Taylormade, thanks for your reply - and it is good to know there is a real possibility of trying some corn next year! I will show my husband your picture, he has talked about putting a small woodstove in our future greenhouse.

I hope your wife keeps up with her site, we liked it!

Thanks Alex, for your comments.... I was up your way about 7 years ago, I think, we went on a tour of the dam up there, beautiful countryside!

That is just way too cool. Some of the cabage or lettuce looks like chickens at first glance. I had to grab my glasses and take a closer look.
Lord knows I wish mine looked that good. I let the weeds take over while fighting the war with the ground hogs and deer and now rabbits, but God willing, it will be fenced next year.

That is as pretty a garden as I have ever seen. Excellent work.
Are you open for tutoring, LOL.

Dennis