How my gardens have changed.

It seems every year I add a new garden bed to my collection. I am not saying this is a bad thing as if I add a new one that means that I was able to handle last years load.  Now when I say add a new garden I usually mean for edibles......but this year it wasn't just 1 new garden it was 3.....Take a look

2009:  Lets start when we bought the house.  The front yard had minimal gardens...but some

 Here there is no Butterfly bush garden or my boarder garden full of Iris

 The poor Pussy Willow in a small little circle....

The back of the house where the greenhouse is now.....certainly makes the yard look bigger with out it.

 And the kitchen garden....a cleaned up version of it but this is the shape it was in....


That brings us to 2010:  Where the first of many new gardens were added to the yard.

 The beginnings of my blog started right here with my greenhouse.

 Later that same year this is the completed greenhouse and extension garden growing away.

The kitchen garden got a bit of a make over.

Then comes last year 2011:  Where gardens were added again and some were given new life....like

 Yup the kitchen garden again....a new flower bed area was added and the rest was straightened out a little more.

 The now bigger Pussy Willow tree now has it's very own shade garden....granted it provides the shade.

 Hard to see but here is the Iris boarder garden just after it was added.....

 Unhappy with the first try the Kitchen garden had more added to it....now I could harvest all of the garden.

 Then back by the Greenhouse the Strawberry mint garden was added.....sorry Strawberry Chocolate Mint garden.

 As was what became known as the vine garden....

   Another view of the Greenhouse for reference  as here comes 2012:  This year.....

The first of the gardens to be added this year.  One for the gardening class and one for Shannon.

 Remember back in 2009 that picture of the front yard with the Forsythia on the left?  Well to the right of that is now this guy....the Butterfly Bush garden.

Oh and that Boarder garden back from 2011 the one I promised was full of Iris.....well here it is.

And finally the last of the gardens built so far this year was added on to the new one at the back of the greenhouse.  One has plants for Aiden guy and the others are some of the veggies.

So my gardens have changed a lot over the last few years.  I imagine they will continue to change not only in what is planted in them but in how they look in general....then again I hope not too much....hard to name the gardens when they keep changing.

Apple seeds and kids

I am sure you have eaten an apple and wondered if you planted the seeds would it grow an apple tree right?  Well my 5 year old son also wondered this.

 Around the 1st of the year (may have been late December) Aiden guy wanted to save his seeds.  So he took it upon himself to place his treasures into a wet paper towel where I placed it in a bag and hung it on the cabinet.  A few days ago we noticed that two of them sprouted.  So into a container they went.

 The next day seed number 1 looked like this....

 and seed number 2 like this

 Today after just 3 days in the dirt you can begin to see tree number 1 growing it's true leaves.

And Tree number 2 although much smaller also shows signs of true leaves emerging.

Aiden is extremely happy with himself and his 9 year old sister Shannon is unhappy...she has been trying to grow and orange tree from seed and thus far no luck.

Snow in the garden

Hello there everyone it's Melody Bluebell here with an important announcement - It's snowing at Irish Gardens.   Yup thats right folks it's snowing in October. The Garden Lady was outside today getting ready for this snow to hit.

Garden Lady and Aiden Guy were out saving the peppers as the plants were hit with frost but the peppers were still good.  Look how cute that little guy looks trying to concentrate on cutting the peppers and only the peppers.

Rosa Rusty was seen at the local feeding spot eating just as the snow started.

Then a half hour later she is seen with friends but look at the tree's behind them. Just over 30 min after the snow started the tree's are covered.

Soon after I saw Rosa I saw Garden Lady headed outside to get the mail and saw that now even the roads were covered.

So then as I was enjoying the view of snow while trying hard not to fall off my branch....it was getting heavy with snow the Garden Lady came out and measured the snow.  Although I don't have a watch I am pretty good at telling time and the snow started around 12:30 and when she went out to measure it was 3:00 and it looks like she measured nearly 2.5inches of snow.    Well I am sure that there is a lot more going on around the Gardens so I am going to go and find out what.  I will be sure to post again with more pictures of my fellow friends.

Harvesting Edible Garden Tour - Thriving Thursday - KinderGARDEN update

Another month has pasted us by and brings us to the 21st where we show off what we are harvesting in our gardens.  This month the tour lands on a Thursday which means it's also Thriving Thursday and KinderGARDEN update day as well.  So today's post will contain a portion of each as today they all happen to work together.  See Aiden's Cucumber plant is Thriving to the point of harvest.

 Granted it's a little odd shaped but ready it was.

 At least according to Aiden it was.  He looks so cute trying to look at it.  But look out and look close he is armed with scissors.

 One curly prickly cucumber coming up.

 This is the inspection face.  But look out don't tell him it's funny looking he is still armed and 4 years old.

 Aiden picked his 1st cucumber so Shannon said she must pick hers as well.  Shannon's 1st cucumber was not even half the size of Aiden's but like him she declared it ready to pick.  As there are over 90 days left of the growing season and more buds ready to bloom who am I to tell her she can't pick it.

 So now it's time to watch out for the armed 8 year old.

 And this would be Shannon's inspection face....I think. But again be warned any bad statements about her cucumber could be detrimental to your health as she is also still armed.

 So on to the non kid plants that are Thriving this Thursday and also Harvesting this month.  The second round of peas is beginning to ripen this season

 Sage is also growing quite well and needed to be harvested.  Just look at those leaves.

And last but not least on my list of Thriving Harvesting plants this Thursday is one of my favorite herbs Pesto Basil.  Even if I didn't like the smell or the flavor of this herb I think I would grow it anyways for the beauty of the leaves.

So The Inadvertent Farmer hosts the weekly KinderGARDEN updates so head over there and see who else is gardening with their kids and what they have been up too.

Want to participate in Thriving Thursday?  Then add your like here - 

Or would you like to participate in the Harvesting Edible Garden Tour?  Well then just at a link to your post here - 

Thriving KinderGARDEN Thursday - Week 11 up close

Thursday again time to show off what's Thriving in my gardens today but also the day that I participate in KinderGARDENS over at The Inavertent Farmer.  Today the posts are combined.  Mainly because the Thriving plants are the kids plants.  So if you are participating in KinderGARDENS welcome to Irish Gardens.  If you are here for Thriving Thursday I also wish you a big hardy welcome.

The assignment for this week was up close.  Using Macro.  Well man did I have fun with this.

Aiden's first Cucumber is just about ready to pick.

 A Macro shot of the tendril's from Aiden's Cucumber plant.  So cool looking

 Aiden's Eggplant.  Getting big and looking great.  Thriving in the Greenhouse.

Aiden guy picked me a flower and put it in a cup of water.  I thought he picked if for himself until he told me it was for me as I was taking this picture.

 The little curly guy in the middle is Shannon's first cucumber.

A cute curly tendril from Shannon's plant.

 Shannon's eggplant is Thriving and growing away in the greenhouse.

Frogger here was caught by Shannon and as I didn't want her to keep it I said she could let him go in the Greenhouse along with 2 other frogs that have made it a home.  Frogger just loved the Basil.  He was still on it this Morning.

Thanks for taking the tour today and I hope you come back.  If you want to participate in Thriving Thursday add a link to your post below.  If you have come for KinderGARDENS glad you came, either way be sure to head over to The Inadertent Farmer and see what others have posted.