HEGT - May 2012

It's already that time of the month....the 21st....Harvesting Edible Garden Tour.  The time when we post about what we are harvesting in our gardens.  Inside or out if you can eat it and it's harvesting lets see it.  This month or rather today I decided that I am going to focus on one garden at a time and harvest what really needs it then go back to other gardens and harvest.  Well today it was one garden, one herb.

 So here is Strawberry Fields.  Can you see the strawberries?  Nope cause the Chocolate Mint has taken over.

 Now here is Strawberry Fields can you see the strawberries now?

See how much Chocolate Mint I cut out of there?  Lots and lots.  And the smell is so heavenly too.  So is there anything in your gardens that you can harvest?  Post about it and let us know.

Add your link below and visit the other links as they are added.

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.

GBBD May 2012

Ahhh it's that time of month again here around the blogosphere.  Time to post about whats blooming in our gardens.  After this crazy winter and beginning of spring things are blooming earlier than usual.  I don't mind much though as I have lots to show off today.....so here goes.

 I'll be honest not sure what this guy is.  His leaves look like that of a columbine but he is so tiny I am just not sure if that is what he is.  But sure is pretty.

Growing wild all over my vegetable garden.....why? Well because I haven't weeded in there yet.  And this guy is right in the middle of some parsley....crazy.

 This gal I bought this year.  I liked the difference between all the others that I have....the white and yellow are very delicate and quite pretty.

 I love snapdragons.  They just look so neat.

 What interesting designs on the pedals don't you think?

 More snapdragons.

 My columbine....I know what this one is....

Even the coral bells have finally come out and bloomed.  Ok so they were out before but now the flowers on them are actually starting to open.

 Strawberry buds are all over the place.

 My blue Iris just opened up today....I love this guy he stands out next to his buddy below.......

 .....that would be this guy the purple Iris.....who is showing off all over the yard this year.

 Although not open yet the peonies are out and ready to go.....the ants are seeing to that.

 Two different views of my Iris in what I now call the Iris Lane Garden.  I transplanted these here last year when I created the garden and they didn't bloom but they did multiply a little.  I just think it's cool that all of them are the same color.  I couldn't have done that even if I had tried.  As I have yellow, blue, and these purple all growing in the same area (these were from previous owners).  Either way I think it looks cool.  Just pay no mind to the truck ....it's full of wood that needs to be piled up.

So now you've seen mine let me see yours......or rather stop over to Carol's blog and see others and post a link there so I can see yours.

The Fruits of Mother Natures Labor

Although I would love to take credit for the health of my plants I can't.  Mother Nature is truly the worlds best gardener.  She provides the rain, and the sun.  The 2 essentials for growing plants like this Blackberry vine.

The vine is along the back fence of our yard.  Most of it is actually on our neighbors side but as it is a big bush/vine they can't reach it all...so by default I say that means it is part ours.  I love looking at the vine (from a distance) and seeing all the different colors of the berries.  Some are green, some are white.  Red today black tomorrow.  The more rip they get the easier it is to pick.  Giving us a cup full of blackberries

for the kids to eat.  Even the berries that fall off easily are different shades.  Some are more red than black. Some leave juice on your fingers while others don't.

Each day the Grapes seem to get bigger and bigger.  Soon they too will begin their change of color.  After all the trauma from last year the vine is back and healthy as ever.  See we had some major wind storms last year that knocked the arbor the vine grows on over.  They grew grapes last year but they never ripened or got as big as they are now.  But it seems Mother Nature understood that the vine just needed to stop working so hard to produce grapes last year and work on healing it's self.

After many attempts last year at trying to grow strawberries I finally have a small garden with some plants.  And they are slowly producing berries this year.  I chatted up a lot of folks over at myfolia to find out what in the world I was doing wrong.  Seems the advice worked cause they are thriving this year.

I will never (try my best not to) talk bad about Mother Nature again.  She knows what she is doing and has for some time now.

Harvesting Edible Garden Tour - June 21, 2011

Another month has passed by and brings us right back to the 21st.  A day in which I like to show off what I have harvested this past month.  Today is also the beginning of Summer.  Given the fact that it has been increasingly warm the past few weeks my harvest tally is up.  So on to a few pictures of what I have been harvesting...take a walk through the gardens with me.

We will start our tour at the Garage Garden area.  Where pea's, beans, and corn are growing.

 The peas are climbing and happy.  Buds are making way to fat yummy pods full of peas

 Not much I know but hey it's the first harvest of the pea season.





Next we will travel West to the Strawberry bed.

 The white strawberry plants I started from seed are very happy in their new home.  The strawberry bed has blooms popping up all over.  These pretty guys are just about ready.

The will never turn red.  White strawberry plants lack a chemical that allows them to ripen to red.  They grow green like all strawberries do but then slowly turn white.  Only 3 so far but hey it's just the first year.



Continuing our Westward travel we will head into the Greenhouse to see what's harvesting in there.

Along the south wall we see Rhubarb happily growing and soaking up the sun.

Big leaves that were able to grow basically bug free.  Healthy red stalks ready for freezing.

In the center isle we see the Mint.  Famous for growing fast.  It seems every other week it looks like it needs trimming.

This harvest went to the gardens.  Because it grows so fast and I only need just so much of this I like to spread it around sometimes.  I like to take the cuttings and just kinda toss them into some of the garden beds to help with bug control.


Outside the greenhouse the extension garden and Vine bed are growing well but nothing to harvest yet. So we will head South for a little bit and check out the Arbor.

The water fountain that sits under the Grape arbor has now become a home for Alpine Strawberries.  I thought it would look cool to see the runners falling over the fountain as water does.  Of course this variety doesn't seem to produce runners but thats ok.

Because it did produce 1 very nice looking juicy strawberry.



Heading North-West now we go around the corner of the house and see the Kitchen Garden.  Where more corn is growing along with Broccoli and Cauliflower.

After last years failed attempt at growing broccoli I finally got one growing.

It may have been small and only one but who cares.  I got one to grow.  I may have waited a little too long to harvest this one as it seems that it was almost to the flowering stage.

So I hope you enjoyed the quick tour of IrishGardens and come back soon.  What is Harvesting in your neck of the world?    I would love to read about it.  Make a post and add your link.  Come back later and take a tour of another garden.