August 2014 Garden Update

Garden is doing really well as we move into August, 

and I had enough photo's to invite you along on a tour.  

Welcome to my garden!

 Maroon clematis on the left, a pink trumpet clematis on the right.

Purple cone flowers

Hops on the back fence, raspberries in the background on the left, and the flower bed in the foreground.

We have framed beds, not raised.  Each bed is approximately 4' x 16'.  Just wide enough that I have to go around to the other side to weed.  Woodchip paths with landscape fabric underneath provide access to everything and help keep the weeds down.

We have 7 beds for veggies - flour corn, drying beans, cucumbers, herbs, butternut squash, 3 tomato plants, one hill of zucchini, and one bed that has our peas, kale and Swiss Chard.  One bed with blueberries and one with summer and fall raspberries.  And two flower beds.  Well, three flower beds actually, because one is outside the fence. 

Yes, there is a 6' high fence around the entire garden.  A necessity if we don't want to have the deer partaking.  The butternut squash bed is also outside the fence since the deer and rabbits leave the prickly vines alone. 

 The mix to the right was a annual flower packet I tried and had success with.  Pretty in pastels! 

I've been partial to daylilies for years, and I found the dianthus seed back really well in my garden so I let them do their thing. 







Some of the flower beds are in a bit of transition.  I'm yanking out the pretty but weedy iris (I will leave some, but not as much as has self-propagated over the years) and replacing with daylilies and dianthus. 

The new and improved flower bed!

The bed on the right was, until Saturday evening, a mess of weeds, overgrown iris, field yarrow (damn invasive stuff), ferns and grass.  After we bought the daylilies Saturday morning, the Husband ripped out 8' of root-bound crap so I could plant our new purchase.  Yay Husband!  

Front: Dill growing everywhere.  Back: Corn and beans.

And my favorites, the violets!  They grow in all these little cheerful clumps and I just let them self-seed back.  I never know quite what I'm going to get or where they are going to pop up.  

The Husband's favorite clump of violets.