Evolution of a Garden

Garden 2008

Herb Garden - parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, and more!

Upper end of the garden, early in the season.  Granddog, Grayson, in the foreground.

Looking out across okra, squash, tomatoes, pole beans.

Looking out over lettuce, cabbage, sugar snaps, young southern pea plants.  Black raspberry patch in the background.

Tomato Hornworm - A menace to the garden, a feast for the chickens!






Garden 2009

The garden under cover of snow and plastic.  Notice the addition of the short plastic fencing around the periphery of the garden.  That's to keep the chickens out!

Winter's over... but not the threat of frost.  Still using plastic to protect the tender plants.

Surrounded by green goodness ... harvesting potatoes.

Noah took this picture from a tall ladder in July of 2009 while he was trimming branches off the big oak tree next to the shed.

In October, we decided the garden needed more sun.   We hired tree surgeons to take some big trees down.





Garden 2010

We added three raised beds to the garden in March 2010, including one dedicated to asparagus.

The extra beds will allow for better rotation of crops (difficult in a small space) and easier seasonal transitions.

In April, Rouse had a water line run out to the garden.  The addition of a water source in the garden - and near the chicken house - has made a huge difference!

We needed more sky over the garden, so we called Ronnie and the Audubon guys to take more trees down in June.  I hated seeing those big trees go down!

Nothing to see here ... but there used to be a large oak tree behind the fig, between the magnolia and the shed.  That would be the same tree from which Noah took the 2009 picture of the garden!

From a distance ... the day they topped the trees.

The "new" expanded garden fully operational.







Early in the season, everything is neat and tidy.

Later, too rich soil produced a wall of tomatoes and an okra forest.

Lots of foliage from a different angle.  Notice that the squash plants have been removed from that corner bed.  'Twas the year of the squash bug!

Invasion of the nasty squash bugs!