Thursday, July 21, 2016

2016 Garden: The Year of the Flower

In the past I'd had some rather large gardens. Gardens full of over 20+ crops. Gardens that took hours a day to maintain. I needed a break this year. A break from weeding, watering and smashing squash beetles between my bare fingers. I wanted something that was fun, happy and easy. I think I accomplished it this year. I dug three rows, two for zinnias and one for tomatoes. The zinnias have come in so lovely, they are by far my favorite garden flower. So easy to grow: water, mulch and forget about them. I did mulch this year with the contents of the goat house (hay and manure) so things are well fertilized. I find myself just going back to the garden and looking at the flowers. I nestled six tomato plants, one cucumber plant and a bell pepper among the zinnias, and they are all doing wonderfully. What a relaxing garden this year, I might need to do this again in the future.


 




I've been making this wonderful vegan "cheese" sauce that consists of potatoes and zucchini and found myself buying 4-5 zucchini a week. I felt guilty buying this when I could easily be growing it in my backyard so I started a small zucchini garden over by the blackberry bushes late in the season. I was worried they would be attacked by the dreaded squash bugs but I haven't seen them at all. I'm thinking it might be because I planted them in a new garden. I'm hopeful they stay away.


The flowers on the deck are doing great. I do love double petunias. The year of the flower has been fun. I do think more flowers next year would be fun.

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