Photo Friday: Scenes from My Organic Garden

I'm going to try to stay positive as the heat usually reserved for August in St. Louis (heat index of 105 predicted today and for the next five days) but has decided to arrive in June! What this could mean is that we are in for one Long Hot Summer. I have a deep love for my garden as I know I could not have as nearly as beautiful a landscape were I living in a much cooler climate. But for crying out loud, an entire summer of this is not good for anyone. Trying to make lemonade from lemons, I headed out to get some gorgeous shots of the yard this morning. First up: my lillies. Last year I bid on an assortment of approximately twenty beautiful lillies at our garden club's silent auction and won. I had no idea what I'd do with them all, I just knew I wanted them. I planted them in clusters throughout the yard. I am so glad I did because they are just gorgeous right now.

I just had to have a fig tree. HAD to have one! Well, my local nursery finally got several trees in and I placed this one on my deck. I have no idea how to grow figs. According to my friends at the nursery, these figs will be ripe in about six weeks. I can hardly wait. Then, for winter, I am to bring the plant into the garage, allow it to go dormant. In spring, bring it out, re-pot it and set it outside again. Hmmm. I am skeptical. But for now, I have a fig tree.

My new apricot tree. I decided it was time to plant some fruit trees. This is an investment of sorts because fruit bearing trees don't just magically produce fruit once you've planted them--who knew, right? It will take two-to-three years before these trees are established enough to actually bear fruit that I can pick. (That is, if the deer don't eat the tree first!) In fact, this one apricot here should really be plucked. But I couldn't stand the thought of doing so given my strong affinity for the apricot (plus I had already eaten one that fell off when I was planting it and it was the best darn apricot I've had in my life). So, I wait for this one to ripen, will pluck and promptly eat. But any other fruit products this tree creates will be removed so the energy in the tree does not get wasted on fruit at this early stage.

Thornless blackberry bush. Very young fruit. But officially it is blackberry season in Missouri right now. In case you're heading this way any time soon, hurry up or you'll miss it!

Nice. Very nice. 

Good looking tomato plants. That is until you look at the tops of them where the deer have consumed a third of ALL of my tomato plants! My mantra: I love my deer. I love my deer.

My square foot planting of my herb garden has really done well. The spaces are gradually filling in.

The two globe-shaped things in the front there are "bush basil"--I love these plants! I come outside every evening and snip herbs from my beds and add whatever I feel like to dinner. This was the best square foot garden investment ever!

This square foot space was an after thought. I plant everything with "companion" planting in mind--prevents bad things from happening to your plants, plus alleviates the need for cancer-causing chemical sprays.

In this bed we have our pumpkins, canteloupe, corn, radishes, and beets.

More square foot veggie garden shots. With SFG, it is much easier to see early on which groups of veggies performed best and which did not. I have a few blank non-performing bare spots that will be planted with cool weather crops later this summer. 

Here you have your celery, Swiss chard, brussel sprouts, cabbage, arugula (only the easiest lettuce to grow on the planet), other lettuce--romaine, my pea vines--which are now dying back and will need pulling out so I can ready the area for my next crop of peas to plant later this summer--first of August--so I'll have peas in the fall.

I love bush beans. So easy, such good producers. Inevitably there are pests that feed on my leaves as the beans emerge. But overall--these bugs are no problem. They have to eat, too. As the plants mature, I find that the "eating" of the leaves tames down, maybe some other bigger bug came along and feasted on them.

Buy a package of bush beans if you've never grown them

before. They'd even perform in a container if that is your only option.

Look at my lovely squash blossoms! Soon, very soon yellow and 

green squash. I planted three seeds per two square feet because as you will see, these babies like room!

Baby cuke--is that not the cutest?

Oh, Hello! Mr. Snake decided to sun himself while I was mowing and almost met his fate with the mower before he promptly wiggled away scaring me half to death and nearly had me mowing my own foot over. I am deathly afraid of two things in the world: mice and snakes. Near fainting when I see either--no joke. Luckily, I have been practicing yoga breaths and stare downs when I encounter snakes in the yard. So far, I am much improved from my opera screaming I do when I see them. Snakes are good for the yard. . . so I'm told.

On planting trees in clay/rock soil. Two words: not fun. Okay? See exhibit A. This boulder was what my shovel hit when I was digging a hole for my new apple tree. Nuff said.

This is a shot of my lower level in the back yard. Our home site is situated on five seperate tiered hills. (The house being on one hill, then another hill below, etc.) I have mowed a tier down closer to the woods--below this one you see in the photo here. My hope is to keep pulling my garden down hill, planting more trees, creating walking paths and making mini-garden scapes on each level. I have my work cut out. Gardening is a journey. It never really has a destination. I may have this finished by the time I'm seventy. You just re-imagine it each spring. Here we have my new apple tree and apricot tree (and a "pagoda" tree to the left that I planted a few years back). The unmowed fields are quickly filling up with Queen Anne's lace and I will have to get a shot of this at some point--I love those flowers! So far the only tree the deer have used as an appetizer is one of my apples (not this one yet). Mantra: I love my deer. I love my deer.