How is your garden doing so far?

[Reinbeau]

I absolutely love your greenhouse - it's fantastic! Hubby built it for you, right? What a guy!

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi there,

I can't quite believe it -- My broad beans have grown 3" today. I got out in the garden early this morning & I decided to do quiet things first (so I didn't disturb my neighbors too early on Sunday morning, they like to lie-in till mid-morning) ! So I watered my veggies with my grandfathers MAGIC POTION - I have been brewing it up for over a week & it was smelling evil enough ( fresh chicken poo, elder leaves & nettles, left in the sun until it stinks when you lift the lid). I always water the plants first ; I never put it on dry earth. I use in the ratio of one third grandpa's mixture to two thirds water unless I doing a foliar feed when its one part the mixture to 5 parts water plus a drop of liquid soap -- I use a tea-tree soap. Lo & behold 9 hours later 3" taller 7 the peas are going crazy. So before I came in for my beer I used it to water all my tomatoes that I've been potting up the last couple of days. I did dilute the mixture a bit more as I don't want to scare the poor wee things.

The little UGLY portable green house is now bulging with pots. i must get some more stuff out in the earth but this has to wait till Tuesday as tomorrow I have to do my volunteer work in the Oxfam Bookshop; hard work, but I love it & we raise a lot of money to help people all over the world when there is an emergency.

I had better get an early night - hope you are having a great day. :coolsun

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi Reinbeau,

I meant to tell you I was watching a very interesting TV program last night on BBC 2. It was about the re-construction of a 16th Century garden at Kenilworth Castle. This garden was created originally for a special visit by Queen Elizabeth 1 to her favourite courtier Robert, Earl of Essex.

English Heritage now owns the castle (which is now a ruin) & has spent millions on this huge project. They have worked from a detailed description written at the time. The program followed this whole process. I do hope they will show it over there in the US. They have done a great job & it should prove to be very popular with visitors as it is huge & very impressive. Kenilworth is not far from Stratford-on- Avon so it will be another place to visit locally which is to do with the same period of history.

I thought of you when I was watching the program as I sense you are very interested in the history of gardening & enjoy those formal layouts of knot gardens etc. I hope you get to see it,

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[obsessed]

I have been wanting to post pics of my garden but it is so much work with two toddlers. So if you guys ever wonder why my posts sound so distracted or have horrible spelling, blame these two cuties....

But they were taking a nap... so
here is my corn beans and sweet dumpling squash. I only have one squash growing and a ton of dead unpollianted squash ... but I will definately try these again. The corn is popcorn and the beans are green...

These are my tomaotes both cherry and some burpee better boys..

Here is my unpollinated cukes. Up till now I had only grown cukes in Montana and have gotten some sorry excuses for plants. This year I was really amazed at the growth of just three cuke plants and the amount of flowers. What a difference the heat makes.

This is my watermelon cantelope patch. I figure the vines will just wander..

My pototoes are still alive barely. They have not flowered and I am just now sure what will happen. It has been blaring hot. I checked down the stem and no taters. I didn't take a pic cause I am so sad I kill such an expensive plants. I think next year I am going to try to do sweet pototatoes instead.

 

[digitS']

They are a couple of cuties. A handful? But, look at those dark, dark eyes. Was it running-thru-the-sprinkler time?

Everything is green and growing! Are those green shoots growing out of that shovel handle?

Where in MT were you? I can't image a greater contrast from Slidell, LA.

Steve

 

[Reinbeau]

Hi Reinbeau,

I meant to tell you I was watching a very interesting TV program last night on BBC 2. It was about the re-construction of a 16th Century garden at Kenilworth Castle. This garden was created originally for a special visit by Queen Elizabeth 1 to her favourite courtier Robert, Earl of Essex.

English Heritage now owns the castle (which is now a ruin) & has spent millions on this huge project. They have worked from a detailed description written at the time. The program followed this whole process. I do hope they will show it over there in the US. They have done a great job & it should prove to be very popular with visitors as it is huge & very impressive. Kenilworth is not far from Stratford-on- Avon so it will be another place to visit locally which is to do with the same period of history.

I thought of you when I was watching the program as I sense you are very interested in the history of gardening & enjoy those formal layouts of knot gardens etc. I hope you get to see it,

:rose Hattie :rose

Thank you, Hattie I'd love to see it someday, I hope we can get over there again.

If you love gardening and you have any way to do it, everyone needs to go to England and see gardens. The awesome thing is gardens are ever so important there, it's such a passion for so many, gardening is a thread woven throughout English life, it seems, or at least it seemed that way to me!

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my mother is a 16th and 17th century kitchen garden historian, and an herbalist. She used to travel with my father over to England when he had business, and she'd bury herself in a gardening history library of some sort near London to study. She is the horticulturist who renovated the gardens at Plimoth Plantation here in Plymouth, Mass., who brought historical accuracy to the little gardens outside the homes in the living museum.

Two years after my father died we went on a 21 day trip to England to visit the Chelsea Flower Show (that's in May, I think), the Chelsea Physics Garden, and then all different gardens from south of London down through and over to Penzance and up into Cornwall. The trip of a lifetime, truly. It was sponsored by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, we had a great tour leader, it was so wonderful....I'm going to haul out my pictures now and revisit it (I'll scan some in someday and post them).

Thanx for the memories, Hattie - and I'll search around for that documentary, I do get the BBC channel on cable, maybe it'll pop up!

 

[Greenthumb18]

obsessed,
Your vegetable garden looks great, everything is a beautiful green. Sorry about your potatoes, can't you try planting a new crop? Or maybe you could chose an early variety, i think you still have enough time to do another crop. Good Luck!!

 

[Mahonri]

I'll have to get some pics uploaded of my garden. I'm getting a great harvest. Wonderful broccoli, tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash. Corn has tassled.... couldn't get my cucumbers to grow this year.. .don't know why.

By July it will all be toast... then I'll plant the end of September for my winter garden.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi Reinbeau,

Re: "The Queen, Her Lover and His Castle", the BBC TV programme about English Heritage's Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth Castle.

I have tracked down a link so that you can view it for free, on-line -- Well it works for me here in the UK, It seems there is a time limit on this though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007x7q

I tracked it down through Googling the programme title.

I hope you enjoy it! The programme goes to show just how difficult it is to re-create the past for the present day -- Health & Safety rules for instance.....!!

It was so interesting to hear about your Mother's involvement in the re-creation of the gardens in Plymouth, Mass. I haven't visited them but I've seen it on film & in photographs.

Your trip to the British gardens sounds amazing. Have you ever visited the formal Vegetable Gardens at the Frenh chateau of Villandry in the Loire Valley? I went there about 18 years ago & it blew my mind -- I just could not believe what I was looking at......! Everyone who grows veggies should see it.

:rose Hattie :rose:rose

 

[karanleaf]

Obesessed Your kids are adorable I bet they love the garden also. Which by the way your garden looks GREAT
I haven't gotten my Cucumbers set out yet. And Your corn Wow I would be lost if I was standing in behind it. Looks to be that you will have tomatoes to enjoy. You have done a wonderful job growing your veggies and children.

Reinbeau, that is so interesting you have such a wonderful wealth of gardening knowledge with you folks Wow You must be so very proud of your Mother and her involvement with the gardens. And to have been able to travel with her to those wonderful gardens full of history, My goodness that would be dream (I am sooo jealous ) I know how much DH and I enjoyed our trip to Germany (13 years ago) and toured the Black Forrest, and some of the Gardens of some of the castles and the vineyards I know what you mean as far as getting out the photos and taking another trip down memory lane.
And Yes, Thank you, DH designed and built our Greenhouse from paper to the ground and up. I am so very proud of him. We have been talking of where he is going to build a smaller structure for just germination and propagation Of course you realize that what you have just isn't big enough. Then again if you arraign things inside well enough you find out you have more room than you thought. Oh gosh am I making sense? Couldn't sleep for all the thoughts keep running through my mind of what I need to do. Not usually online this early in the AM Any way Yes Thank You

DH decided he wanted to do a version of the topsy turvey tomato So I explained to him how I saw it here on another thread. so here is a photo of his bagged tomato.

He got some of our tomato plants in one of the raised beds and helped me weed the rest of the lambs quarters out of the lettuce.

I will be getting radishes soon from my horitzontal garden.

And DH's bucket potatoes seem to be doing well.

I potted up what I call a Salsa kit in a Pot.
A tomato, Cilantro, a bell pepper and chives

Well gang I believe I may ty to go back to sleep.
Be checking in with my 1st cup of coffee in about 3 hours or so
nightie night

:happy_flower Karan