This was only my second year gardening, and first year with my own yard 😤 Everything is in containers. I struggled a lot with figuring out a good place to put containers that got enough sunlight. I was trying to avoid the front yard because I was worried about car exhaust and grossness getting onto veggies, but when I finally caved and moved everything to the front it started growing much much better. Lots of things also got chomped by deer and groundhogs in the backyard. I had hoped that big containers would keep the groundhogs out but I caught one climbing up onto the top and eating all the seedlings. Lots of failures, lots of dead plants. I tried to plant some native flowers in the backyard hoping to get them to spread to the empty lot behind us, but no success. A lot of seeds got eaten by birds.
I had better luck with both veggie and flower starts that I bought from the local farmer’s market. I was SO CLOSE to getting sunflowers, the flower heads were coming out but then we had a big windy thunderstorm that knocked them over and they got all crispy after :( My only harvest this year are a couple of jalapeno peppers. I didn’t start anything indoors this year, but I definitely see the value in it now and I’m hoping to get a rack with grow lights set up over the winter.
What about you guys??
This is my first year with an in-ground garden in Zone 6a! Here’s what I’ve got:
-Plant more peppers, I eat a lot of peppers and could use more
-Plant beans/peas earlier
-Plant okra later
-Only ONE cucumber plant!!! Just one! No one needs more than one!
-More ground cherries, they did great and I love 'em
-Wouldn’t bother with celery again, probably
-Would give radishes another shot, they did okay. I’d do kohlrabi again too
-Planted too many types of lettuce
I live in an apartment so my gardening is limited to containers on my balcony as well as a million tropical houseplants. I finally figured out what grows best in my conditions of scorching hot in the morning and nice and cool in the afternoon out there. I’m growing a fig and a dwarf citrus as well as a blueberry bush that is finally not hating the spot I put it in! Otherwise it’s a bunch of succulents out there.
I’m hoping one day to have a real garden but for now I’m having fun with what I can grow both indoors and outdoors.
oooo I should try a fig tree too. I didn’t even know that dwarf citrus was even a thing but I def need to look into them more.
We have some “Chicago hardy” dogs that supposedly came from ones around here which comes back even though we’re apt to see lower cold temps than you’re likely to see. You should totally give it a try, just remember that “Chicago hardy” encompasses a number of different cultivars. Maybe try reaching out to your area master gardener program to see if a member has some they do cuttings of for fundraisers, or try searching your area on a site like PermaPeople to see if someone is growing them locally. Varieties shipped to you from other regions may be like rolling the dice but something grown in your region should give you a higher likelihood of success.
For few years I try permaculture gardening. It is sometimes good sometimes bad. This year was dry and not much things grow. I am looking for next year, my asparagus will mature and could be harvested.
What aspects of permaculture have you been incorporating into your garden?
My garden is going awesome. Third year gardening, first time managing a pretty sizeable garden myself. I’m currently eating probably 50-60% of my food from the garden. Right now I’m harvesting eggplant, tomatos, beans, carrots, beets, kale, kohlrabi, basil, oregano, dill, cucumber, a variety of peppers, and a preposterous amount of zucchini. The zuchs are finally starting to chill out but I’ve got like 7 huge zucchinis taking up all my kitchen space and I eat like 3 a week. I’ve got a bunch of different types of squash coming in. I’m just finishing eating the last of my summer peas. I need to harvest my potatoes, might do that this weekend. The corn will be ready soon but so far I’ve been real bad at getting the timing right for corn.
My cauliflower is not looking so hot. Dunno if my climate is good for it or if I just haven’t been giving it enough attention. Aphids are starting to make their prescence known on my kale, but I find especially with dyno-kale that they don’t really detract too much from the food value, just takes some time to wash them off.
I need to do some work putting down straw mulch around plants and reinforcing the bark mulch pathways I’ve started putting in. Long term I would like to replace or at least supplement the overhead sprinkler irrigation with a drip or even micro-sprinkler system.
I never pruned my tomatoes and so they are kind of a big mess. Getting lots of fruit from them now and they are so good, I didn’t used to like tomatoes but I’m just eating these bitches salad style. Lots of damage from quail and whatnot on the tomatoes but not to an extent that’s really bugging me since I’m not selling the things.
Peppers seem to be taking forever but are finally starting to turn colour. Got lots of green bell peppers, lots of what I think are hungarian wax peppers that are just starting to finally turn orange and get flavourful. Got some habaneros finally coming in, and some kind of skinny chillis. I’ve also got some purple ones that I can’t at all tell when to properly pick. A few that I’ve tried have seen premature.
Got sunflowers all over the place, mostly self-seeded. Garden is also full of self-seeding calendula and dill, which have been filled with pollinators of various types including my own bees.
I really like my garden. Inherited it from my grandmother in law, but she would be really horrified to see how many “weeds” I allow to persist.
Health problems have been acting up, so my yard has become an untamed jungle. The birds are pleased.
That’s basically what I’ve been doing with my yard, but I prefer it to be at least slightly maintained…
