Garden picture exchange!

It rained a lot in May 2017 here in Mid-Hudson Valley -- it is very green all around and my lettuces love it!

A bit of hugelkultur diversity...

So, my comfrey reached nearly six feet high, remarkable given that I don't think it's gotten above maybe three or three and a half feet before.  The bees had exhausted it and it it was flopping everywhere, so I chopped it down and put it around two new plum trees.  So, yeah, mulching with comfrey is, in fact, a thing.  

Absolutely...

This is my attempt to prove to myself that you don't need any fancy grow lights to get plants to grow.

These are sweet potato plants growing under ordinary red and blue led lights. I left the lights turned on all day and all night.

The plants were growing around 4 inches per day!

After seeing all the beautiful gardens, I'm embarrassed to post our little plot.  We had a surprise guest in our garden this year: upshoots from chicken feed left over. I guess I need to cut back on the sunflower seeds in my fermented grains 😉

The Sleeping Lady is apparently modeled after a garden sculpture in Britain. She looks a little like Buddha to me. This is quite a large sculpture in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria British Columbia.

Dale Hodgins wrote:The Sleeping Lady is apparently modeled after a garden sculpture in Britain. She looks a little like Buddha to me. This is quite a large sculpture in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria British Columbia.

I think it must be modeled after one of the sculptures in the lost gardens of heligan.

Probably this one, the Mud Maid.

Seems about right.

I took these photographs about 100 yards from the statue.

Jake Scelsa wrote:i really rent a gem of nj property. i am in a small community where everythings in walking distance and i have a large yard to practice permaculture ideas.

Jake , you posted some Great photos.  I like the view of the " oldest part of the garden" photo.  Beautiful.  Worth a frame.     Larry

Evening light with roses, little peach tree, Tayberries, thornless blackberries, wisteria, aikiba, climbing rose sage, horseradish and rhubarb under the shade of a huge oak tree


The big orpington hen with 28 chicks - some adopted


Tree full of plums Yukka getting ready to flower and Trumpet vine in flower


Pretty red hazelnuts ripening


I let this some Artichokes go to flower - too pretty to miss


Twin Ceps (penny buns) we get loads of these in our woods and they're delicious !

Maple tree hanging over the ocean.

When we moved to our new house we put up two little Rutland wind generators at the top of the hill on the north side of our house on land which was really heavy clay. They turned almost all the time !



We planted windbreaks to protect the road and the front and east side of the house from the wind and now the trees and shrubs really doing a great job and have improved the comfort around the house and they've greatly improved the views too.

Those same little Rutlands now (A higher mast is in preparation)


hardworking hedges


Ducks all over the place because there are lots of ponds in this area in the heavy clay


Corn dryer at the end of a wind tunnel


View to the ruined pigeonnier (Note the neighbour's Lombardy poplars on the horizon in the photo below, are leaning from their exposure to the west wind and the trees and shrubs on our land are still.)


Note too that my signature had changed - I've been busy this year writing up my diploma and finally....

First time growing rutabaga. Sowed the seeds July 30th and harvested first one today (oct. 7) as a part of tonights dinner.

Edit to correct sowing date

Myers Family wrote:Full pics/details can be found on our blog...

<Images>

Hope you enjoy!

-Bill, Melissa & Paige

Damn I love this "Setup" !

cover crop with some floating row cover for some carrots and brassicas

Small but well organised

Sara Rosenberg wrote:Loxley Clovis,

how big is your chunk of land? I love the rainbow row concept and what it looks like in practice. What gave you the idea and how do you decide what gets planted next to what?

Thanks!

Sara, the rainbow row was found photo from the Eden Project in Cornwall: http://www.edenproject.com/visit
I teach permaculture classes & do a lot of image research to make my Libre Office Presentation slides.

More pics at our garden and herbal page www.unabandonedherbals.com

This was our CSA garden which has evolved when the trees got bigger

Irene Kightley wrote:Terrace looking towards the gloriette and root cellar with Chilean potato vine in flower


The Wisteria brachybotrys 'Shiro Kapitan Fuji' is flowering on the terrace


On top of the root cellar


Very well behaved chickens


Dense planting between the oak, peach and plum trees


Pumpkin, peaches, goats and chicken

I love the way you design your garden especially the first one. I would love to add something like that in my garden.

These are the pears that came from a multi-grafted pear tree that I trained to grow in an Espalier style in my back yard.



This is how the tree looked earlier in the same year, before the pears started forming.



This last photo is of a pretty bunch of grapes that I picked from a plant that I've been growing since I was 14 years old! I took the grape plant with me when I moved, and planted it in the corner of my small new garden. Since it was a fully mature plant when I dug it up in mid January, the grape vine took off like wild fire in its new home! :)

Here are a few of mine.

Bananas and sunflowers in Michigan.

Dan Allen wrote:Bananas and sunflowers in Michigan.

It looks stunnin. keep it up!

in keeping with the northern banana theme...
this was about a month ago

jay zambi wrote:

Dan Allen wrote:Bananas and sunflowers in Michigan.

It looks stunnin. keep it up!

Thanks. We grow them for fun really, while we dream about the tropics.

s. drone wrote:in keeping with the northern banana theme...
this was about a month ago

Beautiful garden. Looks like a big patch of monarda? What kind of bananas? I have 2 musa  Basjoo, and two tiny tiny tim dwarf cavendish and about 20 pups between 2 of them. I'm going to winterize the mothers in ground and take all the pups with me to Florida this winter. We're in zone 5. I have ginger growing around them too. I surround them with a cage from a 250 gl tote and cut them off just below the top of the cage, then slide pvc pipes over them and fill the cage up with layers of leaves and greens to heat up. Cap the pvc and cover all with a tarp. They are growing in a mound on my drain field so they get some subsoil heat too.

Jason Hernandez wrote:Here are a few of mine.

Love the shack and bananas. Looks like the home of a true tropical soul.

yes it is monarda in the foreground and rose of sharon hibiscus in the background
they are the two main attractions for the pollinators
we get hummingbirds too!
this is my parents backyard.... i am a basement dweller
so are the bananas come wintertime.. my living space is mostly plants in the winter

the bananas are mostly unknowns although one type is likely a cavendish cultivar of some kind
it was my first banana plant.. bought it in a grocery store for $4
in niagara on the lake... i was there for a wedding
that was in 2010
i bought a couple other plants that year as well
one was sold as musella lasiocarpa
i had zebrina as well and another one which i can not remember the name of
i tried overwintering them bare root in the basement  but partly due to a flood in the basement  it was a failure
a couple plants clung to life though and came back in the spring from the corm
the cavendish one... and the lasiocarpa
now i overwinter them in pots in the basement with foam on the floor to help keep the roots warmer
1000WHPS
last fall i killed my theobroma cacao which was a shame
i had that for years and it was just starting to produce flowers
i let it stay out fairly late in the fall and then let it dry out too severely once it was brought indoors and that was the end of it

i had basjoo, i had about a dozen last year and gave them away to people and instructed them to plant them in the ground
it was mostly an experiment to see if they would survive
some got mulched others did not
all died except 2 which one friend brought indoors in the fall
i want to try again... the two which my friend has have pups now so after some multiplying and refining the technique i want to try again
there is a fella on the banana forum in cincinnati ohio who does quite well overwintering them
he uses 2 feet of wood chip mulch as far as i know
he takes care of a large patch which has survived for years at a garden nearby as well

2 varieties i acquired a couple years back from Terry from canada banana farms
Terry started growing his own food in reaction to a health issue
got good at it.. and started selling his organic produce
he uses wood to heat poly tunnels and promotes the technique as an alternative to imports
the names dont seem to hold much meaning
ladyfinger and tangent
ladyfinger is used for many varieties apparently
and none of the experts on the banana forum had heard of tangent
they are definitely dwarfs though... good for growing in a greenhouse

i have one other banana plant which i got in a trade with someone in quebec
it is somewhat like a super dwarf cavendish .. but even smaller... it is another unknown
it pups like crazy which i believe to be left over growth hormones from the tissue cultureing process
it has pups with pups with pups with pups
it has little 1 inch pups ... with pups...
my biggest one is several years old and only 1 foot tall
anyhow cheers !

Some planned, some volunteers. All late.

Jade bean plants with collected rain in buckets. :)  Harvested 2.4 oz today :)

Also filled a lot of my buckets with rain from Hurricane Michael.

Well done! Water collection is one of our 'things'.

Our garden with in 10yrs...decking was done first then, then the slabbing which took 6mths and then the lawn which had to go in the end as m staffy ripped it up so we had to gravel it in the end and since then all new fencing and i can't mention the amount of plants in and out the garden