Hello!
New to the forum, but I've been gardening for as long as I can remember, but organic gardening for about ten years. My husband and I bought our home back in 2012 and I was excited to get started on my new adventures in gardening. I do suffer from fibromyalgia, so I do what work I can when I can and allow my husband to do the heavy lifting and grunt work (though, I won't lie..I sometimes do things I shouldn't just because I can't resist feeling like an adult again).
I grew up in the mountains of NC and I miss the wildness of it all, so I am trying to bring that sense of nature back to my own yard in the flatlands of coastal GA. But a lot of pictures I've seen here have really been inspiring for me too
Here's a small shot of the yard in 2012 after I cleared it out of dead trees and weeds. Unfortunately, we have a monster of a sweetgum tree, so we are constantly fighting the spiky balls. Initially, the yard was chock full of mexican hydrangea, a horribly invasive plant. I have, over time, kept up with pulling every little sprout that tried to peek through the soil and I think maybe I find one every other month.
My poor pomegranate that had been stuck in a pot for 6 years and always flowered, but never produced till this year!
Another look in 2013
Pomegranate
My helpers. Olley, the cat is now indoors (12 yrs old). Casie, my old lady potato dog, is 17 years.
Current of 2014, taken a few weeks ago before I did a chop and drop on the grass.
Sadly, the sweetgum tree was nice enough to drop a branch into my corn patch and thus, smashed them all :C
To the right are my 4 year old papayas. I wrap them in blankets and christmas lights during the winter to protect them from freezing. Before I planted them, I would drag them indoors to overwinter. The sunflowers are from birdfeed I scattered and let grow for the birds, bees, and butterflies. Had to stake them up with PVC pipes over solid rebar to keep them from falling over. I also keep my peppers in planters, those do go inside every winter. The current peppers are 3 years old and keep doing better each year. Sadly, the holly that was against the garage had already been suffering from severe root rot and we removed it, giving the trunk to our friend who helped take it down. When he cleaned up and cut the wood, the inside of the tree had been dead and dry for some time.
Eventually we're planning to put a fully enclosed chicken run (for 3 layers) along the garage with the coop inside the back corner of the garage itself. We're also going to hugel the left bed and right bed after we raise the bottoms up from the soil. Our sweetgum has already filled the left box with roots 9_9
I do keep a blog on
tumblr for the garden as it progresses. We do plan to complete the front and back yards to be all edibles and wildflowers.
