Vegetable Garden Ideas

I suppose this first year of vegetable gardening is kind of an experiment. 

I have never had anything quite this big or with quite the variety of plants.

  There are 13 different tomato varieties, all which need to be supported and so began the search for the best products I could find.

I started with these large turteurs for sweet peas in the early spring.  

These now are supporting beans and are working out really well.  

I like the height in the two rear beds, at the very back of the garden.

I next found these expandable bamboo teepees.  

These are being used to support  8 raspberry and blackberry bushes that are planted along side the raised beds.  I like the fact that they can be removed and easily stored at the end of the growing season when the plants get cut back

I recycled these little 3 legged bamboo stakes to use for the smaller pepper plants.  These are perfect right now but I may need to use larger stakes as the plants get bigger.  

As I said this is my "experimental" first season. 

In this particular bed I have 5 tomatoes plants and used a tomato ladder support with a more decorative iron tuteur in the center.  

The little garlic finial is really cute.  

These were pricy but they will remain in the garden throughout the year, even after the vegetables have come and gone.

Below is another bed that I just reworked this weekend.  It needed more compost and is somewhat shaded by the big oaks.  

The supports in the front are expandable willow teepees which are a great size about 24" high and you can snuggle them in with different plantings very easily. 

 Here they will be supporting eggplant.

The beans are really wonderful and we are already harvesting even though these plants have only been in for about a month or so.

I have basil around the perimeter as well as two zucchini varieties.

Below is the lettuce garden.  

I stuck a couple of miniature yellow bell peppers in the center with the willow supports.

This lettuce, actually a romaine variety is called "flashy trouts back"  and it has done really well.  There is also some butter lettuce, which I am sharing with the rabbits...this happens to be their favorite.

A variety of mesculun, I scatter by seed in little 18 x 18 " sections and let it do it's thing. 

 I love this stuff!!!

It grows in a big thick "lettuce rug"  and you can either snip of pull up the tender greens.

Here is what I cooked up for dinner on Saturday night with a couple of grilled steaks.  

Heaven!

Hope you had a restful and happy weekend

~*~

kelley