Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Let me preface this insanity by saying that I grew up on a farm in a very rural area, and have yearned ever since for the crickets-tire-swings-muddy-shoes-and-rampant-squash-vines vibe of my childhood. We bought a house last summer, so this is my first try at making a little urban farm jungle.

containers

Sequoia strawberries; Russian Pickling and Picklebush cucumbers; night-scented tobacco


Vietnamese balm (Kinh Giới) windowbox


Nasturtium 'Empress of India'


freshly hilled-up fingerling potatoes in a 5-gallon bucket


Cascade and Centennial hops; white peonies; irises that will never ever bloom; nasturtiums; potato buckets; cilantro windowbox

east yard
northernmost bed

apple mint; flat-leaf parsley; scallions; more apple mint; 24 Mary Washington asparagus crowns planted wayyyyyyyy too late, but here's hoping; a few marigolds along the fence

middle bed

Yellow Pear, Pink Brandywine, and Black Krim tomatoes; marigolds; Flamingo and Garden Salsa peppers

southernmost bed

Latham raspberries; Greek oregano; purple sage; French tarragon; cilantro; German thyme; marjoram; Bush Blue Lake 274 and Royalty Purple Pod beans; Golden Sweet, Oregon Sugar Pod, and Sugar Snap peas; fernleaf dill; rosemary

west yard (4x4-foot boxes made of untreated pine 2x12s)
northernmost bed

German Red Strawberry, Dad's Sunset, and Manyel tomatoes; orange calendula; Tequila Sunrise, Jalapeno Traveler Strain, Healthy, and Hinkelhatz peppers; Minnesota Midget and Golden Midget melons; marigold for good measure

middle bed

Fin de Bagnol beans; Martin's Carrot, Shishito, and Wisconsin Lakes peppers; white marigolds; Ananas Noire, Orange Russian 117, and Pink Grapefruit tomatoes; Genovese basil x 2

southernmost bed

Dragon Tongue beans; Beaver Dam and Jimmy Nardello peppers; orange calendula; Wapsipinicon Peach, Gajo de Melon, Snowberry, and Black Cherry tomatoes; Genovese basil x 2

MyFolia

80% grown from seed. Huzzah!

ETA Also, the 'soil' in our yard was solid clay covered with a layer of landscaping fabric covered with a layer of lava rocks covered with ANOTHER layer of landscaping fabric covered with wood mulch, presumably because the previous owners of our house hated us.

You are doing an awesome job with your space! I look forward to seeing pictures when everything is giant and bushy!!

Amazing!

eek! I've never heard of Folia. What a fun/nerdy way to keep track of your garden! I just signed up: http://myfolia.com/gardener/jessica_

Your garden is so cute and well organized! I wish I had a cute porch to grow hops on...

You garden is so awesome! And now I want to grow potatoes in a bucket. I wonder if it's too late here to start them.

Super impressive. Bonus points for those companion plants. What kind of nasturtiums are those? Those are great companion plants too. Whoop-whoop for raised beds!

Wow--so many unusual items, I love it! Nice hops too--those are the kinds we have as well, along with some chinook.

Everything looks beatifully tended and tidy!

Oh, I know what you mean about the childhood wilderness gardens. Such great memories. Your garden is pretty, and I hope all of your plants grow big and tall. :)

Aw, thanks everyone! Yes, Folia is the nerdiest way to keep track of gardening ever, but I hope it'll be really valuable when I can look back and see when the first/last frosts were in my little microclimate, which parts of the yard are best for which vegetables, which layouts and plant placements work best/get the highest yields, etc. after years of being able to track what's going on in my wee farm.


They're Empress of India. I'll be moving them into the garden once they start flowering!

BTW, those crazy hops were tiny little sticks that we planted at the beginning of last August, right after we bought the house. They're already growing past the ceiling of the porch! At the end of May, they were growing 6+ inches a day!

What a brilliant garden, you have so many different plants growing, it all looks good.

Cute! The hops will look good covering your porch (?).

Updates!

northern raised bed
June 12, 2011


August 10, 2011



middle raised bed
June 12, 2011


August 10, 2011



southern raised bed
June 12, 2011


August 10, 2011



crazy hops
June 12, 2011


August 10, 2011 now with bonus Kong-bearing Boston Terrier


hop flower closeup


crazy tomatoes
June 12, 2011


August 10, 2011

wow!
I love your garden/jungle!
I am so envious of all your gardens.. I have problems getting my seeds past the first 2 leaves.. ;)

squee!

I love the before and afters! Awesome. I remember my tomatoes got that big before the blight got into my yard. I miss those days boohoo.

Figured I'd post my last harvests of the year: 15.5 pounds of HUGE tomatoes, about 50 hot peppers, and about 2 pounds of fingerling potatoes (grown in 5-gallon buckets).

That is SO COOL! Yay!