Our gardens

[Computer Cowboy]

Here are a few shots taken yesterday. So far (knock on wood) everything seems to be progressing nicely. We've been eating lots of produce already, as well as giving alot to the neighbors.



This year, the main bed contains peas, endive, green cabbage, zucchini, sweet potatoes, yellow onions, bell peppers, poblano chiles, tobacco, pole beans, jalapenos, tomatoes, cayenne peppers, Anasazi beans, Hopi blue corn (for tortillas and a traditional local food called 'atole'), and a variety of squash that I haven't been able to identify botanically, but is traditional to this area for eons. Called by the generic name 'calabacita' (little squash), it's delicious and really hardy. You can't buy seeds for it anywhere, so you're at the mercy of old founding families who've been passing down seeds forever.



In this bed, we're growing sage, basil, turnips, beets, carrots, kale, and chard. We just harvested a huge second year's crop of chard and planted a new one.



Here we have red onions, red cabbage, potatoes, cilantro, and some more bell peppers. The potato plants have been hilled up three times and are already four feet above their original planting depth!



Here's the 'lettuce tent', which also houses some broccoli, cumin, and cilantro. When it comes to growing lettuce in this climate, shade cloth is our best friend.

[SimplyForties]

Love the shade cloth over the lettuces. I grow mine under the lights in my basement to keep it out of the heat. Do your narrow brick paths become completely overgrown pretty quickly? Beautiful garden!

[Computer Cowboy]

Do your narrow brick paths become completely overgrown pretty quickly?

Yep, they sure do. It's one of those ideas I tend to have that seem reasonable at first but eventually prove otherwise. The paths are sort of useful in spring for working the garden and planting without walking on the soil, but by midsummer, they're just about useless. A smart person would probably dig them up and do something different. Oh well.

[SimplyForties]

The garden "to do" list never gets any shorter, does it?!

[gardengirl72]

Thanks for sharing the great pictures. I love the stone walls. I just built one myself about a month ago.

[Computer Cowboy]

Thanks for sharing the great pictures. I love the stone walls. I just built one myself about a month ago.

Thanks Patti! I really like dry-stacked stone for raised beds: great drainage and air flow, and best of all, it's free!

[MoniDew]

WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!

(that's quite literally what I said as your pictures came up on my screen!)

[PennyG]

Well done, that looks great!

[Computer Cowboy]

Thanks, folks, for the encouraging words!

[PennyG]

Very nice.