how does your garden grow?

[boogieshoes]

'with slime and snails and puppy dog tails, and carved pumpkins all in a row'

and now that we know i can completely botch up a traditional kid's song, shall i introduce you to the garden?  graphic-heavy post under the cuts.

the backyard:

the pictures in this post show most of the backyard, but i got a new cool thing (tm) out there:



that's a gazing ball, and i'd been looking for one for a while.

the canes around the gazing ball are blackberry canes,



and in the pot in front of the chair, i'm growing apple mint,



chocolate mint,



and lavendar. 



i ended up buying new lavender plants and potting them in, because i'd planted the old lavender seeds... but decided the mints were growing too fast to really let the lavender seeds develop, even if they're still viable.

in the old hanging baskets, i'm planting sweet onions,



chives,



sage,



and two baskets full of turnips.



none of these seeds are really growing.  i *very carefully* put in just a few seeds in each basket in carefully selected places and got 1 turnip seedling that got eated by gnats or something.  i think 'spray and pray' may be the way to go with outdoor plants for me - it seems to work better.

below the hanging baskets, there's a big basket in which i planted the Hollyhock of Doom last year. 



it's not supposed to flower until it's two years old; it flowered within about 3 months of seedlings appearing in late july (seeds planted in march, no lie).  awesome plant.  i planted lupine



behind the 'hock this year,  and also some strawberries



for a low-growing plant.  last year's onion seeds are growing, i think, which is hysterical.  the small strawberry i re-planted in it's pot is still growing also.


the 'front extension'

this year, i decided to extend into the 'front yard' - aka, around the front door of my townhouse apt.  this is a kind of 'overall' picture of what it looks like:



the only thing i still want to buy there is the 2 shepherd's crooks, and i'll hang a couple of wind chimes on them.  because chimes are awesome.  those two plants that  are growing right by the door are a pair of matched rosemary plants:



the mid-high pots



are planted with celosia seeds:



and the lowest pots



are planted with snapdragons:



which are already coming up.  the snapdragon seedlings are why i'm saying i should maybe do spray and pray in the back, too, because i basically took half a pouch of seeds and dumped them in the pot and covered them minimally with dirt.  but maybe it's still not sunny enough in the back.  i don't know.

off to the side in the first picture, you can see this container:



which is graced with my coat-of-arms, should i ever get it registered.  you can't seem them real well, but i've got horse supporters on there in red.  on the back is the motto i picked out, which translates into 'know thyself'.  this container is planted with seed potatoes:



above the pot is a 'fence-basket' thing which is planted with carrots:



(only orange baby carrots, but i love all those colors, don't you?) the second 'fence-basket' thing is planted with parsnips:



below those, i have another pot in which i'm going to plant sweet potatoes,



and that one is decorated with the arms of the barony of axemoor. 



the laurel wreath is dreadful, but the croc came out cool.  the one on the other side has mardi gras beads and a little parade cane. :)  the back of this container has a motto that roughly translates to 'to rise above misfortunes'.  since i came here right after katrina, it really fits how i feel about the place.

i hope you've enjoyed your tour of my garden.  i wish you all could see it up close!

-bs

Comments

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

it's probably my fault - i'll have to fix it at home. i can't always tell at work if the html is wonky, or the pictures are being blocked because they're hosted on the wrong site.

but! thanks for telling me - i wouldn't know, otherwise. :)

-bs