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Saturday, June 9, 2012

What’s in Grenville’s Garden?

This is where Grenville’s greenhouse once stood. It’s shown below in its new location. As part of our home (and yard) downsizing, it was sold in Feb. to our friend, Matt, who is putting it to great use.

greenhouse relocate (1)

Grenville’s plan was to plant the F&P’s 2012 veggie garden in the footprint of the greenhouse. Here’s HOW it’s doing as of this week.veggies0608 (3)As you can see, it’s watched over by 2 “guard” flamingoes. They work cheaply and are doing a great job cause no predators have been spotted foraging in the garden.

veggie garden0513In previous years, since relocating to VA from NJ, we’ve had large vegetable gardens that included corn, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, beans, eggplant, zucchini, squash, peppers. Not only was it a lot of work, but we had too much, too soon some weeks, There were lots ofIMG_6622 giveaways, freezing and baking. Last July featured our great veggie giveaway as we transported bags of veggies to NJ, PA and RI — we had a LOT of excess fresh veggies that wouldn’t keep took a July road trip to meet our new granddaughter Elizabeth. (YIKES, it’s almost been a year, soon we’ll celebrate her 1sy birthday with another road trip!) 

Grenville’s plan this year was to keep the veggie garden not only simple, but closer to the house. It’s been a LOT less work weeding and watering. We expect to have enough fresh veggies to keep us supplied with salad fixings and side dishes this summer.

The oregano and basil will taste great in fresh tomato salads.

herbs collageGrenville’s already looking forward to the first red tomatoes . . .

tomato collage2They will go well with salad accompaniments of cukes & peppers . . .cuke collagepepper collage2The beans are climbing their poles and the lone eggplant already has a couple of flowers.beans-eggplant collageWe’re hoping to be able to sample some of the garden output BEFORE the next road trip coming up in mid-July. And, maybe we’ll be transporting more garden giveaways, just not as many this time.

9 comments:

L. D. said...

Your veggie garden looks great. I can see maybe a downsize going on here but there is still a lot of great garden there.

Anvilcloud said...

Oh yeah? So this is what a minimal, reduced-in-size garden looks like? Looks big and overwhelming to me.

Anonymous said...

Looks great!
It has been so cold here lately that my tomato and paprika plants doesn't grow at all and even the winter squash seems to hold its breath waiting for warmer weather. I doubt I'll get especially much of anything even if the heat would come soon :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

Hey guys,
Thanks for the encouraging thoughts. At just 8 ft x 10ft it is so much more manageable then the usual 75'x125'. Of course it is a real bear making turns in the with the tractor :-)
Grenville

MadSnapper said...

the garden looks just the right size and i like the path through it. yum on that cucumber

Lois Evensen said...

Makes sense to me to grow what you need. You'll surely still have some to give away. :) Grenville has a very green thumb!

Sweet Virginia Breeze said...

Your garden looks great! I've gotten tomatoes already, but no cucumbers. If we don't get rain soon, we won't get enough for the two of us to eat. I water almost every night, but that just keeps it alive.

Elaine said...

Your garden is looking good. Those guard flamingos must be doing a good job keeping the pests out.

Connie said...

Everything looks great. Downsizing the garden sounds like a good idea. You hate to grow more than you can use and have it go to waste.