My December garden

We've had a bit of wet and frosty weather lately here in central Oklahoma (US) but this morning is beautiful and I wanted to show some photos of the garden.

One of the things I did over the summer was to block off an area around my Bradford pear to create a partial shade garden. I've scattered quite a few different sorts of seeds here and the parsley seems to be loving it here.

Parsley makes a nice ground cover, although some people think it looks a bit weedy when it flowers. But all parts are edible, and the flower stalks are easy enough to remove if you decide you don't like the look of them. The flowers make a nice addition to floral arrangements.

On the other side of the yard, over by my front porch pond's waterfall, the mint is still going strong after two hard freezes:

Over in the bottom left is garlic, which stays green here all winter, even under snow.

The kale is having a great time through all this, and is one of the highlights of the front garden right now!

I love these colorful kale plants. They're really tasty too!

If you notice, there's a bit of lettuce starting up in that last photo.

Here are some other salad greens starting up too.

I scattered the same seeds all over both of these garden plots, and it's interesting to see where certain ones like to grow. For some reason, arugula likes the area by the rose bush and red yuccas, in the front of the garage. It's still blooming!

I wanted to also tell you some good news: I got an avocado seed to sprout! I have been trying to get one to sprout for several years now, so I'm really excited about this.

I'm pretty sure this wouldn't survive the winter outdoors, but so far it's a beautiful container plant! I plan to re-pot it and put it in the garage with my banana and pineapple plants to overwinter.

What's in the plans for next year? I'd like to do some cover cropping with clover in the front garden plots, and do more plantings in the back yard along the chain link fence. I have quite a bit of corn seed, and it might make a nice privacy screen for the summer. I also have some amaranth I'd like to plant and see how it does here.

How's your garden? You can share your photos here!

Our November ice storm

Well, we had an ice storm overnight (which is fairly unusual for November), and I wanted to show you my yard before it melted.

Hope all of you are having a great weekend!

My August garden

Well, here's my August garden!

It's been unusually wet this summer. The nice thing about that is that everything is growing well (unfortunately, including the weeds!)

I've been working my way through the weeds, though, and I will defeat them!!

I harvested a lot of garlic so far this year, as in a huge bowl of cloves and a huge Rubbermaid canister of bulblets.

The garlic I use on a daily basis fresh, and I dry and grind it for garlic powder. The bulblets are good in winter to use fresh or to ward off colds.

I also toss them around on rainy days to grow more -- the leaves stay green all winter here and are great in salads

We've also given some away to my daughter's boyfriend's family.

I love garlic, and I'm always planting new varieties as I find them.

The mint ...  most of it I dry to use for tea in winter.

I also dry stevia leaves to mix in and it makes a great combination.

During the summer, we make mojitos and use the mint that way too. :)

I'm really happy that I put the mint back there behind the pond.

It's trying, of course, to take over the world (as mint does) but there's not too many places it can go, and it keeps the weeds down, so it's a win-win situation.

I'm a recovering seed hoarder.

This year, I took as many of my old seeds as possible and threw them all over my front garden. I have to admit I had a lot of them.

Several squash came up, and the flowers are really pretty in with my pink, red, and purple color scheme.

The vines make a nice ground cover, and it looks like a few squash may be forming!

I'm looking forward to see which of the many varieties I tossed out there ended up growing.

Some beans are coming up too, which will be nice for a fall harvest.

How's your August garden been? You can share it today if you like!

My June garden

Since we're doing a Four Season Garden contest, I've been showing off my edible garden every month, and I figured I better post June's entry before June got away from me altogether!

June has been mostly hot and humid after all the rain in May, although we did get some rain earlier in the month. My front walk looks quite lush these days, although the whole yard needs a bit of weeding.

The daylilies around the weeping mulberry (aka the "crazy tree") are in bloom, and the kale are doing quite well also.

As you go back towards the house, you see some volunteer kale from the seeds left earlier in the year! I'm really happy about this, because it tells me I'm on the right track here. I would love for my edible plants to naturalize in this garden plot.

My lavender, which had been struggling with all the dampness, is doing much better now that I propped its branches up away from the ground and pulled out all the wet leaves underneath it.

So that's my June garden! If you'd like to share yours, you have today and tomorrow to do so. Just click here to enter!

My May garden

Well, the garden doesn't actually look that bad, considering I was out of town for three weeks and it has apparently been raining almost every day this month. I was able to get these pictures done before it started pouring again.

On one of the few sunny days last week I was able to get some weeding done around the weeping mulberry ... so you can see my kale and daylilies there.

My one hosta which has survived the depredations of the neighborhood cottontail rabbits really enjoys the wet shade under the weeping mulberry.

My ornamental alliums by the mailbox came up! This one is the nicest one, the other one looks sort of unhappy. But I'm just glad to see it :D

I had decided to throw a bunch of lettuce greens in this pot along with some onions. They seem to be the happiest of all my plants, maybe because of the improved drainage.

The dewberries are doing great! Right on time for picking next month.

So that's my front edible May garden. If you'd like to share your garden, come on by!

My edible April garden

Guess what today is, edible landscape artists! The day I show you my April garden. ;)

Our multi-year drought has to be over by now; we've had rain two to three times a week for several weeks now. Which is great for growing!

I am doing much better this year on keeping the weeds down -- I'm going out and pulling weeds every day that we aren't having active thunderstorms.

I also mulched around the ornamental alliums and daylilies by the mailbox (which are beginning to form buds) and put in those pansies which had been languishing in my garage all winter.

My spring greens are doing very nicely.

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)

The honeyberry bushes are also growing well.

Honeyberry (Lonicera caerulea)

I have lots of garlic coming up, and the kale and blackberries have been in bloom for the past couple of weeks. And of course, my strawberry plants are doing fine -- they are just beginning to bud. You see what kind of soil I have -- it rained two days before and it's cracking already.

Strawberry (left) and spinach (center)

Trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata)

My trifoliate orange is making tiny fruits, lots of them!

Speaking of these, I tried making wine from the ripe ones last fall, and it turned out very well -- dry and tangy.

It's getting better the longer I let it sit. I've tried making vinegar, too, but it's stubbornly refusing to turn, even when I put in some mother from my apple cider vinegar (which usually does the trick)!


And the first rosebuds of the year are here! :D

In the back yard, I've planted potatoes again, thwarting the rascals who dig up and eat my potatoes every time I try to plant them by putting them in a cage. They seem to like being in there. :D

I add dirt as they grow, and I'll put more potatoesover in that bare spot as I get more to plant.

I usually plant the eyes off of any of my store bought organic potatoes which begin to sprout, which seems to happen soon after I get them home.

(I have been known to buy bags of potatoes in the grocery store which are already sprouting for this exact purpose, and they do just fine!)

My cherry tree seems to be doing fine, although I don't see any cherries forming. It's supposed to be self-pollinating, so I'm not exactly sure what's going on. But I did read that it would make fruit "in 2-4 years, and I planted it two years ago, so it might just be too small still. I've planted onions and garlic all around it, among other things.

My grapevines, which I thought were dead, have perked up nicely. My mulberry tree has as well (I thought for sure it was dead, as it did nothing last year, not even a leaf!)

Want to show off your April garden? Stop by our April contest page or learn more about the Four Season Garden contest here.

My March garden

Since I'm doing the Four Season Garden contest this year, I'm showing off my garden here in central Oklahoma through the seasons. Here is my March garden!

It was a beautiful day yesterday (and is looking to be one again today!) My husband and daughter are standing on the front porch talking (and probably wondering why I'm across the street taking pictures!)

It tickles me that my yard is greening up, while my neighbors on all sides (who spray, mow, water, and all that) still have brown dormant yards. :)

My honeyberry plants are leafing out nicely!

Honeyberry (Lonicera caerulea)

My daffodils (not edible) out at the street and by my front walk are blooming, and here you can see not only my frostbitten kale, but also some garlic to the lower left and my saffron crocus to the upper left. There's what looks like a bit of lettuce there to the lower right.

Here are a couple more lettuces, by one of my brick "path stones"

Over by my weeping mulberry, my daylilies and strawberries are peeking out:

Want to show off your March garden? There's only a few days left! Visit my March garden page here to share your March edible garden photos.

My edible February garden

The weather was beautiful and warm this weekend (65F/18C), so I thought I might show you my February garden (seeing as I'm running this year round garden contest)

Even though they are most certainly NOT edible, I always love it when my daffodils begin popping up:

You can see a few lettuces that I planted last month beginning to show themselves, along with a purple peacock kale (edible).

Here are a few more lettuces, a wild garlic (to the left) and some assorted weeds (yes, weeds in February!) ...

My honeyberry bushes (Lonicera caerulea) are beginning to leaf out:

And I do have a part of my front yard which isn't either eaten to the ground or wilted from the cold:

There's a pak choi, a couple of red yuccas (not true yuccas and not edible), a row of purple kale (quite edible!), my rose bush, and some other assorted edible greens. The greenery in front of the edging is henbit (Lamium amplexicaule), which is also edible, although considered a weed around here. It has pretty purple flowers in the spring.

Something has been eating my saffron crocuses (whose stamens give you the spice saffron -- these bloom in the fall), but they seem to be happy enough where I've transplanted them.

In the back yard, it's pretty bleak, other than a few early spring weeds here and there, so I'll show you my angora rabbit Shadow, who was happy to get out of her cage and munch on some grass for a change:

Of course, today it's snowing!

I would love to see your February edible gardens! If you'd like to enter my February garden contest, click here.