Urning For The Garden And More
My farm crew has been working tirelessly, trying to keep up with all of the chores. We've had so much rainy weather and everything is growing like crazy. There is so much mowing, weeding, and planting to be done. After viewing these photos, I think you'll understand why I called this blog Urning For The Garden.
1 The vegetable garden continues to grow beautifully in its new location. In this corner are all of the brassicas, like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.
2 The cabbage heads are forming nicely. This one is Jersey Wakefield, a favorite for US gardeners since the 1840s. It quickly produces large, dense heads that have a sweet flavor, making it a popular cabbage for coleslaw.
3 This rather pretty cabbage is called Super Red. It forms dark red 3-5 lb. heads that have a tender and crisp texture and a slightly peppery taste.
5 Do you know why these leaves are clipped? This is a cauliflower plant and to keep the heads nice and white and to prevent them from developing an off flavor, the leaves are folded up and over the cauliflower head and fastened in order to protect it from sunburn.
7 This quadrant of the vegetable garden is where many varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are to be planted. To help prevent weeds, the raised beds were shrouded with sheets of black plastic mulch.
10 Because tomatoes need to be planted deep, Wilmer used a bulb planting tool to remove the soil. The soil was transferred to the black bucket.
11 When the hole was deep enough, the tomato plant was lowered into it and the hole was filled in with the reserved soil.
12 Any branches below the soil line were gently removed with clippers. Tomatoes are planted deep to encourage extra roots to sprout along the buried stem. Extra roots strengthen the plant so that it can support more fruit and make it better able to survive hot weather.
13 After the tomatoes, Wilmer moved on to the eggplants and peppers. Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers have similar growing requirements, so it makes sense to partner them in the garden.
17 Peppers are in the Capsicum family and as I have mentioned, we grow many varieties both sweet and hot.
18 One rainy afternoon, Ryan planted several iron urns to adorn the property. He always starts the container planting process by placing a shard of pottery over the drain holes to prevent the soil from draining out.
21 These are the fill-in plants: Pilea glauca, 3 kinds of oxalix - Sunset Velvet, Zinfandel, and Triangularis - and lysimachia
22 Ryan grew this matching pair of agaves from tiny pups off the parent plant. They've grown nicely!
24 To plant with the agave, Ryan chose Pilea glauca 'Aquamarine', whose matted trailing leaves spill and tumble over the edge of containers. It also crawls as a groundcover.
29 Ryan rooted the dichondra that he planted around this agave. Dichondra has elegant silver foliage and a wonderful trailing habit.
30 Wilmer then planted elephant ear Black Magic in an upright urn and surrounded it with Lysimachia, or golden creeping Jenny, a low-growing, evergreen groundcover with golden-yellow leaves, making for a very nice contrast.
32 He surrounded this agave with oxalis variegata 'Sunset Velvet', which has orange yellow leaves on compact plants that bear yellow flowers.
39 You may wonder how all of those heavy urns are set in place. It takes man-power and good transport, like this dump truck.
45 Because I have such a large collection of tropical plants, it takes many trips to the tropical greenhouse.
51 Ryan spent part of yesterday morning planting the herb garden on the terrace. Over the winter, he sprouted sage, thyme, chives, basil, and more.
59 Also called field poppy, Flanders field poppy, and Shirley poppy, they are delightful in the garden with their delicate tissue-paper blossoms.











































































