Design

We've had a lot of fun creating garden space in our "low-maintenance" landscape in the mountains. sedum beds, perennial meadow, and raised beds for vegetables Hmm. We couldn't help but plant natives below the slope, establish raised beds for my vegetables, and work on a meadow/perennial bed in front (not to mention the sedum bed, hemlocks, rhododendrons, and others).  It's becoming a landscape that's fun and rewarding.

The Swiss chard is doing great -- I harvested another large bunch this evening along with a good-sized handful of arugula. The front raised beds are looking good, too; I've packed them with vegetables and herbs, so will need to be attentive to extra nutrient additions, in spite of their excellent soil (aka compost). The various beans are growing well, and I'm going to plant some Asian winged beans (soaking now) on another trellis (hmm, I need to find room for it) tomorrow. Amazingly, a flat of spinach seedlings is looking quite nice. I'll have to find a shady place to put it, since some hot weather is on the way.

I find growing plants to be a wonderfully satisfying endeavor -- from vegetables to natives. It makes a difference for me, to feel like I'm restoring habitat and growing food. I was reminded looking at some past photos, about the growth we've had in our raised beds here in the mountains. I guess the raised beds are really 'mine', but we both built the beds, and both of us filled them with compost! Not an insignificant thing. Everything is growing well, and I (ruthlessly) pruned the very robust tomatoes, and hopefully trained them up through the tomato cages or supports with ties, in some sort of proper manner this afternoon. Hmm, I've not trained (or pruned) tomatoes before, but I know it's a good practice. Check out some of the videos online (Fine Gardening and Johnny's Seeds) have nice ones.