Faire le jardin

All about my gardening adventures in the south.

[fairelejardin]

I haven't kept up with this tumblr much this year but no worries, things are going well :)

[smart-gardener]

Did you know there are more than 100 varieties of zucchini grown today, ranging in color from gray-green to almost black and in shape from long and thin as a hot dog to bulbous? With so many to choose from how do you decide what kind to grow? It depends on how you’re going to use them. This article from the LA Times has some great advice (as good recipes): Choose the best zucchini for the job, and 12 recipes for using them: http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-buy-this-now-zucchini-20140702-story.html http://click-to-read-mo.re/p/8be3/53110fc7

[callikate-deactivated20140627]

(via Wire word garden / vegetable marker by bopPOWER on Etsy)

[smart-gardener]

OK, this might actually be the coolest plant marker we’ve seen in a long while.

[samthecook]

Blueberries in Bloom.

Bare root blueberries like the acidic soil underneath the pine trees.

[smart-gardener]

Yes! We’ve always recommended people add pine needle mulch to their blueberries! You’re just doing it the all-natural way!

[illkissyoubetweentheears]

Spotted in Mountain View, CA

[unicorn-meat-is-too-mainstream]

Osiria Rose has a lovely two color combination of blood-red petals on the inside and silvery white on the outside

[the--galway-girl-deactivated202]

This is the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

[capitalk-blog]

I really dislike roses in general but this is so beautiful!

[themudsweatandbeers]

Plus we planted some strawberries in hanging baskets.

[smart-gardener]

I’ve always loved this way of planting strawberries! They’re so lovely when the fill out and the berries are ripening.

[fairelejardin]

2014

This morning I drove by a store and saw they were beginning to put out the gardening supplies, and even some plants. It seems a little early for plants (and it's 48 here this morning), but it got me excited for the 2014 gardening season. We should be able to start prep and maybe even early planting sometime in March.

[toddsseeds-blog]

Microgreens are delicious, healthy, and easy to grow. Learn the difference between sprouts and microgreens how to grow microgreens.

[hannah-rosengren]

Plant These To Help Save Bees: 21 Bee-Friendly Plants. Learn more here!

Hannah Rosengren 2013

[jackassgardener]

It rhymes! How can you forget! Also do things like not remove all your leaf litter and plant lots of natives. Yay!

[homesteaddreams]

[fairelejardin]

Good idea for the chicken egg shells once we've eaten the eggs

[sharikasman]

Those are the four sweet potato slips that went in the ground. Look at all those roots! On the left is my sweet potato that’s still growing new slips. A few days after planting these, two more slips were ready to plant. One went in my garden, and the other went in my neighbour’s garden. That means I have five sweet potato plants in my garden. Isn’t this exciting? Don’t you love hearing about my sweet potato progress?

[smart-gardener]

Very nice looking slips! Aren’t they super easy to propagate?! Sometimes the hardest part is simply figuring out where you’re going to grow them.

[fairelejardin]

I have pomegranates all over my tree this year :) This is just a fraction of them.

[fairelejardin]

New eggplants I found growing last week and this week.

[fairelejardin]

Our two new hens (the black and white ones) and an egg one of them laid last week.

[cutebugs]

BEES ARE DYING AND YOU SHOULD BE VERY CONCERNED Barely two weeks after 25,000 bees were found dead in a parking lot in Oregon, another round of bee devastation has been reported. This time, the mass die-off was far worse. More than 37 million honeybees were found dead in Elmwood, Ontario, according to beekeeper Dave Schuit, who lost the bees from 600 hives in June. He and many others are pointing to insecticides called neonicotinoids, used in planting corn and some other crops. “Once the corn started to get planted [in Elmwood] our bees died by the millions," Schuit said. After a record-breaking loss of honeybees in the U.K., the European Union banned several pesticides in May, including neonicotinoid pesticides. [Source]

WHY WE NEED TO BAN NEONICOTINOIDS AND SAVE BEES (VIDEO)

poisoning bees can also kill

birds

plants

the honey industry

us, eventually, because we are apex predators and poison travels up the food chain

One in five British children under the age of 10 has never seen a bee in the wild.

HELP SAVE BEES

1  Stop using insecticides   2   Plant Bee-friendly plants  3   Create natural habitat gardens   4   Find out more about bees  5   Support your local beekeepers   6   Make you own ‘Wild bee’ house   7   Become a beekeeper   8   Lobby your local MP or MEP   9   Sign petitions banning pesticides   10 Encourage your local authority to do more to help bees

[nyackbackyard]

Important

[fairelejardin]

This is important stuff. We NEED bees.  I'm considering trying to bee keep when we move out to our farm house...

[riverlandfarm]

Now that it is officially summer, we move into the warm season which brings on pests, weeds, and for some of us, triple digit temps making garden work  most unpleasant.

If you can manage to power through however, here in our zone 6b(ish) garden there are a few crops that can be planted later on in the season rewarding you with a late summer/early fall harvest.

Pole beans, pumpkins and winter squash can be planted in mid July.  You can also continue to plant your summer squash as well.

If the pests got a hold of your tomatoes and peppers, you can replant these  in mid-July.  Note that you will need to either start your own transplants or be able to get a hold of some you can purchase.

Broccoli, brussels sprouts, and carrots can be planted from mid July to mid August. Carrots should be directly seeded, but as with the tomatoes and peppers you’ll need to set out broccoli and ‘sprouts transplants.

Speaking of transplants here is some info on what you would need to get them started andhere is some info on hardening them off.

If you want cut flowers for the table consider starting some zinnias and sunflowers!  Both of these are easy to grow and can be sown directly in the garden.

And for your late summer salsa…cilantro can be sown again from mid July to mid August. 

[fairelejardin]

This probably wont work quite so well for me down here, as mid summer is basically hot as hell, but it will be good for nearing the fall.