Garden Update

My garden is growing...slowly. We've had unusually cold and wet weather - just like last year. It's enough to make me reconsider building some sort of hoop house to get the plants growing sooner in the spring. (It would allow me to grow during the winter, too.) But I'm still thankful. We've eaten a few strawberries, some lettuce, and some radishes. Peas and blueberries will be next; there are pods everywhere!


 Right up front there, you'll see my struggling collards. Even though I daily hunt for snails and slugs, and the chickens eagerly devour them, they are still trying to eat my garden up! The chicken coop is the building in the background.

The columnar apples. Only one bloomed this year, but it has quite a few baby apples on it. I'm growing lettuce and borage in the pots, too.
A baby apple.
Blue podded peas.

Green beans running down the center. Lettuce alongside. Carrots on the very edges of the bed.
My in-laws bought me two honeyberry plants for Mother's Day. One already has some berries on it!

Kiwi vines, along with miscellaneous ornamentals. If you look close, you can see the chickens having a dust bath under their favorite plant - the California lilac (blue blooms).
Strawberries!
A peek at the front yard. We'd dig up the lawn and plant edibles, but folks around here steal. Still, there is garlic in the pot, and pretty California poppies - plus some sun tea brewing!
Passion flower. I love that this flower was used by missionaries to teach about Christ. Plus is pretty. Plus it sometimes bears edible fruit.
Rose.
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4 comments

  1. Nice! Great looking strawberry bushes!

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  2. Does the kiwi vine grow kiwi? My daughter loves kiwi and when we started our seeds this year she wanted to plant kiwi. Can you grow it here in Oregon?

    Jessie
    http://jessicabates.blogspot.com

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  3. oh, your garden looks promising! :)

    Passion fruit is a wonderful fruit, but I did not know it grows here in the US. As for snails, I heard that you can use ground up eggshells to keep them away. Just crunch used clean eggshells around your plants and it should keep the snails away.

    I am growing strawberries on a strawberry pot... one of those that has many holes. My plants have not produced many strawberries and most of them are tiny and sickly. I wonder what to do??? Do the plants last through winter or they die??

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  4. Jessie, yes, it's an arctic kiwi; there's also a hardy kiwi. Both grow and produce in cooler temperatures.

    Tereza, I've tried eggshells and a whole lot of other things. The only things that really work are using slug and snail bait (like Sluggo) and handpicking. Thankfully, my chickens love both slugs and snails! I'm not a big fan of strawberry pots; in my experience, they just don't give the plant enough room and require constant watering. It's not uncommon to get at least some berries with insect holes; you can try sprinkling slug/snail bait around the berries. If it's birds, put bird netting over the berries. Have you fertilized the berries? Yes, they should survive through the winter.

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