Tag Archive for: Vegetable Garden

Cats In The Garden

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Do you have cats in your garden? I do. In fact, I have a few cats who love to spend time in the gardens surrounding my house, and none of them belong to me…technically.

Like many neighborhoods, mine has a feral cat population, and we have had cats come and go – we’ve even had kittens born behind my purple lilac vines. As you might expect, I’ve faced some challenges with cats in the garden, but have recently had several triumphs.

my vegetable garden

Several years ago, the number of strays in the neighborhood increased due to our neighbor feeding them and some of them began to use my vegetable garden as their toilet. 

My attempt to solve the problem was to plant the herb rue, which supposedly had cat-repelling properties. The local cats didn’t know that as I kept finding little ‘gifts’ in the vegetable garden.

After the rue didn’t work, I purchased a motion-controlled sprinkler head, which went off whenever the cats got too near, and that worked quite well at keeping them away. However, it also would go off whenever any of us walked too close to the veggies.

So last year, I decided to try a fine mesh garden netting to cover the vegetable garden with excellent results. It also had a welcome side benefit of decreasing caterillars because the moths couldn’t get in to lay their eggs.

My pots were also a make-shift litter box for my furry visitors. However, this was quickly rectified by placing paver stones on the bare spots in-between my plants, and they also served to cool the soil and preserve moisture in the pots.

my sister's cat, 'Scissors.

What is it about cats and pots? This is my sister’s cat, ‘Scissors.’

'roof cats.'

Do you have roof rats? I don’t. I have ‘roof cats.’ Or, cats that like to take refuge underneath my solar panels. Of course, they make sure that I don’t have any rats lurking about.

Cats In The Garden

For the past year, I have three cats who we have adopted. Of course, the cats don’t know that we’ve adopted them. What they do know is that the orange tree is wonderfully shady in the morning, the patio is blessedly cool on a hot summer’s day, and a picnic table is a great spot to gather with your friends. We don’t feed them, but they are healthy and happy.

One of our regulars visiting with our desert tortoise, Aesop.

One of our regulars visiting with our desert tortoise, Aesop.

Our family enjoys watching their antics through the window and allow them to enjoy our garden. I find myself smiling when I view them together. We have three regulars, a red tabby, a black and white cat, and a small black one.

Cats In The Garden

It seems that we’ve come to a compromise – they leave my vegetable garden and pots alone and only occasionally use my rose garden as an emergency pit stop. I must say that the simple pleasure we receive from our ‘adopted’ cats is worth it.

desert tortoise

You would expect that after living in our backyard for two years, Aesop, our desert tortoise, would have discovered all there was to see. However, that wasn’t the case. His curious nature led him over to where I was working to pull out plants in the vegetable garden and to his joy and my dismay, he was able to climb up into it.

Getting out was a little trickier, as you can see in the video below.

Looks like we will need to raise the sides of the garden to keep him from eating the leafy greens.

Aesop, the Desert Tortoise Gets a Bath

September Gardening Tasks

September Gardening Tasks

After a seemingly endless summer, we have finally made it to the finish line.  This is the season where we experience a ‘second spring’ and venture out into the garden again.

citrus fertilized

Soil is ready to be amended, citrus fertilized, and some light pruning can be done.

 September Gardening Tasks, Un-pruned lantana on the left.  Two light pruned lantana are to the right with a pile of clippings

September Gardening Tasks, Un-pruned lantana on the left.  Two light pruned lantana are to the right with a pile of clippings.

September is the gateway to a busy time in the garden, but there are a few things that it is still too early to start on yet.

I’ve made a video of what you should do and shouldn’t do this month:

 
 
 

What is your favorite season of the year?

Easy Garden Project: Create a Hummingbird Haven in a Container

While strolling through the vegetable garden the other morning, pulling out weeds, I spotted a pretty white mystery flower growing on top of a weedy-looking stalk.

Mystery Flower in the Vegetable Garden

I stepped over to take a closer look and scratched my head for a few seconds trying to figure out where this mystery flower came from.

The flower was quite attractive and dainty in appearance.

Mystery Flower in the Vegetable Garden

While the green part of the plant resembled a weed, I noticed that the lower leaves looked much like a type of vegetable I had grown in my garden.  

That is when I remembered where I had seen the flower before.

Mystery Flower in the Vegetable Garden

Mystery Flower in the Vegetable Garden

A few weeks ago, I had asked my daughter to pull out any large radishes, which were too tough to eat.  It looked like she missed one.

If I let the radish flower remain, it will go to seed and new radishes will come up in its place.  However, because the end of radish season is at hand, I will probably collect the seeds to plant in the fall.

For now, I will enjoy the lovely, little flower.

Have you ever seen a mystery flower in your garden?  What was it?

Unexpected Discoveries In A Small Garden

Do your kids beg you to feed them kale or other dark green, leafy vegetables?  

Probably not.

I confess that I don’t particularly like to eat kale when it is in large pieces.  But, after planting it for the first time in my vegetable garden this year, I was determined to learn to enjoy eating this vegetable along with my kids.  The question was how?

dark green, leafy vegetables

I decided to take my freshly picked kale and cut it into narrow strips, about 1/3 of an inch wide.

radishes

I did the same with radishes from the garden since some of my kids don’t like them either

radishes and kale

My idea was to make their individual size smaller and then mix them with other leafy greens, hoping that they could blend in with the rest of the salad.

 leaf lettuce ,  iceberg lettuce , cucumbers ,kale and radishes

Salads in our house consist of leaf lettuce from the garden, a little iceberg lettuce (the kid’s favorite), diced cucumbers and finely chopped kale and radishes.

dark green, leafy vegetables

Once mixed together, the kale, along with the radishes, blends in rather nicely as do their flavors.

So, did it work?  Do my kids now like kale?

Well, earlier this week, I overheard them discussing what we were going to have for dinner and my two youngest kids said, “I love kale and radishes”.

You know what?  So do I.

**Have you ever found a way to get your kids to eat certain foods?  If so, please share your experiences with me 🙂

Winter Garden Harvest: I Never Thought I Would Love Kale!

Where did you learn about gardening? 

I have shared about learning to garden as a young child when my dad gave me my own little plot of land and let me plant whatever I wanted.

Later, I learned more about gardening in school.  It was an elective gardening class and it was one of my favorites. 

So last fall, when I was asked to visit and help out the Johnson Elementary School Garden Club.  Of course, I said “yes”.

Johnson Elementary School Garden Club

As I walked into the school, I spotted a greenhouse and rain barrel sitting in the courtyard.     I was getting excited to see what else they had and wondered how I could help.

vegetable beds

Farther in, I saw raised vegetable beds, which were implementing the ‘square-foot’ gardening method for growing vegetables.  

Once I arrived at the classroom where the gardening club met, I was greeted by several teachers and the students themselves.  This is an after school club that is made up of 5th and 6th graders.  It is a very popular club as was evident by the filled classroom.  

I was asked to talk with the students and was then taken around to see even more of what they were learning about.

aquaponic garden

I was blown away by their aquaponic garden and grow light set up.    

After viewing the classroom, our next stop was a prospective area where they wanted to grow vegetables, which they called “The Back Forty Garden”.  

A Bountiful School Garden

Along the wall that bordered the school, was a raised bed.  Their question for me was how and if they could grow vegetables in this area.  

The answer was “yes”, but there were some challenges to deal with.  

First, there was no irrigation, so drip irrigation would have to be added.  The second challenge was that this wall faced west, so growing vegetables in summer would be almost impossible without shade cloth.  But, growing vegetables fall, winter and spring would be fine.  

I talked about how to amend the soil with compost, composted steer manure, blood and bone meal.  I gave them information on what vegetables to plant and when.   Fast forward 6 months later and I received a very nice email along with photos of the new vegetable garden.

Johnson Elementary School Garden Club

I love the painted mural, don’t you?

variety of vegetables

As you can see, a variety of vegetables were planted along the long length.  Wouldn’t you love a garden space this big?

A Bountiful School Garden

The kids planted the vegetables and later harvested them.  Each kid got to take home some of the bounty.

Garden Club at Johnson Elementary School in Mesa, Arizona

Look at these proud faces!  

School gardens are a great resouce as they teach kids about the environment and nature.  Most of all, it can inspire a lifelong passion for gardening.    

I wonder how many of the kids in this photo will have vegetable gardens of their own when they are grown up?  Once you get a small taste of growing your own vegetables, it’s hard to stop.  

The teachers who work with the Garden Club at Johnson Elementary School in Mesa, Arizona are wonderful people with a passion for teaching and gardening.  

What a perfect combination!

What do you have growing in your vegetable garden?

I have three separate gardens where I grow vegetables, but they aren’t the only thing that is growing in the rich, moist soil.

Red Poppies

Red Poppies

There are also red poppies present alongside the Swiss chard and leaf lettuce.  

Red Poppies grow among the vegetables.

It all started 4 years ago with a packet of red poppy seeds.  

Thereafter, every year a new crop of poppies grows among the vegetables.  

grow among the vegetables.

Poppies aren’t the only flowers that come up each year on their own – blue lobelia, marigolds, and nasturtiums always make their presence known every spring.  

For this of you who enjoy colorful annuals, how about giving them some space in your vegetable garden?  It has everything they need – fertile soil and water.  

Do you have anything else growing in your edible garden?  What flower would you add?

pruning apple trees

Yesterday, I spent the morning on the family farm pruning apple trees.

It was a nice break from a very busy week of landscape consulting and I was looking forward to spending time with my mother, who resides on Double S Farms with my youngest sister and her family.

pruning apple trees

The sun was rising up in the sky and the day promised warm temperatures in the upper 70’s with our unseasonably warm winter.

Now at this point, you may be noticing that the trees were already in flower and that we were getting to pruning them a bit late in the season.  Ideally fruit trees are pruned just before the buds begin to open.

But, even though we were pruning them late, it won’t make a huge difference and will improve the size and quality of our apple crop.  

pruning apple trees

 You’ll notice that the apple trees are located behind a wire fence. Well, there is a good reason for that…

Sodapop and Johnny

And their names are Sodapop and Johnny.

Soda is the daughter of our dog Missy, who passed away last year at the age of 13.

Johnny is a 3-legged doberman rescue dog who is so friendly and exuberant.

You see, the dogs love to eat the apples from the trees. Especially Soda who does her best to reach them up high.

You can read about Soda’s previous exploits here.

The problem is that the seeds of apples contain small amounts of cyanide and if dogs consume too many, they can have problems. So the fence is up, much to the dismay of Soda and Johnny.

Pruning trees

Pruning trees is one of my favorite things to do and although as a certified arborist, I talk to my clients a lot about trees, I don’t prune their trees. Instead I give them advice on how to prune them their selves or refer them to a certified arborist company who does it for them. So, my tree pruning is primarily focused on my own and my family’s.

Armed with a pair of loppers, hand pruners and a pruning saw, I took a moment before beginning to smell the sweet fragrance of the apple blossoms.  

Pruning trees

In the midst of our pruning, my granddaughter, Lily, showed up.  She proved to be a good helper and moved the small branches into a pile.

We focused on cleaning out the interior branches, which are hard to get pick apples from.  In addition, we also pruned off some of the taller branches so that come apple-picking time, we could more easily reach them. Once we finished, we had pruned away a quarter of the tree, which will allow it to focus its resources on growing the remaining flowers, which will turn into apples.

For info on how we have pruned fruit trees in the past, click here.

Pruning trees

My mother took a few of the cut branches and brought them inside and put them in a vase where they will offer beauty and fragrance indoors for a few days.

delicious vegetables

Now it was time to turn our attention to the vegetable gardens. My mother has two large, raised beds where she grows a variety of delicious vegetables.

Lily wanted to feed the chickens some lettuce from the garden.

Double S Farms

The resident chickens of Double S Farms, love lettuce.

cabbage

Next, great-grandma needed Lily’s help to pick a cabbage from the garden. It was huge!  I only wish that I liked cabbage.

I asked my mother how she uses it and she told me that she uses it in soups, but blends it ahead of time so no one knows that it is in there.

chickens

Lily wondered if the chickens would like cabbage and it turned out that they liked it better than the lettuce.

smelling their fragrance.

Before leaving the gardens, Lily had to pick a flower.  Like many little girls, she loves flowers and carries them around smelling their fragrance.

The white petunias belong to Finley, my nephew, who gets a small plot in the vegetable gardens to plant what he likes.

pruning tree

As we got ready to leave, I noticed a beautiful, little bouquet made up of petunias on the kitchen table. Who knew that petunias could make such a sweet bouquet?

Visits to the family farm are always refreshing and it was great to enjoy a morning out in the sunshine gardening.

Have you ever visited a community garden?  

I had the opportunity to help create a community garden with some very special friends in Miami, Florida.

Me (Noelle Johnson), Matt Mattus, Helen Yoest, Amy Andrychowicz, Steve Asbell and Dave Townsend - the 'Saturday6'

Me (Noelle Johnson), Matt Mattus, Helen Yoest, Amy Andrychowicz, Steve Asbell and Dave Townsend – the ‘Saturday6’

So, who are these special friends?

They are garden bloggers, like me and we’ve been brought together through our partnership with the folks at Troy-Bilt. We came from all over the United States and came together to work with the folks at a service project in Miami.

Community Garden

As part of our partnership, we share our gardening knowledge via Troybilt’s gardening newsletter – ‘The Dirt’, Facebook and Twitter.  We also create how-to videos and test Troybilt equipment and offer our honest opinions.

This year, we were invited by Troybilt to help create a community garden as part of their continuing efforts to give back to the community.  

Vizcaya Museum & Gardens

The day we all arrived in Miami, we had the opportunity to tour the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, which you can read about here.  

The next morning, we all gathered on a vacant lot in the Perrine Neighborhood in Miami.

Community Garden

The local dry cleaner allowed the property adjacent to their store to be used for this inner-city community garden.

Creating a Community Garden In a Tropical Place...

We were excited to be creating an edible garden for the surrounding neighborhood.

Imagine six gardeners together, trying to plan out a community garden.  Believe it or not, it all went smoothly and we all agreed on a plan as to where to put the raised beds and what size they should be.

Creating a Community Garden In a Tropical Place...

We measured out the placement for the beds with assistance from the folks at Troybilt and the Miami chapter of “Keep America Beautiful“.

Creating a Community Garden In a Tropical Place...

The surrounding community was very excited about the garden.  We were happy to meet the Perrine neighborhood community activist, Ms. Townsend who would help to distribute the produce from the garden.

Steve Asbell (The Rainforest Gardener), took time to talk with her about the different vegetables and flowers that we would be planting in the garden.

Creating a Community Garden In a Tropical Place...

Ms. Townsend, was very interested in learning about the plants and seeds we would be planting.  She listened carefully when Matt Mattus (Growing With Plantsexplained to her how the seeds would grow.

*This special lady takes care of those in her neighborhood, including picking up day-old bread from the local supermarket, putting it in her car trunk and then delivers it to those in need.

Creating a Community Garden In a Tropical Place...

Once the outlines were painted, we used cement block to create the sides of the of the beds.

You may wonder why we put cardboard on the bottom of the garden beds. Well, the cardboard will form a nice barrier to keep the grass from growing through and will also serve to ‘smother’ the grass.

Initially, we had discussed planting some fruit trees alongside the raised vegetable beds, but we ran into a little problem with that plan…  

Creating a Community Garden In a Tropical Place...

Limestone rock lay right underneath the grass, making digging all but impossible.

Creating a Community Garden In a Tropical Place...

We filled the beds with topsoil and aged steer manure in alternating layers.

Community Garden

Troybilt supplied us with the necessary garden equipment including a cultivator, which we used to help mix the layers of topsoil and manure together.

vegetable gardens

I have a smaller cultivator that attaches to my Troybilt string trimmer that I like to use in my vegetable gardens.

You can read more about my gardening adventures with my Troybilt cultivator, here.

Community Garden

Amy Andrychowicz (Get Busy Gardening) and Dave Townsend (Growing the Home Garden) raked the soil smooth while Helen Yoest (Gardening With Confidence) filled the holes of the cement block with soil for planting.

Community members posing for a picture with a Troybilt representative

Community members posing for a picture with a Troybilt representative.

Members of the community came out to watch our progress, including the neighborhood police officer.

Creating a Community Garden In a Tropical Place...

We took a quick break for lunch then took a picture with people from the neighborhood, Troybilt, Keep America Beautiful and officials from the Human Services Department who were on hand.

Local Master Gardener, Sheila Martinez, assists Dave Townsend with planting

Local Master Gardener, Sheila Martinez, assists Dave Townsend with planting.

After lunch it was time for my favorite part – planting!

Sheila Martinez, a local Master Gardener, assisted us throughout the day and will be in charge of caring for the garden.

Community Garden

I had fun planting the first bed with tomatoes and herbs including flat-leaf parsley, purple basil and rosemary.

Other beds included strawberries, peppers, leaf lettuce, collard greens and onions.  Beans were planted from seed.

Community Garden

The holes in the cement block was filled with soil so that we could add companion plants, which help to attract pollinators as well as repel bad bugs from damaging the vegetables.

To that end, we planted sage, basil, green onions and marigolds in the holes, which will not only help to protect the edible plants but also add beauty to each garden.

Community Garden

 After a productive day in the garden, we were tired but happy with all we had accomplished.

This is the second year that we have all been part of the Saturday6.  Imagine how much fun six garden bloggers have when they get together!

Last year we all met in Arizona and enjoyed a great time, which you can read about here.

I am so grateful to be a part of this group of great people and the opportunity to work with Troybilt again.  I will be reviewing another piece of Troybilt equipment this year and giving one away, so stay tuned!

In the past, I have shown parts of my garden, but never a comprehensive look.  So, I thought I would share with you a more comprehensive look at my garden.

First, I’d like to show you my newest part of my garden, which is located on the side of my house – just outside of my kitchen window.  

This part of the garden is looking remarkably good considering that it is still winter.  For those of us who are fortunate to live in the Southwest, we didn’t really experience much of a winter this year.

In fact, I recall only 1 week of freezing temps and that happened back in December.

My Spring Garden in Winter

My Spring Garden in Winter

This is the largest of my three vegetable gardens.  It is hard to believe that it didn’t exist 2 years ago.

I had always dreamed of having a nice side garden and because ours is rather large, there were many possibilities.  So, we decided to create an edible garden in this area.

You can read our planting journey, here.

This year, I planted Swiss chard for the first time and don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner – I love this plant!

Well, I don’t really like it cooked (but I’m weird that way).  I do like to use it in salads along with leaf lettuce.  My kids even eat it!

I think it also looks really pretty too with its brightly-colored stems.

In the corner, is my single artichoke plant.

My Spring Garden in Winter

My Spring Garden in Winter

It was about 6 inches high when I planted it last fall.  Needless to say, it has grown so fast.  I can’t wait to see the artichoke buds (the part you eat) begin to form.

I will harvest some of the artichokes, but also plan to allow some to turn into flowers, which are beautiful and fragrant.

I like the idea of using artichokes as ornamental plants as well as for eating.  

vegetable garden

In the center of this vegetable garden sits a stump from a eucalyptus tree that we had to cut down to make space for this particular garden.

An old watering can sits onto of the stump and I fill it with cool-season annuals.  This year it is purple violas and alyssum.

In summer, the watering can sits empty, because it is too hot for plants to grow in it.  Roots will literally ‘cook’ in small containers during the summer.  I think it looks just fine without plants for part of the year.

My Spring Garden in Winter

The second crop of radishes of the season are just beginning to come up.  There is still time to plant radishes before it gets too hot.

apple trees

Behind the vegetable garden are two apple trees.  They are growing so well during their first year.  I will have to wait a couple more years before I get any apples, so I’m trying to be patient.

I planted garlic around the base, in order to help keep borers away.

Not shown – behind the apple trees are blackberry bushes.  I had a great crop of last spring.  I plan on making blackberry jam this year!  

'Pink Beauty' (Eremophila laanii)

Along the garden wall is one of my favorite shrubs called ‘Pink Beauty’ (Eremophila laanii), which is evergreen in my zone 9a garden and has pink flowers in winter and spring.

It rarely needs pruning as long as it has enough room to grow – mine stands at 9 feet tall.

Next to is Pink Trumpet Vine and Yellow Bells shrubs, which serve two purposes.  The first, is that the cover up an ugly, bare wall.  Second, they help to cool the garden down because the shrubs keep the wall from re-radiating heat that it absorbs in the day.

My Spring Garden in Winter

The buds on my peach tree have not begun to swell yet, but it is just a matter of time.

covered in blossoms

My other peach tree is covered in blossoms.  Planted just last winter, it produced 19 peaches for me last year.

My Spring Garden in Winter

My herb container sits in front of the vegetable garden and is filled with lovely, purple petunias.  I like to add flowers to my herb pots for an extra splash of color.

My Spring Garden in Winter

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my side garden.

Next time, I will show you the main part of my backyard and maybe a peek at the ‘other’ side yard, which I never show anyone.

What is growing in your garden this February?

I’d love to hear about it.