edible landscapes

Really hard for me to decide what forum to put this on....its hard for me to isolate pictures of just say "tomatoes" or "peppers" or "beans" without showing a holistic picture of the entire garden because that is how it works. So if you like diversification, you might enjoy this thread (and if your computer loads pics fast...LOL). Here is sort of a "garden tour" beginning with the back gate.
Here's pole beans "Fortex" against the fence and bush beans "Xera" in the front. Two peppers Goliath (back) and Orange Sunshine (front). If you look carefully in the upper left corner, you will spot a peach hanging over the fence.

All of these pictures were taken today...I'll update in June and I'm sure it will all be a "jungle" by then....then the "big bad heat" sets in and we'll see what a survivor is then.....

This message was edited Apr 16, 2006 11:44 AM

As you go thru the back fence, this peach hits you in the face. It's a variety called "Floridays" from edible landscapes...the tree is about 8 years old.

Then most of the herbs are in pots under the peach tree because they will take over the planet down here and they hate full sun in the summer.....garlics (mostly creole red, burgundy creole, and Ajo Rojo Creole), dill (fernleaf), parsley (single Itlaian plain leaf, and dark curled), bronze fennel, thyme, rosemary, basil (lemon, lime, genovese, minette). The dill, bronze fennel, and parsley are mainly just to attracts "cats" and will probably die down soon until next fall. Cilantro is already history.

Then thru the east gate covered by a chinese wisteria you find a small live oak tree, heirloom daylillies (not blooming yet), Louisiana irises (already bloomed), cuphea (cigar plant-cuphea micropetala), 5 tomato plants on spirals (2 hard rock, 1 black prince, 1 sun sugar, and a goliath in the rear). That's a large russelia equisetiformis blooming red on the left.

Here's the fruit set on the hard rock...looks pretty "blocky"...hope it doesn't taste like a rock!

And a close up of these tomatoes with goliath in the background.

fruit set on the goliath tomato

Turning directly north from those tomatoes you will find this bed of Burgundy red garlic (badly in need of weeding!) and a small native vitex tree.

That's a very ugly compost pile to the right and bags of leaves to add to the mulch.

This message was edited Apr 16, 2006 12:23 PM

What that giant red blooming russelia is hiding is this bed as you turn west from the last shot. This is my "problem child" bed (everyone's got one right?LOL) which badly needs weeding. This bed has the poorest, driest soil in the entire garden because it has NOT been heavily mulched as the rest of the garden is. That's because I have yet to figure out how to get bush beans to come up thru 12" of mulch.

This bed contains rudbeckias "Hot Chocolate" and these transplants have only been in the ground about a month, an heirloom daylilly, oxblood lillies (Rhodophiala bifida) a rather rare and valuable heirloom bulb around here (in the pot), small cucumbers "Diva", alot of Festina bush beans, garlic (burgundy creole), 2 tomatoes in the rear (goliath and solar set), and a lattice with a rangoon creeper vine. Also there is a "useless" plum tree providing some shade until a smaller live oak gets bigger and the russelia--which is the "toughest" plant on the planet, I swear.

A bit closer and better (without so many weeds).

Now closer to that lattice is 2 tomatoes (Solar Set and Goliath--in the rear) and a Park's Creamy Improved II Hybrid squash with a bad case of powdery mildew or something....so much for their claim of being "highly resistant to squash mosiac" whatever that means...I'm all organic here so I'm not going to fret over one squash plant--I'll just yank it out and plant something else there! That's a rangoon creeper on the lattice--definitely a tropical plant but I've managed to get it thru its first winter--with 18" of mulch.....

fruit set on solar set

Now what that lattice is concealing is my main tomato room....contains 3 jubilee (in the rear), an azoychka, a huge green zebra, and a black prince. Rangoon creeper on the left, sweet peas on the left which are really shot from the heat but I'm saving the seeds. They will be replaced by either green beans (pole) or cucumbers in about 3 weeks. More bags of leaves which are going in about where they are. To the left of the sweet peas is an area that I'm getting out there this afternoon and putting in more pole beans and cucumbers. There is also 3 "pitifully small peppers" just planted last week "swallowed" by the heavy mulch (1 orange sunshine, 1 Banana Bill, and a yellow bell--that's all the tag said--a friend brought me this one home--so I "have" to grow it--lest I hurt his feelings--LOL). And to the left is a clerendendrum ugandenses just getting going good, it freezes back to the ground level every year, but will grow 9' and shade those peppers in late summer (which is very necessary down here).

Here's an azoychka tomato from the "room"

Here's some squash in front of those tomatoes....look alot better; they are "Fancycrook Hybrid" from totally tomatoes....just gotta decide which ones to yank. I successive sow squash and cucmbers about every three weeks thru the end of September which probably explains why I don't fret over one squash plant with powdery mildew or whatever it has...

This is my first year growing green zebra...it's a giant plant...I will remember that next year....fruit set has been slow on it but it now has about a dozen dime sized fruits.

Looking westward...here are the 3 peppers and the banana bill already has fruit set. In the back are hollyhocks, which never seem to bloom for me until May, no matter what I do. I grow these as biennials, a rather tough plant to grow down here, gotta put seedlings out in August and "baby and coddle" them while they sulk thru the heat of Sept and take off like a train with no brakes from Nov on.

Banana Bill close up

Over the hollyhocks lies these two peppers (goliath) which have been in the ground since 3/11 but they are right up against a west fence (8') and a south fence (3'). Peppers need afternoon shade down here from July-Sept which makes them have a slow star but they don't have to be replaced by a fall crop later.

The "suspicious" looking plants are not what you might think...they are a native Texas Star Hibiscus (not blooming) yet.

A hunter in the hollyhocks....

Through the west gate...those peppers a little closer up. Mixed in here are zinnias, Tx Star hibiscus, native yellow Texas columbines, rudbeckias (which I've found a niche for pics to add to the plant files).

Here's all what's from the other side of the gate from another perspective. This bed is only 1 and a half years old.

That last shot was two weeks ago...here's one from today. This bed contains nothing edible (unless its there and I don't see it). This front bed (in front of a 3' fence) is only a year and a half old while the back is 12 years old. This is a more panoramic shot containing:
2 small cypress trees, a small tecoma stans (native esperanza or yellow bells), small red oak (on the left), lantana, native yellow columbines, a spattering of zinnias, blackberry lillies, and rudbeckias. And a zillion native fall blooming asters.

And, oh yes, my resident guardian gargoyle of the garden.

Now, about this point in time, if your still with this thread: you might be asking yourself why I did this. Well folks on the tomato forum want to know why I don't have ripe tomatoes? Folks on the Texas forum want to know why I don't just have Texas natives? Why vegetables? Why don't you spray with every chemical known to man?

Because the landscape works as a whole and I don't think I need pesticides and fungicides. I do fertilize with bat guano (when I transplant), seaweed and fish emulsion, and I mulch (sheet compost) like there's no tomorrow. In fact I spend 90% of the time mulching, works down here, it works. I may not have ripe tomatoes yet but I sure have ripe peaches. And my garden works nearly year round...
Debbie

This message was edited Apr 16, 2006 1:59 PM

Wow, that's awesome Debbie ! !!!! I love it ! I'm a real practical kind of gal, and if it looks that pretty and you can eat it too, ...........that's a double bonus as far as I'm concerned ! Thanks for sharing all the pics.

Still a little early here, but you've given me lots of inspiration to get after it ASAP. Thanks again. !!!!!!!!

D, thoroughly enjoyed that initial tour; will prob take it many times over. KR

I loved taking the tour.
Thanks

Really lovely. How many hours a week does that take, Debbie?

Zeppy--the deeper the mulch....the less hours work! LOL
Kinda fluctuates...has slowed down lately but I need to get out there and get more pole beans, melons, and cukes going

thanks downscale, Kr, and Peggy

Debbie

Thanks for the tour, Debbie. I raise some Goliaths too.

Wow.................pretty impressive..................I actually learned something from the tour...........I want to put in a herb garden, and I liked the way you did yours..............my I copy your idea??..........Brandy is p.g...................she is eating like a horse right now.............I feed her lots of good stuff to promote healthy pups.........I try to exercise her every night, but she tires quickly..........Thanks for the tour...........

Well keep her in good shape Hornstrider and keep in touch!

Debbie - love your garden. You did an awesome job of making an edible landscaped garden.

kanita

Wow, great gardens - lots of hard work, not to mention ant bites! Debbie, Thanks for the mulching idea we are alreading using it on our veggie garden steps.

-Kim

Excellant Gardens Debbie----would love to be there in person. I love walking through other gardens.

Cricket

Its starting to "jump" by leaps and bounds...will probably have ripe tomatoes, hollyhocks, and daylillies within the week.

Thanks for all your kind words...will post a "few" pics this weekend (and I do mean only 2 or 3--LOL)
Debbie

us northern gardeners think yhou are very mean showing aall of those pictures.LOL on the other hand its an inspiration to us.

everything looks so neat and planned out. i'm sure you are not a gemini like me.

thanks for those wonderful pictures, especially the one of the lemon tree.

Thanks Herbie--but there's no lemon tree there...its a peach tree. And, I can't claim I planned anything in advance; it sorta takes on a life of its own. Sometimes I wish it wasn't so "linear" across the back.
Debbie

Very Nice Debbie:

I like the way your space flows. How big is it?

My wife and I are now turning our attention to how our space flows. The veggies are growing now and we want to "pretty ip" our rooms now that the hard work of building the beds is done.

BB

The back is 80' east to west Bronxand fluctuates North and South from 20' to about 35'. Then the pots of herbs are in another area and the side bean bed is also somewhere else...one of these days I'll post the front yard...its also, how shall we say it, "unconventional?". THanks Bronx!
Debbie

Well here's some newer shots--things are really growing good now, the heat has set in fairly early this year. Here's a squash I entered into the Plantfiles...a new one for me this year, a good producer, the Park's Creamy Improved II. For once something of Park's lived up to all it's hype. LOL

editted to add: tomatoes on the left are solar set in the front, goliath in the rear, and Black Prince behind the lattice...a very strange plant, that one is...I got the seeds in a trade and the leaves are really weird. Also rangoon creeper vine (my most beloved plant) on the back lattice.

This message was edited Apr 30, 2006 9:09 PM