Garden Makeover!

Last year we put up a little fence to keep the dog out of the plants. He has a very destructive habit of tearing up the plants and digging the dirt out of the pots. This makes it somewhat difficult to grow stuff. Because last spring was the first we had with him it was a trial and error experience and it took a long time finding something that worked. by the time we fenced of the very back and arranged things in such a way that he could not get under the fence most of my plants were dead. We however did get several things to grow and as usual the tomatoes were a huge success. Unfortunately part due to dog delays and especially due to the hottest summer and extreme drought it took a long time for the plants to really start doing much of anything. It was not actually until November that the tomato plants started overwhelming us. I still have some cut up tomatoes in the freezer.

The little fence worked great until late in fall when the dog had grown just a tiny bit bigger and could jump the fence.

So this year we started early. Poor Jed had a lot of work to do and even though I got a bunch of used fencing material free of Craigslist we still spend a lot of money on this garden.

We expanded the area that was fenced of. Since we got the dog the backyard is just not quite so appealing for the kids to play in, which I regret, and so they would not miss the space that much and I had room for more plants.

Because we rent and do not feel like having to replace the lawn when we move the majority of the garden can actually be moved assuming that we move locally. The fence is easy to take back out. I decided to put the tomatoes and Peppers straight in the ground even though that would mean loosing them if we moved in the growing season because they produce so much better for me there and because they do not affect the grass.

One of my favorite things about this fence is the bar across the top for hanging and climbing plants.

The strawberry plants are growing but these 3 beautiful berries were the only ones we have gotten so far. I do not have much experience with any sort of berries so we'll have to see what happens.

Jed's grape plant came back from last year. It is still not very big but it does have several bunches of grapes growing on it so I'm excited.

My one spicy pepper plant. These turn red and have way to much of a kick for me to eat them raw. They are supposedly mild. I'm going to figure out what to cook with them.

Tomato plants love me back. I love all my plants, but tomato plants have consistently loved me back every year. Especially the small ones like grape and cherry. This year I have 7 different kinds of tomato. this plant is huge compared to the others and I really excited to try it. It is called Mr. Stripey and the tomatoes are supposed to be striped red and yellow.

This beautiful plant did not make it. I do not know why I can't seem to get squash or zucchini to grow. This Texas climate is supposed to be perfect for it! The farmers market is always overflowing with summer squashes of various kinds. Yet my plants die every year. This time I had several yellow squashes on the plant but it keeps "sucking" the life back out of the fruit and let wilt and tried to make other ones instead until it stopped making more squashes and now it looks nearly dead.

Jed made these planters for me when we first moved here. When we got the dog he dug them out and this one is the only one that sorta survived the move into the garden. The bottom is no longer attached so it going to stay where it is from now on.The onions that are growing in it have been here for 5 years now. I'm very impressed by their survival instinct. Other than that It is mostly dominated by a mint plant that came back from last year as well and a pineapple sage that i planted last month.

I've added more pots in between the tomato plants and put seeds in them. I figured if at least 50% of them actually became successful plants then I could always move them once the tomato plants got bigger.

These are 3 of my 5 bell peppers. I have never had successful peppers before but they are doing great. I have a hard time telling when they are ripe they seem to change color before that happens so I'm just not sure how long to wait before picking them. One of these days I will have to do some research into that. Every time we've eaten one of them they have tasted like they should have stayed on the plant longer.