Growing a vertical garden & container gardening in early July

Everyday, I smile at this whimsical little flower garden. I planted these back in the spring but I couldn't tell you what the varieties are except identifying some sunflowers.

Other flowers growing at my garden are hostas with their dainty purple goblets. Mimosa trees are blooming hair-like, heavenly fragrant flowers. The daylilys died out and now the tiger lilies are blooming in their place.

Mimosa 

Hostas

tiger lilly

At my grandparent's, I planted these gladiolus and they are absolute royalty!

There's so many beautiful flowers at my grandparent's garden. I admire each individual flower every time I visit which you can see in the previous post.

Phlox and gooseneck

This hot weather has turned dry. It has been nearly 100 degrees everyday for a week here in North Eastern Kentucky.

There hasn't been rain in over a week. So I have been watering my container garden for the last 3 days. The containers dry faster so I focus on their needs first.

As well as watering the veggies in the containers, I have been using my own compost too as fertilize for the veggies. I have tomatoes, peppers, squash and cantaloupe in the container pots. They respond really well to the compost and grow quick!

Desperately, I need to water my grapes, berries and fig trees as they are fruiting now. I have been harvesting blackberries for over a week. It is early July, and that's the exact time to start picking berries and foraging chanterelle mushrooms here.

At least these plants are growing food. I was disappointed that the cherries, plums, peaches, nectarines and peaches were affected by the late frost. This should give you a tip if you're first starting a food forest: focus on late blooming fruits if you live in a cold climate. Of course, there's advantages and disadvantages to every garden endeavor.

At my apartment, I have many tomatoes and some pepper plants in pots as well.

Used my own compost to make the
plants grow big,  fast!

Jalapeno pepper plants

These were tiny tomatoes weeks ago before I mulched them with compost 

Basil plant too!

Also, I have cleaned up two garden beds, slowly trying to clear out all of the old radish, lettuce, spinach, cilantro plants. I harvested cilantro and arugula seed and cut it out yesterday.
Today, I spread soil overtop of the garden bed and transplanted Coxcomb flowers in the bed. These are plants that my grandma had growing extra from her flower garden, so I took some to add a little pizazz to the garden as the Phlox and Hibsicus and other whimsical flowers bloom.

Coxcombs planted

In the garden bed next to this, I cleaned it up last week and spread soil overtop then sowed zucchini and pea seed. Some zucchini and peas have come up, but I have struggled this year from pests eating seeds

Slowly I am cleaning up the garden, I'm hoping to get them cleaned up and ready for sowing cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts seed.

In my garden over the mountain, I tilled and hoed my tomatoes today.

I also hoed around the rows of corn. I strung up twine around posts as support for the corn.

Then, I put up more fencing for the cucumbers that are intertwining with the corn and cushaw. I wanted to keep all of the vining plants separated so there are barriers for them to grow up and not entangle to strangle any corn.

Cushaw growing on fencing

Cushaw, corn and cucumbers 

Now in this garden, there are big cushaw plants in 4 small rows, corn growing in 4 small grows, cucumbers in 3 small rows, and tomatoes in 4 small rows, and 3 rows of potatoes. I have beans planted but the seed was old, so I may plant lettuce and radish seed here now because this garden is cooler and shady.

Because it's early July, I don't have much time to plant any more beans, corn or any summer crop. But, any further planting will be for fall crops. And in this stage of planting fall crops, you have to be more diligent in composting and watering to ensure healthy, sustainable growth even in the cold nights that will soon come in October.

Late Fall Fig, Raspberries & Greens harvest (October-November)

Watermelon, Grape, & Strawberry harvest

In the last few days, we harvested watermelons, grapes, and strawberries.

august 16 2015 grape & watermelon harvest

August 13th carrot, cucumber, butternut, birdhouse gourd harvest

Charleston grey variety watermelon

strawberries, august 16th harvest

Rain for weeks grows BIG mushrooms & how to forage/identify Chanterelle mushrooms

I feel very fortunate to be in part of the US that is receiving ample rainfall. In parts of the country, such as California, are experiencing drought for months. On June 1st,  urban water users in California, had to abide by the state's first ever mandatory water restrictions, by reducing consumption to 25 percent. 
Even farmers found it more beneficial to start selling their water reserves instead of growing food! 
Much of the food that is sold in the grocery store comes from California, and this could really hurt our country's food supply. This is just another reason we, the people, should take food into our own hands--strive to make the home garden the primary food source, forage wild edibles, and spread the seeds of fruit around the world. 


Of course the persistent rainfall, here in Kentucky, is assisting in the growth of the squashes and melons. Below are photos of recent garden harvests, including recent photos of the growth of birdhouse gourds, squashes, and melons.

7/6/2015 garden harvest

This rainfall has also prompted the growth of many mushroom varieties, such as boletes and chanterelles. We harvested chanterelles today from the woods in two different locations, along with a gallon of blackberries. 

This mushroom, seen below, was incredibly impressive for its size. It was definitely a bolete, but we were unsure of the variety. We concluded that it was the Bitter bolete, which is classified as poisonous. 

Chanterelle mushrooms are quite distinctive, even compared to their look-alike, the Jack-o lantern and false chanterelle. For example, chanterelle mushrooms grow individually spread out over a large patch of ground, whereas jack-o lanterns grow clustered. Chanterelles smell pleasantly fragrant like apricots, as many have suggested. The cap is convex and usually vase shaped. The gills are referred to as false gills because they appear to have lumpy folds instead of true gills. Chanterelles grow amongst the ground floor around oak trees and conifers. I find chanterelles growing in people's yards mostly, and along the edge of the woods. 
Where you know there is a grove of pines during the months of July and August, you will also find Chanterelle mushrooms. Another way to ensure you have collected Chanterelles, is by the spore print. Lay a mushroom facing down on a white sheet of paper, and within several hours you'll notice a pink spore print.

Chanterelle mushroom forage #1, July 9th 2015

For three weeks, James and I have dedicated much of our time to foraging berries around the yard and in the woods. With the extra berries we have started to make jelly. So far we have stored over 20 jars of jelly in the fridge. I hope to sell many of these at $4-5 for each half pint. When making the jelly, I strain the seeds from the blackberries so that I can throw the seed out for growing plants.

July 9th chanterelle forage #2

July 10th 2015 chanterelle forage

We are still unsure what these pink blackberries are called, but we are picking them to save for seed. I may stick each individual berry into a pot of soil.