Peaknik's Picture Place

Melons and Cucumbers in Earthboxes

This is a side view of my melons and cucumbers planted in the original Earthboxes. I bought 3 of them out of curiosity after making my own. My plants do 100% better in these self-watering containers than anything else.

In these Earthboxes I have Baby Golden Midget watermelons (Baker's Creek), hybrid Little Baby Flower watermelons (Johnny's), and hybrid French Charentais melons (Baker's & Johnny's). The cucumbers are from a local vendor. I chose these types of melons because they were made for containers and the melons are smaller but still with good taste (or so I read). Any comments on the taste of these?

Labels: container gardening, cucumbers, Earthboxes, gardening, melons, sustainable gardening, welf-watering containers

The Beginnings of my Secret Garden

This shot I took this morning has changed even since then! I bought a wisteria vine and a grape vine to wrap around the arbor. Oh, and the reason I have nothing growing in the right raised bed is because the rabbits have successfully eaten down everyone of my sunflowers I planted there. I was intending to grow them for seeds and beauty....didn't happen. I ended up plopping some of my veggies in containers on top of the raised bed for now where they'll get better sun. The sunflowers I picked out looked like they would've been really pretty. The sunflower in the picture was nothing but a wild sunflower seed that grew where it fell from the bird feeder! I just let it grow amongst the bell peppers I planted.

I'm in the process of tacking up 12" chicken wire around the base of my fencing. I am using garden staples hammered into the ground to keep the critters from getting into the fenced in garden area. I'll take a picture when I'm done to show you what I'm talking about.

Nevertheless, I am experiencing a wonderful view from my deck. Sometimes it looks like a jungle with all the wildlife that is thriving from my plantings.Birds, rabbits, butterflies, and bees are all gladly pollinating my veggies!

Labels: gardening, raised bed gardening, sustainable gardening

Gardener's Mistake #23: Impulse Buying

That's right. I'm guilty of impulse buying when it comes to plants now. I just couldn't let the artemesia wilt away in the clearance aisle at Home Depot! Calendula was named the "Herb of the Year for 2008", so I couldn't pass that one up, either. A woman at the Farmer's Market was selling herbs, and she had the calendula and a feverfew plant. I couldn't leave the feverfew go by because of it's reputation of medicinal qualities that have little tiny white flowers similar to chammomile. The lily was sitting beside the artemesia plant in the clearance aisle for $1.50! Now all I have to do is figure out where to put them....hmmm....(before they die on me!)...

(L to R: calendula, feverfew, lily, artemesia)

Labels: herbs, perennials, sustainable gardening

My Rain Barrels Arrived in June!

My rain barrels arrived before expected in June! So here they are! The first weekend after I installed them, mother nature brought a storm and filled them to the brims! Since then, I've had more than enough water to water my plants without the water bills! I llloooovvee 'em!