Olympia's Garden

[Olympia]

Well well well.. It's finally warm enough to talk about my garden. :D
I will warn you now: it is NOT a great garden.. We don't have tons of money for it, and it is just so LARGE D: Not to mention I have so much on my plate, I don't even know why I "adopted" the garden. I hope to share my garden struggles and successes on here :3 So here is a basic tour, these photos are from last week, more from today later on I hope :D
-Map coming soon-

I love sharing my life with gorgeous flowers, and little garden birds. :) Hopefully if we get a good nest I'll be able to document baby birds growing up. You may also witness some outdoor foresty photos from nearby :)

Just want to make it clear, I'd love to live on a farm someday, with huge gardens and a nearby forest :3

Saturday, March 17th:
Everything is just springing to life! I've removed all the dead leaves and dry cover over the perennials we have. I'm am sorry these photos are so horrendous. It was extremely sunny and everything is still half dead :( We have 4 main gardens:

1. Main view of the yard. Vegetable garden in the back. It is our oldest garden, been with us 5 years. Yes it is huge. Yes it is a handful. Yes that is a bat box, built last year, but remains empty, I heard bat guano spread on the bottom will attract bats, have to try that. Yes our bird feeder is hanging from a telephone cable, in an attempt to keep squirrels away. I want a shepherd's hook for it this year.. Every time I saw squirrels on the feeder I'd make my dog chase em away and now they NEVER go on the feeder, just forage at the bottom :)




2. Clay Garden. Our second oldest garden. This is a real challenge, the soil is pretty much clay, thanks to the stupid poplar tree. I want to eventually fill it with a foot of good quality soil, but for now, plants struggle to survive in it. I planted some bee balm, which likes clay and is native, in there, one bush flowered, it was okay but I think it'd be better if I put in more, which I hope to :) Compost pile in the back.




3. Under the Deck Garden. A nice simple garden, built last year. Filled with lovely soil, the plants grow well. Home to ferns, gladiolus, foxglove, Siberian iris, and my favorite, the dahlias.



Before clearing:



After clearing:



4. Shade garden. My least favorite garden, almost nothing grows there. Home to some ferns, lamb's ears, a few poppies and another favorite, lily of the valley's, of which I hope to acquire more.

Mocha doesn't get why this garden sucks so much either:

[kfryman]

I love the outdoors, so what ever I can find that I can do outdoors I try. I am gonna try to grow some flowers, I haven't done it before though. My mom loves gardening, but we live in an apartment, so not much space out back. When I go to now the lawn at our "relatives" she is always in their garden tending stuff with them.

[sparkyjoe]

Oh, I'm so envious! I love to get my hands in the dirt (when I'm feeling well) but being in a non-fenced condo I don't really have a lot of space in which to garden. I do take advantage of the space I have but I dream of being in a house with land to use both for gardening and a dog. Sigh

[Olympia]

You don't need a lot of space to garden. Even if you have shade most of the day, herbs are easy to grow in small containers. You can grow spices, or make teas. Or if you're like me you can start studying their medical properties and treat things like cuts, bug bites, and colds yourself :D

[Olympia]

Here are photos from today:

Under the Deck Garden progress:



Flowers. All of these are early bloomers that I did not plant, they kind of just drifted in, but they are pretty :)

I took this photo in the morning, and these are already in full bloom a few hours later:









ATM they are being watered with old tank water. It is supposed to drop to -3C tonight, so I will have to cover up the gardens -__-
Enjoy! :)

[Tikibirds]

I tried to build a garden once - I ended up with maybe 5 sunflowers

My grandpa used to have a veggie garden with carrots, tomatoes and peas.

[MaisyDawgThirteen]

Cool! :D Is using old tank water good for the plants?

[Olympia]

Really I do it more for environmental friendliness, instead of pouring it down the drain.. Uncycled tank water would be slightly beneficial due to any ammonia in it.. Cycled tank water has nitrates which would be good too.

Tiki- you GREW something in Alaska? Maybe you should try again now that you're in NY. I'm impressed! :p

[Bombalurina]

Those are some pretty little flowers! :) I'm quite jealous - I can grow many things underwater, but terrestrial plants seem to cower in fear when I step outside.

[Olympia]

If I can find an old barrel half this year I want to try water lilies. :)
And honestly, if I keep this up.. you will see how overgrown everything gets with next to no maintenance. You can drown in the tomato or cucumber sections of the garden! :D