Ok this was the radishes and squash just starting to pop up

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Simpson sededless lettuce which has been very prolific

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The far left are blueberry bushes.DH has been recycling bricks and pavers for paths and the raised beds are made of the porch wood like material. Gifford Onions and pineapple are next
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Tomatoes and potatoes
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DH added pickets we need more
A large garden of corn against the pickets he insisted on is now about 2 inches high

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Romaine and SS lettuce beans behind them

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Lots of work building raised beds liots of time making compost and shoveling cow manure from a friends barn and then there is my worm dirt.

Very cute...I love how you have everything so organized.

I took a few pictures out in our garden today but don't know how to post them here on Garden Web.

Ok, I think I've re-learned how to do this.

Now my gardens don't get to be terribly pretty since I believe they should wander the yard a bit like giant Amoebae. Most of my irrigation is drip and micro sprinklers so I can re-arrange it relatively easily as I re-do garden areas for new seasons.

Much of the back yard had been terribly infested with sand spurs and was dangerous to walk around in bare foot or in sandals during the fall so I covered it in cardboard and free wood chip mulch and then we got a load of mushroom compost to create garden beds.
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In there we have carrots, onions, broccoli, turnips, broccoli rhab, beets, kohlrabi, spinach, and parsnips.
The "raised beds" are really just mounded up mushroom compost on top of mulch and cardboard. After a season of the cardboard rotting away, I could plant corn or sunflowers if I want to.

Over here by the BBQ we have an herb garden which will probably need to move before next winter as it gets too much shade from the BBQ. There are snow peas along the North of the bed area. There is more spinach, broccoli, kale, lettuce, carrots and kohlrabi in front of the peas. Off to the left side there is an area ready to be planted where the chicken run was last season. It will probably get squash, zucchini, pumpkins, and cucumbers.

These two beds have potatoes planted down the middle with garlic and onions surrounding the rows of potatoes. Unfortunately, I think most of the potato plants got froze.

On the left is a bed mostly full of Snow peas growing higher than I can reach. Around the snow peas are also growing broccoli, tasoi (spoon mustard), and carrots. On the right is a bed that has been partially harvested. Still in that bed are some artichoke plants, beets, kohlrabi and it is all surrounded by onions.

I have a couple more dirt planting beds but there isn't much to see there. I'm not all that good about planning perfect garden layouts. I'm some what of two minds on the matter. On one side, having a tidy layout makes keeping track of your plants easier as well as making things like weeding and hoeing easier. On the other hand, planting all one type of thing together makes it far more likely that a pest or bug might attack all of that particular plant while mixing up the types of plants tends to confuse the pests. I also tend to re-plant different things as I've cleared out a bit of bed which tends to mess up perfect plans. Truth is, my garden layouts are generally dependent on where I can provide water more than anything else. I use mostly drip and micro sprinklers.

I'll reserve the more high tech garden areas for another post.

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx.com

so I mentioned High Tech Gardening. Well it isn't so terribly high tech but it does involve plumbing and pumps since it is Aquaponics. Aquaponics is a cross between raising fish and hydroponic plant growing. The fish water is pumped through gravel filled beds that filter the water for the fish and provide nutrients and water for the plants which remove the nutrients to keep the water quality high for the fish. This is a garden that not only provides good veggies to eat but also protein in the form of fish to eat while it still uses less water than dirt gardening and less chemical fertilizers than hydroponic growing. Primary inputs are fish feed and electricity for pumping.

The beds are a bit barren this time of year as it's been cold and fish don't eat as much (provide as much nutrients for the plants when it's cold.)

This part of the Aquaponics system Has a big in ground fish tank of about 600 gallons and a 300 gallon fish tank that waterfalls into the in ground tank. In those fish tanks are currently about 100 blue tilapia and around 25 3-5 lb catfish. The top of the shade structure is made of cattle panels and covered with heavy duty greenhouse plastic. I'll roll up the sides of the plastic come warmer weather but I'll probably leave the top of this section covered to reduce the rain getting into the system a little bit. I'll have to see what the temps are like with the roof covered in summer. There is 40% shade cloth over the cattle panels. Growing in there are lots of hot peppers, some tomato plants from last summer, tasoi, papaya, okra, stevia, mint, lettuce and several other things.

This long aquaponic grow bed has an assortment of plants in it. Hot peppers, jicama, bamboo (trying to root some cuttings), tasoi, lettuce, tomato, basil, parsley, and various other things I'm forgetting at the moment. The bed floods up to about an inch below the top of the gravel and then a sump pump turns on by float switch to drain it. Right now the cattle panel wire tunnel is covered in greenhouse plastic but once we are past the risk of freezing weather, I'll pull the plastic off.

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx.com

WOW....I love the idea of having fish and plants live off each other. I don't like the idea of killing and gutting my own fish though....I'm still a city girl as much as I want the farm life. Can you do the aquaponics with a pond? and plant your veggies around there? Are there certain plants that grow better in the ground than aquaponics? In other words why do you have some stuff in the ground. Just not enough aquaponics? By the way your garden looks very neat. I was wondering about planting certain things together to help cut down on insecticide use. Is that why you have the onions surrounding the other plants? I have so many questions I don't even know where to begin. I think I will leave them for when I actually get to start doing something like you.

To some extent the onions and garlic are supposed to confuse certain pests and I did notice some reduced squirrel problems in my container plants once upon a time when I added onions and garlic to the containers. To some extent the mixing just helps confuse pests (like hoping they miss their favorites as they fly by where as if you have an entire bed of something tasty, it is easy for a pest to decimate the entire bed if it gets hit.) Some companion planting just seems to work well like space usage and somehow the plants seem to grow better together. There are some things that you should not plant together as they seems to have negative effects on each other. As in, don't plant onions or garlic right by your beans or peas. Don't plant parsnips and carrots together.

As to why I still have stuff in dirt, well my Aquaponics system is only so big. Pond liner and gravel cost enough that I haven't quite gotten to covering the entire yard with it. Some things are so easy to grow in the ground that it isn't worth taking up too much Aquaponics system space with them, like the carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, and snow peas. Right now I've got the plastic over the Aquaponics system to help keep the water warmer for my tilapia so many of the cool weather crops arn't doing well in there. Next year, I'll probably only keep catfish over the winter since they don't mind the cold so much and I won't need to keep the plastic sealed up except for the really cold spells. Tomatoes really like aquaponics and as far as I know, nematodes don't.

With the AP system, few if any insecticides are acceptable to use as most of them are dangerous to fish and the bio-filter bacteria.

It is possible to use goldfish or koi to feed an aquaponics system. Getting the right balance of all things for a more ornamental pond with aquaponics could be a bit tricky but I'm sure it can be done.

Near the bottom of the following link page is another link to the backyard aquaponics forum where tons of info about aquaponics can be found. Many helpful people there!

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx.com

Thanks..you're just full of useful info :-)

The companion planting is a really interesting idea that I'm still working on. There's a book called Carrots Love Tomatoes that has lots of info on that. I can't say that I've noticed a huge difference in bugs by planting my herbs in and around my tomatoes, but I suspect I've at least avoided problems by not planting plants that tend to diminish each other's yields close together.

Thanks Susannah :-)

Goldenpond, looks like you are going to have a great yield this year. I really love how you've made the paths from recycled bricks and pavers. Very cool.

TClynx, I loved learning a little about aquaponics. Had kind of heard a little about it before but really knew nothing about it. What a great, sustainable system. Your outdoors garden is absolutely beautiful. I love the look of the mushroom compost. Hard to believe that area was just sandspurs. What an incredible transformation! Goes to show what a little cardboard and organic matter will do for you.

Thanks for sharing, you two!

Anna

Goldenpond
TCLynx

I enjoyed the pictures of your gardens. Very practical and useful ideas. Keep up with the good work!

Willy