LL, you definitely need to share pics on a regular basis, because I'm having trouble seeing any of the things you mentioned, except for the buckets, petunias and marigolds ... it's hard to make out anything else. What happened to the fence you were going to install?

I've shared my pics before. It's more of the same this year. Have been harvesting tomatoes for three weeks now and will probably start pulling a few plants in the next week to 10 days. We've had consistently high temps (a week of 100s), so the only plants still setting fruit are the cherries.

Natal- After much discussion, we decided to wait on the fence and just use the trellises. After trying a few pieces of fencing, we decided it was just blocking too much of the view.

As for the plants, I'll take some more pictures, but they're so small right now, they are hard to make out. We've had such a late spring, I only now have the apple tree blooming and the lilacs are just starting to open. The tulips are still blooming, too. It's supposed to start warming up this weekend, so I'm hoping to get the other veggies planted then.

Here's a picture of the apple tree and lilacs...blooming in June! Latest spring ever and coolest spring temperatures ever, according to the news.

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I don't understand the "blocking view" comment ... unless you were considering using a privacy fence and from all the posts you wrote I don't think that was ever a consideration.

Hi all -

I am so inspired, Lavender Lass, by your inclusion of things for children - hopscotch, etc. It is an inspiration. And your garden doesn't have to be "formal" in any particular sense to be a potager, according to my books on the subject - some prefer their gardens to be quite formal, others not so much. That's what's so great about it. Your project is quite ambitious and you are giving a lot of thought to aesthetics, with veggies, fruit, flowers, structures...looks like quite a potager to me!

I will share my photos of my potager as soon as one of my family teaches me how to do that-

MacGregor- Thank you. We have lots of nieces and nephews, who come to visit the farm, see the horses and help in the garden. While some are too young to really do much gardening, they love being in the garden...so we've been trying to incorporate more fun things for them to do.

As for the view, Natal, it's the view of the pasture, the trees, the horses, the creek...it's not the view of the garden, it's the view from the garden :)

I understand it's the view from the garden, but still don't get why you think it would be blocked unless the fence were uber tall and privacy in nature. I have a 3' tall metal fence around my garden that doesn't block a thing. Now the jungle of tomato plants is another story.

You do have some huge tomato plants! I wish ours grew that tall, but we usually have a frost before they get that big.

Sitting at the arbor or table, a 3' fence totally blocked the view. Anything over 28" did, so we decided to use the low trellises instead. Another benefit is that I can have deeper beds, without having to go outside the fence to weed the other side! The blueberry bushes, behind the wooden bench have strawberries under them and I'm always weeding that area.

You know, you're right...I do need to take more pictures. These were just to show the overall layout of the garden, but you really can't see many details. I'll try to post more pictures today or tomorrow :)

Here's a pic of the front of the garden when I was planting it out. You can see the old chicken wire fence in a heap. I'll have to snap some new pics when I finish adding some mulch to the beds and finish the arbor/trellis over the front gate. I'm hoping it'll be covered with cherry tomatoes by the end of summer.

lavender - what do you think of this fence? It's a 6' wire covered with black vinyl. From our driveway you can't even see the fence. It looks like we just stuck a bunch of posts all around. Inside the garden, I put a new bench under the hop trellises and from the back to the front of the garden, the fence really doesn't impede view. If I'm right up next to it, yes.

Ali-B, what are your arches made from? They look really nice and sturdy.

The posts are 2x2s cut to 6'. The arches are UV-resistant plastic electrical conduit cut to 8' and attached with screws to the 2x2s. Then I used leftover 1x1s to stabilize the conduit arches.

I had some scrap 4x4s from an old fence so I attached each arch to a pair of them and leveled them on the ground and covered with mulch. You can see that the first one is now off level -- grrr! One more project to add to the list.

Here's some pix from last summer, mid July. Squash, roses (still young & short but will climb those poles), lettuce, tomatoes, stringbeans, nasturtiums & borage for salad color. Gates are 4x7' lattice closed by using barndoor brackets. Fencing is black open wire type, 2 3' high rolls to get 6' high. (deer)

But now it's too small! We want room for a table and chairs inside. So next winter we'll enlarge it by half.

carol - what an awesome view from your garden! And, I don't think your fence is ever going to fall over with those great looking substantial fence posts!

Thanks Ali, that's a no-can-do for me. We live in Tornado Alley. Beautiful garden Carol6ma! WOW!

Thanks! But we live in hurricane country, and when you get 10-ft. tall wet rose bushes flailing about in an 80 mph wind, you want those strong cedar posts. See those cottages in the photo I posted earlier? Those are what's left after Hurricane Bob in 1991, and the broken pieces washed into the brackish pond between us and them. We bought our cottage in 1993 and now, in 2011, we're still fishing their household goods out of the pond.
The view below shows the ocean across wetlands and the pond, and a few of the trailers that were brought in after the cottages were lost. Coastal regulations don't allow them to rebuild there. This is all to the right of the potager view. I think that's a neighborhood feral cat prowling the grass.

I added a little fountain to the center of my square potager.

Here is a link that might be useful: potager pics

Carol6ma, I doubt you will be able to have PVC arches either than :) I have some wrought iron ones that have survived heavy winds, but all have gone in post tornado direct hit.

This is the new potager area. This year it has annual vegetables, and some flowers. Next year I hope to work towards perennializing many of the vegetables in this garden, but the soil still needs work to get to that point.

GGG, your new garden is gorgeous! I can't wait to watch it fill in. What are perennial veggies? The shade cloth is a good idea. I should have used some when I recently transplanted some agastache ... that are now dead. :(

Thanks Natal, boy, it's been a very LONG time coming. That is cement if you can believe it. Just chunks of cement. I love the way it has turned out.
Perennial vegetables: There are all kinds for all different zones. You and I would probably share the same. I have perennial leeks (which will go under the fig (not planted yet), they like deciduous shade, multiplier onions, sun chokes, welsh onions, Fuki (although that needs to go by water), cardoon, native arrow root & ostrich fern (also in water), asparagus, lovage, salsify and black salsify, nopales (opuntia), yacon...and many herbs. I would not grow all of these vegetables in this area - I will have the more wild vegetables in an area that also hosts cultivated "weeds" like comfrey and nettles.

Duh, I forgot asparagus, but not too familiar with any of the others except herbs. I've just started cooking with leeks the past year, so I'm a little curious about that one.

These are all pics taken last week of gardens started this year.

This garden has sunflowers, brussel sprouts, radishes, garlic, zinnias, tomatoes, onions, corn, cukes, cantaloupe, basil, several types of peppers, lettuce, pansies, a caladium, bush beans, sweet potatoes, and a little row of butterfly bush cuttings behind the sunflowers which should be nice next year. The plastic fence around helps my 4-legged helper, a great dane, to remember not to walk there most of the time.

After I got that planted, I decided that I was tired of trying to mow two 90 degree-angle corners, and so much fenceline. And I needed more room to grow things. So I dug up more grass and made a triangle garden there, half in the front yard, half in the back. Within this area is: tomato, morning glory, cantaloupe, basil, cosmos, datura, coleus, banana peppers, petunias, purple heart Tradescantia, Myosotos forget-me-nots, zinnias, verbena, strobilanthes persian shield, dahlia, vinca, ageratum, caladiums, amaryllis, pink oxalis.

I've since decided to make both sides bigger since a double-trunk holly tree became ill and had to be cut down. The trunks in the pics will be the new borders. The curved concrete you can see in the "from above" pic used to be a big koi pond, as far as I can tell.

Are the "rocks" that are lining the paths chunks of cement also?
I might try that in my herb garden where the pig weed is getting very aggressive! Nancy

Hi Nancyjane:
Yes, the huge slabs are slabs of concrete. They had to be moved by a bobcat, most are about 3' square.

GGG

Here's my garden; the grape arbor and sink are on the left and hollyhocks and zinnias on the right. Down the path there are onions and chard to the left and more chard, lettuce, and cucumbers on the right, plus a peach tree and my greenhouse. On the other side of the patio you can see my tomato tripods to the left of the bistro set, and to their right I have fennel bulbs and leeks, with a row of flowers to the right of that. Out of sight are kale and squash and sweet potatoes. The wall at the back was built to shelter a line of fig trees; we are trying to get them to winter over well enough to get fruit!
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And coming into the garden from one of the other gates, the greenhouse is straight ahead and there is asparagus and strawberries on the left, followed by peppers and my tomato tripods. On the right are herbs, Fortex pole beans, and lima beans. Lots of California poppies, zinnias, and blue salvia too.

And here's another view from a previous year

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Lovely Riverfarm! That is a beautiful brick walkway and sitting area in your garden. I love the greenhouse. I think if we had a greenhouse I would spend all my days of winter in it.

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=6660353008/a=37593110/invalidateAlbumCache=true/

Here is a link that might be useful: Deb's Garden

Deb, you still haven't set your album for public viewing.

Deb~ would love to see your album! Just the cover picture looks delicious!

Here's some pics from the Land of Honalee kitchen garden just off my deck. Mostly vegies with a few herbs and containers with carrots. The birds have dropped sunflowers in there and I have had volunteer tomatoes. I plant marigolds every year with my tomatoes to ward off bugs. It is only 8x8 feet enclosed in an excersise pen for my dogs. :0 Puff is in there guarding!

Oh, I like the dragon. You've got a great variety in a small space. Here's a recent pic of my potager.

And, from the other side with my favorite garden helper piling up the zucchini.

That's a lovely garden, Ali-B! What do you do with that arched trellis thingy with a bench and pot? And how do you manage to get such healthy-looking squash? Mine keep getting attacked by squash bugs.

What a difference a couple of weeks makes. There's morning glory now climbing to the top and a tiger melon inching its way up. I was hoping the tiger melon was more vigorous.

My squash are actually under attack by squash bugs and vine borers too. They seem to be surviving. I've been scraping off eggs, squashing the little nymphs and pruning the ugly leaves.

My squash got attacked by squash bugs too and I lost quite a few plants, but I sprayed the remaining ones with neem and alcohol and was gratified to come back the next day and find nothing moving. Otherwise everything's going well; tomatoes are really producing this year and the cucumbers are going nuts. Lima beans are a bit tricky because it's hard to tell when a pod is ready to be picked, but I'm learning...