So sorry about the tree damage, not only the loss of the tree but the beds and veggies as well.

So glad you rebuilt and had such success despite the bad timing. Just dwell on how great the fresh veggies are. Bravo!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!

you did a great job on the recovery!! WOW that is just great!! and they look nice too!! ~Medo

They look awesome, and it seems to me you'll be getting a nice fall harvest, too. Do you plant in straight compost?

sinfonian: Thank you. I got a lot of inspiration from reading here and at some of the gardening blogs, including yours! Yes, the fresh veggies are worth it. No more "cardboard" tomatoes until November!

Medo: Thank you. I think I love you ;-) I know I love your posts, I'm sorry not everyone does (we know of whom I'm speaking, don't we?) LOL

carolynp: Thanks for the compiment. I didn't use straight compost. Because of the time restraint and the lateness of getting this garden planted, I put the boxes over sod and put several layers of newspaper in the bottom. Then I brought in a yard of top soil, purchased from a nearby nursery. That half filled four of the five boxes (only four show in the photos, the fifth is only half the height of the others). Then I bought a yard of "leaf and twig compost" and filled the boxes to the top. I blended the two together a bit with a spading fork, raked smooth and planted all but one. I left one empty because I am a failure at composting, so I try to have an empty place to use for trench composting each gardening year. That way one bed a year can get all the "goodies".

The fifth (shallow) bed is only shallow because I ran out of lumber, and I scattered a mixture of mesclun seeds all over the surface to grow wherever. I'll use them as cut-and-come-again greens for my pet house rabbit. I had been using redwood 2x6 boards that we had saved after removing a deck from our house a few years ago for these beds. I had given a lot of it away, now I wish I had it back! Where the maple tree was removed left us with a nice, sunny area for extending the garden in 2009. I'll have a 12'x38' area and plan on putting in four 4'x8' beds for strawberries, raspberries and asparagus. It will also give me room for a 2'x8' bed next to our (unused) dog kennel, where I'll plant pole beans....they can climb up the 6' chain link. But I'll have to buy something to construct the boxes with, 'cause I'm all out of lumber :-(

Annie's Granny

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

Ouch! And what a great recovery!!! Everything is looking great so far!

Wow! What a shame to loose a beautiful maple tree like that. It would have scared the beans right out of me to have it fall that close to your house, or perhaps it is the neighbors house.

And Wow! again at the nice recovery you made with your garden. Your new beds look great. Building all those new beds in the heat of the summer, and it sounds like you have very hot summers, is quite and accomplishment.

What escaped the falling tree looks really healthy and a garden to be very proud of.

Gail

Beautiful garden, Granny, thanks for sharing it with us. Did my eyes deceive me or did you have a screen to keep critters out from under the plants half way up the SFG rather than at the bottom of it?

~Angela

moabgail, the tree was in our yard, but it ended up in the yards of two neighbors besides our own. It happened about 3:00 am, and it awakened us with just a big WHOOSH sound, followed by another WHOOSH and a CRAAAACK! We looked out the bedroom window, thinking it was our neighbor's big elm tree falling on their car, but we could see by the yard light that they were safe. Then we looked out the living room window to check on our large pine trees, but all was fine there (small branches and a lot of pine cones to clean up). It wasn't until morning we discovered it was the maple tree, which missed the neighbors' garages by just a few feet but took out three fences.

I'll miss the shade it provided, but I sure won't miss the zillions of whirly-bird maple seeds in my yard and gardens each spring! And both I and my neighbors to the north can now have another sunny spot in which to garden.

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

Angela, the screen was just temporary, to keep my two four-legged critters off the garden, which had just been seeded with bush beans, beets, carrots and lettuce! It didn't work, they walked on it anyway, so I had to put another barrier over the bed consisting of every hoe, rake and shovel I could find. I removed everything just as soon as I got the garden fence (puppy barrier) replaced! I used the plastic netting again when I seeded the mesclun garden and saw all the wrens and finches feasting on my seeds!

Granny

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

Update on my smashed garden.

The veggies are growing and looking good. I've had a lot of produce from the unsmashed section, and the new beds should be producing soon. I can see beet roots forming, I'm picking some outer leaves of the lettuces, the bush beans are blooming and the pole beans are ready to start climbing. We're eating parsley, rosemary, chives and basil from the new herb bed, along with green onions that I'd bought from the grocer and transplanted. These photos show the beds' progression from July 11 until today, August 20.

The new back fence has also been constructed, and I'm in the process of building three 4x8-foot beds and a 52"-square strawberry bed in that area for planting next year.

Granny

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

Granny - that garden is looking fantastic! Why don't you build me one? I'm so jealous....

EG

Truely a magnificent garden! Annie's got a great Granny, even if I think Annie's a cute little weiner dog, hehe. Does that garden make you want to stay here and extend your garden rather than migrate back to warmer climes this fall? We'll miss you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure

Hey, EG...wanna see my beets?

They're snuggled in there next to the beans, and they look to have roots about the size of a 50-cent piece.

The carrots may not reach edible size before winter, germination wasn't great in 100 degree weather. I watered the seed and put a board over them until they sprouted. That's why they are planted in a row and not in squares. The ones I didn't cover, in another bed, never did come up. If these don't mature, the tops will make good food for my bunny...he loves the thinnings.

I've been picking outer leaves of the red lettuce almost every day for the rabbit.

My neighbor's dog loves to watch me garden ;-)

The pole beans don't want to climb the twine. I did go out tonight and gently wind a few stems around, maybe they will get the idea. I transplanted four lettuce plants (thinnings) where they will eventually be shaded by the beans, in the heat last week. I am very surprised they survived. The cucumber was rescued from a pot near the patio. It's puny, but looks to be gathering strength.

This will be my permanent herb bed next year. It got the odds and ends I could find at the nursery at this late date, a purple basil, parsley and the center of attraction, the rosemary. A neigbor gave me the bell pepper from some leggy ones she bought on sale. I added chives that I'd had in pots, some lettuce plants that need to be pulled (bitter), marigolds from the front yard, green onions (from the grocery store) that we didn't eat....this is a great way to keep them fresh for later use. Just trim the tops back a bit, and plant them in garden or pot. They die back a little, but within a week or so will begin sending up new green leaves.

This next bed is experimental. I mixed up leftover seeds from two types of mesclun greens, put them in a salt shaker and "salted" the bed with them. These are for the rabbit, and I'm hoping I can harvest it by cutting with scissors, enough to feed him once a day. I'm not going to thin it or anything, just let it grow wild.

And finally, I'm trying for another crop of yellow crookneck squash, but I will never try this in the sfg, it just takes up too much precious space. It will now be relegated to the edge of the garden. Right after I took this picture I turned my back to it. When I turned around, my boy dog, Otter, was laying on the squash, nibbling a leaf. I think it will survive, but he may not :-D

Granny

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

Your garden looks good.

I understand about the dog! Mine love to lay down on fresh planted things.

Granny - thanks for sharing all those pictures and thoughts. I hope my fall planting of carrots, lettuce, and other greens look as good as yours. :) Oh, you mentioned scissors to cut the greens.....I've got a pair of scissors that are at least 12" long, very heavy duty, and SHARP! They will cut anything from paper - to small tree limbs. I used them on my turnip greens the other day, and it was impressive! Harvesting greens will be a snap.

EG

sinfonian, thank you! Yes, I have had thoughts of selling my Arizona property so I can stay here and tend to my garden. Seriously. I also have worries about taking my "granddaughter", Annie, and her brother to a place where coyotes and snakes are prevalent! We are heading down there with the pickup loaded with T-posts and a roll of fence wire for keeping them safe by day, but they will not be allowed out after dark.

I have a huge black plastic pot that I bought a tree in down there, and I filled it with lettuce seeds last winter. It was in a sunny spot on the south side of the house, protected from wind, surrounded by concrete to keep in the heat, watered daily...I never got a lettuce plant over two inches tall! Yep, I fertilized it and everything, and used good potting soil. Now you'd think that would be perfect growing conditions for a container garden. BTW, Otter Dawg says he'll come over and watch those Seahawks with you *g*

Thank you Mike-who-really-does-live-in-paradise! I'll trade you my garden for your beautiful scenery!

EG, maybe I should just put some chicken wire around the mesclun bed, put Cookie Buns in there and let that pesky rabbit cut his own dinner.

Granny

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