The gate hasn't been installed yet so we're using temporary protection from deer - more fencing materials. Hopefully it will be finished next weekend if weather holds out and stays sunny. But at least it looks more and more like our dream garden. As you can see on the inside edge I planted strawberries - much more than anyone would want to have for eating, but then these are not really just for eating. My hubby tried our home made strawberry jam and loved it so I got 22 plants of Cabot strawberry and 26 of Tristar and planted on the perimeter from front and right side of the garden. 
Not sure if any of these will have berries in the first year but next year should definitely have more than enough. And of course I still have plenty of my other strawberries in the original garden area. And thought you can't see it closer to the fence every 2 inches or so there are plenty of peas planted and they'll use fence to climb and cover it in green so it won't be so ugly. On the other side of the same fence it's a bit hard to see but I planted all my grapes and two sets of raspberry plants and one blueberry. 
The blueberry was purchased last fall on deep sale and I wish I got more of them - but we have 4 other bushes that need to be moved so they'll join this one soon. For grapes I got 3 red seedless Reliance, 2 white seedless Marquis, and 2 black Alden. Let's hope they'll take well and will start produce grapes eventually. And of course we started doing some landscaping around the garden area. I planted quite a few peonies, hollyhocks, lilies, dahlias and many more are still waiting as I need to get more dirt in front of the garden. My hubby will try to do that this week while I'm on a road trip. But in anticipation of that area being planted we did a trip to get more greens. Can you say forest moved into the car??
As you can see the two tall evergreens will be used to block some space on the side and back from our neighbors. The colorful foliage will be good for edging and since these are suppose to be deer-resistant I hope they'll help protect y other plants like roses and grapes.And yes, those bright green leafs in the white package are my replacement broccoli and cauliflower. My second wave of seedlings is just too small to get transplanted so these will be planted tomorrow night on the new garden area.
Here you can see why I need these replacements - I don't have time to raise them from seed again as I'm losing valuable growth time and you can see what frost did to my current plants outside. So while I still hope they'll recover and produce something I had to think of backup plan and got new ones from growers. But on the good side looks like my radishes survived, even though there is some damage most of them bounced back. 
And my peas are doing good too - some died out and some dropped first leafs but overall they seem to be recovering and keep growing. You can see they're protected from birds by fencing which will also be used as original support for them to grab on to it and grow - they're supposed to be bush size so don't need full support but it won't hurt. The back two rows are tiny tulips that really got beat up by frost. 
And on the current blueberry bushes one has some blooms - only 1 out of 4 for some reason but I hope once we move them and get them some acidic food they'll do better. They're just not doing well in all that shade. 
And yes! First strawberry plant is blooming - it's my Alpine strawberry, much smaller than usual but very fragrant and delish. I love snacking on them while in the garden. 
They don't produce runners but do grow into pretty large size so I really need to separate them into several plants and transplant into better place. Maybe in the fall I'll do that. I originally planted only 4 bushes and they're more than enough for us to snack on. But then we also had two dozen of regular strawberry plants in another bed and with new 48 or so that were just added I should hope my hubby will be happily snacking while visiting my garden :)So very busy weekend and lots more to do. Wish I didn't have to go to work and could spend more time at home but no such luck - weekends will have to do.
My Tristar strawberries yielded 24 1/2 pounds their first year, on 21 plants. Yields went gone down slightly in 2010 (18 pounds) and 2011 (23 pounds). The only bad thing about that is that they yield over such a long time, so no harvest is really large. I found I had to crush and freeze berries for jam, then make it when I had enough.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear most of your garden survived the deep freeze!
Granny - that's why I also have Cabot as it supposed to give massive harvest in June all at once so I hope to have enough for jam. And Tristar would be good for smaller batches of it as i'll be freezing some during summer time (that's what I did with current berries too). I do hope it will be a good harvest as my hubby is definitely a sweet-tooth :)
DeleteWow, your garden is really coming together. That arbor and fencing really looks good and professional looking. Hopefully the deer will leave it alone.
ReplyDeleteThank you, my hubby has been hard at work to get it all together :) For deer he's going to set up two more water repelants in front and on the side of the garden. Hope it will work.
DeleteThat arbor is awesome! Your husband is doing a great job with the fencing. The whole area looks great, I love the way it is coming together!
ReplyDeleteThank you, he designed, cut and build everything himself from scratch. I really hope it's going to be good once it's all put together.
DeleteThis is looking so fabulous! Even better and bigger than I pictured when you showed the plan.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's very hard to really show what you're trying to do in a plan :)
DeleteJenny your garden is looking magnificient! I love the arbor. One day I will have one also. My neighbor put up a HUGE one this weekend. What will you be growing up yours, grapes?
ReplyDeleteWe worked really hard on the garden this weekend also, but didnt get everything done. I'm trying to figure out a fence to put around my also due to a neighbor down the road huge dog. He walked through all my new raised beds. He doesnt leave little foot prints, they look like a horse. I'm so irritated with my neighbor for not keeping him corralled on their 3 acres.
I havnt been getting much done in the garden after I get home from work and cook dinner. There is just never enough time for what we love to do.
Do you buy your strawberries in plants or roots. I bought roots but seen plants just now appearing and think I will buy some of those. I really want some strawberries this year! I've never grown them before and want to make jam.
Thank you Lisa, that arbor is pretty big too and I hope to have two types of roses growing - one red and one yellow, some grapes in corner of arbor and fencing and some hanging baskets from the top with something colorful.
DeleteI'm sorry about your neighbor's dog - it's just too bad they're not very mindful of other's property.
As for strawberries I ordered 25 plants each - bare roots but when they came in, I layed them in a pan and covered with seedling mix and lots of water so it looked like wet mess. It took 3 days for them to wake up and they shot into growth like crazy so I went into planting them a bit earlier than I thought I was going to. They're pretty easy to grow so I hope they'll produce something this year as my hubby really wants his jam for winter :)
Wow! You have a huge garden set up! I have just recently started a garden blog. We have a small back yard but get quite a few things from it! Come take a peek if you like. Nancy http://cozythymecottage.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThank you and this garden is just being build for first season, thought we do have small first garden that we're using too. And your back yard is very charming :)
DeleteHoly wow! I leave for a few days, come back and look what happened! That looks really nice. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, it's slowly getting there :)
DeleteThat is such a beautiful garden setting. I love the entry. Our brassicas were hit by frost last night. They look like yours. I'm sure they'll rebound. We're still waiting for our strawberries to blossom. It should be soon!
ReplyDeleteThank you, and hope your brassicas will recover. Mine got frostbite and they're not doing too good. So far I don't see that it's growing well but it's also been very cold this week. I really hope for warmer weather sooner than later.
DeleteThe garden are is coming along nicely, I can't wait to see it with all the plants in. Cabot strawberries are one of our favorite varieties, that and Honeoye. I ordered some everbearing plants to add to the collection this year in an effort to extend the season.
ReplyDeleteAlso just divided my alpines for the first time and it was easier than I was expecting. :)
Thank you, it's getting there. I've planted a bunch of perenials this weekend so it's finally starting to look like a garden.
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