With the recent scares dealing with lettuce spinach and other green a Salad garden is a great idea plus it has a great look. Another benefit is that you know your green are very fresh and they can be totally chemical free.

Your salad garden can consist of a variety of lettuces, Bok Choy, radishes, peas, onions, cucumbers, beans, carrots, edible flowers and herbs.

To set up a salad garden select a sunny spot for a garden bed or a collection of containers. Lettuces are best when they are young so make sure you will check on the garden regularly. Hint: A salad garden is best by a patio or just outside the kitchen.

Place your salad garden near a water source. Most lettuce or green crops need plenty of water. It’s also best to give the garden an eastern exposure as well.

Graph paper will help you get a better feel for laying the garden out. I always use paper and sketch a rough plan. Its always different when I finally plant but it helps me remember the crops I want and place them in a more useful and pleasing way.

Put the tallest plants on the east side so they don’t cast a shadow all day long on the plants below. You can also use that shadow to keep greens sweet at midsummer. Spinach is one crop that will benefit from this shady spot.

Edge with the garden with edible flowers like nasturtium and dianthus for color and make the planting area inviting. Herbs also make a great border.

To get the most use out of your garden plan a tight planting and a quick-succession harvest. One example is four leaf lettuce plants in 1 square foot, or four spinach, two chard or a dozen green onion sets. Harvest the first leaves of each and later the whole plant.

It’s important to design your garden so it suits you and your family all season. Bush cucumbers will replace early Bibb lettuce. And you can replace tomatoes with fall collards and garlic at season’s end. Lettuce varieties can be panted until hard frost hit. And if determined you can use cold frames to extend the season.

Tips:

• Make use of succession planting (replacing old crops with new crops) to make better use of your garden space
• Dwarf and bush varieties take less space.
• If you trellis some of your vegetables it will make better use of space and will add dimension and interest to the garden. And if you put a trellis along one side it will help shade summer spinach and chives. Peas will also benefit from this.
• Container gardens make for an interesting salad garden and can be moved indoors for a longer growing season

Tags: theme gardens, salad gardens, miniature gardens, succession planting for small areas

Theme gardens add interest to your yard and just create new flair to your garden areas. They also can create a larger look to a small backyard.
photo credit: Dee Q8

One theme garden garden twist is a Color Theme Garden. The garden can be restful or a place that energizes and inspires. You can choose a color for a season, your favorite color or base the garden on an overall theme.

Even though my color theme garden changes each year I still use a tree in the background for light contrast and often will include container shrubs for added color and texture. And there is always a piece of new garden art to create dimension and interest

Designing a Color Theme Garden

• Consider the purpose of your garden and select a color or several closely related colors that will fulfill that purpose.  Youe will also want to take into consideration the design and cost.
• First I draw a garden design using graph paper. I often use cut patterns for trees and shrubs then work with different size shapes of colors to get a feel for what I want.
• Put a small tree or large shrub in the back. Choose a tree that flowers in the color you want for your garden. If you’re working with a large space, several trees or shrubs can form the backbone of your design. If your design will stay the same from year to year I would go with several trees and shrubs. By choosing carefully you can keep color and texture in this garden the better part of the year.
• Next add smaller shrubs and perennials to your design. By looking online or asking at your local nursery and greenhouses you can select plants that will have color or flowers from spring until fall.
• For added color, flair and to fill in any holes select a few annuals for your design. Or think out of the box and add vegetables.
• Last but not least add garden art that complements your design. Garden art is an unlimited area limited only by your imagination. I have one friend who changes the garden art each week and their garden is always an adventure.

Also, one of the most successful color theme gardens I ever saw was planted all in containers and created on a balcony. So, small spaces make great gardens too!

Technorati Tags: garden art, theme garden

Picking wild blackberries can be fun and it always leads to beautiful countryside and an adventure or two.

Wild blackberries grow along gas lines; old pasture lines and forest edges. You can find them in the woods, particularly logged woods but these blackberries are slower to ripen because they get less sun.

I remember when I was young my parents would pack a picnic basket and we would go looking for blackberries. We usually ended up on old dirt roads way out in the countryside. I have many wonderful memories of those days.

My favorite place to pick berries now is up on the top on my property along the forest line and old pasture. There is large patch of berries there that I can pick 6 to 7 quarts a day for several weeks. The pasture has a beautiful view that looks down on the Akeley Swamp and Conewango Creek.

Wild blackberries have tough thorns so I wear long sleeves and I pick early in the morning so its cooler and the bugs are not out and biting. I also have to be on the lookout for a bear that likes to roam the hill. Bears love blackberries and he’s more than welcome to some as long as he’s there at a different time than I am.

I did run into the bear one time when I went to pick berries. I saw him before he saw me and figured it was his day to use the berry patch. There were more than enough for both of us. I just backed up and went back down to the house.

I use the berries for snacks, jams and possibly a pie. They are high in anti-oxidants and mine are chemical free.

So if you want a little adventure this is the time to look for blackberries. Just make sure you ask for permission to pick on someone else’s land.