Cardiff Garden Blog

So I neglected the front yard for sometime.  And without my neighbor's taking on the task, it would have probably never been done. But now that we have started on the front I'm glad that we did. This is right outside the neighbors picture window in the living room.  It used to be a sandy patch of dirt with nothing going on. Now it's full of life. The plan is to add some more rocks and more plants to fill it all in with growth.  Since this picture was taken we've added moss and more seeds for wild flowers.  Also we've since added pebbles and stone to the artificial river bed.

This is one of my first Ronde de Nice squash.  As I blogged before this is a french variety that grows like a mini pumpkin.  It has nice yellow stripes that come in and the inside tastes amazing. I've grilled two of these so far in a vegetable medley and they came out tasting delicious. Buttery smooth in texture and taste.  It melted in my mouth.  Really tasty vegetable and I look forward to enjoying more and sharing with friends.  Maybe I should plant a few more seeds to get a later reap for late summer.

So this year I've vowed to grow more of a variety of fruits and vegetables than the standard heirloom and regular store found items.  Like this plant above is a Pineapple Tomato plant. And I have to say this plant has some of the biggest tomato flowers I've ever seen. You can see two flowers in the pic above and they are huge like little sunflowers. I just recently staked this plant so that it can support the heavy fruit I expect very soon.  I can't wait to see and taste this new variety.  I'll keep you posted on the other varieties I am growing like; Zebra tomatoes, Pineapple Tomatillo, Mammoth Basil, Corno di Toro Peppers, and Sweet Italian peppers.  It's an exciting time to garden with perfect weather and ample sunshine.  I'll try to post more pictures of this plant as it progresses with large fruit.

So we had be dragging our feet on creating a compost bin but we finally got around to it.  We used old shipping pallets and just secured them together.  All the straw you see is just from raking the alley and yard.  The one ingredient we don't have a readily available supply of is manure. We are talking about either getting rabbits or chickens. Both have waste that can be composted and used in the garden as fertilizer.  Also you can use the garden scraps to feed the animals creating a recyclable life cycle. We are thinking about creating more for the compost bin like individual areas to store each ingredient before adding it to the compost heap.  As you can see behind the bin there is plenty of materials ready to be composted. Black Gold here we come!

This year as a change of pace I've chosen to go with different varieties of vegetables that you don't traditionally see in supermarkets. In this case in growing Ronde de nice squash which I think is a French variety and it grows to in a round ball instead of the sausage like summer squash. Looking forward to tasting and cooking with and telling you about the other cool varieties I have growing in the garden.  More to come!

So everyone knows tomato plants grow big and bushy and usually need support. Seen above is the typical cage most use to support tomatoes. But what if you grew a plant that was tall and very sturdy that you could use to support a tomato plant and would beautify your garden in the process. Sunflowers are the perfect person for the job. In this case I'm using mammoth variety that can grow over 6ft tall and produce a beautiful yellow face that attracts lots of bees to the garden.  Very soon I'll remove the cage and tie the  tomato plant to sunflower stalks. This is my first attempt at trying this but I think it should work fine. I've always grown sunflowers to attract bees but what better way to use the for another purpose. 

Been noshing on this blue beauties as of late. This year the bush seems to be doing ok. Picked about 6 berries today and hope for more tomorrow.