Thursday, May 07, 2009

QUICK UPDATE ON “QUALITY TIME FARMS” OR MY BACK YARD IN LANCASTER, OHIO

     As I may have mentioned before, last spring I rototilled my backyard and turned it into a vegetable garden. This year for the most part all I had to do was clean up any debris, do some raking,and then plant. In cleaning up the garden area Johnny Jump-Ups  were growing everywhere. I Dug them up and planted them in a large flower pot.

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Nothing quite as nice as free flowers.They are a perennial and return each spring from same roots, forming expanding clump. Blooms second spring from seed.Once established, this species often spreads rapidly.

Next is the Peony Plant, I have two of them and they are planted at the back of the garden near two of the peach trees. Though they haven’t bloomed yet the time  for them is getting much closer.

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Peony flowers are often very fragrant and make a wonderful addition to any garden.

Now we will get down to it  “FOOD”

There is an area at the back of the garden about 14 feet by 14 feet that is my strawberry patch. This patch was started with four plants. Over the last few years I would cut the runners off and start new plants.

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I remember the strawberries of my childhood, dew-covered and fresh-picked early in the morning and served with shortcake and whipped cream. Won’t be long now…

One of my favorites TOMATOES..By following the tomato link I just learned, They were first cultivated by the Aztecs and Incas as early as 700 AD. Right now I have about 45 plants in the ground with about 20 more ready to plant. I’m going to have to give some of the plants away.

This picture shows one row with strawberries in background.

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This next picture shows the plants I still need to do something with .

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I have a total of six different varieties which I listed in a previous post and am trying out two different types of specialized soils to see what works best. If  you would follow the tomato link above  you would find out as I did; The French were convinced tomatoes had powerful aphrodisiac qualities and called them pommes d'amour or
l o v e - a p p l e s.

Now just for fun what is this:

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Thanks for stopping by  Joe Todd

3 comments:

  1. Love those Johnnie Jump-Ups, although I'm not sure what the bottom mystery plant may be. Some sort of perennial "weed"?

    Speaking of perennials, I had a client who had a gravel drive. Every year, impatiens would come up all through out the driveway. We never could understand, since impatiens are suppose to be annuals, but gosh darn, if he didn't have the prettiest driveway filled with these "annuals".

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  2. Yummy strawberries!! Love them. Your tomatoes look great. I have some brandy wines I started from seeds. They are growing like crazy.The mystery plant is a mystery to me. The leaves look like rhubarb. I give up:-)

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  3. Rhubarb is the correct answer..
    Congratulations..Hocking Hills Gardener.. I have never seen rhubarb flower on top like that though..

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