Skip to main content

Featured

Japanese Maples Fall Color

'Skeeter's Broom' is the most colorful maple in our garden. I have just returned from a 2-week trip to Japan. This was my first ever trip outside the United States. It was an amazing experience and one I will never forget. Japan was wonderful - they really have their act together and I think the U.S. could learn a few things from them. There was one disappointment on the trip - the fall color had barely begun there and was really just beginning as we left. That is okay because the gardens were still spectacular, and I got a nice shot of fall color when I got back. 'Ryusen' I missed a few things - our ginkgo had just turned a glorious color the day before I left, and the leaves were gone by the time I got back.  'Sango-Kaku' I came home to many leaves on the ground but still a lot on the trees. 'Osakazuki', a beautiful red maple always changed color very late and therefore doesn't usually last long. When I left there was no color but a few remaini

Visiting the Engineered Garden

Yesterday, some friends and I had the opportunity to visit Jeff's garden in my hometown of Russellville (about 25 minutes south of Florence). I've been reading Jeff's blog, Our Engineered Garden for some time now and I'm constantly amazed at his inventive ways of growing vegetables. He truly takes the art of square foot gardening to another level.

Jeff grows many vegetables on trellises. In this photo, tomatoes grow on one side of the trellis and watermelons grow on the opposite side. I didn't realize that you could grow different plants so close to each other but Jeff says that it is not a problem.



Here is a wider shot of the bed. Okra (one of my favorites) grows in the middle. Beans are planted on the trellises. The beds are fenced in to keep the deer out.



And some yummy squash -



The tomatoes growing in this bed are all "Cherokee Purple", a variety he recommends highly.



Tomatoes growing on a compost pile!



And speaking of that, Jeff is the master of compost -



Turning the compost piles can be back breaking work so he built a contraption that turns it for him -



He also grows many plants in self-watering containers. Here he is demonstrating how he builds one (see his blog for instructions).



These are sweet potato plants growing in self-watering containers.



And more containers made from cat litter buckets. Hmmm, I have a basment full of these...



Another highlight of the trip was meeting the star of Jeff's blog, Jude. What a sweetheart!


We all enjoyed the visit and learned a lot. If you want to learn more about these techniques and more, be sure to visit Our Engineered Garden. Thanks Jeff!

Speaking of vegetables, we had fried squash (from Michael's customers), butter peas (from the Farmer's Market), cornbread, and peppers from our own garden tonight. Delicious, but if I keep this up, I will have to renew my gym membership soon.

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Wow! Wow! That is quite the garden!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How original, this would especially be useful for folks living in urban areas with small lots.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great garden! I love gardens that recycle and show new ways of using things. I use cat litter boxes when i make chicken poo tea for my garden. They work perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How fun to visit a blogger's garden, and so near you too, Phillip! Lots of good ideas here, love the trellises and that compost contraption is to die for!
    Frances

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a great idea for recycling those buckets. That is some kind of compost outfit. The auger to stir the compost is quite the contraption. I will have the Beatles song "hey Jude" in my head all day now. What a beautiful dog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good morning, Phillip. Jeff has some great ideas. I will follow your link and visit his site. I'm sure I can learn a lot, especially about trellising. Cherokee Purples are my favorite too, really great taste and an unusual color.
    Marnie

    ReplyDelete
  7. Phillip,
    Hello! I stopped by to see your photos of Jeff's Engineered Garden. You have some nice garden posts too. I'll be back. Have a good week.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I enjoyed your tour of Jeff's garden. Some very good ideas.
    You are the first one I've heard of speaking about butter peas. I love them but can't find the seeds. Will have to research further.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a talented, imaginative and industrious gardener! Boggles my mind!

    Oh, you're eating well. It's healthy stuff. I think you already have a membership to that gym called a garden! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Phillip, i'm glad you and your friends enjoyed it! It was alot of fun, but sure was hot...whew...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I thought that garden looked familiar. haha. That EG is definitely a crafty one. It's interesting to see his garden from someone else's view.

    ReplyDelete
  12. How inspiring. I am getting my "feet wet" with the veggie gardening this year. I will be visiting this blog to get ideas for next yr!

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a great garden full of great ideas! I love all that space he has to grow his vegetables.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi! Stopping over from EG's blog. It's nice to have another's view of his garden. I have to say, I'm a little jealous you were able to see it in person...

    ReplyDelete
  15. The man's a genius!

    I've just be checking the construction posts on his blog.

    ReplyDelete
  16. He's really an expert at what he does isn't he? I grow 'Cherokee Purple'. It is wonderful and pretty easy going. The squash bugs got all my squash. I wonder what he does to stop them.~~Dee

    ReplyDelete
  17. I've always admired EG for his wonderful swp/swcs! He's simply awesome is all I can say!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Tidy, intensive vegetable gardens rock. Very cool.

    I'll bet Alabama gets hot enough for tomato volunteers to produce fruit. They're just start to come up in my garden right now, but there won't be enough regular heat to ripen any fruit, so they're weeds.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts