Ground Garden Is In: Peppers, Gherkins & Pole Beans Plus The Greens' Barrels

Ground Garden Is In...

This weekend I was offline a LOT... sorry for that; but this is the weekend I've always planted the main part of my garden- now known as the Ground Garden.

I have so little room to work with when gardening and, like when you're hungry and your stomach is smaller than your eyes, I have the same thinking process with gardening. My hopes and dreams of a lush harvest is bigger than the allotted space.

❰ KENTUCKY WONDER POLE BEANS

Last year was my first BIG year in this house to have a garden and to say I was learning as I went is an understatement. I learned from my mistakes and I am more methodical this year with my space and where I plant which plants, flowers and herbs. In the front of the house is my edible flower and herb garden area with a few plants mixed in; like my wild lettuce (watch for a post later this week on this plant) and a mixture of sunflowers for some vivid color and beauty (plus some attraction for the birds).

PEPPERS GALORE ❱

I planted four of each: Habernero, Hungarian and Jalapeno.
I've been wanting to try different growing ways and for the peppers, I did a tri-pod style set-up for all my vine plants.

As they grow up the plastic sticks, I will eventually add a LONG rod across the top so all the peppers can merge together. I had seen this type of set up online (forgive me for forgetting the URL link to share), but the gardener swore this gave her an abundance of a pepper harvest. Which is what I am hoping for. I use peppers for so many different recipes; jalapeno poppers, homemade Frank's Red Hot Sauce and even just pickling them in a brine for snacking.

❰ Gherkins (foreground) & Pole Beans With Feverfew

In this ground garden area, I set up the Gherkins (sour cucumbers) and Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans into a tent style set up for growing.

I had an abundance of feverfew (bottom right hand corner of picture) that I had grown in my indoor winter garden (plus I have more in the flower and herb front garden) and I didn't want to overwhelm the limited space in the front garden area, so I planted this final bunch on the edge here. I use this in my teas and other various secret recipes.

GREEN GARDEN AREA ❱

In this area, I have Radicchio, mesclun, spinach, basil, Little Gem Lettuce, arugula and romaine lettuce and some sorrel growing in the barrels.

In front of the barrels I planted two more wild lettuce seedlings (gray pot in between the two plants) and two extra Luffa seedlings (near the red Solo cup).

❰ RADICCHIO

As you can see my radicchio is coming in finally. I'm hoping over the next few weeks it'll start taking better and growing in abundance. I love using this in salad, to make homemade Cole Slaw and to add to some of my peppers' brine for pickling. It goes great on BBQ and grilled burgers too in place of lettuce for flavor.

So there you have it... my Memorial Day weekend garden planting time was well spent!