Mini Fairy Garden, DIY Worm Composter, Small Front Yard Orchard - Garden Update June 9th

A little video tour of our front yard garden for June. See our Mini Fairy Garden, DIY Worm Composter, Small Front Yard Orchard and what is growing right now.




Here is the slow cooker peach cobbler recipe.
A miniature fairy house to start your own mini fairy garden.

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Growing Sunflowers: Tips and My Favorites For Growing and Cutting

I love to grow sunflowers and they are an easy summer flower to grow. Sunflowers can be grown for the flowers and the seeds and because I followed my earlier planting schedule, I already have a garden full of the cheery sunflowers I love.

Growing Sunflowers: Tips and My Favorites For Growing and Cutting

This large variety of sunflower is Mammoth. We took a picture of my hubby's mammoth head next to it for comparison.

As the seed head dries it will turn brown. In about 45 days when the back of the sunflower is dried and you see the brown seed heads, the sunflower is ready for harvesting. I am growing sunflowers for chicken feed. The protein in the sunflowers is great for the chickens come fall when they begin to molt (loose their feathers) and grow new ones as feather growth requires lots of protein.

Best Sunflowers To Grow For Cutting:

If you like to pick sunflowers for bouquets, the best varieties are the multi-branched sunflowers. They will give you long straight stems perfect for cutting. One of my favorite red sunflowers for cutting is the  red Velvet Queen. A deep red velvet color sunflower.

I save sunflowers seeds from this variety to replant every year.  Red and yellow are by far the most popular but there are many colors including orange. This is the best orange sunflower by far.

You can see how huge this sunflower grew and how many flowers were there for the picking.

 Wondering how to grow sunflowers from seeds? They are easy to grow and low maintenance. If you amend with some compost when planting and water regularly, they will grow without care. Once established they are actually pretty drought tolerant which is good for us Southern California gardeners right now. You can grow sunflowers in a pot or container as long as it is fairly large to hold the sunflowers up.
Remember to water containers regularly as they dry out faster than the soil in the garden will.

Remember to check out my tips for making cut sunflower bouquets last longer.

Garden Tour 2015 - Growing Edibles In Your City Garden

In a Southern California garden this is our main growing season. Temps are perfect for lots of growth and summer heat has not hit yet. This year we are expanding our edible garden beds mixing ornamentals and edibles so that our garden is producing organic nutrient rich food but also pretty at the same time.

There is so much I could share but we'd be here all day and you would be bored with me so here are some highlights. I endeavour to remove more lawn each year, expanding areas for vegetable gardening. When you are trying to grow a lot of your own produce in a small city yard, you have to ditch the lawn at some point.

Below here I have pumpkins, zucchini and bell peppers in containers. One bell pepper plant is now four years old and loaded with bell peppers and it is only May. A tomato and other herbs are start ups in here too.

I grow lots of vegetables in containers and pots. Here are strawberries, cucumbers, zucchini, onion, parsley and basil as well as a pumpkin vine to the left. You can see my jug of compost tea sitting there as well. I always have a batch brewing and feed my plants with them on a rotating basis.

This garden bed has been a bonus area we have gained after having a tree removed. Once summer hits the six squash plants in containers, will be pulled out and the tomatoes and pumpkins will remain and fill in. Heirloom tomatoes are thriving in the full sun.

The front planter this year is our squash garden for sure. The entire thing is grown over with all types of squash and pumpkins. That is for another post but it is thriving this year. My plan to plant early has paid off. The garden was in by January and February and I am already picking loads daily. I was very frugal and started most of my plants from seed this year.

This photo of my main veggie bed is from a couple weeks ago. More changes and growth have taken place since. We have veggies, an apple tree, greens, broccoli, herbs. You name it and I try and grow it.

Perfect Flowers to Grow for Summer Bouquets

I am sharing perfect flowers to grow for summer bouquets. Oh, it has been a wonderful summer here in the garden for picking fresh bouquets. Here are my favorite cut flowers to grow for summer picking.

 In order to have fresh bouquets from spring through fall I love to successively plant sunflowers and zinnias. They are my favorite for summer bouquets. Sunflowers will deliver wonderful bouquets for picking if you plant seeds wherever you can every couple of weeks. Zinnias, I plant early in spring and later at the beginning of July. They will continue to bloom if you fertilize and cut cut cut lots of bouquets. Here is my recipe for homemade flower fertilizer that is so super cheap to make.

 Even when we go camping I pick a bouquet that I take up in our trailer to have on our table outside in our campsite.

 I even have some that match my prim decor. How nice of these to grow like that for me.

Glads!!

My sister in law gifted me with these gorgeous gladiolas. In red of course as she knows how I love anything red.

I did not edit the color at all. That is how vibrant these flowers were. So gorgeous. I would love to grow some glads. All gardens used to have them but you don't see them as much these days. Is it too late to plant gladiola bulbs this year?