In this article I will share some recent photos of my gardening projects. Additionally, I'll share an experiment with a new kind of mulch with surprising results.

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In my cover photo is my first seed grown #marigold of the season. It is growing among the #carrots and #peas.

In this plot near the sidewalk I grow peas, carrots, #parsley, #radishes, #lettuce, #sunflower, #nasturtium, and #marigold. Last month I planted a couple of my extra tomato and pepper sprouts. They are buried in there somewhere.

Over here, I grow many of the same things. The carrots, sunflowers, and lettuce are doing better in this plot.

Everything that grows in my front yard has to be able to adapt to the growing shade of the deciduous trees overhead. Some of the tree roots spread through the soil too, so they have to be able to mingle well.

Here was my winter plant for this front yard garden. Everything planted here was designed to benefit the health of carrots.

Read more about carrot companion plants in my article here.

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This is the #corn garden. This area was actually designed to help assist #pumpkin to grow to the fullest potential.

I don't see any pumpkins growing do you? My three sisters failed me.

Here we also have #beans, nasturtium, marigold, #morning-glory, carrots, lettuce, radishes, #melon, sunflower, and #strawberries.

The winners in this plot were the strawberries, radishes, and beans. The corn looks to be behind in size for this time of year. The pumpkins slowed down in growth last month, and decided they were done for the year. I think pumpkin would have done better receiving full sun rather than the shade of the strawberries and beans.

Next year, I'm going to have to plan a special plot for the pumpkins to climb and get more sun. Good grief!

Read more about the beans, lettuce, and corn companion plants in my article here.

Above is the original plan for this garden. Everything was designed to help the three sisters grow. Corn, squash, and beans. One of these years, before I die, I swear I will grow an edible pumpkin.

Nearby I grow a grapevine. It is inside a potted container to prevent the roots from taking over the yard. Last year it made fruit for the first time. This year it only made leaves. Now its leaves have stopped growing, and they are turning burgundy.

We have had an unusual cool spell for summer (low 70's with clouds), and I wonder if that has something to do with my warm weather crops slowing down in growth.

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This unusual cluster is the primary garden for the #tomatoes and #peppers. Surprisingly, the #wildflowers growing behind the beds have been the top performers, towering over the sunflowers.

Inside, everything is growing surprisingly well. Parsley, #pepper, #tomato, #radish, #arugula, sunflower, peas, #basil, #lettuce, #carrot, nasturtium, and #clover.

Below is my original plan for the area to provide companion plants for tomatoes. #Onion, #marigold, #sage, and #rosemary were also part of the plan, but did not mature enough to compete with everything else going on.

Read more about tomato companion plants in my article here.

I have one pepper that has fruited so far. I think it is #ancho-poblano. Hopefully it turns a orange-red.

The pepper is completely surrounded by parsley. I keep cutting back the parsley every few weeks, and it grows back in a few days. I want the pepper to grow more flowers, but it seems to have slowed down in growth now that it is has a fruit to support.

In the background, Beefsteak tomatoes are leaning over to find more sunlight.

More peppers growing on this side. Wax peppers. Found a few flowers on these appearing this week. I tickle them with my finger every day to encourage fruit to form.

In the background, Roma tomatoes.

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Below is my pea garden. This one turned out better than I expected, because the soil here has never been worked, and it's probably full of tree roots from the old stump.

In this area are peas, corn, carrots, radish, sunflower, beans, and lettuce.

This area must receive a lot of full sun, because the corn and sunflowers growing here seems to be doing the best. The soil is extremely soft mud that rarely fully dries out under the surface.

Below was my original plan for the area. It shows all the plants that are designed to help peas grow. The only thing that did not work is #cilantro, because it is so finicky, and won't grow unless the soil and temperature is perfect.

Read more about pea companion plants in my article here.

Some of the most amazing peas I have ever had were produced in my garden this year.

Crisp and fat green pods. This photo shows a cross-section.

Super juicy and sweet. The pod was dripping with flavor. You can eat it whole.

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This is the spot where I grow my brassicas. Inside is #brussels-sprouts, #cabbage, sage, #green-onions, #mint, sunflower, morning-glory, lavender, cilantro, and #anise.

Getting the brassicas to grow was very easy this year, except they were infested with aphids after all of the rain in Spring. Nothing really worked to keep them away until the scented plants started growing taller. I often pruned off the infested leaves to physically remove the aphids. That is why they are so misshapen.

The sage has exploded with growth. This is the first year I've grown sage, and I am surprised how often I have to prune it back to prevent it from shading everything else.

Lord knows how many sunflower seeds I planted this year. At least one of them has grown true.

I always direct sow my sunflower seeds, and this year I even started a few as transplants because I was having such a hard time getting them to sprout and grow stronger. There has been almost no slugs this year, so I'm not sure what the problem with sunflowers was this year. Lack of sun and heat?

Below was my plan for this plot. Some of the other plants that did not grow well here were anise, cilantro, #thyme, #rosemary, and #nicotania (tobacco).

Read more about brassica companion plants in my article here.

My garden turned out nothing like this illustration!

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Mulch Experiment

If you haven't noticed yet, I've been using the limbs of Douglas Fir trees to mulch many of my garden plots. All I did was snuggle in some small needle branches to cover the bare spots on the soil where nothing was growing.

Recently I had to prune many drooping limbs from the trees that were hanging into the walkway through the garden. Rather than dump them in the debris bin where a truck carts it away, I decided to cut the branches up into smaller branches, and use the pieces to shade the soil.

Although I was expected the needles to turn yellow and brown and fall off right away, I am surprised two weeks later they are still green. Seems to be effective so far. No signs of disease or stress on the plants. The soil surface appears to have more moisture retained at the end of day. Fewer weeds.

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That's about it for my garden update.

I also have some photos of my container plants with more vegetables, herbs, and flowers. And of course I always have photos of my native bonsai collection. Perhaps I will share some of those later in the week.

If you want to see more photos of my garden from this past Spring when everything was getting started, check out the link below to my past article.

https://steempeak.com/gardening/@creativetruth/full-vegetable-and-fruit-garden-tour-in-april-gardening

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