Garden Gone Wild

*Garden gone wild and Sunflower Mania best describe my garden this summer. The perfectly organized garden plans I had sketched out in March are long gone from neat rows of lettuce and carrot to overgrown tomato plants that are now needing to be cut back and supported by twine. As the summer months passed I found myself squeezing more seeds into any empty soil space I could find with the result being an overgrown abundance of vegetables, flowers, fruits and herbs. The concept of Wide Row Planting was my goal, a garden design of planting 2 to 4 rows of vegetables side by side very close together. Whether you like your garden style inch by inch and row by row, or jungle style there really is no right or wrong, but simply unique and individual preferences. This summer I experimented with Heirloom sunflowers, tomatoes, carrots and newly planted pumpkins are on their way. Also squash, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, blueberries, strawberries, cucumbers, lots of herbs, etc.

My tomatoes are just now turning red due to the very cloudy summer in San Diego this year. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego has experienced the coldest July since 1933. My tomatoes can attest to that!

Here are some links to garden styles and finding the right design for your lifestyle and yard space.

* See Block Style Layout of Raised Planters with Colorado Master Gardeners Designs.

* Cottage Style Gardening: Informal and abundant planting style. A country look that fits into a small garden area. Front yard Cottage Garden Plan.

* Square Foot Gardening: Creating gardens in individual boxed raised planters. How to create a Square Foot Garden.

Vertical Gardening: Creating vertical supports to grow more vegetables and herbs in vertical spaces.

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: http://www.nadiaknows.com

Creating – Growing – Staying Inspired

Squash Varieties-White-Yellow-Green

Heirloom Carriage Pumpkins on the way...

Tomato plant

too many tomato plants per square inch!

Heirloom Sunflowers 7 feet tall

Green at the Fair

S.D.County Fair

Last weeks road trip was to the San Diego County Fair which takes place each year from June 11th to July 5th in Del Mar, CA. This year the landscape and garden exhibits were water wise and full of really interesting succulent displays. I enjoyed the creativity that went into each design and came home with new inspiration and ideas for future plantings.

One of my favorites was this simple Coca Cola carrier with mixed succulents and a glass coke bottle wedged in the middle and pouring out a ‘string of pearls’:

Coca Cola Case with Succulents

Another crowd favorite were the xeriscapes of ‘living walls’  filled with sedum, aeoniums and echeveria etc. clustered together to create patterns and texture on the palates:

Exhibit: Living Wall including Sedum rupestre, Trailing Rosemary, Salvia officinalis, Echeveria rosea, Purple Sage, Tricolor Sage and others.

A clever use of fountains filled with a nice assortment of succulents~

Fountain of Succulents

Succulents fill a fountain

3 Tier Plant Stand with a waterfall effect

Using the same concept as the living wall, this display (below/middle) is filled with garden herbs and vegetables~ A Vertical Garden:

Living Wall: Succulent Tower

Close up View of Succulent Tower

Vertical Garden: Living Wall San Diego County Fair (Lettuce, Tomato, Cilantro, Sage, Basil, Herbs)

My husband even won me a koala bear at the basketball game booth~

Thank you for visiting my Garden Blog: http://www.nadiaknows.com

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