It's a wonderful garden, Xuan! You're way ahead of me! I've still got two weeks before I can plant anything tender, just in case we get a frost. Nice photos!

Looks like a well thought out patch of vegetables. I like the trellis! Very unique. Also, it looks like you have a fine view if you look past the vegetable garden in the first photo. You live on a hilltop?? Where do you live Xuan...looks lovely!
Kristi

Xuan-great veggie garden, the view over the hillside must be beautiful from what I can see. I hope you enjoy your veggies! I love that trellis. I have to look for one like that. Or did you make it?

Let's see-I have tomatoes, red cabbage, radishes, red sails lettuce, potatoes, green globe artichoke, herbs, zuccini and cucumber! Of course I was able to plant these things when most of you still had freezing temps! It is already getting too hot for most of the veggies. The potatoes should be fine, they are just poking up. But most of the other plants will burn and die soon.
{{gwi:398198}}{{gwi:398199}}
{{gwi:398200}}{{gwi:398201}}
{{gwi:398202}}{{gwi:398203}}
{{gwi:398204}}
{{gwi:398205}}

Oh, it will be that hot in Florida! Can you give the plants water so that they won't be affected?

We are lucky, I guess, that we don't have severe winter or summer in Dalat. It's Vietnam's vegies growing region. In fact, it supplies vegetables throughout Vietnam, especially for cool region products like potatoes, cauliflowers, etc. I'm just taking advantage of the climate! I should have tried tomatoes and some other goodies too, but I just couldn't find the time... you know I commute between the two homes, one week here one week there!

Yes, our house is on a hill overlooking a vast vegetable growing area. I really enjoy the view in the back of our house... it just soothes your soul and body looking at the greeneries.

Xuan

Xuan, Great view from your house and great looking veg bed.
I have garlic chives & scallions year round. I planted some sweet potatoes from Asian grocery store, it's getting to be pretty looking plant near my Plantain bananas. I don't live too far from Cindee so we get together for lunch once in awhile.

Jan

The only things I have up so far are chives and onions... I just put in radish seeds, and I'm getting ready to plant quite a few other veggies. We've had nice weather, and I was very tempted to start everything early... but I know as soon as I plant it all, we'll get a late frost and everything will die! I must learn to just be patient, and go by the last frost date for my area!

Cindee, it's hard to believe you're veggies are almost done for the season... how did those yellow tomatoes do for you?

Xuan, that's a gorgeous view! What an enjoyment in early morning!

I forgot to talk to Cindee about the trellis.

This trellis is made of bamboo sticks. You see, it's quite simple to make, you just erect two bamboo sticks, cross and then tie them up in the middle, and then tie in place another bamboo stick horizontally. That's it!
The green beans will climb up these bamboo sticks and we hope to have good beans for meals soon! I have recently planted some lettuce and a few artichokes (spelling correct?), I like the look of this plant.
Next week when DH and I go up again, I hope to plant some cucumbers and tomatoes, and when the rainy season comes, we will plant some squats (spelling?) and pumpkins too. I really look forward to filling our backyard garden with vegies.

Xuan

You must mean squash, Xuan... I plant acorn squash every year, along with cantaloupe, watermelon, bush beans, zuchinni, pea pods, radishes, carrots, burpless cucumbers, yellow summer squash, green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, okra, and at least 8 kinds of tomatoes, including a few heirloom varieties. I'll also be growing Hungarian peppers and a few other things from seeds acquired through friends.

I always grow parsley, chives, thyme, oregano, sage and cilantro. This year, I ripped out the herb bed so I could move it elsewhere... the oregano and thyme had taken over the entire patch! I plan on planting fresh herbs in one of the raised beds, and using the old herb bed as a place to grow small rock garden type plants and sedums.

There's nothing like the taste of freshly picked vegetables and herbs! Quite a few of the veggies bought at the grocery store have no taste... tomatoes are a prime example!

So, that's what our veggie and herb gardens will contain... and then there's the long list of annuals and perennials I'll be starting from seed... way too many to list!

Jodi, thanks for the spelling reminder, yes, it "squash" I meant. I just forgot how to spell some words correctly.
Your list of veggies sounds so yummy!!! I should also try to have a raised bed for herbs. We use them a lot in our cooking.

Xuan

Quite alright, Xuan! Even I misspell a word here and there, and in my own language, too! I'm just glad there's no math involved here... I'd fail miserably!

I've really enjoyed the raised beds so far... they're very convenient to work in, and because they're filled with fresh soil and compost, it's very easy to turn the soil for planting. There are less weeds, too! As an added bonus, they look nice and neat, especially with mulched paths between them! Raised beds make veggie gardening very easy and enjoyable, with a lot less work! I put a sprinkler right in the middle of the beds for ease of watering.

I should grow cabbage and cauliflower, and maybe broccoli and brussels sprouts... but I never think to put them in! I should try celery, too.

There are so many more herbs than just the few I plant... I should also grow basil and chamomile, and a few others... we use the herbs fresh for cooking, and it always makes the food taste better!

Once the veggie and herb plants are all in, there's not much to do until harvest, except keep everything watered.

Xuan-
Your garden is gorgeous! I can't even imagine a more beautiful setting!

Jodi and Others-
I have a big box of heirloom seeds that were donated to my classroom many years ago by a local group called Seeds of Change. Now that I do not work full time in the classroom, I am not using them with students. They are still viable- I started one of almost everything for my garden this year. I would be glad to send you a few packs of Brussels Sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. There are many different kinds of peppers too. Maybe we could trade for some of your Columbine seeds? I am sure they will still be good for next year, as they have lasted this long already. I tried you email, but it seems to be blocked...If you are interested you can email me! Cheers, SF

Xuan,
The veggies setting is just wonderful but
I want to know what the tall yellow daylily in the
backgrounds name is!

oldspider, I wish I could tell you the name of that daylily!!! We never have names attached to our plants/flowers or we have "funny" names in Vietnamese that, even translated, may not ring any bell in your mind. In that "fashion", this daylily is called by the name of a vegetable that some Vietnamese stir-fry! Can you imagine!!!
On the contrary, here's a close up photo of the plant and maybe one of you guys can tell me what its name is LOL!

{{gwi:398206}}

Xuan

Santa_Fe - I appreciate the offer of seeds, but I won't have room this year for anything extra... we don't have all the raised bed areas set up or filled with soil, so I'm limited in space until the following year. By then, we should have all the raised beds finished.

I don't have any Columbine seeds at the moment, but if you remind me in a couple of months, I'll be sure to save you a bunch from the plants that are coming up now. Old Fashioned Columbine grows everywhere in our cottage style borders!

My email server is down for upgrades right now, so nothing is getting through. There have been problems with the email for the past few months... several people have told me they can't send email. Hopefully, the problems will be fixed with the upgrade.

Haxuan, thanks for the trellis directions. We don't have bamboo in Minnesota, but there is plenty of willow that I can use to build trellises. One yellow daylily that looks like yours is called Hyperion. Its flowerstalks are quite tall, and the blossom is scented. As to stir-fry, daylilies are edible. The buds can be picked for stir-fry or steaming, the flowers too. Picked late in the day, the flowers can be dried and added to soup. The roots are edible too, though I have never wanted to destroy the plant to try them.

Audrey

There is plenty of willow in my area, too... I have cut branches for use as trellising, and willow is also great for weaving into wattle fencing and using for outdoor furniture making... however, be aware that willow roots incredibly easily, and many canes that makes contact with soil will sprout... and not necessarily where you want them to!

I have 3 sections of willow trellis that sprouted and grew while they were holding up some pea pod plants... and now, I can't get rid of them!

Audrey, maybe you can avoid the problem by not using the "mature" willow? What I'm trying to say is that... don't use the bottom-most part of the willow. The bamboos I use for this trellis here never sprout because they're not "mature" enough; they're harvested while still very young. The down side of this is that they rot easily, especially in my damp climate.

Xuan

Actually, Xuan, I believe the younger pieces will root faster than the older ones... I'm not familiar with bamboo, mostly because there aren't very many types that will grow in my climate. We recently bought some nice bamboo stakes that can be used as trellising. I also use left over pieces of pig panel fencing as trellises, which is very thick wire fencing. It works wonderfully for tomato plants!

Thanks for the suggestions. I know about willow rooting. I have sandy soil that makes it easy to dig things out. Since I want some willow to plant along a property line, I'm planning on using any rooted wands for that! I also want some red osier dogwood, so I'll take cuttings from down by the swamp for a pea trellis. It roots easily, too, and has a brushy structure that will work well to support peas. I can transplant them later. I plan to use them for a snow fence to help keep my driveway clear. They will hedge one edge of my veggie garden, which is about 75 feet by 125 feet and just the right distance from the driveway for a snowfence.

About daylilies... I have a book that says you can also steam young flower stalks and use like asparagus. In harvesting the tuberous roots, it says to dig up tha plant, remove about half of the tubers, then replant. The tubers can be scrubbed and eaten raw, or you can cook them. My daylilies have multiplied well over the years, so I have lots. I'm going to transplant some to my perennial foods garden and begin using tham as a food crop.

Audrey

We finally had a day of sunshine and warm weather yesterday... so I spent the afternoon planting the majority of the veggie garden. In the raised beds, I put in 3 kinds of bush beans, finger sized carrots, snow pea pods, broccoli, brussels sprouts... and in some large containers, I put in 2 types of heirloom tomatoes, a beefsteak tomato, and a few bush type zuchinni squash.

I still have one raised bed frame to fill, and that will be planted with bell peppers, sweet Italian peppers and some other pepper seeds that I've been saving, plus some rutabaga seeds.

I also need to fill large containers to plant cantaloupe, watermelon, acorn squash, cucumbers and pickles... those will be set next to the fence that surrounds the raised beds, and the vines will be encouraged to climb it. This will make harvesting easy.

I got a later start this year than I wanted to, but the weather has just not been cooperating! I really hate starting seeds too early, only to have them stretched out by the time I can get them in the beds! It's only May 14th, though... not really too late... it just seems like it is!

As a footnote... shortly after I completed planting all the seeds and veggie starts, it began to rain! It rained most of the evening and night, and I know this will help germination immensely!

Daylilies are something I'm just getting interested in, and so far, I've got several lovely named varieties planted in various beds and border areas... Hall's Pink was slow to start, but it's growing nicely now... Sea Gold and Pink Charm are two I've just recently received and planted, but they're off to a good start! I can't think right now of the other tag names, but there are several reds, golds, pinks and yellows all spread out amongst the fading tulips and daffodils.

I probably won't use any of them for salads or cooking, but I do enjoy their blooms and will be trying to breed some of them this year! We have a few of the different Stella varieties, of course... and Hyperion is on its way to be planted in the front beds. We're also naturalizing some of the orange and yellow common daylilies in different areas on the property, but the named varieties will all be kept in the front beds.

We have a small stand of willow comprising a wind break of sorts right on the front corner of the yard, but the trees are old and beginning to die off... they were planted about 15 or 20 years ago... we've removed the dead wood, and we're repopulating the corner with new willow starts and other trees and shrubs,which will be under-planted with perennials that like some shade, such as ferns, lily-of-the-valley, dicentra, astilbe and hosta. Dogwood, forsythia and crepe myrtle are a few of the shrubs we'll use.

I need to get new photos of all the beds and garden areas for documentation, so I'll try to post a few if they come out good... the sun is not cooperating today!

So... that's what I've been doing... what has everyone else been busy planting?!

It has been wet in my corner of the world since I came here on Monday so I only spent time looking and tending my AVs and orchids! I brushed them, changed their wick-water, cut off spent blooms, feed them.

But this morning so far the sun is up and shining so I'm gonna do some gardening outside. My beans have grown up on the trellis and my cabbages and cauliflowers are beginning to form heads and flowers (don't know what you call them LOL).

I have lots of weeds in all my beds that I need to pull up. Then I will plant some "wild pineapple" plants (I don't know the name) that I picked up yesterday from the roadside. These grow very vigorously and can form a naturally (and pricky, too) fence along my sloppy side of the property.

I will also have to redo my small borders at the front steps, the grass has been creeping into them. I will place some bricks to make an edge.

I also plan to put up some trellis for my "stray" tomatoes, I didn't plant them, they came up from nowhere. Then I will cut down my herbs... they're growing like mad.

All that and time spending here, at my laptop talking to friends all over, will take me up to Saturday evening when I leave here to return to hubby in our Saigon home. I spend a week here and a week there these days... can't leave my plants or hubby alone for more than one week at a time...hahaha!

Xuan

We call cauliflower and broccoli heads "florets"... your vegetables are growing very fast! You must have the perfect climate for growing things! It seems like you just planted your garden a little while ago, and already things are beginning to look edible! My radishes are still little 2 leafed seedlings, and they've been planted for a while, now! And the onion sets are only about 4 inches tall, on average!

Last year, I had hundreds of volunteer tomato plants coming up all over the garden! The previous year, I had planted some beefsteak type tomato plants and only one yellow pear tomato plant, and the tomatoes that fell on the ground and rotted left behind millions of seeds! I tried to clean them all up, knowing they would probably germinate, but I couldn't get them all... and they were growing everywhere, like weeds!

I have found that cilantro does the same thing! If you let one plant go to seed, it will form a cilantro forest the following year! This is the third year that volunteer cilantro is coming up where the original plant was... I may leave a few to grow so I can harvest some... it was really good the first year, and I made lots of salsa and cooked with it a lot. I should move the seedlings to the herb bed, though, so they don't repeat the process where they're not wanted!

Brick is a good border material for gardens and walkways... I've got lots of old fashioned bricks from a load of rocks and dirt and bricks that were apparently dumped on the property several years ago to be used as fill. I've been picking out the bricks and bringing them to the gardens for borders... someone also dumped a load of concrete pieces and large flagstones from a landscape re-model... I'm using the flagstones to create paths through the gardens, and the larger, thicker pieces are being sort of stacked and used to make the corner garden/windbreak look more natural... like there are small rock outcroppings. I love using brick and stone in gardening!

And as for herbs... I had to completely rip out the original herb garden! The oregano and thyme and mint had completely taken over the entire area, and had formed a thick root mat with runners spreading into areas I don't want them in! They're almost invasive plants! Pieces of them will go into the raised bed reserved for herbs, and I guess I'll have to divide the perennial herbs quite often!

I can't leave my plants alone for too long a time, either! And I doubt my husband would fare well if left alone for a week... he wouldn't eat right, and he'd miss the fact that I bring him his coffee at intervals all day long! He'd survive, but poorly so! I guess it's nice to be needed, though! :-)

My two orchids are growing like crazy now that the weather has warmed up and the sun is coming in a bit stronger... and my lone African Violet needs attention... it has grown a sucker and its neck is getting longer again! I'm afraid to cut off the sucker, though, and fix the long neck again, because I had such poor luck before trying to get new plants from all the leaves I took off the mother plant... not one of them rooted! I've had this plant for longer than any other AV, and I don't want to lose it! I don't really want to lose that little sucker, either! I'd like it to root and become a new plant. I'm not very good at rooting things lately, and I don't know why! Maybe it was just winter being a poor time to root things.

It would be so nice to have a place to "get away"... you're very lucky to have a second home to relax in... and I'm sure you enjoy it to its fullest! And the gardens you have are wonderful... it's very good for the soul to spend time relaxing among the plants and wildlife...

Here's a pic of the veggies this early morning before I pulled up all the weeds. See all the weeds and see how tall the beans and the cauliflower plants are?

{{gwi:398207}}

I have finished pulling up all the weeds, so the patches look very tidy now. Love it!

And here's a pic of my tomato plant. It has also set flowers. Soon I will have tomato for cooking. I had never grown vegetables myself untill this. You bet I'm eagerly waiting to eat my own veggies!

{{gwi:398208}}

Happy gardening, everyone.

Xuan

Wow! Everything grew so fast! The plants all look incredibly healthy and green! Great garden, Xuan!

The difference in plant size from your first photo to this one is just incredible! It's been less than a month, and the plants have increased in size immensely! You'll be harvesting fairly soon! You could actually double crop, and plant some new seedlings that will grow and mature before the season is over!

Xuan,

My neighbor planted some of the invasive bamboo. It is huge like your canes. Every April and May, I am breaking them off before they grow any bigger in my yard, but I spotted one yesterday that is already 18 foot tall. They grow huge very fast, and it has been raining for two days, so I didn't break this one off (YET!).

Anyway, I can get as many as I want. Do you treat the canes with anything to prevent them from getting aged and brittle? I am a vine/climbing rose lover from way back, and I would love to have an economical way to make trellises.

TIA!

Ann

Jodi, I noted in my book that I started the veggie patches on April 3, so it's a month and a half. It has been drizzling every day since and I think the vegetables enjoyed the rain a lot.

Ann, the bamboo I'm using for trellis is a different kind of bamboo grown only in the South of Vietnam, its cane is small, the biggest one is about the size of your wrist. It's said to be very endurant, I mean it can last a long time if you stick its end in the ground, but it never sprouts!

My father used to dump the "regular" bamboo canes (which is bigger and grow everywhere in Vietnam) into our neighborhood pond for a year before he used the bamboo as building and handycraft material. The bamboo treated that way could last for many many years, in fact I grew up in a home that was made of bamboo (the pillars, the walls, the beds, tables and chairs... all were made of bamboo). My father said the still water in the pond helped kill all "insects" in the cane as the same time harden it. When removed from the pond, the canes looked golden brown, not green! Vietnamese in rural areas use bamboo a lot in their every day life.
So I guess, maybe, you can put the bamboo canes you want to use in the water for several months or a year(Do you have a pond?) But mind you, when first removed from water, they smell awful for a few days!

Xuan

I'm not sure what it might be, but I'm sure there is a process for treating the bamboo that we buy here in the States, before we get it... we see it used in a lot of things, more so now than ever before as it is a quickly renewable resource... bamboo makes beautiful flooring, and there are garden items, furniture, fishing poles, etc...

I don't know that the type of bamboo we grow here is the same as what's tropically grown... so I wouldn't know how to treat or condition it for use. I'm betting that there's information on that very subject somewhere on the internet, though!

We've been getting quite a bit of rain, and there's lots more on the way, according to the local weather service... I'd like to see more days of warm sunshine, though... my garden will never mature at this rate! It's still early in the season, though...

WOW Xuan, your veggies are awesome!! Mine are all gettin heat exhaustion. The red cabbages are now bolting and probably will not set. We have had more fires than rain here. Everything is dry and brittle and it is so hard for me to water. On a good note, the arid and dry temps have been good for my artichokes. This is the first time I have had success. We trimmed our Tithonia (sunflower tree) waaayy back and it cost me shade for my pergola, so we put up a curtain of frost cloth for shade. It is keeping a nice moist micro climate under the pergola so my herbs and lettuce and onions are still hanging on. My tomato plants look horrible, all burnt and crusty leaves. But as long as they keep producing fruit, I will let them grow. I am eating dark sweet Mulberries by the handfull, My 'Vietnam' pomegranate is also enjoying the drought and full of fruit. My grapes have taken off like crazy and I have teensy fruit forming. My bananas are begging for water, they are water and fert hogs, but doing well. My cukes look like blight is taking over. My potatoes on the other hand are sprouting like crazy. I love eating the stuff I grow. I tastes so much better than store bought! You are doing fantastic for a first time veggie grower, Xuan!

Re-bamboo, I once bought a package of 5' stakes from HD. I use them all the time to stake plants and make tee-pees to support fruiting pineapples. Much to my surprise, one spring one of the stakes had taken root and sprouted leaves!

Keep us updated on your luscious veggie garden, Xuan!

Thank you, Cindee. I really enjoy watching the vegetables grow!
In addition to these patches of cauliflower & cabbage, I've planted several pumkins, too. I hope they will grow fast to keep the weeds down!
Here's an update of the cabbage. The photo was taken last week.

{{gwi:398209}}

I also have an artichoke, the first ever. I like the look of this plant so much when it matures and produces a "bloom"... very beautiful. Mine is still young.

{{gwi:398210}}

I will share with you more photos when I visit my plants in June! I hope they won't perish because of the rain... we've been having TOO MUCH rain lately.

Jodi, we don't have snow so literally the growing season is year round! But of course, we need to rotate crops for better results, so my next crop perhaps will be other kinds of vegetables, like potatoes or spinach or "big" onions (don't know the correct term!).

Xuan

Your cabbage and artichoke plants look positively wonderful, Xuan! They must love the humidity! I can hardly believe the cabbage is forming heads already! My veggie seeds, besides the radishes, haven't even made an appearance yet!

We've gotten plenty of rain, but the raised beds dry out faster than the ground, what with all the wind we've gotten lately... they needed to be watered yesterday, for the first time this season.

Due to the different soil types in different garden areas, some beds are still a bit muddy while others are beginning to dry out a bit... we have heavy clay soil in some areas, and others have been amended with compost, peat, topsoil and sand. A few areas are rather gravelly, as well, and I'm constantly picking out small stones and pebbles. The other raised beds by the barn were filled with a combination of topsoil and rotted horse manure... by next year, that soil should have broken down even more and become quite beautiful! I should still add some sand to the beds... maybe some peat, too.

When I hear about overly dry conditions and wildfires raging, it's usually in California... I normally think of Florida as being humid and wet! It must be difficult to find edibles to grow that can take both wet and dry extremes...

Mulberries sound delicious! When I was a kid, we had a good sized mulberry tree in our yard... we would pick tons of berries and enjoy them with cereal in the mornings! I've got Tithonia "Torch" seeds planted... I can't wait to see the flowers! Your bouquets of them always look so pretty, Cindee!

And you're so right... fresh picked home grown fruits and vegetables taste so much better than anything you can buy at the larger grocery stores... most of the commercially grown food, unless it's organic, is rather tasteless! Especially the tomatoes! I look forward every year to harvesting fresh pea pods and green beans, tomatoes and bell peppers, and all the other delicious things we plant! This year, Larry is going to make pickles! Yummy!

Xuan, I've been to Vietnam before. I was in Dalat for a few days. Beautiful flowers and produce there. We went to the art museum and visited some ethinic tribal dances.

Dean

Oh, how wonderful Dean! If only I knew you were coming!!!

Well, next time, if by chance, any of your folks ever come to Vietnam, please drop me a line ahead of time. I might arrange to take you around for a few hours, at least. I don't work and no kids to look after so I've plenty of free time on my hand.

Xuan