So if I feed my squirrels they'll leave my food crops alone? Generally yes, but does my advice come with a money back guarantee? Nope ;-) The idea is that squirrels are lazy and opportunistic while also being very capable acrobats capable of defeating most any fence or barrier with ease. Squirrels like corn and it isn't sweet corn you have to sacrifice, regular old field corn intended for animal feed is fine. Pound nails into a board and impale the cobs on the nails and set out in the yard. Also bird seed is a favorite of squirrels so feed the birds and don't buy the anti squirrel feeders, let the birds and squirrels feed to their belly's content. That should, hopefully do it. Well fed squirrels who can find easy meals are not as likely to bother gardens with any kind of fencing or other protection. But, no guarantees. These are wild animals we are talking about. The same holds true for deer as well. Many gardeners report growing favorite crops of deer with no deer damage as long as adjacent property is full of deer food.

Mmmm fresh veggies from the backyard? YES please! I started doing all veggies and herbs in containers and window-boxes. Tomatoes do great in pots if the pot is large enough. That is about the only thing I've had true success with in a pot. My garden this last year didn't do as great as I had hoped due to lack of rain the first couple months of summer. Being in central east Wisconsin, we only have a few months to enjoy a veggie garden before frost takes over. If you're doing a 14X4 foot you can do quite a few things. I'd suggest doing tomatoes in pots to leave more room for other delights in the bed. Some beans and peas varieties don't take up much space, peppers grow tall so they can be planted closer together than other plants, herbs can be done in containers but I personally have had better luck in beds being I'm in zone 4. As for anything else- squashes take a lot of space and sun, broccoli and califlower like cool weather so they should go into the bed in early spring to avoid bolting, and root-veg should also go in early so you have something to pull-up before winter comes. My veg garden is 30x20 and I have enough room to plant some of everything and anything. One year I got really ambitious and had 60 tomato plants. Half my garden was a jungle, but it was fun. I wish you luck on doing a veggie garden next spring! I also love all the photos of the raised beds others posted. Beautiful!

Basil will flower, but it usually doesn't hurt it. I just pick the flowers off and put them in my pocket. I sniff them for the rest of the day. It will get big, but that is just that many more leaves for you. Things under the ground.....The top greens don't have much to say about how big the carrot or the radish or the beet is underground. The thing about them is that they are mature and ready to eat at any size, really. So, you can have tiny carrots, radishes, and beets, or large ones. They are all going to taste good. You will just have to pull some soil away from them to judge the size. My MIL has grown some of the most HUUU-MONG-ous radishes and carrots, and I don't know how she did it, except that she used a whole bag of triple 13 on the garden that year. Corn and tomatoes have maturation issues; that is, they must ripen to reach your high standards for tomatoes and corn. Corn is not really my forte, but I know that when the tassel is dark brown, you can pull an ear and check it. Peel the husk back on the corn, it should be filled out nicely. Pierce a kernel of corn with your thumbnail, and you should see 'milk' of the corn. The corn is right then. Tomatoes should be red, and soft enough to eat. I like to sit in the garden with a bowl of salt and eat my tomatoes. Also, I love to graze at the trellis that the peas or green beans are growing on. Nothing better. I pick those flower buds off my onions. They will go to seed, but probably won't be good seed. You wouldn't believe what they have to do to get good onion seed. (You wouldn't want to know, either.) DH pulls the soil away from the bulb of the onion when they start to bulb, to just leave the roots in the ground. It frees the bulb up, so they can get big. He has grown some BIG onions, too. When the tops of the onions fall over, the onions are supposed to be done. Garlic is one we let go to seed, but it doesn't grow from seed, as far as I know. The bulbs multiply, like lilies. Chives do the same thing, as do the multiplying onions. You can eat squash, cucumber, zuchinni and peppers at any size. Too big is usually not nearly as good as little. Pumpkins I am not so familiar with. The coyotes always got ours before we did. I don't find what zone you are in, and that is an important thing for us to know. Best of luck to you! Janie

I can't grow Freesias outside in my climate but I have seen them growing happily out of stone walls in Italy. My reservation about this idea would be that they need entirely different conditions from most vegetables. As socalgal said, they don't want much water and I suspect they don't want rich soil. In your picture is it possible that the Freesias are actually planted in the gravel edge rather than in the beds themselves? Maybe you could grow them in pots and place them around the garden? Perhaps you could contact the guy who does the blog where you found the picture and ask how he does it?