Beautiful!

What is that you are using for edging? if you don't mind me asking?

It looks great, and you're my kind of gardener....overplanting and overgrown....that's a perfect description of how I garden too,

I've observed Mother Nature and how she grows, and where I live, her garden is overplanted and overgrown too. What works for her also works for us.

I love that you are willing to "go for it" and plant a huge diversity of plants. I like growing all sorts of things mixed together myself and I layer them just like the plants in our woodland....with smaller, shorter plants growing underneath the taller ones. My garden might not look planned to a traditional row gardener who only plants single crops in straight rows with lots of soil left bare in between rows (not that there is anything wrong with that), but it works for people like us who appreciate diversity in the garden.

I also think that the more diverse the plantings in the garden, the more confused the pests become. They seem to have a harder time finding what they want to eat if they cannot go straight down a row of their favorite crop and move from plant to plant like eating machines. Instead, they have to work their way through all the other veggies, fruits, herbs and flowers that are intermingled with their favorite plants and that gives the beneficial insects lurking there a chance to get them.

I think you're doing really well for a "busted up, old skinny man..."(your words, not mine, lol). I look forward to watching your garden evolve over the years.

ezzirah, I've been using that cheap plastic edging from WalMart. 40' roll for fourteen or fifteen bucks. Working on a shoestring, the cheap edging does the job fer me. If I were installing the garden for a paying customer, as I once did in my misspent youth, I'd use something more permanent - but more expensive. In time, the plants will hide most of the edging in this garden, anyway. (Later, we'll install 8' 4x4's around the eight raised beds in the middle of the garden.)

Okiedawn, once again, I gotta say: Exactly! You've noticed the same things I have. Plus, if you look at the old English cottage gardens, you'll see that every inch of space is planted, except for a small path through the garden. They were squeezing every bit of production they could out of every inch of space. Which pretty much sounds like what you've done, and what I would do in your place and on your property. Plant everything, everywhere and watch it grow. It just happens, as I've said before, that on our property, in town, in the front yard, I had to make it look kinda nice - just out of self-respect, if nuthin' else. once this garden is finished and matures a bit, from the street, all you'll see are some flowers and a row of partially trimmed and well pruned bushes. The garden will become a 'hidden garden'.

Then, as you've mentioned, when you look at ol Ma Nature's way of doing things, it's all a bit elbow to elbow, with all kinds of plants bumping up against one another. Then, each type of plant forms a layer reaching from the ground to the tallest trees. In a tended garden, the only thing to be aware of is not to crowd things so much that you lose production and end up with smaller fruits and veggies ...and fewer of them.

I also think that the more diverse the plantings, the greater the variety of nutrients, vitamins and minerals that can be added to your diet.

WBS:
It is awesome! I am so exicited that I have kidnapped you and others on this forum as my mentors! The insight, the inside information, the support you guys provide is unbelievable. I am so excited this year, i may post a pic! I just don't want karma to bite me with a huge hail storm.
AND by the way, I do not by that "old" bit. Your service entry date is awfully close to mine and I simply refuse.......:)

One of the three biggest mistakes I've made with plantings was putting the purple passion asparagus under the apple trees. I had *no* idea it'd get that tall. I'll have to move it one of these fall days. Replace it with more Mary Washington, mebbe. The second mistake was not allowing for the growth of the sod in the Bermuda. The grade is one to two inches higher, now, than I had planned. I can correct that when I replace the sod with edible ground covers later on.

The third mistake I detailed in another post wrt using the second draft of my plans, instead of the final draft. Oops... otoh, We now have an additional three foot wide, hundred foot long bed out of that mistake.

Today is digging taters, mowing our grass and stealing the neighbor's grass clippings. He's mowing his yard now. I made a pretense of asking his permission. "I'm going to steal your grass clippings, anyway, but I like to pretend that I asked permission" He thought that was funny.

wrt other things, and kinda related to gardening...

I took me about six months to lay out our front garden and get it graded. A healthy man - and a hard worker - could've had it finished in two weeks, using the same tools. A healthy man -who is an average worker- could've finished it in about a month.

I don't regret the loss of health (except for the first thing in the morning. Ouch!). These days, all it does is slow me down a bit. I've lived three times as much as most people and lived it three times as hard. I've seen and done things that others only dream about doing.

In our society, I'm a middle-aged man. Late middle age, that is. Which is a meaningless descriptive, unless you've lived each day to it's fullest. In experience? I'm as old as the hills...and often, just as dusty. ;)

I'm still excited about doing the next thing. ...and the next... and the next. I'm still curious, and I'm still learning abd doing new things every day.

Life is an adventure. Every day is an adventure. ...and gardening is an adventure. Aches and pains and discomfort are part and parcel of any adventure. Accept it and keep moving. Keep living. Get up and do something, even if it's wrong. Don't let anything stop you!

Joseph Campbell's "The Hero's Journey" applies to each one of us, each and very day. You are the hero in your own adventure. You are the Mentor in someone else's journey. You are the gatekeeper, the watchman, the Hero. It is a great responsibility to yourself and to others, but there is also a great freedom to be enjoyed.

Seize the day. Grab it and wrestle every bit of meaning out of it that you can.

...even if you get a bit dusty, and make mistakes along the way.

And so we can relate it all to gardening. Not only do we garden in the dirt and soil, dealing with weeds and bugs and green growing things, we are each gardeners in our own lives and in the lives of others. A hero's journey never really ends...and neither does the adventure in...

Love your attitude, WB. My husband has been living with Parkinson's disease for 6 years and still gets up at 5:30 each morning to get into the garden. He has your attitude, which surprises some people. "He still does so much. He should take it easy. He's retired now." But it's not in his nature--although he does take naps now in the heat of the day. And it's really not good for Parkinson's patients. Keeping moving slows progression, so he keeps moving--and accomplishes something while he's at it.

Well, I get up a bit later than that, myself. I do take the occasional afternoon nap, too. If everyone took a nap now and then, the world would be a better place, imo.

As for gardening, it's also a good excuse to get up and keep moving. No matter how your garden is laid out, there's always something to do and something new to see and to learn.

...like stealing the neighbor's grass clippings, for example.

Wbs, I think you have something to brag about, the garden is beautiful.

My old motor wont get up to the RPM it did at one time either, but it still starts and goes. It leaks a lot more than it did. I just tell my dear wife that just makes it easier for her to fine me, just follow the little yellow dots.