Gardening
New Views and Greenhouse Tomatoes
I planted about twenty broccoli plants in the fall this year. Some have done really well, and others have struggled. The one pictured below is the biggest one we had all year. They are the most tasty broccoli I have grown to date, equally good raw in salads and lightly steamed with a little butter, salt, and pepper.
Packman Broccoli in Raised Bed Garden
Ron chopped down several cedar trees yesterday opening up some very nice views of the valley and creek that can be seen from almost any vantage point in the back yard, and also from the front yard now that the wooden fence between the front yard and the backyard has been replaced by a temporary steel mesh fence.
View of the Creek from the Back Yard
The tomato plants in the greenhouse are producing many large delicious tomtoes now. I made some savory spaghetti sauce from the tomatoes pictured below this week. It is such a treat to have fresh organic tomatoes in January.
Ripe Greenhouse Tomatoes
Ron has these plants growing slowly and steadlily. They haven’t gotten leggy, and they are producing the biggest, most perfect tomatoes that we have ever grown in the greenhouse. The watering, lighting, heating, and cooling is all automated for these tomatoes which is an added bonus, since they required very little manual attention.
Greenhouse Tomato Plants
Greenhouse Tomato Plants
Greenhouse Tomato Plants
Greenhouse Tomatoes
There haven’t been too many big changes in the front yard since the last pictures that I took, except that the views between the backyard raised beds, the valley, and the front yard have been opened up by removing the cedar fence. We put up a temporary livestock fence for now just to get familiar with how the space was going feel when we put in the new rock retaining wall and black steel fence which will define the transition between the front yard and the back yard. We will also be replacing the cedar retaining walls around the back yard raised beds with the same limestone rocks we used for the front yard raised beds which should tie the appearances of the two areas together.
Front Yard Facing Valley
Front Yard and Back Yard Beds
Front Yard
I’m starting to sow seeds today for the late winter and early spring gardens. Stay tuned for details.
Happy gardening.
Carol
Tags: broccoli, Greenhouse, greenhouse tomato, hill country landscaping, landscaping, Organic Gardening, organic vegetable gardening, sustainable landscaping, tomatoes Discussion
Post a comment
Categories
- Blogging
- Butterfly
- Christmas
- cosmos
- CSA Farm
- flowers
- Gardening
- Greenhouse
- Hardscaping
- Holidays
- Homesteading
- Intensive Farming
- landscaping
- Lost Valley Gardens
- Native Plants
- Nature
- Organic Gardening
- Photography
- Plant Production
- Propagation
- Seed Starting
- Vegetable Gardening
- Vermont Bound
- Water Gardening
- Web Design
- winter
Your tomatoes look great, as does your view of the creek. I hope you’ll join us for the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling on April 5th in Austin, Carol. We’d love to meet you.
Hi Pam. I wasn’t aware of the event you mention. I will check your site for more details or links. I would love to meet all of you! Your gardens and blog sites are so inspiring and appealing.
I really like the lay out of your gardens. Beautiful and productive!
Tomatoes are one of my favorite vegetables. I haven’t tried raing them in greenhouses yet but yours look beautiful and may give me that extra psuh to raise them in a greenhouse.
I am deeply envious of your whole greenhouse tomato setup. I haven’t been brave enough to try growing tomatoes in Texas yet, but I swear I spent a month every summer eating nothing but tomato sandwiches when I lived in Wisconsin. There’s nothing tastier than a tomato you grow yourself.
Also, I’m following your front yard project with interest, and I can’t wait to see how everything looks once the plants fill in. It’s going to be gorgeous.
Greetings Denise and Lori! Thank you both for your kind and complimentary comments. I have to admit that growing tomatoes in Central Texas can be a real challenge (I had the pleasure of living and gardening in Cedarburg, WI for 7 years, and tomatoes and peppers were so easily grown there as opposed to here in TX.) The greenhouse has worked even better than I had expected for tomatoes. I feel very fortunate to have it (we built it ourselves a few years ago).
The front yard project is coming along slowly, but I need to post another update soon, as there have been some exciting developments. I can hardly wait until spring arrives!
Happy gardening y’all!