As promised on Friday, we’re starting off the week back in Daniela Baloi’s garden in Hudson, Ohio, this time in her veggie garden.
She says, “The pictures I am sharing today show our biggest garden project for this year: the vegetable garden fence. We’ve been growing vegetables since the first year we moved to this property 14 years ago. We built one raised bed every 2-3 years, but in the recent years we had difficulty protecting our crop from the deer. Every year I lost the first crop of tomatoes to the deer and then I would immediately wrap each garden bed in bird netting. Don’t ask how I harvested and worked around that!
“This spring my husband enlisted two friends and my 11-year-old daughter to help him build the permanent vegetable garden fence. Not only does it protect the garden, but it makes it look neat and organized, and it’s easy to work in. In addition to adding gravel between the raised beds my husband brought a water line with a faucet right into the decorative pot you see in the garden holding the butterfly nets. We hide a stretchable hose in there and when it’s not being used you can’t even tell it’s there.”
So cute, Daniela!! Your energy and creativity know no bounds! **Hey all, I have one more batch of photos from Daniela, but she sent them to me back in APRIL (they got lost in the shuffle for a while….), so they’re spring shots. Want them now, or later in winter for a much-needed spirit lifter? Let me know!**
**** The push is still on–get outside and take some last minute shots, or compile a few you took earlier in the season. I’ll be eternally grateful…. Email them to [email protected]. Thanks! ****
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Comments
daniela, you are one big surprise after another. your place should be on the garden tour every year all summer long! my vegetable patch is a blemish on the landscape. yours, however, is a crowning jewel. Michelle, you can't mention additional photos and then hold out till winter, i wanna see them now. if you run out of pics in january,,,,, re runs
Daniela, love seeing a fellow Ohioan garden. It give me ideas for my own garden. I love your vegetable garden, The fence is great, love it. I don't have problem with deer, but rabbits and squirrels and have thought about a fence. With your garden fence I can see what it would look like. I also want to enlarge my garden and how you soften the street view has given me more ideas. Just call me copycat. LOL. Perfect name for the cat,look like an oreo cookie. Cute
What a great area Daniela! Your garden is fabulous,, the seating areas,,, signs, (( Love that Garden sign! ) and the fence is fantastic!,,, not to mention how great the veggies look too! I Love your idea of the fork with the cork!! Very clever!
So much fun to see all your you have done in your yard!!!,, and Oreo is darling! -:)
Lush, neat, productive and beautiful. I especially like the 2 bars at the top of the fence. I am not sure if it is functionally required, but it certainly is attractive.
OK, Daniela, you have officially knocked my socks off with that amazing looking vegetable garden and, brrr, it's cold to go around barefoot! Seriously, that is one impressive vegetable garden area. Your very handsome fence has style and functionality...sincerest kudos to all those involved in constructing it. I love that you included touches of whimsical ornamentation. I would smile with pride upon that whole project if it were mine. All that, plus a great harvest!
Loved today's posts as well. What a GREAT garden. Gosh, I would love to have your crew make one for me! :-) !!
And absolutely would like to see the other photos now!
It is all simply grand! The fence is a knockout and, on my those seating areas......!! You've turned functionality into art. Hope you get time to sit and admire your and your family's hard work
Gorgeous! Looks like so much shade, I am wondering how much sun you have? I struggle to find something that grows in my shade situation, maybe 4-5 hours of sun at most a day.
Love your veggie garden fence! My next door neighbor built one similar this past spring and it works well keeping out deer and smaller critters. You may want to install a rural mailbox in your garden for stashing small gardening tools, etc., saves footsteps. And don't forget to blow out that buried water line before the ground freezes. I have plastic decoy owls and several whirl-a-gigs on my garden fence, I'd like to think they stave off some maurading birds. Good job, Daniela.
Good morning everyone and thank you again for your wonderful comments.
mainer59: the two bars at the top of the fence was a clever idea we saw in a different garden. The widest chicken fence material that we found for sale determined the width of the bottom two bars so that it can get stapled properly. In addition we buried the fence an additional 6 to 10" in the ground. We still see tunnels of voles under the fence. We should have gone even deeper. We tried to get additional height after that knowing that deer will not attempt jumping thru the top gap but as we walk around the garden and want to see what is growing we don't look thru wire.
studio27art: indeed we do not have enough sun in this garden but that hasn't stopped us for trying. Some areas of the garden get 5 hours and some only 4. Onions, herbs, garlic, beans are not an issue in part shade. Tomatoes and peppers on the other hand would like more sun but the harvest of tomatoes this year was plentiful! I guess that bright light adds to the during shady hours helps as well. There is no other area on the property that would have given us more than 5 hours, so we settled here and I encourage anyone with only 5 hours of sun to try growing something fresh. The taste, satisfaction of growing your own and convenience is unmatched by shopping at any organic market!
Good morning all. Once again I am blown away by your garden, Daniela! Creative ideas, and attractive too. I agree with you about there being no substitute for growing your own fresh food, and I would include herbs. Nothing like stepping outside and picking lettuce, tomatoes, basil, and bell peppers for a salad. Even in winter we dig underneath the snow to find the thyme for soups and stews. I also love Oreo the cat, and knowing your garden is only an hour away from here gives me lots of good ideas for next year--thank you.
I agree with tntreeman about the spring photos--both now AND in January.
Looks great! How tall is your fence? You have a real knack for giving everything in your garden a beautiful touch. The hose idea is clever. The butterfly nets look like beautiful garden decor and the herb markers are just down right fun.
Daniela, your vegetable garden shows how beautiful and functional one can be when every detail is planned ahead. Kudos to you and your building team. And sometimes it is best to hold off building one for a few years, as you did, to see where the problems are.
Truly there is no feeling as great as picking your own vegetables, fruit and herbs, so it is worth trying, you never know!
Michelle, I vote for more photos now - why wait? Jeff had another great idea, reruns if you run short in the winter. Some of us only discovered GPOD relatively recently, so older posts would be new to us. See, pressure's off!
I am in love with your vegetable garden Daniela! This year I lost a lot of time and crops to a large rabbit herd and I have been considering ways to fence in my Potager and still have it look pretty - like yours!
Daniela: unless yours is stainless steel galvanized chicken wire won't last two seasons underground, it will disintegrate rapidly. You might consider digging a trench for fiberglass decking lumber, or an easy and inexpensive solution is to dig a trench and put in aluminum roof flashing, comes in 50' rolls up to 12" wide.
Daniela, your fenced vegie garden is not only handsome but also practical. It's brilliant to have the open spacing at the top since it still keeps the deer out but allows you to look at your garden without squinting thru the small openings! What I find so visually pleasing, though, is the comfy seating area right next to the fence. It makes the fencing seem like a piece of art as opposed to animal control. There's also something about your water line hidden in a pot...
Yep... pictures now and down the road!
Daniela, you've demonstrated something I've long believed: that a vegetable garden can be a beautiful addition to the garden. No matter how small an area I have to garden in I will always have part of it dedicated to edibles; there's something incredibly satisfying about eating what you've grown with your own hands. Great job! Michele, I agree: show the rest now.
Absolutely beautiful! Am going to pass this on to my daughter and husband who have such trouble with deer, rabbits, etc. The seating areas outside, bird houses, etc turn the whole project into a work of art. Oh, that I had strength to incorporate some of your wonderful ideas. Michelle, I vote to see all of Daniela's submissions soon and trust that plenty more will roll in before next spring. And thank you, Michelle, for providing daily entertainment for all of us.
Hi, Daniela, something that zipped through my mind when I read your text was to ask your opinion of the stretchable hose. I see them advertised on tv and often wonder if they are as neat (literally and figuratively) as they seem. Have you had luck with a particular brand? Thanks for any info you have to share.
Wonderful kitchen garden, Daniela! I love the fork-tags, and the attractive seating areas(mine's an upturned pot). How does the gravel work in the paths? I put down heavy wood chip mulch for ours, and the weeding isn't too bad if one stays on top of it. Good idea to bury the fencing below ground level, however long it lasts. We didn't, and battled a groundhog all summer. Tell the cat to tackle the voles, and the moles whose tunnels they use! Great job! Michelle, now's the perfect time to start getting inspired for spring.
Jeff: garden tour every year?! no no no! I can't handle that! It was too much pressure and my family complained that I worked way too much in my garden this past year! We like the result of all those hours of work but we also like our family time outside of the garden
tractor1: thanks for your reminder to blow out the water from the garden line! and your suggestion with alternate in-ground materials is most welcome
studio27art: in 4-5 hours of sun we grew: green onions, carrots, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, banana peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumbers,sunflowers, raspberries, blueberries,alpine strawberries, figs in a pot, peas, bush beans, pole beans, and herbs: oregano,parsley, thyme, chives, dill, basil, lovage, mint, nasturtium, catnip and valerian
Michaele (meander1): the Pocket hose meets all of the claims the manufacturer makes: it is light weight, you can hide it in a large pocket, it stretches to three times its original length but doesn't retract as new. If you create a nick in the hose it could bursts. If you leave it in the sun under pressure it could bursts. Out of 5 I bought this year I lost three. The biggest complain I have with these brand is that the threads are so bad that you must use some lubricant before attaching a spray end to it or you will never get it off again. I like mine for the garage and garden but not everywhere else.
quinque: we love the gravel paths! I also like that when we blow leaves in the fall I don't have the mulch pushed around as in other beds It stays put. We used landscaper foil under the gravel and we had no weeds on the path this year. Slugs hated that too! Too hot to hide there!
daniela, i was only teasing (sorta) about the every year thing. 2 things that will work people WAY too much and almost make them crazy: public garden tours and garden weddings. i'm sure , though, given the challenge you would pull it off beautifully
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