Garden Photo of the Day

Scott’s New Love of Gardening

Learning to grow flowers and food

close up of winter squash and plant growing up a wire trellis

Today we’re in northeastern Pennsylvania visiting with Scott.

Growing up I had very little exposure to gardening, aside from my annual 2- to 3-week vacation to my father’s house  in southern Mississippi, where he had a small produce farm. For the past few years I’ve dabbled with putting a store-bought tomato and/or pepper plant in my yard with very little effort, which led to very little return.

In December of 2021 a switch flipped, and I really upped my gardening game! Although my veggies weren’t as abundant as I would have liked, I grew flowers like it was my second job this year. My main goal for next year is to improvise my yields on vegetables, focusing on tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and cucumbers.

sloped backyard with no plantsEvery garden starts from somewhere. Here a lot of nothing is just beginning to turn into a garden.

newly built and mulched garden bedThe bed is now prepped, mulched, edged, and ready for planting!

close up of annual flowers in the gardenThe summer garden has flowers—here, some snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus, annual).

close up of winter squash and plant growing up a wire trellisThe harvest of winter squash was vibrant, with thriving cucumbers growing in a trellis and some corn and sunflowers (Helianthus annuus, annual) behind.

close up of nodding sunflowerA nodding sunflower bloom presides over the garden. It’ll provide food for many pollinators now, and birds will feast on the seeds once they mature.

close up of Black-eyes SusansBlack-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia fulgida, Zones 3–9) are blooming like crazy. A katydid seems to be enjoying the show as well.

plant stand with grow lightsGrow lights are all ready to provide good homes for houseplants and to start vegetables for the next year’s garden.

wooden trellis with pea shoots just emerging at the bottomA view of promise for the future, pea shoots are just beginning to push out of the soil, ready to grow up their waiting trellis and produce lots of tasty peas.

small Japanese maple in a bucket container in a bed of tulipsThis springtime view of the garden includes a potted Japanese maple (Acer palmatum, Zones 5–9) and tulips (Tulipa hybrids, Zones 3–8)

If you want to see more from Scott’s garden, check out his Instagram: @nepa_garden_patch

 

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Comments

  1. wittyone 12/26/2022

    Hooray for you! Too many people after a failure with planting something decide that they can't grow anything and never try again. I wish that they, like you, decided to learn a little bit and start out small with a second go-around. To their surprise, I believe in many cases, they would find that yes, they can grow things and that they enjoy the activity and then they go on to greater endeavors.

    You seem to be well on your way. Happy gardening1

  2. User avater
    simplesue 12/26/2022

    I love seeing the different phases of a garden and how they get started, and how they evolve.
    What a difference you've made adding all the flowers and vegetable plants, your land went from blank to interesting and fun!
    I noticed that cool mushroom sculpture in your garden- I've been looking for something like that for my garden!
    You sure have some healthy looking flowers & plants!

  3. user-5117752 12/26/2022

    Looking great!!! Such a good start!!! Beautiful plants!!!
    You've gotten the bug and now it's fun and games from spring to fall! The very best wishes to you!!!

  4. btucker9675 12/26/2022

    Good on you for not giving up! Everything looks great!

  5. [email protected] 12/26/2022

    Very nice! Welcome to the world of gardeners, a group I have found to be friendly, generous, helpful, and very encouraging!

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