The Maple Hill Hop 76

Welcome to 

The Maple Hill Hop.

This is a hop for folks who love the outdoors.

Feel free to post about anything that's going on

OUTSIDE

in your neck of the woods,
no matter the season.

(Please share only outdoor posts.)

*Please link back to Maple Hill 101.*

Last week we talked about the task of creating three new veggie beds.
We've been exploring the edible landscaping idea,
intermingling food crops with ornamentals.
We decided to focus on the food,
and just use a few ornamentals around the beds.

We were able to tweak the second bed last week.

Here's what it looked like before.
It was a mess mixture of food and Florida-friendly plants.
The lantana and African Iris were relocated
to other ornamental beds.

The first thing I wanted to do was relocate the beautyberry (on the right),

so that the footpath could be moved over.

There's a big fir on the left,

and between the two of them,

the path was being obstructed.

Ah, room to breathe!

You can see some broccoli planted along the bed,

so I just edged the bricks a bit closer to it.

The beautyberry now resides next to the house,
so it too, will have room to branch out.
Once the berries start comin', the birds will be snackin' away!

The recycled teepee has been placed in the center of the bed,
where beans have been planted in front of it.
The eggplant was moved to the left,
lining another footpath.
The broccoli  now acts as a border on the front and right side.
I haven't yet decided if the liriope and parsley are going to stay put.
We plant parsley, not only for us, 
but for caterpillars to enjoy as well.

Next to the broccoli, I planted some cherry tomatoes.
They were long and gangly,
so I used the trench method of planting them,
laying them down horizontally and covering the stem with soil.

As you can see, they are ready to do their thing!

What a pleasant surprise to see Romas growing!
There is only one plant in another part of the garden,
but I'll take what I can get.
This was a seedling plant that was gifted me by my garden mentor, Lynn.
You can read all about him in our Farm School Series.

I also bordered the first bed we put in with baby kale.
I've been eating these in my daily salads
and they are even tastier than the full-grown version!

Oh, and, we've had visitors.
Many, many visitors.
The monarchs are coming back in droves.
We are an official Monarch Way Station,
which means that we provide a beneficial habitat for these amazing critters.
We also host gulf fritillaries, black swallowtails,
zebra swallowtails and others.

Welcome back, sweet ones.

Well, that's what's going on around here.
What's happening where you are?
HOP on!

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