Hobbit Garden-2024 so far
With publishing two books this year, my motivation and inspiration for blog posts has been very low. I completely forgot to do a winter garden update and here we are at almost summer so I decided to just do a ‘2024 so far’ update. Due to funds and overgrowth of weeds, there are not as many new developments in our little hobbit garden but I do have some things to share.
Our backyard beds have been thriving, the flowers, including returning wild flowers, have been in full bloom, turning it into a colorful, sweet-smelling sight. The creeping fig has also started to spread up the back wall. The weeds and grass here are a little more under control than the other yards as Kyle hit here the hardest at the beginning. Right now, it could use a bit of tending and some deadheading, which honestly is needed a bit in the front yard as well. The bushes in the front have been feeding many, many bees this year, including this golden bumblebee and many of its more-well-known black cousins. A few butterflies and hummingbirds have also visited. We got quite a few lemons and limes from our trees, but we are now waiting for them to bloom again.
The biggest change in our side yard (literally) is the blackberry bushes, particularly the Freedom Arc berries. These have grown freakin’ tall and give a crop of berries twice a year. We’ve already harvested a bunch for this season, making three pies so far. Our highest berry count picked in a day is 257 so far. Our other type of blackberry, the Triple Crown, are a bit more vine-like in growth and only bloom once a year. We are hoping to mix the Freedom Arc among them so we can have a full berry privacy hedge at some point. Kyle’s goal in the next month is to build supports for these monster bushes.
Our herb bed as gone through a few shifts. Sadly, we had to pull out the cilantro and parsley that became overgrown and flowered, changing the flavor. Also we are in the process of pulling out our green onions to plant fresh sprouts. Our thyme is happy and my Dad just got us new oregano sprouts from the farmer’s market. But, most exciting, our basil came back! We had to pull out our massive plants because they were starting to fall over and just scattered all the seeds into the bed. It is Italian basil and the best I’ve ever had. I’m so excited to use it on pizzas and in pestos all season. We also set up our squash bed where we scattered our jack o’lanterns after Halloween (and the other decorative gourds and mini-pumpkins) and got surprise sprouts! We’ve only gotten a tiny gourd from them so far, but I am still hopeful for pumpkins. We ran water to it, but the grass is trying to take over.
The side yard is honestly a bit of a mess. The plan this summer is to mow back the grass and black plastic it all to toast them out. I doubt we’ll be filling the second bed this season but I really just want to get the garden into proper, manageable shape over this next bit so next spring, we can go all out.
I will keep you updated and I hope you enjoyed returning to the garden!