It's time for another bumper summary of our gardens in early July (or late June, if you're created the post ready to hit post in the first week of the month just for us!). As always my green heart is full to bursting reading what you are all doing and you are sooo inspiring! I might be biased but I love our community so much.
A quick reminder though - if your post isn't included here, can you check that you have:
posted in the community
used the gardenjournal tag
dropped your link under the challenge post.
If you have missed the first important two, that's why it's probably why it's not included. It takes an awful long time to get through everyone and I try not to miss any, so do understand if you've neglected any of the above I may not include you (though I love you very much).
What's Happening in Our Gardens Early July
@nikv's building a greenhouse out of creosoted gum poles to protect her succulents from rain and so forth. Excited to see the development - and if you're a succulent grower, don't forget that community either. @gardenhive always throws excess votes to that community if there's spare!
One thing I love about the #gardenjournal is seeing progress - I love how @blingit's dreams of turning a backyard Qld garden with a swimming pool and yukkas into a mini farm is really paying off. Poor girl is forced to do a text version but hey her payout ended up awesome, proving #gardenjournal posts are lucrative if you're lucky! Go check out the progress on her chicken coop - looks awesome!
Speaking of urban gardening, look at what can be done in an apartment block - something @phoenixwren's community is really appreciating!
@kansuze's garden in Canada is as green as they come - a lovely combination of flowers such as fuschias and orchids, and edibles as well. I have to say I've never seen the fork trick to deter rabbits - have you? My husband suggested that's one way to make them 'fork off' - boom. Check out their verdant post here and be amazed!
Since the Hawaiian gardener @tydynrain busted onto the Hive season he's sure given me garden envy, especially with the good climate and lots of medicinal plants. He's really into hugelkultur which is a great way to prepare beds and I've been trying to do the same, or at least put lots of branches in trenches in various parts of the garden to built up soil moisture. Noni, mate, moringa, acerola cherry, patchouli - whata a heavenly deligt on earth!
@luckylaica has been working hard to recover her garden after rising seawater caused some damage. I really admire her persistance and resilience as they were also hit with a typhoon earlier in the year. Okras, choko, eggplant, lettuce - there's a lot growing again which is nice to see!
GReat to see @plantstoplanks posting in the challenge this month - the squash are taking off and looks like they're on the cusp of being flooded with all kinds of yummy summer produce! They've had quite the heat wave where she is - I'm feeling that summer garden vibe from here!
@proto26 has been trying to buid up the soil in the vegetable garden, aiming to improve moisture retention. Good idea for all of us - I don't know anyone but gardeners who get excited about mulch and leaf litter and bugs in our soil as we know it produces better vegetables. I don't know about you, but goji berries, blackberries and raspberries aside, I can't wait to read about the gnome altar. Do you have gnomes or pixies in your garden?
@isdarmady's hydroponic garden is recovering well - look at all that lovely green pakchoy, or 'bottle and spoon' as they call it in Indonesia because of the bottle shape at the bottom and the spoon shape of the leaves! If you're interested in hydroponics at all, he's your man!
@hindavi showed off her redcurrant and snowpea harvest - how delightful! Check out her post here for a recipe for redcurrant cordial!
Us gardeners must thank @mers for her generous delegation - thankyou, thankyou! May you have just the right amount of sun and rain to make your garden beautiful. I'm always in awe of people who garden from containers! Tomatoes, cucumbers, berries - yum!
@multifacetas has goals we should all aspire to, and is sure doing a good job of cultivating flowers for this end:
My project for my garden馃尨 is to have flowering plants馃尫馃尲馃尮馃挳 so that hummingbirds, bees馃悵, butterflies integrate and improve the planet馃寧.
@gertu is busy tending figs, flowers, pomegranate and pumpkin. I love the variety that Hive gardeners bring to this monthly show. @faiza34 showed java plums, guava and sunny protolaka. Good to see @senorcoconut back as well, creating a 'recession hedge' by planting vegetables like many of us. I've always wanted to try the three sisters method of beans, corn and pumpkin - but corn's a bit water thirsty for me. @fanyokami has been busy weeding and repotting cactus - you'll see her in the selfie wall below. @porter's cat is enjoying the sunshine as are her plants - everything is looking so healthy and abundant.
@tydynrain has been playing with krishna tulsi - look at this beautiful purple variety.
@traisto has missed the last few #gardenjournals but she's back with @fotostef trying to cover everything. You can see their couple selfie below and their tired gardening faces. I love to see their olive groves and their herbs growing too. It was hard to select a photo from either post to demonstrate the beauty of their garden, but in honour of Hive Garden pets, here's one of Marcos keeping an eye on the corn, plus a mini collage @traisto thoughtfully put together to show off yarrow, quinces, tomato and olives.
@thebigsweed always does the funniest selfie - you'll see him on the selfie wall with his lettuce beard. His beets are sure looking mighty healthy! Check out his post here for some good gardening tips including carrots and potatoes. Some advice here - not all garden visitors are pests!
As is probably the case with most of us that love to grow our own vegetables, avoiding the use of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides is of paramount importance. Growing organically may require considerably more time, but our goal is to avoid consuming POISIONS. Remember who our friends are that help us in this effort. If you have a problem with slugs eating your plants, then the garter snake is at the top of the list of helpful species you want to wander freely through your garden. Besides slugs they enjoy a diet of leeches, large insects, and other small rodents. Now we're talking, a free and easy source of natural pest control.
I'm always happy to hear of gardeners being anti toxic poisons.
@umirais wrote about gorgeous rambutan - a spiky, red and delicious Indonesian fruit. Do you know it? She has had a few issues with chickens eating her bananas so had to put bags around them to stop them!
@eatthebugs is having a good time watching his tomatoes, potatoes and onions grow. So good to see gardening success stories!
The Winners
The vegetable garden prize goes to @thebigsweed this month. Him and @farm-mom weren't even going to plant one just in case he didnt' recover in time to tend it, but they are sure glad they did. Plus, the amount of tips in this post - wow! AND I learnt what a garter snake was. Thanks, @thebigsweed!
The selfie prize goes to @umirais this month. I usually do a random draw but I just loved the rambutan selfies so much she was a clear winner.
The passion prize goes to @isdarmady this month. Despite some problems with the hydroponics he's up and running again. We are grateful for him consistantly posting in the community and inspiring us with his passion for hydroponics.
The Selfie Wall
Definitely my favourite task of the month is putting this together. I just love each and every one of your smiling faces. Honestly, I could SQUISH you all. Thanks so much for joining in every month.
Have you got your badge yet?
Check your Peakd profile and if you're missing the Hive Gardener badge, let me know in the comments below so I can correct that!
Mods
Welcome to @blingit and @ligayagardener who are Australian mods in the Hive Garden community. We'd like to invite others from various continents so we have the globe covered, and will be in touch with those who've been contributing and engaging to see if you'd like this role and kudos for being awesome.
