Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful garden! You are an inspiration!

I just love it! This is one season's growth!?!
Awesome! Makes me want to change my design.
BUmmer!

Looks like you had quite a harvest.

Mary
z 5b KS

Oh what a lovely garden! A lot of dedication and love went into this I am sure! Thanks for sharing the lovely pictures. Dahlias do well for me too! Happy New Year and happy gardening in 2008! meo

Gorgeous! You've inspired me, too!! I'm going to get out there today to do some digging and soil amending, no matter how darned cold it is. :-)

Lovely. Especially enjoyed the progression. Thanks!

I've been dreaming of Potagers this winter, had thought to go rustic, but your bright blue ladder really pops, gives a zing.

Veg recs? Anything the kids grow themselves, they'll at least try. And if you grow only one variety of zucchini, I strongly suggest Costata Romanesca. Nutty flavor, not watery, can easily make a main dish.

Asparagus experience: luscious crop, pretty in foliage. But a long-term investment. Locate 'em in the most weed-free area you have (perennial, can't dig deep once they're in), opt for the predominantly male varieties (girls expend too much energy producing seed) and keep an eye on the asparagus beetles. Spotted are worst here. Be prepared to wait 3 years before harvesting.

If your kids aren't squeemish, they can help with bugs: easily identified once you've seen one. They tend to let go and drop off readily. My strategy is a coffee can with an inch of something nasty like kerosene or gasoline, held just beneath the bug, a gentle flick of finger. Snap the plastic lid on and reuse until full. At which point, dispose of responsibly: I burn.

Thanks for the comments!

I'm looking forward to growing asparagus, but I'm always amazed that bugs, like asparagus beetles, will find my asparagus even though I'm out in the country far from anyone. How do they do it? At least now I'm forewarned, so I can catch them early.

I'll try that variety of zucchini, it sounds really good.

As you seem to like ladders and climbing plants, you may enjoy growing sweet peas. The antique varieties are so fragrant! They belong in a potager!

Teresa

I really like your ladders. Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful, What a harvest. I also love to use old ladders in the garden, it gives a great point of interest.

Thanks for sharing this, I have an irregular space and this has totally sparked my imagination. I also have two preschoolers to keep happy in my garden. Beautiful!!!!

Lovely! I really like your dahlias.

WoW Impressive, It is a beautiful garden
Thank you for sharing

Wonderful! I love the circular design with spiral paths.

And that ladder....we have an old pool ladder from an above ground unit....I wonder how much spray paint it would take to make it cute....

Holy cow! What are those large green pear shaped gourds?

They look like pears are they large apple gourds

you deserve as many kudos as you can get. what a marvelous job!

Gottagarden, you always have the most fabulous gardens. I am, as always, envious and inspired!

Just beautiful! I'm saving your post for inspiration. A scaled-down version would be great in my front yard for a butterfly garden. Your recycling is very elegant -- something that I think is tricky to achieve. Thank you for sharing.

Dorisl - those large pear-shaped gourds are supposedly "birdhouse" gourds. I say supposedly because they do not resemble the photo on the front of the seed packet. However, I am drying them in the cellar, and plan to paint them with my kids and use them for birdhouses next year. Will post then if they turn out alright.

Thanks for all the compliments. Am awaiting spring which is still a little ways away.

Beautiful! I haven't checked in here in a really long time. Where in Western NY are you? I'm in Jamestown.

Gotta, You must be busy with the kids. Doesn't seem like you've been in the forum lately. We'll be looking for your pictures as soon as it gets warm enough for you to garden. Your second year in the roundelay will be a treat for us. I love the way you repurpose things for another use, the chair, the ladders, kiddie pool, objects d'art. Very creative and inspiring.

I'm near Batavia, which is between Buffalo and Rochester. Not too far from Jamestown!

I'm excited to get the asparagus in this year and have bought lots of seed so I'm chomping at the bit. Have a few fun ideas . . . .

Batavia isn't too far.
I started some asparagus last year. I have a little perennial veggie area on the edge of my garden where I hve horse radish, asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb. It was kind of added as an after thought last year, but I plan on spending more time on it this year.

I believe the big pear shaped gourds are Martin House gourds. They are for birdhouses. I grew the other kind of birdhouse gourds which are shaped like a big bottle gourd. Mine dried outside all winter and I just drilled them and cleaned them out for birdhouses!
Gottagarden...I would love to trade you some of my birdhouse gourd seeds for the ones from your Martin House gourds! Have you cleaned your gourds out yet?

ghoghunter, I have not cleaned them out yet, but guess I better soon! For some reason I didn't get this post emailed to me, so am only just seeing it. you are welcome to seeds.

just did the first weeding today.

gottagarden-- LOVE the spiral. Are those farm gates I saw in there too? I have two of them that I want to use. Did you cement them in the ground?

Those are not farm gates, they are a bedframe - black iron tubular bed header and footer. I used some 4' pieces of rebar and drove them into the ground, then slid the header and footer over the stakes to stay in place. Much easier than concrete, and I can change my mind about their placement later. (I am always changing my mind about things!) They are very sturdy and make a great support for my heavy tomatoes.

Your garden is very nicely done, that was a big job. Love all the ladders, great idea for the climbers. I'll have to be on the lookout for a ladder or two. I wish the weather would be more consistent with a warmup.

Oh my goldfish - I haven't checked out this forum in a long time, and totally missed this!!! I love what you did with the circles and the ladders! Which of course made me think of the ladder that dh broke over the winter, which has since gone into a dumpster - but it was metal and not nearly as ornamental as yours. ;)

But, I now realize I *need* to create a scarecrow...now I just have to get creative...

*Bump!* :-)

Gottagarden, would LOVE to see photos of this year's plantings in your gorgeous potager! Please? :-)

Jodi

There's not much to see yet, everything is still quite small other than the onions and flowers. But here is one of my son picking strawberries. We have a good sized strawberry patch in there and the kids LOVE running out first thing in the morning to get strawberries. They're almost over now, but it was fun!

Wow, really amazing!

How much do you can from your large garden?

And no creatures bother all of your goodies?

I just really love your circular layout. I wish I were
as creative ;-)

Mary
z 5b KS

Gottagarden, Your garden is just beautiful. I too have a round garden and love to work in it. Hope the weather is being kind to you. I am impressed with all your hard work and creative ideas. Ellen

Hi Potagers! I have never been here before, but have been a part of the cottage garden forum since the first week of June, when we started a new bed in our front yard.

Gottagarden, I came onto here this evening looking for photos of people's gardens. What a treat! I forgot whether you mentioned the size of this bed. It is awesome! I want to see more photos from this year, too.
Sue

GG,
You are a phenomenal gardener!

I love your gardens and all the photos you share with everyone of your flowers and little darling buttercups with blonde hair.

Annie

Great pictures! I love the ladders and the circular potager is very clever :)

What an inspiration- especially since you are in my neck of the woods!

Super nice! I love old ladders too. The pic of you and the kids and harbest if a great picture!

Awesome garden. The ladder idea is really clever. And I love that they were painted like that.

Do you find that you have to stake the dahlias? How do you do that?

Hi gottagarden -

Thanks to you I had a curb alert this morning and snagged a pretty ladder for my squash vines to climb on!

I never would have thought of this - thanks for the inspiration! A fun, artsy, yet useful feature in the garden. (And it was free!) I love it!

Donna

This is so neat! I am very impressed and would love to do this with my veggie garden this year! Did you have a layout plan that you copied? What are the dimensions of your garden? I would love to learn more! Thank you!

I just posted about doing a circular garden, and then found this post. So inspirational! I am going to show these photos to DH, as they capture the Spirit I was going for. We even have some flagstones that got left behind at this house. Your photos made me think of a quick glimpse I had of a photo of a garden at the Kripalu Yoga Center. Thank you so much for sharing... and you do know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery??!

BTW, I am in Syracuse.

My personal absolute favorite thing is the turtle pool! You need to add a solar fountain in the middle though! Might keep the skeeters at bay.