“The big view” with a bit of the herb garden in the foreground.

These bamboo supports are for the tomatoes.

Strawberries in the foreground. Raised beds of broccoli & cabbage, beans, carrots in the middle ground and tomatoes on bamboo supports in background. The sunflower was a volunteer from last years fence planting.

Raised beds of veggies with peas on trellis & cukes just getting started on another trellis

Early morning fog heightens the gorgeousness.

The view for breakfast “al fresco.” A few ice cream pails hanging on posts in the garden are handy to pick more than just a handful for snacking. Netting draped over the posts keep birds out of the berries.

The master gardener, Stella Otto says, “It’s all planted in a compact space for easy care/low maintenance and includes trickle irrigation and wood chipped paths. Trellises and other supports provide vertical growing area to make picking easier.  Best of all, it’s just steps from my kitchen; adjacent to our brick patio. In the summer I enjoy a sunrise breakfast al fresco overlooking the garden and our 10 acre horse farm. This garden provides for my husband & myself as well as our soon to be college bound teenager.  After freezing, canning, and preserving what we need for the winter, we still have plenty to share with friends and neighbors without an excess amount of time and work. Although we have plenty of acreage available, I purposely chose to design the garden for a small compact space to complement our cape cod style home with enclosed yard. The design could easily be used in a small in town or suburban lot.”

And friends, this garden is something to aspire to!

Well not all of it was jungle…

These Stargazer Lilies were actually quite pretty, if a little untamed.

But this one purple perennial geranium (yes, it’s a single plant) has created a mini-jungle for me to clear out.  It’s wrapped itself around everything else in its vicinity.  If it weren’t so pretty, I’d whack at it.

These pink impatiens were puny and straggly and I was about to give up on them.  And then Poof!  Huge.

These are from a climbing rose bush that I deadheaded in hopes of seeing another show of blooms.  Reward is sweet, and smells good too.

The biggest surprise was from the vegetable garden.

This May the adorables pushed these sunflower seeds into the soil with their chubby little fingers.  When we left at the beginning of July, they were 6 inches tall and floundering.  A little rain and sunshine and kaboom!

This is the best luck I’ve had with tomato plants in the 4 years I’ve been trying to grow them.   See here for info about these red trays and ladders.  I think they are a hit!

Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes in about a week!

So here’s the whole row of sunflowers, 12 tomato plants, 3 basils, 2 cukes, 2 green peppers, multiple lettuce and tons of marigolds.  It’s 40 feet long and 1 foot wide and packed with yum.