Garden Updates – July 2012

Hello everyone! Its been a while since I posted actual updates from the garden.  So here are some new photos!  We have had very little rain in the last two months, so I’ve had to water a bit.  The heat wave was kind to the corn, less kind to the strawberries and kale :).  But other than that, everything is growing really well!

Long Sweet Pepper (not hot!)
Long Sweet Pepper (not hot!)

So this little pepper plant was saved from seeds from a pepper I bought at the farmer’s market last year.  The person I bought it from didn’t have a name for the pepper, but she said she saved them from her grandmother (and she is quite old herself!).  It ripens into a wonderful sweet, long pepper with no hint of spiciness.

A path and butterfly garden (using permaculture techniques) that I've been working on for two years
A path and butterfly garden (using permaculture techniques) that I’ve been working on for two years

This is my butterfly garden + herb garden path.  Strawberries are behind where I took the photo.  I put up that archway recently and I have some hardy kiwi growing on it.  I’m looking forward to eating them in a few years!

Peppers and tomatoes in my wild garden!
Peppers and tomatoes in my wild garden!

My garden is really kind of wild…and honestly, what better way for it to be?  Tomatoes sprawl everywhere.  The heirloom tomatoes I’m growing are really….boisterous, perhaps.

View from the corner of the garden
View from the corner of the garden

The kale (which I’ll be posting more about soon) is in the front; you can see four of the 4′ x 20′ rows.  This is very early in the morning; the sun hasn’t yet came up through the trees.

View from the front of the garden
View from the front of the garden

Garden with 6′ fence and homemade wooden door.  Its about 1600 square feet.

Composting area with tumbler (for food waste) and piles (for weeds/yard waste/leaves)
Composting area with tumbler (for food waste) and piles (for weeds/yard waste/leaves)

Here’s my composting area!  I gather up leaves from other people’s yard as well as my own yard in the fall; they compost down for a year or more.  I also add all kinds of weeds, yard waste, etc.  I’m hesitant to gather much yard waste from other people as there might be pesticides in it.  I also slash down and add comfrey to my pile a few times a year.  Comfrey is an excellent nitrogen fixer!

Butterfly and Bee Attractor Garden
Butterfly and Bee Attractor Garden

This is the 2nd year of the butterfly and bee attractor garden.  I really am happy with it this year.  I did it all from seed; it didn’t really do much last year, but its really lovely this year!

Peanuts, Basil, and Beans, and some Corn
Peanuts, Basil, and Beans, and some Corn

Here are some peanuts (front, they seem to grow slow); basil, and a bunch of beans.  You can see some corn on the left and tomatoes on the right.

Dana O'Driscoll

Dana O’Driscoll has been an animist druid for 20 years, and currently serves as Grand Archdruid in the Ancient Order of Druids in America (www.aoda.org). She is a druid-grade member of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids and is the OBOD’s 2018 Mount Haemus Scholar. She is the author of Sacred Actions: Living the Wheel of the Year through Earth-Centered Spiritual Practice (REDFeather, 2021), the Sacred Actions Journal (REDFeather, 2022), and Land Healing: Physical, Metaphysical, and Ritual Approaches for Healing the Earth (REDFeather, 2024). She is also the author/illustrator of the Tarot of Trees, Plant Spirit Oracle, and Treelore Oracle. Dana is an herbalist, certified permaculture designer, and permaculture teacher who teaches about reconnection, regeneration, and land healing through herbalism, wild food foraging, and sustainable living. In 2024, she co-founded the Pennsylvania School of Herbalism with her sister and fellow herbalist, Briel Beaty. Dana lives at a 5-acre homestead in rural western Pennsylvania with her partner and a host of feathered and furred friends. She writes at the Druids Garden blog and is on Instagram as @druidsgardenart. She also regularly writes for Plant Healer Quarterly and Spirituality and Health magazine.

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3 Comments

  1. You have sun? You lucky old thing! In the UK we have had rain, rain and more rain. Yesterday there was a river running down my street! Sufficient to say, the seedlings which haven’t died at the hands of the slugs are struggling!

  2. Looks like a good garden. I wish for less rain.

  3. We have too much sun. We only had it rain once in the last 6 weeks. Its kind of a problem. Clearly, you need to send some of your rain from the UK to the USA! 🙂

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