Varielle's mountain cabin garden

We finished building a mountain cabin a few years ago and are finally getting around to creating a garden. So far it's a few apple trees and flowering bulbs. We are planting some Fraser firs this weekend. It's on a steep slope and has been mainly surrounded by weeds, rocks and red clay. Unfortunately the construction process scraped away most of the topsoil. Hungry deer are going to be a problem. They bit the buds out of all my tulips this spring and have enjoyed my day lilies and hostas. I'm awaiting the arrival of some prostrate yews which are supposed to be deer resistant. Wish me luck.

Oh, I can't wait to hear how you progress and see pictures!

What state is the cabin in?

Luck!

North Carolina. Just got here and some tulips survived. Pics soon.

Must be western NC. Tulips are annuals here in the eastern part of the state, probably because they don't get cold enough in the winter.

Looking forward to pictures.

How do I rotate it?

You have to rotate it on you computer (Picture Mgr?) or when you upload it.

They are pretty!

I need some advice about our fig tree. It was hanging full, every branch covered with little green figs just over a week ago. I went out to check progress last night and every limb was bare. I've read about June fruit drop, but there's no evidence on the ground that they fell off or any indication that an animal did it. We have had some strange weather this spring. It was late to warm up and stayed much cooler later than normal. These are the greenish yellow Italian figs. In fact the plant was bought at Monticello and alleged to be descended from Jefferson's figs. It did great last year. What went wrong? I want me some figs, dog-on-it!!!

I am totally jealous that you have a fig tree! And I didn't even know I wanted one till just now.
Were they the size that birds could handily chomp them?
You may have been invaded when you weren't looking.

They were just tiny and still green 1/2"-1". Birds and insects never messed with them before until they were ripe.

varielle, we have a fig tree, and in about three years we have not gotten ONE ripe fig. As in your description, all the green figs disappear. We think it is either a raccoon or an opossum.

I came home from a two week vacation expecting to harvest my rhubarb, which was beautiful when I left. Unfortunately it seems to have collapsed at the base of the stems. We have had an unusually wet summer. Do you think it was rot or something else? No rhubarb pie for me! :'(

Aw...I love rhubarb...

First frost tonight!!! And they are calling for a hard freeze by Saturday. This is way early for us, normally it doesn't happen until the end of the first week of November. Running around picking off the last of the tomatoes and peppers and trying to get all the house plants in. Whew!

We probably will be getting a frost this week, I am watching the weather...

Well, it wasn't supposed to get below 38, but my car said 32 this morning, so I'm afraid I may have lost some things. Not to mention that I forgot to pick off the flowers for an end of season bouquet. :(

I was on vacation last year in Europe and admired their beautiful lime trees. It seemed like they could live in Zone 7 here, Piedmont NC. So I ordered two from the Arbor Day foundation which were doing great until every leaf was devoured by Japanese beetles. Extra tasty, I guess this explains why nobody grows them here. Is there an environmentally friendly deterrent we could treat them with assuming they've survived this assault? Beetle traps just seem to bring more beetles to the neighborhood and we have honeybees so we don't want to use anything toxic enough to hurt them. A greenhouse guy told me that insecticidal soap will only result in clean beetles. Help!

>16 varielle: What about cheesecloth?

Also, there are biological controls you can use. Check online for "Gardens Alive", a company that used to specialize in biological controls.

Addendum: http://www.gardensalive.com/category/garden-pests-guide

Growing food crops in a mountain environment is challenging, because of the many mammals around, especially deer, raccoons and bears. Since deer can jump as high as 6 feet, and bears can go over a fence like it wasn't even there, I recommend a cob greenhouse. There are several recommended books on cob construction in the LT sustainability group.

I bought a Dutchman's Pipe, which I had never seen before. It's about to pop forth with a bunch of new pipes, so will try to post a pic soon. Also got a passion flower vine which seems unusually thirsty, it's drooping every day.

Here they are. Lots of little pipes opening soon.

>20 varielle: I've been wanting one of those, because it's a host for pipevine swallowtails, but I don't have enough space.

My little corner.

I wish we had a transporter so that we could physically visit each other. Maybe next century.

Since we are having temps near 100 all this week, it all may be dead soon. :(

My beautiful patty pan squash.

Pretty! I'm vowing to try some different squashes next year.

Does anybody have any experience building a terraced garden? I have about a 1/4 of an acre on a 45 degree slope.

>27 varielle: Sure. I've used stone to brace the levels, and made sure there was good drainage from the top level, so that it drained, and so that the bottom levels got water. I have a garden bed in front that's lightly terraced right now.

Your profile says North Carolina, so drainage is probably the bigger problem than not enough water. Did you already have plans or a design?

>27 varielle: Have you read anything about the concept of keyline water management on slopes? I've been trying to acquire reading matter on the concept. The only authors are P. A. Yeomans, the originator of the design (from Australia) and Mark Shepard, author or Restoration Agriculture. I've scanned his book and watched his DVD. Nice concept of topsoil building and water conservation, but probably expensive if you hire it done. I began a modified practice on my slope last year.

Oh! Take a look at Shepard's farm: http://newforest.farm/

Planning is in the preliminary stages, so maybe I'll draw up something over the winter. This is also the drain field for the septic, so we have to keep that in mind. We will have to bring in some top soil as most of it has washed away.

We've put in three varieties of radish that seem to be doing well despite the fact that we are in a serious drought.

>31 varielle: - Radishes are tough! Also they have deep roots, so whatever water there is, they can get. I wonder if they're spicier in drought conditions? I remember attending a permaculture talk where they discussed using radishes to break up hard soil. They recommended daikon, because it has a long root that gets right down in to the soil.

The daffodils are completely confused by our warm weather. Radish update - all top and no root. What's up with that?

>33 varielle: I don't know what controls bulb formation - day length? temperature? Do not know. Anyway, if you let the radishes bolt you can eat the green seed pods. Taste a lot like the roots. Yum.

>34 tardis: Oh! That's a good idea. The other thing you can do, once you have seed pods, is sprout the new seeds for tangy salad sprouts.

I'm not sure what this is, but it's growing wild all over our mountain.

I’ve become a snowbird and am trying to figure out how to garden in Florida. Just planted a bird of paradise, a blue agave and a lady banks rose. We had to take out a hurricane da aged palm. What a chore!

>37 varielle: have fun. What USDA zone are you in?

>36 varielle: looks like witch hazel.

We are Zone 7.

>39 varielle: 7b here, or 8 as of the revised 2012 map.

Not much gardening at the cabin these days. I put out gumpo variety of azaleas which the deer promptly browsed so probably won’t bloom this year. Since retiring I’m trying to learn what to grow in zone 9b north Florida. A few things got zapped during the unexpected Christmas deep freeze. Snow birding along 🐦, varielle.

Hurray! Glad you’ve decided to post again. I’m sure it’ll be frustrating and fun.

I'm still watching.