Today's Friday Garden

As you may (or may not) have noticed, it's been quite a while since I talked gardening. So, here we are.

Being a SoCal boy, and seeing the strawberry plants pulled up every year before the fields were re-planted, I assumed (yeah, I know), that strawberries couldn't winter, especially here where there is Real Winter. Silly me. The strawberries I 'rescued' by potting and taking inside died off pretty quickly. The ones I left in the bed did quite well.

I weeded and did a little re-arranging.  Now that I know they will winter, this is the official strawberry patch:

The blackberry also wintered well. This is the first year it hasn't started over from just a stick:

I put the random small potatoes from last year in mom's old collander, by the sink. I wound up with a collander full of sprouting potatoes, which have been strewn through several of the beds:

The actual potato bed...,

...and half of the pepper bed.

The garlic/onion bed seems to be doing well, along with a few potatoes, too:

Not to forget the kitchen bed, Oregano, garlic and onions:

And, random flowers:

The rose stick -

I believe the horticultural name for these guys is "weeds", but they're pretty ones -

Lastly, the contribution from the local tree rodentia - sunflowers (They didn't plant them quite so neatly, tho...) -

The theme for this year's garden is "Leftovers". The strawberries, blackberry, and potatoes are left over from last year, as are the oregano and all of the onions and garlic. In addition, I am attempting to sprout seeds, which were either given to me last year, or came from produce I grew.  I am incubating Thai Hots, Basil, lettuce, Red Bells, Honeydew, Mystery Melon (maybe Cantaloupe, maybe not), and Mystery Bells (color unknown).

The only new addition are the Sunflowers, thanks to the squirrels.