Marie Niemann is showing us her courtyard garden fitted with raised garden beds she and her husband built.  Each year, she plants a garden and this year, it’s all from seed.  Here she tells her easy secrets.

Good Morning!

“I’m having coffee on a cool Sunday morning with my honey on the upper deck overlooking the Happy Gardens! I haven’t been able to do as much this year, but hey, this will do for sure!  The Sunflower’s are as tall as my old bell.”

“I’m taller than the windmill”

“There’s lots of ‘maters, peppers, squash and a salad and root garden. I start them in a cold frame, early in March, Marie tells us. They’re thriving really well, all but the peppers, so I may have to cut down a few of these tall sunflowers that are giving them too much shade. These sunflowers are all volunteers on each end of the gardens with veggies in the centers.”

Here’s a pretty mix of self seeders coming up again to join the carrots, allysum, violas, nasturtiums and sunflowers!

My wheelbarrow full of happy Johnny Jump ups self seeded from last year

‘Maters are getting there

The tomatoes seem to be doing really well this year. I think they’ll all come on at once! I’m growing a few new varieties of Heirlooms this year.

Can’t help but smile when you see sunflowers

Alien sunflower, the survivor

My First Happy Alien volunteer in bloom! I didn’t plant any this year, no need. I had to pull up hundreds! That hurt! But left some on the ends of the raised gardens to enjoy.

I’ll call this one Survivor! The wind blew the plant over and busted it in half. Because it had a bud on it ready to open I let it be. Well it opened and look how pretty, a really sweet one, can’t help but smile!

Alien SunFlowers

Named because of their “Out of this world” appearance, Alien SunFlowers are bred by cross pollinating selected varieties of sunflowers.

It’s a jungle!

When my 4 year old granddaughter went outside she was in awe and squealed WOW! I can imagine a little person looking up at them. Impressive to me too! I had to thin them down yesterday, so took a bouquet in an old Mason jar to my neighbor. All from seed except for the Red White and Blue chair.

A canopy of sunflower leaves

The red white and blue on Marie’s chair is filling in the only exception here and planted from seedlings. .  Marie says, “I had to cut down some sunflowers today, too much shade.

This is a Sunflower ‘Alien’ volunteer, that’s one plant!

Garden volunteers and self-seeders

Marie says, “Isn’t this pretty? I could see them from the street they are so tall. If you can believe it, that’s ONE plant! It’s very unusual to have such large heads grouped together.

The neighbors view!

Easy to grow, self-sowing annuals

• Alyssum Lobularia maritima
• Bachelor’s Buttons, Cornflower Centaurea cyanus
• California Poppy Eschscholzia
• Candytuft Iberis
• Clarkia
• Coreopsis (Annual) Calliopsis Coreopsis tinctoria
• Cosmos spp.
• Flax Linum
• Forget-Me-Nots Cynoglossum
• Gloriosa Daisy Rudbeckia hirta
• Hyacinth Bean Lablab
• Larkspur Consolida
• Love-in-a-Mist Nigella damascena
• Lupine Lupinus
• Moss Rose Portulaca spp.
• Nasturtium Tropaeolum majus
• Pot Marigold Calendula
• Snow-on-the-Mountain Euphorbia marginata
• Spider Flower Cleome spp.
• Sunflower Helianthus
• Sweet Pea Lathyrus odoratus
• Tall Verbena Verbena bonariensis
• Thimble Flower Gilia
• Tobacco Plant Nicotiana

♪ ♫ You are so beautiful…. to me ♪ ♫

This petunia comes up year after year

Tip:

Many don’t know that petunias will sometimes over winter so don’t pull ’em, just trim them.

Won’t be long now!! Mmmm BLT’s

Marie’s garden helpers

Notice above the rusty mailbox and the metal mail crate, used as a bike basket  planted with lobelia. The dogs give it ‘paws Up!’

View from the deck above. The sunflower’s are as tall as my old bell!

I love my old bell too… Hubby hooked up that rope so it can be rung from the upper deck. Kewl beans!”

The coreopsis came up from the seeds I planted last year

Marie had forgotten the name of these unless friends reminded her that they are Coreopsis. She laughs, “I remember planting yellow and gold something that could grow in partial shade. Nothing else grows back there, not veggies anyway! I love anything that comes back!”

‘Mater harvest!