The For-Now Garden Blog

Resurrecting

2008-03-27T12:03:00.003-05:00

It's been a long time since I was by here, and a very long winter!

It's the very end of March, almost April, and we're still suffering with snow and very cold temps. Just a few weeks ago we were still having some subzero and last week we got a few 8" - 10" dumps of snow. The rest of the world is celebrating Easter and delighting in their daffodils, and we are a frozen tundra.

The yard is not totally without signs of life, however. During the day we're getting some thaws now though, and I have been checking things out.

The hyacinths by the laundry window are in one of the warmest parts of the yard and they are almost always the first to come up. And they have - solid ground but their little green points are just breaking the surface.

Today I saw the first shoots of the candy cane tulips out front poke through too, although when I went to brush some dead leaves off I noticed they were frozen solid, poor things!

The rose bushes almost all look like they have come through winter OK! The only one I am worried about is the Morden Sunrise - pity as it is my favorite. The others all show good green and red canes near the base with life in them.

My beloved blueberries, too, have made it, at least so far. The canes have new green life and new shoots already in the snow. New weeds in the bed too already - amazing.

I noticed tiny hardy fronds of sprouting camomile taking up on the South side this morning during my walk around so that will come back strong having reseeded itself, I see.

I have a lot of winter pruning and cutback to do, especially in the perennial garden and veggie garden. I need to plot out the girls new veggie bed, and I need to do something new and dig up and divide the salvia this year as soon as the grund thaws a bit. Then there's that shade garden that never got going last year...

ToDo list

2007-04-28T01:26:00.000-05:00

Things I need to accomplish in the garden this weekend:

Place stepping stones by front hose
WEED - break out the roundup before it gts out of hand
Plant the blueberries and wood poppies
Start clearing the veggie garden
Add compost to the perennial garden before it gets more growth
Take pictures of current growth.

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The daffodils are enjoying their time in the sun and have made quite a pretty addition. They are still scattered though and I am keeping my fingers crossed they will naturalize a bit.

The snowberries are really leafed out now and look fantastic.

To my joy, I noticed today the beginnings of faint color in the rose canes. Maybe they aren't dead after all?

The weeds are already crazy and everywhere.

Blueberries in the bed look wonderful and like they will do well. The patio blueberry, not so much!

I wonder if I could plant my peppermint in the old red wagon?

Not really any rain so far this year - I've been doing a lot of watering.

Spring is Here, blooms at last!

2007-04-24T22:14:00.000-05:00

Well the "green wave" hit us this past weekend. We went to bed one night with the lawns all still brown and the trees all still bare. By the following afternoon, all the laws were jade green and every tree and shrub was covered with buds!

Bulbs - right now I have some hyacinths, daffodils, and a few crocus blooming. The hyacinths came up a while ago and were mostly killed off by a hard late snow. :( I pruned them all back though and they reflowered, and are blooming right now. I have the daffs in the sun blooming now, and the ones in the shade just starting to set buds. The crocus came into bloom about a week ago and are just finishing up. They're sure pretty, but they are FAST. Bloom and gone!

We finally got my beloved blueberries in. Last weekend (not just gone but a week ago, the 14th, Pete and I alone moved FOUR TONS of materials. Stone, soil, peat, manure. I fertilized and acidified the bed with sulfur and aluminum sulfate. I have the two suffering bare root blueberries from Henry Field's at the edges and the back. In between them is a potted one from Lowes. All are Northland varietals. Any day now my drawf northblues should come, two of them, and I will plant those in the front. I have heavy pine mulch to cover them in.

While my mom was here this weekend (the 21st) we planted the shade garden. The forget-me-nots were all rotted :( But we planted the bleeding hearts, bluebells and lily of the valley.

My snowberries are all just starting to leaf out. They all look healthy and good!

My roses - sigh. After all that work I poured into them last year, I think all but one have died overwinter. They had a significant amount of rabbit damage (I looked at them this spring and thought, I didn't prune them back like that?) and they are just dry dead sticks now. The Will Baffin, the rambler at the back, has done fine. It is leafed out nicely now and looks happy. But the others are dead. They are still under warranty so I can replace them, but I'm sad and now unsure of myself as a gardener!

The lillies are starting to come up in the back.

The maple is covered in buds.

The lawn is too soft to sit a chair in but fine for walking on.

I haven't done a thing with the vegetable garden yet. It's still full of weeds and last year's stakes. I have some work to do. I gave up on almost all of my seedlings started in the window. They just got HUGE (like 2 feet tall) and leggy and in the snow I had nowhere to put them. All are gone, with the exception of the chamomile (which I can't get anywhere else.) I'm planting everything else right in the ground.

I'm finding it hard to get enthused about the garden right now. Sad, because this is usually the most exciting time! But I just feel so... apathetic. Maggie says - and I think she's right - that I should plant anyway. Because in 2 months I'll come out of my funk and be mad that I didn't do anything when I could! So I"ll make an effort.

Blueberry Bed

2007-04-16T20:37:00.000-05:00

Well, after horrific amounts of drama over the blueberries - where my two Jumbo Northlands arrived several weeks early, in the snow, we had storms, the ground was frozen, then it rained for 3 weeks straight... I called Henry Field's and they offered to replace them, which was good.... then they were sold out of those and could ship them next year (yeah right) and me attempting to keep the poor blueberries alive in a bareroot state for more than a month in the garage - they will finally be put in ground tomorrow!

This weekend Pete and I worked our tails off getting that bed built. It's HUGE, 12ft long X 4 feet wide X 2 feet deep. We had to buy topsoil by the 40lb bag and it took 40 bags (1600lbs) plus 13 cubic feet of compressed peat moss plus 200lbs of composted manure to fill it. Not to mention the stones to build the thing! We ordered a pallet and a half and used them all except 8. Each pallet weighed 4,000lbs and contained 80 stones. So basically the two of us, by ourselves, moved almost FOUR TONS, 8,000lbs, of materials in 2 days.Holy crap do my feet hurt.

But, the bed looks GORGEOUS. It is built with Oxford stones in a beautiful grey color that sets off the house nicely. The mixture inside is a roughly 1:1 ratio of topsoil to peat, with some manure thrown in. I added roughly 2lbs of ammonium sulfate and 3lbs of sulfur to the soil. Originally the soil tested at a pH of 6.0, and I would like it around 4.5 for the berries, so in a few days I'll retest it.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with Dr. Lowe and Katie comes over around 10am. I know, that's not early for any normal human, but it's early for me! Before I go I want to get the three bushes I have into the ground so they can settle a little before the heat of the day. I have one northland in a pot that is younger but substantially healthier than the bareroot plants, from a garden center. I plan on putting it in the middle towards the back, and the other two at either end. Then I have 2 dwarf northsky bushes coming and I will put those in the front. I also have 5cf of pine bark mulch waiting to mulch them in.

FINALLY!!!!! My dream from several years is coming true at last!

Blueberries are here!

2007-03-31T14:01:00.000-05:00

Two of my blueberries arrived today! The bigger ones. I'm SO excited, and nervous. Highly prized blueberries that I have been waiting for forever, the main cornerstone of the south side gardens, and I have never planted bare root plants before. I am so afraid I'll kill them somehow! It is poor timing for them to arrive as we've had a week straight of soggy wet rain; and now we're heading into another week of rain and cold temperatures. That means I'm not able to get out and build their raised bed for a while, and I'm worried sick about them staying in their packing material for another week. I can't even heel them in with all this rain. For now they are in the garage, cool and dark, with damp soil around the roots covered by damp shredded newspaper. Fingers crossed.

Spring!

2007-03-22T14:40:00.000-05:00

Well it seems like Spring happened overnight here, as it alwys does. an it really be that just a few weeks ago we were in subzero temperatures and 3 feet of snow?

My hyacinths are looking good, about 2" tall now, and no signs of pest damage (rabbits and deer) so far.

The ground everywhere else is still frozen solid, except for a few spots.

I planted a lot more seeds today; basically everything went into jiffy pots except for the vines which are so tender. I managed to find some old fashioned hollyhocks even! SO excited. Oh, and if my lemon balm doesn't do well from seed this year, Bachmanns sells it in pots.

I also had a chance to give the big snowberry a bit of pruning today. It REALLY needed it, it's so overgrown. I reduced its size by about 1/3, shaped it, and got a few of the canes out. I need to clip a few more. It's a lot more work than I remember - it's a big bush!

I repaired some damage to the lilac from falling roof bits - lost about 5 canes 1/3 of the way from the ends. Too bad.

My sprouted onions look thin, stringy, and weak. Not sure what it is they need but apparently they aren't getting it. Everything else except the few peas affacted by mold are HUGE and out enjoying the sun while they harden off. I may need to buy onion sets and plant them.

Even the grass in the lawn is starting to green up again, where the drainage is better (like in the fenced area.)

Chamomile

2007-03-20T00:19:00.000-05:00

I almost forgot, I also planted (hopefully) my German Chamomile tonight. I read that the seeds seem to have better germination with a freeze and thaw, so I tried putting them in a greenhouse tonight and out on the back deck. (It's supposed to be like 22 tonight, and around freezing or above every night for the next week or so.)

I used one of the 6-pack peat greenhouses, topped the peat off with 1/4 - 1/2" of generic potting soil, moistened it, and then just touched my damp fingertip to the seeds and to the soil. They're slightly mixed in from the moisture but basically on the surface for getting some sunlight. Hope it works!

Hyacinths are up!

2007-03-19T22:28:00.000-05:00

Today (March 19) I went outside after our new roof was put on to check the plants for damage from the falling shingles. And next to the laundry room window, the hyacinths are up! Just barely poking through the mulch. Most of the ground is still hard and frozen, but I think there they warm up just enough close to the house and the dryer in the laundry especially.

They are so beautiful! I can't get enough of them and can't wait to see more!

Fruit, Veg and Herb notes

2007-03-14T23:11:00.000-05:00

Keeping a List for Myself of notes about various stuff I'm planting this year (finally getting around to it after I did the other list earlier today!)

Basil
Very tender, killed / damaged by temps under 50 degrees
Full sun
When plants are 6" tall, pinch tips to stimulate branching
Will not tolerate wilting, keep moist

Beans
Tender - sow seeds after last frost
Plant every 3 weeks for extended harvest
Minimum 6 hours sunlight a day
Good drainage - will not germinate well if too wet
Harvest snap beans when pods are long and firm, before seeds swell
Harvest dry beans after the pods dry on the vine and split

Broccoli
Can handle a freeze but not heat (transplants can go in the garden 3 weeks before avg frost-free date)
Broccoli will be harvested and gone by midsummer so plan to plant a secondary crop after it (fall peas perhaps?)
Prefers full sun; will produce in partial shade but smaller heads
2 - 3 plants deep across the bed for proper spacing
Side-dress with fertilizer when plants are half grown; 10 - 12" tall

Carrots
Hardy, sow seeds as soon as ground can be worked
Grow better in deeply prepared soil
Need high potassium levels for good root development
Full sun (8 - 10 hours)
Grow best if thinned. 1 every 1 - 2".

Chamomile
German chamomile should grow to 3'
Freezing and thawing improve germination - plant out before last frost
Full sun, dry soil

Cucumber
Very tender, not only to frost but will rot in cold and wet. Plant late.
Start indoors on avg frost free date
Gentle transplanting, roots are delicate
Full sun to dappled shade part day
If thinning, pinch instead of pull to avid root damage
Probably need insecticide from cucumber beetles
Male and female flowers

Garlic
Usually planted over winter as a bulb - you can try planting in early spring ASAP to see if it will crop this year
Full sun, well drained soil that won't compact bulbs
Plant cloves 2" deep by 4" apart by 12" wide rows (point up of course)
Plenty of water, weeds will be an issue all summer - stay on top of them or mulch
Harvest midsummer when most of the leaves have turned yellow
Dig in the morning, dry in the garden until afternoon, spread on screens to cure 2 weeks, then braid

Lettuce
Can handle freeze but not heat - grow spring or fall
If seeding autumn crop, do it mid - late July, transplants in mid-August
Full sun to partial shade (especially shade during hot months)
Need good drainage and will suffer in wet ground
Be careful weeding, lettuce roots are shallow and easy to uproot
Bitter lettuce (from hot weather) will lose its bite if washed and refridgerated a few days

Melon - Honeydew / Canteloupe
Need warm soil to develop, will rot in cold / wet weather. Plant late.
Start indoors a week before avg frost free date or seed out 2 - 3 weeks later
Full sun
Consider trellising large vines
Careful when transplanting, roots are fragile
Probably will need insecticide (Sevin?) from cucumber beetles
Reduce disease by planting vine crops in different locations each year

Mint
Sun or partial shade
Keep controlled
Soil moist but not wet
Harvest when flower buds first appear, cut sprigs 6 - 10" long

Onion
Totally hardy, in the future start seeds mid-January indoors
Transplant seeds deeper than they were growing, about an inch
Water in transplants with starter fertilizer, 10-30-10 or higher
Full sun
Thin when they reach about 4" tall, eventually down to 1 every 3"
Shallow roots so careful as you weed
Side-dress with 10-10-10 when plants are 12"
Pull any that flower and use immediately, they will not store well
Dig onions when all of the tops have gone down (yellowed, fallen over)
Dry outside, cure on screen 2 - 3 weeks, then cut tops down to 1.5". Store in cool dry place, prefereably in a mesh bag.

Peas
Totally hardy, can be sown in ground around mid-March
Do not tolerate heat well
Full sun, except to extend production into summer a couple weeks
Look for good drainage to plant early without getting soggy
Thin seedlings 6 - 10" apart
Can use small (2 - 4') forked branches for support if need be
Don't need much water
Harvest snap peas as pods mature. Harvest garden peas while still green, before they begin to dry.

Pumpkin
(see instructions for cukes and melons)
Full sun, will grow in very light shade
Need lots of water and fertilizer
Side-dress when vines cover the ground
Harvest when full color has developed / no green

Squash
(see instructions for other vine crops)
Similar instructions to pumpkins
Winter squash is mature when full color and too hard to cut with a fingernail

Strawberries
Replace plants this year
Plant in only slightly moist soil
Just cover the roots with soil - don't bury the crown or it will rot; don't let the roots dry out
Need full sun to produce
Mulch to conserve water and keep weeds down
Side-dress plantings in August for next year

Tomatoes
Tender, set out after frost-free date and cover if need be
Full sun
Transplants should have good color and 3 - 4 sets of leaves
Water in with a cup of transplant starter
May need fungicide
Water well and regularly
Mulch when flowers bloom
Side-dress when fruits are tiny (golf ball sized for regular tomatoes,) repeat side-dressing every 3-4 weeks

Watermelon
(see instructions for other vine crops)
Cucumber beetles are a major issue

To Do list - March

2007-03-14T21:43:00.000-05:00

Things I need to remember to do as the days get warmer and I can be outside (and the snow melts!)

Prune back the perennial bed. The Russian Sage should be cut back to a fan a couple inches high. Everything else should be cut down, removing all the dead old growth while watching carefully for new growth.

Prune the snowberry (the big one.) It needs major help. Cut above a bud or junction, and remove about 1/3 of the canes. Cut the remaining canes back to about 2/3 their height. You won't kill it. But it needs pruning. You may need new shears or repaired shears for this job.

Don't touch the lilac.

Cut back and remove dead stalks from the hostas.

Start to remove winter mulch from the bulbs as the days get warmer and growth appears.

Inspect roses and remove and dead growth. It will be hard to tell for a little while.

Clear the growth from the veggie bed.

Start clearing the space for new beds, but don't work the soil until it is dry enough to be worked!

This year the lawns will need to be aerated / cored and reseeded. Wait until MAY to do this though, and drier soil.

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For the record, as of now (March 15th) we have about a foot of icy snow left on the ground. We had 3 feet fall within a week at the beginning of the month, but since then we've had a week in the 50's. Fickle spring! Everything is melting fast but temps are below freezing at night about half the time now. I can see the edges of the lawn and flower beds, about a foot away from where it was plowed.

My seeds (onion, broccoli, peas) all germinated in 2 - 3 days! They are now in the East window getting some light but I will move them to the shelf / artificial light as soon as I can.

And the 2007 season begins!!

2007-03-11T23:30:00.000-05:00

As of yesterday, I officially started gardening for 2007! Woot woot! There may still be a foot of snow on the ground but that's OK. We can start seeds inside. I have a shelf with a grow light in the laundry (ah, memories of college days!) and we're getting a jump on the season with the cool-weather veggies that won't tolerate our normally short spring.

I planted a tray each of broccoli, onions, pod peas (victory freezer) and snap peas (super sugar.) If I can get them up and solidly grown by mid-May, our average last frost, they can go right into the ground with a head start. In a couple of weeks I'll start 2 more trays of peas to extend my season a little. We LOVE peas around here!

Now I just have to decide where I want to put more raised beds in the backyard and how many. Right now the possibilities seem endless but I know that by August I'll be so over the watering and weeding that I should contain my enthusiasm a little.

I have a few books from the library I've been reading up on, mostly managing produce gardens in the upper midwest, and I've been compiling my info and tips. I need to type it all in here someday so I have it on record when the books go back!

Spending money for 2007!

2007-02-12T23:25:00.000-06:00

OK, the snow is on the ground, the temps are subzero, but I have had so much fun with my seed catalogs the past few days and weeks. I finally have all of my decisions made for 2007 and what I am planning, and as of 10 minutes ago everything to put in is purchased! I can't wait until stuff starts arriving.

Here's my plan (and, I am developing a master plan for the overall yard, but it will take several years to get there.) Just this year, I had three focii I needed to work on: Finally putting in my blueberries, expanding the veggie gardens including one for the girls to work, and adding a shade garden in the NE corner of the house next to the fenced yard and fireplace flue.

Blueberries have been my deep desire since we bought this house 2 years ago. I have been saving a spot for them in full sun South of the garage, next to my species rose garden, and near the door to the garage. Eventually they will be surrounded by a cobblestone pathway from the driveway to the backyard along my specific gardens and a long cottage garden hodgepodge next to a short white picket fence. I need to buy bricks to build a large raised bed for the berries once spring arrives - about 2 feet high by 5 feet long and 2 1/2 feet wide. At the base of this bed will be a border bed about 6 inches high to grow my chamomile and calendula in.

Anyway I purchased:
2 semi-dwarf Northland bushes in a jumbo (24") size, hopefully they will produce earlier. The berries ripen early July, are very large, and the bush grows about 3' tall at maturity.

2 dwarf Northblue bushes only available in a small size (9".) Berries ripen in June, and the dwarf bushes only grow 2' high. These are also particularly known for their red sumac-like fall foliage.

I also bought, because I really hope to have berries this season, a potted patio-sized blueberry bush. I'll keep it on the deck and hope the kids don't decimate it, basically.

Next is my shade garden. The spot is lush, fertile... and empty. It also faces my neighbor Sue's place and I'd like something pretty out there to look at. I've ordered:

3 Old-Fashioned Bleeding Hearts (pink) The tall graceful arcs with the stunning heart drop blossoms and pretty foliage.

3 Virginia Bluebells About 2' tall with long bell shaped, lavender flowers

4 Wood Poppies beautiful dark green foliage on a plant about 18" high with gorgeous yellow 2" blossoms

3 Forget-Me-Nots the beautiful cheery groundcover with the perfect, minute little periwinkle flowers with a yellow eye, and

6 Lily of the Valley a well spreading low growing plant with lovely spires of tiny white bell shaped flowers that are strongly scented.

That leaves my fruit, veggies and herbs - for me the most rewarding part of my garden. I will of coure plant my existing bed. I will also add in a 8' X 4' bed for Amy to plant this year inside the fenced area, and will dig and plant a new bed on the East side of the fence for more space. I hope to have a huge harvest this year of both the annual stuff and the perennials like the raspberries. I will purchase as small plants from the local nursery:

Tomatoes and Cherry Tomatoes
Pumpkins
Strawberries for Amy (Mine are perennials, already there.)
Lettuce
Watermelon
Carrots
Sweet Basil

I have purchased several seed starters and greenhouses, and I will be starting from seed this year:

Green beans (Tendercrop)
Peas (Victory Feezer in both spring and autumn plantings)
Sugar Snap Peas (Super Sugar)
Beans for drying (Jacob's Cattle)
Cucumber (Sweet Salad)
Broccoli (Premium Hybrid)
Honeydew Melons (Morning Ice)
Chamomile
Calendula
Peppermint
Lemon Balm

I also will grow onions (First Edition Hybrid) and garlic (California white) from bulbs.

Phew! That is a lot - but how great it's gonna be, especially when we can harvest all this stuff! I can hardly wait for the ground to thaw. Only 4 months until last frost!

Fences... could it be done?

2007-01-13T16:55:00.000-06:00

I had a dream about our house last night and this is what I saw in it, don't know if it's a feasible idea or not but hey.

Both sides of the house had a white picket fence, about knee high or so, running partially down them in the middle. The North side had the bittersweet arbor placed at the head of it by the hosta garden / snowberries, drawing one back towards the backyard with gardens along the fence (facing South, these would be partial shade.) The South side curved a little between the bulbs in the front circle and the rose garden, and created a border for a lovely brick or stone path that led from the driveway along the side, past the roses, past the cottage garden to the garage door, past the lilac and snowberry and perennial garden, to the veggies and backyard. It bordered an area entirely of path and gardens, no grass! All with South exposure too. It was gorgeous! I wonder if it would work.

Seed Catalogs

2007-01-13T05:15:00.000-06:00

Man oh man, the seed catalogs arrived while we were overseas. I just went through them tonight and I am so not kidding in that I had afterglow by the end. I can't tell you how excited and inspired I was!

Now, it's 5 in the morning, and I've had about 2 1/2 hours sleep (love jetlag) so I might not be very coherent, but I wanted to log some of the additions I've been thinking about for next year. My main focus for next year will be the shade garden on the North side and, finally, my blueberries. I also plan on greatly expanding the veggie garden and including more herbs. I just have to figure out where. Originally I wanted to run more box gardens East of the existing one to cover that side of the property. But then it occurred to me that that side is super soggy with rain, very poor drainage. The boxes would help, but still... I have to think about this later.

Anyway here's what's on my wish list for 2007:

Fruit / Veg:
Cucumbers
Carrots
Peas and Snap Peas
Bush or Pole Beans
Shell Beans (like lima, kidney, etc)
Tomatoes and Cherry Tomatoes
Pumpkins
Watermelon and Rockmelon
Grapes
Brussels Sprouts
Blackcurrants
Maybe Bush Cherries
Blueberries of course, including potted patio blueberries
Spinach
Broccoli and Cauliflower
Potatoes
Miniature indoor Lemon and Pomegranite trees
Corn
Celery
Onions
Garlic
Capsicum / Bell Peppers
Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck
Acorn Squash
Miniature Apple Tree in the fenced yard for the girls to pick
Strawberries and Raspberries (already there)
Rosehips (already there)

Herbs:
Basil
Cilantro
Peppermint
Lemon Balm
Lavender
Calendula again, it was the highlight of last year's garden!
Chamomile
Catnip (indoors)

Shade Garden:
Astilbe
Painted Fern
Bluebells
Bleeding Hearts
Widow's Tears / Spiderwort
Hellebores
Trillium
Lily of the Valley
Maybe more Columbine on the West edge of the garden

All this - whew! If I start it mostly from seed, it won't be too horribly expensive. I wish our house had more South facing windows. I need a greenhouse! Anyway these three areas plus seeing which of the 200+ bulbs we got in the ground last autumn come up and how they do. I'm not holding my breath, because our weather was SO weird this winter and we had temps in the 50's right through January. It may have killed many of them off. Still, it's fun to watch the ground in Spring and see what appears without having to do anything but see!

I feel like a dork but I'm so excited I can hardly keep it in. This is more fun than I have had in ages! And it's so incredibly rewarding when all these things flower and fruit due to my own labor. I get all giggly and light up just thinking about it.

Thinking ahead to 2008, my goals for that year include redoing the front hosta garden; adding old fashioned hollyhocks by the garage door (and maybe some geraniums for a cottage garden effect?) and flowering vines in the species rose garden; perking up the South perennial garden some; looking again at the daylilly bed under the birches to see what can be done; and further expanding the veggies. I'm also thinking about adding an arbor somewhere with bittersweet growing along it - how beautiful in autumn and winter!

Tea

2006-11-26T22:49:00.000-06:00

This blog is so slow in the winter... I cant wait for a few more months when the crocus start coming up and I can garden again!

I'm putting this here instead of my regular blog, even though it's not really garden related, because this one needs some action.

As you all know, I have been growing tea this year (the herbal kind!) I've been drinking a lot of my own red raspberry leaf and calendula (Amy LOVES the calendula tea with chamomile for an upset tummy!) and a traded a bunch for some very high quality Tea Tree oil. Anyway I finally pooled all my stuff and mixed a batch of my best tea blend to give as Christmas gifts this year, and it turned out HEAVENLY. It is gorgeous to look at, divine to drink with a little honey. I'm very proud!

Almost everything was grown in my own garden - a few things (like cardamom seed) don't grow here and a few things (like lemon balm) I haven't planted yet, but will next year. Anyway so the tea has in it the glorious combination of these ingredients:

Chamomile flowers
Peppermint leaves
Lemon balm
Lavender
Crushed Rose hips
Red raspberry leaf
Strawberry leaf
Cardamom seeds
Calendula petals
Dried orange rind zest

It is a very healthy tea, full of flavinoids, vitamins, minerals, and etc. Very good for your body and so lovely to drink. Plus it looks just delightful to see all the real pieces in the tea with the brilliant colors from being so freshly dried - the varied green base leaves of different texture, the soft pale chamomile heads, the tiny sprinkles of purple lavender flowers throughout, the deep fruity red of the rosehips, black cardamom and the brilliant orange yellow calendula. I need to take a picture of it!

Hooray for the sense of satisfaction that comes from harvesting and creating something so good. I love it!

Birdwatching

2006-11-06T18:18:00.000-06:00

One of the hard things about gardening in this great state is the long dead winter. While snow is beautiful, and the kids sure enjoy it, it's hard to appreciate the winterscape day after day when I'd rather be out planting, weeding, pruning and harvesting. One of the simple luxuries I do enjoy here though is feeding the birds. It makes gazing out the window far less dreary when there's a flurry of activity going on.

I've always liked feeding birds and watching them, since I was little. But I didn't really LOVE it until we moved here. In California, where I grew up, feeding birds is kind of ... blah. I mean the weather is always great and you're not providing anything for them that they couldn't find on their own, 365 days a year. But out here there's snow covering the ground for a solid 6 - 9 months, with few if any seeds or insects to be found, and temps far below zero. Putting out seed, nuts and suet (and warm flowing water) attracts TONS of birds because a food source is a very big deal in winter. I feel almost benevolent, I enjoy watching who comes to partake and the various personalities they all have - it's quite a nice symbiotic relationship. Plus out here the birds are, frankly, just a lot more striking. They have bold colors and unique ways of moving. Out West it seems like the grey sparrows I saw day after day, while adorable, were mostly just interested in not becoming someone else's lunch, and camoflauge was the big thing. Not so out here - a brilliant cardinal against the snow is quite a sight!

I have three feeders. My main one on the SE corner of the deck is filled with a mixture of safflower and black sunflower seeds (hence the sunflowers I get growing of their own accord below it every summer!) We often get jays or other messy birds who spill prolifically, so underneath that corner of the deck, where there is a mixture of shrubby weeds, lawn grass, and stone pathway, is a secondary feeding site from those seeds. The birds eat about 2 cups of seed a day! Also hanging off the deck, just below and to the side of the seed feeder (where I can sit comfortably on the couch with a mug of tea and watch it through the bay window) is a suet basket. It gets filled with different suet cakes - right now it's suet with millet and cracked corn, but sometimes I get cakes with berries or ground mealworms and crickets. Out in the back, by the birches, is a hanging woodpecker feeder. It's filled with peanuts, sunflower, corn, and other goodies in a hard glycerin based binder and also in a cage.

I'm having fun noting with Amy which birds we've seen. I didn't recognize a lot of them when we moved here. So far our list has:

Blue Jay
Mourning Dove
American Goldfinch
Dark-Eyed Junco
Black-Capped Chickadee
Downy Woodpecker
House Finch
Northern Cardinal (male and female, lots!)
Purple Finch
Tufted Titmouse
House Sparrow
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Common Grackle

And not exactly at the feeders, but seen in the yard or in the neighborhood:

American Robin
American Crow
Wild Turkey
Ruffed Grouse
Common Pheasant
Canadian Goose
Snow Goose

We found a fantastic site, Here, that not only helps us identify birds but has little wv files attached with their calls. So it's become this really fun science project around the house - we watch and see who comes to our feeders, make note of when they come and what they eat, and try to identify them. We listen to their sounds and read other facts about them. It's interesting, and hopefully it's something that will stick with Amy for a long time.

And it's all done for 2006.

2006-10-16T01:16:00.000-05:00

And now, I am just about finished with my gardening for the year. All that remains is turning over the veggie plot for winter and mulching the rose garden after the ground freezes.

After a few nights of good hard killing frost the impatiens looked a sight! Plants that had been about 2 feet high the day before were nothing but a pile of slime on the ground. They're so tender. They looked exactly like what happens if you leave a bag of lettuce in the fridge way too long - somewhat recognizeable as plant material, but that's it - slimey, grey green, limp, liquified, no sign of leaves or flowers or anything. Ick.

SOOOO obviously that bed had to be pulled clear today, as well as the pots by the front door. I've also lost the hanging bridal veil that was so impressive this year, so out they all went. For now the mum is hanging on but that's all I've got on the porch.

I cleared out the impatien bed and put in the very last of the remaining bulbs - tulips at the back (which I don't think will do well, not enough sun) and a large daffodil and some woodstock hyacinth at the front, crocus along the path edge and in front. I had to dig down deep and cage all of those bulbs in chicken wire that was carefully sealed before covering them (we have a rodent of some sort in that bed who would eat the bulbs otherwise), so you can imagine what a job that was. But, it's done now! The bed is ready for winter, soaked in, and well mulched. A pumpkin or two and it will look nice until we've got good snow cover.

I watered everything well and tomorrow I think I'll shut down the outside water. The pipes will freeze soon otherwise... all week we're supposed to have a mix of light rain and snow so a little extra moisture will get to everything, but I'm done watering. I'll put away the hoses tomorrow.

Next year I need to buy a new hose attachment, and new gardening gloves. Thicker ones that can handle the Candian thistle in July! Maybe a good pitchfork too for turning soil. I'm putting them on my list.

Time now to settle in and plan for next year!

And Winter is Here (So soon???)

2006-10-11T23:08:00.000-05:00

It snowed today. I'm not ready for winter! Still it was beautiful. It's cold too, for where we are in the year - right now (11pm) the therm says 27 degrees outside. I've lost the tender plants, like the impatiens and the basil. Probably lost the strawberries and calendula (I picked all the remaining blooms yesterday though, dozens and dozens!) The trees are putting down the last of their red and gold leaves. Now comes the quiet.

My back hurts..

2006-10-09T00:35:00.000-05:00

OK I got a lot of hours of work in today! Pete repaid me for watching the kids while he installed a new water softener all day yesterday, and let me work in the garden all day today. I got the lawn mowed, leaves mulched, seeded the bare spots in the lawn and watered them in, watered my cuttings, examined the veggie garden, calendula, roses, and raspberry patch, dug in a new garden by the ugly bush out front which I pruned back to nothing, planted catnip mint, watered the front yard, and planted fed watered and mulched a bunch of bulbs. My feet hurt and BOY will my back be aching tomorrow. Here's some highlights before I hit the sack so I remember what I did.

First: lawn! I didn't do much beyond mowing it one last time before winter without the bag so all the leaf litter we had - and there was tons of it - got mulched into the lawn. I still have the blade set high and I think that will be fine for the end of the year. Note to self: figure out how to drain any remaining gas from the mower before winter. Also next Spring check the spark plugs and oil the blade. I went around and seeded the bare spots in the lawn by hand, with a fall hardy turf mix. We were going to give up on seeding when we saw the instructions on the bag, which called for watering three times a day (yeah right) until germination which should take 30 days. Oh, and protect from frost. It was impossible! But I used some of the same seed to seed a large dish full of potting soil - I grow it inside all winter and the cat munches on it, it helps prevent hairballs and keeps him happy - and it is day 7 and the seedlings are like 4" tall. No kidding. So even though we're getting snow in a couple short days I'm giving it a chance.

Next I dug in some bulbs. I dug in a new bulb bed out in the S front yard, by the bush that won't die. I dug it really deep and added a bit of light potting soil to the mix (I didn't have any peat moss or vermiculite handy) wherever I planted bulbs today to improve drainage, which is good for bulbs. They really dislike wet feet. I put some in on the N side of the house too. A few more crocus and some daffs in once the impatiens die back and I am done!

New bed: I planted three Angelique tulips in the center, butterfly daffodils on the SE edge, and Peppermint Duet Tulips all around the other side. Crocus all over the top.

N side: Near the fence I planted Daffodils in the back, 2 Woodstock and a Fondant hyacinth in the front, with crocus on top. By the A/C unit I planted Angelique Tulips in back, one Blue Jacket hyacinth in front, and crocus all over the top.

Note that may be of interest - as I was planting today my neighbor (who is crazy, but they do have a pretty yard) walked by and when she found I was planting bulbs, said "Oh! I don't bother planting those any more because every time I do, the deer just eat them all." Now, let me tell you, I know deer growing up in the area I did. We had to go out and physically chase them of the gardens on a daily basis. I have NEVER in the 4 years we've lived here seen a single deer. I'm sure they exist, and it's a pretty rural area near a watershed so no surprise if we have them, but I am skeptical. We DO have lots of rabbits though. Run all around the backyard and freak the kids out! So either way I should plan on doing some repellant when the bulbs are tender and new and tasty looking.

Other updates: Cuttings are doing ... ehhhhh. I don't think I will be able to save the angelonia. The bridal veil on the other hand has rooted relatively well so we'll see.

Before the snow I need to do some harvesting. The bramble is heavy with berries, and I still have lots of tomatoes. I plan on picking the green ones before they get frost spoiled and ripening them inside. I NEED to dry the basil too. The bush is huge but the leaves are starting to suffer from the cooler nights already. Calendula too needs to come in tomorrow.

The impatiens will die on Wednesday for sure, they're so tender, and before they do I wanted to record their stature! They are BEAUTIFUL, they really do incredibly well there and did last year too. A perfect choice for that spot apparently. They are right now up to the middle of the third piece of siding on the garage, and there's cement below that, so about thigh height on me. Pretty big for impatiens! Plus they're so low maintenance I love it. No deadheading, no freaky water needs, little weeding. Just plant and enjoy come the warm weather.

The roses are having a last hurrah before the snow and it's so pretty. All three in the middle have blooms and the mix of the deep red Champlain against the creamy white and yellow Submarine is very striking. I manged a nice mix of foliage there too and it looks good. I should remember Salvia behind the YS next year if I can't find Angelonia. The NW still suffers on and off from black spot but we have almost beaten it! Damned if it will take MY rose bush. Keeping the spots off as soon as they're noticed is doing the trick. I am leaving all the blooms on the roses now and have been for a while, to encourage hipping. I have a few starting and hope to have several more before the plants go dormant - nothing is prettier than rose hips in the snow!

Oh, I cut back the daylillies today too. More like I mowed over them with my high blade, but same effect. The foliage was yellowed and limp so it was time, the bulbs have all they need for next year. I wanted to get a really good look at the soil back in that bed and around the trees so I can figure out how to manage it better next year.

I think that's it! I'm exhausted!

I'm going bulb crazy

2006-10-08T00:10:00.000-05:00

Ok so I keep planting bulbs and then thinking of more spots that would be perfect with a little spring color, so I keep buying more! I have gone slightly bulb crazy. Who knows if they will even bloom in my garden (they need well drained sandy soil, and our soil is more clay than it could be) but at least I am buying them cheap. It's the very end of season here - we'll have a hard frost and some snow by Wednesday night - so everything is cut price as people scurry to get them in the ground, watered in, and well rooted before the ground freezes.

If they survive, I will have a lovely garden this spring with loads of brilliant color! If they don't, well, I'll know to dig them up and try something else.

Thursday I got a fair amount of planting done while Katie was here watching the girls. Of course I spent half the time she was here cleaning up after the cat, who was puking everywhere, but that's another story.

In the front corner edge of the garden, where the hosta bed meets the walkway, I have a nice mostly sunny spot. I put in a nice plot with clusters of triumph tulips, a couple pink and deep blue hyacinth, and then covered the whole thing with crocus to be my early color.

I got in a row of hyacinth by the laundry window - hopefully as they bloom I can open the window and let that heavenly scent coat my washing! I have three clusters about 6" apart of a pink (the fondant) and blue (blue jacket) hyacinth there.

At the very front left (NW) corner of the hosta garden I put in a great bed of crocus and anemone. The anemone were weird shaped bulbs. Like little nuggets or bark kind of, no pointed end to say which way was up. I have NO idea if they'll take.

I still want a bunch on the N side of the house (light but no direct sun - we'll see?) The tulips have to go in brighter light than the daffs or hyacinth so I'll put those in the rose garden, along the back fence facing East, next to the ugly bush in front, or around the columbine.

All bulbs need to be planted in the impatien bed but we have a vole eating everything there, so I need to a) kill the vole and b) cage the bulbs with chicken wire before they go in. This is a much more time consuming job than it sounds like, especially with two little kids. Wire cutters and preschoolers: not a good combination.

Anyway here's what else I picked up today!

This beautiful mix of species tulips is called the Peppermint Stick Duet. They flower together with colors that set each other off, and look beautiful at least in the pictures. We shall see!

These lovely double tulips are called Angelique. Very feminine aren't they? They will be nice for cut flowers!

Look at this show stopper! When I saw it I was sold, it's stunning. It's called a Woodstock hyacinth and descriptions of its color range from beet red to wine burgundy. I can't wait to see it bloom, it will be a showpiece if I can get it going!

Finally a mix of daffodils called butterflies - the trumpets are split, as you can see in the picture, and frill back towards the petals so they have a shape kind of like butterflies. They do look very springy and fragrant!

Anyway I can't wait for spring to see what shows up. Everything is planted correctly, given a little blood meal (12-0-0), mulched VERY heavily for winter with cedar; I"ll remove mulch in spring; and watered in good. Nothing to do now but wait right?

I figured out what it is! Summer Snapdragon!

2006-09-30T23:57:00.000-05:00

I figured out what it is! The beautiful little plant I bought on clearance at the nursery late this spring and put in next to my WB rose - it has done MARVELOUSLY and it is so stunningly interesting. The foliage is beautiful, it's a ncie height and very hardy, it thrives there. But the flowers are the most amazing; they are a brilliant purple and they have a little hollow of speckled veiny light color inside, very much like a miniature snapdragon. Which stands to reason given a variant of their common name - Summer Snapdragon! The real name is Angelonia angustifolia and the one I have looks exactly, I mean exactly, like this picture here. I got it cheap and it wasn't marked or tagged or anything. What fun to figure out what it is! It doesn't seem very common, I don't see much reference to it out there, but what do I know. Maybe it's just not so common here. I did find out the plant is sterile, it doesn't produce seeds. In many zones you grow it as a perennial and can dig and divide it to grow more, but here it won't survive our harsh winters so it is an annual at best. The only way to make more is by tip cuttings. Sooooo I definitely need to get on that tomorrow! I would be so sad if I couldn't find any more next year. I'd have these all over my garden.

New Bulbs, trying cuttings!

2006-09-30T23:20:00.000-05:00

Well I managed to get to the nursery with Iris today (running into my next door neighbors that I share a raspberry patch with btw, who are superb gardeners and even better neighbors!) I picked up some rooting hormone and some small 3" peat pots, so we'll see if I can figure out taking cuttings. The plant I most want to save is the beautiful unknown clearance special by the Will Baffin, angelicum or something. Gorgeous plant. It's already looking frost nipped so I need to act fast, tomorrow!

I got the rest of my bulbs too - I ended up with:

7 scarlet gem (yellow outer, red trumpet) daffodils, med height, early bloom, 6" deep.
5 fondant (lovely porcelain pink) hyacinths, low-med height, med bloom, heavy fragrance, 6" deep.
5 crystal palace (deep purple) double hyacinths, low-med height, med bloom, heavy fragrance, 6" deep.

I'll pull together all my bulbs and make a plan up tonight. Maybe I can finally get started putting them in tomorrow!

Chomp

2006-09-30T01:32:00.000-05:00

Real quick, since it's 1:30 in the morning and all.

Something has nibbled at 2 of the developing bds on my YS rose. Just chewed an edge off the closed bud. I *think* it looks like caterpillar damage, but I'm totally not sure. This weekend I have to go check the plants really carefully for insects.

Pruning

2006-09-26T18:19:00.000-05:00

I spent some time out with the roses tonight, cleaning them up. Still issues with fungus, and I'm not sure what's going on. At least it seems more or less contained, and I'm absolutely going to stay on top of it! If I lose that rose garden to fungus I'm going to have a fit.

So far: The Nearly Wild, as usual, has it the worst. Whether this is the cultivar being more susceptible or its position between the other two roses or a combination, I have no clue. Systemic anti-fungal seems to have no effect. It now suffers from BOTH black spot and powdery mildew. (Although, come to think of it, a lot of the yard has powdery mildew this year... even the perennial garden has big patches of it. Must be the drought followed by a wet September.) It has spread the black spot just over to a few leaves of the Champlain, much to my horror. The Yellow Submarine and Will Baffin are untouched, and the Little Mischeif has come back mightily with very healthy new growth and no signs of active infection.

Tonight I made free and easy with the pruning shears. It killed me to do so, the Neary Wild is a quarter of the size it was when we bought it. But, I am telling myself that it is for its own good - I HAVE to remove the infected leaves or the entire plant will die. Plus, winter is not far off anyway, and the roses will need cutting back if they don't die back on their own; so this is just getting a jumpstart on winterizing. At the very worst, if I lose the Nearly Wild due to the cut back, I will have saved the other roses from a spreading infection.

I removed any leaves (or whole branches) I could see with any signs at all of black spot or powdery mildew, on all three roses that were / had been affected. I practiced good rose hygeine and carefully put each pruned sick bit into a bucket without letting any fall on the ground, then took them all to the firepit and burned them. I cleaned and disinfected my shears with soap, hot water, and rubbing alcohol when I was done. Finally I pulled out all the asters in the garden (they were planted too low in the ground and also susceptible to powdery mildew) and pruned back the mums to have only new healthy growth.

Hopefully that will be the end of it!

The Maples and honey locust are all turning lovely colors, and the gingko across the street has already lost most its leaves! The birches are just starting to go golden. Everything else struggles to maintain a green look, but with high temps in the low '50's they won't hold it for long!

Looking ahead: Winter and Spring Bulbs

2006-09-24T23:08:00.000-05:00

Well, we're winding down from summer here. I'm sad about that, but if I am honest I have no energy for the garden right now. It's all I can do to pull a few weeds in very visible spots and let the rest go!

The veggie garden is almost all petered out. I picked the second acorn squash today - we have two that look normal but are a little on the thin side, and smaller than ones you'd find in the store. We'll see how they taste! Still growing is one random one that looks more like a pumpkin. It's round, and mottled green and orange instead of the dark green of regular acorn squash with a creamy earth spot. I guess we'll see how it turns out. Note not to leave the squash too long next year - although I think it's still early for harvest, I found the remains of one squash eaten almost entirely. Nothing but some strands and seeds still atatched to the vine!

There's nothing left really in the garden - a few late blooming strawberries (the sweetest of the season, like candy!) and the big basil bush needs to be picked. I have a handful of green tomatoes but don't think they'll ripen. That's it.

The roses carry on, looking healthy except for that Nearly Wild that still struggles with blackspot despite all my efforts. The Little Mischeif has come back with a roar and is full of brilliant tiny green leaves. The other three are full into producing new growth (before winter? What gives?) and are covered in the dark red new sprigs. The Yellow Submarine is still blooming with big, very showy blooms. They start out lemon yellow and slowly fade to cream with dark red spots. GORGEOUS from bud to the end of the bloom.

Next to them the calendula - my God the calendula!! I will have to remember that as an easy spot of color (and medicine) next year. They've been blooming constantly, without fail rain or shine, since June I believe? And they are thick and heavy with so many huge brilliant blooms hanging all over, in colors from sunshine yellow to deep dark orange, double petaled, a few single petaled with dark eyes, succulent looking foliage... they even make the weedy quackgrass behind them look like it is part of the planned garden artwork. They're simply stunning and all for a 59 cent packet of seeds and some half hearted care.

We have to seed the lawn this month. We're still waiting to be able to afford it as things have been tight, but the bare patches are chafing me. I want to overseed it, and mulch it for winter, maybe compost and aerate it... get it back in decent condition after this drought year.

Finally my bulbs, they are on my list to plant this week. Here's my plan. I have:

100 Crocus, multi colored (short, very early, 4" depth)
These little beauties, only about 4" tall max, are VERY early color in springtime, often blooming even through the snow. They'll be nice early Spring color, which I am missing by then!

18 Tulips, "Triumph" mixed colors (tall, mid spring, 6" depth)
Tulips are one of my favorite flowers, and these should start blooming as we get into real Springtime. They're bright warm colors too.

15 Anemone, De Caen mixed (medium height, late spring, 4" depth)
The anemones are beautiful, make good cut flowers, and add a TON of color to the garden. But I'm not convinced they're really hardy in this climate. I think I might choose to winter the bulbs in packing in the garage, and plant them as soon as the ground thaws in Spring for summer bloom times.

I also want to pick up some hyacinths (mdium height, mid season, 6" depth) - I have my eye on some Paul Hermanns or some Peter Stuyvesants. Pretty colors and heady fragrance, they'd be especially nice behind the impatiens and behind the hostas along the laundry room window. Once they're blooming opening the window will fill the house with their scent, like the lilacs later on!
Paul Hermanns
Peter Stuyvesants

I want to plant the hyacinths and Tulips along the garage behind the impatiens and along the laundry window. Mixed together probably. On top of them I could plant some crocus or anemone, but I'm not sure. I want some anemone and a few tulips in the corner of the front garden by the hose, where the path meets the lawn. I want crocus at either edge and down the front of the impatien bed. I want to tuck a few crocus in around the birch trees. I want a few crocus and a few anemone around the columbine at the edge of the front garden, and more crocus around the side door to the garage. Lastly I might tuck a few crocus along the North side of the fence, actually in the edge of the lawn. If I'm feeling really adventurous I might put a few under the maple tree, where the ugly bush is in the South front yard, or in the empty divet by the veggie garden.
The more I read the more I want to try forcing a few hyacinths indoors too. We'll see how well that works!

Just checking in, finally!

2006-09-15T17:23:00.000-05:00

Half a month since I've updated here, mainly because I haven't had the ability to get out in the garden much. We've all been sick and it's that end of summer kind of time, when the garden mostly settles down for autumn anyway. Here's some highlight notes from what I can remember.

We had a couple storms go through and drop 3 - 4" of rain within a day or two and really soak everything. Weeds abound :) I have started mowing the lawn myself since Pete didn't have time to do it frequently enough and I've set the blade really high. The combination of all this means the lawn has VASTLY improved. There are still some brown patches by the fir in back but overall it looks and feels great with a lot more grass and a lot fewer weeds. We still need to aerate and seed it, but when we have money that will come.

I can't remember if I posted it before but I pruned the birch trees back to my head height around the bottom and they very much appreciate the attention! They look great. Also the lillies underneath are so excited to get a little sun that they've been blooming ever since!

The raspberries are producing well right now, not that we'd ever know it. I haven't tasted a single ripe one. Every day after school there's about 5 kids all clustered on OUR side of the berries, of course, devouring them. They pulled and ate every one of my carrots too. Hmm.

I purchased a large assortment of early spring bulbs to throw some color into my late winter landscape. Most of what I have is crocus, but I believe I also purchased some daffodils and hyacinth. Could be wrong, I'll have to check! I want to put some around the edges of the pathway garden in front, the corners of the hosta garden, around the lillies in back, and maybe a few inside the fenced yard. I'm not 100% sure yet. I plan on mixing them up, you know planting them on top of each other. We'll see how it works!

The roses are doing really well also. The Little Mischief has come back with some tender attention and pruning and is looking fantastic. Of course now the Nearly Wild is once again beset by black spot, and I'm not sure how to control it. I remove any infected leaves as soon as I see evidence of damage, and I've given it a heavy dose of systemic anti-fungal... ??? All else failing I may have to replace that rose next spring. The others are putting out lots of new growth even now and a few blooms and look very healthy!

The new snowberries on the North side are also well established now and growing just great. I am anxious to see how they'll manage the winter, but they look very hardy and very happy in their spot.

Next to the snowberries, where I have an empty patch near where the fence meets the house, I want to plant this: Japanese painted ferns against the grass, bluebells behind that, and yellow foxglove behind those. Should be gorgeous!

In a perfect world next year I want Hollyhock around my garage side door too, but I know they are very tempting to bugs. We will see.

I think that's it for now... I'll update again as we get to feeling better and I can get into prepping everything for the snow!

If I Had a Million Dollars

2006-08-29T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today, I received my first seed catalog of the year. (Not just seeds, bareroot and container plants too, but for ease of reference I am calling it a seed catalog!) Oh. My. God. The things I could spend money on if I had it. Most alluring to me are the things I can do in a shade garden. The spot by the fence on the North side just isn't going to be big enough to hold everything I want to do! I am considering branching out and adding a shade garden down behind the birches, next to the raspberries. On the side of the house I want to do a three level thing, I have decided. Short ferns by the lawn. Midsized flowers with nice foliage behind them. Maybe amsonia. Maybe bluebells. And then behind in a cluster a few stalks of bright yellow digitalis / foxglove. There are so many other things I want in shade too, like bulbs - tiny crocus and jonquils under the shrubs. I want a tiny grove of trillium under the fir tree and toad lillies under the deck. So many possibilities. And then there's the stuff I could grow into a stunning show of color on the south side. I am dying for a peony, or a whole set of peonies. They grow really well around here. I am considering taking out the russian sage by Amy's window (it's outgrown itself and fallen in towards the middle) and replacing it with a peony. 10" colorful spring blooms, and next to the white lilac too! I can hardly stand it. I want 8 foot stalks to hollyhock growing up beside the door to the garage, welcoming with their impressive color. I'm even considering poppies below my blueberries. There is just SO MUCH I can do!

If I don't watch it I am going to spend a LOT of money on this garden.

However it is all worth it to me - the sense of satisfaction is immense. Just this afternoon I was walking around checking on the roses with Iris and my super shy neighbor happened to be out for a walk with her two little girls. She came over and raved about the roses, which made me glow! So many of the neighbors have dropped by now to offer their compliments on the garden and how much it adds to the house. That feels REALLY good.

Harvest

2006-08-25T18:59:00.000-05:00

The end of summer is here and that means harvest. Every week I go gather what I can use or store. I'm also starting to do the sanitation and preparation for winter!

Today I went out quickly after dinner and filled a couple old colanders with:

1 gigantic cucumber - not as long as the others at only 9" long. But it had GIRTH, it was 10" around!
1 dozen or so cherry tomatoes
34 carrots, about 1/4 of my crop, to make baby food for Iris
2 dozen heads of calendula - I am swimming in calendula this year and will have to sell some on, I couldn't use what I have in 10 years. I harvest this much every other day.
Some basil for drying
Plenty of raspberry leaves, enough to dry and make several pots of tea.

Not bad for one evening's take!
-------------------------------

I pruned the birches back to my head height a few days ago and they look SO much better. Not just them, but the lillies underneath them can finally get some sun now. It was a lot of work but so worth it. Once I kill off the grass that has crept into the beds around their trunks I'll mulch heavily for winter.

I deadheaded the roses tonight and they all look fantastic. Nice shape, growth, lots of budding, healthy looking plants. Except the Little Mischief. I don't know if I can save that one, and I don't know what's going wrong. It is still growing and blooming fine, but so many of the leaves have what looks like a fungal disease (even though the little mischief is well ventilated) and when the blooms drop new leaves don't replace them - I just have bare twigs. I am not sure it will come back after the winter, and I'm sad about that. If not, I suppose I'll figure out a replacement next summer, but I'd love to keep the one I have!

The lawn is the bane of my existance this year. Hot and dry, the weeds all grew and the grass all died. It needs a lot of recovery. I need to kill off as many weeds as I can, aerate, then mulch and reseed the entire thing. Some spots more than others. Lots of water. Reminder to myself for next year: At least 1" of water a week, don't let it go longer. Keep it about 3" long, and never mow more than 1/3 of the blade off. We'll see if that helps.

Garden on the back burner

2006-08-18T13:39:00.000-05:00

Not much to post as we've been so busy I haven't had the time to work in my garden much.

I finally got the roses mulched, and the black spot taken care of of course. I can't remember if I mentioned that in the previous entry - if not, yes, it's all done now and everyone's had a systemic anti-fungal. It looks really nice!

I have some columbine in the front hosta garden and it has been so pretty there. This year it set off a few tiny plants and I am thinking about digging them up and potting them indoors over winter. It would be nice to have several of them in the garden!

The weeds have taken over the lawn. I don't know WHAT to do about the lawn. The best solution I can think of is to hire someone to come treat it professionally. We gave it a weeder feeder twice in spring thinking that would be good maintenance. Well we now have no grass but tons of carpeting weeds, go figure. Our neighbors all have gorgeous lawns. Ours is brown with patches of green weeds. It's lovely.

I went around last weekend with the roundup getting rid of any weeds I could find in the gardens and killing a few in the grass. I have NO idea if it will help - in another week or so we should know!

There's a Fungus Among Us

2006-08-13T02:01:00.000-05:00

OK so I discovered my nearly wild rose already has 2 leaves affected by black spot, a dangerous fungal infection common in roses. Here I thought they were super disease resistant and everything! It may well have come that way from the nursery; I think I spaced them alright in the garden to allow for maximum air flow, but then again the NW rose is right in the middle of the other two. (Although, to be fair, its whole back is open to the air!) It seems to only be affecting 2 or 3 leaves so far. My plan is to remove the infected leaves and a bit of the cane tomorrow, and then treat all the roses with a systemic anti-fungal. In this case I think it would be easier to spray, but I haven't been able to find any fungicide spray for roses. Go figure. Anyway one more thing to accomplish tomorrow! My list keeps growing.

Speaking of, I forgot to mention on here, I have been doing some weed research. If you've been to our house you may have noticed we have a bunch of AWFUL thistles (Amy calls them "sticker bushes") in the yard. Very big and horribly painfully thorny. They grow like, well, like weeds. ANYWAY I figured out those are a variety called Canadian thistle, and the reason my pulling and digging them hasn't done any damn good is that they grow on an underground rhizome system. The whole front yard? Probably one single plant. Plus they seed too so every frond that sticks up puts of thousands of airborne seeds, and if just one seed takes it can create another plant that covers the entire yard.... the only way to kill them is with Roundup. Lots of Roundup. Kill the majority of the above ground weeds. And to keep the Roundup off the grass and daffodils and snowberries and everything else, I need to go around to each plant (and I'm not kidding, we have hundreds. Several hundreds) and paint each leaf with Roundup using a paintbrush.

This is going to be a very time consuming job. I see a babysitter in my children's future.

We have a garden!

2006-08-07T14:21:00.000-05:00

The rose garden is complete!! Well, OK, I haven't mulched it yet; but otherwise it's all planted and edged and it looks wonderful. I'm so so proud of it. It doesn't hurt that all my neighbors have come over to congratulate me on it! The roses are absolutely stunning and I added in some mums and asters for color that just make it so complete. I found a perfect little birdbath and the stone turtles that Pete bought me months ago have found a home at last! I can't stop looking at it, I keep going outside to enjoy the sight. And the smell - the roses smell so wonderful! Anyway here you go:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

(See the pile of dirt in the background, where my blueberries will go next year? What am I going to do with it?)

This image got resized funny but if you ignore the pixelation, check out the blooms on my yellow submarine rose already! The pink little mischief is in the rear towards the left.

Gardening is SO rewarding. I know we spent a fair amount of money on this garden to get good quality plants, but it will pay us back a hundredfold in enjoyment over the years. Plus all going well we won't have to replant, if I can get them wintered well. I already have butterflies enjoying the plants - it's beautiful!

This is a lot of work!

2006-08-05T22:36:00.000-05:00

OK, creating this bed is a lot more work than I originally thought it would be! It has turned into a 2 day job.

Today was Saturday, so we both could throw some effort into it. Unfortunately with two little ones it isn't like we can both work on the garden - one of us watches the kids while the other works, and we trade off. We did get a lot done, my back shows it, but it isn't finished. Frankly the roses aren't even planted yet!

We decided to make the bed bigger, taking out an entire section of the lawn that wasn't looking so hot. So we dug it pretty big - I'd guesstimate 4 to 5 feet in wide, about 6 feet out running South, a big curve around back towards the garage, and then running about 4 feet down the side of the garage and maybe 3 feet wide. Pretty good sized! We had to cut and pull off all the dead sod and weeds on the top about 3 or 4" down, which was a struggle. We found a surprise under the sod - about 5" underneath the surface we dug up decaying electricity flags letting us know the line was buried under this bed. We had to stop, do some research, make some calls to places that weren't open on a Saturday, and finally a couple of hours later figured out that hand digging (as opposed to excavating with power tools) was probably OK as long as we were being careful.

The dirt in that section has been neglected for a long time and is very heavy in clay. It was HARD and really cemented together. Adding to the joy there had obviously been something there at some point as we kept digging up bricks and pieces of slate, like paving stones. Every time we put the shovel in something blocked it, it seems. Combined with the heavy clay it was a back breaking effort. We dug, broke and turned the soil down to 12 inches. And then we took a break!

I amended it with 5cf of vacuum packed peat moss (which I wasn't sure would be enough, but expanded out really well) and almost 200lbs of well composted manure. Those bags were HEAVY. Once it was in the right spot we dug it all again, turning the amendments into the soil and continuing to break clods and aerate everything. We watered it and let it settle. By that time it was about 5pm, and we decided to pack up the kids and head to the county fair rather than fight with it any more today!

Tomorrow I have to:

Get the 5 roses into the ground: Dig 2' wide holes, plant, cut away the pots, add starter and root fungus stimulant stuff, backfill with amended soil, water.
Mulch everything with the 10cf of cedar mulch I have in the garage. More big bags to carry yay!
Go to the local nursery and pick up a stack of bricks and some annuals
Edge the bed. I want one brick flat with the grass so it can be mown over easily and one brick holding in the soil and mulch. A big hassle.
Plant the annuals and get them mulched
Continue to look for the missing pieces of the garden we still seek: A couple boulders, a statue, something.

Biggest headache of the project we forgot to anticipate: Where to put the dead sod, weeds and topsoil we removed. We have this HUGE mound of it just sitting next to the bed looking ugly. We don't even own a wheelbarrow to move it. Going to have to figure something out.

Seeing as tomorrow I not only have to finish the bed, I need to clean and prep the garage for window delivery Monday, clean the house and remove all the blinds etc for window installation Tuesday, cook a few dinners and take them to Shannon who had her baby this morning, and while Pete's home run into the home store to pick up paint and supplies to paint or repaint all of the trim on the house, which needs to be done (by me!) on Wednesday. Several of our windowsills were rotted, and they're being replaced with the windows which is great, but they will be plain wood. They need to be sealed and painted so I get to repaint the whole house extreior trim. Yay me!

It's going to be quite the week but I *will* have a rose garden to show for it when I'm done!

I got my roses!!!

2006-08-04T21:49:00.000-05:00

Well today was a banner day - I spent the morning at the nursery taking notes, filled a few pages of my notebook with details on all the cultivars of species roses I have been looking at (and that is QUITE the feat with a 2 year old and infant in arms!) I came home, did some more research, and made my decisions - we went out this evening and invested a pretty good chunk of money into some gorgeous species roses, peat moss, composted manure, etc - I already have 10cf of cedar mulch so I just need some brick edging and some annuals to add color at the front. Maybe a nice boulder or statuary or something for interest. And I will have my wonderful rose garden where the ugly weeds used to be! I can't tell you how happy this makes me, I'm just delirious. I have perennial gardens and hostas and shrubs and berries and veggies and bulbs - but no roses until now. Plus experimenting with old garden / species roses is just so damn cool. The bed will look great!

Here's what I ended up picking. The pictures I could find online vary slightly in color (I guess the color fades or intensifies a little depending on climate and soil?) but the cultivars are all the same so here we go.

Right by the garage door / driveway will be this beautiful "Nearly Wild" floribunda rose - it looks very similar to wild roses, smells lovely and a bit like apples. It has a bit of an issue with mildew / blackspot but is otherwise extremely hardly and beautiful little plant with interesting single blooms that are continuous and numerous all through summer.

This beauty will go next, towards the front of the bed / house. It's called a Champlain rose, an Explorer series Kordesii. It's about 4 feet tall, blooms profusely, and thrives on neglect. The one we have has darker red blooms than the one pictured.

Then covering the corner of the house is the Little Mischief - one of the brand spanking new Easy Elegance series that are extremely hardy and disease resistant. The one we have has much paler pink blooms, a kind of seashell pink, and they absolutely carpet the bush. It's short, about 1 1/2' tall, and spreading in lovely branches.

First on the side is another Easy Elegance selection called Yellow Submarine. It is taller than the others, growing from 3 - 5' tall for contrast. The blooms start off lemon yellow and as they mature fade to white, so the flowering bush is covered in all shades of yellow at any one time.

Finally against the garage south side is the William Baffin. Known to be hardy and happy in this area, it grows vigorously and produces clusters of fuschia roses. It's another Kordesii and is a climber, getting to be about 10' at full growth if it is trellised properly. The blooms are semi doubles with bright yellow centers / stamens.

So there you have it! I will begin the day tomorrow clearing ground and amending soil so I can plant that evening or tomorrow. If I can get the bricks I can even finish the bed this weekend. You will be innundated with pictures!

Reaching the end of summer slowly

2006-08-01T21:02:00.000-05:00

Finally! Some rain and a cool front! Although I don't know if any of the plants will be the same, it's been a hot and drought filled summer so far. But we've had a couple inches of water and nice cool day today, and it will continue. Cheers all around!

Not much to report; the tomatoes are ripe, the squash are getting bigger (I have three that survived,) the carrots are still stubby and might not grow any more from the weather we've had. The calendula blooms non stop, remember that is a good one to plant when you need long lasting easy color somewhere! I am going to prune the birches in September or October, the snowberry in February, and the lilac after it blooms next summer. I still need to get to the nursery and figure out what I want to plant on the SW corner as far as shrubs and OG roses go, but this week is crammed with doctor appointments so who knows. Everything else is thriving. Surprisingly the cheap dahlia I picked up in front is showing off like the cheap walmart petunia. I don't care as long as they bloom, fine with me! There are hardly any toads this year which is strange, I assume because of the weather. I'm so used to seeing the little guys flopping around when I water. We have a vole or gopher or something making holes in the front lawn by the pathway, the impatiens bed, and now the back lawn as well - must trap it. And that's about all that is going on right now!

Birch Tree Bed

2006-07-30T01:07:00.000-05:00

It's going to be a heat index of 110 - 120 for the next two days. And today was our 18th day in a row in the upper 90's. No rain. Even the farmers here have gone on water restrictions. You KNOW it's bad when....

I've been giving a little attention, for the first time, to the small bed towards the back of the lawn that has 2 birch trees and a bed of day lillies. It needs some love. Things I need to do for it:

Water once in a while
Seed head the lillies so they bloom next year - done
Prune the birches to keep them healthy and let light to the lillies
Weed
Dig up, divide, and replant the lillies
Fertilize next spring

I'm trying to decide what to do with all the divided lillies. They're huge. But where do I need a new lily bed? Maybe on the back fence? But I was thinking more ramblers there. As part of the new bed on the SW corner? Make a small bed on the NE corner? Fill out the front garden, pull up a hosta or three? Just toss them or give them away? I've got no idea!

Walk Through my Garden July 06

2006-07-27T19:25:00.000-05:00

OK I took a quick walk through the garden this evening and snapped a few pictures. This way I have something to review and compare with later in the season or in years to come! I didn't get everything - the entire North side of the house is so weedy it's not worth taking pictures, for example; and a lot of plants were wayyyy past their prime and barely recognizeable in the heat. But I did get a few things that are important right now. Keep in mind as you look at the garden we have just endured the driest June and July in 115 years. We have had something like 2" of rainfall all summer and this is normally our wet season! Plus temps in the upper 90's if not 100's since mid June. So everything looks very brown and dried out; it doesn't normally look so bad in a non-drought year. Anyway starting as we walk out the back deck (the backyard faces East) and around the South side of the house up to the Front yard.

This is one of the sunflowers blooming under the birdfeeder, against the deck. And three bumblebees apparently. There are about a half dozen huge blooms and they look so cheerful there!

This is a closeup of the red rasberry thicket in back. Dry hot conditions mean it hasn't produced much this year but I have been able to dry a lot of tea.

This is a wider view of the thicket.

The birch trees have had some sort of disease the last two years - the underside of every leaf is bright magenta? Plus some insect damage. I"ll have to figure out what it is.

On to the veggie garden, the cherry tomatoes are producing well so far.

My strawberries on the other hand are mutants. These bushes are two years old and healthy with plenty of suckers and only slight insect damage, but the berries on all three varietals are misshapen this year. They're kind of flat ovals instead of strawberry shaped. They still taste wonderful but teh shape thing is weird!

The basil has survived well and is fully into flowering as of July. I'm still harvesting some for pasta every few days.

Away from the veggies on the South side, past the perennial garden, is my calendula - this is one of the plants, a single bloom version.

And past the calendula, the ugliest spot in the yard and one of the most visible - my ugly SW corner by the driveway. Hopefully in a few weeks it will be bedded with shrub roses and annuals.

The shade strip by the front pathway - impatiens thrive there.

Potted impatiens by the front door make a cheery welcome.

I have to take pictures of the front flower bed with the hosta and columbine, but the light was all wrong this evening (it comes in from the West so my shadow was in everything!) They will be in a future update!

Cukes

2006-07-27T16:06:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to add that this past week I picked both my beautiful cucumbers, they measured at 12 and 13.5 inches!! They were HUGE! And so deliciously tenderly sweet, the best cucumbers I have ever eaten, seriously. Yay!

Roses

2006-07-27T15:57:00.000-05:00

I am making great progress through my horticultural guide to the area and I have been taken in the last few days by the section on roses. Now roses have never been my favorite plant, although I know they are one of Pete's. And in this climate, traditional roses (the hybrid teacups) can only survive if you SERIOUSLY baby them, and I mean seriously. Example: to overwinter them you have to prune down the plant, dig it up and bare root it, wrap the roots in peat moss that is watered daily to be kept moist, and keep the whole thing in a box of styrofoam peanuts in the garage for 6 months checking the temperature each day to make sure it stays below freezing but not too far below freezing. Any deviation results in dead plants. Ummm no thank you.

However, while the hybrid teas are possible to grow here but largely impractical, the older varietals of roses DO survive here. Some are even native. These are the old garden shrub roses, a few are ramblers, with the pretty double petals. Before 'roses' were turned into what you now get on long stems they were these lovely bushes. And THAT is exactly what I want on my SW corner of the house. A couple nice shrub roses to provide blooms and fragrance in the summer and rosehips in the winter. Yes they will be a lot of work to overwinter and prune and everything else. But they're going next to my beloved blueberry bushes which will take plenty more babying than any roses might, so why not! I also want to try some of the hardy ramblers along the back fence to brighten it up a little from the grey overgrown grass that lives there now.

I figure 2 - 3 shrub roses on the corner garden fronted with a nice display of annuals every year will be a beautiful addition. Now I just have to make my decisions about which ones to pick up. They've got to go in within the next few weeks so they are well settled before winter or I'll lose them. Suggestions on color or varietal welcomed! (We're hardiness zone 4, so anything you suggest has to be hardy to 4 or below.) This is SO much fun!

2006-07-18T23:16:00.000-05:00

We just got back from 5 days in California for Terryl and Jordan's wedding. There had been no rain for close to 3 weeks before we left with temps in the 90's. While we were gone temps were over 100 every day with no rain except a passing sprinkle, high humidity. Now again there's no rain forecast for at least another week. It is a very hot, very dry summer. I know all the farm crops around here have been devastated and we're supposed to go to water rationing soon (our town is all well water, the aquifer is running low!) So my plants are suffering.

While we were gone the sunflowers by the back deck steps bloomed, and they look glorious! From the backyard it totally changes the look of the house and adds a lot of color and cheer. There are a half dozen plants ("planted" by mistake under the bird feeder as seeds fell) and two are in full bloom now with more on the way. They reach the height of the deck, over 5' tall!

We also have smaller flowers all around that area that are new this year, I assume they are strawflower (what was n the birdfeeder.) We will see!

My cukes in the veggie garden are an impressive 9 - 10" long, two of them. They are a lovely dark green but I heard not to pick them until they get glossy, so we'll wait another day or two. I have at least one small acorn squash.

Whenw e got back the peas had dried on the vine a bit, despite watering (they were done producing) so I picked them all, shelled them, boiled them, and made them into baby food for Iris. I got 10 overfull cubes yesterday not counting the one I gave her for lunch. Amy and Hank and all the kids ate themselves sick off the peas earlier so that was pretty impressive! I need to pull the vines down now.

I've weeded some more on the South side - everything is dead and gone on the corner where I'm going to plant some shrubs and annuals. I pulled most of the grass and sticker weeds from beind the calendula. We cut down the tree (birch? Elm? Who knows?) growing up inside the lilac there and it looks a ton better - be warned for next year that when I went to uproot the small trees growing through the lilac I discovered there were several large stumps underneath that have just been cut back each year instead of uprooted. BIG stumps. I wasn't seeing baby trees I was seeing new shoots. So I'm not sure what to do about that!

The day lillies in the back went through a shortish bloom and are now suffering from the heat and dry conditions. They have no blooms and are bent over and limp.

The black raspberries are past their prime but the red ones in back are coming into summer harvest. There aren't a ton of fruit but definitely some on each plant plus still some new green leaves for tea.

Tomorrow morning I will water and then harvest the calendula for drying. I"ll try to get some pictures too of how everything looks!

In the Garden - mid-July 2006

2006-07-10T23:17:00.000-05:00

Well for now at least, I'm going to make this my gardening journal, while I play with the customization and try to get comfortable enough here that I can make the leap over from my current blog. Coincidentally, I need a gardening journal, so for now I'm going to be keeping notes about the garden in here!

It's mid-July, 2006. VERY hot and dry, drought conditions this year. We haven't had any measureable precipitation in 16 days and temps in the 90's. I've had to do a lot of watering! The bridal veil hanging by the front door likes to stay pretty dry and only watered maybe twice a week even in the heat. It puts out new purple leaves and blooms when kept dry. The impatiens are handling the heat fantastically with minimal watering - whether this is due to heavy mulching, shade or just hardiness I am not sure. The veggies are dry but surviving and producing on watering deeply 2 - 3 times a week, and the north side snowberries are doing much the same (again, heavy mulch.) The calendula seems to be doing OK but frankly, the entire south side of the house is more weeds than garden these days.

Speaking of weeds, I am up to my eyeballs. I let the 'sticker bushes' in the front get away from me and now they're like 5 feet tall and flowering, round purple flowers rather like thistle. UGLY, and too big to really get at them. I weeded the SW corner this afternoon, cutting down all of the large weeds that I attempted to kill with Roundup a week ago and clearing ground. In another week or two the idea is to plant a flowering shrub there in the full sun, maybe another by the garage door, and surround them with bright annuals and definitely again with the mulch. I have 10 cubic feet in the garage, hope it's enough for this project!

What else... the snowberries were planted June 1st. The bulbs all had a very short season and then died and most look stunted and withered really fast. The hosta are ugly as ever. I have a cheap ($4!) red petunia on the front porch in a plastic pot that is actually thriving in the fuller sun there. Bacopa in a basket that was off the back deck died within a week of purchase, too dry perhaps? The calendula are just coming into bloom now and are quite pretty! They have long thick floppy pale green round tipped leaves like rabbit ears, and bright yellow big blooms. I planted easily 3 packets of chamomile seeds this year and do you know out of all that I have seen three tiny plants so far with a total of 5 tiny blooms. They perhaps were overtaken by grass on the side of the garage there. I weeded, fertilized, watered, and then just raked the seeds in but the crabgrass grew much faster than the chamomile. Little success there. The plants have one long stem with lacy little leaves coming off it, kind of like carrot tops. Oh, and I made a discovery today: the plant I assumed was lavender beside Amy's window is actually a form of sage. Sniff test proves it. The trees all seem to be doing well but the front trees and the birches need pruning. The lawn looks good overall but is suffering in the drought and is gathering a lot of weeds - crabgrass, nutgrass, clover and creeping charlie. We put down a weeder feeder in spring which did off most the dandelions, but we have yet to figure out how to kill the others.

Right now in the veggie garden:

Acorn squash is huge and still flowering with maybe a dozen flowers and a handful of small fruit already. Supposedly they will be ready to pick in a few months when the soil spot turns from cream to orange.

Basil likes to be wet and needs to be planted late; it did well this year and flowered last week. Think about mulching it next year. I have some small round brown edged holes and don't know what pest causes them. Lots of flavor and I've made several dinenrs with it already.

Carrots are doing fine but aren't ready for harvest yet. Some are still very tiny and the biggest are about 3" long.

Peas - I planted the edible pod snap peas this year - have just reached their peak with dozens of pods ready for munching. They are VERY sweet, like candy! The vines are quite large and go up a piece of chicken wire, to a twine net across the tomato stakes, and up the fence. Plan on giving them a really big trellis next year!

Strawberries are producing but only smallish and mushy berries. Some flowers still too. They are 2 years old this summer. As last year, the pink lady is the most productive and has several berries every day. All are suffering from something eating holes in their leaves. Two of the bushes have produced trailers this year.

Tomatoes so far are doing alright. They've reached the tops of the cages and have several flowers and a few small green tomatoes. I planted only cherries this year.

Cucumber vine is enormous! Watch these for frost as well as they are tender, none survived at all last year and this year only 1 of my 6. But that one is huge, goes all across the garden and up the fence, and has several flowers as well as 5 or 6 cucumbers on it. The largest is about 6" long. I need to get something under it to protect it from rot, although rot is far from my mind in this drought!

The raspberries are developing amazing foliage this year, with tons of new bright green leaves every week no matter how many I pick and dry. The berries are scant right now and are mostly white with a few turning a bit pink. Dave seems to think these vines will have a small crop now and then produce again heavily in September. The new suckers he planted have some leaves and one even has a few berries, but they are mostly sticks this year!

The black raspberry has just reached or passed its peak. There were tons of berries falling off the bush and no one picked them so I helped myself to some!

And that's what's going on so far!

Ummm is this thing on?

2006-07-05T21:47:00.000-05:00

Have I finally found a permanent home for Sonn?