Garden, by Chance?

Winter Sowing Starts!

2012-01-29T09:03:00.000-08:00

I just did my first batch of winter sowing this past week… I think it was Tuesday? I got a bug up my *** that evening after a lot of loafing, so there I was, putting containers out at 11pm, ha ha!

I got most of the edibles I want to do, they are:

Sunberry
Mexican Sweet Gherkin Cuke
Dwraf Grey Sugar Pea
Green Arrow Pea
Moon and Stars watermelon
Edisto 47 cantaloupe
White habanero pepper
Hot Portugal pepper (seeds that I collected, yay!)
Black Seaman tomato
Black Krim tomato
Black Cherry tomato
Sugar Lump tomato
Cherokee Purple tomato
Great White Beefsteak tomato

I still want to plant some greens – I have several lettuce varieties to try, and I need to get some Brussels sprouts seeds and would like to try broccoli again. I may do carrots winter sown and see how they do, and then transplant the seedlings to a large pot. I've read about growing carrots in pots and it sounds cool!

I'll be sowing some flower seeds soon, maybe even today. I want to do flowers that are considered good edible garden companions, need to do more research on that. Sunflowers again for sure, marigolds... zinnias? Nasturtium? What else?

Early summer update

2011-06-08T07:32:00.001-07:00

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun, eh?

Before I went away for two weeks in May, I planted out the chile plants we ordered from Cross Country Nurseries, around May 10th or so. I thought it was a bit early, but C. remembered that last year we planted at about the same time and had great success. I think it was colder this year (we had nights in the low 40s where I was in Michigan!), but the plants are still alive and kicking. It's been quite hot the past few days, so I am hoping that they will really kick in the coming weeks. Here are the varieties we're growing this year:

Salmon, Szechwan, Jalapeno Early, Fire, Takatsume, Punjab Small Hot, Mirasol, Carmine, Lester Williams Red, Tasmanian, Chocolate Habanero, and Harold's St. Barts. I've also got seedlings that I grew myself, both on the windowsill and through winter sowing, using seeds that we saved from the previous year: White and Red Habanero, Island Hellfire, and a couple others whose names escape me at the moment. Those plants are going to have to go in pots as I've run out of room in the big garden plot I made last fall! (Laying down cardboard and shredded leaves in the fall to create a new a plot is a really easy, fool-proof approach!) I'm going out of town for the weekend, so I'll take care of those when I get back next week.

I had some success with my winter sowing, even though I had such a late start. I didn't get things planted until February and March! Here's what I ended up with this year, and what I planted in the ground yesterday, all tomatoes.

Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Accordion, Bonny Best, Fuzzy Peach, Coyote, Black Krim, Yellow Pear, Black Seaman, and... a mystery volunteer from last year.

In addition to all this, I planted in marigolds, and there are sunflowers, walking onions from my mom's place, strawberries (we just ate some this morning – YUM!), three varieties of garlic, two varieties of peas, Mexican cucumber. These were all winter sown. I also bought from a local nursery some Brussels sprouts plants and chives, as well as a couple hot cherry pepper plants (not that we needed them, really). I'll also be adding in some pansies to the main garden plot, and after doing some reading about companion planting would like to add some nasturtium and zinnia.

All in all, this has been a fun and successful planting. Now, the waiting – will things grow? Will they flourish?

One thing I am doing differently this year is using mulch – I know, duh. I've used grass clippings so far and they seem to be working well, but I also splurged and got some cedar mulch with a gift certificate I got on my last birthday. I have yet to put it down as I want to get everything in the garden first so I don't have to mess with it too much, but I am excited to see how it will look and whether it will make everything grow that much better. I'll definitely have to water less, and hopefully it will help with pests like slugs, too. Hey – I read today that kelp, seaweed, makes for great slug repellent mulch. Go figure! I wonder if the kind I can grab from Lake Ontario would fit the bill.

I will be getting some photos up next week. I'm pretty proud of my efforts this year!

More Winter Sowing

2011-03-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to sowing the last batch of seeds I ordered, as well as some of those from last year's Seed Savers order that we never did anything with. Those plastic salad and strawberry containers sure come in handy!

Anyway, here's what went out today.

Green Arrow Pea
Dwarf Gray Sugar Pea
Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber
Moon and Stars Watermelon

Yellow Pear Tomato
Orange-Fleshed Purple Smudge Tomato
Great White Beefsteak Tomato
Black Seaman Tomato
(was going to do the Goldman's Italian American tomato, too, but the seed packet was empty!)

Peaches and Cream Sweet Corn
Chocolate Morning Glory
Dwarf Blue Alpine Columbine

Phew! I hope it all takes! Or maybe not... that's a lot of stuff... ;)

Spring! Well...

2011-03-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

The weather has been decidedly spring-like these past few days. I was even surprised and pleased to see that all the garlic that I planted in the fall has sprouted as of yesterday — they weren't there a couple days ago.

Then, I woke up this morning. Much to my surprise, what do I see out the window?

Several inches of snow.

&^%$@#!!!

I know that it's March and I live in Niagara Falls, NY, and that it has been known to snow well into April, but goshdarnit!

In happier news, I got more heirloom tomato seeds in the mail that I am excited to try:

Orange-fleshed Purple Smudge
Yellow Pear
Goldman's Italian American

Plus, I am going to try corn this year! Peaches and Cream. Hoping to get all these into winter sowing containers by this weekend.

Spring, spring, where art thou?

And almost a year later...

2011-03-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

Wow.

I can't believe I just stopped garden blogging just as the season was starting last year. What a bummer. I guess it just amounted to being very, very busy throughout the summer (basically holding down two full-time jobs plus a bunch of other stuff on top of the gardening duties) and just didn't carve out time for writing about the greenery.

Well, I can tell you that we had a pretty successful season last year overall. The winter sown plants performed beautifully once I got them into the ground, which was late, believe you me — I think it wasn't until July that I actually planted most of them, poor babies. Most of what worked really well were the tomatoes, cherry varieties in particular. Among our favorites were Sungold (the plant purchased from a local grower), Coyote, Sugar Lump, and Black Cherry (all of which were winter sown). We had a bunch of chiles from Cross Country online, plus I tried out a couple sunflowers which were a lot of fun. I am planting more of those this year and excited about it!

In the fall, I ordered three varieties of garlic and planted those in October or November... Chesnok Red, Transylvanian, and Simonetti from We Grow Garlic. We planted some (six cloves each), but ate most and let me tell you, each of those varieties are delicious and just something over and above what you get at the grocery store. Our favorite was the Chesnok Red and next year I'm hoping to try more varieties, too. Crossing fingers that they will be showing up in the garden soon... well, OK, sometime in July, I guess... but that's soon, right? ;)

This past week, I finally got around to doing my winter sowing. I was worried that it was too late, but read in a forum somewhere that generally, it's never too late to try it. Especially considering how unpredictable the spring season is in my area, I figured what the heck. Here's what I've got so far:

Tomatoes
Accordion
Coyote
Cherokee Purple
Bonny Best
Black Cherry
Sugar Lump
Super Sioux
Black Krim
Fuzzy Peach

Other Delectables
Teddybear sunflower
Sweet basil
Sunberry
Edisto Cantaloupe

And I am hoping to plant a few more seeds in the coming days, too.

Last fall I also managed to expand our growing area by laying down layers of cardboard and shredded leaves in preparation for easy spring prep! I have a few small compost piles going, too.

Finally, the best news of all is that at the end of last summer, I quit my day job as an in-house graphic designer at a small book publisher in order to pursue teaching at the college level and having more time to build my career as an exhibiting artist! This means that my schedule is very flexible and much more free — I will have plenty of time to spend in the garden, more than ever before. Not to mention more time to document what I'm doing in the garden as well!

See you again soon!

Photo Update

2010-05-27T10:22:00.001-07:00

I took some quick photos this morning, after realizing how few visuals I've been sharing here this season. All kinds of stuff going on, but man! Do my gardens need some work! Thank goodness I'm on vacation starting tomorrow.

I have another mystery plant. Two, in fact. I have no idea what this is:

And no idea where the heck these lovely irises came from! Did I put those there last year or something? Ack, my memory is terrible. I hope I wrote about them or something. They were NOT there last year, I know that.

Here are some shots from the back garden, which has really filled out. Here is the Pan-Am hosta I bought from my friend Gordon last year at his epic plant sale; it is said to be a descendant of one of the plants used at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo back in 1901.

And here is my new White Feather hosta! I love him.

Scented geraniums I took from my dad's wooded yard in New Hampshire. These are thriving, almost to the point of taking over!

The New Hampshire garden is an overgrown mess in the matter of a couple weeks! Eek! I also happened to notice that someone's using this garden as a buffet... lots of little holes in many of the leaves. Rats. I guess I should start sprinkling the eggshells that I collected all winter out there!

Fortunately, I DO remember planting these. They're the irises my cousin Marianne gave to me two years ago. Some came up last year, others didn't. Hm, I may have moved these over last year, actually. Ugh. Bad memory strikes again. Anyway... aren't they absolutely gorgeous? I am in love with them.

Finally, I will leave you with a close-up shot of my Wiegela Florida, which is in full bloom now. I just planted a variegated variety in the back a few weeks ago, and I can't wait for it to grow! This one is at the front corner of the house.

Thanks for looking!

Getting Ready to Work

2010-05-26T07:07:00.000-07:00

I am getting excited. May 2010 has been insanely busy for me, and I am impatiently awaiting the arrival of Memorial Day weekend, which kicks off a nice two week long vacation for me. Unlike many people who take vacation, I look forward to staying at home and doing things around the house—especially gardening. I haven't had a lot of time to devote to my gardens yet and I am really itchy to get out there and do some major stuff!

This week we got our hot peppers into their larger containers and they're outside enjoying the very warm weather we've been having this week. Into the 80s during the day and the 60s at night. Just what peppers really love. My poor butterfly bushes are still in a holding pattern sitting in pots, and I really hope to get them in the ground this weekend.

In the meantime, I'd like to share a few photos I've taken in the past few weeks.

Violets! These came with the house, but I now also have four other varieties.

Here's what the little corner in the backyard looked like a few weeks back. You wouldn't believe how much the plants have filled in since then! I was shocked.

The shade garden abutting the back of the house. Solomon's seal just starting to unfold, plus a mystery plant. Can anyone help ID the one with the pretty blue flowers? They're lasting forever! The flowers look similar to forget-me-not, but the foliage is totally different. ANSWER (I think!): Omphalodes cappadocica, or Navelwort. Neat!

And the Bridal Wreath Spirea is performing the best it has in the three years we've known it. Just gorgeous.

The Remiss Gardener

2010-05-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Oh my, my, my. I certainly AM remiss.

This spring has been much different than last, when I first started this blog. For one thing, I am a LOT busier with other stuff, mostly work. I have a full-time day job, a full-time online teaching gig, an art studio to maintain (I'm getting ready for a little restaurant show that opens on Monday), and I also teach various art workshops in the area. Lately, it's been really overwhelming and I am just trying to through the month of May. Thankfully, I have two weeks of vacation coming up starting on the Memorial Day weekend, so that will be a relief. I also have ideas about how I'd like to change my life in some ways in the coming months.

But anyway... back to the garden. I've been getting in there every so often, but lately it's been rainy, like April and May switched places. That makes it hard to get things done, too. Still, I got my second order of plants from Spring Hill that included the wiegela, a lovely fern, columbine, and those butterfly bushes I am so hot on. I got everything in the ground except the butterfly bushes, mainly because they're going in the front garden and on my vacation, the front garden is getting a MAJOR overhaul. So, I am hoping that they will do OK in their new pots for now, until I can get them properly situated.

Yep. I have plans to dig everything up in the front garden, add soil to it in order to create more of a mound (right now it's just ground level with no sort of border, so the grass always wants to grow into it) and thereby hopefully more attractive. I have a lot of lovely and interesting plants there, but I admit it's been all quite willy-nilly and after a couple years, it just looks crappy.

Major sad face here: I am an artist, after all.

The butterfly bushes are going to be the anchor of the garden. They'll be against the house and will provide a lovely backdrop for everything else, as opposed to the ugly foundation blocks that you see now. Then, I will everything else back into place. New places. Prettier groupings. It's going to be a pretty big job, all that digging and replanting, but it will be worth it, I know. I want that garden to be as nice as the back gardens. The back gardens taught me a good lesson: that it pays to plant groupings. (Of course, that didn't stop me from planting my toad lily plants intermittently... though I didn't have much of a choice!)

In other bush news, the lilac bush that put out blooms the size of forearms last year was really disappointing. And here I thought that the good pruning I gave it last year after it flowered would do it some good. Maybe the neighbors nicked it when they put the new fence in, though... hopefully next year she'll perform well again. The bridal wreath spirea, on the other hand, looks the best we've ever seen it since we bought the place. It developed branches that actually swooped down, and it is flowering profusely. Gorgeous. I hope it doesn't get invaded by aphids again this year.

In veggie news, our seed starting hasn't gone so well. Next year, we're definitely getting a lighting set-up. We've had the best luck with pepper plants (some that we harvested from last year's Thai pepper plants, even -- thrown in the soil not expecting anything!) except for the habaneros, and an accordion tomato. The lettuce sprouted all over the place, but then went leggy and just kind of collapsed on our kitchen counter, sadly.

A couple weekends ago I attended a workshop about starting seeds that was really fun if only to meet some new people. It turns out that I knew much of the information that was shared, but I had a great time and got to take home a couple small flats of planted seed -- tobacco and three different types of corn -- none of which have sprouted. *sigh* I don't know. I'm a little discouraged, but won't give up on doing this stuff myself. I want to be able to! My parents did! I remember their set-up in the basement when I was little. I need a set-up, is all. I have to grow some of those rare white habanero seeds I bought from a seller on Etsy!

The asparagus put out maybe half a dozen stalks among three plants before they sent up ferns. The fourth plant didn't send anything up this year at all. Hopefully the harvest will be much better next year. I tell you what, though, it is fascinating to see how they grow out of the ground! It was worth it just for that, even if they never grow again. Fantastic to see where your food comes from, how it grows.

We did get our shipment of chile peppers, twelve plants in all, from Cross Country Nurseries, but it's timed a bit early. Not nearly warm enough to put them out, so we're nursing the gorgeous plants in the basement for now. It's our third year buying plants from them, and I have nothing but kudos. Good stuff. Hopefully we won't kill them before we can get them situated.

If only the weather would cooperate now!

Finally, I am looking forward to participating in Garden Bloggers Buffa10 this July. It'll be my first, and I am excited about all the events that are planned. Lots to look forward to this summer.

(Oh, and did I mention that I am turning 40 in a few short weeks? I am celebrating it, yessir!)

MOAR plantin'

2010-04-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, MOAR. Which is, like more than more. :)

My first Spring Hill order arrived yesterday, and while some of the plants were pretty root-bound, overall I was very happy with their condition. The packing is done really well -- in fact, I learned a little something from the way they package their plants. I will definitely continue to do business with them, and looking forward to my next order's arrival (butterfly bush, more shade plants, etc.) shortly.

So I got myself out in the backyard last evening to get the babies in the ground. I am so excited about having toad lilies and more varieties of viola! Oh, and two columbine plants went in the front garden, too. Boy oh boy, does that poor plot need work. So much to clean out, I feel awful that I haven't gotten to it yet! Among all my activities (mostly professional stuff) I just don't have as much time as I'd like these days. I guess I will just have to time things out in a really structured way... spend 15 minutes or a half hour doing x, then move on to y in any given evening, and so on.

I am very, very happy about how the back gardens are developing, though. It's hard to believe that I started from almost scratch back there and now I'm running out of room for my beloved shade plants! I almost think I prefer shady gardens over anything else. Pictures to come soon!

And I really want to get a few more small veggie/herb garden beds dug, too! Who knows when that will happen. :(

I Need Help. Yes, I Do.

2010-04-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

More damage, after rethinking in which direction I want to take the front, sunny garden. It is in desperate need of anchors and focal points. After much consideration, I decided that three Black Knight Butterfly bushes would be just the thing to plant at the back of the bed, against the house, beneath the row of windows in the sun room. They will go well with the architecture and the period of our house, I think. And... they were on sale at the crack house, er, I mean Spring Hill. Yes, back to that place again.

Add some Virgina Bluebells, Variegated Weigela, Japanese Painted Fern, Winterglory Bergenia, and a White Feather Hosta... well, I took advantage of their $25 off coupon this time. I am embarrassed. (I'd link to the respective plants but I can't bring myself to do it. They're all nice plants.)

I need to stop now, though, because I am going to be awfully busy moving a lot of plants in that front garden. I'll be busy enough and I DON'T NEED ANY MORE PLANTS! NOT EVER, in fact. Unless they are free, or I grew them from seed. (Aw, but I do still need some hellebores, and from what I understand, they are quite difficult to grow from seed. Cut me some slack on that?) The best I can say is that I am investing in the beauty of our landscape, which will add to our home's value. Yes?

Yes, Jim, I do need an intervention. Thanks.

We Have Lettuce!

2010-04-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Holy moly! We have lettuce! Last night as I was putting away food from dinner before going to bed, some things caught my eye in the lettuce bed on the counter... that's right, lettuce seedlings of both types! Coming up like gangbusters! In three days, can you believe it?

I just had to share. Now we can have fresh lettuce of myriad varieties all year 'round! This is really exciting. Also, today our heating mat arrives, so hopefully we can get those other seeds that I planted on Monday going, too.

Nature just amazes me, completely and utterly.

Uh-oh.

2010-04-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

I went over the deep end a wee bit today. Payday. And since I have been working two full-time jobs (one online, so it's not TOO bad), I have some room to play. A little. Hey, I still have plenty of financial obligations so I shouldn't go too crazy.

Well, we've been wanting to get a seed starting heating mat, so I ordered one of those from Amazon; then I added a couple books about saving seeds and growing from seed (it's an investment!). Then, I heard that Spring Hill had a $20 deal thingy, so I went over there and bought three types of violet (Yellow Perfection, Etain, and Freckles), some Matsukaze toad lilies, some William Guiness columbine, and... I think that's it. Yes, that's it. And then I went and paid for an Etsy order of iris rhizomes I had placed a few days ago. OK. that is all for me as far as online ordering goes this year. Going to nurseries in person with my mom or other family members? All bets are off on that one.

I also placed reservations with a local tomato and pepper grower for a few plants: Earl of Edgecomb, Sungold, Snow White, Pearl's Yellow Pink, and Nepal tomatoes, as well as a Chichimeca Hybrid jalapeno. Those I won't be getting until well into May.

Then there's my friend Gordon's annual plant sale. I'm sure I'll want some things from him...

And I still need some manure and mulch. I am finally mulching for real this year!

Ack... does this happen to everyone who loves gardening? It's like a sickness. Help.

Starting Seeds

2010-04-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

This year, we're diving into the world of seed starting for the first time. I suppose you could count my impetuous decision to stick a zucchini seed in the asparagus patch "just to see what would happen—probably nothing" as my first, but I don't know—it was so ridiculously easy that I surely can't count it, can I?

So far my expertise has lied with transplanting and I do well with it for the most part. But we really want to be able to grow things from seed ourselves; for one thing it is much, much cheaper. And for another thing, I enjoy a challenge and want to see how successful I can be at it! So far six out of eight of our winter sowing has produced seedlings, so that is exciting. But I also want to have success with indoor growing, too.

C. and I seem to have different approaches to seed starting. I have more of a carefree attitude about it, whereas he would prefer to read up on it and do things by the book. So he scoffs as I plant some rare white habanero seeds without the benefit of a heating pad and stick them on the windowsill with little greenhouses made of Ziploc baggies in which I've punched small holes. So, only time will tell how things will pan out. I hope that I am right and that I'll be seeing tiny seedlings in the next few weeks. I'd like to think, "Well, they're living things; they'll grow!" A bit na¨i;ve, I know. But you never know, right?

Today we planted some lettuce seeds in a window box container that we're keeping on the kitchen counter—some Crisp Mint and Rossimo that we got from Seed Savers. We figure, the conditions are just about right for lettuce in our house, and hopefully they'll get sufficient light. We'd love to be able to munch on fresh greens year-round, that is for sure. I also planted the aforementioned white habanero seeds that I bought from Azure Dandelion, whom I discovered on Etsy and who seems very kind. I also tried some of her Accordion tomato seeds, plus Joe's Round pepper from Seed Savers.

They're all sitting in a row on the sill. I'm waiting for stuff to start happening.

In other news, we have strawberry blossoms! And more violets! And ferns!

It's that time again!

2010-04-10T18:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, I really feel it is OK to declare that it is gardening season again, even though we actually had a very light sprinkling of... *ahem* snow the other day.

Though I'd been out looking around cursorily in the past few weeks, today was the first day that I did any serious looking, and taking photos. I have exciting garden news to share!

First of all, our winter sowing has been productive. Both the flowers I tried (Foxglove and Lupine) have produced multiple seedlings... but that's kind of old news, actually. The tomatoes that we'd just about given up on (well, C. wrote them off, but I didn't) are showing results, finally! Three out of six of the varieties we sowed have pushed up seedlings: Black Cherry and Sugar Lump (both cherries), plus Bonny Best.

Second, the asparagus has arrived! If you recall, I planted four crowns in a new plot last year and all four grew up successfully into those cute ferny-like plants. This year, right now, the first guy has shown himself, same one who appeared first last year as well. And it looks like a real asparagus!

Ta-da!

Next, I have a bit of a mystery on my hands. See, last year at the end of the season, I decided to plant some seeds to see what would happen. Except now? Um, I... forget what I planted. I am pretty certain it was onions. I think it looks like onions, anyway. See what you think.

I know, it is ridiculous that I forgot what I planted. I guess I was so certain that I could never forget, that I just let it out of brain all together. Stuff like that seems to happen a lot with me, hence it being a great idea to blog everything I do in the garden, and otherwise. ;) I think I still have the seed packet somewhere, and that would answer my question. No, I do not have an organized system for storing my seeds. I'm working on it.

I am also excited to see that I have some peony shoots in the front garden! See?

These are special because they came from my dad's place in New Hampshire. I was a little sad last year when I transplanted them—it was in the early summer and I think the optimum time to do that is in the fall, and they didn't seem to fare well at all once in our soil. But! They're back and it looks like it reproduced like crazy. You can't really tell from the photo, but there are quite a number of these shoots in that area. I am so happy about this—peonies have been some of my favorite flowers since my early childhood when I'd see huge clumps of them at my grandparents' house. These particular plants have double sentimental value to me for that reason—they're the first I am growing myself, from my dad's garden, with the memory of my maternal grandparents.

Gardens are pretty nifty in that way.

Speaking of my dad, I'm also seeing those adorable fern shoots coming up. I just love those, and they came right from the woods on dad's property. Ugh, not the best photo here; I had a hard time getting a good angle and being able to steady my hands. But I wanted to document it anyway.

Finally... I am hoping that someone can offer some advice here. Some of my violets are blooming already! These, I think, came from my mom's sister, my Aunt Dorothy. I also have some others that came with the house, though I did move them to their current location nearby. What I need to know is, what on earth is already nibbling at the leaves??? Last year the slugs didn't start in on the hostas until late summer, so I don't think it's them... but who knows. Anyone hazard a guess?

I also spotted recognizable leaves from columbine, four o'clock (I think), astilbe, and delphinium, among many other things. Sedum is coming up like crazy, as is hens and chicks, and the hostas are starting to sprout. I didn't get any work done today (including planting the new astilbe, but I think they are OK), but I sure am getting excited to dig in once and for all. My next big project is going to be starting another veggie plot in the center of the back yard. I just got this cool book called One Magic Square by Lolo Houbein that I'm going to use as a guide and inspiration, and I should probably get started on that really soon—at least digging it out.

Finally, I'll leave you with a lovely photo of my mom's front yard. Last weekend, C. and I helped her do spring clean up—what a test of our (lack of) fitness! Those huge, ancient willow trees really shed a lot in winter. It was fun and satisfying work, though, and certainly an impetus to get into better shape so we can do all sorts of fun things this summer and beyond.

So many things to look forward to!

Morning Glories

2010-04-02T10:24:00.001-07:00

I just happened upon some information about morning glories and now I'd like to grow some, all over the place. I think I am going to throw a bunch, along with some sort of support, along the back row of the front garden. All different types.

The weather has been unseasonably warm and sunny, and there are all sorts of lovely things poking their heads out of the soil. I am hoping to poke around a bit this evening and see what we've got so far; tomorrow we're heading out to my mom's and will perhaps do some nice spring cleanup there. I have some astilbes that I ordered from Breck's on a whim that need to go in the ground—I hope they are not dead! They came late last week and I haven't had time to do anything with them. :( Poor babies.

I also acquired some new strawberry plants from a coworker who is overrun with them. I have my little patch in the back that seems to be thriving; her plants look slightly different than mine, so it will be interesting to see what we end up with. I'll definitely make sure to get some netting for them this year, so that WE get to eat most of them, rather than the birds and critters!

Ack, it is so hard to resist wanting to do all sorts of things that I probably shouldn't just yet because it's just too early, no matter what the weather feels like.

Ooh, and I almost forgot: I think I am going to dig out another plot in the middle of the back yard for experiments. Flowers and veggies and herbs. Exciting!

Back, anticipating

2010-02-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

Well, hello!

I just wanted to peek in after having tried our first batch of winter sown plants today.

I didn't realize how long I've been away. I guess the big bummer of having our bonsai stolen, along with finally getting hit with blight on our tomatoes, I was feeling a little sour about things. But, lately the seed and plant catalogs have been rolling in, and we're getting inspired. It looks like we're going to be at our current home for another growing season (we weren't so sure there for a while), so we're able to plan for what we'd like to do here.

So, you're maybe wondering what seeds we planted today? I did lupine and foxglove, along with five different varieties of tomatoes that C. picked out among the free seeds we got from the Winter Sown website (see link above, it's a nifty site!). There's more to come, though. I've been dying to try the winter sowing since the beginning of the year but time has really gotten away from me. We have a wish list of seeds we'd like to get from Seed Savers and will probably place the order this week. Here's what we're going to try!

pepper, habanero red
pepper, joe's round
sunberry
watermelon, moon and stars van doren
carrot, scarlet nantes
lettuce, bronze arrowhead
lettuce, crisp mint
lettuce, rossimo
lettuce, yugoslavian red
pea, dwarf grey sugar
cucumber, Boothby's blonde

Sadly, I didn't get a chance in the fall to lay down newspapers and plastic in order to reserve more space for garden beds, but we'll be doing a lot fewer tomatoes and peppers this year in containers that we'll use for the leafy veggies and who knows what else. I'm really crossing my fingers we won't run into blight this year again. We were fortunate to be able to harvest quite a lot of our tomatoes, but who likes to see those sad, sad plants when they're dying prematurely? Not I.

I also bought a copy of Four Season Gardening recently and have really been enjoying reading about all the extended season possibilities. At the very least C. and I have decided that we definitely want to move to a home with more land than what we have now, no matter what. I'm hoping within the next two years or so we'll be able to do that. Who knows.

So, tell me! What are you doing while awaiting spring's happy arrival?

P.S. I want to grow hellebores!

Sad News

2009-09-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

I am very sad to report that our two bonsai tress, a juniper and a Chinese elm, were stolen from their perches on our front porch sometime between the night before yesterday and yesterday morning. I am probably more surprised than anyone at how upset I am about this. Not only is a feeling of being violated (much how I felt the day I walked out of my apartment on Jersey St. in Buffalo to discover that my car had been broken into and rifled through), but also that we really loved these little trees. C. was the main caregiver to them, but we both loved them.

We bought them back in April at Hollow Creek Bonsai in Avon, NY. We took the drive out there with my mom in tow... I bought her a jade tree for an early Mother's Day gift. It was a beautiful day, and we were so excited about our purchases.

Sadly, I don't have any good, close up photos of the trees, just from a distance from when I took photos of the front of the house. Here is one where you can see each, at the right side of the photo. The juniper is at the top of the column on the porch, and the Chinese elm is the one down below. So whomever took the trees actually had to climb the stairs to get to the juniper. They did, at least, leave our four hot pepper plants (now much larger than what you see in the photo, which was taken early in the growing season)... those were probably too big to bother with.

I can't imagine a good end for the trees. Either someone took them who just wanted them and probably doesn't know how to care for them properly, or some neighborhood ruffians took them for "fun" and dumped them somewhere. I am truly worried about our little trees, go figure.

They were an investment for us—and I don't mean financially, though as you probably know, bonsai do not come cheap. We were looking forward to seeing them grow and develop, and nurture them through a long, happy life. I feel terrible that they're out there somewhere...

Good bye, Bungalow Bonsai. We miss you!

Staying put

2009-09-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

Ack, it's been practically forever since my last post. The vegetables are nothing to write home about, much less photograph these days. I yanked out the last zucchini plant this morning so that the asparagus plot finally is just that. We picked one watermelon yesterday, prematurely it turns out, but tasty nonetheless (Yay! We can do it!). The tomato plants look terrible but are still producing. I got another eggplant but am ashamed to say that it languished in the refrigerator. The peppers are the darlings of the garden this year for sure. Those and the Earl of Edgecomb tomatoes, which make the positively best tomato sandwiches ever.

So, we're not moving to that non-descript ranch out in the country after all. Among other things, the land tends toward wet which is not conducive to vegetable gardening. Not to mention that the next door neighbors have like three vicious dogs who seem to think that the land the house sits on is theirs... and don't seem concerned about keeping them tied up. My mom loved the place, but C. hated it. I was in the middle and could go either way, but also feel that we could probably get more for our money, maybe? I also don't want to just rush into things. So we've decided to take the winter to get our houses ready to go so that at the first hint of spring, up they go on the market and out we go for house hunting in earnest. A dream house for ALL of us is out there somewhere, I know it.

Anyway. Not much else to report for now. I am just happy to not be quite so stressed out at the moment.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2009-09-01T06:53:00.001-07:00

(One of our tomatoes...)

So, it looks like we're going to be moving house in the coming months, with my mom. We found a ranch duplex out in the country with a couple acres and plenty of sunny spaces for big gardens. It's not official just yet as we still have to get through the bank stuff and having the offer accepted, etc. but from what I can tell these things might just be necessary formalities—dealing with a small-town bank, and buying directly from the seller (I think, my mom is handling most of the stuff at least for now). The house still has some work to be done, but should be ready in a few weeks. As for us and our side of things? Especially for my mom, who has 35 years' worth of stuff to sort, we've got a lot to do to get ready to show and sell our respective houses. Inside and out!

I'm pretty sad to leave the gardens that I've worked so hard to build, even in the short time I've been here. Especially the shade gardens. I really, really hope someone who likes to garden and will appreciate all that our little property has to offer will buy our house. Not to mention, we LOVE our house. Totally love it. It will be hard to let it go after all we went through to find it in the first place. But, I am hoping that the trade-offs we will be making will be worth it in the end. It's definitely bittersweet... but I tell you what, we'll be able to have a veggie stand if we want to... that has to count for something.

It's a fairly nondescript little ranch, but just look at that setting!

Wish us luck that everything goes smoothly, and that this ends up being a good choice. It's so hard to know, to let go of the familiar and beloved for what feels like the complete unknown.

Notes from Home

2009-08-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

No photos today, but notes so that I remember things for next year.

In the front garden:
Sedum and euphorbia are blooming, as is the two varieties of phlox, and the mums I planted last year (a bargain end-of-year plant!). The Early Girl tomato plant has three tomatoes still yet to ripen. The slugs are finally starting to eat the hostas, but I don't want to add more slug pellets... I noticed that they also kill worms, which I don't want to do. I'll have to try other things in the future, but at least I had hole-free hostas for a couple months!

In the side garden:
Roses are all black spotty but still producing new growth, both foliage and flowers that are lovely. I just leave 'em alone, though I do need to deadhead a bit. The fennel is flourishing, the gooseneck loosestrife has not yet taken over, and the clematis looks like it's on its last leg, but we'll see next year. The rose bush I planted from my dad has no leaves on it anymore and I wonder if it will survive. I'll give it until next spring and then decide whether to yank it or not. As ever, the mint is a bed hog but the oregano and rosemary and tarragon I planted are holding their own.

In the back shade garden:
It is hard for me to believe that I started out with what was basically a near-empty bed with some centaurea that wasn't really suited for the spot. It is now filled with pachysandra, foxglove, astilbe, lupin, scented geranium, Solomon's seal, and a few hostas (including my prized Pan-Am hosta). It's totally packed in, filled to the brim. I couldn't be prouder, really.

In the New Hampshire shade garden:
Seems I have a real green thumb for the shade gardens... this one is doing really well, too, except that I neglected weeding it for quite a while. I finally got in there last night for some quick and dirty weeding, and planted a couple new things, a little astilbe and a small variegated variety of hosta my mom gave me. The rest is just about all from my dad's gardens in New Hampshire (hence the name). Several varieties of hostas and ferns. There are also two violet plants: one that was already growing in the garden when we bought the house (though I moved it to its current location) and one that my aunt Dorothy gave me.

Etc.
Next to the NH shade garden is a small watermelon patch (don't worry, it gets light!). Beyond that is the small plot we just carved out where the broccoli had been growing and where we planted carrot (Danvers) seeds that I got for like 50 cents at the local Rite-Aid, and an Italian greens mix of seeds I got from a seed exchange for free. It's kind of an experiment because we don't know whether we have enough time to grow anything from seed, but it never hurts to try, right?

Next to that are the strawberries, which are throwing runners like crazy and still blooming, and the one lonely black beauty eggplant that is finally making fruits!

Adjacent to that plot is the bed where where carefully mounded soil for some of our many varieties of peppers, plus more watermelon. Next to that is the asparagus bed, which now not only houses asparagus but two gigantor zucchini plants that seem to be hell-bent on taking over the world. We've already harvested at least a dozen squashes, with new ones literally popping up overnight what seems like every day. We've got two sugar baby watermelons growing quickly, now bigger than grapefruits!

Also in the backyard we've got potted tomato and pepper plants. The regular-sized varieties are just now starting to ripen, but the cherries have been edible now at a rate of several a day. If we're patient enough, we can save enough each day to make a tasty salsa once a week or so. Many of our tomatoes have problems with yellowing leaves and brown spots that I seriously don't think is late blight. C. is trying an Epsom salt solution, 1 tablespoon of salts to one gallon of water to water the soil with as well as spray on the leaves. It's seemed to help a little.

The rose of Sharon bushes have been in bloom for over a week now and are just beautiful. We have so many of them!

Overall, considering how much less time I'd been spending in the gardens in July and August, I'd say we're doing OK. I know we've both learned a lot and will be able to apply our new knowledge and skills to make our gardens even better next year, whether it is at our current house or somewhere new.

A Picture is Worth...

2009-08-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos to accompany yesterday's post somewhat.

I'll start out with a comparison shot of the veggie plot. This first photo was taken on July 30th.

And this photo was taken yesterday. Those squash and watermelon plants have totally taken over—I feel so bad for the asparagus, for whom the plot was dug for exclusively in the first place.

Oh, and the hibiscus I overwintered for my mom actually bloomed! I had another one, too, but gave up on it a couple months ago thinking there was no hope for it. I should have waited longer...

Finally, shots of what's producing!

Here we have tomatoes (I forget which type at the moment, but this is our best plant this year).

And a Black Beauty eggplant!

A pepper! (Again, I forget which type...)

My pride and joy, sugar baby watermelon. The fruit now is probably just larger than a golf ball, getting bigger seemingly by the hour. This photo was taken two days ago and it is already noticeably larger!

Total garden love.

Catching Up

2009-08-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, is it really true that I have neglected this blog since the end of July? For shame!

To be honest, I haven't been the most dedicated gardener as of late. I've been busy with other things, not to mention we'd had a lot of rain until the other day. So it was hard to make time to tend to things the way I like to.

However, I'd like to announce that we are officially looking for our country veggie farm homestead with my mom. We want something with at least a couple acres, and a house that will allow us (C. and I) and my mom our privacy and ability to carry on our lives without getting in the way of the other's. All within a certain budget, of course. It's a rather tall order, but I feel that there must be something out there for us, if we are patient and diligent. Last night we had our first viewing of a house, and unfortunately, it was a real clunker. The setting was lovely, but the property hasn't been well-taken care of, enough to really turn us all off. Crossed off the list, what's next?

My mom is still thinking about trying to make her current home (the house I grew up in) work for our situation, but we'll see. It's going to be a long process, but hopefully successful in the end. Wish us luck!

In the meantime, the vegetable garden at our house is doing well. The squash is really just going crazy with a capital "c", as is the watermelon. The black beauty eggplant, which we only just now found out is late season, is finally producing fruit! (I planted it way too early, back in late April, if you recall.) The tomatoes are mostly looking rough-ish, but I think so far we have escaped Late Blight. Other stuff, maybe, but I don't think anything too serious. The plants are producing lots of fruit but things are still very slow to ripen, especially the regular tomatoes. The cherry varieties are coming in piecemeal; we've been able to make small batches of salsa here and there along with the peppers, which have been coming along fine for the most part.

The New Hampshire woodland garden, I am afraid, is a weedy mess at the moment. The other shade garden at the back of the house is flourishing and choking out most of the weeds. I don't really need to do anything with it, in fact!

The front garden is looking a little better than it had been. I was able to pull out the dead and dried-up stuff, which helped considerably. And now, things like stonecrop are really starting to fill out and get pretty. The purple coneflower keeps up, and the snapdragons and the centauria return again and again as long as I keep on top of the deadheading.

I'm not sure when I will have more time to play catch up, but I hope sometime before the end of the month! By then, it'll be time to start planning for next year. Our biggest plan includes expanding the veggie gardens in the back quite a lot... though who knows, by then we could be making much bigger plans!

MSL and FG on GW

2009-07-29T09:19:00.001-07:00

Even though I am not a gardener in Buffalo proper, I am still so proud that our fair city received such a glowing review on the Martha Stewart Living Radio Blog. See, Buffalo (and the surrounding region) is more than just snow and chicken wings! Stacey's post really drives that home.

Also, Kerry from Fine Gardening magazine, whom I met at Elizabeth's garden party on Saturday, took this photo of me at work amongst the blooms! Thanks, Kerry, for also blogging about your experience on the Garden Walk!

Photo by Kerry Ann Moore

Garden Walk 2009

2009-07-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

Here in the Buffalo, NY area, one of the most anticipated events of the year is Garden Walk, a weekend that features over 300 urban gardens that free and open for public perusal and enjoyment. This year, I was invited by my friend Gordon Ballard and his partner Brian to come on Saturday to be the "guest artist" and paint in the gardens while people browsed. I was more than happy to accept!

I had everything packed and ready to go, only to find upon arrival and unpacking that I had unwittingly forgot my paints and brushes! As Elizabeth succinctly put it when I explained what had happened, "Lame!" Indeed. Fortunately, I had also packed my colored pencils and a few sheets of paper to work with, so I wasn't stuck completely high and dry. It turned out to be a happy accident, as I really haven't actually sit down and just drawn something in a long time. These days I'm almost exclusively painting or collaging. It was great. I had never really sat down and worked with flowers and plants in my work before, so this was a new challenge that I really enjoyed.

Here is the most complete drawing I was able to make that day. I had a beautiful clump of Echinachea purpurea standing right in front of my set-up, so that is what I focused on.

And here are some photos I took of just a portion of Gordon's gardens that day. I also happen to LOVE his house and the way he plays off the gorgeous architecture with the plantings.

They had a wonderful little spot set up for me, where I not only made art, but also displayed a couple of my house paintings.

Shots of the lovely gardens...

As always, you can click on the photos to see them larger; if you'd like to see more of my artwork, you can visit my website: Amy Greenan Art & Design.

After my time at Gordon's, I headed over to Elizabeth's for a garden party. I guess I was too busy socializing to get any photos of her gardens, but trust me when I say that it is amazing what can be done with a small, shady, urban space. I felt like I was in a movie, that's how great it was. Thanks for the invite, E.! No doubt she will be posting about Garden Walk in her own blog, Gardening While Intoxicated—don't miss it! You can also visit Jim's Blog, Art of Gardening, for his summation of the weekend. It was great to meet you, Jim, and I am sorry we didn't have a chance to chat much.

This past weekend just went to prove how many cool people are in the gardening community, and I am proud to be a part of it!

Garden Update

2009-07-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update, mainly for my own purposes to keep track of what is going on.

I finally got to weed the veggie garden yesterday! C. asked about how long I thought it would take, and I said, "Mmm... maybe a half hour?" He figured it would be twice that, and he turned out to be right. That happens a lot, I must admit.

I am so pleased to announce that all four of the asparagus crowns I planted have made their way to the surface! I just noticed as I was weeding that the last one finally joined the others above ground. This is very exciting to me.

We're also seeing some teeny tiny little watermelons forming. Unfortunately, the first one petered out and didn't make it, but there are plenty of others that we hope won't have the same fate.

The tomatoes still appear to be Late Blight-free. *touch wood* The peppers, all types, are thriving. We're seeing many fruits that might be pickable very soon! The tomatoes are taking forever to ripen, though. Not enough sun, I guess.

It's been raining on and off since last night, with today having some especially vigorous downpours. It would nice to see some warmth and sun follow tomorrow and give things a chance to process all that lovely moisture. Not to mention, I need to get those plants I dug up from my mom's house in the ground!

An odd summer indeed!

In other garden news, this Saturday I am excited to have been invited to paint en plein air in my friend Gordon's gorgeous urban garden for Buffalo's annual Garden Walk. I guess it's something he does every year, include an artist on one of the days. I expect I'll paint some garden things, and maybe his house, too, since that's kind of my "thing" lately. Either way, it should be interesting, and considering how many people attend Garden Walk, I should have a steady audience throughout the day!

Lists

2009-07-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

List #1: The tomatoes and peppers I bought from Mater Mark
• Nicky Crain
• Earl of Edgecomb
• Berkeley Tie-Dye
• Sungold
• Stump of the World

• Yellow Peru
• Chocolate Brown Habanero
• Aconagua

List #2: Plants that are drought-tolerant that I want to put in the front garden
• Sedum (have some)
• Creeping phlox
• Snow-in-summer
• Hens & Chicks (have some)
• Common sage
• Lavender
• Common thyme
• Rosemary (have some, but need more)
• Iris (have some)
• Purple coneflower (have some)

List #3: Just plain want
• Black cohosh
• Trillium recurvatum coll. (Bloody Nose Trillium)
• Spiraea Magic Carpet
• Pink velour crepe myrtle tree

... among others

Possibilities: Gardening and Life

2009-07-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, C. and I went to visit my mom for the day.

Later on in the evening, our conversation turned toward what she was going to do as far as the house went (since my stepdad died last year and it's a LOT for her to take care of by herself now that she is older), and the fact that I really, really want to live much closer to her and be able to BE there for her at any time. Living almost an hour and a half away means that if I am lucky, I get to see her a few times a month.

All of us great garden enthusiasts, somehow gardening got all enmeshed in the conversation and we decided that trying to figure out a living situation where we could have our own house and she could have her own house on the same property and seeing how far we could take our gardening, i.e. selling transplants, having a roadside veggie stand, etc. and making a little business out of it if only to fund our own gardening expenses.

We talked quite at length about this and it became more and more exciting. We figured out that one possibility is for her to stay on the existing property, build a smaller, one story house behind the main house for her, and have us move into the main house. There is plenty of land to garden. The other possibility is to buy something new that already has a two-house set up, with a little bit of land that we could work. The latter would probably be the better choice since it would leave my mom with more liquid cash to have on hand for her living expenses; whichever way it went, Mom would no longer have a mortgage payment to make and wouldn't have to work anymore, which would be awesome. At the same, C.'s and my situation would be about the same whether we stayed where we are, or the two other options. It would just give us more land to play with.

Basically, pooling all our resources seems like it would give us all a better life overall. I could be with my mom all the time without us smothering each other living in the same house. I was thinking too that doing something like this now would prevent a likely inevitable situation where my mom got too old and/or infirm to take care of herself down the line, maybe even in an emergency, where figuring out the logistics of something like this would be very stressful and a lot more difficult. If we do it in the near future, there would really be so little to worry about, because we'd be all in place to help out easily.

As I said, we're all excited about our gardening venture, and among the three of us, we have complementary skills: I'd be the marketing person, Mom would handle bookkeeping, and C. would be the general manager/research and development. All three of us would work the gardens, with Mom and C. being there all the time and me contributing as necessary during the evenings and weekends, outside my day job. We could also bring my aunt and two cousins in on it if they wanted; they are all talented gardeners and former farmers. I'm sort of surprised no one in our family has thought of this before, actually!

C. and I started looking to see if there were any properties that would suit our needs, and it looks like there are some possibilities within or below what we'd like to spend. Nothing totally prefect, but definitely workable. Mom's also going to pick her boss's brain and see what he thinks (being a real estate mogul and all). At least we have an insider on the real estate side of things.

Probably the toughest part of making this happen would be selling the houses, if we ended up buying a different property. That could get tricky, but I feel confident that our house would sell fairly easily, and that Mom's would, too. I guess we'll see what happens!

It's funny how gardening starts to sort of dictate your life's direction... I do see this as something feasible, doable, smart, and fun! Who knows, in the next couple years we could find ourselves with a nice parcel of land and gardens galore to feed ourselves and maybe even fund our gardening habit. How exciting is that?

***

In other garden news at home, C. called to tell me that he thinks he spotted the very wee beginnings of a Sugar Baby watermelon! This is very exciting news indeed. Hopefully many will soon follow.

Also waiting to be put in the gardens from my mom's are a little variety of variegated hosta, some lily of the valley, some more pachysandra, yarrow, columbine, evening primrose, and some poppy seed heads which I will sprinkle all over the front garden. This evening will be my first big day back out in the gardens—there's a lot of weeding in my forecast.

Photos!

The veggie garden

Asparagus poking its way through the squash leaves

SQUASH! (Click on photo to see ladybug)

Watermelon, amongst the weeds

Mystery wildflower—anyone?

The neighbors' new, very white fence, with tomatoes in the foreground

New Techniques, New Fence

2009-07-16T09:46:00.001-07:00

I am very, very excited that I will be able to extend my gardening tasks well into wintertime this year, now that I have found out about winter sowing. (The link will take to you the definitive website on the subject.)

I like that it combines gardening and recycling and pennypinching all at once. In a nutshell, you plant a whole bunch of seeds (which are of course much cheaper than buying young plants) and plant them in any number of a variety of small, reusable containers—like two-liter bottles, plastic food containers, or whatever else you can come up with (see the site for a list of suggestions). Then, you set them outside just around or after the holiday season and let the elements do their thing. Holes punched in the tops and bottoms of the containers provide aspiration and drainage. Snow will act as an insulator and also provide moisture; mother nature does the rest.

Come spring, they say you will have more plants than you'll know what to do with, at little to no cost! I like it. No, I LOVE it and cannot wait to try it for myself.

Again, the website I linked to will provide you with full instructions and tips about everything from how to get started to what types of plants are best for this growing method. You can grow flowers and vegetables in this way!

***

I am also very much looking forward to planning and preparing new beds for next year using what I think is called the "lasagna" method, involving cardboard and newspapers, and lots of patience. Along with this, I plan to start my own compost and discovered some clever ways to do this even with my small outdoor space.

In other news, while we really, really dislike our next door neighbors, I think relations will improve (i.e. we'll all just totally ignore each other assuming that they keep the noise level down) since they replaced the fence that bordered our tiny properties. The fence style wouldn't have been our choice (it's white vinyl), but it is six feet tall and I must say does really make things look much neater on our side. I told C. there's nothing there a couple of well-chosen tall bushes couldn't fix to subdue the bright white a bit. At least we've got the flowering quince, the lilac, and the rose of Sharon in place; we just need another one or two to fill the rest in. There's no doubt in my mind—good fences do make good neighbors indeed. It's been much more enjoyable to be in our back yard now that we don't have a semi-view of their dirt floor and weed-filled one.

A major beef I have now is that they were very inconsiderate while installing the fence. Not only did they trample onto our property, which we told them not to do after a particularly heated exchange, they dislodged and apparently discarded the one Queen of the Prairie I had planted near the tomatoes, as well as a small rose of Sharon. The latter I can live with, as we have an abundance of volunteers, but it really rankled me about the QotP. I had two plants, and the one that was pulled up was doing very well. The other one, which I had put in the front garden, hasn't been doing so hot (probably because it's not getting enough water, oops!). So the one in the back was special. I had grown it to about five feet tall from a six inch plant.

The worst part is that they never said a word to us about it, no apology or anything. Just, "Oh, we'll trample all over your stuff and you just have to deal with it." Nice.

(And in case you're wondering why we didn't say anything, I will just tell you that we decided it is not worth it in the big scheme of things that we've dealt with these neighbors. We had a big noise problem with them that seems to have been abated and now that the fence is done, we just don't want to deal with them, period.)

But seriously. What is wrong with people??? How can you just pull up a five foot tall plant and not think that you should apologize?

Neighbors really are the biggest pests of all. Or, at least they CAN be. Fortunately, every other one of our neighbors are great.

I think I am done ranting now.

Summer Flu

2009-07-14T14:18:00.000-07:00

I miss my gardens.

I've been down and out with the flu for the past week and half, which as you can imagine doesn't pair well with gardening activities. The most I have done has been to keep up with the watering, and pull an odd weed out of the vegetables here and there as I survey daily growth.

But it's not nearly enough. The front garden especially is looking rather... well, let's just say not so special anymore. There is lots that need deadheading and cutting down. There are empty spots. I never did get around to making a nice edging up there. So, while kind neighbors still tell me that the gardens look very nice, I know otherwise. And it really bugs me.

The shade gardens are faring far better, probably because the are smaller and more filled in. There are fewer types of plants so things look more cohesive without much effort. Plus, they don't need as much watering or fussing over, which is nice.

*sigh* I am counting on feeling much better by the weekend, when I hope to dive in head first and spend many happy hours fixing things up. For now, I have to be patient.

Photo Dump

2009-07-10T12:13:00.001-07:00

I'm still sick, but I got out to look at things and snap a few photos.

I don't know whether this is a weed or not, but I think it's pretty. Can anyone identify it? It's short, maybe six inches tall and grows in clumps.

Some echineachea I planted last year.

A daylily of some kind from my dad's gardens.

Yet another rose popped up! It's such a pretty, delicate pink.

I love the dark purple flowers on this hosta from New Hampshire.

We have strawberries!

Look how much Bobby Peru has grown! (and the weeds, ugh)

A view of the veggie plot. It's hard to see because it's so wispy, but the asparagus is there next to the younger of the summer squash plants. We also have a third asparagus plant poke up its shoot! Just one more to go and we'll have 100% success.

The shade garden has really filled in. Here you can see the scented geranium from my dad's garden which has taken off so well, and the "Pan Am" hosta I got from my friend Gordon in the back. Oh, and some more lupin has bloomed, and there are more foxglove shoots coming up, too!

Another view of the shade garden. The Solomon's Seal (also from Gordon) filled that spot perfectly. The pachysandra has been thriving and looks really pretty!

These are red hot pokers from my cousin Peggy's garden. I just love them! I'm happy to say that she dug one up for me to take home on the 4th of July.

Plants update

2009-07-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update for now, as I sit here suffering a nasty summer cold, or maybe H1N1! (I doubt the latter, but I guess you never know.)

I acquired a few new plants over the weekend, having attended my cousin's 4th of July party. From her I snagged a red hot poker and a butterfly bush; from her sister, I finally have some lamb's ears! I am very excited. Fortunately, I got the plants in the garden before the worst nastiness of the cold set in.

The end of last week also saw the trimming of the lilacs, bridal wreath spirea, and some of the rose of Sharon. Oh, and the roses were deadheaded and trimmed back—else they ramble right into the driveway!

Did I mention that another asparagus popped up? And that the eggplant has a bloom? And that one of the strawberries is producing fruit? And that the tomatoes and peppers look like they will be very productive? And that the Solomon's seal looks beautiful in the shade garden at the back of the house... it added just the right touch, a little height and a new texture.

I have many photos to share, but that will be for another day.

Where I Come From, Where I'm Going

2009-06-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we paid an early evening visit to my mom, at the house where I grew up. She still has many gardens that she tends, so we took a walk around the property to see all that was out to see. I took a few photos—it was starting to get dark so I will have to try again another time for some better shots—but I wanted to show you from where I came, garden-wise.

I know everyone has hostas, but one of my favorite things in my mom's gardens is this GIANT hosta she's had for years now.

It's a monster! I'd have had someone stand next to it for scale, but no one in attendance yesterday like to have their photo taken, so you will have to trust me. This photo might give you a better sense of its scale, though.

Growing up, I never fully appreciated living out in the country. Mom and Dad bought the house and its 14 acres in 1974 for a bargain. The house had stood abandoned for years and there was no yard to speak of—everything was overgrown completely. But now I love that I always have home to return to... it is just gorgeous there.

Back at home, things are happening!

Yet another type of rose... a nice medium pink. This bush is growing right smack against a rose of Sharon a little ways down from the others. I don't dare try to move it, but I'd like to.

The tomato jungle is getting bigger and more unruly, and it's full of buds!

Look! Broccoli!

The veggie plot is doing very well. The thing I am most excited about is that... *drum roll please* an asparagus shoot made its way to the surface, and quite beyond, too! All the rain we're getting must have done the trick. And here I gave up on the asparagus. The shoot is located just near the middle of the three younger squashes in the foreground. Maybe if you click on the photo for a larger view, you'll be able to spot it.

Just a wee thing, but it's a good six inches out of the ground in just a day!

This is Bobby Peru, my yellow Peru pepper. I named him after the scary character in the film Wild at Heart, played by Willem Dafoe and some nasty fake teeth. My Bobby Peru really come a long way from the leggy fellow he was when I first transplanted him, and now he's got all kinds of new growth on his stem! A lovely plant who's not really deserving of his namesake. Behind him (to the right in the photo) is a chocolate habanero, and to the left is a salsa delight that already has a pepper growing steadily!

The watermelon is just coming along so nicely.

The Accidental Zucchini is going to be gargantuan. And I've got four more plants coming up that I don't think will have enough room... so much for doubting my in-ground gardening skills!

So much excitement, so suddenly. This is why I am addicted to gardening now.

Roses, etc.

2009-06-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

The pink roses have bloomed, finally! I only have a few of them, and I managed to capture some pretty pictures—they are just about the prettiest, most delicate things I've seen! Unfortunately, I don't know what type any of my roses are, so if you do, by all means, tell me!

(As always, click photos to see larger—I urge you to, as these are so pretty.)

Plus, my first tomatoes of the season!

I planted two tomato plants directly into the ground when it was probably way too early... back in late April. One of the plants didn't make it, but I wasn't sure which one it was. Looks like these are not going to be cherry tomatoes, which means—Early Girl! Just on schedule, too. I can see three fruits so far.

The plant itself is not very big at all, but as long as it makes me some 'maters, that's all I care about. I'll probably try another plant in this spot in my front garden again next year, albeit planted at a more appropriate time!

Nifty.

Also in my garden news, I weeded the vegetable garden yesterday evening. The first zucchini seed that I planted in the back of what was to be the asparagus patch is getting quite big, and the additional seeds I planted in the front just a week or two ago are producing honest to god leaves already! One of the strawberry plants has blossoms, and the other is spreading runners. The black beauty eggplant, also planted too early, is looking better and better lately—maybe it will actually produce! The watermelon plants are doing just fine, too.

All the container tomatoes are growing like mad and starting to produce blossoms. I just noticed a wee salsa delight pepper on that plant in the veggie plot. The broccoli is starting to make, well, broccoli! I can see the tiny florets in the center of the leaves on each of the four plants.

I still need to get into the ground the lovely plants I bought at my new friend Gordon's annual plant sale. He has a spectacular garden in Buffalo and raises money to maintain it each year in this way. I came away with:

• Gooseneck Loosestrife
• Two varieties of phlox
• Solomon's Seal (what a beaut!)
• Black fennel (as a companion plant to my roses)
• French tarragon
and, my coup of the day!
• Pan Am hosta! This hosta is a direct descendant of a plant that was grown as part of the Pan-American Exhibition, which was held in Buffalo in 1901. What an awesome piece of history! Plus, the plant itself is just lovely.

***

Unfortunately, the front garden isn't looking so hot since I had the grand idea of, you know, moving stuff around. There's also not much blooming at this point, so it's looking a little barren and empty, aside from the thriving hostas in the front row. If you come a little closer, you can see some pretty details of things, but looking at it from the street is not so special. I'm sad by this, but know that it is just part of the process of creating something really beautiful in the end. I need to be patient.

Bloomsday

2009-06-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

NOTE: You can click on any of the photos to see them enlarged and in more detail.

I missed out on Bloom Day (June 15th—Hey, I am a newbie at garden blogging!), but I have a lot of photos to share with you so I am going to get a bunch up in this post. Enjoy! Well... it is Bloomsday, at least!

Icelandic poppies

Hens & chicks

Mystery bush solved! It's a lovely weigela Florida! Thanks Kim!

Delphinium

An overall view of part of the front garden

Siberian Iris with Dianthus

The back garden is coming along, in all its shaded glory

What I like to call our Tomato Farm (along with some peppers)... we have nine plants this year of different varieties!

La la lupine

Foxglove love!

A zucchini seed I carelessly stuck in the asparagus plot just to see what would happen—it may end up being all by itself in there!

The broccoli has been doing well planted directly in the ground

The Woodland Garden, aka The New Hampshire Garden. All the plants here except for the violets came from my dad's place in Strafford, NH

Finally, roses, roses... they survived the onslaught of sawfly AND aphids! I only wish I knew what varieties they are. There are two different ones.

Happy Bloomsday!

Getting Closer

2009-06-13T18:27:00.001-07:00

I got a lot done in the gardens today, spending four hours moving things around. I still want to move some more hostas from front to back, and need to find places for the azalea and rhododendron, but everything else is looking good. Unfortunately, I was so beat by the time I did what I did that I didn't have any energy left to take photos! I will tomorrow morning. The front garden is really shaping up since I removed the bushes.

Sadly, I ended up yanking that one rose bush I got from the guy who gave me the free pachysandra. It was clearly, well... dead. Too bad, it had quite a large root and I thought it would do well. I wonder, if I cut it down to its base it might come back? It's already in a trash bag, but I could retrieve it. Maybe I will tomorrow, and put it in a pot and really baby it? Any ideas?

I staked some of the delphiniums that needed help, as well as the big columbine I transplanted to the front. Both that plant and the one I got from my dad's aren't looking so hot, but I'm confident they'll come back if not now, next year. *crosses fingers* They are magnificent plants.

I have renegade snapdragons! Tall ones, even! I don't know where they came from as they weren't there last year, but there are some in the front and side gardens. I thought snaps were annuals? I'll have to research that, obviously. I do remember when we first looked at the house in 2007 that there were some in the side garden, but by the time we moved in they died, and I pulled them out... hm. See, this is what I love about gardening. There's always a surprise to be had.

Still no asparagus sprouts, I admit I am a little worried that that experiment will not be successful. Everything else, with the exception of the one eggplant, is coming along nicely. The eggplant shows no signs of dying but has shown very little progress, either. The strawberries are getting bigger and have new leaf growth, plus one bloom and a runner to a new plant! That was exciting. I've been able to taste no fruit from those, though—the birds or whatever other critters beat me to it, so I must install some protection of some kind... my stepmom mentioned draping organza over them?

I'm quite tired but very satisfied with the work I accomplished today! I am sad that tomorrow is the last day of my vacation.

Yesterday

2009-06-12T20:07:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I finally got around to pulling out the remaining bushes in the front garden: the bigger of the two hollys (which was a BEAR to get out of the ground), an azaelea, a rhododendron, and two dwarf alberta pines. I was surprised to see how much room they were really taking up! The garden looks much more open now and I am excited to reconfigure the remaining plants (and maybe add a few—I'm hoping to snag a few things from my mom's and cousin's gardens this weekend.

To start, I moved the two columbines from between the roses at the side of the house to the front, and grouped all the irises together. To temporarily fill in the space left behind by the bushes, I moved some hostas and euphorbia. Tomorrow I'll finish up moving around the existing plants and finding new places for the bushes. The holly will go in the back yard with its partner, and I'll have to play around with the placement of the others, somewhere in the front but certainly not in the middle of the garden where they were before!

Still no sign of asparagus, and it's been almost two weeks since I planted 'em. The broccoli seems to be doing well, as is the watermelon seedlings, tomato and pepper plants. Hopefully we can look forward to a robust harvest this year.

I should have photos to share tomorrow!

Dig, dig, dig

2009-06-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

I finally dug up a space for the three remaining Sugar Baby watermelon plants I had left. I also moved the few hosta plants I had in a sunny spot along the back fence into what I call The Woodland Garden which is really just the space beneath the weeping cherry tree in the corner. I'm also thinking of it as The New Hampshire Garden since just all the plants except for the the little violet came from my dad's house in Strafford—different varieties of ferns and hostas. I'm glad I moved them, filling in the space makes it look so much nicer! I just love how it is coming along.

We've also finally decided that the giant pussy willow (referring to the size of the fuzzy "buds", not the size of the plant—though it does grow up to 20 feet tall) will be planted in the middle of the back yard. It will be the centerpiece of another likely shady garden, with a sunny path surrounding it, and gardens surrounding the path at the perimeter of our property. I doubt it will all get done this year, more likely another year or two before it is fully realized, if not more. But it is nice to know that I have a plan, something to look forward to.

However, I am hoping that we can extend our patio out back this summer. That'll give us more room for chairs, maybe a small table, and more nice sunny spots for pots.

I need at least three lifetimes to do all I'd like...

I'm back!

2009-06-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

I returned from New Hampshire Sunday with buckets full of plants from my dad's land in tow. It was a great trip overall that included a visit to a local, small nursery in Madbury (I think)—Debbie, if you are out there reading, hello and welcome to the internet! Debbie graciously welcomed my dad and me to sit down under her arbor with some raspberry iced tea and good conversation, while I admired and photographed her own personal gardens.

Walking up to the house

Dad with the huge Angelica plant—astounding!

Dad and Debbie chatting under the arbor, and the rabbit hutch in the foreground

Dad let me have at the grounds around his house and dig up quite a number of plants! I came home with more ferns (including a really big one that I wrestled out of the ground), several peonies (I know you're supposed to transplant them in the fall, so we'll see how they do), a purple columbine, a fledgling clematis, lillies of unknown kinds or two, scented geranium...

Things are really taking off and I am seeing things coming up that I have forgotten what they are now... I need to hunt down the pot tags I saved from last year's plantings, and find a good place to keep all of them catalogued for future reference.

In the meantime, here are those belated photos I've been promising and promising from a couple weeks ago now. I'll be taking more in the coming days, really need to catch up! Enjoy! (I'm actually wondering if anyone aside from Elizabeth reads this?)

Mom's columbine bloomed beautifully for the first time in my garden this year. Lovely!

The roses totally busted out!

Bridal Wreath Spirea in full bloom

More irises reveal themselves
\

UPDATE: These are Penstemon digitalis, indeed. Thanks again, Kim! I have two of these and think they are gorgeous!

The new veggie plot, with several varieties of peppers, plus the odd Sugar Baby watermelon and the asparagus patch.

One of the lovely lupines! I saw these growing wild in huge patches on the sides of the highway in New Hampshire and Vermont... should have grabbed some (is that legal?)

The shade garden really starting to take shape, ever a work in progress

What's new

2009-06-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

I'm going away to New Hampshire for a few days tomorrow... and I still had the delphinium and astilbe that I bought on Saturday to put in the ground! So, after dinner, I did just that. And, as is wont to happen, I moved a couple other things around: one of the holly from the front garden went into the back and really made the spot it now occupies look really nice (and here I really didn't like it much when it was out front! It's all about context), and a poor crowded euphorbia was moved over in front of the delphinium, who now occupy the space where the holly used to live.

One thing I really love about gardening is how close to art is really is... you're considering color, composition, contrast, texture, lights and darks... all of it! I'm obviously taking the same intuitive approach to my gardening as I do my art, which rather tickles me.

OK, I should get off to bed so I can get an early start in the morning!

P.S. It seems that I was able to get most, if not all, the sawfly larvae off my roses, and they are doing just fine—we've got some blooms starting. What a relief!

Notes to self (but you can read too!)

2009-05-31T05:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was busy, busy, busy! First a trip to Home Depot to pick up soil and manure (I really need to find a good farm source for this next year!), where I also picked up two more Astilbes (this time in a pretty antique pink) for the back plus two Delphinium for the front! It was nice to pick up four good sized plants for just $20. Then I found a giant pussy willow tree for $10, thinking it could go in the gap that allows us a delightful view of the neighbor's trashy little yard, but that got nixed by C., who thinks it would block out too much of the sun eventually, and/or eventually touch our neighbor's house. So it's back to the drawing board for that—one of the bushes on my list, which is fine.

I may end up returning the pussy willow since there's not really another place to put him. I wouldn't mind trying the front, but C. also nixed that idea (thought it would look too funny), and after some thought I realized it would probably end up blocking a lot of the sun I get for my front garden. *sigh* It's too bad, such a pretty little tree. Not to mention cheap!

Most of my time yesterday was spent enlarging the little plot we made last weekend. I more than doubled it (I think it is about 4 feet by 8 feet), and boy, was it a lot of work! I did well, though. Add some topsoil and manure and added two more pepper plants, plus a Sugar Baby watermelon (still have three seedlings left to put somewhere), as well as four asparagus crowns (six left). It's probably a bit crowded, but we'll see how it works. I can't wait to see the little asparagus sprouts poke their way through the soil! I read that it should take only about a week, so we'll see. I'm hoping that when I come home from NH next Sunday evening I'll have some surprises waiting for me.

It turned out to be quite sunny all day (and I have the sunburn to prove it), but in the evening we had quite a storm and lots of rain. I bet the new plants will love that. So far this year we seem to have good timing with Mother Nature helping out with the watering.

I still have so many photos to share but just haven't had the time to upload them. I plan to relax much of the day today, so maybe I will try to get to it later.

Satisfying work

2009-05-29T18:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, two posts in one day!

Well, I want to be more diligent about posting so that I can look back and see what I did when each year. I'll be glad I did!

So. This evening all those new tomatoes and peppers went into containers. Our back yard is starting to look like a regular tomato farm! I also cleared out more weeds from the beds and have just a few more feet left to clear out. If I don't get that done this weekend (it's supposed to rain tomorrow), then I certainly will when I am on vacation in June.

I also took a gamble and planted two zucchini seeds directly into the ground, we'll see if those do anything.

I have a feeling that within the next few years, the entire back yard will be garden. And that's going to be awesome.

Tomorrow, I'd like to get more astilbes and more garden soil and compost to put in asparagus, but it'll depend on the weather.

Remiss!

2009-05-29T11:37:00.001-07:00

Alas, I have been remiss in keeping up with the progress of the gardens. The spring blooms are all but gone now, leaving the front garden looking rather plain save for the centaurea and the few odd Iris that are coming out. It's definitely a transitional time there. In the back, however, all kinds of fun stuff is developing.

Last weekend (Memorial Day weekend), I bought several new plants plus a lot of supplies (soils, tomato cages, a flat-end shovel, gravel, etc.) and got to work. In the back along the house went foxglove, lupine, and astilbe. The astilbe were already in bloom and added instant punch to that area, not to mention it coordinated quite nicely with the centaurea already established there.

Another small plot was dug out to plant some of our pepper plants as an experiment. Unlike the broccoli which was just buried directly in the ground, I added manure and garden soil to the pepper plot, and created rows of mounds in which to plant. I still haven't gotten to the asparagus, and now I wonder if I will at all this year—it would certainly require a lot of digging, but we'll see. Maybe I'll try to get a few in the ground in the next few days. I also have a few little watermelon seedlings patiently waiting to go somewhere. I also placed two Queen of the Prairie in next to the fence for privacy since the label said they grow up to seven feet high, but subsequent research tells me I'd have been better off planting a bush or two instead, which I may still do. I am considering:

Physocarpus opulifolious
Viburnum
Variegated Weigela
Primrose Lilac
Kaleidoscope Butterfly Bush

And I'll probably poke around local nurseries and see what I can find. I wish I had done that when we first moved in; a bush would have been halfway there by now!

In the front I tucked in a couple Icelandic poppies and another quite grand plant whose name escapes me at the moment... will fill you in soon.

The seedlings I got from my cousin a few weeks ago are still wee, but hopefully growing. The one tomato I have left in the ground out front seems to be doing well.

Last evening I bought yet more tomato and pepper plants from a city-dwelling local enthusiast, so I need to find places for them. The ones got mail order were all planted last weekend in either containers or in the ground. We're planning on taking advantage of a sale going on in early June and getting six more plants. Are we crazy? You bet, but hopefully we will be flush in tomatoes and peppers well into winter (via freezing and canning).

I've run into my first snag. My roses have been attacked by the nasty sawfly larvae and I hand-picked many off the plants and squished 'em. I'm going to try a soapy water spray and hope for the best otherwise, but sadly many buds were already decimated by the evil varmints. Even more a shame is that because of some good pruning and fertilizing earlier in the year, the roses have really exploded, both in size and in bud production. I hope they will come out of this OK.

I do have photos—many, in fact—but won't be able to post them until this weekend. I have lots of beautiful things to show you!

The Wonder of the Bloom

2009-05-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

One of the things I simply adore about gardening is the endless surprise and amazement it provides. Maybe I am simple, but, I get really excited watching the progress of plants I've added to my beds. It's a miracle to me every single time I see something new poking its head out, or blooming for the first time, or spreading itself out to establish its place in the garden. I will never get tired of watching my little treasures, to the point where I am pretty sure that my neighbors probably think I'm a little crazy—I'm out there just about every day, sometimes taking photos, sometimes just looking. And looking again. What is it about gardens?

More tulips I couldn't resist sharing with you

I had a great day yesterday, celebrating Mother's Day with my mom's side of the family. My mom, my two aunts, and all my female cousins are all green thumbs and wondered where I came from until a couple years ago, when I finally got bit by the bug myself. With so many new things popping up in all of our gardens, and me asking for advice and plant ID by showing them photos on my digital camera, it was definitely a garden kind of day, even though the weather was cold and grey. My cousin Marianne, who was our hostess for the day and who gave me those irises last year, dug up a few things to send me away with: bleeding heart, 4 o'clock (more pondering on this later), gay feather, and something else that escapes me at the moment. I'm also hoping to get some of her lamb's ears on my next visit.

An unexpected early bloom of iris—just transplanted from last year!

After lunch, my mom and two aunts and I went to a nearby nursery because my mom wanted to treat me to some hens and chickens (hey! I'm not even a mom!) like the ones I'd been admiring in Aunt Dorothy's garden. So, I walked away with a nice, large plant that already has several "babies" dangling from it, which means I get to propagate more. In addition to that, I bought myself a few broccoli plants, some asparagus crowns (!) and more ice pansies, of which they had a great selection—so many pretty colors! I'm going to wait to plant my new additions until Wednesday, when hopefully the threats of frost we've been having the past couple days will have passed for good. Of course, the pansies will do fine regardless.

The ice pansies I've had since last season have really taken off! Also, a larger view with the Columbine that has just exploded, and the roses, and everything else.

On Saturday, I had a busy day and planted the last of the pachysandra (it lasted fine just sitting in a pot, no soil or anything, just a couple good rainy days), and dug out more of the backyard beds. I was so happy to find out that the pretty little flowers that I thought were weeds turned out to be forget-me-not. There's pink, blue, and white, and it's all over the place! To think that last year, I yanked all the foliage out before it blossomed, thinking it was a weed. (Yes, I know, a weed is in the eye's beholder. Or something.) I also noticed two volunteer tomato plants growing in one of the containers we used last year, and we're obviously hoping those will do well.

Doesn't look like much yet, but it will someday!

The nearby section I got cleared out for the most part—more work than it looks!

Forget-Me-Nots take over! I love it!

And speaking of tomatoes, next week we'll be anxiously awaiting the arrival of the many tomato and pepper plants C. ordered. That will keep us very busy, getting them settled in! Here are those volunteers I mentioned earlier.

Finally, I am pleased to announce: hostas and ferns imported from my dad's house in New Hampshire! Success! I love that I get to have a piece of where he lives, right in my backyard.

Other assorted lovelies:

The first centaurea bloom of the year!

The lilacs responded well to a pretty severe trim!

The light was lovely just before turning dark. Flowering quince among the as-yet untamed jungle.

And the weeping cherry.

Ho-hum

2009-04-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

Not much to report from the garden front since my last post, however each morning I make a cursory tour of the gardens to see what's going on, make sure things that shouldn't be dying aren't, etc. So far, so good with the plants I added to the beds last weekend, although it looks like one of the basil plants (of 3) has wilted. I find this interesting because it is planted in the same area as the other two and so gets the same amount of water and sun. I will try to see if I can revive it, but I don't have high hopes. Everything else, including the rosemary that I neglected to mention last time, which is planted with the oregano among the mint, is doing fine. I even think that the strawberry plants and eggplant have gotten bigger already! (But maybe that's just wishful thinking.)

Aside from that, the early spring bloomers are fading group by group, with the daffodils leading the way. The hostas have not been invaded by slugs yet, with no signs of munching (which reminds me, I really need to take preventive measures and spread some slug pellets). We mowed the lawn for the first time the other night, and C. quite severely trimmed down the rose of Sharon that stands on the border with our "good" neighbor—it was our turn this year. We're still trying to decide what to do with the rather nondescript bush that looks nice for about one or two weeks out of the year, sitting at the corner of our garage; we'll probably take it down and expand our patio out a bit to make more room for our potted plants in the summer, mostly tomatoes and various peppers (hot and sweet).

I have a busy next few days getting ready for a workshop I am presenting on Sunday at the museum where my current solo exhibition is hung, so I'm not sure I'll be able to get out to the gardens much. I do hope to make a little more progress on the carving out of the beds in the back, though—even a foot at a time is progress!

Some photos, as promised from last time:

A plethora of tulips

Newly planted rose bushes along the back

Some returning sedum I planted last year, plus hyacinth

More Weekend Activity

2009-04-26T17:15:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I spent much of my time on gardening-related activities and had a great time, not to mention a good workout, too! The main plan was to travel out and dig up some free pachysandra from a guy who had advertised on Craigslist... I had read up a little bit about the plant but didn't realize what a pain it is to dig up and to replant, with all its runners. But, I also got two small free rosebushes out of the deal, when I noticed them among (and being choked by) one of the beds of pachysandra. I was just like, "Um... do you want to keep this rosebush?" and the guy was like, "You want it? Go ahead and take it!" and it turned out to be two separate plants. I planted them in the front garden along the wall where it is nice and sunny, hoping it will fill the space nicely one day. I hope they will survive and flourish. All the man said he knew about them was that they were pink. Good enough. I've really come to love roses, I think mainly because they remind me of my maternal grandmother, who had all sorts of flowering bushes all over their property back when I was a wee lass. (Peonies are another nostalgic favorite, by the way, for the same reason.)

On the way over there, though I stopped at Home Depot for a couple small things—a cultivator for the new beds I am making, some slug pellets for the hostas, and... I couldn't resist... I know HD isn't the best place to buy plants, but I decided to get a few herbs and veggies for experimental reasons. After the success we had last year with our tomatoes and hot peppers in containers (mostly due to C.'s careful attention and diligence, I might add), and seeing how just about anything I've put into our gardens has flourished, I wanted to see how well plants with a more practical purpose would do directly in the ground. So, I walked away with two strawberry plants, a black beauty eggplant, some Greek oregano, sweet basil, and two types of tomato: Early Girl and some cherries. I'm not expecting success necessarily, but I am interested to see how things do in the locations I've selected for them amongst the flower beds. Exciting stuff! I wouldn't mind trying to see how directly sowed seeds do, too.

I took some more photos around the yard today, but it won't be tomorrow until I sort them out and post a few here. Everything's going like gangbusters now. Most of the tulips are now blooming, and the flowering trees are waking up and showing us their pretties. It's such a lovely time of the year, and I am very pleased at how things that I contributed to the existing gardens are really filling things out, like the variety of sedums, and the hostas that I separated. I am quite proud of my efforts and feel that I have already learned so much in just the two years I've had my own garden.

See you tomorrow!

Progress

2009-04-23T05:49:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post the photos of last weekend's efforts. I didn't start out intending to do all this, rather just finishing up clearing out the beds and trimming some bushes. But, as it often does, one thing led to another, and I found myself digging out the backyard beds. And as an artist is often wont to do, I had to make it a little fancy. I think once everything is finished, it's going to look really, really nice. I just really hope that we can afford to get a new fence installed, preferably before I start really planting stuff. I'm thinking maybe it will be better to hold off on planting along the fence until I know for sure what is going on. Anyway, here are some photos!

This is right along the back of the house. There are some centaurea that are already sprouting up back there, that came with the house. Last year, I transplanted a few to the front garden. I think it prefers full sun anyway? It's pretty shady back here, I don't know. That's about it for now; here is where I want to plant a bunch of those old-fashioned cottage plants if I can: foxglove, delphinium, ferns, etc.

And this is, obviously, along the inadequate fence... it looks like some topsoil needs replacing along there as well. A lot of the back yard is quite uneven.

Another view... I still have more than half of the beds to dig out yet (from over where I was taking this shot). You can see where I ran out of steam toward the lower right hand corner.

And, at the back border of the yard, it is still fairly wild and woolly. Last fall, my dad came to visit and brought lots of hostas and some ferns that got dispersed through this area.

Here is the first half of the front garden.

And the second half. There is a lot going in there; tons of spring blooms plus a lot of plants I added to the bed last season, from spring all the way through fall—that's when you get the bargain perennials! I'd like to get some taller plants in the back, not to mention enlarging the bed further away from the house. If I had my druthers, I would make the front yard totally garden, but the mister has kiboshed that idea for now. "Do whatever you want in the back, but leave the front how it is." No fun! Well, I am at the very least going to expand it out, so there.

I can't wait to really be able to dig in and go crazy, especially in the back yard. Plans, I got 'em.

Inspired by...

2009-04-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention an extremely important point about this blog. It was totally inspired by this blog and this blog.

:)

Oh no! Another blog?

2009-04-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

Probably the last thing I need in my life is another blog to keep up. It would seem that my life is becoming more and more segmented in this manner, but no matter. It's kind of nice to have these neat and tidy spaces in which to write about different aspects of my life. Topic-specific blogging definitely helps me to keep my head organized, I won't lie.

So I will tell you that in addition to being an amateur gardener, I am an artist who has struggled with food and body issues most of my life. Thus, my other blogs are regarding my art and my struggles with health, fitness, and weight loss, with the latter being, quite frankly, in indefinite hiatus.

Now that my introduction is in place, I will tell you a little bit about my gardening life, which goes back to my earliest years as a child. When I was four, my parents bought an old abandoned farmhouse with some acreage in a small town in western New York. I have many memories of helping out in the large gardens that they built (wait, do you build a garden?), though not always happy. While I loved being able to crunch on a string bean or some sweet peas right off the vine, I really didn't care much for the dirty, hands on hard work that was required to keep the gardens thriving. It was just never my cup of tea. Looking back now, though, I know how lucky I was to have that gardening experience. They had two huge plots (maybe about 20 feet by 30 feet each? I'll have to ask my mom) in the back yard, along with about 30 feet of grape vines. This was back in the 1970s, and my mom canned a lot and made homemade jams, pickles, relish, ketchup—none of which I appreciated very much, for shame.

After my parents divorced, the veggie gardens were no longer, but my mom kept up many beautiful flower gardens throughout the property, and does to this day. Again, over the years, I'd be implored to help out with weeding, and would do so grudgingly, if at all.

Fast forward to two years ago this August, when my boyfriend and I bought our first house. While we don't have much property, what is there came installed with some garden materials. The house came with some lovely rose bushes, rose of Sharon abound, a gorgeous weeping cherry tree, a lilac, a flowering quince, and a healthy patch of spearmint. There were also a few small bushes including holly, azalea, and rhododendron, not to mention several clumps of hostas and centaurea. The following spring we also discovered that previous owners had planted hundreds of bulbs including several varieties each of daffodils, tulips, crocus, and hyacinth.

Last year's weeping cherry, with a glimpse of the flowering quince at left

I found myself getting really excited about having our own land to work and take care of. Sure enough, I finally got bit by the gardening bug. I finally fit in with the rest of my mom's side of the family, who are all gardening nuts.

My first spring at the house, last year, I spent time cleaning up and just getting to know what exactly what I had to work with. As the warmer months came, I became more and more involved and active in the gardens. I started moving things around little by little. Toward the end of the season, I found myself scooping up deals at local nurseries for bargain perennials to fill up the empty spaces with. I also realized that we are very lucky to have what I am pretty sure is darned good soil, because it seems like just about anything I stick it the ground thrives—at least so far. Sedum, aster, dianthus, winter pansies, more sedum (I really like this group of succulents) and others (I have to check the labels I kept from when I planted), including a group of iris from my cousin Marianne, hostas and ferns from my dad, and a few things from my mom including columbine and poppy. So far, I am seeing lots of new growth that I have had my eyes on since the snow melted—it's really exciting to see the fruits of my experiments! (Which I say because I was really doing just that, a lot of experimenting. I don't really know what I am doing quite yet and hoping for the best.)

Last year's late April blooms

Some of the sedum that was planted last summer, July 2008

This year I am being ever more ambitious and digging out more in the back yard, which I've been gradually trying to tame from its rather jungle-like, unkempt state when we first moved. It's a little postage stamp back there, but has great potential to become a paradise for sure, as long as we can also manage to afford a good fence against our next door neighbors, whose backyard view is less than attractive. The current fence is too short and starting to deteriorate... and I am pretty certain it is theirs, not ours.

The backyard about a month before we first moved in

Anyway, just yesterday I came across a website for a nursery located a few hours away in the Ithaca, NY area called Graceful Gardens that specialize in traditional cottage garden plants and flowers. It is here where I think I will be getting many new flowers to add to my gardens, especially my shady one right at the back of the house. I have visions of foxglove, delphiniums, and lupins...