Winter Sowing Starts!

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

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

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...

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...

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

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

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

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'

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.

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!

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.

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

(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

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.