The Outlaw Gardener

Early flowers

2011-04-01T17:14:00.000-07:00

I have crocuses in bloom, although we've only had one day all week with a long enough glimpse of the sun to try and take pictures. All I see most days is itty bitty spots of color out in the yard. Better than nothing.

And I brought in some forsythia branches after pruning my shrubs. If I can't enjoy my garden, at least I can enjoy my kitchen.

Spring is wet and cold

2011-03-31T17:04:00.000-07:00

As I write this it is raining out, as it has been for a week now. We've had a lot of cold wet days, enough that I have done very little in the garden. Not nothing, but not much either. At the rate it's raining today, and judging by the forecast, I may not get much done for weeks yet. No sign of any sun for the next week.

I've planted some greens and radishes. Probably the seeds will all rot and I'll have to plant over. I'd start more seedlings but I'm about out of windowsill space. Maybe it's time to shop for a greenhouse.

In the process of the first planting I discovered a nest of baby garlic. (Darn, forgot to take a picture.) Apparently when I clipped the flowers last year I missed a couple. There were two clumps of little bitty cloves with roots and fresh sprouts all tangled up in each other. So I lifted out the clumps, carefully disentangled the mess, and replanted each little sprout. So far I've seen one up, we'll see.

Meanwhile, indoors, my tomatoes and leeks are ready to transplant to bigger containers. Probably should have been done already but I haven't figured out how to fit everything on the windowsills. Time to decide what to do about a greenhouse.

Peppers have just been planted, along with yellow onions from seed. I won't get a lot of onions from two four-packs but I've never tried starting them early like this before. It's a trial-run. I want to be able to grow onions without buying sets every year.

Meanwhile, a few kale plants wintered over, and garlic planted last fall is up, along with bulbs. Spring is here (defined by rain instead of snow I guess), we do have crocuses. Here's pictures:

First kale leaves, about two weeks ago. They've turned green since the pic, but now I don't dare eat them, for fear of fallout. At least iodine-131 degrades quickly, maybe I'll eat some in a couple weeks. After all, we've got to eat something, can't wait for the longer-lived isotopes to run down.

Daylilies, about a week ago. They still look yellow, our lack of sun may have something to do with it.

Tulips. They have grown since the picture was taken. I don't know if they will bloom, these are bulbs dug up from another site and the babies split from the mother bulbs.

First garlic sprout. They are all up now and about 6 inches tall.

Signs of spring

2011-03-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

The first garlic sprout -

And some of the kale survived -

Root Cellaring with out a Root Cellar

2011-01-28T15:31:00.000-08:00

I planted potatoes (and beets and carrots) with the blind hope we’d build some sort of root cellar by fall. We didn’t. I made do with the downstairs bathroom, mostly because it was available. It serves as the guest bathroom, the rare times we have guests, and is otherwise unused.

“Downstairs” in this case is below grade, at least to the north. We have a ranch on a fully finished basement, so there is no true cellar to keep root crops in. The guest-room closet might have been a better choice (it has an air-exchange vent that would have helped cool it off), but I’ve been planning to paint that closet and put shelves in it. Plus it’s carpeted.

Last week I spent a morning shredding and freezing all the beets, because they weren’t keeping well. The bathroom, although it feels cold when we go in, is still 65 degrees, way too warm for root crops. The poor beets had all sprouted and most were soft. They are still edible that way, but harder to peel.

I sorted through all the carrots, using up all the small ones and stashing the last few bigger ones in the fridge. The last of the potatoes have been moved to the garage, which has heat but we keep it at 55.

The squashes and pumpkins in the guest bedroom are keeping well so far though. They don’t need it as cool as the root crops. By next year hopefully we’ll have a better (read: colder) root cellar. I’m not sure yet how that’s going to happen, but it’s at the top of my Wants list.

New use for produce

2010-09-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

According to this news story, a woman in Montana drove a bear away with a zucchini!

And you wondered what to do with those big ones – keep one handy, you never know when you’ll need it.

Hitchhiker

2010-09-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

I brought a load of produce into the house to dump in the kitchen, and made a pit stop in the bathroom before going back out. As I did up my pants, I felt something on my neck and tossed my head a bit to shift my hair. I was about to brush it off when I caught sight of myself in the mirror and thought I had a twig in my hair. Thinking it might be easier to grab the twig than try to brush it loose, I stepped up to the mirror for a closer look. Here’s what I found on my head:
I took him back out to the garden.

Invasion of the flea beetles

2010-08-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

[written a week ago]
This morning when I went out to water the garden I found masses of little black bugs chomping away on the mature kale, Chinese cabbage, and mustard greens. I had seen none until now.

I don’t think these hatched in my garden. We had wind out of the North yesterday and there are several hundred acres planted in canola not far away in that direction. I did some research online and flea beetles are a major pest of canola fields. I think my swarm blew in.

On researching organic controls, most of the advice was aimed at a localized problem, not a cloud blown in from commercial fields. Some organic pesticides work, but I don’t have any and am not sure I want them on my vegetable garden, organic or not.

I’m resigned to losing the Chinese cabbage (and had stopped harvesting the mustard greens anyway), and maybe the older kale, but I sure don’t want to lose the young kale. We love kale!

First thing I did was pull the wilted tomato prunings from the compost bin, after reading that crushed and wilted tomato leaves will deter flea beetles. I’m not sure they have much effect against dense clouds of beetles, but they were handy. I tucked them around the plants I most want to save.

Then I pulled out the vacuum cleaner and sucked up as many as I could, especially from the Chinese cabbage. That makes a good trap crop, but I’ve got more beetles than the cabbage can feed, so I have to try and reduce the numbers.

I’ll go out in a bit for another vacuuming, with a fresh bag.

[update]
Five vacuumings and several white fly-strips later, the flea beetles are down to a scattered few. Kale and chinese cabbage are still alive, mustard greens are history. The beetles seem to prefer the older leaves and have not (yet) eaten the young hearts of the cabbage. I’m not sure the wilted tomato leaves do much, may try making up some garlic-oil deterrent if the beetle population grows again.

Yucca in bloom

2010-08-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

I had no interest in growing yucca until I saw one in bloom. I planted three last year, and one of them bloomed this year.
In the early morning I thought it looked like a ghost hovering over my garden.

Poppies again

2010-08-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

Paper and corn poppies

2010-08-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

I somehow seeded both corn poppies and paper poppies in the same bed. They don't seem to mind. The bed also has iris, alyssum, an orange gaillardia, and a couple shrubs.

Centaurea Dairy Maid and coneflower

2010-08-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

A named variety of bachelor's button. I almost weeded these out by mistake, but thought they looked sort of like something I might have seeded. At least they didn't look like my usual weeds, so I left them until they flowered, then found them in a seed catalog.

The coneflowers were just opening in late July.

July blanket flower pictures

2010-08-09T15:02:00.001-07:00

A Yellow-bellied Marmot visits

2010-08-09T14:59:00.001-07:00

We had a yellow-bellied marmot move into our rock wall a couple weeks ago.

We saw him frequently in the yard for a few days, or sunning himself on the rocks, then he vanished. I don’t know whether he moved on or became someone’s dinner, but given the trimmed-hedge look of my lettuce beds while he was around, I’m glad he’s gone.

A few more mid-July flowers

2010-07-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

Cosmos – I bought white ones this year. One plant bloomed right away, the rest have been growing instead but have buds now.
Yarrow – I didn’t realize wild yarrow could grow this big! The mound is close to three feet high. All I did was remove the sod around it – turning it over where the garden bed is.
Toadflax – I like this little flower but it needs to be alongside a pathway where it will be seen up close. Not sure it’s worth growing in my dry garden, it likes more water than I provide.
Shasta daisy – I bought this on impulse, glad I did. In this pic the first bud is just opening, The petals have grown and are fringed, I’ll take a new picture soon.

Veggie garden doing well

2010-07-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

The snap peas are fading in the heat but the snow peas are hanging on so far. I froze some today. I’ve let them climb on each other and the support cage for a hummingbird vine in a pot.
One cabbage plant and three broccoli aren’t enough. I seeded some July 15th in hopes of a fall crop. Meanwhile, these broccoli are almost ready to harvest. Tomato plants are growing well, a few have green tomatoes on them. I’m impatient to see some red here.

Beans are thriving in a mixed bed with carrots and dill. I planted the carrots and beans together on purpose, after reading that the beans will shade the soil and carrots like cool soil. The dill seeds were in the compost I used in the bed.
Summer squash – one zucchini, two golden zucchini, and one summer crookneck. The zuke has baby fruit but not quite big enough to eat yet.

Garden survives high winds

2010-07-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

We had high winds come through early in the week. I spent several days tossing my heaviest mulch on top of exposed powdery compost trying to keep it from blowing away. The effort was partially successful – a few patches blew clear but most held.

Blanket flower (gaillardia) proved not to be sufficiently wind hardy for our hilltop location. I will move it somewhere more sheltered this fall.

Before:
After:
Before:
After:
And this amur cherry took a beating. I’ll try to move it as well, maybe not until Spring though. The ground may not soften up enough to dig until then. I have a few months to decide where to put it, and what to put in its place.
Some of my other plants show some wind damage on leaf edges but nothing drastic.

Early July in my garden

2010-07-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

Having moved a dirt mountain, followed by 10 yards of compost, I now have 12 yards of mulch to spread around, less whatever blew away when we had high winds. I’m still working on it, will take new pictures when it’s all done.
These johnny jumpups languished in pots for a couple years before I stuck them in beside a red-twig dogwood last fall. The rabbits promptly ate them and I didn’t pay much attention to the green shoots this spring, until one day I glanced down and saw this:
A patch of california poppies (before weeding and mulching), with a few daylilies in the right foreground and potatoes on the left.
Here’s another pic of the daylilies (lilac bushes behind them).

More wildflowers

2010-07-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple wildflowers I recognized, from our hike on the Fourth (see last post):

Heart-leaf arnica
and Indian paintbrush

Wildflowers found on a hike

2010-07-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

I’ve been slow to process my pics lately, which I’ll blame on being too busy in the garden. Here are some wildflower pics I took on the Fourth, during a hike up Moscow Mountain. I have not had time to identify them, although the blue spires might be a penstemon.

Flowering veggies

2010-07-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

I left a few carrots in the bed last fall, thinking I might dig them up later. I never did. They are now sporting buds, and are nearly three feet tall. I’m going to try collecting seed, even though the parents were probably hybrids. I can still learn how to save the seed even if they aren’t worth planting.

The garlic are budding as well – aren’t they cute?I suspect I’m supposed to not let them do that so they will create big bulbs, but I like the curly-cues. And I don’t see how you can cut the bud stalk without cutting down the entire plant.

And my first planting of radishes bolted.I’ve pulled them all up except for a couple the peas are leaning on. The next crop aren’t ready yet, and I seeded more yesterday. I’ve also put a note in my calendar to seed more in two weeks.

Beets and carrots and peas

2010-07-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

My first planting of beets languished until I realized they weren’t getting enough water. Rainy days had fooled me into thinking I didn’t need to water but we didn’t really get that much rain and the intermittent sun dried out the beds.

Now the first planting looks like this –but there are maybe six beets. We like beets, and beet greens, so I planted more. The second planting now looks like this –but after I realized my new soil was just as clayey as the old stuff, and I got compost, I decided I’d better plant more. The third planting is just poking through.

I also planted more carrots because I didn’t see many in the carrot/bean bed. Since then they’ve sprouted, and we should have plenty of carrots even if the second planting does nothing (they haven’t yet, but carrots are slow).

Meanwhile, one of the tomato plants has tomatoes forming –And the peas are blossoming. I’ve harvested the first dozen or so snap peas. Just enough to put a few into soup, stir-fry, and salad.

Flowers are starting

2010-06-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

The clematis I bought last year has bloomed, it’s doing well this year, I need to find a trellis for it.
Pineleaf penstemon is beginning to impress me. I can see this as a groundcover around a tree or among bushes. I’ve heard it’s easy to divide, I’ll have to try it.
I still have not identified this one, but it’s liking a tough spot in my garden.
And I planted salvia this year. I had eight plants and scattered them about the upper garden wherever a space beckoned. Now that one is blooming, I wish I had clustered them. Oh well.

More lupine

2010-06-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Another of my lupine is blooming.
And the first one has blooms reaching the top now, with seed pods forming below.

Iris

2010-06-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

The tall iris are blooming. I have not determined what type these are, they were a gift. But they are tough. They keep coming back in an area I’ve dug them out of twice now. A couple years ago I trimmed up the roots on the ones I’d dug up and tossed the old rotten portions in the compost. I still find green shoots a foot long when I turn the pile! And I noticed one coming up in the green bean bed today. Probably from one dried out nugget in the old peat moss I had stored some roots in.

Wild salsify

2010-06-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

I’ve scaled back my meadow plans. The central portion of the back yard is being turned into garden area with mulched pathways. I’m not there yet – so the paths get mowed until I can dig the sod out. The area upwind gets mowed too (hubby has been bitten by the urge to mow this year – usually he hates it).

Then, the area where we planted more pine trees (some last year – all survived – and some this year) is in meadow. The wild salsify is in bloom now, so it looks like a wildflower meadow should. I tried to capture the morning light on the field of salsify in the pic.

Several more projects

2010-06-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

Now where did that peavine come from? I thought when the wind blew away my compost and the pea and beet seeds along with it, they blew East. This peavine is growing ten feet to the South of the bed it came from. Either that, or birds dropped it, after eating it in the bed.

Here’s another unfinished project (my life seems to be full of them) – this will be terraced flower beds, the yard here has a bit of slope to it. I piled sod dug from other areas here last year, and hubby removed the weed layer a few weeks ago. I’ve cleared some sod around two sides to define the shape of the garden. Next up – forming the terraces using the pile of soil in the middle. I expect to have some extra.

And I have a new rock garden. (View is from the top looking down.) We had a few rocks left over from the driveway project, and I casually said, “Why don’t we cover this bit of slope here?” When I looked at the result I thought, “Ugh, whose bright idea was this?”

So hubby and I moved some of the rocks around (not the biggest ones!), and put some gravel over the outflow from the perimeter drains to help hide them. I planted some Blue Rug juniper and, near the bottom, a potentilla I had hanging around. Then hubby planted rhubarb just below the rock, where they will be watered by the drain run-off.

Compost mountain

2010-06-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hubby got antsy and moved the rest of the dirt mountain with the tractor. It didn’t quite all go where I wanted it to, but close enough. We’ve replaced it with this compost mountain. There’s a commercial operation in Clarkston, so we hired the dirt-dog who did our wall to haul us a truckload. The price was slightly better than buying it through the local building supply store, and saved me a trip to town to order it.

But it’s finer than the compost I’ve bought before, which means it blows away easier. I had planned to top-dress with it but now I’ve got to work it in, then find something else to mulch with. Today I dug some in along both sides of the first potato row, then hilled them up. The pic is after hilling. The second planting isn’t up yet, so I’ll add a little compost right in the row.

Then I worked compost in around the plants in a couple of the raised beds. These ones were easy because the plants are big and spaced apart. Plus they were transplanted recently so the roots haven’t spread all over yet. My other beds were seeded, close plantings or scattered. I’ll have to scatter some compost over the top and maybe scratch it in a little and hope for the best.

New garden projects pt 2

2010-06-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

Here’s my new raised beds with soil added, and a few transplants. The rest have been seeded.

This pile of soil was dumped here last year, all of it sod removed from other projects. Hubby helped by removing the outer layer where the weeds were growing (now under the black plastic). I’ve started rearranging the mess into terraced beds, extra soil will go uphill until I run out.

The first layer is planted with strawberries and iris, next one starting to take shape. I've got room for a few more plants in this one.

And here I’m trying to shape a couple walkways. The new raised beds are to the right and an established shrub bed to the left. The old bed will expand about 18 inches, with a gravel path around it, perhaps with steps in it. The area around the new beds will be level and covered with woodchips. I need to find something for a bit of retaining wall between them.

Two paths seems excessive but I want a gravel path around the house as a fire-break, and want woodchips around the beds because they’ll be easier to keep the weeds out of. In my experience, raised beds shed soil when you work them. Soil into gravel will encourage weeds and be a pain to keep clear. Woodchips are easier to hoe the weeds, and can be shoveled out and reused as mulch then replaced as needed.

Lupine is blooming

2010-06-20T10:38:00.001-07:00

Last year I scattered wildflower seed in my lawn, then left it unmowed and called it a meadow. The seeding was not real successful. Every now and then I’d find a little bitty stunted flower hiding in the grass. The lupine did better, sprouting up here and there in my lawn. Every time I found one I tied an orange yarn to it, which sometimes helped hubby spot them before he ran over them with the mower.

Two are blooming this year, this one in my lawn and one that I cleared a garden bed around. And the ones I seeded over the daffodil bulbs sprouted very well this spring, so I should have lots of blooms next year.

New garden projects pt 1

2010-06-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

I snagged one boulder during our driveway project to accent the front garden. I added soil around the base, and planted alyssum. Later I plan to plant red sedum around it, like the plants in the foreground.

My new herb bed doesn’t look like much yet, but it has herbs in it. And strawberries around the edges. The closest bed now has summer squash in it, planted in tires.

Here’s a recent shot of last year’s new garden. I’ve expanded it a bit and added more plants and rearranged shrubs. I moved the two forsythia out and added three cotoneaster I removed from the area where I planted lilacs for a future hedge. (no pics of the lilac hedge)

And next year’s project – these might become avegetable garden, or a berry patch. The bed on the left has had a skim-coat of new soil since this picture was taken.

June flowers pt 2

2010-06-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

The rest of the tulips have gone by, but we have one straggler in the front bed. I’m going to move them, they aren’t the color I thought they’d be. I wanted yellow/red and they are more cream/pink. I may plant them in front of our new wall. White potentilla in the foreground.

Potentilla does well here, all the ones I planted last year are full of blooms and should keep going all summer.

Red-twig dogwood in bloom, just beginning to bloom when this picture was taken. When we moved I selected one young plant from my nursery bed to take with us. They hadn’t leafed out yet and I thought I’d grabbed a variegated one. Nope. And they grow wild here – if I’d known that I wouldn’t have bothered, but I have it so I planted it.

June flowers pt 1

2010-06-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

California poppies love this hot dry spot in front of my office. They are a volunteer, the seed arrived with some iris plants a friend gave us. They are so cheerful, I let them grow where they want.

This flowering hawthorn is one scraggly specimen, another gift from our friend the landscaper. The previous owner wanted several of them removed because the deer kept munching on them, so our friend dug them out and hauled them home. I thought of pruning it but the birds love the top branches so I left it as is and planted cosmos and alyssum around the base to dress it up.

Honeysuckle was in bloom last week. I have three of them and they have done well in my yard. I might have to get more. Wait, I saved seeds, I should try planting them.

Hard Assets

2010-06-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

We’ve been reading about how the US is headed for economic collapse and trying to figure out what to do with our cash. Everyone says “buy gold” but it seems a bit pricey for something we’d buy and sit on. Other hard assets are the next best recommendation, so we bought hard assets and built what our son called a fortress. We expanded our parking area and covered the exposed bank with boulders. The plan was something akin to rip-rap but with bigger chunks, but once the dirt-dog and hubby started placing the rock, they got carried away. The end result almost a wall.

We got a deal on the dirt, as the dirt-dog had a job around the corner and needed a place to dispose of dirt with chunks of concrete in it. (That’s also where our big pile of topsoil came from.) The rock used to cost $35 a ton because of the demand for landscaping, but with the collapse of the local building boom, we got all we wanted for $10 a ton. Quite a savings when we ended up getting 108 tons of rock. And we had enough left over for a rock-garden area at the house end of the wall. (no pics of that yet)

Helpful predators

2010-06-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

I used to see rabbits all the time in my yard, especially the cute little baby bunnies. I wasn’t too happy about them running all over my garden, but I’m not cold-blooded enough to kill the little bastards with my shovel.

I haven’t seen any lately, and I think this guy (or gal) gets the credit. She likes to sit on the power pole outside our bedroom window. I’m guessing mama because I’ve heard a hungry baby screeching for food. (This pic was taken in the evening, not a whole lot of light available.)

And the coyotes may have helped. We haven’t seen any for a few weeks and were afraid the trapper our cattle-owning neighbor called in caught them, but they woke us up last night singing outside the window. Either they escaped the traps or new ones have moved in already. Either way, I’m delighted. They keep the mouse population in check.

I get to play in the dirt

2010-05-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of my latest ventures. Some days I think I’ve started too many garden projects this year. But at least I’ll have someplace to put this huge pile of lovely topsoil I figured I’d better grab while I had the chance. Roughly 24 yards, or so I’m told. [that white thing is our propane tank]
Four new raised beds barely made a dent in the soil pile, once filled. I plan to replace the heavy clay in the old beds too, but they will be last due to already being planted, although the crop hasn’t done well. [I blame the poor soil.]
Then I can use a layer on these new terraces. Part of the reason I built them was to deal with a pile of poor quality soil (mostly clay subsoil), and to have a place to put the sod I dug out from the area the new raised beds went in. And I wanted an herb bed.
Then there’s my berm project in the back yard (no pic), which will benefit from a top layer of good soil. And the beds by my front walk can use some too. But I have a brief respite from shoveling dirt – we’re getting heavy rain and everything is now muck. I love playing in the dirt, but mud? Not so much.

Meanwhile, my driveway is full of boulders, waiting to be used on the embankment. There may even be a few left for my landscaping efforts. Are we having fun yet?

Cold Spring

2010-05-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken May 6th (through a screen). Yeah, that’s snow. It melted almost as fast as it came down. The ground turned white for about 20 minutes during the heaviest fall. So far that was the last of it, but we did have frost this morning.

Forecast says we might see 60 again next Tuesday. Guess I won’t bother buying tomato plants yet, since I have no greenhouse or coldframe to keep them warm.

I’m not complaining though. I’d rather bundle up than try to deal with temps in the 90s, like we had in mid-May not many years ago. You cannot convince me this cold is “global warming.” Quick, burn more carbon, help fend off the coming ice age.

But I would like some rain. I’m trying to clear the sod away to make room for four more raised beds, and the ground is getting hard to dig. I have to jump on the spade to drive it down, sometimes more than once. (There are times when a little extra weight comes in handy.) A bit more moisture and the ground would slice easier.

Tough spring

2010-05-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

We had another windstorm move through, so I prepared by moving most of the potted plants to the sheltered side of the house. A couple of the ones I didn’t move did blow over, but no harm done. (And we only lost one shingle on the roof, so not a bad storm.)

That’s about all I got done in the garden all week, between rain and wind. The temperature this morning was 28 degrees – I went out and detached the hoses, relieved to find the water in the faucets was still in liquid form. Forecast is for colder tonight. The tulips are looking a bit bedraggled.

Here’s a few pics from before the nasty weather:

Mixed tulips,
Bed of tulips,
Muscari,
Daffodils,

Eating peas

2010-04-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

I think something ate my peas, the ones I planted yesterday. This morning I found dimples along the rows, spaced about as far apart as the seed. They looked like someone had poked a finger in the ground, over and over. The only explanation I can come up with is some bird ate the seed. But how did it know they were there? They can’t have sprouted that fast, can they?

Meanwhile, I took some pictures of squill and daffodils and the first tulips yesterday. My established daffodils are in full bloom, with the ones I planted late last fall just starting. Warmer temps helped – 74 today. It’s supposed to hit 77 on Monday, I hope they don’t wilt (I will).

Off to a flying start

2010-04-08T15:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had warm, sunny weather. Relatively speaking. There were some clouds and temps were in the mid-50s. But nice enough to plant some seeds – peas and beets. I tucked them into the top layer of compost, thinking that would give them a good start.

They got a flying start.

Today we have high winds, without the rain predicted, and all my compost blew away, taking the seeds with it. I’m going to have to replant the peas and beets, and also various wildflowers I had planted around the shrubs that will get watered.

I’m also going to have to shop for heavier mulch. For trees and shrubs, big pieces of bark would do, but that stuff’s pricey. And it’s hard to fit it around small plants. The compost was great, while it lasted. Cheap, easy to spread, looked good. But when dry it’s too light (mostly coarse sawdust), and it all blew away.

Yum – mouse for breakfast

2010-03-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

We had an early morning guest in our backyard today. He caught his own breakfast.

Unhappy crocuses

2010-03-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

My crocuses aren’t very happy, yesterday morning it was 16 degrees. I may have jumped the gun moving my bonsai out of their winter bed, though all my trees are fairly tough. This was the first winter since our first one here that I tucked them into bed at all.

That first winter I heeled the evergreens into the old vegetable garden, and put the deciduous trees in the window wells. A mouse got into one of the wells and ate my trees, chewing off the bark and roots. I lost half of them, the rest eventually recovered.

After that I worried more about rodents than cold, but we had mild winters. This year I had an urge to tuck everything into bed, maybe my sixth sense was telling me we’d have a cold year. I’ve heard the winter as a whole wasn’t unusually cold, but we have had three cold spells so far that challenge plants.

One early cold snap brought a low of 14 before the trees had lost their leaves. Then early winter brought a low of minus 14, lowest we’ve seen since we moved here, and now 16 in March, after the buds have started swelling.

I no longer feel like a slacker for not planting my spinach yet. Maybe later this week I’ll get to it, it’s supposed to warm up.

Spring has sprung

2010-03-01T16:22:00.000-08:00

The sun’s out, the air is warm, and the first crocuses are abloom:

In other garden news, I cut last year’s dead stalks off the perennials today, everything shows signs of new growth except the yellow gaillardia. It might yet sprout, the tag says it’s hardy to zone 4, so it should have survived our minus 14 cold snap.

First Robin

2010-02-25T15:58:00.000-08:00

I spied the first robin today: Spring really is on it’s way, despite a snowy day yesterday. (Snow’s gone now. Temps should hit fifty next week.) The robin didn't stick around long enough for a picture.

I dug up a couple small shrubs that were in the wrong place, not sure they’ll survive as I was unable to get much root with them. Also dug up a clump of horseradish that escaped the pot. Then I moved a little gravel and decided my back had had enough digging for one day.

Spring is on its way and garden work is waiting

2010-02-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

We’ve had spring-like weather for a week or more now. My earliest crocuses are up. Not blooming yet, but up. Two geese are hanging out in the neighbor’s pond, and the blackbirds are back at my feeder. I haven’t seen any robins yet, they’re late this year.

I’m calling it Spring, despite being 17 degrees this morning. (The house was down to 56 and I almost didn’t get out of bed.)

We’ve been transplanting more pine trees. I moved some baby pines and spruce out of the lawn, planting them in the back corner of the lot. My husband decided they were too small and moved some bigger trees from the field behind us (we have permission to dig up trees).

When I asked him if he was going to water them this summer, he said, “you’re the water person.” Maybe so, but my hose doesn’t reach that far. I don’t want him planting a bunch of trees I’ve got to haul water to. And we might have a dry summer, all the snow went East this year.

I also dug up three pine trees from out back for bonsai prospects, and have my eye on one more. Plus a scraggly juniper from along the driveway, which had been a rooted branch off one of the other juniper plants but wasn’t filling out into a lush landscape specimen.

It’s probably time to do some training of the other potensai I have in pots. I’ve been reluctant to pull them out of the bed where I heeled them in for the winter, for fear of one more cold snap.

And the ground is thawed, so right now is a good time for moving dirt around. I have enough of that to do to keep me busy all summer, but once it dries out it’s impossible to dig. So I need to get it all done this spring.

Pointsettia and Amaryllis

2009-12-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

My parents emailed some pics of Christmas at their house. They have this poinsettia they have been planting in the garden every year and digging up in the fall. Despite cutting it back repeatedly, the thing is now several feet tall and about four feet wide. They used it for a Christmas tree this year, and it looks great! What an idea. Now I want a poinsettia – I wonder if any of the stores have some marked down.

Also in the pics, in the background, were some of her amaryllis. Hers were in full bloom. Mine, as the pics reminded me, were in the garage, still dormant. I’d forgotten all about them. I’ve retrieved them, pleased to find they did not freeze during the cold snap. We do heat the garage but they were behind a tonneau cover against an outer wall.

They are now watered and on the kitchen windowsill. We’ll see how fast they bloom, if at all.

Twelve Below Zero

2009-12-12T13:56:00.000-08:00

We’ve had a week of cold weather, and no snow cover. Tuesday morning our thermometer said it was twelve degrees below zero. I think that’s the coldest it’s been since we moved here.

The high temperature that day was 10. By bedtime we were in the minus numbers again, but it warmed up to 2 by the next morning. Thursday morning the temp was minus 2. Friday it started warming up again, afternoon temps in the mid-twenties.

After a week of cold with no snow to insulate the ground, I’m worried about my plants. There’s nothing I can do but wait for spring. I did follow my gut instincts and tuck most of them into bed for the winter. The less hardy are mostly against the house in this bed, with soil around the pots.

I had planned to add soil to this bed anyway, come spring I will pull the pots out and rake the soil smooth and the bed will be ready to plant. (Which is when hubby will decide to paint that side of the house.)

The rest are tucked into two of the raised beds we built for veggies, one mulched with wood chips and one with compost (it’s what I had, and will stay in the beds).

Most of these are my bonsai - or maybe I should be honest and call them potensai - potential bonsai. None are in actual bonsai pots, because the few I own are still boxed up somewhere in the garage.

The green stuff in the center of this bed is bamboo. I picked varieties rated hardy to minus twenty - we'll see.

A garden surprise

2009-11-27T09:10:00.000-08:00

I’ve been clearing sod (and weeds) from around our young trees and shrubs. While hoeing under one of the pine trees I spotted something white. Looking closer, I saw this:
I'm pretty sure it's a quail nest, we have at least one resident flock that visits my feeder daily, cleaning up what the other birds drop on the ground.

Early signs of winter

2009-10-27T16:37:00.001-07:00

I went out after lunch to prepare a few more spots for bulbs, still working on those 300 daffodils. Wind wasn’t quite as gusty as yesterday but still enough to chill. I walked out into the yard and started laughing. Little white specks were blowing past me – snowflakes.

Yep. Snowflakes. First ones of the season. Not enough to worry about yet, but winter is coming. Got my snowtires on Friday, early enough to beat the rush but maybe not as early as I thought.

Getting ready for winter

2009-10-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

When we lived in Alaska we used to joke that there were two seasons: winter and getting ready for winter. We have a real summer here, but eventually we still need to get ready for winter.

I’ve tucked my bonsai into one of the raised beds, mulched with the wood chips I’d used to mulch the veggies. Come spring, the chips will go on the walkways.

In another bed, I removed the soil and put my potted fruit trees and raspberries in. I still need to add something around the pots for protection from freezing. I’d been thinking mulch, like the bonsai, but realized today I could use some of the soil I dug out, or some of the compost I bought. I might go with compost, I’ll need some in the bed next year anyway. And I’ve got plenty. It’s cheaper by the truckload, so I bought five yards.

On the East side of the house, I had a blank spot in a new garden bed up against the house. (Kept empty to accommodate a ladder so dear hubby could paint the house, which he hasn’t done.) Perfect to tuck the remaining plants (mostly strawberries and iris). I used the leftover soil/compost blend from the truckload I bought last summer for the garden beds. I’d planned to put the soil in there anyway, this way the plants get protection at the same time.

I have a few more trees that will go in between the two winterized raised beds, after I’ve filled the bed, but without mulch around them. Then I’ll add netting to keep the deer off. I feel like I’m almost ready for winter, except for the bulbs that still need planting.

I’m hoping tonight’s rain will soften the ground enough to plant the daffodil bulbs. If not, I can spend tomorrow spreading compost on the established garden beds, and hope we get more rain on Friday. I need to move the pile of compost before it snows, and would prefer to do so by using it rather than repile it.

Planting bulbs

2009-10-16T16:11:00.000-07:00

Weather turned nice again, in the 60s and sunny. Seems too warm after the cold spell, I wore flip-flops this afternoon and now I’ve got the windows open.

Lovely weather to plant bulbs in. Too often I wait and end up planting in 40 degree weather with the soil a sticky wet mess. I planted 75 crocus bulbs – wish I’d bought at least twice that many [UPDATE: I checked my invoice and I DID buy twice that many. I called and they are shipping the rest.] – and 100 muscari. And garlic in one of the raised beds.

Still have some squill I can plant, but they are going in where some leftover iris need to come out. I might take care of that chore tomorrow, the iris will fill in holes in another bed.

Looks like we’ll get rain Sunday night, so maybe I can plant all those daffodils next week.

My bulbs are here!

2009-10-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

I’m more excited than at Christmas – here’s what UPS delivered today:

A whole bushel of daffodils! Now I need a little more rain so I can dig down six inches to plant them. Right now the soil is wet enough to dig down three inches, then I hit dry clay. Since I don’t have any dynamite, I have to wait for rain.

I also have tulips, crocus, squill, and grape hyacinth (muscari) to plant. But not by the bushel. I think I bought something like 50 tulips, 75 crocus … I forget on the others. I could plant the last three now, they only need to be three inches deep.

Feels like a new ice age coming

2009-10-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

The weather is turning cold around here. After reading the forecast, calling for temperatures twenty degrees below normal, I harvested the last few items from my garden. The last scallions, leeks, and a some carrots.

I had more carrots than I’d expected. The tops never grew much, and the roots were so far down I hadn’t seen any sign of carrot, but they were there. Probably would have survived a couple 15 degree nights in the soil, but I brought them in anyway.

Tomorrow I plan to tuck my bonsai into one of the empty garden beds for the winter, and move the tenderer trees up close to the house. Maybe I’ll even lug the peach and nectarine trees into the garage for a couple days. They can’t stay the winter there because we heat it, but the heat’s not turned on yet.

Most of my trees (bonsai and fruit) haven’t lost their leaves yet. They aren’t going to like 15 degree nights.

Frost

2009-10-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

We finally had frost on Monday
(Oct. 1). I wasn't surprised, but had not expected temps in the mid-twenties. I should have harvested the tomatoes the day before, as they all had some freeze damage. I cut them all up and cooked them a bit then froze them.

More fall flowers

2009-09-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

Still ones you've seen before.

White potentilla -

Yellow Gaillardia - another that is blooming profusely without dead-heading.

Verbena - maybe I haven't shown this one before. It bloomed shortly after planting, then nothing. I cut it back severely, and now it is blooming again. But it's small and not very impressive in my garden. Maybe along a walkway it would be okay.

Some of my dwarf snapdragons still bloom, and the alyssum are in full bloom again, after a lull during the hottest part of August.

Yellow potentilla - these on a larger bush than the white ones.
Catmint, russian sage, and veronica are still blooming as well.

Fall flowers - same as the summer flowers

2009-09-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a fresh batch of pics, I love that these guys keep blooming and blooming.

Coneflower - fresh blossom on the left, old one on the right.
Cosmos. Still blooming even though I quit dead-heading a month ago.

Gaillardia (blanket flower). The different shades are from two different plants in the same clump.
California poppies. You can't beat these for toughness. The seeds came in with some iris someone gave me about five years ago. I'm surprised they haven't taken over the whole yard.
Black-eyed susans. Look close and you can spot some spent blooms, but there's plenty left.

Veggies on the vine

2009-09-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

There will be more harvest -

Peppers - I think these are supposed to be bigger, but my pepper plants have not been happy.

Tomatoes are ripening quickly -
Looks like we'll have pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. And Halloween, and Christmas, and New Years. Along with pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies.

A visitor to my garden

2009-09-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

We get a lot of quail, they like to check out the ground under my bird feeder daily. This one decided to perch on some potted junipers and pose for his picture.

Veggie harvest

2009-09-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

This pic is from Monday, I’ve picked way too many more zucchini since then, half a dozen more tomatoes, three more sunburst, and four or five cukes. Weather is supposed to cool off next week, I’m ready!

Another near miss

2009-09-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Morning temperature was 33 degrees this morning. My husband had to scrape ice off his truck windshield. But no damage to my plants. Hard to believe it's supposed to be in the high 80s tomorrow.

One more week of harvesting beans and squash and cukes and tomatoes and I may be ready for frost. And maybe a frost will kill enough bugs to let my lettuce sprouts grow.

UPDATE: I drove through down-town Troy today. Not much town but plenty of down, in a hollow. The tomato plants at the community garden were shriveled and black, they had frost.

I complain a lot about our windy spot with poor soil, but there are some advantages to being up on a hill. Now I'm glad I built beds here instead of renting a plot in the community garden.

Zucchini

2009-09-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

I have not done much writing or quilting lately because I’ve been busy dealing with zucchini. And Sunburst pattypans, which are cute little yellow things whose main attraction is they are smaller than zucchini.

I didn’t think I planted that many, but I probably have seven plants. If you’ve ever grown zucchini, you already know why I’ve been busy. Seven is too many plants. Two is probably enough.

In fact, two is what I’d planned to grow. But the ones I started on the windowsill nearly died from the hot sun after I transplanted them, so I bought two more. Two more pots. Each pot had two or three plants.

Instead of thinning, I planted the entire pot in one “hill.” No actual hill, just a corner of a raised bed, but you get the idea. One hill has two plants and the other has three. I think. It’s kinda thick in there so I’m not sure.

Meanwhile, the two burnt ones recovered and are now bearing fruit. So, I have seven zucchini plants instead of two. Plus two hills of the Sunburst. And no room in the freezer.

Good thing we like zucchini. Steamed zucchini, stuffed zucchini, zucchini casserole, zucchini bread … hmm, I wonder how zucchini pancakes would work? Or maybe zucchini omelet.

Still producing

2009-09-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

Feels like summer around here still, with temps in the high 80s and no rain in sight. We’re overrun with summer squash (Sunburst and zucchini), the tomatoes are coloring up and providing about the right amount for salads. And I’ve harvested enough greenbeans for a meal, with more coming. Cukes are providing a fairly steady supply as well.

Good thing we escaped a frost last Tuesday! Morning temp here was 33 degrees, next town up the road (slightly higher elevation) had frost. And me with nothing on hand to cover the beds with. I’d better remedy that, even though there are no frosty nights in the forecast.

Garden update

2009-09-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

The early August planting of lettuce, mesclun mix, and coles did not survive, except for a few stragglers that are still barely visible. Something has eaten them as fast as they sprout and grow, although some hot dry weather did not help.

I planted more today. I blended all the open lettuce packets and a couple old unopened ones with the last of the mesclun mix and seeded it heavily. We had rain this morning so the soil was damp, and hopefully the weather will not get too hot from here out, although low 80s are predicted next week.

Whether they will survive the grasshoppers and other bugs remains to be seen.
I also seeded the last of the kale seed (which wasn’t much) and spinach. I had five cabbage plants that survived the heat in pots, and five pots of small carrots, all of which I transplanted. Probably they won’t grow enough to eat, but I had the plants and some bare spots, so why not try.

My green beans are starting to bear. Squash, as usual, is over-producing. Cukes are producing well, and tomatoes are finally getting ready to ripen more than one or two per plant. If frost holds off we’ll have plenty of tomatoes soon. And the little pie pumpkins are showing orange.

Meanwhile, the alyssum has blossomed again, producing lovely mounds of white. Next year I hope to plant enough to use it as groundcover, whether by seed or plants. Also still flowering are catmint, veronica, potentilla, gaillardia, coneflower, cosmos, the last few snapdragons, and a few daylily stragglers. I love these flowers that keep on blooming! And the coneflowers, I swear, lasted a month on the stem. I’ve never seen a flower last so long.

Another flower fix

2009-08-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

My black-eyed susans are in full bloom. These are not the wildflower I remember from meadows of my childhood, but close enough.

The plant took a bit of water to get established but I am hopeful it will now survive on its own. I'd like to plant more.

Here's another view of one of the front beds, still in bloom! I stopped dead-heading the gaillardia in the front and it's still showing new buds. Definitely on the "plant more of these" list. I plan to look for different colors, I know I've seen them in catalogs.

Here's one of my projects - every few years I have to clear the sod back another 18 inches because the juniper keeps growing. I could trim the juniper but I hate lawns. This one is so scruffy and weedy it barely qualifies as lawn anyway. Next up - find some cheap mulch.

That little spruce in the back is the one we moved this spring, it's doing well. Now I'm eyeing the six-footer on the other side of the driveway, I'd like to move it next spring.

Some things grow too well

2009-08-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

White sage, planted this spring, has already outgrown it's nook. I'll move it further away from the walkway. Although I like the overhanging effect, I plan to rebuild this walkway and put doen pavers, someday, so I don't need overlarge plants in the way.

Catmint looks like a good plant for my dry south-facing steep clay banks. It's not too big for it's spot quite yet, but this is in one season. I'll find a bigger spot for it. Or several, I'm sure I can divide this thing.

Flower fix part 3

2009-08-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more flowers not in the new north bed.

Potentilla is still blooming.

I still have no identified this one. One of these days I need to sit down with a couple catalogs and see what I can find.

This is a yellow gaillardia. I dead-headed this a couple times, but I see it's got plenty of new buds even with the seedheads on it. So I'm leaving it as is. I want more of these!

Flower fix part two

2009-08-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple more shots of flowers in the north bed:

Snapdragons in full glory for the second time. The blooms have lasted well this time, perhaps because we've had cool damp weather (unusual for this time of year).

And black-eyed susans.

Biweekly flower fix

2009-08-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

We've had a week of rainy weather so I didn't take any pictures until today. Except this first one, of the new bed I put in to the north of our house. I've always thought a circle of garden in the middle of a yard was sort of hokey, and now I have one, ugh. But I have expansion plans, it won't stay a circle.

Here are some of the plants that are growing in the circle:

Purple coneflower (upper right corner) and russian sage (lower corner). I love the way the flower lasts on the coneflower.

The russian sage has a flower stalk that does not show up from a distance. I plan to move this one. It should do well on my south-facing banks.

On the left, gaillardia. I need a bigger clump of this stuff. It is reblooming despite no dead-heading. I like that. And the seed pods are pretty.

Below, coriopsis. I may move this one, if it survives the winter. The tag suggested it is an annual in cold climates but elsewhere it is rated to zone 5, which we are.

And a group of cosmos. I have been dead-heading these to keep them blooming.

The grey things are blue fescue.

Weekly flower fix

2009-08-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a pic of my bushy snapdragons. They are now fully in bloom and make lovely mounds of color. I should take another pic but I'm lazy, so you get this one. I had another uploaded but it seems to have vanished.

My cosmos is also doing great with new blooms. Next year I'll try for a different color though.

A little spot of color caught my eye, and I found this corn poppy. It looks sad because I'd just watered and the drops tipped the petals over.

Wild morning glory is invasive, which puts it in the weed category. I think they're pretty, but I pulled them up after taking the picture.

Reseeding

2009-08-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

I had to reseed all my cole plants. I thought I’d forgotten to water them on a hot day when I found them dried out to a crisp, but the radishes on the side I know I watered are almost as crispy. The bigger ones are still alive, so far.

The ones in pots, I added a few more seeds in the center and left the crispy-leaved seedlings. A few of them may survive. The trays are now in the shade, too. The weather is supposed to cool off and maybe some showers the next few days.

Now I see in my calendar that I should be seeding turnips, spinach and chard. I think it’s still too hot for spinach, and I don’t have any turnip or chard seed. I also don’t have any space left in the beds for spinach, so I’ll wait.

Next landscape project

2009-07-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

I spent last Saturday morning salvaging some bricks from a chimney demolition (with a little help from my husband). I snagged a few pieces of sandstone as well, although I'm not sure what I'll do with them.

I'm going to use the brick in a patio outside my office door, although I need to find more bricks or pavers or something to make it big enough. Here's the site. I removed the sod earlier but may need to dig down further to keep the patio surface below the bottom of the siding. (And the doorstep will need to go.)

Weekly flower fix, pt 2

2009-07-29T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here's more, taken about a week ago.

Yellow daylilies. I have these in a container because I have not decided where to put them. When we bought this place I discovered a little stunted four inch high daylily in the back yard and dug it up. It's been in a container ever since, but it seems happy enough.

Lupine. The one plant from my wildflower mix that seems to like my yard. They won't bloom until next year, but I've found nearly a dozen scattered about. Now to make sure they don't get mowed.

Phlox. This one is growing all by its lonesome in the future dry creek bed. I left it when I cleaned out the weeds. Also from the wildflower mix. I discovered what I'd at first thought was a stunted poppy is actually scarlet flax but have not managed a picture. I'll plant more of them too.

And my stunted snapdragons. I cut them back severely because they were setting seed (I hadn't dead-headed) to see if they would bloom again. They are, but the mounds are no bigger than the alyssum mounds! And no tall flower spike either. At least they provide color.

Weekly flower fix, pt 1

2009-07-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

These were taken a week or so ago.

Red sedum. I need to move these plants, the bushes above have overgrown them.

Lavender. They've done really well in a tough spot. I'm going to have to get more.

Alyssum. This mound is at least 8 inches across. I bought an ounce of seed so I can use it as a groundcover next year.

Gaillardia. I hope this spreads. Just in case it doesn't, I've bought seeds.

Toadflax. This one surprised me. It must be from the wildflower seed I spread this spring, but it's in one of my flower beds. I didn't put the seed there. Must have been the birds, it's near the feeder and they probably ate my seeds.

Wildflowers 3

2009-07-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

These wild lupine grow in the field behind our house. Hopefully, the young plants in my yard will look as nice next year.

Actually, this one is cheating, calling it a wildflower when I planted it. Rosa rugosa, or wild rose.

These little 8 inch shrubby things are a stubborn weed in my gardens, but make a lovely groundcover when a mass of them are in bloom. The flowers are pinker than show in the pic. I have not identified them.

And this, if memory serves, is false hellebore. I should check that. The top of the flower spike is about five feet tall. I'd want some in my yard but they like damp soil. Maybe next house.

Not so wild flowers

2009-07-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

Did you know hens-n-chicks will bloom? I've never seen this, but four or five of my plants bloomed this year. Kinda phallic, I think.

Daylilies are hard to beat, and easy to grow, although they seem to like a little water. Usually in hot dry weather some of the buds dry up without opening.

I planted this sedum at the top of our new retaining wall. It must like the spot, it promptly bloomed, making a luscious bright yellow clump.

Wildflowers 2

2009-07-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more pretty weeds. The first two were found on a walk.

This one is vetch, a patch gives a nice purple hue to a field.

Here's thistle, considered a noxious weed. I dig these up when I find them around my house.

Nasty looking things - but aren't those blossoms pretty?

This one does grow in my yard, yarrow. I need to research and find out what other wildflowers thrive in the same conditions, then I'd have a clue about what to plant in my meadow.

Wildflowers 1

2009-07-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

The following are some flowers I found on a recent walk. Some folks around here call these weeds but I like them. The first two are a patch of daisies.

The next are wild bachelors buttons. No, these nice tall ones are not the ones I seeded in my yard. Soil must be a little moister where these are growing.

Wildflower Update

2009-07-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

I’ve been remiss in posting. I have a bunch of flower pics taken last week (and maybe a few more on my camera), past time to post them here. I’ll do it over the next few days.

We had rain a week ago Monday and I’ve been scrambling to get more digging done before the soil dries out again. Once dry, it has the consistency of cement – no digging.

I have found a few stray wildflowers from the seed I spread in the spring. Lupines are coming up in various places, but they won’t flower until next year. A scant handful of corn poppy, bachelor’s buttons, phlox, and toadflax have bloomed – but they are tiny little stunted things. Imagine a four inch high bachelors button, a three inch high corn poppy with a 3/4 inch blossom. I tried to get a pic but my camera would not focus.

Next year, I will spread wildfower seed only where I will be watering, like around transplants. Most of the toadflax is growing around the edges of the new pines that I water weekly. Most of those pines look like they will survive, with new needle growth showing. Three do not show any growth and one has some brown needles on it. Not bad out of 14 trees.

Visitors to my garden

2009-07-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

This handsome fella (he looks male to me) came through my yard the other day.

And he was followed by his brood, who wandered among my flowers.

Quick update with pics

2009-07-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo showing my tree collection.

On the right, mostly fruit trees. I bought dwarf varieties so they can stay in containers, although some are dwarfer than others.

On the left, trees and other plants. You can see some juniper in front - I bought 100 of these blue rug juniper and planted 2/3 of them along the driveway embankment. The rest are in pots. The tall stuff is hardy bamboo, new this year. The bonsai are hiding.

This blue spruce is about 6 feet tall, but was in the wrong place. My husband and I decided to try moving it rather than cut it down - we figured, why not? Worst we could do was kill it. We moved it in April, kept it watered, and it's thriving. Or at least, alive. The buds have opened with new growth, an indication the tree will make it.

Now I have to remember to water it the next two months to make sure it survives.

My new raised beds, planted. The bare-dirt patches have been seeded, and will be mulched once the plants are up.

The bare but mulched area in the closest bed is saved for later planting. I'm going to need more beds for all the fall crops I want to plant.

This little wildflower, which I have not identified yet, is the only one from several pounds of seed I spread in late April. Guess I should have spread them earlier. This one is close enough to a transplanted pine to steal it's water.

Here's another view (if I posted an earlier one, I forget these things) of my front garden. This spot is behind a retaining wall, hot sun, strong wind.

The yellow flower in front is gaillardia. I had planted russian sage there until I found out that would mature 3 feet tall and wide. I decided to move the sage.

The white flowers are on a potentilla. It should grow into a 2 foot or more shrub in the future.

I don't know what the purple-spiked thing on the left is. I bought it on sale last fall without a tag.

The raised beds are ready

2009-06-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

My raised beds are ready to go and I’ve started planting. I didn’t get the squashes, tomatoes, or peppers in yesterday thinking I’d wait for more clouds, and this morning it’s raining. As soon as we get a lull I’ll get them in.

Here’s the beds in place before soil:

I removed the sod (to start weed free) and turned over the next layer of soil so the plants could send roots as deep as they want. Then I bought five yards of soil – three of topsoil and two of compost, mixed in the truck. They aren’t really mixed, more like lots of little layers, and it doesn’t look like a 2:3 ratio to me.

But it’s what I’ve got so I filled the beds:

The topsoil is as clayey as the stuff I’ve dug up in the back yard (not under the beds, that’s all subsoil from excavating for the house), so I may dig some out and replace with compost in future years. I ended up with enough leftover soil for one or two more beds as well. I’d calculated I needed 4.7 yards for four 1x4x8 beds, and bought 5 yards (a full truck load with a price break). But it appears I didn’t use more than 4 yards, maybe even less. Probably the beds aren’t 12 inches deep, and I did put some local soil in the bottom to seal the edges.

Meanwhile, I’ve finished planting the new flower bed on the other side of the house, here’s a pic when I started digging:

And another when I finished planting:

I decided after reviewing my plant stock (and time) to make it smaller, hence the round finished shape. I plan to enlarge it in future years and make it less round. And I bought more plants this week, the whole thing should fill in once they grow. I need more mulch too, but can’t get any delivered until I move the leftover soil from the raised bed project.

Weekly flower fix

2009-06-15T20:42:00.001-07:00

Clematis -

Cosmos -

California Poppies -

Building Raised Beds

2009-06-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

I’m exhausted. I’ve spent the last week turning over the hard clay subsoil under my new garden. I’ve had to water the ground to soften it enough to dig down. I also took the time and effort to break up the clods. Next step, tomorrow’s project, is to add a little peat moss to the clay so roots will still be able to penetrate after the clay hardens up again.

Today my husband built the beds out of pressure-treated 2X12s. I could have done it myself but he’s a professional carpenter – and the tools needed are usually with him, at some distant job site. He likes eating my home-grown produce so he didn’t mind helping.

I researched pressure-treated lumber for gardens before he went to the store. The old stuff was considered unsafe, but today’s pressure-treated does not contain arsenic. I’m glad I researched though, because now I won’t use the pressure-treated 4X4’s from the deck we plan to demolish anywhere near food plants. They probably do contain arsenic.

Monday I go to the building supply center to order topsoil and compost. Hopefully they’ll deliver the same day, and I can spend the week filling the beds. And go shopping for seedlings, as it’s getting a little late in the season for all but fall-crop seeds.

Preparing for raised beds

2009-06-09T15:17:00.001-07:00

[Below post written last week, I've removed all the sod now and started a double-dig in the remaining soil. Hard work, but the plants should do better with loosened soil under the beds.]

I’ve started removing the sod from the area where I plan to put raised beds, in what was the front yard. Since our house is set back on a large lot, we don’t really have a ‘front’ or ‘back’ yard, but the front door is on that side so I call it front. Maybe I’ll start calling it the south yard instead.

I carefully left plenty of room to demolish the old deck, but when I started thinking about replacement plans I realized my beds might be in the way. So I measured and plotted and drew ideas on graph paper. Sure enough, one possibility had the stairs landing two feet from one of the beds. Another, nice and compact, made access to the outside faucet difficult.

When my husband came home I showed him the plans and insisted we settle on one, at least in concept if not final design. After some discussion, he chose my least favorite, but I can live with it. (I knew he’d veto the one I really liked, too complex.) And I don’t need to move my beds.

Now I need to remeasure and see if I can put four beds in instead of three without getting too close to the deck. It won’t use much more space if I change the orientation 90 degrees, so I’ll get one more bed with a minimum of sod removal. And four beds will use one truckload of soil.

If I can get four beds in now I can plant them, then worry about fitting another four in later. Like maybe next year, since the ground is almost too dry to dig now. I’ve had to water the area I’m digging to keep it a little bit soft. When this clay dries, it dries hard. Hence the raised beds for vegetables.
[update, we've had rain and the ground has softened up a little bit]

More flowers

2009-06-09T15:02:00.001-07:00

I took these pics about two weeks ago (May 23d), all have gone by now. Above it a purple plum.
Below is lilac just opening up.

Here's a bush cherry. Each bloom is tiny but they coat the branches. The funny red things are tulips gone by. The deer didn't find this batch.

Here's asian pear blossoms. This tree is new so I'll have to remove the fruits. Or most of them, I'm tempted to leave one per branch.

This one is amur cherry. I like the cloud effect of the fuzzy blossom clusters.

So Much for the Tightwad Approach

2009-05-31T20:52:00.001-07:00

Deciding I’d spent too much on the landscape this year, I started hunting for low cost or free material. I found someone in town (12 miles away) who had some dirt to give away. Free dirt! How could a gardener resist?

Today I asked my husband if I could borrow his truck (I no longer have my own, a car is more useful most of the time), and he thought I was nuts. After a long discussion over whether free dirt that I’d have to shovel and haul was a false economy, I let him win. It’s his money that will pay for buying dirt and having it delivered. If it were just me, I’d shovel.

But I’m not ready for lots of soil yet anyway, I need to build the raised beds first. Which led to the next discussion, what we’re going to do about the front deck. It was poorly built to start with (by prior owners) and is now showing signs of rot. Plus the whole thing is nailed, no screws or bolts, and is pulling apart.

I wanted to start tearing it down and re-use the lumber to build my raised beds. I also had plans to use the slats from the railing for trellises. Nope, he squashed those too. The old decking won’t last long enough to bother using and trellises might as well be made with nice cedar or why bother.

Guess I’d better set up an account at the building supply store.

My tulips are blooming

2009-05-12T08:50:00.001-07:00

The daffodils have gone by. My shrubs are leafing out, the daylilies are up, and my tulips are in full bloom. I planted the bulbs two falls ago, and they are already multiplying. Spring bulbs do really well here, by the time the weather gets hot and the ground dries out they have died back and don’t care. Maybe this fall I will plant more, I’ve got a lot of yard to fill up.

Planting and digging out front

2009-05-03T14:00:00.001-07:00

The front beds are coming along. I finally finished planting the smaller one Saturday. It needs more rock beside the steps, and maybe a few annuals to fill the holes.

Now it needs mulch but it’s a windy site, I need to find something that will smother weeds and stay put in high winds. Maybe a layer of woodchips covered with rock. Of course, I have neither on hand, so I will have to start hunting for mulches.

This spring we noticed the water draining off the bit of hill behind the house ran right into the new steps, so I dug a quick drainage ditch to divert the water off to the side of the retaining wall. Saturday our son helped turn the ditch into a dry streambed. All it needs now is rocks to line it. That may be the hard part, but I figure it can wait. I can move rock around when the ground is too dry and hard to dig more beds.

When we bought this place, this area was a bare grassy slope between the driveway and back door. No path, no steps, no nothing. We put in the retaining wall two summers ago, but I'm still working on the planting. I moved the flowering tree I tried, and last week we moved the spruce that grew too close to the wall. Now I have a big bare space to fill up - time to go plant shopping.

Digging up lilacs

2009-04-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

I dug up two lilacs yesterday, both small ones, no taller than 2 1/2 feet. One had been in place when we bought the house 6 years ago (and never thrived), the other we planted 2 or 3 years ago (and never thrived). They were in the way of a possible tractor shed.

When I walked up to the first one I noticed a mouse or ground-squirrel tunnel ending in a hole right next to its roots. But I didn’t pause to check the shrub. I dug a trench all the way around and started shoveling under what should have been the root ball.

When I levered upward, I noticed the trunk seemed to wobble. So I tested it, to see how loose it was, and the whole thing pulled right up – no roots. The critter had eaten them all, nothing left but teeth marks on the main root trunk.

I salvaged what I could, three trunks that still had some root-mass (not necessarily actual roots), and set them in a peatmoss-compost mix. I have no greenhouse or coldframe, so the best I could do for protection was to set them in a plastic bin for some wind protection. I have little expectation they’ll survive, but they have a chance. Lilacs are tough.

The other one dug up as I’d expected, no critter damage. But the main trunk appears to have a rotten center, so I’ve recategorized it from landscape material to bonsai prospect. It might be really cool once I’ve dug the rotting deadwood out. I did cut off and pot up several sprouts growing out from the base, for future landscape use.

Winter’s last hurrah

2009-04-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

Don’t try to convince me this is “global warming”! Yeah, I really did take this picture today.
It melted an hour later, but still, we LEFT Alaska six years ago, dammit. There, we might have snow on the ground this late, but I don’t remember more coming down.

But the white ground did give me an opportunity to take a picture of our new grove of pine trees, they hadn't shown up against the grass. We transplanted these from the neighbor’s property (with permission, of course) a couple days ago. They kinda look like Charlie Brown’s christmas tree, don’t they? They are only 2 - 2 1/2 feet high but they’ll grow.

More trees arrived

2009-04-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

I’ve received two shipments of trees in the last couple days. First was my bulk order of juniper from Musser Forests and the second was 9 fruit trees from Miller Nurseries. Both were nice healthy trees and well-packed.

The juniper were in pots and carefully strapped into cardboard boxes. Took me forever to get them out of there and water them all. Could have done it faster if I hadn’t soaked each one for a thorough watering. I realized half-way through that I could have lifted the entire trays out instead of pulling each pot out.

The fruit trees were bare root so I soaked them in water overnight and planted them today in peat with a little compost mixed in. It’s a temporary solution, as I am still trying to find a source of lava cinders or pumice to add to my potting mix for drainage. But they are nice big healthy-looking trees. I’m keeping them in the garage for a day or two because some buds have opened and we’re expecting temps in the 20s overnight.

I’d definitely order from either company again. The shipping and handling charge from Musser was a bit high but their care with packing made it worth the cost. I’m not so sure about Gurney’s. Their trees came with a little bit of newspaper around the roots and the plastic wrapper was loose. Miller used shavings and taped the plastic securely.

Meanwhile, the trees I received last fall do not appear to have survived the winter. I won’t buy anything for fall delivery again, at least not until I have a greenhouse. The only sheltered place I could have put them was the garage, and we heat it in the winter. It would have been too warm for dormant trees.

Spring flowers

2009-04-19T08:31:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics I took yesterday at the UI Arboretum. It’s still early spring here, a few things blooming and lots of buds.

violets

heath - the only ones blooming were the hybrids

forsythia - mine is not in bloom yet

daphne - i want to try some of these

daffodils - mine are blooming, but not in nice clumps like this

More wildflowers seeded

2009-04-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

Spent a few days spreading wildflower seed over compost around some of the shrubs in the back corner. Most of these shrubs are volunteers that I found in the grass. Having read that clearing the sod around young trees and shrubs encouraged growth, I did.

The transplanted pines and Douglas fir have taken off, but the shrubs keep getting eaten. Maybe they would have anyway, but I can’t help but think my clearing efforts exposed them to browsers. So I figured I’d try growing wildflowers around them. That and the cleared spots were an easy place to seed.

I planted one type per area so I will have patches of blooms, if they grow. I still have seed left over and more patches but am running short of compost. I need what I have left for the iris patch, which I hope to plant tomorrow.

Wildflowers planted: Corn poppy, lupine, purple tansy, blanket flower, echinacea, cosmos, and cornflower.

The first daffodils are blooming along the top of the ex-lawn.

Before pictures, sort of

2009-04-11T13:05:00.001-07:00

Actually, the before would show no garden beds at all. But I’m not sure where the bare lawn pictures are, either on the other computer or not digital. The only landscaping when we moved in was junipers along the driveway. We’ve left them.

This corner bed with shrubs started with a casual compost heap, mostly sod from other areas. I had irises along the front but dug them out last fall and seeded lupine instead, in hopes of watering less.

The dish in the back is not yet blocked by the shrubs, but we don't have a TV so unless we are able to put the house on the market soon I plan to remove the ugly thing.

This strip in front of the power pole is an attempt to hide the pole. The view out our bedroom window is a nice straight-on of the pole, so I planted lilacs to hide it. They need to double in height before they’ll have much effect. Daylilies share the bed around the lilacs, and I’ve planted other shrubs to the sides. At the top end (to the left in photo) are roses that were in the lawn when I dug the bed. The young evergreens in the back are Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir, most of which I planted. They are finally showing up nicely.

Here’s a new bed I’ve been working on this year. This project was started by our son, who had the room behind the window. He wanted to lower the culvert-like window surround, but never finished digging down. He moved out on his own last year, leaving the bare dirt of a half-dug hole behind.

I tried to expand the concept hoping to replace the surround with retaining walls, but had to abandon that idea when I exposed the drain pipe from the corner gutter. Plan B was to lower the surround, which was set 6 inches higher than necessary. So I dug down, only to find I could not get the nuts loose because the entire bolt turned when I cranked on the nut.

Plan C is now in progress. I filled the hole back in, and have expanded the dug-over area. I have a plastic bin full of Siberian iris looking for a home, this will be it. They will be protected from the hot afternoon sun here, which should mean less watering.

Flower report

2009-04-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today is gray and rainy so I’m posting flower pictures. The crocus are starting to fade out and the daffodils are close to blooming.

Here’s my biggest crocus patch, planted two years ago. You can get some idea how clayey our soil is from this picture. I never seeded any grass because I planned to mulch the area, but haven’t bought the mulch yet. Maybe I’ll seed some wildflowers, in case I don’t get around to digging the area up for other plantings.

Here’s a couple close-ups of crocus:

I have a plan for the yard

2009-04-09T19:24:00.001-07:00

Okay, it’s not a detailed plan. But I’ve finally decided what to do about the “lawn.” I put that in quotes because we’ve never watered or fertilized the “lawn,” just mow it enough to try and keep the weeds at bay. We have a yard with some grass in it rather than a lawn.

I’d rather have the whole thing in garden – wildland type garden perhaps, but all flowers and shrubs and trees and no grass. But I haven’t the equipment, time, or money to either remove or smother the grass.

However, the grass has gotten sparse over the years of neglect, and there’s plenty of bare soil showing between the tufts. So I am going to scatter wildflower seeds over the bare patches and let her go. Or grow. Whatever.

We’ll mow after the weeds – strike that – wildflowers have flowered so the yard doesn’t fill up with dead stalks. And I’ll need to patrol for thistles and other forbidden plants, but I do that already.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep expanding the areas where I’ve dug under or removed the sod layer (such as it is), planting flowers and shrubs and trees chosen for their ability to thrive here with no care. And I hope to put in gravel (probably) paths, and someday a patio or two, and maybe a gazebo.

And somewhere in there some raised beds for a vegetable garden. I was going to try using 12 inch plastic edging to make the beds until I remembered the mice and ground squirrels. (The tunnels exposed as the snow melted reminded me.) New plan is wood-sided beds with hardware cloth bottoms to keep the varmints out.

Starting seeds

2009-04-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to starting seeds today. I dug the window-sill trays out of the garage and mixed extra peatmoss-compost blend yesterday when potting up the berries. Lettuce, chives, and leeks are on the window sill now. Cukes, squash, and cantelope are on top of the fridge.

I discovered my south-facing windows hold two trays each so I can start more, maybe I’ll wait two weeks for a staggered planting. I’m using 3-inch pots, not six-packs. I put just three seeds each for the squash, cukes, and melon planning to get one plant per pot. Hopefully they’ll be ready to plant into their permanent home before they outgrow the pots.

That means only one plant per pot, which may not be enough plants. If I plant more in two weeks I can compare growth and have a better handle on when to plant them next year. Which reminds me, I’ll need to date the plant labels.

Varieties started:
Lettuce mix ‘Gourmet Salad Bowl’
Summer Squash ‘Early Prolific Straightneck’
Summer Squash ‘Black Magic’
Cucumber ‘Sweeter Yet’
Cucumber ‘Miss Pickler Pioneer’
Cantalope ‘Athena’
Garlic Chives (also called Chinese Leeks)
Leek ‘Upton F1’

I decided not to start tomatoes or peppers this year despite buying seeds. They should have been done already. I will buy plants instead. That way I don’t need to deal with them yet.

The sun finally came out

2009-04-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

And most of the remaining snow melted. Most of the melted snow is still around in the form of water – puddles, mud, seasonal streams overflowing their banks, and so on.

But the sun was out and I had plants soaking that needed to get out of the water, so it was time to plant. I have compost and peatmoss, but wanted to get something to add to the mix for better drainage.

So I wasted an hour of my morning driving to town only to find Walmart doesn’t have it’s garden center fully stocked yet. I did note prices on a few things I might buy later, for comparison. I considered trying the local building supply center which has a decent garden center, but they are usually mobbed on Saturdays, so I came home instead.

I mixed compost and peatmoss and planted my strawberries, raspberries, and dwarf cherries several to a pot. I plan to repot them individually as soon as I have a better potting blend, and some labels so I can label each pot.

Gurney’s didn’t watch the weather reports

2009-04-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

It’s still snowing here and my plants are arriving. I’ve got two bundles of strawberries wrapped in damp paper towels sitting in plastic cups by the French door in my office, and raspberries and dwarf cherries soaking in a bucket in the garage.

Good thing it’s supposed to warm up this weekend so I can move them outdoors. I’ll have to run to town tomorrow, I still need drainage material before I can mix potting soil. I’ve learned that a straight blend of compost and peatmoss holds too much water. I didn’t realize that was possible in this climate, though admittedly it hasn’t been dry here lately.

Today I checked my VISA account online to find a charge to Musser Forests, which means my junipers are on the way. I hope they arrive in pots! I got carried away and ordered 100 horizontal juniper plants for landscaping. We can use them, but I’m starting to panic at the thought of having to plant them all.

The good news is the snow on the ground has melted down to about 1 1/2 inches. It might all be gone by Sunday.

This joke's getting old

2009-04-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke up to this:

About six inches of new snow overnight! After the weather report called for "no significant accumulation."
Where's global warming when you need it?

Old Man Winter's revenge

2009-04-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

Old Man Winter has played a vicious April Fool's joke on us over the last four days. I think he didn't like my last post. I've stopped taking pictures but today, April first, mid-afternoon as I write this, it is snowing again. Not sticking - yet.

I never knew the old saying “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” meant the end of March would be white. I suppose I should have figured that out while living in Alaska, but I always thought the month was off by one.

This time of year, the snow does melt fast if the sun comes out, so despite snowing every day, most of it has melted. It snows, melts, snows, melts, snows some more.

March 28th:
This pic doesn't show the howling winds that came with the snow. The drifts haven't fully melted yet.

March 29:
After the thin spots melted off in the afternoon, we had more snow overnight.

March 30:
Again, melted and then snowed.

March 31:
When we woke up I looked out the window and said "hey the ground's not white this morning." Twenty minutes later it started snowing.

And I caught this little fellow heading for my feeder while taking snow pics: