Notes for April 20, 2009

Well, I finally got the veggie garden tilled. I added finely ground up leaves, wood ashes and bone meal. then I planted two rows of radishes and four rows of spinach (to use up old seeds).

I then raked up the back yard of all the little branches that had fallen over the winter. I decided I needed to do that now because it looks like I will need to cut the grass next week and I didn't want to be attacked by flying wood chips.

I also planted two Hosta and Ostrich Ferns (both bare root) and a red iris.

Notes for March 12, 2009

I finally got my seed/plant orders off. I ordered the usual as well as some new things. I ordered some ferns, some Hosta, an orange Iris and a red Iris, a pink dogwood and a magnolia.

My local garden center has onion sets in but they aren't open on weekends yet, so I am asking the wife to stop by. Hopefully I will plant them this weekend.

I stopped at the Aunt and Uncle's house on my way home from work yesterday and picked up a five gallon bucket of wood ashes that they saved from their wood burrning stove. They have another one nearly full and are still using the stove, so I am probably going to drop off another empty bucket maybe next week. I also picked up a small bag of bone meal this past weekend and will prepare the onion patch with the bone meal, some wood ashes and a healthy layer of ground up leaves before planting. Then I will get to the piles of wind drifted leaves around the yard.

Notes for August 14, 2008

Here is a picture of my Hosta I bought at a roadside stand. This is the one I split when I planted it and the smaller split died. This one seems to be doing better.

I cut my grass last night (or maybe I should say I shortened my crabgrass, but at least my yard is green). Since we haven't been getting enough rain when the yard needs it, there were some areas that I didn't cut last night (just really didn't need it). And to my surprise, my 19 year old son came out and helped me (I have two mowers. My mom gave me hers when she downsized to an over 55 community and has a service do her lawn). Well we got the other mower started (I like to start it up several times a year to keep it running so I have it as a back up, its a smaller one so I don't use it that often) and we plowed through the thick crabgrass.

I did notice something last night in the veggie garden. I have mentioned before that I have a problem with growing peppers in that I don't pick any until September. I am pretty sure it is because they only get about 3 to 4 hours of good sunlight and since they are a tropical plant they need more. But come September the plants decide that they aren't going to get more sunlight so they decide to start making peppers. In September I pick a bunch of small to medium peppers (the size of one is good to cut up for two salads). So anyway, last night I noticed that I had a medium sized pepper growing on one of my plants and its only mid August! Then I remembered that I had planted two varieties of peppers this year to experiment. I grew Parks Seeds "Whopper" and Totally Tomatoes "Fat and Sassy". The "Fat and Sassy" had a shorter maturation time. And guess what, the plant with the pepper was the "Fat and Sassy". I also noticed that the F&S plants had little peppers in the blossoms where the Whopper only had blossoms. So it looks like next year I will continue with the F&S. But I am thinking of moving them into the area where I grow my beans (I think it gets more sun there).

Notes for August 7, 2008

I watered the veggie garden and some of my flower beds last night. My cucumbers in the shady side are doing much better than the ones that get more sun. The ones in the sun seem to be getting burned, I guess I'm not watering them enough.

While I was watering my flower beds, I also did some weeding. The funny thing was that some of the weeds were tomato and watermelon plants (not surprised since I throw the rotting tomatoes and the water melon rinds in the compost pile).

Earlier this spring I transplanted a Dogwood tree. I transplanted it when the leaves were still small. I guess I should have waited until the leaves were mature because the leaves stayed the same size. Last night I noticed from a distance that half of the leaves appear to be of normal size. I will have to check this out closer.

I purchased a large green Hosta late this spring and thought it was big enough to split. I wrote earlier that the smaller one died. Last night I noticed that the larger remaining plant was in bloom. It has three stalks with white flowers.

Notes for June 23, 2008

Here is a picture of another Hosta.

I got a few hours yesterday (literally only a few hours). Went to church in the morning, got home at 1:30 and then went back for a farewell picnic for our associate pastor at 5 PM. But I think I made the most of it.

Watered everything, but I did it in stages (didn't want to have the pump straining to keep up since we've been lacking in rain, I know my well is fairly shallow or at least shallower than my comfort level).

Tied up my tomato plants (which is nearly a weekly thing from now until August). I would have to read my blog to remember when I did it last but I had about 18 inches of new growth since I tied them last.

When I first came out of the house, on my way across the yard I saw a hummingbird visiting the Bee Balm that is now in bloom (and that the primary reason I planted the Bee Balm). If you ever want to plant it, watch it, it spreads easily.

The cucumbers I planted last week are growing nicely so I mulched them and I transplanted the Cosmos seedlings along the inside of my veggie garden but I didn't mulch them. I want to give them a week to get their heads up.

My sunflowers are about three feet tall now and I adjusted them so that they are being supported by the twine I have strung between some posts just for them.

I also mulched some more of my flower beds, but I still have one more that really needs to be done but it has a bunch of new perennials that I am waiting for them to get a little bigger but I did weed that garden a little so it doesn't look too bad. While mulching the flower beds I came across a baby praying mantis. it was about an inch long. Friday night I was outside and noticed a toad in the yard.

Notes for June 19, 2008

I have been working late hours and unable to do any work in the gardens but I am happy to report that we got just a little bit more rain yesterday than the last two times combined. This morning I emptied 0.4" from the rain gauge. I'll take whatever I can get.

The picture today is of one of a few Hostas given to me last year. This one is doing rather well.

When I got home last night the mother Robin did not leave the nest as I walked past her only a few feet away.

Notes for June 2, 2008

We had thunderstorms on Saturday that gave me 0.35" of rain.

Took off from work on Friday for other reasons and was able to spend the day working outside. I was happy with the work I got done but I was not happy on Saturday. I am 45 years old and I can't do as much as I once did and not pay for it the next day. It made me concerned but I was better on Sunday (still sore but better).

Friday I was able to plant another row of green beans after I finished picking my spinach. I planted about 12 volunteer tomato plants (probably all cherry tomatoes, yum). Each tomato plant was planted in the same way ( a 2 gallon hole filled with manure and sprinkled with wood ashes mixed thoroughly with the excavated soil and the remaining soil used to make a bowled wall around the plant to channel all watering). On Thursday on my way home from work, I bought a Coreopsis (tickseed), a purple/blue Salvia, a Pincushion flower and a green Hosta. I planted all these on Friday. I found several more volunteer marigolds in my veggie patch and transplanted them back in to my veggie patch between the tomato plants. I have more coming as seedlings that I will plant in with the cucumbers and peppers.

Then I mulched. I had ambitions of mulching my veggie garden and all my flower beds but of course, I didn't get that far. I ended up only mulching all the tomato and pepper plants and their walking rows and the row of green beans that is about 8" tall. I will mulch the rest as the plants mature. I used up one compost pile completely, but I still have the big one and another of the same size I used up. To use up the remainder of the wood ashes I had, I sprinkled it heavily in the walking rows before I mulched it over. That way it will get into the soil. While digging out the compost pile I saw plenty of earthworms.

Some of the cucumbers are starting to sprout and it looks like all of the sunflowers have sprouted (so I will have to thin them).

Friday afternoon I called a friend up and asked him if he wanted some tomato plants. he came over and I gave him about 12 volunteer tomato plants and the remainder of my radishes.

The Mountain Laurels are in full bloom in my area and there are many in the woods all around. I wouldn't mind finding one in the woods to transplant into my yard. I had one at my home but it died. I still have a Mountain Pink and it is beautiful.

Notes for July 27, 2007

I watered the gardens and cut the grass but didn't do much else due to the sweat running in my eyes and the bugs in my ears.

The beets I planted a couple of weeks ago seem to be dying off. I guess its too hot for them. They were supposed to be in the shade but the sunflowers they are planted behind have taken hits from the rabbit and ants so that they are only 3 feet tall right now. The last two years my sunflowers were up to 9 feet tall.

While watering I have noticed that I have lost a couple of the perennial seedlings I planted a few weeks ago as well as a couple of my hostas I planted this year (all of my hostas are from a friend who can't grow them due to the deer in their yard).

I also need to mulch heavier. I have weeds coming up in the exposed soil spots in my veggie garden.