Notes for March 4, 2009

Well I haven't made my seed order yet and I am feeling guilty. It doesn't help when you get 10" of snow either. I was hoping to clear the leaves off the daffodils soon.

Notes for January 21, 2009

My wife tells me that during the inauguration, we had a patriotic yard. We have a dusting of snow and had a bunch of bluebirds and cardinals at the feeders.

I think I finally finished looking through all the seed catalogs that I have received so far. Next I will probably take an inventory of what I have left and then make a list of what I need/want.

There are a couple of shade perennials that I may try. On the north side of my house I may try to get some ferns (although its not a low/moist area). I will just have to add alot of leaf mold to the soil and hope for the best. Its just another experiment.

In one of the catalogs (I think it was Kelly's Nurseries), I saw a Magnolia and a pink/red dogwood at a good price. Since I have been losing trees in my back yard I thought I may replace a couple with some flowering trees. I have a white dogwood in the front yard and have transplanted several of its offspring so a pink/red one would be nice. In the home where I grew up, we had a magnolia tree (not the kind with the shiny green leaves) and I really miss it.

Notes for October 30, 2008

Hey look at that it rained again! Wednesday morning I emptied 1.3" from the rain gauge. Pretty soon I am going to have to put the rain gauge away or its in trouble of freezing if I don't empty it in time.

Tuesday while at work it snowed! Of course where I was it didn't accumulate except for slush on the parked cars of the parking lot. But on my drive home (heading south) about halfway home I noticed a dusting in the grassy areas. Then when I got home I couldn't believe how much the northern suburbs of Philadelphia got.

Notes for February 27, 2008

Yes its been over a month... so here goes...

We've had thunderstorms THREE times this winter which is unusual. I think I have only seen about one every other winter.

Earlier this month I stopped by my local garden center to get my supply of vegetable seeds (radish, spinach and green beans). They get them in in February and that's the time to go, otherwise the selection is gone when you want to plant. I also bought two bags of onion sets and hope to get them in the ground next month. To go with them I bought four 40 pound bags of composted cow manure. I have planted onions with the bags of composted manure and had fairly good results. This year will be second year I have this onion bed, so it still needs lots of organic matter and manure. I still have several five gallon buckets of horse manure and I may mix one of them in the onion bed and save the rest for the flower beds I never finished last year. I also bought a 25 pound bag of bone meal to add to my larger veggie garden. I will add the bone meal right before I make the second pass with the tiller when I till the garden. I have also asked my aunt and uncle to save the ashes from their wood burning stove for me to also add to my veggie garden.

I plan to purchase and plant the following perennials this year: Bee Balm, Sedum, Yarrow, Butterfly Weed, Daylillies, Iris, Hardy Geraniums, Columbine, Spiderwort (Trinity plant?), Joe Pye Weed, Lobelia, painted Daisies and Hosta.

The Daffodils are coming up already as they do every year. They are up about two inches. I transplanted numerous daffodils last year and they are going to look nice. I lined my back fence. I planted in three rows in a diamond pattern. I will try to get a picture when they bloom.

A week ago Monday it was Presidents day and I had off. By the afternoon it was 60 degrees F. Unheard of for February. So I did some work outside. I mulched up all the leaves that had piled up in the spots where the winds collects them. I ran over them a few times with the mower and then bagged them with the mower, making a nice fine mulch. Then I spread some grass seed in some bare spots (after raking the spots to loosen the soil). I bought about 25 pounds total of several different blends. I think I have a three pound bag left. Since I put down the seed, we've had precipitation about every three days, which is great for grass seed in the winter. The first dousing was just as I was finished spreading the seed and thinking of gathering up the branches in the yard that the winter winds had blown down. So the branches are still out there.

On Friday the kids were home from school due to snow and forecasted changing over to freezing rain. I also stayed home from work just to stay out of the mess. On Friday and Saturday we were visited on the suet feeders by Bluebirds. There was nothing special about the suet blocks. They were just the cheap ones that you can buy anywhere which I put up to attract the woodpeckers and nuthatches.

I am still going to order a bunch of other vegetable seeds and start them under the grow lights next month. I hope to have the order out next week. Mainly the varieties of Tomatoes and Peppers I want and want to try.

Can't wait to get out there again!

Notes for December 11, 2007

We've been cloudy since Saturday evening and getting off and on showers. It doesn't bother me now that I'm not trying to work outside. We need the rain but I would like to clean up the wind blown leaves that have collected along the fences and along the house before Christmas.

Saturday I did pick all of the carrots. Some were nice fat ones that were about 6 inches long. I hope they aren't too woody. We have a couple of nights in the teens and the plants were only slightly wilted.

Saturday I did get to make repairs from the wind we had a couple of weeks ago. I fixed my bird feeder wire as well as glued some flashing back onto a low roof. The chickadees and the nuthatches were scolding me as I was making the repairs (some nerve ).

I got another seed catalog in the mail this past week. Now I can start throwing out last years catalogs that are sitting on my bureau.

Notes for December 6, 2007

We've got about two inches of snow on the ground right now. It starting snowing yesterday around 11 Am and stopped some time before midnight.

When I got home from work on Monday I found some wind damage. First I had to walk a little bit down the street to retrieve my empty trash can. Next to where I keep my trash cans I found some flashing that had blown off the roof over my back door. Then near my back door I noticed that some tree branches had fallen in the yard once again breaking the wire that I have two bird feeders hanging from. So some time this weekend I have some repairs to do.

Notes for December 3, 2007

Woke up to a dusting Sunday morning but turned to all rain by the afternoon. However it was enough to send me to my knees on the front step as I was coming back into the house after starting my car before going to church. Luckily I didn't rip a hole in my pants but I got a nice strawberry on my knee.

Saturday I did run the mower over the leaves in the yard. I didn't do the whole yard, just the front yard and part of the back. I didn't bag them either, I left them in place.

I started getting seed catalogs. I got one from Totally Tomatoes. I was surprised that they had more than just tomatoes. They had peppers and cukes too.