Notes for August 17, 2009

Well on Friday I finally was able to cut the grass. It had been a couple of weeks but at first it didn't need it. Then we started getting rain at regular intervals and my calendar wasn't letting me out there to cut it. Soooo when I finally got to it Friday night, I had to go half speed at half width and raise the deck a notch in order to get it done before nightfall. While I was cutting the grass I avoided, not one, not two, not three but FOUR toads. That's a new record for me. Each were small, about as big as my thumb. It baffled me why so many until I realized they were out there chasing some of the hundreds of crickets I also saw in the thick grass. Saturday the calendar opened up again and I was able to get a nice chunk of time in the yard. I first harvested some green beans (first picking of third green beans), peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers and the last batch of onions. Then I tended the tomatoes (trimming suckers and tying). There isn't much tying anymore, most of my plants are six foot or taller and have out grown my 8 foot stakes (each stake is in the ground at least a foot). So I trimmed the suckers I could reach and tied the lower/slower growing tomatoes. I am surprised I don't have any hornworms yet. Now that I said that, I will probably pull of several tonight (I plan on watering tonight). I pulled out all the remaining onions and really didn't get many more. I noticed that the onions that went to flower never really formed an onion. So I think that starting next year I won't let them flower and I will snip the bud off when it starts forming. I added some wood ashes and then turned the onion patch and planted two rows of carrots. Earlier this week I received two German bearded irises (that I ordered in the Spring, but didn't realize at the time that they wouldn't be delivered until August). So I planted them in the front of the house. I pulled out a low lying evergreen first and planted them there. The evergreen was bare in the middle and the outer edges needed trimmed back which wouldn't have left very much. It needed trimmed, part of it was a trip hazard for my front steps and another part was growing into the driveway and so I wasn't liking it. After planting the irises, I finished cleaning up the tree debris from the tree I had cut down about a month ago, (my friend came by this week and picked up the cut wood for his wood burning stoves). I also had to fill in the depressions that the falling pieces left. And finally I weeded and mulched the front gardens and the other driveway garden. The other driveway garden is kind of bare. I lost a bunch of perennials there this year. So I will enjoy thinking of what I can plant next year.

Notes for May 6, 2009

Emptied 0.75" from the rain gauge.

The Iris are starting to bud.

Notes for May 5, 2009

The Lillies of the Valley are in bloom and the Iris and pincushion are starting to bud.

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 June 17, 2008

Here is a picture of the corner of the first flower garden I started. The Tiger Lilly and the Iris are well established. The two Sedums to the left I planted last year and the one to the right I planted this year. They are doing so well, I bought more this year and now have a total of six in the yard. The little Hosta in the middle was a transplant from a friend of mine. They gave it to me because the deer in their neighborhood were not letting the Hosta grow.

Thunderstorms passed all around yesterday afternoon and evening but Moses was still at work. We didn't get any rain and all the storms passed either to our north or south.

Notes for May 15, 2008

Last night I planted 19 blades of Iris, 2 Sedums, 2 Geraniums and one red Spiderwort. I also planted some annuals into flower pots for the front steps. I moved the red Rhododendron to a place where I am thinking of planting it and then outlined a small garden around it with some edging I had leftover. I finished at 8:20 and it wouldn't have been so dark and it not been cloudy.

My Bleeding Heart plant is doing well. I have a white one and since its doing well in my yard, I am thinking of getting more.

I have four more dead trees in my yard, two are small and all the way in the back, and the other two I am thinking of having cut down.

This morning's temperature was in the 50's and cloudy. I also did hear the crop duster spraying somewhere nearby (I suspect for gypsy moths). He got my place yesterday as evidenced by the white spots all over my car.

I probably won't work outside again until Saturday and if the weather cooperates I am planning on making trips to the horse farm for manure. Unfortunately I don't have a truck so I load it into 5 gallon buckets and put them in my car (or the wife's van). I am also probably going to place my seedlings from under the light into the back yard. This is the weekend I like to plant my tomatoes and peppers but it doesn't look like that's going to happen this year. If I get the manure on Saturday then I will plant any and every evening I get a chance to in the week.

Notes for May 14, 2008

Again it was 38 degrees F this morning and was awakened to crop dusters spraying for gypsy moths (5:30 AM). My car is covered in white specks. I am complaining about it being cold in the morning and yet my northern friend I think is still waiting for snow to melt?

There is a woman from church of retirement age who has a perennial flower business. The Iris are starting to bloom and so I stopped by her place. I bought a bunch (about 18 stalks) of Iris, two Sedums (large variety), two hardy Geraniums and a red (more like fuscia) Spiderwort. I plan on planting them tonight.

It was a nice sunny day yesterday and its supposed to be today and even warmer (low 70s). Hopefully it will be enough to get my green beans to germinate. I looked at them last night and it looks like they will today (anyone who has planted green beans will know that when they start to break out of their seeds the ground cracks and last night I saw that the ground had started to crack).

Notes for May 8, 2008

It's raining this morning and that's good. We never really got the "April Showers" so we are a bit dryer than we should be at this time of year. Hopefully we'll get the one to two inches forecasted for tomorrow.

My Iris are starting to bloom as well as some of the columbine I planted this year. I got a clump of Joe Pye Weed from some one and split it up into four pieces. Two of those pieces have sprouted. I bought two Yarrow plants and they have started to grow.

My tomato and pepper plants that I started indoors under the lights are looking great and I am going to move them outside soon and hopefully have them planted before Memorial Day. I figured out the secret quite by accident last year. The grow light must be as close as possible to the seedlings or they grow long and spindly and its ok for the light to touch the plants.

The daffodils I transplanted along my fence lines last year did look great this spring when the were in bloom. The stalks are still there, I haven't mowed them down yet. When they start to die off I will cut them down. I planted this years Easter flower bulbs each with a couple of teaspoons of bulb tone and hopefully they will respond by lasting longer. I have been giving my holly trees some Holly Tone in the spring and fall and the smallest looks most appreciative.

The grass seed I put down in February looks nice but looks like its needs some rain to survive. The grass seed I put down at the end of March is struggling (lack of "April showers").