Busy As Bees We Is. Part 5

I am worn out.  Today was the most recent day of hard work.  Went from Noon to 5 pm with two 15 minute breaks. 

Moving and dividing large Hosta plants surrounded closely by Daffodils I don't want to damage is hard.  Planting the divisions in new patterns among the existing Daffodils is even harder. 

My knees feel broken, my back muscles are complaining, and I got leg and side cramps after I stopped.  And I have Hostas I dug up yet to be transplanted (i watered them in a shady location before stopping for the day).  So tomorrow is "once more with the shovel".

So I want to show off some pictures of HAPPY...  They don't all apply to this week's work, but they are good reminders of why I do the work.
 
 A good standard Daffodil

 New Astilbes growing.

Serious contrast

Lovely tulips in wire cages to protect from voles

As bold as a Daffodil can get

Multiple daffodils

Bold colors

Bright colors

 Delicate colors

Multiple blooms

Many Tulips together

 And some planted 10 years ago still blooming (somehow escaping the voles)

The new flowerbed border Daffodils ('Hillstar')

 Iza In Flowers

Marley In Flowers

Busy As Bees We Is, Part 4

The last post in this series is the Hummingbird/Bee/Butterfly Garden.

I have this 10' diameter edged area I intended for one plant but it spreads through seeds elsewhere.  Lysymachia Firecracker is an EVIL plant!  I am seeking to kill it before it spreads further.  Herbicide is not out of the question though I try to stay organic.  It doesn't die being scraped off at ground level; apparently, I'll have to dig each and every one out deeply.

But that left the place it was intended for.  So I bought some individual hummingbird, butterfly and bee seed mixes.  The flowers can grow in the medium soil I have, but want a good soil for germinating.  And they do best without much weed competition.

I have a big rototiller.  But it doesn't work very well in small areas or with a lot of grass roots.  So last year, I bought a little electric tiller.  It won't get more than a few inches deep. but it is light and I can hold it in place over stubborn weeds to grind down below the roots.

I'm a few days behind the actual events, but a few days ago, I dragged it out and used it in the bed.  I went north/south once and east/west once.  Then I dragged it backwards along the inside edge of the plastic edging.  I raked out most of the rocks and dumped two 5 gallon buckets of rocks along the fenceline (well, they have to go "somewhere").

Then I spread 1/2" of 50/50 compost/topsoil mix on the raked surface.  After that, I spread the hummingbird, butterfly and bee seed mixes on the surface and added another 1/8" loose soil on top.  Moistened the whole area with a mister nozzle (to not move the seeds).

Can't wait to see what grows!

Busy As Bees We Is, Part 3

The small garden crops...

One of the things I love about gardening is the small crops.  I use Square Foot Gardening for those.  The past few days I planted several.  Two kinds of radishes, carrots, beets, kohlrabi, swiss chard, and spinach.  Repeated planting of those every 2 weeks for a month.

Planted small watermelons and cantaloupes.  Next week, I have other stuff to plant.  But Square foot gardening takes time.  For each Square Foot (sq ft), I use a hand cultivator to scratch up the soil 3" deep.  Then I rub the loosened soil between my hands to pulverize it and smooth the sq ft out.  That makes it easier for the roots to spread. 

I poke holes with my fingers to match the number of seeds to plant per sq ft.  After I drop the seeds in, I fill the hole with vermiculite.  It doesn't form a surface crust like soil can.  I get VERY good seed emergence!

I did that first plantings last week.  Already the radishes are up (25 per sq ft), and I think I'm seeing the first spinach (9 per sq ft).  Maybe some beets (16), kohlrabi (4) and 2 chard (4). 

I planted the melons where I can direct them to trellisses.  I save onion mesh bags to support the fruits on the trellis.  Sq ft gardening is all about using space most efficiently.

One problem with sq ft gardening in raised framed beds is knowing where each sq ft is.  I marked them along the edges last year, but the markings faded in the sun.  So I am going to cut a shallow sawcut at each foot measurement soon.  THAT will last!

Tomorrow, the new hummingbird/bee/butterfly bed...

Busy As Bees We Is, Part 2

Yesterday was about tomato-planting.

Separately, I've gone big on Red Astilbes this year ('Fanal' if you want to know).  I've planted 75.  25 in the backyard when an entirely useless flower called Teucherium was growing for 10 years and never looked much different from weeds.  50 in the new front yard island I created last Fall surrounding the Saucer Magnolia tree and a 3' boulder I have delivered in 2006.

The island is irregular shaped, but about 30'x15'.  I set in 6" edging all around last Fall and covered the area with 3" of wet fallen leaves and covered it with 3" of 50/50 compost and topsoil mix to smother the grass.  You know that brown paper that is used for shipping boxes?  I saved it, smoothed it out (pull it as smooth as you can, put it on the driveway, and use a push broom on it; flattens it out nicely).  I considered putting that down to cover the grass before putting the leaves and compost mix on it but decided that it wasn't necessary.  Wrong.  I had to rake up a lot of the leaves and compost where the grass grew through and do it right the 2nd time.  Always do it "right" the 1st time.  It would have been SO mush easier.

I got most of the patches of grass that managed to grow up through the leaves and compost mix covered with the 3' wide paper.  It will degrade by Fall but it won't be needed by then.  Any new weeds will be surface ones that blow in.  You can't stop THAT.

So I had a routine for planting the Astilbes.  First I planted landscaping flags (endlessly useful things or marking spots anywhere).  I stuck the flags every 2' along the top (closest to the house) edge.  I used a bulb planter to make the holes.  They don't need big improved holes like tomatoes and the lawn soil was "decent" (after 30 years of gradual improvement here).

At each landscaping flag, I laid out a bare-root Astilbe.  I brushed away the compost mix, pushed the bulb-planter to full depth, brushed in some compost mix, set the bare-root in just below soil level and backfilled.  Then a 2nd offset row (I tend to make triangles).  Then a 3rd (and none within 3' of the Saucer Magnolia because I intend to put a 3' carpet circle around it).

Carpet is great!  It is water and air permeable, lasts forever, and weeds don't grow up through it.  Just don't use "outdoor" carpet.  It is rubber-backed and air and water won't get through it.  Look for a neighbor renovated the house or talk to a carpet installer.  To them it is just trash.  You can get it free of cheap.

So I planted the last of 50 front yard island Astilbes this afternoon (listening to the Washington Nationals baseball team game against the Philadelphia Phillies on radio - We won).  Then I soaked the planted area thoroughly.  50 Astilbe 2' apart don't use up as much space as you might think.

As existing plants go, they are relatively inexpensive.  I got the 1st 25 for $60, unhappily sprung for 25 at $90, and found the last 25 for $60 on ebay (those last arrived in outstanding condition, BTW).  Yeah, that seems like a lot of money, but try to find Astilbe SEEDS.  :)

And those only covered 1/4 of the island!  I chose Astilbes because the area is 1/2 shaded.  I need something else to cover the rest.  The front yard is open to deer and we have a LOT of them here.  Astilbes are considered deer-resistant and they already pulled 2 up.  They didn't like them much and I was able to replant them.

I need something more deer-resistant.  I found some lists that suggest good choices.  Most aren't shade-tolerant, but Heucheria (Coral Bells), Oriental Poppies, and Japanese Painted Ferns seem good.  I have a lot of Japanese Painted Ferns scatterred around, so I think I will consolidate them to the streetside of the island.  I might add some short ornamental grasses in the mix.

Tomorrow, the small garden crops...

Busy As Bees We Is, Part 1

This is one on the busiest times of year for me in the yard and garden (the "Yarden").  No matter how I try to organize things, the week around the average last frost day of the year has too much to do.  This year (someone hit me with a "stupid stick"), I added to it.  I bought more flowers to plant.

In the past few days, I did too much and every joint and muscle is sore (I Love Ibuprofen and non-smelly muscle rub).  But I think I've gotten over the hump for this year, so I have time to post about it. 

First, I should say that I am not a very efficient user of time these days.  Oh, in the office, I was great at it.  I could multi-task with the best.  Switching from scrolling through telephone call data to answering a telephone question from a regional office, to joining a quick meeting on some other subject, no problem.  I was at the office and that was all I was doing.  Office stuff.

Second, at home, forget it!  I'm in bed 10 hours to get 7 hours sleep, I spend a lot of time preparing fresh meals, I play with the cats, I watch some TV in the evening (political commentary, baseball, documentaries).  I have to fit all the yard and house work around those.

When I plant stuff outside, I am very detailed.  Take planting tomato seedlings, for example.  I don't just jam a trowel into the dirt and stick a rootball in there.  No...  I dig a hole a foot wide and deep.  I put a handful of compost in the hole, add a sprinkle of crushed eggshells I saved (to reduce blossom-end rot), add sprinkle of 2-6-6 fertilizer (for stem and root growth - the compost provides the nitrogen).  I add the lovingly-grown tomato seedling, add a mix of compost and topsoil, and repeat that 2x until the seedling is buried with only the top leaves showing (tomatoes will grow roots from all buried stem). 

Then I form a wall around the seedling to hold water and stick a metal label in the ground with the variety name on it.  Then I put in a 3' stake to hold the seedling as it grows, and go on to the next seedling.  When I finish a row of tomato seedlings (3, 4, 5 whatever fits in the space).  Then I cut holes in a red IRT plastic fabric that both suppresses weeds AND reflects red light upward into the tomato plants (increases yields about 10-20% - I need all the help I can get with my limited sunlight). 

Then I place heavy-duty wire cages over each seedling.  Forget those cheap flimsy tomato cages they sell in catalogs.  Mine are made of concrete reinforcement  wire mesh.  The openings are 6" square, and the cages are 24" diameter and 5' tall.  Each cafe is then anchored in place with a 6' metal stake pounded at least a foot deep to prevent summer storms from blowing the mature plants in the cages over. 

And I'm doing all that rather bent over perched on a piece of plywood to distribute my weight so I don't compact the lovely soil around them!  It takes about 20 minutes per seedling overall from start to finish and I'm in awkward positions most of the time. 

That's the difference between a hobby and a business, LOL!

So, over the past few days, I planted 12 tomato seedlings - 4 hours just for that.  But they are good to go for the season...

Part 2 tomorrow...

Taxes

Three words...  Tax Preparation Day!

The good news is that with software, all the bewildering income, interest, dividend and State annuity exclusion (since I am now over 65) work for Federal and State taxes only took an hour, plus I filed both electronically this year.  There was a charge for State, but I even made a few bucks there since my credit card gives me 2% back.  LOL!

Random Thoughts

Someome who emails monthly hasn't for 3 months.  I checked the obituary pages.  Not there.

My sister will be visiting in a few months, lots of work to do.  I have plaster over spots where electrical work was done 2 years ago.  I better get at that.  And some painting to do.

It really messed me up having the old Mac Mini computer filled up last month AND Verizon shifting my email to AOL at the same time.  Bought a 4x good new Mac.  Took 40 hours in March not getting it working with the Mac Mail.  And then suddenly, one of their techs DID.  Hurray, and I deserved it.

A shipment of canned cat food arrived half destroyed so badly I took pictures and complained.  The shipper sent a new full shipment.  The replacement shipment came surrounded by bubble-wrap.  Smart people.  There were still a few dented cans, but not actually damaged.  Good.  They keep my business.

My old M/W finally died.  The replacement arced twice.  Burned a black hole right through a sweet potato.  No way I would tolerate THAT.  They accepted a return and I bought a lower-powered one.   Well, I M/W small amounts sometimes.  So it is slower but safer.

I planted 25 Astilbe flower roots in the front yard.  They are supposed to be deer-resistant.  The first night, some deer came by and pulled 2 up.  Deer don't chew, they grab leaves and pull.  So I replanted the 2.  They didn't actually eat them.  I may sit out hidden by my my front steps with my crossbow.  A few deer running around with a bolt in their flanks should discourage them from feeding here.  And if one dies on the front lawn, I know how to butcher one.

But there are sprays that activate when something approaches.  I might try that too.  Disassembling a deer takes some time and I don't need the meat.

Speaking of deer, there are actually some plants they don't like.  I'm collecting some for the front yard.   There are so many deer here, they are worse than rabbits and groundhogs combined.  A solution would be wolves, but who wants to face a wolf when you take out the trash at night?  I prefer to deal with herbivores.

My daffodils are at their peak.

I have some of 2 types planted last year and some of those planted new last Fall.  They didn't all bloom at the same time this year.  Next year they will.  And I'll add more this coming Fall.  The tulips and hyacinths didn't work out even protected in cages (from voles).  I think I will just cover the yard in daffodils.  They are immune to voles (toxic to rodents).

I played one of my best online chess games the other night.  The other player had beat me 2 times.  He is better.  But that game had such a great ending.  He even complimented me on it.  When you have it, you have it.  One grandmaster once said "Sometimes, I forget the opponent has good ideas too".   I won the next 3 games.

I have a windowsill planter full of baby bok choy.  I harvest leaves at a time.  None of those grocery store rust-infested junk.  And I have 6 celery plants I harvest leaves from too.  Only way to go.

I'm thrilled baseball season has started again.  I visit my cat friends more often then.  Football and basketball are too busy.  Baseball gives me time.

I planted wildflower seeds in a bed yesterday.  I spread compost out a 1/2" deep, scattered the large seeds on tip, then spread 1/8" compost around and scatterred small seeds over that.  That wasn't exactly the instructions, but it matched what  I read about the plants online.  I hope for serious wildflower growth.  And some perennial wildflowers I planted last year seem to be coming up.  I know my regular yard weeds and these aren't those.

The Daily Grind

You would think that, being retired, I would have all the time I need to do the things I want to do.  Sadly, no.  My activities expand to fill all available time.

Thursday was a great example (I'm behind a few days in my posts).

I started off the day with a haircut.  It had been 2 months...

I bought a new microwave oven a month ago.  After a couple weeks, it arced and popped twice even burned a black tunnel through a sweet potato.  It is more wattage and interior size than my previous one.  Trust me, I know not to put anything metal in the M/W after 25 years of them, LOL!  Keeping a pyrex measuring cup of water in it stopped the problem, but made me realize that it is designed to cook larger quantities of food than I routinely do.

And I decided there was no way I was going to get along with having a pyrex cup of water in the M/W for the next 8-10 years.  So I called Amazon about returning it.  I order a LOT of stuff from them, so they are forgiving about the occasional return.  They emailed a return label.

I repacked it so carefully I even put the peel-off plastic wrap back on!  I keep EVERYTHING from a box for 90 days, just for reasons like this.  But I had to get it back to UPS eventually and I wasn't looking forward to it.  The darn box was so big I could barely get my hands around it to carry it to the car, and the distance from customer parking to the UPS input desk seemed more than I wanted to do.  But I have a little handcart and that made it a lot easier.

Then I pulled it in the the input desk, the guy said "Wow, what are you shipping"?  I said I had a bad shoulder (sometimes a small lie eases conversation).  He casually picked it up and placed in on his counter.  Hey, he looked 25, and I'm not.  It's something you start to get used to in your 60s.

That taken care of, I drove home, where I discovered that another UPS guy had delivered a 50# bag of Nyger seed for the goldfinches.  I buy it that way because it is really cheaper per pound.  But the M/W was only 35# and this was 50#.  Yet I could lift it because it was a smaller box!  I could get my arms around it.

Ladies, when you complain that you can't reach to top shelfs of kitchen cabinets or lift heavier objects, I understand.  I'm 66 and 5'6".  I know the problems.  I have a few 2 step stepladders around the house for a reason.  Every time I buy a new pair of pants I have to bring then to an alterations guy saying make the inseam 25".  And he goes "Are you sure"?  Yeah...

Anyway, I was able to carry the 50# bag of Nyger seed to the basement (not easily).  So at the workbench, I had a 50# bag of nyger seeds and two 35# buckets of kitty litter and 2 cases of wine.  And 4 litter boxes to clean.  I knew what the next couple of hours was going to be like.

I used to buy kitty litter in 12# plastic jugs.  I saved them.  It is worth the effort to transfer it from the buckets to the jugs.  And I found a 12" funnel to help.  So I set the 12# jugs on a bucket on the floor and lift the 35# tubs to dump it into them through the huge funnel.  I can handle a 35# tub of litter but not a 35# box with a M/W in it.  Smaller!  30 minutes of pouring and I have 5 12# jugs easier to handle for the next few weeks.  Done!

Now I have the 50# bag of nyger seed (I should actually weigh those some day to make sure the supplier is honest).  I got it up on the workbench laying flat, put a 5 gallon bucket right underneth a corner overhanging the bench and cut it open carefully.  As I saw the spilling seeds were going right into the bucket slowly, I cut it open a bit more.  When the bucket was 3/4 filled I lifted the cut corner to prevent further flow.  Stuck a brick under the corner.

Remember the kitty litter jugs I mentioned I saved?   I have more.  I use them for nyger seed too.  They are rectangular and fit perfectly into my freezer with little wasted space and that keeps the seed lasting longer.  Goldfinches won't eat "old" seed, which is one reason I won't buy the smaller bags in department stores.  They sit around, get heated, and the birds don't want them.  The 50# bags come straight from a producer and straight into the freezer.

So with the workbench FINALLY cleared, I could FINALLY clean the litter boxes.  I try to do that daily, but I KNOW I've waited too long when they gather around waiting for the cleaning.  Or maybe they just find it amazing that I do that and like to watch.  Who knows what cats think?

I have found it easier to just lift the litterboxes to the workbench one at a time.  It is easier on my knees and I get to sweep away the loose litter around them.   I sweep the spilled litter (not output) into a dustpan and toss it back in a litterbox.  Waste not, want not.  The cats don't mind; litter material is litter material.

But that wasn't the end of the afternoon.  I had 3 flats of flower seedlings emerging on the bottom shelf and the lights were 12" away.  Way too far.  But 2 bulbs were burned out.  I have what I think is a very good rule.  Cats and plants get what they need before I do.  They can't take care of themselves indoors.

So I had to haul out 3 flats of seedlings, find 2 bulbs, and replace them.  The bottom shelf is the worst.  I had to place bulbs toward the back of the shelf and so crawled in on my back over the shelf.  Which is bad.  When I twist around like that, I usually get some back or rib muscle spasms.

They didn't want to go in.  It took 3 frustrating minutes to get one in, only 1 to get the other.  But 4 minutes on your back in discomfort is never fun.  But I did it and crawled back out.  Sure enough, soon as I stood up, muscle cramps!  Never fun.  But I won't stop gardening because of that.  Its worth it.

After that, since it was still daylight and heavy rains are coming today, I re-planted snow peas where the previous planting didn't come up.  I planted 20 originally and 9 came up.  So I planted 11 more.

And then, just to make sure all my seedlings were growing close the the indoors lights, I took all the flats off the shelves and rearranged the 6-packs.  Some seeds were 2" tall and some just emerging, so the re-arrangement was needed.  Now I have flats of newly-emerging seeds and taller ones grouped together. and each growing as close to the lights as possible.

All are as close to the light bulbs as possible. Matched in heightss

Then I made dinner, watched an hour of political talk TV and came here!  To blog personally and catly.

Quite a Day! 

The Day After

I hope you fell for my April Fool Joke yesterday.  I'm not REALLY having to move.  LOL!

I'm Moving

Oh damn, I have to.  I received a legal notice in the mail today that "The Western Bypass" around Waldorf has finally been approved by the State after 30 years of fussing  It goes right through my property as planned years ago.  I thought after 5 years of no action, it was dead.

I have 6 months to move.  I can challenge that but I don't think I will.  Spring-to Fall is the easier time to move.  I just KNEW this would happen someday.

I started seeing some new road construction last month that suggested the bypass was being built, but I didn't want to believe it.  Sadly, it is.

They have been ripping out trees in a long straight line directly opposite the end on the existing Bypass, so I assume they are moving forward on the idea now.  And it is coming straight toward me...

I am of 2 minds on this.  First, I have spent a lot of time and effort planting stuff around the yard.  But The neighbors' trees cast so much shade that gardening is hard.  They may be doing me a favor.  I will get the assessed tax value of the property and (bizzarely) that is possibly even higher than the actual selling price (they assess taxes to the max here).

I have explored the idea of moving each Fall for the last 3 years but chickened out.  This time, I have no choice...

What I WANT is 2 acres of sunlight and a large 1 story open room house (the kind you can see across without walls).  Getting that without having well water will be trickey, but on the far edges of city water, I can probably afford that.  I love gardening enough to pay for that AND city water.

I'll be busy for a while...

But on the other hand, it looks like I will be able to start fresh from a new house and yard and that IS kind of exciting!  The hard part will be getting my woodworking equipment and all the garden equipment (I've accumulated more than you might think.)  But there are companies that specialize in that work and on online site suggests it is not TOO expensive.

Wish me luck.  It's going to be a very busy year.