Absent Last Week

Sorry I disappeared last week.  It wasn't planned.  I just didn't get on the computer much.  It was just one day at first, then a 2nd, then a third, etc.  Turned into a whole week.

Nothing wrong; I just got busy around the house and yard.  Catching up on things...  By the time I did lunch, reading the newspaper (lots of stuff to read when you get The Washington Post), doing yardwork, doing house cleanup (I've been slacking on that), recovering from the work, making dinner, some TV, etc. And all of a sudden it is time to get some sleep.

There is always something that has to be done before something else can be done.  I couldn't do much last year after falling off the extension ladder and it is amazing how fast flowerbeds can go "all to hell" in a single year.  

And one sad example was where I planned to plant the heirloom tomatoes.  Too many years in the same spot, and diseases build up in the soil.  So I decided to grow them this year in a new spot.  The last few years, black-eyed susans grew there.  Not my photo, but similar enough.  I have them growing in various places and I have goldfinches.

But I wanted to save them into my developing meadow bed, so I spent time digging them up and moving them.  They are hardy.  After a week, all seem to be re-establishing themselves in the new spots.  That job done, I dug the soil where I wanted to grow the tomatoes.  The spot has an annoying runner-grass, so I had to dig deeply.  I picked out all the runners I could find and then covered the area with black mesh landscaping fabric.

That should smother the runner grass.  But mostly it lets water through the fabric and prevents splash-up from the soil onto the tomato leaves (which could infect the tomatoes).  So, I laid down the fabric, set cages on top for spacing and poked a hole in the fabric to identify where the tomato seedlings would go. Set a small stake in each hole.  Lifted the fabric and dug out a shovelful of soil into a bucket.

Mixed low N (too much nitrogen and you get "all plant no fruit") and some P and K and calcium into the bucket.  Poured the mix back into the hole.  Did that 11 times.  With all the planting spots established, I laid the fabric back down and cut Xs in the planting spots (for setting the seedlings down in later).

Planting the seedling was easy, sort of.  My knees down bend like they used to, so it was (grunt) get down, make a hole in the loose soil, set a seedling in, backfill the hole, set in a label, set in a 2' stake for the seedling to hold on to as it strengthens outdoors, and put a cage over it.  My cages are 6" concrete remesh with a separate stake holding them up.  Storm winds can blow an unstaked cage over. 

11 times.  I was worn out...

Then it was time to clear the flowerbeds.  Too many overgrown shrubs!  Several I planted years ago were described 5' tall and 3' wide.  They were 8' tall and 6' wide.  And sending up shoots from the spreading roots.  They had to go.

It was like hacking a path through a jungle.  The hedge-trimmer worked on the small outer branches, the more larger trunks needed a saws-all with a landscaping blade.

That was a brutal job and it isn't finished yet.  But at least I got it down to where I can cut at the bottom. And pull the parts over the fence.  

Which led to a day of hauling shrub and tree debris to the front yard to fill the 5'x8' trailer as high as I can tie it down safely for delivery to the County mulching site.  They take yard debris and pile it up until it is compost and then give it away for free to any resident with a trailer.  And will fill my trailer with finished compost for free on Saturdays.  So what I bring to them, I get in return.

I filled some deck pots with cheap flowers from Walmart and Lowe's.  It is nice to see flowers on the deck.  I usually grow my own, but I was lazy.

And FINALLY, I topped the trailer with cut brush from several years ago that was sitting in the edge of the lawn in several places.  Pulling the old debris from the vines that grew over them was a real fight, but I think I got them all.  They are all kind of loose and high, but I I will tie them down side-to-side, front-to-back, and diagonally.  I have added eyebolts and clips all around the outside of the trailer, so that gives me good tie-downs.

I'll have them fill the trailer with compost in return.  That will go around the tomatoes and flowerbeds.

And then the fight with the spreading poison ivy and periwinkle will start!  It's always something.  Never mind the wild blackberries that are thriving in the far back yard.  That is next week's problem to attack.

And I have 40 perennial seedlings to plant in the meadow bed.  

I sometimes wonder that I get any sleep at all.  

But I made 

Flowerbeds Part 1

I've been slack about posting about the yard.  Too much griping about the computer (new one arrive 4-21 I hope).  So this starts 4 posts about the flowerbeds for this year, grouped by dates.

I covered the entire area of the main daffodil bed with black plastic last fall afrer the first hard freeze to try to smother the weeds.  Can't do it earlier than that because rain collects in small pools and mosquitos love that.  

When I saw the first daffodils emerge near the house (where it is warmer and they come up faster) I pulled all the plastic off.  There were some daffodils struggling to find light there already.  I should have realized that the black plastic warmed the soil.

But they recovered and greened up quickly.  So here are the first.

I planted them originally in pie-slice segments.  Daffodils come in varieties than emerge early-middle-late.  I thought the succession would look best that way.  Had I to do it again, I would have planted them randomly so that the entire  bed would be in partial bloom early to late.  But it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The earliest ones bloomed rapidly...

In the front yard, the same daffodils were also blooming.  Fortunately, I DID randomly plant early and late daffodils, so there are blooms March-April.  And I chose yellow for early and white for late, so it changes the front yard "look".

The Nandina bushes are lovely and hardy.  And I have 24 rooted and healthy ones growing from seeds I collected.  Some will grow along the drainage easement and some will form a property line with a neighbor.  They are very deer-resistant and around here, that is a very good thing.

A closeup of the early daffodils at their best...

And I have individual clumps in the back yard.  Daffodils are toxic to voles, so they just go on blooming every year.  These are probably 30 years old.

More old clumps.

More old clumps.

A nice hyacinth.  I originally planted 50 in a 4' circle.  They are not toxic to voles.  So this is one of the last (lucky) survivors who haven't been found yet.  They smell AMAZING!

Closeup of the main flowerbed early daffodils...

And from a different angle.  Well, I do walk around the beds.  

Two weeks later, the next batch were blooming and the older ones still had flowers.

Best pic of both together...

A mid-bloom clump.

The fullest bloom of the frontyard daffodils.

A closer pic...

I decided to plant daffodils shortly after I moved here.  Well, I knew they lived long (and prospered).  But there was a yard I drove past frequently (not in my neighborhood, but on a sidestreet shortcut to the grocery store) that had a large daffodil bed.  I admired it a couple of Springs before I realized "I can do that".  It took some work (nothing good is easy, or everyone would do it).

And I planted tulips and hyacinths among them.  The voles ate all of those.  So I bought mesh wire and made cages to protect a 2nd planting.  That worked better, but tulips don't live long and maybe the wire mesh small enough to keep the voles away were also too small for the hyacinths.  I need to mark where the cages are and dig them up to try again after the stalks of the surviving bulbs die back down.

Later blooms next post...

Garden Projects

The fall off the extension ladder really messed me up for this year.  But I am getting back into yardwork.   The immediate problem is invasive weeds from a previous neighbor.  They planted them, they crept into my back yard, and they spread .  My neighbors had an empty back yard, so they just mowed them down (when they realized they were a a problem) every week until they died.

I was not so lucky.  I have flowerbeds.  The vines got in there.  I can't just mow them to death like my neighbors could.  I have pulled them up, but they have deep roots and return.

And I have a few verigated Euonymus shrubs in the flowerbeds that are growing out of control (label said 5' high and 3' wide).  Right.  10' tall and wide is more like it!  And they went all solid green after a few years, so not even much color interest.  I cut them down; they grew back.

Well, it gets worse.  When I first moved here I planted a row of forsythias along the property line (pre-fence).  They are everywhere now!  Cutting them down to the ground doesn't bother them a bit.  They just grow back.  I am nearly at my wit's end between the vines and forsythia!

So it is time for drastic measures (did I mention the poison ivy?).  

I've cut most of the vines to ground level.  I've cut most of the forsythia to ground level.  I've even removed (temporarily) the cat memorial markers.

Iza's is inbetween those now, but I can't find the picture.

But I have been saving large cardbox boxes for a decade.  REALLY large ones.  Like 5' on a side and doubled unfolded.  The memorial garden will be covered with several to smother the cut shrubs and vines and leave a clear space for the markers.

I bought a large roll of black plastic several year ago.  Time to unroll some and cut it to shape to smother the vines elsewhere.  Some collections of desired flowers grow so vigorously, they aren't invaded, so those will be left uncovered.  I have about half the flowerbed to smother though.  The plastic covers will stay there for a year.

It will be ugly.  But I don't see a way around it.  I can dig up a few individual plants surviving among the vines (a single beloved Brunella Frost for example) to move elsewhere.  The Stokes Asters seen resistent to the vines, so they will stay.

But really, I am nearly starting over for 80% of the flowerbed.  Next Fall (assuming the damn vines are actually dead by then) is going to be a busy time.

But I will take a cheerful view.  It's a chance to better this time with new look.  Self-sowing cottage-garden style plants that grow so thickly that they shade out weeds.  Separated by small patches of perennial like Stokes Aster and Autumn Joy Sedums (I love both).  

I WILL make my flowerbeds good again!

But, as I said, it sure will look ugly for a year...  Sometimes you have to mess things up before they get better again.

Garden Plantings

I don't know why I am so late this year (but the ladder fall, limping around, feeling tired, staying in bed late , and bad weather when I had the time to plant) all added up.  Things kind of got beyond me a bit this year...

Anyway, I have finally felt more active lately and got some useful work done.  Yay!  Well, better late than never.  At least they have time to produce SOME harvest.

The tomato seedlings are planted.  I had laid down permeable fabric beforehand and cut Xs where the seedling would go in; then stuck markers in the ground and pulled the cut-to-fit fabric aside.  Then I gave the soil some care.  I take a good few shovelfuls of soil into a bucket and mix organic fertilizer in as I add it back.  That way, there is basically a 5 gallon bucket of well-mixed loose fertilized soil for the seedlings to go into.  The tomato roots don't spread further than that.

So then I put the fabric back on and use a bulb-planter to make a hole for the seedlings.  Tomatoes grow roots from asny buried stem, so the deeper the better.  Early roots are better than early top growth!  [An exception is grafted plants.  The graft has to be above the soil line].

So I got them all planted this week.  I can fit 6 tomotes in a framed bed and there are 2 of them.  Here is one...

A close-up of one seedling. ..

The cage is made of concrete wire mesh.  22" in diameter and 5' tall.  I made them 25 years ago and they are as sturdy as when new.

This isn't new this year.  They are broccoli and purple cauliflower plants.  I planted them last year and they didn't do much.  But they survived the Winter and I' have hopes they will sprout.  There were more broccoli, but the ones that developed heads (and then smaller side-heads) were harvested and pulled.  One neat thing I've discovered is  that the green cabbage worms don't like purple leaves.  They are too easy for predators to find.

I'm trying an idea with the pole beans.  I made a frame of concrete rebar and bent some leftover wire mesh at an angle.  The idea is that the beans will hang down from among the leaves and will be easier to find and pick.

The beans are growing fast!  One month and they are 6' high!  I read a study once that suggested delaying planting of many crops.  The idea is the cool weather slows their growth and later-planted crops often surpass the early ones in total growth and productivity.  Well, I guess I am sure testing that this year (unintentionally).

I also planted small-seeded cucumbers, cantelopes, honeydews, and watermelon along the framed bed trellises (more concrete wire mesh).  Those may seem rather heavy fruits to grow on a trellis, but I have a bunch of plastic mesh bags to support the fruits.  Vertical space IS free, after all.

And after all that, I weeded the remaining areas of the beds.  If I have been late to the Spring-plantings, I am ready for the Fall plantings in late July.  Most people ignore Fall, but it has some advantages.  Summer warmth promotes fast growth, and Fall temperatures actually improve the flavor and extend the harvesting time for some crops.  I can have a second crop of snow peas, and most root crops turn starch into sugars, much as fruits do.

As farmers do, I fear the worst, but hope for the best.  Some years are better than others.  ;)

Seed Starting

I've mentioned before that I have a box of index cards I created that reminds me when to start seeds indoors, outdoors, and transplant dates.  Some years I get behind, but this year I've been staying on schedule.  Or so I thought.

Oh NO!  I completely forgot about the flowers!  Those aren't in the index cards because I change flowers too often and even varieties of the same kind can have different indoor or oudoor planting dates. 

But I have that information for the flowers on my seed list.  Sure enough, I should have planted some of them a MONTH AGO!  So I stayed up late Saturday to set up 6 flats of my starter soil mix in my 36 cels per flat and poured warm water into them to soak the soil.  I have been expanding my selection of flowers the past couple years.  They all want different conditions.

Sunday, after changing all the clocks (and I sure have a lot of them) I planted!  And it isn't just pushing seeds into the soil.  Some want 1/8", some want 1/4" and some want NO cover at all (needing light to germinate. 

And some want cool temperatures (50-60), some want 70-80, and some want in between that.  And since some want cool temps and light, and some want warmer temperatures and don't need light until the emerge, it got really tricky.  I spent an hour just sorting out seed packets by requirements, LOL!

But when I had that all done, it was easier.  Some were super-easy.  A whole flat of one kind, like marigolds or balsams or salvia required no combinations with other seeds.  Others did though, and as a result, I will have some more of some flowers than others I am used to. 

And, BTW, when I say a 36 cel flat, I really mean 35, because I always leave one cel cut out for easy watering.  I used to lift a corner of one cel to water under, but I noticed that one one seldom grew (because I was bending and thereby ripping the roots I think).  You learn stuff...

But I got most of them sorted out by temperature and germination requirements, and here is what I have growing!

I planted 6 flats.   Some can be under lights in the 64 degree basement.

 Some can be upstairs at 72 degrees and need light but are sitting on a countertop  (covered to prevent cat-exploration).

Some are in the cool basement and not needing light yet...  And, BTW, that light-color stuff is vermiculite which doesn't crust over like soil and makes it easier for the seedlings to emerge.

 Some are in the cool basement uncovered and exposed to light...

And aside from all that, my veggie seedlings are all up and growing well.  

Most of these seeds are several years old.  But because I keep them in sealed vials in the basement refrigerator, they last 3 times as long as the packets suggest.  I got almost 100% germination this year.

Next week, I have more flower and veggie seeds to plant indoors (and some outside).  I think I need another light stand!

But with any luck, this should be a fabulous year gardening year.  Most of the new flowers are self-sowing "cottage garden" types and will not need annual replanting (well, maybe some every few years) but it is a start at a "self-maintaining flower bed" in some parts.  Some parts of the flowerbeds have dependable perennials, and I love those. 

But I'm exploring self-sowing annuals lately.  We'll see how well that works in a couple years.  I'm patient. 

Flowerbeds

The newer flowerbeds are doing great.  I never imagined the meadow bed would look so good (last year was dismal, but the flowers were just getting established).

The Hummer etc bed is doing good for a first year with annuals and should be better next year when the perennials and self-sowing annuals get going.

I'm not seeing the hummers/butterflies yet, but the bees are busy.  The Summer has just started, and I expect more flowers to bloom there that the hummers and the butterflies will like.

Meanwhile, it's not like they are lacking pollen and nectar.  I have 3 of the best hummingbird feeders I have yet found and several butterfly bushes are blooming now  with various butterflies feeding at them.

Speaking of hummingbird feeders, I was so pleased to discover how easy it is to make the "nectar".  When I started doing it decades ago, the rule was to boil water, set a cup of it in a pyrex cup rinsed with vinegar, add 1/4 sugar, stir til dissolved, cool it, and add it to the freshly cleaned (no soap) feeders.  The boiling was to make the sugar-water supersaturated so it wouldn't crystalize out when it cooled.  So the instructions I had learned said...

When I mentioned it on a gardening site, I was corrected by many posters.  They said the sugar dissolved just fine in merely hot water and was ready to go at outside temperature.  Checking hummingbird sites confirmed that.

Wow, did that make things easier!  And if you don't think there are hummingbirds around your yard, try setting up a few feeder stations and they will appear.

BTW, the best feeders I have found are "Hum-Zingers" .

Easy to clean, easy to fill, and the birds love it.  And I have no connection to the company.  They don't know I exist.

Funny story:  I never saw hummingbirds when I moved here.  But when I bought my first hummer feeder and stood around outside looking for place to hang it, a hummingbird came to it IN MY HAND and fed!  They are around; most people just don't know it.

 Meanwhile, the daylilies are doing great!  I had a bunch of them in pots and ignored them for 2 years, finally planting them last Fall.  I didn't remember how many colors they had!

I might get really into those...

Spring!

I am glad to say that Spring seems to finally be here for real.  Today was in the 70s and the long range forecast suggests that even the low temps will be in the 40s.  So I can safely get on with planting.

The earliest daffodils are all flower-down from stem freeze, but the new wave of flowers are opening.  There should be some good pictures soon.  The hyacinths that were completely absent last year (planted Fall 2015) are showing small flowers this year.  I am relieved they are alive at all.  I'll hope for a better show next year.  The tulips are emerging but not blooming yet.

I planted 25 astilbes in a re-dug bed last month.  I assume the cold isn't a problem for them since they a perennials.  I have another 25 for an island I created around a tree and 3' rock on the front yard.  Astilbes will appreciate the half shade AND they are listed as being deer-resistant, which matters in the front.  The deer ate most of my hostas last year so I am moving the survivors to the fenced-in back yard.  There are 2 kinds on large crinkly-leaved hostas the deer never touched so I will divide them into 1/4s and fill in the empty spots.  I have been tending toward more of the same plants in large masses, so that works too.

For too many years, I have planted "6 of this" "6 of those" etc.  Which is nice from 5' away, but looks rather jumbled from further away sort of like a pile of mixed tiles on a table.  I'm going for at least 25 sq ft of  the same plants for most of the beds.

EXCEPT I'm also going "cottage garden" along the 75'x 8' bed along the fence.  That should become a riot of self-sowing color of various height I hope!  And if I'm lucky, they should grow tall and thick enough to shade out the runner grass that showed up about 5 years ago and seems impossible to eliminate by digging them out.

Along with the new astilbe bed and the fence bed, I have 3 edged areas in the middle of the back yard.  One is a wildflower bed, one is for an invasive lychamistra, and one is for mostly spring bulbs where I am also planting dwarf butterfly bushes, dwarf roses, yuccas, and annuals that don't need much water (spring bulbs like dry summers).

The wildflower bed was initially planted last year.  I tilled the soil loosely and gaily scatterred seeds from a "wildflower" packet around.  I didn't get much.  So this year I bought specific wildflowers suited to partial shade and poor soil.  Some I planted inside in flats so that I know I have something growing to transplant randomly.  The rest I'll scatter and hope that Nature lets them grow.

And I'm cheating a bit.  I also bought a packet each for Bees, Hummingbirds, and Butterflys.  It might be a very odd-looking bed (about 30' x 15').

The lychimastra (I simply CANNOT ever remember how to spell that) bed is only 10' diameter.  But it is easy to mow around so they can't spread.  Indeed, I thought I killed them 2 years ago, but they keep coming back ("invasive" right, have to remember that).  I admire the purple foliage and the gold flowers are nice.  I just need to remember to shear off the dying flowers before the seeds spread.  Hedge trimmers are good for that.

The spring bulb edged bed is my real hope.  IF they ever grow.  Last year, the hyacinths never came up at all but have (weakly) this year.  This year 1/2 the daffodil flowers froze.  The tulips are looking promising.  And it is the closest bed to the deck.  I have the sunflower seed feeder in the center and there is always lots of activity there.  The birds go through enough seeds that the shells are pretty good mulch.  I might change the pole the feeder is on from an in-ground pole to a free-standing one I can move around to mulch other spots.

This is last year in April.  It will look like this soon, but I have 3x the daffodils and the tulips have multiplied a bit and I have gotten rid up most of the weeds...

I need to mark the spots where the existing tulips are (with cardboard pinned down with tent stakes) after the leaves are dying back so I know where to plant more between them this coming Fall. 

The finches are starting to color up.  I see slightly more gold on the males each day.  Boy can those guys EAT!  I have 2 tube feeders of Nyger seed and I have to refill them every day (about a qt/liter of seeds).  I buy the stuff in 50# bags and fill up qt bottles I've saved and store them in the basement freezer.  I order it from a local home project store, but sometimes it is available from Amazon too.  The 50# cost $75 which is $1.50 per pound; a lot better than the $2 to $2.50 per pound the small bags cost in local stores.

This is from April last year.  They aren't this gold yet, but will be soon.  I can't wait to see them like this again.  And it is good to know I'm helping them get there.  I have no doubt that I have the healthiest, brightest goldfinches in my area!

It is hard to count them, as they flutter around and fuss over perches, but I probably have at least 2 dozen.  I have about a dozen resident cardinals, a vague number of purple finches, a few woodpeckers, some doves, some titmice, some sparrows and and a few random other visitors at the black oil sunflower feeder.  The goldfinches eat more weight in seed than all the birds eating the sunflower seeds.

I watch them using a target range spotter-scope on a tripod.  That's a lot easier trying to hold binoculars in my trembley hands (DDT exposure as a teen, I suspect).  I should buy a serious camera for taking pictures of the birds too.