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.  ;)

Been Doing Stuff

First, I have to mention that Bryce Harper of the Washington National baseball team just won the Home Run Contest.  YEEAAAHHHH!

Second, the pond renovation project is complete.  It was harder than I expected.  I originally pulled out all the pots from the pond, and that involved bending down with my arms in the pond cutting roots away to get chunks of plants.  It was exhausting in the heat, but having my arms in the water did help.

I finally got to the point where most of the pond was empty of plants and pulled it up.  That took 3 days of about an hour each day.  I couldn't find the leak in the preformed pond, which still bothers me.  So I added some soil around where I recalled the pond form was low and reinstalled it and filled it.  So after 3 days, there was no leakage, so it was time to replace plants.

Not in the original pots, of course.  I used regular pots years ago but I bought pots designed for ponds last year and used them.  Pond pots have lots is holes for  roots to seeks nutrients in the water.

The 8" pots I had, had growth  around them like beachballs.  So the first thing I did was to chop outside roots off.  That was surprisingly horrible.  The roots were too soft to cut easily.  I finally tried my "digger knife" (like  boning knife with a saw blade).  That wasn't really easy, not I got better using it as I went.

And THAT was only to be able to pull the existing plants out of the old pots (which were broken into pieces by root pressure). 

Planting pond plants is tricky.  You can't just replant them into new pots using regular potting soil (a lot of it just floats away).  What the pond plants want is "muck".  And I was really short on that.  And Home Depot doesn't sell "muck"

As far as I can tell, "muck" is a mixture of organic material, gravel, and clay bound by soil roots.  And you want some stones in the bottom of the pot for the weight to keep the pot sunk and upright.

So I retrieved all the previous pots (most of which didn't even have plants in them anymore - they escaped into the the general root mass) and soaked them in 5 gallon buckets.  When they well utterly soaked, I ripped them apart until the old gravel fell out and I was left with dead roots mass.

Not wanting soil to muddy the new pond water, I blasted the gravel in a large sieve.  I also blasted the ripped off root hairs (that wouldn't regrow).  I slowly cut roots of healthy plants  (waterlillies and Sweet flag) into replantable chunks.

Now I have 4 divided waterlillies potted in the 2' deep section of the pond and 10 potted sweet flag plants and there are still 20 seemingly viable chunks on sweet flag in buskets of water where they will be fine.  I'm keeping them indending them to grow in the the larger 8'x9' pond if I can get it cleared of brambles and relined this year.  Don't worry about all that standing water; I put bT  tablets in all containers monthly.

And that is the next major project.  An 1/8 acre of the backyard has been taken over by wild blackberries, english ivy, and some poison ivy.  Several years ago, my large pond developed a leak and went down to 6" of water.  And the mosquitos moved in.  I only realized the problem  when it was too late to kill the mosquito larvae with bT, so I poked more holes in the liner to drain it.

So now I have a new pond liner, but I have to clear all the space around it to set the new one in.  But it is surrounded with wild blackberries and they are delicious!  So I'm waiting until the harvest ends and then I will clear the whole area.

Today while the area was shaded, I weeded all around the astilbes in the front yard.  It was frustrating.  I added compost to the area last year and the weeds seem to have appreciated it more them the Astilbes.  And the weeds do better in the drought we are having here (not any rain in 4 weeks).  So I went out and pulled weeds out of the dry soil (the best time to do it) and then watered them deeply. 

I lost 2 of 30 Astilbes (according to landscape flags I stuck in when I planted, but that was better that I expected.  A few look weak, but most are thriving.  And I have a dozen more in the backyard where they are struggling.  If I can keep them going til Fall, I will transplant them to the front yard among the others. 

The yard has become infested with poison ivy and some vine.  I'll have to dig the poison ivy out (wearing armlength rubber gloves).  The vines are so widespread, I'll have to spray them.  I don't like that but I don't have much choice. 

There is always SOMETHING to fight with here...  I wish there wasn't.  I have other useful things to do.

Front Yard Island

I've mentioned finally setting up a front yard planting island before.  I bought 60 bare-root Astilbes in early Spring.  I thought they would do fine planted in Spring instead of Fall since they were dormant.  I nestled them down into the 3" of 50/50 compost/topsoil mix and expected great result. 

Well, for one thing, a site I visited that listed deer-resistant flowers mentioned Astilbes.  And for perennials, Astilbes bloom a really long time.  Most perennials bloom a couple weeks and are done.  Plus, it is a shaded spot both under a small Saucer Magnolia Tree and shaded in the afternoon by tall trees in the neighbo's yard.  Seemed perfect.

Well, deer have a funny way of eating.  The don't nip leaves off, they just bite and pull.  And, apparently, deer don't mind eating Astilbe at all.  But when they pulled on the new plants, they just came out of the ground.  So I had to keep replanting them every few mornings.  The deer got nothing from them, but they kept trying.  So I draped chicken wire over the plants so the deer couldn't keep pulling them up.

Sadly, the constant air exposure to the roots killed about half of the Astilbes.  But the remaining ones seemed to be surviving.  With that problem solved (until they grow higher), I ignored them while doing other projects.

Weeds are insidious.  They grow just a little each day.  So one day, they are a few small ones and you think "I should pull those weeds" and the next week it looks like overgrown lawn!  And the weeds were suddenly 12" high with 4" tall Astilbes hidden among them.

So I went out to weed then Thursday (I'm a bit behind on the posts).  Naturally, Thursday was the hottest day of the year so far.  96 and a heat index over 105 with 90% humidity.  So I thought, OK, I'll do some today closest to the Astilbe and water the whole areas.

I did 30 minutes and then went inside for 15 (a good habit in hot weather).  Then did another 30 and 15.  Then another.  Well, to my surprise, I had done the entire 30'x15' island! 

Some of the Astilbes are surviving with only a leaf or 2, some had been pulled up and I didn't notice so I planted them again deeper, most of the surviving 30 of the original 60 were healthy and 6" tall.  I will plant new ones in the gaps next Fall, but my focus this Summer is on the survivors. 

Having ridded the entire island of weeds now, I am hoping that the 3" of compost will smother most new ones, BUT I will watch them more carefully the rest of the Summer!

And THEN there are the 30 Astilbes I planted in the back yard!  No deer there, but more sun.  And different weeds too.  The front island weeds were mostly crabgrass that came up easily in the loose compost.  The backyard weeds are some kind of grass that spreads by runners under the soil. 

I let that get away from me earlier, but it was a smaller area.  I went in with a trowel to get the runners out.  I din't expect the sun to be causing a problem, as there were some older Astilbes that do just fine there.  It seems new ones are more sensitive. 

So after digging out the fewer weeds left, I shaded them.  2' metal rods supporting shade cloth (like a loose-weave cheesecloth) attached with twist-ties.  And I'm watering them deeply every few days.  The good news is that some are doing just fine, a few are recovering, and the ones with only a couple weak leaves seem to be starting some new ones.  I only lost about 25% of those.  New planting are always difficult. 

One thing I didn't realize was that the area received more sunlight than it used to.  One reason is an huge mature oak tree I had removed 3 years ago.  It was losing large branches and I became convinced it was dying.  And it being on the west side of the house (from where the stormwinds blew) it might have fallen on the house.  As it turned out the top half of the tree was hollowing, so it was a good decision.

But that meant more sunlight (where I didn't need it).  And when I rebuilt the deck (25 years old and deteriorating) that gave more sunlight to the Astilbe bed.  I may put up a shade fence or move them in Fall, but again my focus is on keeping them alive through Summer.

One project of many, LOL!

And, BTW, the Astilbes in the front only cover 1/3 of the island.  In the Fall, I am going to move most of the several dozen Japanese Painted Ferns I have elsewhere to the island.  Deer DON'T like those at all. 

Uncovering New Plants

I have this spot I thought would be perfect to Astilbes.  I love Astilbes.  They want half-shade, and the spot was right.  I had old ones there in a corner, so I added 25 more last April.

I have a grass-weed that takes constant pulling/digging.  I get rid of it in one spot and it is spreading in another.  One day I will get the last one (making progress actually).  So it was overgrown where I planted new Astilbes in April.  They had to go...

The orange flags mark where I planted the Astilbes when the ground was bare.  I went after the grass yeasterday.  I got it down to this.  The grass came out relatively easily.  But those were the shoots on deep underground runner-roots.  Still, you can only pull up what you can get at.

And I did get mostly roots pulled up with the grass-tops!  A full bushel basket of them.  It looks much better now.

The grassy-looking plants mid left are actually flowers.  Crocosmia.  Lame small orange flowers for a week.  I may just pull them, but I hate to waste a flower.  Maybe I'll dig them up in Fall and try a new space for them.  They want more sun anyway.

The spot I have the Astilbes in is mostly shaded.  But it gets serious late afternoon sun, and they don't like that.  At least yesterday after I pulled up the 16" tall grasses, they had some shade.  After that, Mr Sun hit them hard and they wilted.  But it was only for 2 hours.  I hope they adjust.  Otherwise, I will be moving them in the Fall (and I have a spot in mind).  It depends on how well they do this year.

They looked better after some deep watering and with the landscaping flags removed...

I made a slight mistake planting the new ones.  I thought I knew where the established few were and where the Crocosmia were.  Well...  not quite.  I planted some of the new Astilbes among the established ones and among the Crocosmia were.  I'll move them to the front bed.  The corms are tough and tolerate moving.

The Baptisia will give them some shade soon.

I need to stake them though.  They flop over.  The Astilbes loved their shade, so I'm staking the Baptisia and tying them loosely upright this year.  I'm almost actually keeping up with gardening work this year.

I've been outside almost 4 hours per day for a few weeks now.  It shows.  I've never been so nearly caught up with gardening and yardwork before.  Yay!

Got Stuff Done

Its been a working week. 

I planted 250 daffodils.   And I did it RIGHT.  I have a drill auger that gets down about 8".  I tossed loose soil back in the holes, set down the bulbs, filled the holes with 50/50 topsoil/compost, and sprinkled 0-6-6 N-P-K fertilizer on the top to seep down over the winter.

100 of them were to fill in the area not planted last Fall.  Guesing where the planted ones were was done by pictures I took last Spring.  I lined up the pictures using background landmarks.  I got it very close.  I only augered up ond existing bulb.  And I filled in the entire unplanted area.  So next Spring should be good.

But that left 150 Hillstar daffs.  I REALLY over-estimated the number of daffs I needed to fill the existing bed.  So where to put the Hillstars? 

Oho!  I have never found a good plant to use as the border for my fence-side flowerbed.  The Dusty Millers died, the annuals had to be replanted each year, and the crocuses got eaten by the voles .  So the Hillstars went into the border.
 
I came up 5' short, but that's OK, I'll fill in.

Meanwhile, I got 2 bucketloads of 50/50 topsoil/compost from the local nursery (about 2 cubic yards).  My framed beds settled since I filled them the first time last year.  That was some work moving the stuff from the trailer to the beds. 

Last year, I shoveled it from the trailer to a yard cart towed by the riding mowers them shoveled it into buckets to carry and dump into the framed beds.  That was a real pain. 

So this time, I shoveled the mix from the trailer into buckets I loaded into the yard cart and drove the trailer to the framed beds.  Then carried the buckets to the beds.  Much easier.  I have 3/4 moved.

And I need to empty the trailer.  One tire finally just broke after 15 years - rubber fatigue!

And now I have a real problem.  I can't drive the trailer to a repair place with a flat tire, and the bolts on the wheels are 15 years of rust.  ACK!

Well, I have to remove the tire (both actually - the other tire has to be about to fail).  I'll soak the wheel bolts in Liquid Wrench (a lubricating oil that claims to loosen rust), heat the bolts to cause uneven expansion that might loosen the rust connection, and then use an air-powered impact wrench to finally break the nuts free.

I HOPE.

And I need the trailer to be working again soon to pick up a mower I couldn't get started and brought to a repair shop...  So that I can mow down some backyard brambles.  So that I can lant 5 specimen trees in the backyard.

Everything is connected.  Empty the trailer, remove and replace the tires, pick up the mower, rent a brush-cutter (hauled on the trailer), use the mower to cut the bramble stubs lower, dig holes for the specimen tree saplings, keep the brambles cut low until they die, and surround the saplings with old carpet so the roots don't have competition until they grow tall enough in a few years to shade out the ivy.

I had the whole backyard cleared out 5 years ago, and I let it go for 2 years.  I'm paying for that lapse now!

Next year is going to be killing all the wild ivy, the unknown vines, and the mock strawberries.

The good news is that I learned how to use my battery-powered string trimmer properly.  Used hard at an angle, it can clear weeds to ground level.  It gets long stringy grass wrapped around it if I'm not careful, and that drove me crazy at first unwrapping them.  But I learned how to disassemble the head in 20 seconds and slide all the wrapped grass right off. 

Experience is wonderful!

Now I think I might be ready to use the gas-powered steel blade whacker on the briars and brambles in the far back yard...  Without losing a foot in the process. 

Yardwork Again

I wasn't sure I was gong to be doing much yardwork the rest of the year.  I usually try to do at least one useful thing each day.  Sometimes I don't, but that is the goal anyway. 

So when I twisted my right knee in early April, and it was difficult to walk the first couple of weeks, I grudgingly waited for it to heal.  I do these sorts of injuries every so often but generally heal quickly enough.  I'm used to it.  You live on your own, you push yourself to do more than you should sometimes, and there is the occasional time your body says hey ease off on me a bit. 

It has happened before.  10 years ago, I casually tossed a rock at a squirrel and strained my rotator cuff and I could barely raise my arm over my shoulder for 4 months!  But it healed fine and I kind of expect that.

But this time, April rolled into May, and May into June and eventually September and it was better but not normal.  Some projects got delayed.  I had planned to repaint the bathrooms and kitchen, but crawling all around washing the walls, putting tape along all the edges and then doing the actual painting seemed too awkward.  But it could wait.

I had also planned to use my gas-powered weed-whacker with the steel cutters to eliminate the backyard brush and brambles that sprung up after I had a few trees removed  several years ago.  That didn't happen.

A few weeks ago, my right knee suddenly felt much better.  Not perfect, but good enough, and I started some minor yard projects and felt ready to do more.  I got some work done.   Mostly de-clutterring the basement the computer room, and the cat room.

And then I went and did something to the left knee.  No idea what I did.  It felt like I had banged it against a door frame, but for 2 weeks, I had 2 bad knees.  I was worried I was sufferring some serious problem (like Lyme Disease affects your joints, or longer term problems like arthritis). 

But I woke up 2 days ago and the left knee was back to normal and the right knee wasn't bad.  I could walk around pretty much normal.

So I had found a sealed bag of grass seed in the basement left over from last year .  I mowed the front yard grass very short.  Today I raked all the loose grass and dumped it where I plan to put a flowerbed island around a large rock and tree in order to smother the grass and weeds and leave some improved soil.  Then I spread the grass weeds all around.  And then I spent 90 minutes carefully spraying straight down onto the grass to beat the grass seeds onto the soil surface and give them enough water to germinate.

It is a bit late to do that.  But I had the seeds and they won't last another year.  And we are having a warm spell, so the seeds should germinate if they are still viable.  There are 2 bare spots, so I will know if they germinate.  At least that is SOMETHING done.

And both knees felt just fine after all that.  So that's good.

The next things to do are planting Daffodils in mid November, tilling some dead areas of the flowerbeds, and eliminating weeds in the paths between the framed veggie beds.  

Are you familiar with those long strips of brown paper used as packing material?  I've been saving the longest strips for several years.  The stuff comes all twisted and crinkled, but I untwist it and lay in on the basement floor and use a push broom to flatten it out.  That works very well.  Then I fold it up in 4' lengths and put a piece of plywood on it to flatten it further and keep it out of the way.  I have several hundred linear feet of it now.

It seems like great stuff to put between the framed beds, on top of weedy dead sections of the flowerbeds, and on top of all the Spring bulbs to smother weeds (with shredded bark on top).  It will probably decompose by Spring, and in not, it will certainly be easy to pull up at planting time.

It may not kill all the weeds, but it sure won't do them any good.  I am reminded of a W C Fields vaudeville joke where he says he swallowed a few moths and said he swallowed a couple of mothballs to get rid of them.  The sidekick asks if it did any good.  Fields says "well it sure couldn't have helped them any".  (Do not do this at home, mothballs are toxic).

My point is that the brown paper cover is worth trying.  If it works, GREAT!  If not, it is easy to remove and will make good compostable material after 5 months exposure to rain and melting snow all Winter and early Spring. 

Gardeners might object that  covers the soil gives voles safe space to run around under.  I did cover part of my flowerbeds with black plastic 10 years ago, and they did love it.  They ate every tulip bulb, safe from predators.  But this time, there won't be anything for them to eat.  Well, the weeds, and if they want to eat the roots of those, they are not welcome, I encourage them.  Otherwise, they don't touch Daffodils or Daylilies (toxic to mammals), the Tulips and Hyacinths are in wire cages they can't get into, and the seeds from the birdfeeder will be on top of the paper where they waill actually have trouble getting to the spilled seeds. EVIL LOL!

So I am getting into the yardwork late, but not impossibly late.  The last project, which is to plant specimen trees that won't grow tall enough to shade my garden and flowerbeds is still in reach.  By "specimen trees", I mean Korean Dogwoods, Sourwoods, Wisteria shrubs, and Star Magnolias.  Those will shade out the brush and brambles like the taller trees used to do, but not cause shade problems across the yard.

I will surround the new trees with used carpeting.  That has really worked well for me over the years.  Rain soaks right through, but weeds won't grow up through it.  And it it is usually free.  Just look for some place being renovated and ask for the old carpet.  They will usually just give it away. 

OK, I'm off to buy some specimen tree saplings...

Back, I ordered 3 Sourwood trees and 2 Korean Dogwoods.  Sourwood trees are great in Fall.  They have small grapelike clusters of yellow berries and burgundy leaves and grow to about 25'.  The Korean Dogwoods are great in Springs, don't have the same disease problems as American Dogwoods, and spread sideways.  I have one on the shady side of the house that has been happily existing for 25 years at 20 feet, and I will take some tip cuttings next June.  It has pink flowers. The dogwoods I ordered have white flowers, so that will make a nice change.



I also filled in all the screw and nail holes in the main bathroom a week ago

Catching Up With Weeds

I guess I haven't posted in a while.  I guess I haven't done much to mention.  Who gets excited reading that you watered the garden and routine stuff like that?  But such things do need to get done and in August, sometimes just keeping up with watering the garden and flowers is plenty.  Never mind all the inside work which I had gotten behind on as well.

So we had a couple relatively cooler days (meaning 90 instead of 100F) and I took a look around for other things needing attention outside.  Weeds are insidious!  They look about the same one day to another but after a few weeks have gone from a few innocent inches high to 2' high (some straight up, some spreading out sideways).

You may (or not, LOL!) remember that I set up 3 roundish prepared edged planting beds last Fall.

The far one was for wildflowers and I scattered 2 pounds of wildflower seeds there.  A little thin for the space, but I figured I would add transplants into the area later.  I have native flowers growing in a few areas and would add them to places without flowers.  The results have been rather "less than mediocre".  May have been 2 dozen blooms in the whole area.  But most were perennials and they don't bloom the first year much, so I will add more seeds and some transplants this Fall and hope for better next year.

The middle area was going to be for Lysimachia, which has lovely purple foliage and small yellow flowers, but it is invasive.  So I thought putting it were I could mow around would control that.  Alas, I discovered that it is also called Loosestrife and if you look at the common name "loose" and "strife", you can tell it is a problem plant.  I  found it growing in several places on its own and I am trying to pull them all up!  Now I am thinking several dwarf butterfly bushes intermixed with Knockout roses which are generally pest-free and self-dead-heading.  They have no fragrance, but you can't have everything.  I will add a few oriental lilies for some fragrance.

The near area is for color.  I planted 100 or so tulips  and another 100 hyacinths in mesh cages (protection from the voles) and a couple of hundred daffodils straight in the ground as they need no protection).  I'll be adding another couple hundred daffodils in early November.

The hyacinths never came up last Spring, and I figured I planted too late.  But as I was digging around, I found one of the cages and opened the top and pulled out a few bulbs.  To my surprize, they were all solid and had some roots!  They didn't get enough chill time to bloom last year but they seem firm and healthy, and I expect them to come up gloriously in Spring!  And if not, I will dig the cages up and try again.  And if they don't grow next Spring, I will dig the cages up and plant more tulips!

This Spring, I took divisions of standard daylilies (as odd as it might seem, I had a couple dozen 6" pots of daylilies just sitting around existing on rainfall for 2 years) and planted them between the tulip
and hyacinth cages.

 There's a reason for that; the tulip/hyacinth bulbs like to be dry in Summer, and lilies have tuberous roots that store water so they don't need watering in Summer (much).  They make a good combination. I think I will add some Sedum 'Dark Magic' as they are about a foot high and drought tolerant as well as blooming in Fall.  A drought tolerant threesome in Spring Summer And Fall would be awesome. 

But the near spot looked terrible when I paid attention to it last week.  Grasses were growing up all over and spreading weeds below them. 

So I took care of the tall ones first.  Well, there are only 2 good times to weed.  The first is when the soil is soaked.  The weed roots can't hold on to the loose wet soil.   The other time is when the soil is bone dry (unless it is clay).  In good soil the roots come up like they were growing in powder.

So I pulled up all the tall ones in bone dry soil.  I left that one small pile to show them pulled up.  Actually, I filled a trashcan with them.  Not that I would trash them; the nutrients are free and they are great compost after being heated up by sunlight in the closed trashcan for a couple days to kill any seeds.  They look like cooked spinach afterwards.  And then straight into the compost pile they go...

I have some annuals around the outer front edge just for some color this first year.  Being downslope, I can water them enough to keep them happy without soaking the tulip bulbs that don't want to see water until Spring.

And I'm putting up with the orange landscaping flags this year.  Some mark the small newly-planted daylillies (so that I don't pull them up thinking they are grass weeds - because they sure look a lot alike when you are tired) and some mark the tulip and hyacinth cages (so I don't plant anything on top of them). 

Next, now that the tall weeds are gone, I can get at the low-growing weeds. 

The Last Edging Circle, 2

Well, you may recall that I had a ridge leveled in my back yard, the soil moved to raise a part of the front yard and that I was creating some areas bordered with edging so I could plant stuff.  And that I had become royally tired of digging trenches for the edging in the rocky soil.  And because there were some large tree roots I did not want to cut which meant cutting the edging to fit on top of the roots.

So I left the last one half done for a week and did other stuff.  Well, I am happy to report that I finished it today.  No more digging in that soil...

There are 3 edged areas.

The far one has perennial wildflowers mixed in with enough compost to barely cover.  I have no idea what will happen there.  The package of seeds did not specify which plants were, and they grow so slowly that I won't recognize any until they bloom, and there were already some small weeds growing there.  I might end up nurturing 400 sq ft of weeds until next Summer when I see nothing blooming  when I have to replant more carefully.

The middle smaller area is for Lychimartra Firecracker, a lovely bronze foliage plant about 24" high with lots of small yellow flowers.  But it is a bit invasive and needs to be contained by itself.  It has its own 200 sq ft circle so that I can mow around it!

The nearest area, also 400 sq ft will be a combination of daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths for Spring color; with transplants of purple coneflowers, black-eyed-susans, and goldenrod for Summer and Fall color.  Plus I plan to add a few dwarf butterfly bushes.  I may get a package of seeds of plants that attract butterflies and bees to scatter among the plants next Spring. 

This last area will take some work planting.  Tulips and Hyacinths don't last long here because of the voles, so I have to make cages to plant them in.  The daffodils are fine without cages, being toxic.  But the bulbs haven't been delivered yet, and the transplants still have green leaves so I can't move them yet. 

Which means I can start on the new border of the older flowerbed (up against the fence to the left of the above picture).  I originally planted the border with alternating 12" sections of yellow then purple crocuses.  And 4" gaps between sections for annual Summer flowers.  The voles ate most of the crocus bulbs in just a few years, so this time, I am planting them in cages.  I'll still leave a 4" gap between the cages because it is nice to have Summer flowers there too and change them each year (yellow marigolds one year, dusty miller the next, orange zinnias after that, etc).

At least I don't have to install more edging there.  It's already in place!  And the soil there is soft and the border is the width of my spade.  "Piece of cake".  Right?  Yeah, right...

Fortunately, the weather is forecast to stay nice into mid-November, so I may get away with all this before the first hard freeze hits.  But I had better get working of those cages.  Two sizes of cages actually.  8"L x 6"W x 4"H for the crocus bulb border (so I need about 50 of those).  I haven't decided on the size of the cages for the tulip and hyacinth bulbs yet.  I need to sit down and diagram cages what use a 3' wide roll of wire mesh efficiently.

But I have the crocus bulbs now, so they come first.  The tulip cages can wait a few days...  But they will look basically like this...

 


















 12-18" square, 6" high.  It only needs making a wood form to bend the wire mesh over.  Not that that takes no time, but it beats buying cages at $30 each!

Busy Day

It was unusually nice weather today (partly cloudy, dry, 30% humidity and 80F).  I won't see many of those again until September.  So I was up early, for me;  10:30 AM.  I know many of you cringe to think of that as "early",   but an advantage of being single and retired is setting your own hours.

So I started the day with an English Muffin and a cheese/bacon/bell pepper omelet, a glass of green tea, and a glass of V8.  I've been cooking for so long now that all my cast iron pans are utterly non-stick.  They are wonderful!

Fed The Mews first, of course.  AND after.  When they haven't eaten for 10 hours (because I've been in bed), they need a 2nd breakfast.  I'd just give them more at first, but Iza can't keep it down all at once.  And normally, I would let them out afterwards, but it was lawn-mowing day.

So I went out and mowed the lawn.  Takes about an hour for mowing and 30 minutes trimming with the new string-trimmer.  There are a lot of places I just can't mow closely, so I finally bought one of those new 18 volt lithium battery trimmers and it works GREAT!  When they say "it's like a gas one", they are darn close!  I need to get a shoulder strap though; its not one of those little 2 lb jobs...

I let The Mews out after the mowing was done and the fence gates were shut...

After that, I decided to attack some of the brambles that have been invading the more civilized part of by back yard.  My "poacher's shovel" is great for that (think of an industrial-strength 18" trowel on a shovel handle).  I need the narrow blade because the brambles are among plantings.  I got about a dozen dug up.

Then I needed to do some watering.  All you sufferring from drought, forgive me, but we have had unusually frequent rain here and I almost didn't notice we had finally gone a week without any rain.  I started the watering because the annuals I still have in pots looked a bit wilted.  And once I get a hose in my hand, EVERYTHING gets watered, LOL!

Not that I water everything by hand.  I have a tripod with a fan-nozzle attached that I build a few years ago.

This original had a shower spray nozzle, I replaced it with one that spreads more sideways.  I use the shower head nozzle for hand-watering now.

And then I had to water the enclosed veggie garden.  I'm not used to the tight spaces yet, so it is a bit awkward.  I'll get the tricks for worked out this year.  Watering the 6 new raised beds takes a good 30 minutes.

And THEN I had to water all the deck containers.  I tried just filling and re-filling a watering can to water them, but that got pretty tedious.  I thought I would try either one of those super limp hoses that collapse back into a small container, or one of those coiled types that stretch out and fit back in a metal holder.  You've seen them on ads. 

But I was at a D-I-Y store and I noticed they were using the coiled type themselves.  So I figured they probably have some experience with their products, and bought the Melnor green coiled one.

So far, it is working very nicely and sure doesn't take up much space.  I screwed the wire frame to a piece of exterior plywood and attached the plywood to the side of the deck.  A short hose reaches to the multi-outlet water outlet.

For the record, I use one outlet for the hose to the deck, one for the hose to the nearby lawn, one to an industrial strength hose that goes 150' to the back veggie garden, and one for a jet nozzle right at the spigot that is useful for many things (cleaning buckets, hands, boots,  etc).  Dragging hoses all around the yard is both difficult and damaging to plants (I have the entire area around the spigot planted).

So I came back in at 6 PM and decided about dinner.  I decided I'd earned a steak.  I buy them in bulk from the local meat store, cut them in half, and freeze them in sandwich bags (wrapped in a bigger bag, wrapped in a heavier bag - no freezer burn).  So I stuck one bag in a pan of hot water (gentle thawing), made a nice home-grown tomato salad (with some minced onion, chopped cucumber, and shaved carrot), sauted some wedges of red and green bell pepper, M/Vd a potatoe, and poured a glass of wine while I sauteed the steak (its more stovetop-roasting in the covered cast iron pan). 

Dessert was cut-up fresh fruits (cantalope, green grapes, a plum, a navel orange, and some prunes).

Life is good...

Now I need to consult with The Mews about what they want to post for tomorrow. 

A Little Gardening Interlude

While Marley's Birthday Party was going on Saturday, and to watch over the cats playing in the fenced back yard, I took advantage of the time to pull weeds from a section of the flowerbed where the old perennials had about died out (Veronica and Dianthus, both of which have always just limped along here).

I pulled the tops of all the weeds carefully, looking for existing good plants,

 but there weren't any.  Then I used a spade to shove along about an inch below ground, cutting the roots.  Then I dug 6 inches deep and turned the soil over to get at the deeper roots.

That left clumps of hard (but good) soil with some weed roots.  So I crushed all the clumps by hand (great hand exercise) and pulled out all the roots I could find.

I had some leftover sun-loving plants from seeds in small 6-cel flats.  They weren't in good condition, but they weren't dead either, so I planted them in the cleared spot.  Eight Butterfly Weeds (Asclepias, perennial), and if they survive, that will be fine because I planted them near other perennials (Torch Lily and Autumn Joy Sedum).  Next to those, I planted 6 surviving Basil.  Then I found that there were 10 Black Eye Susan Vine barely growing, so I stuck them in the ground too.  Well, why not.  Give them a chance, you know?

The Butterfly Weed look mostly dead, but even the worst had some small leaf buds and the roots were healthy.

All these Basil have to do is produce some leaves before they die at the first frost (late October, usually).

The Black-Eyed Susan vines will want something to climb, but there is time to see if they grow much.

 At least it isn't 6'x4' of grassy weeds.

Yardwork Sunday

What with one thing and another the past month, I haven't been keeping up with yardwork.  But the weeds never relent. 

So as I walked by part of the yard today I just sighed.  Grass among the flowers and a nearly invisible garden path!

So I got down on my knees and got to work.  At least there is a path again.

But still SO much more to be done...

Yesterday Yardwork

OK, the first thing I decided to do was get rid of the dandelions.  I have one of those forked dandelion diggers, but the height was uncomfortable and it is too small to get at the roots accurately.  But I also have a 2' handled mattock! 

It sure works better than those dandelion forks!  I spent an hour chopping deep to cut the roots.  Most will die from lack of leaves.  Some will survive, but I will just go around the yard and chop them deep again.  They will die eventually.  It was actually easier than spraying with herbicides.  Those would kill all the lawn crocuses anyway.

I set up the 4 way hose controller too.  The green hose reaches to the lawn around the back of the house, the black one connects to some drip irrigation hoses in the flowerbeds, the red one goes along the fence to the back gardens, and the jet nozzle is great for cleaning stuff.

The apples are flowering.  They will produce many apples.  I wont get any.  The squirrels will take most of them green.  I think I may just remove them. But I could put some boards across the top and drape chicken wire over them.  That would keep the squirrels out and still let the bees in to pollinate the flowers (I think).

One of the 3 pressure-treated posts on the 20 year old garden trellis broke last winter.  It rotted finally at ground level.  It was set in cement, so it would take hours to dig up.  I pounded in a metal pipe instead.  I intend to make a left-rotated "T" shape |-- wood construction and drill a hole through it to set over the pipe.  Don't worry if it doesn't make sense.  It does and I'll show a picture later.   I plan to take all the posts out in the fall and use pipes to support the trellis instead.

You see a lot of vines growing in at the beds.  They come from the neighbors yard.  I will HAVE to use herbicides to kill the ones in my yard and spray through the fence to beat them back a bit.  I've tried digging them up but they seem to have deep roots and are extremely invasive.  My neighbor won't notice; he doesn't actually live there anymore.  He lives with his girlfriend elsewhere (a sad tale of infidelity, suicide and a broken home).

The next project is replacing the rotting wood sides of my hauling trailer...

And I want to raise a complaint.  I bought a new Canon camera in February.  The battery has never lasted more then 3 days (about 50 shots) before needing recharging.  I merely asked them for a replacement battery.  They refuse.  After some extremely unsuccessful and unfriendly emails with Canon, I promised them I would mention their unfriendly customer relations on my blog.  So I will do that.  Often.

DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM CANON!  THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS.

Doing Useful Stuff, 4

My back yard has a lot of mature trees, and a lot of volunteer saplings grow as a result.  Vines keep growing all the time, and I am constantly fighting wild ("mock") strawberries.   I deliberately left half of it "semi-wild".  Well, I'm not the typical suburban yard-like-a-pool-table-top with bits of shrubs and flowers type.

So there is always SOMETHING invading the more domesticated parts of the back yard.  Today, I finally got tired of the wild blackberries infesting the astilbe section of the flowerbed.  No, they aren't blackberries worth eating.  They are small, seedy, and hard as dry raisins. 

So...  I got out my poacher's shovel (a curved shovel with a blade only a few inches wide but 12" long - so named for digging up valuable wild plants with the least soilball for transport).  Its a really nice tool for digging up deep-rooted weeds among close-planted desirable plants. 

An hour later, I had a nice pile of brambles.  I had to work at getting as much of the roots as possible without killing the astilbe and baptisia.  The astilbe are well-grown, but the baptisia are just sending up shoots (they are rather like hostas shoots at emergence).  I still snapped a few baptisia shoots in the process, but was relieved to discover that each of the 6 plants had at least 6 more shoots emerging.

And there is not a briar/bramble to be found in THAT section...

I rewarded myself by standing on the deck with a beer, and classical music on the radio while I contemplated what best to do tomorrow.  And I admired the pile of brambles.  I sure wish I could have had the cats outside with me.  I miss that.  

Tinkerbelle (1982? to 1999), Skeeter (1992 to 2008), and LC (1993 to 2010) were always outside with me.  Tink and LC went over the fence routinely and sometimes stayed out for the night, but they always ran home in the morning.  Skeeter seldom left the yard (crawled through a rabbit trench under the fence a couple of times and then hated it cuz he couldn't find his way back and would moan on the other side until I removed a fence board to give him a return point).

When Ayla stayed out several nights because of "in heat" and then Marley jumped the fence, I had to stop their outside fun.  And there are owls around now at night and they didn't used to be around here.

I think I need to make the under-the-deck patio area a "catio".

Those Winter Weeds

I have awful winter weeds.  I can never get them pulled up in time to stop the new seeds setting in the soil.

I almost got them this year.  I got about half of them pulled up before the seeds were falling off the flowerheads.  So half the flowerbed should be clear next Spring.  I hope to get THOSE next year. 

I AM slowly catching up with them.  One whole 3rd of the flowerbed has none this year.  I got another 3rd before the seeds developed.  Next year, the last, I hope.

Weeding The Flowerbed

Between getting into a daytime sleep-cycle, the brutal heat of a couple weeks ago (but not much better now), and Ayla having medical complications all last week, the weeds took over!  It sure doesn't take them long to grow and for me to get behind...

This is where I planted annuals this year.  I had a large area where some evil runner grass had taken over last Fall.  I dug it out carefully, but some came back this Spring.

I lifted the perennials out and searched through their roots for runners, then moved them elsewhere mostly to make larger patches of their same kind.  My columbine patch is now double in size, for example.

Then I dug the runner grass out again using a spading fork to loosen the soil so that I could follow all the runners several inches underground and slide them out carefully .  That worked very well.  There is almost none left.

But all that digging brought a lot of other weed seeds to the surface and the planted annual bed exploded with them.  As you can see here...

Here's a closeup of one part for reference.

This is the same spot after I spent over an hour of weeding.  Remarkably better.

After the 1st effort I had plenty left to do...

And here is that same section after today's work!

An overview of the entire weeded area!

But that is just the annual area.  As you can see, I have a few more days of work waiting for me.  This spot won't be TOO bad.  Most of that is actually non-weedy perennials that have already bloomed for the year and weeds in the garden path that will come up from the pea gravel easily.

This area will be harder.  There are several kinds of weeds with thin roots that break off easily.  That means digging.

This will be difficult, too.  The close growing dianthus makes it hard to get at the wiregrass and mock strawberry embedded among them.

At least those areas are shaded after 4 pm.  But did I mentioned my area is infested with Asian Tiger Mosquitoes?  Deet works well enough on my arms and neck, but they still swarm around my face looking for a place to land!

And then I spent over an hour hand watering the weeded area and some parts that were most desperate.  I'll water the rest of the flower and garden later when the shade arrives.

Well, I'll have more pictures when I make more progress...

Front Landscaping Boxes 2

Today I planted half of the daffodils.  Took 3 hours and it nearly killed me.

First, the daffodils...  As I said yesterday, I selected i Early Spring bloomer and 1 Late Spring bloomer.  That was so the appearance of the boxes would change over several months but still show flowers.

The Early Spring bloom is Monal...

The Late Spring bloom is Fragrant Rose...

Between the two, it should make the front look different over the course of 8 weeks and by that time, the hostas shiould be growing out big leaves.  Yeah, I'm trying to get fancy.  Why not?

I ordered 100 each of both.  I decided to plant some in both front landscaping boxes.  One thing I have learned is that most people plant their Spring bulbs too shallowly.   Daffodils like 6-8" and if you look at the standard bulb-planter tool, they don't go that deep.  So I wanted to get them down where they really wanted to be.

I tried a post-hole-digger first, but I had too many rocks in the soil.  And I wanted to plant 2 in each hole 4" apart, and the post-hole-digger wasn't that big.  I should mention that the bulbs I received from
http://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/ are both large, firm, and almost always doubles!  So I had to use the spade to dig a 6"w x 8" deep trench with a flat bottom.  That took time.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The first thing I did was take landscaping flags and stick them all around the right landscaping box.  200 bulbs, 2 per hole, 100 flags...  I had exactly 100 orange landscape flags!

Yeah, I know they say plant 4-5 per square foot, but also 4" apart.  Daffs multiply where they are happy.  I'll spread them out 2 bulbs per spot (though remember they are all doubles) and wait.  Next year will be good; the following year will be better.

Here's where it got tricky.  First, I had to spread 100 spots around the right bed evenly but randomly.  I was thrilled to hit the last corner with the last flag.  Perfect! Nice random positions throughout the entire box!

The digging was the tricky part.  About every 18" in all directions, there were landscaping flags.  Awkward to walk through, awkward to dig around.  And worse, I needed to plant one variety in "every other flag/spot".  And how do you plant in "every other spot" when the flags are basically in triangles?

THe simple answer is that you can't.  So I tried to dig up the spots for the Monal daffs as alternately as possible until I hit 45 of them.  Then I looked at the remaining flags and chose the closest ones and finished the 50.

How did I do the planting you ask?  "Carefully"...

I used the spade to dig a trench 8" long x 3" wide x 8" deep.  I put the soil in 2 buckets with the best top soil in one and the lower worse soil in the other.  I had a small bowl of 2-5-6 slow release organic fertilizer at the side.  In each trench, I added back some of the best soil from the top and mixed some fertilizer.  Then added 2 bulbs pressed firmly in, covered them with more good top soil (as opposed to the more clayey soil 8" deep) sprinkled on a little more 2-5-6, then piled the remaining soil back ontop.

Meanwhile, between the digging, soil piling, fertilizing, planting and covering, I was having to avoid stepping on other flags, existing hostas, and previously-planted spots!  I dug up 100 rocks the size of golf balls or larger...

By the time I planted the Monal half (50 holes), I was exhausted and developing muscle cramps from the awkward positions of digging, planting, covering, bending over, etc and avoiding plants and other flags.  It took 3 hours! 

And tomorrow, I need to do it all over again to plant the Fragrant Rose daffodils. The future flowering display better be worth it!  I would show more pictures, but there is little to see in a dug-up planted, and covered hole.  LOL!  I'll show the results next Spring...

But I'm staying busy...  After THIS is done, I have 100' of flowerbed border that I want to plant with blue fescue grass 1' apart I have been raising in flats, with yellow and purple crocuses in between.  The fun never ends...

Compost Tumbler

There may be a hope for the compost tumbler after all.  I had really criticized it HERE. 

At first, I mainly used it to keep rich tempting kitchen scraps from the groundhogs and other critters.  I could never get it to heat up enough to really compost stuff quickly.  But I may have figured it out.

But to back up a bit...  In past years, I would look at the barrels of produce waste in the grocery stores and wish I could get them.  My requests were always refused.  But I am persistent.  This year, the store managers suddenly say "yes".  I have gotten 6 bags of corn husks and other unwanted produce debris.

I finally have enough stuff to fill the compost tumbler bin.  You would be surprised how compact a whole trash can of corn husks gets in just a week.  But then it was all green stuff and that doesn't make a good compost blend for aerobic breakdown...

Well, I get a daily newspaper (which uses safe soy ink) and I have a paper shredder.  Aha!  Nice "brown" stuff to add to balance the decomposition.

In the past 2 weeks, I have added about as much dry shredded newspaper to the bin as green material.  I've made it a point to turn the bin several times each day.  It's heavier to move, but not unmanageable.  I can tell the balance is better and that the materials are getting mixed well.  It doesn't smell bad.

I know all about anaerobic vs aerobic breakdowns, so I know it is finally working right.  Best of all, it was HOT inside (140F) when I opened it today.

I finally got enough stuff inside, and the right mixture...

Yay!!!

I still think a regular compost bin is far superior, but I have to give SOME credit to these rotating things.  With a lot of care, they can work "OK".

So, The Flowerbeds, Part 2...

Here are some of the (approximately) same spots that I showed in the last post...

Even the gravel path was covered in weeds...

 

There is actually bare soil to be seen!

 

 The Skeeter Memorial is clear again...

 

The LC Memorial is still hidden, but that by a shrub I am going to relocate this Fall...

 

 This part represents about 1/3 of the flowerbed.  Another 1/3 is Bell peppers and daylillies and is weeded.  I'll show that part next time.  That will give me a few days to weed the remaining 1/3!

So, The Flowerbeds...

At least most of the flowers have survived the drought.  Unfortunately, the weeds did better.  I cringed everytime I walked past them in the brutal Summer heat.  Watering the flowerbeds was almost like feeding lambs to wolves in order to save some lambs, but it was still hard.

In the past week, I have made great progress in weeding the flowerbeds. 

Here are some horrible "Before" pictures...

There are more, but you get the picture. Half the growth is weeds.  Well, a few days ago I started getting at the weeds.  I have a procedure...

Wait for the afternoon shade to spread, bring out the radio, bring out the camera, bring out a beer in a gel-pack, apply mosquito repellent, and start pulling weeds up by the roots carefully.  You would think that, after a couple of years, I wouldn't have a weed problem. 

It doesn't work that way.  Nature brings weed seeds in from everywhere.  There is no stopping it.  I swear that if I sterilized a square foot of soil and covered it with heavy plastic, there would be weeds happily growing a month later!

ARGHHHH!


But I can destroy a month of weed growth in a limited are in a day.  About 50 square feet a day in a tightly growing flowerbed, anyway.  It's tricky weeding a flowerbed with no paths.  I have to carefully slide my feet in between plants I want to keep.  Then I have to bend every whichway following weeds through the desirable plants down to the roots.  Then pull them gently till the roots come up or dig at the spot till I get the roots.

I don't just pull the weeds loose at ground level, I really work at getting the roots.

Well, I made good progress.  Here is the pile for today...

The weed pile was 3'x3'x2'high.  I'm going to let them desiccate there for a few days before I add them to the compost tumbler bin. 

Fortunately after several years, I have the compost tumbler reaching a good temperature.  Enough to kill most of the weed seeds, I think.  But more on that next time...