Edible Landscaping

30 May, 2011 Reply

Flowering Cabbage & Kale plus Pansies line my entry walk, all are edible

As more and more of us are interested in having good fresh produce in our house, many are turning to growing their own foods. However, if you have a small lot or live in a condominium you may not have room to put in a vegetable garden, berry patch and small orchard. Edible landscaping to the rescue.

What is edible landscaping? It is incorporating edible plants right in among your ornamentals, so they blend in or stand out, depending on your desire. It means that you plant a fruit tree in your front yard, instead of a shade tree. You plant flowering cabbage or kale along your walkway instead of dwarf holly. There are probably edible plants to replace every ornamental, but that’s not really necessary, even incorporating a few can really be a delight.

It is a little bit of an art to know what plants will look good in certain places, but there is a lot written about it these days. Not only that there are many varieties of vegetables that are being grown so that they are more compact and fit beautifully in any garden. Just visiting Rosalind Creasy’s home page, she’s one of the pioneers of edible landscaping, will be enough to inspire you to try at least a few plants tucked in around your ornamentals.  The upside is that you’ll have not only a beautiful garden, but one that is nutritious, too.

And The Winner Is

27 May, 2011 Reply

‘Old Mexico’ zinnia by 2 days.  The ‘Thumbelina’ zinnia is now open as well. Both are yellow. Last year all the ‘Thumbelinas’ were pink, so I’m really glad to see that I have something other than pink this year.

This is one of the most exciting times of the year. Everything is popping into bloom or sprouting from the ground. Because the soil is nice and warm seeds are sprouting in just a few days. I planted corn, beans, squash, and watermelons less than a week ago and all of them are coming up.

The flower seeds I sprinkled in the front last week are up and going strong. The bachelor buttons are putting on buds, the strawflowers have doubled in size and the sunflowers are growing rapidly.

The summer perennials are in bloom. I went a little crazy last year and bought a bunch of plants before I had a garden so had to squeeze them in all together before our trip to India. This has made for a spectacular display of flowers already. It is fun to watch as the plants that were just tiny sprigs last year are putting on flowers for the first time. Seeing them in the catalog and seeing them in person can be quite different and I’ve found a favorite already in the Achusa azurea I bought on a whim last year. It has been blooming since sometime in April and doesn’t seem to want to slow down. It is clear blue, one of my favorite flower colors and about 4’ tall. I’ll be adding more of those for sure, once I get the cutting bed put in.

I think one of the things gardeners enjoy the most is watching the plants produce, whether it is flower or fruit. To see a seedling or tiny plant persevere and mature is so fulfilling. It is almost like having children.

Protecting Your Outbuildings

24 May, 2011 Reply

You’re lazily having your morning cup of java, enjoying the early spring air and all the beautiful flowers in your yard, when you switch on the TV and find that yet another burglary has happened in your neighborhood. Glancing out your window at your recently finished workshop, you realize that you might just want to look into a home security system. You’ve got a lot of expensive woodworking tools out there and would hate to come home and find them gone.

A search on your laptop reveals that home security lincolnton is located right in your area. You take a look at their web site and decide to give them a call.

You sit down to check out your morning email and visit your favorite news sites before you start your workday. You notice a link for http://www.localtv-satellite.com. Out of curiosity you click on it to see what the latest offers are. You decide to get a quote on having it installed, and consider having it run out to the workshop so you can catch the games while you work on your latest project.

Anticipation

19 May, 2011 Reply

Spring is well underway and the vegetable garden is starting to produce masses of peas, greens, lettuce, and strawberries. The spring bulbs and perennials have flowered and the early summer ones are starting to blossom. The most anticipated time is when the first flowers grown from seed blossom.

This is a truly fun time as you wait to see what colors the flowers will be. If you’re growing a new variety, waiting to see how big the flower is, what markings is has, how it compares to your favorites, is like waiting to see who won best actor or actress at the Oscars.

I’ve got two flowers competing to see who is actually going to open up first. Will it be the ‘Thumbelina’ zinnia or the ‘Old Mexico’ zinnia. Every day I go out and check to see how far along they are. Today the ‘Old Mexico’ was starting to show color, so I think it’s going to win.

Last year was the first year I grew that particular variety of zinnia and I absolutely loved it. I only had one plant, but it bloomed non-stop from early summer until the first hard frost. The flowers start out one color and end another, so it looks like you have two plants mixed up together. It is very hardy, withstanding being over and under-watered while we were in India.

This year I have bachelor buttons and strawflowers in abundance. It will be great fun to see what colors they end up being, as I’ve only had a few of them make it to maturity before. This year I have scads of them and I have them tucked here and there all over the yard.

I’ll let you know who wins the race and if there are any new flowers that grab the coveted “Best New Flower” spot away from ‘Old Mexico’ zinnia.

My Favorite Flowers

16 May, 2011 Reply

To be honest I love all flowers, but I have two that I particularly like. They are both what I call “drop and grow” flowers. This is because if you happen to drop one of their starts on the ground they will invariable start growing wherever they land. Pests or diseases rarely bother these plants, and their flowers are big, bold statements.

So, what are these magnificent additions to your garden? Irises and daylilies. Irises are just so totally amazing looking with some of the petals gracefully arching upwards and others flowing down, and they have the startlingly bright little “beards” on them. They come in some of the most fantastic arrays of color available in the flower kingdom, ranging from white, to pastel pink, all the way to near red, purple, an almost black one, and almost every imaginable color in-between. There literally is an iris for every taste. There can be single colored, two toned, striped, have an edging in one color and the rest of the flower in another. Now days you can even find re-blooming iris. So instead of just enjoying them in spring you can have them bloom again later in the season.

I honestly don’t have a favorite in these flowers. I just want one of every single one, but since there are 1500+ varieties I think I’ll need to tone it down a bit. Although there are a list of diseases and pests I think the only one I’ve ever encountered in over 20 years of growing irises is the iris borer (Macronoctua onusta). Unfortunately I had a visit from them this last year and only have two rhizomes left.

Daylilies are just as easy care as the iris, maybe even easier. They, too, come in a startling array of colors and styles; singles, double, smooth petals, ruffled petals, etc. They come mostly in warm colors: pink, maroon, orange, yellow, peach. The bed with the irises will also have daylilies in it. There’ll be one row of iris, another of daylilies and in the back gladiolus, my most recent favorite flower, but more on that another time.

Again, no favorites here either, although I do like the ruffled edges and the double petaled ones for looks.

There are tall and short varieties of both irises and daylilies, as well as miniature and large blossoms.

A Cut Above

11 May, 2011 Reply

One thing that you’ll do a lot of in a garden is cutting. There’s trimming trees and bushes, deadheading flowers, cutting back winter dieback, and harvesting from your vegetable and herb gardens.

Having the right tool at the right time is a great help and makes the work simple and quick. Depending on what you have growing in your yard you may be able to get away with just a simple pair of scissors, or you may need  a chainsaw.

There are several tools that are essential. Obviously having a good pair of scissors for simple cuts is helpful. Then there are small-scale nippers, for deadheading and cutting fresh flowers. A step up from that are pruners, I prefer bypass. Since I live on an acre of land and have a wooded area I have a pair of loppers and a long handled saw to keep the trees pruned.

One thing that is nice to have is a folding pocket knife, not only in your garden tools, but in the glove compartment of your car, too. It is a great way to cut some lovely wildflowers along the side of the road, or to cut off a seed head of some interesting flower you spot while driving.

Although not specifically for gardening you may want to consider a tactical knife or fixed blade knife. There are many different blade styles, some of which look like they would be great for cutting and trimming around the yard. Some have hooks on the end of them that look like they would cut twine and other tying materials easily. I sure could have used one of them the night I was out in near freezing temperatures trying to pull up my tomato plants, which had grown so hardily they had stems almost as big around as my forearm! It was quite a job with just a kitchen knife and took nearly two hours.

Using Water Wisely

10 May, 2011 Reply

These days there is a lot of talk about growing things that will need little if any watering, especially in desert climates. Xerascaping is a great way to have a lovely landscape without water worries.

What do you do if you want to grow fruits and vegetables, though? Most of them do not grow well without any extra watering. The next best thing is to put in a drip irrigation system. This puts that water where it’s needed and you lose a negligible amount to evaporation.

Today you can visit you local home improvement store and find all that you need to take care of your yard. It can be confusing knowing how much water you need to drip per hour for different plants, so do some research online before you go to buy. Salespeople at big box stores often don’t know much about drip irrigation and will sell you items that you don’t need. If your local garden center carries drip irrigation supplies, they’ll know more about installing it and what different plants will need.

A super simple method of dripping is to get soaker hoses and meander them throughout your gardens. The only problem with that is that all plants get the same amount of water, which may either be too much or too little for their needs. Often, though this can be a good way to start out. Then as you gain more knowledge you can move into a more complete set-up.

A great addition to a drip system is an automatic timing system. This way, once you’ve got everything laid out you just connect it up and it will water without any need for you to do anything but check the batteries.

When you first put in a drip system it is important to keep an eye on you gardens until you are sure you’ve got it set up so that none of the plants is being missed. Once that is done, sit back and watch your garden grow. Watering just where needed cuts down on weeds, too, as you’re not watering all the soil, so seed germination is less.

The Berries Are Blooming

5 May, 2011 Reply

It is always exciting when the berries begin to bloom. There is almost nothing that can rival the taste of berries fresh off the bush. Unfortunately they are so tasty that none ever make it to being frozen or dried for winter consumption.

The tastiest berry on the planet is the marionberry. It is like a blackberry on steroids. Huge berries that are more juice than seed, with a complex taste of blackberries and raspberries combined. They don’t have any bitterness in them like blackberries, though.

Black Raspberry, Marionberry, Red Raspbery, which would you choose?

Marionberries are easy to grow, maybe too easy, actually, as they will tip off at the drop of a hat (or cane as the case may be). They were bread in Oregon and do well there.

In the south they prefer to get some shade in the hottest part of the day. They take a beating during a very severe winter. However, it is almost impossible to kill the roots, so they’ll be back, you’ll just have a light harvest after a hard winter.

They aren’t a plant you want to put in the cultivated portion of your yard, as they are wild and crazy growers with canes that can reach 20’ long! So, put them in the back forty, put a cane growing fence around them to contain them some and then wait for the luscious berries to appear on the second year growth. Once the cane has produced fruit it won’t again, so cut it down and compost it, to encourage new growth for the following year.

Kicking Back After A Long Day

3 May, 2011 Reply

You’ve spent the entire day in the yard cleaning, weeding, and sprucing things up after Winter’s ravages. Your body’s tired, but you still feel energized and like having some fun. That’s the time to have something special planned for the evening. You could’ve just stayed at home and watched a movie, but you were more creative and have tickets purchased for your favorite band’s concert; front row balcony, your favorite spot. You got to choose the seats right on TicketAmerica.com’s site. Purchasing blossom music center tickets was really easy.

The concert is fantastic. You come home feeling so good you’ve completely forgotten about how hard you worked in the yard. You’re so excited about it that you contact a friend in New York, who loves this band’s music, to tell them to go to Ticketamerica.com and look at the schedule and seating chart for the upcoming concert. Then order bethel woods center for the arts tickets right away, as they won’t want to miss out on this one.

Not wanting to miss another great performance, the next morning you’re up bright and early looking through Ticketamerica.com’s site, checking their schedules and seating charts in order to see what’s coming up. You notice a concert by an artist you and a friend in Phoenix enjoy, so you shoot an email off to them reminding them to visit the site and check the schedule in their area and order ashley_furniture homestore pavilion tickets in their favorite seating area before they’re sold out, like last year.