When Things Finally Start To Come Together

31 May, 2012 Reply

Whew! I didn’t think it would ever look like our yard was going to come together. I’ve been working on it for two years and it looked like I’d done almost nothing, but this year, year three, things are finally starting to come together.

Plants are maturing, looking really stunning this year; our permanent crop plants are producing heavily; we got most of the fruit trees in for our little orchard. So the yard finally doesn’t look like an orphan.

My asiatic lily blooms for the first time.

An asiatic lily, purchased after it had bloomed last summer, rewards me with many blossoms this year.

There are some notable exceptions. One of the biggest is a large autumn olive almost in front of the door. We planned to move it this spring, but only got to the maple tree before it got too hot. So, it’s earmarked for a move immediately after the temperatures begin to cool this fall.

All my seedlings are looking terrific this year. Last year, almost from the get-go, my vegetable garden looked terrible. None of the plants produced much; my summer squash only produced male blossoms; the tomatoes got early blight, so even though they produced some tomatoes, they looked terrible.

My decision to not expand, until I have what’s already in the ground under control, was a good one. Oh, I’ll tell you I’ve been tempted sometimes to start the new perennial garden I want out front, or to start new rows for the blackberries and marionberries, but I’m holding off.

So far, with the help of my husband, we’ve managed to build a new, easily removed structure around the blueberries. This is keeping the birds at bay. Of course they holler at us every time we go outside. They are not happy that they can’t munch on all the berries before we get any.

We got 10 more fruit trees planted and just this weekend started to put down weed barrier around them and the berry bushes.

I managed to get several of the vegetable beds reworked with more amendments and the plants are doing terrific because of it.

Last we’ve started work on building a roof over the back deck, so we can sit outside and not get baked. It faces mostly south and is unbearably hot even in the early morning, so a roof will help cool it down so we can enjoy breakfast outside.

The herb garden is almost finished. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll bring over the loads of compost to fill it up and then this weekend we’ll work on the deck and I’ll move the herbs to their new home. Just in time to till up where they were and put in the last of the summer seeds.

Wish I’d taken before and after pictures, but I’ve been so busy just trying to keep ahead of everything I didn’t. From this point on we can at least show you what we’ve done, maybe even how to do it yourself.

So our little Avalon is finally starting to come together.

Red Sorrel – A Gardener’s Bane

29 May, 2012 Reply
Red or sheep's sorrel

Looks pretty, tastes tangy, but if you let this innocent looking weed get a foothold you'll need to eat it by the ton to get rid of it.

As I’ve mentioned several times before, my home sits on a piece of property that was once used for tobacco farming. Tobacco farming essentially destroys the soil. Tobacco is a very heavy feeder and needs lots of fertilizer and pesticides to keep it going. So, the soil on our property, except in one area that was wooded and never cultivated, is basically dead. When we dig a new garden we rarely find an earthworm.

Red sorrel, also called sheep’s sorrel, is a native plant, i.e., weed, that is well known for establishing itself in poor, acid soils. So you see, we have exactly the right conditions for this nasty weed. This weed is edible, and it’s well behaved cousin French Sorrel has even been a part of my herb garden, but you can have too much of a good thing, especially when it starts to choke out other plants.

The problem with sorrel is that it spreads by rhizomes under the soil (think bermuda or crab grass). It wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the roots were as thick as the rhizomenous grasses, but they aren’t. Most are barely thicker that a piece of thread. However, leave even a tiny piece of it behind and you have another plant started right where the other one left off.

Uprooted flower sorrel

This is the flowering plant. Notice that no roots are attached. The plant pulls easily from the root, leaving it intact to sprout again, and again...

In the meadow part of the yard this isn’t a problem, but, unfortunately, because I got behind on my weeding the sorrel has invaded flower gardens, the berries and grapes, and worst of all, a couple of the vegetable beds. My husband blithely says that all you have to do is mulch a little bit and it will be taken care of. Well this stuff comes up right through both the cardboard and the store-bought mulch I’ve tried.

The only method I’ve found for keeping it at bay is to never let it get a foothold. I now have to painstakingly dig out every tiny bit of root that I can get out and then repeat that for the next several months on a weekly basis and finally about the end of the season I’ll be able to keep it at bay.

I’m going to be looking into some organic weed killers to see if I can use them around the perimeter of my gardens, and if they’ll kill sorrel. If they will I’m actually going to give it a try. I’ll just treat about one foot around all the gardens, just so my plants are not having to compete so much for water, fertilizer, and sun. The rest we can easily keep mowed down. I just need to know if it will kill the root and not just the top leaves, otherwise it’ll be a waste of money and time.

I’ll let you know how things turn out.

If anyone has had any luck getting rid of this nasty stuff PLEASE share the info below. I’ve got to find a solution as it’s starting to come up in the area where the greenhouse is supposed to be!

First Spring Salad And Other Spring Musings

22 May, 2012 Reply

I probably wrote about this last year, but every year is like the first time when you harvest enough out of your garden to make most of a salad. My spring garden was very limited this year, as the gardens were in such a shambles from the fact that I didn’t have time to clean them out last fall (something I hope to NEVER repeat) and the weather doing funky things. I did manage to get a few of my favorites going and yesterday we had the very first salad with many of the fixings from our own garden.

I had two kinds of lettuce, two kinds of chard, spinach, a couple of sugar snap peas (and when I mean a couple it was exactly two, so we each got one), fennel, rosemary, lemon thyme, garden thyme, oregano, little tiny marigolds called mace which were surprisingly aromatically spice, marigold petals, and wild sorrel ripped from my yard (it is the most invasive weed, but also highly nutritious and tasty). I added some store bought carrots and tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, raisins, and sunflower seeds. Then we drizzled just a little bit of oil and vinegar over it and had an amazing salad.

Over this past weekend I planted my tomato and pepper plants. I’ve got them covered with lightweight frost blanket to protect them from the sun, as I’ve had a really hard time hardening things off with the cloudy, rainy weather that descended on us just in time for the hardening off period. I’ll see if the frost blanket works as well as screening. It sure seemed to really help the earlier seedlings get going well, without being munched by bugs.

This weekend I’ll get in the basil and the few flowers I managed to sprout. This was not a good season for starting seeds, maybe next year. I also hope to move the herb garden to its permanent home this weekend. If the weather holds and I can finish painting the railing of the deck on the side where it’s going, then I’ll be able to complete that garden and get things moved. That will open up most of the back of the house for more vegetables, which I really need. I don’t have space for my big melons and squash, so they will probably go up next to the house this year. Strange place, but I got two new winter squash types that are supposed to be squash vine borer resistant and I really want to try them out. So, I’ll just have big viney things up close to the house this year…Won’t be the first time I’ve planted something in a strange place.

So, the garden is a work in progress. I’ve managed to rope my husband into helping me many mornings for at least a couple hours, so some of the projects are moving much faster and hopefully soon I’ll be ahead of the wave and spending time improving my soil and finishing up the beds I’ve already got started, making a nice inviting and nourishing home for all the plants to come in the future.

Sorry the posts have been scarce lately. I’ve been wicked busy with the yard and a new business I’m trying to get started. Both take lots of time and attention! I hope to return to being more regular now that the garden frenzy is over.

Labeling Fruit Trees

15 May, 2012 Reply
Stamped copper plant marking tag

If you want to mark important trees and shrubs, copper labels last forever, and are easy to make.

How To Make Copper Plant Labels

I’m very excited. Last night I made copper labels for all of our fruit trees. All it took was; some 1” labels, which you can buy, but I won them at a gardening event; metal stamping set; wood scrap; and a hammer.

To do the stamping -

  1. Pick out the letters needed from the stamping kit.
  2. Place label on scrap wood.
  3. Align stamp for placement on the label.
  4. Hit lightly with the hammer.
One tip: You can put the stamp closer to the previous letter than you think you can. It will look like it’s almost on top of the other stamp. That will give you fairly even spacing. Of course leave more space between words.

On the top row I stamped the type of fruit, such as, apple, pear, etc. On the second row I stamped the variety. For instance, I have one new apple tree. I stamped the top row with the word APPLE, and the second row with, PINK LADY, which is the variety.

That way, ten years from now I won’t have to guess at which tree is which. Of course some varieties, like the plums are different colors, so that helps, but when I pick three different varieties of cherries it becomes a little more difficult.

The next step, which I’ll do today if the rain stays at bay, is to put them on the trees. They came with copper ties. Since the trees are tiny I’ll put them around the main trunk, so that there are many branches to hold them in place. I need to remember to check them several times throughout the season, though, as little trees grow fast and I don’t want to girdle the trunk. As the tree gets bigger and has branches that will hold it better I’ll move it there. Once the tree gets a little mature with stronger bark I may just nail them vertically to the actual trunk. Otherwise I’ll have to keep moving the labels periodically. That’s gets old and can easily be forgotten when trees get covered in leaves.

Not Just For Fruit Trees

You can use this method to mark any trees and shrubs you want to remember the name of, whether common or botanical. It does take a little practice to get the letters lined up well. My first markers don’t look as nice as the last ones I did, but they all work beautiful or not.

Share Your Labeling Methods

What labeling methods do you use for plants you want to remember. I’m especially interested in non-woody plants that you can’t tie or nail a label to.

My Favorite Time Of Spring

8 May, 2012 Reply
Blue hydrangea

First hydrangea blossoms opening right now.

Perfect Weather

This last week has been fantastic. The weather is warm enough to work outside and the humidity is still low. The gardens are bursting into bloom. I have snapdragons, carnations, dianthus, pansies, and petunias already in bloom. The hydrangeas first blossoms opened yesterday. My lilies have buds all over them.

Cornucopia In The Making

The trees have leafed out. The berry bushes are making berries. The grapes have buds on them. Best of all one of the peach trees we planted two years ago is covered in little peaches. We even have on plum on one plum tree, with a nest full of birds to boot.

In the veggie garden the peas have buds one them; the brassicas are finally getting large enough to think they might actually produce something; the spinach is taking off. Seeds are sprouting everywhere: summer squash, cucumbers, yard long beans, and melons.

Yellow Pansy from my yard

Pansies are blooming like crazy.

The seedlings are getting rangy and need to be hardened off, but the weather has been cloudy and grey so they’re still waiting for a real challenge.

I’m continuing the yard cleanup. I’ll tell you, I learned my lesson. I’ll not pass on doing the fall cleanup this coming season, that’s for sure.

My husband and I got together a couple days ago and put together a project list for the yard, so now I have some extra help in getting the bigger things completed.

Pink Dianthus from my yard

Dianthus are nearly perennials here.

RIP Little Mower

The only downside is that our aging push mower, which my husband has spent three days getting everything working to weld the broken handle, blew something this morning and lives no more, RIP. It did a valiant job. We found it by the side of the road, someone moving had left it there for the trash and it mowed for us for 11 years, not bad.

So, besides the fact that the weeds are now knee high, everything is springing forth gloriously.

Retiring in Luxury

3 May, 2012 Reply

None of us like to think about it, but at some point in time we may not be able to keep up our house and yard. Maybe you’re at the point that you don’t want the responsibilities of a home and yard. Or it might be a knee or hip replacement that leaves with limited mobility, or unable to push the lawn mower anymore.

Pool at the DevonshirePGA retirement community in Florida

Is your perfect retirement being able to sit by the pool every day and enjoy the sun?

Planning ahead for the possibilities is always good. You need to know what is really important to you as you look over the options for senior living communities. Living arrangements, ammenities, travel possibilities, community events, health care availability, etc., should all be considered. Maybe you would like to be able to still have some gardening time, but not be fully responsible for a garden, more like volunteering. Whatever your needs are, you should make a list and then carefully scrutinize the facilities you’re considering.

For some, the golden years are their golden opportunities to indulge in things they didn’t have time for when they were younger; maybe golf, tennis, yoga, or regular massages are on your list; possibly you would like to be able to go to the theater regularly, or attended cultural or educational programs; maybe you just don’t want to have to go into the kitchen unless you feel like it, having meals readily available in a common dining area.

Retirement doesn’t mean you have to sit on your porch and watch life go by. These days there’s the perfect place for everyone to age gracefully, and having a lot of fun while doing it.

The Irrigation Maze

1 May, 2012 Reply
Sprinkler with rainbow and sparkles

Sprinklers are fun to play in, but not very efficient for watering your yard.

We’ve all heard that putting in an irrigation system is the way to go, but how do you decide what you need, especially if you’re still putting in your yard and are not quite sure what the final plan will look like? We keep changing our minds about what we want; where and how many of this or that we want to grow.

Not only that, there are new developments every year, or at least that I hear about, so keeping up with options can take a lot of time. I am actually starting to look at putting in a permanent system in the backyard, as we are completing the vegetable garden section of the yard.

The best thing you can do is put together a landscape design. In this day and age of water conservation is a good idea to plan a water wise yard. A great resource for planning water efficient designs is http://www.epa.gov/watersense/outdoor/landscaping_tips.html.

Finding irrigation supplies is the first trick. Local big box centers usually have some supplies, but they may not be the best quality or the latest technology. For instance I found an indoor controller online today. It looks very interesting and I’m going to have to do some research on it, as the controller we have is quite old, relies on a computer to run it, with an interface that any new computer we buy will not have. It is moving into the realm of old technology rapidly.

If your yard has stabilized and you pretty much know where trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and grass are going to be grown, you can just make a list of the various supplies you’ll need, such as the length of hose; emitter or sprinkler heads, and the various patterns you’ll need; control boxes; sensors; valves, fittings, and tools, etc. You’ll need to take measurements and then plan for a little extra, as well as some mistakes, when buying the tubing. Having many different emitter and sprinkler head styles is important, too, so that you can be sure to cover every single area. You don’t want to end up with a dead plant of grass patch. You’ll need to know your water pressure, as well, because some systems will require you to lessen the pressure, while others may not run well if you have a low pressure system like we do.

If you have questions about what will work, any company should help you sort it out. Doing it yourself will save you a lot of money, but in the end, if you just don’t have the skills, having it installed may be the best, albeit much more expensive, option.