The Winning Stake

22 March, 2013 Reply

To Plant Or Not To Plant

Property line stake that is. Last weekend we planned to mark where our blackberries and marionberries permanent homes are going to be. However, when we tried to decide where to put the marionberries, which were to be near the property line, we couldn’t find the marker for the SW corner of our property. Try and dig as we might, we didn’t find a thing.

Brand new markers are easy to find. After 13 years, though, they can be elusive.

Brand new markers are easy to find. After 13 years, though, they can be elusive.

I remembered reading about a metal detector group in our state that had put on some event about a year ago, so I looked them up online and contacted the president of the organization. I asked if there were any members around where I lived that might be able to help us locate our markers.

He sent the request out to the club and I got two responses. I arranged for one of them to come out. This morning he arrived with all his paraphernalia. It was pretty impressive.

Finding The Markers

We started at one corner of the property, where we thought the marker that we’d found wasn’t the correct one. He had a dickens of a time because there were so many bleeps that he kept getting all kinds of false readings. We finally went to the back stake, which we knew almost exactly where it was and got our bearings. We finally dug up the post we’d originally found and decided it was the correct one, even though it looks like it’s in an entirely different place than our plat shows.

Then we moved on to the other front marker. This one eluded us even more. He’d get a hit and we’d dig and find a screw, a piece of wire, etc. He was such a nice person, and just kept locating and digging, again unearthing screws and bits of wire, and one possible old button, which he gave me as a souvenir. We dug about a dozen holes, when I suggested I go stand at the back marker on that side, which was above ground and easily found, so that they could get an idea of where to dig. I did that, and still we didn’t find it. However, while my husband was back working on a better way to mark the back corner, Pat, our metal detectorist, found the other marker. I think he just needed us to get out of the way, so he could do his work.

It was fun, even though it was wickedly chilly out this morning. He let me put on the headphones and play with his detector a little. I could see where people could really enjoy this as a hobby. It’s like a treasure hunt, even though I didn’t find anything interesting (one piece of wire and a rusty screw).

Now we know where the property line runs and we’ll be able to safely plant the marionberries right where I’d planned them. Oh, I also found out that the big patch of violets that my neighbor kept cutting down last year is on our property, so they’ll get to stay and bloom their little hearts out this year (if he didn’t kill them with all the cutting).

This Could Help You Out

If you ever need to locate your property markers, and you know they are metal, just contact you local club and see if someone would be willing to help you out. Of course if you need it for something legal you should probably hire a surveyor, but for our purposes Pat’s finds were just what we needed. Pat’s a great guy, retired marine, who worked with us for two hours to find the markers in our “treasure” filled property. It might be interesting to see if there’s anything of value under any of the multitude of bleeps I heard…

Planning A Perennial Border Garden

12 March, 2013 2 Comments

A couple years ago I started a large perennial border garden across the front of our property. I only got a small portion of it tilled and planted and that is a hodgepodge of a bunch of plants I had that needed homes immediately, if not sooner.

Reclaiming Garden Space

A portion of last years garden.

A portion of last years garden.

This weekend I’m going to roll out the plastic and re-kill the grass that has retaken the rest of the garden. I’m going to get the perennial border garden I’ve been wanting for so many years, finally.

One thing I need to do is plan out the rest of the plants that I want for the garden. Right now I have plants that I either grew from seed, or bought on sale for a ridiculous price. The rest of the garden needs some thought, though, because I want to ensure that I have something blooming throughout the summer.

Taking Inventory

The first task on my list will be to look at the plants I have and see when they usually bloom. I know that some of the plants are continuous or repeat bloomers, so I’ll need to keep that in mind, as well. Just off the top of my head I know I have Shasta daisy, two or three veronicas, two miniature roses, four anise hyssops, several different lilies (all bought for $2 or less after they’d quit blooming), a half dozen or so snapdragons (waiting to see how many made it through the winter, a couple look not so good), three white strawberries (that need to be moved to the strawberry patch), a coreopsis, many carnations (started from seed and had 36 plants at first, some didn’t make it through the winter though), blue azure (I think that’s it’s name), purple cone flower, garden phlox (want more of these), blue salvia, and I think on pink pincushion button. That may seem like a lot of plants, but once I have the garden in place I’ll have about 60’ to plant, 40’ of which I’m going to get finished this year. We need to figure out the placement of the carport we want before we put in the last of the garden, as I’m going to have a picket fence surrounding it and I need to know where that’s going to end up, as it will be placed next to the carport on one side.

If I look at the list of plants I already have, I have a variety of bloom periods, but I need to make a chart or graph of which plants will bloom at what time and how many of them will overlap. Also, I need some interesting greenery, maybe an ornamental grass, to add some interesting textures. I’m not going to plant evergreens in this garden, but something that’s semi-evergreen might be a nice addition.

I’ll also have 60’ of garden to be planted in irises and day lilies. I won’t be able to fill that this year, more than likely, because that is costly, because I want to hand pick each one, not just get the big box store varieties. So, I should have plenty of room for a nice selection of annuals. I’ll keep that in mind when I’m planting flower seeds this afternoon (inside in flats).

Make A Drawing

I’ve got quite a bit of planning to do this spring. Hopefully I can get the foundation plantings, the perennial border and the front entry gardens all spruced up this year. I was shocked to realize I’ve lived here for seven years and my front yard still looks like a war zone. It’s time to finish up all the half baked projects and get all the plants into their permanent homes (or at least as permanent as any garden is).

 

The Search For A Gardening Journal

26 February, 2013 Reply
Do I want a real journal or a one in the cloud?

Do I want a real journal or a one in the cloud?

Every year I tell myself I need to get a gardening journal going, and every year I get so frustrated trying to find something that will fill my needs. I’m at it again today. Looking online at templates for garden journals.

I never seem to find something that is exactly right for my needs. I find something that 50-70% good, but missing a few key components. Then I find another than has those key components, but is missing a few that the other one had. After going through dozens of sites I usually just give up and just try to use the database I made up years ago.

The problem is that the database doesn’t do it either, because then I can’t have it with me when I’m in the garden and need to note something. I’m really torn. I love to hand write things, but then I have no way to search for anything. Not only that I have to hand enter everything each year. At least with the database once I’ve entered a variety of plant it is there every year.

Really my database is just for seed starting, and that’s usually about all that gets noted in it. I don’t even always get when the seeds came up and I certainly never get when they are ready for harvest, whether I had any problems, what I thought about that particular variety, etc.

Somethings gotta give. I’m currently looking at templates that could be printed or made so I could type into them. I’ve looked at iPod apps, but haven’t found anything comprehensive enough. I’ve not gone to the Apple App store to see if there is anything there that has what I need.

The one thing I know for sure is I need something I can take in the garden with me. So, it will either be paper, and iPod app, or if I get really brave I’ll take my laptop out in the garden. I think if I go that direction I’ll end up getting something that covers the keys, because I am a notoriously messy gardener, so I’d have to have a way to keep dirt from getting down inside the keys.

Ack, can you see I’m in a huge conundrum? It feels like there’s not a good answer any way I look at it. So, I’ll spend some time today looking at the templates and checking into the Apple App store, re-look at the iPod apps, and hopefully find something that will do for this year. I’ve already got seeds planted and some of the early seeds are up! I need something asap!

I’m determined to come up with something this year. I’ve been at the new house for seven years now, time to get a grip on the gardens!

Preparing New Gardens In The Fall

19 October, 2012 Reply

Fall Is Mellowing

Fall is an excellent time to prepare new gardens for planting the next spring. When you prepare gardens in the spring any amendments you put in may not have time to break down and be available to the plants right away. Not only that you can put amendments into the garden, which you can’t in the spring.

Gardens Were Needed for Survival

We no longer need to plow huge gardens, but growing flowers and food crops still bring a lot of pleasure and healthy foods to our tables.

For instance, fresh manures of most animals are considered hot. That means that they will burn the roots of seedlings, causing them to be stunted or die. If you put fresh manure in a garden in the fall, it has all winter to mellow and “cool” down. Then in the spring your plants will find all the wonderful, natural nutrients it contains available to them and they’ll flourish.

Another item that you have to be very careful with is lime. When you put lime in a garden that is going to be directly planted you have the same problem as manure. It can burn the roots of plants and seedlings and stunt their growth or kill them. It is not as strong as manure, though, so adding a small amount of it when planting a garden in the spring can be beneficial. You just have to be extra careful with it.

One other thing that you can usually do is plant a cover crop, which can then be turned under in the late winter or early spring, depending on your zone, to add a huge amount of nitrogen and help to keep friable clays and help bind sandy soils together.

Keeping Weeds At Bay

One thing to keep in mind is to keep the soil from getting contaminated with lots of weed seeds. You don’t want to have to rework the soil the next spring. You can prepare the soil and then put a permeable cover over it. You could use weed barrier. If you cover that with some mulch it will look nice until the next spring, when you can remove the covering and add the mulch to the soil. Of course you can only do that if you use a mulch that will be advantageous to your soil. In other words if you have highly acidic soil you don’t want to use a mulch that will add even more acidic compounds to your soil. So you might want to use straw (hay has too many weed seeds). I’ve done this a couple times and I’ll usually get a few wheat plants coming up in the spring, but that can be fun, or you can easily remove them.

Pick A Project

So, if your landscape isn’t complete, pull out your plans and decide which gardens you want to plant in the spring and start preparing the soil now. You’ll be rewarded for preparing a nice home for your new plants. They’ll be stronger and produce better (be it flowers or food) than if you simply dig up some soil in the spring and plant, even if you do amended them both.

Missing Out On Gardening Time

20 March, 2012 Reply

There’s nothing more aggravating than having an unreliable car. In today’s world a car is no longer a luxury. Gone are the corner grocery and drug stores. Now you have to drive 5-10 minutes to get to a super-grocery or department store. When your car repeatedly fails you, it can create tremendous amounts of stress and cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

Not only that it can cut into time you’d ordinarily have to enjoy yourself. Putting in new gardens, painting a room, designing the pond next to the entrance, etc., can be seriously hampered if you are repeatedly spending all your spare time at the repair shop.

Lemon Car

Not Again!!!???

So, what’s a person to do? You just bought the car of your dreams, but it has turned into a nightmare. You have been in the repair shop almost as much as you’ve been at work. Your boss is grumbling. Your kids are whining because you come late to pick them up, or worse you don’t get there at all. The final straw is when you have to leave a trailer full of hardscaping materials by the side of the road, because the car broke down and had to be towed again, and you go back and some of the stuff has been stolen.

That’s when you start thinking about your legal rights, and you have some. In every state there are “lemon” laws to protect consumers from cars that just don’t work correctly. In California Lemon law lawyers help consumers understand their rights and whether they have a claim. If it looks like there is justification for filing a claim they’ll be right there with you through the process, helping you through all the red tape. There are not only Lemon Law attorneys in California but every state, who will know if there are provisions for “certified pre-owned” used cars, as well as new. In some states you even get the same rights if you lease you car.

If you find that you’re spending more time at the garage than in your garden or workshop, then it might be time to give your local lemon law attorney a call.

Planting Mistakes

3 November, 2011 Reply

Hot or not?

Even the best laid plans run amok sometimes and in several of my plantings this year I ran into some problems. You see, I planted all my peppers which included sweet, paprika, and hot, all in the same area. I thought that I’d have no problem identifying them because they would look different.

I was wrong. There are just two plants that look different from the others, but they look the same as each other. But they aren’t planted in the same area, so they aren’t the same variety!

Now I have a bowl of peppers drying on my table and I don’t have a clue whether they are hot, paprika, or sweet. The only way I’ll be able to tell is take a taste of each one after they’re dry!

Unfortunately I did the same thing with my tomatoes. It was a little easier here, because some of them were obvious. A yellow plum tomato is easy to distinguish from the red ones. However, I had a number of red tomatoes and to this day I don’t know which we’re eating. This is because I do intensive gardening and the tomato plants were so intermingled that you couldn’t tell one plant from another.

So, even after all these years of planting I’m learning what works and what doesn’t. Next year I’ll have to have several locations for both the tomatoes and peppers, so that I can keep the varieties that could look similar separate.

Putting In A New Garden

25 August, 2011 Reply

As the cooler weather is just around the corner, I’m ready to start putting in a new perennial garden. As I mentioned earlier, fall is a great time to plant perennials, trees, and shrubs.

I’ve always wanted a picket fence around the front of my house. Not just this house, any house I lived in. Until now I’ve never had one, and I’m not going to have one quite yet, but I’m going to start putting in the gardens in preparation for the picket fence.

Not a pretty sight, but wait until next summer when it's filled with flowers.

I’ve already done the first part. We rolled out a large piece of black plastic that is covering an area 7’ wide by 40’ long. I know that sounds like a huge garden. The fence is going to run across the front of the house, which is 80’ long, so this is just about ½ the distance it will go when finished. The reason I’m not putting in the whole garden is two-fold. First, I didn’t have long enough plastic. Second, we’re going to look into putting in a carport at the end of the house. We’re going to need a placement permit for that and we need to see where they’ll approve the placement as it is going to be pretty close to the property line. Once we know for sure where the carport is going to be placed, then we’ll know where the picket fence is going to end.

I’m going to take you through all the steps of putting in the garden. Here’s the first shot of the black plastic in place. You’re supposed to leave it 4-6 weeks in order to ensure you’ve killed all the roots of the weeds underneath. It is just about six weeks now, but I’ll probably wait one more week to start garden preparations, as it is still too hot out to plant anything.

Also, we need to decide if we’re going to stagger the fence or raise the beds so the fence can be in one straight line. I’ve got some plastic trellis that is cut 2’ wide that we’ll play around with and see which look we like. Then we’ll either have to stagger the pickets when we put them in or build a retaining wall for the gardens as the slope of the property is quite pronounced. Easiest would be to stagger the fencing, but I think I’m not going to like the look, so we’ll probably end up putting in a retaining wall. This will mean lots of extra work.

Anyway, once done the garden on the outside of the fence will be filled with daylilies, irises, and gladiolus. The inside fence will be more of a cottage garden filled with lots of perennials, some annuals for bright spots and a few veggies just for fun.

Preparing For A Shade Garden – Defining Your Shade

14 July, 2011 Reply

Foamflower, great in the shade

In many old, established neighborhoods finding sun is the main concern of gardeners. Shade is in abundance. Knowing how to use that shade can lead to replacing barren dark patches with lovely foliage and flowers. So, get to know what kind of shade you’re looking at, so that you pick the correct plants for the location.

Deep Shade – All day shade, with no direct sunlight reaching the ground. The sites can be dry to moist, so you need to keep that in mind. There are a few plants that will do well in this heavy shade, even fewer if your soil is dry.

Partial Shade – Some direct sun, between 4 to 6 hours. Watch for what part of the day is in shade as morning shade with afternoon sun is hardest on true partial shade plants.

Light or Filtered Shade – This is the dappled sunlight effect, where the sun hits the ground in an ever changing pattern. A large selection of plants do well in this sort of shade.

Open Shade – This is the shade on the north side of a building. There will be no direct sunlight, but light may be reflected from light colored walls or the ground. Open shade often remains damp.

Remember that having your trees professionally trimmed by an arborist (not a tree trimming service, but a true arborist) can help lighten some heavily shaded areas to allow for a larger variety of plants to be thrive.

Organizing A Garden

30 June, 2011 Reply

You’ve decided to put in a new garden. You’ve picked a location. Now, what to do from here? First you need to decide the size and shape of the garden. Try to plan gardens so that you don’t have to do extensive standing on the soil once planted. You can plan a couple of key stepping places, but compacted soil is hard for roots to live in.

When considering shape remember that curved lines are more appealing. If it a purely utilitarian garden for grapes or berries, then straight is not a problem, but gardens, especially ornamental gardens look softer and more inviting when the edges are curved. You can play with a hose or rope trying out different shapes until you get one that you like.

When picking plants for the garden consider several things:

  1. Do you want evergreen plants in the garden?
  2. What about deciduous shrubs or trees?
  3. Are perennials in order?
  4. Will you want to include any annuals?
  5. How tall do you want plants to grow?
  6. How wide can they spread?
  7. What is their water requirement?
  8. What is the soil requirement?
  9. How much sun or shade do they require?
  10. How much sun or shade does the garden area get? If you’re growing evergreens you even need to consider sun and shade throughout the year.

If you are including perennials:

  1. What is their bloom time and blossom color?
  2. Is it hardy in your zone?
  3. How tall does the mature plant get? Often plants in nurseries are not as tall as they’ll get once planted in the ground. They often don’t get as tall when grown in pots.

Plant your plants so that the tallest are in the back or center of a garden and then layer them down to short plants along the border, otherwise, the short plant will be overshadowed by its taller neighbor.

Remember you are not buying mature plants at a nursery, so read the plant tags carefully.Don’t be afraid to ask the staff for help in making a choice. A nursery is a place where babies live, same thing with plants. Nurseries are where baby plants are born and brought up until they are big enough to be adopted by us plant enthusiasts.

 

Drowning In Weeds

16 June, 2011 Reply

We all have the best of intentions. We see our yard beautifully landscaped, not a blade of grass out of place. The flowers are blooming happily, raising their faces to the sun. Funny, we never envision our garden choked with weeds, or the grape trellis breaking and our grapes now lying on the ground. We don’t see the reworking of the deck taking weeks, instead of hours.

Gardeners are optimists. If we weren’t we’d never plant a seed, because planting a seed is an act of faith. You believe that the seed will grow. You trust that not only will it sprout, but that it will grow up to be a beautiful healthy plant that will either flower or produce food abundantly.

We never imagine the innocent little plant that we put in the garden, could be invasive in our climate (or maybe even just our yard). We don’t ever envision our garden being eaten by deer, or insects or plundered by fungal diseases.

Even when things like this happen we continue on. Hardships are taken in stride. They are a part of being a gardener. It’s almost like childbirth, we don’t remember how bad it was even a few days after the event. We’ve turned our attention to another new project, or plant.

I just spent approximately 12 hours weeding the berries and grapes. I got up this morning and my fingers are swollen from all the intense pulling, digging, etc. But do I stop the plans I have to increase the berry and grape patch. NO! I’ve got bigger and better plans that will keep them free from weeds and growing beautifully on trellises that are strong.

I still have other gardens to rescue from being choked alive with weeds. I’ll dutifully clean them out, over and over, until I get ahead of the onslaught. I love gardening, even when there are pitfalls. When the first bachelor button opened its beautiful purple blossom I’m still just as enchanted as I was when I was 5.

 

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