How Does the Garden Grow?

So far this year the garden is doing great! We’ll see how the heat wave this week affects things…

The garden went in earlier this year than ever before. I planted tomatoes in April! There are already dozens of green fruits, and I think the heat this week will help with ripening. As of this morning there are also four zucchinis about ready to pick. Maybe tomorrow for the big one. The peppers have small fruits, and there is one jalapeno about ready to pick.

Last year we did not get one usable carrot, but there is a nice little crop out there now, as well as onions. The lettuce will probably be done after this week, but I think there are leftover seeds to maybe plant a fall crop.

The herbs are getting there. The perennials are huge, but it took several weeks for the basil to take off, and the rosemary is lagging a bit. The heat should help those, too.

I’ve repurposed the 16’ cattle panel from the back of the garden. Yesterday I cut it off the fence posts and have made an arched trellis with it. It will go over the tomatoes and they’ll be tied up to it so the harvesting will be much easier. This photo shows where I put it yesterday, but this morning I moved it over the top of the raised bed. Now if I could wield that sledge hammer to get the fence posts in the ground, it’d be great. They’re a tad tall for me, but I’ll keep working on it.

I really like this cattle panel arch, and plan to put a few more out there. Cattle panels are inexpensive and can take the erratic Nebraska wind.

Not much gardening for me today, though. I don’t “do” the hot heat and have plans to say tucked inside my cool house and work on wedding stuff.

Enchanting

On Friday afternoon my next door neighbor came over and invited Bradley and me to visit her backyard garden. She’d been out watering and discovered the trees were full of Monarch butterflies. Donna knows how much I enjoy the creatures out in the garden and thought I’d like to show the butterflies to Bradley.

He was very serious while watching them flit around and would point to them in the trees.

At one point I was able to get one onto my finger and hold it closer to Bradley. It only stayed 2 or 3 seconds, but it was cool to hold it.

I had noticed several Monarchs flying around that morning when I walked down the alley, but didn’t really think anything of it. There is a lot of milkweed around the area and that’s what they feed on, so it’s not out of the ordinary to see a few around the yard.

Of course I had to Google for facts about Monarch migration after seeing this gorgeous display. Here’s a condensed version regarding their migration from http://www.monarchbutterflyusa.com/Migration.htm:

“Across the USA monarchs soar and glide in the warm sunshine from March through October (depending where they are born), but what happens in the fall when the brisk cold winds set in and winter looms in the air? Monarchs cannot survive cold winter temperatures of the northern states. So what does a monarch do to keep warm? It MIGRATES south and HIBERNATES! This means that it rests, with a very slow heart rate, just like bears in their hibernation caves. Monarchs east of the Rockies migrate 2500 miles to the Oyamel fir trees of Mexico. Monarchs west of the Rockies migrate to southern California to the eucalyptus trees of Pacific Grove and surrounding areas.

The monarch's flight to Mexico has been compared to the migration habits of birds flying south for the winter. It is the only insect that can fly 2,500 miles to a warmer climate. Their unique wing structure and yearly life cycle makes it possible for the fall generation monarchs to travel thousands of miles (on those amazing little wings) to the warm nesting grounds of Mexico and southern California.”

I am always appreciative and amazed when allowed to witness the wonders of Creation such as this. Hopefully that appreciation is being passed down the generations. Many thanks to Donna for thinking of us and letting us join her in this experience!

Peony Season

In looking at past posts about the garden, there has been little mention of the peonies, one of my favorites. I’ve always loved their sweet smell and big, fat flowers. Mom always said the peonies should bloom by Memorial Day weekend. Some years that’s true, but I have had times when it was a week or more into June before we had flowers.

They always get beaten up by the wind, every year. They’re situated on the West side of our property, and not sheltered one bit. Doesn’t matter, they still give a show, every year.

These are especially meaningful to me because we dug them out of my mom’s yard the summer after she passed away.  They need to be divided, so we’ll dig them up this year and spread the love around to other parts of the yard. :o)

Yard Work

The first morning of the first day of our long Memorial Day weekend was spent out in the hot, hot sun with a chainsaw and the Bobcat as we eliminated a tree out front and a huge weigela bush out back.

The tree was a yew, and was planted by the front deck steps 13 years ago when it was a wee, tiny little thing. It was a memorial gift from a dear friend, given to me when my mom died. You can understand why I was reluctant to take it out, even with Greg telling me for the past few years that it was too big and needed to go.

It had gotten too tall for me to prune by myself, and was lopsided on two sides because of the branches I had to cut. See where the branches grew through the rails by the steps? 

Here you can see how the magnolia kept some of the top branches on one side from growing.

An objective look at the tree last week had me finally agreeing to take it out.

We started cutting off branches. Greg had borrowed his dad’s little electric chainsaw that was lightweight enough that I could use it with no problem, yet heavy duty enough to take care of a 13 year old tree. This was my first time to use a chainsaw, and while cutting tools and I have a checkered past, I’m happy to say I did not lose a limb while cutting down this tree. (Get it? “Lose a limb”? Heehee.)

It seriously took just a few minutes before that big yew was reduced to this:

Randy arrived with the kids so they could help clean up branches, and Greg recruited him to help pull out the stump with the Bobcat.

You can see how it was in there so deep and so tight that it lifted the back wheels off the ground. They decided to cut it off at ground level instead…

Around on the other side of the house, I asked Greg to remove this huge overgrown weigela.

I think we planted this about eight years ago? Maybe less, but there was a lot of dead branches inside and a couple of good-sized trees growing in the middle. Besides, we need the space for Bradley’s new swing.

We made short work of this one with the chainsaw, then Greg just used the Bobcat bucket to dig out the roots.

Doesn’t that look better? You can see the chainsaw on the bench – a handy little thing to have around!  Did you also notice the 20-ish year old Little Tykes picnic table? My dad gave that to my kids for Christmas when Jess was 2 or 3 years old. It went through daycare kids, several years at Head Start on the playground, and looks a little worn, but is still in great shape! Anyway, like I said, this will be the spot for Bradley’s new swing. (If you click on this photo and enlarge it, you’ll see the nail ball in front of the bench. Yeah, that’ll have to be moved if we have swings back there…)

So having things in your garden and then removing/replacing them are normal cycles, and as much as I hated removing that yew, I’ll choose to put something there that brings me joy. This way I’ll still have that warm feeling of remembering my mom when I look at that spot.

About that Garden

It's been awhile since I posted a garden update, and the change out there is significant.

We had a bumper crop of cucumbers and made what seemed to be bushels of them into pickles. I have pulled those up now. Except for the last batch of cinnamon pickles that will be done in a couple of days, we're pretty much over the pickle-making process. I do have to say, these were tasty cucumbers to slice up for supper, so I'm thinking the pickles will be delicious.

The green beans didn't do much at all. (Thanks, Leslie, for sharing yours!) Neither have the bell peppers.
The lone surviving jalapeno plant is doing well and I'll leave that as long as possible.

Carrots were planted late, so it'll be a few weeks before we harvest those. They look great, though.

We enjoyed lots of lettuce for fresh salads. Until the grasshoppers arrived. What was left has since bolted with the heat wave we had last week.

The herbs did great, and we'll be using most of them for several weeks yet. The dill, however, is done and is going to seed. It's also full of yellow swallowtail caterpillars. :o)

The forward portion of this update photo is the tomato bed. Eleven tomato plants in a 4 x 8 foot raised bed. What was I thinking?

Greg helped me put a light fence along the one side of the bed, and I tied branches onto that so I wouldn't have to dig so much to find the ripe fruit. Unfortunately that big storm we had a few weeks ago flattened the tomato bed - not breaking the stems, just laying everything flat. The tomato plants are so heavy with fruit, I can't pick the fence back up. Hopefully Greg will help me do that this coming weekend, and we can brace it so I can get to all the yummy goodness that is ripening out there. Oh, and next year we'll use a heavy fence with real fenceposts that will withstand the summer storms.

This year was the first with raised beds. There have been pros and cons, and once this year's garden gets cleared out, I'll make a plan for next year. In the meantime, the focus will be on tomatoes. Many, many tomatoes.

How Does The Garden Grow?

With all the rain we've had the past few weeks, the garden is green and lush, and has grown, but slowly. Now that the temps are heating up, I expect to see the plants shoot up quickly.
Here's where we began last month: Here's where we are now. I labelled what is where, but you'll have to click on the photo to enlarge and read it. In the blog-spirit of "keeping it real" you can also see all the weedy glory out there. Slowly but surely I'm making progress in getting rid of them.

Oh, and here are Grace and Garett with their artistic rendition of a sidewalk chalk garden. They had chalk from the driveway (around the corner of the garage) clear up to the bottom step of the deck. This was my favorite garden decoration today. :o)

The Vegetable Garden Begins

Last weekend Greg worked really hard getting the four raised beds staked down and filled with composted dirt from a local nursery. (Here they are stacked up in the back yard - that's where they were stored until time to fill them.) I did pound in stakes and drill screws for this last bed. But I was the one taking photos, so you only see Greg doing the first one. I did the rest. :o)

I do have to mention that each of these raised beds is exactly the same distance apart, and yes, they are in a perfectly straight line down the middle of the back yard. You can thank my OCD honey for that. :o) If I'd done them, they'd be "approximate" and still work okay, but he's got them looking very nice.

He used the pickup to get four loads of dirt, and each one had to be shoveled off the truck into a pile on the ground. I helped on Friday afternoon with the first load, then had to work on Saturday morning while he went and got the other three. At least the last load was still on the truck when I got home and I could help with that one. Once he had the big pile, he was able to use the Bobcat to fill each bed after he staked it down.

The dirt isn't completely composted, so I've been pulling out chunks of grass and tree stems, etc., but it is nice and loose and the beds look great. By using raised beds, the soil won't get compacted by us walking or sitting on it, and we won't have to rototill every Spring. Yea!

Now we can let the planting begin!

The Composter

I've wanted a composter for many years - a place to put yard waste and food scraps and do good with putting it back into the earth. We looked at many options, but never agreed on anything. Greg kept telling me to go ahead and buy one, but I thought they were too small. I wanted him to put together some pallets for me to just toss stuff into, but he didn't really like that plan.

Recently I was looking at blogs and came across directions for making a composter using a large Rubbermaid trash can. I happened to have an empty can in the garage, concrete blocks in the garden, and plenty of "green" and "brown" components to add to it. The only thing I had to buy was a package of bungee cords to hold the lid on, cuz you know with the wind we have here, it's a good possibility that lid would end up across the street in the neighbor's yard!

For brown stuff I used leaves that had piled up on the south side of the back deck the past few weeks (stuff blows in and piles up there all year round), some torn up newspaper, and torn up brown cardboard. The green stuff was mostly lawn clippings and a small bucket of food scraps from the kitchen, including egg shells, strawberry hulls, banana peel, and some shriveled up cilantro. Fruit and veggie scraps, only - no meat or animal products at all, except for egg shells. One good thing for compost that I don't have any of right now a pile of worms. Any of my Adams cousins remember picking up night crawlers for Grandma to use for fishing? I'll tell you about that another time.

So I filled it up, sprayed it with the hose, and rolled it around on the ground a little bit. It's now heavy enough that the wind won't take it.

I should have some nutritous dirt to add to the garden in a few weeks. I'll let you know!

Backyard Blooms

Happy Earth Day! It was a lovely one here, with lots of outdoors time. Still cleaning out the dead, dry weed remnants from last year, but nestled in there are the sweet new blooms and shoots for this year.

Just inside the back door are many little seedlings sprouting. The red bell peppers and most of the herbs are taking their time, but everything else will be ready to move outside in a couple of weeks.

The daffodils literally burst into bloom just yesterday. I only have a few clumps of them, a gift from a former co-worker, and they're so cheerful!

These are a deep orange/yellow tulip with a black center. I love when they open up. They're a bright pop of color in the back yard.

The peonies that mean so much to me - taken from Mom's yard after she passed away. Think we'll have flowers by Memorial Day?

This little guy is a tulip, planted amidst the bachelor buttons and bee balm. I have no idea what color he'll be. Grace planted bulbs last Fall, and this looks to be the only one that came up. When I saw him today, it took a moment to figure out how he got there. :o)

Finally, my sweet miniature iris. These are planted in front, in back, and all around. They have no scent, but I can always count on them for early Spring color. These were a gift many years ago from a dear friend, and I've shared tons of them over the years since they multiply so quickly.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a few of the Early Spring things going on at my house on Earth Day 2009. I'm so excited about this gardening season, and it's hard to stay out of the garden centers. This year I've pledged to just play with the flowers I have already and concentrate on the veggies. I will grab some annuals to fill pots and baskets, though. It'll be tough, and I keep telling myself that perhaps I can grab a few new things on clearance in July. Yeah, I can wait for July. Sure.

Garden Prep

Yesterday morning before the sun rose, I checked the weather online and saw that we had three days of rain in the forecast, but Saturday was to be sunny and 70-ish. We took full advantage of the beautiful day, and while it wasn't playing so much as working, we got the back yard all cleaned up so we can prep the garden. We raked and snipped and pulled up dead plants. I dumped pots of dead flowers, and gathered up broken containers and little bits of trash that have blown into the yard over the past windy months.
As I finished up the last puttery things, Greg got started on the raised beds. We're going to try a version of "square foot gardening" for our veggies and herbs this year.
Especially with the little bit of green, this version of the backyard looks lots better than what I posted recently. You can see back by the little fenced area where Greg dug up some of the peonies. Those will be divided and moved to new locations. The broken birdbath is gone (with a strong hint that a new one would be a welcomed gift...) and two of the new raised beds are done. They'll be relocated, but by the looks of them, I'm thinking I'm really going to like this gardening method.

I'll post more updates in the next few weeks, but first we have SNOW in the forecast.

'Tis the Season & Herb update

Yes, I know that officially Spring is still 6 days away. Unofficially, it's even farther than that, but I cannot help wanting to be out there, planning and preparing for the upcoming gardening season. You can see there is a lot of work to be done: That photo was taken at 7:45 a.m., before the sun came over the garage and everything was still frosty out there. You can see the piles of leaves I raked out from beside the deck yesterday. There is still lots more to clean up. This looks pretty bleak, I know, but there are teensy little tulip leaves poking out of the ground in front of the garden bench. You can't see them in the photo, but they're there...

This pile needs to be sorted and put away. It'll be a couple of months before I fill up the tipsy pots again, and I look forward to it.

These things will be employed to their fullest capacity, I'm sure. We could use another pair of hands - there are plenty of wheelbarrows... No, these kitty boys don't count. They'd just want to roll around in the leaves and chase birds.

They're excited about all the preparation that's happening, though. Think they read what's printed on this seed packet?

Herb update: Remember the little herb garden thing I got for Christmas? They were going along pretty nicely at first, but eventually the chives just shriveled up and I tossed them. A few weeks later the dill followed suit, even though it got little feathery fronds and I thought perhaps it might be saved.

That made me extra vigilant with the basil, and so far it's doing well. The package said I'd be harvesting it six weeks after planting, and that would have been about a month ago - you can see that hasn't happened. I have high hopes that these two plants will be the cornerstone of my basil crop for the summer, though. I'll continue to baby them inside until it's warm enough to introduce them to the great outdoors.

I just love fresh basil, don't you?