Full Bloom

  

 

Here it is finally, the garden in full bloom. June was a challenging month for this garden. We had construction going on for the most part of June. I would not have ever thought that work on the house would have taken up the whole yard. Everyday I had to go out and hose down the garden to get off all the sawdust that built up on the leaves.The construction is done and the garden has bounced back. We are now harvesting, zuke, cuke, lettuce, snow peas, peas, onions & beets. Nothing like fresh veggies for dinner.

  

The flower gardens have bloomed. The front perennial garden is coming along, each year I have tried to grow a new perennial to put in here.For the most part all the plants put in last year have come back. I had extra flower plants this year because I was going to expand the front garden but with the construction taking a little longer than expected it was too late to start it. So, I tried my hand at arranging them in containers. They didn't come out to bad, now just trying to find places to put them. here are some pictures of some of the container I put together.

     

   

                                                                       

Meet the gardens

We finally finished the small wall around the tree in the side yard. Thank you Tammy it came out awesome. We have two beautiful bleeding hearts planted on either side. I just planted a white bleeding heart just opposite them. The lupines are coming up like crazy, bigger and better than last year. Then there is some hellebore, sedum, astible and creeping thyme.Very full in there now.


Just on the other side of the tree is a fence that I have put in a small flower garden. Trying to get some morning glories & sweet peas to grow up the trellis but not having much luck. I think my local little squirrel keeps digging up the seeds and burying his own. In here I have some Rhubarb plants, begonia, forget me not, coleus, primrose, heurchera and a few cosmos. Also along this fence we have 4 blueberry bushes. The green berries on these are huge promising some good jam this year.

Just behind the tree are my 2x8 beds. In the first picture we are growing Kentucky Lake pole beans. Tammy has been making all our trellis out of PVC piping, it works great. Also in the same box we have broccoli & cauliflower along with a row or two of Ya Ya carrots. In the other box there are some pickling & slicing cucumbers growing up the trellis. Under the trellis is some head lettuce. On the other side of the box there is some marvel peas growing. Behind the boxes you can see a few of the 5 gallon buckets we use for our tomatoes (22 of them this year)

We put up 2 4X4 poles in the yard last year for the bird feeders and this summer we put a 4X4 across the top of them. I don't like to waste any space, so I  hung 4 topsy turvy planters. 2 tomato & 2 cucumber (pickling & slicing). We also put up a hummingbird feeder & oriole feeder. Tam said she has seen one hummingbird.

Now the other side of the house is also very busy. Lining the dog's area are the rest of the 5 gallon buckets for the tomatoes. Various hanging container of flowers and off the porch I have 4 hanging bags of petunia ( little experiment).

In the raised beds we have every type of veggie we like.
1st 4X8 bed; radish (4 types), Onions (candy & red), Beets ( detroit & red racer) & peppers (bell, sweet red & banana)

2nd 4X8; pumpkin (little jack, baby & jack o lantern),salad turnip, lettuce (head & loose-leaf), butternut, blue hubbard, carrots (1/2 danvers, nantes)

3rd 4X10; snow peas, zucchini, squash (acorn, summer,patty pan), spinach, lettuce, brussel sprouts


Of course we cannot forget the herbs.


Just a little bit more to go, this rack and a couple small ones. We are having work done on the house so I don't want to put the plants in the ground around the house until they are done the work.






Not to bad for a few weeks worth of planting. Now to get all the watering timers set and go on vacation. I'M POOPED!!!!

 

 

So, here we are May Day and all  the plants are still hanging out inside the house. Some have been moved out into an enclosed porch but none have been put in the ground. Work has been very busy and my days off have been wrought with wind & rain. I have already harvested some herbs and dried them. I think I might be picking tomatoes in my living room.

   

 On the few nice days we have had we started a few projects. We cleared out the old border around the tree garden and went with a precast stone blocks. The wall itself is actually a lot higher than the bed so I will have to dig up the plants, fill it in and replant. If we don't get it done soon it will have to wait until next season to dig them up. The plants are getting pretty big.

 At the fence line I'm making it a little longer. It goes just about 16 feet. I'm hoping to have it planted with shade loving perenials at some point. For right now we will use the annuals we are growing inside like coleus, dusty miller, begonia, & calendula.

 The spring bulbs have started. The crocus & daffodils are beautiful. The new Chiondoxa that we planted last fall came up wonderfully. Tulips haven't opened yet but they should with a few more sunny days.

 

So for now the beds are waiting for their bounty. Hopefully Mother Nature will give us some warmer brighter weather in order to get some planting done. Can't wait to get out there and get in the dirt.

 

 I made this impromptu Snowman from the snow that fell on April fools day. The raised beds had been completely clear of snow for almost a week. The day before I had stuck my hand under the tarp and the soil was nice and warm and very workable. I got so excited that I ran inside and started a whole tray of lettuce to plant out in a couple weeks.

 None of us was very happy to see all the snow. Oh we went out and played in it but we would have been much happier digging in the dirt. I think Pablo has actually taken up sulking about it. He goes around the house finding any bit of sun he can find to lay in. I think he is jealous of all the seedlings. He sits there on the couch just watching me water and move them around, thinking they are getting more attention than he is right now.

The seedlings don't seem to mind that it is snowing out. As long as I keep feeding, water and having the light on them they are very happy to stay inside where it is warm. I think I may have started some of them a little too early like the Cosmos & the Marigolds.                

 The Impatiens have already started to bloom. A lot of the flowers are ready to be put out when the weather starts cooperating. I will have to start potting them up soon if I can't get them out. Hopefully the nights will get a little warmer and I can put them out on the enclosed porch.

The tomato plants have all been potted up once to 3 inch pots. I will pot them up again in another couple weeks. I keep putting the fan on them to try and get the stems to be  little sturdier this year. We took a trip to Longfellow's green house the other weekend and got this little shelf. It comes with a plastic cover so I can keeps some plants outside on the porch even if the weather is a little colder. Maybe in another couple weeks I will give it a go. For now we will keep the lights on and continue to feed and water the little buggers. As always continue to THINK SPRING!!!!!!

 

Still waiting for spring.......

  

As you can see I’m still waiting for spring. I had such high hopes that we would get another early spring this year. Given that this last storm dumped yet another foot of snow I’m starting to worry that Mother Nature is playing a cruel trick and will never let spring in. While outside the house looks like this.

 

                SNOW AND MORE SNOW!

The inside of the house looks like spring;

    

 So you can see my dilemma, if Mother Nature does not play nice and let spring in soon, I’m not sure where I’m going to put all these plants. I’ve actually adjusted the planting schedule a little bit but this month I have to start the veggie seeds.

   I have started a new project this year it’s called Vermicomposting.  My compost bin and my tumbler freeze up every year and I end up throwing out the food scraps & plant trimmings into the trash and it drives me crazy. So I did a little research and decided on getting Pablo a little competition, I got some red wigglers. Now most of all the food scraps and plant trimmings go into the bin and the littler wormers munch it up and poop it out and PESTO! I have worm compost for worm tea to water the seedlings with and they love it. It is the ultimate recycling program. It is really easy to do. I went to Wormmainea.com and the guy (I call him the worm guy, his name is actually Mark) raises these red wigglers and sells them along with other products he makes including bins for the worms and worm tea (compost tea). He also does a blog, sort of a “how to” for worm composting but it is also very educational on various types of ways to go green. We all know that green is good. I’ve had the little guys for a couple weeks and they have already munched their way through a couple pounds of food scraps.

  

We were going to name the little buggers until we found out that there were about 1000 worms to a pound. They live very simple they like it dark, cool and quiet, so the basement works out perfect and I don’t pick at them everyday down there.

 

Their home is a little blue tote with holes cut into it and some shredded paper (from work) as bedding. The food scraps add enough moisture to keep them happy. In about 3 months I will have enough worm compost (poop) to use as some fertilizer and to also make some Worm tea.

  

This was my first batch of worm tea. Tammy was not happy when she saw I was using one of the kitchen utensils. I offered to give it back, she told me to buy her a new one. Picky, picky, picky! After the tea steeped for 24 hrs I watered the seedlings with it and wow they really seemed to like it. They really took off and grew a lot. That is awesome I think, I still don’t know what I’m going to do with them all if spring doesn’t hurry up and get here!