May 1, 2024

 Gardening season has started, albeit a little late on our end. Jim has been sick with a very tiring and coughing virus and finally has enough energy to get some planting done. He planted potatoes two days ago, onions, beets, peas, lettuce, carrots and swiss chard yesterday. We don't have spinach seed. We got almost 2.5" of rain last week, which was nice, but also hindered the planting. I have been slowly weeding and getting trash out of the flower gardens. It's been windy the last few days and it hasn't been a fun job. Today was cloudy as well as windy, so I didn't go out at all. I planted a couple of perennials. One I don't remember just now and the other was and ice flower plant. Our mix of shade, sun and clay soil limits what and how things grow. 

I have what I think is a spaghetti squash plant growing in a pot in my dining room. The last spaghetti squash we opened to cook had two sprouting seeds and I planted them. One came up and is blooming. Since it grew among all our other squash it could be cross pollinated and who knows what we will get. 

April 15, 2023

Spring is coming, although it doesn't look like it from these pictures on March 26th. We woke that day to a surprise of 8" of snow on Sunday morning. 

Now, nearly a month later, our garden has been covered with chicken manure and compost, chiseled, tilled and planted with early crops. Potatoes, spinach, lettuce, beets, peas and onions.  We have been having a problem with two kinds of fungus on our onions, root rot and black mildew. The online solution is not to plant onions where there is fungus for 6 years. Our solution is to plant fewer onions and harvest them before the fungus does. 

We bought a dozen JetStar tomato plants. We really liked the way the produced and stayed healthy last year, so we are trying them again. We have 2 milk jugs of the 12 we need to cover them, and we plan on getting some yellow tomato plants later. 

I have planted alyssum seeds by the flag pole and the spot by the driveway. I planted snapdragon seeds there also.  (by the driveway) I intended to plant them in two spots, but when I was half done I noticed I spilled the rest onto the edging, so now I will have plants were I don't want them. If they come up, anyway. 

After three hot days last week, two of which the temperatures approached 90. we are expecting frost for the next couple of nights.  We had drizzle today, which was welcome.  We are very dry around here at the moment. 

 

May 10, 2022

Things are marching on in the garden department.  Saturday, we bought 12 tomato plants, Rutgers and Better Girl.  We also bought some yellow tomato plants, planted three and gave three away to friends. Jim got the hitch on the MT fixed so that he could use the planter to plant sweet corn.  It was still a bit wet, but he planted 4 short rows anyway. 

I didn't' post anything about our new chickens.  These are the meat birds, we bought 25, 2 were killed and three turkey chicks.  Unfortunately, the turkeys were picking on the chickens, so they are separated. They turkeys did not kill the chickens, it was an unfortunate accident of a falling brooder house cover. We also have 6 new layer chicks.

I think Paislee has a turkey chick.

 

April 21, 2022

It's windy out here, and dry.  This will be a common theme among residents of this area and this blog.  It's hard to get outside and remove garden trash in the high winds we are having.  Yesterday was a quiet day in the wind department so I cleaned out the second iris patch.  I was out earlier this morning and as it was nice I was determined to do another iris patch clean out.  That was a job!  When the wind was not gusty, I could put dry iris leaves in my garden cart, but when it was, I would watch my efforts blow across the lawn. Eventually, I put my jacket over the trash to keep the dry vegetation inside my cart, and then the jacket blew off.  Thankfully, not much blew out before I put the jacket back in place and moved the trash to the compost pile.  I'm hoping for the best that that loose pile of dry stuff won't blow from here to kingdom come after all. 

Here is further proof of our windy weather.  The wire holding this birdfeeder up has given out, or worked itself off.  Jim found it blown onto it's side, and it is now residing in the shop waiting for this windy season to be over.

Here's our first mess of asparagus. I had a little white chicken gravy we had on biscuits so I cooked this up, put it in the gravy and we had it for breakfast on toast.

Jim has planted more potatoes.  There are two full rows out there.  He also planted spinach, lettuce and swiss chard.  The soil is dry as a bone so we are letting them just hang out there until we have time to attend to constant watering. 

 

April 2, 2022

 Some days it acts like spring.  My scilla's are ready to bloom, the daffodils are starting to bloom and my white hyacinth next to the front stoop has three blooming stalks.  Today was a perfect day to work outside and I dumped two cartloads of garden trash.  Jim planted onions.  We are using only white onions this year.  We have onion fungus running rampant in our garden.  I looked up information, and it stays in the ground for years and the yellow onions are infected more so than the white ones.  He planted potatoes last Saturday.

We are in desperate for some moisture around here and many other places in the state as well. We had a little snow a few days ago.  Nothing much, again. It looked white out, but didn't cover all the grass.

Jim fixed the sprinkler system that broke because it didn't get drained and turned off in the fall  That caused a flood in the basement that included one bedroom, the laundry room, under the stairs and a little water leaked into the furnace room closet. We had been gone all day and Jim went out to hunt deer at the farm after we got home. Later, a neighbor told us water was shooting from the side of the house.  Thankfully, I know where the water shutoff is.  I didn't know what to do.  The big shop vac was at our business.  I couldn't get a hold of Jim, no cell service. Fortunately, we have good neighbors with a big shop vac. I called Jim several times so he would know there was a problem at home and our neighbors started slurping up the water with the vac and I started hauling things off the floor.  When Jim got home (without any deer) he took over.  After getting up all the standing water everywhere except the carpet, and some towel mopping, we dragged the carpet outside to get it dry.  That was quite the experience, since water soaked carpet is HEAVY.  Jim rolled it and then it was 1, 2, 3, HEAVE, stopping to breather, rest and regroup and heave again. Adding insult to injury, it rained so when I tripped over the carpet and fell into the rain wet grass, getting more of me wet than the bottom few inches. The next day, Jim hung it over the chicken fence, and after it dried, rented a carpet stretcher and reinstalled it. 

So, now it's all fixed and watering the lawn. Jim has to fix a few sprinkler heads every year. 

May 19, 2019

Yesterday Jim finished planting the garden.  More corn, plus beans, okra, butternut squash, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash and carrots.  I'm disappointed the spinach isn't all coming up, and one row of potatoes is stubbornly refusing to appear.
Jim planted some more tomatoes, Better boy and Rutgers.
Jim also planted a cherry tomato plant in a pot on the deck.
We got a bunch of Roma tomatoes from a friend that has a green house to start her own.  They look a lot better than the pitiful specimens we tried to grow in our not so sunny house.

I've made it around to all the flower garden, weeding and getting rid of last winter's trash.  Now, to start again. I've been doing 45 minutes to an hour outside and it really wears me out.  I'm going to have to remember again that I don't have the strength and energy I used to whether I like the idea or not!

We are done eating our asparagus.  We ate our last mess today.  We've really enjoyed having it.  It is so much nicer than any from the store. Now we'll let it grow into fronds and wait until next year.
It was chilly the end of this week after having two days in the 80s in the middle.

May 9, 2019

Here we are starting a new year of gardening.  I managed to get what I've been wanting to do for years and spent a couple of weeks in the last of March weeding and taking care of trash in the flowers gardens.  The weather was sunny and warm.  And then April came and there were a few days, but so many cold and cloudy ones followed, Jim and I got sick and now that May is here it is still cold and wet and I'm sure the weeds are growing apace, unless they are being stunted by cold weather.

Jim got the early plants planted mid-April, potatoes, peas, onion, spinach, lettuce, and beets. Later he planted the three tomatoes we nursed along from seed and some of our peppers, ditto. They are covered with milk jugs.  We had a cherry tomato, Jim wants to have as a patio plant and some more lunch box peppers to plant.  We started those from seeds from last years peppers. We had light rain two days ago and heavier rain all day yesterday.  I also planted some dwarf zinnas by the mail box and some dwarf cosmos by the pond.  At least the wet days should help them get started.

Jim has also planted 4 rows of sweet corn in spite of his planter deciding to be particular in rough soil. 

We are off to a good start and with the sun peeking out as I write, I think the next few days are expected to be better.

April 7, 2017

My tomatoes and peppers aren't doing very well. I think they need more light.  I don't know if we are prepared to really get into this growing from seed bit.  We need to be more serious about it. 

While 'home' for my birthday visit, Mom bought me some flowering plants.  

Purslane looks like a weed that grows all over our driveway.  That weed doesn't bloom and this one blooms like crazy. It like it. 

Begonias are pretty, but hard to keep alive.  I got some yellow ones, too. I wish I'd remembered to look for 'double' ones.  

Jim has onions in.  

February 18. 2017

I guess gardening season has officially begun.  I planted twelve tubes with tomato seeds and 5 tubes with pepper seeds.  That's all the tubes I had.  I was going to take a picture of the tubes, but the planting was going on while the supper was supposed to be grilling.  However, as I put the chicken on, I dropped the thimble that was still on my finger (I was quilting) into the grill.  I shut everything down to dismantle the grill to get it and while I waited I planted.  I couldn't figure out how to take apart the grill so when Jim came home, he did it, and I hurried supper on and forgot all about taking any photos except these of the seed packets.  As you can see, I had a horrible time getting the tomato package open.  I spent a little more time on the pepper packet.  

Now I hope they grow. 

February 1, 2017

Plant pepper seeds in toilet paper rolls.  Cut slits into the bottom and fold in to made bottoms.  Place in a plastic tray.  Unfold the bottom before planting.

April 16, 2015

A few weeks ago I bought two new succulents for my table top garden.  I took out one that was too tall and added the two in the front of this photo.

Jim tilled up the garden with our own tiller instead of renting one because we got a drizzle that softened the dirt up enough to work up really well.  That garden dirt is finally starting to look dark with the years of manure and grass clippings he's worked into it, instead of the yellow clay we had when we moved here.

He planted potatoes (our leftover red ones), and Yukon Gold ones from the store (the ones we saved got fed to the chickens by mistake.  We had such a good potato year last year, we ate our own potatoes until two weeks ago, albeit the last month the were shriveled and sprouty ones. I had to buy some this week. The onions kept well, too and I still have a few left.  Jim also planted peas and two packages of onions; one white, one yellow.  

We've had some cloudy and damp days.  We didn't get enough moisture to measure.  Today, after a day of drizzly, foggy weather we are getting a pour down.  Too bad our rain gauge is broken.

June 9, 2014

It is a dark, damp day today, the third in a row.  We've had a little rain the last week and a half, with storms threatening and not forming--here.  Some places not far from us had severe damage with hail and strong winds.  We want the rain, but not the damage.

We've had a couple of nice little sprinkles, a couple hundredths each, a half-incher and a whopping good one of 2 1/2".  I am really enjoying the cooler weather.  Every thing is green, green, green, the tomato plants have not been wind whipped or hailed on.  Everything looks good, but it isn't growing very fast, not warm enough.  I guess you can't have it all.

As of now, all the sweet corn is planted, 10 rows in all.  We've done a row that is beans, beets, and okra. The cucumbers are in, about 8 hills, and looking good. About 5 hills of summer squash and a dozen tomatoes complete the garden with the earlier onions and potatoes planted.  We are trying to reduce our work load.

May 25, 2013

I worked in the big flower garden today.  I did about 3 sq. ft., and about died of exhaustion.  So, I went in and made dinner, and went out again, and did about as much again.  After eating a huge dinner, I didn't get so very tired the rest of the day.  

I also planted some blanket flowers in the lower terrace garden, snap dragons in the upper, and the deck planters.  

I also made this succulent garden in an old copper bottom pan.  

Pinky-red superbells, my favorite for the deck planters.

Blanket flower among the mint and hostas

I went out to look at the vegetable garden, the potatoes and corn are up.  Some spinach is up, I don't see any parsnips or swiss chard, and only one beet plant. The onions are doing well, too.

May 12, 2012

It was chilly and cloudy today. The high temperature was in the low 60's, but in spite of that, Jim tilled the whole garden, weeding the potatoes and peas, and finished planting the garden except the winter squash, which we will wait on for a bit, to reduce the bug damage.
So, we now have beans, three more rows of sweet corn, for a total of 8, okra, cucumbers (the ones we started from seed and transplanted didn't make it), summer squash, and a yellow tomato added to the earlier planting.
I think if we try the cucumbers from seed again, we need to cover the seedlings when we put them in the garden.
A few days ago we had frost.  Not a killing frost, but enough to burn my coffee trees in my mini garden.  They aren't supposed to see 40 degrees.  That was disappointing, it spoils the looks of the garden, and it was so nice before.  I'll wait awhile to see how they grow before I attempt any pruning.

July 20.2011

I'm trying to get an hour's worth of weeding in the flower garden every dry morning.  It's been so hot and humid, I've been out at 7.  Of course, I let the weeds get about a foot tall before I started.  So much for "doing better this year.  

I'm working on the side of the shop, too.  We have a bush there that is spawning two babies.  I put a columbine next to that, weeding around them, dropped some larkspur seeds, and blazing star and penstemon,  This is the north side, and I've blocked out the space with old 2x4's for now.  The west edge has a Stella d' oro lily at the corner, going strong, with some iris.  But there is a black walnut tree in the middle, and lots of brome grass.  I've finally got some holly hocks going, and I've dumped the other seed there, too.  (west side)  I think I will have to wait until next year and spray the grass early.  

I want to get some skinny tomato cages for the holly hock, delphinium, and something else, evening primrose?

Also, those taller frames that you can put flower pots on and display work well for spreading tall flowers.

Jim is just now watering the corn.  This week is the first we've had to water anything, we've had so much rain.  I planted some peas where the other ones only produced three on a new package.  They were a casualty from the cold, I imagine. We are eating green beans now, and zucchini.  The second planting of cucumbers is not coming up either. 

Jim at Work

June 4, 2011

We planted 8 more spruce trees along the south edge of our "vacant lot" and Jim installed a drip system to water them with the 8 from last year.  It is nice that he can do this so easily. 

April 25th, Monday

It's raining again today.  We had a high around 45 degrees. It has been windy, cold, cloudy, damp and wet all weekend.  I thought we had a slow start to spring last year.  This year isn't any better.

Jim planted sugar snap peas, swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, beets and onion sets on Saturday afternoon when the wind went down a little bit.  They made almost two rows.  This year we are trying to plant only as much as we will actually use.  We don't need 6 feet of swiss chard, pretty as it may be.

I put three more 3-cup bags of strawberries in the freezer, plus we are eating them as we go along.