If I want long carrots, I need to mound because I am growing in shallow raised beds. Although there aren't many stones in the beds themselves, the ground below has plenty no matter how many times I pick them out. Even if I sifted all of the stones out of our soil and then planted the carrots directly in the ground, our soil sits on top of a rock ledge that is not very far beneath the surface. Not exactly great for carrots. Explains why it was a dairy farm for over a hundred years. LOL! |
May 3, 2008 (Saturday)
It is 47 degrees, grey, and rainy this morning (5:55 AM).
The Donald Wyman Crabapple has opened a lot of its blossoms. It is very pretty. Something is coming up next to the Perennial Peas. It's in the spot where the False Sunflower was last year, but the leaves are very sturdy-looking and I don't remember seeing the FS's leaves last year because it was all under the Perennial Peas, so I don't know if that's what it is. I might have located an Iceland Poppy among the Shasta Daisies, but I'm not sure about that, either. Finally - and I don't want to jinx myself by saying this - but it looks like the 'Black Prince' Snapdragons beside the 'Kazanlik' Rose may have overwintered. That would be thrilling. I saw some new leaves, sort of maroonish-purpley-green, coming up at the bases of some of the plants beneath their covering of dry fall leaves. I think I will keep them covered a little while longer... who knows if we are done with the frosts for the season. But if it turns out that these have overwintered, I think I will set out to get some seeds for the cinnamon-scented Rocket Series of snapdragons like my Mom used to have. That was the best ever, but they are hard to find in anything other than a mix. I suppose I could always separate out the cinnamon ones.
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We went out for breakfast. I love to look around the grounds every time we go to that place. They didn't have much in bloom and their flower beds are rather empty (far worse than mine, which made me feel good - LOL!), but I just love the way the beds are shaped and mulched, the grass is so green and manicured, and there are open spaces and crabapple trees in just the right places. I wish our place looked like that. I ought to go back with my camera so I can study it in more detail.
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We went to Home Depot and a couple of nurseries today. We were looking for swing sets and I decided that I wanted to look at plants while we were out since it was too wet and grey to do much of anything else. My favorite nursery had lots of trees with spring blossoms. One that I liked and spotted from far away turned out to be a Donald Wyman. That was funny. I am glad to know that it will grow up to be beautiful. They had a Cherokee Brave Dogwood that was really pretty, too, and I keep having to remind myself that I would like to have some flowering almonds and some Scotch Broom, despite what people say about them.
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I fertilized the plants in the plant room this evening. I had another Russian Sage seedling. I think I am up to about a dozen of them now. That should be plenty.
I forgot to mention that I left the onion seedlings outside last night. Duh. I had put the daylilies, Trumpet Vines, and Pak Choi in the breezeway to get a good overnight dose of cold, and put the celery back in the dog room, so I have no idea how I overlooked the onions. Oh, well, they didn't seem to mind the oversight.
May 4, 2008 (Sunday)
It is 48 degrees and raining again (7:35 AM).
It looks like I won't be planting my celery until the 16th. The evening temps are going to be below 55 degrees until at least the 18th. The seedlings suddenly started getting big, though, so I'll have to keep an eye on them and the forecasts to see if I can get away with planting them sooner than that.
I think I will leave the daylilies and Trumpet Vines out overnight. I left the onions out again, so they are on their own from now on. I am going to start some Cilantro and Sweet Basil today. I might plant my Pompon Dahlias in the raised beds where the Cilantro will grow.
I saw a robin sitting on her nest in the Rhododendron this morning. Maybe she is the one who has been having staring contests with me through the kitchen window.
~~~~~~~~
I removed the straw mulch that I had been using on particular flowers and spread it along the edges of the flower beds where I have sown seeds and on one end of the daffodil bed by the cistern. I also weeded the Stargazer Lilies.
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Fun. I just pulled a bloated tick off my husband. It will be interesting to see if he gets sick this time around. |
| Seil Posted on Sunday, May 04, 2008 - 05:46 pm: |   |
Eew Ick, I hate ticks. I hope you are careful about lime disease.
Thanks for the info on the carrots. Might explain why I never get very big carrots. I know there is a layer of gravel not too far down under the bed I sow them in. Maybe I'll mound some and see the difference. |
May 5, 2008 (Monday) Cinco de Mayo
It is 54 degrees and SUNNY today (7:30 AM). Hooray! I was getting a little tired of waking up to grey and rainy.
I forgot and left the Pak Choi out last night. That's not what I meant to do! On the bright side, these things that don't like these endless chilly nights will bloom sooner, so I will probably get my seeds this year. One less thing to do next year.
I can't believe that I didn't take better (or any) note of where I planted those Casa Blanca bulbs last fall. I think I have identified one coming up in the allium bed. Actually, there are two stems there, so maybe I put two bulbs there, but I doubt it. I thought for sure that I put one in the allium bed, one in the iris bed, and one somewhere else so that I could smell them everywhere I go. I wonder where they are?
I am off to start seeds and transplant seedlings while Suzy's tulip shots download. LOL!
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I prepared an egg carton and some cell plugs, then sowed the leeks (meant to do that yesterday) and potted up Nicotiana sylvestris, Joe-Pye Weed, a Swallow Eggplant (one decided to come up, so I'm giving it a chance to clear its name), some Delphinium 'Galahad', Lavender 'Hidcote', and E. graminifolius ... and Suzy's tulips are still downloading. LOL!
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So, dahlias are perennial in Zones 8-10 (a low of 10 deg F), but can survive the winter in Zone 7 (a low of 0 deg F) with a thick layer of mulch. I guess I will plant my Pompon Dahlias in the Cilantro patch today and see what happens. I wonder how they are doing in the basement? I haven't checked them in a while. EEK!
Funny. The forecast for May 12 says, "Tons of rain." Is "tons" a meteorological term? LOL!
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I planted the dahlias. All but one of the big clumps fit in the Cilantro patch. I put the extra clump and the smaller pieces in the pit beside the 'Lime Fizz' Iris, after amending the soil and bringing the hole up to surface level. The good news is that all of the Pompon Dahlia clumps looked great. I stored them practically dirt free on a bed of dried stuff - no idea what - inside of a cardboard box with a layer of plastic wrap on top of the tubers (and a layer of plastic wrap under the dried stuff). The whole thing was enclosed in a sealed trash bag. I shall have to remember that for future use.
It is such a gorgeous day. Every spring day should be like this. Sunny, a cool breeze, but just the right temperature to make the breeze tolerable.
My husband yanked up a pear tree seedling yesterday and has it growing in a pot. That is why it took forever for me to figure out where my trowel was when I wanted to plant the dahlias.
I started charging the mower before I did the planting. That will take 48 hours, so it should be ready around 10:30ish AM on Wednesday. I might unplug it and see if I can start it the old fashioned way. The yard really needs some attention sooner rather than later.
I saw sprouts coming up in the square plot. I will have to look over my list and see what I put there. It looks sort of like marigolds, but I don't think I've gotten around to them, yet. Oh! Maybe the 'Harlequin' Marigolds self-seeded. That would be interesting. I saw other oddities coming up in that bed. It will be quite interesting to see what they are. I am guessing weed trees.
~~~~~~~~
Okay, I give up. I went out to cut some hay for the rabbit (ended up gathering dandelion leaves for him instead) and the doors were open again. I know I closed and locked them when I came in because I was done for the day (or so I had thought until I remembered that I needed to gather rabbit food) and had no intention of going back outside any time soon. I just don't get it.
Rembrandt and Kingsblood Tulips
Kingsblood Tulips and Muscari
Moss Phlox and Muscari
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I went out to label the farm daffodils, every other clump. What a pain. It seemed easy enough, but then somehow I ended up mislabelling things and had to figure out where I went wrong, then untied a bunch of strings and put them on the right clumps. I still have to rework the whole middle section... I don't know where that went wrong. I lost my magic marker while I was out there, too. On top of that, I know I am burning my back and hands, so I am going to go out later with some sunscreen on and try again. I also don't like being out there because I keep getting ticks. I had one on my hand earlier and didn't even feel it walking around. I wouldn't have even known it was there if I hadn't been about to reach into a box of cereal and noticed it on my hand.
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Shoo! Done with the daffs. What a headache! I don't know why I bother. I'm sure all of the labels will fall off long before it's time to dig them up and sort them. *snort*
Hmm, the seeds in the square plot could be Bachelor's Button, 'Mixed Colors' Iceland Poppy, Ambrosia, or alliums. Based on those choices, I'm going to stick with it being self-seeded marigolds for now. |
May 6, 2008 (Tuesday) Hummingbird Day
It is 54 degrees and sunny this morning (7 AM).
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It's already noon, but what a day. I toured the berry patch. I have a few flowers on my little Gooseberry bushes. Yum, yum, yum. I hope I get some berries. I also have flowers on the strawberries. A couple of the asparagus have come up. I hung up some wind chimes, put up the other trellis, transplanted the old Trumpet Vine (probably killed it, but it never bloomed, so who cares!), and fed the veg beds and acclimating plants. Biggest surprise: I saw my first hummingbird of the season. HOORAY!! Other big surprise: When I spread straw in the cistern bed the other day, I spotted some plant coming up where the wisteria used to be. I knew it wasn't wisteria, but it sure looked familiar. Today I looked at the old peony on the east side of the rock wall and its leaves look just like the plant in the cistern bed. Wow. Then, after I finished watering the transplanted Trumpet Vine, I came across another clump of leaves coming up in the grass by the cistern. More peony! How weird. I wonder which creature planted those for me? I am happy with that. I will leave them where they are, since they are obviously happy with their spots. That means that I need to increase the size of the bed to encompass the one in the grass. I put Roo in his mini pen for the day. Oops, everything is outside except the dahlia window boxes. Need to go do that now before I forget. ........ Naturally, something has snipped some leaves off of them. Irritating. Something snipped leaves off of some of my Collard Greens, too. I noticed that this morning. Oh, well, what's done is done.
~~~~~~~~
I sowed 12 Cilantro seeds and 60 Sweet Basil seeds. Somewhere in the middle of that, the power blipped. Interesting.
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I moved the tomato, eggplant, and flower seedlings out of the plant room and into the great outdoors for some sun and acclimation. Must be some peppers in there, too. I dragged an old metal stand out of the barn to put my acclimating trays on. I have it at the end of the sidewalk. I had always thought it was a Coca-Cola stand, but it's actually a Cott stand. Whatever that is. Something new to look up. Anyway, I put my trays on it, then transplanted and watered my Sweet Pea 'America' seedlings. I have the plastic foot rest just to the west of them so that they don't bake in the sunshine. I wrote up a couple of markers for my chard and lettuce so that I won't forget what they are or where they are, and that way I will remember to water them. I'll go put them in the veg beds now. Oh, but first, I noticed that creature didn't just nip off the dahlia leaves, it actually ate the entire stalk of the one that was so long. What in the world eats dahlias? I think I had this same problem last year. Fortunately, the little varmint saved me from the stress of deciding whether or not to pinch out that long stalk. Either it'll grow back or it won't and at least it won't be my fault if it dies... well, not entirely. Meanwhile, I have visions of newly set mousetraps in the dog room dancing in my head.
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The plants are labelled. Did I mention the other day that I found a salamander under one of my petunia baskets? That was neat. I had decided to leave that basket where it was, but dumped the others in the compost pile (I never got around to cleaning them out after the last growing season). I don't know what I will do with my hanging baskets this year, if anything.
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Hmm, Cott sells RC and Vess, plus some brands of carbonated drinks and other beverages that I've never heard of. I used to love RC. Didn't realize it was still sold anywhere. Maybe because I quit drinking caffeine long ago.
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Once again, too weird. I just recently decided to poke into the rose forum... it usually has the effect of making me want to buy, buy, buy, so I try to stay out of there as much as possible. So of course I saw Sue's (Hanford_rose) mention of Roses of Yesterday and decided to Google it. And what appears third from the top in my Google search? Alice Morse Earle with something about "Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday". Goosebumpy! I'm afraid to see what I will find at Roses of Yesterday... Hmmm, they have some things I've been wanting. Maybe next year.
I scoped out the three Clematises at the corner rock wall when I was outside earlier. They are pretty leafy this year compared to previous years, especially considering that I transplanted them last year. This seems early for them to be up, but maybe that's just my imagination. I hope they flower like mad. |
May 6, 2008 (Tuesday)
(continued from before)
I weeded the rest of the shade garden (did a little bit earlier) and then moved Roo's cage into the girls' side of the chicken coop. This will be his first night out in the coop since he came in for the frostbite incident. I put some of the reflective insulation over the cage, not just to help keep him warm, but to also help keep him and Hawk from spying on each other. I really hope that Hawk doesn't break into the girls' side of the coop and wreak havoc with Roo.
The Other Crabapple Tree |
May 7, 2008 (Wednesday)
My First GB Anniversary
It is 58 degrees and sunny (7 AM).
Roo survived the night. He is a quick study, though. I needed to fill his food pan before I took him out to his little day pen and he almost escaped out into the girls' pen while I was doing that. I caught him right before he made it through the pophole. I can just imagine him and Hawk going at it right off the bat.
I set two traps in the dog room last night and have two dead mice in them this morning. Yippee. My dahlias don't look any worse for wear, either. The plants that slept out on the metal stand look to be in one piece, too.
Hmm, so the white Aubrieta is aka Rock Cress. I like the Arabis caucasia, too, even though it doesn't really look the same. I like the bigger flowers on Aubrieta. Guess I will see how the Candytuft does this year and go from there. I found another source for Indian Paintbrush while I was looking for Aubrieta. I may make next year's plans really small and simple just so that I can focus on growing some of that.
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I weeded the square plot and the liatris. They weren't too bad, hardly took any time at all. Then I rerouted the hose to snake along the edge of the violets so that I wouldn't have to see it winding its way across the grass. I'd like to bury it along the edge of the grass and through a rut across the driveway so that I don't have to look at the rest of it all year.
Google Image Search
* +cottage +hydrangea
* +garden +wall
* +hydrangea +wall
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I have ordered a Hydrangea anomala petiolaris and a Brugmansia "Charles Grimaldi". The hydrangea is for the north side of the front porch. It will take forever for it to get established, so I figured it was better to start one sooner rather than later. The brug, well, I have always wanted one, so this was my big chance.
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The mower started. Yay! So I mowed some of the yard. Those hills are murder, and they aren't even the big one. Ugh. Good thing I had some pink lemonade thawing while I was out there working. That silly robin sat on her nest the whole time I mowed around her Rhododendron. What a nut. It's 78 degrees out there, so I don't think it's like she had to stay there. That must be one very special egg.
The Front Beds
Kingsblood Tulips
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I watered the veg beds and edged part of the bed that runs along the Colossal Daffodils, bigger liatris patch, and iris patch. (I noticed that the snapdragons beside the Colossals survived the winter, too.) Then weeded the bed that makes the square plot something other than square. After that, I snipped off the dried Colossal and Carlton Daffodil flower stalks (still need to snip the Carltons in the lawn) and mowed on the other side of the driveway. Everything is looking pretty good now. The only thing left for me to mow is the daffodil lawn. Ugh. |
|
| Stormdancer Posted on Thursday, May 08, 2008 - 12:16 pm: | |
DJ, your place is looking beautiful...so glad you have decided to continue sharing your journal with us...I love the color in your yard. |
Thank you so much, Karen. I have to admit that even I am happy with the way the place looks for once. LOL! I think those Kingsblood Tulips and the Muscari are one of the best landscape investments I've ever made around this place. I think I'm finally starting to see the big picture... even setting some goals for what I want it to look like by the time I die. LOL! What's really weird is that the place actually looks better in person than it does in pictures. Usually it's the other way around. I think I need a special lens for my digital camera... if there is such a thing. |
| Stormdancer Posted on Thursday, May 08, 2008 - 01:27 pm: | |
Know what you mean about looking better in person...if that's the case, then I'm surprised that you don't have "droves" of people driving by looking at your beautiful plants....love it when the picture doesn't do justice to the real thing. |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Thursday, May 08, 2008 - 02:12 pm: | |
Happy Anniversary ;-)
|
LOL. Unfortunately, even though I call it the front, this side does not face the street. LOL! The side that the rest of the world sees is an embarrassment, but if my husband ever gets rid of the PI, it will get a makeover. The daffs in the lawn were the first step... ugh.
View from Street
Thank you. |
May 8, 2008 (Thursday)
It is 58 degrees, grey, and drippy this morning (7 AM).
I have two more mice in the traps this morning and something ate my dahlias anyway. Ugh!
Time for a blooming update...
What's in Bloom
* Trees and Shrubs: old pear tree, old crabapple trees, Donald Wyman Crab, Forsythia
* Bulbs: some of the farm daffodils, Kingsblood Tulips, Duke of Wellington Tulips, Muscari
* Flowers: lavender Moss Phlox, pink Moss Phlox, violets, Bleeding Hearts, Pulmonaria
* Weeds: Greater Celandine, dandelions
I forgot to mention something interesting that I discovered after I mowed yesterday. The old dogwood tree doesn't get white flowers. I thought for sure I remembered seeing white ones long ago, maybe our first spring here. The ones I saw yesterday were almost red. Very pretty. One of the pines behind it is dead (the smallest one) and another one looks to be dying, so I think we should cut down all of them to give the dogwood more light. At first I thought the dogwood just had three flowers, but when I looked way up high into the light, I could see several more. It obviously doesn't like the lack of light there.
I've been wanting to browse through dkimages.com for a while now since their pics keep showing up in my Google image searches. I tried their search function and it didn't work. Well, naturally! So, time for another image search...
Google Image Search
* +site:dkimages.com +garden
Wow, one thing leads to another when looking at that site. I spotted a veggie and flower combo bed in the search results, browsed some nearby directories, then got sucked into the main gardening directory. I could spend hours there, so I'm noting the link for future reference:
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/Home/Gardening/index.html
Think I'll start in the cottage garden sub-directory... only 90 pics there. LOL.
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Ooooh... Oh, my gosh... Purple window boxes on this place? Ooooh, now that is something to consider. Love the dkimages pic of the royal purple window box with white and bright purple flowers, trailing greenery, lamb's ears, and something pale and spiky in the background. I'll have to superimpose that on a pic of the house to see what it might look like in real life. ........ Oh, I love it!! Especially with the turquoise door that I want. Hee hee! My husband will hate it. Tee hee.
Future Plans - Purple Window Boxes and Turquoise Doors
I don't like topiaries, but for some reason they fascinate me anyway. At any rate, I finally found something hilarious... Chicken-shaped topiaries. I really ought to put a couple of those around the chicken coop. Haha!
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When I grabbed the metal stand from the barn the other day, I noticed that my husband hadn't given away the old green wooden stool like I thought he had. He must have given away a different one, plus the nice folding metal one that he had given to me (all without asking). That is good. I can get that old green one cleaned up and dragged over to the veg garden.
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Whew. I weeded some more and pulled all of the dandelions out of the flower beds. Considering that I didn't have many dandelions last year, I sure have a lot this year, and they are very hefty and floriferous. I transplanted an iris from under the edge of the big sage bush... have to figure out which iris so I can update my chart layout. I transplanted two weed buttercups out of the lawn and into the corner of the square plot. Couldn't help myself. I love buttercups. I tied up the All Ablaze Rose and the White Dawn Rose. I pulled the leaves, dried grass, and old twigs out of the lemon balm by the faucet.
I traipsed out to the back of the barnyard and tied strings around three white-flowered trees. I don't want them to be cut down by accident when we clear out back there. I think two are apple trees, but I don't know what the third is.
The old white lilacs above the stone wall and the purple lilac by the office window are in bloom. Most of the white lilacs are not, though, since we cut them back so hard last year. That's okay. I'd rather see them beef up this year. That was the whole point. Rejuvenation. Some of the Lily-of-the-Valley is starting to bud. I think all of the hostas I bought last year came back, but I may be one short, but I think for sure that one of the ferns did not come back. I saw some raspberries under the old crab tree starting to get flower buds. The Duke of Wellington Tulip blossoms are thigh-high. I didn't realize any tulip got that tall.
I was going to wrap deer net around the peach tree to protect any fruit that develops, and I knew that I'd have to include the pine tree because it overhangs the peach, but then I realized that the other crabapple tree overhangs the pine and there isn't any way to include it because... well, the circle of overhanging trees just goes on and on forever. What to do? I hate the thought of throwing a net OVER the peach tree. I'd never be able to get it off and eat the peaches. LOL! I think that's my only hope, though. (None of that makes any sense unless I explain that the deer net is to keep the chipmunks away. Haha!)
On a different note, to go with the obnoxious window boxes and doors, I am thinking about painting the chicken coop a couple of shades of green... not normal shades of green, I might add... and maybe with little yellow hearts on the trim.
Spring Show
The Colors of Glory
Crab Tree and Barn
Unidentified Flowering Tree |
I think purple window boxes would look good
Thanks for the warning. I won't visit that site now...unless I have hours to spend on the internet.
Oh, I just hate dilemmas like this, especially ones that involve messing with my food! lol
Oh brother... ;-) |
ROFL!
Haha! I know! Haha!! Imagine how the roosters must feel about that. LOL!! |
May 9, 2008 (Friday)
It is 54 degrees and grey (7:30 AM). They are expecting mid-30s Monday night. I can feel the chill in the air already.
I have two more dead mice. Will it ever end? Are they just breaking into the house to eat the peanut butter that I've been putting in the traps? I might buy half a dozen traps this weekend and set them all at once. I'd like to set something around the peach tree to get the 'munks.
Angelique Tulip... I'll have to remember that one for my friend.
[This paragraph withheld until such time as the jinx factor of mentioning it is no longer an issue. LOL. Oy! *throttle, choke* LOL!]
I took my truck down to get inspected. Glad that went quickly. It is an otherwise rainy day, so we have wasted the rest of the day looking into buying swings and slides. I think we will continue that research again tomorrow. Can't wait for the nightmare of trying to make such an atrocity blend into the landscape. I am sure I will find that aspect much less annoying, though, once my son and I begin to put the playground to good use.
I need to start some squash and zucchini seed today. I also need to remember to hold onto the celery and collard greens until the wild weather swing becomes a thing of the past. |
LOL...know what you mean there girl...DS got one for his daughter that is pretty cool...course he spent a fair amount of cash too...but its all wood and has the "fort" at the top and all kinds of cool stuff for the kids...was thinking you could always paint to match something like that to the rest of the theme in your yard...
Of course, the kids don't use them forever, but there's always the future grandkids... |
That's what I was thinking, too, especially since I'm so thrilled with the purple window box and turquoise doors idea... anything goes at this point. LOL! Guess I'll have to see what we come up with. My son wants the fort, swings, and spiral tube slide, so we'll see what we can agree on. LOL.
Haha, that's what I keep reminding myself... it will eventually come down. I think that his new friends from school will have fun coming out to the farm to play, so that will keep me going in the meantime. |
| Stormdancer Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 07:53 am: | |
And of course you can always give your son his "own" area, someplace close, yet not in your direct view constantly...lol...yes, I have a problem when I look out into the yard and things don't look like they "belong"...like all my DH's stuff he keeps spreading around....lol If I left it up to him, the entire five acres would be covered with junk he just "has to have"...lol...little boys never really grow up, they just get bigger toys... |
I have the feeling you got the first part exactly right, and as for the second, they just use MY toys... and then never put them back where they found them. LOL! |
