I can’t wait any longer! Pleeeaaase don’t get too cold from now on. I want lots and lots of heirloom tomatoes this season. Please and Thank you!
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Ladybug Fun for Aphid Control on Apple Trees
May 4, 2012My Gala and Granny Smith Apple trees were being attacked by aphids a couple of weeks ago. I sprayed them off the leaves with the hose and the ants were really putting up a tough fight, but there were lots of them and the leaves were starting to curl. Since this is the first season I’ll get apples from these trees, I want to give them the best chance I can. I ordered 300 ladybugs from Amazon and was so psyched when they arrived. We relea...
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Getting Busy in the Keyhole Garden
May 4, 2012It doesn’t look like there is much planted in there now, but those tiny plants are going to fill in all that space real soon. I’ve planted various kinds of peppers, nasturtiums, cabbage, escarole, strawberry spinach, kohlrabi, radishes and a couple of marigolds in the keyhole this spring. I’ve already got a volunteer squash or watermelon and some borage popping up in there too. I wish the squirrels would stay out of it though. I don’...
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Red Admiral Butterflies Dancing in the Yard
May 4, 2012Silly me, I thought it was because they loved my kale, which I planted last summer and is currently in full bloom. Turns out that these Red Admiral butterflies are all over Ocean County, NJ today and even making headlines because of it: Butterflies Fluttering By: Red Admirals "Irrupting'' All Over The Place “The sudden influx of the butterflies is called an "irruption" -- a natural, cyclical population boom that causes a...
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A Bunny in the Garden
April 27, 2012A BUNNY! I found a bunny in my garden this morning when I let Kylie outside. She did her duty and chased his fluffy butt out, but this is the first time I’ve seen one in Beachwood. Somebody’s Easter present got loose! It was pretty big and chunky looking, but boy was he fast. Maybe if I fortify some of the areas of the fence around the yard, I won’t need to put up a fence around the garden too. Dang, I loved the “No Bunnies in Beachwoo...
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Companion Planting and Ruth Stout’s Gardening Method
April 26, 2012Egyptian walking onions look different every season, I swear. I don’t remember them doing THIS last year, but then, this is only the second spring I’ve had them growing in the garden. Don’t they look weird? Those little pouches started out down at the base of the plant and moved up to the top over the last couple of weeks. I watched them daily and thought to myself “something’s coming”. Don’t ask me why, but it kind of reminded...
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Solar Frog Puddle and Planting Cucumbers
April 16, 2012It’s over 80* out in New Jersey today and tomorrow. I put the sprinklers on for the first time today. Though it will get colder near the end of the week, I am taking the chance and planting cucumber seeds today. My friend Angela came over for coffee and I coaxed her out to the garden to help me string up a new trellis and put some seeds in the ground. We planted Poinsett 76 and Marketmore. I decided not to plant the smaller pickling cucumb...
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My Kids Love Moles… I Mean Poison Shrews
April 12, 2012Ugh, I found a mole while forking through my compost tonight. At least I THINK it’s a mole. It had more like mouse hands, but kind of a moley looking head. I don’t know. Two years ago I found a couple of them hiding at the bottom of my compost, but I hadn’t seen them again until now. I used up the whole pile to mulch my front yard garden beds and put him as gently as I could on top of one of the beds. I don’t think he’s gonna ma...
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Some Color for the Shade Garden!
April 4, 2012Husband wanted to stop at Lowes today while our boy was in school. No argument from me! A-girl and I took a stroll through the Garden department while he ran some fix-it errands inside. I picked up and planted a Peony and 3 Begonias today. I went so far as to dig the hole and amend the soil for the Peony is a lovely, full sun area of my front yard, before I saw the “part sun” bit on the packaging. Upon further inspection, it told me that i...
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Apple’s About To Bloom, Kale Chips and Cold Season Early Spring Planting
April 2, 2012My apple trees are just about to bloom! The granny smith AND the crimson gala both have buds. Whew! Last year they didn't bloom at the same time, with the flowers actually opening up a few weeks apart. Looks like they will be good pollinators after all. I planted some radishes, a few lettuce and kohlrabi seeds in the keyhole garden today. It’s go time! Grow, grow, grow! I’m also starting another flat of eggplant and tomatoes. My tender...
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Replacement Paw Paws and Re-growing Celery
March 30, 2012Did you know that if you cut the bottom off a bunch of store bought celery, put it in a shallow dish of water for a day and then plant it outside it will RE-GROW?! Neither did I, but I read about it online and gave it a try and it’s totally working. I’m amazed. Miller Nursery sent me replacement Paw Paw trees after the 2 that I got last year didn’t like their new homes and up and died on me. I planted these in the BACK yard instead a...
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St. Patrick’s Day Sowing and Recycled Pallet Garden Planter
March 17, 2012Have you heard the gardening tradition of planting peas on St. Patrick’s day? I kept that one alive today and planted 2 rows of Oregon giant sugar snow peas. These are the kind where you can eat the pods too and I think the kids will just love them. I also planted some spinach, Georgia Southern Giant collards and oakleaf lettuce in the same bed. I’ve decided to let the chard that overwintered stay where it is and with any luck, I’ll co...
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Moved Seed Starting Indoors
March 3, 2012I had my trays out in the back yard for a few days, but I’m worried it’s too cold in the greenhouse to have them germinate so I’ve moved them inside until they sprout. I’ve also decided the try to pre-sprout the few Lincoln pea’s I have left from last year’s packet before I plant them out. that packet did miserably last year and I think it’s because they rotted in the ground before they sprouted. I put them in a damp paper towe...
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Newspaper Pots, More Hugulkultur and What’s Growing Now
March 1, 2012Here’s a peek inside my greenhouse so you can see the newspaper pots! I followed this tutorial on youtube, but instead of a soup can, which turned out to be pretty big, I used a spray oil can which is concave on the bottom and let me tuck the bottoms of the pots up against that so they would stand up straight after I slipped them off the can. It’s a much better size. I’ve got tomatoes and peppers and marigolds, some chard and some other ...
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Ask And You Shall Receive, Apparently.
February 24, 2012How strange that the day after I post about my ugly, carpet covered driveway and my desire for paving services, a residential paving contractor comes knocking at my door. Literally! I was outside shredding leaves yesterday when husband comes out into the backyard and says “Lisa, should I let somebody pave the driveway?” “YES!” Was my immediate and giddy reply! These guys (R. Depasquale & Sons Paving in Jackson, NJ. Phone: 732-928...
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Hugulkultur Next to the Driveway
February 22, 2012We’ve got lots of old, rotting firewood that’s cut too big for our fireplace stove. Personally, I STINK at splitting firewood and husband has said that if I were to acquire a chainsaw, he would render it inoperable in order to save me from myself. In his own words, he doesn’t think that I would have trouble handling the equipment. He thinks that I would take on projects that were too big for one person, try to do them myself, and s...
Read moreI’m planting tomatoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
05.06.2011, No Comments, Vegetables, What I Planted, When I Planted, by admin.On the nice days I’m making trips back and forth to my recycling center to get 3 garbage cans at a time filled with compost in the back of my minivan. Hey, I may look like a train wreck while I’m doing it, but I’ve got to work with what I’ve got. Someday I’ll get a truck! I bring it back to the house, spread it on some beds, and the next nice day I do it again. My soil is so heavy with clay that I can really use as much compost as I can haul!
My wheel barrow completely fell apart a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been dragging the garbage cans around the yard in my kids red wagon. I need to get a garden cart.
I just ordered by downspout diverter for my new rain barrel. I’m pretty disgusted that it didn’t come with one and I ended up paying $30 more to get one, but I’d rather pay the $30 than have the barrel overflowing all over my patio.
I feel like my greens (chard, lettuce and broccoli raab) are never going to take off. I should have started them in flats instead of direct seeding them in the garden. The weather has been so weird, they are just teeny tiny little seedlings. Bah. I can’t wait.
I did plant out some Baikal skullcap, valerian and some feverfew yesterday. They were getting bushy in their little 4” pots in the greenhouse so I figured it would be safe to put them in the ground.
My lilac is blooming for the first time! I got it as part of a garden package from SpringHill nursery back in 2007. I moved it across the yard last year and shocked it pretty badly – I didn’t know if it was going to make it. It looks like it’s coming back strong this year.
Oh, and today I dug an iron bed frame we aren’t using out of the garage. I put it up against the house, in case I want to use it as a trellis. Is it lame? Does it just look like I propped up an old bedframe or is it pretty? Should I let a cucumber grow up there this season? Abbie doesn’t have a bed frame around her mattress right now, and this one would fit, but I’m kind of nervous about the spikey corners – I’m afraid she will get hurt. My kids are bed jumpers. I think she needs a nice ROUNDY bed.
What do you think?
Here are some more pics of what’s happening out in the garden:
carpet flox and magic carpet spirea.
chives about to flower
Blueberry – plenty of flowers, not too many leaves though.
Lingonberry! First year! Look at the pretty pink flowers!
Palace purple heuchera. I hope it fills in all this space.
Pretty white flowers on that tree. Glad I pruned it like crazy last year.
I extended the driveway garden down to the street this year.
Look at this disaster of a shade garden. I need to get rid of a LOT of weeds and rocks and bring in a LOT more mulch. One day it will be lush and ferney and beautiful!!
*sigh*
I just saw a clip in a gardening TV show about planting peas that would have been helpful if I saw it 3 months ago!! The peas I planted on March 12th directly in the garden *should* have been planted in peat strips, or probably a cardboard egg carton, indoors a couple of weeks before. Turns out, they like warmer temps to germinate, but like to GROW in cold weather. What a funny crop.
The lincoln peas I put right in the garden ALL germinated, but have been very slow to do much else since then. The Sugar Daddy heirloom peas barely came up at all – only about 4 or 5 out of the whole packet have germinated and I actually threw some of them out because I was so disgusted by the failure. I wonder if they would have done better if I started them indoors.
The man on the show didn’t even separate the peat strips, he dug a trench and planted the whole pack as is! He even put two peas in each cell and didn’t thin them. He said they like to grow crowded. Sounds good to me.
This year’s pea harvest may stink, but I’m cutting myself some slack because it’s the first time I’ve ever tried to grow peas myself. In the words of Joanie Mitchel, “There’s something lost, but something gained in living every day.” There’s always next year.
