Garden progress

The tomatoes have been pleased with the little coverings, have reached the top and are flowering.  However, they may have preferred if I flipped the top of the cover back over them for these past few cool days.  For certain seedlings, I’ve added anti-slug wire fences as recommended by my neighbor. Sunflower seedlings are planted in the flower/herb/perennial bed. The rain was helpful and now some sunnier days would be most welcome!

Garden Today

If you have rocks, stack them!
...and other 2018 new garden views.

The Garden - It's a Start

DH tackled the overgrown garden area. 

See this link for monthly garden views from prior years.

 

It had all been tall grass.  Part way through with the weed-eater... 

 

Trimmed.  Now I will pick up the stones used at the end of each bed, and other large rocks, before we can start over.

 

 

Hmmm... from August 2008....

 

Seize the Day

The weather changed my plans today.  After an appointment, I made my fastest ever Carpinito Brother's visit. I walked out with vegetable seedlings even before my coffee could get cold.

Broccoli, three types of lettuce, Swiss chard, peas and beets.   The beets have such long roots they may not transplant well.  I usually plant them as seeds.  There were many beet seedlings so we'll see how many make it.

While the days will be sunny this week, the nights are frosty.   Part of the seedlings are protected by the cloche, now in a different row than last year.    Since they are all vegetables that can take some cold weather, hopefully they'll do ok in the rows without the cloche also.

What was in the plans was planting the last of the 30 cedar seedlings.   And now that's done too.

November Garden Surprises

Blooming broccoli in the garden yesterday.  If it had been warmer than 40 degrees, we would have seen bees, too.  At this link, you can see the bees with full broccoli pollen baskets:
http://petunias-garden.blogspot.com/2007/07/bloom-day-july.html

 

There was a little broccoli for the lettuce and chard dinner salad, also.

 

I was surprised to find evidence of a recent poppy blossom.  Our weather changes from dry and warm to cold, then warm and damp, and back to cold seems to have caused some garden confusion.   All of the poppy's siblings bloomed back in May and June; photo below is from May.

On the sweet pea plant, we found sprouting seeds in the seed pods.  I have never successfully sprouted sweet peas.  I placed these in the soil, but I doubt they'll make it until spring.

I found sunflower seeds sprouted in this bird feeder.  Some recent day must have been just right.  The birds and squirrels don't leave seeds there long.  

 

The biggest surprise - it's only November and we have the old tomatoes, peas, beans, and squash plants clean up for the winter. 

 

Compare to this link to the September garden, to see the difference:

http://petunias-garden.blogspot.com/2012/09/september-garden.html

 

 

August Garden Photos

The first of the beans has reached the 11 foot top of the climber.  Soon, it will be thickly covered.

The pumpkins, Queensland Blue (from Matron) and sugar pumpkins, are starting to spread out.  The other squash plants are delicata winter squash and pattypan scallop summer squash.  The aren't supposed to spread as much as the pumpkins. 

A few sunny days ago.

February Garden

Saturday's sky over Petunia's Garden.  The benefit of a garden blog is looking back at prior years.  After two years 'on-hold,' do I have this June garden to look forward to again?  And Sunflowers and pumpkins and green (or purple) beans.

Thanks to Coffee Bag Mulch Magic  the main garden rows will be ready for spring with only a little preparation.  Those are iris leaves flopped on the bags in the lower right hand corner.  They have had their time in the garden and need to move out.  There are more rows with out of control herbs and weeds.

And then there is this tree, plus several remaining native shrubs bordering the garden.  They need to be moved, if it is still possible.  They landed here temporarily in our 2nd year at the house when we had extras from the King County bare-rooted tree/shrub sale. 

Let's Try Again

OK - Others have done it.  I can too - it's time to share the ugly truth.  Here is the state of two of the vegetable beds. They haven't had attention since last summer.   I had delayed doing anything as I didn't know where to start recovery, or when.   Finally, I thought about how we started our garden  - weed blocking/mulching.  
 

1st - Shorten the weeds/grass.  I asked (bribed) DH to weed-eat it (leaving the flower bunches standing cost extra).

2nd - Mulch what's left with coffee bags to block out light and smother the weeds/grass.

3rd - Let the worms and coffee bags work while I go visit family in the midwest

4th - Plant stuff and hope for sunshine. 

Here, you can see the two mulched rows.  The row closest to the chairs is full of flowers, chamomile, lambs ear, hyssop and other herbs.  The bees will love this row as is, so we'll call it intentional.   The next row has tomatoes and beans planted last Tuesday, along with the chives and fennel already in place.  

It was from under a sheet of weed blocking plywood we first saw Petunia, the snake.  Along with the earth worms that love living under the coffee bags, maybe Petunia will have moved in by the time I return.

Now, the other flower and herb rows need care, but that can be the summer project.

January Garden Progress

This was the garden on Saturday, after no garden tending for months and months.  The wind blew down the climbing bean structure and I'd never trimmed up the flower and herb stalks or taken down the peas and tomato supports.   I didn't know when I'd have time to do what needed done, so hadn't started.

But, then I decided I could put the greenhouse panels back in place while it wasn't raining.  Maybe I could remove the bean and pea structures since I was out there, and just some of the trimming ....

And then remembered the jute green coffee bags still in the truck.   Easy enough to put down fresh ones to cover the weeds and open up the paths between the beds.   Getting access for light, air and the gardener is one step forward in my garden.  This will make spring prep on the garden beds that much easier.

It is a little hard to tell, but the beds are about 4 feet wide and the pathways are about 2 feet.  Not all of the pathways got covered before dark, but now the bags in place can be doing there thing even in the rain.

Click on the Garden-Monthly Photo label below to see the garden at other times.

January Garden

Here is the garden, yesterday, after the shadows had set in. A lot of the flower seed heads are still in place and we've seen birds regularly passing through and picking seeds. Here is the bit tidier January 2009 photo. Click on the label, below, to see other monthly photos.

I did find a few green spots as I toured around...

Above, feverfew is sprouting. It moved into my garden as small plant last April.

Money Plant, Lunaria Annua - aka Honesty, Moon Wart, Satin Flower. These sprouted last year from seeds I'd collected from the plants growing in our fence row.

Post Frost

While I was traveling, DH harvested these pumpkins. There are still some on what's left of the frosted vines. DH didn't want these to get frost bitten while I was off getting poison ivy bitten! In the greenhouse, the twigs of basil-past will be traded out for some lettuce plantings.

The garden, as it was last night.

August Garden Photos

A nice cool, gray day for a little garden clean up. I actually hoped these plans would bring on the rain, but no luck. I removed the peas after last week's heat ended any remaining harvest. Also removed many huge borage plants that were just too darn big &/or finished blooming. The other side of the blue trellis (photo left) has a cucumber plant that reached the top. The one on this side isn't there yet. Click on this link: Garden-Monthly Photos , to see other months.

Above, the pumpkin patch. A young visitor made this sign for me 4 years ago. I've hung it up by the entry to the pumpkin patch to keep the pumpkins inspired. There are some large pumpkins underway, but only one or two on each plant so far.

The greenhouse has only had basil, peppers and a tomato during the summer. The heat last week about did in the tomato and sent the basil into flowers. I don't know if it is this warm summer or the extra heat in the greenhouse, but the basil has been going strong all summer.

And I just discovered this lilac sweet pepper in the greenhouse! I had seen some small green peppers already, but hadn't seen this one yet.

Expanding Peas

The peas had outgrown the gate "trellis." We expanded it by attaching the tops of three bamboo poles our neighbor gave us. The peas were very pleased and grabbed on to the bamboo before we could complete the installation.

The pea trellis expansion is still a little lower than the A-frame bean structure. As of tonight, the lead bean has entered the top quarter of the structure. Other beans are working to catch up. The leaves are filling out, also.

Still, at this point, it is difficult to envision the structure fully covered with the beans waving up on the top. Good thing I have former blog posts to remind me!

June Garden Photo

The garden on Tuesday night. Tomatoes & peppers are under the white cloche. Originally, we kept it closed, but for some time now we just leave both ends open. (see 2005 here!)

In this bed: broccoli (thanks-Karen!), Brussels sprouts (thanks-Molly!), lettuce and volunteer borage, calendula and dill. Once we slowed down the cabbage worm crop, the broccoli & BS plants are more content. The harvesting has started.

We've had to use the soaker hose during this dry spell. The wool mulch keeps stray water sprays off the plants and on the ground. While sheep straw has been my mulch of choice, I'm trying out the scrap wool we still had around (sheep moved away in 2006). It seems effective so far.

Click on the Monthly Photos label, below, to see other months.

Finally, some gardening

Memorial weekend garden photo. The nice weekend did give us a chance to catch up on some spring projects and gardening. Plus lots of nice time outside. The "covered wagon" cloche has been moved to a different bed this year. It has recovered from the December snow & ice. Tomatoes and sweet peppers are planted inside.

Planted assorted pole beans and one row of bush beans (more to plant later). Those are peas starting to climb the gate at the other end of this bed. In the past, the bean structure went across two beds with the pathway underneath. This year, it is all in one bed. Hopefully, I'll still be able to reach the top with a ladder. See what the bean structure looked like in summer 2007 here.

Remember composting in place last fall? Above is one of the beds now with the compost half dug in.

Above, another bed with the compost not yet dug in.

And here it is after digging, and planting carrots, beets and chard. Last year, Emily ran through the carrot bed and stirred it all up. The screen may give them a chance to sprout first.

NEXT: Refreshed pathways... I'm picking up a load of coffee bags tomorrow (finally)! We're taking the truck rather than the car so I should have some to share.

Foggy February

Must be that time of the year. Some days, it's fog. Some days, it's snow. Both offer a nice layer of quiet that I enjoy.

Now, the fog will always make me think of Jean's peaceful painting, Bunny in Winter Fog. Visit Jean at Pill Bug's Point of View and see how her garden and art intertwine. And, Jean, it was very nice to meet the person behind the paintings and blog at our gardener gathering!

We haven't seen our rabbits since the cold of December. I imagine some will find us again. Fortunately, they seem to be content with the greenery outside of the vegetable garden!

January 2009 Garden Photo

This is a misty January 2009 view, vs. the clear sky January 2008 view. This year, I trimmed up the herbs around the bird bath a lot more, and really need to do some thinning in the herb bed this year. The leaves I'm "composting in place" need to be spread around to more bed, and eventually dug in some. It is just to wet right now.

Click on the label, below, to see monthly garden photos throughout the year. How hard it is to remember even August 2008. And 2008 was such an odd summer. The flowers and herbs were content, but the beans and many other vegetables where just not very happy.

After the cold weather and the cloche collapse, everything but a few weeds where brown. On Sunday, I noticed the first green shoots of chives from the cloche area!

December Garden Update & Visitors

Saturday and Sunday brought snow and very cold temperatures. It also brought me a throat infection, so I didn't even look outside much until today, and then only briefly.

We have still been seeing a hummingbird on a regular basis. Anna's Hummingbirds are known to winter over in our area, though we've never noticed one. They eat bugs and sap, supplemented by feeders if they are around. DH stepped out late last night to bring the feeder inside so it wouldn't freeze. Then he noticed he had a rider! A very fluffed up bird was sitting on the feeder. It hardly moved at all. He set the feeder in the garage and and we left on a light. This morning, the bird was sitting on a suit case on a shelf by the light.

Before long, we saw another hummingbird outside. The day isn't very warm, but the sun is out so we opened the garage door. After flying around some, he finally flew out the door. We had an early visitor in March one year, but haven't noticed any this time of year before.

Chilled chard.