Bringing it indoors

Yup, it is that time of year in the Northeast where all the activities are done indoors. The first frost has hit and settled in. I have drained the rain barrel, dug up the garden, ditched the annuals out of their containers and boxes and raked more leaved than I can even begin to count.
I tried bringing in my basil and sweet potato blackies but that didn’t work so well. I think the blackies had a pest or disease that dropped onto the basil plants because the leaves looked like they were chewed off. Needless to day both basil plants and the blackies have since gone from the house. I even took a hose to the blackies after repotting them to get rid of any miniscule, microscopic bugs before bringing them into the house but alas, Mother Nature got me again.
The garlic I planted in September, which grew pretty fast is now back into the ground where it will remain for the rest of the winter in hopes that it will re-grow in the spring.
Because November till March is pretty dormant up here for the gardening scene my posts will be few and far between. Unless I find a great new site or purchase some new seeds don’t expect to hear much from me over the next few months. As I mentioned in my opening – the activities have moved indoors and I have some major reconstruction to take care of!

The planting continues

A little behind in my blogging here so I will keep it short and sweet. Basically planting, planting, and more planting. The weekend of the 13th I planted upwards of 200 bulbs – primarily Katherine Hodgkin irises and Little Princess and Little Beauty tulips – both only 4” high so none of that unsightly vegetation growth waiting to die back! I had a handful of giant Hyacinths added to the mix as well as Kalidescope and Jimmy tulips (20” and 24” respectively) and the last 6 of the tradescantia. It’s been two weeks and I must say I think I have succeeded in keeping the squirrels away. I planted the bulbs at the required depth and once in the trench I added a bit of soil and then on top of that I placed chicken wire then I covered with the rest of the soil! I have seen some holes around where I planed but as soon as the chicken wire showed up the digging stopped. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it keeps them away for good. I also added some all-natural bulb fertilizer called Bulbs Alive that I ordered from Garden’s Alive. A little extra love never hurt anything! And as an added bonus I had some extra chicken wire so I cut that and placed it on top of the irises and tulips. It is very trashy to see this all on my front lawn but it is only temporary until I know the squirrels have stopped their efforts to populate the word with oak trees!
This past weekend I planted 6 tall phlox in ice blue and 6 astrantia plants. Those all went in the back along the deck. The astrantia were rather sickly looking when they arrived but hopefully they will bounce back.
The rock garden got a few extra additions too – three magic carpet thyme that (hopefully) will have pretty pink flowers and a nice scent throughout the summer and I also dropped in 3 fescue blue grasses. They were sooooo cute when they got delivered – only about 1” high but they are expected to grow to 18”.
I am still waiting on a few more things – 1 gardenia bush, 9 hardy pansies and 3 snow in summer. After that I will be officially done with the fall planting. The winter months are going to be long….what am I going to spend my weekends doing now?

How to take care of 'that'?

I have purchased so many new plants and flowers over the past several months and have some great site bookmarked on my computer but sometimes I just don't have the time to log on and read them. To save time and keep things organized I have created a 3-ring binder broken out in tabs by perennials, annuals, shrubs, veggies, tips, lawn care, etc. This has really helped me keep everything in one place - including those pages of magazines that I have ripped out.
I have found a magazine that has great gardening ideas, recipes and DIY plans called Garden Gate
It has given me some ideas as to how to continue to build on my existing landscape and some recipes to get rid of all those zucchini!
I also received a great deal from them in the mail that provided two great free books and a discounted subscription - check it out (and no I am not a sales person for them, just a happy subscriber!)

Tis the season for planting

Wow, did it get cold fast! This past weekend I decided not to plant any of my bulbs because it was still too warm and I didn’t want them to bloom prematurely – what a difference a few days makes! It is now down to about the 40’s at night and I have taken in my basil and the gardenia houseplants for their own safety!
What I did plant this weekend was 6 of the 12 tradescantia I purchased. I was waiting patiently for UPS to show up with my other 6 but no luck – he didn’t get here until Monday so those little puppies are in the crisper in my freezer. They come as bare root which is something I am not familiar with planting so I am hoping I did it right. The squirrels haven’t touched them since I planted them, which makes me think that perhaps I didn’t!
I also separated the creeping phlox and replanted it into different areas of the rock garden because they were inadvertently planted in one huge mass in one area – oops!
Because it was forecasted to rain all week I took the opportunity to lay down some grass seed too. I used the Garden’s Alive Gold Compost – which are pellet-size hay forms that expand when watered and keep away the pesky birds, not to mention retain moisture and naturally deteriorate without laying unwanted weeds into the lawn. We’ll see how it all works out soon (I hope).
This next weekend I have 3 scabiosa, 6 tradescantia and 3 verbasum to plant. Hopefully the temperature will hold up and I can get those in along with the 100 iris’ and 40 tulips too!

Fetilizer, paint and leaves - oh my!

So it had been two weeks since I put down the corn glutten - time to put down the N-lite fertilizer. I am really hoping that this all works out and provides me with a great lawn next spring. I will still sow some seed though. This year I was thinking fescue instead of kentucky blue because it is more drought tolerant and the rain barrel only supplies so much free water!
I also had three and a half hours to kill so I decided to paint the fence black. It came out great! I would show pictures, but I am waiting till I get all the plantings in so you can really see a "before and after" shot - no need to ruin the surprize!
Now onto the leaves and there were a plenty. The old oak tree in the back is certainly putting down a serious amount of dead foliage this season. Four very large barrels filled this weekend and that didn't even put a dent in what was left on the ground. The arborist (aka tree cutter) will be here on Thursday to trim and prune the old guy, hopefully he does a good job and doesn't cut so much that it goes into shock!

Too hot for much

Wow - was Saturday hotter than I expected. I had lots of plans - paint the fence, dig out more in the front yard, glutten the back yard, etc. It was upwards of 90 degrees on Saturday which really cut my level of productivity. The only thing I ended up doing was dismantleing the garden. I pulled out the decaying zuchinni plants, removed the over abundant tomatoes and harvested a few more peppers. I also planted a bunch of garlic for harvesting in the spring. And now that it is football season my Sundays are confined to the HDTV and all the games available! Which basically means my Saturdays are going to be more jam packed than ever!
I am really trying to get all the basics done before the boat-load of bulbs and plants arive so that I am not trampling over the newly planted items, but of course, being in New England, the weather just doesn't seem to want to cooperate. Thankfully today it rained - which has been much needed. EVERYTHING is wilting - including things that never wilt - like the weeping cherry tree. My rain barrel has been dry for so long I actauly thought of dismantleing it and putting it away!
I did buy a few mum plants to decorate my back porch. Which look kind of odd next to my still thriving basil plants! I do have to take the basil in at night because it is getting below 60 now. I have made a few bunches of pesto that I have frozen and am hoping will make it over the next few months!

Pre-emergence weekend!

I finally got around to putting down my corn glutten this weekend. I was debating if I wanted to kill the weeds or plant seed and grow more grass. I chose to kill. I ended up putting down twice the "accepable" rate just to be sure. I used a 20lb bag that I ordered a few months ago all in the front and just a small portion that is pretty much all crab grass in the back. I still have another 20lbs for the rest of the back yard but there were so many leaves that I didn't feel like raking. It is kind of a fruitless task. The oak tree is sending down leaves and acorns faster that I can get them up. With all the acorns it is almost like you have to wear a hard hat on the back deck!
I also harvested ymy peppers. I got about 5 - they are pretty small and look confused - they are half red and half green. I should have picked them sooner to get greens, but they were so small I thought they needed some more time to grow. I am getting new flowers on them now too. I am not sure how long the weather will hold for them but all I can do is wait and see.
I planted more spinach seeds too. The last batch got me nothing! maybe I planted too deep or watered too much and they soaked away. I am not really sure but we'll see how these ones do.
Next weekend I think will be a weekend of rest. Spending all weekend doing yard work I have neglected my house. It needs a good fall cleaning!

I have given up!

I had SOOOO many tomatoes just waiting to ripen, be picked and enjoyed and I have lost them all to those bloody squirrels. I hate them!!! I think I may have gotten 20 tomatoes in total all season and now I have nothing but two overgrown plants with yellowing bottom leaves and no more veggies. All that work and not all the reward I was anticipating. I need to come up with a better plan next year.
Some things that I learned this year
- watch the tomato plant and make sure the branches fall WITHIN the cage because if you wait too long then they just grow too big and fall to the ground.
- just let the zucchini grow, don't try to train it
- apply some sort of fungicide at the FIRST sign of moldy leaves. One of my poor zukes just got infested by me waiting too long
- oh and speaking of waiting too long - just pick the zucchini "one more day" will give it just that much more time to grow huge
- harvest, harvest, harvest that lettuce otherwise it just gets bitter
- daily "squirel patrol/deterrant" probably would have saved a good number of my tomatoes
- if only 1-2 peppers grow per plant (like mine did) plants LOTS of seedlings!

I have now given up the garden to the wild (meaning weeds and squirrels) because everything is pretty much done for me, except for the watermelons. Out of 6 plants I have two good sized and two maybes. All the other littles fell off. I am now focusing on Fall planting, planning and winter protection for everything. Labor Day weekend is coming and do I plan on doing some labor. I have to get everything tilled and composted before my plant shipment comes in.

So, let’s review the weekend – I dug up that god-awful burning bush. I wish I could take all the credit but I can’t, I had some serious help from my neighbors who put in some manual labor in getting the majority of the main roots out. I tilled the soil with some compost, added lots o’ water and am just waiting for the Gardenia.
I have talked (typed) so much about my garden but I really am taking care of the whole yard and I have really big plans, here are a couple of before pictures. I actually added some Autumn Joy sedum from my sister into the mix before the whole process was in the works, but I ordered a plenty of perennial, flowering bushes and am planning on edging the border out further and in some sort of circular/scallop type shape (Jefe, the dog, is standing guard in the picture).


The lawn also needs some serious re-seeding and some love and care (not to mention a little less Jefe). That is on the list for this weekend. I just need to figure out how to put down the corn gluten and still reseed. Seeing as the corn gluten kills all seeds – including grass – I need to wait six weeks before putting down new grass seed. That puts me into October because I also plan on putting down the N-Lite fertilizer. I think that is too late so I may forego the gluten this season and just apply heavily in the Spring – the verdict is still out on that one though.

Replanting Mania!

So this past weekend I wasn't planning on doing to much heavy lifting - my how plans change! I ended up digging up some random evergreen shrub that replanted itself in a very odd area and replanting it in a much more suitable location. My sister, who has a huge flowering garden, had some overgrown ground cover (exact type still TBD) that I dug up and brought back to my house to replant. There were a lot of succulent ground cover, one that had these really pretty dark pink, small flowers on it - I have done a bit of googling on it but no luck so far. I got a bunch of sedum, hens and chicks, some russian sage and some black eyed susans. There was even a plant that was hydrid of the susans and the sage - talk about survival of the fittest!
Tonite I dug up this overgrown bush that had worked itself through the fence after years of negect - what a horrible task that was! I am trying to tidy up the front yard an plant a three season flowering garden out there - lets keep our fingers crossed. The majority of the plants I ordered from Spring Hill Nursery will be coming at the end of September - I just hope that the chill holds off to then!
I am so excited about my latest purchase - a Gardenia that is made for zone 6 (that's me!) I was planning on getting rid of that non-burning bush anyway and now I have a great smelling, lots o' blooming shrub to replace it. That is being shipped the week of September 3rd so I really got to get a move on trying to get rid of that other bush and all its roots! I also want to prepare the soil with some compost and till it so that the gardenia is planted in the best scenario possible to survive the winter here.
And, of course, the darn squirrels (I always blame them) have found the tomatoes - in the past three days they have taken 6 of them - 4 bright red and huge! A couple of bites and then left behind - how insulting! But I have plenty more coming so I am more irritated than angry. The watermelons (6 total) are at least baseball size and I have about 10 or so more that are still thumb nail size. Not too shabby for a first time grower!
This weekend is the burnign bush, planting my newly purchased blue hostas (halcyon and ultra marine) and preparing the sol for any new plantings. It doesn't sound like much, but trust me that bush is going to take half the day -it is about 10 years old! More to follow....

Welcome the Watermelons!

I discovered an egg size watermelon today under all that greenery and I am so excited. I didn't even know it was there and I investigate almost everyday to see how things are progressing back there. I pollinated two and they seem to be doing ok and then tonite I found 5 more - not including the biggie. My first attempt at watermelons and I think I found the perfect spot for them. They are growing like crazy and in all sorts of directions but I don't mind - as long as I get some fruit out of them all is good.
This weekend I am planning on digging up a lot of the stupid crab grass, pulling out what few dandelions there are and pruning down the bushes. I need to get ready for the next round of corn glutten. The directions say between August 15 and September 15. But I also need to use the N-lite fertilizer which needs to be done 2 weeks after the corn goes down. And then I need to sow the seed which has to be 2-3 weeks after the N-lite and up here in New England you never can tell what is going to happen with the weather so I am planning on having everything sown and taken care of by end of September. How sad, already planning the fall "to-do" list. Where did the summer go?!?
I am also on the hunt for a flowering perennial shrub and I don't want the same old same old. I am looking for a late bloomer, something different that you don't see on everyone's front lawn, and that can live in not so great soil. A tall wish list, but I am sure I can find something. I am going to attempt to uproot the burning bush that never burns. I hate that thing. I've pruned it down and now it looks like a bunch of sticks - very unatractive. One of the hydrangeas may have to go too. They haven't bloomed in two years and al that green on one side of the house is so boring.
So the next two weekend are busy, busy busy. Stay tuned....

Let the Tomatoes Begin!!!

Ah - my first ripe tomato...isn't a beauty?!?! There are several more that should be ready to pick in a few days, but this here is my first beefstake of the season. The sad news is that I am losing a lot of them because there are so many they are breaking the branches! I have so many old stockings, floral tape, stakes, etc trying to keep it all in tact that in fact it looks quite tacky!
That was the good news - the bad news is that my one watermelon fell off the vine - I guess it wasn't pollinated. So to prevent that from happening with the others I started hand pollinating those too. If it worked for the zukes then it will be fine for the melons!
Yesterday I planted several spinach seeds - about 7-8 I think. The packet says that it is good for spring summer or fall planting so if all goes well in 45 days (or hopefully less) I will have an abundance of spinach! I may even try to grow some in my flower boxes seeing as nothing else seems to want to grow there! Hopefully those unsightly lettuce plants will go to seed soon. They are as high as my chest and becoming quite a nuisance to get around. There are a lot of buds, several flowers and nothing that looks like seeds. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that I can get something out of these god awful looking creatures at the end.

Hip-hip Hooray!!!

More zucchini flowers have arrived - both male and female so my stash is not yet defunct! I did cut two massive zukes off this weekend. They were both hiding under all the leaves so I didn't see them - they had to be over a foot long each. I know that is not ideal - but sometimes these things happen. I gave those to the neighbors - I already have some to cook up.

I now have two watermelons growing. One seems to be getting a "wee bit" bigger each day, but I am still not sure if it was pollinated. The other is "teensy tiny" small and has a small dried out flower on the end so again not sure if it was pollinated. There are a good number of male flowers on those plants as well and I am hpoing the ladies show up soon - the growing season here in New England is getting very, very short!

I did notice that I have some new flowers on several of my pepper plants. That is probalby because I rescued them from the overpowering tomato plant. Lots of old pantyhose and garden stakes created a much needed sunny spot for these little guys. Speaking of little guys - one of my red pepper plants is no more than 6-7" high and already has 4 peppers growing on it! I have no idea how it is going to hold them up - this may require "Gardener MacGyver" (it think that is how you spell it - anyway you get the idea) action!

More cucumbers have arrived but they do not seem to be willing to attach themselves onto the stakes that I gave them. All over the place they are - who is the master here!!! They too are going to require a bit more training, but this past weekend was B-day weekend for me and I stayed out of the garden and I am not regretting it. One weekend of neglect require twice as much energy and back work the next!

Just another day

So I have already cut 6 zukes off my plants and am sad to day that there are no more female flowers right now : (
I am hoping that this isn't it for my zucchini crop. There are a few more that will be ready to harvest in a few days but if this is it I am very disappointed. I did only plant three plants so maybe next year I will need to plant more.
I am already planning out next year's garden and I am going to double the width so I will have a full 12 feet. That way the zukes and tomatoes will have more room to branch out and not suffocate any other plants. I am also looking to grow garlic, scallions, red onions and soy beans (endamame).
My lettuce is already going to seed which is ok with me - I have had my share of salads this year! I do have two more heads of each type that I planted later in the year so I will still have a few more salads and hopefully it will time well with the tomatoes and cucumbers so I can have my own home grown salad!
I have a packet of spinach seeds that I received from Garden Solutions for being a club member - which is a membership I joined for only $14.95 per year and that gives me a 10% discount at a bunch of online places like gardensalive.com, springhill.com and brecks.com. They say it is slow to bolt and can be grown in spring summer or fall so I am hoping to find some space towards the front of the garden to plant a few.
My watermelon plants are looking really good - well at least 3 of the 6. I think the sad looking ones do not receive enough sun, so lesson learner - that location isn't so great. I have a few flowers already in bloom and a bunch of buds too. I know they need to be pollintated and the bees have not been very helpful this year. I have no problem doing it myself, but have no idea how to tell the difference from a male and female flower on watermelons. Looks like a google search is in my future!
On a side note - my window boxes look terrible!!! The purple salsa salvia is growing a lot of greenery but not a lot of blooms, something has eaten all the leaves off my royal delft (I think I have a bug problem), my african daisy are, like the salvia, growing great foliage but no blooms and my sweet potatoe blackies seem dormant. And I was so positive that my boxes would be the envy of the neighborhood - now aren't I eating crow!

New arrivals to the Garden

Lots of activity going on in the garden over the past couple of days. Lots of new tomatoes, a whole bunch of new flowers on the cucumer plants and I now officially have two peppers growing. This picture quality is pretty poor, but I was so excited that they are actually growing I posted it anyway.



I have been self pollinating the zukes lately because I have noticed that all my female flowers are dying off and the zukes behind them too. I wasn't sure if I was doing it right so I only did a few and low and behold - I did it right!!! I have noticed a good number on the plants and am hoping I can get home from work in time tomorrow before they close so that I can pollinate them as well. I refuse to have these huge plants and nothing to show for it!

Beneficial Nematodes are our friends!

So not only do I have Aphids running wild around the rose bushes I was out weeding last week and when I pulled up a weed I got a bit o' grass with it and the whole darn chunk came up (without a lot of effort I may add) - a sure sign of grubs. I ordered some Grub Away from yup, Garden's Alive, to take care of the issue. I got 5 million nematodes - an insect that atacks insects that spend at least part of their lives in (or on) the soil (no harm will come to earth worms, I promise). I watered, re-watered, and re-watered again over three days to amke sure they got down deep into the soil. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will get rid of them. Otherwise, the front lawn doesn't look so bad.
On a different topic, I ran out of rain water this weekend. It hasn't rained in awhile so I guess my supply was dwindling w/o me even knowing. We did get a good downpour on Saturday so I have enough in the barrel to fill a few watering cans, but not too much before it goes below the level.
Had the family cookout this weekend and got to munch on the buttercrunch lettuce. I must have picked in in time because it was not bitter at all! I got LOTS of compliments from everyone on well the yard looked and how fabulous the garden was growing. Everyone was amazed that the tomatoes are already fruting and that the cukes have flowers. Of course everone offered to take the "extras" off my plate once everything is being harvested - but no lettuce takers this time. I gotta get rid of some of that - a girl can only eat so many salads!

Yup, I grow Herbs too

So I have been focusing a lot on my garden here but wanted to share the success I am having with my basil plants. Originally I planned on growing them in the garden but it seemed cramped at the time so I chose not to. What a great choice - because now everything is growing out of control (and that is SUCH a good thing) I am glad I planted them in containers on my porch. I have two types growing - sweet basil and purple basil. Both shown here


I have only picked the sweet basil so far and made a great tomato, basil, mozzarella salad (unfortunately not my tomatoes yet - but still organically grown).
Not too much labor intensive news to report - just the typical weeding and watering. But I do have to say that I now have four tomatoes on the small plant and only two on the large one and many, many flowers so I am hoping for a "bumper crop".
The cucumbers have started to grow the vines and are attaching nicely to the lattice in the back - and a little to the tomato plant so I had to unwind it and guide it back to the lattice - hopefully it stays there. I have also gotten cuke flowers already. They seem a little to small to be forming flowers at this point, but if it is ready then so am I!
The buds have formed on all the red pepper plants and on one or two of the green pepper plants. The green ones just aren't taking as well as the red so I have given them a little extra "Veggies Alive" fertilizer to help them along.
I just harvested my first crop of buttercrunch tonight. We are having a family cookout this weekend so I wanted time to rinse cut and mix it all before then. Not too mention they were getting huge and I was afraid it would be too bitter if I waited any longer. And for the fact that it has been 90 degrees the past three days I didn't want them to bolt to fast.
I still need to show my watermelon experiment to you - but the pictures keep coming out so crappy you can't really see the results that well. Stay tuned for more.....

The sweet smell of Gardenia!

OK, so this particular post isn't related to my garden, or organic growing at all but I had to share the great news that my gardenia has sprouted another bloom! The first bloom was back in February I think - kinda weird time to bloom, but I won't argue. I originally had five buds - one bloomed, three fell off, and this is the final one. I also have a second plant that is much smaller and very sad looking but it is still technically alive and I just don't have the heart to throw it away. That one too has a bud forming! I keep these as house plants during the fall and winter seeing as New England is not a native environment for these beauties! I feed them acidic fertilizer to help them along during the not so great winter months and have had them for about three years now (maybe more). Right now the two pots are out on the front porch south facing and get the late-ish afternoon sun - which is where they sit indoors as well. Just a bit of beauty - can't you almost smell it - to make your day. I know it made mine!!!!

GOTCHA!!!!

I think I hear TAPs playing...do you? Thank to my now good friends at Arbico Organics (www.arbico-organics.com) I have much less Aphids nibbling at my flowers and I think they will stay away from the veggies too! This is the Sticky Aphid Whitefly Trap that I bought and this particular one is hanging near the "once was infected" rose bush. Although it was too late to save the bush I at least got rid of those pesky buggers.
I also have two in my garden - one in between the two zukes - which I cannot show you because those two things are monsters right now. The second is hanging from the tomato cage because under inspection there looked to be an infestation - this is that trap.

I still have the crop guard that I bought from Arbico but it needs to be sprayed when there will be 12 hours of no rain - Friday it downpoured and Saturday the gray clouds were rolling in but nothing came of them. And well today I was just too darn lazy. A girl needs one day to relax - I am a full time working schmuck too!
And rest assured the trap in non-poisonous - it is also extremely easy to use and lasts all season - even through the rain! I haven't seen any "good" bugs caught to it, well except one spider that, I think, was going after easy prey - I tried to take him off w/o tearing anything but am not sure how successful I was - I release it back into the ground and hoped for the best.
I have an experiment running out back with my sugar bush watermelons so stay tuned for that!

Spreading the Organic Word

I am expanding my organic reach and posting this blog to a number of different sites so that everyone can see with a little hard word and dedication we can all live the organic way!

And Here it Is

All the talk and now everyone can see the results of my hard labor!

As you can see the zukes are in the back right corner completely covering one red pepper plant and about to consume another! The tomato plant on the right was the one that got a tomato already that unfortunately had blossom end rot so I picked it and threw it away. And ever since I make sure I water the heck out of it! the romaine is on the left - looking a little short while the buttercrunch on the left is taking off. I think next year requires a few more feet of planting space!

UGH - APHIDS!!!!

I have been so focused on my garden I have forgotten to show TLC to other plants in the yard!!! The leaves on the rose bush out back are covered in brown spots - a sure sign of fungus AND they are COVERED in aphids. It is only time before they head over to my prized garden. My only saving grace, at least I am hoping, is that the garden is on the complete opposite side of the yard. I have been thinking of buying some lady bugs to help out with the problem, but I am not sure if I want to release 1500 lady bugs into my backyard - beneficial or not!
The poor peonies didn't get one bloom and they too have a white powdery mildew on several leaves (as do my neighbors). Alas, maybe I am not the gardener that I thought I was : (
I also planned out the garden a little weird - for some reason I thought I could "train" zucchini to grow up - NOT. Those little buggers are growing like mad and are about to mow over a few red pepper plants. I am hoping to cage them this weekend to spare the lives of my precious peppers. There are already flowers (male and female) on the zukes, so I don't want to shock them too much. What's a girl to do?!?
The buttercrunch lettuce looks ready to pick, but it has only been 1 month. The "instructions" say 60 days to maturity. maybe I am "super gardener" for some things and "not so hot" with others. The tomatoes look good and so far I still have all my flower buds, which means the squirrels and birds haven't located them yet. I am keeping them distracted with the safflower and sunflower seeds.
The garlic spray went down and oh god what a smell. I can see why the squirrels stay away!! Not a bad smell but holy garlic batman! I have read on google that a garlic/soap spray can also keep away the dreaded aphids, so that is next on the agenda. Right after I put out those sticky traps for them. I will leave no stone unturned when it comes to making these veggies grow to their full potential!

More to report....

so, I some how forgot to mention that I installed a rain barrel over Memorial Day weekend too! (Purchased through New England Rain Barrel at www.nerainbarrel.com - and with a discount because I pre-ordered and it was my first one!) Well, I wasn't 100% sure if I did it correctly but low and behold I did! After all the rain that we had earlier this week my barrel is now 99% full! I love it - using what nature gives me to help conserve water not to mention save money! The flow coming out is V-E-R-Y slow, but heck, I can take some time out to fill a watering can mulitiple times and water all the container flowers and plants.

The garden is looking HOT!!! My zukes are growing like weeds - much like the weeds that are growing in the garden but that is another post all together. Holy cow - I already have the flower buds growing and I can totally see the males from the females so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the pesky squirrels keep their grubby mouths off of them and allow me to enjoy the veggies of my labor. The peppers...not so hot. I think that is because the weather has been so erratic. I am just waiting for one whole week where the weather stay solid and I expect those babies to shoot out like from a cannon. The buttercrunch lettuce looks absolutely fantastic - at least the cold, erratic weather is helping along some of my plants.

I have been saying this for awhile now, but truly THIS is the weekend where I will spray that all natural squirrel repellant. Now that there are flowers coming up on the zukes and the tomatoes I have got to keep them away. Fingers crossed that it will work. I am thinking of spraying it EVERYWHERE. THose little buggers are digging up the moss roses out front, trampling all over my moonflowers and they have stolen at least 4 that I can see of my morning glories. They are really starting to piss me off - this is war!

I planted the sugar baby watermelons last weekend - and of course the weather dipped because these plants like it HOT But as an added precaution from the weather as well as the damn beetles that infect them I used a floating row cover - purchased from my new favorite web site - gardensalive.com. I am not so sure how well they will do - they need a lot of room, heat and tender loving care. I really only have one of the three to offer so I am hoping the tender love will save them and provide me with some great watermelons for the season.

Weekend of work!!!!

Whew - what a weekend Memorial Day turned out to be! I finally finished off the mulch - and still have some left. I was pretty stingy around the forsythias because I wasn't sure if I had enoug, wow did I misjudge! I replanted the cukes and added "Gardener's Gold" from Nature's Alive to add fertilizer and weed control around the cues, zukes and tomatoes. I also discovered my first tomato but to my dismay it had blossem end rot : ( I guess I hadn't watered it enough lately. Now I know and that thing will never go thirst again. The garden is starting to grow weeds (thanks to my neighbors not so diligent lawn and basic gardening care) and picked the heck out of it. The zucchini plants are looking good so far. I had two more that won't fit in the garden so I planted those in a container near by.
I also visited my favorite garden shop/nursery Mahoney's in Wincheser to buy some plants for my hanging baskets on my back porch. I chose Sachet Nemisia which should look great with the salvia, sweet potatoe blackies etc. Not only do they look good, they smell fabulous too! I can smell them when walking by - an added bonus! I also picked up some Moss Rose for the whiskey barrels out front and some impatients for the shady parts of the yard. I am quite proud of myself and how the yard is looking so far.
My only complaint is about the damn squirrels - they are already digging some serious holes everywhere in the yard. On my way to work this morning I saw two of my Thorndike Ivy dug up and left oh so carelessly along the driveway. I hat them and would love to know how to rid them from al my hard work! I think this weekend I am going tomix and spray a nautral repellant for them - chili peppers, garlic adn water. I read that they hate the smell and will stay away fromanything that has it on t, but I am wondering how many other bugs/insects/critters may actually like it!
Not that gutter cleaning is part of organic gardening but I did that too - and oh good god did it stink! My neighbor informed me that he had been watching a tree grow in my gutter for 3-4 years so he helped out with the ladder and I pulled it out. If you mix rotting vegitation, swamp water, and the worst smelling scent you can think of - that is what it smelled like. I almost fell off the ladder from the dry heaves!
Dandelion duty was also on the agenda - which hasn't been too big of a problem since putting down the corn glutten - but still a pain none the less.
I still have some peppers, lettuce and cukes and zukes toplant but am afraid to plant them outside of the "rules and regulations" of spacing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I think I killed a balloon flower that my sister sent my way - I went to split it and place it in two differnt pots and surprizingly enough - there were no roots! It looked like the top of bean sprouts. I dropped everything I could save into the two pots and covered them and am hoping for the best. If they don't take - well heck they were free.
Next on the agenda is trimming down the forsythias (which never bloomed), the boxwoods which are taking over the side yard and maybe even cutting down the hydrangea - which could be risky - it may not bloom this year if I do that.
I never ealized that a good looking yard takes up so much time. If I didn't have to work to pay for all the supplies I could seriousy do this all day, every day. The thought of being a landscape designer or just plain old landscaper has crossed my mind because I enjoy doing it so much, but hten, who would take care of my yard?

The yard is looking good!

The weekend of the 12th I had the mulch delivered and got most of it down, planted all the lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, zukes and cukes. I am using Veggie Alive from a company called Garden's Alive (www.gardensalive.com) to fertilize the veggie garden and chose the more economical way to spread by digging small trenches next to each row and spreading the fertilizer in the trenches. I also got the window boxes set up with Sweet Potato Blackies, Purple Salsa Salvia, a mix of Alyssum, and Verbena. Overnight the Verbena grew a good amount of shoots. I am looking foward to that growing and flowering, with its light purple flowers and white trim it should be a nice contrast to the dark Blackies and Salvia.
Last weekend it rained like Noah was coming and got really cold. Who would have thought it would drop to 40 in May? Because of that (I am guessing) my cucumer plants didn't make it. I just dug them up today and am planning on buying more plants to replace them.
Being so cold you would think that the lettuce would have grown incredibly, but no such luck. Last year everything was in containers, not directly in the ground, so this is a whole new experience for me. None of the veggie plants look too good, but I do have flowers on my tomatoes already.
Speaking of flowers for the first time in about 4 years I have flowers on the blueberry bushes. Not to many, but it is a start. I need to cover them with netting to keep the albeit cute, but pesky birds away! That is on the list for this upcoming weekend along with protecting my strawberry plants (and everything else) from those city rats (aka squirrels).
My morning glories are growing pretty well and the sweet peas are about 4-5" right now and I have already pinched off the top set of leaves in the hopes that they will develop more flowers this year. The Moonflowers out front look a bit weak, but again the sun isn't hitting them as much as it will in a few months so hopefully that will jump start their growth.
Still on the hunt for squirrel repelant that works (Shake Away was a HUGE disappointment). This weekend I am going to try the "all-natural" thing of garlic, hot peppers and water - all blended and strained to keep them away from my precious flowers and veggies. Now if I could just keep the massive amounts of sparrows and pigeons away from my feeders it would be a grerat day!

Ready for veggies!

The garden is all dug out and edged and ready for planting. I bought tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, two different types of lettuce, basil, and red and green peppers. I tilled the soil with a bunch of compost and am ready to plant this weekend.

I also have morning glories, sweet peas, moonflowers and verbena to plant - majority of that is going inthe newly "corn gluttoned" yard. Hopefully the verbena will grow and trail like it is said to do, the last time I tried to grow from seed the darn squirrels got at it and I got nothing!

Which brings me to another topic - I am hell bent on keeping those squirrels out of my garden, last year I saw a number of them running across my porch with a tomato in their mouth! I do all the work and they real all the rewards. I have put down critter repelant over the past few weeks and it doesn't seem to deter them - they walk right over it. Where there is a will there is a way and I am determined to kepp them from stealing my hard earned crops!

Spring planting and planning

Growing up my lawn was lush, thick and the envy of the neighborhood. My Dad was the person that took care of the lawn using all sorts of pesticides and since he has passed it has all gone to crap. This year I decided to bring the lawn back to its previous beginnings, but using only organic material. Several weeks ago I spread corn glutten over the entire lawn to kill the crab grass, dandelions and any other broad leaf weeds that may sprout up. So far so good. Typically at this time the lawn is covered in a sheet of yellow from the dandelions, but I only have three! So far the corn glutten seems to be taking "root"