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"