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....