New Year - and can't wait till Spring!

Welcome 2008!
I have been pouring through all the gardening catalogs that I have been receiving and just can't wait till Spring. I laid out my newly enlarged garden and this year I am going for edamame, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, scallions, garlic, romaine and buttercrunch lettuces, yellow and green summer squash (maybe some patty pan too) and thrown throughout the garden some nasturtium and marigolds as critter deterant. Outside of the garden I am going to plant mini pumpkins to see how they do. Last year the watermelons were a bust. 20 feet of vines and I got three extremely watery, low tasting melons. Just not worth the effort for me.
I have earmarked a number of flowers, both annual and perennial, in the Park Seed, Burpee and Gurney catalogs. I am even looking into a seed starting electric greenhouse because I only have one small, 4 tiered outdoor greenhouse and last year it was jam packed with seedlings and with my over reaching vision this year I am going to need much more growing power!
Here in Boston we had a very close to record breaking snowfall (1" short of beating it) and loads more than last year - 24" versus 7" so I am hoping all my newly planted perennials will make it through the season. Just the other day the snow started to melt along the edges of the lawn and much to my dismay I saw weeds!!!! What is that all about?!?! It is much too cold for weeds and I did put down the corn gluten so things should be under control. Wait till I get my hands on those little suckers come Spring.
There are 5 long more months until I can really start to plant and start seeds but as I said earlier I have a list of must haves for the garden so stay tuned for the next installment of what I ordered.
Enjoy your New Year!

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!