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Last of the bulbs

White Flower Farm Perennial Tulip Mixture

A warm November day, nearly 60 degrees and sunny.

• Planted 100 tulip bulbs, 100 crocus, 25 snowdrops. All from WFF 
• Also mulched the remaining leeks and swiss chard with pine needles
• Planted a few cloves of Red German garlic in front of the leek bed. (at least I think it's red german.)
• Mulched the berry bushes too. 

Crocus tommasinianus

Galanthus - The Last Snow Mix

July 2015

Chaos in the back yard after moving last year. Tons of plants waiting to go into the garden. Finished by October....

Plantings in shade garden

• Actaea 'Chocolate' - bought one plant at Botanic Garden in Maine, doing well so far. The one I transplanted from old garden is looking a bit shaky. Suspect it will recover. It's from WFF, I think it's this one - Cimicifuga simplex Hillside Black Beauty
•  

10 Years!

Though I don't post often, my first post was 10 years ago and pre-dates my professional blogging by 3 years! Here's to the gorgeous hydrangeas that are growing like crazy this year. Need to find a new place for them if we go ahead with getting a fence installed.

What did I get done over the weekend?

• Lawn mowed, trimmed chysanthemums, started some cuttings from the mums. 
• GardensAlive - spread moleaway stuff, veggie and tomato fertilizer. 
• Rose hedge - weed, compost (4 bags) & mulch (7 bags). 
• Front garden - roses got some compost. Ripped out lots of daisies and coreopsis, weeded. Still not done. Planted 2 red dianthus, 3 achillea from WFF. 
• Sprayed some critter spray around back yard, rain keeps washing it away. 
• Fixed all hose couplings. 
• Salads, kale, radishes, basil - all going nuts. 
• Rest of the garden is still weedy and overgrown. Much work to be done. 

Seeds - 2014

These are the Baker Creek seeds that I'm growing this year. The kale, chard and lettuce are doing well. The dwarf bok choi bolted, my fault for planting it too late. Will try again later in the summer for a fall crop. The leeks are coming along slowly, very slowly. And it's wait and see on how the carrots will do.

Kale and chickpeas

This was the first meal of this year's kale crop. Sauteed scallions, garlic in some olive oil. Threw in red peppers, chick peas and finally some kale. Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and cumuin for some spice. Added a bit of veggie broth too. And served it on red quinoa with a drizle of fresh lime juice on top. Healthy, easy and a good recipe for switching things up depending on what you have on hand.

What happened to summer?

Blue potatoes from garden

As usual, I didn't post anything all summer. Too busy with work, travel and keeping the ground hogs out of the garden. Did  a lot of replanting after the critters mowed down the veggies.

This post is an attempt to remember what veggies I want to plant next year.

Definitely plant:

• Baby bok choy - there was some in the garden from a seed packet of mixed greens. The baby bok choi was the best of the mix. Plant more. 
• Leeks - they did great and of course most critters don't like anything garlicky or oniony. Win! Plants lots and stagger them for eating all summer and fall. Replant the pulled ones. Or replant that space with lettuce. 
• Swiss chard - So easy and so tasty. 
• Red Lettuce - Easy. So nice to have fresh picked salads. 
• Beets - After the disastrous cucumber plants were torn out, there were some beets struggling underneath. Haven't eaten them yet, but they're doing well. Plant lots!
• Potatoes - These did fairly well in the cloth planters and placed in the front garden among the shrubs. Lots of sun. 
• Basil - Odd that the ordinary basil that usually does so well was a flop this year. The thai basil is still going strong. 
• Parsley - the critters loved it. Better fences next year!
• Padron peppers - planted some in the veggie bed and some out front. They all did really well this year. Couldn't keep up with them, ended up making very spicy veggie stock out of them and freezing it in ice cube trays. Will add a zip to soups and stews all winter. 

Maybe? 

• Carrots? - didn't plant any this year, they've never done well before, but maybe try again?
• Tomatoes - because the critters kept mowing down the garden, they didn't really get a good start. So much work to wrap each tower in netting. Is it worth it? Could just buy great heirloom tomatoes instead. 

No

• Cucumbers - no! They grew like crazy, took over a whole garden bed, were a mess and never produced a single cucumber
• Beans - no - they didn't go in early enough and never produced much. 

Compost time

It was either mow the lawn or dig out the compost heap yesterday. And it just didn't seem right to have to mow the lawn in April. So the compost heap won. I have 3 big wire bins that are awkwardly tucked between a crumbling stone fireplace that has seen better days and an equally unscenic chain link fence. At least the fence was once green and is now rusty, it blends into the landscape, sort of.

Anyways, the bins work great, they're just difficult to get to them. I end up having to dig out while I'm standing in them. Good exercise! The bottom half of all 3 bins was ready to use. The rest of the contents has been shifted into two bins with lots of compost starter sprinkled through them. This may be the year I get a second 'crop' of compost.

After all that work, what a treat it was to be able to put my own compost on my roses. I hope they appreciate my labor and grow, grow, grow.

Ladybird poppies

Last July, these gorgeous poppies were in full bloom at Easton Walled Gardens in Lincolnshire. I hope they'll grow here too. Bought several packets and scattered one around the front garden last week. But it's been bone dry since then and I haven't had time to water. I have another packet to sow if I see signs of life. Wish me luck.

Crabgrass battle commences!

The time to start the crabgrass battle is when the forsythia starts to bloom. That means it's warm enough for the crabgrass seeds to start germinating. Even with the early bloom, I was prepared with 6 huge bags of corn gluten. The seed still germinate, but the corn gluten kills the root as it's trying to grow. So out came the spreader and down went 120 pounds of the stuff. I spread an extra thick layer around the edge of the lawn where the crabgrass is the worst.

The corn gluten is also a fertilizer. Almost instantly the grass greened up and started growing like crazy. Mowing in April???

March heat wave

The March heat wave brought on an early bloom of crocuses, daffodils, forsythia and everything else. The daffodils burst into bloom while I was out of town in late March, when Albany temperatures were just as warm as the part of Florida I was visiting for a few days.

From Florida I flew to DC, where the cherry blossoms were also blooming earlier than they have in their 100 year history.  It was incredibly hot and crowded around the tidal basin the afternoon we visited. Stayed long enough to take a few photos and then escape the crowds.

On a rainy Saturday in DC, we briefly wandered through the lovely Mary Livingston Ripley Garden.

March

2012-03-11,
originally uploaded by pollyalida.

Gorgeous first day of daylight savings time. I uncovered the roses, trimmed some winter weary plants. And planted seeds - outside! The seeds were all fairly old, so if they don't come up or get bitten by a cold snap, no harm done. Strangely, the lettuce that sprouted late in the fall made it through the winter and has started to grow again. Perennial lettuce??

January

  by  larryhalff 

It may be January, but I'm thinking of how wonderful these padron peppers will taste later this summer. At least I hope they will. If the chipmunks don't eat them first. I might need to grow them in pots, with some sort of bird netting over them. I live in hope.

I also am getting a jump on the season by ordering corn gluten weed killer/fertilizer from Garden's Alive. They have a 4 for the price of 3 special going on, as well as a discount coupon for $100 off $200 of merchandise and my usual 10% garden club discount. Hooray!  Hope the mailman will forgive me when 160 pounds of stuff arrives in a week or so. I may regret it if we get a ton of snow and I have to plough through snow to get to the shed to store it all. Think spring!

Bulbs, bulbs. bulbs

As always, I've neglected this blog. Very few posts during the gardening season. But gardeners live in hope, so here I am again, hoping I'll be better about keeping notes.

I've finished planting my bulbs for this season. Didn't order any from any mail-order companies, just bought bags at the hardware store. So nothing fancy, just reliable old standards.

Planted in the front garden in October. Edged the garden out into the lawn another 6 inches. At this rate, how long till there's no lawn? Planted tulips, daffodils and crocuses to expand the swath that I planted last year. Wonder if the tulips from last spring will come back. Also wonder if the chipmunks have been feasting on the bulbs from their underground tunnels??

• 100 Crocus - mixed colors - early
• 40 Daffodils - King Alfred - early
• 40 Daffoils - Ice Follies - mid
• 70 Tulips - a blend of purple and white - mid

Planted out in the back lawn where I will be able to see them from my desk:

• 30 Snowdrops - early
• 30 Wood Squill - early
• 30 Muscari - Delft Blue blend - mid

Late June

Lots of garden chores done, lots more to go. Tomatoes are staked and growing quickly. The Lady in Red hydrangea and the Golden Guinea Kerria, both from White Flower Farms, were finally planted yesterday.

Critters have been chowing on my lettuce, cauliflower and dahlias. The lettuce is gone. The rest are covered with netting. Decided to forget about beets & carrots, they'd be next on the buffet. Replaced with some peppers and some enormous eggplant plants. Big thick stems and huge flowers. Also covered with netting. Potatoes are growing fast and need a good deep layer of dirt to finish filling up the bins they're growing in. Had some tasty pasta with basil from the garden last night. Tomatoes soon??

Out front the coreopsis have gone wonderfully wild, along with daisies that I never planted. I love how many things in the front garden just come up wherever they want to.

The hummingbird feeder outside my office is actually attracting hummingbirds.  I watched one settle on the feeder and actually sit still for a few minutes, I've never seen that amazing sight.

June 3

Planted today:

• Cauliflower seedlings (from Faddegons)
• Zucchini seedlings (from Faddegons)
• Beets - detroit dark red - 2 short rows - T&M seed
• Carrot - early nantes 2 - T&M seed
• Gladiolas - from Pop's garden
• Peppers - Pinot Noir & Cajun Red (?) (from Faddegons)
• Tons of red onions from ??
• Yellow Gaillardia (?) WFF
• - ground cover.....
• potatoes
• dahlias

Mid May

Bleeding Heart by pollyalida

The daffodils are almost gone, just a few small ones lingering out front. There were almost none in the back garden this year. I imagine all my underground critters got them. Yet the few tulips that have survived out there for years did well again. And the bleeding heart too.

The edge of the front garden looked lovely for many weeks with crocuses giving way to daffodils and then some lovely dark and light purple tulips that are just about done now. Thinking I'll edge that out further in the fall and put in more of the same

I've been buying lots of plants here and there. Two hardware store salvias today. They're now planted in the front bed near the roses. Some star$s coffee grounds have been spread around most of the roses out front.

And speaking of roses, the rose hedge is amazing. Well, it's not really a hedge yet, but it's growing great guns and has flower buds already. It was fertilized with GardensAlive rose food earlier in the season. And I've dumped a lot of grass clippings in between the bushes to keep the weeds down. We have loads of grass clippings this year. But that's a story for another post.

Started to trim out the scraggly forsythia, it needs a drastic cutback.

In bloom now:

• last of the daffs & tulips
• a variety of allium have begun to bloom
• Spirea shrubs have just started 
• Columbine that plopped itself in the veggie garden is in bloom too
• Iberis - Candytuft is at it's peak. And full of grass weeds. Need to move that out a bit further

To keep track of what's in bloom, I added a Garden calendar to my Google Calendar account. And just creating very long events for the length of time each type of flower is in bloom. And even adding a bit of color coding too. Probably silly and I won't keep it up, but gives a nice visual of how long things lasted.