blueyedkitty04's Blog

Trellis Pictures....
May 20, 2009 | 4:01 AM PST
Tags: clematis , vegetables , radishes , carrots , zucchini , peas , daffodil , tulip , grape hyacinth , trellis , oregano

Hello Everyone! 

Yesterday (Tuesday), I spent a long time in the garden. I concentrated mostly on the continued amendments of the veggie patch, but also planted some of the morning glory starts. I had started them in a cottage cheese container between damp paper towels, they ended up growing through the paper towel and up the container). I planted them under some of my bushier plants in hopes that they will get shelter if it does get overly chilly.

I fiddled and faddled adding more horse manure, 2.5 bags of top soil, peat moss, sand and ash. Working back and forth, turning the soil in over and over, and back and forth some more. My blisters returned! I hadn't been digging to that extreme in at least 3 weeks! I will have to purchase a nice rototiller when I get a larger garden area, it would be well worth it! Just think, I will have so much pride when I get to harvest my veggies though! It's all done by hand, every bit of it!

After working in the garden for most the mid-morning to afternoon, we went for a walk to visit my Mother-In-Law and see what she was up too. She had to head out to town so we didn't stay long, instead we wandered around looking at some of the flowers blooming in her yard. She has a really pretty area with red tulips, grape hyacinths, the prettiest daffodiles (they must be called a "double" or something, I will look it up tomorrow) and oregano. Below are some pictures, I really recommend this time clicking on the images to make them larger to see the lovely details (especially the daffodil):

Above: Grape Hyacinths, Red Tulips, Daffodils and Oregano (I think it is since I smash it between my fingers and I smell oregano) and my daughter stopping to smell the flowers.

Above:  What I think is oregano (not sure) because when I squish it between my fingers it smells like oregano and my Mother-In-Law thinks that is what it is (she's the one who planted it).  It's a pretty little plant and I transplanted some more into my garden (from my Mother-In-Law's garden).

While my daughter napped, I did some more fiddle-faddling in the veggie patch amending like crazy. When I felt I had done my best I decided it was time to build a natural trellises. My trellis has 3 pine branches and Jute natural string. It turned out really neat! I am going to make some more only slightly modified for my cucumbers to climb in the few days. Below are a few pictures:



After I finished the trellis I planted a row of peas (only half the length of trellis) with some older pea seeds I had from 2 years ago. I watered them in and by then it was dark out (above pictures show how dark it was, my daughter was using a flashlight...lol) I figure it was natures way of saying to go inside and take a break, the day is done.

Today we spent most of the day inside because it was sunny but overly chilly outside. I found it hard to "want" to go out there and work, PLUS I was so sore all over! My left calf is extremely sore (is that the way you spell the body part...hum???). I am currently applying heat to it since it's been sore the entire day.

After deciding we needed some fresh air despite the fact that the day hadn't improved (it was supposed to be an amazingly beautiful day, but to our disappointment it was not nice!), we headed out to the garden. I still have lots of flower seeds to plant and I have been wanting to get my veggie patch planted. I have been so cautious not to plant until I am totally convinced that my soil amended to the best of my abilities, but I really needed to get my veggies in.

Today after a bit more amending I planted some my veggies!

I started out by planting the other half of the natural pea trellis with new seed (that way I can compare germination time and if the old side doesn't germinate in a reasonable time period I will re-plant with the new seed).

I decided I was going to plant my bush beans and chose an area I could get to easily enough so I could have access when I needed to pick the beans. I only planted 9 seeds since I don't know if I like fresh beans or not and I don't want to waste them or waste the space. Plus I will be planting a ton of Scarlet Runner beans for a decorative plant and I will have all those beans too.

After that, I decided where I wanted to plant a few carrot rows. I planted them on the far left of the veggie patch seen below, Yes, it is a tiny amount of carrots, but I hope to make a few more rows/areas after I plan it out more and place other veggies where I want them, then I will see where I have room.

Next, I decided to plant a small section of radishes (I don't like them, but my hubby and Father-In-Law eat them. They are in the next section to the right of the carrots.

I didn't quite know what to plant next so I decided to plant the rest of the zucchini seeds I had. They were old seed, but they germinated for me inside (all but one seed), so I figured they will work outside as well. I only had 9 seeds, so if I want to plant more zucchini I will have to buy another packet of seeds. I know zucchini gets so big if it's in a happy place and I am already short on space so I may just go with what I planted outside and with the plants I started inside.

I have a few more spots to add veggies, but I am not sure what I want to plant in those spaces. I have quite a few more to plant. I have more cucumber seeds (which I will be building a modified natural trellis soon), more carrots, lettuce (I have two kinds and would really love fresh lettuce), and tomato (I doubt I will get fruit off of them, but I still want to try, I will probably plant them in pots instead of in my veggie patch that way I save space, can move them to sunny spots, and can bring them to a safe space when it gets frosty...oh-how I do not want to think about frost....).

I placed two rocks in my veggie patch so that I had places to step when checking my vegetables and doing my weeding.

Above is a picture of my clematis (Nelly Moser). First year having it grow in my garden and I can't wait to see how it does!

Well, I hope your all doing well and that you have a wonderful gardening day!

~M~

Pictures....
Apr 15, 2009 | 9:41 PM PST
Tags: Columbine , Wild Columbine , tulip bulbs , daffodil , crocus , Hannah , sedums , wild roses , beans

Well, I am too tired today to do any digging like I had hoped to do.  I just walked at a snails pace around the yard examining everything with Hannah (man, two year olds have doddling down to a perfection, she is the slowest walker sometimes, no wonder I am out of shape and get out of breath easily these days!!). 

She walked (doddled) up to the Mother-In-Laws to say hello then spotted her swing and really wanted to go swinging.  It's one of those things that I avoid, but do it because she likes it so much.  I just can't get her out of the darn thing.  I pushed her for over half an hour today, and I was getting chilled (I assumed by her little red nose and hands that she was cold too!) so I had to sidetrack her to get her out of it.  We made it halfway across the Mother-In-Law's lawn when she realized that we were walking away from the swing area and a fit/tantrum ensued.  Gotta love the toddler stage...LOL!  She kept saying "swing, swing please, swing....." so I had to tell her we couldn't because she had gotten so cold.  Her hands were just freezing. It was a cool afternoon today which didn't seem to help my drive to do more digging.  I just figure I have all of April to get this finished, so no hurry.  I've worked hard on it so far, but being tired and cold doesn't make for a fun time. 

I took some pictures of my Mother-In-Laws yellow crocus' that I absolutly adore!  I think they are the prettiest things with the dark purple striping down the petals.  I will definitely have to keep my eye out for some of those this spring.  Maybe tomorrow I will go to the nursery to see what they have if we have time after grocery shopping. 

I noticed that my Columbine that I planted last year from a purchased plant is coming back and that made me incredibly happy!  I have had no sucess with the ones that I planted from seed.  They grow to be about a few inches tall (basically one stem with the tinniest leaves you've ever seen) and never even come close to flowering.  They came back though this year.  I was kind of shocked to see them there where I planted them.  I will check my photos to see if I have a picture of them so you can see.  I just wonder why they do that.  I don't know if I could transplant them since they are so so tiny!  I have also tried to transplant a wild Columbine that I found grows up in the mountains where we go fishing some times.  It's a really pretty red color, but I don't think that they are going to come back this year.  The "Beast" that I have wrote about in the past (it was a pack-rat) ate the tops off and it never did recover from that.  I will have to look for more either in the summer while out fishing or in the fall to collect some seeds possibly!  My Mother-In-Law had the best group of Columbine I have ever seen, it was so big and bushy and she could trim them and get a second bloom out of them sometimes.  I just fell in love with them and hoped to get mine to do that.  Well, mine from seed aren't cutting it...LOL!  Last year they put an addition on their house and when they went to pour the concreat they had to move some dirt and a lot of her flowers in the flower bed close to the addition were covered in dirt.  Some of her Tulips are coming in (they must have got moved by the movement of dirt, because they are in weird places), patches of Columbine are coming in where they weren't totally covered with dirt, and her purple crocus' and tiny daffs are coming in too.  She had just bought those bulbs (crocus and mini daffs) and put them in that spring and then they got covered up that late summer/fall.  I may buy some more Columbine plants this year though since I won't likely be getting any from the Mother-In-Law like I had always hoped. 

 

Above:  My Columbine coming back!  I am so excited and I hope that I get some flowers on it this year!

Above:  Sedum that I transplanted. I am not sure what kind of Sedum this is exactly, but my Mother-In-Law has had some great success with it in certain places in the yard.  I am hoping it will like my garden too.  

 

Above:  This picture is hard to see the wild rose pieces that I have transplanted over the years (and a few transplanted from the other day).  Also there in the far back you can see some green, that is the wild evergreen bush that grows naturally all over here.  I hope it transplanted successfully and will add some green to the backdrop I attempting to create.  It's slow going, but I'll get it!!

  

Above:  I am hoping that my beans will grow up the side of my steps.  I will make some sort of trellis/support to train it up the side there.  I hope that it works out.  The only thing I am not sure about it if there is enough sun there.  I will just have to see!

 

**I can't seem to find any pictures of the tiny Columbine mentioned above, so I will have to take a picture of that tomorrow to share with you all**

Take care and I hope everyone is getting wonderful spring weather!

~M~