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~

Upgraded to a "Worm Apartment"
May 16, 2009 | 4:06 AM PST
Tags: worms , zucchini , cucumber , vegetable garden , Rufous Hummingbirds , Tulip
I decided to condense all my "garden" related blog entries from my family blog into a new blog titled:

"~The Gardening Mommy~"

So, when I write how you can go to my "other" blog for links I have mentioned in these blog entries here, you can go straight to the gardening one instead of having to sort through my "other/family related" thoughts etc. It will be strictly garden related stuff. I will be posting the garden posts here, in my family related blog, and the garden blog (~The Gardening Mommy~), so either way you won't miss out.

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Today in my garden:

I had a wonderful day outside today with my daughter. I played in the garden and together we went worm hunting to add worms to my worm poop bucket. She really doesn't like many bugs, but wiggly squiggly worms don't seem to bother her one bit!

I "upgraded" my worm poop bucket into a "worm apartment" (one of a few steps towards the final project - "The Worm Mansion") ...lol! The reason I want worm poop is because it is so full of wonderful things that plants love.

In my last "worm" blog entry I wrote:

"Well, today I decided to dump the bucket. To my surprise there were TONS of worms and TONS of worm poop! What a wonderful surprise! I collected the worms up and put them back into a bucket full of new organic matter/dirt hoping to make a successful worm house. I will have to do some research in the next few days regarding what makes worms happy. I could really use the worm poop too!".

What got me started again today was that I re-found an article in my Mother Earth News titled "Worms! Soil-Building Workhorses" last night. There was a ton of info on how to "raise" worms in captivity and other ways get beneficial worms into your garden. I tried some of the suggestions from the side article titled "Captive but Comfortable Environments for Worms" and took a few pictures of the steps to "upgrading" to the worm apartment.

1.) I put a few handfuls of cut up coffee filters in the bottom of a bucket.

2.) Next, I poured organic matter such as degrading leaves, fluffy dirt and pine needles (and apparently a small pine cone...oops)

3.) I added another layer of cut up coffee filters, old coffee grinds, then more organic matter in repeated layers. I also added some dry chunks of bread (the heal) since the article said that worms love the decomposing bread (and since it decomposes fastest it's perfect worm food) and lettuce scraps for "worm dessert". After the repeated layers, I added the previous "Worm Slum House" dirt and worms on top of the new, more spacious, "Worm Apartment".

I have no idea how I am supposed to "check" if they are happy or if I have killed them by all these "upgrades", so we will have to see in a few weeks. IT'S ALL AN EXPERIMENT!!

Some other worm "food" that the article suggested was grain based foods at first, then used coffee grounds (even the filters, I doubt that they have to be cut up like I did mine, but I think it would help them decompose faster). The one thing it did say was that if your feeding your worms your "kitchen waste, wait until the buried food disappears to add more", that means that my method wouldn't be effective way of total composting, but it would be efficient at getting the wonderful worm poop.

I could go on and on about how interesting this article was! I am going to try a few more of their suggestions to get more worms into my garden area and I will write about them as I go. The whole thing with worms is definitely not a rushed endeavor since most suggestions take a month or longer to potentially see the full results. I can't wait to try these ideas and tell you about them!

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Because it was such a pretty day out, I brought out all my plants to soak up the rays! Below is a picture of my Zucchini and Cucumbers. Yeah, I know they're leggy, but they are still healthy and happy. I like to think of them as "tall" guys. The Cucumbers are starting to vine and I think even putting out flower buds (not positive, but I thought I saw a few).

Below is a "bugs eye view" of one of my flower beds....I just thought I would throw that in.....


My daughter playing in the dirt, she LOVES dirt. This is her area that we dug a hole and filled it with water to create a "lake" for her. She had a blast today (it was definitely a sunblock day today! After I took this picture we went in and put sunblock on and put a cap on her!!)


Above: My "Veggie Patch", I finally got all the rocks placed around the perimeter, so all I have to do now (and I say all like it's nothing, but really I have a ton to do) is amend the soil more, and more, and more! But I really need to get my seeds planted in there A.S.A.P otherwise I will run out of time!

Above: Another picture of a male Rufous Hummingbird feeding at dusk (it looks pitch black, but it was really just getting dark. I think it was because of the flash that it looks so dark.)

At the beginning of the this entry is a picture of my orange tulip that opened up today. Oh-so pretty! I love it! I just wish my red ones had come up properly. I wonder how people get their tulips grow perfectly....hum...maybe next year....

*If you want to see any of these pictures close up, just click on the image*

Well, I hope that everyone is having a wonderful weekend! I will post more tomorrow.... the theme - Wildflowers.

~M~