kohoutjm's Blog

Last year around Mother's Day I saw this little bug and thought, "Wow that looks like a cool lady bug," and then proceeded to try out my new camera. Here is the photo:

Today I was out checking the progress of the blooms for the day and came across this little bug and thought, "Wow that looks like a cool lady bug," and then proceeded to try to get a good shot with my new camera. Here is the photo:

So after I came inside and began looking at the photos I began to notice that it seems to be the same kind of bug. If you look closely to the markings they are almost exact. I still don't know if it is a Lady Bug or Asian Lady Beetle or what exactly, but I still think "Wow that looks like a cool lady bug."

Well, the asparagus is up and the bugs seem to know just when to come. Went out to harvest the first batch and found them covered with spotted asparagus beetles. Here is a picture in case you were wondering what they look like.

I don't use chemicals in the garden and will be out of town for the next 3-4 days. I think the only thing I can do is hand pick as many as possible before I leave.

As I am getting ready to say goodbye to 2011, I am excited for what 2012 will bring. It was a gorgeous 53º here today and was 60º yesterday. I decided to stop into the garden and was surprised by something that I had forgot about. See photo:

The radishes I had given up on in September were beautifully growing peeking out from under a protective cover of fallen leaves. They didn't look very pretty when I pulled a few, however, once I cleaned them up they tasted fantastic. Really gets me dreaming about 2012 and the early Spring planting season that will be here before I know it.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday and had a Merry Christmas. Happy Gardening.

Jennie

Well it has been almost a month since I posted, but I am now enjoying my new perennial bed on the South side of our house. This is really a photo time line of the progress. Enjoy!

South side - May 29, 2011


South side - June 4, 2011


South side - June 13, 2011


South side - June 23, 2011


South side - June 24, 2011


South side - June 24, 2011

I wanted to give everyone an update on some of the wonderful things happening in our garden this year. For starters... the iris my mom gave me last year bloomed, and... drum roll... IT'S WHITE! (not purple... hehe) Here is the first bloom. Enjoy photo #1.

Second, I wanted to show you the amazing rose that has been here since we moved in. It is starting to put on some size, oblivious of my neglect. It has wowed me this year. Enjoy photo #2.

Third, cute little ladybug hanging out in the flowers. Just had to include it. Enjoy photo #3.

And last, but not least, is the Sunchokes that I planted about 2 months ago. I have a feeling they will be exactly what the package listed... 6 to 9 feet high! Enjoy photo #4.

Well that about does it, I have posted a ton of new photos to my calendars if you want to see more. Happy Gardening.

Well Happy Mother's Day to all of you proud, strong, loving, passionate Mothers out there today. I had a great day, did what I love most. Attended a beautiful service this morning where we honored Mary our guiding Mother as well as all Mothers. Then had a great lunch and worked in the yard on the new bed and walkway. Took some time to visit our local garden center and my husband bought me a beautiful new blue glaze pot. Came back home an read a book for awhile. Painted and had craft time with my 4 year old daughter. Then we worked out in the garden together. We managed to get a ton of stuff planted and watered in. Here are some photos of the "Fairy" craft we made. We also made little "Fairy" boats out of some seed pods left over from the fall.

Again Happy Mother's Day and Happy Gardening to all!

So as promised, here are some updated photos that I took of the new bed on the South side of our house. The first big step was getting the gate area soil graded to slope away from the house and to keep the water flowing in the right direction. Currently I have just pointed the down spout in the direction I want the water to flow, but will most likely invest in a more permanent solution as we move forward.

Second
we needed to have the utility lines marked and as it turns out we really only have to worry about the gas line.

Once the utility lines were marked we outlined our anticipated bed shape with some marking paint.

More photos to come soon.

Here we go again. Rain, rain, and more rain. Let me start out with the problems first.

This is our South gate to the back yard (looking out), we have been getting about 2-3 inches of standing water during and after any Spring rains. Issue #1, the downspout is not getting the water far enough out away from the house. Issue #2, the soil is not graded properly and will not allow the water to run down and across the lawn. Issue #3, we killed a massive amount of weeds in this area last fall, but don't really want to put in as much grass.

So on to the solutions:

A friend called and said they were getting rid of a bunch of their perennial beds because they couldn't maintain them and were planting grass. They had a guy coming in to run sprinklers on Friday and everything needed to go to a new home on or before Friday morning. So free plants available and we need plants = win, win. I went over and dug as many as I could fit in the trunk of my car. Enlisted DH to help dig holes at 9:00 pm with the flood lights on.

Here is the before:

Here is the after:

I realize with all of the mud you can hardly see the little plants, but here is a better close up:

This area will be eventually bordered by the same stone that the front beds are using:

We are currently waiting for the utilities company to come and mark any buried cables or pipes. Then we will be able to start regrading the dirt and putting in the paving stones. Not my ideal order for getting things done, but what the heck, I think I got a few hundred dollars in new plants out of the deal. I hope to be posting more progress photos soon, but it has to stop raining for at least a few days for me to be able to get anything done out there.

Happy Gardening!

So I think that I can safely say that Spring has sprung around here. We had our first Spring rains this week and wow did everything respond. Here are a few photos of what's coming up in the yard:

Daffodils between the driveways.

Asparagus in the veggie garden. Got the first harvest of about 10 spears this week.

Tulips along the South side of the house. The rest will be a week behind because these are in the warmest spot.

Summer snowflakes in the front bed. I cleaned it out last week and they have shot up and will be in full bloom soon.

Dwarf Iris patch in the front bed as well. These are usually in bloom for Tax Day. They might be a little early.

So we went from nothing really in bloom, to all kinds of exciting things. Tomorrow I will be driving to Omaha to help one of my friends with her yard, they just bought their house a couple of years ago and is in that phase of "Is this a weed? or is this a flower? why would anyone plant this here?" So it should be a fun day of clean up and catch up.

Happy Gardening!

Sunday I was able to go back to the zoo to help out for a few hours and early in the morning I was able to get the lower section of this bed cleaned up.

Last night we had winds up to 60 mph, they actually pulled the cold frame apart, so this morning, I assembled it again. Anchored it down with tent stakes. However, despite the winds and colder temps, there is lettuce coming up.

Here is the little lettuce peeking through.

Happy Gardening!

Today was my first scheduled volunteer day with the Master Gardener group. We were at the Lincoln Children's Zoo. We worked on the entrance gardens to the zoo. We trimmed roses and generally cleaned things up and readied them for the spring. It was a beautiful day for it, about 45 this morning with a high of 72. I think the zoo reported that they had around 200 volunteers cleaning beds in and around the zoo. They open for the season in just under 2 weeks. I will be back tomorrow to assist wherever they can use me.

In my own garden I was able to get one of the front beds ready. Trimmed up the Shrub rose and pulled out all the dead from winter. Things were happy underneath and should take off quickly now that the weather is a bit warmer.

Happy Gardening.

My mom and dad gave me a gift certificate to the local Garden Center for my birthday coming up this week. This is what I bought.

As I started to pull the pieces out of the box, it seemed as though there were quite a few for such a simple structure. I laughed at one of the bullets in the "Safety Advice" section of the picture instructions. It read: Do not attempt to assemble the Cold Frame if you are tired, have taken drugs or alcohol or if you are prone to dizzy spells. Now by no means do I laugh at drug and alcohol usage, however I have been chasing around a 4 year old all day long and did take a little catnap to recover. So I would say that I fell in the category of "if you are tired."

I pride myself on putting things together and being able to follow cryptic diagrams, but I should have heeded the warning a little closer. I don't know how long it would take a guy with power tools to put this thing together, but with just a screwdriver and arm power it took over an hour. I may have blisters tomorrow.  Nevertheless, I will have lettuce sooner than anyone else in the area, so it was all worth it.

Note To Self: Next time buy the floor display model.

Well, it's official, I passed my test and am now a Master Gardener Volunteer with the Lancaster Extension office.

Monday we learned all about pests and animals in our area and what to do with them if they became a problem. It was interesting to find out that most trapped animals cannot be relocated more than 100 yards from the trapping site. My thought was why bother trapping then. But there were a few instances brought up to validate trapping as well.

Today we learned mainly about fruiting trees that grow well in Nebraska and I was surprised to find out some of the history of fruit production here. It turns out that back before Nebraska was a state and still a territory there was quite a lot of fruit trees, but due to an untimely freeze in November of 1940 almost all fruit trees here were decimated by the freezing water in their trunks. Then locals never replanted to replace the destroyed trees.

Anyway, I am looking forward to a number of volunteer opportunities this year and hope to continue to expand my knowledge. I feel that the classes were conducted by those who are experts in their fields and it made me feel good that we have them on staff at the University and the Extension office.

Continually amazed at how much knowledge these presenters have about their subjects. We learned about Perennials installed in the city gardens and landscape design on Day 4. Then on Day 5 we learned about the effects of Pesticides. I only have two more class sessions before I have to take my test, I hope that the test will be easy.

On another note, peeked out in the garden yesterday and saw the first tips of Asparagus breaking through the soil. So I added my 1-1/2 of compost for the season. I should be eating fresh Asparagus in about 2 weeks!

Some tulips are putting leaves up as well as the daffodils, but it will still be quite awhile til they bloom.

Monday went well, we learned about different kinds of turfgrass suitable to our area here in Nebraska. Learned a lot of good information during the day.

I have class again today, we will be learning about Tree Disease and Insects as well as Plant Morphology... that one sounds kind of interesting. All I can think of is "Feed Me, Seymore" from the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors.

I plan on signing up for one of my first volunteer opportunities today, our local Children's Zoo needs help this spring to wake everything up. So excited.