leah's Blog
Leah's Blog
Last Post 404 days, 10 hours Ago
Jul 20, 2007 | 6:08 PM PST
Had a death in the family and some other sad and time consuming business, as well as some not so sad but equally time consuming business.
There's a drought out there and the earth is screaming for moisture.
In the meantime, to hold you over, this cool link.
May 31, 2007 | 11:33 PM PST
Tags: peas , strawberries , back yard , weeding , dry
Got my peas and strawberries in today. The strawberries were bare-root plants, not sure I liked the look of them when I took them out, looked pretty dead to me, all except 3 that were sprouting leaves. Guess we'll see. Did a little more weeding, gave all the veggies a good soaking. It's been dry for a while now, and no rain in the forecast any time soon.
Had the night off last night, so actually got to go out in the morning and work, which was a nice change. The quality of the light is different in mid-morning than it is at any other time of day. Worked out there until it was too hot to get any more done, then took off on the motorcycle to go mow grass at my grandfather's.
May 30, 2007 | 5:54 PM PST
Tags: beans , back yard , gnats
FINALLY got my beans in the ground today, although it was pushing dark when I finished. Wow, those nasty little biting gnats are awful...
May 29, 2007 | 5:48 PM PST
Tags: dad , iris , to be planted
My father certainly knows the way to my heart. He brought me irises for the garden today, including a "black" one. Some of them just smell like irises, sorta vaguely rubber-y, but some of them smell absolutely heavenly. I parked them in a pot of dirt on the back porch and soaked them down good for tonight, need to get them in the ground tomorrow. See photo album.
May 19, 2007 | 10:52 PM PST
Tags: mother's day , gift , rugosa rose , lilac , violet , yarrow
One of my patients' mother was having a rough weekend last Friday night, so I put together a little care package of plants from my yard for her and gave it to her, from my patient, for Mother's Day last weekend. I gave her a rugosa rose baby, 3 pots with 3 stems in each of lilac, 3 pots with 2 starts in each of yarrow, 3 pots with 3 starts in each of violets, and 2 pots with 1 start in each of oriental tiger lily. My patient is 11, has a developmental level much younger, and does not speak, but I told her mother that W was upset that she couldn't get up out of the bed and go get something for Mother's Day, so I promised I would take care of it for her. W's house doesn't have a whole lot of ornamental landscaping and I wasn't sure if her mom had much of a green thumb, so I typed up a letter from W to her mother that included how big each thing would get, what to expect from it, and what sort of care it needed. Along with some more personal stuff purporting to be from her daughter, which may seem odd to people who don't work with children like this, but I assure you, they each have very distinct personalities, know exactly who they do and do not like, and express their feelings quite clearly. At times you can even tell how frustrated she gets that she can't actually speak. I've been working with her for about a year or so now and in the very beginning her mother told me how much it meant to her that I talk to her when she's awake, as some of the nurses do their work in silence, thinking because she can't speak back that it's not important to interact with her. It seems the most obvious thing in the world to me. Anyway, she cried and said she was going to frame the letter.
I worked there again this past Friday and the plants haven't made it into the ground yet, but they're looking well, all except the rose is still a bit wilted. I think the plan was to plant them yesterday. I hope they do well.
(I didn't do anything at all in the yard today other than refill the bird feeder, so a story instead.)
May 18, 2007 | 9:52 PM PST
Tags: greenhouse , pergola , moratorium , bamboo windchimes , beans , peas , birds , lilacs , rugosa rose , iris , groundcover , marigold , petunia , pansy , rainy weather , pussy willow
<growl> I just wrote a whole entry and then when I went to post it the auto time out had logged me out. What an annoyingly short time period.
There's no way I'm going to remember to update this thing every day, that's becoming clear.
It's been rainy, cooler, and windy this week, so I'm not getting much done out in the yard. Which is actually just what I needed, because while we were spending all our time outside, the *inside* has been going to pot! We're having a dozen people over on Sunday afternoon, and I'd've been ashamed to have company with the state of our house earlier this week. It's looking better now. :)
I did get some stuff done--I got some of my ornamental pots planted. The smaller urn already had purple pansies in it, but the dogs have knocked it over half a dozen times, so it needed to be topped off. And moved! I did the larger urn in marigolds, purple petunias, and ivy. And a hanging basket in ivy, nestled in the pussy willow. I did two window boxes off the side of the back porch, both in marigolds and a silver vining groundcover I forget the name of. I still have some annuals and ivy left, and a dozen or so ornamental pots. I just need some potting soil.
My beans and peas are sprouting, I'll put them out in the bed early next week once they're big enough to not be so tempting to the birds. The irises are blooming. The lilacs are done for the year. The rugosa roses are going strong, and they smell heavenly, even from 15 feet away.
With the wind, I couldn't help but put out the bamboo windchimes I hadn't hung yet. They're scattered around the yard, and I love the sound of them. The new one I just bought dropped a chime already, and needs to be repaired. I don't understand why they don't build them more durably; it didn't even last 24 hours.
I moved all my unplanted plants over out of the way, since they were accumulating and looking pretty cluttered. They nearly cover a 4x4 ft piece of plywood. I am now instituting a moratorium on purchasing plants until they are all in the ground. Or pots. ;) I managed to resist temptation when I walked through the Walmart nursery this afternoon. I may make an exception for perennials on clearance at Lowe's.
Started looking into permits for the greenhouse and the pergola.
May 14, 2007 | 11:01 PM PST
Tags: weeding , corsican mint , groundcover , mulch
Took the cultivator out and did some weeding around the veggies tonight after I mowed my grandfather's grass. That's all I got done outside, but inside looks quite a bit tidier.
The Corsican Mint I bought the other day is for an experiment with live mulch. Could've sworn the label at the greenhouse said it liked full sun, but the reading I've done online since says it prefers at least a little bit of shade. I suppose we shall see. I bought it to put in the veggie beds, so I could allow it to fill in and form a solid mat of "mulch", but the veggie beds are most certainly full sun.
Hopefully I'll have time to go put it in tomorrow.
May 14, 2007 | 10:54 PM PST
Tags: cape daisy , mother's day , petunia , azalea , primrose , mailbox , vinca , mr k , beast , orchid , seeds
Mother's Day, slept through the alarm and just barely made it awake in time to get to church with my mother. Snuck in just as the service was starting. Was running so late I left the blueberry bushes and the card home, but it's not like I was dressed for planting anyway. I'll go put them in the ground later this week.
By the time I got back home, after going to my grandparents' house with my mother to deliver a hanging basket overflowing with pink petunias, Mr K had been working out in the yard for a good long while, from the looks of things. The mailbox area has now undergone a massive renovation. He put one of the azaleas, both primroses, and a few of the leftover vincas from a prior trip out there. What use to be about an 18" diameter circle around the mailbox is now nearly 10' long and 8' wide. It still has some more room to plant things, but that's OK because we still have some more things to plant. Of course the rest of the mulch was still in the back of the beast, so he was eagerly awaiting my return.
He's really been doing a lot out there this week. But now we need to start concentrating on inside, because we're having company next Sunday, and we've been spending every waking minute on yard-related stuff, and that doesn't leave much time for keeping the inside tidy. With 3 dogs and 2 cats running around, just the shed hair at this time of the year is overwhelming.
Gave Mr K's mom a pot of purple Cape Daisies for her birthday, and a hanging pot of vincas for Mother's Day. Gave Sylvia an orchid. I do believe that's the first time I've ever seen Cape Daisies before, and I'll be looking for seeds for next year. They were neat looking.
May 14, 2007 | 10:40 PM PST
Tags: mr k , peppers , blueberry , azalea , primrose , sedum , corsican mint , horseradish , chives , variegated peppermint , bamboo windchimes , zen garden
So Mr K got home on Saturday and off we went to Peppers. I *love* that place. They don't accept plastic, and every time we go we end up spending every last dime we have on us, and sometimes we have to go to the grocery store a few miles down the road and get more.
This time we came home with 2 blueberry bushes (a Mother's Day gift for my mother), 2 magenta colored azaleas, 2 evening primroses, a black pine, 3 pots of Dragon's Blood sedum, a dozen pots of Corsican Mint, a pot of horseradish, two pots of chives, [to be edited when I get home and can look at the pile]. Oh, and a huge set of bamboo wind chimes. I have a weakness for bamboo wind chimes.
He set to work planting things as soon as we got home, while I ran back out to Lowe's to fetch him some more cedar mulch. I picked up 3 more trowels, too, since it seems like I'm always looking for one.
The black pine went in over where the Zen garden will be. They're such slow growers, we figured we may as well go ahead and get it in now, with a nice healthy dose of compost, and get it growing. His mother used to have two of them out in her front yard, but she didn't like the way they looked and chopped them down. I haven't been over to see what else he put in over there, but when I dropped off the mulch, he had about a 6' diameter vaguely circle-ish area cleared of sod.
It's too bad he got home so late, we ran out of light not too long after we got home.
First mosquito bite of the season tonight.
May 12, 2007 | 12:03 AM PST
Tags: home depot , scottish broom , lowe's , sedum , relocating , new bed , aesthetics , photos , mr k
Went back to Home Depot today and bought the Scottish Broom I looked at yesterday. It was so beautiful I couldn't resist! Then back to Lowe's to pick up more cedar mulch, and more cedar chip bedding for the dog kennel. And some sedum, don't remember which cultivar, for the front yard, the bed around the crabapple tree.
We relocated a few plants, mostly oriental lillies, that were too close to the foundation out front. We're extending that bed, making it deeper, so the bigger plants will conceal them where they were. I mowed the grass while he did some planting, took the rest of the sod out by the front porch, and mulched all the new stuff.
One of the many ways our aesthetic tastes differ is that he *likes* the look of wide expanses of mulch. He didn't realize what the way I had him plant the sedum meant until he was almost done. He stood straight up and said, "ARE THESE THINGS GOING TO TAKE OVER THIS BED???" Too late now... I hope it doesn't take long for them to fill in. I love the way the ajuga has spread under the plum tree. If I'm remembering correctly, that started as a 6-pack, little tiny plants, planted evenly spaced around a circle about 15" from the trunk of the plum tree. It's filled in nicely on the side that gets the most shade. I guess I need to pick up something a little more sun tolerant for the other side.
Mr K works tomorrow morning, and hopefully I'll wake up around the time he gets home. We're going to Peppers tomorrow afternoon to pick up some more plants. :) I'm going to try not to spend too much money! I'd like to get the aforementioned groundcover for the other side of the plum tree, an azalea or two for the front of the house, a different groundcover for out front of the house, maybe more than one, and probably a few more perennials to fill in some empty spots.
I hope Lowe's hasn't changed their policy. The last few times I've been there they haven't had anything good on clearance, or anything at *all* on clearance. I'm still thinking about going back there and picking up a few more dwarf fruit trees, which I almost certainly won't find on clearance, but they're pretty reasonably priced, about $16-25, depending on the type.
I have been uploading more photos to the May album every few days. I would rather be gardening than working right now.
May 10, 2007 | 8:16 PM PST
Tags: burning bush , red twig dogwood , butterfly bush , red hot poker , mr k , spirea , lowe's , home depot , solar lights , low voltage lighting
Went to Lowe's and Home Depot today. Is it bad when the greenhouse staff greets you by name when you walk in? Lowe's does, but I guess I don't go to Home Depot enough. They recognize me but not by name. ;)
Home Depot has solar lights, boxes of 8 for $29.99. I've been wanting solar lights for years, but couldn't bring myself to spend the money--these seemed a lot more reasonable than any I'd looked at before. I saw them over the weekend and picked up a set then to try them out. Went back today and bought two more boxes, over the protests of Mr K. He's an electrician and considers it an insult to his profession. ;) He wants to put in low voltage lighting all over the place, but I think I like the solar lights. He can still supplement with low voltage lighting for uplights and accents.
Picked up 6 bags of sand to hopefully finish off the patio, a burning bush, a red spirea, a butterfly bush, and a red twig dogwood. Came home and went to bed, but Mr K came home from work and went straight to work on them. He's been working on a bed across the front of the house, and while I slept he took a couple of lilies out and replanted them closer to the front of the bed. He planted the burning bush and the spirea. And D sent some Red Hot Poker roots to work with B who gave them to Mr K who brought them home, so they went into the new bed too. Still need to fill it in with more plants, but it's a good start.
May 8, 2007 | 10:13 PM PST
Tags: puttering , zen garden , patio , sand , artistic vision , bricks , red hot poker
I had some things to do this evening, and I slept a little later than I have been lately (3:30 instead of noon) so I didn't get much time in the garden today. I did some weeding in the morning when I got home from work, but it was pretty chilly out, so I didn't stay up long.
The weather was delightful this afternoon, after all the wind and cold of the past few days. I spent about half an hour puttering around, mostly weeding and watering, and then had to go. Mr K worked on the patio some more, and removed the rest of the sod that needed to come out before he could finish laying bricks. I promised to go pick up a few more bags of yellow sand when I wake up tomorrow. He hasn't been through the bricks from the last load yet, but he'll certainly need more before he's finished, so I may swing by Delaware Brick too.
Mr
K brought home a few chunks of Red Hot Poker that D promised me a while
back. I gave her some orange sherbet colored daylillies last summer or
the summer before. I think I'll put them over near the ponds.
May 7, 2007 | 10:00 PM PST
Tags: puttering , planning , zen garden , plant sharing , fencing ideas , compost , bricks , rugosa rose , Mr K , pergola , moss
Woke up early today. Went and took care of my grandfather's lawn first.
Picked up a load of composted horse manure from D's house, only one front end loader scoop this time to leave extra room. Stopped by Delaware Brick and picked up another strap of bricks for the patio. The compost had slid everywhere, so I just backed up to the pile and loaded a strap that fell over who knows how long ago up by hand over the tailgate. The yard man's always friendly, and he gave me a hand, so it took no time. And now he doesn't have to wiggle the forklift around the fallen pile anymore.
Mr K worked on the patio all evening. I pruned the rugosa rose (ouch, see photo album for a look at the thorns) with remarkably little damage to my person compared to last time. Got the tomato cages in, and unloaded the compost--half in the new bed out front, half in one of the raised beds out back. I should've watered, but I was tired and windburnt, and it was getting dark.
Talked artistic vision briefly before we headed in to get cleaned up for dinner. There's a Zen garden in my head and I'd like to make it materialize. It's got to wait until our current batch of projects but I think he's on board. We've got a weeping willow we put in the first summer we bought the house, so it's getting pretty big. Maybe 30 ft away is a gingko we put in 2 summers ago. They're around a drainage/retention ditch that's about the size of a school bus, maybe 4 ft deep with a 40 degree slope at the end where the trees are, and gradually sloping up to ground level at the other end. We've lived there 4 years now and I've only seen it hold water once. One winter we had a massive thaw, it filled up and froze, and the next morning nothing was left but the frozen crust across the top--the water had all drained out from under it. I'm thinking a few more specimen trees, at least a Japanese red maple and a black pine, maybe a weeping cypress if I can find one hardy enough to not have to put it inside for the winter. A wide expanse of white sand, and a rake. A few different sizes of stone, both as borders and around the trees. Moss around the trees and on the rocks. Maybe a small grove of bamboo if I can find one I'm confident will not invade. And maybe some ornamental grasses as a transition back into the rest of the yard. And wide slate stepping stones, set into the slope, and down the middle of the sandy expanse. That, and some removable timber bridges that can be stowed out of sight will help with the raking, since the sandy expanse will probably be at least 30-40' wide.
Talked to my father, the resident expert in all things wood and woodworking related, over sushi after dark. Needed advice about the pergola which I'd like to start soon, and I'm also curious about bamboo reed fencing, which caught my attention during my wanderings online last night. His impression is favorable, so maybe I'll run it by the Mr. We have distinctly different aesthetic sensibilities in many areas. Talked a little about my Zen garden vision, and T says they've got tons of moss in several different varieties free for the taking.
I love plant sharing. They're so darn expensive to buy in the nursery or greenhouse, or even in the big box stores. And the ones that divide and multiply are no trouble to dig out. They barely even leave a hole when you take a few out. I've given some stuff to T before, and she gave me some lily of the valley. I'm not much for the through-the-mail exchanges some forums do, but I give stuff away in person all the time. I've got the address of one of my coworkers starred in my email right now so I can drop off a goodie box at her house one of these afternoons when I get a chance.
May 7, 2007 | 12:02 AM PST
Tags: weekly update , artistic vision , patio , long-term plans
First entry for my garden-specific blog.
We're in the midst of several large projects.
- The patio is a little over half finished, and the easy half is what's left. The part we already finished is the end with the fire circle and all the time consuming brickwork.
- When we finish doing the hardscape, it will get a pergola over it, and I already have two grape plants and an arctic kiwi to plant on the pergola.
- We're also putting in a pond off to one side of the patio. Technically, it's a series of preformed pond liners, and the first one is already in the ground.
- We're expanding the raised edibles beds, and out of 6 new beds this year, 3 1/2 are finished and one of the new ones is this year's compost bed. It's already full, but as things break down there will be more room. When the Mr. digs for the next pond section, that should be enough dirt to fill another bed and a half, when I supplement it with compost.
- We're continuing the first bed I put in when we bought the house to come around the front and over to the front door. We had to take a tree out that had gotten entirely too big for where it was, and while the area is all roughed up anyway, we're going to get at least some good foundation plantings in.
Upcoming projects:
- A greenhouse. I've got a bunch of old windows set aside to use, I just need to come up with a design to use them in.
- A fence. We've got a 10' x 10' kennel for the dogs, but I'd like to fence the rest of the yard in so they have more room to run when we're out there with them.
- A Japanese/Zen garden. I have a weeping willow and a gingko in, and I think I'd like to turn that area into a Zen garden with sand and stone and moss. I've got a rough sketch ready.
Maintenance and chores that need to be done this week:
- The apple trees and the crabapple have bagworms that need to be burnt out.
- The plum tree needs a hard pruning. I'm afraid it will split this year if I don't eliminate a lot of weight.
- The pussy willow needs to be pruned.
- I need another truck load of compost and a truck load of mulch.
- I need another load of bricks for the patio.
- Mowed today, so it'll need it again toward the end of the week.
- I've got more seeds to plant, 2 bare root blackberry bushes, 20 bare root asparagus plants, and 30 bare root strawberry plants to get in the ground. And some miscellaneous annuals to fill in some bare spots.
- I picked up tomato cages today, and I need to get them in before the tomatoes get too big. I've never used cages before, but my husband likes a much more orderly looking garden than I do, and they'll help placate him.
