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Today, my daughter and I took a little trip to our FAVORITE nursery. I had a gift certificate and they are having a summer sale, so I got lots of goodies!
So fun to come home with this lot and plant them all...heres what I did in the front:
BEFORE:
AND AFTER:
I dotted around the Elijah Blues and put in the yellow moonbeam coreopsis in the new berm. In the fall, i think i will divide the coreopsis and spot it around a bit. There are several clumps from the one pot I bought, but I was afraid it would shock it too much to divide right now in the heat of the summer. The rest of the plants made their way into the back yard.
My hubby also went to get the rest of the free pinestraw I scored on craigslist and I got that all spread in the back. I still need a bunch more, but it looks great. Its amazing what a difference mulch makes!
Here are some other shots of around my garden today...
Sunflo
wer seeds showin up:
Snacked on this guy while pulling some weeds...yum, yum! Also harvested a giant eight ball zucchini today...will sautee for dinner tonight :)
Almost ready to pick :)
Found this guy on the sunflower today and I looked him up in my insect book and he is a beneficial. Maybe he will eat some of the squash borers!
I could not bring myself to do anything inside this weekend, so the dust bunnies are still hopping around my house this morning. Oh, well. I spent both days out in the flower beds and veggie patch. Watered early Saturday and got the holes dug for the butterfly bush and hardy hibiscus that I got. As I was weeding and deadheading, there were a lot of thin spots in the mulch. I went down and got about 10 bags and brought that home to spread around. I love new mulch. Covered all the beds and had enough to put back behind the pond.
Some of the other daylilies have put up scapes and have buds. Can’t wait to see them. The gereberas have finally decided to bloom again and for some reason the wave petunias have also gotten a second wind from the something and are flowing all down the side of the old stump, thick with purple flowers.
Hubby helped me finish the three sided slat fence to put around my compost pile. My pile isn’t very big yet but I am working on it. Chopped up the kitchen scrapes in the food processor and put them out there too. Bill got me a pitch fork this weekend. I was trying to turn the pile with a shovel. Wow what a difference that made. (Duh!)
Cleaned and weeded in the veggie patch and tied up some more tomato limbs to the trellis. I have two zucchini left that haven’t been hit by the vine borers YET. My cukes have climbed nicely all over the fence and there are dozens of fruit hanging down. They are so good and crisp.
We did not get the new raised bed up. Hubby brought home work for a project that he was under a crunch on, so it will have to be next weekend. Will go by the dump and pick up some compost (have to make do until my own is ready) and some topsoil down at the landscape yard.
Had enough tomatoes to make another batch of sketty sauce. Added a few of the yellow tomatoes to it. They did lighten the color of the sauce but it still tasted great. Used loads of fresh basil from the herb pots of the deck. Made some Penne, a tomato, cuke and pepper salad and had a yummy dinner. Only things not from the garden were the pasta and the bread. You just can’t beat that!Most of my projects this season have evolved around my plan to minimize my lawn area. Actually, I use the term lawn VERY loosely, it is really more a patch of weeds that requires fairly regular mowing and always looks bad. So, at the beginning of spring, I asked my neighbor (who is a grass guy) about getting rid of the weeds and doing "real" grass. He described the process and really this is something I have resisted all 4 years that we have lived here because of the cost and maintence involved. But, I have done so much with the gardens that a nice patch of lawn will just be the icing on the cake and might finally prompt some compliments from my non-gardening neighbors. (I used to think I didn't care if anyone else but me liked my garden but, yes, i actually do care). So, I decided to add lots of new beds and paths to get my lawn area down to a reasonable size. I am FINALLY done with that and will put out fescue seed in the fall....Here are Picts of the progress so far. And, if you enjoyed this or any other of my blogs, PLEASE take time to add comments...I just love that , it make my day...THKS!
Area ready to make into path:
Gotta Love free mulch from the city:
A good workout later...nice path :)
Side yard with free mulch to make a nice drive area for my hubby's truck:
Good shot of new beds bermed up and ready for plants:
Good shot of my new patch of lawn "ameoba" ready for fescue:
I will keep you posted in the fall.....
-I got all the mulch moved!!! It looks FABULOUS. I still need another load for the right side of the house and crepe myrtle alley.
-Laid out a new bed for the back yard, I will berm it up with the free city compost and plant a red maple as the center. (All in effort of operation lawn minimization.
-Okra is growing :)
-Broccoli is appearing :)
-Squash coming along :)
-Turks cap Lily Blooming :)
-Purple Datura Bloomed!
-T
he inlaws are in town and for my upcoming birthday they gave me a gift certficate to one of my favorite garden centers in Atlanta! Can't wait to spend it in the fall!
-Went to the nursery yesterday and when the sales guy asked me if I needed help, I told him I was looking for half dead plants for cheap....he hooked me up! 3 gallon double knock out rose for $10, 1 gallon Pink Dianthus for $2 and a guaera (spelling?) for $2. Woo HOOOO. I want 7 double knockouts for the front, so I am going to attempt to propogate from the one I got.
-Tomorrow morning is my watering time, so I will give everything a much needed good drink.
-This week my big plan in the garden is to clear out behind my back fence where there is a creek...it is SO overgrown with privet, wild grapes, and god only knows what else. I think I may try to make a wreath or something out of the grape vines that i pull. I'm going to post before and after picts of this one....
-All in all a great gardening weekend
Happy Gardening to all and to all a good night :)
So I just had a load of "free mulch" delivered from the city yesterday. This is all part of my OPERATION LAWN MINIMIZATION. I have spent yesterday and today moving the mulch around to create path like areas in my garden where there used to be lawn. Quite a job but SO worth it! AND, its free!!! I should be all done with moving the pile by tomorrow night, then I will call for the next batch...think I will need more. There is nothing like the look of a freshly mulched garden! I also got the side bed that we recently topdressed with compost covered in pinestraw and it looks SO GOOD! Picts to come soon :)
On another note...I am super excited because I am starting to get broccoli and my okra plant is blooming, YEAH!
I brought home another load of composted manure from the fair grounds, I wanted at least one more load before fall. Man is that some good stuff!! Seeing how in July I will need to reapply it around my roses for their fall flush. This time it wasn't so wet, so unloading was much easier. The load I got earlier sure has made a difference in my plants, they were in bad need. Just couldn't tell it til I added it. I'm thinking about putting some down as a mulch in one bed just as an experiment to see what ill happen.
I'm having to water everyday now, but its now where I can alternate the beds. That may not last long if we don't get some much needed rain. I got another large container planted of comfrey. Still have a half a tray to go. I was wanting to plant the last 2 Thai Green Eggplant plants in the last container I have seeing how from what I've read it won't bear fruit til the 2nd year. Just need to get another container.
I picked my 3rd mator yesterday. A nice Amillia beefsteak. All my mator plants are loaded with fruit. I have decided not to stake the ones in the flower beds. I've read where staking really isn't needed an sometimes you get more fruit by letting them sprawl. Will be interesting, The fruit will have pinestraw to keep them directly off the soil. I got out this morning an did some roundup, just spot spraying. Its been windy here the last few days an today was the first chance I had with little wind. Still need to do the garden pathways, but there not to bad yet. I did pick 2 of the patty pan type squash and a few banana peppers. Not enough squash to do much with yet, hopefully they will hold up long enough for more to get ready for a mess. Don't really know how to fix them yet, first time with these. So any recipes you want to share, please do.
I had planned on copy an pasting my Bloom Calendar to here, but this site won't let me. So I guess if you want to see what plants I have you'll just have to visit my photo album. Although it's nowhere near complete, u can see some of what I have growing here on the Lane.
One of my baby chicks died yesterday, couldn't really tell why. But it did. I've been letting the older chickens out about every other day, may be will go to daily now that the dog has gone to Florida. One of the campers wanted her, so it all worked out good.
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.
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