AngelsGarden's Blog
AngelsGarden's Blog
Last Post 11 days, 2 hours Ago
Apr 28, 2008 | 10:56 AM PST
Tags: Logging , Pine Trees
For about the last 10 days there has been logging going on in the field behind our house. When they first started the machines were working almost directly behind our yard, about a 1/3 of a mile away. I was surprised at my own reaction. It almost made me cry, to hear the tree branches breaking. I did manage to watch for a few minutes one time. There was some kind of machine that was just mowing down any sections that didn't have decent sized trees for them to take. The larger ones were grabbed by another machine with some large clamps, then cut off just above the ground level. Then the cut tree was turned on its side and somehow all of the branches stripped from the main trunk. The tree was stacked, awaiting a truck to carry it away. I don't know why the property owner is cutting them, so I can't judge. All I can think of though is the wildlife. Owls, Hawks, Woodpeckers, etc. and etc. If any of those trees had baby birds in them, they are surely dead now. I don't think I have a real good daytime pic of the before. It seems that I was always taking pics at sunset and not in the day. Here is what I do have to give you a little idea.
You can at least see the large pine on the left and the tops of the others .
Here is a pic as of a couple of days ago, all of the pines are gone.
Since I got home there have been two truckloads this size that have pulled out. Notice the size of the driver that is tying down the load, compared to the size of the trees.
Apr 3, 2008 | 10:02 AM PST
Lots of things growing here. When I go to work, so much happens while I am gone. The bird feeder is knocked 'caty-wompus' by the squirrels, the bumblebees are about done with their days work, the asparagus spears really do grow about 3 to 6 inches per day and the chickens have about 8 or 9 eggs in their nest. I miss seeing all of the action while away, I really would rather be home where the fun is.
I am happy to say that the pink dogwood tree is not dead. I do have some serious concern about the trees health though. Last year, end of summer, the leaves had some spots on them and some of them dropped. Now this spring the flower buds didn't open, they were dried out to a crisp. I am wondering, since the flower buds formed last year, maybe whatever was on the leaves affected the flower buds as well. I think that I may spray the tree on a regular basis this year with an organic spray. So we will just wait and see what happens. For now I am just happy to see the beautiful new leaves.
The asparagus beds are doing pretty well this year. We have been harvesting some here and there. We don't want to take too much and stress the plants. We still need to add some more soil to the beds but it is expensive and other things have taken priority. One way that we prepared the spears that we harvested was to sautee it with some onion and garlic from the garden. We added seasonings and it was sooooo good. My youngest, who is not a veggie eater, ate it all before she even touched her other food. She loved it and then asked for more. I was very surprised! Here is a pic of some that we harvested.
I have noticed that the brush at the back of the yard was getting over grown again. It is all on the other side of the fence. The owner of that land has told us (a couple of years ago) that we are more than welcome to trim away. He had cleared some of the fence line before and ended up starting a fire along the fence of four or five yards, including mine. Because of that we are removing everything that we cut down and we are going to burn it in our yard. We don't want the extra brush for a few reasons. It shelters the mice and rats from the field for one. It also would be fuel for another fire. Alot of the small trees that were burned in the last fire have now died. Some of them had started lean alot and were pushing hard on the fence. When my husband was clearing it out all he had to do was just shove on alot of them and they just snapped off. So he was using the loppers to clear the live brush and then breaking off the dead stuff. We found a good sized Honeysuckle vine and some wild blackberries that were growing behind the chicken yard. The chickens have actually been eating the blackberry vines where they can reach them, stickers and all!!! The job isn't finished, but hubby made a great start. We might get it finished tonight.
In the veggie garden the peas, salad, potatoes, onions, garlic, shallots and asparagus are all going good. Hope to have more updates soon. Enjoy that garden everyone!!! AG
Mar 29, 2008 | 7:13 PM PST
I hope you will indulge me. My daughters and I have been enjoying time 'off'. No work and no school since last fri. Except for one day of work for me. We were looking out the back window yesterday and spotted these cute little guys. The male put on an especially amusing show for his girl. I took way too many pictures for someone that would be considered 'normal' LOL. Oh, well. In the first picture he is kind of brown, I think because he noticed us all clustered around the window. He relaxed though after we stood really still for a bit. Hope you enjoy his pics as much as we did.
He is sitting up here on top of the handle of my cart, watching the girl down below. He was continuosly looking down to see what she thought of his show.
It took him about 15 minutes to get this beetle down!!!
He was very brave and let me get really close with the camera.
Mar 24, 2008 | 11:53 AM PST
Tag: blueberries
So far the blueberries are doing good this year. I love their little bubble blooms. They look like little pantaloons hanging in clusters. The color of the spring foliage is a beautiful seafoam green. The fat bumblebees are really loving all of the blooms. The first of the pollinated blooms are dropping their petals.
Mar 22, 2008 | 7:23 PM PST
We bought a new weedeater / edger yesterday. It is the electric / rechargable type. It came with 2, 18volt batteries, they take 9 hrs to charge the first time!! Other than the fact that you have to wait on the batteries to charge, the weedeater works great. And I really appreciate not having to smell fumes when my husband is using it.
So, this morning my hubby used the weedeater while I did laundry. Then we went out to a Easter Egg hunt for the kids. They had fun, but we didn't linger too long. Since we have been wanting to do the privacy fence so badly we needed to get some prices. We made a trip into town for that. A wooden fence will run about $2,500 and a vinyl fence about $5,500. Pretty steep price for sure. We bought some tree fertilizer stakes and a couple of different kinds of tomato plants. One is a Black Prince and the other is a Yellow Pear. Looking forward to tasting some of those.
When we got home hubby did some more edging and mowed in the front. I potted up some odds and ends that needed homes. They will live on the porch now. A few small Split leaf plants, 3 caladium bulbs and 4 wax begonia plants that actually survived the winter and were sprouting new leaves. Hopefully they will make a pretty combination together.
The big job of the day was this evening. We revamped the front perennial bed. It was a little on the brutal side. I felt so bad ripping out so many plants. All of the ornamental kale is out, and all of the pansies were either moved or out. The next thing to receive some brutality were the irises. Once I started on them though I was glad that I did. The rhizomes that I started with originally were ready to be thrown out for sure. All of the new, good sized rhizomes were kept, though we didn't even replant half of them. I was surprised that the ones that had bloomed weren't even that big, they were all crowded already though.
So, in went the Daylilies, Crinum, Calla Lilies, Spring bulbs that we moved around in the bed, Iris that we moved around in the bed, 1 Carnation, and 20 Verbena.
We left in place the Rose, Lavenders, Narcissus and all of the plants that are back against the house.
I had also transplanted some volunteer Cosmos from the front section of the bed. I think I saved about 8, they were planted up against the house since they were soooooo tall last year.
I can't wait to see how it looks in a month or so. I will take some pics so we can see the progress from now on.
Here are some pictures I snapped before I started on this redo.
Mar 20, 2008 | 5:49 PM PST
The peas have their first blooms!!! I am very excited! I love fresh peas and I never seem to have enough from the garden.
While I was out looking at the peas Bobby, my Siamese cat jumped the back fence and headed towards me, WITH A VERY FULL MOUTH......FULL OF MOUSE!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! He tried to meow, around his very full mouth, how proud he was of his catch! Then he let the varmit go, and IT WASN'T DEAD YET!!!! AHHHHHHHH again!!!!! Then I had to stay outside to be sure that the cat would actually finish his 'job' and do away with the thing. 'Sigh'......I hate rodents!!! Once the job was done I had to come inside, as my stomach was turning at the though of what might be to come. Gross.
VARMIT!!!!!!! It actually looked 3 times this size in real life, seriously! LOL
Mar 19, 2008 | 2:55 PM PST
Tags: Wind , hot peppers , sweet peppers , transplanting , eggplant , Verbena , Calla Lily
It has been really windy since Monday. So I really haven't done alot outside. But I still have been gardening.
Sunday evening I started transplanting my hot peppers, sweet peppers and eggplant. The cell packs that I started them in were too small. Some of them had started getting a little topsy turvy. The roots had pretty much filled the small soil space that they had. I put most of them into 3 inch pots. I think this is silly for me to be doing all of this transplanting. Next year I will do things a tiny bit different. I think that I will start out with 3 or 4inch pots, plastic or peat, then when I seed I will only fill it about 2/3 full of soil. Then if the stem needs a tiny bit of extra support when they get a little bigger, I can add a small amount of soil if needed. If that works then I won't have to transplant them and disturb the roots unneccesarily. I am almost done with the transplanting, (I have been doing a few at a time), I only have a few eggplant seedlings left to transplant.
Eggplant Babies
Hot Pepper Babies
Sweet Pepper Babies
I did get outside yesterday afternoon to put in the flower seeds before the rain. I mixed up a bunch of different kinds of seeds that should be about the same height. I put sunflowers in the back of the area along with some Castor Bean. In the front I spread the mix. I am hoping that I will have an area FULL OF BLOOMS.
I also have gotten the last plants that I need to finish the front perennial bed. I will take before and after photos to compare. I have made out a list of all the plants that are going to be in the area. Some are already in place from last year. For the annual that will be around the edge I chose a pretty verbena. I am hoping that it does good through the heat of the summer.
20 Pink Verbena Plants in 3 inch pots
My husband has said that he really likes Calla Lilies...they should be a perfect addition to that bed as well. I love the white spots on the leaves of this variety.
Mar 16, 2008 | 7:26 PM PST
Where to start? We have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. Working and then working more here at home on my days off.
The front and side yard have been given a face lift. Edges have been trimmed. Plants added....Caladiums, Ferns, Coleus, Primroses....can't wait for it all to come up and fill in....give it a couple of weeks. I am afraid that the dogwood tree in the front yard is dead, hubby says to just give it some more time. I really want it to make it, but if it doesn't we have a free tree coming from our life insurance company. (Crabapple) Put out some of the shade loving houseplants that like to be outdoors in the summer, they went onto the porch, hope it isn't too much morning sun for them. Still need to do some revamping in the main bed, add some annuals and then the front will be set for the summer.
The creeping phlox is blooming like crazy!
In the veggie garden lots has been going on. 5 more beds have been tilled. Tomatoes have been planted in 2 of them. 2 Brandywine, 3 Roma and 3 Sweet 100s.
The potatoes are coming up!!!!!
The onions, shallots and garlic are looking good. I weeded that bed the other day and added some aged cow manure, it was fine enough that I could just sprinkle it over top of everything and it just fell into place.
Hubby tilled some today with our sm tiller that we bought last year. Its so small that I didn't think it would really do a good job. I was really wrong.....it actually does great!!!
Asparagus is popping up!!! Hubby had some in an omelett yesterday morning, he said it was good.
Blueberries are loaded with blooms that are just starting to open. I moved the pots onto the patio for a closer watch and I can water easily.
Bought a new vine for planting by the chickens yard. It is called Pink Jasmine. The smell of the blooms is just divinely intoxicating!!! My hubby loves it too.
Spotted this little guy while we were taking a rest this afternoon.
I also notice while we were resting that the moon was already high in the sky.
Lots more to be done. Hope to have more pics soon.
Feb 24, 2008 | 1:22 PM PST
Tag: chickens
Yesterday a friend of ours brought us 3 more chickens. Very sweet of him. He has too many chickens. All of the ones he brought to us are white, but they all look different. They are all pretty young too, maybe 16 to 18 weeks old.
Let me tell you what happened, he brought them to us in a very large dog type kennel. We discussed that it would be better to put them in with the older chickens late in the evening when it was dark. So, I proceed with getting them some comforts, first food and water, then some hay to stand or lay on. Well, putting the food and water in that big door worked out fine. But when it came to the hay, well....lets just put it this way, one of the chickens freaked out. She shot out of the kennel like a bullet! I didn't even have time to TRY and grab her! I am just glad that the door was aimed in the general direction of the main chicken yard. So I went back there and opened the door to the chicken yard, then my husband came and shoooed the escapee out from under the hen house while I stood guard in case she decided to go the wrong way. Crazy!!!! While there was a little bit of jostling and fighting when she went in, it wasn't too bad and sometime in the afternoon she managed to get up in the nesting area and lay an egg. I'm surprised the older girls didn't kick her out of the nest. We put the other two in the hen house later at night. So far all of the white ones are hanging out together and trying to leave the old biddys alone. I can't wait to see how they fill out as they get older. The escapee one is still pretty rough looking. Must be from the trip, her feathers are a little dirty. Now my husband is talking about expanding their yard area so they have even more area to roam. Here are pics of all three.
The one with the brown looks like she will have a small comb.
This is Bullet, the former escapee.
Feb 17, 2008 | 10:36 AM PST
This year my strategy for strong veggie seedlings is a bit different than the last couple of years.
Last year I had trouble with the Eggplant and others taking forever to germinate. Those tiny soil gnats were also a problem.
This year I decided to try Rashells idea of using the bedding plastic zippered bags to put my trays in. It has worked beautifully with all of the trays so far. I haven't had the problem with the gnats like last year. They are still around though. They are in some of my other pots that are bigger. Even the eggplant germinated in a VERY timely manner. The bags seem to work even better than the plastic cover trays that came with the trays, I used those alot last year.
I read an article last summer about how airflow and water control will produce stronger seedlings. So I am trying not to 'baby' my babies. I don't want them to get too leggy. After almost all of the tomato seeds had sprouted I quit watering them. I don't want any damping off, I did have some of that last year. The soil is still moist but I am not going to water the whole tray again until the soil starts to dry a bit. There are a few of the cells that have seeds that haven't sprouted yet, I will just mist the top of each of those until they sprout.
The article also recommended exposing your seedlings to a mild breeze. This prompts the roots to go deep and has a mild drying effect on the outer cells of the stem and leaves. The plant in turn responds by stengthening its stem and conserving water. They don't get as leggy and consequently are a sturdier seedling.
So today the tomato babies went outside without protection, in the shade, for a few hrs. There was a nice breeze this morning. I kept an eye on them though. I don't want too strong of a wind yet, if the stems were to bend too far that could cause a problem too. Since I am starting this soon after sprouting they aren't so tall that they might snap though. I hope to continue this until they are strong enough to keep outside for good, maybe in a week or two. Some of them are already working on their second set of leaves!
I am already leaving out the baby dill seedlings. I will start acclimating the eggplant and peppers a little later, they aren't ready yet.
TOMATO BABIES
DILL BABIES
EGGPLANT AND PEPPER BABIES
Feb 10, 2008 | 1:13 PM PST
I guess the one little American goldfinch that was at the feeder yesterday told the rest of the flock about the new feeder. Wow....this morning it was exciting to see this many at the feeder.
Here are some spring flowers that are opening. Now I am really getting excited.
Everyone have a great day and I will shooo some of this nice weather your way!!! AG
Feb 9, 2008 | 7:33 PM PST
Tags: Shallot , Yellow onion , Sweet onion , Peas
I took advantage of a warm afternoon and went out into the garden.
I really wanted to work on getting a couple more beds cleaned, and free them of some weeds.
I added fertilizer. My fish fertilizer had run out. I bought some Organic fertilizer made by Miracle Gro.
One of the beds I did not plant. I did add some composted cow manure to that one. It was very wet so I decided to just let it rest for a few day and dry out a little. Then I can mix the manure in a little easier.
To the second I added fertilizer, then scratched it in with a small hand rake. In this bed I planted Shallots, Yellow Onion sets, Sweet Onion sets and Garlic sets. I put the sprinkler in low for a couple of minutes to help settle them in.
I spread some old hay in the aisles around these two beds to help hold down weeds.
While I was out I saw that the peas are all up and doing nicely! Yeah!!!
Feb 4, 2008 | 3:11 PM PST
Tags: raking , weeds , grass , fertilizer , Swiss Chard , cabbage , garden snails , thyme , golden beet , kohlrabi , peas , radish , romaine
Every year when we have our first big day of outdoor work, I always come away feeling satisfied and of course sore. LOL Thats just part of it. A pair of good sore hands and knowing that you did a good job on the projects you worked on. Todays weather was especially beautiful. Temps got up to 78F with a nice breeze that was sometimes a little gusty. Just a very beautiful day. So outside I went, and outside I stayed, until my stomach insisted that it MUST be fed. I got quite a bit done....so here it is.
I loosed and raked the soil in the second raised bed, removing any weeds and grass along the way. There weren't many weed though. I mixed in fertilizer as well. I planted peas, parsley, kohlrabi, radish, parsnip and romaine lettuce. It may sound like alot, but the way I planted it should work out great.
I transplanted two small Swiss Chard plants that overwintered. They are the Neon Lights variety...so pretty! I put them into the first bed that I had planted peas in last week. I also transplanted a small thyme plant into the same bed, next to another one. Maybe they will make a nice clump of thyme this summer. In that first bed I also finished out the remaining space with some golden beet seed. I would like to try some of those fresh, and roasted. Yummy! Some of the greens that I planted last week are up and I think that the peas are going to be quick to follow.
Baby arugula
Swiss Chard, Neon Lights
The remaining cabbages were picked and cleaned of their holy outer leaves. There were alot of garden snails hangin' around that area. I will have to remember that for this fall.
The flower bed that is near the chickens was in desperate need of attention. I raked(which is what caused the sore hands), pulled out and transplanted, added new plants and bulbs, planted seed, and so on and so on. I think the changes will be great.
This is a clump of baby Shasta Daisies that my girls planted last summer.
Narcissus/Paperwhite buds are coming up.
This oregano has overwintered and stayed green. Its spreading and going up and over the edges of the pot.
These are the Angel Trumpet stumps that were left after I trimmed them back. Now they are starting to sprout from the base. It looks like it will be alot fuller this year.
Jan 31, 2008 | 4:37 PM PST
Tags: daylily , elephant ear , autumn joy sedum
I have been impatiently waiting for the seed I planted outside to sprout. We just need a little more heat for a little longer to get things going. Problem is the nights have been pretty cold...thats slowing things down outside.
At least I can plant seed in seed trays. The veggies that like the warmer weather should be started about now for my area.
At least a couple of things are showing green. I planted this daylily the day I bought it. Its doing great. This is the biggest one that was in the pkg. It has really greened up and has baby leaves sprouting up.
This is the Autumn Joy, Sedum that I got. When I took it out of the bag it had some shoots already. They were completely white though. They have grown a little and greened up as well.
Here is a look at the elephant ear bulb that I got. I think its HUGE!! Can't wait to see how big it gets.
Jan 28, 2008 | 4:42 PM PST
Tags: composted manure , fish fertilizer , greens , peas , rosemary , herbs , asparagus , leaves , mushrooms
Today I was able to work outside. Outdoor temps were in the mid to upper 60s. Very nice to be outside without shivering like a chihuahua!
I picked up a few bags of composted cow manure at the Home Depot before heading home. Two of the bags of manure were mixed into the soil in one the beds that I had already cleaned up. I also mixed in some fish fertilizer.
I planted a variety of greens across the back of the bed. Right against the wire fencing I planted some early sweet pod peas. The soil is still pretty damp from the last few days of rain, so I didn't soak the pea seeds.
I also spread some of the manure around the Rosemary plant that I moved into that bed last fall. I was hoping that I didn't kill it. Its looking pretty good though. I want to plant some more herbs across the front of that bed that can just stay there.
One of the asparagus beds got some extra treatment. I spread out about 3 inches of compost/topsoil mix. I want to do that to the other two as well. They will all get some fertilizer mixed in before they start coming up too much. I can't wait!!!
I still have some leaves in the yard that fell over the last few months. I decided to make some immediate use of some of them. I raked them into the aisles between the beds. Hopefully that will keep the spring grass from springing forth in those areas.
I also noticed some very strange pinkish red, tubular...things laying in the perennial bed. I think they are some sort of fungi / mushroom. They were all laying on their side, like they were from this morning, but had fallen over. I am going to try to take some pics in the morning if they are still there.
Sunset ended my outdoor fun. The girls and I had a very nice evening outside. Gardening is most certainly good for my soul.
