osprey94's Blog

 There's a lot going on in the Jardin de Deitz lately. The "Bird Garden" is really coming along. While I was at a late work function one evening last week, D made tons of progress on it. He lined the halves of the bed in rocks and then filled them almost entirely with our soil mix. The area looks infinitely better even WITHOUT the plants in it yet.

The left side bed will also be lined with rocks and we'll finish lining the right bed eventually.

The few plants you see here and there are just temporarily placed until we decide where to put them. I still haven't completed a plant list for these beds.

Here's the view from the opposite direction. The path is so nice and wide and curves in an appealing way. It's so exciting to see it coming along like this.

That big daylily in the front is a challenge. I don't want to get rid of it, because I need all the free plants I can get to fill out all this space, but it's not necessarily in the perfect spot. I might dig it up and divide it this fall. Then, I can spread it out amongst both beds.

 The deck bed is beginning to come into its own, too. I'm finally really seeing its potential.

I've added more sedum to the sunnier south end and just today added a few little columbine seedlings to the shadier north end. The little viburnum in the very middle of this pic just won't get going! It's eventually going to be the biggest plant in that bed and right now, everything else is outpacing it! I also planted a bunch of nasturtium to some empty spots around the perimeter of the sunnier end. I used Empress of India, Lipstick, Jewel mixed colors and one other variety.  I tore off the top of the packet of that variety and promptly lost it. Of course, the top was the only place the name was printed. The blossoms will be cream and deep burgundy. Moonlight? Something like that.

 In the veggie garden I planted about 18 bean seeds, a few squash plants near the sunflowers, about 8 bush 'Spacesaver" cucumber plants and a few squares full of carrots. I bought yellow and red onion starts but I don't know if I have the space for 'em now. Also, I was reading in "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades" by Steve Solomon about how most onion varieties out there won't set bulbs before our summer season is over. I've had some success with onions before, so maybe I'll put a few in the ground and see what happens. Maybe I'll intersperse them with the basil. The basil, by the way, is just barely hanging on after a cold night we had last week. I wonder if they'll make a comeback. I was really looking forward to making a VAT of pesto to freeze for the winter.I planted bibb lettuce and red leaf lettuce in a row in front of the peas. Which, by the way, are so tiny still. I don't know if I'll get a good harvest this year.

This is the summer I'm going to attempt to do some canning to preserve the harvest. I haven't had the guts to try it till now, but here we go! On ebay, I found a coil element cartridge to fit in my Jenn-Air modular stovetop. It's a really cool stovetop. You can plug and unplug different cartridges. We have two ceramic burner cartridges that are in most of the time. I can unplug one and replace it with a giant griddle one, or a grilling one or in this case, a coil one that will help the pressure canner get up to the right temps fast enough.  I also found a pressure canner that had great reviews on Amazon for $88 (including shipping). With 11 tomato plants this year (I usually plant 4-6), I will be canning sauce and salsa like crazy. I also plan to can the green beans. That's one veggie I like canned much better than frozen for some reason. I might even try pickles if I have an overabundance of cukes. I have enough dill to do pickles, I think.

Here are some things I've been thinking about:

1. I'm amazed by how much my lady's mantle reseeds. There are tiny lady's mantles ALL over the place!

2. The deer haven't munched on the deck bed plants at all yet. Are they going to find them again one night and eat every last leaf? I might not survive that.

3. How important is it REALLY to pinch off blooms on a plant you're going to transplant so it focuses its energy on root production?

4. Why isn't my barrel composter getting my compost nice and hot? It's not cooking at all. I wonder if I need to add more brown or green material? How do I know?

5. What's eating my lettuce?

6. I wish I'd planted sweet peas this year. They are so lovely. I guess I still could.

7. The lilacs smell so incredible right now.

8. My asparagus spears are so tall now. I wonder how tall they'll get before they stop growing. I read that some can grow up to 4 inches a DAY! I think by next year we can harvest a few spears. That'll be their third summer.

9. We caught a coyote on our wildlife cam in the woods the other night checking out the remains of a roast chicken carcass we left out there.

10. I want to plant runner beans again because the hummers loved them last year, but I'm not so sure I really loved the beans for eating so much.

11. I planted too much arugula and mesclun mix and not enough REAL leaf lettuce for nice hearty, crunchy salads. Most of the mesclun mix that germinated were mustard leaves. Not my fave. The spinach I planted barely germinated and is growing VERY slowly.

12. The zinnias in the veggie garden are about to blossom out. Can't wait to see them all blooming.

13. I'm going to cover the basil with plastic at night until the weather really evens out. I don't think they can take another cold night.

14. Friday we went to Lake Sacagawea in Longview Wa. I think it's just possibly the prettiest lake/park I've seen in a long time. The rhodies were all blooming: coral, red, pink, yellow. The lake was lined with yellow iris and lily pads lined the water's edge. Huge grass carp were lazily floating right under the lily pads. Just incredible. I could've stayed there all day. If it weren't a 30 minute drive from my house, I'd go there everyday.

15. We put out the cushions on the outdoor daybed, the hammock and the cushions on the outdoor dining table chairs. It's officially summer now, even if the equinox isn't quite here, yet!

16. Only 15 more schooldays left. I'm alternately freaking out and blissing out about that. There's always such a rush at the end of the school year to accomplish way too much in too little time.