Straw bale and other plantings

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Sandy
Sugar pumpkins planted in straw bales

Sugar pumpkins planted in straw bales

I thought I posted a picture of this yesterday, but it looks as though I didn’t. As mentioned in an earlier post, I am doing a straw bale garden this year. I’m doing this, in part, to fill in an uneven area of the yard, an area where some day in the future I plan to do a pretty signficant garden expansion.  I chose squash as the plants to put in the bales because they need a lot of space and I don’t mind if they scramble all over the place after they tumble down the sides of the bales.

Potatoes, onions, and beets

Potatoes, onions, and beets

In this photo, you can see how happy the plants are in the outdoor raised beds. This bed has a combination of onions, potatoes, and beets. I hadn’t originally planned to put potatoes in this bed, but I had a few extra La Ratte potatoes and decided to plant them down the center of the bed.

Beans planted in the asparagus bed

Beans planted in the asparagus bed

Oh, the sad asparagus bed. I’ve been having a tough time getting the asparagus bed established. Moles have infested this bed and I really don’t have a lot of healthy asparagus plants.  So, I decided to slightly repurpose the bed for the time being.  I’m leaving the few asparagus plants in place but I added a variety of bean plants (both bush and pole, hence the bean towers) to the bed. Prior to doing this, I spread out a castor oil-based mole repellent and it seems to have slowed them down a bit. Two of the bean varieties I’m planting (Etna and Speckled Cranberry) are good for dried beans that I can harvest and store for winter use. Planting more dried beans was one of my goals after last season.

Speaking of goals, for the last week I’ve continued my zen gardening practice of doing just a task or two a day and it is really working! I feel so much less stressed out now.

Sandy

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Tomato towers, chicken RIP, and bees

Posted on May 18, 2010 by Sandy
Tomato cages

Tomato cages

Yay! I arrived home today to find a giant package from Gardener’s Supply Company. I could easily spend way too much at Gardener’s so I try to focus my purchases on “infrastructure” items that should last many seasons. Out of the package I unloaded the six tomato towers that I ordered.  I’m glad these arrived when they did because the tomatoes are starting to grow much faster now and it would be problematic to try to put the cages over the tomatoes once they are too big. These cages are quite popular and were back-ordered (I had to wait three weeks to get them), but they are here now and all set up. Yay!

Tomato blossom

Tomato blossom

The tomato cages are going over tomatoes planted in a raised bed in the greenhouse.  Tomatoes need warmth and they’ll get that in the greenhouse.  They look quite happy, growing quickly now, and are starting to blossom.  The rapid growth does bring up on area where I keep having problems: tomato pruning. Here’s a general Fine Gardening video about why to prune and how and a second that covers early pruning specifically. I’m going to try to stay on top of this this year!

Orchard mason bee house, May 9

Orchard mason bee house, May 9

Orchard mason bee house, May 17
Orchard mason bee house, May 17

In just a bit over a week, the orchard mason bees have filled many more of the egg tubes.  I believe these will be completely full in the next few weeks. 

 
On to other critters.  We had a chicken die this week.  The poor thing became wobbly and couldn’t walk.  We researched what type of disease it could be, but weren’t sure what we were dealing with.  I had Derek reluctantly ready to put the poor girl out of her misery (he even sharpened a hatchet), but we decided in the end to take her to a vet to see if we should be worried about the rest of the flock.  The vet said she had a bacterial infection that caused liver failure. So far, the other chickens appear to be OK.  One thing we’ve decided, though, is to set up a second coop/run for the chickens so that we can rotate them from one area to another and give them fresh ground. We’re going to set up the second coop and run in the goat pasture in the next few weeks.  I’d love to be able to let them completely roam free in the pasture, but we would definitely risk chicken death via predator by doing that. I suppose I can set up a lawn chair in the pasture and let them roam while I keep guard over them while reading a book.
 
Happy gardening!
 
Sandy
 
PS: I harvested the first few alpine strawberries yesterday. Yum.


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Gardening zen part II

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Sandy
Potted up cucumbers

Potted up cucumbers

In my last post, I mentioned that I sometimes feel overwhelmed with gardening tasks and that I need to slow down and make sure gardening is fun, not a burden. Part of the problem is that I tend to be a weekend warrior, doing the vast bulk of my gardening in just a day or two on the weekend.  This week, I am trying something different.  Each night, I’m going to do just one (or maybe two) small tasks.  That way, I should be able to get caught up without feeling overwhelmed by a long to do list.  Tonight, I repotted the cucumber seedlings. I’m going to have way more plants than I’ll need, but I’ll give away the extras. After the cucumbers, I planted the pole beans.  So, two items off my list! I’ll leave you today with a few more flower pictures from the garden.  The rhodie is particularly striking.

Mini dwarf Necta Zee nectarine fruit

Mini dwarf Necta Zee nectarine fruit

Cecile Brunner climbing rose

Cecile Brunner climbing rose

Mystery rhododendron flower

Mystery rhododendron flower

Happy zen gardening.

Sandy

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Moles, bees, flowers and gardening zen

Posted on May 9, 2010 by Sandy
Mole digging outside of the hardware treated raised beds

Mole digging outside of the hardware treated raised beds

It appears as though the hardware treatment we did to two of our raised beds is working!  The moles have been digging like crazy around the beds, but they don’t appear able to get in.  Now I just have six more beds to dig out to treat with hardware cloth.  Who wants to come help dig? 

Tubes filled with orchard mason bee eggs

Tubes filled with orchard mason bee eggs

Now on to critters I actually like and want in my yard. On warm days, the orchard mason bees can be seen coming and going from the bee house. In between pollinating trees, they come back to the bee house, lay eggs in the tubes, and then “cement” the eggs in with mud. So far, nine of the tubes are completely filled with eggs. The bees will keep at it through June or so and I hope that all the tubes will be full by the time they die off for the season. 

There are plenty of blossoms in the garden to interest the bees.  Although most of the fruit trees have finished blooming for the year, the blueberry bushes are full of blossoms as are the strawberries.  We also have a number of ornamental flowers in bloom right now. Let’s take a look. 

Alpine strawberries in bloom

Alpine strawberries in bloom

Dianthus flowers

Dianthus flowers

Siberian iris

Siberian iris

Blueberry blossoms

Blueberry blossoms

Shasta daisies

Shasta daisies

Daphne 'Carol Mackie'

Daphne 'Carol Mackie'

Self-sewing pansy

Self-sewing pansy

Chives

Chives

It is much more fun to wander around the garden than it is to think about all the things I haven’t done yet. Again, I find myself falling behind on a variety of garden tasks. I blame softball.  We’re in the thick of Lily’s first softball season and with practices and games it is keeping us pretty busy. A few things I need to do soon: Plant bean seeds, do something with my squash and cucumber seedlings, repot tomato and pepper seedlings (and find loving new homes for the extras), plant the flats of marigold and petunias I ordered from the PTA fundraiser, plant the geraniums, oh, and the list goes on. I’m going to try to remain zen about the whole thing.  Gardening should be fun and a stress reliever, not a stress inducer. I’ll get done what I get done and whatever doesn’t happen will be OK. 

Happy gardening! 

Sandy

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Hanging planters, herbs, peaches, and asparagus

Posted on May 2, 2010 by Sandy
Pepper plants in hanging planters

Pepper plants in hanging planters

This is my third year using the Topsy Turvy planters, so I think I have enough experience with them to review them accurately. I give them a grade of C-, maybe a D+. The good thing about these planters is that they can be real space savers and insect problems (slugs in particular) are greatly reduced when the plants are up off the ground.  On the other hand, some crops work better than others (I’ve found peppers are most successful even though these are marketed as tomato planters) and they don’t seem to be terribly durable.  If you look in the photo above, you can see that one planter is being held together by duct tape and another has a broken wire support. I’ll keep using them until they fall apart, but I won’t replace them.  Instead, I’ll look for other hanging planter ideas.  Suggestions certainly welcome!

Cilantro and dill seedlings

Cilantro and dill seedlings

Also in the greenhouse, the dill and cilantro I started from seed are doing well.  I started these in a small wooden planter and will be moving the seedlings to new homes over the next few weeks.

Baby peaches

Baby peaches

Moving outside, I was really pleased yesterday to see that my outdoor peach tree (as opposed to the mini dwarf peach in the greenhouse) has a lot of baby peaches this year! It looks like it actually pollinated successfully.  I planted this tree six years ago and have had pretty much nothing off the tree, which is why I bought the mini dwarf trees to grow in the warmth of the greenhouse.  The greater Seattle area is not ideal for growing peaches.  In spite of the fact that I bought the one variety that is supposed to do OK here, the Frost peach, I have not had good results and have actually been thinking about taking the tree out.  Just in the nick of time the tree decides to actually do something! Now, there are still a lot of steps in the fruit maturation process and I might not get any peaches in the end, but it is great to see that I have a chance of getting some peaches from the over six or seven dozen baby peaches on the tree right now.

The asparagus bed

The asparagus bed

Oh, the asparagus bed, my gardening heart breaker. Now, I do I realize that an asparagus bed is a long-term proposition and that it takes a number of years to become established.  My asparagus bed remains pathetic, two years into the process. Some of the asparagus crowns clearly died, because the overall number of spears is low.  And, I think moles are creating problems in this bed. Some of the asparagus shoots have come up but then end up looking desiccated, as though they are being sucked dry.  I wonder if moles are chomping them from underground. Looks like I’ll need to dig the whole thing out and do the hardware treatment for this bed as well. Oh, why didn’t I think to use hardware cloth when I built these beds a few years ago?!?

Happy gardening.

Sandy

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Stop and smell the lilacs

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Sandy
Four varieties of lilac

Four varieties of lilac

 The skies may be gray and temperatures cool, but spring marches on and blooms give ample reason to head outdoors. I admit, I tend to be a fair weather gardener. Cloud and drizzle leave me heading for a comfy chair and a good book. Really great spring flowers can pull me outdoors, however, and the lilac is in bloom. 

Brown turkey fig

Brown turkey fig

 Once outdoors, I always realize that it isn’t really that cold and the rain isn’t that heavy so I invariably putter around and find a few things to do.  Weeding is super easy when the ground is damp so I invariably pull a few giant weeds. Puttering also offers an opportunity to just generally check things out and see how the various plants are progressing.

A few weeks ago, I bought and planted in a very large pot a brown turkey fig tree. This variety of fig is supposed to be the variety best suited for the cooler Pacific Northwest.  Figs are interesting because the fruits appear before the leaves do.  I’ve never seen this on a tree before. I know nothing about figs so it will be interesting to see how this does. In the last few weeks it has leafed out quite a bit and seems to be doing generally fine. 

Cukes, squash, and watermelon

Cukes, squash, and watermelon

Coming back indoors, I take a look at the cucumbers, squash, and watermelon I have under grow lights. Mostly, they are all doing well. I do have a few weaklings in the set though.   

Cukes, the good and the bad

Cukes, the good and the bad

The two pots of cucumbers above should be living identical lives.  They are from the exact same packet of seeds planted on the exact same day growing under the exact same lights and getting the exact same amount of water.  But they aren’t exactly the same. Sometimes, it is just a mystery. 

On a personal note, I’ve been feeling a bit like the cucumber seedlings on the left about my work life. Something just wasn’t working for me anymore. So I left my job this week.  I’m still at the same company, but I walked away from a role that used to be really great for me but no longer was.  I’m hoping that my next role will have me feeling much more like the cucumbers on the right, healthy and poised for growth.  

The lilac is in bloom and I’m stopping to smell it. I hope you are too. 

Sandy

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Video: Orchard mason bees + the straw bale garden

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Sandy

The orchard mason bees are going gangbusters! Listen to Lily explain the orchard mason bee life cycle, and then head over to Wikipedia to get the real scoop.  In any case, I’m really happy to see them out and about and happily laying eggs in the tubes.

Straw bale garden

Straw bale garden

I’ve been working on filling in an uneven area south of the orchard for a future raised bed area. Aimee, a friend from school, suggested that I look into creating a straw bale garden.  As you can see, I’m giving it a shot.  I’m planning to grow squash out of the bales and then, as the straw breaks down, it will help fill in the uneven area. I’ll post progress reports on this experiment throughout the season. So far I’ll I’ve done is wet down the bales.

Merveille Quartre lettuce

Merveille Quartre lettuce

I’ll end today with this picture of Merveille Quartre lettuce. Very tasty!

Sandy

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What month is this anyway? April or December?

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Sandy
Peas in hail and snow

Peas in hail and snow

The weather has been tumultuous and all I can think about is bees.  I really need the little guys to come out and pollinate my trees.  A few days ago we woke up to a mixture of snow and hail.  This happened the day after I told my dad we were safely past freezing weather.  Oops. The weather this month has been crazy, as crazy as the winter was mild.

Peas with branch stakes

Peas with branch stakes

 The snow and hail melted quickly, although the temperature stayed in the 40s, maybe 50, for a few days.  On Saturday, though, sunshine reappeared and it was a great day to get some things done in the garden. One quick and easy task was to set up the stakes for the peas. As you can see, I used small tree branches I found around the yard. These have a few benefits: 1. A nice rustic look, and 2. They are free and don’t require any manufacturing. Cheap and green. 

The orchard in April

The orchard in April

The weather was so nice that Derek was able to mow the orchard. The yard sure looks great when freshly trimmed.  Most of the fruit trees have either started flowering or leafing out at this point and the raspberries, right below the rock retaining wall, are growing like crazy.

Gravenstein apple blossoms

Gravenstein apple blossoms

Gravenstein apple blossoms are particularly pretty. Now they just need bees.  As the weather warmed up, I did see some bee activity, but I hope to see more out and buzzing about today. The orchard mason bees still haven’t emerged.  I asked Steve the bee guy about this and he said the weather has just been too cold.  I hope they emerge soon because my trees are ready for pollination. Bzzz.

Sandy

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Photo album: The garden in March

Posted on March 28, 2010 by Sandy
The never ending weeding project, view one

The never-ending weeding project, view one

The never ending weeding project, view two

The never-ending weeding project, view two

I finally finished the giant weeding project! Now, on to more fun things.

Baby peaches

Baby peaches

It looks like hand pollinating the mini peach trees in the greenhouse was successful.  Both trees have set a lot of fruit. 

Lettuce box

Lettuce box

The lettuce boxes we built a few years ago continue to be useful.  I have spring lettuce mix sprouting in this box on our front deck.

New strawberry bed

New strawberry bed

The new strawberry bed contains a mixture of transplants from the existing strawberry bed and newly purchased plants.  Behind the strawberry bed (at the top of the photo), you can see the asparagus bed.

Asparagus shoots

Asparagus shoots

Asparagus shoots are beginning to emerge in the asparagus beds.  I don’t plan on harvesting any this year, however, as it takes a few years for an asparagus bed to become established.

Raspberry bed

Raspberry bed

The raspberries are sending out a lot of new canes, so I am hoping we’ll have a nice crop this year.

Oh, no sign of the orchard mason bees yet.  We keep checking but it appears they haven’t hatched. It should be any day now.  

Sandy

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The bees arrive, the tomato seedlings rally, and pink blueberries!

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Sandy
Orchard Mason Bee House

Orchard Mason Bee House

 Just as I was about to embark on a series of beekeeping classes, I found Steve the bee guy on Craigslist. Steve offered to help me set up an orchard mason bee house. This was great timing because my schedule was getting crazy and adding beekeeping to the list was a little overly ambitious for this year.  So Steve came by yesterday and set up this cute little bee house.  The blue tube under the roof of the house contains about eighty dormant orchard mason bees. They look a bit like dried beans. Over the next 5 – 7 days, the bees will wake up and begin to fulfill their purpose, pollination. They will work hard for a few months, lay their eggs in the bee house holes, and will be done by June. Steve will then collect the house (and larvae) and which will be stored until the following spring. The bees do have an interesting life cycle and while they don’t produce honey, they are lower maintenance to keep than honey bees while being good pollinators.

Tomato and pepper seedlings

Tomato and pepper seedlings

A few weeks ago I bemoaned the sad state of my tomato and pepper seedlings. I’m happy to report that after following the advice of my trusted gardening friends, the seedlings are doing much better.  After plugging the heat mats in so that they would be on full time (I previously had them plugged into the same timer used to control the lights) and giving them a light liquid fertilizer when watering, the plants have rebounded and are showing good growth.

Front ornamental planting area

Front ornamental planting area

And now on to the disappointment of this weekend.  I wanted to fully weed and bark the ornamental planting area in front of our house.  Every spring this area needs a good weeding or the weeds take over.  Yesterday was the day to do this because the sun was out and it was so nice. Unfortunately, I could only tackle this project in small chunks.  My daughter was participating in her school play and there were two showings yesterday.  She also had dance class.  I probably got about 70% of the job done, but it definitely isn’t finished.  I haven’t even managed to put all the tools away.  Maybe I’ll make finishing this up my after work project this week now that we have more sun in the evenings.

I didn’t finish the weeding, but I did manage some planting today.  The weather was highly changeable, but I had about an hour of nice weather and managed to plant two ‘Pink Lemonade’ blueberry bushes. Definitely click on the link and check these out.  They look very interesting! I also started a new strawberry patch, planted a second rhubarb, and planted onion starts.  So, even though I didn’t finish everything I wanted to, it was a productive weekend.

Happy gardening.

Sandy

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