Still Not Done

Yesterday it got up to a record-breaking 97 degrees in Minneapolis...it was over 100 in other parts of Minnesota. Just last weekend I was scared of frost.

Last night me and the husband got lots of stuff done in the yard. Jim put in the last couple of cedar edgings in the backyard. He weeded all the day lilies on the side of the house and mulched that area. I got the ornamental variegated grass put in the front of the house, seen here:


It's a little far away...I split up a bunch of the hosta that were going crazy and lined the area in front of the bushes. That whole area was mulched before but nothing was growing in there. Then there was a big gap between the bushes that are next to the house and the hosta, so that's where I put in the ornamental grass. There was still another gap in there but it was in a semi-shady area so we didn't want to put any plants in there. We went to the garden store on Central (almost Columbia Heights) and picked up an antiqued - maybe authentically, not sure - wrought iron dragonfly to stick in there. You can't hardly see it in the below picture unless you know what to look for, see if you can find it:

Halfway Through May...Already?

I believe I am all done planting in the main garden. As soon as the zucchini and squash and watermelon plants start growing more there will be much less room in there. I am hoping that I'll be able to keep them all separate from one another and they won't turn into a big mess. Here is the finished project:


The kale, on either side of the garden in the front, has been growing like crazy. Our juicer broke last week so we haven't been picking it as much as we would normally. The broccoli and brussel sprouts, far back left, have gotten pretty big, too. I am so glad I took a chance and planted everything a little earlier than advisable. All I lost to the cold were a couple of basil plants and some sweet potato vines.

Then I don't know what came over me but I decided to start a whole new project. Actually, I was milling around at Home Depot and found these short posts and decided to clean up the yard a little bit. With all of the dogs running around the grass got pounded out a couple of years ago. So now the backyard is weeds and dirt/sand - the house gets so dusty and dirty and muddy. We've been talking about either seeding it or just mulching it. Seeding it is so much work and then we have to try and keep the dogs and cat off it while it grows. No thank you. You can see below what I've started and what we'll be finishing in the next couple of days...it actually turned out better than I thought.


I also got some ornamental grass that I'm going to put up in front of the house but I didn't have enough daylight last night to start that project - tonight!

May!

This past weekend I went to the Friends plant sale at the Fairgrounds. It was absolutely insane. I doubt I will every go to that again...well, maybe on the last day - definitely not on the first! I have injuries on my ankles from women running their carts into me. I'm not lying. I picked up some veggies there but since we had to get in and out quickly I didn't get nearly as many plants as I wanted. Saturday morning we went to the DT Farmers Market and I picked up a couple more plants - way overpriced so I won't be doing that again.

We did get a bunch of stuff done this weekend - I have Fridays off now so my weekend has been extended! Jim cleared out the out compost area and put the new bin up. There is plenty of room for a couple plants back by it, too. We'll see about that. I finished planting in the big garden, unless something needs to be replaced due to an early death. I also go the pepper plot done. I am actually almost all done planting except for one small plot that I think I am going to dedicate to beets, and I'll probably start those by seed.

These pictures are from earlier this week...here's the tomatoes, seven of them:


These are the peppers, with some lilies sharing the plot:


I am doing more container gardening this year than I have ever done, simply because Jim has a bunch of containers and I wanted to make use of them. They work well for herbs, which you will see here! (see how excited I am?):

April Showers

I played hookey yesterday as it was supposed to be the nicest day all week and Jim had the day off as well. Jim spent the morning golfing with his boyfriend and I went to Home Depot and Linder's checking to see if anyone got more veggie starters in, which they didn't. So instead I picked up another cheap hanging basket for outside and put some annuals in there. I also picked up a couple of the long planters so that I could have a little more space for my thai basil. I planted the thai basil in the left (long) planter and then some hot peppers in the right planter - I don't know which hot peppers because it was a mixed bag of sorts. In the big round planters I put in a bunch of fun annuals that I got at Linder's last week. I'm excited for them to grow up and fill up their pots.


I was messing around and putting some broken pavers between the sidewalk and my garden to help prevent run-off when Jim suggested that we do the same thing along the sidewalk and his raised garden by the house. So we went down to Menards and picked up some grey patio blocks, 17 of them to be exact for a cool price of $0.59/ea, for our new retaining wall project. Menards also had a sale on veggie starters (2 for $3) so we picked up a few vegetables that we didn't have yet in our big garden - so now in there we have zucchini, sugar snap peas, basil, parsley, cilantro, kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and green peppers. There is still room for a couple more things and I was thinking summer squash would be good, it's always delicious on the grill and especially with zucchini.

Back to the retaining wall project. Here is what we started with:


In the back little raised garden, where those patio bricks are already laid out, there were some lilies in there already. There's also a vine growing along the wooden fence. That is also where Jim has had his hot peppers planted for the past couple of years. But that whole area in front of there before the sidewalk is slanted and only weeds grow there, so every time is rains dirt runs off and gets the sidewalk all muddy. Here it is after we got done:


I like this picture cuz you can see Jim in the middle of a yawn in the upper left quadrant. He had a long day of golfing and doing what his wife says. I am unhappy with how I laid them out because, as you can see, towards the middle I didn't get them down far enough. Also, going to the right the sidewalk actually was less wide and so I couldn't just follow that all that way down to stay straight...and so the blocks lean in towards the bed at the far end. Hopefully I can let it go and not let it bother me for the entire summer. We filled the bed with topsoil and compost so it would be a mess if I were to take out a couple of blocks to try and fix it now. But it still looks better than it did before, it looks more clean for sure. I put an eggplant starter in there on the right end and plan to fill that up with eggplants once I can find some Chinese eggplant starters - I don't want to plant from seed because I am not that patient. But, to contradict myself, I did plant some beet seeds in a couple of rows along the entire left side. The seeds are pretty old (2004) so I am not necessarily expecting them to germinate. We'll see.

I think I can safely say that Phase II of the gardening has been completed.

80 Degrees in April!

Yesterday it reached mid-80's by late afternoon and it was fabulous. From the time I got home until past sunset I was outside. We dug up all the weeds and crabgrass that were in the pepper garden. Jim's going to put some of his compost in there before we start planting there. Speaking of - next weekend is the Living Green Expo and I will finally be able to pick up my new compost bin out there. We have a couple ice cream buckets full of pulp from the juicing we've been doing lately.

Anyway, the garden. The nurseries aren't really carrying that many veggie starters yet so I haven't put everything in that I want. Right now I have a bunch of kale, basil, parsley, rosemary, cilantro, tomatoes, one broccoli, one brussel sprout, a couple of green peppers, and then I planted a bunch of annuals as well.

This picture was taken after I did a bunch of work in the yard and garden this past weekend. Jim had the paver block just sitting around so I put them to good use.

Here's a pic of the front of the house before I started any work on it. He has a bunch of hosta to the left of the walkway. I put in a bunch of annuals along the fence, to the right. I also flanked either side of the walkway with a pot and put some hardy annuals in there - sweet potato vines and flowering kale. I do not have after pics yet...

New Year, New Garden!

So, it was really sad to leave my old place, mainly because I would be leaving my garden and all the perennials. But now I have a new place to work with and that is exciting.

Our backyard is mostly dirt from the dogs running around, so I figured why not put a garden in there since I wouldn't really be digging up any grass. We just really started this project yesterday and have a bunch more work to do. I say that Phase 1 has been completed. Here is before:


We had some crab grass to dig up, but not much. Flowers grow along the fence in the alley. I dug out the partial sidewalk that was under dirt and then used bricks to build a retaining wall, of sorts. I also put bricks along the fence on the right because we're going to bring in some more black dirt so we have a good healthy top soil. Then I picked up a couple of 50# bags of compost at the co-op and we'll mix that in as well. But here is one night's work - and Robbie:

It's Almost August Already?

I was hoping all my lilies would be in blossom at the same time, and it happened! Barely, though. So I had five different colored lilies blooming together for about two days and they were beautiful.

My garden has grown quite a bit in the last month. We've been getting lots of sun and not very much rain, so I've been having to water pretty consistently. My cocoa mulch is holding up well against the weeds, but I try to get in there every day and do some maintenance weeding - my coworker calls it drive-by weeding. The middle row of plants directly in front of the gnome are all my jalapeños - about 18 plants in all.

My cayenne pepper plant has been producing steadily, but I've been plucking them off before they turn red. I have no patience! The mushroom is a new addition; I spent this past weekend in New Ulm for Bavarian Blast and picked it up at the Schell's Gift Store.

I have a ton of green tomatoes on the vine, I'm hoping they'll be ripe for the picking in another couple of weeks. I plan on canning a ton of salsa if I can get the tomatoes and hot peppers out of the garden at the same time. I've plucked a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes already and heard they taste delicious. I love growing tomatoes, but don't like eating them. I'm just that way ya see?

And.........a real German gnome!