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!

New Year, Same Old Garden

I've been super busy this Spring! My schedule just got a little lighter after last night, though. The little puppy mill Shih Tzu, Asha, that I've been fostering since the beginning of May just found her forever home last night!

My garden is quite a ways along already...but it is almost July, so that should go without saying. This being my third growing year at my NE home I'd like to think I have the neighborhood critters figured out; and so far so good! The only thing the bunnies have touched so far is my Love in a Mist, and I have plenty of those so I'm not too sad. This year I've planted bunching onions, seven varieties of tomatoes, a few varieties of hot peppers and sweet peppers, sweet & thai basil, and parsley. My dill came back like gangbusters as did my oregano, and of course the chives. I've already had to thin out all of those so as not to shade out the rest of my herbs. The cilantro came back pretty spotty, depending where the seeds landed last fall.

I have a couple new additions to the garden this year. The trellises for my morning glories...the one made of sticks was handmade by Jay, thanks Jay! They're kind of tough to see back there, but you get the gist.


And then I also added a few gnomes in homage to my German heritage. Although, these aren't quite as scary as the big ones that would walk around at Heritagefest they have been successful in keeping away the squirrels and rabbits!

I've done a bunch more work and cleaned it up since these pictures will taken, but this will have to suffice...

The Beginning...

My garden after I cleaned out the winter rubbish! So barren...

Varmints

So after I posted the picture of my baby last week some varmint came along and snatched it. I guess we weren't meant to be together. But I've been sent a new little baby to help me heal. Here she is...she's covered in cayenne pepper, maybe that will keep away the baby-stealers.

These are my tabascos, there's a lot of them and I can't wait to eat them.

This is my herb garden. My dill is turning into caraway and I don't care for caraway. So I'm letting some of the seeds dry out and fall so they come up again in a couple weeks. The others I'm plucking off and composting (throwing under my deck) so that the dill doesn't completely take over.

Here's the veggie garden, it's coming along nicely. Some of the kohl rabi that the rabbits snipped off have come back, though they're all still pretty small - they're to the left just behind the marigold border. I only have one morning glory coming up on the trellis. My thai basil is nuts, I love it. The Love in a Mist are mostly done blooming for now, they'll be back though. Pretty soon I'm gonna start digging up the potatoes. Next week maybe...