I'm BACK! 2013 reflection + 2014 goals

It has been a couple of years since I last made a gardening post. But despite my online absence, I have been gardening and learning A LOT!

2014 begins my fourth year of my vegetable garden and this year my goal is to bring it from hobby to mini-farming. Last year was wildly successful in many aspects. I planted about half of our vegetables crop from seed—carrots, beets, leeks, arugula, broccoli, snap peas, corn, zucchini, cantaloupe, and bush beans. All except the beans grew fantastically! (I think I got a bad pack of bean seeds because not one germinated either by direct sow or indoor planting). As far as starter plants, I purchased tomatoes, brussels sprouts, sweet red peppers, basil, and red cabbage. With these I had mixed results, which I will explain shortly.

Long shot of veggie garden

Here is a short overview of each crop.

Carrots—These grew well, though I continue to have problems with removing the carrots from the ground. This year I will try to amend the carrot rows with sand to make pulling them easier.

Beets—My new favorite vegetable to grow. I planted an heirloom variety last year that was pink in the center and turned white when cooked. It looked strange to have pale beets, but oh my, were they delicious. I planted two rows last year (about 25 full-sized beets) and I will double the size of our crop this year.

Beets                                

Snap peas

 Leeks—I didn't realize how LONG these take to mature. I direct sowed toward the end of May and pulled them in late October. They were on the small size, but delicious none-the-less. This year, I will be starting them indoors as soon as my seeds come via mail. I planted one row last year, which, because they were small, made about two stock pots worth of potato-leek soup, which I froze. Amazing flavor. These suckers are a ton of work after harvest, removing the dirt from the onion layers. I will double my rows this year and freeze in stock-pot portions.

Arugula—I had received a free pack of seeds from somewhere and planted it. These plants were potent in flavor, bitter and spicy! A couple of leaves mixed into a big salad added a nice kick, but less was definitely more, and we had grown way more than can be used. Abandoning arugula this year and will use the space for something we enjoy.

Corn ears

Left: carrots

Right: baby leeks

Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, and Cabbage—It was the year of the cabbage worm and they were relentless. The cabbage worms/butterflies destroyed all three crops. I tried spraying the plants with organic insecticide, but it was too late. This year I must be vigilant because broccoli and brussels are our favorites AND easy to freeze.

Snap Peas—These plants need trellises and again I did not erect these correctly. Therefore, the plants produced only a fraction of what I'm sure they would have. Similarly, we continue to battle the groundhogs on our property and they got the better of our garden fence and ate two and a half of our four rows down to the ground. Regardless, these plants are easy to grow and easy to freeze and fun for the kids, so this year, I will make an actual trellis, secure the garden from the groundhogs, and hopefully reap the rewards.

Peppers

Corn—Unlike 2012, my 2013 corn crop grew well. We filled a 12 x 12 raised box with six rows. Almost all plants produced full-sized ears. However, sweet corn does not keep well on the plant—it must be harvested immediately or it becomes starchy. And harvest time happened to coincide with our vacation. We enjoyed a few ears that were ready before we left—sugar on the cob—but when we returned, the ears were bleh. Not terrible, but nothing mouth-watering. I will do my best to plant so these mature in late August this year.

Zucchini—Easy, easy, easy. We grew six plants between the corn rows and had so much we were having some sort of zucchini concoction nearly every day. And we were giving it away. And we were sick of zucchini by the end of the summer. I will be jarring a tomato/zucchini sauce this year to make use of all the excess.

Cantaloupe—We grew three cantaloupe vines that produced about 15 large succulent fruits—I've never tasted anything so delicious. We left a few on the vine too long and ended up with mushy fruit, so we will have to monitor ripeness with more conscientious effort this year. Similarly, we will be building a melon patch because the vines took over our entire garden, crowding out our brussels, tomatoes and broccoli.

  

Broccoli

  

Tomatoes

Basil—I planted four starter plants with ambitions of pesto and daily tomato-basil salad. And with our excess of both, I don't know why we didn't do this more often. For some reason, the basil got neglected, and it ended up flowering and stopped producing leaves.

Red Peppers—I planted three plants and each produced three or four peppers. Several of the fruits developed black spots on them; I'm not sure if these were bug problems? These plants grow slowly and it takes a while for the peppers to turn red. Delicious, but space/time ratio to product—not the best. But peppers are so expensive in the store, maybe I'll try one more year.

Tomatoes—I planted six tomato starter plants purchased from Home Depot, and they produced more tomatoes that we could both eat AND give away. We actually didn't have enough time to keep up with harvesting due to our summer vacation schedules and pounds ended up rotting on the vine or the ground.

Corn field

Why was the garden extremely productive last year, despite the few challenges with pests. I made a few beneficial changes from 2012. First, time. I spent time nearly every day in the garden. Second, I covered the raised beds in black garden fabric and straw to help cut down on weeding. This was a huge undertaking to start with—laying the fabric, cutting the holes, planting seeds, transplanting, and covering with straw...hours and hours. With two little kids, what could and should have been completed in one or two serious workdays took weeks of piecemealing. But, ultimately, this was hugely helpful. Third, consistent watering. I watered and watered and watered by hand. Arg. SO time consuming.

So upon reflecting, here are the goals for this year—it is a lofty list, especially since I'm working full time, but here goes:

1) Preserving the harvest—We have invested in a dehydrator will be purchasing a pressure canner, vacuum sealer, and deep freezer. Therefore, I will try to increase my yields in our highly-consumed foods—tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, brussels sprouts, peas, beans, leeks, and zucchini.

2) Drip irrigation—I need to free up my time and that alone is worth the initial expense of the drip system. This is a spring weekend project for hubby.

3) Reconfigure the raised beds / build new plots—Right now we have three, 12x12 raised beds. We will reconfigure these into eight,  3.5x12 beds. This will allow us to completely utilize all the soil space for plants and avoid walking through the bed for harvesting and weeding. In addition, we will move the corn and melons into their own plots in different locations on the property.

4) Composting—I haven't amended the soil since inception, though I have fertilized each year. I will order a truckload of compost this year, but will start making my own to avoid fertilization costs.

5) Deer-proof the property, AGAIN—The deer and weather both decimated our property fence. We need to install and industrial-quality system this year. These critters are the bane of my existence.

6) Save seeds—This is the last priority, but we'll see if I can't figure it out.

Harvesting

Melons

In-house consultant



I am lucky to work at a school that also employs an expert horticulturalist as one of its biology teachers. He has a PhD in hortoculture from Cornell and prior to teaching, worked at the NY Botanical Gardens. Today I paid Ernie a visit with many questions.

1) My strawberry plants. As you know, I planted these about a month and a half ago and have yet to see an action--no greenery emerging from the crowns. He said these plants should have started to leaf out by now and likely my source of plants provided me with dead, not dormant, roots. Thanks a lot, Wal-mart (though I had an eerie suspicion about this even as I purchased the plants.) Since it is sort of late in the spring to plant crowns, he suggests buying starter plants (or bribing someone with a garden for their extra strawberry runners.) Off to the nursery this weekend, as I want to establish my strawberries this year to ensure a good yield of fruit next summer.

2) My peas. The peas that I started indoors and transplanted to the garden a couple weeks ago have begun to turn yellow. The cause? Since it is still mild in temperature, it's likely not the weather (peas need cool weather to thrive), according to Ernie. And I haven't noticed any spider mites or other bugs. Probably transplant shock, according to my consultant. The seeds that I sowed directly in the garden are growing well, bright green. Next year, he said, direct sow all seeds in the garden (which I couldn't do this year because we didn't have the raised boxes done yet.)

3) My newly planted herb seeds. A few days ago, I cleared my herb garden, again. Last year, I cleared the area and mulched the garden with four inches of mulch, knowing that I wasn't going to plant it at the time. But grass grew through the mulch and boy did it grow prolifically. In fact, I hyperbolize by saying there was more grass in my herb garden than in my yard. So I spent hours upon hours the other day de-grassing my garden bed. Laborous work, especially at seven months pregnant. But after ridding the garden of about 200 pounds of grass, weeds, and attached soil and mulch, I was ready to plant. First though, thinking I was so smart, I sprinkled Preen weed preventer in the garden bed, which prevents weeds from germinating (it does not kill existing weeds). And then I planted my rosemary, dill, chive, basil, lemon balm, parsley, mint and cilantro seeds.

I began worrying about the error in my ways shortly thereafter--what if the Preen prevents my herb seeds from germinating as well? Reading the Preen label carefully, it lists the weeds that it is supposed to prevent, and none of the herbs are on the list. However, it doesn't list any of the herbs among the plants to use this product around either. Ernie said, wait and see, but you may have to go by some starter plants if you want herbs in there this year (the Preen says that it will prevent germination for three months.) Boo.





4) My mystery plant. Remember the stranger that just appeared (and has overtaken) my border? The one that I thought might be coreopsis? Well, it is likely not coreopsis, but I may have my answer tomorrow. Ernie said he could probably identify it for me if I bring in a sample. I have a feeling I will be ripping it out this weekend, but I'm also curious as to what it is anyway. The fact that it has an herb-like smell and appears nowhere else on my property as a weed are two curious characteristics. I'll keep you posted.

 
5) Succulents. I recently read an article on succulents in Better Homes and Gardens and decided to start an indoor window box with these architecturally interesting plants. And Ernie has an extensive collection of succulents lining wth windows of our school hallways. He was generous enough to snap-off leaves for me, which will generate their own roots when I replant them at home. Here's what I snagged: Aloe ballyi, pachyphytum, crussula lycopodioides, crassula perfoliata, and haworthia (see pictures). Now I have to go buy a pretty little window box for my new babies!







This morning's garden photos

Spicebush swallowtail butterfly on dianthus reds.

Honey bee on zinnia.

Bumblebees on liatris spicata.

My hibiscus just opened today.

The two starlight lilies that the deer didn't eat.

Long view of the hillside garden, with mini-rose bed in foreground.

July garden pictures

Miniature hollyhock in front of daisies.

Being ready to deliver a baby at any minute has limited my energy and ambition for tending the garden. And since we've had no rain for two weeks—and little before that—most of my outdoor time has been spent watering, trying to prevent my plants from dying in the blistering heat. Therefore, the veggie garden (and every other bed) is being invaded by weeds, and though Hubby got me a huge pile of mulch over a week ago, I have not been able to spread it. Luckily, one of my garden buddies came over to help on Saturday and together we weeded and mulched a couple of sections, though to my eye, I still see the weeds before the flowers.

But what more can I do—I can hardly bend over!?

Brief update on veggies:
**Harvested my beets yesterday and roasted them for a beet, goat cheese, and arugula salad today for lunch. Yummy!
**The carrots are ready to go, but they are stuck hard in the ground. I can't pull them out without a shovel. Cavan loves eating them right out of the ground, washed by the hose, of course.
**The brussel sprouts have little sprout buds beginning. Hubby is very excited.
**Our broccoli plants each have excellent heads growing.
**The cucumbers are producing like crazy. We've eaten seven giant cucs this week and there are a ton more growing by the second.
**Picked our first cherry tomatoes today. Our tomato plants in general have TONS of green fruit. We are going to gorge in the matter of weeks.
**Only one pepper on the three pepper plants. Hmmm. Hoping for at least three per plant, so the plants pay for themselves!
**Two nice sized eggplants growing on the three plants. Again, hoping for more fruit to develop.
**Only seven of the 18 corn plants grew from seed. But those seven are doing great.
**We have our first zucchini to be ready in a couple days. Tons more flowers on the three plants, as well as our three yellow squash.
**The strawberries got destroyed by chipmunks, but came back none the less. No fruit this year, but that is to be expected for the first year.
**The peas are still producing, though the plants are turning yellow and dying in the heat. I'm surprised they lasted this long, as they don't like hot weather. Will plant at least two full rows of peas next year!

Cosmos. Just threw down a packet of seeds! Love them!

Flower update:
**My cosmos and zinnias are blooming profusely. LOVING both of these annuals that I grew easily from seeds. The zinnias I bought are neon pink and purple with three-inch flower heads. Awesome!
**The roses are slowly coming back from the deer buffet. Still not many blooms, but at least there are buds. Praying the deer stay away (but that is another post all together).
**Planted a new border of hostas, heuchera, lilies, rhodedendron, zebra grass, veronica, and phlox. The baby plants are not enjoying this hot, dry streak. I'm trying to water every other day. Hopefully they'll survive.
**My monarda (bee balm) bloomed, but the stalks completely flopped over and are laying on the ground.
**My four o'clock annuals are now blooming! Beautiful yellow flowers with pink streaks.
**All of my hydrangeas (except one) are blooming and doing great. I have a white/peach variety, a purple variety, and a blue variety.
**The lilies—all eaten by deer. Damn deer.
**The deer ate several of my cone flowers, but a few survived and are blooming. Can't wait till next year when they double in size.
**Crazy daisies! Fantastic!

All in all, despite my inattention over the last few weeks and the constant deer damage, the garden looks pretty darn good. Lots of color right now, even without the lilies and roses. 

Broccoli heads.

Second garden bed: brussel sprouts, cucumbers, broccoli,
peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes.

Red cabbage in foreground. Carrots in background.

Endless summer hydrangea. This pic is a couple weeks old;
it is covered in flowers now.

Aster.

Lysimachia. They are no longer in bloom
but made June very colorful.

Deer management (welcome bowhunters!)

We are now taking up arms against the deer. We were hopeful that the deer could be deterred by the improved fence, which now stands at the height of nine feet. Apparently not. This morning I surveyed the new damage with depression and disdain. Over the last two weeks we have regularly shot the deer with our BB gun, but those smug varmints run twenty feet then turn and look as if to say, "That's all you got?" So arriving today in the mail is a slingshot with 3/8" steel ball bearings. The range won't be as long, but with us regularly catching the deer either in the garden or just on the other side of the fence, range isn't the problem. The deer are so accustomed to people that I have been wildly screaming and waving my arms trying to shoo them away and have gotten as close as ten feet before they mosey away. Hopefully getting whacked in the head with a steel ball will hurt enough to change their territory.

But, I've also been researching deer management programs that come to your property to eradicate the deer population. I emailed the Suffolk Archers and Bowhunters Club, located on Long Island, that advertises their Land Owners Assistance Program. We are a bit of a distance from LI, but they are still willing to research our property and at the very least, send up some hunters in October for deer season. In the meantime, I will be actively pursuing a nuisance permit that allows eradication throughout the year, though the state is apparently pretty stingy on granting these to regular landowner as opposed to commercial farms. Maybe I can start selling homegrown veggies in our local delis and farmer's markets!

Either way, the deers' days are numbered.

Mail-order mayhem

I was hugely disappointed last week with the mail order nurseries I buy from: Spring Hill and Brecks. I have had hundreds of dollars of plants that have been on back order, some from as early as April 4. I regularly checked their status updates all spring, and each time, the delivery date kept moving back by a week or so. The last time I checked was June 13, in which the estimated deliveries were all scheduled for mid-July. This seemed strange because these nurseries usually don't ship plants in the dead heat of the summer.

I called them up and they informed me that, "actually, these orders are all cancelled because the shipping season ended today and we are out of stock." Not a happy reaction from me. First, if the orders were cancelled, why did my order status show a summer delivery date. AND when were they going to notify me otherwise if I hadn't called. AND, now I have to keep track of receiving the refunds to my credit card. Arg. AND I have been saving space in the garden all spring, so now I have bare patches that I won't be able to successfully fill this year. Total disappointment.

So, here is an overview of what I ordered and what I did not receive. Thirty hardy geraniums, ten day lilies, and five cone flowers.  In addition, I was told the six rose bushes I ordered were out of stock as well. Same with the two garden grab bags ($200 worth of plants for $20).

WELL, a few days later I received six dead rose bushes in the mail. They obviously tried to get rid of some sickly plants just to fill the orders. I planted them anyway to see if they would come back, but no, they are, in fact, dead. I have requested a credit for these...yet another detail I have to keep track of. In addition, the garden grab bags surprisingly arrived this weekend. I found it interesting that they were "completely oversold and nothing could be done," until I posted a comment on their Facebook wall reporting my extreme disappointment with their customer service. For once I was the squeaky wheel that got greased.

But despite receiving the grab bags, I'm not completely happy with the contents because four of the plants I received are not even perennial in my zone. Best grab bag items: Two perennial mums and two sunburst gaillardia! Excellent. Moderately interesting grab bag selections: three thornless blackberry bushes and three forsythia bushes. I'm not a huge fan of forsythia when its not in bloom, but those three weeks in the spring when it is bright yellow is pleasing, so I'll plant them off-to-the-side on our property. Blackberries are yummy, but again, not a visually interesting plant. I would have never bought either of these bushes by choice, but for a grab bag, not terrible scores. Ho-hum selection: American bittersweet vine. This plant produces red/orange berries in the winter. We have a stone house, it might be interesting to see this climb the exterior, but again, never would have purchased it myself. And I certainly didn't want EIGHT plants! I gave two away already, but even then, the person I gave them to wasn't that excited about trying them. But what am I going to do with eight--which would cover 480 square feet of wall if all of them grew full size! I don't want my house to look like the jungle! And the completely worthless selection: Crassula lycopodioides. A) These are succulents and can only be planted outside in zones 10 or 11. They are interesting as potted plants for your windowsill, but I already have one; I certainly didn't need FOUR MORE! I guess I will pot them up and try to give them away as gifts. Oh well. One can't expect to like everything in a grab bag.

But regardless of receiving the grab bags, I have reconsidered my devotion to Spring Hill and Brecks. Up until this point I have had good luck with the plants I've received, and if any of them have died, they did replace them promptly or give me "store credit" for other purchases, which I have taken advantage of. But this latest experience with their customer service has given me fuel to look for more reputable mail order nurseries. I'll keep you posted, but as you already know, I am a plant junkie, so I may have a change of heart next time I receive a super-savings catalog!

Long overdue update: Part 1—Veggie Garden

Cavan admiring the biggest radish
plucked from the garden.

Peas—I didn't stake them this year and most of them
have flopped over. Now I know for next time.

Here's what's up in the veggie garden.


**Peas—We've plucked eight DELICIOUS pods off the sugar snap pea plants. They are still flowering so I hope we'll get a yield that could at least fill a stir-fry rather than just an outdoor snack. I have nine plants, but it is late in the season, so keeping my fingers crossed.

**Strawberries—Almost all the plants produced pea-sized fruits last week. The were red and super sweet, but were so small they didn't even look like strawberries. As the plants mature I'm sure the fruits will be bigger and actually resemble berries. Cavan had a blast picking them though.

Brussell sprouts—Notice all the holes from the cabbage worms.

**Radishes—All have been harvested. We had some giant cherry bombs and some the size of blueberries. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for the size difference, but since Hubby is the only one that likes radishes in the family, I was not concerned. Again, Cavan loved pulling them out of the ground and we played the game "big or dud?"

**Tomatoes—Most of the plants are flowering, but we've had a week of cool weather, so I doubt any of the buds will set fruit.

**Eggplants and peppers—These also started flowering this week. Eggplant flowers are a beautiful purple. This isn't so unexpected considering the color of actual eggplants, but I was still surprised having never seen one.

**Carrots and beets—I thinned the carrots for the final time this week. The plants I pulled showed thin, spindly carrot roots. Speaking of purple, I forgot that I bought purple carrots, and the baby roots I plucked were indeed purple. Exciting. The beets. These seem to be growing much slower than the seed package said. I plucked one to see the progress and there was not even the beginning of a root bulge. They probably won't be ready for a month??!!

Garden bed #2—Left to right: Tomatoes, eggplant and peppers,
broccoli, Brussell sprouts, and the small things in the back right
are cucumbers and beans.

**Broccoli, cabbage, and Brussell sprouts—Attacked by cabbage worms!   I noticed the chewed leaves a week or so ago but couldn't see any signs of the pests responsible. Finally, I found a bunch of worms and squished them, but I also sprayed these plants with Sevin, a vegetable and flower pesticide. I have avoided spraying any of the edibles, but it couldn't be helped with these, if I want the plants to actually survive.

**Zucchini, squash, pumpkin, and corn—All of the gourds have sprouted and are growing successfully. The four rows of corn I planted have only revealed a couple of seedlings so far. I used seeds from last year...I hope they were still able to germinate.

**Cucumbers and beans—Growing but nothing of interest to report.

Cavan modeling a radish mustache.

**Herbs—The cilantro, chives, basil and dill seeds I sowed directly in the garden are all growing but really slowly, especially the basil. The parsley seeds sprouted but don't appear to be progressing. The mint, basil, and lemon balm I bought as starter plants all look good, but the recent cool weather is not accelerating their growth either. 

**Other—I still have some space in the beds, so what to plant? A couple more beans, another row of carrots, and some scallions and okra. Just got to get around to it!

Deer or Cavan??

My garden has another predator in addition to the deer—Cavan!

Today I went to the nursery to buy violas to fill in the border with my recently-eaten lilies. While I was planting them, Cavan was playing in the yard in my peripheral vision, but I wasn't monitoring her every move. As I was finishing up, Cavan comes up to me and says, "Here Mommy, I picked these pretty flowers for you," and she hands me a bouquet of the stems and flower buds of my Cupid's Dart plants, which were due to bloom next week.


AHHHHH!


Needless to say, the absolutely cute innocence of her actions prevented me from getting (too) angry, but I did have to explain to her, sternly, that she can't pick flowers unless she asks mommy first.


But I will always treasure those Cupid Dart plants, remembering how the first year they were supposed to bloom, I didn't see flowers, but rather an extra-special bouquet of buds!

Funeral lilies

This is a mournful week, marred by the tragic and untimely murders of beautiful members of my garden family--my oriental lilies. They are not the only victims of the ruthless vandals that decimated my property, but they are my favorites and are gone baby gone.

My stargazer lilies. What they looked like last year.
I won't get to enjoy them for another 13 months.

We have a six-foot deer fence surrounding our entire yard and garden. Last year, this fence worked like a charm, and despite the herd of deer that live in the woods behind and adjacent to our property, not one of them ever attempted to scale the obstacle. This year, we expanded the fencing to enclose a larger section of our property, including some of the wooded area that we are thinning out and preparing to landscape. Apparently the deer are not fond of evacuating their previously-claimed territory.

Three days ago, as Hubby opened our sliding glass door to take the dog for its early morning walk, he caught the malicious marauder in my bed of day lilies, enjoying a banquet of the newly formed flower buds. Hubby throws a rock at the deer, just missing it. Deer looks at Hubby smugly and goes back to its meal. Second rock sails just past its head. Deer shrugs, and starts moseying along, casually snacking as it starts to exit the garden. Hubby now begins chasing it, and it lazily lopes toward the perimeter fence and jumps over a section that was hanging a bit low. Hubby spent the dog-walking time re-stapling the fence to its proper height.

We attributed the invasion to the fence malfunction, but this giant doe already got a taste of the candy banquet inside the garden. When I arrived home that afternoon, Cavan and I head up to her swing set, where I see the vandal again, inside the fence. I let the dog loose as well as hurl my pregnant body toward the intruder, yelling and waving like a banshee. The dog scares it and it runs smack into the fence, kicking its legs until it rips down 60-feet of black mesh before making its exit. Hubby rushes home to repair the panels before dark.

Surely, after being chased away twice, particularly by a snarling dog, it should be scared to come back, right?

The next morning, I check on the garden before leaving for work. That bastard deer came back. This time eating the tops and buds off of five of my oriental lilies and devouring most of the buds on a bed of my mini-roses. Shit man! I check the fence--no visible damage or downed panels. It has now figured out how to scale the fence. Well, there's nothing I can do before work, so off I go, praying that the hot weather will cause my new worst enemy to lay low during the day.

Of course not. The deer had to pick hell week for its stealth attack. The last full week of school, where I have eight billion papers to grade, after school meetings, and a multitude of other responsibilities preventing me from spending a single second in the garden. Same with Hubby. I have a recipe and all the ingredients for deer repellent, but at that moment I had no viable time for mixing it up and spraying it on. When I arrived home from work, I found 3/4 of my oriental lilies topped off. I have 30 of them in a border along our patio wall. Only six remained that evening. I went to bed last night, literally praying that the deer would hold off their assault till the weekend when I could meet them head-on.

This morning, with apprehension, I opened our patio door. Disaster. Not only were all the buds of the lilies gone, but most of the leaves were too. I am left with naked stalks. When Hubby left at 7:00 am, they were fine. Well, not fine, but in the same condition as the previous evening. Two hours later, when I checked on them--munched down to their spines. But that's not all. Every rose bush was eaten. I have six-size, full bloom rose bushes. Every flower, every bud. And every remaining day lily. Gone. And all my miniature hollyhock, which hadn't started budding, but probably won't now since 90% of their foliage is gone. I was seriously depressed all day.

Though I had to rush home after school to go to Hubby's school art exhibition this evening, I stopped at the nursery and bought Liquid Fence. Oh it's so foul. Cavan watched as I held back my vomit while misting my entire garden with the putrefied-egg-and-garlic based spray.  I had to shower immediately afterward because my legs and arms were coated in a fine mist of rotten foulness due to the light breeze while contaminating my garden. Please, please stop the deer. I cant' bear the heartache of watching my hard work and patience be devoured by mangy, tick-infested creatures.

BUT, I do hope the deer come back one more time. On Saturday morning when I'm laying in wait, BB gun in hand, ready to shoot them in their faces. Yes, I want the satisfaction of inflicting painful punishment. I can only fantasize about having a real gun and watching deer blood spurt across our patio.

The beginning of the end

This weekend is the beginning of the end. To Hubby's delight, I have finally planted into the garden everything that I had waiting around on our patio. No more potting supplies, bags of soil, or seedlings cluttering up our deck. Until my final shipments of perennials arrive this week, the only thing perpetually laying around is the hose—it hasn't rained in about 10 days and the forecast for the next week is solid sun.

Earlier this week, I planted my petunias in hanging baskets. In only a couple of sunny days, the starter plants have taken off and all are covered with blooms! Yesterday, I planted a collection of astilbe around a tree in a new garden clearing by Cavan's swing set. And I sowed the last of my seeds in the vegetable garden—corn, pumpkin, zucchini, and yellow squash. Other than weeding and watering, all I have to do now is sit around and wait for my geraniums, cone flowers, ornamental grasses and red rose bushes to arrive in the mail. AND my garden grab bags—200 bucks worth of perennials for $20! Gotta love end-of-the-season clearances! Who knows what I'm gonna get, but how can you go wrong for that price. What I don't need or want I will give to one of my garden buddies. But with all those goodies soon-to-come, I guess I'll have to drag back out all my dirt and tools for one last hoorah.

Weeds and roses

I didn't make much headway this weekend on new landscaping because I devoted myself to the painful task of weeding. Since I haven't mulched yet this year—I'm waiting for the free mulch pile to return (I have a lot of square feet to cover)—I have weeds coming up everywhere. Three days of weeding and I only have one section left to do. By the time I finish the task this week, I'll probably have to start over! ARG!

But the weeding gives you time to survey each of your plants with thoughtful devotion. And I discovered that many of my roses are afflicted with blackspot, a common rose disease. Upon research, blackspot tends to thrive in wet, cool weather—we had 10 days of 50 degree rainy weather before our beautifully sunny week last week. I had to go buy a rose-specific pesticide at Home Depot today, which should nip it in the bud. (Pun. HA!)

And speaking of roses, I would have never guessed that my bushes would actually be in bloom for Memorial Day, but my red and pink mini roses are all flowering! My large roses bushes have several buds ready to pop in the next couple days. It's amazing what a week of sunny, warm weather will do for a garden.

Another high point of the weekend—my herb seeds are growing. Despite the herbicide I sprinkled in the garden, my dill, cilantro, basil, parsley, and chive seeds all germinated. I wonder how long it will take for them to actually be big enough to harvest for cooking?

First harvest!

Yesterday was an exciting milestone—I harvested our first crop of veggies! I was able to pluck about half of the row of radishes—nearly 20! The rest will be ready in a few days to a week.

Personally, I don't like radishes, but Hubby loves them, so while I only tried one of these spicy red cherry bombs, Hubby ate a freshly-picked handful right out of the bowl. Washed of course.

Hubby commented: Are these all the radishes we're going to get out of the garden? Well, for starters, I wanted to plant all the veggies conservatively, not knowing exactly how big the plants would get, how long they'd take to grow, and how much we'd actually be able to eat before the produce goes bad. I anticipate having radishes in the fridge for another month—a little radish goes a long way, especially when only one person in your family is eating them. I think Hubby will be surprised at how long his 40 radishes will keep in the crisper.

It's amazing to think that just a month or so ago I buried a row of seeds and now we're eating the fruits of our own labor and nature's design. Pure, innocent satisfaction.

Still wearing sweaters...

Other than Saturday, which reached a balmy 74 degrees in the early afternoon before making a rapid decent back into the 50s as the evening storm rolled in, there has been no resemblance of an upcoming summer in the weather lately. It's supposed to be rainy all week, though I've heard a rumor that it might actually be warm?! At this point, I'll believe it when I see it.

Weather pitfalls: My tomatoes, peppers and eggplants have given up on growing and flowering I think. All my recently planted seedlings have been super slow to emerge and/or drowned out and washed away. My roses are full of leaves, but my hopes of them flowering for Memorial Day weekend, as they did last year, are declining. The spring flowers that were/are in bloom were largely destroyed by the multiple torrential downpours last week. My poor irises look like they've been through a war and the ajuca, which I had hoped to stay in bloom until June, was pelted to death--all the blooms fell to the ground as a result.

Weather benefits: I haven't had to do any manual watering lately. My cool weather veggies are thriving and nearing harvest time. I was really late getting all my spring veggies in the ground, so looking at the bright side, I might actually yield a decent harvest from my broccoli, peas, carrots, beets, and radishes. Speaking of radishes, two in the row revealed their red crowns this weekend, so we got to pluck and enjoy them. Well, I didn't, but Cavan and Hubby did. I'll try the next one. It was pretty exciting picking the first vegetable out of your own garden. I can't wait for a major harvest, when we get to reap the rewards of all the hard work and effort and patience over the last few months.

Despite the rain and the cold, I was able to make some headway in the garden this weekend. I continued my pursuit to rid the herb garden of wild clumps of grass and weeds. One more day ought to do it. (This wouldn't normally be a three-day job, but it's extremely tiring wielding a hoe, tiller, and pitch fork with a baby belly, especially when bending over has become a robust challenge.)

I was then able to plant my 16 hosta roots, most of which actually sprouted in the plastic bags they were delivered in! Seven were used as the herb garden border and accents around a strategically placed boulder. The others were amassed between two trees bordering a stone staircase leading to another tier of our property. I will be interest to see how big each of these hostas get and if the spacing I used was appropriate. Ideally, they will all gently overlap without crowding, but when mixing varieties it's hard to tell how they will actually spread, despite following the spacing guidelines.

Still on the list to plant are my three remaining burning bushes. And I just received an order of eight astillbe plants. And my petunias for my hanging baskets should be arriving any day. I'm interest to see the size and condition of how these arrive--I usually buy my hanging baskets from the nursery, but I thought I'd try to grow my own this year. And a replacement rose bush should be coming soon. It will be nice when I can just focus on maintaining the garden rather than all these new plantings, but with two acres to manicure, that might be a while.

Deer devastation revisited

Yesterday, after a restless sleep due to nightmares about rabid deer and maniacal tomato plants, I had the opportunity to revisit my deer-damaged garden with a more objective, rather than emotional, lens.

Yes, the deer did inflict some trauma, but decimate, not really. It could have been a lot worse. We have a three and a half foot fence around our vegetable garden beds—mainly to help keep out critters like our dog, for one, and then groundhogs, rabbits, or other pesky varmints. It looks like the deer did not enter the veggie garden, but rather leaned over the fence to reach the delicacies on the borders. The tomatoes and a few eggplants. While four of the tomatoes were chewed down to stalks, the deer were generous enough to leave some foliage on most of them, so I think they will come back. Good thing I have 11 plants left standing, as my harvest from half of them might be weakened. We’ll see.

The dozen or so phlox starter plants that they ate were all divided from a neighbor’s garden. Since they were free and I’m sure I can go steal some more if I want, I’m not completely heartbroken over those. I’m more upset about the mastication of my two baby blueberry bushes. I hope they come back.

My mum, which had about 20 flower buds on it already, now only has one flower bud. But this is also a plant that the above-mentioned dog has, against my cursing and punishment, claimed as his pissing post. Plants don’t appreciate dog urine, and the foliage on its bottom half has turned the same shade of yellow as its most frequent beverage. I feel like there is a doggie shock collar in my future.

But as depressed as I was about these garden setbacks upon initial discovery, I am a resilient and optimistic person. Hubby and I have resolved to prevent the past from repeating. After work yesterday, Hubby spent the evening reinforcing the deer perimeter fence, as well as lacing the nearly-see through black mesh with bright pink warning ribbons. Not that deer can see in color, but the ribbon does at least make the fencing noticeable so they don’t accidentally run into it.

Similarly, I set out to buy ingredients for a deer repellant recipe that a friend of mine forwarded. I tried commercial deer repellant last year, mainly on our front garden, which isn’t fenced in and is planted with hostas and impatiens, otherwise known as deer candy. BUT, that potent and disgusting concoction of manure, garlic, cloves, rotten eggs, and other nasties, repulsed me even more. I refused to smell that noxious aroma every time I entered and exited my house. I can’t enjoy my garden if my garden spurs my vomit reflexes.

The recipe we will be trying was designed by a Connecticut horticulturalist who is affiliated with the NY Botanical Gardens. Pretty good resume. She claims that while it reeks while the formula is in liquid form, as soon as it dries on the plants (or perimeter fences), the smell is undetectable to the human olfactory system. Too good to be true? We’ll see, but it’s cheap to make, so worth a shot!

I had to stop by a local nursery to see if they carried one of the ingredients, so while I was there, I couldn’t help myself—I bought four plants. Lavender, chocolate mint, creeping thyme, and lemon balm—all perennial herbs. (They didn’t have the necessary ingredient). I know some women that can’t pass a shoe store without making a purchase; that’s me at a garden center. But after the losses I suffered yesterday, buying brand new healthy plants made me happy. Now, if only the temperatures would climb out of the 50s and into pre-summer digits. Seriously, I’m still wearing sweaters. While my peas, broccoli and cabbage are loving this super cool spring, all of my other plants are peaking out of hibernation at a snail’s pace. I won’t get greedy and hope for an 80-degree day, but consistent 70s would be nice from here on out!

Damn deer

Actually, damn deer is not quite accurate. )F%*&ING DEER! They broke down a section of our deer fence and decimated a good part of my garden. Ate most of my tomato plants, portions of my eggplants, all of my phlox, most of my blueberry bushes, and the flower buds off my mums. I'm really depressed and angry right now. Hubby re-secured the deer fence, but I'm worried that now that they know about the delicacies of the garden, they will be more inclined to force their way in. Not a good garden day.

Rainy weekend update

The rain finally came. We had a week and a half of beautiful, sunny, 70-degree weather. While I am never one to complain about perfect weather, it did force us to start watering the gardens with the hose. Especially the veggies. I left them for two days without watering and nearly ended up with a garden of dead plants. Veggies are not as tolerant of perfect weather as my perennials.

It started raining yesterday and we are due for rain on-and-off all week. I'm actually happy; all my newly planted flowers and veggies and seeds will benefit. But because of the rain, and a short-napping toddler, I didn't quite accomplish all my gardening goals this weekend.

Here's what I did get done:

* Bought 15 strawberry plants from Home Depot and replaced my non-growing crowns in the garden. The plants already have flowers and some have baby fruits on them.

* Planted three burning bushes, a butterfly bush, an azalea bush, and a blue lace cap hydrangea.

* Bought and planted a small basil plant. I love basil and don't have the patience to wait for the seeds to sprout.

* Fertilized the veggies and roses.

Here's what I need to do ASAP:

* Finish de-grassing my herb garden. I want to plant hostas along the border (by the fence that we'll be putting up this summer).

* Plant my baby herb plants that are still growing in their tiny peat pots: rosemary, chives, and mint. The other seedlings didn't survive the hardening off process. I need more practice at that! I need to start over with the cilantro, lemon balm, dill, and parsley.

* Till my third veggie box, plant eight more tomato plants, and sow my summer veggie seeds: corn, zucchini, yellow squash, scallions, and okra.

* Plant my three remaining burning bushes.


Update on veggie progress:

* My cucumber seedlings have just poked through the soil. No sign yet of my string beans. I used last year's seeds that I had left over...they may not have been viable. I'll give them another week.

* The peas. The ones that had started to yellow look like they might be coming back, though they are still looking pretty sad compared to the bright green ones I sowed directly in the garden.

* I thinned out my row of radishes. They might be ready next week. The beets will need to be thinned soon, as well as the carrots.

* The spinach and broccoli seem to be hanging in there. I haven't noticed much growth, but they are green and sturdy, so I'm still hopeful.

One final note. Thank you Hubby for laying down a weed-block blanket and covering it with wood chips in paths surrounding each of my veggie boxes.

A beautiful Mother's Day weekend

What a treat—we had two beautiful day's in a row. The perfect gift for Mother's Day. And I accomplished a lot in the garden as well. Here's the update.

**I planted nine 14" terra cotta pots with red and white impatiens to liven up our deck. In a couple weeks the flowers will be overflowing the rims.

**Also newly planted: two baby Brigitta blueberry bushes, 12 sprigs of tall red phlox divided from my neighbor, two double cone flowers (a kooky variety of echinacea), eight 4 O'clock flowers that I grew from seeds indoors, and a packet of zinnia seeds sown directly in the garden (I'm crossing my fingers).

**In addition, I planted four astrantia roots. BUT, I forgot that I ordered them for my shade garden, and planted them in full sun. So now I have to go dig them up this week before they sprout. A frustrating task, knowing it's my fault for not reading the planting directions before I dug my holes.

**Other updates: One of my two new rose bushes has died. The stalks have all turned brown. The other has tons of swollen buds and is beginning to leaf out. I will have to call the company this week to get a replacement plant or refund. But on a more successful note, the cosmos seedlings I sprinkled in the dirt surrounding our raised veggie beds seem to be sprouting. Yeah! AND, I just discovered three gladiolas poking out of the ground. They are not supposed to be winter-hardy in zone six, but looks like at least a few survived!

**For Mother's Day, Hubby woke up early to get a truckload of wood chips for the paths between the veggie beds. He is laying down the black weed-block and will finish spreading the chips this week. It's starting to look "pro" around here ;)

Garden goals for the upcoming week:
1) Plant butterfly bush, azalea, hydrangea and burning bushes
2) Move astrantia
3) Fertilize all beds (believe it or not, I've never fertilized!)
4) Weed and mulch
5) Remove grass and weeds from the herb garden area so I can sow seeds and transplant my seedlings.
6) Identify the plant that has overtaken own of my borders. I'm hoping it's a flower, but probably not likely.
7) Plant hostas in the shade garden
8) Plant gladiolas bulbs

As always, to be continued!

Veggie garden update

Cavan planting bean seeds in the veggie garden.

Quick update:
1) Radish, beet, and carrot seedlings have emerged and seem to be growing well. I may have to thin them out this weekend.

2) Pea transplants are now staked and thriving, and the pea seeds I sowed directly into the garden have just poked out of the soil.

3) Spinach seedlings are not dead, but are floppy and reflect little growth since moving them to the raised beds. You can't win them all, I suppose.

4) Bean and cucumber seeds were planted yesterday, with the help of my sometimes-dedicated-assistant, Cavan.

5) Lettuce, carrot, and pepper seedlings started indoors are still waiting to be transplanted. I have to till the third garden bed before this can happen. Maybe I'll get around to it this weekend, if I'm not too tired.

6) Broccoli transplants are doing well. They are just now sprouting their second pair of leaves.

7) No action with the strawberry roots I planted, gosh, how long ago was that? Hmmm. Disappointing.

8) All starter plants bought at the nursery are doing great. The eggplant leaves are multiplying and two of my tomato plants are already flowering!

9) Hubby built a three-foot critter fence around the veggie beds to ward off groundhogs and rabbits. The groundhog trap has seen no action since my tulips were eaten. I hope critter has moved on to someone else's property.

'Till next time. (Ha ha, "till"!)

More spring photos

Here are some shots of the garden this weekend.

Close up of open tulip. Becky, this is the color for you!

Tulip patch...the side the groundhog didn't eat.

I love the focus on the water droplets!

Close up of the flowering ajuca groundcover.

Lamb's ears with ajuca in background. (And a dandelion, arg!)

More than a box of dirt

On Thursday, I finally had the time and energy to plant most of my veggies, turning my boxes of dirt into an actual garden. I bought starter plants at Home Depot of the more time-consuming and difficult to grow varieties, which are now spreading their roots in the raised beds. These include six tomato plants (two cherry, two "early girl" and two "big boy" hybrids); three "black beauty" eggplants; two red bell peppers and one orange bell pepper; four brussel sprouts and four red cabbage. In addition, I planted most of my seedlings (well, the ones that survived, anyway): a row of broccoli, six peas, and a couple of spinach.

Today, I am adding to the veggie family: a few lettuce and carrot seedlings and bean seeds. Beginning to sprout from last week's planting are my radishes and beets. Still no activity on the carrot or pea seeds I planted about two weeks ago; same with the strawberry roots. I bought the strawberry roots at Walmart—they were there and I couldn't pass them up—but now I wonder about the quality. Dormant roots do tend to take a while to begin to leaf, so I hope to see some budding growth in the next two weeks. I will be bummed if I wasted $6.00! (Actually, more bummed about wasting months of growing time and missing out on a strawberry season).

Also on tap today (depending on how long Cavan takes a nap—currently, she is just playing around in her crib. I dare not go outside while she is still awake, and she doesn't sound sleepy in the least! EEK!):

*Planting the begonia tubers that I started indoors about two months ago. Eleven of the 12 are leafing out nicely; I should have blooms in about three weeks!

*Sowing flower seeds directly in the garden: zinnias, cosmos, and baby's breath. The zinnia seedlings that I started inside all died when I left them outside in the sun too long one day. Bummer. Start over. I have never tried direct outside sowing, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

*Identifying the plant that is invading one of my borders. With our week of warm, wet, sunny weather, everything is sprouting like crazy, and so is this mystery plant that seems to be spreading everywhere. I wonder if it is the pink coreopsis (tickweed) that was in the border last year? If so, this is not an all bad thing—it is a pretty plant that blooms all summer. However, if so, the spread is really out of control and I will have to do serious maintenance on this thing to keep it from taking over! BUT, if it is something else, I have a real problem on my hands...to be continued.