Where'd May go?

     Holy cow peeps!  Where did May go?  All I know is that classes started up, my bestest friends got hitched, and it's transplanting time here in good ol' Wisconsin.  The windows have been open for the last week and the cats have raided the back porch, claiming it as their play spot for the summer.  And I don't blame them, especially since the robins, cardinals, and a slew of finches now hang out in our back yard.

But on to what's been transpiring in the gardens!  Apparently, everything decided to started blooming while I was away.  I didn't snap a picture of the palm sized poppies in the back, but the 'champagne bubbles' variety are already open. The pic shows the snapdragons (who survived winter), dianthus, and the campanula.  There are, of course, many more flowers blooming around the yard.

A few weeks back, I collected a few of the bleeding hearts and pansy flowers for pressing.  The colors stayed quite nice and it did thin the herd a bit, as they say.  The pansy have since overtaken the front retaining wall and I'm pondering thinning them out again.  Never mind the fact that the Chinese Lantern in the maple garden is running amuck...

And on the porch there is the normal suspects of black petunias.  This year they are paired with orange pansy.   I think it's a very beautiful contrast and as they grow it will be even more striking.

In the vegetable garden, the golden boy tomatoes are housed in their cage while the red bell and banana peppers are sitting cozy in their  shared tote.  I still have to get the melons seeded not to mention the bicolored corn.  This year, I picked up some apple mint that will go with the mint garden quite nicely.  In addition, I planted a 'red wine' mixture of sunflowers with the strawberry corn and blue corn on the side of the house. The chocolate sunflower from last year decided to repopulate the garden bed itself so I didn't bother adding more to the mix, lol.

the fence so far with the maple garden behind it

On top of that, I get to expand the gardens even more!  We split the yard in half to make a true back and front yard.  The walkway for the fence goes through a wooden arbor.  And since there's space, I'm going to spread out the gardens with lavender, oregano, chives, and a few other herbs among the flowers, because I can.

Needless to say it's been a busy end to spring.  Next on our list is to finish the fence, paint the house, and at some point, I need to put together the garden bench I've been planning for.

Dark Dancer

Hey there gang!  It's been a crazy few weeks.  Apparently, trying to pursue a Master's Degree is a full-time job. Who knew?  However, I still have my weekends to play in the dirt.  In the last few weeks we've been trying to prepare the gardens for the long awaited spring.  With that in mind, we've added two new plants to the gardens. Campanula "Blue" and Centaurea "Montana", both of them are blue which should be a nice contrast with the hosta and dianthus in the front porch garden.  Not to mention the "Dark Dancer" clover the boy picked up for himself.  It's currently contained on the porch, isolated from the rest of the gardens.  The foliage is pretty with dark purple markings.

My next project will be to build a garden bench since I have window boxes that don't have windows to go along with them.  In the meantime, I have picked up a few strawberry plants; however, the "Top Hat" Blueberry failed to establish itself and now makes a pretty dead stick decoration in the pot...the other one is holding on for dear life.  That'll teach me to buy plants from Sam's Club.

Another thing I picked up this weekend was a book about herbs.  It's one of those companion books that you've probably glanced at in the discount section of the bookstore.  Well I got one now.  Last year, I dried three varieties of mint for uses as herbal teas.  However, this year I'm planning on doing something more with my herbal garden.  Maybe a raised bed with a mix of perennial and annuals.  That way I can make them into candles, satchels, teas and who knows what else my little brain can come up with.  I've always liked the thought of becoming more self sustainable with my projects and I think this is just another step in the process.

Okay, enough babbling for now.  Grow team, Grow!

But they're so tiny!

As a few of you know, I ordered citrus trees a few months ago to add to my growing collection of container garden items.  Well, I'm happy to announce that they're here!!

L-R: orange, lemon, and lime trees

I just potted the three little citrus trees in their own ginkgo fiber pots (which makes them eco-friendly and biodegradable).  The pots should last them for a year or two.  And as you can see they're still tiny so the small pots aren't going to be a problem (they're only 7" diameter). Lucky enough our local nursery had soil for cacti, succulents and citrus so I didn't have to guess on the mixture, which could've been a hazard.  Hopefully these lil' guys do well so we have fresh citrus next year!  On a side note: the blueberries aren't looking too happy with me so I doused them in vinegar water in an attempt to keep them alive...if anything I'll pay a little more for 2 or 3 year old plants.

In addition, talk about a whole front yard make-over.  Last year, we talked about transplanting the two bleeding hearts in the front garden and a few of the hosta to the side yard where they'll enjoy more shade than sun.  Well by the time we got to it they were all huge and it was too late in the season to move them.  Finally, we caught them before they're growth spurt.  Now the bleeding hearts are on the north side of the house with a neat row of six of the larger hosta.  They all have room to grow into their full potential unlike the cramped space in the front porch garden.

On top of that we moved around the remaining hosta in the front garden, moved in two more dianthus, planted some 'Sweet William Dianthus' on the side, moved a 'Black-Eyed Susan' and got stabbed to death by the climbing roses in the back.  I'm sure there are other things that we accomplished during our venture into the small gardens surrounding the house but it's getting late and the glass of merlot is kicking in.

If you haven't already: make sure to plant potatoes (I've got mine curing), start tomatoes and basil indoors for a better start outside.

Accidental Onions

The last few days have given us wonderful weather to play outside.  Thus the gardens got the much needed spring cleaning that they deserved.  For some reason, we collect the leaves from around the neighborhood.  The wind decides that we need a little ground decoration giving us leaves and snow as it wills.  I'm not all for this, but I say thanks and just bag up the leaves.  During that clean up we spotted the little buds of the hosta, Asiatic lilies and day-lilies coming up as well as a surprise in the back garden...or in a mound of dirt really.

Onions growing in a soil mound in the back yard.

Apparently, onions are trying to grow in a mound of dirt.  Thing is, the dirt isn't from the onion tote from last year's garden and I didn't put the onions there.  This is just extra dirt and somehow onions got there.  I'm blaming the squirrels because they're punks like that, but I'm going to go with it. I'm a fan of onions so it's cool.

Lemon mint with new growth, great for herbal teas :)

As for the other members of the garden from last year, the mint is growing back in their containers.  I wintered all but the Chocolate Mint on the back porch (the container was way to big to lug around the yard).  The porch has thick curtains over the storm windows to ward away the chilly breezes and I expected a normal Wisconsin winter; however, we barely got anything except for a handful of snowfalls.  So the snapdragons are still alive along the front border and if you've been paying attention to the blog then you know that it's almost impossible for me to kill them this year.  Instead, I trimmed back the old growth to make room for the new.

Also, we made a discovery on the side of the house with a pair of finches (irony at its best because we have a colony of zebra finches) nesting in a hole under the eaves.  There's a nice fluffy layer of attic installation on the side yard.  However, after the boy went into the attic and up a very scary looking ladder we got the problem of the finches fixed temporarily until we can get some material to close the gap in the wood and the holes in the attic vent.  Right now, we're using wood scraps from the back steps we replaced last fall and shims, lots and lots of shims.

Stay tuned for a special delivery later this week that I'm excited about!  Until then, get a little dirt under your fingernails and enjoy the humus.

Toilet Paper & Seeds

You're probably asking yourself "how does toilet paper and seeds relate?"  Good question.  And I thought the same thing when I read about this method in one of the books I got for Christmas.  The book, I Garden: Urban Style, discusses space and time saving techniques for those who live in an urban environment or apartments.  It goes from the basic "which garden suits you" to recipes for what you grow.  In "Chapter Five: Grow It" there is a nice tidbit about seed tape.  Thus toilet paper and seeds go hand in hand.

Here's how my experience with creating my own seed tape went:

Step 1 Gather the Materials:

• Non-toxic glue
• Cheap toilet paper
• Scissors
• Tape measure or ruler
• Seeds w/shallow bowl
• Tray

For this, I used a lid from one of the seed trays putting sheets of white paper underneath for contrast should I drop a seed off the toilet paper.  And I had a slight dilemma - which seeds to I wish to plant using this method? The Danvers Half Long or Scarlet Nantes?  I went with the Scarlet Nantes. 

Step 2 Cut: Measure the area or container (as is my case) to determine the length of the toilet paper.  Then cut strips.  Now keep in mind that that you can start several batches at two-week intervals to have a steady supply of carrots.  I usually do this with the mini-nantes because the thumb sized carrots are great sauteed with orange zest throughout the summer...just saying...

Step 3 Glue the Seeds: This step will give you tacky fingers but work in small batches instead of trying to finish the whole strip at once.  To hold the seeds, I used a shallow bowl with only a few seeds in it.  Also, don't slather the glue on because then all you get is toilet paper glued to whatever tray you are using.  The package says plant in rows 12" and then when seedlings emerge thin to 3".  Because you don't know if EVERY seed is going to work, I put the seeds on the strip every inch (or close enough).  Once they start to grow then I will thin or replant as needed.

Step 4 Plant: The package directions say cover with 1/2" of soil and with the seed tape all you need to do is lay it out wherever you'll be planting and cover.  The end. :)

This year I'm planning on at least two varieties of carrots in several containers.  Last year, they played well with the cucumbers, which I had on a cotton and bamboo trellis.  So a few will hang out with the cucumbers and others will go into other containers in cycles.  With self-watering containers it makes growing carrots so much simpler.  Because the seeds are so small and plants close to the surface they are easily disturbed in traditional pots.  So here's my challenge for you this season: Grow a small container of carrots.  You can thank me later :)

On a side note: I have a baby eggplant.  Out of the two seeds I planted, only one took, but check out the handsome lil' bugger.  Adorable, isn't it?  Guess the heat mat does it when growing eggplant.  This one is a Black Beauty variety.

I planted four bell pepper seeds but none of them took so I replanted and am now crossing my fingers that at least one emerges.  If not, oh well, I'll pick up a few plants from the local nursery.

By now if you are in my zone (which is 5), you should be starting lettuce, chard, kale, endive, carrot, radish, beet, turnip, kohlrabi, and parsnip outside as well as onion sets or transplants.

Good luck and don't forget to leave a comment on your garden's progress!!

Boo-berries and pumpkins

This year I'm giving seed starting (yet) another chance.  Every year, I try to start my own seedlings for transplant; however, the blasted things never take or just don't like to be transplanted.  This time around I got a heat mat for my eggplant and pepper seeds, something I didn't have when I tried two seasons ago.  I'm going to give the seed experience another go tonight after dinner.  While this is an epic moment it brought about utter chaos.

If I start these seeds then where will they live?  How many should I start?  And the plan I had created back in January went out the window....not just because of thinking about seedlings but because I picked up a few things while out and about over the last few weekends.  Namely blueberry plants and pumpkin seeds....and not to mention the red and blue corn seeds...oh! and more sunflower seeds...can't forget those...

The blueberry plants are now occupying the self-watering containers (SWC) I had planned for the pepper plants and well the pumpkins and corn seeds...they're hanging out for the moment.  That brings me to the present.  I've cut out pictures of all the seeds and plants I'm planning for this year's garden out of an extra Burpee's catalog.  I'm planning on taping them (or somehow arranging them) onto an over-sized piece of paper as an impromptu planning guide.  But then, I'm getting into the dilemma of finding out I might not have enough pots for this year's idea unless I get/make more...what's a girl to do?

Getting rev'd up

Hello there fellow gardeners!  How's the weather holding up in your neck of the woods?  It doesn't know what it wants to do here.  For a good week, the sun was shining and the thermometer read 50 degrees (which for here means flip flop weather, seriously...I saw people wearing flip flops).  However, it caused the ground to warm slightly.  Enough to signal my crocus that its time to bloom.  Now we're getting a nice batch of snow with low temperatures to boot.  The crocus were just starting to break the surface so hopefully they survive.

The cats finally figured out the array of pots filled with their very own grasses to nibble on.  I had to pick up extra eco-friendly pots (they're not plastic but do disintegrate if planted in the ground) for sowing more since the fatty of the bunch decided to eat the whole large pot by himself.  The pots are tiny and are different colors; however, I should've added rocks or weights to the bottom because the cats have a tendency to yank on the whole blade of grass tipping the pot over in the process.

Speaking of pots....my herbs aren't growing in their little seedling pots.  The seeds are from last season, for some plants that's not good, but most of these have a longer shelf life.  Who knows?  Maybe I should just pick up another batch of seeds and try again.  It will give me a great excuse to go to the local nursery to check out the preseason seed sales and pick up a heat mat.  I'm planning on trying to start my own eggplant and pepper seeds this year.  Reading the gardening books have told me that they need a heat supply to germinate so I'll give it a go.  If anything, the nursery carries my fav plants come April/May for transplanting so there's always that to fall back on.