Garden Friday

 

 

 

candytuft and tulips

 

Welcome to Garden Friday!

Spring is still weeks away, 

but you'd never know it by what's popping up!

 

The sweet potatoes leftover from last season

were added to a baking tray filled with soil.

This is the new way I'm creating slips to plant 

out in the garden later on.

For now, they reside in our funky space

we affectionately deem "the spa room".

Once the slips start forming,

they will be pinched off and added to a jar with water to form roots.

 

These pots were found at the big box store

and are being saved to transplant our blueberry bushes.

Although I've amended the soil two years in a row,

our pH was still much too high for them to thrive.

The containers will buy me at least a year,

so that I can try to remediate the problem and test again.

These pots are not only made in the USA,

but they are fashioned from ocean plastic!

 

Our first Birdie bed has been assembled.

Big K helped with this project,

as he is a master of all things nuts-n-bolts.

Truth be told, I could have easily done the job myself,

it was that easy.

 

The bed will be used strictly for strawberries,

which I've ordered from our local Cooperative Extension office.

I still have some fairly healthy plants that I will transplant as well.

The bottom of the bed was filled with twigs and dried leaf mulch.

 

The potting soil was added and there will be room at the top

for homemade compost and more shredded leaves.

I love the look and plan to replace the existing beds with Birdie's

as the budget allows.

The washtub (behind and to the right),

will be repurposed as a dust bathing vessel for the chooks.

They can use another place to primp and preen themselves.

 

 

Lettuce has been transplanted into the Mr. Stacky pots.

There are two more tiers to this system,

but I just wanted to start with a few to see

how well they do on the back deck.

After they grow a bit more,

the wire (used to deter squirrels from digging)

will be removed and the pots will be stacked.

 

One of our tasks this week was cleaning out

all of the birdhouses on the property.

C enjoys helping with this

and the weather couldn't have been better!

We're ready for all of our feathered friends to join the family!

 Spring is almost here,

and all of the gardeners I know are SO excited!

What a blessing this season is for so many.

Enjoy your week!

 

 

Garden Friday

 

 

Welcome back to Garden Friday!

With the weather showing its "spring-i-ness",

we've been working diligently at getting projects done.

 

 

Melons were started from seed 

and added to our cardboard tube pots.

Some of these are first time crops for me,

and I'm hoping we have enough room for them to sprawl.

What's better than ice cold melon on a hot, sticky summer day?

 

A quick check on the garden found the onions still doing fine.

This bed is shared with parsley and newly planted

broccoli and beets.

 

Some of the lettuce is finally starting to pop up.

For some reason, this has been a slow starting season

and the germination rate hasn't been great.

Many crops will need to be reseeded before the planting window closes.

 

Good news on the berry front though!

Many of the blueberry plants have berries on them.

 

 

 

They are all in place and tucked in

under a thick layer of homemade leaf mulch.

The irrigation has been hooked up

so they are getting plenty of hydration.

 

The strawberries are flowering and bearing fruit as well.

We have strawberries planted in three different places,

and hopefully, they will help us get our fill.

 

On the ornamental side,

the clematis that was transplanted to a sunnier spot

seems to be quite content.

This plant will cover the archway in the chicken yard.

 

 

Our neighbor had some trees trimmed and 

didn't want the wood chips.

I was happy to give them a home.

I've been registered with "ChipDrop" for a couple of years,

and never once received a load of chips.

This was such a gift.

 

They were put to good use.

I had enough to remulch the entire garden area

and enough left over to do most of the chicken run.

 

 

When Big K was mowing,

he discovered this surprise asparagus from last year.

If you've been reading the blog for a while,

you know that the entire veg garden had to be moved last year.

The asparagus was dug up and removed,

but I guess it's there for the duration.

 

 Earlier in the week, loofah seeds were planted 

around the gazebo structure to shade the chooks,

especially in the heat of summer.

These take a while to get started,

but once they get going, there is no stopping them.

They absolutely love the humidity!

We have been blessed with new life all around the homestead.

Just look at these bluebird tweeters.

 

And on the front porch birdhouse,

these wren tweeters are busy eating 24 hours a day.

The parents must be exhausted!

 We made room for more by fixing a couple of bird houses

that were going to be thrown out by a friend.

 

 

On my daily walk,

there were such lovely sights to see throughout the neighborhood.

I texted this neighbor and told him I think we need to do a swap.

He is totally on board.

 

This sweet planting surprised me

with all of the vibrant colors.

It just screams spring, don't you think?

 

The blackberries are in bloom!

Another neighbor pointed these out to me a few years ago,

and he's been having to share them ever since.

We both walk each morning and snack along the way.

 

Is this fringe tree amazing?

This belongs to a friend and I am always so glad when it comes into bloom.

What a showpiece!

It's one of the most unique trees I've ever seen.

Our Fabulous Flock

It feels great getting all of these little projects caught up.

With all of the irrigation in for now,

that's a big load off of my to-do list.

Now we will make a few more trips to the local IGA

and pick up some bargain ornamentals

so that we can work on the flowerbeds.

I hope to see a big difference by the end of summer.

What are you working on in your garden?

Birdhouse Perch

 

This spring we put up several birdhouses, in part,

 to help with insect control in the garden.

Some were attached to trees, 

while a couple of others were mounted on 5-foot conduit poles.

The occupancy was hit-and-miss until we discovered a different way

to keep the birds and the eggs inside a bit safer.

We swapped out the five foot poles for 10 foot lengths of conduit.

This makes it more difficult for snakes and squirrels to rob the nests.

It also allows our feathered friends to have more privacy,

without being disturbed by foot traffic passing by at (our) eye level.

The poles slip easily into a simple bracket

and hold the birdhouse in place.

Using a piece of wood or a screw on the top,

the pole stays right where you want it.

This also makes it a breeze to clean the houses out each season,

as the pole handily slides right out of the bracket

after bringing the pole down from its roost.

We used both PVC pipe and plain rebar inserted into the ground

to anchor the poles.

Even in our hard, clay soil, this was readily accomplished.

With the PVC, the pole fits snugly inside,

and with the rebar, the pole drapes over the top.

Either way, it is quite secure.

We used what we had lying around,

but even if the items need to be purchased,

it's fairly inexpensive.

 

Bird watching has become a daily pasttime,

so it is our pleasure to provide for the families who call our property home.

It's one small thing we can do to encourage and foster

some of Nature's most fascinating creatures.

 

Garden Friday

Welcome to a sodden Garden Friday!
We've had almost 4 1/2 inches of rain since Tuesday,
with more predicted this coming week.
No need to use the drip system we recently installed.
No complaints here!

 Along with the pelting rain,
the winds have been fierce.
Some of the sunflowers in the pollinator bed
have fared the worst.
Hopefully, once the weather calms down,
I can get out there and stake them up.

 Another casualty from the winds 
was one of the birdhouses.
I found it face down on the ground,
the ten foot pole having been blown over.
Thankfully, when I checked inside,
there were no eggs yet nesting there.

It got fastened to the gazebo frame
until we can get some more rebar.
I hope the occupants decide it's safe enough to return.



The snap peas are blooming now,
so they were given a dose of worm castings.

 A few pods have been sampled,
with much satisfaction.
There is nothing so fresh tasting
as a snap pea eaten off the vine.

 One of the 4X4 beds was partially planted,
but until the rains hit,
there wasn't much action here.
Now it seems that the seedlings have grown
several inches in just a few days.
There's nothing like Mother Nature's blessings.

Detroit Dark red beets

 The lettuce and kale in the coffee cans exploded!
The scarlet kale will be transplanted into a raised bed,
as I hope to relish eating it for months.

The strawberries in the galvanized tub seem content.
This batch was acquired this season from Cooperative Extension
during their yearly plant sale.

 Another batch was gifted by a dear friend last year.
They are planted in a straw bale
and are putting on fruit.
I'm thinking I might cover them with deer netting,
so that we actually get some berries to enjoy.

 This is the first time I've tried using netting
to protect my plants from larger critters like birds and squirrels.
It's easy, organic and causes no harm.

 

 There's a volunteer cantaloupe growing in the pollinator bed.
The plan is to move it into a container,
although since it's already flowering,
I may have waited too long.

 We have squash coming up in one of the 3X8 beds.
Three varieties were planted,
but so far, only two have germinated.
The rest of the bed will be planted with sweet potatoes this weekend.

A new bean to me, Dragon Tongue, 
(I wrote the wrong name on the tag),
popped up yesterday.
This versatile bean can be eaten fresh, shelled or dried for the pantry.
 

 If we get a break in the weather,
one of the weekend's tasks will be to empty the trailer
of another load of free mulch.
Slowly, I'm working on expanding the walking areas around the garden.

 The front porch garden is coming along.
Most of what is here returned from last year
including the allysum, coneflowers, Gerbera daisies, lantana,
milkweed, rudbeckia, and salvia.
Even a stray sunflower arose,
most likely thanks to squirrels or birds dropping the seed here.
The bird bath in the middle,
fashioned out of an old cement base and a plastic saucer,
gets many visitors each day.

rudbeckia

The flower seedlings started earlier in the week
are germinating and will be ready for transplanting in a few weeks.
These include daisies and zinnias.
(The wire caging is what I used before acquiring the deer netting.)

blanket flower

The rain may have slowed down my work in the garden,
but the crops, flowers and frogs are mighty satisfied.
Here's hoping for just a wee bit of sunshine
so that I can tackle some garden chores this weekend.

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, 

snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, 

only different kinds of good weather."

~John Ruskin