Posted on 05/07/2022 4:59:11 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Tilled up the garden for the 3rd time today. I am just wiped. I have a small electric tiller I can handle well. Planting tomorrow, moving down the herbs and planting the snow pea pods and Chinese long beans maybe a few other things. Not going to put in tomatoes or peppers yet. Planting Shasta daisies on either end of the barn door. Usually do impatiens but saving money, buying no flats of flowers this year. Have not grown tithonia for many years but I got a packet of seeds and will plant them where they have done well before. Got the irises and clemantis and rosebushes fed last week. Moles have woken up and I am hitting them early with poisoned worms and flags. 7 so far. Instant summer temps this week, in the 80’s for a few days. It feels great to be outside.
Beautiful and so true!
TAKE THE QUIZ:
What is your Garden Style? (8 Questions)
https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=what-is-your-garden-style
"When you are into spirituality and the eastern culture, the Asian garden style might be something for you. Within this garden, every object has a special meaning. The structure of an Asian garden is flowing. Both round and straight lines are used. Only natural elements are used for these gardens. We often find a combination of different types of wood, stones, rocks and water."
I'll have to look into this a little more deeply. I LOVE the look, but not sure I have the dedication (or enough years left!) to achieve something this ancient and classic.
Whoops! You know that can be spliced back together right? Recommend thin paper first aid tape.
(Shucks....don't have any roses either! Need to get those too!)
Good morning. I’ve made a decision to plant flowers and culinary herbs this year. The weather is still more like late winter than mid-spring. The soil is not warm enough for sowing seeds of tomatoes and cucumbers etc. Pansies are thriving right now. Oh, how I wish they could last all year long.
I finally mowed my 6” grass. Discovered that my creepy Charlie infestation is serious. The blue flowers give away its location. Cannot use it as a ground cover, as it is non-native.
Tough to find a native ground cover that will grow in the shade. Violets & goldenrod like sun.
For now, in letting the Virginia Creeper grow.
At least 3 pairs of orioles, and they all prefer the jelly to the oranges. Lots of nice birds coming to the birdbath that are insect eaters, indigo bunting, and we rescued a black and white warbler who had hit the window, first one we have ever seen around here. Lots of hummingbirds. Thankfully we only have a couple of grosbeaks. They are real pigs at the feeder. No morels yet, been slowly planting, heat wave here.
Great picture - so pretty! I really love having/watching the birds. We are loaded with bluebirds this year - several nests successfully fledged last year. Dad put up a few new boxes this spring around the edges of our fields & a couple do currently have nests in them.
Wind gusting so hard yesterday I did not plant tomatoes. I had a ride to the store this morning (can get my leg/brace in the truck & drive myself, but the rod in the back of the brace kills me the whole time I’m driving - easier to be a passenger) & I badly needed to go - just got home & no sooner in the door than it’s raining at a pretty good clip - bummer! If I can get out between showers or if it’s just a drizzle, I’ll still try to plant today.
My brother who lives 2 hours away sent me a message this morning, whining (justifiably) about how terrible his garden looks - he has a pretty good green thumb. They have been colder & more frequently overcast than we’ve been - usually we are colder. Anyway, it appears people are coming to terms with a colder & later spring this year - like Melissa (I like her blog & videos).
What Coldest May in 50’s Years Means for Food Production, Garden Set Backs & Going With the Flow!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t76ALFkl4-c
Last week I couldn't keep the tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse because it was falling below 50 degrees at night.
Today? And yesterday? 102 degrees in there! I've watered twice so far, and will again this evening. They ARE loving it, however. I have had a few losses of some flowers I re-potted, but I can get zinnia anywhere these days. ;)
I've also been battling wasps out there. They just LOVE to build in the eves of my greenhouse. NOPE!
And, OF COURSE, our skid steer is on the fritz. Beau just bought a $700 pump of some kind for it. It is currently in the neighbor's field where he was doing some mowing for him. Until THAT gets fixed, I can't get The Big Garden in, and my potatoes REALLY need to go in, so may have to sacrifice a raised bed or two for them this season.
It just goes to show ya:
I am going to try to get the tomatoes in now, soon as mom gets the golf cart! Definitely “warmed up” - getting downright humid! No showers in the immediate vicinity per radar.
I have been dissatisfied with my tomato cages the last couple of years. So I saw this & if I can find the panel(s) & figure out how to get them here (brother’s trailer would work), this is what I’m going to try. They’ll work for my pepper plants, too.
https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2020/05/10/stake-tomato-plants/
I’ve been using cattle panels for YEARS...welcome to the future!
I have much that grows on its own. 5 black cherry saplings grew in the plant bed bordering my neighbors yard. Suddenly, they’re 8 feet tall. Birds must have dropped the seeds. I think they don’t mind being pruned, so I can keep them smallish.
4 young dogwoods flowered for the first time this month. Along the road in the woods, across from me. I have one that appeared. Maybe will flower next year. I just have to water them during droughts.
Grew on their own: young trees ... Ash, hickory, catalpa, pussy willow, oak, beech, elm. They grow where they choose to grow.
Looking forward to trying the cattle panels!
The tomatoes are planted. Of course, as soon as I stepped outside, it started sprinkling fairly significantly, but I put on a rain hat & kept going. I mulched them in pine needles to keep the dirt from splashing on the leaves since more & heavier storms are due the next 2 days. I did not get the cardboard weed barriers down (more pine needles go on top of that - makes for a very neat looking raised bed), but that can wait. The herbs I planted May 3rd look great - first time I’ve been out to see them close up.
Apple tree bloomed yesterday! Time to plant bush beans. Old time garden wisdom from my grandfather. Go by nature not by your calendar!
-SB
Excellent advice - and so true! Due to wildly fluctuating weather this Spring season, I thought I would be a lot further behind than I am.
Nature is a little behind, but really only by a week or so. My apple, peach, plum, crab apple, cherry and pear trees are in full bloom now, too.
Thanks for the reminder to get my pole bean supports restrung and ready to go for the season. I’m OBSESSED with canning Dilly Beans this year. And Salsa - always SALSA! :)
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