Seed Starting Season

Despite the move, we managed to carve out some time to start seeds for the summer. Dahlias, sweet pea, hollyhocks, nasturtiums, morningglory, moon flower and lots of other things. So much fun on a quiet wet spring day to have this space and time to do this. Looking forward to Spring. Plants coming up already after one week.

Peonies

We have been catching up with gardening for weeks and it is nice to see some of the early flowers show up. The peonies are really pretty this year.

Crayola Gladiolas

This summer we planted a ton of Dahlias and Gladiolas into pots in the lower garden. The purpose was to have a lot of random color mixed in with the regular perennials so that there was always something blooming. The gladiolas started blooming this week and the color assortment is quite pretty.

Vines

We love the Hops vine and Scarlett Runner Bean combo on the trellis on our front porch. We planted the Hops vine last summer and it has a process so we just go with the flow. It really did well this year and the Scarlett runner bean adds a touch of color and texture to the combo. I think we tried Morning Glory last year and it was okay. Next summer, I think I might mix all three. It is getting as tall as the lattice across the porch but still has to be thicker and fuller.

Night Gardens

Sometimes the best time to view the garden and yard are at dusk. We love to sit out on the front porch and watch the bats come out and see the evergreens silhouetted against the sky and see all the solar powered lights come on for the evening. It can be so relaxing and so pretty.

Summer Gardening

Despite the lack of rain and higher temperatures, we have been having a lovely gardening summer. Lots of new plants and it just keeps getting better!

VEGETABLE GARDEN

The garden looks awesome right now with lots of good things to eat.

WHITE FLOWERS

Mid summer and I look forward to our hydrangeas blooming at our back door. They are beautiful. I don't know why I ever was worried about my Mom's gardenia bushes, they have survived and then some between our basement grow lights and under the pergola in the summer. They were prolific this year.

Forsythia

When I lived in North Carolina, I lived across the street from a city park. Every spring when the forsythia bloomed there were bushes all around this block and our sunroom deck looked down upon all this beautiful color. I would go across the street and cut tons of branches and fill the house with all their beautiful blooms. It was always a sign that Spring was finally here and still is. When we moved here, I was determined to plant tons of the shrub and am still working on it but I love being able to cut vases for our kitchen and living room from our own mature shrubs. I love Forsythia.

Spring Seed Planting Has Begun

It's that time of year.

VEGETABLE GARDEN 2020

So this summer, after two years of hay bale gardening which was really successful - we decided to take all that great composting material and clean up the garden and put in some permanent raised beds.  We wanted to start using all this great soil and compost we had created.  However, with Covid and not having access to our normal nurseries we were going to have to get our plants in a different way.  We had set up a seed starting station in the basement but we finally were going to get to use it.  Tim had a huge library of seeds and since we weren't going anywhere - now was the moment to try it.

The garden had to be completely overhauled.  Breaking down the bales that had still  not decomposed and moving the decomposed material along with top soil into the beds and into the tires.  Don't knock the tires. They are great containers for a garden. We use them a lot for potatoes cause you plant in a stacked tire container and when you want to harvest you just lift the top layer and pull the potatoes out of the soil.  Cinder blocks and pavers are heavy and hard to haul.  So we are still in the process of bringing more in and setting up the permanent raised beds.  The pavers are so solid and great to sit and lean on.  The beds can also be adjusted, lengthened and modified as you see fit. The worst part about the hay bales was that they attracted a lot of snakes.  Snakes must like the moisture, texture, and shade of the decomposed bales but it was a little unnerving finding snakes everywhere.

The garden looks much more organized and permanent and less messy without  the bales falling apart.  The garden is looking great, the seed station worked out great and we move into phase 2 of our vegetable garden and we are very excited.