The Whole Yard

Sore

2011-05-31T08:36:00.000-05:00

When you live in Wisconsin, the following scenario is pretty typical.

You spend 6+ months cooped up in the house, dealing with snow and cold. Spring rolls around and you have to start mowing the lawn, which makes for a nice way to get outside, even though you might be wrapped up in a winter jacket yet.

Then the first really nice day comes. The weather forecast reads sunny and 80s. You initially put on jeans and a t-shirt, not trusting the weather report, and head outside... only to head back in to change into shorts and a tank top.

You then spend the entire day outside, thoroughly energized by the lovely weather. You weed, you mow, you till, you fertilize, you plant. At the end of the day you grill and chill.

The next morning you groan. If you were smart, you aren't sunburned. But you're still awfully sore.

Resurrection

2011-05-30T21:01:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since I blogged here. There's a reason.

Meet G. In the last post in this blog I was 5 months pregnant. Shortly thereafter, I found the combination of 3rd trimester pregnancy and keeping up with the mammoth garden and yardwork a bit much. Oh, I could keep up - barely - but at the end of the day I was generally too tired to write about it.

G is about 6 months now. So we're past the chronic sleep deprivation phase and can re-visit a few things that have lagged behind.

We've had a positively abysmal spring. It has been since late January that we've had one full weekend of sun. And it's only this past weekend that it's warmed up enough to plant things.

We've scaled back this year, especially compared to last year. We've planting only two beds, containing tomatoes, red and white onions, shallots, eggplant, peppers, jalapenos, carrots, beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, squash, zucchini, cucumbers. We'll add some herbs, garlic and annuals in a week or so. We wanted to keep it a bit simple. Mr. Trouble looks like he's going to be an early crawler, so I don't expect we'll have much peace once he gets going.

In other news, we've been soliciting bids to come up with a master plan for the back yard. The idea being that, once we have an overall plan, we can implement sections of it as time and budget allow. Stay tuned for that!

More veggies harvested & corn progress

2010-08-01T17:11:00.000-05:00

Harvest - 7/25

Peas

Squash, Zucchini and Cucumbers

Peppers, Jalapeños, Tomatoes and Eggplant

Minestrone

Harvest - 8/1

Eggplant, Peppers, Poblanos, Jalapeños, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Beans

(not pictured: garlic, onions, shell beans)

Also, back on July 10th, the corn was just over my head:

Here it is today:

And that's The Spouse at 6'5"

Pea Harvest

2010-07-12T14:14:00.000-05:00

Reviewing the garden in recent weeks, it was becoming increasingly clear that the teepee trellises were absolutely inadequate for the peas. When I went out there today, I found them leaning well to the east, squashing some of the bean plants. So, I made the decision to cut them down, harvest the peas and do a second planting.

Half the pea plants cut down and waiting to be gone thru.

Handfull of peas

Harvested pea pods

Garden Update - July 2010

2010-07-11T13:24:00.000-05:00

Overview

Me next to the corn (I'm 6')

From on top the ladder

Looking back at the house

Other corner, on top the ladder

Radishes, Peas and Tomatoes

2010-06-19T16:51:00.000-05:00

The largest one is about the size of my fist. I'm not kidding.

Peas have set flowers!

And two early, early tomatoes!

One week later

2010-06-14T21:27:00.002-05:00

Oh, dear. I'm not sure how we're going to eat all this...

Garden Update

2010-06-06T17:40:00.002-05:00

Tomatoes

Peppers, Jalapenos, Habaneros, Onions

More tomatoes, eggplant, tomatillos

Radishes, Lettuce, Carrots, Onions, Shallots, Collards, Kale

Corn, squash, garlic

Kale, Collards, Cucumbers, Squash

Beans, Beans, Beans

Peas and Spinach

More beans

Chard and Carrots

Photos from around the yard

2010-05-16T14:31:00.000-05:00

Seedlings!

2010-05-16T14:25:00.001-05:00

Some of these you'll have to enlarge to see them better.

Peas

Spinach

Chard

Carrots (towards the bottom of the photo)

Radishes

Transplans: lettuce, carrots, onion, shallots, collards, kale, garlic

To-do update

2010-05-02T18:11:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking we're ahead of the game this year.

~~Re-do the fireplace bed~~
De-thatch the yard
Finish overseeding the last of the backyard
~~Plant out the front walkway beds~~
~~Get rid of the barberry bush~~
~~Fill in holes in the yard~~
Buy and install a rain barrel
Put in stepping stone path
Outdoor lighting
Design, create and install screens for the arbor
Finish master plan of the yard

Fireplace Bed is DONE!

2010-05-02T17:55:00.000-05:00

This particular item has been on the to-do list for two years now. The bed always starts off pretty in spring and then goes to hell quickly.

So, we decided to revamp the bed. The difficulty was that the bedding was little rocks, which had to be removed before anything was planted. All the old plants had to be removed and sorted. And, lastly, there was a tree that had started growing along the foundation that needed to be destroyed. I had cut the tree down but the stump still needed to be removed. And all of that even before things were planted.

In all, it was a daunting project to start. But we decided today that now was as good a time as any.

First, the stumps were removed:

Then the stones were removed and dumped out back. All of that work apparently scared up some ground bees. I'm utterly terrified of bees, so I layed out the plants and let Eric do the planting. The end result:

In the bed went hostas, native columbine, bellflower and bee balm. Feels really good to have that done. It'll be nice to see things bloom this summer.

Garden Beds 2010

2010-05-02T17:36:00.000-05:00

So, the garden is finally taking shape. It started with a very large pile of dirt:

Said pile of dirt was meant to fill the three raised beds.

Over 40 wheelbarrow loads later:

That was step one. We figured that'd be good enough and then we could plant. Until the dogs started tearing thru the beds, eating the dirt, and digging in it to create a cool spot to lay in. That's generally not good for seedlings.

So step two was fencing the beds in with chicken wire. Once that was installed, we could plant early seeds and transplants:

The far right bed contains two rows each of chard and carrots, 4 teepee trellises for peas and spinach, and 2 bean transplants. The middle bed contains a row of radishes, a row of alternating carrot and lettuce transplants, two sets of kale and collard plantings, then rows of onions, leeks and shallots. The far left bed will be planted at the end of the month with tomatoes, etc.

Front Walkway re-planting

2010-03-30T16:21:00.001-05:00

Last year we attempted to fill in the spot where a large juniper died with two gold japanese yew. While lovely, they don't exactly cover the ground much. Hence, we had a pretty bad problem keeping the weeds out.

So, this year we're going to add in some plants to compliment what currently exists. The main planting will take place in the bed in the right portion of the photo. It will be anchored by the existing japanese barberry and planted around the yews. The plants we chose:

Lady's Mantle "Auslese"

Sea Thrift "Armada Rose"

Day Lily "Stella de Oro", "Bright Sunset" and "Wild Horses"

Bearded Iris "Impressionist"

Pincushion "Butterfly Blue"

In addition, we'll be adding more of the same Coralbells (the small red plant in the bed). And we'll be transplanting some of our Siberian Irises from the backyard.

Along the narrow edge of bed between the walkway and the grass, we'll be planting Sedum "October Daphne"

Stuff's growing!!

2010-03-22T09:26:00.000-05:00

I peeked around outside mid-week this week and didn't see any of the usual suspects (daffodils, irises, crocus, hyacinth) popping out.

Then the weather got cold on Saturday and we ended up with about an inch of snow.

But wandering around Sunday morning I noticed that they had sneakily pushed thru. The daffodils are emerging and the irises are greening up in the bean bed. In the garage bed, the sedum, hollyhock and phlox are peeking up from their crowns and my earliest daffodils are poking thru the siberian irises.

I'll be taking notes and photos tonight. But it looks like spring is FINALLY here!

What's left in the larder?

2010-03-12T10:13:00.000-06:00

As spring approaches, I'm taking stock of what items we still have left in our freezer and cellar. Not that we need to clean it out, since we'll have several months before new fresh produce starts rolling in. But it's good to know what you've got.

We still have:

sun-dried tomatoes
red onions
white onions
shallots (LOADS of shallots!)
peppers
jalapenos
squash
collards
sukuma wiki
dried herbs - rosemary, parsley, oregano

I think I've done it

2010-01-21T13:17:00.004-06:00

Created our garden neighborhoods, that is.

Because we expanded our crop selection this year, I had to (yet again) adjust our bed layout with pests and companions in mind. To make this more difficult, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't re-planting a bed with the same item in the same location. So this year if I combined squash and collards, I needed to do so carefully.

I knew we were rotating the tomatoes to the furthest east bed since it hadn't seen a member of the solanaceae family since 2007, which should have allow for enough time for any soil bacteria or other nasties to subside. So that was my leaping off point for the other two beds.

The end result is the following rudimentary outline:

East Bed: Tomato, Red Onion, Yellow Onion, Leek
Middle Bed: Cucumber, Squash, Corn, Collards, Kale, Radish, Lettuce, Carrot, Garlic
West Bed: Beans, Peas, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Carrots

Eventually I need to break this out further into what varieties will go in each location. Some particular items may move - like I may plant pole beans with the corn and squash in the traditional Three Sisters combination.

There will also be a LOT of interplanting with herbs and vegetables. More than last year. It's going to be very dynamic and biodiverse. Exciting stuff!

2010 To Do List

2010-01-19T14:42:00.003-06:00

Getting an early jump on things this year. Some of these items may be "wish list" to-dos, others are more mandatory. In no particular order:

Re-do the fireplace bed
Finish overseeding the last of the backyard
Plant out the front walkway beds
Get rid of the barberry bush
Fill in holes in the yard
Buy and install a rain barrel
Put in stepping stone path
Outdoor lighting
Design, create and install screens for the arbor
Finish master plan of the yard

Book Review - Great Garden Companions

2010-01-19T12:23:00.002-06:00

I picked this book up from the library to try and expand my knowledge of companion planting. Last year worked well, but I was sure there was room for improvement.

Suffice to say, after spending a few hours reading it, I ran off to Barnes & Noble to order my own copy. It contains general principles and then details on each type of crop. It also has information on how to best attract beneficial insects, plants that may keep pests away, and information on each type of garden pest and how to deal with it.

We're going to be putting some of these theories to practice this year.

2010 Vegetable garden

2010-01-15T08:52:00.004-06:00

Inspired by Skippy's Vegetable Garden, I started to put a comparison together of the last two years. The idea being it would help me sort out what we want to grow this year. We decided to pretty much scrap the tomato varieties we'd tried so far and search for something new. Same with the bell peppers. I'm going to give cucumbers a shot one more year - this time a new variety from seed. I still haven't figured out what lettuce variety we'll get. We may just go with what we grew last year. Milaeger's is our local nursery who we've used the last 3 years. SSE = Seed Savers Exchange.

So here's the list for 2010 so far. Once I get the beds plotted out, I'll post that as well!

Crop, type	Variety	Source	Seed or Transplant?
Beans, green	Derby Bush	Milaeger's	Transplant
	Empress	SSE	Seed
	Royalty Purple Pod	SSE	Seed
	Dragon's Tongue	SSE	Seed
Beans, shell	Calypso	SSE	Seed
	Cherokee Trail of Tears	SSE	Seed
	Ireland Creek Annie	SSE	Seed
Carrots	Royal Chantenay	Milaeger's	Transplant
	St. Valery	SSE	Seed
Collard green	Champion	Milaeger's	Transplant
Corn	Reid's Yellow Dent	SSE	Seed
Cucumber	Double Yield	SSE	Seed
	Japanese Climbing	SSE	Seed
Eggplant	Park's Whopper Hybrid	Milaeger's	Transplant
Garlic	softneck	Milaeger's	Transplant
Kale	Winterbor	Home Depot	Transplant
Leek	American Flag	Milaeger's	Transplant
Lettuce	Bistro Salad Blend	Milaeger's	Transplant
Onion, Red	Red Burgermaster	Milaeger's	Transplant
Onion, Yellow	Copra	Milaeger's	Transplant
peas	Dwarf Gray Sugar	SSE	Seed
	Green Arrow	SSE	Seed
Pepper	Blushing Beauty (yellow)	Milaeger's	Transplant
	King of the North (green/red)	SSE	Transplant
	Valencia (orange)	Milaeger's	Transplant
	Sweet Chocolate (brown)	Milaeger's	Transplant
	Tiburon Poblano	Milaeger's	Transplant
	Mucho Nacho Jalapeno	Milaeger's	Transplant
	Orange Habanero	Milaeger's	Transplant
Radish	Early Scarlet Globe	SSE	Seed
Shallot		Milaeger's	Transplant
Spinach	Bloomsdale	SSE	Seed
Squash, Summer	Enterprise	Milaeger's	Transplant
	Black Beauty Zucchini	SSE	Seed
	Spineless Beauty	Milaeger's	Transplant
Squash, Winter	Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck	SSE	Seed
Swiss Chard	Five Color Silverbeet	SSE	Seed
Tomatillo	Toma Verde	Milaeger's	Transplant
Tomato	Early Girl	Milaeger's	Transplant
	Jet Star	Milaeger's	Transplant
	Rose	Milaeger's	Transplant
	Opalka	Milaeger's	Transplant

Poor, neglected blog

2010-01-12T08:43:00.004-06:00

Fall ended up being crazy for both of us. Work sucked up what free time we had.

Also, we ended up with a new addition to the family:

That's Indy. She's an outsized miniature poodle with a lot of spunk. She's a rescue from a local organization, so she's needed to learn some basic commands and we've had to build up her confidence (she was very shy and jumpy at first). She is also a serious bird/game dog - she flushes birds and games better than my ILs two goldens. She is also a digger, so we'll have to do a lot of re-direct training this spring. But she's sweet and playful and we're looking forward to springtime with her.

To round out the year, we ended up overseeding about 2/3 of the back lawn. I could see the new grass coming up before the first freeze, so I think that's a success. We'll see how it looks in a few months.

The final 2009 To-Do List doesn't look too done though. Kind of disappointing, but that's life.

Finish master plan of the yard
Re-landscape west wall bed (aka fireplace bed)
Get rid of barberry bush in back
Place stepping stones from garage to back yard
Clear out back woods
~~Re-landscape garage bed~~
~~Re-level brick patio~~
~~Power-wash trellis and mailbox post~~
~~Fill in holes in front bed (dead junipers and rose bushes)~~
~~Plan out vegetable garden~~
~~Re-mulch front yard beds~~
~~Look at and either remove or repair yard sink~~
~~Trim large bush trio in back~~
~~Prune Mugo out front after killing the evil sawflies~~

A commenter in the last post had asked about the barberry bush that we plan to rip out and how we're planning to do that. Well, simply, we're digging it out. It's a fairly small bush, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Having dug up two very large junipers and two 12'+ apple trees, this little guy should be easy. If the bush were larger, I would probably cut it back severely and then dig the root system out as best I could, using a nice sharp spade to cut thru the roots where possible. I wouldn't recommend using a truck or the like to rip out any large, well-rooted bush, though. Odds are you'd rip the bumper off before taking the bush out.

Predictions for 2010:

We'll be trying to grow vegetables from SEED this year. I'm only using ones we can directly sow in the ground, as I have no patience for everything involved with sowing in flats indoors. I'm currently thinking we'll use this to experiment with a few different varieties and get the majority of our "must haves" from the nursery still.

As I said, we'll be working with Indy on not digging her way to China. Lucky was taught (by my sister's standard poodle, ironically) to dig in the sandbox, so we'll work on training her that way.

Fall Kitchen Work

2009-10-10T08:46:00.004-05:00

Rosemary, Oregano and Parsley - dried for winter use

Tomatoes, halved and seeded and ready for dehydrating

Finished Product - Oven-dried Tomatoes

Tomatillos, whole and in a bit of water

Finished product - ready for use in salsas, stews, chili, etc.

Today I have some jalapenos I'm going to dehydrate. We also got our first good frost last night (it's currently 34°), so I'm going to go thru the garden and pick whatever may be left.

In other yardwork, we have to mow the lawn and then overseed the backyard. We disagree on where we're going to overseed (we only bought enough to do about half the back). I think we should seed where the grass is thinnest - towards the back of the yard - and Eric thinks we should seed where we spend the most time, even though the grass there is plenty thick and grows well.

Putting Food By

2009-09-04T15:34:00.004-05:00

Well, with the start of fall harvest comes the start of putting food aside for the winter.

Last weekend I turned about 1/3 of the collards I harvested into Sukuma Wiki (the rest went to my sister, probably for the same purpose). There's still more collards coming in, so I may have to do another batch.

Last night I spent the night turning several pounds of tomatoes into my Red-Wine Marinara Sauce. I have about 20 lbs ripening in the bag and about as many still on the vine.

Some time in the near future I'm going to pull out some tray-frozen peppers from last year and turn them into Roasted Tomato and Pepper Sauce, along with this year's peppers.

I only ended up with a handful of jalapenos this year - not enough to justify smoking and drying them into chipotles. I may just turn them all into poppers to eat now or try my hand at pickling.

Harvest

2009-08-29T16:59:00.003-05:00

Jalapenos, one gigantic tomato (Better Boy?), several plum tomatoes, a couple romas, more beans, one squash, a couple peppers.

And several pounds of collards to be blanched and frozen, turned into sukuma wiki, or eaten fresh this week.

Happy (almost) September!

Garden update

2009-08-28T08:13:00.004-05:00

My tomato plants have been hit by some form of spot disease. I think it's bacterial.

I trimmed away the worst of the affected leaves. The fruit seems to be just fine so far. In fact, we have a tomato the size of a bocce ball that's almost ripe. And the plants pictured here? Crazy producers. I'm going to have some amazing marinara this year. Also, if you look carefully in the first photo you can see our tomatillo plants and all the fruit it's set. Love.It.

The garlic we grew this year actually doesn't suck! I have to admit I was nervous. I dug it up when they said to, but the bulbs were so small. But I took one of them and tried cooking with it and, wow. Delish. Spicy and flavorful.

The onions are almost ready to come out, I think. Our yellow ones are beautiful and large. I can't wait to cook with them.

I think the bush beans and the peapods have finally kicked the bucket.

I don't know if our habanero will ever produce. Our poblano seems to be done after just two peppers. Green peppers are doing just fine and the jalapenos are doing ok. Not as crazy as last year but we didn't have much hot weather this year.

The lettuce? Came back. Gah. I may have to ding-dong-ditch with lettuce this year.

Our zucchini plant got vine borers, so that got dug up and thrown out. I'm scared to see what all this rain has done to my remaining squash plant. It had set more fruit a week ago but I've been unable to go check on it all this week.

I need to harvest, blanch and stew the collards. I think I may just make a ginormous pot of sukuma wiki and be done with it.

I've been harvesting and drying herbs for the winter. I love my oven's dehydration feature. I have a boatload of fresh dried parsley and rosemary. The oregano and basil are next.

Garden Recipes

2009-07-29T10:38:00.002-05:00

Now that the garden is starting to swing into full production, I thought I'd share a couple recent kitchen creations using in-season vegetables.

Garden Bounty Minestrone - this was a tasty way to use up zucchini, squash, beans and pea pods.
Creamy Orzo Primavera - a spin on pasta primavera, using more beans and pea pods
Spinach-Stuffed Pork Chops - using spinach, a spring onion and fresh herbs. and bacon. because bacon makes everything better

The following are from last year that are worth a repeat:
Caesar Salad with Croutons - a great way to use the last of the lettuce for this year
Sukuma Wiki - collards, collards and more collards. goes GREAT with BBQ.

Find more on What Recipe using the "garden" tag

Lettuce and Garlic Harvest and thoughts on fall planting

2009-07-27T09:08:00.003-05:00

I harvested the last of the lettuce yesterday. We're about to go on vacation and it was getting towards the end of the season. I was pretty sure it would bolt while we were gone.

Our two plants ended up offering two gallons of leaf lettuce. I think overall we've harvested somewhere between 4-5 gallons this year.

I also dug up our garlic. We lost one head... as in, I couldn't find it where it had been planted. Another one is probably inedible since the stem was completely brown and flopped over. But I got one nice head and one smaller one that I think will do.

I'm considering going ahead and ordering a bunch now for fall planting. Not sure where, yet, I'm going to plant it though. I have been toying with next year's plan and seed orders (first time growing from seed! Eek!), so I may come up with a rudimentary plan just to get the garlic in the ground.

What's Growing Now

2009-07-24T10:31:00.002-05:00

I've been woefully behind in updating but the garden and life is keeping us busy.

To date we have harvested:
a boatload of lettuce
a ton of collards
dozens of green beans
lots of pea pods
3 jalapenos
1 zucchini
1 summer squash
lots and lots of herbs

With them we have made lots of salads, sauteed collards to go with Rudy's BBQ chicken, salmon stir fry (using the beans and pea pods), and Garden Bounty Minestrone.

Ready to be picked are the garlic (I think I may be too late for one...) and some onions and shallots (they just need thinning).

On the vine there are lots more jalapenos, poblanos, green peppers, a ton of tomatoes, more zucchini and squash.

Odd failures this year were the chard and the spinach. I really don't know what happened - last year we couldn't keep up with them.

In exciting news, I was talking with my mom about canning. She asked why I was bothering with it and I whined about our lack of refrigerator space, especially in comparison to our pantry space. She seemed surprised that we hadn't bought a freezer yet and I admitted it was on the list of purchases but we've never gotten around to it. So she said that she and dad would buy us one as a Christmas present - apparently this was something they'd done for most of my other siblings. It's a very generous gift but one I think we'll gladly accept. I need to keep an eye on sales now.

Garden photos - July 2009

2009-07-05T17:06:00.001-05:00

I harvested some of the collards today for dinner.

Garage Bed - July 2009

2009-07-05T17:04:00.000-05:00

Bean Bed July 2009 and a surprise

2009-07-05T16:58:00.002-05:00

The surprise were these blood-red roses that appeared along the fireplace wall.

Garden photos - June 09

2009-06-23T20:58:00.002-05:00

So, here's the garden from back on the 1st.

And what it looks like today:

Our attempts at container gardening - not bad, eh?

The grapevine. Last year it didn't do well at all, so this year we cut it back as far as I dared - more than 2/3 of the existing vine. I was worried when it didn't start budding this spring, but it's coming back beautifully.

Last, more of the Zebrina Mallow

Organic Gardening success story!

2009-06-22T16:00:00.003-05:00

Every year our Mugo pine is infested by sawflies. Sawflies are the face of evil. Don't believe me?

The only thing that kills these suckers is this supremely toxic chemical crap that I won't touch with a 10-foot pole. We used it the first year we moved in and were almost as freaked out by the chemicals as the sawflies.

Last year we did nothing, partially because the chemicals scare me so I was relying on Eric to take care of it (and he is incredibly good at procrastinating when he wants to). They never really denuded the bush, but there were swaths that were cleared. So, letting nature run its course wasn't really an option.

This year I opted to do some manual pruning. I had to trim back the candles anyway as the bush is slowly growing to the size of a tree. As I was doing that I chopped off any branch that had the larvae on it and dropped it on the driveway. The birds appreciated the free feast and I didn't have to prune as much as I thought I would.

As a result, this year the bush looks happy and healthy - and all without chemicals!

Organic Lawn Care - Maintenance

2009-06-17T13:03:00.002-05:00

To continue this series, let's address the topic of maintenance. It's all well and good to say that these chemicals are destroying the health of your family and the planet but then what do you do if you have a problem?

Assuming you've taken steps with aerating and amending to help build a solid foundation for your turf, the best thing to do is tackle the problems as they crop up. For example, we have a problem with clover this year more than the past few years. Clover is a well-known nitrogen-fixer, so that would point one in the direction of nitrogen deficiency.

That observation is backed up by another, more humbling, one - dog pee. Urine spots that people so often complain about are caused by nitrogen in the urine. Too much nitrogen in one area can burn the lawn. Which means if your dog's pee is burning your grass, in addition to other steps, you may actually want to reduce the amount of nitrogen you apply. The reverse is happening in our case - the spots where Lucky goes are some of the healthiest, thickest, fastest growing areas of the lawn.

Identifying the exact problem lets you pinpoint a specific solution. This saves you time, money, and helps reduce runoff and benefits the environment. In this case, it's a simple matter of applying a nitrogen-rich, phosphorous-free organic fertilizer. There are now several options on the market, even a mass-market one by Scotts. Butoffee grounds actually make an excellent option if you have a small lot or a specific area you want to treat - Starbucks and other chains even give their used grounds away for this purpose (be careful if you have pets, though, since coffee and coffee grounds are toxic to dogs if ingested).

As a rule, problems in the yard are symptomatic of nutrient or soil deficiencies. A simple search on the internet can turn up quick, easy and cheap (or free!) solutions to your problem.

'Zebrinia' Mallow

2009-06-08T19:51:00.002-05:00

Look what blossomed in the last few days.

LOVE! IT!

Mulching the Front

2009-06-07T18:31:00.005-05:00

Yesterday and today, in between rain and thunderstorms, we completed one of the big to-do list items: Mulching the front yard. Some quick before/after pics and then some general photos of the work.

Before

After

Before

After

And an updated to-do list:

Power-wash trellis and ~~mailbox post~~
Finish master plan of the yard
Clear out back woods
Get rid of barberry bush in back - fall
Trim large bush trio in back - fall
Re-landscape west wall bed (aka fireplace bed) (potentially optional)
Place stepping stones from garage to back yard (potentially optional)
~~Re-mulch front yard beds~~
~~Prune Mugo out front after killing the evil sawflies~~
~~Re-landscape garage bed~~
~~Re-level brick patio~~
~~Fill in holes in front bed (dead junipers and rose bushes)~~
~~Plan out vegetable garden~~
~~Look at and either remove or repair yard sink~~

Garden 2009

2009-06-01T19:54:00.004-05:00

I think I mentioned we decided to do only two beds this year and just plant closer. So here we go.

If you notice spots of bright color, those are the annuals we planted in the beds - marigolds, petunias and nasturtium

Bed 1 - Beans, Peas, Collards

Bed 2 - Tomatoes, peppers, onions

Photos photos everywhere

2009-06-01T19:44:00.004-05:00

Siberian Irises started blooming
Bean Bed - June 1, 2009

Things are HUGE

Columbine. This one is particularly loaded with blooms

Another Columbine... I think this one is my favorite.

Snow-in-summer - this guy didn't bloom last year

Paver Patio

2009-05-26T21:15:00.015-05:00

Last fall, after one of the rain storms, our patio fire pit was filled with water. We emptied it out and watched as the water ran straight back to the house. This, along with a couple low spots, was enough to deem it worthy to put forth the effort the following year to re-level the patio. Anticipating that it was going to take a day or two to finish, we planned to attack this project over Memorial Day weekend.

Thursday I did investigation as to what would be involved in laying a paver patio. I used the following sites as resources for instructions to install a paver patio:

1.) http://www.hometime.com/Howto/projects/patios/patios_1.htm
2.) http://www.hamiltonparker.com/hp%20files/DIY%20Paver%20%20Manual.pdf
3.) http://www.ehow.com/how_4589649_paver-patio-detailed-doityourself-instructions.html
4.) http://www.belgard.biz/howtoinstall.htm

I decided to take off on Friday to get a good jump on the project. I figured that I could get a good start on the project if not almost complete it in one day. Ambitious, yes, but it's good to have a goal to reach. So away we go...

DAY 1:

Here's how the patio looked before any of the work:

It took about 3.5 hours to remove the pavers and stack them off to the side:

Once the pavers were removed, I found that there was a 3-4 inch layer of sand between the pavers and the gravel base. I decided to remove the sand to get down to the gravel base so that I could reset the the base with a good layer of minus crushed limestone per the instructions from the sites noted above. By the end of the day, I got the sand removed so that there was only a good gravel base. Since it was late in the day, I finished with renting a plate compactor from Home Depot for the upcoming work on the following day.

Oh...perhaps this is a good moment to mention that I had forgot that the patio is about 20' x 12'(240 square feet)...so much for getting this done in one day.

Day 2:

After a good night's sleep, I was up and ready to go. I made one quick trip to Home Depot for a couple more bags of crushed limestone since it had, and was finishing raining the early part of the morning. Before laying out the limestone, considering I had taken off the top layer of sand (and sand-gravel mix), I made a couple initial passes with the compactor to set the base level.

I laid out about a 3" layer of crushed limestone and went over it with a number of passes with the plate compactor. Everything turned out great with the compactor except for the last pass or so because a bit of the limestone had stuck and hardened to the bottom of the plate compactor. Tip to the readers, if the compactor isn't providing a smooth result, there may be debris stuck or collecting on the bottom of the plate.

After compacting the layer of crushed stone, and before laying the sand, I put down a weed blocker/stone stabilizer. I'm not sure if this is actually going to do anything, but I figured I'd give it a try; if it works, great, else no big deal.

To lay down the sand, I used a couple of rods about 1" thick and a steel 2x4 to level out a layer of sand evenly across the patio. This was a time consuming effort as I had decided to reused the sand that was dug up from day 1. What took so long was that the layer of gravel had been mixed in with the sand. Before being able to lay down the sand, I had to rake the gravel stones out of the sand. I got most of the them, but certainly there was quite a bit that I missed. As I used the beam to level the layer of sand, and stone caught at the top would be dragged causing a crease in the top layer. So, I'd have to remove the stone, re-add sand, and re-level. As you can imagine, this added considerable time.

We slowly worked the rods down from one end of the patio to the other to ensure an even level of sand. Eventually once the rods were removed, as we layed the pavers, we filled in the grove with sand. It was about 1:00 pm on Saturday that we finally got around to laying the pavers.

Day 3:

We got close, but we didn't finish the work on day 2. I had to take back the plate compactor and Cathy ran into some troubles with the last bit of laying the pavers. So for day 3, I had to finish things off laying the pavers. Overall, it was very much like Legos laying out the pavers...until the very end. I made it all the way to the corner of the curve with just one tiny hole left to fill. The problem, I didn't have any pavers which fit the hole. So, the Legos now turned into a puzzle. Moving on brick here, one brick there, I eventually worked my way all the way back to the house when I finally got all the pavers to fit. I of course checked the level of things to make sure the patio was pitched away from the house and sure enough it was.

The last step was to sweep the sand into the spaces between the pavers. The websites had mentioned that one should use the plate compactor and go back over the pavers once they were laid so that they were set, but rather than renting the plate compactor again, I used a hand tamper and tamped the pavers into place whilst sweeping over the patio to fill in between the pavers. I'm not sure if that's going to cost me in the long run, but with what energy I had at that point in time, it seemed like the most correct decision.

Day 4:

Not much left to do on Monday except for cleanup. There was still a large pile of mixed sand and gravel on the driveway which I shoveled up and moved it to the back of the yard and started a path into the woods. I swept some of the remaining sand in between some spots that were still lacking. Over the next couple rainfalls or so, I'll have to do this a couple times.

I don't have a picture of the final look of the patio, but that was mainly due to the low energy level after all of the work from the weekend. No worries though...coming soon :)

Update: Here is the finished patio!

Re-visiting the To-Do list and Veggie Garden 2009

2009-05-26T10:31:00.003-05:00

So, here is the updated 2009 To-Do List:

Finish master plan of the yard
~~Re-landscape garage bed~~
Re-landscape west wall bed (aka fireplace bed) (become potentially optional)
~~Re-level brick patio~~
Power-wash trellis and mailbox post
~~Fill in holes in front bed (dead junipers and rose bushes)~~
~~Plan out vegetable garden~~
Re-mulch front yard beds
Get rid of barberry bush in back
Place stepping stones from garage to back yard (potentially optional)
~~Look at and either remove or repair yard sink~~
Trim large bush trio in back
Prune Mugo out front after killing the evil sawflies
Clear out back woods (lots of dead and dying hardwoods)

Not bad, eh? The big item - the re-leveling the brick patio - happened this past weekend. Eric will be blogging about it but, suffice to say, I can barely move today.

We also planted the veggie garden this weekend. We changed plans slightly when at the nursery. We decided we're going to let the far-east bed go fallow this year and just plant 2 beds. Part of the change was because we decided that growing broccoli and other plants in that family wasn't worth the hassle. But also because we discovered that our local supplier has leeks, shallots and garlic available for growing! HEY!

So here's what's in the beds this year.

Bed 1: beans, peas, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, chard, eggplant, chamomile, zucchini, summer squash, onions, shallots, collards
Bed 2: SIX tomato plants, two tomatillo plants, cilantro, rosemary, oregano, parsley, basil, jalapenos, habanero, poblano, bell peppers, onions, leeks, shallots, garlic

Lotsa Photos!

2009-05-24T20:08:00.005-05:00

Salvia in a Box

Blooming

Ajuga, salvia, columbine

Salvia

Columbine

Ajuga!

Sedum

More Columbine

Columbine Bloom

Yarrow and Snow-in-Summer

The last Columbine

Columbine bloom

Yarrow

Lucky's favorite spot

Lucky in the garden

Another Lucky shot

Same shot, no dog

Yarrow blooms

What a difference a year makes

2009-05-16T14:44:00.003-05:00

Bean Bed - Early May 2008

Bean Bed - May '09

May '08

May '09

May '08

May '09

I cannot get over how large some of these things have gotten. Like the ajuga, sedum and columbine - they're monstrous!

I wish these plants bloomed longer

2009-05-16T14:07:00.007-05:00

First, our viburnum. When the window next to it is open, you can smell the blooms thru the whole house.

She got a bit leggy, so after the blooms are done but before it sets its buds for the next year we're going to prune her back.

Because I'm hoping to have the same result as we did with the crab apple tree. Look at it!

Isn't she beautiful? She's positively covered in blooms.

I thought last year's display was wonderful but this is unbelievable. We pruned her in the early winter and I think this is how she's thanking us.

Lastly, the sweet woodruff.

It generally doesn't get a whole lot of attention because it serves as a groundcover under one of our birch trees. But in a week or two, that whole verdant carpet will be covered in millions of tiny, delicate white flowers, like this.

Organic Lawn Care - Where to Start?

2009-05-14T08:27:00.004-05:00

So, if you're willing to give organic lawn care a shot, where should you start?

With the soil, of course. If your soil is not healthy, your lawn surely isn't going to be.

There are several things you can do at this junction. If you're a very methodical sort of person, the first thing you can do is get a soil test run. Most states have soil testing services (here is a link to Wisconsin's) for a reasonably small fee. You send a sample from your yard in, they send you a detailed analysis back. The big thing you want to look at is pH. Grass loves a pH of about 6.5. Certain troublesome weeds - like dandelions - prefer a more alkaline soil. Other weeds prefer a more acidic soil. The goal is to get your soil to the pH to that range - 6.2 to 6.9 - that your grass loves, giving it a better chance of choking out the weeds. To sweeten a sour (acidic) soil you want to add lime. To make soil more acidic, add gardeners sulfur. For more information on how to adjust soil pH, here is a handy website.

Another place to start is with finding out how much topsoil you have. Stick a garden shovel into your lawn and see how deep it goes without too much effort. If you only have a few inches, you might first want to consider aerating and amending your soil first. You can rent aerators from various home improvement stores. You want to find an aerator that removes about a 4" plug of soil. Go across your lawn at least two times in different directions (i.e. horizontally and diagonally) - one pass is usually not enough to make much of a difference. After you aerate, spread some organic compost or humus & manure over the lawn. You don't need a lot - maybe 40 lbs for 15,000 square feet. This is a somewhat slow process, so if you have a small plot (less than 1/4 acre) with very thin topsoil, you may want to consider just ripping it all out, getting a load of topsoil in, and re-seeding the lawn.

Organic Lawn Care - Why bother?

2009-05-12T08:44:00.006-05:00

This has been a huge goal of mine, to organically maintain our lawn.

What's wrong with fertilizers?

Well, the first thing is you're basically throwing your money away. Sure, that spring fertilizer helps green your lawn up quickly but that's about all it does. It's designed to give a short burst of food and anything the lawn cannot absorb in a short amount of time washes away (remember - fertilizers are water-soluble). The big problem with this is the chemicals leech into the local watershed (where does your tap water come from?) and, if you live between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains, contributes to the massive algae and phytoplankton blooms that appear in the Gulf of Mexico every summer. This is a large enough problem that many states (though not Wisconsin), municipalities and Canadian Provinces have outlawed the use of fertilizers containing phosphorous.

And weed-n-feed or a lawn service?

Let's analogize this. You have a plantar wart on your foot. In order to get rid of it, do you just apply a medication to the wart or do you slather your whole body in it? Wouldn't the latter be just a bit overkill?

No lawn is 100% weed. In fact, it's safe to say that even the worst lawn is about 90% turf and 10% weed. So why would you apply weed killer to that 90% that doesn't need it? All of that excess, again, washes off into the groundwater or volatilizes into the air. And one of the most common chemicals in the herbicides used has been linked to a host of health problems, including an increased risk for non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Add to that that manufacturers are only required to include active ingredients on the label. Active ingredients do not include inert materials, like heavy metals.

And... pesticides?

Again, if you have a problem with one particular pest - ants, for example - why would you apply a generic battery of chemicals designed to kill all sorts of insects to treat one problem? You may kill the pest but you're also killing the beneficial creatures like worms, birds and honeybees.

It doesn't just stay outdoors

All of these chemicals get tracked inside - by you, your children, your pets. It affects indoor air quality. Exposing your children to these chemicals can increase their chance of developing leukemia seven-fold. Contact with low levels of pesticides increases the risk of miscarriage and there has been a documented links between them and breast cancer. And studies have documented that exposure to lawns treated with herbicides four or more times a year doubled a dog's risk of canine lymphoma.

So, why go Organic?

Given all of that, I don't know why anyone would even think about using synthetic methods. But, if you still need convincing, I can give you 1 good reason to give organic lawn care a shot:

It's cheaper.

Just because your lawn looks green and weed-free doesn't mean it's healthy. Real health starts in the soil, which has been nuked to kingdom come by the products that are supposed to help - killing the worms, disturbing soil pH - increasing dependence on these products to continue looking good. Think of these products like steroids for your lawn - the more you use them, the more you need them to maintain that perfectly manicured appearance.

By going green, you can save all of that money you previously spent buying weed-n-feed for your lawn 4 times a year or paying someone else to do it for you. Also, an organic lawn uses less water than a lawn on steroids - the root system is deeper, better able to cope with drought. 40-60% of summer water use is spent on watering lawns - that's 40-60% of your water bill you could spend elsewhere!

In the next post I'll get into the nitty-gritty of organic lawn care. In the meantime, I leave you with some articles.

The Dark Side of Lawns
Beyond Pesticides - Lawn care: Hazards and Alternatives

Garage Bed Renovation Part 2

2009-05-02T18:04:00.003-05:00

The garage bed is almost officially done. Eric and I went to Milaeger's today to buy the last of the plants and I added them. The only thing left to do is buy and set up a rain barrel.

So, let's recap:

Before:

Halfway:

After:

With the brick patio/stoop:

Just the Bed:

The Plants:
back row: Hollyhocks and mallow
middle row: phlox
front: creeping thyme

I didn't kill them!

2009-04-29T21:28:00.003-05:00

If you knew my track record with house plants, you would be suitably impressed.

First of all, the daffodils and bearded irises I saved in pots and then transplanted last year survived!

Then the perennials in the bean bed started coming back! And are SPREADING! Look at the creepers on the yarrow!

Here is a columbine who is larger than it was even at the end of last year.

And here is some of the sedum, at least as large as it was at the end of last year as well.

And, lastly, the sage making a reappearance.

Other yard additions!

2009-04-29T20:38:00.002-05:00

Two winters ago we lost a couple gorgeous creeping junipers in a very severe winter. We let the space go kind of dormant last year with the plan to replace this year. I don't have a before shot of this spot, but picture the whole space beneath the birch pretty much covered by juniper. Now, we have 2 russian sage plants, 1 lavender plant (easily seen up front right) and 1 prairie star plant (up front left).

However, here's what last year's other juniper looked like.

That dead brown thing taking up the lower right corner? Yeah. Large dead juniper that pretty much took up the whole space. Instead I added a couple of japanese yew, that I plan to prune so that it stays low growing.

Those gold bushes will add a stunning level of winter interest to our landscape, too.

Garage Bed Renovation

2009-04-29T20:21:00.003-05:00

Do we all remember when Eric dug up all my hollyhocks? Let us revisit.

Before:

After:

Yes. So after that he was forbidden from dealing with the garage bed. But he swore that we would re-vamp it this year. Me? I wanted to re-plant all the hollyhocks he dug up. So, it made it's way onto this year's task list. And, really, that's a good thing, because here's a close-up shot of one end:

See all the grass? Yeah. That's not supposed to be there! About two weeks ago I started removing the landscaping stones as preparation for digging/edging the bed. On Saturday I went out and started edging the bed. Eric took photos while I worked and the dog looked cute.

This is the general template - edging out the border to line up with the small brick patio off the garage door.

After a couple hours, a large rain storm, and a trip around town hunting down leveling sand later, the finished product:

It looks a bit dirty but it's such an amazing improvement. Last Friday I bought a 'zebrina' mallow and a 'nigra' hollyhock plant and put them in the bed. This weekend I'll be buying some creeping thyme and phlox to help fill in the gaps (our local nursery is running a special on perennials - buy 3 get the 4th free. rawk).

Book Review - Weedless Gardening

2009-04-17T12:18:00.003-05:00

My sister gave me this book about a week ago. It's a down and dirty introduction to the concept of top-down gardening that has gained popularity in recent years thru such means as Square-Foot Gardening and other plans like it. Only this book approaches the topic in relation to the whole yard rather than just a vegetable plot.

Geared towards the small-scale gardener, the book covers the basics of soil testing, soil improvement, how to control and eliminate existing weeds, how to create new beds without digging, and so forth.

There was no truly new concept introduced in the book, so gardeners who are experienced with the idea of improving soil thru top-dressing may be bored. But for a quick, broad introduction to the concept, it is worth picking up.

Vegetable Garden 2009

2009-04-02T12:53:00.003-05:00

The 10-day forecast on Weather.com shows no sign of spring. It's not supposed to get much warmer than 48º and rain and/or snow dominate the scene.

BUT! At least I have my vegetable garden planned!

Last year I set the goal of gardening as organically as possible - no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. We also had the goal of cultivating all 3 beds using companion planting to help with pests and diseases. Overall, we succeeded. We had a few issues with pests - namely the mexican bean beetle, the cabbage worm, and the worm from The Wrath of Kahn that invaded the acorn squash - but the yield was amazing on everything else. I was pulling squash off of our summer squash plant it SEPTEMBER.

This year one goal is to expand our companion planting to include flowers and herbs. Also, we're rotating the beds. Another goal was to grow garlic and shallots but I just found out you have to plant them in the fall, so there goes that idea (I did, however, find a garlic farmer who sells seed garlic that's just outside of Madison. Yay for buying local!). A third goal was to expand our vegetable selection a bit. And Eric wants to start canning this year. EEEK!

All of the beds are going to be bordered and, in some cases, interplanted with a mix of nasturtium, marigold (french in all beds except the beans, where it'll be mexican), petunias and other beneficial flowers.

New items this year are peas, carrots, cucumbers (tried last year, they all died), a new type of lettuce, new type of eggplant, chinese cabbage, leeks, tomatillos (giving them another shot), chamomile, lavender, sage.

Bed 1: beans, peas, carrots, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce (romaine and spring mix), chard, eggplant and onions.
Bed 2: broccoli, chinese cabbage, kale, collards, leeks, summer squash, chamomile, thyme, sage, rosemary and lavender
Bed 3: peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, tomatillos, winter squash, onions, chamomile, leeks, rosemary, oregano, parsley, basil

Realtors Home & Garden Show

2009-03-23T09:05:00.004-05:00

DH and I have gone to the Realtors Home & Garden Show each year for the past 3 years. For the past two years we've gotten a set of free tickets from our lovely realtor who sold our condo. Thanks Tammy!

Anyway, I've always enjoyed this show. The past two years we somewhat wandered around asking questions. This year, though, we were on a mission.

#1 Going to the "How to "Go Green" with your Lawn" solution seminar

#2 Visiting the Johnson's Nursery booth to get information on their "We Plan It, You Plant It" program.

#3 Getting estimates from people on what it would cost to get our hot water heater inspected (it's 12 years old, so we're pushing it right now).

And we basically walked out with that info. #1 added a few to-do items to our 2009 list (get our soil tested, aerate the lawn). The seminar was really informative. Even better, the guy who gave it is local to us, so we have him as a potential resource.

I need to get photographs and measurements of the area we want to have Johnson Nursery help us plan out - the stepping stone walkway we want to put in and the border garden on the fireplace wall.

And we found a local-ish plumber that does free inspections, though he didn't say what all is included in that. But that's a step in the right direction and I like free.

2009 Garden To-Do List

2009-03-21T08:44:00.002-05:00

Every year we make a yearly to-do list for our yard and garden. Last year we had a very aggressive list - nearly two dozen bullet points - that we busted our butts to get thru. Overall, we were successful. I think we didn't get one task done (replacing a broken screen on a basement window).

Unfortunately I can't seem to find that list. It's possible it got thrown out. So here is this year's list in electronic format!

Finish master plan of the yard
Re-landscape garage bed
Re-landscape west wall bed (aka fireplace bed)
Re-level brick patio
Power-wash trellis and mailbox post
Fill in holes in front bed (dead junipers and rose bushes)
Plan out vegetable garden
Re-mulch front yard beds
Get rid of barberry bush in back
Place stepping stones from garage to back yard (potentially optional)
Look at and either remove or repair yard sink
Trim large bush trio in back
Prune Mugo out front
Clear out back woods (lots of dead and dying hardwoods)

So.Over.Winter

2009-03-02T14:27:00.003-06:00

It's March 2nd and we just got more snow.

I would like to PLANT THINGS. Which means the ground needs to be snow free and thawed. Can I get someone to work on that for me? Thanks.

In the meantime, I was looking at our maple tree and we have a TON of new growth. A good foot. Probably closer to 18". The linden has some new growth as well, though not nearly as much, maybe 3" up top. But that's ok - slow and steady, right?

Can't wait for the maple to leaf out though!

Interesting Website

2009-02-02T15:56:00.002-06:00

I received this from a co-worker of Eric's.

http://www.wikigardens.com/

It looks like it could be a really neat website when more people start using it, filling in information, etc. The plant database seems to be pretty extensive in terms of number of plants, though the details are lacking.

Christmas Landscape & Decor

2009-01-01T21:11:00.004-06:00

We got dumped on. That's supposed to be the "sunken" brick patio next to the deck.

Front yard after snowblowing the drive.

The front walkway

Inside - warm fire, Christmas tree & other decorations

The dining room table for hosting Christmas Day Dinner

It's the little touches - ornaments on wine plaque hooks

Winter Doldrums

2009-01-01T20:17:00.003-06:00

January 1st and I'm already dreaming of gardening. We had a 50F day before Christmas and I immediately thought of planting things. But I won't be able to do that for another 5 months. So I've been consoling myself by making to-scale landscape plans and reading thru my new "Perennials of Wisconsin and Minnesota" book.

Reflecting on the past year, we got a LOT done with the yard. We transplanted 2 apple trees, planted 2 shade trees, re-landscaped the bean bed, cleaned up the front walkway, enclosed the compost bin, etc. All among growing a 780 square foot vegetable garden and basic yard upkeep (and, you know, things not involving the yard).

Looking forward to the next year, we need to do some planting out front. I also want to power-wash the trellis on the deck. But I'd really like to focus on some larger-scale landscaping - putting in paths, small patios, sitting areas, etc.

Compost Bin

2008-11-14T21:20:00.004-06:00

One of our goals since we bought the house was to enclose the compost bin. The other weekend, Eric decided to tackle that project once and for all.

The result? A Three-Bin Rotation System

All three bins are easily accessible from the front. It's an 8'x8' area, minus the back corner, so a 48 square foot area for compost.

The goal is to have two "short-term" compost bins - primarily garden waste - where the waste from one year goes in one while the other bin is used for the current year's compost. The third bin would be a long-term bin for woody-er items

It's not elegant, but it's a sight more orderly than the giant heaping pile that it used to be.

Vegetable Garden Recap

2008-10-14T09:55:00.004-05:00

It's the end of harvest, so it's time for a recap of things I liked and things I didn't like about our garden this year.

Things I liked:

The tomato plants were very productive
The jalapeño plants were insane!
We got a good crop of peppers, too
I love, love, love our onions

Things I didn't like:

The broccoli was pointless. I think we got one head harvested before all of them bolted. And then became infested by cabbage worms
Way too much kale
Way too much chard
The beans had issues with beetles
I think I'd like a different eggplant variety next year
Losing all the acorn squash to worms
Cabbage worms suck

Overall, I'm not sure I'll plant anything that could be affected by cabbage worms next year. Even using an insecticidal soap they were too difficult to keep up with. I was able to keep the bean beetle under control with the soap, so that was fine.

Next year I want to plant more onions. They did SO well this year and they're so incredibly tasty. Much better than the ones at the store.

I think we had the right amount of tomato plants this year. We had a few end up with end blossom rot but, overall, the crop was just about perfect. I think next year we could do with 1 fewer jalapeño plants. We also only need ONE summer squash plant - two was overkill. Likewise, we went way overboard with the kale - 1 plant would be enough. Same with the chard - 1 plant is plenty.

I'm debating about planting the lettuce and spinach in pots next year and keeping them closer to the house. We didn't seem to eat as much of them as we could have. We also definitely don't need as much as we planted. Two of each, staggered in planting times, would more than suffice.

On the flip side, apparently tomatillo plants are sterile and you need TWO in order to get a crop. Whoops. Research FAIL.

As far as the companion planting attempt went it seems to have succeeded, save for the Brassica bed. In doing a bit more reading, it seems there we didn't have enough aromatic plants to keep the cabbage worm at bay... and once one was infested, they all fell victim. Research FAIL again.

Items I would like to add next year:

garlic
shallots
carrots

Overall we had a good year. Obviously improvements could be made and I have a bit of research to do about better pest control and non-vegetable companion plants (I hear marigolds are good). I'm going to spend the weekend harvesting the rest of the kale and collars and placing them in a heavy salt bath to see if I can't get any remaining worms off them (ew ew ew ew), harvest the remaining squash, beans, peppers and tomatoes and then prep them all for storage. We're going on vacation in a week, so the rest of the garden has to come down by then. Then we have to till in the compost and re-cover the beds for winter.

Really Cool Stuff!

2008-10-11T22:02:00.006-05:00

The Autumn Blaze is BLAZING!

Also, we have a new "pet"

I've decided to name him Herman.

Also, I turned the compost pile and look at all this great, rich compost!

Unfortunately, this isn't cool. We're now infested with Asian Lady Beetles. Makes me want to napalm the back yard.

Fall Clean Up Part 3 - Garden bed

2008-10-09T08:39:00.003-05:00

So today I began the sad process of dismantling the garden bed. I removed the plants who had finished up - namely the broccoli, the stump of the tomatillo plant, one of the summer squash plants (the other one is still producing!).

I also potted the jalapeño plants because they still have quite a bit of peppers on them that still need some growing time. Plus, my brother mentioned smoking them and turning them into chipotles, which I think would be quite possibly the coolest thing ever. So the jalapeños are coming inside the house at night and going out on the deck in the morning.

I've been reading a book called "Wisconsin Garden Guide" by Jerry Minnich. It's very much a Wisconsin-specific version of the Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. The first chapter is all about soil, the second about composting and mulching. Both of them talk about how to build up proper soil and compost so that the plants roots dig down deep to anchor the plant and allow it to pull valuable nutrition in times of drought. Judging by the length of root on the plants I pulled up (that weren't dead but were done producing, like the broccoli), our soil rocks the house.

Random photos

2008-09-28T17:13:00.007-05:00

Apparently it doesn't take a lot to grow romaine lettuce from seed!

Also, you would think that the squash plant was done producing but apparently not....

Last, the Autumn Blaze is starting to turn!

Fall Clean Up Part 2

2008-09-27T18:53:00.003-05:00

Today I focused on the back yard and re-planting/transplaning the bearded irises that I saved from the garden. So I marked out two spots on the north end of the bean bed where the irises would go and planted them there.

I also moved the Agastache from the south end to the north end near the Linden. It was growing too close to the smooth Aster and both needed room, so a transplant was in order. I think it looks much better now, actually. The Agastache is such a dramatic plant on its own and it was "buried" behind other plants. Now it's more prominently located and can really shine.

I also started taking down the last bed out front. I cut down all the Black-Eyed Susan heads (and gave about half to my sister for the prairie they're trying to seed) and the siberian irises.

Tomorrow the lawn needs to be mowed and I have to move the Coreopsis as well. Eric is planning to overseed the front yard and trim back the Juniper out front.

Here are some finished photos!

The re-organized bean bed

Lucky inspecting my work.

The coreopsis got moved to the other side of the aster

The Autumn Joy sedum bloomed.

The Agastache and one of the columbine got moved to the other side of the salvia.

The Smooth Aster bloomed as well.

A close-up of the Yarrow.

A close up of the Aster.

The honeybees love it!

Fall Clean Up

2008-09-21T19:35:00.006-05:00

We spent 2 hours yesterday and I spent 5 hours today trimming bushes and generally cleaning up the front garden beds.

In one of the barberry bushes, though, I found this:

I'm pretty certain the nest wasn't there this past spring when we did our last trimming. I'm sure I would have seen it.

It's a very tiny nest. I don't know whether to leave it be or remove it. I have no problem, in theory, leaving it be, but it's right along the walkway and I can't see, with the bush trimmed back the way it is, a bird using it again.

Also, the zebra grass got its tufts.

Bean Bed Updates - September

2008-09-06T23:01:00.005-05:00

The thing that makes the bean bed difficult is that there were so many deep-rooted plants in it that keep cropping up. Like mint and chives. Those things are damn near impossible to kill. So, after having discovered that missing a couple of weekends of weeding the bed that it allowed it to turn into a jungle, I gave in and applied RoundUp to the half of the bed. Then we spent several hours removing the dead weeds. Nothing feels better than a weed-free bed:

Even better, some of our fall blooms have started to come in. I have to admit, even though our choices seem sporadic, the overall effect has been of having something blooming at all times. The staging has been great.

Neon Sedum

Bushy Aster

Bushy Aster - Close up

It WORKED!

2008-09-01T14:41:00.003-05:00

We've been seeing the usual garden variety moths in our butterfly garden but nothing spectacular. Until today.

That's an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. It was really enjoying the nectar from the gayfeather and neon sedum.

Clean up

2008-08-10T19:29:00.010-05:00

I took a long weekend to catch up around the house. Vacuuming, dusting, organizing, yard work, etc. The end result is so satisfying.

First, the front walkway. About a week ago, I caved and sanctioned Eric to take some RoundUp to the weeds. We had tried managing them by hand but it's nearly impossible to get the root out when it's coming up between the bricks.

Before

After

BeforeAfter

We also tackled removing the old grass reeds so that the new pretty growth could be seen better. The upside is it looks great!

The downside is the grass is sharp and my arms are all cut up.

And, one quick inside the house thing - we purchased shelves and Tupperware bins for the basement and organized that.

Last, but not least, a new bloom for you:

I wonder how one sells veggies at the Farmer's Market

2008-08-04T19:00:00.004-05:00

I'm not kidding.

Last Thursday I went out to the garden and picked anything worth harvesting - some more squash, beans, peppers, jalapeños. I used some of them for dinner that evening. The rest I set aside to store.

Then we went out of town for the weekend. Today I walked out to the garden and immediately retreated to get a basket and my shears.

I ended up harvesting about 1 lb of beans, 3 peppers, a dozen red and white onions, 2 squash, and a dozen jalapeños.

Dinner anyone?

Perennial Photos

2008-07-27T14:14:00.009-05:00

Buds on "Apricot Delight" Achillea

Gayfeather

Blooms on the "Chocolate Chip" Ajuga

The starting blooms of the "Golden Jubilee" Hyssop

Tickseed and Gayfeather with Achillea in the background

Tickseed

How are we going to eat all this?

2008-07-27T13:52:00.005-05:00

On Friday I harvested 5 summer squash, each about 6"-8" in length. There are more on the vine that will probably be ready in a day or so.

Today I picked some more beans. There are about 4 peppers that could be picked. And maybe as many jalapenos. Our onions are also doing very well - we've picked a couple for salads.

But the plants that make me worry the most?

Those are our tomato and tomatillo plants. Keep in mind, Eric's 6'5" and he's standing on the raised bed. Those buggers are HUGE. And, oh, full of tomatos

In other news, we have an infestation of cabbage worms. See this guy?

He's been laying eggs on our collards and broccoli. And the evil little larvae have been munching holes in the leaves. So I sprayed the plants down with some insecticidal soap. I'm generally tolerant of garden "pests" but not ones that ruin my crop.

Added link to food blog

2008-07-15T12:53:00.002-05:00

I added a link of the side to my food/cooking blog, What Recipe?, since it's starting to feature more and more recipes using our home-grown produce. Bon Appetite!

Weekend Projects

2008-07-13T16:53:00.008-05:00

So on Saturday, Cathy joined her sisters at 7:15 am for a trip to Madison for the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) Art Fair on the Square. Having woken up early with Cathy to be a nice guy and have the coffee ready for when she left, I was ready for the day's activities at about 7:30 am, but I had no idea what they were. So, after coming back from a run and sitting on the deck looking into the yard, I noticed that the rows between the garden beds were a bit embarrassing.

Planting and maintaining the garden is easy and enjoyable; the rows between, not so much. Cathy and I had tossed some ideas around as to what to do in between the beds like laying possibly stone of some kind or maybe some mulch. We definitely wanted to put down some kind of weed blocking material so that removing the weeds from in between wouldn't be too much trouble, or if lucky, won't ever have to do it again. Last year, it took us about 2 hours to remove all of the weeds from the two rows. Well, since Cathy was gone and since I had the whole day to myself, I figured that it would make for a nice surprise to have the rows all taken care of when she returned.

Before I started de-weeding, I ran over to Stein's to pick up some mulch. I decided to go with mulch instead of stones figuring that if the lawn mower was to kick out mulch, it wouldn't hurt as much compared to if it kicked out a stone. Plus, I figured that the mulch would do a better job of choking out any weeds. I picked up a dozen bags of the 2 cubic feet Red Cedar mulch.

Back at home, with the dog supervising, I started on the first row. It took me about 2 hours to remove all of the weeds. It was interesting seeing all of the different insects when I was removing the weeds. Cathy would have hated it this year as I had come across a number of spiders and even some carrying some egg sacs. Although garden spiders help very much in controlling pests in gardens and the weeds were probably providing a nice habitat, the weeds had to go.

As a weed blocker, Cathy had suggested that we could use up our shredded paper as the weed blocker and then put the mulch on top. The idea is that the paper will block out the sun but allow the water through (see "Use Newspaper for Mulch"). Little by little, I added some of our shredded paper (about 1-2 inches deep), wet it down so it wouldn't blow away, and then add a layer (2-3 inches deep) of the mulch on top. All of our shredded paper (3 paper bags full) covered about 3/4 of the row and I used newspaper for the rest. I went through about 5.5 bags of mulch. It took about a half an hour to complete lay down the paper and mulch. So in total, it took about 2.5 hours to finish the first row.

After a quick bite to eat, I started up on the second row. Again, it took about 2 hours to remove all of the weeds. I had a little bit of news paper left but it didn't get that far down the row. So, I cut up our paper bags from the grocery store for the rest of the row; I just made it to the end of the row with the last paper bag bits. I used about the same amount of mulch on the second row as I did on the first. And, as I was spreading out the last bit of mulch at the end of the second row, Cathy returned from her trip.

A surprise it was indeed. Below is a before and after picture of the garden beds (and rows). I had forgotten to take a picture before starting the work, so the "before" picture is a week old. Notice how much the garden has grown in that one week? Now imagine the weeds growing additionally that much.

Having completed all of that work on Saturday on my own, I wasn't planning on doing anything on Sunday except for relaxing and enjoying the day. Hmm...that garage exit has always been bugging me and since Cathy was busy making bread and blanching the harvested brocolli, spinach, and collard greens, maybe I should fix it today.

I wish I took a before picture so you could see what it was like, but I forgot to yet again. Let's just say there was a concrete cinder block just below the doorway as well as some bricks stacked up next to it. Any time I want to take something out or into the garage like the lawn mower or wheel barrel, it was always a pain having to navigate the blocks.

So, I ran over to Home Depot and picked up a crushed limestone, sand, weed blocking material, a rubber mallet, and a tamper. I was basically working off of the instructions provided by About.com landscape site. The pattern itself was to match the pattern for our main patio--completely random order. After about a whole afternoon of work, including the head scratching to have the bricks fit in a random pattern, I was very happy with the final result. I even had the chance to test it out when I put the wheel barrel away in the garage--it worked wonderfully.

Well, now that the projects for the weekend are done, I can finally relax for the rest of the weekend ;-)

Garden Update

2008-07-05T20:06:00.011-05:00

Our vegetable garden is off the hook!

Our tomatoes look amazing. Better than anyone else's. And we've been eating the romaine, lettuce, kale, collard greens and swiss chard for about a month now.

We had a few fatalities. Two of the collard greens have pretty much kicked it. We also lost two bean plants. And one of the tomato plants is not doing well. But! We have broccoli and beans already appearing.

By all indications, we should have a fabulous harvest.

He dug up all my hollyhocks!

2008-07-05T19:49:00.006-05:00

AUGH!

We have a small bed along the back of the garage. It tends to be ignored in favor of other aspects of the yard. So, this year, with everything that was going on, we didn't look at it until it was completely overgrown.

So Eric decided to attack the bed and get rid of all the weeds and unwanted items (we had some wild rhubarb growing, which is highly toxic to dogs). He went out there with a pitch fork, shovel and a large trash bin.

About an hour later I followed him out to see what he was up to. And started shrieking in rage. He had completely denuded half the bed - including all the hollyhocks! We had a ton of beautiful hollyhocks that helped cover that dull wall. Gone!

At each end is a set of siberian irises. I'm not sure what the small plant is in the middle of the pic. For whatever reason, he ripped out all the real flowers and left that one. I think it's a weed. All that's left of the dozen or so hollyhocks that we had are those 3 toward the right.

I told him he's not allowed to weed any other beds without consulting me first. Next thing you know he'll dig up all my black eyed susans.

Bean Bed Updates

2008-06-27T16:47:00.007-05:00

Long delay for a few reasons. BUT! Here's some new photos from the gardens.

You can sort of see that the Linden has really filled in from early May. Also, all the plants are much larger and several are in bloom.

A closer view. I'd say about half the garden is blooming. We've got a few more that are just about ready to pop, too.

This guy just bloomed today. I'm not sure what he is. I need to check our plan.

The Fleabane is going crazy. They all look incredible.

Start of June Bloom

2008-06-02T20:45:00.009-05:00

With the start of June, and hopefully the cold nights behind us, I took some time to catch some of the blooming flowers around the yard...

With this summer being only the second summer in this house, Cathy and I are still unsure as to what is planted in some of the garden beds around the yard. This first picture is of an unexpected guest in the front garden bed just near the front living room window.

Also located in the front yard, the Lilacs are beginning to bloom alongside the Goldflame Spirea.

Moving to the color in the backyard, the Chives we removed from the bean bed are looking full and hearty.

Having a little fun with the camera, I took an angled upward shot of the white and purple Salvia located in the bean bed.

Located behind the garage, some of the Russian Irises are starting to flower with a deep blue violet hue.

Last but not least, the Gaillardia Aristata has opened up displaying its vibrant yellow and red colors.

Pet-Friendly Gardening

2008-05-27T12:30:00.000-05:00

Bean Bed - Summer 2006

One of our goals for the yard this year was to plant only pet (and kid) friendly plants. Not that the dog grazes a whole lot, but if or when he does, I'd like to feel confident that it won't kill him. When we moved in we discovered that there was, among other things, rhubarb in the Bean Bed - seeing as that is highly toxic, it got ripped out quickly.

When we were re-designing the bean bed, Eric expressed the idea that it would be nice to plant some more perennials. So, I spent a good day sitting with a list of Zone 3/4 perennials and checking the Cornell University and ASPCA Toxic Plants lists, crossing those perennials that were on there off the overall list. Sadly, this eliminated some of my favorites, like delphiniums, but that's the price you pay I suppose.

Bean Bed - Early May 2008

Our new perennial garden went in the Bean Bed, where one of the apple trees used to reside. We planted a wide variety of plants, keeping them grouped together (for protection against rampaging dogs...dogs tend to go around "obstacles"). We may eventually have to transplant some of them to other locations once they start to grow in.

One of the nice aspects of some of the plants we chose is that they can even benefit a yard with pets, such as Fleabane (guess what that does). Others, like my salvia, just look pretty but won't hurt the dog should he choose to snack on it.

The ones we put in are: Ajuga (bugleweed), Achillea (yarrow), Salvia (common sage), Erigeron (fleabane), Bushy Aster, Smooth Aster, Sedum (stonecrop), Agastache (hyssop), Phlox subulata (creeping phlox), Aquilegia (columbine), Gaillardia Aristata (blanket flower), Coreopsis (tickseed), Veronica (speedwell), Liatris (gayfeather), and Cerastium (snow-in-summer).

Operation Shade Trees

2008-05-27T12:04:00.001-05:00

The largest problem with the backyard is the lack of shade. Also, as previously discussed, having apple trees seem like a good idea but you never know what a PITA fruit trees are until you have them. So the apple trees had to go, along with the rest of the bed (it was completely taken over by grass and mint). In their place we planned to put a Redmond Linden. So we removed the plants we wanted to keep and transplanted the apple trees to my sister's house.

Lucky taking credit for all our hard work

We went to our local Steins three days later to find some trees. Planting the Linden proved rather easy since we already had the majority of the hole already dug out.

In addition to the Linden, we also wanted to partially block the view of the 2-car, 2-story garage our neighbors put up in the back yard last year.

So we decided to plant an "Autumn Blaze" Maple on the east side of the yard. Digging this hole was a heck of a lot harder because we had to tear out the grass, then dig thru what turned out to be almost completely clay. But the end result was worth it.

Or will be once the tree starts to grow a bit more.

Vegetable Garden

2008-05-24T18:36:00.005-05:00

We've been waiting to plant our vegetable garden since February. We have 3 5' wide x 25' long raised garden beds. Last year we went easy and only planted one of the beds. This year we decided to go whole hog and plant all three beds, using companion planting to deter pests. So one snowy day in February we sat down with our books, a list of vegetables we wanted to plant, and spent a couple hours planning out the beds.

General rules we learned about companion planting are:

the Brassica family does not play nice with nightshades
Legumes do not play nice with solanums or brassicas

So, basically, beans or any of their friends cannot be planted with tomato, peppers, onions, broccoli or kale. And broccoli and kale cannot be planted with tomatos, peppers or eggplant.

So, in Bed 1 we planned to include kale, broccoli, red onion, and squash.

Bed 2 would be tomatoes, peppers, shallots, yellow onions, and jalapenos.

Bed 3 would include lettuce, beans, spinach, cucumbers, eggplant, and zucchini.

Carrots would be "filler" in Beds 2 and 3.

We managed to get most of our vegetables today. We're still missing spinach, shallots and carrots. I added collard greens and swiss chard to Bed 1. And I swapped out a tomato plant for a tomatillo plant (I make a mean tomatillo salsa).

All of the plants we included are:

Kale
Collard greens
Swiss Chard
Broccoli
Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash
Onion, Red
Onion, Yellow
Jalapeno
Peppers
Tomatos
Tomatillo
Zucchini
Eggplant
Cucumbers
Beans
Lettuce

I'm still hoping to find carrots, spinach and shallots because we eat a lot of those. It would be nice to grow them rather than buy them.

Why Apple Trees aren't that great

2008-05-21T20:15:00.008-05:00

When we got this house, my sister had planted 3 apple trees in the yard. Two were much older than the 3rd and located in what we call the Bean Bed. They have beautiful flowers in the spring, looking magnificent thru the summer.

Then they actually produce apples. Which attract hoards of bees. And also fall into the yard and get chopped up by the lawn mower (attracting MORE bees). And into the Bean Bed, where they tend to rot. Or the dog eats them and then gets sick. And so forth.

Apple trees are beautiful, but they create a huge, awful mess.

Eric decided - and I have to agree - that they had to go. He didn't care how, but they couldn't stay in the yard. So we worked a deal with my sister that, if we did all the work, that they would be willing to take their trees.

Part of this meant assessing what I wanted to keep from the bed, because there was quite a lot in there, and temporarily potting it. Then we'd have to dig out the trees, ball and burlap them, and then transport them to my sister's house.

So here we've re-potted most of the plants we wanted to keep. You can see the bed and the trees. The first tree we dug up was the smaller of the two (the one to the left). Eric and I painstakingly dug it up, then dragged it onto the trailer, and took it over.

The other tree went much faster as we had my brother-in-law, nephew, and more tools. Both trees were transplanted quickly.

The Usual Lame Introductary Post

2008-05-19T09:41:00.002-05:00

A year ago my husband, Eric, and I purchased a house from my sister and brother-in-law. The main reason was we wanted a yard for our dog, Lucky.

Well, we now have a yard in spades - 3/4 acre lot with 3 raised garden beds, several perennial beds, the works. The first year we had the house we decided to let things grow as normal and take notes to see what we'd like to change. Fortunately that list wasn't too long, so we've started tackling it this year.

We also went easy on the gardening, just planting a dozen plants in one of the garden beds. This year we're planting all three of them using companion planting.

Our overall goal is to maintain the yard and gardens as organically as we can. On the whole we're succeeding, though we lost the battle when sawflies attacked our Mugo pine and we discovered our lawn was primarily crabgrass and creeping charlie (that'll be another post).

Our second goal is to keep the plantings as pet (and kid) friendly as possible. When things started coming up last year, we realized that one of the plants was rhubarb, which is highly toxic to dogs and got ripped out quickly. This year we spent a lot of time picking out perennials that are non-toxic and can even be beneficial for pet health.

With all the changes going on this year, Eric mentioned he wanted to put together a journal to record them. So, here it is.