Garage Bed Renovation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.