Welcome to my Garden

Sunday, March 11, 2012

FIRST WARM DAY

Everyone was out today. Sunny, temps in the mid 60s, no wind. Ahhhhh. Started the day watching my grandson so some cement work could be done at the farm. Just as well, it was in the 40s when they started the work.

Went to an antique barn in Emmitsburg, MD when I was finished babysitting. 50s around 1 O'clock. Still too cold for me. Found a really cool box for my seeds and an antique wooden yardstick with holes drilled every 2 inches. I plan to use this for planting seeds.

Got home around 3:30. Perfect weather. Went to work. It was time to clean up the plants lining my steps to the house. Cut the liriope down with a serrated knife, pulled up lots of weeds, tore out most of the prickly pear. Left a few plump pieces in the dirt. They will attach just fine and continue to grow. I do this every year and never seem to learn. You need to pull the prickly pear LAST! I wear thick leather gloves, long sleeves and long pants, yet I have those tiny spines everywhere. I spent the next 2 hours working in the garden and trying to pick out the spines as I went.

before

after

Knockout rose

prickly pear

The box I found is really solid. I have no idea what it was used for or how old it is, but it is perfect to store my seeds. It has really pretty brass screws.

The wooden yard stick has "Compliments of Creel Bros." stamped on it. My plan is to lay the stick on the dirt and drop a seed into each hole. Of course just plants that need to be 2 inches apart.

My seeds used to be in two cardboard boxes. I am very happy with my new box:) Everything fits great.

before

after

While we were out front enjoying the early evening, I start pulling rocks from a rock pile that has been in the front yard for many years. The idea was to line our culvert when our new driveway was installed. Life got too busy and that job was pushed to the bottom of my husband's list. While I was talking to my husband and son, I was throwing rocks into a circular pattern. In my head I was planning what I have to add to the soil and what perennials I am going to plant. It started getting dark, so I stopped at this point.

That is a contorted filbert on the right.

rocks on other side of driveway

I am very fortunate that I can do this. I have cut my work hours back a little. I will now have an extra day off every 2 weeks. My goal is to spend more time in my gardens. This year I have one more. My home, my farm, and the demonstration garden for the University of Maryland Extension Service, native and vegetable. It is good to be busy!

A true sign of spring - my first crocus

Crocus

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Too Early to Plant

35 countries and counting! Welcome to Columbia, Czech Republic, Romania, and Spain!

pansies

Touran Neon Rose Saxifraga

hellebore

Earliest flowers

Well, it's been one whole year since I started this blog. I feel like I am starting all over again! Seed catalogs have been scoured, existing seeds counted and ordering of new seeds has begun. I will be setting up my lights this month to start a lot of seeds. Learned a lot, that was my goal with this blog. I wanted to keep a good record so I knew what to change the next year. I will not be growing potatoes this year. I had a wireworm infestation last year. That is the larval stage of the click beetle. I really didn't like paying too much attention when I cleaned the potatoes and had to cut away the parts that were eaten. Yuk. The stink bugs did a number on my tomatoes at the farm garden, but not in my garden at my house. So, I am trying sweet potatoes at my house this year, and I will plant my tomatoes in my back yard.

I do use seeds from other planting seasons. The rate of germination goes down, but when they do germinate, the plants do just fine. The trick is to put an extra seed or two into the planting cell.
Look for the strongest seedling and then cut the others down to the dirt with a pair of scissors. Pulling the weaklings out will disturb the root system of the remaining plant and possibly weaken or kill it.

I still have to clean up my perennial beds here at the house and up at the farm. I am waiting for a nice warm day, though. My hellebores are blooming nicely. They are also called lenten rose, I assume because they bloom around Lent. The Witch Hazel at the Demonstration Garden is in bloom also. Smells medicinal, and very clean.

Our Master Gardener group has taken on a huge project this year. We are adding on to our existing Demonstration Garden at the Extension office. A HUGE vegetable garden. I have even started a blog for that garden for the MGs. Check us out at FREDCOMGDEMOGARDEN.BLOGSPOT.COM.

On the Mother Earth News website I found a really nice garden planning program. You design your garden and then post it to the web so others can view it. I put my first rough draft of one of the garden beds on the web so my team members could view it and have ideas to change or add when we have our next meeting.
http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=238647

20x60

Also on my list of garden chores is pruning back my Japanese maple and my magnolia shrub/tree. We had a professional arborist come out to do the big trees. Looks great, lots of dead wood and broken branches were taken out.

Checked my oak log inoculated with shitake fungi, nothing yet.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Winter Garden

Welcome to 6 more countries! Dominica, Poland, Egypt, The United Arab Emirates, Greece and Japan. That makes 31 countries and 6 continents.

The only good thing about January is that my grandson has a January birthday. That is it.

I am a month shy of my one year anniversary of writing my blog. New catalogs are arriving daily, so Alice and I will soon pull out the seed box to see what needs to be ordered.

I have been a little disappointed with the wildlife around here. I have been blessed with the absence of deer damage at my home garden. There is enough free space for them to avoid my garden. I was shocked to see that my native bushes have been eaten by bunnies! If I had not seen them munching away with my own eyes, I would have assumed that the deer had moved in. When spring comes, I will be better able to assess the damage.

Winter is not my favorite season around here. So we left. Took a cruise to the Caribbean. I made a point of taking tours of the Islands we went to to learn about their life and work. In La Romana in the Dominican Republic, We went to a sugar cane plantation. This one was 250 square miles large. They don't use a lot of equipment that requires fuel. We saw carts (looked a lot like our hay wagons) being pulled by a team of oxen. The trains then come right into the fields so the sugar cane can be loaded onto the train cars. Very labor intensive. All the cane is cut by hand - machete.

Went to a nursery that grew orchids, cacti and all those beautiful indoor plants you see in our nurseries and Lowes, Wal Mart and Home depot.

Orchids

Also took a tour of a cigar factory. All cigars rolled by hand. This factory employed 4,000 people. It was good to see people employed, but tobacco does so much harm to our country.

Hands in constant motion. They are paid by the piece - a minimum of 300 cigars a day.

Another island I really enjoyed was Curacao. The northern part of the island was more agrarian. Saw an interesting way to keep goats out of your yard - a cactus fence. This island is just beautiful.

Willemstad

Just a pretty wall

On the home front, broccoli still going strong! Seeds being spread by the native plants. And of course, one of our inconvenient snowfalls. Just enough to slow us down a little.

Really! This picture taken Jan 7 2012.

Winter berries - good food source for wildlife. A wonderful native shrub.

Butterflyweed pod with more seeds to spread

This is how I feel in January!

Bye for now. Next Blog post will be on my indoor herb garden. Have to spruce it up a little first:)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Herbs and Propagation

Welcome to Malaysia!! #25

Well, we had a surprise early snow last week. I quick as a bunny ran out and took cuttings of some herbs I know will not make it through the winter. During our Master Gardener training we had a whole class on propagation. I learned how to take cuttings from different plants and root them to make a clone of the original plant. I really wanted to save a lot of my pineapple sage plant. It is beautiful and has a distinct pineapple fragrance when you rub the leaves. In early fall, it gives a show when it flowers. Striking red flowers, unfortunately it is an annual in our area.

It is best to start with a well hydrated plant. No problem there. We have had so much rain lately. Use a clean, sharp tool to cut of a twig of new growth. There is less chance of success using the woody sections. Remove the bottom leaves and dip into a rooting powder. This is a plant hormone that stimulates root growth. I try to include at least 2 nodes. A node is the part of the stem that new growth emerges from. The space between the nodes is called the internode. A stem is divided into nodes and internodes.

not my picture

Leaves removed from bottom 2 nodes

I used a mixture of peat moss and vermiculite. I actually had to buy a small bag of peat because my large bag kept outside was alive. Literally! After I wetted a batch, all the insects woke up and put on quite a show! Needless to say, I dumped that batch into an area I am going to plant in the spring.

Vermiculite is a natural mineral that is heated. The vermiculite expands up to 30 times its' original size. It is lightweight and helps with soil aeration and retention of moisture and nutrients. The technical name is hydrated laminar magnesium-aluminum-iron silicate. (In case you really wanted to know:)

When you use peat moss, wet the mixture before you fill your pots. Otherwise the water just runs off. I fill a large bowl with the mixture add water and mix until it become the consistency of a sponge. I did use some old terra cotta pots that I scrubbed with soap and water with a stiff brush and then ran through the dishwasher to sterilize. Some people use a bleach solution, which is fine, but I have a good dishwasher that will work just as well. You really don't want to chance bringing any disease or pest into your home. I also scrubbed some plastic pots for this demonstration. A coffee filter at the bottom on the pot will stop the mixture from escaping from the container.

After dipping the stem in the rooting powder, simply place in the vermiculite/peat mixture. Clip the existing leaves to lessen the water demands of the plant and cover the top of the pot with a plastic bag to retain moisture. I use a zip lock bag to make this a mini green house. I put several cuttings into each large terra cotta pot. When they develop good roots, I will then place into separate pots for replanting in the spring. I will check the root growth in about 4 weeks.

clipped leaves

mini greenhouses

I also decided to grow herbs in my basement this winter. I may even try lettuce. I have a great set up for seed starting. A warm room, lights on timers, and a little knowledge of growing things. I brought in my oregano plant from my deck and bought some herbs from a local nursery. Purple sage, spearmint and bay leaves. For the rest, I have plenty of seeds. Dill, parsley, thyme, basil, and cilantro. I have learned to put a marker in every container I plant. You think you will remember what you planted - trust me, you won't.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

NATIVE SHRUBS AND TREES

Our backyard neighbor decided to replace a pretty wooden fence with a 6 foot plastic wall. Really?

example of old fence 5 feet high

white plastic - 6 feet high

Listening to a fellow Master Gardener, I took some wise advice. Betsy (our native plant go to person) told me that she gardens for herself. If she looks out her window, she wants to see a beautiful garden. It doesn't matter if anyone else (neighbors) sees it. Even the part everyone else sees is beautiful, of course!

This fence was the view from my kitchen window for the last 4 or 5 months.

After staring at this plastic wall all summer, my husband and I started talking about ways to cover it up. I of course wanted mostly native plants. Maybe a fig tree? (not native) A Paw Paw? Growing fun fruit sounded good too.

Took a ride over to a local nursery that also carries a nice selection of native plants. Stadler Nursery. When we pulled up, there it was, a sign that said "50% off everything!" They meant EVERYTHING! Walking back, we saw large groupings of plants and trees that had already been sold to landscapers. I think this is a yearly sale that people in the business know about. Luckily my husband was with me, he is the money person in our family. He gave me a limit and off we went. Here is a list of what we bought:
(Again, don't be bored, this is for MY record keeping.)

2 Dogwood trees "Cherokee Princess" Cornus florida 2" diameter trunks. Good size - very heavy!
1 Oakleaf hydrangea "Snowqueen"
1 Winterberry Ilex verticillata "Sparkle"
1 Winterberry Ilex verticillata "Winter red"
1 Winterberry Ilex verticillata "Apollo" male - need this shrub for female to have berries
1 Viburnum "Winterthur" Viburnum nudum white flowers in spring and blue berries for birds in fall - this will also need a pollinator to set fruit (berries) I will add one in the future if needed.

Spent only half of my budget. Not to worry, perennials will be planted in the spring.

In time, this wall will be gone. The dogwoods are already large enough to tower over the wall. The hydrangea will top out at 8 feet, the Viburnum 6 feet, winterberries 6-12 feet.

We bought large plants because we don't think we will be here 10 or 20 more years to see everything mature. In the spring I will add perennials to fill in the open areas. I already put in New England aster. This is a late blooming perennial. I want constant color, so I will be growing most of my perennials from seed over the winter.

New England aster. Very important for monarch butterflies in fall. They need a food source for their journey to Mexico. Bees love them too.

Also, earlier this fall I planted smaller natives around the yard that were purchased at a native plant sale.

Gaultheria procumbens winter green a ground cover
bayberry
hydrangea pee wee
Asimina triloba paw paw
Cercis canadensis red bud
winterberry
Calycanthus floridus carolina allspice (native further south but too pretty not to have)
Lindera benzoin spicebush
Chlethra alnifolia summersweet
Comptonia peregrina sweetfern
Itea virginica virginia sweetspire
Celastrus scandens American bittersweet - a vine

Most of these are in the front yard. We have mature White pine trees that make growing grass difficult because of the shade. I have chosen not to fight this. Where the grass has stopped growing well, I am converting these areas into woodlands. Understory plants and trees and mulch. This also means no more raking or mowing leaves and pine needles. I have planted lots of ferns this year (2 not native, japanese painted fern.) I already have hostas established there.

I haven't made a decision about edging yet. I have different hardscapes I laid out to see which I prefer. The bricks have been in our yard for about 25 years. The stone about 12 years. I also have dead logs from trimming trees. I hate plastic and metal edging. I may end up just having mulch against grass - we'll see.