I cam across this post on Bucolic Bushwick and find it just wonderful! What a clever use of an old barge…:)
Peace!
Gardening
Silent Reel 16
The rain has finally hit. Not alot, we got 1/4 inch yesterday but as I said before, every little drop helps. Today it rained a bit harder and is still drizzling. I’m hoping for more as this lasted so far about 45 minutes. The more the better of course.
I got most of the front mowed this morning before the rain hit. The rest will have to wait until J gets home, but I did most of it. And I did it not with any powered lawn mower, but an older Agri-Fab Silent Reel 16 push mower. Agri-Fab quit making these awhile ago and Sears had picked them up but I don’t think they manufacture them anymore either. It is a heavier push mower, but does a great job and isn’t difficult to use. The hardest part is manipulating it into smaller areas as it is so heavy, but even that’s not bad. It really does cut the grass beautifully, plus there is the bonus of not adding anymore pollution as with a gas mower and it’s a good workout.
I just need to trim up the edges, but J is picking up some large clippers for that job for me tonight on his way home, so guess what I’ll be doing this evening? The garden will look so much better once the edges are spruced up. Eventually we are going to line all the beds in rock, but that won’t happen until it cools down in the Fall as hauling rock from the back of the property to the front is a big job. With the temperatures we’ve been experiencing lately, I think we’ll have better luck later in the year. So for now I’ll just trim everything up and leave it at that.
Hope everyone finds themselves living life exactly the way they want to today. Peace!
ETA: Just checked the rain gauge and it’s over an inch right now…woohoo!
New Birds And Datura Seeds
I have been trying to find out what these little birds are. Anyone out there have a clue? They love the finch sock I put up and are very shy. The picture is not super clear because I had to use the digital zoom and I have an old camera. So forgive the quality.
Also, we finally are getting a little rain. Not a ton, but every drop counts right now. I also ordered some Datura seeds from Seedman.com. If you haven’t seen these gorgeous flowers, go over to Tom’s blog at Seventh Street Cottage and check out his post on his night blooming ones. Simply gorgeous! While you are over there, take a look at his other posts as he has a beautiful garden and it’s worth the browsing.
Thank you!
Peace!
One Down, Three To Go
We finished one of the boxes for the raised beds we are working on. It was so hot out, all we had energy for was one but we’ll finish a second one later this week and then the other two in another couple weeks. I had been wanting raised beds for awhile, so this feels like a great start! You can see in the pictures how dry it is, and rocky. Nothing really grows in that area except maybe some persistant weeds, and even they have packed up and moved North. I will be able to put everything on drip irrigation in this area (front beds get it first though, thanks to my in-laws’ help!). I’ve always wanted a bed that I could dedicate to just starts, so one of the four beds will be for that purpose. The other three will house vegetables mainly, I’m sure I’ll tuck in a few flowers as well – for the pollinators of course.
We left some tall rebar to string for trellis’. We realized we should have left the corner rebar tall too in order to make a hoop house for the winter (I want to try to grow as year round as possible), so the other three boxes will have that feature. We used 8 foot long landscape timber and made the boxes 8′ x 4′. Plenty big but still easy to work with. I’ll lay the cardboard down early in the day and then we’ll start our layers. We are planning on doing this in the lasagna tradition, but also will bring in top soil so we can get started with our seeds next month.
The girls watched the progress while sitting in the shade with ice cold bottles of water. They’d last about 15 minutes a stretch and then have to go back inside. J looked at the temperature gauge on the back porch and it was registering 112 in the sun! So it was hot and really zapped alot of our energy. Swinging a sledge hammer in the heat takes alot out of a person! But we feel good getting this started and feel like we have finally begun the transformation of our backyard. We have quite a bit of land to overhaul back there for a regular neighborhood lot. We have lots of good, healthy oaks and then some landscaping was done by the previous owners, but not alot. We have big dreams that will take us a long time to make reality, but the first step is taken in the form of a garden box.
Hope your weekend is cool and everything you could have wanted for you and your family. Peace!
And so it begins:
The finished box…now for the dirt!
Oh You Lovely Plants
As promised, here are my new additions to the garden. I also took some pictures of my very wild veggie bed. Once we get the raised beds built, I think I’ll have a much neater version going on, but this one just seems to want to be a jungle! I’m still learning and it’s producing, so I won’t complain.
For your viewing pleasure…
Peace!
The jungle of veggies:
Potatoes are growing:
Basil:
Cucumbers growing up the bamboo:
Pepper:
Even in this heat, I have tomatoes still setting under the shade cloth, not alot but better than none!
Cucumbers:
Morning Glories winding their way up the shade structure:
Golden Jubilee Esperanza finally blooming!
My $14 birdbath:
New Pentas (I couldn’t resist when I saw the amount of butterflies on them at the nursery):
New Strawberry Field Gromphrena:
New Benary’s Giant Purple Zinnia:
I finally found my Butterfly Weed (Milkweed):
New Nicotiana Hummingbird Mix (this is a sad specimen and was on the 50% off table at the nursery, hopefully I can help it along):
New Coleus in the shade bed:
Also new in this bed, Hypoestes:
Part of the shade bed with about all the sun it ever gets, everything is doing well in this bed so far:
Oh boy…look what I got! A Dutchman’s Pipevine of my very own. After reading Meredith’s post over at Great Stems, I had to pick up one of these. There were only 5 left so I feel luck was on my side. It is a host plant for the Pipevine Swallowtail. There are a few eggs left on it and so I’m hoping to have little caterpillars soon. Crazy pipe shaped blossoms and gorgeous foliage. Now where to plant this beauty!
A Jade plant gifted to me from my mother-in-law:
New Sedum:
Repotted succulent collection (not all of them are here of course, but a nice assortment):
And with a big happy sigh, a hosed down, cleaned up patio:
And same with the front porch (both areas had become my “potting shed” so were quite the sight…now that planting is pretty much over for now, they can return to their original purpose):
Happy Solstice!
We had a blast with J’s folks yesterday, and as promised I have some pictures of their back garden. J took all of these. His folks have been gardening all their lives and know their stuff. Super green thumbs going on in that household. I don’t know the names of everything, but you’ll get the general idea. J and I have had the privilege of watching everything grow and change. We came up the week after it was put in when they first built the house. A lot has changed and it’s all looking so amazing. Enjoy the photos and Happy Solstice!
Peace!
New Plants and Some Rain
We got an inch and a half last night…nothing to sneeze at, although I’d love it to be more. But everything in the gardens loved it and seem to be smiling this morning. I went out early and got four new plants in the ground. I’m cutting it close on the new things I can plant, but they will fill in spaces nicely once established. Here are pictures of the new garden friends and one happy customer as a bonus!
Zinnia sprouts:
New Butterfly Bush:
Pentas:
White Bellflower:
New Black Eyed Susan next to smaller flowering cousin:
Rain! Glorious rain!:
Peace!!
Hot!
And not in a good way! My porch says 92 but I swear it feels over 100 in the sun. Tomorrow’s temps? 100!! And no rain in sight. I’ve been using liquid seaweed on everything every 2 weeks now and am hoping it will help the plants combat some of this heat. We are quickly getting to the season where it’s all about maintenance and keeping things alive. We’ve mulched and most likely will mulch again. We are on a good water schedule, shade cloth is up, let the fun begin! (I really wish it would rain more though.)
My Scarlet Runner beans are just now sprouting and I’m hoping will grow as quickly as the morning glories are, up the sides of the shade structure over the veggies. The regular pole beans are popping up as well. I also went ahead and planted some Mammoth Sunflowers and some Lemon Queen Sunflowers I received from The Great Sunflower Project. If you haven’t heard of this project, please check it out! It’s all about the hunt for bees and you take data of how many bees you see at your sunflowers in a 30 minute time period. After a set amount of weeks, you mail in your data to the project. You can also fill out the data forms online, which is more convenient. In addition, they have a list of other plants that they are willing to count in your data, so if no sunflowers are blooming in your yard, check out the list and see what else might be.
So I know I’m quite late with my sunflowers, but what the heck? It’s all one big experiment right now anyway. Hah!
I also have plans to get a couple raised beds built for our fall veggies. We picked out the perfect spots for them, well perfect to us the plants might tell me a different story. I know how much lumber I need and we’ll start it as a lasagna bed and then fill in with topsoil so planting can start in August or September. I’m excited about these. We have so much caliche in the back, that raised beds are probably our best bet. We also have a double leech field and while I threw down some wildflower seeds along the rim, we are leaving the grass where it is since it’s not something we water anyway. Plus, no veggies on the leech field. The back of the property will be more extensive gardens someday as well, but that’s a few seasons off right now. So for now I am going to build two 4’x 6′ raised beds and then go from there.
Did I mention it was hot?! Hope your days are spent refreshed and full of life. Peace!
An Ah Ha! Moment
Thanks to Gail over at Clay and Limestone, I found out the name of this delicate looking beauty in my garden, Commelina communis or Asiatic Dayflower. Please read her post on these interesting “weeds”. I don’t have the heart to yank the few I have out just yet, but apparently they can become quite a nuisance unless kept in check. The area they are in right now is actually a good spot if they want to do their thing for awhile. I’m just happy to have found the answer to what this mystery flower is!
Another Busy Day On The Farm
Today we slept in. Usually we are up early, but all of us were just tired. So we all just stayed in bed a bit longer. Work began upon rising of course, and I headed out into the gardens. Sunday’s are watering days according to the water schedule sent out by the water department. We are so looking forward to rain cachment but for now we have to use the district water. Since we are considered to be in an extreme drought right now, we are on a schedule of Thursday’s and Sunday’s for watering the garden with sprinklers. We can hand water any day, but I’m trying to stick with the schedule and do really deep watering those 2 days. Seems to be working so far!
I love my whole system of watering, it’s very zen to me. It takes me some time as I do everything by hand and/or really low single sprinkler for really deep soaking. While I’m doing all this, I get a chance to look at what’s going on in the garden, how things are doing, what’s blooming, and if any new sprouts are sprouting. We are in the last month of our season where we can reasonably plant new things, either by seed or plant. Once July hits, it’s all about just keeping things alive until September. So knowing I could still throw down some seed, I did just that. First I got the sprinkler set up. Afterwards, with seeds in hand, I spent some time scattering Mexican sunflowers, White Cosmos, Purple Allysium and Chartruese Zinnia. I also chose a couple spots and seeded some Borage. As I spread out the seed, I was lucky enough to spot my first Black Swallowtail flutter through and check things out. It hung out for awhile but wouldn’t sit still enough to take a picture…drats! But I enjoyed it’s carefree dance amongst my flowers. Definitely made me smile.
Another thing that made me smile was this gorgeous sunflower which I can’t remember the name of. It is so velvety and mysterious looking. I love the color!
I also discovered yesterday, two caterpillars munching on my Passion Flower vine. I decided to leave them be as the plant didn’t seem really distressed even with several of it’s leaves turning into a caterpillar lunch. I do not know what these creatures will become however. Anyone have a clue?
J’s grass seeds are growing fast and furious! Yay! They are so green and strong, pushing through the compost. We actually took out most of the lawn when we bought the house, but there is a far corner that is dark and shaded. We want to do a whole focal point with shade loving plants, statue and water feature. We also want a small carpet of soft grass to put our feet in.
I picked up a couple Purple Coneflower plants today. I have small ones that I planted this year, but these were on sale and already flowering, so I filled in the space around the smaller ones. I also got some Coreopsis “Sunfire” and put in the front bed. I’m happy to get more color in there and I think they will do really well.
A couple more bird feeders went up as I’ve seen several more birds hanging about, including a huge Blue Jay and beautiful Cardinal. And my little wren is still keeping house it seems! I hadn’t seen her in a few days and thought maybe she flew off to a better tree, but it appears she’s most likely sitting on eggs as she hasn’t really left the birdhouse until today, and that was only for a few moments.
So far we have Carolina Chickadees, Red House Finches, Black Crested Titmouses, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Carolina Wren, and 3 or 4 more who I’m still trying to get a good picture of. One looks yellowish and sits up in one of the trees singing very happily and loudly…I suspect a Warbler of some sort, but am not sure. I also saw another hummingbird, but it didn’t stay long. I think I need to put out another feeder.
Vegetables got a good drink today too and the new shade cloth addition seems to be doing alright. The tomatoes are starting to set fruit, but my cucumbers are going slow. They are flowering like crazy and growing long, strong vines, but so far only 2 cucumbers matured. I really don’t want to have to go out there with a paintbrush. I planted several flowers in hopes of attracting more pollinators, so we’ll just cross our fingers. I need to get the beehouses done, hopefully this week. I keep getting busy with other projects, but I need to make that a priority. I did get Scarlet Runner Beans in the ground to climb up one of the poles, so hopefully those will grow fast and start blooming. I’ve read they attract all kinds of bees.
In about 15 minutes, I’m going to go give everything a good foliar feeding of seaweed. Always makes the garden smell fishy for awhile afterwards..heh.
I also picked up another succulent for the collection. There is a garden store near here that I’ve been wanting to stop at since we moved here. I finally did today and what a place! All succulents, Mexican pottery, recycled glass, vintage items turned into planters, and lots of color. Super interesting place and will definitely be worth a repeat visit.
I hope your weekend was everything you hoped and needed it to be! Peace!