how does your garden grow

Christmas Cheer

2011-11-30T09:57:00.001-08:00

I completely forgot to bloom my poinsettia this year - whoops. Probably for the best since it had a rough time (I wasn't very kind to it...)

But because I needed some color for Christmas I tried my hand at growing an Amaryllis from the bulb. I think I may have to get some more of these! It was super easy to grow (plant, water, open blinds) and I think some other colors would be fun, too. I have never been really good at indoor plants but I am determined to have more where this came from!

The Yard – Vol 1 Issue 2

2011-11-11T16:58:00.001-08:00

I know you’ve been itching to see what the yard actually looks like now. I should have taken pictures all summer, but the yard wasn’t actually that great, so I’m kind of glad I didn’t – but it would have been fun to see how much it has improved.

Well, here it is – the yard after one year of residency in a previously vacated home (our house had been vacant and untended for almost a year before we bought it).

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The Front Yard (I will try to do more detailed pictures next time)

Current condition: you can see the beds are weed-free (mostly), there is a hibiscus tree in the far left bed, as well as a Spring Deutzia which is hard to see against the black fence, but will really pop next spring with its white flowers. There are crocuses, tulips, irises, gardenia, asiatic lilies, and daffodils in all the beds (except the bed in the far back corner). The lawn is greening up in most places, the sprinkler system is functional, and the tree in the middle of the yard (a Tulip Tree) has been pruned and, as far as we can tell, is pretty healthy. The circle beds on the sidewalk that used to hold those dying evergreen trees now have white Rose of Sharon bushes. There are also three azaela bushes under the big bay window in the front. Two seemed to have a hard time after I planted them, but I think they weren’t getting enough water because a sprinkler head had broken.

Goals for next year: In the spring we will overseed the lawn, fertilize all the trees and shrubs, and plant some berry bushes (blueberry, raspberry, and strawberries). We also plan on planting some rose bushes close to the house. There is a stump that needs to be removed from the flower bed near the driveway, and we would like to replace it with a tree. We also want to put some more shrubbery in all of the beds – plants that will provide some volume and color even in the winter (it looks dead – but I promise there are lots of bulbs that will be coming up!). I will also be planting some calla lilies in the spring. I will also start pruning the Rose of Sharon in the circular beds to form trees. I’m hoping I can get them to grow a main branch instead of looking bush-like. My mother said it was possible, now I just have to figure out how to do it. And I read today that young plants need winter protection, so now I have to figure out what to use to cover my little baby Sharons.

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The Back Yard

Due to the layout of our back yard, it’s hard to get the whole thing in one or two shots. I did my best with a panorama shot (above) and then I have a few more shots of the rest of the yard.

Current condition: As you can see, we have some work to do in the back. There are dirt patches on the side yard (show in the large panorama above) from where we removed curbing this summer. We have a dog and children, so a backyard’s purpose for us is for little children and animals to run around and frolic – I don’t want to have to worry about them trampling my flowers. So flowers are in the front, play-yard is in the back. We originally laid rocks from the removal of the pond under the deck, and then we discovered there are sprinklers under the deck… But under the deck is mostly dirt and the dog’s “poo” area – we trained him to do his business in a specific spot so he doesn’t ruin our lawn. In the smaller picture on the left, you can see where the pond once existed, it’s now a big dirt area, and a vegetable garden (which did pretty well this summer, in spite of being planted horribly late in the season). There is also a little grass over there, where we laid a few pieces of sod we got from a neighbor. The back “corridor” as we call it has some issues from a missing rain gutter, so there is a bit of a ditch, and the entire yard is really patchy and uneven.

Goals for next year: Overseed the entire backyard, and seed (or sod) all bare patches (including under the deck, which will require some serious rock removal. Ouch). We will also be routinely dumping compost all over the yard in the holes to help level out the yard and improve the quality of the soil. I also want to do some potted plants on the big red deck you can see the stilts of in the pictures. In the top big picture in the lower left hand corner, under the deck stairs we will hopefully be adding a rain barrel to catch all the rain runoff from our roof. The area by the pond will be leveled, top soil added, and sod laid. We will probably lay sod under the deck, since it is extreme shade (because our house is south facing, the area under the deck actually gets quite a bit of sunlight – at least 4-5 hours every day during the growing months).

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The Vegetable Garden

Current condition: Right now the vegetable garden is more of a compost pile, since it isn’t the growing season. I also didn’t really plant any fall veggies. There are three sprinklers that are on our automatic sprinkler system and give our garden water during the growing season. Unfortunately they are on the same zone as the dirt patch, so the dirt patch got a lot of water this summer.

Goals for next year: plan and harvest more plants. I want to put compost from the dump all over the top of the garden for the winter to help keep in the moisture and improve the soil quality. I also want to get more manure from our neighbors (see that roof on the other side of our fence? A stable in which five horses live!) to add to the compost for the winter. We also want to get the vegetable garden sprinklers on their own zone so we’re not watering the rest of the yard every morning when we water the vegetables. I am going to document the growth and harvest of our plants on this blog next year, as well.

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So there it is, our improved and updated yard. I plan on taking pictures each week of our yard. It shouldn’t change much during the winter (other than sometimes be snowy, sometimes not) but I figure if I can get into the habit in the winter, then it will be really easy to do in the Spring/summer when it really matter. And I would love to be able to watch my garden grow through pictures.

And if I think of anything else I want to do to the garden, I can list those things on the blog!

The Yard – Volume 1 Issue 1

2011-11-11T16:23:00.001-08:00

I took picture today to post for this “first edition” – and then I remembered what our house looked like when we moved it.

Notice the dead grass, the random weeds and bushes (about 6’ tall) and below, the pond. Yes. A pond. A dilapidated, half-filled-in pond. Taking up almost the entire back yard.

Here’s some more of the front yard:

Again, notice the dead grass, and all the little quakies coming up everywhere – in the grass, in the flower beds, ev-er-y-where. They were pains in the rear to clean out, and we were still working on them this summer. (this picture was taken in October shortly after we first moved in)

So we pulled things up, we chopped things down, we dug things out, we watered, fertilized, and did the best we could (like I said, we moved in the house in October, so there wasn’t really any growing season left). But after some hard work, here’s what it looked like:

As you can see in the picture above, we got some grass to start growing (turns out the sprinkler system on the front part of the lawn wasn’t working – which is why the grass only started growing in the back).

In the backyard, we dug out and filled in the pond. It took a lot of work, and a really grateful neighbor (I say she was grateful because she did most of the work in return for all the pond equipment and those flagstones). We were happy just to get rid of that pond! She also eventually took the two evergreens back there (earlier in the spring/summer) and I moved the big hibiscus tree that was back there (probably a bit too late in the year, but oh well).

In the second edition, which I am going to post tonight as well, you’ll see all the work we’ve done!

Crocosmia

2011-11-11T16:08:00.001-08:00

I finally found out what those blasted red/orange flowers were!

Remember these:

Well, it turns out they are crocosmia. Which variety, I’m not sure. But finally I know what they are! I can’t describe how much relief I get from having finally solved this puzzle…

I am thinking about putting a few of these in the garden, just for nostalgia’s sake.

Faith is like a Little Seed

2010-06-05T21:40:00.001-07:00

I bought my son a plant at the nursery a few weeks ago, and he has been tending and taking care of it!

Every day my little Green Thumb asks if he can feed his plant. He tells me, “My plant is thirsty!” and goes around asking to water all of his plants – and every other plant he can find!

Sometimes Green Thumb feeds them sticks, too. Because apparently plants get hungry and eat sticks. We’ll have to work on that concept. He is only three, after all!

We also got to help Grandma plant some new bushes and flowers in her front flower garden. Paint brush flowers, marigolds, and a variety of other perennials. I have always admired my mother’s garden, and her green thumb. That’s probably where I got it from.

And probably where little Green Thumb got his!

Left Behind

2010-04-15T18:22:00.001-07:00

When we moved from our dumpy old house in CA we were so busy trying to get out on time that we weren’t able to bring my bulbs with me. <tears>

So I need to go get myself a potted plant when I move to AR so that I can keep taking care of something and posting on this blog. I feel lame, because I haven’t been gardening, which is by far one of my very favorite things to do.

Also, I left my poinsettia behind in CA because I just didn’t have the heart to move it to UT and then to AR… I just don’t think it would have made the road trip.

So here is an ode to my beautiful plants, and to starting over again…

Oh sweet flora,

I tended you with a gentle hand

I watched you press upward

Through the dirt and sand

Oh beautiful green leaves

and sweet smelling flowers

I cared for you carefully

and tended for hours

Oh, sweet flora,

How short was our time

But there is always another day

Another garden

Where the sun will still shine.

Okay, now that I’m done being corny, I probably won’t post again until I get that potted plant sometime in May. Maybe if I help my in laws with their landscaping before we leave I’ll take pictures and post anything I learn about sodding or planting trees.

So… these aren’t what I thought they were

2010-02-01T13:00:00.001-08:00

Anyone know what this is?

All I know is that it grows from a very hairy bulb, and the leaves are rather sturdy. Also, the flowers blossom at the bottom first, and then then gradually blossom up the stem. The bottom flowers have often fallen before the top ones even blossom. There are two rows of flowers on the stem, on either side of the stem.

Please help me figure out what these are. It’s driving me INSANE!

Poinsettia Care 101 – Watering, Temperature, and Sunlight

2010-01-09T09:04:00.001-08:00

Poinsettias like their soil to dry out a little between watering. This means don’t water your poinsettia every day. Maybe once a week, depending on how dry your climate is.

Most poinsettias come with their pots wrapped in decorative foil. Leaving your poinsettia in the foil will not allow the pot to drain completely, so remove your poinsettia from the foil as soon as possible. Your poinsettia shouldn’t sit in standing water. Make sure the pot is able to drain, and that the drip pan dries out, or empty it.

Poinsettias are very sensitive to cold air and direct sunlight.

I put my old poinsettia outside a few times. The evenings in Monterey get pretty cold sometimes, so my poor poinsettia got a little stressed by being outside.

I left my poinsettia out on the front porch on a rather sunny day (thinking it would do it some good) and ended up burning most of the leaves on my beautiful poinsettia! So, keep your poinsettia safe and guard it from direct sunlight!

Keep your poinsettia warm. It thrives in temperatures between 68-70 degrees F.

Hopefully this will get you started.

Source: Paul Ecke Ranch website

The Great Poinsettia Myth

2010-01-09T08:37:00.001-08:00

Contrary to popular belief, poinsettias are not poisonous. This source states that “certain individuals may experience an allergic reaction to poinsettias.” But that “in 1992, the poinsettia was included on the list of houseplants most helpful in removing pollutants from indoor air.” So I think that I will have more poinsettias.

As we were walking from home depot with this poinsettia, a lady saw us and our kids and informed us that we better be careful with our kids around that poinsettia, because poinsettia’s are poisonous, you know! Yes, thank you very much. About two years ago I discovered the they are not, in fact, poisonous. Not to mention that you would think that if a plant was actually poisonous, either stores would not sell them or they would carry warning labels. Or your pediatrician would warn you about it around Christmastime.

Back to the post – the picture above is actually my poinsettia. It looks full and bushy, and it is my goal to keep it looking that way this year. As you can see, it’s still in the foil wrapping. I’ve been meaning to get rid of that, but I have to find something for it to drain onto first.

If you are interested in keeping a poinsettia year round (which I highly recommend! They are beautiful, even when not in bloom!) this website by the Paul Ecke Ranch is a really helpful resource. They even go through reblooming a poinsettia for you!

Make sure to follow this blog for posts about keeping a poinsettia. I will be attempting to bloom my poinsettia again this fall for Christmas, and I will walk you through all the steps as I perform them with my poinsettia.

The Journey of a Poinsettia

2010-01-05T09:46:00.001-08:00

This is not a picture of my poinsettia, but I will post one soon.

I will be documenting the journey of my new Christmas poinsettia. Keep checking back for updates. I will post my first Poinsettia post sometime today or tomorrow.

If you have a poinsettia from Christmas, don’t throw it away! Just water it like a normal houseplant for now, then follow me in my journey with my poinsettia, and we’ll rebloom them for next fall!!

(tip – let the soil dry out between watering)

More and More

2010-01-01T22:34:00.001-08:00

My flower garden in the front yard is growing more and more beautiful every day. DH says that I leave a trail of flowers wherever I go. Isn’t he sweet?

My torch lilies are blooming (no flowers yet in this picture – this was taken a few weeks ago). I will take updated pictures this weekend. My peace lilies have been blooming since early December, and I’m pretty sure each plant has bloomed at least once (two are on their second flowers). They are just downright gorgeous. There are only three irises that are actually producing flowers. The others aren’t yet, and probably won’t because I’m going to dig them up in April and transplant them in UT. I’m enjoying their foliage right now, though. The flower garden looks so full and green.

Out in the back is my embarrassing vegetable garden dying from neglect. I still have a few heads of lettuce that we’ll be able to harvest in a few weeks, some spinach is still growing (what doesn’t get eaten by the deer) and my sugar snap peas are producing the biggest, juiciest, sweetest, snapping-est pods I have ever eaten. They make my taste-buds sing! Oh, and I have loads of cilantro. I probably didn’t need to plant as much as I did, but now I have a better idea of what our family will eat, how much, and how much I can get to grow.

I also harvested some carrots that were delicious, if somewhat small (I forgot to thin them when they were seedlings).

So the first vegetable garden has turned out to be somewhat of a success, even if the tomatoes and peppers were a failure.

There’s always next year!

Fairy Rocks – or Beach Stones with holes

2010-01-01T20:21:00.001-08:00

I found these rocks at the beach a few days ago. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what made such perfectly round holes in the rocks. I looked all over the internet, not really knowing what to search for, since I had no clue what made these. I found a bunch of Etsy shops selling these rocks that people had found, but then I found this post on someone’s blog, and the commenters had some good theories, but no one there knew exactly what happened either, and why the holes were so smooth and perfectly round.

Then my cousin and her husband came to visit, and I showed them my rocks. This particular cousin and her husband have a vast wealth of knowledge about all things nature/earth/plants/animals. They are very “earthy” type people. Anyway, my cousin said her friend calls them “fairy rocks” – supposedly they are good luck. Her husband said they are made when little pebbles get stuck in the rocks. Then the waves beat down on the pebbles, drilling holes through the rocks. He mentioned that most of the rocks this happens to are hardened clay/mud rocks, which will crack and fall apart if they dry out. That happened to a few of my stones, but some of them I believe are rocks.

You can see a pebble stuck in one of the holes on the rock at the very bottom of the picture. It was just amazing how smooth and round the holes were! I guess the pebbles act like a drill bit. Amazing!

The Great Outdoors

2009-10-09T17:37:00.001-07:00

I did some more work in the backyard today. Mostly I just pulled some more wood chips up the hill from the huge piles behind our house. The wood chips give the backyard a slightly more manicured look, and hide the fact that nothing will grow for a foot from the house … all around the entire house. So the wood chips are more there to keep down the dirt than to keep down the weeds.

I think I’m just about done with getting the yard how I want it. I think I would like to spread some grass seed in the backyard to help the lawn grow faster and thicker, but I’m debating how much money I want to spend on this house since we’ll be moving in 5 months anyway, and we’re just renting. If I had to sell it (first off let me say that I would NEVER buy this house… ever…) I might do more improvements… but like I said, I would never buy this house. Oh yes, so we’ve decided not to put up a fence. By the time we get around to putting it up, we’ll only be here for about 4 more months. I can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly.

That said, I’m loving that our backyard is looking more like a nice place to play and less like the African savanna.

The Other Plants

2009-10-08T13:13:00.001-07:00

I’ve been so focused on the fact that I have iris flowers blooming that I have neglected to mention the progress of my other plants, the peace lilies and the torch lilies.

This is the a picture of the largest peace lily plant I have so far. I have about five peace lily plants, and they are all doing pretty well. I can’t wait for them to get big enough to bloom. The peace lilies have the most beautiful white flowers.

I don’t have a really good picture of the torch lilies. I have about 20 bulbs, and only 4 of them haven’t sprouted yet. The others are doing surprisingly well. Their leaves look a lot like the iris leaves, so you may not be able to pick them out in this picture, but the plant that is on the top left hand corner of this picture is the beginnings of a torch lily.

Hopefully all these plants will flower before we move in April. Thankfully, things will bloom all year round here if you give them what they need, so I’m pretty confident that by the time we leave, my flower garden will be in full bloom!

And did I mention that I’m taking all my plants with me when I leave? I need to start researching how to move bulbs and rhizomes (the iris is actually a rhizome, not a bulb, did you know that?)

Veggie Tales

2009-10-08T13:05:00.001-07:00

Here’s an updated picture of our vegetable garden. The beans/peas need to be staked soon, and the spinach and carrots need to be thinned. I can’t wait to eat a fresh salad straight from my very own garden!

BBY (Better Back Yard)

2009-10-08T13:03:00.001-07:00

We’ve been watering the back yard like mad, and this past weekend, DH mowed for me – it looks AWESOME! We’re going to put up a fence next month so our Little Guy can run around and we won’t have to worry about him running away or getting lost. It’s going to be so much fun! The little tiny thing in the far corner of the yard is my compost pile I wanted one, but I wanted to make sure it was plenty far from my house. I didn’t want to attract bugs and critters. Well, it’s far enough away, and full of grass clippings and food bits. I’m going to add some wood chips one of these days. I have a few other outdoors projects to do, I just haven’t found the time to do them!

Soon we’ll really be able to enjoy that backyard! I can’t wait!

White, Purple, and Golden Beauties

2009-10-08T12:58:00.001-07:00

The hard work is still paying off. Three blossoms just appeared this week. And it looks like we’ll have two or three more in the next few weeks. I’m hoping some of the other plants start blooming as well – this is all from the same plant, and the same plant that produced the first blossom.

A Poinsettia’s Journey

2009-10-08T12:46:00.001-07:00

This is my poinsettia that I got from an HOA party at our last house about two years ago. I enjoyed its red bracts so much that I decided to try my hand at reblooming a poinsettia. I figured it could be done, I just didn’t know how easy it would be!

Well, I was very busy last fall, finishing school and visiting my DH who was away for job training. My mother in law took pretty good care of it, but it was kind of scrawny from my lack of attention throughout the year, and so it didn’t bloom very much – however, it DID bloom! Well, this year I plan to do things differently, especially since it looks so healthy this year! I had to put it outside for a while because we got a fruit fly infestation, and I think they were spawning in the soil of this particular plant. I hope to be able to bring it back in tomorrow and I will start the reblooming process.

After it blooms, I will start blogging my reblooming journey for next year, so any readers can follow along and try their own hand at reblooming a poinsettia! This poinsettia will also probably follow me on some road trips that I am making across the US next year, but I will be staying put come fall 2010, and that is when the hardest part happens. Maybe I’ll even get another poinsettia this year and try to rebloom TWO! That would be fun. And I bet I can find some cheap ones after the holidays.

Start checking back in January to join with me in reblooming a poinsettia!

A Single Flower

2009-10-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

My iris is a-bloomin’. The first flower on my front-yard flower garden has finally appeared! I was so ecstatic when I noticed that my iris was budding (only three even have flowering branch things right now).

The irises were blooming in the backyard (that’s how I found out they were irises). When we first moved in I thought the big clump of irises were just some kind of grass. Turns out once I started watering the backyard, the irises came to life!

It looks like we’ll have a few more blossoms on this iris before long! It makes all the hard work feel worth it.

The Quest for a Backyard

2009-09-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

When we moved in, our backyard was a jungle of sorts. The grass grew knee high (or chest high, for my two year old) and it didn’t seem like the best environment for our little guy to go exploring. Just before we planted our vegetable garden we decided to start watering the backyard to see if we could get anything to grow back there. Lo and behold, below the tall, dead, African safari-type grass grew little grasslings, springing up to the sun.

So when we planted our garden, we weed-whacked the whole backyard, and this is what it looks like now. We hope with more sun and water we’ll have a lawn to play on before Christmas.

things are growing

2009-09-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

There’s something really special about watching plants grow. You sow these little seeds in the ground, and with enough sunshine, good soil, and water, little plants start coming out of the ground. It’s hard to imagine that I will be harvesting food from these little plants in a matter of months.

I sometimes find myself feeling emotions for my plants that I usually only feel toward my children. Interesting, eh?

my free flower garden

2009-09-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

This is the front of our house. The management company advertises these house as having “landscaped front and side yards.” Well, let me just tell you what this looked like when we moved in. There was no lawn, it was just dried, old, patchy, weedy front yard. They mow the… weeds, but not very often (once every 2 weeks, if we’re lucky). Close to the house, there was nothing but dead grass and dirt – the pest control company sprays about a foot of the ground around the perimeter of the house to keep out the bugs… yes… a whole foot. In the front by our little carport lived a hideous, spider-infested bush.

This past weekend we did some major improvements (we’ve been watering the front “lawn” for a while now, and it’s starting to look much better, despite still being mostly crab grass, and the patchy appearance). We had a friend pull out the ugly bush in the front, we transplanted some irises from the back yard, and covered the front flower garden with wood chips from huge piles of woodchips that were heaped just beyond our backyard. The irises were all clumped up in one big bush, having never been separated for probably several years. They had a fungus, but I just chopped off the affected leaves, and they are doing pretty well. The friend who pulled out the big ugly bush also gave use a few peace lilies and torch lilies from their yard. The peace lilies were decapitated when they were pulling a huge aloe vera plant out of their yard, and the torch lilies had died a while back. I think they also had a fungus (from not being separated), but I’m hoping now that they are separated and have proper drainage, they will start growing again.

Total cost for our front flower garden?! Nothing!! All found, donated, or relocated material. And it looks SO much better. And by the way, our management company had nothing to do with it. So much for their landscaped front and side yards. And I’m taking my plants with me when I leave.

Starting a Garden

2009-09-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

We planted our very first vegetable garden as a married couple this fall. I know it sounds weird to say that we planted a garden in the fall, but in our part of the world, the growing season is just about year round.

And here it is. The garden is inside boxes because we have a problem with some kind of root-eating rodent. The jury is still out as to what exactly the rodent is. Some say gopher, some say prairie dog of sorts. None of that is as important as the fact that it eats the roots of plants and digs up gardens (and lawns) and is the biggest nuisance around. To thwart the little animals, we planted our garden in old bookshelves we bought from our local waste management facility’s “store” – they sell just about anything that anyone could even dream of reusing. Kind of like a second hand store, but a little more trashy.

We got three bookshelves for $7, and then paid $20 for five HUGE bags of the dump’s delicious compost. Did I really just say delicious? You bet I did. Yummy yummy compost. I was seriously about to eat a handful while we were filling up our bags at the dump.

We planted beans, peas, sugar snap peas, broccoli, spinach, cilantro, romaine lettuce, carrots, green onions, and yellow onions. We also started bell peppers (four different colors!) and two types of tomatoes. We should be having a bountiful harvest by Christmas!