A Garden in Maine

Wet, Wet, Wet

2011-05-18T13:50:00.004-04:00

We've had intermittent rain (and sometimes downpours) since Saturday, which means my garden is nice and watered, but now it's too watered, and I don't dare sow any seeds anywhere, lest they rot. But that hasn't stopped me from moving some things around: I dug some daylilies out of one area of my garden and put them in the verge (the place between the sidewalk and the road), so that daylilies now run the entire verge. Where those daylilies were (and some were just little off-shoots of my larger plants), I planted a few more peonies, two 'Benjamin Franklins' that I bought from Skillin's, and two mystery peonies that a neighbor gave me last fall (which I had planted in the back yard).

I also planted my potatoes (Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold), which needed to go in, so I had to balance not being too late with not having them rot in the ground. Let's hope I chose well. Also defying the weather, I planted some gladiolas alongside my fence.

In an annual ritual, it's pulling-out-the-blasted-oak-seedlings time. I walk around my garden, weeding tool in hand, looking for those distinctive red leaves, and out they come. With three oak trees in my neighbor's front yard, adjoining mine, we are inundated with acorns -- and their nefarious consumers, the squirrels.

Finally, my big purchase: I bought an espaliered apple tree, with three varieties grafted onto the same root stock. Unfortunately, Skillins' supplier lost track of what the three varieties were, so it'll be a surprise in the fall. Here's the challenge: I have to cut down four immature oak trees (each about two inches in diameter), which are all right next to each other and in the exact spot in the back yard where I want to put the apple tree. I'd been wanting for years to cut out those trees, but they had become a "house" for my daughter Sage's imaginary persona, Hack (who is, in her mind, a gardener and also an employee at Skillin's). While Hack still shows up once in a while, Sage now likes the idea of harvesting her own apples, so she's willing to give up the trees.

2011-05-14T06:14:00.005-04:00

It's been very dry these past two weeks, despite some brief drizzles here and there, and I've had to tap into my rain barrels for the past week to keep these moist.

I'm starting to take things out of my greenhouse and put them in the ground: nicotiana, amaranthus, lobelia, bachelor buttons, morning glories and thunbergia (the last from my generous neighbor).

I bought some red pontiac and yukon gold seed potatoes yesterday, and cut them up to harden them up before I plant them today or tomorrow. I also had to buy more gladiola bulbs: I hadn't planned on buying new ones this year, since I dutifully pulled last year's bulbs in the fall and put them in a pot to dry (I usually just leave them in the ground to rot), but I mistakenly put another flower pot on top of the bulbs, and when I discovered them last week, they were all moldly. Oh well.

New blooms: my peach (below) and cherry trees have bloomed, and my strawberries are beginning to do so. Among the perennials, the iberis and creeping phlox are in their full glory.People have been enjoying the "wow" factor of my garden this past week. A woman walking her dog paused to point out the tulips to her labrador. (I'm not sure what the dog understood.) A school kid on my daughter's bus stood up from his seat and started pointing and shouting to his friends (though I couldn't hear what he said). Passers-by compliment me on the garden when they see me out there. And my daughter thinks I have the prettiest garden in Portland. So I'm happy. Here are some pix:

getting greener

2011-05-06T08:49:00.005-04:00

After a few days of on-again off-again rain, my garden is filling out with green stuff. And now that classes have ended, hopefully I'll have a little more time to identify what that green stuff is and separate the weeds from the rest. A few notes:

I have only a few blossoms (10 or so) on my cherry tree. It's only a four- or five-year-old tree, but I have images of the cherry blossoms in Washington D.C. in my head, and I'm envious.

As I've noted, only two of the three peonies that I planted last fall came up, so I took the peonies in my back yard (that a neighbor gave to me last summer) and moved them to the front. Let's hope they put on a good show: I have no idea what they look like.

While waiting for my daughter's school bus to arrive, I shelled and sowed lupine seeds that I collected last year. I'm sure they'll all resort to standard purple flowers, but that's fine. I need more variety in the parking strip out front, and as long as they don't become aphid magnets (or even if they do), I'll be happy with them.

I soaked and sowed six more morning glories (well, moon flower, but it's the same species) and put them under lights. Once they sprout, I'll be done with my grow lights and bring everything out into the greenhouse.

So many of the bulbs are open that I had to do a photoshoot yesterday, even if it was drizzling on me.

glory days

2011-05-03T16:18:00.002-04:00

This is one of my favorite times of year for my gardens: when most of my major bulbs are out, especially the daffodils, hyacinth, grape hyacinth, and the first of my tulips. This time of year, my garden acts serves as a traffic-abatement device, slowing down cars as they drive by. Neighbors wave and give me a thumbs-up if they walk by and see me sitting in the front window. It's very rewarding.

Seed-starting update: most of my morning glories have sprouted and emerged from the soil, as have all of the other warm-weather seeds I first started in the greenhouse and then moved into the basement. Lesson learned. My raised bed is now covered with little green things poking out of the soil. Now if I can only find the little map I made as I was sowing the seeds, so I can figure out the seedlings that I don't recognize.

My new bowl-of-beauty peonies sprouted seemingly overnight a few days a ago and are now about 9 inches high. One of the three has yet to emerge, and I'm concerned I buried it too deep.

another greenhouse lesson

2011-04-29T18:48:00.004-04:00

I've learned that seeds don't sprout so well in my greenhouse this time of year. I should have known. None of my morning glories, cukes, zucchini, melons, basil or parsley sprouted in the greenhouse on their own, so a few days ago I brought them back inside and put them under my grow lights, swapping places with all the annuals that I've already sprouted. Now everything's fine, though only two of 10 morning glories have sprouted. I'll have to start another batch.

Kale in

2011-04-25T05:59:00.003-04:00

I brought my kale starts out of the basement (under grow lights) and planted it all in my deck planter -- about two dozen plants. I'm also going to take most of my basement plants and put them into my greenhouse. I'm guessing we'll have no hard frosts this season, and the greenhouse will protect them from any light frosts. I'm just hoping I can remember to vent and water them regularly.

first harvest

2011-04-24T07:38:00.005-04:00

My daughter Sage and I harvested our first crop already this Spring, though it felt like cheating. I planted some lettuce and pansies in the ground the other day (purchased at Skillins rather than growing them myself), and we nibbled on some the other day. Sage loved being able to eat the flowers. I also found some arugula that over-wintered underneath a cold frame in my back yard. Most of it was still tender and green, so we both ate some. Eliot Coleman is right: you can have a four-season harvest in Maine.

I'm already planning for my Fall bulb planting. I have such dreams of splendor over the winter, only to find what emerges to be less than half of what was in my imagination.

Sowing Seeds in the Raised Bed

2011-04-15T20:40:00.004-04:00

I finally got a moment to sow some seeds in my raised bed this afternoon. The sugar snap peas went in, as did two rows each of spinach, carrots, and a mesclun mix, plus four rows of kale (a big hit in this house).

Now I know the attractions of timed venting systems on greenhouses. Trying to remember to (or getting a chance to) get out there and open up the roof vent in the morning and close it in the evening is a challenge.

A couple of pix of the garden in its current state: crocuses and chiondoxa.

Greenhouse seed starting; nitrogen pollution

2011-04-12T18:38:00.005-04:00

Today I finally started using my greenhouse for what it was intended (other than as a writing studio): I started some seeds in flats and them left them in my greenhouse to see how they do. I'll have to make sure I ventilate it each morning, and close it at night, because unventilated it gets up to 100 degrees in there on warm sunny days, but still goes down to frost temps at night. I've started my warm-weather crops to take advantage of the heat in there: cantaloupe, zucchini, cukes (a variety called Poona Kheera, which is new to me), basil (regular and Thai), and parsley.

I still have to put my peas in the ground! I'm almost too late, but it's time to start sowing my raised bed, now that I can fully work the soil. (I tried early last week, but it was still frozen a few inches down.)

Why I only use organic fertilizers (like compost, or seaweed extract): I heard today on the BBC's Farming Today that nitrogen pollution is costing every person in Europe up to 650 pounds a year to clean up -- due to over-use of chemical nitrogen by farmers and gardeners. That doesn't count the cost of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere, which is a leading cause of global warming. (Yes, I listen to Farming Today! It's a good show.) Organic fertilizers break down more slowly, meaning less is unused by the plants and subsequently released into the groundwater or atmosphere.

Pruning the roses

2011-04-08T05:51:00.003-04:00

I spend about a half-hour each afternoon waiting for my daughter's school bus, which fortunately stops right in front of my house, so I get to do a little bit of gardening every afternoon, weather permitting. Yesterday I was able to cut back the laterals (side shoots) on my two climbing roses, which I'm training to run along my picket fence. You get more blooms when you let the vines run horizontally as well, and last year was the first year of their full bloom, so I'm looking forward to a good year.

Now I've got a bucket full of thorny canes to try to stuff into my compost bin.

My first iris

2011-04-07T13:05:00.005-04:00

We're at least a week behind last year's schedule in terms of Spring blooms -- which is fine by me, as last year we had record warmth. The bees are now out and enjoying the crocuses, and my first iris reticulata (miniature ones that I planted last fall) just opened today.

Goodbye Crocuses, Hello Snow

2011-04-01T06:18:00.003-04:00

April is coming in like a lion, with a significant snowstorm currently covering up my garden. Knowing that the storm was coming, I took some photos of my garden yesterday, so that I could enjoy the crocuses while they were out.

I always love the first emergence of my bulbs and perennials: so much promise, so little work to do at this point.

hot hot hot

2011-03-18T14:49:00.002-04:00

On a day when it reached 68 degrees in Portland, the temp in my greenhouse rose to 110. Whoops! Who knew I'd need to ventilate the thing in March. I almost scorched my kale. Let's hope it survives.

More signs of Spring

2011-03-18T06:05:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, a chipmunk in the back yard, and a bee flying about the crocuses.

FIrst Crocuses!

2011-03-17T14:46:00.002-04:00

My first crocuses opened up two days ago, where all the snow has melted from the radiant heat of the house. Spring is coming!In my eagerness I've taken to shoveling much of the snow off of the garden, as I have in years past.

A new year begins

2011-03-11T14:42:00.002-05:00

In the 18th century, before people switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, March 25 used to be the start of the new year. (Thought you'd want to know.)

Today I'm celebrating my garden's new year, since I finally started my seeds. I have had some kale growing under lights since early January, as I wanted to see if I could move them into my new greenhouse. (The ones I moved out didn't survive.) But today I set up two new grow lights (the lazy-boy kind that you can move up and down on a string), mixed up a seed starter by using only coco fiber (a great bargain, though I'll have to feed the sprouts when they're up), then sowed impatiens, amaranth, nicotiana, lobelia, shasta daisies, zinnias and bachelor buttons (among the flowers) and green peppers and two kinds of kale. (We love kale here, both roasted and in our smoothies every morning.)

I had planned on getting an earlier start than this, then move things out to the greenhouse when weather permitted. I'm still on a learning curve on how to use the greenhouse. Stay tuned.

Cold Greenhouse

2010-12-05T09:54:00.003-05:00

Well, I finished assembling the basics of my greenhouse, and even set up a writing desk in here. In fact I'm writing this from the greenhouse right now, thanks to the miracle of wireless. When I came in this morning, it was 32 degrees inside, which was only two degrees warmer than outside. I've got some insulating to do, both with weatherstripping between the windows and frame, and some waterproof caulking on the outside. I discovered during the rainstorm other day that the greenhouse leaks horribly in one spot (the ceiling window/vent), which forced me to abandon work in the greenhouse.

Right now, within 1/2 hour of entering this morning, I turned on the little space heater and it's 55 degrees in here. I only plan on using the heater while I'm working in here, not to grow plants. But it's nice to know that this can be my winter writing studio, even if it feels like I'm working in a fish bowl.

Greenhouse!

2010-11-29T06:36:00.005-05:00

I'm in the middle of assembling a greenhouse behind my garage. Here's the promo photo of it: It's 6' by 8', and I got it on sale at 25% off. Now I just need to finish assembling it before the snow comes, and then figure out what to do with it.

Free compost, part two

2010-11-12T12:08:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I opened up my compost bin (the one I bought from the city of Portland last spring), cleared off the top layer, and dug out wheelbarrows full of free compost, which I put around my roses, fruit trees, and in my raised bed. Rich, black stuff, full of earthworms.

leaf mulch

2010-11-09T06:15:00.000-05:00

Before the rain and wind came on Sunday night, I sucked up all the leaves in my front garden with my leaf blower/mulcher, then spread the mulch around my buddleia, rose bushes, lavendar and other more tender perennials. Then, the winds came, and blew it all around, so I'll have to do most of it all over again. But it's nice not to have to send anything to the landfill.

Finally, a frost

2010-11-04T17:23:00.002-04:00

Our first frost finally came Monday night, over a month late (that's scarier than Halloween, for sure), so yesterday I pulled up my zinnias, cosmos, impatiens, snapdragons and cut back my asters and a few others. Fall is finally here.

done with bulbs

2010-10-12T21:21:00.002-04:00

I finally finished the last of my bulb planting today, squeezing 20 Red Impression tulips in along my picket fence, in between my rose bushes and lilacs, and found a spot for 100 allium sphaerocephalum bulbs.

I also pulled out my morning glories, as they'd given up the ghost. It was quite a task unwinding them off the trunk and branches of my peach tree, and untangling them from the clematis paniculata. In the snipping mood, I cut back my boltonia and tansy.

Finally, I dug up a lot of the wild violets and lily-of-the-valley that infests my back yard, alongside the neighbor's privacy fence. I mulched it heavily to try to prevent it from coming back (I left two small hydrangeas back there), and will figure out what to do with that space soon.

more bulbs

2010-10-09T20:36:00.003-04:00

Almost done with the bulbs: I bought some Dutch Irises, hyacinths, and a few more tulips from my favorite garden center (yes, they still had many in stock, though some selections are thinning), and put those in the ground this afternoon. It was a brisk day, so I expect to be pulling a bunch of annuals tomorrow after a frost tonight (which is fine: I'm getting tired of them.)

I still have to put in a dozen red tulips along my picket fence (to supplement the ones already there), but I'm going to have to wait until I cut back the perennials in that area, as it's impossible to get that close to the fence without trampling everything.

And I ended up with 100 allium sphaerocephalum that I don't know where to put. They're beautiful, but I'm running out of room for bulbs. I may have to find a spot for them in the back of the house, since digging a trench seems to be the easiest way to plant so many.

bulb planting time

2010-10-08T18:09:00.002-04:00

I got a chance to put some of my bulbs in the ground today. I first checked the soil temperature (58 degrees) to make sure it was safe to plant them yet. It should be below 60, otherwise they'll start to grow. We're expecting nights in the 30's this weekend, so I'm sure it's safe. So I got out my bulb auger, which I can attach to my power drill -- a great time- and shoulder-saver. With a couple hundred bulbs to plant, I wasn't about to dig that many holes, and my garden is too full to dig trenches.

I put in my little species tulips (Little Beauty), Iris Reticulata (short rock garden irises called Blue Harmony), three bare-root Bowl of Beauty Peonies, and gobs of alliums. I still have some full-size tulips and more alliums to plant, and I'm hoping my favorite garden center will have some more bulbs in stock so that I can fill in some spots that are bare in the Spring.

This year, I am feeding my bulbs with bone meal, to give them a little boost.

Fall cleanup

2010-10-04T06:53:00.003-04:00

Without a frost yet, most of my plants are still doing well, though some of them have exhausted themselves. Yesterday I spent some time pulling out snapdragons, daylilies, morning glory, cleome and others. I also dug up what I could of my gladiola bulbs. I've never saved them year to year, so this will be new for me.

In bloom now: my chocolate Joe-Pye weed is looking great, and my asters and mums have opened. My zinnias and cosmos are still going strong, and I have a little bloom left on my Autumn Joy sedum. Other than that, most of my garden has faded.

Free Soil

2010-09-20T07:11:00.002-04:00

I "harvested" my first compost from my compost piles and forked it into my raised bed, after I pulled up bunches of carrots. The soil is rich, dark, filled with earthworms, and free! It's basically last year's oak leaves broken down into soil. Worth its weight in . . . compost.

Clematis Paniculata

2010-09-13T13:54:00.002-04:00

My clematis paniculata has opened up in a full flush of white. The plant grew tremendously this year, and it covers the entire corner and half the front length of my fence. It's not as stunning as the photo I saw in White Flower Farm that induced me to plant one of my own, but still.

Fall Sprouts

2010-09-10T12:30:00.000-04:00

My kohlrabi, arugula, spinach and lettuce are up!

Boltonia

2010-09-06T20:00:00.005-04:00

My Boltonia is now in bloom, underneath my peach tree, and it's a nice backdrop to the morning glories growing through the tree.

My clematis paniculata is about to open any day now. There are hundreds of little blooms on the thing, crawling all over my picket fence, so I'm hoping it's going to put on a good show.

Fall planting

2010-09-05T19:23:00.003-04:00

I got a moment to put in some late-season crops in one of my two deck planters. With my daughter's help I planted lettuce (already started), and (from seed) arugula, spinach, kohlrabi (which my daughter likes pickled), endive, and a mesclun mix.

Once the weather drops, I can cover my planter with two cold-frames, so I'm hoping to keep growing things til Thanksgiving.

I've been pulling my potatoes lately: my red pontiacs are starting to get rather big, though some are still quite small.

Watermelon death

2010-09-03T09:38:00.002-04:00

Some animal mauled my one watermelon, which was only about two inches in diameter, so no great loss, but I was looking forward to something.

Hibiscus bloom

2010-08-31T09:30:00.002-04:00

One of my two hibiscuses finally bloomed this year for the first time. (I planted it early last year.) It's huge -- larger than the largest sunflower blossom. I'm not sure if my other hibiscus will also bloom (I don't remember seeing any buds on it.)

Rain, finally, and some overdue maintenance

2010-08-16T06:39:00.003-04:00

It's raining this morning, and is supposed to throughout the day, which is such a relief, given the lack of it over the past few weeks. I've resorted to hose watering rather than using the rain barrel for spot watering. (I even hooked up a hose to my rain barrel and hose-watered that way.) But the ground has needed a deep soaking, and it's finally getting it.

Saturday I got around to some long overdue maintenance in the garden: I cut back all the yarrow in my parking strip, which was looking awful, pulled up the dried-out daylily stalks (leaving the foliage), pulled up some bachelor buttons that were losing their luster, and weeded, weeded, weeded.

While out in the garden, a neighbor whom I barely know drove by, stopped, and asked how to get her hydrangea to bloom. I gave an educated guess, and in the process of the conversation, she offered me a peony plant (herbaceous) that she didn't like. (It was crowding her hydrangea, she thought.) So I went over with shovel and pot, dug it up, and planted it along my back fence, which now gets much more sun than it used to. I divided the tubers and planted them in the spot where I had just dug up some Yukon gold potatoes.

I also pulled the remainder of the peaches off my tree: they are amazingly delicious and abundant (enought to give away to neighbors), and we've been having peach smoothies every morning for the last week.

Other harvests include bush beans, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and blackberries. My okra has started to fruit and grow, as has my watermelon and pumpkin. I hope they grow to maturity before the frost comes.

I yanked out my wandering cucumber plants, mostly because I didn't like the flavor (too bitter, even when young -- what went wrong?), but also because they were shading out the other vining plants in the front garden.

For blooms, my white phlox (Davids, appropriately) are the most beautiful at this point, and so long blooming. Also open are Russian sage, butterfly bush, globe thistle, bee balm, sedum, cone flowers and black-eyed susans. The rest are gladiolas and annuals: zinnias, cosmos, petunias, and snapdragons. But my favorite are the morning glories, which have grown up through the peach tree and are producing blue flowers among the branches (very cool looking!) and others up the grape vine and into the bird feeder, producing candy-stripe flowers.

Finally, my bougainvillea has been in bloom for about a week -- nowhere near as stunning as when I bought it, but I'm pleased that I've managed to maintain it.

More Butterfly Photos

2010-08-05T15:47:00.002-04:00

Mid-Summer Lull; Harvesting Food

2010-08-02T12:13:00.004-04:00

I've been very busy the last few weeks: I've landed a full-time teaching job starting in the fall, so I've spent most of my time preparing classes (and raising my daughter, and everything else). My garden has suffered because of it, as has this blog. But here's an update:

We're in a mid-summer lull. The front garden looks beautiful, I've been harvesting food for a few weeks now, but there's none of the excitement of spring and early summer, where new plants are popping up and new blooms are opening all the time. There are a few new blooms, however, including most of my annuals (sunflowers, zinnias, and morning glory), as well as my garden phlox.

I've also realized something about myself: I'm much more of a flower gardener than a food gardener, which I regret. If the flowers fail, you just get new ones. If the food fails, it's much more disappointing. So I have to work on improving my vegetable gardening skills -- next year.

My main success in food production is with fruits. We've been picking blackberries in the back yard, a few strawberries now and then, and just yesterday, I started pulling the most-nearly-ripe peaches off my tree, so as not to snap the branches. A few were soft enough to eat, even if small. I pulled over 30 off the 5 year-old tree, and probably have over a hundred left. It's going to be a bumper harvest.

Butterflies

2010-07-26T22:33:00.001-04:00

My Butterfly bushes and liatris are fully open, and the nectar feeders are loving them.

Let there be Light

2010-07-20T07:48:00.002-04:00

A few days ago the neighbor behind my house cut down two large trees (an oak and a Norway maple), giving me much more sun in the back yard and behind our garage, which means a more productive raised bed full of vegetables. I'm thinking of setting up a greenhouse/shed combination behind the garage.

Updated Plant List

2010-07-18T21:43:00.021-04:00

I finally updated my plant list. For what it's worth, here it is:

Botanical Name
achillea
alcea rosea
allium aflatunense
allium caeruleum
allium moly
allium schoenoprasum
allium sphaerocephalon
aquilegia hybrida & vulgaris
aster novae-angliae & aster novi-belgii
astilbe
baptisia australis
Belamcanda chinensis
Boltonia asteroides
Buddleia davidii
Campanula glomerata
Campanula persicifolia
campanula poscharskyana
Campanula punctata
Centaurea montana
Cerastium tomentosum
chionodoxa luciliae
chrysanthemum
Clematis
coreopsis grandiflora
crocus vernus
delphinium elatum
delphinium grandiflorum
dianthus deltoides
dicentra formosa
digitalis purpurea
echinacea purpurea
echinops
epimedium
eupatorium rugosum
fragraria
galium odoratum
Geranium
gypsophila
helenium autumnale
hemerocallis
Heuchera
Hibiscus moscheutos
Hyacinths
Hydrangea
iberis sempervirens
irisi siberica
iris
lamium maculatum
lavendula
leucanthemum vulgare
liatris
Ligularia stenocephala
lilium
linum perenne lewisii
liriope
lonicera
lupinus
lysimachia
Monarda didyma
muscari armeniacum
narcissus
Nepeta x faassenii
Papaver nudicale
papaver orientale
penstemon digitalis
perovskia atriplicifolia
phlox paniculata
phlox subulata
physostegia virginiana
platycodon grandiflous
Primula capitata
pulmonaria
rosa
rudbeckia
Salvia nemerosa
Scabiosa
scilla siberica
sedum spectabile
solomon's seal
stachys byzantina
syringa vulgaris
tanacetum niveum
tricyrtis hirta
tulipa
verbascum hybrid
veronica spicata
Veronica teucrium

Common Name
yarrow
hollyhock
allium
blue globe onion
golden garlic
chives
Drumstick chives
columbine
aster
astilbe chinensis
Blue false indigo
Blackberry Lily
Starflower
Butterfly Bush
Clustered bellflower
Peach-leaved bellflower
Serbian bellflower
Spotted Bellflower
Bachelor buttons
snow-in-the-summer
Glory of the Snow
chrysanthemum
Clematis
tickseed
crocus
Pacific Giant
Chinese delphinium
maiden pinks
bleeding heart
foxglove
coneflower
globe thistle
barrenwort
Joe-Pye Weed
strawberries
sweet woodruff
Cranesbill
baby's breath
helen's flower
daylily
Coral bells
Rose Mallow
hyacinths
Hydrangea
candytuft
Siberian Iris
Dutch & German
Dead nettle
lavender
Ox-eye daisy
gayfeather
Black Groundsel
lilies
flax blue
lilyturf
honeysuckle
lupine
loosestrife
bee balm
grape hyacinth
daffodils
Catmint
Iceland Poppy
oriental poppy
Bearded tongue
Russian sage
phlox
creeping phlox
obedient plant
balloon flower
Chinese Primrose
lungwort
Rose
black eyed susans
Sage
Pincushion flower
siberian squill & spanish blue
sedum
polygonatum humile
lamb's ear
lilac
feverfew
Japanese Toad Lilly
tulips
mullein
creeping speedwell
Speedwell

All this in just 600 square feet!

pruning and watering

2010-07-06T18:37:00.004-04:00

Another 90-degree day here: I watered three times today. Thank you, Portland Water Dept for offering inexpensive rain barrels last year. I have yet to use the tap, even in this hot dry spell.

Three maintenance tasks accomplished this evening, when it got a little cooler. I propped up some of the limbs of my peach tree some more, with branches I pruned off of an oak tree a few weeks ago. My daughter was fascinated with the process. ("You're propping up a tree with a tree, daddy!"). I pruned my roses, now that they're done blooming. It was just a light pruning, as they are still young plants, but I just snipped off some of the lateral shoots that were sticking out onto the sidewalk. This'll bring more light and air into the garden as well. Finally, I sprayed my fruit trees (peach and cherry) and my grape vine to get rid of those blasted Japanese beetles. At least for now.

New bloom report: monarda (bee balm), allium sphaerocephalum, rudbeckia, platycodon, and buddleia. My taller daylilies have also opened (as opposed to the stella d'oros), my perennial bachelor buttons have rebloomed, and my gayfeathers and gladiola are starting to open.

Some pix:

Hot, hot, hot

2010-07-04T16:36:00.002-04:00

Hot as the dickens here yesterday and today (and tomorrow, too, apparently). I watered twice today, and added a little extra umph to some of my newer plants to stimulate root growth. They look like their main goal is just to survive the heat.

Moving Stuff Around

2010-07-01T17:27:00.006-04:00

A little weeding in the garden turned into a large project of moving plants around, continuing the re-arranging that I did yesterday. My two hibiscus plants were doing fine, but could have used more sun, so up and out they came, and in they went. (Deep roots!) My three platycodon (balloon flower) were getting lost behind the gladiolas which are now fully up (though not open), so I moved them to underneath the cherry tree. And I moved all my salvias from in front of my steps to a circle around the peach tree, which left an empty spot that I filled with three blue fescues, divided in half with a pull saw, much to my daughter's delight.(Those bamboo stakes? They are to hold up the branches laden with peaches.)

I pulled up as much of the verbascum that I could find. It's a beautiful plant, but it sure crowds everything else out if you let it spread.

Rudbeckia are starting to open. They always look so nice next to the echinacea.

Grape trellis

2010-06-30T14:54:00.007-04:00

A beautiful summer day in Maine today (low 70s, low humidity) got me out in the garden, though I needed no excuse. I got the idea (from a walk with my daughter yesterday evening) to string up my grape vine with green wire (see below), so that it has some sort of trellis to grow on, rather than just a post.

I also moved a few plants around (two hydrangeas that were wilting in too much sun, and about 8 small liriope plants that were lost in a corner). In the past few days, I've also been starting perennials from seed, planning for next year's garden. (They go in in the fall, give me blooms next year.) See below.My echinacea (below) and black-eyed susans are opening up. I've also had a buddleia (butterfly bush) and some of my russian sage (perovskia) start to bloom.

Photoshoot

2010-06-25T18:19:00.004-04:00

This evening, I took a few pictures of my garden. Here's what turned out well enough to post.

Long-overdue garden work

2010-06-24T21:38:00.011-04:00

It's been nearly two weeks since I've been able to spend any time in the garden. (My wife was away on a trip, and I was solo-parenting my five-year-old.) So there was a lot of work to be done. Here's what it looks like as of today:

Cleanup:
I pulled all my tulips stalks & leaves, as well as most of the daffodils. My oriental poppies were also pretty brown.

Weeding:
My celandine and cinquefoil were back with a vengeance, especially the former, and I had to carefully weed around the snapdragons that I planted there.
I weeded and mulched the row of liriope along my neighbor's house. (It's his property, but it runs along my driveway on the backside of his house, so he lets me plant there.)

Spraying:
My lupines were covered with aphids, so I sprayed. And sprayed again.

New plantings:
Cleome where the two stella d'oros mentioned above were.
Nicotiana where I pulled out the last of the tulips underneath my cherry tree
Amaranthus (Love Lies Bleeding) in one of my window boxes, as well in my porch pots.

Seed starting:
Yes, seed starting in late June. I started some perennials in pots and flats: gaillardia, echinacea, hollyhock, rudbeckia, canterbury bells, and pyrethrum.

Moving:
My baby's breath recovered from their transplantings and are now in bloom.
I tempted fate again by moving a plant in bloom, this time a beautiful astilbe (shown below), as it was being hidden by my two Joe-Pye Weed plants.

Food report:
I planted bush beans to replace the sugar snap peas once they fade, as well as a Howden pumpkin and another cantaloupe seedling (well, they are more than seedlings at this point).
My blueberries are just starting to ripen
My cherries are good and ripe, and Sage has been enjoying them for the past four days.
Sage has been snacking on spinach, lettuce, and sugar snap peas from the raised bed.
I kind of lost track of many of my front-yard veggies, as my labels wore off. (I'm going to paint and label rocks with my daughter later this summer for next year's crop.)
Most of my spinach has bolted, as has my bok choi. I've heard that the stalks of bok choi are still tender even after bolting, so I'll have to try them.
My zucchini and some of my potatoes have bloomed.

New bloom report:
Astilbe
Baby's Breath
Campanula Glomerata
Clematis
Coreopsis
Daylilies
Delphinium
Echinacea
Foxglove
Geranium
Lavender
Phlox (David, a white one)
Yarrow

Still blooming:
Catmint
Flax
Some lupines (those that survived the aphid attack)
Roses
Sage
Verbascum

Plant sharing:
I dug out two of my stella d'oro daylilies to give to a new friend as a house-warming gift.

Mysteries:
What happened to my gaillardia? I'm not great at plant identification, but I see no sign of them underneath my peach tree.
I'm stumped. Now that my campanula glomerata has actually bloomed, it easily identifiable, but that means that something bloomed earlier this year that I misidentified as campanula glomerata. I'll have to go back to my garden books.)

More Sun:
The cable company came by the other day and trimmed some oak branches that were too close to their cables, which resulted in giving me a significant increase in morning sun at the northern end of my garden. What an unexpected gift!

more of the same

2010-06-11T11:46:00.004-04:00

I've loved my campanula persicifolia so much I bought two more plants (with an early Father's Day gift certificate -- thanks Jen!) as well as some snapdragons to fill some holes in the garden. I also threw down some extra bachelor button seeds (annuals), in hopes it's not too late for them to grow and bloom.

Also, I hilled up my potatoes, which seem to be doing great, though something nibbled on one of them. So be it.

Oh, and I love my roses. They just keep getting better.

Back to the Garden; Fall bulb order

2010-06-09T13:27:00.013-04:00

I've been home alone with my 5-year-old for the past week, so I haven't had much chance to get into the garden. Fortunately it didn't need watering, what with all the overdue rain we've had lately.

Today I got a break from childcare duties, so I spent a few hours catching up on the garden. I pulled up most of my grape hyacinth foliage, and replaced it with some blue-eyed verbena. Very pretty. I also realized my baby's breath was being crowded out by a lot of liatris along my front fence, so I moved my four plants to a bare spot on the sunny side of my peach tree. They are almost in bloom, so it's not the best time to move them, but let's hope I treated them with tlc. My neighbor gave me some morning glories she started, and I planted them so that they climb my grape vine and through my rose bushes. Finally, I staked my pepper and tomato plants.

My Sea-Foam roses have finally opened. After three years establishing themselves, they are repaying my efforts in many lovely white/pink blossoms. Wonderful.

A few days ago, I put in my order for Fall bulbs. I usually assess my Spring blooms as they come up, to see what holes in the garden need filling, so by the time the bulb catalogs come, I'm ready with my order. Here's what I'm looking forward to planting this Fall:

I didn't have the best of luck growing tete-a-tete narcissus in one spot in my garden, so this Fall I'm going to re-work the soil there and plant 50 iris reticulata (little guys).

I had one Blue Magic Dutch iris come up this year in my parking strip. I guess I planted more there, but I'm going to plant 100 of them underneath my front window.

50 Little Beauty tulips (a species tulip). I loved this year's blooms, but I only had 20 or so)

Around those tulips, I'll plant 100 allium ostrowskianum. Say that three times fast.

My allium spaerocephalum looked wonderful for a short while, so I'll plant 100 more in front of my window.

20 Red Impression Tulips (Darwin hybrids) to go along my front fence.

I love allium bulgaricum, and ordered 20 more.

Finally, I plan on planting three Bowl of Beauty herbacious peonies in various sunny blank spots in the garden. (Well, I'll have to make some blank spots.)

Rain, Finally

2010-06-03T19:03:00.002-04:00

After two weeks, we finally got some rain today, good enough to water the tender roots on new shoots, which is good because I have a lot of them. But the rain didn't do much more than that. I noticed that three inches down, the soil is still very dry. We need a good day-long soaker.

I've been pulling up my tulips the past few days, now that the leaves are yellow. I also dead-headed my bearded irises.

Bloom Report

2010-05-31T10:15:00.010-04:00

(New Blooms have photos attached.)

Campanula Persicifolia

Allium Bulgaricum
Allium Moly
Baptisia

Dianthus

Oriental Poppy

Meadow Sage (White and May Night)

Lupine

Honeysuckle

Nepeta

Campanula Glomerata

Centaurea Montana (Bachelor Buttons)

Verbascum

Flax

Irises (bearded and siberian)

Ox-eye Daisies

Yarrow

Chives

Compliments

2010-05-30T20:54:00.007-04:00

Geez, another nice compliment. While I was out spraying my lupine for aphids (again) this evening, a gentleman walking by stopped and said: "this is the most beautiful garden I've ever seen in my entire life."

People, you need to get out more.

Today I ran out of water in my rain barrels, and had to use the tap. Damn do we need rain!

I planted a few delphiniums in the spot where I pulled up my loosestrife (which still keeps popping up, though I've yanked out most of the roots). There are a few sunflowers started in that same area, so there should be some tall stuff later this summer.

I also sowed more seeds here and there: more nicotiana, zinnias and cosmos, and some cleome.

I've been pulling yellowed tulips and hyacinth lately.

Picked my first strawberry of the season. Sage got to eat it, and said it was great.

Eye Candy

2010-05-26T13:03:00.005-04:00

It's been very hot here the last two days, so my garden has taken off. Here's some eye candy for you:

The lupine I sowed from collected seed (thus all purple).

Ox-eye daisies, now in a safe place in the parking strip. (They self-sow at a pestiferous pace.)

Lupine with chives in the background.

My favorite this time of year, campanula glomerata. I've got to get more!

My Siberian irises are beginning to open. This is "Caesar's Brother."

May Night Sage.

New plants

2010-05-24T20:05:00.004-04:00

This time of year is always the calm before the storm, when the majority of the Spring-blooming flowers have gone by, but before the full flush of Summer flowers. The last of my tulips lost their petals overnight, my creeping phlox and iberis have faded, and while I still have lots in bloom, there are noticeable gaps in my garden.

So this evening I planted a number of new things: I put more chives into my parking strip bed. There are three nice plants out there in full bloom now, which I don't harvest, and I decided to run them along the entire length of the strip.

I moved my one pulmonaria from the rear of the house to the front, in a shady area, and planted two new ones in a semi-circle around my summersweet. I love its variegated foliage, and the blue flowers this time of year add a lot. In the place of the first pulmonaria, I planted two little sweet woodruff plants, as a sort of a place-holder. I'm still developing a shade planter in the back, and just wanted something (and something cheap) in that spot until I focus better on shade plants.

Then I put in two blackberry lilies (Belamcanda chinensis) in front of my irises. As their leaves are
fan-shaped like German irises (they're in the same family), I thought they'd blend in well there, and be a surprise when they actually bloom in late summer.

Then, water water water. My ground is bone dry, except where I've been watering daily (from my rain barrel).

Finally: a number of my seeds have sprouted around the garden where I cast them, especially the zinnias. I always love when new plants pop out of the ground.

Weeding Clover

2010-05-21T20:30:00.003-04:00

Tonight I spent the early evening on my hands and knees yanking clover from my yarrow "grove" in the parking strip. While I was out there, an elderly couple stopped on their evening walk and one of them said mine was the best garden he'd ever seen in Portland. Made my clover yanking much easier going!

The Empty Nest

2010-05-20T20:33:00.007-04:00

Planting:
Anticipating no more frosts, today I emptied my cold frame of all its tender annuals, both flowers and fruits/veg. Into the vegetable patch in the front yard went: cukes, watermelon, cantaloupe, and Roma tomatoes. And into the raised bed went broccoli and more Roma tomatoes. My broccoli looks pitiful, so I may have to replace it with store-bought starts. I also have some tomatoes and peppers in pots.

Around the garden I planted impatiens, morning glory, snapdragons, and cosmos, and put petunias into pots.

I threw down some more extra seeds: cosmos I got from some catalog company trying to get me to buy a lawn mower (hah – no lawn!), and lupine that I collected last Fall.

I put the bougainvillea and lime tree back outside.

Weeding:
I'm still pulling up gooseneck loosestrife and oxeye daisies from all over the place. And I have yanked gobs of celandine, a pervasive weed that I didn't recognize as such until this year.

Blooming:
Allium aflatunense, which are rather large, and look well in front of the bearded ires.

Campanula glomerata
Catmint
Centaurea Montana, perennial bachelor buttons.
Chives
Creeping phlox is nearing the end of its bloom cycle
Dianthus
Flax
Galium (sweet woodruff)
Hyacinthoides

Iberis (candytuft), starting to fade
Irises
Lamium
Lupine just opened up two days ago
Muscari (grape hyacinth) still doing well, especially the ones that get less sun.
Pulmonaria. One of my favorite shade plants
Sage, May Night
Tulips, a nice fuschia color circling the cherry tree, still hanging on.
Verbascum

Edible update:
My peach tree, strawberries and blueberries have bloomed, and tiny fruit has emerged.
My potatoes are up.
Sage and I nibbled on our first spinach and lettuce leaves today.

Pests:
I've had to control aphids infesting the lupines, but it seems to have worked.
Black cherry aphids have also been chewing on my cherry tree leaves, and the youngest and tenderest leaves are now curled up. I sprayed it with pyrethrum, but don't know how effective it was. It's something I need to look into further.

Seeding, Weeding, Feeding

2010-05-12T17:46:00.002-04:00

A busy day in the garden:

Sowed some new seeds of lupine, annual bachelor buttons (which I should have sown earlier), oriental poppies, and nicotiana.

Moved a few poorly-growing lupines (from a too-shady area) to the parking strip, where a number of them are doing quite well. (The aphid problem seems to have abated.)

Taking a gamble, I put out the nicotiana I started, along with some Skillins-bought impatiens and pepper plants. (I have too many of the latter. The main ones I'll grow are in pots, along with the Roma tomatoes I started, and are still under my cold frame.)

I've been pulling a lot of clover from my parking strip, which I've kind of neglected this Spring. The Water Dept. is putting in new water lines on our street, and I feared they'd trample the parking strip. Now that they're done, I can give it some attention.

I also realized that my garden is teaming with little Obedient Plant shoots springing up all over the place. I took a little garden rake to them and put my nicotiana in those spots. Let's hope I don't have a major infestation.

I love my rain barrels. I have yet to use the tap this Spring, and I water (guilt-free) almost every day.

Lilacs not blooming

2010-05-11T08:43:00.002-04:00

As I've written recently, I got no blooms on my lilacs this year. I've gotten good blooms every other year (they are about 4 years old), so I was surprised at first by the lack of blooms. But then I realized: I had cut suckers off my two main shrubs and spread them around the garden. I'm guessing the main shrubs chose to re-establish their root systems rather than produce flowers. The leaves look fine, so I should get blooms next year.

Aphids

2010-05-10T20:16:00.001-04:00

I discovered that a number of my lupines are covered with aphids. Lupines are notorious for attracting them. I sprayed them with an organic pyrethrum-based spray, which hopefully do the trick. The plants still look healthy, so let's hope I got them on time.

New plantings; some spare seeds

2010-05-09T15:28:00.003-04:00

After yesterday's rain, it was nice to get back into the garden today, though I had to avoid treading on the wet soil so as not to compact it. Fortunately, though the day was cold, I was able to put in a number of perennials.

I had pulled out a whole bunch of creeping something in the right-hand corner of my garden. It looked like anemone, but it wasn't flowering and I didn't recognize it, and it was taking over the whole area, so two days ago I yanked it all out. It has rather deep and spreading roots, so I'm sure I'll see it again and have to keep it under control.

In its place, I put down some new garden soil, then planted a couple of tall rudbeckias, two flats of Rocket snapdragons (the tall ones), some candytuft seeds to fill in the corner (with which I've had only slow and marginal success in the past) and finally, some corn poppy seeds to fill in the bare spaces. We'll see what comes up and what it all looks like come mid-summer.

I also put down some new garden soil in a bare spot in front of my Summersweet (which finally started leafing out this week), then put in three 'Rozanne' geraniums, which promise summer-long blooms. (It was Perennial of the Year a few years back, for what that's worth.)

I yanked out the one hydrangea that didn't survive the winter (the other three look very healthy) and in its place put in a couple of Goodwin Creek Lavender plants. Let's hope they grow their promised 2-3 feet.

Finally, in terms of plantings, I gathered up some of the extra seeds I had laying around (from a year or two ago), found a spot for them, dumped some fresh garden soil there, and sowed them: aubrieta, saponaria, sweet william, and delphiniums, the latter of which I've never had good luck with.

New blooms: a few of my bearded irises have opened, as have some of my flowering onions. Each are against the house, and purple, and go very well together. I'll have pix soon.

I'll pulled back inside my bouganvillea and lime tree. They were shivering.

Today, while I was working in my garden, a lawn-care company van pulled up and the driver asked if I needed any lawn care. I laughed. I don't even have a lawn. Plus, I'm not letting any "professional" set foot in my lawn, unless it's my friend Kathleen.

Gambling

2010-05-06T19:51:00.003-04:00

Well, let's hope we don't get a frost until Fall, because I took the leap and put my bougainvillea and lime tree outside yesterday (I could take them in if need be), and today sowed a bunch of annual seeds, including sunflowers, scabiosa, California poppies, tithonia (Mexican sunflowers) and bachelor buttons. I also sowed some perennial & biennial seeds: columbine, hollyhocks, foxglove and echinacea. I haven't put in my warm-weather vegetables yet (like tomatoes). I still have those under my cold frame.

Gardening with children: my soon-to-be five-year-old daughter Sage identifies flowers for my wife, who is a passive by-stander in all this gardening.

Weeding and Feeding

2010-05-03T20:33:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was my first day back at Skillins Greenhouse. It was nice to see so many gardeners gearing up for the Spring and Summer, though my main job was telling people not to plant their annuals and warm-weather veggies yet. I ended up buying a $10 confederate jasmine in a 1-gallon pot. This particular jasmine is one of my all-time favorite flowers, and its blooms in San Diego in February got me through the hardest time of the school years there, so it's nice to now have one greeting me at the door every time I come home.

Today, I got to spend a good portion of the evening in the garden, pulling out the weeds, especially the little ox-eye daisy shoots popping up everywhere, and the dis-obedient plants running taking over corners of the garden. (Both are beautiful plants, the latter being one of my favorites, but they are quite unruly.) Earlier I diluted some seaweed emulsion and applied it to my starts.

Flowers have opened on my strawberry plants, as well as on my late-blooming tulips (in early May?!? That's creepy.). The first flower buds have appeared on my reblooming daylilies. And the first signs of life have appeared on my clethra (summersweet). For some reason, I don't have any signs of flower buds on my lilacs, even though others in town have great blooms.

Finally, despite all the advice I gave to Skillins customers yesterday, I took a gamble and put my parsley and rosemary out in one of my window boxes. I'll cover them if a frost threatens.

Sproutings

2010-04-29T06:47:00.002-04:00

Some of my tulips this morning, around the peach tree.My cucumber, cantaloupe and cosmos seeds have sprouted. I'm still waiting on the majority of my watermelons seeds so that I can unplug the heating mat (only a few of those have sprouted).

I also started my morning glory and okra -- the last of my starts. I soaked them for a few days -- more than I wanted to, actually, and some of the seeds looked mushy, though most were intact, and a few had sprouted already. Let's hope they work.

Full Spring Bloom; Round Three of Seed Starting

2010-04-23T18:03:00.002-04:00

Today is one of my favorite days of the entire gardening season, as almost all my Spring bulbs are in bloom, except for the earliest of them such as crocus. My tulips just opened this morning, and my daffodils, muscari and hyacinths are still flourishing. Also in bloom are my iberis (candytuft) and creeping phlox. There's such an array of colors this time of year.

I also began my third round of seed starting: in peat pots I began cucumbers, cantaloupe, and watermelon, and also started four flats of cosmos. Finally, I soaked a bunch of morning glory and okra seeds to start tomorrow.

Lacking room under my grow lights, I took the gamble of putting out my last round of starts in my cold frame, which should keep any frost away, even if the shock of the cold might be too dramatic. It's always an experiment.

Potatoes, Cherry Blossoms, Tulips

2010-04-19T19:09:00.001-04:00

I finally got to plant my seed potatoes today (Red Pontiacs and Yukon Golds), after a number of days of steady rain, then a few more days to let the soil dry out so that the potatoes didn't rot in the ground. My whole family loved the Yukon Golds last year, and I'm really looking forward to a good crop this year.

My first tulips have opened, right underneath our front window.My cherry tree is opening up its buds, as is the peach tree. The cherry is new, so it's the first year of blossoms for me.

Putting Down Seeds

2010-04-15T16:08:00.002-04:00

Sowed a number of mid-spring crops in my raised bed in the back yard and around my front garden:

Bok choy, pak choi and chard in my front garden, in a new bed I created with new organic soil last Fall. Currently there are chiondoxa blooming in it, to be followed soon by saxatilis tulips, which should fade about the point the veggies should be up. I'll follow those with summer veggies: tomatoes, etc. So the plan this year is to plant more veggies in the front garden, mixed in with the flowers.

With that in mind, I mixed some leeks in with my various alliums, so that they'll more or less blend right in.

In my raised bed I planted three types of carrots (baby, danvers and purple), a mesclun mix, beets, and endive. That bed is full, until it's time to pull up the cold crops and plant the mid-summer ones.

I also bought some yukon gold and pontiac red potatoes, which I'll cut this evening and let “cure” for a day or two before planting around the yard.

Finally, I planted 24 purple gladiolas beneath our front window.

In Bloom:
Muscari, daffodils, anemone and chiondoxa.
A whole bed of hyacinths (white and purple) are stunning and smell heavenly.
My first tulip head has turned color (a nice yellow).
My cherry tree has produced its first blossoms.

Winter losses:
1 Russian Sage (I've lost one every year)
1 creeping phlox that didn't transplant well (I divided a few, but only three survived)
1 hydrangea
2 hibiscus (probably planted too late last year to get a good start before Winter)
1 blueberry bush is barely budding
My Summersweet looks dead, but they're late starters, so I'm not worried about it yet.
All my clematis survived, though they probably won't bloom this year as they are all producing new wood (and they're the bloom-on-old-wood kind).

Dividing Seedlings

2010-04-13T07:21:00.003-04:00

Somehow I managed to divide my little tomato and nicotiana seedlings into larger flats without killing them. Tomatoes often don't like root disturbance, and I'm not the most gentle when it comes to handling plants, so I didn't think they'd survive, but they did. Now I'll have a few dozen tomato plants to kill off through the course of the summer.

Things are growing

2010-04-11T18:24:00.003-04:00

This has been a very abnormal Spring, with everything blooming and sprouting early. My full-size daffodils are in full bloom now, as are my muscari, chiondoxa, squill, and a number of other little bulbs. The tulips are forming flower heads, and are about a week away from opening.

In my raised bed, my sugar snap peas haven't sprouted yet, but my mustard, mache, daikon radish and spinach have all poked out of the soil. Yesterday I sowed four rows of kale (my daughter loves it, baked in the oven til it's crispy).

I need to pot up the plants I started under grow lights, as they are out-growing their containers. One of these days.

Daffodils!

2010-04-05T10:54:00.001-04:00

My first tete-a-tete daffodils, framed by squill.

Peas and Crocuses

2010-04-02T06:22:00.003-04:00

My peas are in the ground! As are mustard, mache, daikon radish, and two rows of spinach. I had to clear a couple of inches of oak leaves from the raised bed to plant them, but they are in.

It's been a good year for my crocuses, and they are at their peak right now.

2010-04-01T07:01:00.003-04:00

My broccoli and nicotiana starts are up and already a little leggy, so I moved them closer to the grow lights to slow them down. My amaranthus hasn't sprouted, nor have my impatiens or tomatoes.

I saw pots of pansies at Whole Foods yesterday evening. I'll have to run to my favorite greenhouse and start potting some up for my front porch.

Seed Starting Stage Two

2010-03-27T19:42:00.004-04:00

Put in my second round of seeds, now that my petunias are up. Today I sowed Roma tomatoes, broccoli, impatiens, nicotiana, and amaranthus. I'm running out of grow-light space, but I only have one more round of sowing in two weeks.

While it was below freezing here for the last 24 hours, I'm tempted to put my peas in any day now, once I get a moment.

Composting

2010-03-18T12:16:00.002-04:00

I started composting again today. I checked out my compost bin behind the garage and found that it wasn't frozen, and actually looked like I could use some of the compost this year on my raised bed. It's about 2/3 full, so I'm collecting kitchen scraps again. Feels good not to throw out all that nutrient-rich stuff.

Spring Seed Starting

2010-03-17T20:37:00.003-04:00

I started my first seeds today, 24 cells of petunias under grow lights and with a heating mat underneath. Given the weather we've been having, I'm probably on the late side, but you never know in Maine.

Quite a few of my crocuses are out and blooming very nicely. I have two lonely snowdrops out, but the daffodils, tulips, and irises (along with other minor bulbs) are up to about an inch high.

I've removed almost all of the leaf mulch around the plants (except my butterfly bush and summer sweet), since I don't want any rot setting in, given the warm days we've been having.

The ground in my raised bed is still frozen, so there'll be no planting peas for a while.

The best thing: I've put away the snow blower and taken out the garden gear!

2010-03-07T16:22:00.003-05:00

Spring is definitely here early. I came home from a weekend in Cambridge (MA) to find that a few of my crocuses are now open (as well as snowdrops). I removed the leaf mulch around them so that they don't rot under the moist leaves. Last year my crocuses opened on March 25, so Spring is nearly three weeks early. While I love the early flowering, I'm not a big fan of climate change, so I hope this isn't any kind of harbinger.

I had planned on starting my first seeds (under lights) on the 15th, but perhaps I'll start early this year.

Winter sprouting

2010-01-11T19:20:00.002-05:00

My mesclun mix and micro-greens sprouted after only three days! Winter harvest here we come.

Winter gardening

2010-01-06T20:25:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite rewards of gardening is that my daughter Sage loves eating vegetables, since we get them fresh from the ground. (One day this past summer she was running around the back yard yelling "I love spinach!" What 4-year-old does that?) And I've been bemoaning the fact that over the last few months Sage's veggie consumption has plummeted. So today I decided to do some winter gardening, growing micro greens and a mesclun mix under grow lights in our den, where Sage can watch them grow and help me harvest them. Micro greens take only 25 days to reach harvest, so I hope to continue to sow the seeds every few weeks until Spring.

2009-12-31T20:31:00.002-05:00

I've been reading Eliot Coleman's Four-Season Harvest, which I got for Christmas. It's spurred me to make new plans for a good-sized cold frame in the front yard, right against the house, where I get the most light and radiant heat in the winter. Not much else to do gardening-wise in Maine in the winter other than plan for next year.

final mulching

2009-12-05T12:51:00.002-05:00

With our first snow expected this evening, I put down some final mulch around my garden: some chopped oak leaves around my strawberries, and (after trimming the Christmas tree) some boughs around my grape vine and clematis. I've gathered the kindling and put some logs in the basement to dry: I'm ready for the winter!

a new compost bin

2009-11-14T20:31:00.002-05:00

Today I built a second compost bin out of scrap wood I had pulled up when repairing my deck. The wood isn't in the best shape, but I'm assuming it'll decompose, and then I'll find more scrap in a few years.

chives anyone?

2009-11-09T10:54:00.002-05:00

Clearing the leaves from my yard, I noticed I had some chives blooming! Also reblooming are a number of yarrow, May Night sage, coreopsis and gaillardia. Among the annuals, I still have petunias, nicotiana, verbena, and callibrachoa (spell?) still blooming. Bizarre.

I mulched up a lot of my oak leaves and spread them around my butterfly bushes. I'll probably do the same for some of my other shrubs and perennials, but I have to read up on which ones need protection.

Frost, finally

2009-11-07T16:02:00.002-05:00

Is this the latest frost date on record? Last night the cold finally killed off my cosmos.

Still no frost; garden clean-up

2009-11-03T16:36:00.002-05:00

Still no hard frost here, which is bizarre. Last night was the first close call, but my cosmos, snapdragons and nicotiana are still producing buds. I now have a 7-foot cosmos blooming in the middle of my peach tree, which makes it look like the peach tree is blooming. My mums are doing great, and I still have some Russian sage and black-eyed susans in bloom.

Today was a clean-up day: I sucked up two bags of leaves (mostly oak) in my electric leaf blower and composted them, one straight into the bin, the other I turned over into my raised bed to let it break down over time. I also pulled all the leaves of my irises and day-lilies, and cut down my asters and (dis-)obedient plants, which I should have done sooner since they've gone to seed.

Fall Hygiene

2009-10-21T18:10:00.002-04:00

October 21 and my Fall garden is still going strong. As you can see from the photos below, I have lots of purples and reds in my garden, both from flowers and foliage.

I did quite a bit of cleanup today, pulling a lot of the annuals that have stopped flowering, especially the verbena, cosmos, zinnias and petunias, though quite a few of them are still have lots of buds on them and haven't suffered from frost damage yet. My compost bins are now filled to the brim, and I still have so much more green material to pull out of the ground before the season is over, so I don't know what I'll do.

I also decided to do a little more moving of plants today, taking my perennial grasses out of their pots and putting them into the ground, and moving a bunch of (dis-)obedient plant to the parking strip, where I don't care how aggressive it it. (Let it try to compete with the yarrow!)

bed preparation

2009-10-18T16:18:00.004-04:00

Today I continued preparing the (unframed) raised bed that I'm putting in in my front garden, shelling out for two bags of Coast of Maine Bar Harbor Blend (a great mix of soil, compost, seaweed extract and peat). Before I did that, I threw 100 chiondoxa bulbs underneath it, and tamped them down with my feet, so that they are now buried about 2-3 inches. Together with the alliums there, they should make a nice Spring display before I put in my vegetables.

On one side of the raised bed, I put in five reblooming daylilies (75% off at Lowe's) as a margin, and on the other side, freshened up my pathway with two more bags of pea gravel.

All this was done in this afternoon's rain, so I didn't need to water anything in.

Here's to Spring planning! I love the anticipation that comes with putting in lots of bulbs, then waiting for the blooms in Spring. Too bad it's such a long wait.

still no frost; moving and planting

2009-10-17T18:15:00.003-04:00

I'm amazed that I have yet to get a killing frost here. The historical first-frost date is September 31, so this is quite extraordinary. Given that our last-frost date has been pushed back by two weeks, it means we get an extra month of gardening. (Not that this doesn't mean troubling things for our planet.)

I pulled the last of my tomatoes, peppers and parsley a few days ago, and moved my lettuce underneath my little cold frame to try to get a few more weeks out of them.

Today was a big moving and planting day: I'm planning on a new raised bed in my front yard (since it gets more sun), so I had to move a bunch of plants, including phlox (david), boltonia, ox-eye daisies, joe-pye weed, a veronica spicata, one bee balm, and a hydrangea. I turned everything over (including the hundreds of annoying ox-eye daisies starting out), threw a hundred alliums (cowanii) and about ten garlic cloves around the area, then put down some soil and compost over it all, and watered it in. I also watered all the plants I moved.

I also had time (though the days are getting short!) to plant more spring bulbs, putting in some squill, tete-a-tete daffodils, and allium bulgaricum around where I had planted them last year. I still have to plant my chiondoxa and anemones, but I imagine I'll have more time to do that.

bulbous bulbs

2009-10-05T15:17:00.001-04:00

Planted my first Spring bulbs yesterday afternoon, good-sized Woodstock hyacinths from Scheeper's. I loved using my bulb augur, though it's a bit wide for little bulbs.

Fall chores

2009-10-03T16:11:00.003-04:00

Buckets of rain have come down today, which is fine by me, since my fall garden needs it before the first hard frost. But I had planned on planting Spring bulbs today and don't want to tramp over soggy soil tomorrow (even if it clears), so I may have to wait for another weekend.

Given that I'm limited to poking in a bulb here and there, rather than digging a trench and filling it, I bought a bulb augur that you can use as a drill bit. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

I have garlic greens popping up since planting them a month ago. I still have lots of cloves to plant, but I'm glad to see that those I planted did so well already.

I pulled out a few of the tomato plants that are done producing and clipped a few of the tomatoes that are just beginning to ripen. (I'll finish them on a windowsill.) I still have three tomatoes left on the vine that haven't started ripening yet.

This past week my asters, perennial mums, sweet autumn clematis and Joe Pye weed have all opened, and my annuals haven't bitten the dust yet, so there is still lots of color in my garden. Especially beautiful is the brilliant red foliage on my blueberry bushes.

I just bought a couple of discount blackberry bushes and am considering where to put them. They need full sun, so my choices are limited. Since they can take over spaces, I don't want to put them in my regular garden. Perhaps in the parking strip or alongside the back fence will have to do.

no frost

2009-09-26T19:37:00.002-04:00

My tomatoes and peppers survived the cold -- it doesn't look like I got a frost here, but it was close.

Frost on the way?

2009-09-25T18:21:00.003-04:00

We have a frost warning this evening, so I covered my tomatoes and peppers with my portable cold-frames. I just harvested my first cucumber today and my first two tomatoes in the past two days, so I hope I can extend their season a bit. I only have maybe three more cukes on the vine, and four more tomatoes, but I've waited so long for them I'd hate to lose them now.

Drought; suprise tomatoes

2009-09-20T09:44:00.004-04:00

I've been watering regularly this past week, not just the new perennials I've planted this year, but just about everything -- we've gone from a wet early summer to a drought this past month. I almost lost my new fothergilla (since recovered) and a new hydrangea due to the last of moisture. I also want to drain my rain barrels before winter, so all the watering hasn't added anything to my water bills. I still have lots in bloom, both perennials and annuals, and I want them to last as long as possible.

I'm about to pick the first of my tomatoes, as they are starting to ripen. I also found a cherry tomato plant in my front garden where I did not expect it. If I recall, I lost track of some of my spring seedlings, and may have planted a tomato plant where I thought I was planting a hollyhock. It got lost amid the catnip and roses and obedient plant, but this morning, lo and behold, I saw some cherry tomatoes on it. Free food!

cold frame; moving things around; signs of fall

2009-09-13T19:27:00.002-04:00

I finally finished putting together the cold frame I received a while back from Charley's Greenhouse.

I'll put it over my new planter when the weather gets a little colder. (In the meantime, I may cover my peppers and/or tomatoes for the next few weeks to get a little more life out of them.)

I also moved some plants around: I put my chives (which I never harvest, for some reason) in the parking strip, and bookended the parking strip with some mums that I rescued from the compost pile at Skillin's. They'll only last a few more days, but I'll take 'em.

My mustard has sprouted in my new planter, and the spinach and carrots should be out in the next few days.

Signs of Fall: my New England asters have opened, the New York ones not yet (or vice versa, I can't remember which are which). I've seen some of my muscari (grape hyacinth) sprouting, as they tend to do in the fall (though no flowers). And my perennial mums have formed buds, as has my sweet autumn clematis .

Other than that, I'm just watching my summer garden slowly fade.

new planter

2009-09-06T17:19:00.002-04:00

I got to spend most of this beautiful day today building a new planter aside my deck (a companion to the other I built earlier this summer). This planter gets more sun than the other (it's right next to the raised bed), so I've decided to use it for growing vegetables. It's a good 30 square feet, so there's room to plant a lot. After building it and filling it with soil (and composted cow manure), I sowed carrots, spinach, and mustard. It's a great time to plant those crops, and if it looks like we'll get an early frost, I'll cover them. Recently I purchased a small greenhouse (3 ft deep by 5 ft wide by 3 ft tall), and it'll fit nicely over the planter, giving me an easy means to cover my crops and grow food until -- well, we'll see: I'm hoping at least til Thanksgiving.

Cutting things back, starting things anew

2009-09-03T19:29:00.004-04:00

I got to spend a good hour this evening in the gardening, doing some general cleaning up, as well as planting some seed starts.

I cut back all my yarrow, whose heads were quite an unsightly brownish-black. A few have rebloomed, so I kept those, but I cut the rest back to their basal foliage so that it now looks like I have a smooth field of ferns.

The seedlings I started a month or so ago were large enough to put out into the garden, so I planted some echinacea, canterbury bells and columbine into the main garden, and in the parking strip planted scabiosa, asclepius, and jupiter's beard. Though I prefer watering in the morning, I then watered everything in.

I love this temperate weather!

photo op; hydrangeas; pulling out plants

2009-08-27T18:54:00.004-04:00

I was visited this morning by a new friend, Anna, a photographer, who took pictures of Sage and me in the garden for a show she is putting together (her website doesn't have anything up yet about the project, but she has some other fine projects there). Sage had a great time playing Easter egg hunt among the flowers (a ruse so that Anna could take photos), and I hope she got some great shots. Since it's moving time in my garden, I was happy to bequeath my loosestrife and some of my (dis-)obedient plant to her, as they tend to take over a garden. The obedient plant is especially beautiful, but very aggressive.

In place of the loosestrife I planted one of the two hydrangeas I picked up the other day, and put the other symmetrically balanced at the other end of the garden. One will get more sun than the other, so I'll see how they comparatively do.

One plant I'll be pulling out soon is my grapevine, as it's too much of a japanese beetle magnet, and I don't want to be spraying my garden that often to control them, even if the spray was organic. It's not worth the effort, and the squirrels and/or chipmunks ate the grapes anyway. I'll probably replace it with some clematis.

Finally, in anticipation of this weekend's rain I installed the second of my two rain barrels. It's a piece of cake once you know what you're doing.

Staking tomatoes; transplanting

2009-08-26T18:07:00.005-04:00

I finally got around to staking my tomatoes today, if you can imagine that. They look good and healthy, but I have perhaps only three tomatoes each on my five plants, so I'm not looking forward to a great yield this year. The plants are short, due to the poor weather earlier this summer, so they have only needed staking now that the tomatoes are putting on bulk.

I pulled the last of my carrots from the raised bed, though I have more seedlings shooting up already for my fall crop. My daughter and her neighborhood friend Bella enjoyed some fresh treats while blowing bubbles on the front porch.

I also took advantage of the relatively pleasant evening to move some plants around: I'm making more of my parking strip (it's mostly white yarrow, which is beautiful for a short period of time, then dull when it fades) by inter-planting some other perennials. Lately I've put in some catmint, bee balm, coreopsis (now that I know what it is) and today moved my gaillardia there. They had been lost behind the coneflowers and rudbeckia, and as re-bloomers, they should shine in their more prominent space, especially now that the yarrow is gone.

While I was in the transplanting mood, I moved around a foxglove, two stella d'oro's (also hidden by the rudbeckia) and a butterfly bush.

After all that moving, I watered everything in -- with water from my rain barrel! Thank you, Portland Water District, for saving me money.

Speaking of butterfly bushes, this afternoon my daughter and I watched a butterfly go round and round one flower head of the very tall butterfly bush right outside our living room window. 'Twas a beautiful sight.

Rain Barrel installed; discount plants

2009-08-24T19:36:00.003-04:00

I finally got the first of my rain barrels installed this evening (in the rain). Let's hope it's worth it.

This is the time of year for discounted plants. Skillin's is having a great sale, and I just picked up some clearance plants from Lowe's (where I usually don't buy my plants, but I had to pick up some gutter hardware): some nikko blue hydrangeas (with lots of fungus and a few flower buds), and three huge bee balms, for $3.99 each. I'll plant them in the near future.

Hurricane Bill, rain barrel, trellis, fothergilla, veggies, blog followers

2009-08-23T17:54:00.009-04:00

I write this just as the tail end of hurricane Bill abates after dousing us with heavy rain this evening. Just in time, I installed the first of my rain barrels this afternoon (after purchasing them this Spring!), only to watch the downspout drop off and the run-off flood a corner of my garden. I'll have to re-attach it with a stronger clamp.

As I've mentioned, to hide the rain barrel (it's near the front of the house), I purchased a nice trellis from Skillin's (50% off!) and re-installed it today, fitting it to properly hide the barrel. I have a few clematis running up it, though they are meager plants and probably won't hide the rain barrel for at least a year. I do have a Summer Sweet (clethra) nearby, and that covers some of the view of the rain barrel. It's just beginning to bloom, and smelled lovely as I worked in that area today.

I also put in some lavender that I had started from seed a few weeks back.

The rain has been welcome, as I've resorted to watering this past few weeks. My new fothergilla (purchased and planted on Father's Day) has been the hardest hit by the August drought, and is showing quite a bit of leaf browning and curling. I'm hoping the plant survives (it still looks lively in spots), and I've taken care to water it frequently since noticing the leaf curl.

I pulled more carrots today, some of them quite big. My habit, however, is not to thin the initial seeding, and settle for smaller but more numerous carrots. Why? Because my daughter loves baby carrots as a snack. (The so-called baby carrots you buy in the store are actually milled down from full-size.)

My daikon radish have sprouted and are doing nicely, and my pole beans sure know how to climb, having found my trellis without even me training them in that direction. I have a number of nicely-sized tomatoes on my plants. Let's hope they ripen before the first frost. (No late blight yet.)

I had the pleasure this week of meeting two of my blog followers this week: Anna, who came by to take some pictures of my daughter in the garden (though Sage wasn't cooperating, and Anna went home without even taking her lens cap off); and "BG" at Skillin's yesterday. It has been nice to meet you both.

A new book (to me)

2009-08-22T17:11:00.003-04:00

I finally broke down and bought Barbara Damrosch's The Garden Primer, which is an excellent book that I've consulted frequently while working at Skillin's, and finally decided to have for my own. She's a Maine author, so she knows Maine gardening. It's also 100% organic.

More potatoes

2009-08-14T21:13:00.004-04:00

I pulled up all my lettuce yesterday, and my potatoes today: way early for my potatoes, but my daughter is on a new-potato fix, so I decided to harvest them all. Some good-sized reds and yukon golds. They were delicious.

My daughter is enjoying the fruits of our garden: she's been eating fresh peaches, carrots, lettuce, and beets. Last night Sage chowed down on freshly-picked lettuce as a snack before bed. What four-year-old does that?

2009-08-11T16:31:00.005-04:00

It figures: it rains heavily today, the day after I finally break down and water the garden (after a few weeks of no rain, but considering all the rain we had before that, I forwent, if that's a word).

I finally noticed some tomatoes on my tomato plants yesterday, as well as some more blossoms. I have indeterminate ones, so they tend to bloom and fruit later anyway (as is the case with most heirloom varieties, which is what I planted). No sign of late blight in my garden, probably because I don't know anyone in my urban-ish neighborhood who is veggie gardening, and so I haven't caught anyone else's spores. Yet.

My pole beans are up, about an inch. Spinach just poking through.

I have to plant some turnips in my raised bed soon. Sage discovered she loved them yesterday evening, devouring them for a night-time snack, pretending to be a bunny. (What four-year-old eats turnips for a snack?)

I bought and "planted" a small trellis yesterday to hide the rain barrel that I have yet to install. It's a "one of these days..." project. I plan to grow a clematis or two up it, even if it's in partial shade. I may not get the best blooms, but I'll mostly grow it for the foliage anyway, and the blooms will be a pleasant extra.

I have a number of surprises in my garden this year: lychnis that I forgot I had planted (from seed), some sunflowers that must have fallen from a bird feeder, and a few other plants that jumped from their original location.

The problem of over-abundance: I now have ox-eye daisy seedlings all over the garden, which is soon going to be quite the nuisance. I also plan on cutting back or eliminating my obedient plant (a misnomer if there ever was one) and some loosestrife.

Today's gardening embarrassment: I finally figured out what my mystery flower was from a few weeks ago: a coreopsis. It's one of those plants I don't know well, despite its common nature. I only realized it when I saw some other ones in bloom at Skillins. Oops.

I've been filling out my parking strip with more variety, since it's mostly yarrow -- which is beautiful when it's in bloom, but then turns brown and unattractive. I now have more coreopsis, a few nepetas, and some shasta daisies.

Fall planting

2009-08-03T18:52:00.004-04:00

This past weekend I ripped out the remains of my sugar snap peas, they being exhausted and dessicated. Today in their place I planted some pole beans and (nearby) some spinach seeds, hoping for a fall crop of each. After my lettuce bolts, and after I harvest my carrots and beets and lettuce, I'll replace those as well with new seed.

new potatoes

2009-07-30T18:19:00.002-04:00

I write this with a plate of new potatoes, just fried in garlic, sitting in front of me. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what was in the ground, and out popped two golf-ball sized and one baseball-sized potato. They are Yukon Gold, planted April 23 -- three months and one week ago. Yum, they are good!