A Few Pictures From the Garden

 

"On every stem, on every leaf,... and at the root of everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part."  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes


Hello my gardening friends. I trust you are all well, staying cool and hydrated due to the high temperatures. I have excellent news. I finally have enough pictures to show you what is growing in my garden this year. Please keep in mind that I was in a rush so I used my cell phone camera so the images are bad (should have used the digital camera).

Shasta Daisy – Roots divisions were given to me by a co worker last spring. The roots grow rapidly so I was able to transplant them in several beds and gave some to friends. I have collected healthy seeds from the plants.

Sweet William – I received a sample package of seeds for $.25 two years ago. I sowed them last year and have collected seeds from the plants.

Lance leaf Coreopsis – This is the volunteer plant I wrote about in an earlier post.  Although, it was only one plant, it produced a large number of seeds.

Ox Eye Daisy – I purchased seeds locally for about 50 cents.  Great seed production. Very weedy though and extremely invasive.

Day Lilly – Came with the house purchase!  We divide them every year and spread them around our yard. One of the hubby’s favorite.

Gloriosa Daisy – The plants were grown from seed, given to me by a friend.  The plants produced a huge amount of seeds and the flowers are multi colored (red, yellow, magenta, orange and gold.  I have to stake them because the stalks are thick and heavy.

Blanket Flower– Grown from seeds given to me by a friend.  Modest seed production and the stalks are very weedy.  However the flowers are gorgeous.

Peppers, Tomatoes, Squash, Lemon Balm and Okra, Thyme and Cayenne Pepper plants are in pots soaking up sun.

Mini Bell pepper plant grown from seed.

Well, I have to run.  Until next time, happy gardening!

Angela
 

Seed Harvesting and Pollinator Gardening

"I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation.  It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green."  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse 

Hello Gardening Friends,

I hope everything is going well with your gardens and that you all are enjoying their beauty and bounty.  We have finally got warm weather in or region and I am enjoying it immensely.

I had a chance to go through my garden journals for past seasons and reminisced about hand-pollinating squash blossoms one year because I didn’t plant enough flowers and herbs to entice pollinators to my garden. It was a very time consuming experience. I know, silly me.  So of course, the next year I planted flowers like cosmos, sunflowers, daisies, yarrow, asters, alyssum, lupine, phlox, zinnias, Sweet William and Black-eyed Susans to attract bees.  I also planted several types of milkweed, ironweed, dill, oregano, parsley, fennel and lemon mint to draw in butterflies and wasps.  I purchased all the seeds at end of season sales from two seed companies for only $8.60.  It was a great deal for me because I harvest the seeds from those plants every year and take advantage of the added benefit of having a beautiful, heavily-pollinated garden.

Well, I have to close for now.  Thanks for dropping by and happy gardening!

Angela

An Enjoyable Weekend in the Garden

Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination.  ~Mrs. C.W. Earle, Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden, 1897

I am so content right now because of the beautiful weather and positive experiences I had this past weekend.  After searching for an active community garden for years, I found one a block away from my home.  It is relatively small and is tended by a lovely couple who have generously donated a small plot of their yard for the garden.  Naturally, I offered to donate a few hours a week, some supplies and of course seeds for their garden.

I had a chance to work in the garden today with my husband (a miracle, I know).  We sawed up the tree I mentioned in a previous post and cut back our invasive 8-feet-tall Japanese knotweed (often mistaken for bamboo) that the previous owner of our house generously introduced to the backyard.

We also noticed several of our neighbors yards have dandelions showing up.  Not good. We applied corn gluten meal to our lawn a few weeks ago and hopefully our grass will be healthy enough to deter them.  We divided Shasta daisy plants and day lilies to give to my BFF Randy for his family’s new garden.  Busy day, but it was wonderful!

The hubby and I found some great items in a newly opened thrift store yesterday for our garden and he suggested I start including pictures and ideas in my future posts. As you know, I love a bargain and like introducing new ornaments to my garden. A great idea I think and because I have the hankering to cook lately (hubby is the active cook in our home), I am going to include pictures of my experiments and recipes. But please don't be too criticalgo easy on me, since I'm not much of a cook (remember, I was outside playing in the dirt and climbing trees while my mom and grandmother were in the kitchen). LOL. :-)

Well, I hope you have a great week and thank you for reading.

Angela

P.S. I have included a link for more information about knotweed here:

http://www.sleloinvasives.org/about-invasives/target-species/japanese-knotweed/

Spring Garden Planning - Getting an Early Start

"The best place to seek God is in a garden.  You can dig for him there." 

~George Bernard Shaw, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, 1932

Well, here we are in February, and spring is not that far away. Thank goodness!!!  I am so excited because I can finally focus on my true love…gardening. Like you, I am receiving numerous catalogs in the mail and although they are enticing, I must remember my purpose is to spend as little as possible by recycling used items or getting them for free.

Today, I am going to start my garden supplies inventory list or as my husband would say, “the junk list”. I will admit, I have a huge amount of vases, pots, seeds, plant markers, etc. however, everything will come in handy at some point and he knows this. The list I am creating today will also give me an idea of what I will need to plan this year’s growing season. Because I live in an urban area and my yard is ridiculously small, I am limited in what I grow. It’s this reason that the buckets, large pots and small misc containers I have on hand will be turned into planters.  My motto is, if you can put holes in it, use it.

My list is completed and I have everything I need for my garden with the exception of compost (which I will pick up for free from our county’s compost facility). I start all of my less hardy seeds such as petunias, impatiens, savory (summer and winter), marjoram, chives and onions around the end of February indoors. In addition to the above mentioned plants, I will also grow the following this year: 

Beans (lima and Romano), peas (snow, snap), tomatoes (grape, plum and paste), summer squash, carrots, cabbage, corn, kale, greens (collards, mustard and turnips), okra, bunching onions, peppers (sweet and hot), spinach, Swiss chard, nasturtiums, cosmos, cilantro, coneflowers, sunflowers, lupine, basil, parsley, black eyed Susan, sage, marigold, sweet William, chicory, oregano, Chinese forget me nots, Siberian wallflower, thyme(creeping and garden), lovage, horehound, sorrel, cowpeas (black eyed and purple hull), yarrow, lupine, kohlrabi, chamomile, lettuce (Asian Mesclun and Bibb), radish, shallots, watermelon, candytuft, cucumbers, corn salad, dianthus, alyssum, leaf lettuce, endive, Virginia stock, daisies (Shasta , Ox Eye, and Gloriosa) coreopsis (Lance leaf and plains), zinnias, pansies, salvia, sunflowers, larkspur, morning glory and lemon balm.  

Ok, I know I have an enormous amount of seeds of all types and I admit I am truly obsessed with collecting them.  However, I share frequently with friends, family and anyone who shows an interest in starting their own gardening. This year I plan on donating produce to our local food pantry and homeless shelters.  I am also going to grow extra plants for my neighbors.

I have been cultivating my seed collection for many years now by various means.  My friends and family typically present me with seeds and gift cards to garden centers for special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or Earth Day.  But my favorite way to get them is by gathering seeds from my own plants, something I'll discuss in detail down the line.

Well, I must go for now.  I will keep you informed of my activities soon.  Until later…Ta-Ta!

Angela