Garden Journal April 27, 2015 We Are Ready!

Gardens, Garden Beds, Plants and Planting Time 

I did a lot of work on the front deck.  We got some Perlite and have been adding that and refreshing all the containers with last years soil in them.  We dumped and added the Perlite into the metal can you see on the right of the picture.  It was easier to mix then doing them separate.  Then we filled up the three green planters on the top of the banisters and I planted some Cascading Begonia bulbs in them.  One of them was already starting to sprout!  They will look nice on the deck in about 3 weeks as they are summer bulbs.  In the cat litter buckets that you see on the left I planted cucumbers and they will trail and grow up on the deck banister in front of them and possibly on the ram banister as well.  I have found that Cucumbers do not mind the part shade and in fact they do produce lots as they did last year.  I suppose the I will be giving some away to my Security Guard in the neighborhood.  Oh I will learn how to pickle this year.  I keep saying that but I do not get enough to make a batch at one time, so I just eat and give away most of them.

In my last Garden Journal I was talking about the Red Bud trees that has just flowered.  Well it has been about 2 weeks now and here is that the one in my backyard looks like.

I also mentioned to some that they grow wild here and here is a picture of how they are growing along the lane.  There are so many of them in our forest that they almost cover the rolling hills with this color.  They do not grow very tall here and they are more like a small tree.  Many have cultivated them in their yards to be bolder in color and the trunks and branches are full and strong looking.

Now you also see my raised gardens here and they are all ready to be planted.  We rototilled the Perlite right into the soil and raked them level.  It was a bit too chilly for the tomatoes and the peppers this weekend.  I am waiting until the night temps are a bit warmer and over 45 degrees.  I will be covering them with some Crenlin fabric that you can buy in the fabric stores and in bulk too.  The tend to do well under that and the good thing about it is that they keep out the bugs, seeds from the tress and other plants and they also keep out the deer.  It must be the look or feel or even the smell that keeps them away from this.

These are what I am planting this year!  I have Yellow Tomatoes and Roma Tomatoes that will go in the Yellow Raised Garden.  I also have Green Pepper and a slightly spicier one and these will go in the  Pink Raised Garden.  I am going to be making some spaghetti sauces with this and maybe try some other things as well.  I also want to make some of those delicious Home-grown Tomatoes on sadwiches.

I love home-made stuff right from my own garden.

I also have some Lettuce and Spinach to plant as well and they will be planted in the Orange raised garden.  I think that I will be planting them today.  Last year I got the seed packets for a mixed seeds of Lettuces and Spinach, but they did not do as well and I also had them planted further back in the yard where we used to have a small deck.  They were expensive! So I got some already grown Lettuce and Spinach.  

I love going out and picking a few leaves and using them on my Hamburgers or fresh salads.  Nothing beats home-grown and home-made!  You know exactly what is put on your foods.

I am seeing a slight problem that we may have around here.  Those while sacks that are on those tree limbs are caterpillars and they eat everything in sight.  We have been burning some of them that we can reach.  These few are on one tree and we cannot reach them.  That tree is going to eaten within a week.  I do hope that it does not kill the tree though.  I was chosen to be a steward to the trees here.  I don't know where this came from but it was just a knowing.  We have taken down many trees that were hollow throughout and re have tired to re-plant, but nothing seems to take except the many acorns that grow into Oaks here.  I have tired nut trees without any success except for the one that is growing good.  The thing is with that one is that I planted 3 of them and the only one has survived, which means there will be no fruit on it once it gets old enough to produce the nuts.  It is the Carpathian Walnut tree.  Oh, well I have tried for a few years.

These are just a few of my plants that have grown up and are gorgeous.  The Bleeding Heart has really come into bloom.  The Tall Phlox, that wasn't happy being in the green planter on my porch and before that in the woods, is now very happy in it's own box.

Speaking about all vegetables and flowers that I have and am planting:  I also like to use plants and vegetables to set off the colors of the planters and rasied gardens.  I love matching the colors to make the yard and landscape pop!

See you next time in my Gardens!

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article. 

Black Walnut Tree Poison and Garden Activites Late April to Early May

Did you know that the Black Walnut Tree produces a chemical that is very toxic to some vegetable plants?  I did not know this until I was reading my Gardening Catalog for the month of May.

The trees produce a chemical called "juglone" into the soil up to 50 feet surrounding it.  It will make your tomatoes yellow and possibly causing their death.  Other plants that are affected by this chemical are:

• Eggplant
• Peppers 
• Blackberry 
• Blueberry 
• Apple trees may be injured or killed within one to two months of growth within the root zone of these trees.
• Cabbage
• Potato

Plants that are tolerant of this toxic tree are:

Squashes 

Melons 

Beans 

Carrots 

Corn

The video below shows you how to identify what a Black Walnut Tree looks like.

Garden Activities for the last week of April and into the first 2 weeks of May are:

• April 24 through the 30th, Plant summer bulbs.  It is also National Arbor Day in the USA.
• April 25, It is time to apply some pre-emergent weed control.
• April 27, Spray Fruit Trees after petals fall.
• April 29, Seed your parsley in your gardens.
• May 1, Transplant your onions and plant your fingerling potatoes.
• May 3, is the full moon and legend and lore says that it is good to plant things around this time.
• The week of May 4 through May 9, seed your Lettuce, Winter Squash and Cucumbers, Celery and Sweet Corn.  You can also plant your Tomato seedlings.  Plant your Bok Choy at this time too.

Happy Gardening!

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article. 

Garden Journal April 12, 2015

Address Garden in the front of our property. Daffodils and Tulips in here.

We raked the leaves out of the garden where I have Knock Out Roses.  We have a primrose that is in bloom and I know that I planted more than one.  I know that I planed about 6 of them.  Oh well it is too late to plant more here as they only sell them in early March.  I will be on the look out for them next year.  Too bad Breck's Bulbs aren't selling them for next year.  I got their booklet to order fall planting bulbs and did not see them in there.  They will put out some more and I can possibly get them from there.

Primrose

We also raked out the lower right garden where I had Purple and Yellow Irises and a few Hyacinths and I swear the Lily of The Valley were coming up.  They did for about a day and then they are no more.  I don't know what happened to them.

This is the garden that we raked.

While we were raking, I also pulled some weeds out of the raised gardens that we had tilled last week.  This weekend we will rototill them again and start planting something.

Bleeding Hearts coming up!

As I was out walking around the woods and my front yard I noticed some more plants that are popping their leaves up out of the ground.

Daffodils and next will be Hostas, if the deer don't get to them first.

Hyacinths in the front of house garden.

Hyacinths in the lower garden that we raked.

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article. 

Garden Journal All My Spring Flowers

My Bearded Iris in the Summer 2014

Someone told me that they liked all my pictures of all the things that I am planting in my gardens. All of the ones that are starting to peek their heads out are bulbs.  I love bulbs because they are very pretty and I can have them each and every year.  I have found that some kinds you cannot kill.  At least for me that is a good thing.  Anything else that I have planted that are annuals or house plants, I tend to nurture them too much and kill them.  

Going around my gardens today these are the pictures that I took to share with your all.

Pink Hyacinth in my lower garden

Purple and some Yellow Bearded Iris and they do increase in numbers every year and I cannot kill these.

Yellow Daffodils just popping their heads out.
Some of my neighbor's have already flowered completely.
Mine are always the last to come out.

Astilbes are coming out now in the upper part of this garden.

Another picture of my garden that is furthest away from the house.
Notice the slope of our land

The garden that you see here is the one full of Bearded Irises, Lily of The Valley and some Hyacinths.

Front garden directly in front of the house.  These Hyacinths are naturalizing at a slow pace.
I wish they would double or triple their pace.

We have a Forsythia tree!!  I did not have to buy one!
I will take a cutting off of it and root it and plant it in the fall.  I hope to plant it in our back yard.

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article. 

My Garden Journal April 5, 2015 Easter Day

Here we start on the garden in 2015

Today I took care of my Hellebore.  It looked kind of sick when I transplanted it into the other raised garden last year.  We put it back where it was the year before and I trimmed off all the dead leaves and such.  It just did not like it's toes (roots) pinched.  The raised garden has a black plastic liner in it.  We had to do that because the year, many years ago now, that we just put the dirt in it the tree roots grew up into the planter.  It was like the Twilight Zone or something!  I kid you knot, the roots grew straight up and the tree took all the added nutrients that we fed the plants.

This is what my Hellebore looked like before and the way it looks this afternoon:

Before after we transplanted it back to it's first home.

After I trimmed all the dead leaves off of the Hellebore

It is a nice sunny day here and it is time to get the rototiller out and loosen up the soil in preparation for spring planting at the middle to end of the month.  We had lost the place that we were using as a compost area and were composting in the garden over the winter.  We needed to till it into the soil a lot better so that it would finish it's composting before we plant anything in there.  Doing it today will give it time to do so.  We will not be planting anything in them until at least my birthday on or after April 20th.  For now we are doing small things in and around the garden.  I do not know what I am going to be planting this year.  I want to do flowers this year instead of vegetables.  I might change my mind though and that is the beauty of having your own gardens.  We shall see.

This is what we have done today:

Raking out the bean vines.

Raking the vines and leave down the hill.

First time tilling with the Rototiller.  Nice!

These are almost ready to plant things in them.
The Lavender one needs at least another till, maybe 2 more.
That  is the one that we used most for the compost and some things still are not composted.

We had peas in this one last year.  I don't want to plant peas.

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary"

BY MOTHER GOOSE

Mary, Mary, quite contrary

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockleshells

And pretty maids all in a row.

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article.