May 24 2015 My Garden Journal-Where It All Began

Welcome to Our Humble Garden

Here I Am

Have you ever wondered who I am and what I look like?  I bet some of you have and yesterday I finally got my husband to get a picture of me working in my gardens for you.  So Here I Am!

Just about every weekend and sometimes during the week I am weeding or planting something or other.  I am always in my gardens.  This was the last of the big gardens that we weeded and raked yesterday.  More pictures to come!

Finally we got someone out here to cut the grass.  Now you can see all of my gardens without having to see the sea of grass in front of you.  It did look nice though.  I love to have the grass mowed and the beauty of the raised gardens visible.  It is so nice to be able to sit on the front porch and see all the things that we have made with our own hands.  It has taken many years and a whole lot of work to get it to the point that it is now.  

Here is what we started out within 2001

We took out the steps and put a ramp there instead.  Then we moved the ramp to the outside of the deck so that burglars could not just walk up the the house and come into our window.

Most of the vegetation in the front was thorny type bushes and we tool them out along with much poison ivy that I am really allergic to.  

In about 2005, after most of the inside of the house was remodeled, we were able to start working on the outside.  We, at one time, thought that it would be a good idea to move the parking where we have out raised gardens now.  Boy was the a silly idea!  At the time we only had a gravel driveway.  When it snowed or froze and we were left with an icy driveway, you can imagine the difficulty walking down it with a load of groceries.  So we moved it back to the way it was.

Here is the first attempt at raised gardens.  We had no idea that the roots of the trees would grow up through the dirt and take all the nutrients from anything that we planted.  My goodness it was like something out of the Twilight Zone when we took the planters apart to build them better and seeing all those roots sticking straight up out of the forest floor and into the garden beds.

So we got some brains and when we put them together again we lined the beds with black plastic and they started to grow better.  We got lots of vegetables the first year that we had done this back in 2006.  The next few years the weather was not so cooperating and we didn't get any good crops for our efforts for about 4 years later.  We tried everything and I vowed that I would not plant anymore.....but farming (a small farm that is) is somehow in my blood.  So I planted every year.  Things and bugs and animals would eat my hard work and so I learned what to do...or at least I thought that I learned.  I began to see different insects that were not supposed to be in this area.  The deer were relentless and ate everything.  I mean everything, even the plants that they are not supposed to like. 

The next year we had lots of this growing around and on everything.  I think it is a variation on the Crown vetch weed.  We pulled and we pulled and we pulled some more and it was just like a fire as it spread and grew over and on and up everything that it could get too.  The first year we just pulled and threw the weeds down into the ravine.  Bad move on our part because the next year it had taken over the whole yard, and started growing up the walls of our house.  That was when we got the bright idea to pull it and put it in black trash bags and let the trash man take it from here.  It took a total of 3 years for us weeding that and other stuff before we actually got a handle on in. 

So we have learned much on growing our own food here in these woods and on what my parent's called this place when my first daughter was born, Misty Acre.  My daughter's name is Missy, but for some reason my parent's named it Misty instead.  I like to think of it as Misty Acre too because when we have fog or a haze it sure does look magical and misty for sure. We have one acre.  Each lot in this development is approximately one acre.  We can only want to use the top part of our acre because it is the only part that get enough sun to plant anything.  We did try to plant some lilies but the deer grazed them down before they even got a chance to grow.

Here are some of the things that we have grown over the last few years.

Now we have solved the problem with the deer and this is the simple and inexpensive solution to that problem.  The deer do not like the light that it gives off.  They do not like the motion that it does in the breeze and this is night or day.  They also do not like the sound that it gives and so this is a very easy solution to keeping the deer away from plants like vegetables, Hostas or anything they like, Including marigolds which they are said not to like.  I know this because I planted a whole bunch of marigolds one year to keep the deer away...and they ate those too!

Here is another one of my children's windmills that are protecting my lettuce and spinach.  I have one of these windmills in ever raised garden and in the main Iris garden and in the lower garden in front of the White Pine Trees.

This is what we have been doing year after year after year on our yard.  It has taken a long time but the effort has brought much fruit.  Both my husband and I have toiled in the soil for years and finally are able to take pride in our accomplishment and hard work.  We can now enjoy our labors.  The hardest part is behind us and we can now manage to keep up with the weeding, the seeding, the heaving of what it takes to take something and make it into something of a thing of beauty.  

My Husband Raking Grass and Duke Supervising him. May 23, 2015

This is Me doing what I do most of the time in my garden...Weeding!

The farthest garden with Astilbes, Hostas and various other plants.
A Holly bush is growing in there too. When we cleaned it out
we found that the deer has snacked on the Hostas there.
We don't have any deer chasers, but we are going to be getting some! 

The largest of the gardens and it took us 4 hours to clean it up yesterday
There is a large Holly Bush and I am planting different colors of
Bearded Irises and some other specimen plants there..
May 23, 2015

One of the Climbing Roses that we have.
This one is the earliest and fullest one.

Cucumbers!

Grass cut and these are the three gardens you can see them all at once in the back-side yard.
All the way in the back are some Wine Berry (natural and invasive) and I found some
Forsythia and am trying to get them started back there as well.
May 23, 2015

This is a new garden that we just made in April 2015.
There will be new plants coming in August to plant there for next year.

Tomatoes, Yellow, Roma and Beef Steak

Peppers; Yellow, Green and Hot

Purple Bush Beans!  They only took about 5 days to sprout up!
Behind those are my Knock Out Roses and they are
growing super and about to flower in about a week.

Lettuce and Spinach

Zucchini!  I planted this because a neighbor who does not have the sun that I have wanted it.
I also like this in sups and stews in the winter.  It is great added to Beef Stew.

Yellow Straight neck Squash.  I got something that you mix with water and water
the plants that kill the Squash Bug.  I read on the bottle and you can use it for just about anything.
I did and everything is growing lots better.

This is the combination that I used and my gardens are doing so well.  I am amazed!
They are both natural pesticides.
The bag is Diamataceous Earth, that is food grade.
The other is Thuricide and it is natural too.

I hope that you have enjoyed the tour of my gardens and do hope that you get a chance to read all my other garden post and all my other blogs as well.

Until next time!!!