My garden – Page 5 – gaias-gift.com

Dahlia bed

I did mention how I’m never really finished, right? The dahlias are in their new bed. It doesn’t work as well from a design standpoint as I would like; it needs to be bigger in order to echo the shape of the bed behind it. And built up higher, which would be better for the dahlias as it would drain faster than the surrounding heavy soil, too. Ultimately, I want it to look like it’s all the same bed. But I need some way to get into it and work it, so I decided a narrow strip that I mow was most efficient.

But it was near 90 degrees and felt much hotter in the full sun that dahlias love on the day that I finished it, I am not a dahlia and can’t handle that kind of heat. I just wanted to get them in the ground and find some shade. The good news is that dahlias are treated like annuals and I get another chance next year to make improvements.

Now the choice is whether to mulch or not. The bed behind will be mulched, I’m just letting the amaranths acclimate. Most of them also got planted this weekend.

This whole area is designed to bloom from back to front. The peonies are blossoming today and the rose buds are getting fat.[oqeygallery id=10]

Mainely Mulch trial

I grow my tomatoes in the same beds every year so when I was planting them before a week of wet weather, I knew I needed to find something to mulch with and find it quickly. Soil borne diseases are the problem when you can’t rotate. Mulching, to prevent the soil from splashing on the leaves, is a good way to minimize their impact.

Salt marsh hay is the preferred mulch here in New England but almost impossible to find. Mainely Mulch (you can google it) is what my Agway offered as an alternative so I bought a bale of it. I applied it just as the rain was coming in, which was probably a good thing. It’s chopped quite finely and on a dry and windy day, I think it might blow around a lot. Also, dust, for those of us with tendencies toward asthma might be an issue, too. The biggest problem, however, is that about three weeks later, it’s full of a particular kind of weed. Whatever it is does dig down in the soil and breaks off when you pull it. No way to get the root without seriously disturbing the mulch and that would defeat the purpose. While it would be difficult to say for sure where these weeds came from, since they are not growing in the areas of the bed that aren’t mulched, circumstantial evidence would say they were imported in it.

Always something to look at

I am not a tidy gardener and always experimenting so I almost never have a perfect picture. But there is always something to look at. I love the color combination of the chartruese hosta and the dicentra. The blue hosta helps. From left to right along the bottom, the hosta are: Elegans (very large leaf) Hadspens Blue, and the chartruese is one I call Danny Boy. A neighbor grew it from seed, so technically, it’s a no-name. It will grow darker through the season and the hosta that’s just above it, a gift from a friend near Toledo, Paul’s Glory, gets lighter and lighter. It also gets much bigger and fills in where the dicentra dies back.

Updated August 21, 2011. Notice how Paul’s Glory, upper right in both pictures, has switched colors with “Danny Boy” on the bottom. Haspen’s Blue just gets darker blue.

Tomatoes are in the ground

As of yesterday and these may be some of the best starts that I’ve grown. You can see they have little in common with the ones you buy in sixpacks. Some of the credit has to go to our weather. The storm that churned around in the ocean for a week or so didn’t come this far inland but it did create some substantial winds. Which made for some very sturdy stems on the tomatoes as they hardened off.

So it’s a couple of weeks earlier than I would normally plant them but they look ready and the nights are forecasted around the 50s for the next two weeks. Days not a lot warmer but warm enough. With all of the rain in the forecast I need to get them mulched. I do not have room to rotate tomatoes and most diseases that bother tomatoes are overwintered in the soil. Mulching will keep the rain from splashing the spoors back up onto the leaves.

As always, I have more plants than room and a couple of the tomatoes jumped into the new asparagus bed when I wasn’t paying attention. Naughty; naughty.

The tomato in the picture is Black Krim, a favorite of mine for both color and flavor. I hope that either the Pineapple or Virginia Sweets will act as a beautiful contrast on the plate.

Varieties I’ve planted

Old favorites:

SuperSweet 100
Sun Gold
Yellow Pear
Black Krim
Brandywine (Suddith’s Strain)
Pineapple

Challengers:

Black Cherry (I’ve grown Black Prince but it was a bit larger and slower to ripen than I like.)
Green Envy (Never grown a green that I thought was worth the effort. Trying again.)
Lemon Cherry
Balls Beefsteak and Chapman (I’m still looking for a reliable, high producing, red beefsteak)
Virginia Sweets (a red/yellow bicolor)

I love this pansy

Difference in Dahlia Tubers

I don’t know that it means anything in terms of performance but I’m wondering again this year about the differences in how dahlia tubers are prepared for sale. Swan Island Dahlias came to me the way that I expect, one tuber with a sprouting point on a small part of top stem. Brent and Becky’s came with clumps of tubers for every dahlia purchased.

From left to right:

My tubers (you can see the yellow from the sulfer that I used as a fungicide last winter)
Swan Island tubers, every tuber has the name stamped on it, and
Brent and Beckys, these were sprouting in the shipping mix to the point where I didn’t want to disturb the roots by cleaning the tubers. Other varieties from them did not have as much sprouting or hair roots but were still clumps of tubers.

: Dahlia tubers

(Click on the image for a larger picture.)

LED Lights to feed the world

Update 10/13/11. The Boston Globe link no longer works but here is an ABC link that works today. Or use the search term as described below. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=13346712

I’m sharing a link to a Boston Globe version of an AP release about use of LED lights to feed the world. You can find it at other sources if you search on “LED lights and Gertjan Meeuws”.

Since my “win the lottery” fantasy, and the wishful purpose of this web site, which is now sustained by my real job, is to encourage sustainable gardening, this is fascinating news. I’ve also been evaluating whether using some of my basement space for winter gardening would be cost effective. However, some of the statements in this article, like fooling around with the light spectrum to get crops earlier and the idea the sun and other natural contributors to the garden can be a bad thing is all a bit, um, shivery. Orwellian, almost, and it’s not nice to fool mother nature.

However, since the existing market and research for grow lights has been s is so heavily influenced by cash crops, i.e., marijuana, I wonder if there isn’t a huge research opportunity for things like tomatos, herbs, lettuces; the kind of things that I would be interested in overwintering. Mixed growing, small indoor garden-type of growing. Keeping my citrus happier, and new ideas for yummy things to harvest in winter from under the lights.

First things, first; I’ll get through our outdoor season and then come back to this. I expect that the costs for these light arrays will go down over time, too. Are any of you considering a winter garden under the lights? What do you want to grow?

Spring projects

I love the woods behind my house but keeping it from taking over the few sunny areas that I have is a constant struggle and I often feel like I’m losing. The vines creep out first, including poison ivy, to which I’m very allergic, and then the wild berry bushes try to fill in. The next thing you know there are trees in what used to be lawn. There used to be a pretty island around these trees covered with lilly of the valley, but even that robust ground cover couldn’t keep the encroachment at bay. The encroachment was strongly assisted by the ice storm we had some years back that littered the whole yard with branches and twigs. So these are “before” and “during” shots of the cleanup and replanting There is still the back of the island and the forsythia gone wild to the right of it that I will have to clean. The pile in the second photo is just the vining plants that I pulled; I’ll make sure that they’ve dried out too much to sprout and then take them deper into the woods. There was wild grape and English Ivy, but also a lot of poison ivy that I pulled, I’m sure. And then carefully washed everything with Technu.

Hard to see the grade in pictures but I still want to edge, build up the soil somewhat to delinate from lawn and to round up the slight slope to the trees. I will not change the soil level at tree trunk level as that might not be healthy, just in front of the trees for effect. And then mulch like crazy to keep the forest at bay while I figure out what else to plant there. I want to use some edge plants like hydrangeas and rhodedendrons to help fill in and keep the trees out. You may be able to make out two twiggy things. They are hydrangeas, “Let’s Dance, Moonlight”. With the morning sun and shade from the trees, they should do well there.[oqeygallery id=9]

When garden zones matter

On my deck, At 28 deg F, it’s 10 degrees cooler this morning than in Boston. Some of the MA blogs that I follow have been planting onions and lettuces, I’m trying to decide whether it’s safe to try to harden them on said deck. Nights are supposed to be above freezing for the foreseeable future. But I don’t think it was supposed to be so cold last night either. I took a couple of vacation days to work outside; the first four day stretch I have had off in a long time. The projects:

Clean said deck so that when it’s safe, there’s room for the seedlings to harden off.
Rough cut rose pruning, almost done. I will come back after there’s more signs of life to take out any dead or unproductive leaves. I also need to fill a few place in the rose ghetto (hybrid teas) that gave up the fight against wetness and lack of sun. But all of the shrub and old roses are looking healthy.
Hacking back the foundation plantings so that I can walk the sidewalk. I inherited these and just don’t know what else to do.
Cutting out last years growth from the miscanthus. I want to dig and throw or give away more than half of it this spring.
Cleaning wild berry bushes and vines from the rhubarb beds. Their little pink buts are so suggestive of future fecundidty.
Moving a peony that was supposed to be in front of a rose and instead, grows up into it. This white peony’s blossoms are too big and the plant can’t hold them up. I keep moving them to give them a better chance. They make great cutting flowers.
Moving a rhubarb plant out of the food beds. If no one wants it, I may have to throw it away. But I need the space in the food bed.
Cleaning an area around trees that’s filled in with lily of the valley, and weeds so that I can plant some hydrangeas that wintered in the food bed. Soon!
Burning the rose canes and anything elese that’s too big or not suitable for compost.

Gee, when I put it in a list, it looks like quite a lot. Better get back to it…

April Fools Day Snow 2011

First picture is my sad, pruned apple tree. Then I move to shots of the roses. First an unpruned “Teasing Georgia with the end of the main rose bed to the left. Then, in front of the house, you can see a pruned City of York on the right and a “OH MY GOODNESS, WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH IT” Seven Sisters, trying to bring down the arbor on the left. Last shots are of my garden beds. I love the way the snow is delineating every line of my supports.

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Amaranthus, decorative types

I am playing with decorative amaranths this year. I would really like to find a US source for “Ponytails”, see left, but none of the major seed companies seem to carry it in the US. T&M does but not in the US, evidently. Last year I ordered online and they said they had problems with the seed and I didn’t get them. They are similar to what I’ve seen with “Love lies Bleeding”, but while that variety is chenille rope-like, the Ponytails in this picture, from Jardin des Plants in Paris many years ago, was more like chenille balls on a rope. And I have seen some web locations that seem to believe that LLB and Ponytails are the same so I’m reluctant to try an unknown source. Oh well, enough about the “one that got away”. So far. And if LLB and Ponytails are really the same thing, I’m starting some LLB and may find out.

My trial with Love lies Bleeding and Joseph’s Coat last year was without success, almost nothing germinated and what did, didn’t live to be planted outdoors . This year I did more reading and saw a reference that they liked bottom heat. I was using a combination of last year’s seed and some new varieties that I purchased fresh so I used several seeds in every cell and started them over a heat mat. I think I got 100% germination from both sets of seeds! Here are the varieties:

Cinco de Mayo
Love lies Bleeding
Tricolor Early Splendor
Joesph’s Coat

Here’s a picture of my seedling forest. Since then, I’ve pulled out everything but two or three in each cube.

Pruning Roses

When I got up today the sun was shining and I decided to wade through the remaining snow to do, well OK, start, a big job on two of my roses. After much research, I’ve decided that the way to take care of these two robust bushes, that have taken over much more space than they should, is a severe pruming. I intend to identify four strong, healthy canes on each bush, not the oldest ones and take out everything else to the ground. The blossoms grow on last year’s laterals so I will have to be careful not to damage those on the canes that I want to keep.

The rose on the right, shown first, with the larger canes and a more open habit is “City of York”. The crazy wildish rose on the left and over the door arbor is “Seven Sisters”.[oqeygallery id=7]

Seed starting using soil cubes — Part One

A friend remarked that I was the only gardener she knew who used soil blocks for seed starting, made by these tools, successfully. It’s been easy for me so I thought it might make a good subject for a video or two.

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The soil blockers can be purchased from Johnny’s Seeds and Ailsa Craig, a large sweet onion, from Pinetree Seeds. See “Sources” for link.

Amaryllis 47 days

I sorta thought I’d be done posting these when they finally bloomed but they are so pretty. “Lemon Star” is joined by the first of the “Apple Blossom”. I’m hoping that one of them will wait until next week so that I can take it into the office.

The “Apple Blossom” takes a little longer for each blossom to get to it’s final trumpet shape. This plant has a tendency for the petals to “cup” until they are fully open. And this one has a little quirk, one of the petals has a small “finger”. I thought it was just a miss-shapen petal but each blossom has the same small distortion. The coloring is beautiful and one of my favorites, as amaryllis go.

Christmas and the rose

The rose, and I did mention they are my passion, keeps coming up in the context of Christmas. Although I’m closer to an agnostic than the typical Christian, believing there is more than one way that our complex relationshp with god is experienced, more than one history that describes it, I thought I would write something about the symbolism of the rose in Christmas stories, in honor of the day. In my research I found three stories of the rose.

The popularism of the Da Vinci Code lead to the opportunity for many authors to write, and sell!, more in-depth books about Mary Magdalene, symbolized by the rose. There’s also the story of a small girl who visited the baby Jesus and had no gift for him. Her tears turned into the the Christmas rose (which scholars say is really not a rose at all). The third is my favorite because of the hauntingly beautiful hymn that describes Jesus’ mother Mary as the rose.

There is no rose of such virtue
As is the rose that bare Jesu
Allelulia

(There are more verses.) The thread that I see consistently running through these stories is the strong correlation of the rose with the mystery of womanhood. The silky petals, the bawdy pinks and reds, and the many layers reaveled in the unfolding of a hybrid tea rose from bud to blossom, borders on the erotic. Passion is earned. But this devine transformation happens with such an innocence of purpose. We think of the child, the mother, the sister, partner and friend.

Allelulia

Amaryllis 40 days

This is the amaryllis “Lemon Star” that we’ve been following. It’s gussied up to take to sister’s house for Christmas so that someone who doesn’t have overgrown kittens can display it. I will visit tonight and tomorrow. I was thinking I might take it into work next week but it’s sooooo top heavy, and started to loosen from the soil with just a little moving around.

Only one thing I would do differently. I read that they don’t need much water but that’s an understatement. These were watered only twice in 40 days and really don’t need water yet. If I’d known that, I would have added fertilizer to the second watering.

Happy Holidays,

Amaryllis 34 days – Soon!

The stems are very long and the flowers are beginning to separate.

Soon now! — Amaryllis Lemon Star 34 days

Amaryllis 27 days

I have to move the Amaryllis out of the furnace room because I can’t lift the lights any higher. This location is set up to grow seedlings and only gives about a foot of head room. We made the ritual photo-taking into a small party. Even Mickey (Michel, Misha) joined the party. He was adopted from the Pat Brody Shelter in Lunenberg just about exactly six years ago now. Cannoli is his best bud.

Mickey and Cannolli — Mickey and Cannoli

Notice how the top blossom has a slight bend. One of the florescent bulbs was older than the other. It’s really important to turn the pots regularly.

More winter garden

Some pictures of my winter landscape, taken on December 4. Friends in the midwest are talking about 4-7 inches of snow but in Central MA, it’s just cold.

Amaryllis, 20 days – New Growth

Happy dance, happy dance! The first identifiable new growth peeked up from the old stems about the middle of this week. I think the shoot on the front of this picture will be a blossom later on.

Life Lesson: Sometimes, at work, I feel like I’m not making any difference, like I’m just going through the motions. This reminds me that in complex systems, all that a person can do is work to create the right conditions. Often, there are things going on that are invisible, underground. When change happens, sometimes it seems abrupt; but that’s only because we just see the results, not all of the underlying processes that are at work.