Thursday, June 6, 2013

Home Sweet Home... four years!


We've been in our home for four years today.  She's looking more lovely now than she did four years ago, inside and out.  The day lilies, poppies and iris' that were planted that first summer are now well established and lush.  In fact, the iris' will need to be thinned next fall.


June 2009

June 2013
Hello, color!

June 2013
Busy with bees and smelling wonderful.

'Safari Sunset' iris

'Peace' rose




'Ebb Tide' rose
Day lilies line the front fence.



The backyard is mostly full of edibles now.  In addition to the vegetable and herb garden, which are growing nicely, the raspberry bushes (red and black) are just a couple weeks away from being heavy with fruit.
Raised strawberry bed, vegetable bed, and herb garden

Soon-to-be Tomato City

Red raspberry bush
Black raspberry canes
Soon-to-be black raspberries
Radishes
We've already enjoyed several of these in salads.  Spinach, too!
Radish butter to be made soon.


The corn plants are well on their way to being knee high by the forth of July.  Several beans planted at the base of the corn plants have sprouted, as have the squash seeds that were planted at the perimeter of the corn "field".
Carl's Glass Gems corn

Brockton Horticultural bean
Hidatsa Red Indian bean

Strawberries will be blushing shortly and garlic, oh, sweet, garlic!  Hopefully, the garlic harvest is just over one month from now.  I can hardly wait to be cooking with and eating freshly grown garlic again! I believe that if we were to buy a farm, we'd be garlic farmers.

Strawberries
pie, jam, muffins, bread, ice cream...
Garlic!

We began the process for our patio installation today by scheduling a date for the install.  We're thrilled about this latest upcoming home improvement and will be sure to document its installation.

The patio will meet the edge of the driveway, replacing the cement pad outside the back door,
and extend to meet the corner of the garage.  The patio will run along the edge of the herb garden,
almost to the fence, and cover the area where the table rests.

'Blueberry Bliss' iris

Wish you could smell this beauty.

FIRE!


"Redbud Hill"
Redbud's heart shaped leaves

Heirloom poppies (L-R: 'Lauren's Grape' and 'Imperial Pink')
An heirloom poppy ('Lauren's Grape') nearly ready to bloom!

2009
2013
2013
2013

Home, SWEET, Home.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

A girl and her camera on a warm, sunny day

Mountain Bluet
The petals remind me of eye lashes, and the flower bud
looks as if it has a black lacy netting wrapped around it.




This, my friends, is what a corn stalk looks like at two inches tall.
I am positively thrilled that the majority of the Carl's Glass Gem corn seeds have sprouted.

Flats of seedlings resting atop the al fresco dining table.  

Allium bursting from its papery husk.

Another variety of allium nearly in full bloom.



Life is thriving in Wright Gardens.  Carrot, radish, spinach, and beets (red and golden) are growing rapidly.  In fact, another row of each will be planted tomorrow for a successive crop.

Several strawberry flowers dot the strawberry bed, and all three of the raspberry bushes have noticeable flower heads forming.  It never cease to amaze me how quickly plants grow.  I've been carefully watching the raspberry bushes for flower formation and suddenly, overnight, it seems, there they are.  The same is true for the poppies.  The plants have been growing with vigor but no sign of the fuzzy flower heads until Wednesday morning.  Nothing was visible Tuesday but Wednesday morning the flower heads were between six and seven inches tall!  It would be so neat to have a time lapse camera to capture the growth of flowers in the yard.

The tulips are fading but as they do the allium, iris, poppies, and yarrow are shaping up to be the next round of color.  Oh, and I found a third praying mantis egg in the strawberry bed earlier this week!  That makes three total (that I'm aware of) in the yard.

Yours in soil,

Lisa




Sunday, May 12, 2013

Planting by the phases of the moon

This is an interesting concept.  I'm aware of the moon phases already, and always know when the full moon is, but I've never considered, or even heard of, planting according to its phases.

The basic concept is that above ground crops do best when planted during the waxing moon, and root crops do best when planted during the waning moon.

For more specifics on this planting concept, visit the Our Garden Gang website.

Much of what will be grown in Wright Gardens this year has been started indoors.  However, for remaining direct sow crops, I will attempt to plant them according to the appropriate moon phase.  Next year, I may plant the entire garden this way to see how the seedlings and plant growth compares to previous years.

The New Moon was 2 days ago, which means that the moon is currently in its waxing phase.  I'm certainly going to do more reading on this subject and will likely have book suggestions in a future post.


My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made 
while learning to see things from the plant's point of view.
~H. Fred Dale


The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.
~Hanna Rion


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




Friday, May 10, 2013

Black raspberry trellis

The black raspberries finally have a suitable trellis to climb on.  Here's hoping that the canes take to their new support system and flourish.

After visiting the local botanic garden to check out their system for supporting berry canes, I tried to mimic their set-up.  Two U-Style fence posts were purchased along with hook & eye turnbuckle screws, galvanized cable, and galvanized cable thimbles.






In order to keep the fence posts straight, and in turn keep the support cables taut, the same hardware will be used to pull the fence posts in the opposite direction of the support cables.  Otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with the results.  The botanic garden employed a 5x5" square wood fence post, which is sturdier and more rigid than the steel fence posts that I used, but, heck, I wasn't up for drilling large holes in the posts to affix the hardware or digging holes to bury them.

New blooms!




This small 6" tall iris grows along the side of the garage,
evenly spaced between the 'Blue Spectacle' tulips.


Tulipa 'Blue Spectacle' (Double Late Tulip)


A garden is a grand teacher.
It teaches patience and careful watchfulness;
it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.  
~Gertrude Jekyll


Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful,' and sitting in the shade.
~Rudyard Kipling