The Asheville Gardener

Cupid Tomatoes

2010-07-28T14:22:00.003-04:00

I have grown Marcellino cherry tomatoes for the past three years for their crisp, tangy flavor, but each year they seemed to become more prone to splitting. This year I decided to give another variety a shot and switched to Cupid, which is actually a grape tomato, but still a nice little bite-sized treat.

The packet of Cupid seeds cost $3.95, the same as Marcellino. When I went to sow them, I was shocked that there were only 10 seeds in the packet since Marcellino ships with 30 seeds! Each of the little Cupid seeds cost .39! That's kind of pricey for a seed in my experience, but Park's proclamation of them being, "Simply the best grape!" gave me hope that they would be worth the extra cost.

I sowed the seeds indoors in February, set out transplants in mid-May, and we started harvesting tomatoes in late June, a little earlier than we ever harvested Marcellino.

We have had a very rainy Summer, which generally leads to cracked tomatoes that rot on the vine. Despite all the rain, I have not found one cracked, split or otherwise damaged tomato on any of the six plants.

The one complaint I have about the Cupid is that they seem to be particularly susceptible to blight. Most of the plants have been stripped 3/4 the way up their stem of all leaves due to infection. I spray them with fungicide every Saturday, but still, the blight keeps coming.

If you are fed up with splitting cherry tomatoes, give Cupid a try next season!

Bee Balm

2010-07-16T17:12:00.006-04:00

The Bee Balm put on a great show so far this Summer and is ready for a good shearing. I hope it sends up a second flush of blooms, but this is the first year it has bloomed, so I don't know what to expect.

The bees are still squeezing the last bit of pollen from the floppy heads, so I think I'll leave my dead-heading chore until next weekend.

Bee Balm is a fast grower that loves full sun, doesn't require staking and won't wilt in dry weather. This variety was supposed to reach only 18", but mine appears to have taken steroids when I wasn't looking and is over 4' in height. When Bee Balm gets a little out of control and tries to crowd out other plants, just pull up the unwanted plants. They pull right out of the ground very easily.

Growing Okra

2010-07-14T15:05:00.002-04:00

We're growing okra this year for the first time. I sowed a row of "Clemson Spineless" seeds directly in the garden in mid-May. The seeds are from Park's Seeds, but are no longer available on their website. The germination rate was very good. I think I only had to resow 2 seeds that either didn't come up or were plucked from the ground by a bird. The seed pack advises to sow 1 1/2 to 2 feet apart, but I sowed mine about 4 inches apart. I'm a rebel like that. When you don't have much space, you have to push the limits!

Okra leaves resemble maple leaves.

The dark-eyed creamy white flowers resemble those of Rose of Sharon or even Hibiscus.

The flowers fade quickly and develop into an edible Okra pod.

Okra are generally ready for harvest at around 2-4 inches in length. When harvested often, the plants will continue to produce throughout the entire summer.

I'm excited to cook up the first batch this weekend! I love it fried (naughty, I know) and lightly sauteed in olive oil (or butter), and Ian likes to use it in gumbo.

Breaking the Heat

2010-07-09T11:17:00.002-04:00

It has been so hot here for the past week - the news claims it reached 100 degrees yesterday, and I'm tempted to believe them. I don't generally believe things reported on the news, but it was really, really hot, so they may be onto some real facts with this one.

I have been watering the garden from the rain barrel, lugging the watering can up the hill to give the plants some relief from the scalding sun. Sure, it's not that far of a walk and the hill isn't that steep, but did I mention how hot it is? Very hot. Yesterday the rain barrel went dry, and I had to set the hose loose on the garden. I have to admit it was nice to not lug can after can of water, but I'm trying to be a good steward of our natural resources so I use the hose sparingly.

Last night we caught a break - it finally rained! It was such a wonderful, full blown downpour. The rain barrel is full again, and the plants are invigorated. I'm quite thankful seeing as we're down to our last 3 dozen squash, and if we hadn't got that rain, the plants might stop producing. LOL! It's supposed to rain again tonight and possibly tomorrow. Bring it on. I won't complain of a "ruined" weekend at all!

First Squash of the Season

2010-06-25T10:31:00.003-04:00

I had a lot of miscellaneous squash seed left-over from past gardening years that I decided to use up this year before adding to the collection. I ended up with 3 Crookneck Improved from Park's Seeds, and 2 Golden Dawn and 1 Raven Zucchini from Renee's Garden. I really like the Golden Dawn (pictured on the front row). Not only is the buttercup flavored fruit rich and nutty, but the upward curving leaves are easier to inspect for squash beetles than other varieties. This variety also seems to be able to pollinate itself from all female flowers. There are 5 fruit on each plant, and no male flowers. Most squash require male and female flowers to produce fruit.

We had a wonderful rain last night that helped ripen up the first of the Golden Dawn fruits. Summer squash is ready for harvest at 5 or 6 inches in length. Do not let the fruit grow much longer than this, or it will become tough and bland. Harvesting the fruit young and often will keep the plant producing for a longer period. Remember that squash plants are annuals, and their goal is to produce seed. Once they feel enough seed has been produced, they will die. It's your job to keep them from fulfilling their goal!

When harvesting, never twist or snap the fruit from the vine. Use a knife, sharp scissors or pruning sheers to make a clean cut leaving about 2" of stem attached to the fruit. This will help the squash stay fresh longer after removed from the vine.

Squash will become exhausted in the heat of the Summer and start to die back. To keep the garden full of squash all season long, sow a second crop in large peat containers around the time the first crop starts producing fruit. By the time the first plants die back, the second crop will be ready to take their place in the garden.

Beets - From the Garden to the Table

2010-06-18T10:29:00.004-04:00

I never liked beets as a kid. Maybe it's because my Mom tried to pass off mushy canned beets as being edible, or maybe it's because I was overly picky. Whatever the reason, I hadn't eaten a beet in many years until I found them in my salad last Fall at Bouchon. At first I thought I would pick them out, but I trust Michel's preparation of cuisine, so I hesitantly slipped one in my mouth, prepared to spit it into my napkin when no one was looking. To my surprise, it was the best thing I ate that night - so sweet, so juicy - so full of earthy goodness. I was in love and vowed at that moment to grow beets the following Spring.

I sowed a 9' row of Red Cloud Hybrid Beets in late March. Beets are a cool weather crop that can handle a bit of frost and should be sown in early Spring as soon as the soil can be worked. There is no need to fuss with sowing beets indoors and attempting to transplant them - just sow them right in the garden. Follow the directions on the seed packet - sow them shallow and give them enough space to grow. Since beets are a root crop, they need an airy soil that will enable unrestrained growth. I replaced about 50% of my heavy clay soil with compost to ensure the beets had enough breathing room. This variety matures in about 60 days.

Beets are ready to harvest when they have reached about 2" across. Be sure to pick them before they get too big; otherwise, they will lose their flavor and become really tough. The fat round root and fresh leafy greens are both edible, making for a wonderful salad when paired.

Beets are pretty tough when they're raw, so it's best to give them a light sauteing to soften them up and bring out their sweet flavor.

To prepare the beet for cooking, wash thoroughly, and then cut the leafy greens free of the root and snip off the long tap root from the bottom.

Using a potato peeler, peel off the tough outer skin to reveal the bright red juicy goodness beneath. It's best to wear gloves or slip a baggy over your hand while doing this since the red juice can stain your hands and clothes.

Slice the beets up however you want to eat them. Some people like to cube them, others like them in little sticks. I prefer half discs. So pretty, just like little red rainbows!

Saute for a couple minutes in a bit of olive oil over medium heat, then add a splash of white wine. Reduce the heat and cover for 10 minutes until very tender.

Beets can be eaten warm or cold. I prefer them cold, so I stick them in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes when they have finished cooking.

The greens can be eaten cold in a salad or lightly sauted and served warm. To saute, add a bit of olive oil to a warm pan and cook over medium heat until the leaves shrivel to your liking.

We served our beet greens under chicken with chilled beets on the side.

I will be sowing a second crop of beets in late Summer for Fall harvest. Beets can be stored for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. I have never tried to freeze them, but I might saute some up and give it a try.

Reporting for Duty!

2010-06-11T08:32:00.001-04:00

The first time I heard the word "volunteer" in terms of gardening was from Ian's granny describing cosmos that were growing in a place she had not specifically planted them. They had "volunteered" themselves to grow! I thought it was a really cool word and started using it myself. Not everyone uses this word, so I'm passing it on to you (if you weren't already familiar).

Each year I get hundreds of volunteer tomatoes that grow from the seeds of the previous year's fallen tomatoes. I usually just hoe them out of the soil, but this year I'm going to let one grow.

This costuloto volunteered himself to grow in the mulch at the bottom right of the garden bed! He already has a cute little fruit forming, and is stronger than the plants I set out in late May. How could I possibly hoe him out when he has such a strong will to serve me some tomatoes!

Hydrangeas

2010-06-10T08:26:00.000-04:00

Year four has started out great for the hydrangeas! Their sturdy branches are already bursting with multi-colored blooms, and the bees are loving it!

Endless Summer opens with a green flower head, which turns pink, purple and blue.

Blushing Bride opens with a similar green flower head which turns white and blushes to pink, purple and blue as it ages.

These shrubs receive just 2 hours of direct sunlight, one hour in the morning and one in late afternoon. From the look of things, they seem to enjoy their homes!

Tropical Planters

2010-06-09T08:18:00.001-04:00

I decided to move the jumbo fern to the far side of the porch this year so guests are not accosted as they try to enter the door. I figure the knock-roses and primrose impede their path enough that if they have to fight past the fern too, they might just give up and turn around. While this is a good plan for people selling meat out of the back of their truck, I would like friends and family to make it into the house, at least when they're invited - LOL!

I was really fond of the firecracker fuchsia I found at the Herb Festival last year, and while I intended to dig it up before Winter, my intentions fell short. Thankfully the same vendor offered the variety again this year. Paired with New Guinea impatiens, bacopa and a succulent houseplant, this potted creation has a tropical feel that makes me crave a mojito!

I'd like to find a low profile bench for the porch, where I can enjoy my mojito alongside my little bit of the tropics.

Perennial Power

2010-06-08T08:07:00.000-04:00

I'm very happy with the "English cottage" garden look I've got going on in the front of the house. While I still haven't ripped out the evening primrose, things are coming along quite nicely.

The right side is my pride and joy at the moment. Knock out roses create a lovely background for bee balm, goldenrod and phlox, which sets the scene for yarrow, veronica, coreopsis, butterfly weed and asiatic lilies. I would like the bee balm and goldenrod to take a chill pill and quit growing before they completely block the roses, but you can't control an English cottage garden! I'm eager to see some blooms from the taller plants too, but I can wait ...

The "out of control" ratty nature of the primrose adds to the look in this bed, right? Phlox towers proudly in the background as shasta daisies and coreopsis open the show.

I am determined to rid the bed of that primrose soon, but I have yet to decide what will replace it. I'm leaning toward yarrow and foxglove, but I am easily swayed by the abundant choices at the plant stores right now!

What's Growin' in the Garden?

2010-06-07T09:59:00.003-04:00

It has taken me a little longer than usual to get the garden in this year, but it is finally complete!

Sugar snap peas, lettuce and corn rule the top left quadrant. I planted a new type of sugar snap peas this year, hoping they would produce bigger yields, but they have grown slower than ever! The plants are only 2' tall after 3 months in the garden. They do have peas on them, but the harvest is going to be pretty sparse.

Costuloto tomatoes, cupid tomatoes, yellow wax beans, okra and edamame take dominion in the top right. This is my first year growing okra, and I'm pretty stoked! Ian loves to make gumbo, and I love to fry it up!

Beets, squash, eggplant and potatoes rock the bottom left. The potatoes are trying to recover from the colorado potato beetles, flea beetles and what seems to be a touch of some disease. I lost one plant so far, but I'm trying to save the rest.

Jubilee tomatoes, costuloto tomatoes, cupid tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, turtle beans and lima beans hold down the bottom right. This is my first year growing turtle beans and lima beans. We're going to dry the turtle beans since we love dark black beans in the winter.

This is the first year I split the tomatoes into two quadrants. I did this so I could reach them easier for watering and anti-fungal spraying. Hopefully this will help me stave off blight a little easier than the previous two years. I started an anti-fungal spray two weeks ago on the tomatoes, and noticed yesterday a couple black spots on some leaves. Fingers crossed that it is just a touch of sun scald!

Colorado Potato Beetles

2010-05-26T08:57:00.001-04:00

Back in March I planted Yukon Gold potatoes at the bottom of the lower left bed and Red Cloud Hybrid beets at the top. This weekend I finished off the bed by sowing squash in 2' mounds, tucking some extra eggplant between the mounds. Marigolds fill in the empty spaces to help protect against insects.

As it turns out, marigolds do not help protect against this nasty insect, the Colorado Potato Beetle, identified at its larval stage by its reddish brown ribbed body, black head, and pair of dark spots down either side of the body.

According to every article I've read, the Colorado Potato Beetle is a nasty little bugger that quickly builds up resistance to pesticides and will defoliate potatoes, tomatoes and peppers in a short amount of time. Thankfully, my potato beetles are still in the stage 1 larval period, and have not caused much damage.

The small holes in the leaves are from flea beetles, which don't eat a whole lot compared to potato beetles. The potato beetles, on the other hand, join forces with their newly hatched siblings to tear down any potato plant in range!

They do the most damage in their stage 4 larval form, which I am trying to keep them from reaching. Since I have just a single 10' row of potatoes, manually squashing them to control the population shouldn't be a problem. I'll have to keep an eye on the tomatoes too, because I certainly don't want them setting their sites on other plants!

Perfectly Unplanned

2010-05-25T12:06:00.002-04:00

Last year I planted two foxgloves in the front perennial bed. When the flowers faded, I took Linda Cobb's advice and laid the spent stalks across the back of another bed, hoping they would sprout new babies. I totally forgot about this until an unexpected surprise popped up ...

Foxgloves peeking their heads up over the herb box!

They spaced themselves out beautifully across the back of this bed to produce a lovely backdrop for the herb garden.

While the parent plants were light yellow, these children range from light yellow to bright pink! I just love nature - she's so unpredictably creative! I hope her next surprise is as good as this one.

To Weed or Not To Weed

2010-05-21T09:36:00.003-04:00

There is much debate inside my head right now about whether the evening primrose I foolishly planted two years ago is a weed. It is definitely invasive, but it's also quite lovely and pleasantly scented. It is choking the other plants out, and each time I pull it up, it just comes right back. I guess that does qualify it as a weed. Primrose spreads via roots, which makes it more difficult to contain than plants that spread via seed. It has even burrowed under the sidewalk to the soil on the other side!

I wish it were just 12" shorter, then I would leave it be, but at 24", it's hiding all my other perennials and spilling onto the sidewalk, which really annoys Ian!

I'll probably let the bees gather their last feeding from these blossoms today and yank it out this weekend. I'm sure it will be back in a couple weeks though. Gah ... When the seed packet said, "fills in quickly" I should have known what would happen!

Hardscaping - How to Edge with Stone

2010-05-07T09:25:00.003-04:00

Hardscape is a gardening term used to refer to anything structural that is not a plant; ie, bird bath, trellis, rock wall, edging, art, etc. I have been wanting to add some sort of border to the front yard perennial beds for some time, but just haven't been able to find the right material. Most pavers are made of poured concrete that just don't appeal to me. I prefer soft lines and natural materials. During a trip to Home Depot a couple weeks ago, we spotted a new paver made of real stone and decided it would be the perfect hardscape material for edging the beds.

We aimed to edge along the lawn-facing side of the daisies.

And last year's new perennial bed.

Step 1 - Outline the Path

Carefully place each stone in its intended position, measuring the proper distance from a common anchor to ensure clean, straight lines. There is nothing more noticeable than a crooked line that was meant to be straight.

Here we measured to ensure each stone is laid 12" from the sidewalk.

The perennial bed was a little tricky since it is a flowing line of two arches. We employed a bit of high school math by measuring the distance between each of the two arches to ensure they are equal.

v

Step 2 - Edge the Sod

Use an edging tool to cut a clean, deep line into the sod to denote where to start digging. A flat-head shovel could also be used for this step, but the edging tool is a little more convenient.

Once the line is cut, gather up the stones and set them aside.

Step 3 - Dig the Sod

The sod can now be lifted out of the ground with a flat-head shovel. Don't use a regular shovel, as the curved blade will ruin your clean line.

Smooth out the soil to create a flat, even foundation.

Step 4 - Prepare the Foundation

The whole purpose of edging a bed is to keep a clean, weed-free line. With that in mind, measures must be taken to prevent weeds from growing up between the stones.

Start by positioning a layer of landscape fabric in the newly dug trench. We doubled it over to provide extra protection.

Next, pour sand over the landscape fabric to create a level base for the stones.

Step 5 - Set and Level the Stones

Set the first stone in place, and add/remove sand beneath it as needed to create a level appearance.

Each successive stone is laid at the same level as the previous stone, as close to the previous stone as possible. Try to minimize the gap between stones to keep weeds from sprouting up.

This can be more difficult on curved areas. Try to keep the curve wide enough to reduce the required gap between stones.

Step 6 - Fill in the Gaps

Brush polymeric paver sand between the cracks of the stones. Do not use regular sand for this step. Polymeric paver sand hardens when wet. This prevents weeds from growing between the stones and keeps the stones in place.

Wipe away excess sand with a broom, then use the mist setting of the hose to water in the sand. Be gentle with the hose!

And the project is complete!

This project took us about 4 hours to complete, but the benefits will last a very long time.

Snowballed

2010-04-23T08:57:00.002-04:00

I planted four Japanese Snowball bushes in 2006 that I ordered from Greenwood Nursery. (Wow, their prices have really gone up since then.) It didn't take me four years to realize that the flat-headed "lacecap" flowers on my shrubs do not look like the fluffy white rounded snowball heads of the shrubs on the Greenwood Nursery website!

So I set out to find an explanation. I consulted the trusty Internet before contacting Greenwood Nursery, as I have called Greenwood with questions/problems in the past, and to be honest, they haven't established a good reputation with me for their customer service.

I did a google image search for "japanese snowball" and found shrubs with various flowers, but all sharing the same arrow-shaped leaf. Apparently these shrubs are all different varieties of the genus "Viburnum." With over 150 species, I decided to give up trying to conclusively identify my viburnum and resorted to emailing Greenwood to draw the issue to their attention. They have not responded to my query.

While it's not the plant I thought I was getting, it's still a lovely shrub. The Greenwood website claims the plant flowers Spring, Summer and Fall (which is one reason I was drawn to it), but they're fibbers, as it only blooms in the Spring. I have no idea how tall it will be at maturity, but it is currently 5'. I'm hoping it doesn't get much taller, as it fits into this setting very nicely. Perhaps it wouldn't mind a little pruning in the Fall.

Read this fantastic article from finegardening.com for a more in-depth discussion of viburnum.

Prairie Petite

2010-04-22T09:35:00.003-04:00

Lilac is my favorite scent on earth. It's too bad for me that lilacs bloom only once a year, and for a very short amount of time.

When we moved into the house, I knew I wanted to plant lilac somewhere in the yard, but to be honest, I'm not really fond of the dull Summer foliage and oversized often leggy habit of the lilac bush. When I saw a "miniature" lilac in the Park's Seed catalogue, I was very excited, and despite the $30 price tag, ordered one for my purple and yellow perennial bed.

Here is Prairie Petite at the start of his 4th year. It took this little fellow a lot of energy to make those two blooms you see there, so don't laugh!

I don't think he's grown much since last year. This bush is supposed to stay under 4', but I didn't realize they meant this much under 4'!

He was a tiny little guy at year 2.

But not as small as when I first planted him.

Since he isn't taking up much room, I'll let him stick around a while longer!

Park's Seeds does not offer this plant at this time. I did find the same plant for sale at White Flower Farm if you are interested. I have never ordered from this site, but I have friends who reported good experiences with their plants.

Nature's Diamonds

2010-04-20T09:41:00.003-04:00

The roses are not yet blooming, but Mother Nature adorned them with an early gift a couple days ago - a strand of diamonds delicately strung around each tender leaf.

I was amazed how beautiful something so seemingly simple could be.

Spring Surprises

2010-04-14T08:42:00.001-04:00

The herb garden was covered under several feet of snow this Winter at least four times. I was surprised to find so much green after the snow melted. I expected a brown twiggy mess!

The chives are from seeds I sowed two years ago. They finally look ready to eat!

I learned today that parsley is not an annual as I had previously thought, but a biennial. A biennial does not bloom until its second year and then dies. This parsley didn't bloom last year, so I guess it will push out some seed this year and then retire. Although it's a biennial, I didn't expect to see it thriving under all that snow!

The chamomile was the big surprise. This is definitely an annual plant, but doesn't seem to know it. I sowed chamomile two years ago (with the chives), and it reseeded itself last spring. It did not bloom last year, so this is the same plant that survived countless hard freezes and of course a lot of snow.

I just never know what to expect from plants! It's like they've got a mind of their own ...

Sowing the Spring Veg

2010-04-13T08:07:00.001-04:00

We broke ground in the vegetable garden two weekends ago. The main goal was to eradicate all the nasty weeds from the soil so the peas, lettuce and beets could take their place. We got most of the weeds dug out and the all the seeds sowed.

This bed is just full of a new stubborn weed that has made its way into our yard - probably via a bird dropping or an ambitious squirrel storing up naughty seeds for the Winter.

It forms a thick mat of white flowers, bolted into the ground by really strong roots. You have to dig it up with a shovel!

It's not horribly ugly, but it certainly doesn't belong in my vegetable garden! I gave a half-hearted attempt at identifying this weed, but gave up pretty quickly. If you know what it is, please share. I always like to call plants by name as I'm chucking them into the compost!

Sunbathing

2010-04-12T08:40:00.001-04:00

The first week of April brought unusually warm temperatures for the mountains of western North Carolina. This wasn't much of a shock since our Winter was "unusually" cold. I'm learning quickly that there is never anything "usual" about the weather here in Asheville!

Although it is a little early to think about hardening off the vegetable seedlings I sowed in early February, I thought I would bring the tomatoes out to stretch their legs in the warm sunshine.

I am growing Costoluto for the third year, because it's my favorite variety and has proven itself year after year. I'm also trying two new varieties; Cupid , my first grape tomato, and my first yellow variety, Jubilee.

I decided to retire my love for Marcellino this year after an awful mess of cracked fruit last Summer. I just can't handle another heartbreak like that!

Last year I used a seedling heat mat when sowing the veg to speed germination, then placed them under artificial grow lights. Something went wrong, because all the tomatoes were thin and spindly - poor little things. I did some research this year and corrected my mistake - you have to place the seedlings no less than 2" from the light source. I propped the seed tray up on a couple of boxes to get the plants closer to the light, and this year I have a healthy lot!

At 8 weeks the stems of these plants are thicker than the ones I planted in the garden last year at 14 weeks!

Have you ever wondered why tomatoes have such hairy legs?

I've looked all around the Internet and can't find a conclusive explanation. One source claims the hair secretes an antibiotic, while another claims the little hairs assist new root growth. If you have your own answer, please share it with me!

Now I just have to hold off until Mother's Day weekend to set these beauties in the ground. Blast mother nature for trying to trick me with this warm weather! I know there's another hard freeze around the corner, lady. You can't fool me!!

Year 2 in the Tulip Patch

2010-04-09T08:30:00.001-04:00

I planted red and yellow tulips in the front yard two Falls ago, and they bloomed beautifully last Spring. Most of the bulbs came back up this year too, but their colors have faded a bit. While they are still beautiful, I think they will get replaced this Fall.

Last year this pink tulip was bright red.

And these striped tulips were solid yellow.

They are still lovely though!

Wake Up Roses - Spring is Here!

2010-04-08T09:03:00.004-04:00

We had four big snows this Winter, each one a little smaller than the next, but still enough to incite a panic attack in me about the safety and comfort of my poor roses.

The first snow buried the roses completely. Just looking at these photos still makes my stomach turn.

When I woke up the next morning, I freaked out, grabbed a shovel and spent two hours meticulously digging out their 6' branches.

After the first snow, I gave up on digging them out, mostly because I was exasperated by the awful Winter and didn't want to step foot into another drift of freezing coldness. Besides, if the first snow didn't kill them, successive snows probably wouldn't either. By the end of Winter, the weight of all that snow left their branches bowing in reverence to mother nature, begging her to lay off the white stuff!

Thankfully mother nature recently completed her stay in rehab, and the weather has warmed up very quickly! A couple weeks ago I decided to give the roses a liberal pruning to celebrate the arrival of warmer days. They were just starting to bud out, so the timing was perfect.

I cut them down to about 3'. I have to admit that I was very nervous about pruning the shrubs back this far and contemplated each cut a little longer than probably necessary. In the end they were a twiggy mess, but in just one week they have budded out nicely.

I tried to abide by the rule of pruning 1/4" above an outward facing bud to promote proper branching, but when you're making over a thousand cuts, it's sometimes not possible to find the perfect outward facing bud. Thankfully knockout roses are pretty forgiving.

I do need to invest in a better set of pruning shears though, as I couldn't open my hand for two days after the prune-stravaganza!

DIY Fence Idea

2009-10-13T12:09:00.002-04:00

I was in Williamsburg this past weekend and saw this fantastic little decorative DIY fence.

It's just made from twigs and small branches. It's very cute, and I bet if you made it a little taller, it would keep out rabbits (and Pugs) too.

Here's a little closer view for your inspiration ... The twigs are pressure set - no glue or nails required!

I don't know how many tomato plants they have piled up on each other in this section of the garden, but I would NOT want to be the one going in there to harvest!

Maybe I'll build a scaled-down version of this fence next year to keep the squirrels out of my seed beds!

Innovative method of creating tee-pee trellises from sticks and string.

Their gardens were very tidy. I was surprised that they have so many crops still growing. Mine have all died back for the Winter!

At least their perennials were unruly, just like mine!

"Sun-Dried" Tomatoes

2009-10-07T09:52:00.003-04:00

If you visit the farmer's market in October, you can get a big box of tomatoes for just $8! The box WAS full when we bought it.

We decided to dry these romas up for use throughout the Winter. So, we hauled the ronco dryer out of the garage and put it to use. We bought our "ronco" for just $15 at a yard sale about 10 years ago. It can dehydrate just about anything.

It took three days to dehydrate 5 racks of tomatoes. We then packed them up using our vacuum sealer. It looks a lot like beef jerky!

We're not sure what all we will use these for, so if you have some recipe suggestions, let me hear them!

Perennial Trumpet Vine

2009-09-18T09:33:00.002-04:00

Ian and I were amazed at the size and apparent age of this lovely trumpet vine at the Biltmore conservatory. It must be very old since its stem has become woody. It's taller than me!

We had a little debate about how they kept this plant alive over the winter. Assuming it is an annual, I figured it is in a big pot in the ground and that they take it into the conservatory when temperatures dip too low, but Ian couldn't believe something that size could be moved that easily and decided it must be winter hardy.

I have always thought Trumpet Vine is an annual, but apparently there are perennial varieties available that are hardy up to -30F. Ian was right. They must leave this plant right where it is all year long!

Flower Carpet at Biltmore

2009-09-17T08:52:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago we visited the beautiful flower carpet at Biltmore. We made it on the last day of exhibition, as it was being taken down the next day for a wedding the following weekend.

The carpet was inspired by a fleur de lis pattern carved into original columns inside the Biltmore house. It took the garden designers over 100 hours to incorporate 100,000 flowers into the design that covers the 1/4 acre esplanade next to the Biltmore house.

Iresine and dusty miller were used to compose the border.

Marigold and salvia formed the swirling spiral patterns.

Begonia, scaevola and zinnia added bursts of geometric color to the design.

Maybe I'll turn my front yard into a flower carpet next year. Just kidding! I don't want to dig that much!

We were glad to catch sight of the flower carpet before it was gone forever. (Even though that tacky white tent in the upper left corner tried to ruin all my pictures.)

Did you know they just throw all those plants away? I suggested to a friend who works at Biltmore that they have a "free plants" day to invite passholders to take the plants. I bet we would haul those plants out of there faster than their work crew could! I know I would bring my wheel barrow and both cars to get as many as I could carry!

The Biggest Pickle I've Ever Seen!

2009-09-16T08:24:00.000-04:00

A couple weekends ago we were dog sitting our friend's Lab, Buddy. Buddy is a good boy and loves to hang out wherever we are. We happened to be cleaning up the garden that day - pulling out the spent squash and cucumber plants and harvesting the soybeans. We realized there were a couple cucumbers on the vine that we had missed during our harvest and sat them to the side to take into the house when we were finished. About 10 minutes later we heard a loud crunching noise. We looked over and saw that Buddy had found the cucumbers and was munching away on one! He looked at me quite innocently and said, "Wow, that's the biggest pickle I've ever seen!" I never knew Labs could talk. I guess they are deeply inspired by big pickles.

We let Buddy finish the "pickle," because hey, we weren't going to eat the rest of it, and it was humorous to see a dog munching on a cucumber. He didn't even ask for a little bit of salt. What a good boy!

Eggplant and Chorizo Pasta

2009-09-15T09:19:00.002-04:00

Ian whipped up a yummy little dish the other day with some eggplant and left over chorizo.

He just sauteed the eggplant in some butter, cooked up the chorizo in a pan, boiled some noodles and added some fresh sauce from this year's tomato haul. It's seriously one of the yummiest things I've ever eaten. Don't forget a sprinkle of parmesan at the end!

Roasted Tomato Soup

2009-08-28T10:54:00.002-04:00

For the past two years we have juiced up our tomatoes and transformed them into rich pasta sauce, which we canned up for later use. This has worked out well, providing us with pasta sauce all year long. In fact, I still have two cans left from last year. I thought about doing something different this year, like maybe canning up a tomato soup, but I didn't really feel like peeling and de-seeding tomatoes, so I went in search of a tomato soup recipe that doesn't mind all those peels and seeds.

I found a tasty looking recipe for Roasted Tomato Soup at 101cookbooks.com, an amazing recipe blog.

It turned out ok, but I don't think I'm going to invest the rest of my tomatoes in this recipe for canning. The smoked paprika gave me a bit of a stomach ache the next day, and "roasting" the tomatoes created a mess in the oven. Who knew tomatoes gave off so much juice when roasted?

If you have an excess of tomatoes, give this recipe a shot. I recommend adding some white beans for a more hearty texture and a little cheese on top for extra flavor.

Corn Mirai (Me-RYE)

2009-08-24T11:15:00.003-04:00

Each year Park's Seeds touts that they offer the "latest and greatest" sweet corn on the market. Last year it was Sugar Buns, and this year Mirai. We have taken their advice every year and were never disappointed, but this year was exceptional. Mirai is the sweetest, juiciest corn ever. We have shared it with many friends, and they all agree that this is the BEST corn they have EVER tasted.

We don't have much left - maybe two more meals worth, and I am seriously upset about it! Since Mirai has to be harvested by hand, it is best suited for the home garden and not for commercial production, so when it's gone, it's gone.

If you try corn in the home garden, be sure to sow at least three 9' rows; otherwise, you will not get adequate pollination and your ears will not fill out. Mirai is ready for harvest when the silks become brown and brittle. You are going to get worms, but don't worry - they don't eat much, just an inch or so from the top of the cob. Just snap the top off and go about your merry way. Boil for THREE MINUTES only - any more and you're cooking the sweetness out of this gem!

Eggplant Rollatini

2009-08-21T14:42:00.002-04:00

The eggplant are coming in fast, and we're trying to get creative with our cooking to keep from growing bored. I recently had a delicious dish at a Greek-style restaurant called eggplant rollatini, so we tried our hand last night at recreating it. Spoiler - it turned out fantastic!

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

Two long Japanese eggplant or one big fat American eggplant (as our Indian friend calls them)
1/2 sleeve of finely crushed saltines plus a little extra salt
2 well-beaten eggs
Olive oil
1/4 carton ricotta + 1 egg + salt and pepper

We only grew Japanese eggplant this year, which look like this. You can also use regular purple eggplant if you can't find japanese. Your pinwheels will just be bigger!

Slice the eggplant length-wise as thin as you can get them. You are going to be rolling them up into little pinwheels, so they need to be thin.

Ian is a magician with that knife! No need to remove the skin or soak them in salt like you may have been taught in the past.

Dip each eggplant slice into the beaten egg, making sure to cover the entire slice, even the sides.

Roll the slice in the cracker crumbs. Make sure you get it covered all over.

Carefully lay each slice in hot olive oil, allowing each side to get nice and crispy. The oil needs to be good and hot at this point so you get a lovely golden finish to the breading.

Mix together the ricotta, egg, salt and pepper.

Spread a thin layer of the mixture on one side of each slice of fried eggplant. Don't get overzealous with the amount of ricotta you spread on each slice - a little goes a long way.

Starting from one end, roll the slice up into a tidy little pinwheel.

Place all pinwheels in a lightly greased baking dish.

Cover with your favorite pasta sauce, mozarella cheese and some fresh tomatoes if you've got them.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Serve over pasta, and with some sweet corn. So yummy! Prep time was about 40 minutes, with 25 additional minutes for baking.

Banana Peppers

2009-08-13T11:50:00.001-04:00

I harvested 21 banana peppers this morning, and I didn't pick them all!

They're pretty, but I'm not sure what to do with them all. I pickled some up for my FIL last week. I guess I'll pickle these up to. If you've got suggestions, I'm all ears - well, actually, I'm all peppers.

Garden Grown Salsa

2009-08-11T17:42:00.003-04:00

I have been in the kitchen making salsa again! This year has been a little different though since all the salsa ingredients are fresh from the garden! In the past we have had to purchase the garlic and onions, but we grew our own this year.

I noticed that our onions are a lot stronger than store-bought. You only need 1/4 of an onion for my standard recipe instead of 1/2 onion. It might have something to do with the fact that our onions are yellow and store-bought are white - I'm not sure. Also, our garlic is much bigger than the garlic we get at Ingle's. I scaled that quantity back too!

It certainly tastes better than it looks!

Growing Onions and Garlic

2009-08-10T09:23:00.002-04:00

Onions

I tried my hand at growing onions this year from bulbs. Two years ago I attempted to grow onions from seed, but I started the seed outdoors, and they are just so fine that they got mixed in with weeds, and everything went to pot. (Is that still a phrase? If so, what does it mean? Is it bad to be a pot?)

I planted the bulbs in March directly in the garden, and we started harvesting them in late July.

Once the green stems started turning brown, I bent the stems over at the base and dug out around the bulbs to promote bulb growth, as they were not growing wide like a yellow onion you would purchase in the store. Bending the stem is supposed to focus all energy to the bulb and away from the foliage.

When the bulbs appeared to stop growing, I used a shovel to gently lift them from the ground. You need to avoid puncturing the outer skin, or they will not cure properly. I then placed the entire bulb in a dry, shady spot with good ventilation to cure for two weeks.

They are finished curing when the roots are dried out and the outer skin is papery. The foliage can be cut off and the onions stored in a cool dry place for future use. I'm told you can store onions up to 6 months. I have also read that you can use old pantyhose for storing onions. Place an onion in the hose, tie a knot, then place another onion until you have used up the entire leg of the pantyhose. Hang the whole thing in a cool dry place. I'll probably give this a try to keep the onions from touching each other and possibly rotting.

Garlic

Two autumns ago my MIL and I answered an advertisement from a woman offering people to dig free plants from her yard. I can't imagine who wouldn't answer this ad! Among the many plants I procured from her garden were four garlic starts. She must have grown them from bulbils, because they were very small and not ready for harvesting until this year - almost two years later.

There are many different types of garlic, and I have no idea what type I grew. The stem reached over three feet tall and had a big head of small bulbils (often mistaken for flowers, but with a strong garlic odor).

I dug it up the same way as the onions, taking care not to puncture the skin, and dried it on the same window sill.

I'm going to try to propagate garlic from the bulbils and from a single clove. I have read that the bulbils take two years from planting to harvest, but planting a single clove should take just one year. This is all highly scientific as you can tell.

Surrogate Color

2009-08-07T08:01:00.000-04:00

When the blue blossoms of Baptisia fade, a gap of colorless space is left in the perennial garden. To remedy this, I use morning glories to fill in where Baptisia left off.

Beware - you have to keep this annual under control. Morning glory has much ambition and will dominate an area if left unchecked. Allow her to casually ramble among your Spring-blooming perennials during Summer, but keep her pruned back to prevent her from strangling the other plants.

Morning glory will reseed year after year and become even more ambitious in the process. Be sure to thin out the vines when they are young, as they can be difficult to remove when long strands have wrapped around each other and anything else in the vicinity.

I have never actually sowed a morning glory seed. This plant was transplanted from volunteers that sprung up three years ago in the front yard. I suppose a bird "put" it there!

Fuchsia Planters

2009-08-06T08:37:00.001-04:00

I have been very happy with the concrete planters this year. I paired Firecracker Fuchsia with red begonias and accented the planting with a green-gray variegated ivy and corkscrew grass.

The fuchsia didn't bloom all that much, but I really like the pink and green-gray foliage regardless of the flowering traits of the plant. The whole arrangement just feels calming to me, and the pale foliage accented with burgundy streaks complements the colors of our house very well.

Last year's planting of coleus and sweet potato vine was just too dramatic for this area, which requires a warmer, softer tone to blend well with the gentle feeling of the roses and other English cottage garden plantings.

Bountiful Harvest

2009-08-05T08:09:00.000-04:00

The garden made it through our absence in excellent condition, and our neighbors all enjoyed the squash, cucumbers, green beans, banana peppers, tomatoes and corn. I admit that I was jealous not to get the first of the tomatoes and corn, but it was well worth waiting for.

There are still plenty of tomatoes ripening on the vine.

We'll be enjoying fresh tomatoes for at least the next three weeks.

The eggplant have just started coming into season, so we'll have plenty of those for the next six weeks! Lock your doors and keep your windows closed unless you want your house to be filled with eggplant while you're away! We always have a ton of them!

I can't believe how many banana peppers a single plant produces! I put some in vinegar last night for my FIL, as he LOVES them on his pizza. Park's Seeds sent us a packet of these seeds for free with our Spring order. Thanks Park's!

We'll probably get another half dozen cucumbers, but they're pretty much spent.

The green beans are working on a second round. These beans have not been my favorite, and I won't plant them again next year. I like the bush habit of these beans (no staking or trellis required), but the beans get tough way too soon, and when they get tough, they are inedible. These are tenderette green beans from Park's, but they haven't lived up to their "tender" name.

And of course there's the corn! The first planting was pretty much devoured in our absence, but we have a second crop that should be ready mid-week next week. I had one piece over the weekend, and holy cow - it's so good!

Sadly, the squash are about done. It's getting too hot for them, and the squash borers are taking them down. Not only are they getting worms in their fruit, but also in the plant itself, and once you get a worm in the plant, it withers and dies pretty quickly.

I need to get to planning what I want to sow after all the squash have finished up their work. It's a tricky time of year, because it's too hot for the Fall crop, but there isn't really enough time for a Summer planting. Maybe some Winter squash? I'll look into it!

Garden Helper

2009-08-04T09:24:00.003-04:00

I noticed our first toad in the garden today. Look at his cute little fat body. I just wanna hug him!

Toads are an incredible blessing to a garden, as they eat thousands of insects that want to chow down on your plants. I have never been able to attract toads in the past, so I was surprised this morning to find him.

Since toads breathe through their skin, it is especially important to stop all use of insecticides and chemical fertilizers, as they will harm these cute little charmers. They do like to have a clean water source nearby, so I think I'll put a little dish of water up in the garden for him.

Maybe I should get him a toad house too, so he'll stay a while!

A Treat for the Senses

2009-08-03T11:09:00.002-04:00

Our Asiatic lilies put on a lovely show this year. They grew to over 3' tall and no less than four blooms topped each elegant stem.

The white flowers are so pure and tender. I love how those little brown dangly bits dance in the breeze.

These freckled flowers add a little spunk to the otherwise subdued planting.

The delicate blush of pink on these delightful blooms blends well with the surrounding plants.

Not only are they beautiful, but they are also big and carry a big scent. I balanced the blooms atop these shallow round vases, giving just enough room for their stems to reach a drink of water.

The sweet aroma filled the entire house, and the blooms lasted an entire week like this. I have never been a fan of perfume, but if they could make perfume that really smelled like these flowers, I would wear it all the time!

The Harvest Must Go On

2009-07-26T18:34:00.002-04:00

I'm sad to say that we're out of town again (indefinitely), and we're going to miss out on the beginning of our harvest. We've left our neighbor in charge of keeping everything picked in our extended absence. I'm glad I staggered the corn when I planted it, because it's my favorite! It was especially hard to leave the tomatoes. I've been salivating after them for two months now, and they were just starting to turn pink and would be soft and juicy in a couple days. I'm sure our neighbors will enjoy the bounty though...

TLC for the Perennials

2009-07-21T08:39:00.000-04:00

I have spent so much time sprucing up the front yard that my back yard perennial bed became jealous! There were weeds popping up among the plants, and no definitive line showing where the lawn ended and the perennial bed began. Poor guys! They probably thought I didn't love them any more.

Check out the weeds intermingling with the veronica, coneflower and baptisia. What a disgrace!

Let's get that cleaned up a bit. There - that's better.

The fruit of my Sunday labor ...

I cleaned up the edge and pulled all the weeds. I had planned to just lay down some fresh mulch, but I knew it would end up blending back in with the grass, so I laid down some professional edging. Now I won't ever have to "clean up" the edge again!

Fresh mulch does a lot to improve the look of a garden bed. This circular area was the most overrun with weeds and in need of a good edging.

This is my favorite view from the back deck.

I sit out here every morning with a cup of coffee and my feet propped up, listening to the birds chirp.

The hydrangeas are finally taller than the catmint! They aren't blooming all that profusely, but I expect them to put on a better show in the next coming weeks.

It feels good to have accomplished something so instantly gratifying. It took about 2 1/2 hours and $65 in case you're interested. The edging we use is produced from all recycled materials and costs about $1.50 a foot. There are less expensive options out there if you're on a tighter budget. We like the black mulch sold at Lowe's. It doesn't fade as quickly as other "colored" mulches we have found. It costs around $4 a bag. I used three bags to clean the bed up, but all in all, we probably have ten bags total in this bed.

Squash Parmesan

2009-07-20T09:24:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year when we have squash covering every flat surface of the house! OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but we do have a lot of squash! We love to grill it with a little olive oil and salt, sautee it with butter and onions, and slice it up in a rich casserole.

We're always on the look out for creative things to do with it, and this weekend I came up with a new plan - squash parmesan. I sliced it up, dipped each slice in egg, rolled it in finely crushed cracker crumbs, and fried it up in some olive oil. I then placed it in a loaf pan and covered it with tomato sauce (canned up from last year's tomato haul) and baked for 20 minutes at 350. I think it turned out quite yummy! It would have been better with some mozzarella cheese, but we didn't have any.

Summer squash is an excellent choice for any diet. It's rich in many essential vitamins and fiber and is low in all the bad stuff; fat, cholesterol, etc. I guess "frying" it doesn't really add to the nutritional value, but olive oil is a good choice when you do decide to make it sizzle.

When you select squash from the farmer's market or grocer, don't be put off by the "scratches" in the rind. Squash are really delicate and easily scratched by sticks, soil and even the stalks of the plant itself. Just because it's scarred a bit doesn't mean it's been abused. Look for firm fruit with no signs of bruising. Soft, limp fruit has started to go bad and will not be all that tasty.

Garden Sitters

2009-07-13T13:44:00.002-04:00

We returned from our 10 day excursion to find the garden in beautiful order. Our friend Lauren did a great job keeping the crops watered and harvested, and mother nature pitched in a little rain to assist.

We also had the helpful assistance of a surprise garden sitter! When a herd of aphids found their way onto the newly developed corn tassles, ladybugs moved in to help take care of the problem.

Thanks ladybugs. I'm glad they're not shy about procreating in public - their babies eat even more than the adults!

Growing Onions in Clay

2009-07-06T08:40:00.001-04:00

I tried to grow onions two years ago from seed. It didn't go well. Onion seedlings are very tiny and pretty much impossible to keep weeded, so they died. Sorry little fellows.

I decided this year to try onions from sets - small onion bulbs that mature into larger edible onion bulbs. I purchased a healthy row's worth from Jesse Israel in March and planted them in the garden.

The thing about onions is that the bulbs need to have room to grow, and they need to be able to penetrate the soil in order to grow. With heavy clay like ours, that is quite a task for them, as I found out a couple weeks ago when I dug around a plant to see if it was ready for harvest. It's been three months and their foliage is starting to yellow, so they should be ready soon.

You can see that the bulb of this yellow onion has not grown to the size you would expect to find in a store, but looks more like one of those little "green onions" that my grandpa always dipped into salt and munched on at dinnertime.

At the farmer's market this weekend, I paid close attention to the local onions being sold. They were all shaped just like mine - no bulbous onions to be found.

I presented this quandry to Ian's grand-dad who has been farming for 60+ years, and he said you have to dig out around the bulb, leaving just the roots planted in the soil to encourage the bulb to ripen. He lives in Florida and grows in sandy soil, so if his onions won't mature on their own, my clay-bound onions have no chance. So, I grabbed my spade and dug those suckers out.

Time will tell if it works. I hope so, because I need some onions to go with my squash!

First Garden Dinner

2009-07-01T17:35:00.003-04:00

We enjoyed our first Summer harvest of the year this past weekend.

All from the garden; green beans, squash and lettuce on the burgers. We don't have any ripe tomatoes yet, but when they do start to ripen, we're going to have a ton of them!

Oooh, it's so good!

We will be out of town all next week, and a neighbor has agreed to tend the garden while we're away. I'm always excited to get back home to my garden! I'll miss you garden! Stay safe. Don't let the squash beetles bite!

Exotic Weed

2009-06-24T09:23:00.002-04:00

Last year when we found the gold mine of compost in our backyard, it brought with it a stubborn weed that I have been fighting for two seasons now.

Behold - Purslane.

At first I thought it was jade, so I let some of it grow among the corn. Its thick succulent leaves resemble jade, and I thought maybe someone tossed a dying Jade plant into the compost heap and a root cutting was somehow brought back to life.

But then it started multiplying, and I knew it couldn't be something good.

When it reappeared this year, I sensed some major trouble. My suspicions were confirmed the first time I hoed it all out of the garden, because every time I hoe it, it multiplies! It apparently thrives on torture!

A little research on purslane has revealed that the plant hails from India, where the leaves are eaten in salads, stir fry and soups. It is known to be high in vitamins and Omega-3 fatty acids and is used as a medicinal herb for urinary tract conditions.

However interesting that might be, it's a weed to me, and I want it gone. My research has also revealed that you have to remove the entire plant - roots and all, to eradicate it. Otherwise, the roots actually produce seed and the plant continues to propagate! Ah! I guess I'll be down on my hands and knees scrubbing the soil of purslane weeds this weekend.

I showed this weed to my mother-in-law this weekend and she told me that in Honduras purslane is a house plant. When she was there this past April on a missions trip, one of the ladies that works at the orphanage tried to get her to take a purslane plant home with her to the US. Thankfully airport security confiscated it, or she would have a yard full of it now too!

Feeding the Tomatoes

2009-06-23T11:44:00.007-04:00

Happy Summer! The garden is busy soaking up the sunshiny rays and enjoying the daily showers that have been granted us these past few weeks.

The tomatoes have made it past the worst of the early blight, probably since I am spraying them weekly with a fungicide and removing infected leaves daily. I have it down to a manageable state, and for that I am thankful. Although rain is great for their roots, it's awful for blight, so when I do have to water, I lug the watering can up to the garden to keep water from splashing onto their leaves. No more overhead watering for me, which is a bummer, because I love listening to the rhythmic patter of the sprinkler in the morning. The forecast is sunny and dry this week, so I'll be building up some arm muscles with all that water lugging.

I love the fuzzy beginnings of tomatoes.

And those cute little green babies. They seem to take forever to ripen, but once they start, we'll be full up on tomatoes for the rest of the Summer!

When it comes to feeding tomatoes, I like to use two organic products; a granular fertilizer produced by Garden Tone, and a liquid fish fertilizer. Tomatoes are heavy feeders, and I have found that this combination works to keep them happy and vigorous. I prefer organic fertilizers, because not only are they all-natural, but they contain micronutrients and trace elements not found in their chemical counterparts.

The Garden Tone fertilizer is readily available at stores like Lowe's and is quite affordable for being organic. I sprinkle 1/3 cup around each tomato once a month and gently work it into the soil with a garden claw. I always water the plants immediately after fertilizing so the nutrients soak into the soil. This is a mild fertilizer, so don't worry about burning the plants.

You might have to search a little harder locally to find fish fertilizer. I get mine from a "Mom and Pop" seed store out in "the country." Buy it by the gallon, and don't get it from a specialty plant store, or you're going to overpay. Jesse Israel is charging $12 for a quart, whereas I can get a gallon for $20 at the seed store. That gallon will easily last me the entire growing season. Fish fertilizer is pretty darn stinky, but as you use it, the smell becomes endearing. Well, it has for me at least, but I like the smell of manure too, so maybe I'm weird in that regard. Norman (our Pug) goes crazy for fish fertilizer and tries to lick the bottle whenever I am using it. I guess he likes stinky things too! I use it every three weeks at a rate of about 1/4 cup to two gallons of water. This feeds about eight plants, depending on how generous I am feeling that day.

I will also crush up egg shells as we use up all the eggs in a carton and work them gently into the soil around the tomatoes, preferably when the plants are just starting to set fruit. Egg shells provide calcium to the soil, which prevents blossom end rot. The Garden Tone fertilizer contains calcium, but I like to give the plants a little extra boost.

It's not all that much work - just two feedings per month. I wish the weeds were as easy to deal with!

It's Not Tacky - It's European

2009-06-18T10:55:00.003-04:00

I created this potted flower arrangement with purples, yellow and reds. I wasn't so pleased with my decision to combine red and purple. It seemed rather tacky to me.

But then my friend Hillary, who has been to Europe, informed me that it is a very "European" inspired arrangement. That's cool, right? I like Europe.

Regardless of my feelings for this grouping, I love this lantana. It opens orange and yellow.

And matures to red.

Pretty cool. The foliage of lantana has a pleasant citrus scent. I just love it, and so do butterflies!

Although petunias are not my favorite flower, they do provide lush vibrant color all summer when dead-headed regularly. The foliage is oddly sticky and gives off a light sweet scent. To dead-head petunias, you need to pinch off the entire flower head, not just the flower portion. If you don't dead-head annuals, they won't bloom as vigorously, because they think they have accomplished their task of reproducing. Removing the seed pod causes them to try to produce more seeds; ie, flowers.

Strawflower is great for potted arrangements, because it is drought tolerant. The paper-like flowers close at night and during rain and persist for many weeks without the requirement for dead-heading.

So that's my European arrangement! It was totally intentional :)

Bloomin' Hydrangeas!

2009-06-15T09:27:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited that the Hydrangeas I planted two years ago are finally blooming. I was reckless in planting them in afternoon sun, but that's where I wanted them to be, so that's where they went.

When the gooseneck loosestrife exploded this Spring and hid the plants almost completely, I was worried that they would get crowded out and suffocate.

As it turns out, the hydrangeas love the shade that the loosestrife have provided and are putting on a lovely show in return.

The Penny Mac surprised me with beautiful blue poms.

The Woodlander and Nikko Blue are just starting to bud out, but I will get photos as soon as the flowers open more.

Flea Beetles

2009-06-12T09:15:00.001-04:00

The flea beetles started early this year, attacking my eggplant seedlings while they were still being hardened off in the seedling tray. Those buggers were impatient this Spring!

The common signs of flea beetles are pin-size holes on the leaves of plants. The bugs themselves are tiny little black specks that could be mistaken for dirt on the leaves. They love the young tender leaves that are just emerging from the plants, and will mow them down in a day if left to their business.

I had to use Sevin on them again this year.

I don't feel so bad about it this year though, as I have been quite fortunate to have avoided pest issues with my other crops. I was in the Tractor Supply Store the other day purchasing a fungicide for the tomatoes when an older gentleman came in asking for Sevin dust. He wanted a big bag of it too. He was wearing office attire, so I knew he wasn't a career farmer, so I asked him what he was planning to nuke with a big bag of Sevin. He told me that he had a large garden and that it was being eaten up by a myriad of insects. His lettuce had been mostly devoured and the radish crop was lost entirely. The bugs were moving in on his warm weather crops and he wanted to save them. I told him of my woes with flea beetles and eggplant and he laughed, saying that eggplant were insect attractors, and if anything was going to get infested, it would be those plants! I felt better knowing that my options were limited with the eggplant and that Sevin was maybe OK in this instance.

I wonder how organic farmers grow eggplant - maybe they use grow tents. That might be a bit excessive for 12 plants in my case, so I guess I'll just keep compromising my principles and spray the buggers down.

Vole Hole

2009-06-11T09:10:00.001-04:00

I planted this rock garden three years ago and have been fighting with a vole over it ever since. The rock garden is really more attractive than it looks in this photo - it's quite unphotogenic.

See the little holes the vole likes to make in the soil.

I wouldn't mind a little hole here and there, but he also eats the roots of my plants and tears the site to pieces. What does he do with all that soil? I have to replace 1/3 of it twice a year! Does he eat it? What a weird little critter.

I have tried vole repellent spray and granules, but neither have had any affect on his digging. If you've got a vole repellent suggestion that doesn't involve a cat, please do share. I actually had the opportunity to kill this little fellow one time, but he is just so darn cute I couldn't bring myself to do it. I don't mind him chilling in the yard, but he needs to work on his manners!

Some Notes on Tomatoes

2009-06-10T10:20:00.004-04:00

After sowing the second round of corn to ensure a staggered harvest, the garden is finally filled to the brim.

Gardening is considered a therapeutic hobby, but some of the challenges I faced with the tomatoes this year caused a little more stress than stress relief!

I always grow my tomatoes, eggplant and peppers from seed. This year I bought a seedling heat mat to speed up and increase germination rates and decided to install artificial overhead lighting to keep the tomatoes from getting leggy from leaning toward the window. When you sow seedlings indoors, the seed tray should be subjected to minimal light until the seedlings have broken through the soil. The tomatoes sprung up so quickly out of their warm peat pods that they were leggy from the start, stretching to reach the little bit of light provided from a nearby window while their eggplant and pepper counterparts remained asleep in their seed husks.

So I struggled with the tomatoes to strengthen their thin leggy stems for about 10 weeks. As it turns out, tomatoes aren't big fans of artificial light, especially the Marcellino, most of which were so pathetic looking that I couldn't possibly plant them in the garden. Adding to my frustrations, my attempts at moving the tomatoes around to find the optimal sun spot in the plant room resulted in the seedlings getting all mixed up, leaving me with no clue who was Marcellino and who was Costuloto. I had 10 of each and 16 spots in the garden, so the worst case scenario would end up with only 6 Marcellino in the garden and leave me with less salsa than planned. (I ended up with 7 Marcellino and 9 Costuloto - not bad!)

I did know definitively that a couple of the seedlings were Marcellino and I wanted to be sure to plant those in the garden. In my haste, I accidentally snipped one off in his peat pod, so I had to plunge his tiny little stem into the soil with no roots, hoping it would take hold. It did, but it's now my little runt. Grow little guy! Grow!

I decided to try cages this year since staking heirlooms like Costuloto proved a big hassle last year. I planned to stake the Marcellino (keeping them trained to one main stem) and cage the heirlooms since they are impossible to train to one main stem.

By training tomatoes to one main stem, the plant spends less energy producing leafy green branches and more time producing fruit. You get taller plants that are easier to keep staked since you don't have a lot of sprawling branches. My Marcellino generally grow to about 7' using this method.

It takes a bit of persistence, but is otherwise simple. Just pinch off the extra branch that sprouts up between the main stem and a side branch. You have to keep on top of this chore though, as those little extraneous branches will keep growing back all season long!

Unfortunately, the side shoots of three of the Marcellino got away from me while I was on vacation and now it is too late to keep them trained to one main stem, so I ended up caging them too. I guess we'll see if a Marcellino produces more fruit with one main stem or being treated like an heirloom. Let's not call it a mistake, but an experiment!

After finally getting all those little buggers healthy enough to plant and caging and staking them properly, I was faced with challenge number 3 - early blight.

Two years ago I grew 16 beautiful tomato plants with no sign of any sort of blight or yellowing of leaves. No problems with pests - nothing. They were just gorgeous. Last year the tomatoes were hit with tomato leaf roll, early blight and possibly some form of wilt. I chalked it up to not having rotated the planting site. Naughty gardener!

But this year has started off with signs of early blight already - black spots on the lower leaves caused by a fungus that is spread through air and soil.

Here are the steps to take to protect against early blight:

Always rotate crops from one year to the next
Avoid overhead watering - I know - it's how God waters, but for some reason, we're not supposed to water like that
Keep the lower branches of the plant pinched back to prevent soil from splashing up onto the plant during rainy weather
Use a fungicide early and often throughout the growing season
Pinch off any branches that have been affected by early blight - they won't get better and will only spread the fungus to neighboring branches

I recommend purchasing the fungicide spray in concentrate form and mixing it up yourself. I used one bottle on 8 plants last night, and once the plants get even more mature, that rate drops to one bottle per every 4 plants, which can get pricey!

The tomatoes may have caused me a bit of heartburn this year, but the crop is worth it. There is nothing as satisfying to a home gardener as a sweet juicy tomato fresh from the garden. I can't wait for July!

Perennials in Bloom

2009-06-01T12:14:00.005-04:00

The perennials have burst into bloom, despite the rain's valiant attempt to wash them out.

The coreopsis, verbana and salvia are giving a lovely show, while the daisies, coneflower, and asiatic lilies are preparing to debut their talents very soon.

Despite my efforts to rip it all out by the roots earlier this spring, the evening primrose is thicker and more lush than ever and is planning a serious explosion of delicate pink flowers in the next week. Don't plant evening primrose if you don't want it everywhere. It's serious about propagation and is uncontrollable, but it fills in nicely between other perennials to give that full "english cottage garden" look.

A couple of early bloomers have already began to integrate with the yellows and purples of the existing blooms.

I planted this perennial bed last spring from seedlings I had sown indoors mid-winter. The salvia and verbana did not return this spring, so I had to purchase new plants from the store. I hadn't anticipated them petering out, or I would have sown replacements this winter. The coreopsis, evening primrose, shasta daisies and coneflower have done very well from seed and are highly recommended for this area.

Please Stop Raining

2009-05-27T10:10:00.003-04:00

It has been raining for the past 5 days. And we're not talking about a pleasant gentle rain that quickly absorbs into the dry soil to nourish it with rainy goodness. No, we're talking torrential downpour that grudgingly pelts tender seedlings to the brink of death and leaves the roses to hang their heads in disgust.

Stupid rain.

At least we're no longer in a drought and my rain barrel is overflowing. On the downside, the eggplant are really ticked off to be bent toward the ground, their leaves covered in mud, and my soybeans keep getting washed out. Mother Nature - Do you know the meaning of the word "moderation?" Get a dictionary lady.

Buttercups - A Tolerable Weed

2009-05-25T09:48:00.002-04:00

Check out these cute little creeping buttercups.

They have such happy little blossoms, and their foliage isn't too hard on the eyes either. It's a shame that they're weeds and they try to take over the entire yard, because they're pretty much impossible to eradicate.

Oh well. They're nice window dressing for the rain barrel.

When we began working on the back perennial bed three years ago, these buttercups were flourishing beneath the layer of gravel and landscape fabric the previous owners had laid in that bed. I don't think these plants CAN be killed if they survived those conditions. We just try to yank them out as we see their tips emerge from the soil. We'll never be rid of them, but we can try to keep them managed!

Squirrel POW Camp

2009-05-22T08:40:00.003-04:00

I'm at war with the squirrels. They have been digging in my squash, and that's not cool. The poor little seeds haven't even had a chance to germinate yet! The squirrels are so audacious that they dug up the seeds, ate the soft center from the pod and left the empty pod laying next to the freshly dug hole.

I hate squirrels.

They have wised up to the old "fake snake" trick, and they're not falling for it this year. Maybe I should get a real snake, or a mongoose. Yeah, I think a mongoose would work.

My wire mesh tee pees are all busy protecting the corn from birds and squirrels, so they will be no help to the squash this year.

So I had to come up with a new idea to deter squirrels. Check out this combat zone.

Regardless which direction the squirrels try to enter the seed zone, they will get a little stabbity stab courtesy of a bamboo shish-ka-bob skewer, hopefully in the eyeball.

I'll let you know if they work.

I also sprinkled some cayenne pepper around each seedling planting. Hopefully these squirrels aren't Cajun.

Siamese Tulip

2009-05-21T10:10:00.003-04:00

Ian bought me some lovely tulips and irises for Mother's Day. Although I'm not technically mother to any human children, I have lots of plant children and even a little doggie child, so I graciously accepted the gift!

We were both surprised to see this anomaly arrive with the arrangement - a double-headed tulip!

That's some cool stuff. I have never seen a double-headed tulip, so I searched the Internet for information regarding why this happens. I couldn't find anything! I guess this is quite the rarity. If you know how a tulip can grow two heads - please do share!

Flower Boxes

2009-05-20T18:08:00.003-04:00

Last year I planted perennials in this window box in hopes that they would return this year, but they didn't make it through the winter. Although I loved the look of last year's design, I didn't want to wait for perennials to mature again, so I went with annuals. The snapdragons were a bad choice since they always wilt like freshly picked lettuce in the sun. I don't know what I was thinking - I guess I just like them. I'll find something to replace them eventually, but I'm not sure as of yet what it will be. Also in the line up are purple begonias, bacopa and verbena - nothing all that spectacular this year.

Last year I planted dracanea and coleus in these two cement planters, but I wasn't happy with those choices. The colors were too dramatic for this area, particularly in harsh contrast with the roses and perennials. I decided to soften this planting up a bit this year with fuchsia, begonias and ivy.

Since these two planters are eclipsed by the roses, I had to choose plants that can handle mostly shade.

This firecracker fuchsia makes a nice centerpoint (even though it's not technically in the center).

And the ivy will provide a dramatic draping effect.

The begonias will fill in the rest of the space nicely, and the curly grass in the back will provide a little bit of contrast for the fuchsia. That's the plan at least!

Current Front Yard View

2009-05-19T18:02:00.004-04:00

The front yard is coming along nicely. Although the view from the road is not all that spectacular due to the sloping yard, I'm still pleased. The grass is even looking greener this year - too bad it's mostly weeds, but you can't tell that little detail from this photo!

I love the disheveled view down the pathway caused by the perennial bed that was installed last year. The coreopsis is going to town, and I can't wait until those buttery yellow blooms start to open!

The curving lines of the new perennial bed help to soften the hard lines of the rest of the yard, and that fresh layer of mulch helps hide its sparseness! This bed will be overflowing with goodness this time next year - hopefully!

The knockout roses are performing beautifully again.

This view from the front door has always been one of my favorites.

I hope to replace the concrete sidewalk with a stone path eventually, but that is not high on the to do list this year. We'll see what the summer brings!

Prairie Petite Lilac

2009-05-18T09:57:00.003-04:00

My Prairie Petite lilac has grown so slowly that I suspected it to be a geriatric variety. I purchased it from Park's Seeds in Fall 2007, but from what I can find on their website, they don't sell this variety any longer. I was interested in this plant, because it is supposed to be a miniature lilac but produce blooms as prolifically as a full-size shrub. The intoxicating scent of lilac is a childhood memory that I would like to keep alive, but I don't really have room for a full-size plant in my yard.

In all honesty, I did get a bloom this year, and it smelled fantastic, so I shouldn't complain about the plant, but in even more honesty, this guy was up for composting this year if it didn't bloom.

Here he is first year:

He grew a little bit the second year:

And a teeny bit more the third year:

Check out his cute little attempt at blooming.

Poor little fellow. I think I'll give him a little more time to get settled in.

Bleeding Heart on Steroids

2009-05-15T09:50:00.003-04:00

I read that white bleeding heart is more difficult to grow than the pink variety, but despite this warning, I wanted to give it a try. I didn't expect much, especially when the plant died back early the first year it was planted.

I was excited to see it emerge last Spring and put on a pleasing display of white heart-shaped arches of flowers.

This year was a bit different. The plant SHOT out of the soil and erupted into a volcano of green foliage, interspersed with white shoots of flowers.

I had no idea bleeding heart reached this size. I wonder if it's the steroids I have been watering into the soil!

Wisteria Lane

2009-05-14T09:44:00.003-04:00

A good friend who lives down the street has an arbor over her back deck that supports the most beautiful purple wisteria I have ever seen.

I have always loved wisteria, but after witnessing this spectacle, I decided it is a must-have plant this year. I'm not sure where I will put it, but I have got to get one.

The poor thing had been hit by late frosts the past two years and barely bloomed. It is certainly making up for all that lost time this year!

Wisteria has a delicate sweet fragrance and attracts bees galore! It is the perfect plant for a gardener who needs to lure bees into her yard to pollinate the squash and tomatoes!

Gooseneck Loosestrife - Attack!

2009-05-13T09:27:00.005-04:00

If we are ever invaded by a foreign army, I have no worries. My gooseneck loosestrife can easily fend them off and keep our home safe.

I transplanted 12 modest twigs of loosestrife from my MIL's garden in Fall 2007. One of the twigs was mowed down by a bunny, and another mysteriously disappeared in the night.

I was amazed by how much the plants had filled in the following Spring.

This Spring, I am a little fearful for my yard, as not only has the loosestrife multiplied again, but they are breaking out of their containment area in what looks like an attempt to dominate the neighborhood. I should warn the neighbors. I have little doubt that they could take the cul de sac with minimal effort.

My intention was for these plants to fill in this area with a thick lush blanket, and I am overjoyed to see my plan come to fruition in such a short period. If you enjoy the delicate curving heads of gooseneck loosestrife, but fear for your yard's safety, simply cut the bottom out of a large plastic pot, plunge the pot into the ground and plant the loosestrife in that containment area. It will probably keep the plants from spreading ... mostly. Loosestrife is certainly not deterred by poor soil either, so plant it anywhere!

I have noticed some people landing on my blog in search of a way to remove gooseneck loosestrife. My suggestion is to dig it up. You would need to completely cultivate the entire area down to 18" to ensure you get all the roots. You won't get them all, but this will be a good start. As you see little baby heads poking back up, plunge your spade deep into the ground around it and extract that bad boy and his roots. I suggest this method over using Round Up although chemicals would be much easier. Please only use chemicals as a last resort. They make the earth cry.

In other news, these pink tulips that are interplanted with the loosestrife turned white this year!

I suspected that the reason is due to the hybrid bulbs reverting back to their parental form, and my horticulturist / landscape architect / master gardener friend Hillary confirmed that to be true. Pretty cool stuff.

Japanese Snowball

2009-05-12T09:12:00.004-04:00

This is year 3 for the Japanese Snowball I purchased from Greenwood Nursery. Since the shrub was supposed to bloom its first year planted, I gave it an ultimatum this year - bloom or get composted. He decided to bloom. Smart choice.

I was surprised by the flat white blooms reminiscent of lacecap hydrangea flower heads, since the photo on the Greenwood Nursery website shows a snowball shaped flower. The blooms are slightly fragrant and lasted only 2 weeks, despite the Greenwood Nursery claim that the shrub blooms from May-September. I think they may have shipped me the wrong shrub!

The shrub is supposed to reach 8-10' feet, but since it looks like mine is not the shrub I ordered, I have no clue what size it will reach.

I'm fine with this plant, although it's not what I wanted, but I'll leave it in the yard, mostly because it reminds me of a rubenesque pomeranian I once knew. Yes, I know that's weird.

This is not the only issue I have had with Greenwood Nursery, but it is another reason why I do not purchase plants from their website any more.

Un-neighborly

2009-05-11T09:06:00.001-04:00

The houses in our neighborhood are pretty close together. Each one is on just 1/3 of an acre, and really, no one knows where each property line ends and the next one begins. For those of us with fences, we can be pretty sure that the fence marks out the property line accurately, but who knows if the owners at that time had a survey taken before installing the fence.

To compensate for this lack of knowledge, whenever anyone cuts their grass, they usually just cut the grass up to the driveways on each side of the yard. Sure, this causes us to cut some of our neighbors' grass and them to cut some of ours, but who's measuring, right?

Apparently our neighbors to the right (who are trying to sell their house) are measuring.

They left this 12" strip of grass when they cut the lawn last week. Isn't that just silly? You'd think we had done something to tick them off ... I don't think we have. Who knows.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-05-08T09:01:00.001-04:00

I finally got a rain barrel - for my birthday!

Ian has been "planning" to make me a rain barrel for over a year now and finally decided to just break down and buy one. It doesn't matter to me - I just want a rain barrel! With all the rain we've been getting, it will be full in no time!

I noticed that Home Depot has free instructions for making your own rain barrel that involves using a trash can. They claim their home made barrel costs only $32. I'm sorry to say though that a trash can will never withstand the pressure of all that water, and it will split wide open eventually. If you're thinking of making your own rain barrel, stop by a soda plant and ask for one of their used syrup barrels. They can only use them one time, and they are sufficiently strong to support the pressure of a rain barrel.

Valentino Basil

2009-05-07T09:05:00.001-04:00

Check out this giant basil I got at Herb Fest this year.

It's huge, and it smells oh so good!

The vendor said it makes great pesto, and you can substitute the cabbage used in pigs in a blanket for basil. Sounds yummy to me!

Flash Flood in the Garden

2009-05-06T10:52:00.003-04:00

It has been raining here a lot lately. So much so that I have had to plan my planting sessions between showers. You really shouldn't transplant seedlings or sow seeds when rain is on the forecast, but we're going on vacation in a week and a half, and I need to get this stuff in the ground before then.

So I worked last night to hoe the weeds out of the bottom left bed and plant the tomatoes. I got up early this morning to hoe the weeds out of the bottom right bed and plant the eggplant and sow the green beans and soybeans.

Everything was a-ok for about 2 hours when the skies let loose a torrential downpour, the likes of which I have rarely seen in this area. Needless to say, the garden flooded.

Behold the great garden flood ...

Ian and I booked it outside and covered the seedlings with upside pots to prevent their newly transplanted leaves from being pelted to oblivion, but there was nothing we could do for the lettuce and beans that are unfortunately positioned at the lower ends of the two beds.

Lesson learned - we need to drill some drainage holes in the lower boards so water can escape the clutches of our heavy clay soil. Since our drill does not operate on batteries, we found it best to wait for the rain to stop before taking the power cord out there to remedy the situation.

The downpour stopped just after we came in from the trying to save the plants, soaked from head to toe, but there is still a steady drizzle that will keep those beds full of water and prevent me from drilling holes to save the seedlings.

Blasted rain. It's never there when you need it, but won't leave when it's not welcome.

Potted Plants

2009-05-06T08:41:00.001-04:00

I started teaching Group Fitness classes last Fall, and I have set aside all my earnings as my "plant allowance." With my first round of allowance, I purchased all new ceramic planters for the back deck. The previous planters were those horrible fiberglass pots that had broken down to the point of uselessness.

This pot holds lantana, verbana, petunias, strawflower and decorative grass. It's all very young now, but it will grow bigger and fill in the space nicely.

This cute little blue pot holds osteospermum, angelonia, euphorbia. This is my favorite potted arrangement so far.

The yellow pot holds lantana, mint, tri-colored sage and verbana.

Ian's Aunt and Uncle gave us this birdbath for Christmas. We didn't realize it was a birdbath when we opened it. It looked like a shallow pot to me, and I immediately had a plan that involved succulents mapped out for it. We decided to use it as a birdbath instead though. The birds aren't interested in it, so I think it will get transformed in the future. I don't think they like it being so low.

The large blue pot currently holds a big elephant ear that has not yet sprouted. I am planning some other plants for that same pot, but I haven't found what I want yet.

Mailbox Garden

2009-05-05T09:03:00.003-04:00

I made a very feeble attempt to create some sort of mailbox planting three years ago, and it has become less spectacular and more overgrown with weeds with each year.

I decided to just bite the bullet and invest some time into digging this area out, edging it and applying a nice deep layer of mulch. It took me over three hours to dig all this sod! Sod is evil.

I'm planning a pink/red motif in this bed. So far I have planted beardtongue and purple fountain grass. The beardtongue blooms pink, but the foliage is a lovely burgundy that will complement the burning bush in the Fall. I have some lovely gaillardia starters about ready for planting, but I haven't decided what else I want to put in this bed.

The neighborhood cats have decided to seed the bed with tootsie rolls. At this point, I think there are more cat droppings than soil in this bed! Too bad they won't grow ... Then again I'm afraid to consider what flower could come of a tootsie roll.

On another note, the clematis is finally pulling its weight in the yard this year! It probably helps that I remembered to fertilize it this Spring!

I like having this unfinished bed waiting for new plants, since I often see plants I want to purchase but no where to put them. Now I have an open-ended home for all my impulse buys, as long as they fit the color scheme, of course!

New Perennial Bed

2009-05-04T13:43:00.004-04:00

I secretly plan to replace the entire front lawn with an English cottage garden style wonderland, but after digging up the latest flowerbed, I realize we'll never get it done on our own. We'll have to hire some serious help to dig all that sod.

We did have the foresight to hire Ian's brother, Trevor, to help with the latest project, and between the three of us, it took 4-1/2 hours to remove the sod and dig amendments into the soil. I then spent another 1-1/2 hours digging more amendments into the soil to prepare for planting.

The soil could still use MORE amendments, but after 1 huge bag of peat, 4 bags of manure and 12 bags of topsoil, this is as good as it gets for this bed. I'll mulch it in the next couple weeks, and eventually the mulch will break down and enrich the soil, but I think these plants will be just fine until then. I tried to select plants that can tolerate clay, so having slightly wet feet shouldn't kill them.

I grew some of the plants from seed and purchased the remainder. There are only so many types of perennials that can be grown from seed, and I don't want to be restricted to only those plants for the rest of my gardening career!

We've got foxglove, goldenrod, bee balm, garden phlox, coreopsis, stargazer lilies and some white paper cups.

The white paper cups are protecting the coneflower and butterfly weed starter plants. It's best to slip these cups (with bottoms cut out) over all types of starters to keep them from getting sun-scorched or eaten by naughty insects that like to prey on the weak.

Coneflower is really easy to grow from seed and germinates with a high success rate. Butterfly weed is a little more difficult, but the plants are pretty strong. I suspect I will lose one of the four I planted though.

The sky decided to let loose with a torrential downpour last night around 9pm, so Ian and I had to rush outside to cover the little starters with upside down pots. They would definitely have been pelted to death with all that water!

We are planning on edging the bed with some type of flat rock, and I need to find some purple Veronica. After that, it will be finished! I guess I should cut the roses back a little more too, so the plants have a bit of growing room.

Squoosh

2009-04-10T08:46:00.002-04:00

Any time we dig in the yard, we find plenty of Japanese Beetle larvae. Not only are they disgusting little things, but they evolve into even worse creatures - bugs whose sole purpose in life is to destroy the plants we hold dear. Note that this is not my hand. I would never touch one of these things ungloved.

Around this time of year, the larvae are just starting to form their outer shell, so they can still be squeezed easily between a pair of gloved fingers and put out of their dirty misery. This weekend, as I was digging out a new flower bed, I squeezed a dozen or so larvae then tossed them onto the hot pavement for good measure - there's no surviving that! The larvae got their revenge on me though when I became careless while issuing the ultimate penalty and the "juice" hit me square in the face. It was so disgusting. I'm glad I was wearing sunglasses. Their justice was short-lived as I decided to just stomp them from that point forward.

Coconut Liners

2009-04-09T16:34:00.003-04:00

Last year I was unable to find pre-molded coconut liners for my hanging baskets. The only option available locally from any retailer was that awful circular liner that you are supposed to cut to size and then cram the flat circular shape into a three dimensional basket. Not only is it impossible to cut through the material, but once you do get it hacked up, it doesn't conform to the basket but bunches up and looks awful - much like a droopy diaper.

I made an early start this year to see if local retailers would mend their ways and go back to pre-molded liners, but they are still carrying those horrible flat circles. So, I went online to find real liners, and was not disappointed.

My first stop for online shopping is always Amazon, and I was not disappointed this year. There are plenty of coconut liners to choose from in all sizes and shapes. I was able to find replacement liners for all my hanging baskets and my three-tiered iron basket, which I had no hope for using this year due to the worn out liners. $25 for 5 liners with shipping. Pretty good deal. Shipping was $11 of the cost, but it's worth paying extra for the real deal.

The package arrived in the mail today, and I held my breath opening it, fearing to find flat circles inside. I was able to breathe easy when I found the lovely pre-molded liners I had expected.

Shop early - they sell out fast. I learned that last year!

Yep, It Snowed

2009-04-07T09:59:00.002-04:00

Last Snow Dates that I Recorded for Asheville (not too many mind you):

2008 - April 14
2007 - April 11

Two is probably not a trend, so I shouldn't really freak out worrying that the snow we are getting today on April 7th 2009 won't be the last. Trying ... Not ... To ... Freak ... Out ... AhHHHHHhhh!

Yesterday I mocked all those people at Lowe's buying petunias, basil and other tender annuals, but I must admit that I bought two ferns from Jesse Israel that probably aren't frost proof either! I covered them with some sheets. I hope they're still alive under there ... Under where you ask? I made you say underwear! Yeah, I'm in a silly mood today. I accidentally overslept, and now my eyes (and apparently my brain) aren't focusing properly. I blame the snow.

A Little Hint of Holland

2009-04-06T16:24:00.005-04:00

The 100 tulips I planted last Fall are in bloom, and they look fantastic. I am always impressed with the bulbs I buy from Sam's Club. Yeah, I'm always a little surprised by statements like that too. I mean seriously, it's Sam's Club. They can't actually sell good bulbs, right? Wrong. Check it out.

It's like a little Dutch field teleported to North Carolina. I took this photo on Friday, and the yellow bulbs have all opened up since then. It's really ugly and overcast today though, so I don't have an updated photo.

These tulips are growing down the sidewalk with the daisies. I swear they must be volunteers, because I have never planted yellow and red tulips out front. I do have some like this in a container in the back yard, but I doubt they sprouted legs and moved. They sure are pretty!

We have been busy little gardeners here in Bent Creek. We've cut the grass for the first time, we have snap peas and onions growing in the garden, the roses have been pruned and cleaned up, and I have started a new perennial bed! I have 200+ seedlings growing in the spare room (AKA - the room where plants go to die) waiting for that magical May 9th planting date.

I hear it's going to snow tonight. I hope all those people who were at Lowe's this weekend buying petunias didn't plant them! I warned them not to, but they probably thought I was a crazy woman since it was in the 70's and so lovely.

In other news, we have finally been downgraded to a D1 drought! We can wash our cars again! I'm sure the guy across the street will be happy. He has only been washing ONE car per week, but now he can wash all FOUR every week! Woo-hoo for him. Note sarcasm.

The Welcome Signs of Spring

2009-03-24T15:05:00.003-04:00

We transitioned from snowy Winter to sunny Spring very quickly this year, and the lovely flowering cherries, forsythia and Bradford pears are in full bloom to prove that this is not another one of Mother Nature's hoaxes!

This spectacular cherry is only in bloom for two weeks in the beginning of Spring. Even the lightest rain causes the delicate little blooms to tumble quickly to the ground. This tree is two doors down from our house. Our immediate neighbors to the right (who bought their house new in 1968 and raised three children in this neighborhood) used to have their Easter photo taken in front of this tree every year. What a fun memory! This tree is nearing the end of its life, but such is the cycle of life, even in the plant world.

Another gorgeous weeping cherry a little ways down the road from us.

The blossoms are so lovely. Photographs don't even begin to capture their beauty.

The forsythia is in full bloom all around town. Golden yellow blossoms are helping to hide the naked tree lines and give us something nice to look at!

And of course there are plenty of daffodils to hold our attention.

These crocuses add a nice splash of purple to the barren landscape.

We can always count on the early blooms of quince to bring a little hot pink into Spring, blooming a little bit before the tulips.

So Long Winter!

2009-03-19T09:34:00.002-04:00

Today is the last day of Winter! I can't say I'm sorry to see it go. The forsythia is in full bloom to bid the cold farewell, and the tulips are anxiously waiting to burst forth and welcome the Spring! I see new life cropping up with each coming day, and I'm so excited to get back into the garden. I must admit that I already planted sugar snap peas and onions, but I'm ready for some serious gardening!

The Veg is Sown

2009-02-26T17:22:00.003-05:00

I sowed the seeds of veg last week, and I am pleased that many little seedlings are already sprouting up. I received a seedling heat mat for Christmas, which is said to speed up germination and increase the success rate. After last year's debacle with the seeds germinating so slowly, I wasn't taking any chances this year!

I filled 85 little peat pods with 2 seeds each of the following varieties:

I have a ton of flowers I need to sow too, but I only have one seedling heating mat, so I am going to wait for the veg to sprout before sowing the flowers. Veg is more important to me than flowers, so they'll have to wait their turn.

It was so nice today - in the low 70's. I just wanted to get out there and DIG DIG DIG!! I have another 6 weeks to wait though. Bah!

Houseplants

2009-01-21T09:56:00.003-05:00

There's not much to blog about in the dead of Winter. It's been so cold, in fact, that even my spinach has given up! I do still have my houseplants though, and I really like houseplants! Let's take a look at some of my favorites.

This is an escargot begonia. It gets the name, "escargot" from the swirling leaves that resemble the shell of a snail; ie, escargot. (I have eaten escargot, and it is mighty tasty btw.) There are many types of begonias, and this one is considered best as a houseplant. It can live outdoors in very tropical climates, but in the US, it's going to perform best inside. I have had this plant for 7+ months, and it has done great. It prefers to dry out between waterings, and likes a nice deep drink when you do water it.

This particular begonia is not known for showy flowers, in fact, its flowers are quite modest. This plant is grown and appreciated for its foliage. I love the subtle red tint around the edge of the leaves.

This is another begonia grown for its decorative foliage. I don't think the specific name of this plant was on its tag when I purchased it, but if it was, I don't remember it! I enjoy putting together groupings like this. I think the asparagus fern does a nice job filling in the empty space here.

I like the contrast of deep purple with soft sage.

I've had this ponytail palm for three years now. It has required repotting each year, and will get as big as you let it. It can grow to eight feet tall if given a big enough pot! I think I prefer mine to remain miniature. This plant is very easy going.

It stores water in the base of its trunk, so if you forget to water it, there is a reserve! I try to water this plant once a week.

This is my second African mask. The first one lived over a year, and really its demise was my own fault. I forgot to water it. Sorry little guy. I'll try to do better with #2.

And here's another little grouping I put together.

If you're wondering what I do with my giant Boston Fern during Winter, here it is!

It takes up a lot of this room! I really need to divide it this year, I'm just not sure how to get that job done.

D2!

2009-01-07T17:16:00.003-05:00

Woo-hoo! Our drought has been downgraded to a D2! We can wash our cars. Well, if we can find the cars under all that dirt we could wash them. LOL! It has been raining quite frequently, and the river and local ponds have been noticeably higher. I'm glad the drought commission has finally recognized this and lowered our rating so we can put some of this water to use.

Still in a D4 Drought

2008-12-11T11:59:00.003-05:00

It's been raining like crazy the past two weeks, and we are still considered to be in a D4 drought. I really think they're just making this stuff up. I want to wash my car again!

It's Freaking Snowing!

2008-10-28T09:36:00.003-04:00

I could not believe my eyes last night when at 10:15pm I let the dog out to pee and saw that it was snowing. Snowing. It's October! Then, when I woke up this morning, I was even more amazed to find that it was STILL snowing. Still. October. Geesh.

We may have harvested our last bean from the garden this weekend, because veg does not appreciate the snow. Stupid snow.

100 Mixed Tulips

2008-10-27T10:12:00.005-04:00

I planted 100 mixed tulips (red, orange and yellow) this weekend in the "new" perennial bed in the front yard. It was laborious work! I had to man handle the verbana to get sufficient bulbs planted beneath their sprawling arms and did my best to infiltrate the evening primrose so that huge section of the bed is not naked come Spring. I look forward to the splendor of Spring, but for now, I'm enjoying the Fall color.

Now is the time to plant your Spring bulbs. Spring bulbs like tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, etc require a sufficient chilling period to produce their lovely Spring blooms. They should go into the ground before it freezes since frozen ground is difficult to work. I have had great success with bulbs purchased from Sam's Club and Bluestone Perennials. Bulbs I have purchased from Lowe's and Brecks have been disappointing though.

I admit that I become lethargic this time of year, so it was difficult for me to muster the ambition to plant the tulips. I just get "gardened-out" by September, I guess!

Ian did an excellent job picking all the grass out of the daisies while I planted bulbs! The daisies are currently grass-free, but I'm sure the pesky grass will find its way back in the fertile daisy soil. Why does the grass not grow where I want it to grow, but flourish where it's not wanted? I will never understand ...

Squeezing Every Last Vegetable from the Garden

2008-10-20T11:15:00.004-04:00

Although we had our first "light frost" last night (it was 30 degrees when I woke up), we are still working to squeeze every last vegetable from our garden. I just read that we had a freeze warning last night! Woops! I didn't bring anything in! I hope my huge boston fern is still alive out there... I'm kind of afraid to check.

We harvested a heap of green beans and some green peppers yesterday and still have a plethora of eggplant trying to ripen.

I love these hansel eggplants from Park's Seeds. They are just the right size for stir-frying, and contain absolutely no bitterness!

Ian combined the eggplant with some green beans ...

... and some other ingredients not from the garden to create a scrumptious Chinese dish. He made it up, so it really has no name. It had teriyaki, soy sauce and brown sugar in it. Oh, it was so good!

We're going to freeze up some green beans tonight so we can enjoy them throughout the Winter. They're not *quite* as good from the freezer, but still better than those limp things you get from the grocery store in December! We're going to miss the garden this Winter!!

Still Blooming!

2008-10-16T10:03:00.005-04:00

The knockout roses are still blooming, and covered with new buds.

It's amazing how much these shrubs have grown over the past year. They are over five feet tall now!

August 2007:

October 2008:

The yellow casino climbers are still blooming too.

These climbers have a strong spicy scent that makes up for the knockout roses' lack of smell. And they're pretty too!

Our first frost is just a couple weeks away, and then I'll have to say goodbye to these lovely blooms until next April.

Hot Peppers

2008-09-17T09:31:00.004-04:00

We made a lot of salsa last year, and we used a lot of hot peppers. We didn't grow hot peppers last year, so we had to buy them from the grocery store whenever we wanted to make salsa. We learned quickly that you can't depend on grocery store hot peppers. First, you never know what kind they will have, and second, you never know how fresh or ripe they will be. Peppers lose their fire as they age, whether they are still on the plant or have been picked. We had to settle for flimsy peppers that were far too mild most of the time. So this year, we decided to grow our own, because we LOVE salsa!!

I ordered the fire mix from Park's Seeds, and sowed the seeds indoors in early February. Peppers are slow growers (harvest is 70-90 days from setting out transplants), so you need to plan far in advance of the growing season. Peppers are also very sensitive to cold, so always wait until the temperature remains above 50 degrees at night before planting. I planted our hot peppers in a pot on the patio to ensure they didn't cross pollinate with the regular green peppers in the garden. If you plant them too close, your green peppers will be warmer than intended! Peppers prefer a full sun location where they can soak in the rays for 6-8 hours a day and a steady supply of water. (The peppers are in a cream colored pot on the right in the photo below.)

The fire mix is a combination of 6 types of peppers; Anaheim TMR, Ancho 101, Garden Salsa Hybrid, Habanero, Jalapeno M, and Super Cayenne II Hybrid. The problem is that all the seeds come in the same packet, and they are not color-coded, so you don't know which peppers are which. I sowed enough seeds for 7 plants, but I had no way of knowing whether they were all the same or different! Pepper seeds all look the same to me. We have been harvesting peppers for several months now, and honestly, the peppers look identical, and do not resemble the photos on the website at all, so I have no idea what kind of peppers we are eating! It's all good though, because we have had a constant supply of crisp hot peppers for our salsa making.

As a side note, some seed retailers, like Renee's Garden, are kind enough to color-code seeds when they package a combination in the same packet. I prefer when they are color-coded so I actually know what I am growing!

Lemongrass

2008-09-16T10:27:00.003-04:00

I planted this lemongrass in May. It was very small at that time, and I had no idea it would become this big! I think I paid $2.50 for it from the Herb Festival at the WNC Farmer's Market. It makes a handsome addition to this grouping of perennials and annuals, and as the blades are beginning to turn red with the changing season, it is growing more lovely by the day. (As you can see, Norman is taking a pee on the lavender. He has already killed one lavender plant, so I think he wants to even the numbers out by killing one more.)

Lemongrass is a perennial herb, and is tasty in Asian dishes such as soups and curries. The blades are rather sharp, so you must dice it up finely to release the citrus flavor without slicing your tongue in the process! It also makes a lovely addition to the perennial garden or for use as a focal point in a mixed border. Be sure to give it lots of room, because lemongrass grows large very quickly!

Sowing the Fall Crop

2008-09-15T10:10:00.004-04:00

It's been hot here. Too hot for the Fall crop, so I'm late getting it sown. It was in the nineties this weekend. Spinach and peas do not like temperatures in the nineties, but the first frost is knocking on our door, so I had to get to work.

I sowed some green beans about three weeks ago that I thought were bush plants, but this weekend I realized they were actually vines, so I had to drag the trellis out of the shed and place it awkwardly in the middle of the bottom left quadrant. Oops! I'm not sure how I got those seeds confused. My brain has been on idle for the past month or so.

I had planned to use the trellis for the Fall crop of sugar snap peas, so I had to come up with a new plan. I decided to try some tee pees made from branches. Ian was sweet enough to construct them for me. We'll see how sugar snap peas like climbing up branches. They may do better than they did on the trellis. I always had to tie them to the trellis, but they may wind up the tee pees.

So, the bottom left quadrant looks kind of weird. LOL! Do you see those huge plants in the top left quadrant? They're eggplants. We are currently drowning in an overabundance of eggplant! 12 plants was too many.

LAST YEAR I had to dig the grass out of the bottom right quadrant to plant four rows of spinach and lettuce. It took me at least an hour to get enough grass out of the way to make room for the Fall crop. Do you see the grass on the edges of the photo? I cropped it out due to embarrassment, I'm sure.

THIS YEAR I just had to pull up the spent squash and green beans, and tug a couple rogue weeds from the bed. I sowed these two rows of spinach in a line of compost to give them an easier start. Clay is a difficult medium for fine seeds to germinate. The compost also gives them a nice boost of food when they first sprout. We're going out of town next week, so we'll see if our house sitter is able to keep the seedlings alive!

I thought I had some lettuce seeds left over from Spring, but I can't seem to locate them. Oh well. Two rows of spinach will probably be enough greens for us any way!

We did a lot of garden clean up this weekend, removing the exhausted squash plants, green beans and tomatoes, and pulling up the weeds that made their way into the empty spaces. We have been SO HAPPY with the garden beds that we constructed. There were very few weeds in the beds, and although the soil is a bit compacted, it is NOTHING like it was this time last year. The time we spent building the garden this Spring will be paid back to us greatly over the next coming years.

Fusarium Wilt

2008-09-12T11:46:00.004-04:00

The tomatoes performed so beautifully last year, that I decided to ignore all advice about crop rotation and plant them in the same spot this year. That was a mistake. There are so many diseases affecting tomatoes, and as they grow in the same area year after year, bacteria builds up in the soil that makes the plants more and more vulnerable to various tomato blights.

In early July, I noticed signs of Fusarium Wilt.

I removed all the affected leaves and sprayed with Serenade, an organic fungicide for use in the home garden, and fought off the plague for a while. However, each week the problem became worse and worse, with even more leaves and shoots shriveling up and dying until some plants were completely naked. I continued to clean up the plants and spray each week, nursing the plants back to health so we could enjoy a decent harvest.

Although I was unable to wipe out the plague, the plants are producing normal fruit, but since there are few leaves to provide shade to protect the sensitive fruit from the harsh sun, the fruit is cracking too soon before harvest, and the bugs are getting most of the bounty.

I will definitely rotate ALL my crops next year. I've learned my lesson!!

Although the harvest has not been as plentiful as last year, we have still canned up a good amount of salsa and tomato sauce. The Costoluto plants were least affected by the blight (and thankfully so - they're SO yummy!), and the Park's Early Challenge were most affected. In fact, I think the Early Challenge buggers started the whole mess! They won't step root in my garden again, that's for sure!

The Plot of the Pumpkin

2008-09-11T09:18:00.003-04:00

I'm quite certain this pumpkin vine is plotting to take over the yard, and just because there is a fence between ours and the neighbors' yards doesn't mean the neighbors should be too comfortable in their security either - pumpkin vines can climb fences. Oh yes. The entire neighborhood is at risk with this vine. Our only hope is an early killing frost, the pumpkin's one enemy. Well, that and a pair of pruning shears!

I planted pumpkins last year, and one fruit formed, but it rotted before it matured. I was a little peeved with my pumpkin production, since they are supposed to be easy to grow, so I tried again this year. I planted eight vines this year, but this one plant is the only one doing anything interesting.

We have two baby pumpkins!

Baby 1.

Baby 2.

My, what a unique naming convention I have employed here! I'm keeping a close eye on them for any signs of rotting. I'm not sure what to do when I notice signs of rotting, but NOT noticing rotting will make me feel good. So really, I'm keeping an eye out for NO signs of rotting. I hope to harvest a couple of pumpkins by Halloween!

Beware the Saddleback Caterpillar

2008-09-08T09:24:00.003-04:00

This peculiar little caterpillar may look interesting, but I advise you to keep from touching him. I accidentally brushed against one this morning while turning off the spigot, and now my arm has broken out in a burning rash! Naughty little saddleback caterpillar! He thinks he can just feast on my baptisia and sting me for no good reason! Well, he's probably right, because I'm too intimidated by him to do anything about it!

Apparently, his spikes are laced with a nasty venom that, when touched, feels a lot like a bee sting. I can attest to that!

It's Still Raining!

2008-08-28T09:24:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it is still raining! We had a brief break in the rain yesterday in the late afternoon, but it was raining again by evening! Yesterday we set a record for Asheville with FOUR inches in one day! We have received about six inches this week, which we needed desperately. I heard we need ten inches total, but six is a good start. The weather is supposed to clear up in the next coming days. The NC Drought Management Advisory has downgraded our county to a D3 drought, which is still bad, but at least it's not D4.

I hope it stops raining today, because we are going out of town this weekend, and I need to harvest the cherry tomatoes and make some salsa tonight. The tomatoes are all splitting due to the overabundance of rain, and the bugs will get to them if I don't harvest tonight. Those tomatoes are too good to be donated to a bug feast! Rain has its benefits, but it can also cause some problems in the garden! I am NOT going to complain though.

It's Raining!

2008-08-25T12:09:00.003-04:00

Hallelujah! It's raining! I think it has been three weeks since it last rained. The lawn is completely dead, the roses are losing their bottom leaves, the perennials look at me accusingly every day hoping I will lug some water their way, and the garden has just had it with this drought! I am so thankful for this steady gentle rain. I hope it lasts all day!

English Cottage Garden

2008-08-19T11:43:00.004-04:00

This Spring we started what I like to call my "English Cottage Garden" in a small corner of the front yard using plants I started from seed. Ian doesn't know it yet, but I have some pretty grand plans for the rest of the front yard. I'm planning to tell him about it on a "need to know" basis. For example, when I "need" him to dig, I will let him "know." LOL!

English Cottage Gardens are all about density, color and variation, all within an informal setting.

I used drought-tolerant plants since I don't want to tend too much to this bed. If you are looking for a drought tolerant option that "fills in" quickly, evening primrose is your lady. In the gardening world, this plant is referred to as "invasive." However, in the English Cottage Garden planning world, this plant is referred to as a "quick filler," providing a nice dense foundation for your more important feature plants. I love how it closes the gaps between the salvia and verbana to give the garden an informal and "full" appearance.

For BIG color, coreopsis and salvia are great choices. The deep purple and yellow complement each other, and their contrasting habits help add variation to break up the shapes and sizes of the garden. Again, these plants are quite drought tolerant, and keep on blooming throughout the heat of the Summer, when other lazy perennials give up on you. A splash of white shasta daisies here and there helps keep the eye moving throughout the entire bed.

Verbana makes a beautiful spiller, flowing out (possibly a bit too far according to Ian) onto the sidewalk to soften up the hard edges of the bed.

Shasta daisies are very drought tolerant once they reach maturity. However, they can cause some grief when they are young, since they do require a regular drink of water. The hole these daisies have left in my garden have certainly caused me a lot of grief.

I keep reminding myself to have patience and stay on top of them, and they will become maintenance free. These daisies were planted two years ago, and I never water them. They bloomed beautifully this year. They are finishing up their grand June show in this photo.

My hanging baskets are finally performing well also. These baskets were put together in May, but are just now really "taking off." I think it was worth the wait.

The soft scalloped edges of the petunias and purples and yellows help complement the colors and shapes in the garden bed below.

I even have a nice view from the couch to enjoy on days when it's too hot to sit outside.

So, that's my English Cottage Garden! If anyone needs some evening primrose, stop by and I'll dig some up for you. It's seriously getting out of control!

Bring it on Fay!

2008-08-18T10:22:00.002-04:00

It looks like Hurricane Fay could land on Asheville by the end of the week. All I can say is, "Bring it on." Maybe if Fay dumps her rainy goodness on us for a couple days, I will be allowed to wash my car again!

Surprise Guest

2008-08-15T09:32:00.003-04:00

As I was admiring my knockout roses this morning, I was surprised to find that some of the blooms had taken on a purple tint. "Wait a minute," I thought, these are red knockout roses. Besides, purple knockout roses don't even exist yet. On closer inspection, I regained my sanity and found that a morning glory vine had somehow made its way into the rose bed and was climbing up the canes, intermingling its lovely purple hues with the fading red roses.

I can't even begin to imagine where this surprise guest originated! There are no store-bought plants in this bed, so the morning glory couldn't have hitched a ride in a potted plant, and I haven't added foreign soil to the rose bed in two years!

My only guess is that this seed traveled via air wide and far to reach its final sprouting place, but that idea is pretty far-fetched.

Regardless of how it got here, I really like it. I think next year I will plant a couple purple morning glories on purpose!

Sugar Buns

2008-08-14T10:11:00.003-04:00

Ian's grandparents always grow the most delicious varieties of sweet corn. Last year they grew sugar buns and just raved about how sweet and juicy it was, so we decided to give it a try this year. We grew honey 'n pearl last year, and although it was fabulous, we're always up for something different.

We sowed 5 rows of sugar buns in May, in two successive plantings (two weeks apart) so the corn would last longer than it did last year. You have to eat corn pretty fast, or the bugs will eat it for you. One interesting thing to note about sugar buns is that the tassels are red instead of yellow like most other types of corn.

You know corn is ready for harvest when the tassels turn brown, and the kernels at the top of the ear feel plump when squeezed. You shouldn't peel back the husk of an ear while on the stalk, or you will send an invitation for insects to take up residence in the ear. Here are our first two ears of sugar buns, harvested August 5th.

Here are some tips for growing corn in the home garden:

You can only grow one variety in a given season; otherwise, the various strains will cross-pollinate and you could end up with inedible corn.

You are going to get worms in your corn, especially if you leave it on the stalk after it has matured. The only way to control worms is with potent pesticides. Leave the chemicals on the shelf and just snap off the wormy tip of the corn. They don't eat much. Beware of the "perfect" corn you find in the grocery store - it has been bombarded with nasty chemicals to achieve aesthetic perfection.

Sow your seeds closer together than the seed pack suggests. I recommend 2 inches. When growing small crops, you need the stalks as close together as possible so the wind can successfully pollinate the ears.

Sweet corn is so quick and easy to cook. Get your pot of water boiling good and steady, and drop your ears in for just THREE minutes. That's right! It takes just three minutes to cook perfect sweet corn. If you're cooking it longer, you are actually cooking it too long, and the additional time is spent softening the corn back up.

Mmmm .... Perfection!

Sugar buns is a shorter sweet corn than average, reaching less than 5 feet in height. We used no pesticides on the plants, and fertilized them twice with an organic fertilizer - once when the seedlings were just 2 inches tall and again when the silks began to appear on the stalk. The ears are smaller than honey 'n pearl when first reaching maturity, but leaving them on the stalk for an extra week or so helps increase their size. Of course this also increases the risk of insect infestation, so keep a close eye on the ears.

Rose Sale

2008-08-12T10:49:00.003-04:00

All roses at heirloomroses.com are on sale for $7.95 until this Sunday, August 17th. I ordered a Joseph's Coat climber this Spring and was very happy with the quality. These roses are regularly $16.95, so $7.95 is a steal! I'm trying to brainstorm where I can put more of these fantastic roses! I don't want to miss out on this deal!

Grow Your Own

2008-08-07T08:54:00.002-04:00

This is my daily morning view. I sit on the back porch with a hot cup of coffee freshly poured from the French press and enjoy the sound of birds chirping away about this or that. Sometimes the sprinkler keeps me company with its rhythmic ticking, but Norman is always there to keep an eye out for squirrels and an ear open for unusual noises.

Not only is the view beautiful, but the harvest is even more pleasing! What a burden we have on our shoulders to eat all this veg before it goes bad. Lucky for us, friends and family are always eager to assist us!

I love this time of year - the time when we plan each meal around what is ripe in the garden. It is so awesome not to walk aimlessly through the grocery store trying to decide what we will eat all week. The garden decides for us!

Right now we have so much to choose from; eggplant, corn, green peppers, tomatoes, squash and green beans. The squash and green beans are beginning to throttle back on their production, but I'm about to sow a second planting of each. I hope to get them harvested before the first frost, and I think there is enough time to do so.

If you don't already grow your own veg, I encourage you to consider planning a garden for next year. I can't describe how rewarding and therapeutic the garden has been for me. You can start with a simple 4'x4' raised bed constructed of lumber and filled with compost, top soil and peat. Tomatoes, beans and squash are super easy to grow given 6-8 hours of direct sunlight and a little bit of water. The rewards are just priceless.