April showers and all that

I love how quickly we go from snow and cold to green and somewhat warmer.  The spring days break the grumpy, cynical nature of the northmen and everyone is just in a good mood.  We've had some much needed rain, and a few days of unseasonably hot weather, both of which have begun to wake the gardens from their winter slumber.

In the pasture, the area that had burned is less of a horror show and more of a quickly fading scar.                

 

The cottage garden plants are forcing their way through the thick layer of soil I dumped on them last autumn.

                            

Yes, that is an outdoor sofa frame.  I'm using that and some wrought iron outdoor tables as plant supports in these gardens, because why not?  Thrifty Yankee.

In the hot beds at the barn, the yellow crocus I planted are in bloom.  I love them, and hope they spread like mad.

   

In the hillside garden, the garlic is chugging away, and the hellebore is in bloom.  She really needs to go into the forest garden.  I've decided that I probably won't be able to get to the entire forest garden this year, but I will try to get at least one small section done.  Hopefully a few of my shade plants will have a new home by the end of summer.

 

 The Katharine Hodgkin dwarf iris have bloomed.  This is a variety I have wanted for many years, and finally found online.  I also purchased some dwarf iris 'Louise', but I haven't seen it emerge yet.  I'm honestly not sure where I planted it.  Both of these will eventually be moved into the alpine garden when that's ready.

The white forsythia I planted a few years ago as bare root stock has about five flowers this year.  I can't wait until it's a fully grown, bushy shrub covered in these delicate white blooms.

In the back yard I've been working to get the cement block borders in place around the bank I mulched last year.  I can't believe how much grass has pushed through the cardboard and bark mulch already!  I'll have to mulch again this spring, after pulling the grass.

And finally, an update on my winter sowing experiment.  I have germination!  Not in every jug, but I'm happy with what's going on so far.  The teasel, flax, valerian, ammi majus, and most excitedly, the white penstemon seed gathered from my own plant have all germinated.  So far the verbena bonariensis and great burnet are not cooperating, but the pimpinella has about three tiny seedlings, so maybe these just need a little more time or some warmer weather.  I'm pretty stoked with the results.

Not-so-pro-tip - when you tape the containers together, don't use Gorilla tape.  That stuff just does not want to peel off!  I may have to cut some jugs open.

For the next week we're returning to more typical spring weather.  Rainy, raw, and temperatures overnight below freezing.   The winter sown seedlings will come into the garage for protection to be on the safe side.  I'd hate to lose them at this point.  I've started clearing the sumac behind the bitch barn so I can get the rest of the snow fence put up, and hopefully get the hillside garden secured.  The doe and her twins survived the winter and they've already been walking through the cottage and hillside gardens.  I'm not losing veg to these marauders this year if I can help it.

I have pasture edges to cut, rocks and soil to move to the alpine garden, mule fence to get done, cat fence to erect, a squash mound to prepare, and hundreds of seedlings to pot on until it's safe for them to go out.  Sometimes there's so much to do, it feels incredibly daunting.  I keep saying to myself "Just get this project done, and next year you'll have more time to enjoy yourself" but it seems the big projects just drag on and never get completed.  I sometimes find myself frustrated because I'm physically and financially hindered, but then I think about the alternative.  I could be living in an apartment, without the means to have my mules, my gardens, and all these things that keep me so busy.  I really am a lucky gal.

the clock is ticking

Hurry, hurry, rush, rush.  I managed to get the meadow area finish mowed, and finally moved that pile of soil that was under the big blue tarp.  Unfortunately, my wicked awesome tractoring skillz being nonexistent at best, I shredded the tarp and only moved most of the soil.  I ended up dumping buckets full on the cottage gardens and spreading it by hand.  It should act like a mulch over winter and add some material to the bony soil that's there now.  Should.  I hope.  The rest I used to practice spreading and leveling with the bucket.  I think I did ok.

 

 

 

After much contemplation, I decided to replace the fence between Mother's yard and mine.  There was a bit of a kerfluffle earlier this year when I discovered that her cat had been using my leek planter as a toilet, and her dog would sail over the short decorative fence into my yard.  I wanted to finish the dead hedge, but I have big ideas and little ambition, so I went with a 4' snow fence.  

I may replace the gate next year with something more aesthetically pleasing, but for now it does the job.  I purchased a second roll that should extend from the back of the honeysuckle bushes all the way to my hillside garden fence.  This was so easy to install and I like it so much, I may just revamp my pallet fence idea for the hillside garden and use this stuff.  The grade stakes I used for the pallets have rotted and snapped, so the fence that stood so proud earlier this year is in total disarray.  

 

Another chore ticked off the list was cutting the brush along the paddock fence where I had pulled all the bittersweet.  

 I'm now torn between piling the manure here or hauling it to the woodland garden area.  Thankfully, the mules give me a plentiful amount, so I should be able to do both.  I'm thinking next year, this should be my squash garden area.  

Circling back to the hydroponic system I've been playing with...I've had great results.  This was the second round of mesclun mix:

Turns out it was mostly mustard greens, but still, I ate it!  I finally realized why you were supposed to pull the weaker seedling, as this was so packed, not everything was actually thriving.  I pulled a bunch of the mustard greens, planning to cut the greens and toss the plug, when I also remembered that you're supposed to trim the roots every few weeks, or you end up with this crap:

 

I eventually ended up pulling all the plugs and starting fresh with a head lettuce, a leaf lettuce, one tomato plant, and one pepper plant.

The lettuce did amazing and everything was thriving, then I noticed what looked like tiny shavings around the base of the lettuce.  Once again, I've been plagued with aphids!  I pulled everything and tossed it, then cleaned the machine, refilled it with distilled water, and will try again.  I'm really impressed with how well things grow in this system, but once they're full sized the limits of the water reservoir are definitely tested, as well as the space above.  It's also very much a learning curve compared to dirt gardening, but I'm glad I bought this, and I'm having fun despite the few issues I've encountered.  It's all about the fun, right?

The Return of the Friday Chore Day

I'm not complaining about hot, humid weather now, am I?  Glorious crisp, cool autumn weather is upon us, and I'm trying to knock out as many chores as I can before snow flies.  Thank goodness for my every other Friday off!

I haven't worked on the alpine garden because I really wanted to get the manure pile moved before winter.  You can see how much the pile had grown over the last year - in the background to the right of the barn.  That's just a fraction of it.

I picked away at the pile a few weeks ago and moved it over to where the forest garden will be.  Today I snipped some wayward saplings and then spent two and a half hours bucketing manure across the yard.  That old tractor of mine sure does a number on a body!  I feel like I've been beaten half to death, but the pile is moved.  What little I couldn't manage to scrape up I hand raked and spread it around.  It will compost nicely over the winter and add to the soil back there.  

 

The stall mats are out because the rat plague has reached a zenith of infuriating activity.  From what I understand, they are awful everywhere this year.  I don't really feed grain to the mules, so I'm not sure what they're after, but they break through every barrier I put up.  I'll be working on a solution to that - they're too smart to get trapped, but I've found a second one dead in the water bucket.  A sinister plan is hatching!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the driveway...

 Manure has been dumped, then hand raked to get the worst of the lumps out.  The tractor can't get any further up the bank than what's there now, it's steeper than it looks.  Once we have snow I'll haul my daily manure up to the wall area via my manure sled and dump it.  I still have to cut some more saplings and brush toward the end of the driveway area, but that will open up easily accessible areas to dump the manure from now until snow flies.  I still have some 50/50 mix that I'll start spreading over the manure, and next year hopefully I can add either some more of that or topsoil.  I should be able to start planting in here next summer, so long as we get a good winter to rot that manure down.  I'm excited to create this garden, especially in among the mossy rocks and tree roots.  I love the ferns that are already there, and will be adding more.

Between this project and the backyard gardens, I have enough going on to keep me busy for the next few years.  Boy, those garden centers love to see me coming!

 

The Time In Which I Enter My Puttering Phase

It's hot again, but in the next few days temperatures will plummet and we're expecting our first frost.  I've now entered my Puttering Phase.  This is when it doesn't look like like much, but I'm getting a lot done.  

I've split and transplanted all of the tall asters, planting them throughout the meadow area to promote late season color next year.  In their place I've planted Russian sage along the patio's granite face, and perennial sweet pea vine at the base of each side of the arbor.

 

I've also finally planted the Savannah Sunset Ninebark bush I purchased back in the spring.  I feel like having it on the end of the patio opposite of the Yellow Twig Dogwood balances the area.

I planted the New York Ironweed and an Alma Potschke aster near the little water feature, and gave the curly willow a drastic pruning.

The last time I pruned her, I stuck the branches in the big planter out front and managed to get a few of them to root.  I have given away those offspring, and figured I'd try it again.  

I'm really starting to see the future of the backyard space, and can see the layout a little better.  It's beginning to transform into what's been in my head and look less like random areas.  The ultimate goal is to connect each space to make it a whole, continuous garden.

I planted a bunch of allium bulbs in the cottage gardens yesterday and watered them in this morning.  I was shocked to find the deer had gone through the cottage garden and jumped the fence, then laid waste to my green bean plants in the hillside garden! 

Those plants were covered with leaves and had at least enough beans for one last meal on them.  The beans weren't the only victims - they nibbled on my Pagoda Dogwood tree, ate all the little heads of broccoli, and even sampled some of the Pale Purple and Bush's Coneflowers that I had in the cement block bed.  They've never jumped the fence before, I can't believe it.

Speaking of the hillside garden, I've managed to empty two more beds of perennials.  I don't think I'll be doing much more transplanting after this week, but hopefully it will spur me on to empty the rest so that I have more room for vegetables next year.  I want to move the Montauk Daisy out and transplant her somewhere else - that takes up an entire bed itself!  I've never had real success with this plant.  It's a late season bloomer and can be beautiful, but it really has never been happy enough to bloom profusely.  It's a great space eating plant, though, so it may go somewhere where more interest is needed.  Because it's a fall bloomer, she won't be transplanted until spring.

 The other beds have mostly iris and one lavender plant, all of which I plan to move to the alpine garden in the spring.

And as much as I curse them, I have to admit the Jerusalem Artichoke has some spectacular flowers. 

I didn't plant any of those on purpose; they hitched a ride in the roots of my daylily plants when I moved, and I'm still trying to peel them out!  The ones in the hillside garden are the result of me tossing tubers out of the cement block bed when I dig them up.   

I still have plenty of puttering to do before snow flies and the ground freezes, but for now I'll enjoy the limited daylight and relative warmth while I can.

Some late season colors from around the gardens that I'm enjoying while puttering - the cosmos have really produced despite the lack of water:

And as I finish this post the next morning, these jerks have once again breached the hillside garden walls and laid waste to everything they hadn't touched the night before.  

 So much for my brussel sprouts.  I love the wildlife, I say through gritted teeth.