Organic gardener growing food and flowers, lovin' pollinators and birds.

Reflecting

I've been thinking a lot lately about how this year's garden turned out and where it may be headed in 2012. While I begin to dog-ear catalog pages for seeds I want to buy, my mind goes back to where it all started.

This small piece of land was an oasis for me when I was a child. In it, my father taught me basics about annuals, perennials and concrete statuary to make up for our non-native wildlife in the city.  Over time, we created the path that is shown in the photo below. He was the muscle power, driving multiple pounds of white rock to our garden (and killing the struts on our station wagon in the process) as he attempted to create bigger and better raised beds. (He actually grew better roses then I do today- I don't remember his having blackspot!) What I didn't learn in that garden I learned in my grandfather's, where he grew tomatoes and pumpkins along his property line and the railroad tracks. He taught me to love the smell of tomatoes warmed by the sun, and to enjoy the pucker of the tart cherries from his trees. Some of my favorite memories of my childhood have taken place in those gardens. 


I had no idea what was in store!

Here's to a happy and healthy new year in 2012 - may your garden fill your heart with lasting memories and may your roses not get blackspot!
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The Good News

The test results for my soil samples arrived right before Christmas. The good news: the lead levels in my soil are "low, typical background levels."

Great!

The not so great news is that my soil actually needs a lot of work.  It's classified as sandy loam throughout the three test areas.

The spot along my neighbor's fence, where I hoped to transplant raspberry bushes, has above optimum phosphorus levels. The pH of the soil is 4.6 in this area, where I also have a rhododendron bush growing. This plant needs acidic soil to survive (a pH of 4.5 to 6.0 is ideal, according to the American Rhododendron Society). Raspberries need a pH of 5.8-6.5, so it looks like I'll have to work on raising this level in order for the two to coexist. The calcium, magnesium and potassium levels are all in the below optimum fields. I wonder if this area suffers so greatly in the nutrient department because it is a victim of major rainwater runoff from my neighbor's higher property line.

Shifting to the front of the property, the soil is a bit better. The pH is 4.9 where I hope to plant eggplants next spring. Right now this is a patch of grass in front of the butterfly-shaped garden. Phosphorus and potassium are at optimum levels while calcium and magnesium are in the below optimum range. Since this will be a new bed, it will be getting imported soil in the spring, so I'm not too concerned about  it at the moment.

The garden by the road is actually the best pH, at 5.4. But the nutrients are all at below optimum levels, so it needs help as well. This area has multiple plant needs, so it will probably need the most work.

What I like best about the soil tests from UConn is that in addition to the test results, the lab made recommendations for fertilizers based on the plants I am growing (or hope to grow) in that area. They also included handouts to help explain certain plant needs. What a wealth of information for only $8 a test!
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Gardening in December

I can say, for certain, that this is the first time I've ever been able to plant a rose bush in December here in the northeast.

And if I didn't have errands to run, I probably could have planted my potted mums and leftover daylilies in the ground today too.

The weather has been so erratic, that I was even outside taking soil samples for testing today without a coat on. It feels more like spring than December.

Speaking of the soil samples, I know it's a good practice to test your soil, especially if there is an area where a plant is not doing well. I've always kept this in the back of my mind, and pretty much ignored it. Hey, I didn't need to really worry, right? Add more compost until it looks good. I thought that way until this past week when a customer (at the bakery I work at) came in and started to talk gardening with me. We talked about vegetable gardening, and she explained why she had to use the community garden in town.

"There's just too much lead in my soil."

"Oh?" I had never really thought about that before. Sure, my father had instilled in  me to not use raised beds ever with pressure-treated wood, and to not plant vegetables as foundation plantings against your house, but never had I considered that the lawn could be contaminated.

"Oh yeah," she continued. "I have a 100-year-old house, so the amount of lead in my soil was unbelievable."

"How did you get it tested?" I asked, now feeling uneasy.

"UConn lets you send soil samples in - it's really inexpensive."

About $8 per cup of dirt to sample, actually.

So today, on this extrememly unseasonably warm day, I took three soil samples from three different areas in my garden. The first came from the area along my neighbor's fence in the back yard, where I wanted to transplant all my raspberry bushes.

The second is from the bed along the road, where a rhododendron is simply miserable.

And the third is from the lawn, in front of the butterfly bed, where I was considering moving my eggplants to next summer.

I could literally test at least a dozen more locations, but my wallet may bleed if I do. (Ok, it's not that bad, but my vegetables are all in raised beds, so I figure I can postpone that temporarily.)

The soil was a little too wet to mail out today, so I'm hoping to be able to bag the samples tomorrow and make it to the post office in time to mail them. Results are sent back within 7-10 days. I figure it's good to know what I'm up against before the winter sets in, and my gardening planning kicks in.

And I'm hoping for the best possible outcome. My house is from the 1950s. Let's hope they didn't use lead paint.
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Garden Resolutions

At the end of every season, I start to compile little notes of things I want to do better next year, or definitely not repeat, or something I saw somewhere else and want to copy in my garden. Usually the notes get more feverish as the winter toils on, and in greater quantity. By the time the tulips are blooming, I'm usually overcome with spring fever, breaking rules I set for myself and allowing exceptions into the garden cart.

So here's my attempt to be a better planner for 2012. (And my ramblings for the future.)


1. Cut down on the tomatoes! There is way too much space devoted to growing them, and the yields have been hit and miss over the past two years.
2. Impatiens along the garage in pots worked really well. So did growing them by seed.
3. Sweet allysum works well grown from seed, and in pots. Try to incorporate more plants into the garden where the spring bulbs are blooming.
4. Get the proper equipment to grow pole beans. Maybe skip bush beans?
5. Eggplant need more sun- perhaps grow them in a bed on the front lawn?
6. Try to grow pumpkins along the border with my neighbor, in front of the lilacs.
7. A book I'm reading now, called "Slow Gardening," suggested (tongue in cheek) to grow a living fence of corn between neighbors. Hmmm....
8. Try to grow more zinnias around the back patio.
9. Start cosmos seeds directly in ground. (They get too leggy when I start them inside and try to transfer out.)
10. The lettuce bed with carrots worked really well! (And I'm still harvesting lettuce and parsley today, without the aid of a floating row cover or cold frame! Wow!)
11. Get more hellebores.
12. Create pots out front like window boxes we photographed in Vermont.


That's a decent start.
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The Bird Count Begins!

Tufted Titmouse at the feeders in late October.

This year I'm taking part in Project FeederWatch, which is celebrating it's 25th year. It's the first time I'm officially counting the birds that visit my two feeding stations (and garden). I registered earlier this week so I don't have my official login information yet, but I'm keeping a notepad handy to record information until it arrives. The official count runs between Nov. 12, 2011 and April 6, 2012. According to the website, data from Project FeederWatch helps "scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distrubution and abundance."

To avoid counting the same birds over and over, the directions specify to count the largest number of each bird variety you see at one time. For example, earlier this morning I only saw one tufted titmouse at my feeder, but by this afternoon, there were three in the garden at one time. So my current tally is three. I only count birds for two consecutive days, then I skip five days (different directions apply if you do not count online). Since I don't have my official kit yet, I'm considering treating today as a trial day, and making my usual count days Sundays and Mondays, when I definitely would have more access to watching the feeders.

For more information on how to participate, click here.
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Week in Review

The calm after the storm.




We did end up losing power 15 minutes after I made my last post. And it didn't come back on until Tuesday at 2:30 a.m. We were part of the lucky CT residents who got power back early. Today, there are still state residents in the dark waiting for damage to be fixed to their homes so the power can come back on.
Neighbor's lilac bush under weight of the snow. (Taken before we lost power Saturday.)
Our front walkway with perennials (The Fairy Rose and Agastache, among others)
bending from weight of the snow. (Taken before we lost power on Saturday.)
Luckily, we fared well in the storm. The first night- Saturday - the winds tossed the trees around our property back and forth. It was dark, and the noise was frightening. Overnight, something hit our roof, and we braced ourselves for damage that luckily never came. Sunday morning, the snow had slowed and I opened the front door to see what waited outside. Six inches of snow clung to our trees and sent them bowing over.
View from the front door.

Our Kwanzaa cherry tree under the weight of the snow.

Our poor pear tree. Luckily, the damage is not as bad as it appeared on Sunday morning!
A little bird surveys the damage.

There was an alarmingly large number of tree damage in our town. Our neighbor's maple tree took a beating-- dropping branches on our roof and suspending an incredibly large one upside down in our yard.
Damaged maple tree branch dangles over our property.

As the snow slowly melted as the week went on, the rapid advancement toward winter and the absence of fall became obvious.

Baptista seed pods on Monday morning.
Hydrangea leaves on Monday morning.
Still, the garden fought on. This unseasonable weather has dampened my spirits as well. Try as hard as I might to get motivated to clean up the yard, rake, cut back plants, and more, my heart is not in it. The season was ripped away.


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October Snowstorm

I'm inside hoping the power doesn't go out and listening to the cracking of tree branches every once in a while.  I'm hoping we can keep power - I know many people who have already lost power nearby. I'm praying that nothing lands on our house either.

What a wicked trick Mother Nature is playing today in the Northeast!

Little gerber daisy- looks like she has a winter hat and muff on!

David Austin Rose

David Austin Rose
Trees out back.
Why is it that whenever I want to photograph myself with a plant doing exceptionally well that Mother Nature has to come along and ruin things? First it was the Shasta Daisies before Hurricane Irene, now this!
Trees behind our fence are already bending from the weight of the snow.
Pear tree out front. I attempted to shake snow off - we'll see what happens.
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First snow

I've been in a whirlwind of working at my day job lately, where I seem to leave when it's dark outside, and return home when night has already fallen. I've only seen the garden as I pull in and out of the driveway each day for the last two weeks. So it seems especially cruel that right now, it's dark, wet and sloshy snow is falling. I didn't get outside to protect my winter crop of lettuce or my parsley. It seems as if we had a late Indian Summer that spiraled immediately into winter. It's disappointing. I'm not ready for this!
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Garlic Planting Time


After a cold snap earlier this week with overnight temperatures in the lower 40s, this weekend is back up to 80 degree days. The leaves are just beginning to turn here in Connecticut, and I probably could wait a few weeks more to plant my garlic, but sometimes you have to bend the rules a little bit with gardening. Nice weather and free time preempt waiting a few more weeks.



I like garlic because it is fairly easy to grow. I have two varieties this fall. A German Hardneck that I grew myself and a new variety called Music, which I acquired from a local garden shop.

Pick a location that gets a lot of sun and that you will have easy access to water. Garlic grows best this way. I've tried growing it in part sun/shade and the bulbs I harvested were small as a result.


I start out by adding some compost to my grow bed that had tomatoes in it this summer. (I practice crop rotation in my garden.)


I made several holes in a diamond pattern throughout the bed, approximately 4-5 inches deep. In each hole I placed a garlic clove. (I used the largest ones that I harvested earlier in the summer. The smaller ones will find their way to the cooking pot.)  Then I covered each one up and watered them. That's it!


I filled the entire raised bed with the German Hardneck variety. Looks like I'll have to find another location for Music!

Update 10.8.16: I've read that using an organic fertilizer after planting and mulching the bed with chopped straw makes a difference and creates big heads of garlic. I plan on trying that this year!
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Shopping for bulbs

What have you been buying for spring bulbs? I've been dog-earring and making lists of bulbs I want - and I'm running out of time to order - at least for the best selection. (In the past I've ordered from White Flower Farms (WFF) and last year I tried out John Scheepers. I've been happy with both, but "The Works" daffodil collection from WFF is a little more expensive now.)

On Monday I took the impulsive jump and started purchasing bulbs from area garden centers.  Here's my loot:
Vanguard Crocus
Zurel Tulip
Burgundy Tulip

I'm on a purple flower kick it seems! I'm planning on planting all of the above (about 10 bulbs of each) in the new butterfly-shaped garden that is out front. Since the tulips are late spring, I hope it will help transition into the David Austin roses planted there.

And of course, I couldn't leave out the daffodils. I ended up going back to the store to snag the last one of these daffodil collections (shown below). At first I thought I didn't want a mix, but then 100 bulbs for $31.99 is pretty good... so we'll see how it comes out!

I still may get a few more ... if I can whittle down that list!

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Flying creatures

The bumblebee sips nectar from the toad lily.
This dragonfly poses just long enough to have his photo taken.

The hummingbird visits the annual blue salvia
by my front door.
I've been fascinated by the flying creatures visiting my garden, more so than usual the last few days. There's the bees, which seem to be more plentiful this time of year. Maybe it's the type of flowers that are blooming now, such as the toad lilies or the sedum, that attract more bees than other flowers throughout the growing season.

And there's also the recent steady appearance of the hummingbird that has really caught my attention. I was finally able to attract him and his mate to my feeder. (After trying on and off for two previous summers!)  I'm really happy to have them in the yard, and I've been caught several times by my husband watching them from my kitchen window.  I was able to sneak a photo in of the hummingbird when he wasn't looking. Hopefully I'll have more opportunities to photograph him before he heads south this fall.

Lastly, but not at all the least, is the dragonfly, which I hope is being fulfilled on a steady diet of mosquitoes. (We've had so much rain that every time I go outside they seem to be making a meal of me!) I've found the dragonflies to be the most patient to be photographed before they grow bored with me and fly off.

~ ~ ~

In other news, we're having very unseasonable high temperatures in the 80s this week- it's not suppose to continue for much longer, though. I was able to sow seeds for peas, carrots and lettuce for my fall crops, so hopefully I've timed that correctly! I was also surprised to learn today that the "onions" I was trying to grow all summer were mislabeled at the garden center. I now have GIANT scallions. Blech!
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Reflection

The pear tree is getting taller. (Sept. 11, 2011)

I didn't post on Sunday because I didn't feel it was appropriate to include my garden journal on a topic as heavy as the tenth anniversary of Sept. 11. But the image of the sky this past Sunday I can't get out of  my head. The entire day was beautiful, just as I remembered it being 10 years ago when I lived in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. It brought back my memories of sitting in Christianity class (an elective) that morning when the professor rolled up the window shades. I can't remember his exact words, but it was to the effect of what a beautiful day it was that God had made.

"Look at the blue sky!"

After leaving that class, I found out the Trade Towers had fallen. The world as I had known it was forever changed.

Looking at the bluest sky we've had in a while this past Sunday brought all of that back. I hope you found your own private way to remember those who lost their lives that day.
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Goodbye, pumpkin

I had to remove my pumpkin today from the garden thanks to a severe outbreak of powdery mildew. It didn't set any pumpkins this season, and just started to get the female flowers (I was getting lots of male flowers all summer long). I decided to cut my losses after consulting with my local plant nursery. I felt bad bagging it up for the trash can (I was told not to compost it since the powdery mildew could survive the compost pile). Maybe next year I can give it another go. Apparently it's been a hard growing season for pumpkins.
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Rainy Days

Sweet Autumn Clematis
It's been a few rainy days here in Connecticut, but it wasn't bad enough to not go outside and photograph the Sweet Autumn Clematis that has begun to bloom. This sweet-smelling vine is a highlight in the fall garden. It grows really quickly, which I consider an asset in my third-year garden.

I even sowed some peas and carrots during the rainstorm last evening while waiting for Rob to get home from work. (The rain has brought some cooler temperatures along with it.) The neighbors must have thought I was pretty crazy to be out in the pouring rain, hunched to the ground underneath an umbrella and playing in the dirt.

But then again, maybe they weren't.

You can see the rain falling behind this white anemone that should bloom very soon!
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Garlic is Ready

Last year I attended a workshop on how to grow garlic at the Salem Herb Farm, located in Salem, Conn. Afterwards the "class" was able to purchase garlic to try growing themselves.

This was my first year growing garlic, and I have to say, I'm definitely going to continue to do so.

At right is the variety I grew, a German Hardneck variety. In mid-July I harvested it when half the leaves had turned yellowish brown, and hung them in a bunch behind the back door. It was a somewhat darker spot in the house that had some air circulation as well. It's a rainy dark day today in Connecticut, and I can't do much outside. I cleaned the cloves today by peeling back the outer layers and snipping most of the stalks and roots off.  I'll be saving the largest cloves for planting in October, so I can do it all over again. (The smaller cloves will be used in future meals.)

Yesterday, I purchased a second variety, called Music, again from the Herb Farm. Maybe it's time to cut out a few tomatoes and make room for larger plots of garlic.
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Collecting seeds

Blackberry lilies gone to seed.

They may look like bugs, but these are actually seed pods
from impatiens that have exploded.
The daylight hours are waning, and the temperature is cooler in the mornings - it's time to wind down the garden and start planning for next year. I've begun collecting seeds for use next spring. One such plant that I'm collecting right now are impatiens seedlings. When the seed pods are picked, they explode when touched, spitting seeds out everywhere. I've collected some in a glass dish to dry and will store in an envelope until next February.

I let lots of flowers go to seed and leave them in the garden. Some, such as the coneflowers, provide food for birds, while others, like the blackberry lily (which resembles an iris in that it has the same type of leaves), I leave alone for their ornamental value.

This past spring I was surprised to have volunteer seedlings from nicotiana, verbena, bee balm, cosmos and pansies. I've learned to not have a heavy hand when cleaning out garden beds in the spring to let everything take it's time in coming up. Sooner or later, I can tell if it's a plant I want or a weed.
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What's blooming now

Buddelia

Anemone, or Wind Flower

Calendula in tomato bed.

Calendula in pots.
Lantana in pots. They are blooming so well right now while other
plants have died down. Will have to remember this for next year!
Hibiscus
Not blooming, but close to being ready to pick! These are Asian Pears.
Aster by front entryway.
Toad Lily in the back shade garden.

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