WELCOME SPRING!!!

The OFFICIAL First Day of Spring!!!

What a fantastic day it was too.

Kermit and I made a nice Sunday breakfast, I worked on the yearbook a little in the morning.

Being such a nice day, we had to go on an adventure!  Opened up the Jeep, and off we went.  We took CiCi and Sofie to "Heart of the Monster" in Kamiah for a walk and some tracking training.  CiCi trained, Sofie played.  It is so cool to see CiCi when she's in tracking mode.

Came home, and did a bunch of yardwork.  Pulled up the leaves on the perennial beds and put them in the HUGE PILE to be chipped and shredded over Spring Break.

Transplanted my strawberries to a new place, We're going to be replacing the raised beds this year, so I needed to clear the bed under the pile of bags in the foreground.  Picture in the gallery below.

The bunnies both got to play in the yard today.  I only took a picture of Walter though.

Did some minor upkeep on the beds.  Sat and thought about what I want to change this year.

I dug up the hollyhocks today.  Their leaves never looked great, and they were too tall for where they were planted.  I was just done with them.  Shorter plants will be but in their place as not to block the view to the rest of the yard.

Mike grilled chicken for dinner and I sat by the pond, watched the fish, petted the dogs.

Now I'm back inside writing this.  I did finish a background for the yearbook.

ENJOY SPRING!!!

...

Welcome to Spring!

After the snow and cold dispersed, it was really wet.  So I haven't had time to really play in the dirt.

That all changed today!!!

So for my gardening soul, Spring started today, no matter when the official start is.  

I turned over and separated out 3 compost piles.  Took the matted leaves out and sprinkled them in an empty bed to dry out.  When the leaves get a little crispy, I'll put everything through the chipper shredder, add manure, and hopefully it will compost fast.

Prepped my new strawberry bed.  Will transplant tomorrow.  My raised beds need rejuvenating, so I won't have as many veggies this year as a rebuilding year.  Might redo the raised beds in a more artistic manner.  Lots of ideas from Pinterest.

Plants that have come and gone already:  Crocus, Snowdrops.

In Bloom:  Daffodils

Budding in serious mode:  Crab Apple, Lilac, Roses, Weigela, Willow.

Item that has taken over the yard, and it's OK with me:  Leaf Celery.  It's nice looking, only grows in clumps, digs out nicely.  So I let it do what it wants within reason.  I wonder if the rabbits can eat it.  I'll look that up.

The Crabapple tree has been such a joy since its addition.  The squirrels feed off it, the rabbits eat the dried trimmed limbs.  It is the perfect size for the site.

Here are some pictures of the squirrels feasting this Winter.

I should start taking enough pictures to record the color markings like they do on National Geographic.

I am so glad they eat all of these! 

{Le-sigh}  WELCOME SPRING!!!

Wow, so much has happened....

The yard grew of course since May.  Lettuce ended, peppers and tomatoes are ripening on a regular basis now that it is August.

My veggie beds need a rest next year.  The plants just aren't as big, harvest is down.  So next spring will be the "Year of the Soybean."  Plant the whole thing in them and flowers and let it go.  It will help rebuild the soil.

This Fall, I'm planning on replacing my raised beds after 10 years.  A little tweaking on the size and placement, but not a lot.

On to pictures!

Here's a few from June:

CiCi with her buddies the Koi

Walter the Rabbit

 

Pepper in a patch of Lemon Verbena.

Right now, the verbena is about the only perennial that looks half way decent.  Man, it's dry out here.

Some Garden Notes

What has worked:

• Shredding leaves for mulch and adding rabbit bedding.
• Buying herbs and annuals from Hay's in Clarkston
• Chard has done great
• Strawberries used in perennial beds (for looks, not covered so the birds and dogs are getting the fruit) - I do intend to put a permanent strawberry bed SOMEWHERE up on my hill with a cover.  
• All the plants I picked for the pots around the pond are doing wonderfully.
• So far so good on the new blueberry plants.
• One regular
• One pink blueberry bush
• Snow peas did great in the half circle frame.  I'll do that again.

What has NOT worked:

• Welded wire covers over beds with bird netting.
• Robin got caught in it.  Hence, the need for a better location and cover for strawberries.  
• Plus, it just didn't look neat and it got in the way  - A LOT.
• Waiting forever to ship and shred leaves.  Do it earlier next year!
• The year round lettuce never sprouted.  Either it is too hot, or the birds ate them.
• I am going to make frames with bird netting when we make the new raised beds. The seeds need to be protected.
• The lawn.  The freakin' lawn.  Getting water but is UGLY. Need to aerate and fertilize better next year.

Overall, the yard is still our little slice of sanctuary.  Green, water, aaahhhhh.

Just another day out there in the garden.

Emotionally, it's been a tough week for hubby and I.  I thank God for our house and garden as our sanctuary.

I did promise some pics of lettuce!

Snow Peas and Lettuce Mix

Today I planted two kinds of cucumbers.  Marketmore and Burpless.  One is tall, the other is not, so I planted them every other one so they would intertwine.

Marketmore and Burpless Cucumbers

These pics are taking For.ev.er. to upload.  I'll do some more another day.

Gardening Today

Put out a half full bin of finished compost.  Three wheelbarrows of dirt went into the fenceline perennial bed in the side yard.

The pups were out there with me of course.

I found two tree peony seedlings!  Supposedly, they are very hard to grow from seed.  I wonder what color they will be.  I do not know if they are true to color from seed.

For dinner tonight, I am being able to serve my first fresh salad!!!  Freckles, Red Sails, and Butter.

Two wrens are back and nesting in the "Snow in Winter" plant in the dog yard.  This year I saw them, so I know not to go sticking my hand in the plant.

It was pretty windy, so we didn't spend a lot of time sitting out in the yard.

Tomorrow I'll post some pics of the grown up lettuce bed.

We Were Gardening Fools Today!

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Started out by making a quiche for Kermit and me.  It turned out well.  Late breakfast, laid around and goofed off until about 11am.

After breakfast, Kermit and I got to work!

Yesterday, we went plant shopping at Hay's in Clarkston.  They have really good plant stock. 

A plug for Green Things Nursery in Orofino - don't know I'd survive without their local knowledge! 

Today, 9 bags of dirt with manure mixed in from Orofino Builder's Supply.  All of my finished compost, and the leaf/bunny shavings mix I had rotting.

Planted

Early Girl
Roma
Gypsy Pepper
Sun Gold
Anaheim
Pablano
Jalepeno
24 annual flowers mostly Dianthus, Wave Petunias in burgundy, and some grasses for filler.
Quinalt strawberries
Basil - wherever I get this, they come all packed together and you have to rip the poor things apart.  They are all floppy right now, but they always seem to snap into it and produce like crazy.

Seeded 

Chard
Radish
Annual flower that I did not identify for the envelope last year.  It says "I have no idea what this is, but I must have liked it since I saved it."  Now there's some good record keeping for you.

Fiber Optic Grass with Raspberry Dianthus

Roma Tomatoes, Basil, and Radishes

Early Girl Tomatoes, Basil, and Radish

Strawberry Patch  - Quinalt from Green Things and Hay's in Clarkston.
It has welded wire and netting over is so I actually get to eat some of them.  The dogs and birds love the.

Lettuce - almost ready to eat!  Will seed some more on Monday.
Welded wire so the birds didn't eat the seed.
Last year was not a good lettuce year because nothing sprouted.

The chipping and shredding pile from heck.

But then that pile turns into the BEST mulch EVER.

I'll put up the annual mix tomorrow.  

I'm a little sunburnt, but I feel great.

Got to REALLY play in the dirt today!

First of all, a BIG thank you to Joan at Green Things Nursery for selling me strawberry plants when they were technically closed.

I was going to try to plant them up on the hill, but I gave up that idea when it was obvious I'd have to spend at least a week relocating other stuff to make it happen, and that isn't going to happen.

Planted Today:
Pink Lemonade Highbush part Deu.
We planted one last year and the thing died.  Got it from a different source this year and put it in a different spot.  If it produces, it will have pink blueberries!

Elliot Northern Highbush
Smaller variety, blueberry.  When I put this in, I found the rootball to the bush I tried last year.  Did not change AT ALL.  No root growth at all, no wonder it didn't survive.

I planted 25 strawberry plants, and cannot for the life of me remember their name.  They are a variety that grows runners.  I put a cage over the bed to keep the birdies and rottweilers out.  Ok, not Rottweilers, but CiCi!!!!  She has no concept of "Keep the heck out of my beds" yet.  She's getting better.  Lucky she's cute.

The lettuce looks like lettuce now.  Fresh greens in a few weeks!  A bunch of cilantro is sprouting.

Daffodils and Hyacinth faded.  Lilacs and Narcissus are on their way.  Red and yellow tulips in full bloom.  Looks like they actually naturalized a little.  I picked some Tulips from out front because I rather enjoy them inside than let the deer eat them.  Deer LOVE tulips. And lots of other things.

Some pictures from a few days ago:

Miss CiCi

Toad House

Pepper - 10 yr old Rabbit - eating Lemon Verbena!

Can't remember the name.  Very STINKY bulbs.  Deer HATE IT.  I LOVE IT.

Daffodils

Hyacinth

A good roll on the grass

Lettuce.  Three varieties there.  Spreckles, don't know, Red Sails.

Red Tulip - Doubled in spread in 4 years.

Yellow Tulip - about the same naturalization.