Veggie Beds Begun
I am anticipating some veggie planting this weekend so I have started readying my beds. Tonight I turned the small bed and added compost. This is where lettuce will probably live, as well as a few beans, snow peas, and maybe a few herbs (basil, coriander, dill). It doesn't get a ton of sun, so it will be a bit of an experiment. I know lettuce has done great here before.. we'll see about the rest. The columbines are so out of place here - I moved a bunch of them to the perenial bed but they keep multiplying here. The hosta that I moved last year seems to be doing pretty well. (lower right corner).
Perenialville is starting to look promising... lots of blues which I wanted. I still have to get some Bee Balm for in front of the Daisies, and some Maltese cross for behind the Jacob's ladder. And that will be it for now.
I've got some major pruning to do on the Lilac once it's done blooming. It's so overgrown underneath, and there are tons of suckers.
Also, I found a hydrangea type think hiding in amongst the Ninebark that I should find a better spot for.
Guess Who I am?
Well I couldn't resist doing the
quiz on Science Nerd's page - here are the (not-so) surprising results..... I'm not sure about the neat-freak part?
| You Are Bert |
Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them!
You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you
You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil
How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others |
Garden-wise there isn't too much to report - kind of took the weekend off after my manic gardening the weekend before. I have to start gearing up for vegetable planting. More updates later in the week.
Perenial Bed Sunday update
Brought over some Jacob's ladder (mid row) and some Purple Coneflower (back row). Plans are to get some more Lily -of-the-Valley (front row) and some Maltese Cross (back row) later in the week. To round it all out I'm going to try and find some Bee Balm (mid row) at the greenhouse, and that should be MORE than good enough for this bed for this year. Just a bit more cleaning up, but otherwise I'll let it grow and see how it looks. Most of the stuff that I've planted it pretty bird and butterfly friendly, so hopefully I'll see alot of them this summer. Also, I'm curious to see how the color come together. So far I've got all blues, whites and pinks, and no yellows that I know of (which I was trying to stay away from). Hopefully it will be nice. I can't remember what color the Lupines are... purple and white I think.
I think I've identified the mystery shrub in the back as Ninebark - it is supposed to get white flowers and berries later in the summer but I don't remember from last year at all. Also found what looks like a young Hydrangea which I plan to move this weekend... maybe outside the bed beside the fence if it's going to grow tall.
Probably won't do much this week, but I'll update this weekend.
Front Raised Bed
The raised bed got finished in a mere three or so hours, and we filled it in today with nice loam. I worked it into the rest of the old dirt, removing all the weeds as I went. Brought over a nice Monkshood into the bare spot where I stole some Cornflower and Phlox for the back, and the bed is starting to take shape. I still need something else for beside the Peony. The False Indigo is coming along slowly, and something else should go there in the meantime. Mostly blues and pinks in this bed already, aside from the yellow Forsythia which is long finished, so I'll go poke around the greenhouse for something to match.
Back Shrub Bed
Lots of work on this bed this weekend - moved a green and white Euonymus from the back of the bed into the front corner, as well as a small Potentilla. Found a yellow and green Euonymus in the back of the Perenial garden (could hardly see it behind everything) and moved it in here too. Removed a huge overgrown and mangey looking creeping juniper, and the whole thing looks tons better. Pruned the dogwood and elder, all with the help of my mom (thanks!). Plans are to finish pulling the creeping juniper at the other end of the bed, and then cover it all with cloth and then cedar wood chips to keep the weeds down. I'll start to think of some other things to put in later on, even next year or in the fall, but I'll be happy with it after that. I have to figure out what that evergreen is...
Perenial Bed
I cleaned up my perenial bed finally. This included digging up and transplanting numerous raspberry shoots back into the raspberry bed itself and then putting up stakes and string to keep it all in place. Next came a bunch of weed pulling and a bit more transplanting. I moved some (correction) Cornflower and Phlox from the front bed into this one. After it was all cleaned up I could actually see what I had, and most of it looked pretty good. Even the Perenial Sage I bought last year is slowly coming back. Major players in this garden continue to be Forget-Me-Nots and Yarrow. I have a few more things I want to transplant ie. some more Lily-of-the-Valley along the front edge, some Jacob's ladder and some taller plants towards the back (maybe some Purple Coneflower - thanks for the seeds Sly!).
Sunday update
Not too much happening in the garden this week - I planted my Sweet Peas in the trench, and ended up with tons of leftover seeds, all soaked and ready to go. I planted another row of them in the front, to cover the ugly area underneath the stairs. I still had a bunch left, so I planted some in pot which I've put on the front steps. It rained for a good few days afterwards, so hopefully I will be swimming in sweet peas in no time.
I'm going to do an inventory of my other beds this week and then post like crazy!
Sweet Pea Trench Part 2 and Raspberries
I finished the Sweet Pea trench today - bought some Triple Mix from C.T. and mixed with the existing soil and it seems to be pretty good. I had some left over stones so I kind of made an extension of the corner bed so it's connected now. I have to level out a few more stones, but I think I'm going to like it. I'll soak the Sweet Pea and Snow Pea seeds tonight and plant them tomorrow. The snow peas will go in the corner bed. Originally I was going to put some stakes so they can climb, but I'm thinking of just putting them along the fence similar to the Sweet Peas. I can use the inside area for something else then.
I also pruned my raspberries - I never really know what I'm doing, so I just cut down the old canes from last year, and cleaned up around them, as it's getting really cluttered with dead leaves and also pretty weedy. Last year I thought the raspberries didn't do very well, but now I'm starting to think that they are just migrating. There are a ton of suckers popping up in my perenial garden (great) and behind the fence (ok) but less so in the actual raspberry bed. I think I may have to do some cutting down of suckers - I'll read more and do more this week, but for now the bed looks tons better (see pile of old canes in the foreground).
One funny thing - for some reason I hate working with gloves in the garden. FYI - not a good idea when pruning raspberries - I always forget.... check it out - OUCH!!
So my plan for the week is to get the Sweet Peas in the ground and maybe transplant some perenials from the front bed to the back bed, and put that's Monk's Hood from my mom in the front in their place. I'll do some research on the best time for transplanting perenials, but I think it's now. Maybe a bit more work with the Raspberries if I can figure out what they want from me.
Planting Guide
Just found a couple of cool links:
The website
You Grow Girl has a downloadable excel spreadsheet called "
The Lazy Gardener's Automatic Seed Starting Chart". You type in the Last Frost Date for your region and it calculates when to plant, and/or when to start the seeds for many plants.
According to the
Farmer's Almanac our Last Frost Date here in Sudbury is May 17th this year. From this it seems I could have planted my peas back in April. Good to know for next year.
Sweet Pea Trench
Tuesday night project was digging a trench for my Sweet Peas. I planted them in my veggie garden last year, and it was a little cramped. I thought this would be better, and they can climb up the fence and look all pretty.
I got as far as digging the trench and emptying out the soil. The soil was a little sad looking, so I added a bit of Sheep Manure and tossed it all together. It looked better, but still not great. I think I will just go and get some proper soil tomorrow (Triple Mix or something like that), so the project is on hold until then. I have some of that plastic barrier stuff that I'll put down to prevent the lawn from taking the space back. Then it's planting time.
As I was digging this trench I was thinking that if this spot turns out to be good for sun-loving plants I may widen it next year (taking over more lawn) and make a big L shaped vegetable garden.
Front Bed
So I'll start with the front bed, which despite what it looks like has come along way
There is a nice Forsythia at the far end, which I pruned like crazy last year. Not knowing any better at the time I pruned it too soon and it didn't look even close to this nice last year. It still needs a bit more shaping, but I'll wait until the bloom is finished to do it as are the rules.
At the nearest side there is an amazing Peony. I'll post pics once it blooms but it was absolutely gorgeous last year. I haven't done a thing to it except put up the support rod, and clean out the junk from last year. Hopefully this year's blooms are as nice.
Next to the Peony I planted 2 new things last year:
1. Blue False Indigo which is apparently good for poorer soil, and can tolerate lots of sun. It's a wildflower. I can already see healthy looking growth, so that's a good sign. It has a pole in place as it is a climber.
2. Spanish Thrift - a cute pink ground cover - almost looks a bit cactus-like right now. Supposedly good in poorer soils and full sun. I see 2 healthy looking tufts already, but not too spready looking yet. I don't think it's overly aggressive. Probably good for this bed, but not perennial-ville in the back. It would get eaten alive.
In between are a mish-mash of Periwinkle, some kind of Flox, Evening Primrose and a random Daffodil. A few Lily-of-the-Valley showed up last year, as well as Sunflowers and some Pansies. I'm not in love with this stuff in the front. I think I'm going to move at least some of the Flox and Primrose to the back perennial bed to fill it out. Neither of them seem overly spready, so I think I can keep them under control back there. Why I don't like them in the front is 2 fold:
1. Color - Most of them don't bloom until later on in the summer. With the forsythia color over so quickly, there is not much color in the bed except the Peony for much of the summer. While the Peony is gorgeous it is just one plant. So at the very least I need to make some room for something else.
2. Size and Feel - Although there are several plants they feel kind of small, and make the bed look a bit messy, and half hazard in my opinion. I'd like to add something a tad bigger, that has a more substantial feel on it's own, without being overly formal. I am inheriting a Monk's Hood from my mom which I think will fit the bill.
I'm going to do the moving this weekend, so I'll post pics of the finished product then. For now here's two pics of the new members of the front bed:
Blue False Indigo (back around the pole) and Spanish Thrift in the front. And some weeds of course. I hate pulling anything right now in case it is actually something good. I'm also very lazy. Check out the plant on the back left - it almost looks like raspberry leaves, but I'm sure it's not. Any ideas?
Lastly, the soil is ridiculously dry in this bed. I put so much top soil in it last year, but to little avail. Ultimately I'd like to built it up a bit - maybe make a nice wooden raised bed here, and try and keep the soil in place a bit better.
I almost feel like I have a plan.
I am anticipating some veggie planting this weekend so I have started readying my beds. Tonight I turned the small bed and added compost. This is where lettuce will probably live, as well as a few beans, snow peas, and maybe a few herbs (basil, coriander, dill). It doesn't get a ton of sun, so it will be a bit of an experiment. I know lettuce has done great here before.. we'll see about the rest. The columbines are so out of place here - I moved a bunch of them to the perenial bed but they keep multiplying here. The hosta that I moved last year seems to be doing pretty well. (lower right corner).
Perenialville is starting to look promising... lots of blues which I wanted. I still have to get some Bee Balm for in front of the Daisies, and some Maltese cross for behind the Jacob's ladder. And that will be it for now.
