Long Overdue Garden Update #1
Woweee - haven't updated in a while.
General News:
Biggest storm ever caused some big damage to the property. We lost a couple of big trees, but mostly everything else stayed in tact. We did end up with a big pile of firewood as a result, and the city came by and took away all the rest. They have also commited to planting a new tree in it's spot - very cool and totally unexpected.
Veggie Garden:Successes: Snow peas and Beans are the best - I'm never NOT doing them again - so easy, and we're already harvesting crops. Next year I'm definitely doing successive planting of beans. Tomatoes are looking good, I've been trying to keep up on the watering. Surprisingly some last minute additions of cucumbers have done really well. I will start more of them way earlier next year (probably on a dedicated trellis of some kind - they are just climbing the fence this year). Onions are yummy and so easy - I'm going to plant more varieties next year.
Unsuccesses: Absolutely no luck with the green peppers. I've heard many others saying the same thing, so either it's a bad year for peppers, or we're all doing something wrong. Lettuce, carrots and radishes were a disaster. I think in my eagerness to conserve water I let a nice crusty layer form on this bed, and the seeds couldn't break through. Note to self for next year.
Perenials:Things looked alot better this summer in general in this bed. Yarrow is going crazy right now, and the Phlox is just about ready to bloom. They are both pink and definitely look good together. I ended up adding tons of stuff over the spring and early summer, so it will be interesting to see what happens next year. What's new: Feverfew, Lavender, Bee Balm, Purple Coneflower, Monkshood, Mint, Liatris, Maltese Cross. Hopefully I'll see most of it again next year.
Shrubville:Since I cleaned up this bed, I bought some awesome cocoa shells for mulch, but then realized that this is toxic to dogs, so I'll be digging it up this week, and giving the rest of the bag away to
Science Nrrd. It smelled SO nice though, and the birds seemed to love it.
I got a nice clump of Stonecrop from a friend of mine at at work. I think it's
Sedum herbstfreude 'Autumn Joy' if I'm not mistaken.
Here it is. It will grow to roughly 3' x 3'.
Other:
The Sweet Pea trench worked out well, as did the Sweet Peas that I planted in the pot. I think I may continue to use the trench, but seed them a little thinner next year because they were tangling around themselves like crazy this year.
Potted Herbs are doing well except the SEED TAPE BASIL - no surprise, only one measly plant popped up. I also completely forgot about it after I planted them and never watered them so that MIGHT be part of the problem.
Shrubby-goodness
I bought a couple of shrubs on the weekend, one for the front bed (Weigela Florida Minuet) and one for the back bed (Genista lydia). Here's the low-down:
Genista lydia (Dwarf Genista)
After I got home (and of course after I already planted the Genista) I did some googling and found mixed info regarding its hardiness zone. I like
this page because it tells me what I want to hear which is that this shrub is good for Zone 3. Other pages (like
this one on the Ontario Gardening site) say as high as zone 9. After looking at the
Canada Zone Map and confirming that we are indeed at most Zone 4a, we'll have to wait and see what happens with this one. Worst case scenario it's going to be a $14 annual. Personally, I have a hard time believing that a local greenhouse would carry a shrub that is only good to grow down south. P.S. Lois Hole says it good for Zone 3. After reading her book I realize that (I think) the above zone confusion comes from a slight difference in classification between this genus (
Genista sp., common name "Genista") the genus
Cytisus sp. (common name "Broom"). Apparently they are often confused, and I've seen G. lydia refered to as "Lydia Broom" which I suspect is outdated and/or wrong. I think it's all good.
Weigela Florida 'Minuet'Thankfully I spoke to the greenhouse owner about this one before I bought it, and he said it should do really well in my front bed. Good for Zone 3. Phew. The hummingbirds also love them! One discrepancy - according to Lois Hole they are one of the longest blooming shrubs, sometimes up to 6 weeks, well into the summer. The greenhouse guy actually said the opposite, that they were more like Lilacs. I guess we'll see.
Other quick jobs I did tonight were plant my tomatoes & onions as well as that stupid seed tape basil. If that grows I will be super surprised.
Veggie Planting
With lots of help I finally planted my vegetable garden. I decided to only put 2 tomato plants in the general veggie bed, and put the other 3 in pots. I've planted a small variety of things, some new and some old standards. I'm especially interested in the Lemongrass (not sure if this will be the same one we buy at the grocery store) and the green beans!
Snow peas all along the fence should be pretty when it starts happening - I have to get those in earlier next year for sure, but it is actually still pretty early.
Marigolds are supposed to ward off pests so I planted them around the bed where I had room.
Made a few additions to the perenial bed. Bought a Bee Balm and a Liatris. Finally planted the Maltese cross and am going to put one more in the same spot. Found 2 cool kinds of mint at the greenhouse (Pineapple and Ginger mint) and put them in here too.
Pruned the Lilac back hard thanks to my dad and now it looks great. Unfortunately, there are so many roots in the ground underneath the Lilac I don't think anything will easily grow here (except more Lilac and weeds). The best thing I think that I can do at this point is lay down some cloth and cover it up with bark, just around the base of the Lilac to keep the suckers from coming back up, and the weeds from invading again. Maybe once I put more thought into it I will choose a ground cover and start to let it take over. I will do the same type of pruning on the Ninebark when I get a chance, and the whole bed should look a lot cleaner.
I put the less hardy herbs in pots and prepared some pots for the remaining tomato plants.
Just a few more jobs this week and weekend:
- Stake raspberries, weed and add compost
- Prune Hydrangea & Big tree in the back
- Buy yellow shrub I saw at the greenhouse for the shrub bed and plant
- Plant Nasturtiums
- Plant green onions
- Plant tomato plants into pots
- Plant hot pepper plants into pots
- Lay cloth around Lilac and spread cedar bark
- Plant more marigolds into Basil pot
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