Early July Update

'What was Paradise? but a garden, full of pleasure, and nothing there but delights.'  -  William Lawson, 1617.

Not too much happening around the homestead. All the plants are busy soaking up sunlight and heat building up their energy to produce their goodies.

Deck Side Garden - too much grass in it

I on the other hand have been busy helping these same plants along by deadheading, feeding and pulling weeds. And grass! Two of my beds have grass growing right up through the plants, which is extremely frustrating because I can’t get them out by their roots without damaging the plants themselves. I’m sure a solution will come about, I’ll just have to bide my time and hope I recognize it when it does.

As I dig deeper into my ‘to do’ list in a desperate attempt to get anything on it done and crossed off, a laughable endeavor to say the least, I keep finding new things to add to it.

One item that is currently on the list that seems like it should be the most pressing task is to get the irrigation system in. But honestly, after getting my watering done sufficiently well by dragging a hose around for the last six years, even that task is not really pressing. It’ll get done eventually.

Another item that really must get done this year is to find the time to dig up all of the bulbs so they can be divided. It’s a bit embarrassing that this will be the first year I’ve done this. Everything I read says to do it every 2-3 years so after 5-6 years I rather imagine they really need it. I pulled up some Grape Hyacinth a week ago and I could not believe how many bulblets there were, many still attached to the Mom. Of course the other part of getting this task done is to find room after I dig them up. Which brings me to my next tast: making new beds.

Deck Side Garden - before and after expansion

The expansion for my Deck Side bed is finally finished, for now. It would be no surprise for me to want to expand it yet again sometime in the future. But right now there are no plans. After the expanded area sits over winter it should be ready for new plants. I’ve got a bunch of new plants from cuttings that need somewhere to go but they’ll have to wait for this area until Spring. Can I keep them alive that long? I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

birdhouse welcome

I finished the birdhouse-on-a-stick thingy and it needs to be put into one of the front yard beds.

There is another trellis to be built for the newly planted beans along the back fence. This should be fairly simple to build out of a pile of tree limbs I’ve been collecting.

An idea I’ve been kicking around for sometime is to make some solar powered light to spread around the yard and pathways. Really simple and cheap is the way to go here. My non-gardening partner and I have been discussing attaching rope lights around the deck too. A couple more things to add to my list.

A couple of ideas for what to put in the B1 expansion at the west gate is an old-fashioned Weigela or the lilac taking up space in one of the raised vegetable beds. I’ve tried the newer varieties of Weigela and have lost them all, so maybe the old-fashioned type will do better. Which ever one I decide to plant here, I’m sure I’ll change my mind before something finally goes in.

The Butterfly Bush is finally getting flower buds and the Hydrangea has bloomed. First time ever.

As this all of this wasn’t enough, tiny grasshoppers are beginning to show up so I need to be ready with some organic means of kicking them out should they start getting out of control.

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Going Vertical

Bean teepee

I built this teepee type trellis back 2007 for an 'extra' cherry tomato plant I had at the time and have since used it for green beans. Works much better for beans than tomatoes.

It's just over six feet tall and fits perfectly inside the garden over -winter.

It's made of redwood and cedar which are supposed to be able to take the elements but since I have room in the shed for it and it's rather light weight I decided to bring it indoors each year.

I just recently got the urge to build a couple other type trellises and today I finally got around to it.

Tomato cage made of redwood and pine

Here's a tomato cage for the Cherokee Purple. It looks pretty big but the tomato plant will fill this in pretty quickly once it gets going. Normally I only use redwood or cedar but I had some extra pine furring strips so they got the call. They can replaced in a couple of years with more resilient cedar or redwood.

Squash Ladder

I know this isn't a very good photo of this but you can get the general idea. It stands six feet tall. I've never tried one of these but have read some pretty good reviews. There are a couple of pepper plants in this bed two and I'm a little worried they might get trampled over because squash is pretty aggressive and doesn't play well with others.I have a back up plan though if the peppers need to be moved. I rather like the idea of squeezing as much as possible into the space I have but this may be a bit too much. Only time will tell.

This three panel trellis 'fence' was install in 2009 to cover up a chain link fence that was installed to hide the compost pile. The panels are tied to the chain link by wire, the right side is attached to a chain link fence and the left side is tied to a metal pole I anchored in the ground with cement. Well, the wind pretty much has its way with this whole thing because I did not do a very good job of anchoring that pole.

So, I got to thinking that instead of digging up the pole and anchoring it properly I'll just add another pole. This time a 4x4 redwood post was used and I did a much better job of anchoring it. I placed it just far enough from the metal pole to insert another more narrow lattice piece between the two and it is holding that whole fence through some very strong winds we have had of late.

Adding hardscape items sure changes the complexion of the garden. Next, I'm thinking about adding a water feature of some sort. We have bunches of birds visit us everyday and I want a better means of getting fresh water to them other than me hauling it out to them every morning.

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