Surprise Jack O'Lanterns in the Garden

In the spring, I swear that I gave Baby Chewy watermelon seeds to plant. Like, I have the empty packet of seeds saved in my garden notebook (that I sometimes add to and sometimes do not add to, I suppose I should take more pictures and just post them here for a record). 

And one day before we went to Colorado over the summer I noticed a small (what I thought was a watermelon) fruit on a vine and was super excited to come back home to show the kids the watermelon we had grown all summer. 

Turns out... not a watermelon.

We grew Jack O'Lanterns. I think what happened was that the plants are volunteers from the pumpkins that we carved last year and the vines sprouted after I spread my compost this spring to replenish all the nutrients lost to tomato plants last year. 

Overall, I have found 4 pumpkins. I think one might not make it because a chipmunk has chewed it already. I put some diatomaceous earth on all the pumpkins to keep them from smelling delicious to critters so I'm hoping I can keep the pumpkins from being eaten until at least the first few weeks in October, after that I can harvest the pumpkins and keep them inside to keep them from squirrels and chipmunks. What a fun surprise this year!

 

Lavender Bee Balm

It's my favorite! My fuschia bee balm is starting to die out - it's spread so much that I don't have a large patch of it anymore. It's dispersed itself throughout my boulevard and I don't think it looks as nice as if it were in a large patch. I think I'm going to dig up the little plants that haven't bloomed yet and put them all into a patch in our boulevard that needs to be filled in (and cross my fingers it doesn't die and comes back next year!).

Last night The Monkey had mountain biking camp at Lake Marion in Lakeville, which is about 45 minutes from us in traffic (30 without traffic!). The trails curve around soccer fields and then go back into a small woodsy area that's next to a lake (Lake Marion). I had Baby Chewie with me on the Mac Ride so I was a little slower with an added 30 pounds which gives me a chance to look at all the flowers without slowing down the whole family when we all ride together. I really am THAT person that stops to look at flowers and foliage. HA! In any case, there's a small prairie area and within all the grasses there's lavender bee balm mixed throughout - there's not patches of it, instead it's dispersed through the whole prairie area and the little pops of lavender during sunset are absolutely beautiful! I didn't think to take pictures last night because I was too busy riding and I haven't been on a trail in awhile because of the heavy rains. I will stop to take a photo next week as long as it hasn't rained and the trails aren't closed. 

2019 Garden Goals

This year is going to be huge in the realm of our backyard.

The kids love to mountain bike.

I hate to mow the lawn.

So our plan is to have dirt delivered and turn the backyard into a pump track.

YEP. A PUMP TRACK.

I'm going to move a garden, possibly take out the little dining patio (or make it larger, I'm not sure what the track is going to look like yet), and then put in gardens in the turns and in the middle of the pump track.

Berm turns, here we come!

(Photo is not mine, taken from Google images as an example of a pump track)

Other than that hefty goal of getting large equipment into the backyard to build berm turns and rollers, I think my plan is to stick veggies in the flowers, put in a step-out line of bricks at the curb on the boulevard and re-mulch everything that I can to prevent dead flowers and veggies!

On my veggie/herb list this year:

Tomatoes - both cherry tomatoes AND heirloom tomatoes

Cucumbers

Peppers

Pumpkins

Butternut squash

Cilantro

Basil

Dill

Jalepenos

Brussel Sprouts

Lettuce as fill-in in the front garden beds

Lavender

Sage

Mint

Calendula

Chamomile

Broccoli - as fill-in in front garden beds

Banana peppers

I don't have much on my list for flowers - well, that is until there's a plant sale at the local garden center. Then it suddenly seems like I need everything! I'm leaving a lot of things open to change this year because if we do a pump track like we've planned, then I'm going to need to plan out where all the veggies are going and I might possibly need to move some perennials. 

At some point I would love to get rid of all the rock that's around this house. I've been dumping what I've been picking up along the back side of the garage - at some point I'm going to have to make a post on Nextdoor or Facebook to take some free rock. Eh, I'm not even sure if people want free rock anymore. 

So plants and plans may change, but I'm hoping to get a pump track this year! 

2018 Rabbit Strategy For Gardening

I'm trying a new rabbit strategy this year.

I'm drawing them out...to get eaten by the hawks!

Will this work? I HAVE NO IDEA.

But the rabbits ate down a whole pink bush that I absolutely loved last year that I put by our air conditioner to cover up an ugly corner of the yard. I should have put chicken wire around it. It's really my fault for not seeing every single plant as rabbit food.

So today I decided to set out a plate of lettuce and melon. Yep, that's right. I'm going to divert their attention to actual lettuce and greens. I'm going to feed the fucking rabbits too.

A few weeks ago a hawk landed on our fence so I know the predators are out there. I'm hoping to draw out the rabbits to attract the predators and keep the rabbits and squirrels from eating my plants!

Strategy is bold, but at this point, I'm willing to do anything to keep my lovely plants happy and healthy. We'll see if it works!

Front Boulevard Photos

I really didn't want to mow anymore grass than I had to. Besides, grass is really an invasive weed anyway. You water it and water it and it doesn't really give you anything back, does it? So, it's really time to start getting rid of the grass and putting in a perennial garden with Minnesota native plants and pollinator plants. Mother Earth gives so much to us (like um, air to breath, water to drink, etc...), so it's time to give back to Mother Earth. 

This side is mostly irises, daylillies, and bee balm. It's what I planted last fall with what I had. The irises were really pretty this past year - some were purple, others were yellow, I really had no idea what they were since they came from my mom's house. 

This is the other side. This is more of the pollinator garden side. I've got bee balm, butterfly weed, a few hostas, wild geranium, and more daylillies. Half I planted this spring from splitting plants and moving what didn't work last year. The other half came from local plant nurseries. 

This is wild geranium (I think). There's already TONS of small bees all around this thing - but they're too small to see in a photograph like this.

Here's one of the beds with more pollinator plants. We don't have a great area for a true veggie garden so I have to stick my veggies into my flower beds, which is fine except that it's really good for the rabbits and not for us. I can't do anything about that until next year AFTER the huge Norway Pine comes down on the side of the house. THEN I'll do a raised bed with all veggies and put up rabbit fencing so I don't have to deal with that problem again. 

I bought a new variety of bee balm - I LOVE my hot pink bee balm but the bees like a variety of plants so I decided to get the light purple for a variety of colors and pollens for the bees. 

My shasta daisies are doing great - they're twice as big as last year and I've already split some and moved them. Next year I'll have to pull a few more so they don't take over. They're so tall though, I need to swap a plant to the front so it's not hidden by the daisies or in the shade of the daisies. I'll have to wait until everything is done blooming to do that.

SO... WELCOME TO THE GARDEN.

Happy summer! I can't wait until more flowers are blooming!

2015 Garden Plans

Oy. Gardening. I feel like I have a lot that I want to do but so little time/money to get it all done.

And that's ok.

For right now!

Last year I planted pollinating plants on one side of the boulevard. Unfortunately I didn't get to the people that were re-seeding the construction areas in time so this year I'll be killing grass (naturally) and then adding in more mulch and a few more bee and butterfly friendly plants. So far I've got Bearded Lilies, Daylillies, and some random daisies. I want to move more daisies down to the boulevard and then also plant maybe another rose bush and more Bee Balm. Bee Balm spreads, so I'm hoping that if I move a few stalks when I see them come up in a few weeks, they'll spread for next year. Between plants I'll put down newspaper that I've been saving up to cut down on weeds and then mulch over the newspaper. I'm positive that my neighbors will like mulch instead of newspaper. It has to be somewhat attractive, right???

Then, since Rusty died (sad face here, poor Rusty), he won't be around to kill all the plants in the backyard. He's killed anemones, bee balm, basil, hostas, boxwood bushes, grass, and countless other flowers that I've tried to plant. He was so tall he was even able to pee in pots. That ASSHOLE.

In any case, the Monkey's great-uncle bought her a little gardening kits with seeds that we've started. I've allocated approximately 10 square feet for her little seeds and garden area - since she planted the seeds randomly in the seed-starting kit, it will really be a crapshoot as to what comes up (possibly peas, tomatoes, flowers, or something else, I don't remember). To get that area ready I'm going to need a pitchfork, and the compost from the bin to turn the soil over. We just don't have a big enough area to justify getting or even renting a tiller. No big deal. She can dig in the soil with me.

In the front, I'm going to get more newspaper down in the big beds and cover it with mulch. I've just decided I've really had it with as much weeding as I've done in the past (but not all weeds are bad - a lot of weeds provide food for bugs and birds. Weeds can be a great distraction for pesky insects that would otherwise feed on your nice flowers!). So that should cut down on my "garden work" this year. Plus the mulch that I buy is extremely cheap and pretty much composts back into the ground and helps to make the garden soil better. I'm thinking I'll need close to 20 bags of mulch (not including what will be happening at my mother-in-law's garden, which is also part of the reason why I'm mulching so much at home, we'll be spending a lot of time there this summer getting her house ready for sale).

So garden planning. Yeah. I've got my work cut out for me but that's ok. I LOVE gardening so I don't mind doing all this work. In the end, the flowers bloom and I get to enjoy it all!

Help Me Identify A Flower

Please help me, because I have no idea what this is. 

Each year I buy packets of annual "wildflower" mixes and either toss them straight into my garden beds without a care if they come up or not, I also put three packets into three containers on my back deck for color all summer long (well, mostly everything is green until July...).

This flower came up in my annual wildflower mix containers but it also came up in my front garden beds where I did NOT plant any annual wildflower mixes. 

It's really pretty - simple and white, definitely a flower that could be used in a cut flower garden and one that blooms for more than a week at a time.

Can anyone help me identify it? 

If so, please comment with the name! I'm really interested in knowing!

September Garden Update

 My goodness, my garden is STILL blooming. 

I'm totally shocked to see 3 more roses in bloom, plus my Clematis bloomed for the first time in 3 years. My good friend was telling me this morning that there's a little saying about Clematis - you plant, you wait, it blooms or something like that. And goodness, did I wait for that Clematis. It's the pretty star shaped purple bloom. 

Above: Rose

Above: Clematis

Above: Yarrow

This year my yarrow grew so tall that it basically flopped over and covered two hostas. I cut it back once it seemed to be done blooming (I don't actually know if you're supposed to do that or not...) and suddenly it was bushy and growing again. One stalk is flowering again. The dragonflies seem to love it. I've got two bushes of it and I have to google yarrow to see if I can split it. I'd like to put this down on our little strip of boulevard.

Above: Sedum

I've only planted this in the backyard where The Monster has peed on it and killed it. I decided to try it out in the front and it's doing fantastic!

Above: Cosmos

Cosmos grow like crazy in our front yard. They're annuals so I plant them every year. All I do is open 2 - 3 seed packs and toss the seeds out into the garden bed. They come in fun colors too, but I prefer the pink!

Wordless Wednesday - Garden Flowers

Tried Green Beans, Still Hate 'Em

I hate green beans. My dad grew them in his garden every year. 5, 6, 7 rows of plain green garden beans.

They were so stringy. And tough. Or squeaky. 

I hate loathe squeaky green beans. Those make me shiver.

And unfortunately today I let The Monkey in on my big secret.

There are certain green beans that I hate and when I made dinner tonight I pulled a bean out of the steamer to see if it was done, I spit it out. I had planted, on accident, the kind of beans that you need to pull the tough strings off both sides before you cook them. You know, the ones that you snap and then peel the stupid strings off of the edges? THE ONLY KIND MY DAD PLANTED.

YUCK.

They were thrown into the compost pile.

Next year I will research my beans. Because I do like green beans... but just not the ones I planted. 

I'm positive my dad is laughing in his grave right now. He actually tried dehydrating them (yes, seriously, DEHYDRATING BEANS) to see if I would like them better. No, I didn't like them better.

And at the end of the day I still had to weed those damn beans.

Lesson was learned, so I'm crossing green beans off of my to-grow list until I can search Burpee's website and find something that I might like. 

Seed Starting

Spring is here.

In my mind!

With 40+ inches of snow on the ground and a morning low of -15 degrees on this second day of March, I'm getting really tired of this horrible Minnesota winter.

Alaska is warmer than Minnesota.

So this morning I got out my seed starting tray (made with coconut fibers and recyclable plastic), along with my organic seed starting mix (insert every crunchy granola term you want) and my tomato seeds.

This year I decided to do two heirloom tomatoes and San Marzano tomatoes. I've got yellow bell small tomatoes for one of the heirlooms and huge beefsteak (their name is Mortgage Lifter!) heirloom tomatoes. Small ones for Bimmer Man and The Monkey - the big ones are for me (ooohhh... BLT sandwiches!! YUM!!). The San Marzanos' I plan on dicing, freezing and also roasting and freezing for next winter.

I also started Thyme. This year I'm going to do a shitload of herbs so I can dry them.

This past Fall I dried about 20 plants worth of basil and I've used half of it - I got around 2 large Ikea magnetic storage containers worth. But the thing is, I had to learn a lesson with basil. Rusty pees on everything in the backyard so he's killed two anemones, three hostas, at least two lilies and a few other flowers too. I had to pull out pee-basil plants and compost them. Not cool, Rusty, not cool. This year all the herbs will be going back into pots instead of the flower beds so he doesn't pee on our food.

I need to find some sort of pee-resistant flowers or bushes in the back by the garage. Or I need to stand out there every time he pees and shoo him away.

I love him. I really do. I just don't love his pee.

I've got one more seed starting tray which I'll fill with more herbs on April 1. I don't have enough room on my dining room table for more seeds. Hopefully there won't be snow on the ground then so I can move the trays to our back porch and put them on the table out there during the day and bring them in at night.

Mer. I just want to be outside again!

2012 Gardening

I've got a problem with my yard.

There's not enough sun.

When we first moved in, I had the trees trimmed and there was plenty of sun in the backyard to grow tomatoes and other veggies. Two years later... the trees have grown and now my "garden patch" is shade. DAMNIT. Last year I got about 3 tomatoes, TONS of basil, TONS of jalepenos (which Rusty liked the best...) and only two banana peppers.

So the trees need to be trimmed again. But this time I want a quote to know how much it would be to just take one HUGE tree down. I know. Shoot me. I want to take a tree down. But here's the thing about it - the tree sits at the corner of our house, eventually the roots will probably wreck the foundation of our house, they might topple the fence over, and I swear, this tree pees something every 6 weeks. If it's not those stupid helicopter thingys, it's leaves. If it's not leaves it's something else. Not to mention all of this stuff goes straight into our gutters which means that either Bimmer Man or I have to climb up onto the roof to clean them out. And we have to clean them out at least once a month. Seriously. it's a huge pain. Did I mention that one branch sort of grows funny and every time it storms it looks like it'll take down power lines to our house? YIKES. So I think that needs to go.

But in any case... this year I'm going to have to do tomato plants in pots around the yard in the sunny spots. I know - we're going to be those "weird" people that have plant pots in strange areas of the yard. Whatever. Call me weird - but my tomatoes taste awesome. Fresh BLT anyone?

And there's a few new flowers that I want to try too (I go for perennials):

This is a Gayflower a/k/a Blazing Star I think I'm going to put this in the back of the yard by the compost pile. It drains like you wouldn't believe back there and it's in the sun for about 7 hours per day.

Old Fashioned Bleeding Hearts - This is another perennial that I want to try. I have major plant envy of a neighbor down the street with HUGE Bleeding Hearts. I want to grow HUGE Bleeding Hearts (the only thing I can grow really well in the front beds are Cosmos, Russian Sage, and Bee Balm). Bleeding Hearts are for the shade and do well all summer long. Le sigh. I need plants that do well all year and not just for a few weeks in the spring.

I'd like to plant Astilbe but again... it's early to midsummer blooming and I already have so many of those plants that by August our front beds are just green. Boo to that! My plan is to go to the local nursery in June and start hounding the people that work there about what I can plant that is going to bloom in July/August/September. Well, besides vegetables. Maybe I should just fill our front beds with veggies!

Happy Friday!!!

In The Garden: Tomatoes, Jalepenos & Basil

 I have a crapload of basil this year. I've got a pot for my sister, but I've had to snip off the flowers from it, so I think I'm going to have to start harvesting that basil. In any case, the jalepenos are doing excellent.

 I can count about 15 pieces of fruit right now on the four plants and more keep coming every day. These are definitely something I will do next year.

 Unfortunately the cherry tomatoes aren't doing so hot. I've gotten only 3 tomatoes from the plants in the backyard. The one in the front is doing much better. YES. The one pepper plant out in the front has no fruit on it yet - I'm a bit concerned, oh well. I guess the peppers were more of experiments anyway!

And the basil like last year is growing like mad. This weekend I'll be making at least one batch of pesto (and adding in some store bought spinach) and probably some sort of caprese salad.

Update: THE GRASS

Holy buckets. We've got grass!! And it can actually be mowed! YES!!! Dogs, snow, salt, sand be damned - I will have grass in my backyard!!

It doesn't look too bad, right? There's still a few rough spots out there, but once a week I sprinkle handfuls of grass seed in the bald spots and water. I water like crazy - I hand water every day and make sure that the grass is well soaked.

I've noticed that in the neighborhood everyone has crabgrass - and the only way to get rid of it is to pull it up by hand or dump baking soda on it. (Baking soda totally turns it black and kills it, but then it looks bad and you still have to pull it up anyway). To prevent crabgrass, you need to have a healthy lawn in the first place, so I'm trying my best - deeply watering the grass to make sure it has strong roots. GAH. Lawns. I have no idea why I'm so obsessed with it in the first place. I suppose I should just let it grow into a prairie.

Happy Friday!

Help Me With Growing Grass

This is the part of our backyard where the dogs play. They tear up the grass, rough house, roll around and pretty much ruin the grass. I've taken the liberty of showing you the WORST spot in our yard.

Why?

Well, because I need some help. How in the world do I grow grass here? You can tell that I'm experimenting with grass seed - I spread out a bag of black dirt, tossed some seed and kept it watered. This is after a week. I just don't know if it's worth it to do the rest of the dead part or not. Well, unless there is some secret grass that holds up to dogs (anyone know?).

I think I'm going to rope it off next week and throw down more black dirt and try to seed the rest of the dead spots. GAH. It's just grass - I shouldn't care too much, but I just HATE when Rusty comes in with muddy paws.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I tried to embrace the mud but I just can't do it anymore. I'm not a fan.

New Planters

 For my birthday Bimmer Man brought me to Sunnyside Gardens to pick out new large planters. I LOVE Sunnyside. Their prices are a bit steep for my wallet (don't forget, I can be a cheapskate) so when Bimmer said Sunnyside I was super excited. WOOT!!! (Um, the one from Sunnyside is the orange ceramic one, not the cheapie plastic ones from Home Depot with my herb seedlings).

 And here's the awesome blue one. Yes, I did go for Florida Gators colors. Sort of on purpose but not really. The tall blue one was chipped and it was hot so the tall blue one did not get purchased. And that's fine with me because I really like the orange one. This blue one is pretty cool too.

Instead of more herbs, I did flowers. It's time for some color instead of green foliage and dirt in the backyard. Do I know what the flowers are? Nope, no clue! I just picked out what I thought would be pretty and have some variety.

Quick story: While we were there at some point the power went out so when we got up to the front to check out, the poor high school kid had no clue what he was doing to check us out. Calculating tax is apparently pretty hard math.

Tulips From My Garden

Before the squirrels got to my tulips and daffodils, I decided to cut them and make a bouquet. The squirrels and rabbits get really bad around here so I have to share before they wilt. But my allergies are HATING me right now for gardening so much (more on that later... Pattymctatty will be seeing an allergist ASAP).

I planted a ton of bulbs last fall - maybe close to 125? I don't know, I suppose I could go look in my email to see the total. I even gave bulbs to our fabulous neighbors because I couldn't get them all into the ground fast enough. My favorite this year are the purple tulips. My Columbine made a return (woot!) and so did my Clematis. Below are pics of the tulips and daffodils - I saved the purple tulip for last. There's a bit of blue in the center.

Oops, There Goes The Basil

I dropped a whole tray of seedlings so I just picked up the pile of dirt and tossed it in the container. We shall if my basil still grows. Oops.

Rusty even gave me his stink eye (which is pictured below). Also - don't try to vacuum up the dirt when it's still wet with a really awful vacuum. It doesn't really work all that well.

Spring Flowers

 We watch Bimmer Man's mom's dog Thunder every once in awhile and we got a fantastic surprise thank you gift on Saturday. Thunder has great taste in flowers, right?

 I've still got Oriental Poppies and Dianthus to plant in the front yard. Dianthus is an annual, but my mom said that it's growing as a perennial in her yard. I'm just going to toss the seeds out in the front beds and see how they do. No worries. The poppies, well, I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with them yet.

 Token Rusty photograph. Awww... Isn't he cute? He looks annoyed with me though. I would be too if I had a camera in my face every day.

Aloe. There was a plant exchange for the neighborhood on Saturday. I brought a spirea and some nettle - someone completely chased me to the check in table to get the spirea. It wasn't doing well in my yard so I was happy to give it to someone that knew what they were doing! I ended up with: aloe, violets and black-eyed susans.