Summer's Full Swing



true blue! my only pampered plant.

new grape vine!

Sometimes I wish I had a swing, an old fashioned rope swing with a wood seat.  In a couple of years the maple's tree branch may be strong enough!
I'm sitting outside writing this in what is an absolute perfect summer evening, a light breeze, perfect temperature, the ponds are bubbling and the garden is happy.  Our little expansion,( I call it phase 5 of the "plan"), with a small rock wall is ready for plantings.  I planted some green beans on the southern edge, and divided and transplanted all of the prairie smoke to the rock edge.  With the prairie smoke moved we can see the pond from the porch.

The hops have significantly expanded their territory. 
Already growing on the new arbor!

The peas did great and I will probably plant some more, never know, we could have an extended summer.  The beans are good and our small tomatoes are ripening, but the zucchini, rutabaga, and peppers seem to be very slow.  We just haven't had too much heat, but it has been a fabulous summer.  I'm glad for the farmer's market!

 I love how the lilies take turns blooming.  First the magenta, and now the large yellow lilies.

we've seen a lot of monarchs and yellow swallow tails this summer, love that! Gives me hope.

Time to dig.  Don't let that pretty dark earth fool you, underneath are rocks, rocks, and more rocks, oh and a few thousand ants! The only plants for sure going in here are the prairie smoke, a prairie clover and some crimson clover.  The south side will be used for vegetables, like beans.  You can never have too many beans, or peas, or tomatoes, or...

Echinops, I've grown attached to these fun flowers.

The beans were just planted, and they are already up a couple of inches as of today, I'll have to add another picture.

This picture doesn't really do justice to all the lovely flowers in the circle.  It really is a lovely mess.

The red Echinacea is new this year.

So, I will definitely add photos of vegetables in the next post, and hopefully phase 5 will be further along!

Greenie

No Complaints Allowed

Considering our past winter, no complaints allowed.  No complaints about humidity, strange temperature fluctuations, an over abundance of rain, etc., etc.  Today is perfection!  The monarchs are returning and that definitely puts a smile on my face.  We've had about 5-7 visits of monarchs this summer so far, granted it could be the same monarch, but it is an improvement from last summer.
From my last long ago post I was lamenting the sorry state of some trees in our yard.  Yes we did take out our Vanderwolfs in the front yard and replaced them with a sturdy Norway Spruce.  Our Redbud did survive but it has lost about 30% of it's branches.  We will take a wait and see approach, Wait to See what it looks like next Spring.  Our little pinnacle birch appears to have contracted some sort of wilting disease, trim the dead, and wait and see.
The perennials all returned with spectacular enthusiasm, even my little delphinium, that I almost dug up to replace.  It just made a very late appearance.  It may not even bloom this year.  Everything else really looks good.  Most bigger and better than ever!

overview of side yard.  everyone is healthy!

The tall knapweed, and Joan Elliot campanula doing really well.

patio side pincushions, butterfly weed, stella lilies, and strawberries.

We've had an abundance of robins.  Larry puts out mealworms.

The ponds are clear!

The prairie clover is thriving and was loaded with a variety of bees!

 

We are picking the cherries twice a day, instead of throwing the net over it.  The cherries are taking a long time to ripen but I've made a few jars of jam so far, might get a couple more jars.  It was loaded with flowers this Spring but we didn't have a lot of bees then, so maybe that is why it is such a small crop of cherries, but they are delicious!  I just recently discovered a garden center in Wisconsin that has a sweet cherry tree for zone 4, could it be true?  Very tempting, and if that Redbud doesn't rebound...

The vegetable garden is making a slow but consistent march towards harvest, the peapods are doing great, beans are starting to set, so the  next post will focus on produce, and maybe the new addition of large rocks?

I'm also looking at the perennial gardens with a more critical eye of composition and color while keeping in mind it's purpose of catering to bees, butterflies and birds.  A lot of my plantings have been experimental, to see who really thrives in this soil, to see who really attracts the bees, the butterflies and the birds.  Sometimes I wish I had a bit more space to play in but then my body reminds me it is a lot like work.

Until the next post.

Greenie

 

 

May 14th, 2014- The Leaves of Life

Is it possible Spring is here, even when the evening temperatures will dip to 39 degrees?  The trees and perennials say it is Spring, and they are the true authority.  After a long cold winter I'm thrilled to see all the survivors showing their green.  I also need to remember that there are a lot of late bloomers, and not to think the worst has happened to them, patience.
I am a bit worried about our little redbud.  Very little sign of life, but there are signs, patience.
Unfortunately, our new vanderwolf pines in front suffered from winter burn and will probably need to be replaced, but we will wait and see how they look in another month, patience.
I did get the peas in and I'm seeing signs of green poking through the soil even with the squirrels doing their best to dig up every inch of soil in our yard.  Feeling sorry for the critters over the winter and providing food for them has given us an abundance of squirrels in the yard.  I'd rather have a couple more bunnies to deal with than the squirrels, who tend to get a bit destructive, supersoaker.
We have a fabulous collection of birds visiting the yard, and a newcomer, a yellow-rumped "Myrtle" warbler.  Very pretty bird, I'll be sure to include a photo.  It's probably time to put out the humming bird feeders.
Another big project coming up with the final backyard installment with some rocks, steps and more plants of course.


NEW VISITOR! YELLOW RUMPED WARBLER

NORTHERN FLICKER

MAY 14 2014 OVERVIEW

PASQUE FLOWER

PRAIRIE SMOKE

 

Time to muck out the pond again- Greenie

Hope Springs Eternal (but still very, very white)

Omg, what a winter it was. I've never in all my years living in Minnesota spent so little time outdoors in the winter as I did this winter. It was brutal, and not because of the snow, although we did get more than our average amount, but because of the ongoing brutal cold. Although, I did spend time going out to feed the birds, and other "critters of the yard". Now, with our ongoing support of food, I'm afraid there will be an overpopulation of squirrels! Well, if times really get tough we'll be glad to have them... Snow in the back yard still over my knees in places, so it's a bit of a challenge, but we are now getting temperatures in the 40's even 50! People have been giddy and goofy with the warmer temps, and the bird songs are getting louder and more frequent! Robins came in the end of February and hunkered down somewhere- probably wondering why they were here, but now they are out and about again. I decided to experiment with growing some cold weather greens out on the porch. I started them indoors with lights but now they are on the porch. I planted beets, rutabaga, and broccoli raab. The raab has really taken off and the rutabaga is a close second. I'm going to be able to harvest some greens pretty soon!

As soon as I figure out how to send photos from my phone to this site, I'll update with more pics. Happy St. Paddy's Day- think green, be green, live green! Greenie

Season Finale

August, September, October... time flies when you're having fun!  Tomorrow, October 29th we are supposed to get snow.  I'm not sure of the last day in May that we had snow, but that means we only had 4 months without any snow, really??  I've decided to really try to embrace winter this year, and if that fails, I'll think about exploring my surroundings further south and west!
Anyways, wrap up of Summer/Fall:  Did okay on the tomato front-still have a couple of bowlfuls sitting on the counter.  Did great with peppers- roasting the rest tomorrow, and with rutabegas- several bags in the refrigerator downstairs.  We actually ate a few melons about the size of a baseball, but they were tasty!  Second bean crop didn't do so well, had tons of blossoms but the beans just never got too big.  It was enough for a few meals but I went to the farmer's market for beans to freeze.  My strawberries kept producing, even now there are flowers on the plants!  I have to remember to fertilize them next Spring.
All the yard chores are pretty much wrapped up.  I emptied all the composters and buried it in the garden plots.  I just have to put out the straw on the dirt beds.  I renewed all the cedar mulch in the beds, took the pumps out of the ponds, Larry emptied all the rainbarrels.  I'm using the water hyacinth roots for scary witch or skull hair.  I'll have to clean out the ponds next spring, but they really looked pretty good after I added all the water plants.  The hyacinth has a very pretty bloom, and spread quickly.
I planted another tree- surprise!  It is a Rejoice crabapple, very upright growth, nice large dark green leaves that turned a pretty red this Fall.  I think it is a good choice for the spot, and the Redbud likes the company.  Here's a good spot for photos.

Add caption

wild 4 oclock's blooms-beautiful

milkweed coming back!

new goldenrod

pergola trumpet vine blooms in September!



hyacinth flower power



october's bounty

water hyacinth root- witch's hair?

hop heaven

Rejoice! crab apple tree



quaking aspen straight! This gizmo works pretty well, but when we removed it in October the aspen didn't remain completely upright so we will have to use again in the spring, probably the entire summer.



August's Own Ideas

motivation

peppers

potatoes still healthy!

zucchini



inspiration



sweet surprise



perspiration



So far August is more like September, great for consuming mass quantities of fried food at the state fair, but not so great for the vegetables trying to win top prize at the state fair. Also, not so great for the vegetables that are supposed to land on my dinner plate. I did see a bit o' pink on my tomatoes yesterday, and I do have several zucchini and a bag of beans in my vegetable drawer, but I haven't had any excess to freeze. Another visit to the farmers market next week! I'm still working on the garden site behind the house, just finishing up the edging around the side of the house, plus removing the rock and plastic my neighborhood landscaper's minions left behind in their "hurry up job" of rock removal. My own misbehavior of peasant garden squatting while doing this job has left me with plantars fasciitis, so now I'm moving in slow mo, embracing the Slow Gardening movement. Yes there is such a thing! (side note: the blog page is not allowing me to do much in the way of formatting so that is why everything is the way it is.. ) Greenie



wild 4 o'clock flower bud