Garden Evaluation: Herbs & Vegetables

Overall, I was late getting just about everything in this year.

Spring veggies didn't go in until May 1, and with the garden expansion still going on, the summer veggies didn't get in the ground until the end of June.

Even so, we had some success.

Let's talk about it.

 

Oregano: Even with having divided this last fall, we still harvested quite a bit. I cut them back in June again, then we dried them. This time we dried the whole stems in the dehydrator, then stripped and crumbled the leaves afterword. It was much faster that way! We ended up with a pint, which I gave to a friend, since we still have a lot from 2 years ago.

 

 

Other herbs: I planted some basil and pineapple sage in a pot. They started out strong, but were done about mid summer. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any rosemary starts to buy this year. So we were a bit sparse on herbs.

 

Peas: I did 2 packets, one each of 'Little Marvel' and 'Oregon Sugar Pod II'.
We really enjoyed these this year. The kids got many big handfuls to snack on. Every year I think--we need more peas! I wasn't super thrilled with my trellising. I need to figure out a better way to do that this year. The peas had just about pulled it down by mid-season.

Potatoes: 5 hills 'Yukon Gold', 4 hills 'Viking.' Smaller harvest than anticipated this year. Once again we had some hills that just rotted without growing at all. However, I'm going to try Monty's (yes, first name basis with my friend Monty from Gardener's World,)  potato planting method next spring and see if it makes a difference. Namely, chit the potatoes first, plant the whole potato, and space them a little further apart.

 

Spinach: 2 varieties: 'Tyee' and 'Olympia Hybrid.' We were loving the spinach this year! I need to plant it further apart so we don't have to thin as much. Or start it from seed earlier in February and plant out when it's a little bigger.  

 

Beets: 2 varieties: 'Chioggia' (red/white striped) and 'Cylindra.' We got some this year! None were very big, and I'm not sure if we just picked them too early or what. We like the Cylindra best. Chioggia looked better raw, but by the time you cooked them, it was just kind of a dirty white color. I learned how to roast them and that was my favorite way to eat them. I want to try them again next spring.

 

Carrots: Our carrots struggled! First we did a Rainbow Mix and Scarlet Nantes, which I just scattered, but hardly any germinated. So next I did a couple furrows of Danvers Half Longs. We got some here and there, but didn't ever harvest enough at one time to process or freeze.
The multi-colored ones were very sweet and good-tasting. I want to try those again. 
Next spring I'm going to do rows. I just haven't decided if they're going to be all along the front, or several short ones going front to back in one section.

 Beans: I found a tri-color bean mix, with purple, green, and yellow beans. I had two separate bean patches going, which both produced a steady yield. Enough for snacking.

 

Tomatoes: Mostly 'Oregon Spring' with some 'New Girl,' and 2 'Sungold'. We had good yields this year. I made some salsa to can, and I also had enough to do several batches of homemade tomato sauce, roasting them in the oven with onions and garlic.
Marked difference from last year--I'm crediting the compost and manure we added before planting.

Peppers: We harvested several small ones, all green. Once again I am underwhelmed by the peppers here. I didn't do any kind of plastic cover on the ground, though.

Zucchini: Our one plant up top produced for us this year. It was nice! We had enough to make some zucchini bread and some to eat, too.

 

 

Pumpkins: The kids especially enjoyed these this year. We had enough for each one to carve one for Halloween. We harvested probably 8 or 9 minis, which were brought in as decorations. Eventually, we ate the minis.  There was one variety that was particularly yummy and one that was really stringy and not very good. I don't remember which was which. Darn!  The perils of waiting to evaluate things. I think next year I will plan a meal to eat the minis soon after Halloween.

Squash: We harvested 2 butternut squash. One we just ate a few weeks ago and it was quite tasty. The other got rotten in storage before we got to it.

Cucumbers: These were a no-show this year. Died right off within a couple weeks of planting.

Watermelon: We actually harvested a few baseball size watermelons this year! They were good, but I think next year if we do melons I want to try cantaloupes instead.



Let There Be Grass...sort of

 

It is time to record the saga of the grass.

 

This is a story that starts, really, 4 years ago, when we decided to add a few features to our backyard. Namely, a shed, and a garden.

Both of these projects required very large tractors to rumble around in the backyard, along with the truck bringing up loads of supplies periodically.

To call our space a "yard" was almost a mockery.

We figured there was no need to even try to plant grass until we were done with the tractors.

We had the vacant lot vibe going on--not just weeds, but DEAD weeds.

There were ankle-twisting ridges and furrows all over the place.

On the plus side, the kids could dig holes or do whatever they wanted, because nothing they did would make it much worse than it was already.

And meanwhile, the garden and my flowerbeds were thriving.

 

So, finally towards the end of the summer, my husband completed the 3rd and final garden expansion. Done with tractors in the back!

It was time to start talking about putting in a lawn.

 

First things first--there were several areas that need levelling.

So we hired a local landscaping company to come out.

 

Dirt work.

 

At this point, we realized that we needed a sprinkler system, as well.

The thing is, we realized that we are basically incapable of keeping grass watered.

I don't know what it is.

Wait. Actually, I do know what it is.

I just don't care about grass that much.

I'll make sure my garden and flowerbeds stay watered. You bet!

But grass? Not so much.

 

So, insert another month of work here, while they put in sprinkler lines.

Bonus: they added an extra water faucet right by the garden! Score!

Also, one over by the side walls, that we can hook up to water that whole area.

Finally, in mid-September, they hydroseeded.

 

They used the "Playground Turf Mix."

60% Triumph Perennial Ryegrass

15% Argyle Kentucky Bluegrass

15% Kenblue Kentucky Bluegrass

10% Creeping Red Fescue

 

Sept. 28: a few patches of green here and there.

 Oct. 20: filling in a little...

 

...if you look sideways, at an angle.

 

We've had a typical very wet fall and early winter, which means that the grass got watered extra well.

Unfortunately, it also means that we haven't really been able to step on the lawn since September, unless it is frozen solid. Otherwise, you leave footprints 2 inches deep that promptly fill up with water. We are REALLY hoping that by spring our yard will be ready to play on!

Or even just walk across. We would take that, too.

 

At times we wish that we had just paid the money for sod.

There are a few problem spots that may need sod anyway.

For now, we'll stick it out and see how it goes in the spring.

Fingers crossed!

 

Bulbs are Finally In!

I wasn't going to plant any bulbs this fall.

I know! Craziness.

I don't have any more spaces ready for tulips and daffodils, other than the slope, which tends to chew them up and spit them out.

Then my husband talked me into it. It took some real arm-twisting.

After about 1/2 a conversation I said, "Oh, alright. Alright! Okay?! I'll put some bulbs in!"

I ordered 120 smaller bulbs, early bloomers:

50 each of rock garden iris mixture & muscari mixture, plus 20 snowdrops (Galanthus Nivalis 'Flore Pleno').

Then I procrastinated. No other word for it.

 

To my dismay, after an extra long fall, it froze solid for 3 weeks, with daytime temps in the 20's.

I thought I had missed my chance, after all.

Lo and behold, the last 2 weeks have warmed up.

A reprieve! Yes!

 

I just got the last of them in today.

Scattered around the top terrace out front, and a couple small patches by my front steps.

Glad to have that done!

I'll be even more glad early next spring, when these little beauties start their show.

 

 

Flowerpots' Last Hurrah

We had some good times this summer, these flowers and I.

 

[These pictures were taken about a month ago, before hard frost had set in.]

 

 The succulent boat in front sent up alien stems with strange little blooms on them.

 

The geraniums (middle) were awash with color at several different points, despite uneven watering.

The herb container didn't do much of anything, actually.

It smelled nice for a few months.

And would you look at that asparagus fern?

Incredible! It almost makes the dead bellflowers look picturesque (or so I tell myself.)

The round blue pot in front obviously gave up quite some time ago.

These were pretty awesome while they lasted.

Now in death, they too have taken on alien life forms.

 

I might have mentioned it [twenty times] before, but the decision to get our yard done pretty much sucked the gardening life out of me there at the end of the summer.

I didn't have access to water outside for a good month and a half while the yard was graded and the sprinkler system put in. This all coincided with a decent heat wave. By the time the thought occurred to me that I could actually water these containers with a pitcher of house water, it was too late for most of the flowers.

 

I did finally get them all winterized a few weeks ago (before hard frost killed off the succulents.)

Go me!

The succulents now live inside as houseplants, where the lack of water will probably not come as a shock to their systems at all. I couldn't willfully kill off the asparagus ferns, so in the end I planted them all in my vegetable garden, bottom terrace, front and center.

They are still green, even after 2+ weeks of below freezing temperatures!

 

All the flowerpots are now tucked safely away in the shed.

I have high hopes that next year will be better all around.

We'll have a lawn that we can walk on!

That makes a pretty good starting place, I'd say.

Fall Colors

So my last post was all about how I'm ready to be done done done with the vegetable garden.

My flowerbeds, on the other hand, just continue to delight me.

 

Check out the fall colors I'm enjoying out front!

 

That lovely orange is a peony.

I know!

I don't remember it doing that before!

Maybe I had already cut it down in years past?

I feel sure I would have remembered that gorgeous color.

 

These mums provide a nice spot of pink right as I pull up to the house.

Closeup of the peony.

Snowball bush on the top terrace.

So pretty!

Add them all together, with the green from the boxwood and the deep brown of the Echinacea and wow! I could stare at it all day!

When I planted these I didn't realize how much I would enjoy them in the fall.

Plus, there is no work involved for me at this point, just enjoyment.

Makes it even better!

Garden Fatigue

 

[This was taken 3 weeks ago, but was still fairly accurate until we started ripping things out today.]

I'm done with the vegetable garden for the year.

It was not done yet, as the giant zucchini and mounds of green tomatoes on my counter can attest.

But I am done.

It happens every year about this time.

It's like Jack Frost and I have a handshake agreement somewhere around the beginning of October:

"Yep, 'bout time to wrap things up around here." 

Really, that last frost comes just in time--usually.

 

 

This year we have yet to have a killing frost, and won't for at least another week, if my phone's weather app is to be believed.

There was a part of me that felt guilty today, pulling up live tomato plants.

These could have had another 2 weeks!

On the other hand, will I care more about the garden in 2 weeks? No, I will not. 

Up came the tomatoes.

Plus, today was mild. It was not raining or windy. I had time to do it.

None of those things are guarantees in the remaining days of garden life.

 

 

[Petrified pea patch intact, as of a week ago. Keepin' it real around here.]

 

 I enjoy vegetable gardening, and I marvel at it. It's amazing how those tiny seeds, sown in the warming soil of May can produce many handfuls and bucketfuls of delicious things to eat in just 2 or 3 short months. Also, I'm grateful that our family is not solely dependent on what I grow for our yearly food.

 

Even as late as August, I'm usually still gung-ho, despite the heat.

30 more tomatoes? Bring it on! Homemade tomato sauce all winter! Hooray!

Zucchini bread, yum.

All of it. Awesome.

 

[From 2 days ago: dessicated pea patch gone. Everything else the same.]

 

Then along comes September, and my enthusiasm begins to wane. I see another round of ripening tomatoes on the vines and my eyes start to glaze over.

I stop watering.

Completely.

I have already pinched off the growing tips of all the vines, in hopes that what is on them will ripen up before frost. That's kind of how I feel, too.

Pinched back.

Ready to take care of what I've got without a bunch of new stuff cropping up.

 

 This year I've had it especially bad, due to the marathon backyard work project that's been going on. I haven't set foot in my backyard in 2 months.

To even get to the garden, you have to make a trek out the front door and all the way down on the side wall. There's a somewhat dry spot where you can step to climb up onto the garden wall, then finally make your way over to what you're hoping to pick.

Then you get to carry it with you as you do the whole thing in reverse.

Heaven help you if one of the kids has to use the restroom RIGHT NOW!

(Run fast darling, but whatever you do, don't fall off the wall and crush the grass seedlings!)

 

[Everyone look at me! Ha! That's about right.]

 

I've talked with friends who are big into extending the season.

They start planting peas and beets and all those cold-weather veggies again in July or August, for harvesting in the fall and early winter.

I admire their energy.

I just...I can't do that right now. I don't have it in me.

I may not be ready for winter, but ready to winterize?

Yes, I am.

 

[This year's potato harvest, with the last of the carrots.]

One More Eyesore Gone

So if you turned your back to the lovely terraced flowerbeds in front, this is what you used to see:

 

An eyesore of a flowerbed with many problems:

1. It was too narrow, so all the shrubs lay directly beneath the overhang of the house.

No water = unhealthy shrubs

 

2. Chock-full of grass and weeds

 

3. The water faucet leaked right here all the time, causing a muddy mess on the end near the stairs.

 

 

It was time to DO something about this bed.

I had pretty much ignored it for the past 3 years, other than to prune the spirea on the corner.

  

First things first: I ripped out all the dead, ugly bushes.

The spirea on the corner stayed, as did the euonymous under the window.

After we got the bricks pulled up, and the bed widened a bit, it was time to add soil, compost, and give a good tilling.

 

Then came the fun part--adding the new plants!

 [These pictures were taken October 20.]

 

 I put in an Oakleaf Hydrangea 'Ruby Slippers' between the 2 existing shrubs.

 

To help soak up the extra water from the leaky faucet, I planted a hosta 'Guacamole' (apple green with darker streaks) by the front steps. It's supposed to reach up to 36" high.

Close by is a fern, Polystichyum munitum 'Western Sword.' I was impressed that it's supposed to be evergreen and naturalize well.

 

 

To either side of the hydrangea, in the back, I added 2 Astilbe chinensis 'Visions,' in a raspberry pink shade. Also filling in around the shrubs are two heucheras, 'Sweet Tart' and 'Lime Marmalade'; a second fern: Polystichum 'Soft Shield'; and one more hosta: 'Aureo Marginata' (deep green with yellow margins.)

 

The final step was to add bark to everything.

I'm so pleased with the change.

 

 

Apparently there was a big hailstorm while we were on vacation, that threw down 1" hailstones. Some of the hosta leaves were shredded, but they both seem to be bouncing back.

Now if I can just keep it watered through August!

(We're looking at a solid month of 95+ temperatures.)

Story of My Life

Still life with lupines and gravel bucket.

 

Yup, this about sums it up right now.

There's construction and there's patches of beauty.

I can appreciate both, for different reasons.

The Garden is Finished!

Last blocks laid and terraces filled with dirt and compost.

 

It has all been rototilled in and my seedlings planted out.

 

 

A lot of hard work, right there, but so great!

I get to plant squash and pumpkins this year because there will be room for it to roam!

Woohoo! 

 

Roses, Daisies & Salvia: GBBD June 2014

Better late than never, right? 

 

The bad news is: the irises are already done.

 The good news is: I've got all kinds of other stuff blooming right now.

 

Let's get to it, shall we?

 

In the back, shade bed:

 I still have some columbine going strong.

There are some violas and pansies back here, as well.

 

On the shady side of slope, the hardy geraniums are battling valiantly against the grass.

 

Slope, sunny side: we've got wild daisies and wild lupines

I just love that combination!

Back flowerbed: 

'Yellow Topaz' rose

You can't cut this one to bring in, as the petals fall off at the slightest bump, but it's a star right now in the June garden.

mockorange starting to open up

 

Between the Topaz rose and the mockorange, this section of the backyard smells heavenly.

 

My poppy bloomed! I was so excited, as I just put it in last year.

I love that color, too.

 

Heading to the front:

Dutch iris

 

 The salvia really bring some great color to this bed.

And of course, that dianthus won't be ignored, either.

 



 I was tickled to see so many blooms on this peony this year.

This is its 3rd summer and the first time it has really bloomed.

More salvia, with lamb's ear going for broke, and a few small petunias.



Believe it or not, these daises are wild.

They just happen to grow right here at the end of the flowerbed proper, and they're doing so well I decided to leave them.

The daises in the background along the side of the house: also wild.

Some people pull them out as weeds.

I don't mind them a bit.

 

I can hardly believe how huge this salvia has gotten.

I like the contrast with the foliage of the Sem False Spirea right next to it.

 

 

Speaking of spirea, this little shrub is blooming again.

Last but not least, the 'Watercolors' rose that I moved up front.

 

Take a look at other gardens, too:

http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/

 

Happy Bloom Day, friends!

 

A Few Little Additons, & 4 Big Ones

 

I decided 2 of my containers needed a little something more:

 

This one was looking a little bare between those petunias:

[Before]

So I added a few Asparagus sprengeri.

 

 

[After]

Aah, much better.

 

I have no pictures to show for this one, but I also added another sedum to the succulent boat.

A Sedum acre 'Aureum', (Golden Carpet). It looks good. Trust me.

 

I also added Ipomea, petunias, and lobelia to the front flowerbeds, and portulaca to the back.

 

* * * * * *  * * * *

As for our big additions, my husband had mentioned to me a couple of times that the top part of the slope above the garden needed a little . . . something. It has some big bushy lupines, a scattering of daisies, and the rest weedy grass.

 

So I got 4 big shrubs to put up there, all of them American Highbush Cranberry, or Viburnum trilobum. (Our first choice was staghorn sumac, but the ones at the nursery looked so ratty I just couldn't bring myself to buy them.)

 

Can you see how steep the slope is right here?

We dug them in deep and far, slipping and sliding all over the place, but it still looks like it's about to slide right on down the hill.

 If they survive (this is sometimes called the Hill of Death, after all), they should grow up to 10 feet tall and 6 feet wide. I don't know that I would let them get them that tall, but not to worry, they can pruned to control size and shape.

They are supposed to adapt well to a most soils, and bear edible berries in the fall--although not the same cranberries as are sold commercially, I found out. Not even the same species!

Deep red fall color, with red berries persisting over winter.

I'm not completely sold on eating the berries, but I'm hoping these shrubs will add some much-needed structure, color, and interest to that part of the slope.

 

If they survive.

I'm really trying not to get too attached at this stage in the game; I have learned by sad experience with this slope. I have been watering them, and I'm hoping the rain we had last night will do them a whole lot of good.