SNOW!

When we left the weekend before Thanksgiving, there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground.  Apparently it has been snowing pretty steadily ever since.  When the kids and I returned home one week later, we had a foot of snow.  I heard it's supposed to snow again this week.

All outside projects are stopped until further notice!

Weather Talk

We're finding the weather here is quite different from Springfield. No real surprise there, right? But one thing in particular that we've noticed is the WIND.  Last night it was so windy we could hardly sleep.  It blew open our fence gates, tearing off the latch in the process.  At least one tree in town went down and through a roof. We had some shingles on our lawn this morning.

It seems to primarily come from the west, and blows straight across our hillside in back where we plan to put the garden.  Right now Jason is fixing the gates, and reinforcing them several different ways, as tonight apparently there are supposed to be gusts up to 50 mph. If it's like this in the summer at all, it will wreak havoc on any garden.  So I've started to think about interplanting shrubs on the slope, between the aspens, to act as a windbreak for my little veggies next year.

We're reconsidering the shed design as well. Perhaps we will go back to the plan where the roof line being just above the fence and sloping up.  We're wondering if that would handle the wind better than a typical A-line roof.
Also, when I went out just a minute ago, it was hailing. Pea size, and not enough to pile up anywhere.

It has been a very rainy fall.  In fact, today when I felt some warmth on my arm in the kitchen, I thought I had left a burner on.  Nope, it was just sunlight coming through the window.  Oh yeah, that's what that feels like!

According to the weather man, it should snow by the end of this week, if not next.

Garden Evaluation: Tomatoes

Box 2: Tomatoes + Green Zebras from Box 1 (okra will be on another post)
Planted May 12
small plants purchased from hardware stores and nursery

5 varieties: 'Sun Sugar' (orange/yellow cherry tomato), 'Mr. Stripey' (red w/ orange stripes), 'Jubilee' (yellow, low-acid), 'Champion' (red slicer), and 'Green Zebra.'

These were just starting to come on when we moved. Leann said that by the end of August, she was having to give tomatoes away, because they were producing more than her family could eat.
They seemed to do much better in their own box, without having to compete with squash and everything else for space and sunlight.  We need some bigger, taller, stronger tomato cages.  The 3-4 foot tall cone shaped ones we had were very quickly outgrown, and even our 5-foot tall trellis wasn't enough.

Mr. Stripey I didn't see much of before the move.  Leann told me they had fantastic flavor, but there weren't very many of them.

Jubilee, again, didn't see any of these before the move.

Champion was an experiment to see how it compared to 'Better Boy' from last summer. At least prior to the move, yield was much less with Champion.   

The 2 Sun Sugar plants were extra vigorous and needed extra support beyond trellis and tomato cage. Delicious flavor.

Green Zebras seemed prolific, but I was never sure when to pick them, so I ended up leaving almost all of them for Leann to pick.  I don't think we tasted them even.

Secret Garden tomatoes!

This was the thrill of my garden planting!  All these "weeds" popping up in every box turned out to be tomato plants.  All season long last year when a cherry tomato was rotten or something, I often would just toss into the box for compost next year. Little did I know so many would grow in the spring! I literally must have pulled out close to a hundred plants.  They even grew their very own tomato jungle behind one of the boxes, between the box and the fence--in hard-packed, dog-run ground.  Don't know how they even survived back there, let alone grew back in the spring.

I let the one growing with my peas continue on.  It was a strange mix of the 2 cherry tomato varieties from the year before: 'Sweet 100' and 'Sun Sugar.'  The tomatoes were kind of a pink-ish color, with flavor more like the red cherry tomatoes than the orange.

Garden Evaluation: potatoes, peas, beets, onions

Attempts at Evaluating from Afar

Since I was not there for the end of the season, I'm not going to try to do the extensive evaluation I did last year.  Just a few general comments from what I can remember, plus some of what Leann told me.

Box 4: spring veggies: potatoes, peas, beets, onions
planted: March 31

Potatoes: 'Yukon Gold'
It seems like I planted one other variety too, possibly just a russet, but I don't remember. Our harvest was all Yukon Gold. Like last year, these were done by early July. Maybe with such a quick growing time, they would be a good bet for our Washington garden next summer. They got nice and bushy, as you can see below.

Peas: 'Super Snappy'
Didn't have as many germinate as I had hoped. I don't think I soaked them overnight before planting this year.  I'll have to go back to that next year. Once they grew, didn't have as big a yield either.  I planted 4 squares worth, so 32.  I maybe got half that growing. I'm wondering if it was the other variety that gave us the big yield last year.  Next year we'll plant more than one variety again.
Jacob and I enjoyed picking and eating them fresh. Big peas and crunchy, sweet pods.

Beets: don't remember variety
I need to figure out when to thin them.  They were tasty, but small. We liked the beet greens steamed, as well (tasted like spinach.) Could see us doing more of these next summer.  They were good for some variety on the table.

 All those greens with teeny-tiny beets at the bottom.

These were a little better-sized, probably because I had picked some already, thus thinning them out.

Onions: yellow
Got a few. I didn't plant as closely as square foot recommended, but I probably could have. Not true slicer size, but seemed a mellower flavor than last year.

Fall colors

 The golden leaves of this aspen in our backyard thrill me every time I look at them.  Especially side-by-side with the almost lime green and rust orange of these trees (below), plus the deep green of the pine tree here.

It has been a long time since we've had beautiful trees on our property.  

And a bonus that our neighbors have such beauty peeking over the fence on all sides.

Goodbye

Goodbye 3 trees!

Goodbye junipers!

Goodbye cottoneasters!

Wow, that felt good, and I wasn't the one driving the tractor!  Without all this superfluous greenery there is now mental and physical space to contemplate change. Our current thoughts are one retaining wall all the way around in front, with grassy slope leading down to it and flowers/small shrubs planted in front.

Part of flower bed possibilities will depend on how far back from the street the wall is placed.  We had the utility companies come out and mark lines, and we've got electric and tv lines all along in front, parallel to the street.  So I wouldn't be able to plant anything right there, unless the wall was back far enough that roots wouldn't interfere with the lines. Not sure what else we would put right there, though.  Junipers?

Garden Terraces

 It was just too discouraging digging this out by hand, so Jason rented some big equipment.

3 terraces going up the hill: just need cleaning up a little, and keystone blocks put in.

Mountain Ash

...and Diamond.
This is on the far end of our garden boxes, right at the bottom of the slope.  If it grows to its full height, it will probably shade the garden.  Which means it should come out or be transplanted. But it has such pretty color, I'm thinking now perhaps it would be worth it to transplant it to the East side yard while it's still small enough to handle.

[10/2012: recently found out this is actually a staghorn sumac, so it probably won't grow too much taller.]

Side yards

West yard.

 Jason will probably chop down these 3 pine trees.  As you can see, he already chopped off most of the lower branches.  The only gate to the back is at the top of this incline.

East yard

 Surprise! One pretty blanket flower growing next to the house on this side. Random!

Not sure what these are, but there are several right along the fence on this side. Forsythia, maybe?

 East yard overview

Standing at the back fence, looking toward the street. Junipers, one little purple-leafed tree (dogwood?), more junipers.

Front Yard [sigh]

This part of our home needs so much work! 

We have talked about renting a backhoe and just starting over.

 This little patch of goodness unfortunately is hidden by the stairs, and under the eaves, so it doesn't get any rain and hardly any sun.

I plan to transplant all three of these elsewhere.

-- closeup of lavender --

I haven't decided where to put this yet. Perhaps once we get some retaining walls and flower beds put in it can go there.

 oakleaf hydrangea--beautiful color!

I'm going to move this one to the back flowerbed along the house.

It will be the star attraction, right in the middle.

I'm hoping with some water and morning sunlight it will actually grow to fill the space.

The birthday cake style of landscaping.

Bottom layer: junipers

Top layer: cotoneasters

It's flat on top, too.

There's even a spruce tree "candle" on top!

You know, I've never really cared for junipers all that much. 

Inheriting this many (they go all the way around the side) is a bit discouraging.

This is where we will probably need some rented heavy equipment to start digging things out--which will have to wait until spring with our more important back yard projects going on. 

 Rose bushes that will also be moved prior to the backhoe coming in. 

Most likely they will go somewhere in the back yard, as well.

Not sure what these little scraggly bushes are.  Probably not doing so well due to lack of water, like most else directly under the eaves.  I actually don't mind this evergreen; not sure what it is either.

The other half of this front little bed.

Backyard Progress

  Garden Spot

Doing some digging--straight into clay! Jason has had to use the pick-axe to break some of the dirt loose.

This will be the bottom level of our terraced garden, eventually to have keystone of some kind make a short wall all around it.  We put a hold on this digging project in favor of the shed--seeing as how it will be MUCH easier to work on the garden if we don't have to carry our tools back and forth to the garage each time.

The Shed

Jason hasn't had a whole lot of time to work on this project, but he has managed to get all the blocks in and levelled for the foundation.  Tuesday he built the floor, shown here. It's not nailed together yet.

As you can see, it will step down in the middle. We'll put two doors on it, one over where Diamond is,

and the other directly opposite on the bottom level.

Top level will be for equipment storage, mostly.

Bottom level will be a potting shed for me! Woohoo!

I've got a design drawn up with a potting bench, 2 windows, a pegboard for hand tools, and lots of shelving and cupboards.  Plus, Jason plans to put in skylights. 

I'm excited to see this taking shape!

Apple Trees!

We got our 2 apples trees planted yesterday!  One Yellow Delicious, and one Red McIntosh.

Yellow Delicious didn't have a tag. Here's what I know about it, though:

Semi-dwarf: mature size 15-20' tall and wide

Needs full sun.

Self-pollinating, but will do better with another variety to pollinate (midseason.)



I've learned a lot about apples trees in the last couple of days. 

You need 2 different varieties to pollinate each other.

Planting info:

They do best with well-draining soil, but it doesn't need to be super fertile.  Do well on a slope.  Avoid planting at the bottom where the cold air will pool around the tree and kill off blossoms. 

I'm still learning about pruning.

Probably will need to do something to protect them from bunnies and mice eating the bark.  Although, these trees seem to be a couple of years old--they are 1" thick already, so I don't know if that will be as much of a problem.  We will still most likely put up chicken wire or something to protect them.

Avoid sun-scald: we should wrap the tree or paint it white with latex paint, up to the first branches.

From the Red McIntosh tag:

Semi-dwarf: average mature size 15-20' tall and wide

Needs full sun.

Cold Hardy to -30 to -40 F.

Medium to large deep red apple with white, sweet, fragrant flesh.  Ripens in mid-September.  Needs midseason pollinizer, suggest Red Jonathan. 

Certified virus-free.

New Back Yard, Thoughts and Plans

We are starting over from scratch here, pretty much.

There is a nice bit of lawn between the house and this hill...and yay! no pool to worry about!  Jacob has actually been able to play outside by himself sometimes.  That part has been really good.

Otherwise, the amount of work to be done is a bit daunting, but I'm trying to remember that it doesn't need to be done all at once.

Old, falling-down garden box full of weeds.

Fairly steep slope behind, which we plan to terrace into more garden boxes.

Looking back at the middle of the slope.  A couple of young aspens, and a bunch more weeds in front.

I want to plant 2 apple trees this fall where those green weeds are, right at the bottom of the slope.  We would like to add a few more fruit trees next year, but haven't settled on which kind. 

Far side of the hill.  Big aspen, with a dead small tree and a bunch of dead grass and weeds.

I need to go up the hill and decide which aspen runners to let live and which to clip off.  We think having a small aspen grove on this side of the hill may be a good way to go.  Better than what we've got, for sure.

Steep slope down north side of yard. 

This may be part of a more extensive landscaping and wall-building project later on.  For now, it will probably just stay as is.

Raspberry bush! 

Thorny, with small but sweet berries. Not very abundant by the time we got here, but perhaps some judicious pruning and care would help that.

We're now looking at the flower bed up against the house, in case that wasn't obvious, (so hill with garden box is behind me.)

Lots of irises, which could probably use dividing.

I'm not sure what the plant is between the irises and the pointy evergreen.

The former owner thought they were scented geranium, but wasn't positive either.

The tree is going to have to come out--besides plans for deck expansion, I've seen several wasps crawl into it, and I think they are building a nest in there. Plus, it's just kind of ugly.

We have had to start watering the lawn, which has been strange!  Also, there is wind here almost all the time, so I want to interplant the trees on the slope with some shrubs in hopes of protecting my vegetable garden, at least a little bit.  Near as I can tell after a month, prevailing winds all blow straight across the hill from the south.  It may change at other seasons, don't know yet.

Flower Arranging 101

The kids and I went to a U-Pick Flower Farm in the area and so when we got home, I got to try my hand at flower arranging.  It's pretty obvious that I need some more practice, but it was fun to give it a try.

No. 1: Hodge-podge

 This one turned out okay, but the flowers look a bit crowded.

I really wanted that sunflower in there, too (below), but it looks pretty ridiculous.

I needed to stick a rod into the stem or something to hold it up, I think.

 Not my favorite at all. 

No. 2: Study in fuschia 

 I debated between leaving the gladiolus all by itself and sticking those field flowers in with it.  As you can see, I opted for the small flowers as well. Provided a little contrast, anyway.

No. 3: Pinks with yellow and purple accents

 This one, in the blue/green Venetian glass vase, was my favorite.

Form was a little better than the first, and colors went together well.

My hope is to someday have enough flowers of my own to cut arrangements, without having to worry about leaving a big bare spot in my landscaping!  I may even have room for a cutting garden, with our 3 garden terraces.

Harvest

The last of what we harvested before the move.

Potatoes and onions

"Champion" tomatoes, "Sungold" cherry tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini

Garden Menace is Back

Japanese Beetle Infestation, 2010

Rose bush devastation.

I guess we can add okra to the list of plants the Japanese beetle will devour.

This has just been in the last few days.

The okra planted in the same box as the tomatoes hasn't been eaten nearly as much.  Wonder why.

My attempts at "organic" pest control: a small container with some rubbing alcohol in the bottom, and short stick to knock the beetles into it. Very effective, except when I went back to water there were just as many covering the leaves again.

They haven't seemed to notice the beans yet.  They are bush beans, rather than pole beans--I wonder if that makes a difference.  Also, I wouldn't care if they ate the scarlet runner beans, since I just wanted the pretty flowers anyway, but they haven't seemed to notice those either. 

I haven't looked at the apple tree, but I'm sure it looks just as bad.

I need to find out their range--I'm hoping I won't have to deal with them in Washington!

Box 4: Potatoes & Peas Done

Perhaps it's just the "Yukon Gold" variety that can't take the summer heat.

I guess we harvested them middle of July last year, too.  They may hang on for that long--kind of doubtful, though.

Side view. Peas still have some new growth, but are pretty much done too.

There is one random volunteer tomato plant in this bed as well, that is climbing the trellis all on its own.

Also, the onions seem to still be doing fine.

Maybe I'll give them one more week, then pull out potatoes and peas.  If I can get something planted before the real heat begins, it will have a much better chance of surviving without us.

The Secret Garden

Okay, check out these volunteer tomato plants!  They are creating a mini tomato jungle of their own, right here between Box #3 and the fence.  They appear to all be cherry tomatoes so far--must be from the ones that didn't get eaten last year and fell on the ground.  It is not good soil at all, I can hardly believe they are thriving back there.