New Garden

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We have a truckload of compost in our driveway. My family laughs at my delight at a pile of “dirt”. But it’s just what I needed to start a garden.

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The air conditioner unit moved to a new location last spring. It gave me an excuse to put in garden to screen the big eyesore. In June, I found the Pieris japonica ‘Mountain Fire’ on sale. That was the start.

Last week I put down 4 to 6 sheets of newspaper and topped it with 3 to 4 inches of compost. I’ve used mulch for this same purpose in other gardens and it worked just as well. Over the winter the newspaper will kill the grass and decompose into the soil making an instant garden.

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I tried not to get distracted.

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I’m fooling around with some kind of stepping stone path. I’ve set up some old bricks but I’m not sure what the final path will be. It will be less noticeable when I cover the area with mulch.
Next spring the garden will be ready to plant. I’ll put in some evergreen shrubs, a hosta or two and maybe a mum and a few annuals. Then I’ll cover the area with mulch.

It’s a simple way to start a new garden.

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Hemlock Scale

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Another busy week in the garden – pruning, dead heading and clean up. The new garden is finished. I’ll get back to that story next time.

The needles on our 65 ft. hemlocks have been turning brown and dropping off. I would hate to lose these trees. They provide shade and privacy for our deck. Birds nest and twitter in them all summer. Squirrels leap from branch to branch. They make me feel like I’m sitting in a cool shady forest.

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This isn’t a problem we could handle ourselves so we called a tree care professional. The trees have hemlock scale. The scales can be seen on the back of the needles as tiny brown dots. According to Penn State Department of Entomology, “Scales injure host plants by inserting their threadlike, piercing-sucking mouthparts into needles and withdraw vital nutrients necessary for plant growth from mesophyll cells.”

The trunk was sprayed with Pentra Bark/Merit solution from the base of the trunk to about 6 feet up the bark. The insecticide will go through the tree’s vascular system to kill the scale.

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It seemed like the most environmentally friendly way to save the trees. They have become old friends over the past 35 years. I hope the trees will continue live next to our deck for a long time.

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - September 2009

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I almost forgot about Bloom Day. What happened to the first 14 days of September? I ran out this morning and snapped a few pictures of the blooms in my garden.

Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts this colorful day on the 15th of each month. See the links to what’s blooming in other gardens here. Thank you Carol!

Sedum Autumn Joy. A common fall plant but a reliable performer in the hot sunny, spot with a ground cover sedum.

One of my favorites, Japanese anemone. I also have a pink one but the rabbits chopped off the bloom stalks before they got a chance to bloom.
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The mum Clara Curtis has a long bloom time. It started blooming in August and will go until frost. Here with the ever present coleus.
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I don’t grow tansy for the blooms. The fernlike foliage and medicinal aroma make it a keeper in my garden.
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Phlox David is looking a little raggedy but still producing blooms (when I remember to deadhead).

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The annuals cleome, nasturtium and zinnia add color to the garden.

Fall is a wonderful time in the garden. Now if I could only get September to slow down a bit.

Houseplants

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Bringing in the houseplants in fall

All the houseplants that spent the summer outside are now safely tucked away in the house. When the temperature outside goes below 60 degrees at night, I know it’s time to bring in the houseplants.

The coleus cuttings will be houseplants until May. I start them in water. I know they can also be started directly in soil but water works for me. After they grow roots, I’ll pot them up. They will spend the winter under lights. I’ll do another batch of cuttings from them in late winter.

The Christmas cactus needed to be trimmed. After a light haircut, I rinsed the leaves with a sprayer on the hose. I sprayed with my homemade baking soda/dish soap/water solution (1 gallon water, 2 tablespoons baking soda and a little dish soap). I put them in a little used, cool room that gets no artificial light. I’ll wait for blooms to start in November.

The amaryllis is taking its yearly nap. They rest under the table in the same cool room as the Christmas cactus. I brought them in about the middle of August and stopped watering. I’ll take off the leaves as they die back. If there are any green leaves left by the end of September, I’ll cut them off. I’ll add soil and start to water lightly after thanksgiving for March blooms.

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The tuberose was disappointing again this year – no blooms. They are still growing in a sunny window. I’ll soon let the foliage die back and give them the same treatment as the amaryllis. Next year I’ll plant them in a larger pot and hope for fragrant blooms.

It’s sad to think about the end of summer but now I have one more chore checked off my long fall list. We had a good rain yesterday so I can get back to weeding, trimming and pulling. And then there’s the new garden – more about that later.

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A Walk Through the Garden

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I haven’t spent much time in the garden so far this week. I picked a peck of (un)pickled peppers. This has been a good year for sweet peppers!

The potted plants are growing tall and full. The pots with cannas and coleus are my favorites.

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The hardy hibiscus is being gobbled up by some unknown bug. The first picture is from the middle of August. The second picture is from the end of August. Not very pretty.
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The cleome is still going strong. Such an easy annual for me. The seed pods hanging from the stems guarantee next year's crop.
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This week in the Garden

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It’s been a good week in the garden.

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The Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis paniculata ‘Sweet Autumn’) is in full bloom. Sparkly little white flowers cover the lush green growth. There is a trellis under that vine. I’ve had to tie it up several times this year. The growth tends to go off in all directions.

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I dug out some suckers from the Sweet Shrub (Calycanthus floridus). I need to do this in spring and fall to avoid growing a Sweet Shrub forest.

The bush could use a hair cut too.

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I have the same sucker problem with the white lilac. I dug out some of those roots too this week.

I got a good start on a new garden to screen the air conditioner unit. More about that in a later post.

While working in the garden I noticed a welcome visitor on the coreopsis.

Garden Thug

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Mexican Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa ‘Siskiyou’)

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Once again, the Evening primrose is out of control. It’s growing into the path and coming up a 3 feet away in the middle of the lemon thyme groundcover. Plant catalogues state it “can be aggressive”. That certainly is an understatement.

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I've been trying to weed them out all summer one by one. Time for radical surgery I decided. The plants really need to be dug out because the roots break off easily.

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The roots are everywhere sending out shoots in all directions. Roots live under the stepping stones and come up on the other side.

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It’s impossible to get them all. The best I can hope for is to slow them down. I also dug back about 6 inches inside the little brick edging that is supposed to be their boundary.

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Evening Primose has a pretty pink flower in spring and long bloom time. If I had done a little research before I planting, I may have found out that it should be contained or given free range in a lot of space.

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After 5 years in my garden, I wish I had done my homework before I planted this little thug.

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Precision Drip Spikes

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Last May 30 I posted that I was going to try Precision Drip Spikes to help keep my potted pole beans and bush cucumbers watered during the summer.

I ordered a pack of four spikes for $16.95 from Gardener’s Supply. Each “Spike” consisted of a 7" spike to fit in the water bottle, a tiny hose and a small “dripper” spike. The water bottle is not included.

A numbered dial on the "dripper" spike sets the amount of water to be released.

According to the instructions, “When you plant the (dripper) spike the water outlet must not come in contact with the soil.”

The first thing that happened with the Precision Drip Spikes: The 2 liter bottle spike sunk in the soil and it was difficult to put the drip end in the soil without getting it too deep. I tried to prop the bottle on some flat stones and lean it against the pot. There was still an S-shaped curve in the hose. A smaller bottle didn’t work much better.

I fiddled around with it for weeks. If I got everything right, it worked well. Some times it created a vacuum and no water came out at all. I finally took them out. I think it takes someone with more patience than I have to get the Precision Drip Spikes working correctly.

I’ve read that some people cut the bottom off the water bottle which makes it easier to refill and eliminates the vacuum problem. I may try that next year.

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Hot Summer Garden

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. . . and other garden ramblings.

I have a new meaning for the words shade garden -- gardening in the shade.

I’ve been following the shade around the garden. The little time I’ve spent in the garden is planned to take advantage of the shade. Last week 90 to 100 degree heat and high humidity put this new meaning on shade gardening. Fortunately I have a lot of mature trees.

Morning Glories in Round Rock (Texas) reported a heat index 117 in her blog on June 30. I thought of her as the sweat dripped off my nose with the gnats and mosquitoes buzzed in my ears. I can’t even imagine what a heat index of 117 feels like.

We’ve also had some wild storms. The wind and rain turned the crepe myrtle into weeping crepe myrtle.

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The cosmos leans against the pussy willow. I’ve cut some of the broken stems and propped up some others.

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I picked some great sweet peppers (‘Early Sensation). The seeds were planted on March 11. On my May 13th post, “Seed Challenge”, the plants were ready for the garden. I cooked up a pot of old-fashioned stuffed peppers last week – five months from seed to stomach.

I got some exciting news from Carol at May Dreams Garden this week. I won a CobraHead Weeder. The good folks at CobraHead LLC gave one to everyone who entered. Very generous indeed and just in time for fall weeding.

I’ve been having trouble with the link to Doug Green’s Garden (blog). Does the link at the right work for anyone? Please leave a comment. I’ll change the link if anyone else is having trouble. I can’t seem to get it working. Here’s the link to Doug’s Simple Gift Farm website - http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/. You may be able access his blog there. Doug will also release a new propagation ebook this week. It’s a winner.

Fortunately, we’re having some better weather this week with temperatures in the 80’s and lower humidity. I’ll be a happier gardener this week.

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Herbs

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Confession of my dirty little secret:

The herbs in my garden are ornamental. I don’t use herbs for cooking, crafts or for medicinal purposes. For me, cooking and crafts rate just above dusting on my "what-I-like-to-do scale". I use other substances for medicinal purposes.

That said, I decided to plant herb seeds in fish boxes just to see what I could grow. On May 5, I planted basil and oregano in one box, parsley and lettuce in the other two.

The lettuce was pretty but it never grew to a size that I considered large enough to eat before going to seed.

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The parsley was growing nicely until the rabbits mowed it down. This box has a sprig of lobelia growing at the end. The lobelia seeds must have been in the soil from another year.

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The basil and oregano did well in the fish boxes with pretty shades of green.

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I couldn’t resist free plants from a friend. Lovage, basil pistou, Christmas basil, lime basil, Plow Church Cemetery basil, Spice Island rosemary, summer savory and Mexican mint marigold were planted in a circle on June 24. They’ve grown large and should have had more space.

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The scents are refreshing. I love to run my hand over the plants to release the aroma or pick a twig to carry as I walk around the garden.

One thing I’ve learned from my little herb experiment – herbs are easy to grow. And, if you like to cook, they can be an easy to grow way to fresh flavor.

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