Garden Notes - May 6, 2013

The days are getting longer and warmer, and it's looking really beautiful outside:

I have been working hard with my seedlings, preparing garden beds, and even putting up a fence to protect my lettuce and spinach from rabbits:

 Well, the lettuce and spinach is barely visible, but it still needs protecting!

Also, I've been enjoying all the daffodils, forsythia and bleeding hearts in my house:

Everything's Growing!

I have been so busy these days, but I spend as much time in my garden as I can.  My two biggest regrets are that I have not had the time to prune my fruit trees, or blueberry bushes, and I still haven't done anything about protecting them.  I have been spending what little free time I have starting seeds, pruning, cleaning up the yard and amending the soil.  Here are some pictures of what's going on around here:

My thyme seedlings have developed their first set of true leaves, so I thinned them out by using tiny scissors to cut out any extras, and then I transplanted them into newspaper pots that I made:

How tiny these plants are!  I can't wait to smell these leaves this summer!  Hey!  I just noticed that the "cup" has "for His Kingdom" printed on it, upside down! The other has the words "Christian" and "philosophy" on it.  It's thyme for His Kingdom!

I planted 2 kinds of cucumbers, 2 kinds of marigolds, some zinnias and bachelor's buttons on the 17th - the cucumbers began to sprout after 1 day; everything else is sprouting today (19th):





 

I hung up a new light in my basement, since I was running out of room with my other 2 lights.  I calculated that I have about 250 little plants growing down there! So, I needed another light.  I learned in my WMMGA class that you don't have to buy special, expensive lights.  I bought a shop light for $20 and 2 T5 fluorescent bulbs.  I couldn't insert the bulbs at first, and ended up going back to Home Depot where a saleswoman showed me how. I then bought 4-foot chains to hang the lamp from the ceiling, so I can adjust it as the plants grow.  The chains that the light came with were only a few inches long:

 





Outdoors, things are popping up all over the place!  All the daffodil bulbs that Jamie planted are coming up:

 

 



Sadly, Jamie and I are going to have this tree taken down in November.  The kids grew up swinging from its branches.

Also, I see signs of peonies, bleeding hearts, chives, foxglove, forsythia and apple blossoms, plus tiny blue flowers that I don't know the name of:

And of course, the weeds are here:

 

 

Well, I guess these are "winter annuals"!  James asked, "Mom, what are all these tiny white flowers?"  I said, "Weeds". "What are weeds?"  "Plants that are growing where you don't want them to grow."  James felt sorry for the weeds.

 

A few weeks ago, the end of March, I planted lettuce, spinach and green onions in with the garlic:

 

 

 

The garlic is taking off:

 

 

 

And of course, there's Shadow.  He thinks it's his garden.  The neighbor's dog, Abby, thinks it's her garden, too.  I had to chase her out the other day, because she was rolling around in the manure I put down.  Sheesh! I have a hard enough time with the deer and the rabbits, never mind a dachshund!

 

Speaking of pests, notice how there are no fences in any of these pictures.  I had a "fence guy" come out this week to look at the yard.  Still don't know how we're going to fence it all in.



Pruning Shrubs and Trees - Late Winter

I learned in my gardening class that some shrubs and trees should be pruned in late winter, and March is the perfect time to do this: Lilacs, forsythia, butterfly bush, hydrangea, spirea - and other deciduous shrubs, apple trees, needled evergreens, and hemlocks.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I went to Tougas Family Farm to learn how to prune blueberries, since this is the time of year when they need to be done.  I will not be pruning my blueberries for at least 3 years however.  My poor blueberry bushes!

Those little twigs sticking up through the snow are what's left of my baby blueberry bushes!  This year, I am going to do everything I can to protect them.

I pruned several bushes this week - my butterfly bushes and my hydrangeas.  I took another look at them today and determined that I have to go back and make some "thinning cuts".  Thinning cuts can be done at any time of the year, as they don't really effect the fruiting.

This poor butterfly bush had a deer take a nap on it last summer.  It's still alive, but I have to find some way to straighten it out.

I still have our hemlock hedge to do - which is getting a little out of hand:

Also, forsythia, lilacs,burning bush (which is an invasive species) and spirea... all of which are a mess!

 

 

I like this picture of Shadow!  He loves to be outside when I'm gardening.

Anyway, I tend to tame all of these plants.  These pictures show we had fresh snow yesterday.  The yard looked a little bleak today - very soon we should see a lot of color (and neat looking hedges and shrubs)!