Tag Archives: backyard garden

Small Fish in a Big Pond

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Hardening off the freshly-sprouted seedlings!

After waking up to thunderstorms in the wee small hours of the morning, I didn’t have tremendously high hopes for the day. But, in the afternoon, the sun came out, and it turned into a lovely time for gardening.

Today is the first of May, my favorite month in the garden. All the perennials are coming back up, there’s lots of trees and flowers in bloom, and it’s not yet so hot and humid that being outside for any length of time is miserable. We’re not quite past our last frost date here in Central Ohio, so I haven’t moved everything outside quite yet. But, I was able to start hardening off the tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, and flowers that I’ve been growing from seed indoors. The process takes about ten days/two weeks, so by the time they are ready to plant in the ground, it will be warm enough to plant them in the ground.

The deck is already packed full of pots. I started a bunch of native grasses from seed to add to the borders along our fence: Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), Big Bluestem (Andropogon geradii), Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans), and Broom Sedge (Andropogon virginicus). There’s also pots full of strawberries, potatoes, thyme, chives, mint, and a bunch of native perennials, like Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) and Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa). The cold frame filled up very quickly this year, but we’re about past the time where I need it. Looks like I skated by starting too many seeds for yet another year!

Out in the raised beds, things are also filling up. Our asparagus is in its fourth year, so it’s really coming in nicely. We’ve already been able to enjoy a few harvests on the grill. The garlic I planted last fall is also looking quite nice. It should be time to harvest those bulbs here in a few weeks. Also out in the beds are some carrots, leeks, onions, snow peas, and potatoes. We’re going to have potatoes coming out of our ears this year. I have four grow bags full of them on the deck, and two more rows of potatoes out in the raised beds. I’m just trying to represent my Irish heritage well!

As usual, the deck is filling up with potted plants.

Just off of the raised beds is the wildlife pond that went in last year. I’ve had a few people ask how the pond had its start in life, so I thought I’d share the tale again, and give an update.

I’d had a small water feature in mind for a few years, but I wasn’t sure about what to put in. Fountains are EXPENSIVE and I thought a pond would be too much upkeep. Two years ago, I added a few small, shallow pots to the landscape, filled with water for the birds and pollinators to enjoy. I highly recommend this. It’s a simple way to help lure more wildlife into the yard, and things are easy to clean and maintain. But, with every viewing of the BBC’s Gardeners World, I wanted more.

Our lot is just over 6,000 square feet, which is below average for the US (you people with acreage are really throwing off the curve). It’s more than big enough for two fairly lazy people who hate lawn maintenance, and as I searched online for examples of wildlife ponds, I knew the yard was large enough to fit what I had in mind as well. I wanted something about 3′ by 3′, in a circle-ish shape, and shallow enough that I wouldn’t have to do much digging to put the thing in. So, one day, I told the husband that we were putting a pond in, and we started to dig. Well, actually, back that up. First, I called 8-1-1 and had the utility companies come out to mark our electric and cable lines so we wouldn’t hit anything. If you’re ever doing any digging in your yard, for a tree, a pond, or any kind of larger hole, Call Before You Dig!

So, yard spray-painted with lines marking the important things, we mapped out the spot for the pond with an old hose. I’ve seen this done before, and it’s a great way to “see” what your new project is going to look like before you start digging around. Just use the hose like a border, and make the shape you want. Once we had things outlined, we started digging.

The pond is about 2′ deep in the center, with tapered edges, and a little beach on one end. I specifically wanted a wildlife-style pond in the yard, and for animals to be able to get in and use the thing, I knew a gradual entryway was required. Once the digging was complete, we added a lining, using plastic sheeting. The sheet is fairly thick, and I folded it in half to add even more oomph to the lining.

The perennials are coming back in nicely this year, framing in the pond and helping to provide food and shelter to any critters who may be in the area. Now that the rocks have settled in, I have a few more to add, but I’m happy with the progress so far!

Next, we added some river rock and pebbles to the bottom, and along the edges. Then, larger flat stones went in around the border of the pond and along the sides, to hide the plastic sheet. Once that was finished, we filled the pond with water, and I used some old branches and sticks to line one end of the pond and make it look more natural and wild. This makes a great space for wildlife to hide and nest. After a simple bubbler went in to circulate the water around, that was that for the pond.

The area where we put the pond is mostly in the shade. It was a damp area to begin with, that grew a lot of moss and henbit. So, I added in plants that liked the shade and wet conditions, and used mostly species native to our area to lure in even more o the things we wanted, like dragonflies and caterpillars. There’s a lot around the pond, all perennials: an eastern redbud tree, a buttonbush, maidenhair ferns, wild geraniums, creek sedge, blue flag irises, sweet flag irises, jack-in-the-pulpits, rue anemones, sea oats, spiderwort, a pitcher plant, and a little grouping of hostas and heucheras. The native plants and trees (all but the last two) support over 100 species of caterpillars!

Today, I added the bubbler back into the pond for the season. I started with a little, floating solar fountain. But, after a couple of months, it bit the dust. So, I added in a little aquarium pump, that plugs into an outlet on the deck. It helps keep water circulating and the sound attracts more birds to the pond for bath time.

Other than that, I don’t do a thing to the pond, except weed around it. (And, today, I pulled a few leaves out of the water so they wouldn’t clog up the bubbler). I don’t use any chemicals to clean the water- the bubbler takes care of that. And we’ve had the neatest wildlife show up in the short time the pond has been around: all kinds of birds, dragonflies (just one can eat up to 100 mosquitoes in a day, in case you’re worried about the water in the yard attracting too many of the bloodsuckers), beetles, spiders, other insects, and most excitingly, frogs! Two arrive last summer and I hope we see more this year.

Some of the shade-loving plants and trees in bloom right now: great white trillium, dutchman’s breeches, rue anemone, and flowering dogwood

So, that’s the wildlife pond. It’s doing exactly what I’d wanted: luring in wildlife. And, it’s been fuss-free. Is the water always 100% clear? Nope. Does it look like a well-manicured water feature? Absolutely not. But, those things weren’t my goal. I wanted the space to look natural and I think we succeeded. This spring has already been filled with joyful moments and I wander around the pond, looking at the different wildlife which lives there- the insects, the native wildflowers, and the occasional bird, stopping by to wade around the beach.

Hopefully, this helps get you started if you’re interested in adding your own pond to the yard. There’s lots of books and resources out there to inspire, including this one that I used from the Conservation Foundation. Happy gardening!

The One Where We Save the Birds

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The Virginia Bluebells are in their prime right now, and looking absolutely gorgeous!

We had some very nice, warm weather this weekend. I think I could actually feel the stampede of people heading outdoors to try soaking up the sunshine before things cool off again. We’ve had a string of lousy weekends, with sleet, snow, rain, and general cold, so it felt pretty great to be outdoors, working in the dirt again.

I cleaned out a few of the beds, trimming back last seasons perennials, mulching, and weeding. I don’t care what grows in the grass (the bees have been enjoying our crop of dandelions already!), but I try to keep the beds free of all the creeping charlie, thistle, dandelions, and bittercress.

There’s been a lot happening in the raised beds lately. Our garlic is growing up quite well, and has been joined by the leeks that I started indoors the other month, along with some snow peas, yellow onions, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, and spinach. The crop of native plants that I grew from seed this winter have been thinned and moved to larger pots. And our asparagus crop is coming in. We harvested the first batch for dinner. Yum!

This weekend saw a trip to one of my favorite plant centers, Scioto Gardens, for some more native plants to add to the wildlife pond. I picked up some more Blue Flag Irises (Iris virginica), Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), an Oak Sedge (Carex pensylvanica), a Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), and an Oak Leaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) to add to the native plants that already live around the pond. All told, so far, the plants we have living there play host to over 100 species of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies)!

Our new Jack-in-the-Pulpits, flowering around the wildlife pond

Other than just simply enjoying caterpillars, moths, and butterflies in the yard, I’m making an effort to add plants that host these critters for a reason. Just in North America, in the past 50 years, we’ve lost 1 in 4 birds. This isn’t just happening in exotic, tropical rain forest locations. It’s happening in our backyards. The birds we typically see here in Ohio are all experiencing a mass decline. And a huge reason for this is because they simply don’t have enough to eat.

Lots of my gardening friends put up bird feeders during the winter months, myself included. But the largest part of most birds diets are from bugs, especially caterpillars. Robins, woodpeckers, blue jays, wrens, warblers, sparrows, chickadees, cardinals, and many more rely on caterpillars for their survival. And they need to eat a LOT of caterpillars! According to Douglas Tallamy, (Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware) a single pair of breeding chickadees must find 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to raise just one clutch of young.

We don’t make this easy on them. Think about the yards in your neighborhood, or around your area. What do they look like? Are there a lot of native trees and plants around, or is much of the area covered in turf grass? While it’s hard to imagine having a yard without at least some nice grass to enjoy, it doesn’t support the insects that our birds need to eat to survive. Add in all the chemicals we dump onto our lawns to kill of weeds and “bad bugs,” and it’s no wonder that birds are experiencing such a tragic decline.

As gardeners, there is so much we can do to help out the animals around us, and honestly, we need these birds and insects to thrive for our own well-being, too. Without insects pollinating our crops and flowers, we wouldn’t make it. We all need a healthy ecosystem to enjoy, and this spring is a great time to consider ways to make a difference in your own yards and areas.

I know I’ve talked about native plant species already, but it’s so important to add these to your landscape! There’s a great tool out there, The Native Plant Finder, where you simply type in your zip code, and the site will show oodles of native plants for you to try adding to your garden, along with a list of how many and which species of moths and butterflies they play host to. Search for native plant nurseries in your area and try out a few this year. You will be amazed at what shows up, seemingly overnight.

Another great way to help out our pollinators and birds is to replace all of our outdoor security lights with yellow LED bulbs. Bright, white traditional incandescent bulbs, and LEDs, attract insects and birds in far greater numbers than warm, LED bulbs. You’ll help these critters out by diminishing the light pollution in your area, since many of our birds migrate at night.

Finally, a really important way to help out our local birds and insects is to stop spraying our yards and gardens with chemicals. We all like a healthy lawn, and no one wants to grow a bumper crop of mosquitoes, but the chemicals that we use in our yards, like pyrethrin, do not simply target mosquitoes. They are also killing off our bees, butterflies, moths, and birds. According to the National Wildlife Federation, “There is no way for companies to spray these broad-spectrum insecticides in your yard without also killing other insects they come in contact with, including bees, butterflies, caterpillars, ladybugs, dragonflies and other beneficial insects, along with the mosquitoes.”

So what’s the alternative? In my own yard, I let the birds, dragonflies, and other mosquito-eaters to it, but if you’re really concerned, there are some safer methods to mosquito-removal. Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis), is a bacteria that will kill off mosquitos, leaving our pollinators to safely fly another day. Fill a bucket with some water, and drop in a Bti tablet. The mosquito larvae will eat the toxin, and die off, while other insects fly away free. When you are able to, however, it really is best to leave well enough alone. Our bird populations and other insects that rely on mosquitos will thank you. And your yard will be much healthier for it.

That was a lot of information, but hopefully it wasn’t too preachy. I am very passionate about using our yards to help out our local eco systems, but I realize that it’s a different way of gardening than many of us grew up with. It’s all about balance. Planting a favorite rose or having a nice bit of lawn for the kids to run around in is not a problem. It’s when we don’t provide anything else that our winged-neighbors start to suffer.

Hopefully this spring, you’re able to add in a new plant or tree to your landscape that once grew there naturally. Maybe you just have a small porch and no yard at all- you can still add a pot of milkweed to that doorstep! It’s a sad truth that no one is going to fix this situation for us. If we want our planet to survive, it’s up to us to do the work. But we can make a very big difference, one plant at a time! Happy gardening!

The Jacob’s Ladder are looking stunning this spring!

April, Come She Will

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Nothing says “Spring in the Midwest” like pansies on the front porch!

Springtime continues, as does our wild weather. In the past week, we’ve seen temps in the teens, and the 70s. It’s snowed, sleeted, thunderstormed, and we’ve had high wind warnings and red flag advisories. Things are supposed to be a little calmer this week, with temps in the 50s and 60s, which is the average for this time of year.

I’ve been focusing my gardening efforts indoors lately (mostly so I don’t blow away). This past week, I started up the next round of annuals: calendula, cornflowers, cosmos, love-in-a-mist, nasturtiums, marigolds, and zinnias for the pollinators and a cut flower garden. I also planted some creeping thyme, basil, and cumin. By the time these start growing up, I’ll be able to move them outdoors, into the cold frame. I don’t have enough grow lights to keep too many seedlings growing indoors, so having the cold frame is a lifesaver.

A few weeks ago, I planted up leeks, tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, indigo, rudbeckia, and yarrow, and all of these have sprouted under the grow lights. It’s such a joy when your seeds sprout. The whole process feels a bit like magic to me and I’m so relived that everything is coming up.

Our hellebores are blooming up a storm lately.

Outside, in the milk jugs on the porch, the common blue violets, spring beauties, common milkweed, swamp milkweed, ironweed, purple prairie clover, wild bergamot, and prairie blazing star have sprouted. As excited as I was to see the cantaloupes sprout this past week, I was really over the moon to spy these native seedlings sprouting. Most importantly, they will help the pollinators in the garden this year, but they will also help the garden borders to fill in and look better. One of my goals for this gardening season is to move like plants things into groups, rather than just one of a species planted randomly around the borders.

This week, I’m hoping to get outdoors for a bit of cleanup. I won’t cut any of the perennials back quite yet- that will have to wait just a few more weeks until temps are warm enough that any nesting bees and bugs inside the stalks of these plants have woken up and flown away. But there’s work I can do in the raised beds. They need some more compost and dirt this year before I can start my cool season crops. I want to haul the cold frame up from the basement as well. I have a few long, narrow pots that I’ll plant up with spinach and lettuce here shortly.

I’m excited for these weeks of April. The spring ephemerals that I love will be blooming soon as the weather warms up, and the perennials are starting to pop up for the season. It seems like every day, new green shoots appear. On Sunday, the husband and I headed to our local metro park to check out which wildflowers were flowering.

I absolutely love wildflower walks. Every week, the whole landscape looks different, and spotting tiny little flowers poking up through the fallen leaves in the woods feels like searching for treasure. Sunday, the spring beauties (Claytonia virginica), bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), and harbinger-of-spring (Erigenia bulbosa) were flowering. The toadshade (Trillium sessile) and virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) were budding, and should be flowering here soon. I’ve started growing a lot of these in the garden for myself and the pollinators to enjoy, and I cannot wait to see them all pop up in the flower beds!

Hope the weather is warming up wherever you are, and that your garden is also waking from a long winter. Happy gardening!

Bloodroot, spotted at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park

Garden Dreaming in Winter

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Our winter temperatures have finally arrived. We had a dusting of snow the other day, and temps dropped down into the teens and single digits a few nights. Brr! The birds devoured everything in our feeders before the temps dropped off late last week, and I’ve been enjoying checking out all their tracks in the snow. The deck railings seem to be a high traffic area for the birds, and the neighborhood cat appears to gone ice skating on the frozen pond.

When I haven’t been watching the birds hop around through the snow, I’ve been working on planting the first of this seasons seeds. January may seem an odd time for planting in Ohio, but there’s quite a few seeds that need the winter cold to properly grow. These seeds need a period of colder weather to germinate, with temperature changes and precipitation helping to break down the seeds tough outer shells.

Day-dreaming about spring planting in the raised beds…

In the past, I’d put seeds in the fridge to reproduce winters conditions, but I never had much success growing anything this way. Last year, I learned about the Winter Sowing Method and I had much better luck. I described the process in a post last winter, but the basic idea is that you start your seeds that require stratification outdoors. I was able to grow a bounty of native plants from seed this way, and I decided to try it again this year. I grow these seeds in recycled milk and juice containers, with a little seed starting soil mix. The deck is already packed with containers full of prairie blazing star (Liatris pycnostachya), little blue stem (Schizachyrium scoparium), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), and purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea). I have a bunch of native grasses to start with the rest of my recyclable collection, as well as some coneflowers.

Most of my seeds, however, won’t see soil until March. I’m going to start quite a few herbs and veggies indoors, under grow lights. And then, I have a few things that will be directly sown in the ground, like carrots and lettuce in the springtime. I’ve been scouring seed catalogues, adding entirely too many seeds to my collection. I have a few left over from last year to use up this season, in addition to quite a few that I harvested from plants. So, it’s going to be a busy spring, is what I’m getting at!

What seed-obsession?

Along with planting too many seeds, I just started my Master Gardener Volunteer classes this past Friday! Thankfully, in addition to my gardening addiction, I’m also quite a fan of notebooks, pens, and highlighters, because we’ve been given a ton of materials to study. The first class gave an overview of the Master Gardener program, from its history to all the great work Master Gardeners are doing in our community. Next, we learned about soil, what makes it such an important resource, how and why it’s important to test it, and how and what to add to it to help plants grow. I remained overwhelmed with gratitude that I managed to skip Organic Chemistry in college when “Soil Cation Exchange Capacity” was brought up… if you ever want to make your head spin, give that little ditty a Google…

Looks like the neighborhood cat stepped out onto the ice of the pond and did a little skating.

After learning about the ins and outs of soil, we covered the Scientific Classification System, scientific names for plants, and had a plant biology overview. There’s so much to learn, and I’m excited to be a part of the program. I imagine by the time classes wrap up in mid-March, I will be a fount of planty know-how!

I think that wraps things up for this first few days of January. I hope to spend time this week doing a bit more winter sowing, and I ought to get all my seeds organized so I can figure out the order of operations for this years planting. Hope you’re staying warm and healthy. Happy gardening!

I left up our pokeberries for the birds to snack on this winter. I love the way the berries look in the cold.

Wrapping Up The Year

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From winter through the spring, 2021 was filled with lots of activity and color in the garden.

2021 was quite a year for me in the garden. I started a blog, to keep track of all of my adventures. We put in a wildlife pond, a new pollinator bed, built two more raised beds, filled the deck to bursting with pots, and I planted more seeds than ever. I added quite a few native plants to the yard, tried winter sowing, started growing a few exotic (for Central Ohio!) plants like pineapples and a banana tree, and I’ve stuffed every available surface indoors with potted plants.

The yard saw quite a few visitors this year, everything from dragonflies and bees, to hawks and cats. Our birdfeeder collection multiplied (much to the delight of the local sparrow population), and the compost pile has continued to grow, then break down, only to grow again.

Recently, our lemon tree has started forming flowers for the first time! I’m so excited at the prospect of lemons.

Our raised beds had a productive year. Things kicked off with asparagus and lettuce in the springtime, then the herbs, garlic, shallots, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, and green beans from the summer into fall.

2021 was a warm year, and a wet one, too. According to the local weatherman, who keeps track of these sort of things, this will have been our 7th warmest year since 1879. Just this month, which has been unusually warm, we tied our record for the 3rd warmest December since 1878. We’ve spent a few days with the windows open this week, which has never happened before at this time of year. Our hellebores are budding already (which usually doesn’t happen until March or April) and while most of the perennials dies back last month when we had a bit of snow, the yard is looking pretty green.

I made a few ceramic tiles this fall, with impressions of ferns and leaves from the garden.

Despite the temperatures and rainfall, the garden seemed mostly happy this year. I only watered the pots and raised beds with veggies and annuals- all the plants and trees out in the flower beds were left up to their own devices. I put in a lot of natives, which grow very deep roots that can withstand the summer heat. And I tend not to plant perennials that require much in the way of fussing.

When not gardening, I spent some time crafting up artwork and gifts for friends and family, inspired by, and borrowing from the garden itself. I made up some beeswax candles with bits of dried lavender from the flowers beds. I also dried up a bunch of herbs, like thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, bay leaves, parsley, fennel, and dill, some of which ended up in mixes for friends. Finally, I made up some little clay tiles and pendants, which I “printed” with impressions of ferns and other plants around the yard. I painted them, and shipped them off for some one-of-a-kind art for friends. They turned out rather nicely, if I do say so myself, and I hope to make up some more.

The lavender candles, mid-wax-pouring

I’m really looking forward to the next gardening season. This winter, I’ll be working on my Master Gardener certification, and soon, it will be time to start sowing seeds again. I’ve already been pouring over the seed catalogues as they arrive, and may have already purchased my body weight in seeds… I’m excited to see which new (to me) plants, flowers, and trees catch my eye and end up in the garden this coming year.

As pandemic life continues, and things in the world feel uncertain, I hope that your garden is still bringing you peace and joy. While those seed catalogues pour in, and you find yourself deep into springtime daydreams, may 2022 find you safe and healthy. Happy gardening!

Summer and fall were filled with flowers and treats for the pollinators and I to enjoy!

December Gardening

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We’ve been having some particularly gorgeous sunrises lately.

It’s been a hot minute. I accidentally took the better part of a month off from updating the blog, and decided I ought to get back into the groove. So, now it’s December. We’ve had a few snowy days, some freezing days, cloudy days, and a lot of days where the temperatures have been above average for this time of year. The yard is blooming with dandelions again, something that usually doesn’t happen until the springtime.

A lot of the warmer-season bugs, like bees, have left for the season, but we’re still seeing ladybugs, stinkbugs, spiders, and little beetles whose species I don’t know. I’m sure if I did any digging around in the not-yet-frozen-ground, I’d find plenty of worms, pill bugs, and other creepy crawlies roaming about, too. Even when it is cooler out, there’s a lot going on in the soil.

Our volunteer maple tree put on quite a gorgeous show in November, with fiery orange leaves.

I did a tour of the garden the other day and was surprised at how much was still green this year. A few of the ferns are still hanging out, and the snow and freezing cold mornings haven’t managed to put all of the perennials to sleep yet. Most of the plants have finished for the season, though. As usual, I left up the vast majority for a winter display, as well as to help feed and house the local wildlife until springtime. I’m really enjoying all the tall, dry grasses, like the little bluestem. I know I talk about that native plant a lot, but I just love how different it looks in each season, and its tall, flowy brown stalks with their willowy little seed heads are just gorgeous at this time of year.

I love the way all the different plants look at this time of year, from brown grasses, to frost-covered herbs and green, orange, and red heucheras.

In addition to the gardens, we’ve still been enjoying our harvest from this years crops. The sugar pie pumpkins we grew made for some absolutely delicious pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving. And we are still making our way through the tomato paste from the san marzano tomatoes, as well as the smorgasbord of green beans that continue to pack the freezer. (I like mine with a little bacon and onion… mmm!).

Our sugar pie pumpkins made for a delicious pie!

I’ve been diligently making lists of which veggies, herbs, and fruits I’d like to try out next season. This process is ongoing, and I’ll likely make up about 74 different lists of plans before throwing the whole process out and simply buying whichever seed packets catch my eye once the seed catalogs arrive this winter. It’s fun to daydream, though, and I love a good list.

Speaking of lists, my project this month is to catalog all of the indoor plants. My little indoor jungle has become of showcase of my lack of self control in garden centers, as well as my inability to remember the names of anything. While one of the problems is surely too far gone to be helped, I think I can put my organizational skills to some use coming up with a spreadsheet naming all my plants. Who knows. Maybe in taking a closer look at all the plants, I’ll find some that can be split, necessitating a trip to the greenhouse for more pots! And plants! Win-win!

Hope that your garden is having a lovely sleep while you move your efforts indoors (if you are in the northern hemisphere). Happy gardening!

Our french thyme, all covered in snow and ice

Autumn Meanderings

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A few frosty mornings hailed the end of my beloved marigolds. They were a gorgeous addition to the raised beds, and I’ll definitely be planting more seeds next year.

Well, as expected, we had our first freezes this past week. The temps dipped back into the upper 20s one day, and each morning, the tips of every leaf and blade of grass have been covered in white frost. We said goodbye to the last of the zinnias, the marigolds, the hostas, sedums, as well as the remaining basil and oregano, pokeberry bush, and one lone tomato plant that I’d forgotten had planted itself beside the deck stairs.

We’ve had frost each morning for almost a week now. It finally feels like fall is here to stay.

I finally made it outside to attend to the hostas, sedum, and peony plants. After a hard freeze, the leaves of each of these plants tend to yellow and grow mushy. So, I went out and cut the plants back to the ground. The leaves were all tossed into the compost pile, and in a few months time, new shoots will sprout up for next seasons display. It’s always a little alarming to trim back a plant to its base. But, next year, new growth will pop up in the springtime.

I finally hacked back the hostas, and cleaned up things around the pond a bit. The area around the compost bin is next on the To Do List. You can barely see it in the corner here.

Taking these plants down gave me some good one-on-one time with the garden again. Really, it’s been awhile since I’ve been out to do much in the yard. It was just so bloody hot this summer, and humid (conditions I detest). Having some nice, cool days to get out and dig around a bit brought me a lot of happiness. I pulled some weeds, checked out the health of the plants that I’m leaving alone until next springs growth begins, and I did a bit of maintenance work around the pond. I pulled out the leaves and plant debris, and cleaned up a bit of the area around the water that I’d been letting grow wild. I’m still letting things grow, but it’s more of a controlled chaos.

Yesterday, I cut the hostas down to the ground. So long for now, beauties!

Over the weekend, in addition to the yard cleanup work, the husband took me to one of my favorite plant nurseries in the area: Groovy Plants Ranch. This was our second visit, and I was pretty much in planty heaven. The Ranch has several greenhouses, stocked full of exotic plants from all over the world. They have tropical varieties, cacti, succulents, and more in all shapes and sizes. The Ranch also has an area where you can pot up any new plants you’d like to buy there, as well as an old school house that they’ve converted into a little shop with local artwork, and seasonal plants. Right now, it is filled with all kinds of bulbs. The whole property is protected by a sweet Australian Shepherd who was quite fond of belly rubs. While the husband was distracted with her, I managed to sneak off to add a few more things to the basket.

My new pretties <3

Earlier this year, I’d made the decision that I wasn’t going to plant any more bulbs this year. I have tulips, a few varieties of daffodils, and crocuses already in the yard, and I don’t need any more. And, in years past, I’d had far more success trying to grow garlic by planting it in early spring than in the fall. So, naturally, I came home from The Ranch with an armload of daffodil and garlic bulbs. The daffodils went in under the big locust tree in our front yard, and the garlic went into one of the raised beds out back. What can I say? I am physically incapable of saying no to plants.

Garlic and daffodil bulbs… I don’t want to talk about it!

In addition to the bulbs, I nabbed a few more succulents, some more rock plants, and a pretty, frilly tropical plant whose name I forgot to write down. That reminds me… this winter, I want to take stock of all of my indoor plants. My collection has tripled in size since the Pandemic started, and I should probably be keeping better track of what all I’m growing. Anyway, I brought home lots of goodies. The kitchen windowsill is now completely filled with tiny potted succulents.

We’ve had some really pretty sunrises lately. Please ignore the giant floating phone reflection in the window!

I have one more recent plant acquisition to own up to: I bought a vanilla plant. It’s on its way in the mail. Vanilla, you may not know, is a type of orchid. The plant is a vine, and grows in the wild in Mexico. My little baby vine will be here soon, and I plan to train it up a potted trellis next to the loofah vines and the lemon tree in the husbands office. When it’s warm enough out again, all will move back to the deck. The vines take a bit of time to grow vanilla pods, but when they do, we’ll have our very own vanilla seeds. Picture the best custard you’ve ever had. Now imagine that, but 100x better, and that’s the crème brûlée that the husband will be making with our vanilla. I don’t mean to brag. Them’s just the facts.

The vanilla will likely take a few years to grow seed pods. In fact, it will probably be ready to harvest for the first time around the same time as our pineapples and lemons. But all will be worth the wait. That’s going to be one glorious summer, let me tell you.

In the summer, several of the peonies tend to end up in bouquets. In the fall, their spent flowers look almost as pretty, to me. I salvaged a few when I chopped the leaves down during fall clean up, and they ended up in a vase in the bathroom.

Anyway, for now, with the outdoor garden heading back to sleep, my attentions have been shifting to all my indoor plants. Many spend their summer on the deck, and move back inside as the temperatures fall. Some, I keep inside year-round, as we have much more rainfall than they prefer. I have a lot of them, as I’d mentioned, everything from air plants, to lithops, to long, vining pothos, and caterpillar plants. All of them make me quite happy, and have become a comfort during dark winter days, when my mood is not great. I’ll likely introduce them all to you at some point.

That’s all I have for this week. Whatever the size of your garden, or whichever season you are now in, I hope your plants are bringing you cheer. Happy gardening!

I found a few lacey leaves during fall clean up. They always catch my eye. Wonder who snacked on this one?

As The Garden Turns

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I love the way that prairie plants look in the autumn. We made it to the park yesterday to check out the fall color.

Aaaaand suddenly, it’s November. We’re expecting our first temps below freezing this week, which will officially draw the gardening season to a close. This year has been warmer and wetter than average, which presented its own set of challenges. I thought I’d use today’s post to look back at the garden this year, at what worked well, and which schemes of mine went hay-wire.

When I started the season, I had a few projects in mind. I wanted to turn one of our side yards into a wildflower bed. I planned to add two new raised beds to the back yard for more planting space. And, I wanted to add a native plant bed to the hellstrip in our front yard.

I thought I’d pulled out the last of the carrots in late summer, but I spotted these last stragglers yesterday and harvested them before this weeks freezing temps.

The first of these projects just never made it off the ground, so to speak. The best time to prep a bed like this is in the fall, and I just didn’t get to this bed in time for that. I may work on it over these next few weeks. It would be a nice bed to try the “lasagna” planting method, where you don’t dig anything up, leaving all the organisms and soil structures in place, and instead, layer soil and compostable items like paper on top. The paper kills off the grass, and you’re left with a nice new bed for planting without tearing apart the ground below. It’s far easier on the body, (take that, arthritis!) and is a great way to maintain the health of the soil. Anyway, we’ll see if I get to that this project this month or not…

The next two projects, I did accomplish this past spring. The two raised beds were added early in the season, and we filled them with leaf compost. I grew quite a lot in all four beds this year, all from seed/bulbs: two types of tomatoes, marigolds, carrots, leeks, lettuce, parsley, garlic, shallots, green beans, bachelor button flowers, asparagus, oregano, bush beans, and basil. Everything seemed fairly happy most of the season (though, the druzba tomatoes caught blight at the end of August). I think next year, I’d like to plant about half the beans (they were hard to keep up with), half the tomatoes (I plant to just grow paste tomatoes next year), and I’m hoping to crack the secret to growing parsnips. I’ve tried for two years now, and just never managed to get them to sprout.

Our strawberry plants decided to flower again. The cold will keep them from actually fruiting until next year.

The hellstrip project was also a success. I scaled back my original plan to take out all the sod, and I never managed to get a maple tree planted (though, there’s a volunteer growing out back that I may move to the front yard yet this month). But, in mid-spring, the husband dug out a huge patch of sod, and I moved in a bunch of native plants that I’d grown from seed, along with a few other perennials for the pollinators, like creeping thyme and nepeta. The bed still needs edged with stone to match the others, but so far, it’s looking quite nice. I’m especially proud of the little blue stem grasses that I grew from seed using the winter sewing method. They are an important prairie plant, and look fabulous with their fiery orange and red spikes this fall.

In addition to these larger projects, I spent quite a lot of springtime turning the deck into Plant Central. It sort of started as an accident, as I’d planted way too many seeds, and ran out of space for all of them in the garden beds. But then, I leaned into the idea that the deck was now a hangout for potted plants, ignoring the lack of space for lounging and grilling for their human counterparts. I had… well, frankly, a garden center amount of plants on that deck this year. There were veggies, herbs, tropical plants, native species, fruit… at one point, there was even a 20 foot sugar pie pumpkin vine winding around the grill and half the deck. I really enjoyed my little jungle, and plan to go even more wild next year, because why not.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! This was our first year successfully growing pumpkins. I am still awaiting pumpkin pies. Hint hint, husband.

Finally, in what I consider my crowning achievement in the garden this year, I added a wildlife pond. I’d been day-dreaming about having a water feature in the yard for ages, but I expected it to end up as a large pot, with some water and a lily pad or something. Then, in a fit of whimsy, I announced to the husband that we were going to dig out space for a tiny pond. I had certainly done a bit of research beforehand, but really, one day I just woke up and decided I had to have a pond, and that was that. So, we dug out the pond, added a plastic lining, set rocks around the edges and along the bottom, and then added a boatload of native plants around the edges. I mulched the space, added a water pump, and we were off and running. Birds eventually found the space, and then, to my absolute delight, two frogs showed up (Stanley and Stan Lee). The space is wild, and beautiful, if I do say so myself.

So, the year ended up being quite prolific, garden-wise. I added a lot more native plants to the garden, which were vital during the long, hot stretches of summer days. They lured in all sorts of amazing insects and wildlife. I also grew more veggies, fruits, and herbs than I’d ever managed before, all from seed. I certainly learned a few things for the future, and I have lots of notes on what I’d like to plant next season. I’m pleased with the projects the husband and I managed, because landscaping is tough work.

The cats are back on bird watching duty. I’ll be hanging up the suet blocks and setting out sunflower seeds soon to draw in more visitors.

I have a few ideas percolating for next year… I’d like to rip out some more grass, and expand the perennial beds that wind around the entire perimeter of the back yard. I’d also like to create some more height on the deck with a trellis for some climbers. Finally, I’d like to really focus on stuffing more native species into the yard. I have a lot of single plants peppered around, and I’d like to bulk up their numbers to make the landscape flow a little better. We also plan to replace our falling apart fence early next spring, before the perennials wake back up so they aren’t damaged.

For now, though, the garden is about to go back to sleep for the season, and I have lots of time to daydream about what’s to come in the months ahead. Soon, I’ll be putting the bird feeders back up, and awaiting the first snowfall. Many of my deck plants have been moved inside, so I’m surrounded by green and flowers, even on cold, gloomy winter days. 2021 was a great year in my garden. Hope your gardening season has been even better!

October in the Garden

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Lots of color in the garden, even after the flowers have finished blooming… from goldenrod, to marigolds, to sedum

There’s a group of vultures circling behind the yard… maybe they saw that this weeks post was late, and assumed the worst? Anyway, after a very warm start to October (the first half of the month was the hottest on record in our area, averaging 15 degrees above normal every day), the past few days have been pretty cool and wet. The sun finally peaked out this afternoon for a bit, but the gray clouds look like they will be returning shortly. It feels like it’s already November.

The maples around our neighborhood are finally hitting their peak color for the season, full of flaming oranges and reds. Is there anything as pretty as a sugar maple in its full autumn color? The cottonwoods and a few other trees behind our house are fully bare, and we can see the skyscrapers of Columbus off in the distance again through the treetop branches.

Our dogwood is looking extra gorgeous this year, with fiery red leaves. The blanket flowers are still in bloom, providing a last-minute snack for any bees still lurking.

Things are definitely quieting way down. Most of the flowers and plants in our garden are heading back to sleep. There’s a few blanket flowers, mums, and asters still in bloom, and we haven’t yet had a really hard frost. But, the leaves of the peonies and hostas are starting to turn yellow and grow mushy. Once things dry out, I’ll head outside and hack those all back to their bases. Everything else in the yard (including the leaves) will stay put until the springtime.

So, while the garden starts napping, I have some news to share. A few months ago, I applied to the Master Gardener Volunteer program here in my county. A few hundred people applied. The other week, I interviewed with some current volunteers, and then today, I found out that I made the program! Our county has so many people apply each time, but only 50 are accepted. I didn’t know this when I applied, and I really didn’t expect to make it once I found out.

I love the way everything morphs in October… all the leaves and flowers seem to take on whole new personalities.

I’m really looking forward to the program. Starting in January, I’ll have classes every week through March, and then a boatload of volunteer hours to make it through. I’ll be paired up with a current Master Gardener mentor to help me traverse the program, and then, if all goes well, by the following January, I’ll have graduated the program. I’m excited to learn more, and to meet other people in the community that love plants as much as I do. I’d apologize, in advance, for all the yammering on I’ll be doing about gardening while in the program, but presumably, in you’re reading this, you’re probably on board already.

Well, that’s all the news from the garden this week. Hopefully, if it’s fall in your area, the sun is out, and the leaves are turning colors. As always, I highly recommend a trip to your local metro park at this time of year to enjoy the changing of the seasons. Happy gardening!

The marigolds I grew from seed this spring have really bushed out this month, and I love seeing their cheery orange-red blossoms.

For The Love of Salsa

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The salsa assembly line

This past Saturday, the husband and I made our annual trek north to my parents place for Canning Day. Each summer, my grandpa, dad, brother, and I grow a variety of tomatoes and peppers for the family salsa. We peel, dice, and freeze the veggies as they are grown throughout the hot months of summer. I don’t know about your garden, but it seems like in mine, tomatoes seem to ripen in batches. During the end of summer, I’m in the kitchen every few nights, blanching tomatoes and generally making a mess trying to get as much water out of them as possible before tossing things into the freezer.

Anyway. It’s all worth it, because each fall, we get together and can everything. It’s always quite the production. The day starts in the morning, de-thawing all the frozen veggies, and dicing up the 45 pounds of onions we need for the batch. Eyes burning, the windows are opened as everyone found in the house is drafted for chopping duty. Once the onions are finished and we compose ourselves, the garlic is chopped, and all the veggies are added to a giant bucket. Everything gets mixed up with a boat oar that the husband and I found a few years ago, and branded as “The Big Salsa Stick.”

The Salsa-Making Crew

Once all the ingredients are mixed up, we usually break for lunch and to psych ourselves up for the adventure ahead. Canning almost 20 gallons of salsa takes a bit of time, and the day is usually a long one. This year, my brother had the genius idea to split up the operation. Inside, dad and I heated up the salsa, sanitized the jars and lids, and filled up the jars. The husband and my brother were outside with two canners over outdoor burners. I believe the burners intended purpose was to deep fry turkeys for Thanksgiving, but they worked perfectly for boiling water to seal our mason jars.

Having two canners going at once made the time fly. Mom helped wash all the jars, and line up lids for everything. Dad and I were in the kitchen racing around trying to heat up salsa on stove, and getting jars filled in time for the outdoor crew to finish up a batch in the canner (which takes 12 minutes), freeing up space for the next round. We ended up with 132 pint-sized jars, and we left 4 quarts of fresh stuff in the fridge, un-canned. We’ll definitely be keeping tortilla chip companies in business well into 2022.

The canners, boiling and steaming up a storm

Once the jars come out of the canner, they were lined up inside to cool off and we all kept watch to make sure the lids all popped, showing the jars properly sealed. Once they are slightly cooler than lava, the tops are labeled with the year, and then the jars rest for a couple weeks before we dig in. The rest of the family popped in throughout the day to check on the progress and lay claim to their portion of salsa.

So, it’s quite the day, and we’re all pretty tired still, but it’s also a lot of fun. Our crew keeps in contact throughout the summer with updates on how many of each vegetable we’ve grown to make sure we end up with enough of everything, and there are frequent, desperate trips to every store in the state for canning supplies (which have become quite hard to find by the summer time these past few pandemic years). It’s worth it all for that perfect, fresh taste of the good stuff.

Our 2021 Salsa canned, freezers emptied (just in time to house turkeys next month), feet up, chips and fresh salsa in hand, my week ended on quite the high note. If anyone needs me, I’ll be stuffing my face and doing some research to plan out next years tomato crop. Happy gardening!

The sleepy Salsa Crew after a hard days battle