Finally, It Looks Like a Garden!

 Can definitely tell the difference between the phone camera and the good camera.  Bunch of shots of the garden after nearly a week of gorgeous weather, the sun really helped get things moving along.

Kale

Artichokes and cilantro

Alex's carrots.  He checks on them regularly to see if they're ready yet. :)

Broccoli.

Leaf lettuce

Romaine lettuce

The tulips are done, but the pansies are taking over.

Oregon Spring tomato just waiting for an opening in the garden beds.

Swiss chard is finally starting to grow at a decent pace.

Potato plant, 3 of the 5 I planted are growing well.  The other two never did anything.

The first bed is really starting to look like a garden now, but the second one has some catching up to do still.

Raised bed 1.

Raised bed 2.

Hot weather starts enjoying some sunshine.

New whiskey barrel (#3) with perennials and bulbs planted.

Strawberry bed, flowering and doing great, but I really need to weed the path next to it.

That's how my garden's growing today, not long now till there will be peas, lettuce, kale, and strawberries coming in on a daily basis.  Over the next few days I plan to make some adjustments to my watering system, and have my brother help me with some work in the front and back yards.

Things Are Moving Along

Just a quick update.  The peas are popping up like daisies... or peas.  Everything else is growing, but slowly. 

I managed to convince my yard work resistant husband to help me with tearing out more blackberries, and we got most of them chopped down.  We won't be able to get rid of the cuttings until the first weekend of May when the yard debris dumpster is brought in though.  So for now we have a pile of blackberries in the way, keeping us from digging up the roots. 

Admittedly it doesn't look much better than it did two months ago... but they grew back quite a bit in that time!  I'm also slowly (very slowly) laying down a thick layer of newspaper along the back of the house and covering that with buckets full of lava rock that I have been removing from the front yard.  Hopefully this will make a weed proof barrier that can act as a path behind the house, and protect the siding from encroaching blackberries.  i picked up a towing ball for my car so my husband can borrow his mom's trailer this weekend and we can make a dump trip or two.  My hope is that we can remove all the junk from the blackberry area and get both sheds cleaned out as well.  They still have tons of stuff the previous tenants left behind.

Eventually the back yard will house winter squashes, which i just can't seem to fit in the garden proper, and maybe some nasturtiums and sunflowers that I also ran out of space for.  The soil back there is in great shape and should work out well with just a bit of sand and compost mixed in. 

Lastly, the patio is completely scrubbed, the patio furniture moved into place, my solar lights were repaired or replaced, and most of the gardening junk has been moved.  It's finally starting to look like a nice place to spend our time in the summer.

Busy Busy

The sun was shining and a nice cool breeze was blowing... the perfect day for some heavy duty yard work.  I didn't get as far I'd hoped, but I got farther than I expected thanks to the assistance of my kids.  Turns out little boys like to dig in the dirt! Who'da thunk?

We got started edging the lawn (and ripping out the bermuda grass that had spread beyond the confines of the lawn), we didn't get it finished though, because back-breaking labor has its limits.  But things are starting to look better out there, and it's a chore I've been putting off for years.  A few tons of bark out front and things will be looking great!

We also got rid of some old furniture that was starting to cramp our style, and our house.  Then my daughter and I made a run to Home Depot to get more bark for the garden side of the house.  Everything back there is still a huge mess but with the bark in hand it won't take much to get it back into shape. 

Now it's time for a good long soak, a hearty dinner, and maybe a handful of painkillers.  It is supposed to be fairly nice the rest of the week and if my back will cooperate we'll be digging up another bed and mixing some Mel's Mix soil soon.

Spring is FINALLY here!
Happy Easter/Ostara everyone!

A Bit About Bugs

While doing some weeding of the garden beds in preparation for my first spring plantings I came across some bugs (well grubs) of an unknown type.  By the way, this is a great time to pull up any dandelions, dock and other taproot weeds since the soil is still very soft and moist; it's more likely you will get the entire root out rather than have it break off and re-sprout.  The grubs I found were gray or dirty white with dark heads, I also found a green grub or caterpillar that was hanging around in the weeds.  I have no idea what they are, after some internet investigations the best answer I could find was cutworms.  Since I'm not certain of this I tossed them over the fence into the empty lot.  If they are harmful at least they are out of the garden, if not, I wish them the best in their new home.

I am considering picking up some beneficial nematodes to help manage soil dwelling pests.  One reason for this is that I spotted two cucumber beetles at the end of last summer, bright beautiful little green ladybug-like beetles with 12 black spots.  While they are very pretty, these beetles are a real problem in the garden.  They eat just about any vegetable they can get to, then lay eggs in the soil, when larva hatch they too will feast on vegetables and they spread bacterial wilt and squash mosaic virus.

Spotted cucumber beetle

Cucumber beetles also have a striped species that looks similar but the spots are instead stripes that run from the head to the rear.  These guys are a real danger to a garden.  Unfortunately they are also a challenge to be rid of.  Parasitic wasps can be helpful, if you don't know how to get these, try planting flowers that will attract them to the garden.  Tiny nectar-filled flowers such as thyme, savory, dill, cilantro, parsley, yarrow, candytuft, verbena, sweet allysum and goldenrod.  If you spot caterpillars or other pest bugs with tiny white sacs attached to them leave them alone!  The sacs are the cocoons of parasitic wasps and the pests will die when they emerge, spawning a new generation of pest killers.  Another cucumber beetle predator is the soldier bug, "leather"-backed firefly-like bugs that can eat up to 100 bugs a day.  Soldier beetles are attracted to pollen and nectar filled flowers and particularly like hydrangea, goldenrod and milkweed.  Tachinid flies are also effective at managing beetle populations, and are another type of parasitoid.  Tachinids are not as preferential as other biological controls and will just as likely parasitize butterfly caterpillars.  Having a large garden variety will help to attract these pest managers.

Beneficial nematodes are microscopic roundworms that live in soil and prey on soil dwelling insects.  They are effective controls of fleas, ants, termites, roaches, flies, grubs; yet they are harmless to humans, pets, and our soil-dwelling friends the earthworms.  You can try to attract nematodes to the garden by adding plenty of compost and having rich organic soil, but this is a grab bag; you could just as easily attract pest nematodes.  It may be wiser to purchase a small package of beneficial nematodes to spread through your garden instead.

Since I live in a mobile home park that was built over an orchard in the 60s, I suspect this area was heavily treated with pesticides in the past and the likelihood of it supporting its own nematode population is fairly slim.  So I will most likely purchase them from a supplier and sow them in and around my garden and yard.  Ants are a major issue in our area, and I imagine if we had a natural nematode population that would not be the case. 

I also plan to sow a package of "Beneficial Bug Mix" flowers in the empty lot next door.  My garden lacks space to add a lot of these plants but I can at least use them to attract beneficials to the vicinity of the garden itself. 

If you plan to attract beneficials to your garden to help with pest management, you should keep a few things in mind:

-Don't spray! Insecticides will kill your beneficials, birds that eat pests, and the pests.  Let the birds and bugs do their jobs and handle the pests for you.

-Identify before you destroy.  It does you no good to attract ladybugs to your garden and then kill their nymphs because you thought they were pests.  Take time to identify bugs, if you can't then move them out of the garden and hope for the best.

-Provide what they need.  Food and shelter in the form of flowering plants, and water.  Your bugs need to drink too.

-Putting out a suet block or feeder of quality untreated bird seed will attract a variety of birds to your garden, many of which also eat pests.  You may find you have a lot of millet to pull up later in the year though.  You can also grow sunflowers and save the seed each year to offer the birds.

The garden is an environment all its own, keeping a balance between flowers and food, pests and beneficials will allow it to transform into its own natural environment that maintains its own balance rather than needing constant interventions. 

Battle Blackberry

As I went out this morning to take my own advice and get an early start on spring cleanup in the yard, I tidied up the front and side yards, then closed my eyes and held my breath before glimpsing into the dark, creepy back yard.  Normally when I refer to my back yard I mean the side yard with the garden and patio.  Primarily because I like to pretend that the muddy, weedy space at the actual rear of my home does not exist.Which is part of the reason it is in its current state.  Full of old playground equipment from the previous tenants, random junk that broke and couldn't be fit in the trash can, some sort of annual weed that has set up a colony and breeding program, and huge masses of blackberries.  Well, they aren't THAT huge actually, it's only a 24x12 foot yard.  When we first moved in this yard was in decent, if not particularly hospitable condition.  The swing set worked and the trampoline was fun, but they took up a lot of space and the yard was surrounded on two sides with sheds, one side with a fence, and the other side with the house.  It got light for a few hours in the morning and became a murky cave after that point.  Two years ago the neighbors behind us removed a large birch tree that was dying; the birch had shaded the back yard so I was happy to have it gone.  As it turned out though, the birch had also shaded and restrained a small patch of blackberry canes underneath it too.  Once the tree was removed the blackberries had a heyday, growing up over the fence and landing in my back yard where they immediately sprouted suckers and new roots. 

Since I don't spend much time back there other than to toss scraps in the compost pile, I didn't really notice this until it was too late.  By then I had a 24x12 blackberry patch filling every space in and around the playground, crawling behind both sheds, and working it's way up over the bean trellis into my garden area. 

I have cut them back a few times to prevent them eating my house, but always during the growing season when they will quickly just sprout two more heads for every one that is cut, like a hydra.  Today I was ahead of them, and it made me think that as a garden blogger it was imperative that I share my intimate knowledge of blackberries with readers.  Now that my shed has been unburdened of blackberry canes I am free to take a break to write.

Blackberries are cane plants, they grow from seed, or rhizomes, or underground runners, or above ground runners; pretty much they can grow from anything.  They are thorny, pernicious weeds in most areas.  Mind you, when I am talking about blackberry as a weed I am referring to Himalayan blackberry, there are many other varieties of blackberry that are far less invasive and make delicious jams and pies too. 

The only way to beat blackberries is to kill, kill, kill year after year.  For large patches it's sometimes easiest to clear a small area each year and work it down until there is nothing left.  If you can borrow, or already own a goat, they are the blackberry's natural nemesis and will eat each and every cane until nothing is left if given the opportunity.  I think the very best way to handle blackberry destruction is to borrow a goat each spring to destroy new shoots until the shoots finally give up and stay dead.  My dad's neighbors put their goats out near a huge patch of blackberries on their property and a few months later were rewarded with a mobile home!  The house had been buried in blackberry canes for so long no one even knew it was there until the goats ate their way around it.

Not everyone has the goat option though, if you don't you'd better don your hat, leather gloves, sturdy pants, boots, and long sleeved shirt.  This is part of the reason to cut them back early in the year, it's still cool enough to keep yourself completely covered.  Cut down canes with a machete, or loppers, or pruning shears.  Most lawn weed whackers will just bend thicker canes and not actually cut them.  Cut down to the ground!  Rake up all the debris from your murderous rampage, then throw it out with the trash or in a yard debris bin.  Do not compost blackberries: they may grow back in your compost, seeds may sprout in the compost or garden beds where it is used, and dropped thorns might still be there when you add the compost to your garden. Ouch!

Once the canes are cut to the ground and the cuttings have been disposed of you should dig up as many root balls as you can.  They can grow back from even the smallest root, but if you can remove some of the largest ones you will have a head start, by leaving only small roots which are not well-stocked with food. This is another reason to kill blackberries early in the year, the ground is still soft and moist which makes root removal much easier.  If you keep all new shoots cut to the ground as soon as they pop up these smaller roots will eventually die, since they have no leaves from which to absorb sunlight, larger roots have much more stored nutrition and will live longer.  At this point you simply have to maintain the status quo, despite the blackberry's attempts to regrow.  Cut new shoots during the spring and summer season, in the fall lay down a VERY heavy mulch layer, next spring you can mow or weed whack new shoots if they are small enough.  Continue this way until you finally stop seeing any growth, but pay attention, check back every few weeks to ensure they really aren't coming back.  I also don't recommend doing any permanent landscaping in the area until you are certain there will be no regrowth, it's awfully hard to pull blackberries out of retaining walls and garden borders.  This may take a few years but eventually you can win the battle, if not the war.

Spring Cleaning

February and early March are the time of year to do your yard and garden cleanup.  It's past the worst weather, you get a few nice sunny but cool days to enjoy the outdoors, and best of all the weeds haven't started growing yet.  Once the weather gets warm weeds will start their Spring growth with abundance.  This time of year is when you scour your yard for any trash blown in during winter storms, or left next to the shed last summer when you didn't have time to take it to the dump.  Get these things cleaned up, turn over your compost (especially if you're like me and rarely remember to turn it), pull out weeds in paths and beds while the soil is still damp and soft.  If you have landscape work to do, like laying new paths or putting in new beds, or decorative mulching this is also a great time to do those things.  Getting a head start on these chores means not having to worry about them when it's actually time to plant.  It also means getting ahead of the weeds, so you don't have to weed much before laying paths or mulch.  You can also do a quick trim of trees now, to save yourself the trouble of trying to do it when they're in full leaf or blossom.  For fruit trees this will improve your harvest, for other trees it just helps them to keep a neat appearance, and may remove diseased or broken limbs that could cause issues later.

This is the time of year to get the yard tidy and ready for the growing season.

Start at one end of your yard and work your way around the house getting everything in the best possible shape before the growing season begins.  Remove dead plant matter, maybe wash your windows and power wash the house; clean off the roof and gutters too.  Once all of this is done you will be in great shape to enjoy your yard all spring and summer, and you'll be able to plant, grow, and harvest without wishing you had washed off the siding before planting your new tea roses right in front of it.

This year I will be replacing the pebbles in the path around our house, they have gotten very thin and weeds overwhelm the path rather quickly.  Also the landing below the front porch steps needs new gravel, it has sunk a bit and now becomes a lake when it rains heavily, and grows weeds the rest of the year.  I also plan to bark mulch the open areas around my garden beds, and lay a few stepping stone paths to the shed and fountain there.  Lastly, if my budget allows for it (which it may not since I'm also remodeling my kitchen right now) I plan to rake out the lava rock around the front lawn and replace it with bark mulch, and lay in a pebbled path to the shed on the front side so my husband won't complain about getting his motorcycle through the mud to the shed anymore.