Gardening

I have so many dreams of a green, lush, landscaped, flower garden and so many things standing in the way. The soil is hard clay, zero rain fall during the hot summer months, freezing temperatures and plenty of snow fall in the winter and most importantly our conscious effort to use as …

Well we had some extremely hot days mixed with cool nights and the onions bolted. This being the first year we’ve grown them I really wasnt sure what to expect but knew this was a bad sign. I pulled the rest of the onions up and was disappointed to say the least …

We’ve been diligent in removing these suckers since we’ve potted the fruit trees a few months ago. They seem to sprout up over night and this time I thought I’d share. This was a little larger than usual. We usually pinch them off before they really have a chance to leaf out.

The cucumbers are planted and the trellis is in place. One plant per leg of the a-frame ladder bamboo trellis detailed in the previous post .

I’ve looked high and low for a trellis that was priced right and didn’t find one. In my opinion if I’m going to buy something already made it a) better be the right price or b) be too difficult/time consuming to make myself. Even last season’s wooden trellises at the …

About 2 weeks ago we started enjoying snow and sugar peas fresh from the garden. Planting some early season harvesters is the way to go. Last year we spent months caring for our garden before we were able to eat any of it because everything was late. Now, peas are …

Getting the garden plot situated has been much slower going than hoped. Plants that were started in pots have now outgrown them and we’re not ready to put up the fence yet. You’ll soon see a post outlining the leveling of the garden area and the erection of the fence…we’re …

What a surprise after the cold storms late into the season to find this little guy on our dwarf nectarine tree while inspecting. I was certain after the late frosts that any fruit that had been growing would be frost bitten and die eventually. I guess its too early to …

Another naturally growing treasure.  Wild purple pansies. This being only the 2nd spring we’ve been living here and really only the first that we’re truly settled in we still find dozens of surprises. Treasure hunting is quickly becoming a favorite past time.

Another bulb update. These beauties have bloomed. They’ve since run their course. Tulips and daffodils sure don’t have a long blooming life but seeing them so early in the spring before most anything else has bloomed makes it worth planting them. The 2010 bulb catalogs have started arriving. Boy have …

Typical trip out to the garden with my camera and while walking past a large patch of ground cover I was forced to stop by the number of ladybugs everywhere! I counted 20+ in this picture and thats just on the tops of the leaves. I can only imagine how …

I took a specimen of the troubled apple leaves to the nursery for a diagnosis.  The pink lady was hit the hardest with minimal damage to the granny smith and almost none on the cherry trees. The diagnosis: a combination of earwig damage and fungus.

This year we decided to grow some peas, both sugar and snow. They were sowed fairly early in the season well before the danger of frost had passed. There were a few cold spells including some snow and hail and they faired quite well. Once they all sprouted and had …

The first apple blossoms in the last week of April! There were a few clusters of these pink and white fragrant flowers on our Pink Lady dwarf apple tree. The bees swarmed these guys and did their business. Hoping for lots of apples in a few months!

With the rainy season coming to an end it was time to protect our young dwarf fruit trees from the potential sunburn which can increase the likelihood of borer damage. Interior white latex paint was slathered on the trunks from soil level to about the height of first branches.