Dreams of Summer (Gardens)

I planted seedlings today and got them under grow lights: 3 types of tomatoes, zucchini, cukes, basil, rosemary, thyme, and red peppers. I will sow pumpkin seeds and plant gold potatoes and sweet potatoes in May outside.

Great variety. I do not have a place to do the seeds, so I get the plants. I still have ice on my lake and snow where my parking area was plowed. I have chives in a planter box on my deck and they always survive the Minnesota winters. I keep looking to see if I have any growth yet.

I don’t usually start with seeds; I don’t care for them well enough to be very successful. But a neighbor allowed me to gather pink windflower (anemone) and a lovely blue salvia seeds from her yard. They both benefit from early sowing, so I’m trying it indoors.
I’ve got blue love-in-a-mist seeds as well, but those will go directly into the garden beds next month.
I’ve been transplanting shrubs and ephemerals from my old home and from daughter's yard before her sale went through. Hellebores and strawberries mostly. Several strawberries are already blooming and setting fruit. My peach tree, planted last year, is also blooming, but I’m afraid it may be too early and the cold will stop fruit production. Grandbaby and I fawned over the two peaches that survived the transplant, and eating them was a celebration.

In just 8 days everything has sprouted except the bell peppers. In about 2-3 weeks I will put them in a 1/2 of a red solo cup and wait until mid-may to be them outside.

During those 3 wildly exciting 70 degree days last week my lilacs decided to bud and one even bloomed. They will be no lilacs this summer as it will get down to 14 tonight and kill them off!

I've got a blackberry and a blue berry bush. My husband says there is a cherry tree at the every back of the property in the fence row covered in poison ivy, but I don't see it. I want to buy 2 apple trees, but he's saying no! Every fall I buy 2 bushels of apples to can for applesauce and baked apples.....I think he just doesn't want to weed whack around!

I had snow this morning and then some rain. Lake is still frozen. I hope the lilacs are OK; they are so pretty.

I think I’ve been successful transplanting a particularly fragrant lilac. It was getting up to about 6 feet, so I clipped it down severely and toss the clippings into the pond with just their feet in the water. Two weeks on, they are sprouting roots. Since the root ball split, I planted one in front and the other in back. They seem to like their new locations, and are forming flower buds despite my chopping.

I did the same with a favorite rose. I’m less sure how it will fair.

I love lilacs as they are a sign of spring. I got snow again last night.

Hail last night and prediction of snow tonight (Sat) and Sunday.

It’s in the 30s here today, but I’m plant shopping at the farmers market and the college greenhouse. The local Potting Shed is setting up, but won’t open till Monday. They opened earlier last year and were scrambling to get everything tender under cover when the freeze came around again.
I have been madly transplanting from my other property. I brought 5 blueberry bushes in and created a bed on the highest slope in my yard. I’d been wondering what to plant there to avoid having to mow it.

Is it ever going to warm up? We had snow yesterday, (April 19), although it melted today! I've ordered my Georgia peaches to make canned peaches and cinnamon peaches--will arrive last of July.

Last night was the last forecast in the 30s. Nights should be in the 50s for the next couple of weeks. I’m planting the tenders tomorrow. I will cover them if we get another cold snap, possible through mid-May.

Harumph! Revised forecast. And I’ve been watching closely. Two nights next week will dip below 40 again.

I had to read those last two posts twice to realise you're talking in Fahrenheit! At first glance I thought it sounded very familiar from my years in Sudan - temperatures in the thirties considered relatively moderate, forties very unpleasant, out in the desert it could be in the fifties, and the thermometer inside my car often registered sixty - Celsius!

Just 14 days and should be able to get plants outside!

>14 Tess_W:
We had frost last night but I'm taking my cold-hardy bonsai out of winter storage this week. I just repotted them last month; we'll see how well they survive. I trimmed the root ball of my favorite a bit too much. Fingers crossed.

I don't do seeds usually as my yard is tiny (I live in the middle of a city where houses sit 1 car width apart.) but I have managed to plant many natives that seem to be doing well here in New England. The blue Brunneria next to yellow Celandine is such a pleasure to look at.

I am readying for war with a bunny rabbit (yep... "shoot the wabbit" - plastic pellets from a blow gun). My small wood bordered garden's sprouts are being snipped off by something that wakes up earlier than I do evidently.

I have to be careful though, the last time I sat in a shaded chair to wait for the culprits I fell asleep. I awoke with the wind whirling around my head in staccato beats and opening my eyes I saw the small bird that produced this commotion, while trying to collect my graying hairs for their nest I guess, land on my leg in front of me and cocking his head to the side to give me the evil eye he calmly wiped his beak off on my blue jeaned leg.

>17 DugsBooks: ha ha! The last time I planted carrots, I was in the garden weeding and right next to my feet, carrots were being pulled underground--just like in the cartoon. Between my hubby and the dog, we caught a mole!

18>

We used to keep chickens in Sudan back in the 1980s, and they kept disappearing. One day we actually saw one disappearing down one of the cracks in the dry black cotton soil, so we rushed over and got hold of it and tried to pull it back. Eventually we discovered a mongoose on the other end of it pulling it down into the hole. We lost the chicken and the mongoose.

Whoops! Missed celebrating

World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20. On this day Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, was born in 1734.

I did notice yesterday that my bee hotel is about half full. What I don’t know is if the holes get re-used in the next years, or if I should construct a new hotel next year.
I think I’ll go have some tea with honey. Thank the bees!

>20 2wonderY:

The pioneer of modern western beekeeping, perhaps?

>17 DugsBooks: >18 Tess_W: >19 John5918: Great stories.

> 20 I have seen a couple of bees here so far this year.

>21 John5918: So true!

Tomatoes are flowering! I'm most excited by my Cherokee Purple Tomato. I've never had one before! The pic is not mine:

My rhubarb is growing.

Oh how I miss rhubarb! My dad used to grow it in the back garden. You rarely see it here in Kenya.

>27 John5918: I see you are in Kenya. My husband and I did a safari years ago there and it was a wonderful trip. I watch a lady on You Tube that crochets; she is from the USA but lives in Kenya. You have some great pictures. I will have to check on your books.

Wascally wabbits have eaten all the buds on my Asiatic lilies as well as all the leaves from the green pepper plants--I had great plans for those peppers! But on another front, I have some beautiful flowers still remaining:


double pink hollyhocks


blanket flowers, so hot here they are already spent and going to seed--they should last well into September, but not this year!


stop and smell the roses!


Day lily--I have 5 different colors, but this is one of my favs

*needs to remember to take all pictures with one device instead of phone and tablet so they are more uniform!

My black raspberries are wonderful this year! We apparently got rain when they needed it. My granddaughters have come in to the house with purple mouths!

Our problem is not rabbits but Egyptian cobras. Our dogs have killed six in the last twelve months, including one that was more than six foot long. In return, the cobras have bitten two dogs, one of which died and one survived. We're currently trying to get some plants which will discourage snakes, but the choice is limited as it is a very arid area so we can't plant anything that needs a lot of water. Best option at the moment seems to be a plant known locally as snake plant but elsewhere as mother-in-law's tongue or St George's sword, Dracaena trifasciata. It's commonly available, so we'll plant some soon.

>30 Hope_H: I love black raspberries! However, they seem to be difficult to find in my neck of the woods. I've looked into buying a few bushes but they say not to plant near regular raspberries or blackberries due to disease and so I don't really have a space for them.

>31 John5918: How awful! I have several snake plants being used as house plants. I wonder if they got their name due to their ability to repel snakes?

Ok, I go on the offensive tonight! Critters have eaten all the leaves from my tomato, pepper, Asian lily, day lily, and cucumber vines. ALL of them! All ruined! I don't know what kind of varmint: racoon, chipmunk, rabbit, squirrel, etc. No outdoor camera, but I might invest in one. I have tried the usual: hot pepper, shaved Irish spring bars, mint oil, etc. They don't care! Traps come out tonight as a last resort. Also looking into the ultrasound transmitter things.

>33 Tess_W: Snails or slugs perhaps?

Rabbits have eaten my hostas.

Grasshopppers have eaten a lot of our garden - the tops off the onions in particular. They are thick this year.

>34 2wonderY: no, narrowed it down to rabbits and/or racoons. Set a trap and caught a baby opossum, but we let it loose.

>33 Tess_W: I got some of the “ultrasound transmitter things.” and they seem to work keeping away voles, which seem to be the main culprit in my garden predation.

>29 Tess_W: great pics!
>31 John5918: Wow!, I thought our occasional copperhead snake was bad.

>38 DugsBooks: I just ordered one from Amazon!

My rhubarb did not do good a second year in a row. Time to move to a more sunny area.

Our red raspberries did really well this year. We ate lots fresh, I have five bags in the freezer, and we've made jelly. We have at least one more picking to do this week, and will probably make another batch of jelly.

Today I bought a 30 gallon trashcan with a very secure lid. Tomorrow I add my 3 five gallon buckets of compost material (egg shells, fruit rinds/cores, cardboard egg containers, celery bottoms, coffee grounds and filters, wood ash) dried leaves, twigs from the yard, and the season's first grass clippings. Hopefully 6-8 weeks I will have compost!

I also planted carrots in 10 gallon containers.

I decided since I canned so much last year that this year I'm only growing carrots and tomatoes. I may add a cucumber plant. I will be buying my green beans and corn from a local farmer and canning those. I'm tempted to try my hand as potatoes, either white or sweet this year......any hints or suggestions for the taters!

We've done very little planting in the last couple of years due to the drought, but we've had a little rain in recent weeks, so in the hope that the rains will continue we've planted some maize and beans, and will probably add vegetables like spinach and kale. Maize, beans and greens forms a large part of the staple diet here, along with the cattle, sheep and goats which graze all around us, so we won't starve if we have them! I've also taken a small chain saw to one of our euphorbia hedges to get cuttings to plant some new hedges and to strengthen some of the existing hedges which have bare spots. Most of the trees which we planted a few years ago haven't died but also haven't grown, but they have now begun to sprout leaves again, replacing the ones which had been eaten by eland during the drought. Eland are remarkably nimble for thieir size and can jump over quite high fences. Even some of our cacti, sisal and aloe vera plants started looking very sorry for themselves after the years of drought, but they're perking up a bit now. We lined our small dam with plastic before the rains, and it now has a good few thousand litres of water in it (and a lot of frogs and a couple of snakes) so hopefully that won't evaporate too quickly and we'll be able to water the plants for a while.

I halved two varieties of sweet potato yesterday, placed them in soil, misted them, and set them in a sunny window. Hopefully by this time next month I will have some slips. Going to see if I can pick up 1-2 seed potatoes today. I need to find where they sell them by the pound, not in a 10 lb bag for $24! I have two potatoes from the grocery in the garage that I left purposefully for about the last 2 months and not an eye amongst them! I have read that many producers spray them so they won't sprout. I have read where yellow waxy, thin skinned and red potatoes are the best for canning, so that's what I'm looking for. I would like to try the German Butterball, but at seed companies they are way too expensive for me to dabble with!

In flowering news.......the violas are up and thriving! Very early this year. They usually last until August.



Unfortunately, I have a French Lilac bush and the leaves have sprouted. They are most likely going to be frost bitten and no lilacs AGAIN! P.S. In the background are the hollyhocks. Last year I took the seed pods and roughly planted them in the same area as the existing plant and they are thriving. I also hope they don't get frostbit!

According to The Farmer's Almanac, no more temps below 32F for me this year...a few close nights (35-39). I'm planting carrots in 10 gallon bags and containers today. I set my sweet potatoes to slip and am awaiting seed potatoes....they are in short supply around here this year; at least the ones I want for canning purposes (German Butterball and Red Indian Harvest). They should arrive by next week. This is my first time for potatoes and carrots!

>45 Tess_W: Well, the farmer's almanac was wrong! Nights in the low 30's both this week and next. Potatoes in the house under a light and on a heating mat. If I did not want those potatoes to sprout--they would have sprouted overnight! Still awaiting the first sprout/slip!

We are changing the location of the garden. DH is trying to keep the chickens out of it, so he's moving it farther away from their coop.

We're hoping the strawberries take off this year, and I'm hoping for another bumper crop of raspberries - both red and black.

I have voids/holes developing at one spot along my front foundation. Soil is just disappearing. Had a plumber come out with a camera and look down the sewer line to make sure there is no break.
His father in law is a general contractor and he proposes digging down to the foundation and installing positive drainage to the street while we examine the issue.
So the gardens there that I’ve been developing the past few years have to be disassembled. My favorite rose, which did transplant nicely and bloom well last year, is now sitting patiently planted in a recycling bin. Nothing seems to perturb it.

I’m developing gardens in the back yard too, so plenty of open space to move stuff to. But the yellow loosestrife is particularly successful, and I feel I can share what I’m digging up.

>47 Hope_H: Around here, black raspberries are so hard to come by!

>49 Tess_W: Our red raspberries are ones we planted and cut back every year. Black raspberries aren't real plentiful here, either. The black ones we have are ones that were growing wild when we moved to our acreage 20 plus years ago. In those intervening years, they've spread - the initial patch I had is gone as it had to be dug up when my house blew away in a storm and we rebuilt. Fortunately, they line one side of our property and are also near the front of our grove. I'm too lazy to pick every berry, so the birds get plenty to spread around!

My granddaughters (ages 3 and 5) love to help pick them, but more wind up their tummies than in my bucket!

14 days exactly and 2 different types of sweet potatoes are growing slips! Yipeeeeeee!

After a couple of years of severe drought, we've just had a month of heavy rain, which is excellent news for the garden. We've planted maize, beans and kale, as well as some fruit trees, including pawpaw, mango and loquat. Our dam and our water tanks are full, but the road has turned to a quagmire. Here's a photo of my wife's Toyota Land Cruiser stuck on the track about a kilometre from the house, taken yesterday through the windscreen of my Land Rover as we attempted to recover her car. We didn't succeed, as the black cotton soil was so sticky that my own car was just slipping. We'll be trying again this morning - so far it's not raining and there's even a bit of sun!

>52 John5918: Yikes! We can only wish for moderate weather anymore. So glad you got adequate rains though. I’m trying to get pawpaws growing in my yard too. I have a grove in the woods, but they need sun to fruit.

>52 John5918: Yikes! Hope subsequent recovery is easier.

At "long" last, I have slips growing from my sweet potatoes. Not near as many as in pictures, my at least a half a dozen. (14 days) Still waiting on eyes to form on the Pontiac Red and German Butterball potatoes. If I didn't want tubers to grow, they would sprout in a week!

>54 Tess_W: Hope subsequent recovery is easier

Yes, thanks. Next day when it had stopped raining and the soil was slightly less liquid it only took us a couple of hours with five people digging and pushing, and "sand ladders" (perforated metal plates) shoved under the wheels to get some grip, and I was finally able to drive it out. Then yesterday I spent the whole day with two workers digging a new ditch to divert water away from that area. It rained yesterday afternoon and the ditch seemed to be working, but we'll go back again today and extend it.

>55 John5918: LOL I don't think that sounded easier, but at least you did recover the vehicle.

Carrots go in today!

Planted my sweet potato slips yesterday. Sometime during the night, a small critter (probably a squirrel or chipmunk) got into the container, dug up the slips and ate the roots! Tasty! Ha! I only planted 1/2 of them. I was going to pitch the other half. They go in today and I will concoct some type of netting or something to put over the pails! My regular potatoes (German Butterball and Red Pontiac) still have not chitted satisfactorily to plant, yet! If they are not chitted enough in the next week, it's gonna be too late. I have them in a brown paper bag in a light and cool place. If I wanted to eat those things they would be sprouted in a week!

I did a video tour of the top of my yard this morning to document the changes over time. All plantings except the maples are new within 2 and a half years.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Csi-3RLuD7e/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

>59 2wonderY: Love honeysuckle!

>59 2wonderY:

Beautiful. Much as I love the equatorial flora and fauna, there are times when I miss the northern temperate zones.

>59 2wonderY: Is that a fairy house (or at least its front door) nestled into the roots of the tree just to the left of the trampoline (seen in the first few seconds of the video)? I have a friend whose granddaughter is really into such domiciles!

>62 TempleCat: It’s the promise of one. I have a few facades collected from Goodwill shelves in a variety of materials. I’ll be posting another segment tomorrow that discovers another abode.

>63 2wonderY: Very cool! Somehow they make a garden even more delightful.

My dreams of a 2023 garden...........the weather is not cooperating! The nights were in the 40-50 degree range at night here, not conducive to tomatoes or peppers. I'm counting them as a zero this year. However, my potatoes (Red Pontiac and German Butterball) seem to be doing well as are my carrots; so it looks like a root vegetable crop this year. I do need to make salsa, so I will buy 2 bushels of paste tomatoes (their version of Roma) from them to can. My perennial flowers are late to bloom, but are bursting forth now. I hope since they were a 2-3 weeks late that this means they will last a bit longer in the fall! Violas have gone crazy and I've had to pluck them out of the drive, the sidewalk, and my husband says he even mowed some with his tractor. My hollyhock seems to have gotten rust. My internet research tells me to remove all leaves affected and spray with a mix containing copper, which I did. This year the stalks are not as sturdy as last year, but hollyhocks are biennial and this is year two. I will save seeds this year, pull these stalks out of the ground in September and plant new seeds.

How's your garden growing?

This has been a milder and wetter June than last year. The perennials I’ve been adding the last two years are hitting their stride. A variety of hydrangeas are blooming now, as are the beebalms and garden phlox.

I had a boom crop of peas, though they flopped on the ground. My tomatoes are fruiting well, though not ripe yet. I started peppers late, so they are healthy but still rather small. I’ll know better next year.
Zuchettas started blooming today. We shall see if they set fruit.

I bought a grape colored crape myrtle yesterday and trying to decide where it goes on the front slope.

I’ve got an invitation to another gardener’s place and I’m expecting starts for a variety of plants.

Got a total of 1 cup of blackberries this year--more than last! The birds get more than I. Next year I'm going to cover them...but I've been saying that for year.

The Pontiac Red and German Butter potatoes are so tall they are starting to lay down....not going to stake the vines..in another month I will be harvesting. I would say the stalks are about 4-5 feet high. The sweet potato vines are numerous and are vining around everything! I've not grown carrots before...they seem to be strong & sturdy.......but I'm not sure if they are done. Going to have to pull one out to see!

Waiting on the local farm to get 3 bushels of paste tomatoes to can salsa, marinara sauce, and sweet and sour sauce.

The garden is fading fast......in another 30 days all will be pruned and getting ready for their winter nap! (perennials) Waiting as long as I can for the Yukon and sweet potato harvest...hopefully can go until Oct 15. I think since my carrots are so thin, I will let them bolt, collect seeds, and plant them again next year. What can you do with 8-10 carrots?!!!!!

Our county conservation district is passing out cover crops seed for gardens. Since my new raised beds had nothing in them yet, I thought it would be a good test. All kinds of sprouting going on. I may go get some more for the veg garden out back.
I picked at least a gallon of plum tomatoes today and had to give most away because I’m gone for the weekend. I have an entire bed of volunteer cherry tomatoes coming on. They were springing up in the dirt my foundation contractor brought in, and I transplanted them. They re-seed easily, so I’m set for life.

My roses have been champions this year. Last year, most blooming was done by late July. This year they just keep blooming.

After two years of drought, they're now forecasting several months of rain due to El Nino. We live in hope! In preparation, we've dug a second dam, about 20 x 15 metres, 4 metres deep, so that we can harvest and store as much rainwater as possible. When we told our neighbours that we were hiring a machine to do the digging, two of them decided they would also dig dams, so the cost of transporting the machine to the site is shared between us. So we've had a wheeled front loader here all week. He's finished our dam, has almost finished one neighbour's although he got his machine stuck yesterday evening and they had to bring a second machine to retrieve it, and hopefully will start the third one today.

Incidentally, when I say "dam", it's not like the Hoover Dam or anything. It's fairly common in many parts of Africa to harvest rainwater by scooping out a hole where water runs off the ground naturally, and using the excavated earth to form a low wall. In Sudan it's an ancient practice and is known as a hafir (حفير) in Arabic. Here in Kenya it's a dam.

Due to the drought in our area, we've had to water our red raspberries. We picked enough to make 7 jars of jelly. We also made some black raspberry jelly with some raspberries I had frozen last year, so in the middle of winter, we will have a few bites of summer sunshine!

Got a great harvest (for such little input) of Pontiac Red potatoes. Grew in 15 gallon grow bags from 1 potato. Harvested enough for 1 dinner and 8 pints I canned. Now, the sweet potatoes are another thing! They produced prodigious vines and blooms, some 15 feet long. However, when I harvested, the potatoes were no bigger than a green bean! Hmmm....will have to do some research on that! So total garden harvest: 87 pints green beans, 8 pints red potatoes, 8 quarts apple pie filling (and 2 pies), 6 half pints applesauce. I froze about 8 cups of green peppers. Next year will be the year of tomatoes! (I still have 2 quarts and 8 pints from last year). I also still have 8 quarts of salsa from 2022 as well as 4 half pints of raspberry jam. I saved my apple peels, by freezing them, and may attempt apple peel jelly next week.

P.S. My German Butterball potatoes did nothing! Nary a potato although the plants did attempt to grow, but never got over 6-8 inches tall.

Anybody read to start seeds inside yet?

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