our garden variety

The Hydrangea...deciding on a color

2010-07-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

My mom sent me this link on caring for hydrangeas and it talks about how you can actually change the colors of the blooms depending on your preference.

http://www.pallensmith.com/articles/growing-hydrangeas?mnt=11

Round #5

2010-06-10T19:07:00.001-07:00

Name of Plant: Clematis (purple)

First Aid: It's doing okay. I've had a few blooms. Any suggestions for optimum blooms and growth would be good though.

Name of Plant: Forgot. :(

First Aid: none needed

Name of Plant: Asparagus Fern (my second favorite)

First Aid: none needed...yet.

Round #4

2010-06-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

Name of Plant: Forgot, but it has pretty bell-ish flowers.

First Aid: HELP!! It's getting browner and browner. The blooms are trying to come out, but they turn brown before anything can happen.

Name of Plant: Forgot.

First Aid: HELP!! This one is right next to the plant pictured above. A similar problem with the leaves. Is it a worm? It looks like it's poo-ing all over my leaves. :(

Name of Plant: No idea. (This just showed up out of nowhere. Any ideas?)

First Aid: It doesn't grow as fast as ivy or a weed AND it's pretty. There's a little yellow flower you can see on the left.

Name of Plant: Nope, I forgot this one too. It's a ground cover that has violet flowers on it.

First Aid: It's not growing very fast. But it's an ivy, so I feel like it should be moving faster. I have 6 of them. None have died or browned or NOT bloomed as of yet.

Round #3

2010-06-10T19:03:00.001-07:00

Name of Plant: Some fern.

First Aid: HELP. It's shrinking!!! It was a starter about the diameter of a dinner small dinner plate. It's in the shade, but gets water several times a week. And about 4 hours of sun per day.

Name of Plant: Hens and Chicks (from Granny)

First Aid: none needed

Name of Plant: Some Herb (the name on my little packet was torn off)

First Aid: slow growing, but it seems okay.

Name of Plant: Some Herb. (unless the herb never took and this is just a weed)

First Aid: Depends on whether we're talking "herb" or "weed".

Name of Plant: Another Herb.

First Aid: Again, depends on what it is. Looks okay, though.

Round #2

2010-06-10T19:01:00.001-07:00

Name of Plant: Basel or Parsley?

First Aid: lots of sun, for now.

Name of Plant: Sage

First Aid: Not sure. It's taking its sweet-arsed, time. (Not thyme.) More sun? Lots of water? Less? Even lesser?

Name of Plant: RADISHES!!!! (my fave garden plant. they are so cute.)

First Aid: none for now, but I never know the best time to pick these little rascals.

Name of Plant: (clearance plant) No idea!

First Aid: seems to be liking it's new home.

Name of Plant: Hydrangea (yet to see what color it wants to be)

First Aid: This is the one plant that seems to be really, really happy with life. It was a clearance plant and has just flourished since it has moved in. LOOK at all the new LEAVES!!

Round #1

2010-06-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

A lot of these plants were purchased in the "clearance" section of Lowes. This one, name unknown, was small, but green when we got it. You can see how the right side of the plant is dying off even though there is some green on the left side.

Here's what I need to know: Name of plant? What first aid is needed?

Name of Plant: Butterfly Blue Pincushion Flower

First Aid: The flowers die off after a few days. Do they need pruned?

Name of Plant: Lavender

First Aid: none needed as of yet. :)

Name of Plant: Roses, really old, family roses.

Transplanted about 5 times in the last 10 years.

First Aid: What is eating my frickin' roses?!

(Every Spring, I load these puppies up with coffee grounds, coffee water, egg shells, etc. -- There's another rose that's doing a lot better, but both roses are being eaten alive.)

2010: A late start...

2010-06-10T18:21:00.001-07:00

So, there was a 2009 garden, buuuut...well, I was kinda busy and couldn't find my camera and then there was that job where I worked crazy hours and then there was the mosquito issue and then....

So, it's 2010. And, though the pictures are late, I did a pretty decent job of getting things planted on time this year. It did help that I had Christi to get everything ready...the tilling, the expanding, the removal of rocks, coke tabs, and miscellaneous disconnected wires.

There are a bunch of pictures to post and I'm including the perennials I planted this year as well. The perennials line the bed behind the house and they replaced the pink peonies that were here when we bought the place in 2008.

We also added some perennials to the front garden bed which lines the porch. Removed a few bushes and replaced them with a prissy, li'l clematis. It's a work in progress.

Anyway, the pictures I'm about to post were taken with my phone instead of a regular camera; so there may be some disorganization with things.

I didn't label some things, or the tags that I did use went missing. And, I find I'm having other issues this year with new plants, more plants, and just ... well, you'll see.

Here goes.

End of Season post

2008-10-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

Haha. Look how far we got with those "mad gardening skills". Yea.

At the very least, I learned some things. And, relearned some things.
The squash got really out of control.
The yellow peppers never actually turned yellow.
The melon and gourds did not make it before the frost. (Plant earlier.)
The squirrels ravaged our tomato plants. (And I was worried we had too many. As a matter of fact, not one damn tomato made it into the kitchen. Of course, I did eat a few before going inside.)
The squirrels ravaged the sunflowers and other wildflowers.
"Yolanda", the cilantro plant, made it twice as long as the one I had last year.
The carrots did alright. Pulled a bushel(?) yesterday. They look good, but they're all vertically stunted. I think they need spread out more when itty bitty seedlings.

Things that rocked:
a homemade rainwater bucket
humongous zucchini
sun exposure at just the right times
permanent water hose with sprinkle things in it

Things that didn't rock:
"organic" doesn't always taste better
mosquitos LOVE squash
too much rain
not enough rain
too much wind
all animals not made of stone

~karrie

Peppers, Squash, Melon

2008-06-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

This little guy is our first yellow pepper coming in. I should have used my thumb to eye it, but it's no larger than the thumb from knuckle to tip.

This is Zuch, our resident zuchini, starting to bloom.

And, our watermelon. Yum! Three sprouts all peeking out.

More to come later in the week.
~karrie

Rads!

2008-06-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Don't worry. There's a whole row of these guys. I just wanted you to see how cute they are up close.

~karrie

Bean Sprouts!!!

2008-06-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

After only FIVE days, we have sprouts all the way down the line and they're over an inch high already. I'm psyched.

~karrie

a name for one of our plants

2008-06-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

I have some exciting pics coming as soon as my camera is re-charged. Details to come soon.

In the meantime, I checked on one of the perennials we potted (top shelf in pic from previous post).
It's name is Saxifrage or "Purple Rose". I'm including a picture of what it will look like when we get some more blooms (and what it looked like when we bought it). After some quick researching, I found out that we have to prune the blooms that have died in order to promote further flowering. It's a learning experience, but now I know. Here's a pic:

~karrie

garden pics - 4

2008-06-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Flower Gerbera Daisy pot by Christi, a Welcome turtle (Summer's) and... another gnome (Summer's).

Front of house flower bed...and gnome.

Cool tree in front yard...and gnome.

~karrie

garden pics - 3

2008-06-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

This is me looking ridiculous and way-to-excited about the rain bucket and farmer's market thermometer that Christi somehow glued to the garage.

Yes, folks. I'm actually doing something outside that requires work.

This isn't part of the garden, but, as promised, it is another gnome Summer snuck into the yard.

Summer says this one isn't a gnome (it's a mushroom), so it doesn't count as her alotted gnome dispursement throughout our property. We said she could have two (one in front, one in back). Let's see how many more there are....

No gnomes here, but these are the roses from our house in Plymouth that belonged to Christi's mother and, before that, Christi's grandmother. There are three total; the one in the middle came with the house.

~karrie

garden pics - 2

2008-06-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

These are our 6 big tomato plants and one cherry tomato plant. Nobody really needs 6 regular-sized tomato plants, but our neighbor Bill gave us a sob story about how Anna refuses to plant them as she hates them and, unfortunately, he loves them. Notice from the earlier picture that they're all the way in the back so he has easy access to sneak one on whatever occasion.

The plants on the left are green and yellow peppers. The two on the right are both broccoli. I've never grown broccoli. Both plants have baby peppers and broccoli started and they're adorable. Close-ups next week...maybe.

The plants on the left are Zuchini and yellow squash. On the right are Lavender (in the back) and something I have suddenly forgotten.

Sorry for the thumb in the lens. These are all flowers and I've forgotten the one on the left and right. The two in the middle are some form of lily and the flowers are very pretty.

This is my favorite herb...cilantro. Yummmm. I named her Yolanda after our beloved Fiesta Mexicana queen.

~karrie

garden pics - 1

2008-06-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

The blue tins contain pansies, thyme, oregano, rosemary, spearmint, and a couple others that have since lost their ID tags. They're nailed to an old screen door we found in the basement. The shelves below were made out of Sunkist Orange crates and also a basement find. More pansies, unknown flowers, cilantro, and somethin' else.

Our rain bucket with glitter decals. You'd be surprised how quickly the rain fills it up. Keep forgetting to put a screen over the opening to fend off mosquitos.
The two blue baskets contain a wildflower seed mix; the lining is plastic. Would have used the grocery paper bags I saved, but Christi put them in the recycling while I wasn't looking. The flag just says "Garden Party" and has freaky fairies on it (a Homo Depot purchase).

This is the rest of the garden minus the blue tins and shelved plants. The space was previously all grass and is between the back of our two-car garage and the alley-bordered fence. On the other side of the fence is the secret garden our neighbor, Anna, plants. She's a whiz with that green thumb. Anyway, in the back are mostly sunflowers and wildflowers. Veggies flank the brick path most of the way up.

This would be Summer's doing...the gnome. I have more gnome pics coming. This is the back of the garden by our neighbor's fence. The bare spot is the beginning of a watermelon plant and to the left are the sunflowers.

~karrie

update on veggies

2008-06-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

So, we've definitely been taking our time with getting the rest of the herbs, flowers, and veggies in the ground. However, things are at least moving in the seed-meets-dirt direction and I'm proud to say that another section is complete. The brick path is about 50% finished and most of what is left is seeds, seeds, and more seeds.

In addition to what was planted a week ago, we have the following from tonight's labor.

Big Boy tomatoes (6) ...and that was unintentional. I thought it was just one plant.
Grape tomatoes (1)
broccoli (2)
yellow squash (1)
zuchini (1)
green peppers (1)
yellow peppers (1)
lavendar (seeds) ...these may not do so well, since they were supposed to be slowly brought outside and in the ground. But, oh well.

My goal for this weekend is to finish the bricks and plant the seed veggies:

radishes, onions, watermelon, funny-shaped gourds, carrots (yuck...these are for Summer), and lots and lots of green beans. Once we have that done, we may plant a few more things if there's room.

I forgot to take pictures yet again, but at least the camera has now been charged and is ready on standby.

Oh, and the wildflowers and that were already planted are doing some yummy sprouuuuting.

~karrie

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-05-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

It's my hope to have a few things planted today or tomorrow since we have an extra day from work. We're working with half of the initially planned-for space, but it should still work for us just fine.

Miscellaneous things that we have so far include:
herbs
veggies
wildflowers
pansies
and other assorted flowers

Things we still need include:
more of all of the above
paint
nails
bistro table and chairs
gnomes...maybe
other garden creatures

~karrie