Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category
Saturday, May 5th, 2007
I thought this nice sunny day would be a good time to show off our bulbs that have bloomed so far.
Ok, I am going to try to identify these as best I can. I remember that we bought a big collection, but may be wrong on what they exactly are. That’s half the fun. I know we have Hyacinths, Tulips, Daffodils, Crocus and Dahlias. Here’s the thing…remember I told you that Laura’s friend gave us a bunch of stuff last summer? Well, those are all in our gardens too, so that’s a bit of a problem. Also, there were tons of bulbs already here when we moved in. When I cleaned out the triangle garden last Autumn, I sifted through the soil and replanted all the bulbs. Who know what was in there.
I know these are Hyacinth(s). Is that plural? Anyway, these are early Spring blooming flowers and look pretty good. I would like more of them…like a forest worth. Be careful, the deer like them and ate our early ones until I sprayed them.
These are tulips, I think. There may be a Crocus in there. Maybe? Probably not, but when I was going through the bulbs, there were some mighty big ones in there. There are some strange plants emerging from the ground right now, so I will let you know what they are when they bloom. Also, I know that there are Daffodils mixed in there. The Daffodils are the sideways leaning flower. (Update: There are no Crocuses in here. I just remembered that the Crocus is low to the ground…so none here, yet.)
Now here is the one I am really confused about. Could this be a Dahlia? I don’t think it’s just a fancy Tulip, I am hoping for something more exotic. Can anyone help out with this?
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Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
I just finished mowing the lawn. For May 2, it is kind of hot out there. This is the time of year I usually give myself a short haircut.
Anyway, I thought I would share a nice photo I just took. About a week ago, the Daffodils started to bloom, and now the tulips are coming up. There are a few more, but these are really pretty. In the Autumn, Laura a I bought 150 bulbs from Brecks. Now we will finally see what we bought.
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Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
I, like many others who are eager to get a jump on the gardening season (I’m sure), have been looking for some sort of an online schedule for plant and tree bloom dates for my area…which happens to be New York.
Right now, the only things I see are the Red Maples popping out the slight red haze that they offer every year at this time. They are the little red buds that seem to disappear after about a week or so only to come back as leaves in a few weeks. Also, our daffodils and other smaller bulbs are pushing through the mulch. I see a few little flowers, but not much more.
I am a pretty impatient person. It is one of my finer qualities. Here’s the thing…I do it every year. I have absolutely no idea when anything blooms in this area. I would’ve thought that by this time, there would be some awesome looking graphics online that shows all the bloom dates for all areas of the country. When I type in Google: “When do trees bloom in the Northeast,” I get a bunch of junk. Now, at least when someone types that in, they will see this post and offer me fantastic links to exactly what I am looking for.
I am getting a little tired of the gray and brown that I see every day driving to work. I just want to see sun and green. I want to go up to Sam’s Point and take some pictures to show you guys. I also wouldn’t mind taking out the motorcycle and gettin’ a little crazy. I promised the guys at work I would take it in at least once this year. Yeah, I know, that was off topic.
Anyway, if you know of the resource I am looking for, please pass it on. Thank you!
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Friday, April 6th, 2007
Remember that post where I showed you the delivery of mulch? Yeah, that was fun. Anyway, I spread that there mulch all over the place. I have been very tired for the past few days, and I think that bunch of exercise was the cause of it. Wanna see it? Ok…
…and I even mulched a whole new area of the yard…right in front of the house. This was a gift to my pretty baby. She wanted more area to plant bulbs and other plants. We have a secret hookup that brings us stuff. Hopefully this year will be a good as last year.
I can’t wait for the weather to get better. A little cold snap is moving through, so it has been kind of damp, breezy and gray. I want to see more buds and green. I suppose I just have to be patient.
I have a few more trees to plant and then I think I am going to take pictures of them and post some up here. As always, remember that the more things you plant, the better. I helps to erase your Carbon Footprint.
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Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
I told you I was going to start writing about gardening.
I walked out of the shower this morning to the sound of Holly barking at a truck backing into the driveway. “Oooohhhhh, my mulch is here!!!” I silently screamed to myself.
I ordered 5 yards of the fluffy black gold from the guy down the road last night. He wakes up at 4AM, so morning deliveries aren’t a problem for him. This sweet pile cost only $120. That’s $20 per yard and $20 for the delivery. I have to say, that’s a pretty good deal, considering the price of the bags of mulch at the nursery. Now I don’t have to make multiple trips to his place with my big tupperware bins to get the mulch.
I can’t wait to get home tonight. I think I am going to get naked and swim around in the pile before I spread it around. Of course, before I spread it, I will put my clothes back on.
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Thursday, November 9th, 2006
A while back, I ordered some trees from The National Arbor Day Foundation. I received the Norway Spruce trees the other day, but found the bulk of the other trees sitting on my front porch last night, when I pulled in the driveway from work. I was a little curious about the size of them.
When I opened the package of Norway Spruces, I was pleasantly surprised to see 10 trees, each about one foot high. They were pretty full trees. These trees come with their roots bunched up together and surrounded by gel in a plastic bag. It is recommended that you plant the trees immediately upon receiving them. Luckily, I saved all the plastic containers from all the shrubs I purchased throughout the summer. I mixed some topsoil with some sandy loam and planted all the Norway Spruce trees…one per container. I added these new trees to the collection of about 25 I am growing on my back porch.
As I mentioned above, the rest of the trees were waiting for me last night (by the way, I ordered a new shipment yesterday). I found two boxes with 3 Red Maple trees, 1 Paper Birch, 10 Canadian Hemlock trees and 3 Saucer Magnolias.
The common question everyone has is how big the trees are when you get them. Here is some insight. The Red Maples came about 2-3 feet high, the Paper Birch came about 4 feet high, the Hemlocks came about 8 inches tall and here is the good part…the Saucer Magnolias came about 6 inches high. They say these trees are supposed to be 1-2 feet high. Oh well. I have all these trees planted now in their own buckets on the back porch. In a few years, I will be able to plant them in their final place.
Obviously, these trees are meant for patient people, but go ahead, give it a shot and get your own!
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Sunday, October 15th, 2006
As I have said a million times, or maybe about eight times, the best time to go to the nursery is in mid to late October. The nurseries are just about ready to throw everything in the dumpster out back, so either go in and purchase what you want for half price or wait until nightfall and take your chances at the dumpster.
I got everything for half price…even the mulch. The first type of plant I picked up today was a Silver and Gold Chrysanthemum. These are really pretty cool looking and grow to about 12″-18″. I planted three of them and I think they will fill in quite nicely. As stated on the site I linked to above, you can divide these after a while. That’s great, because like bulbs, once you make the initial investment, you can play for years to come.
The second type of plant I picked up was an Ilex Glabra Shamrock. This one grows about 3′-4′ tall, so I planted it towards the middle, so it will surround the new pear tree. This is a really good looking shrub because it has glossy leaves and some berries. I will have to keep my eye on these because of the deer.
Lastly, like I mentioned above, I purchased 2 bags of great looking “Black Forest” mulch. This will keep all the bulbs and iris covered and protected during the winter. It also just looks so damn good. Take a look…
I am really looking forward to Spring so I can take some pictures of all the freshly sprung bulbs…almost as much as you’re looking forward to it, I’m sure.
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Saturday, October 14th, 2006
There won’t be many more days to get my plantings and gardening done this year, so I better finish up fast. Today was the day of the triangle. We have a triangle garden right in front of the house that was just a mess. There were 3 patches of Iris and Mint (well, it smelled minty) that had run wild. Both the Iris and the Mint spread underground, so you really don’t know the extent of their growth until you start pulling. There was also some Hosta. Over the past year, we haphazardly planted a wide variety of about 50 bulbs in this garden. None of them have bloomed yet. As I started pulling out the mint, I started stumbling across these bulbs, that have started rooting quite nicely. I also found many bulbs under the iris. Great bulbs, I’m sure…just strangled, that’s all. I placed all the bulbs in a bucket for use later.
Well, all morning I pulled and pulled and pulled, until the garden was cleaned out.
I moved the Hosta to the front corner and left the pretty little tree where it was. I also planted our new Bartlett Pear tree. This is going to be very cool when we get our new pears. I placed this tree here because it is going to be surrounded by Boxwood, and deer don’t like boxwood. Also, it is right next to our peach tree and is in full sun, like the tree label said to do. I got it for a great deal of only $12. That’s the beauty of buying these types of trees late in the season.
As I mentioned above, I had to wrestle with some iris. There were three areas, and here is one of them…
This should be a real treat for you if you have never seen overgrown iris. This is why iris doesn’t bloom that well after a few years. It strangles itself. I pulled the iris apart and made a trench along the rearmost border. I layed the separated iris in the trench and covered it up.
I then made two trenches on the other two sides and placed all the bulbs I collected in them. I placed the largest bulbs towards the center of the garden and the smaller ones towards the rock walls. This way, I will have good height proportion come Spring.
I am going to pick up a few bags of mulch this week and cover the entire garden with it to protect the bulbs. I am also going to grab about five boxwood shrubs and place them towards the center of the garden, so they surround the pear tree. This should look good…green at the center, tree in the middle with nice color along the edges.
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Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
I have a bit of a challenge for you. We have a flower that we planted mid-summer in our front garden…it was received as a gift. Recently (mid-October), it has started to bloom. I have been taking photos of this pretty amazing process, but have no idea what this flower is called. If you take a look at the photos below, I think you will agree that this flower definately has some potential. We would like to purchase some more of them, if only I knew what it was. I think it would be a great way to keep some color in the garden during the fall.
I took photos of all the stages of bloom. There is another bud ready to pop and its color is a brighter yellow, instead of the orangish above. The leaves are somewhat purple / maroon with a green underside. Any help would be much appreciated.
PS – Just a side note…if you want to see some great photos of flowers, visit this site. Geez, and I thought my pictures were the bomb diggity.
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Saturday, October 7th, 2006
I woke up this morning and looked at my thumb. Strangest thing…it was green. Oh well, I didn’t have much choice but to go outside and do some gardening.
I have had a project on the back burner for a while. The people who owned this house before us decided to plant some Bearded Iris right next to a Peach Tree. This isn’t the best spot for Iris to grow, because it gets mixed in with the grass and gets mowed over a lot (Who me?). So I decided to dig them up for transplant.
I had no idea how deep the bulbs were. Funny thing…I just assumed they were bulbs. I started scratching away the dirt on top of the Iris closest to the Peach Tree. I kept hitting these weird “roots” very close to the surface. I thought they were the Peach Tree roots. Whatever…I went in a grabbed a shovel and started digging all around the Iris patch. Guess what I found?
Up came the weirdest looking root-like beasts. I shook off all the dirt and went inside to do a little research on the internet about what the heck I was looking at. I found this good site that tells all about how to plant Iris. Then I found another good site that focused on how to divide Iris. Apparently, you are supposed to do this every few years so they maintain their beautiful bloom. I pulled all the tangled roots apart and cut where I was supposed to. These “roots” are actually called “rhizomes.” The weirdness of them still makes me feel a little uncomfortable.
After dividing all of the rhizomes, I had about 30 or so individual plants. I really hadn’t thought about where to put them. I decided that a little more green in the front garden would be a nice touch. I have a strange feeling that this front garden is going to be nuts come Spring. These Iris should be kept towards the rear of the garden because they get quite tall.
It’s pretty simple to replant these Iris. Basically, just follow the few rules that can be found here. I dug shallow holes spread evenly throughout the rear of the garden, one at a time. I wrapped the roots around my finger, because some of them are over 18 inches long. Then, I just placed them in the holes, near the surface and covered them up.
Of course, again, I sprayed deer repellant all over them so I wouldn’t witness a family of deer running down the road with my Iris hanging out of their mouths. We’ll see what happens in the Spring!
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