So, I’ve been absent from my blog for a looong time. Around 6  years or so. In that time I have been coaching 8U & 10U softball in the spring and fall. This last fall, me and the Mrs moved to a smaller home. We only have about a 1/3 of an acre here, and above is a picture of my new back yard. It has a slope of about 6’ over a 12’ width. Hence I needed to put a set of steps in it for us to get up and down to the shed and the compost bins behind it.

We have to compost our dogs waste, because with 3 dogs, we have a lot of it. I am using the wheat straw you see in the picture as my ‘browns’ and the dog refuse as my ‘greens’. The bins are in a shady spot, so I am not yet getting the compost to heat up. We’ll see what summer brings. I may have to adjust how much browns I am adding.

Once I had the steps in, I decided to expand the project to add the garden beds on either side so I wouldn’t have to mow the hillside. 

I have four beds so that I can rotate my crops every year. I’ve planted some bulbs and perennials on the edges and I’ll fill in with flowering annuals as needed. 

On the left there you can see the bean ‘ladder’. I have pole beans, cucumbers and cantaloupe planted at the base. I’ll train them to grow up the ladder and hopefully keep them out of reach of the dogs. 

My labs like to eat my veggies before I get a chance to harvest them. This spring they’ve already dug up three planting of radishes, and while I was in Amsterdam, they ate my snap pea plants. I may have to erect the electric fence to keep them out. 

 These were my snap peas prior to leaving for Amsterdam.

 Above you’ll see the Gold Dust scuba and the Oregon grape holly I planted along the back fence. Our backyard abuts a disk golf course, so at some point I hope these will grow big enough to provide some screening. There are some hostas and arborvitae ferns planted in front of them.

Here are the hostas I planted along the path to the shed. 

My big experiment this winter was trying to germinate some Redbud seeds I collected from along a roadside. I pass these trees a lot in my travels and one day last fall I stopped and took a handful of seedpods home with me. I nicked each one with some nail clippers, put them in a baggie with water, and stuck them in the freezer for two months. I took them out and put them in some pots and placed them outside in a spot that gets morning sun. It’s taken awhile, but they sprouted this weekend. I’m so excited! Free trees!

Tomato season is coming!

Tomatoes are everywhere. All my plants have lots and lots of tomatoes on them.

This one is the first Mortgage Lifter.

These are Opalkas, a paste tomato.

It won't be long before the dreaded hornworm comes around. I generally inspect the plants each morning and again in the evening, looking for the telltale skeletal leaves. Being colorblind, I find it very difficult to spot the catapillars, but their damage to the leaves gives them away.

A case of squash vine borers.

I had my first dealings with squash vine borer this year. Some got into the first of the pumpkins I planted. I noticed some of the leaves starting to turn yellow (with green veins)  but only on half or less of the plant.

So I started doing some investigating and found this in the stems. 

As you can see, this section of the stem, near the roots, is starting to split which is a sure indication of a squash vine borer. 

 I cut this section of the vine out and put the small section with the borer in the trash and the rest in the compost pile.  I am growing several pumpkin plants this year (Connecticut field pumpkins) so the loss of half a plant is no great setback. 

Who doesn't love spring blooms?

This a view into my side garden.  You can see the  pussy willow in bloom on the right, and the tet a tet daffodils further down the path. They have a wonderful sweet fragrance.

Here we see some iris in front of a mock orange bush (Philadelphus coronarius) which gets it's name from the blooms which smell like an orange blossom. It has a clematis growing through it. This is one of my favorite gardening 'tricks'. It gives you two or more blooms from one shrub. 

I have chives growing here behind the peony bloom in the foreground. They will self sow themselves readily in the garden, so if you don't want them everywhere, you should deadhead them after they bloom. I have a rather large patch of them growing in the center island bed and I take a weedeater to them after they bloom.  This bunch was a leftover from that planting.

These are star of bethlehem (sp?) plants that mother nature put in my gardens. They are a sure sign of spring.

 Here we have some Amsonia. It is a spreader that requires very little care.

 Below here is another clematis growing up through a Diane Hibiscus that will bloom in July.

 I have columbine growing all around the gardens. It sets so many seeds that I collect them a spread them around. Those that come up do so on their own.

This is one of my weigelia bushes. For some reason this bunch of three shrubs is slowly dying off. Two of the shrubs did not make it through this winter. It is a shame, they are really beautiful shrubs when in bloom.

 These are Chandler strawberries that grow next to the driveway, next to where I park my truck. In another month or so, I will be picking berries when I get home each day! Yummie!

 I have one patch of dianthus that have survived over 6 years now. Each spring I mean to add more but never seem to get around to it. Meanwhile this patch gets bigger each year.

Here you can see from the side garden into the woodland garden. The iris in the forefront is Immortality (a rebloomer). To the left of the bird house you can see a bit of the star magnolia. Dead center behind the iris is a WolfEyes dogwood, with some Oakleaf Hydrangeas behind it. I used that bed as a holding area when the house was being built, and you can see a couple of Dutch Iris that I missed when I was transplanting them to their permanent home in another garden.

Wolf eyes Dogwood

 I don't recall the name of this little plant to the right. It came with some of the plants I moved from the old house and is spreading rapidly through the woodland garden. The little bell shaped flowers are cute.

Red Flame Honey suckle.

Here is the fence that separates the side garden from the back yard, I have the Red Flame honey suckle and the Jackmani Superba Clemetis growing together. Even I can appreciate the color combination here that works.

The Penelope rose is just beginning to bloom. This is a great antique rose that performs really well for me. I get two great flushes of blooms in spring and fall.

The Siberian Iris Ceasars Brother is getting ready to bloom. 

Unknown Hosta

Back by the pool I have several All Summer Beauty Hydrangeas growing, and again I have clemetis growing through them. One is the Jackmanii and the other is unknown.

Here you can see that this clematis gets a center that looks like one of those stress relief balls.

This path is at the other end of the pool area. Again you see the All Summer Hydrangeas. On this side they have some Ajuga (in bloom), balloon flowers, asian lillies, clover, woodland poppies and geraniums growing under them. And further around the corner are some Baptisia and daylilies.

Here we've made our way out to the veggie garden. The bees are busy building up their stores of nectar, pollen and water.

The first beans of the season are beginning to sprout. These are Provider beans which should be bearing beans in around 65 days or less.              

Here are my potatoes. Again this year I am growing Yukon Gold, Kennebec, and some reds.

Here we have the PakCho.

More Chandler strawberries because they are the best variety for our area. BIG berries!

Here we have my peas.

And the tomatoes I transplanted a couple weeks back.

The cucumbers and melons are starting to sprout.

This year I am growing some Lemon Basil.

 And here some sweet basil to make pesto.

This patch is where I am growing my three sisters garden. First I planted some Bloody Butcher corn. After it is up an about a foot tall, I will plant some pole beans to grow up it and some winter squash to act as a ground cover. You can also see the electric fence poles in the background.

Here are the results of my winter wheat experiment. I HAVE WHEAT! Now, what to do with it? It only gets about knee high. (Unlike the wheat you might see chest high in Kansas). I am thinking I'll cut it down with a weedeater, and worry about threshing and winnowing when I get there. I really want to make some biscuts from wheat I grew. I am odd that way.        

Well that's it for this week.