2012 -- Year of the Yard

Circle Garden at Top of Raised Beds

I have been having so much fun working in the yard this year. The raised beds and circle garden are coming together. I created a rose garden with lilacs on the west boundary of the property. When Jen thought she was buying a house, she purchased 10 small trees from the National Arbor Day Foundation. By the time they arrived, she had changed her mind, so the trees came to this yard. Squeezing ten more trees onto this property has been interesting, but I found homes for all of them. Some (dogwood and hawthorne) are in the east yard. They will eventually replace the shade we lost when the butternut tree died. Some (redbud) are on the front terrace between the sycamore trees, and some (crabapples) are in the orchard and old garden (golden raintree). The lilacs were added to my circle garden.

Raised Beds -- new on far right is strawberries

The two crabapples are near the 5-in-one apple tree. The 5-in-one is about five years old. It was one of the first trees planted when we moved back to Kansas. I saw my first bloom on it this spring. Aunt Roseanna has a similar tree in her yard. She says hers has never bloomed. We speculated that the trees might want a polinating source, even though the seed companies where we purchased our trees never mentioned such a thing. So-- crabapples cross polinate apple trees very well. By the time my crabapples are big enough to bloom, the 5-in-one will surely be producing more than one bloom! :) I may get apples from it sometime in my lifetime. Speaking of polinators, my second cherry tree died last summer, so replacing it is on my to-do list for this year. 

There were a lot of young plants in my yard that didn't survive the hot weather. I planted two weeping cranberry cotoneasters last spring. They appeared to die, but I gave them one more chance this year. They didn't leaf out in the spring, but the trunks seemed supple. I moved them to a more sunny location (in the circle flower bed). They are coming back! I have new growth from below the graft. Hm... I wonder what I will get? Will it be some sort of non-weeping cotoneaster? Time will tell.

The project for moving all the root bound plants from Mom's old flowerbed is over. I have dug and replanted more lilies, narcissus, daffodils, peonies and Iris than I can count. I gave away plants till the neighbors ran when they saw me coming. After starting rows of foundation plantings around the north side of the house and in areas around the garage and the garden shed; adding Irises and peonies to the circle bed; and lining the front walk with dafodils and narcissus, I closed my eyes and tossed the rest of the plants in the compost. The composter is about half full right now. I wonder how many flowers will try to sprout? They can join the potato that is growing there.

All in all, It's a great time to play in the garden. I hope this summer doesn't get so hot I hide inside and barely stick my head out to water. I'd like to enjoy this till the snow flies.

Flagstone Walk

You can tell we are in the country because people come to the back door here more than they do the front. (In fact, I get after my granddaughter for using the front door. :) ) I have wanted a sidewalk across the yard so we don't have to wade through wet grass, snow or whatever to get there.

I don't have a clue about working concrete, so that wasn't an option. However, I've laid a lot of flagstone over the years. I pried up all the walks my folks had put down that I wasn't using and started my new walk. It has been stopped at 1/3 of the way across the yard most of this summer because I haven't had a way to get more rock.

My daughter, Jen, and her boyfriend, Steve to the rescue! They go to a friend's farm and gather rock for me. Isn't it looking good?

Spring is Here!

Spring is springing and we have the gardening bug. I have several plants (two kinds of tomatoes and lots of herbs) coming up under the grow light in the spare room. Pat has reserved a tiller at the rental store. (Someday we'll get the one that was Dad's repaired.)

Now we just need to decide where we want to move the three blackberry bushes that survived last year. I'm leaning toward putting them along the north property line. We put them in the old vegetable garden last year, and now we realize we want to use the old vegetable garden again. The square foot gardening is cool, but we want more than we can plant in the squares. I plan to make permanent strawberry beds in two of the squares and plant salad greens and herbs in the other two squares. The rest of the vegetables will be planted in rows.

Dad always said you should have your potatoes planted by St. Patrick's Day. We're going to be a week late. I purchased seed potatoes, but haven't sliced them to cure for planting. That's okay. Pat hasn't tilled the garden yet, either. He says he will do it tomorrow.

We did get the soil tested. My folks gardened in this spot for close to 50 years, which explains why the nitrogen level is almost totally depleted. It was at 4 parts per million. Our soil is a little acid. It should be 6.5 and it's 7.4. We're supposed to add sulfur. (I see a trek to the nursery to find that.) Pat has purchased some 45-0-0 fertilizer to restore the nitrogen. I don't want to use chemical pesticides, but I don't have any reservations about chemical fertilizers. It's the food the plants want.

I do love this time of year. Summer gets hot and sluggish, but Spring! It's the best time for a 60 yr. old granny to run out and play in the dirt as if she were 6.

Yard Work

Not only do we have our work cut out for us inside, the outside is in serious need of TLC. We plan to add a new roof. New siding is farther down the schedule. I can't wait to do some serious work in the yard. The last years my folks were alive they were not able to keep up with it like they used to do. The orchard has died; Dad let the garden go back to grass. Mom's flower beds are mainly weeds and a few hardy perennials. We cut down the volunteer sycamore that came up in the edge of the flower bed, but I see it's growing back with a vengance.

Definitely the place needs some TLC. I hope to post "after" pictures that show it was worth it.