Stealth Blogger

I've, uh been hiding and, um my blogs have all been stealth blogs. Yup, that's it. Well it's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Someday I'm going to learn not to plant so much stuff in my vegetable beds. Although it's not as bad as last year, I have some beds that are pretty crowded. My tomatoes aren't producing like they should. And squash is a disaster again. Sigh.

I planted clover in one bed as an experiment. Some of the plants in that bed are very robust. That is the ones not crowded out by the clover and sunflowers.

So next year - stick to the planting plan! Less is more! And amend, amend, amend. Add organic fertilize maybe. I think I will plant clover in all the beds -BUT - It gets dug in in the spring.

No corn (I mean it this time) - all I get is smut. No winter squash. I got three spaghetti squash for my trouble and a nice infestation of squash bugs. Only squash will be summer type. Four plants in one 4X8 bed, with beans on the ends. AND NOTHING ELSE IN THE BED!

And NO sunflowers in the vegetable beds. Or cosmos.

The beans have been producing like mad! And I have been picking carrots all spring and summer. And beets. Yum. Had tasty peas in the spring. And lots of salad greens. I planted some lettuces yesterday, so hopefully we will have some nice fall greens. I just wish the tomatoes and squash would do a little better. We are getting tomatoes, just not the bumper crop like last year. And I think I've picked 3-4 zucchini.

The apple trees produced a few apples this year - look at these beauties:
















I thinned them and bagged them last spring and the are nice and bug free. Here are a couple still hanging on the tree. I wasn't sure how it would work - I was afraid they would cook in the heat we get, but they turned out perfect!



















Well, now I need to go update the other blog. Bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger.

Whats Growing in the Garden?

Things are really beginning to take off now.

These Bleeding Hearts are so pretty! They are unfortunately a bit hidden in the back corner behind the pergola. I bought it last year from a package from a box store. I planted it in a pot and put it outside weather permitting. I drug it (and several other plants) in and out for several weeks. When the weather warmed enough, I put it in the ground. I can't believe how big it is this year!





Our Black Tartarin cherry tree has a several blossoms on it this year, but the Rainer only has two. So pretty, even if we don't get any cherries. All our fruit trees are all very young - we planted them last spring. So I don't expect any fruit yet, but I am enjoying the flowers. :)






















I finally got all the Tri-Star (day neutral) strawberries moved last week. The little path has creeping thyme and some other random plants.

The strawberries look better already even though they still look puny. Now they don't get stomped on as much by the garden dog, so maybe they will be happier in this bed. I also amended it pretty heavily. Their prior spot was barely amended.

In another 4-6 weeks I'm going to plant some peppers in this bed as well.

















And the Shuksans (June bearing) are growing like crazy. Oh boy, I can taste the strawberry pie already.

















And how about some happy little Johnny-jump-ups? I started these from seed last year. They were pretty small when I planted them They survived last summer and winter. I cut them back early spring, and now they are blooming.


















One, last note - we (Jim mostly) got a lot of work done on the greenhouse. There is a little bit more to do on it and it will be done!

Been Out in the Garden

The garden has been a flurry of activity!


Things have been growing like crazy! And all sorts of things starting to bloom! These daffodil and hyacinth pictures are from a week ago. Some of the daffodils are now fading, but new ones are blooming. The hyacinths are done now, but they were pretty and sooooo fragrant. Tulips are starting to open, and lilacs are getting ready to bloom. I guess I really need to go take more pictures.













Some of my fruit trees have been blooming. These are apricots blooming from a week or so ago. My peach tree spat out 2-3 pathetic blooms. The plum tree had one bloom. No apple blooms yet. One of my cherry trees has quite a few blooms. I'll have to get a picture of it later.

I got the rest of my spring veggies planted a couple of weeks ago. I got my tri-star strawberries moved. And I've been moving plants left and right! I'm sure the neighbors are thinking "It must be spring, because the crazy lady with the red house is moving plants again!

Most of the seeds I planted have sprouted. Sometimes it feels like the carrots and onions take forever!

I planted lettuce last fall, but I planted it to late for a fall harvest. But, it overwintered with no protection. It looked pathetic most of the winter. But now that it's warmed up, it's growing nicely.

We have been getting a few leaves for sandwiches and burritos and things. The newly planted lettuce and greens are sprouting nicely, so hopefully soon we will have some nice salads.




















The "Purple Passion"asparagus is beginning to grow. Although, something (besides hubby and me) has been munching on a few of the spears. It was planted last year, so we won't be harvesting much of it. We have eaten a few raw spears - THEY ARE SOOOOO GOOD!

And there is the greenhouse. Well, basically we need 2 days where we aren't running around like crazy or driving to Vancouver WA. And we need the wind to NOT blow. And for the moon and stars to align . . .

Well we are off to walk garden dog and then do some gardening. And I'll post some new garden pictures later (this evening or tomorrow, hopefully not waiting until next month).

I'm so behind!

I still haven't planted all my spring veggies. And my poor tomatoes need potting up so bad. We were out of town a few days and I haven't quit caught up yet.

Before we left I planted potatoes - Yukon Gold and Norland Red. One half of a 4 X 8 bed of each. I decided to wait to plant seeds in the garden until we got back.

We got back Saturday and yesterday I got some things planted. Set out plants for Walla Walla onions and burgundy onions.

I planted seeds for:

• carrots - Danvers #126, Rainbow Blend, Purple Haze
  
• radishes - Cherry Belle, Salad Rose, Sparkler, Watermelon
  
• beets - Cylindrical, Tall Top Early Wonder
  
• peas - Little Marvel, Tall Telephone.

Most of these are left over from last year. Some of them I'm using up and don't plan to buy again.

I still need to plant snap peas, scallion seeds and greens. I still have some random stuff in a couple of the beds. There is half a bed of onions and itty bitty parsnips from last year. The parsnips had pretty much got crowded out by the tomato jungle. I keep debating if I should try growing them again or not. . .

Hopefully I will get the rest of the seeds planted today (even though the wind is blowing). I also want to work on planting veggie and flower seeds in my moon garden. But, the first thing I really need to do today is pot up my tomato seedlings.

And once I get all that done, there are plants to move, flower seeds to plant, roses to baby. . . Oh, and a greenhouse to finish. :)

Spring!

Monday I planted most of the rest of seeds that I need to start inside - tomato, peppers and tomatillos. The only thing I didn't start were the alpine strawberries. From what I read, they need to be chilled first. I put them in the freezer and will plant them in a couple of weeks. The first bunch of tomatoes that I started in February are starting to get their first set of true leaves and should be ready to pot up soon.

The weather has been much nicer the last couple of days - after a few days of some hideous wind. I've been able to get outside and start to get things done. I got all the roses pruned! YAY! I planted some onion bulbs and have another package to go. More expensive that planting seeds, but I'm hoping for quick scallions. I also planted a couple of packaged daylilies that jumped into my cart at Walmart. Plants and seeds sure do seem to jump into my cart a lot this time a year. Hehehehe. . .

One thing I want to try to do is incorporate some veggies into the flower beds. This is a section of my "Moon Garden". In the foreground is a young peach tree (Ok, so the flowers are pink not white, I didn't know where to put it at the time.) I planted white onion bulbs in front of it.

In the area behind the tree in the photo, I also worked on moving some plants. The three shurbby things should help to hide the foundation. *Goes outside to remove tag from plant.* And, I made some room in that area to plant seeds. I'm thinking "Silverado" Chard, "Dwarf Blue Curled" Kale, "White Icicle" radishes(let some of them flower), carrots (to eventually flower), cilantro (to eventually flower), lettuce and some random flowers.

This bed is at the other side of the back of the house. It is sort of a herb garden, but it isn't really working that well. I'm going to move some of the stuff out of here, amend it like crazy. I'll leave the boxwoods, the rose in the right corner, the lilac in the middle of the bed (hard to see in the picture), a couple more roses and some lavender (the living ones).

I have some "Tri-Star" strawberries I plan to move to this bed. In their current bed, they get trampled a lot by the Garden Dog. I also plan to plant some veggies and annual flower in there as well.

The last picture is of my "Shuksan" strawberry path. I need to keep a closer eye on these babies at the end of summer. They sent runners everywhere! What a mess. I cleaned them up, moved the creeping thyme that was between the stones and threw down some compost. Hopefully I get a nice batch of berries this year. Mmmmm, strawberry pie.



I need to get my potatoes and the last package of onion bulbs planted in the next day or so. Then, I need to go find some plants for "Walla Walla" onions. And I have more plants to move, seeds to plant, and a greenhouse still to finish.

Jim, had some things he needed to get done, so we haven't worked on the greenhouse (and the high winds didn't help). Next weekend we should be able to work on it and get it finished.

So much gardening to do all of a sudden! It must be spring!

*Note, I started this post on Monday so it's dated Monday. I actually posted it today, Friday 3/20/09.

Seeds Are Sprouting

On Feb. 24 I started tomatoes, parsley and celery. They are all sprouting!

The parsley and celery are in the larger containers in the middle of the picture and are a little hard to see. They took forever but have started showing green the last couple of days.

I still need to start peppers, tomatillos and the alpine strawberries I just bought mere moments ago. Oh, and Green Zebra tomatoes as well. I'll buy plants for bulb onions. For everything else, I will plant the seeds out side (I think) .

And speaking of buying more seeds... I just can't seem to help myself. In the past few days I bought:

• Purple Tomatillos (like the green ones I had aren't good enough.)
  
• Green Zebra tomatoes (Been looking for "Aunt Ruby's Green German", but I'll give these a try.)
• Alpine strawberries (Been looking for these for a while.)
  
• Swiss Chard - Neon Lights (How many kinds of chard does a gardener need?)
• Blue Flax (What I meant to buy when I bought Forget-me-nots.)
• Radish - Salad Rose (Because every garden needs a hundred kind of radishes. Okay, 5 kinds.)
• Onion - Evergreen bunching (Because I keep forgetting I already have seeds for these - this makes 4 packages.)
• Watermelon - Moon & Stars (Never mind, that I don't have room for these. And, If I actually get a crop how am I going to get a 40 lb watermelon into my fridge?)

I also bought some onion bulbs to use as scallions. I'll plant them in the flower beds . I bought my seed potatoes - Yukon Gold and Red Norland.

All I need now is for us to quit having record cold temperatures and I can start gardening!

Rosie's Afternoon Walk

We walk Rosie the Garden Dog twice a day. Failure to get her enough exercise makes for a naughty Garden Dog. And her humans need the walk as well.

I didn't think we would make it for the second walk, because the weather turned nasty and started hailing. But, it did clear, the hail melted and the sun came back out. And for once I remembered to take the camera with me on our walk.

Looking across the farm fields towards Rattlesnake mountain. There were some impressive clouds yesterday!


Dark sky looking towards the Pasco water towers.



Vacant land, new houses and I think the mountain in the distance is Jump off Joe.



A little while after we got back from our walk, it hailed again. This time the hail was the size of marbles and looked like Styrofoam.


Unfortunately, the weather for the next couple of days is going to be cold. According to yahoo it's supposed to get down to 18 degrees tonight. Ugh. But, by the end of the week it looks like it should be warmer. I hope so, I have lots of garden things to do - prune roses, plant fruit trees, and start planting veggie and flower seeds outside.

Not to mention we would like to finish the greenhouse. All we need are a couple of days of nice weather.