Raised Beds and Spring Busyness!

Raised beds are a great thing. If you don't have them, you should think about it! They make vegetable gardening easier (less weeds and bending) and they allow you to control the soil and create the most hospitable bed for raising your veggies. There are many shapes and styles available in all different types of materials with varying price ranges. I personally prefer raised beds that aren't too tall and are made out of natural materials so they blend in with the rest of the garden. I made mine out of 2x10s screwed together in the corners. They are anchored in the ground with 1x2(ish) wood stakes driven into the ground (best way to do it is to screw the stakes to the built beds AFTER they have been driven into the ground.) Super simple, not expensive, and good looking! I have been having fun planting them up this spring! I have heard of people using all different types of things to construct raised beds: hay bales, scrap wood, metal siding, even tires. I would love to hear if any of you have any other ideas!

Here are a few of the things that have been keeping me busy, 

and a reminder about stuff you should do as well!

-Start your spring crops
-Prep potato beds, it's almost time to plant them!
-Plant asparagus, berries, grapes, rhubarb, etc.

-Do any clean up in your garden and flower beds left from last season
-Weed beds
-Apply systemic to insect prone trees (birch, willow, etc.)

-Edge your grass

-Fertilize your grass (it's almost time to put down crabgrass preventer as well)

-Start watering your grass

-and plant, plant, PLANT! Now is a perfect time for both you and your plants, less stress and heat for both parties involved!

Happy Spring to you all!

~Laura

 

Be Patient With The Wind

This is the time of year that I dread the most...............the windy time!!  I have to be outside the majority of the day to set the nursery up and to do the many tasks that are before me.  This means that I have to be out there come rain or shine, wind or snow, and once in awhile a beautiful spring day.  These beautiful spring days are what keep me going.  We have had a fairly mild winter and spring so I should not complain but I still do when the wind is blowing me sideways!

This morning at 8:00am I am out watering the trees and wondering what I am doing out in a hurricane wind storm.  But, then I look at the trees and berries and all the beautiful plants and they remind me that they need the wind.  Yes, that's right, need the wind.  They need it to grow strong.  If any living plant does not ever have a breeze blowing against its structure then it becomes a weak, wimpy plant. One that always needs your attention.  So I carry on...........trying to remind myself that 'this too shall pass'.

                                                                                      Take Joy, Susan

Please join us, March 20th, 10:00am, for our first seminar of the year. 

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

An expanded version of last year's

'Growing an abundant Harvest'!

We will be discussing your garden...from

the soil up!  We will address soil types,

amendments, weed and pest control,

abundant gardens in small spaces,

unusual vegetables and plant selection!

Our seminars are for everyone, from the novice to the expert.  They are free of charge. We provide refreshments, and fellowship.

A Must Read

'Down the Garden Path' by Beverley Nichols is an absolute must read for all you gardeners out there! 

Beverley Nichols is a brilliant, English writer of garden books from the early 1900s. This is not just an ordinary garden book that tells you what plant should be planted where, but it's a collection of funny, personal stories about Beverly's own garden. A story of his first real garden and his entertaining journey through it. We gardeners share a certain sort of humor that no other 'non-gardener' would understand. I know this as I put this statement to the test- I(gardener) try to share some passages  from this book with my husband (non-gardener) which have me dying with laughter and he just returns a  somewhat blank stare back at me. I don't understand how he doesn't see the humor and he wonders what in the world I thought was so funny...There you go, a perfect example. 

An excerpt:

       "Until you actually own a garden, you cannot know the joy. You may say 'oh yes, I love a garden.' But what do you really mean by that? You mean that you like to wander through rows of hollyhocks, swathed in tulle...(you, not the hollyhocks), and that you like to drink lemonade under a tree with a nice young man who will shortly pick you a large bunch of roses. You hope he will take the thorns off,  and that there will be no earwigs in them, because if you found an earwig on the rug in the car you would die with horror. (So should I). You like walking out onto a terrace and looking up at a wall that is covered with the pale, tipsy plumes of wisteria...to walk under arches of orange blossom, thinking the prettiest thoughts...and you may even stoop down to pick a bunch of pansies, if they match your frock. You like these things, yes.

       But you do not like groveling on the earth in search of a peculiarly nauseating slug that has been eating those pansies. You do not like putting a trowel under that slug, hoping that it will not suddenly burst or produce fearful slime, and tipping the slug with gratified horror into a basket. You do not like bending down for hours to pull up hateful little weeds that break off above the root...(not groundsel, because groundsel is a lovely weed to pull up). ..but small docks and wretched things like that. You do not like these things, for one reason and one reason only...because you do not own the garden. All gardeners will know what I mean."

...and you gardeners out there, like me, will know exactly what he means! Gardening is a love/hate relationship at times. It's a trial in nerves and patience. It is dirty and insect infested at times. But it is also rewarding, beautiful, therapeutic, a creative outlet and so many other things that outweigh the 'trying times' by far! I am so happy all you gardeners out there understand!
~Laura

Time to spray fruit trees!

Yesterday was Michael and my day off.  We awoke to a beautiful, sunny day and knew that we would spend it outside.  We have about two acres of gardens.......not for the faint of heart!  We began by cleaning out the vegetable garden and tilling in several amendments to our raised beds.  The raspberries needed to be pruned to the ground and raked out.  Michael dug two of our grapes out, opening a pathway a little larger so you could at least walk through that area in August without taking your loppers with you!
We, also, have a small orchard that needs attended to this time of year.  We have apples, cherries, peaches, plums, necterines, and a pear.  The following is what we do to them to assure a good crop..........as long as the weather cooperates and the blooms don't freeze.

This spraying schedule works for all fruit trees with a pit with the exception of apricots.  Spraying apricots can stunt their fruits.

We try to grow our produce organically at home so the copper or lime follow these organic principles.  Once in awhile we have to bring in the big guns and treat something that is not responding to organics but for the most part we will dig out the offender and destroy it.

I hope that this gives you a little information on keeping fruit trees.  If you need any help at all just let us know and we would be happy to walk you through it.

Blessings, Susan

Spring Beauty

Aren't you loving the spring weather? Despite the few days of rain here and there, I have been enjoying this beautiful, rather warm spring. I am able to get out in my garden more and more as the days go by and I am soaking in every minute. Working in the plant world, I am always so surprised by how fast each season goes by. Doesn't it feel like we were just harvesting our pumpkins?

Each season has it's own beauty. Something that makes it uniquely it's own. The stark, awakening beauty of spring makes the abundance of summer and fall all the more attractive, but I can't help but fall in love every time I see a bulb bravely peek it's head out of the cold soil brightening our outlooks. It feels like I begin to awake as my garden does.

I worked in my garden yesterday and saw so many things that excited me! I can't help but share!

My beautiful witch hazel!

(We have several varieties in full bloom down at the store,

you should come by just for a spring color cheer up!)

A fragrant white hyacinth

Did you know heucheras were an evergreen?

Bergenias are evergreen too...

Love my boxwoods!

Red Twig Dogwood is a winter favorite.

and of course...tulips!

One of my indoor beauties...Basil.

(started mid-December from seed)

Go out in your garden with a critical eye...figure out where you would like more spring color! There is no time like the present to make your garden (and life) more beautiful!

Bees, Bees, Bees!

Bees are vital to the success of our gardens. They are what pollinate our plants and make them grow and produce! Have you ever thought about helping your garden out by bringing in more beneficial bees? A way to do it is to put out bee boards, which are used to attract and house leafcutter bees. All of us should encourage beneficial bees to make their home in our gardens. Leafcutter bees are native, essential pollinators of wild plants and home gardens. The bees are always used to pollinate alfalfa seed fields as well. They are not aggressive unless they feel threatened, and if you do get stung it is very mild, much less painful than that of honeybees or yellowjacket wasps.

I have been very interested to learn more about bees, but thought that it might be a subject that a person wouldn't  know where to look to get started. Well, look no further! Come down to the store and talk with us about bees!  (We do have very good quality, redrilled bee boards (they have been used before and have been redrilled). They are the perfect board to attract leafcutter bees. They are easy to mount on a building or you can simply lean them up against a fence or wall and watch them fill up with leafcutter larvae. We do not buy these boards back but we do have information on who does. $5 per board- a great price if you have recently price checked for like item.)

The more I research bees, the more I learn about how many people (even people living in town) are doing what they can to attract bees to their garden! We all want amazingly productive gardens, and this is an easy way to do it!

Potato Gardening for the Space Challenged!

I have a fairly small garden (due to a city sized lot) so I am somewhat limited on planting any kind of space invading vegetable. While a potato plant itself doesn't take up much space, enough potato plants to get a good crop would take up quite a bit! I have always wanted to grow potatoes, but have never had the room to do it, or so I thought, until I came across a great idea in John Seymour's book 'The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live it' (great book, by the way). He instructed the reader on how to grow potatoes in a bin (pot or barrel) on your patio!

This is what he said: 'Growing potatoes in bins is particularly useful if your space if limited - even a patio will do. Take an old garbage can, and fill about a sixth of it with soil. Plant one or more potato sets. When the plants have grown, but before they flower, put another layer of soil on. Continue building up layers of soil as the plants appear, until they reach about 4 ft. When the potatoes are ready for harvesting, simply empty out the bin and you'll find you have a surpisingly heavy crop.'

If you suffer from lack of space, as I do, join me in trying this out!!! I am on the scout for a neat looking barrel, but if all else fails, I am going to grow them in a couple huge pulp pots (nested one on top of  the other, with the bottom of the top pot cut out so it can nest down on the base pot).

I would love to hear more ideas from you gardeners out there on what you do with your space!

~Laura