Gardening

Joy and Woe
Intrigued by the coloring of this small sunflower, I decided to grow it in my garden for the first time this year.

Caught in the act! These horned tomato worms and their buddies did an enormous amount of damage in only three days. Obviously I plucked them, and turned them into a beautiful green mush on the cement.

Adventures in gardening continue... ~K

Ketchup and Mustard Garden

And many more fun kid-theme gardens were enjoyed recently at BG’s Simpson Gardens.

Hopefully the pictures tell it all: water barrels, potting shed, kayak planting, view the roots, tea, tires, veggies, etc.

Besides these whimsical gardens, Simpson has a healing garden, scultpture garden, water features, tree alley, and other areas under development.

Check it out sometime if you are in the area. ~~K

Fairy Garden

After looking at several fairy gardens - various nurseries, online, and one at the A2 Art Fair, I decided I had to make one! Scouting around for necessary materials proved that the project could become more expensive than I thought. So, I had to put my ingenuity to work!

Scrounging in the garage I came up with a terra cotta container I had purchased at a garage sale several years ago, but never used. (With “W. Germany” etched in its bottom I couldn’t resist thinking D might appreciate it.)

I still had some potting soil on hand leftover from the containers I prepared for the front steps earlier this summer.

I broke down and bought some wooly thyme on sale for 99 cents at Gedert’s Nursery - most places still have not reduced prices for herbs and small perennials - are they on to the popularity of those plants for fairy gardens?! After looking at Hoen’s fairies, plants, and completed gardens ranging in prices from $50 to $150 I’m sure demand is keeping the prices from being reduced.

Miniature plants are less plentiful (and more expensive) than I imagined, but I did find out that if you keep Creeping Jenny clipped it can be a nice addition to a fairy garden. After all of these years of trying to unsuccessfully eradicate this prolific creeper, I had a difficult time locating any - thankfully there were some small starts near the pond that were a great size for a miniature garden.

Finding a fairy at the Dollar Tree was a compromise. I only liked the upper 2/3 of it since it was too tall and sitting on a mushroom with a flower, but the “perfect” sitting fairy at Hoen’s was $6. Creativity was needed, but with some clear caulk and tiny pebbles, you wouldn’t recognize her as the same fairy! She’s even very secure in the planter since I had to bury the bottom third after attaching pebbles to hide the mushroom and her legs. A pebble path (glued onto a piece of roof shingle) seemed to complete that portion of the garden.

Height was added by inserting some grapevine twigs I clipped from the edge of the yard by the bocce court. A “bare” spot needed an accessory so I cut a twig as a base and glued on a marble so the fairy had a “gazing” ball in her yard. A spider plant “baby” completed the greenery.

All things considered, I’m quite pleased with this fairy garden. Hopefully, it will only get better and better with love and care. ~~K

First Harvest

…and signs of spring

Fresh, crunchy home-grown asparagus! There’s something special about that first harvest - especially when you’re eating it within 30 minutes from it being picked.
While harvesting the asparagus after school Wednesday other sure signs of spring were a welcome sight.

Look close at that last picture – besides the sedum, violets, and coreopsis you can see the first blossom on one of the strawberry plants – it's quite promising as long as the rabbits don’t take over!

Now just give me warmer, drier weather consistently. ~~K

Thursday’s Tasks

…but they were enjoyable “labors of love” outside

Finally, a decent day to spend working outside! It was only 25 degrees at 7:30 am, but the sun looked promising. I did around in the house, then I went outside at 9:30 since the temperature had reached 44 degrees.
I washed and hung sheets outside – notice my clothespins are in an old bleach bottle I cut so it can also hang on the clothesline and slide along as I need a pin.More geocaches are needed along the nature trail out back. As I was scouting the area and recording coordinates I came across a skull, jaw bones, and neck vertebrae. I looked around but couldn’t find any other bones from the carcass. After D looked at it later we think there must have been an illegal hunter who killed a deer and field dressed it right there and left the head.

After the creek was cleaned last fall, most of the mud and dirt was piled along the top of the creek bank. Unexpectedly I heard a bulldozer working out back even before I went outside – As I was burning yard debris I proceeded to talk to “Mr. Bulldozer” when I saw he was even seeding the area by hand while walking – what a pleasant bonus!

Tree trimmers for Edison started “working” out front (I noticed their breaks are twice as long as their work time) – I talked to them a bit – hopefully they’ll leave me some wood chips next week – I won’t count on it though – the last time Edison trimmed they had told a friend of mine they would drop some wood chips off, but they never did.

The asparagus patch got its spring cleaning.

beforeafter

I gathered about 5 trailer loads of clippings, branches, and other burnable yard waste throughout the day and burned it all, plus I was able to burn much of what was already out in the burn area – right now there’s mostly log size debris.

When I came inside at 4:30 it was 61 degrees, the sun was still shining, but the wind was picking up.

After we ate supper, D got the tiller going for the first time this year. I was able to get the west side garden turned under – I never got around to it last fall. I’ll have to do it a couple more times before planting.

After coming in a little after 7, I had a tired, dirty body, and needed to call it a day. ~~K

Wednesday Wanderings

It’s spring break from school and I’ve been in a strange, foul mood! I’m thinking it’s due to the horrible weather, wondering about the future of my employment, as well as concern about family member health issues. But Wednesday was a fun day!

I started the day by joining my sister R for breakfast at Scrambler Marie's in Pburg (I still think that is a STUPID name – they should have remained Café Marie). I not only enjoyed eating my meal, but was proud of myself for being healthy and reasonable:
Oatmeal with brown sugar and blueberries was tasty and filling; I didn’t even put the milk/cream on it.

My side dish of seasonal fruit was a nice addition. I had already enjoyed my cup of coffee at home with D, so I just had water.

We then drove by some old home sites – I say “sites” because there is nothing there anymore! I didn’t think it was worth taking pictures of empty lots on two of my childhood addresses – South and Leland. We also drove by the spots/houses where our grandparents had lived – I should have taken pictures there (if only in the interest of future generations – maybe that’s another blog some day).

We were down to only three good glasses, so one of the purposes of the day was to take advantage of R’s 30% discount at Libbey and restock the cupboard. Or should I say “freezer” – as most of you know, we store our “flare” glasses on the bottom rack of the freezer door.
Before arriving back home additional stops were made at Aldi, Meijer, Dollar Tree, Target, Michael's, Home Depot, Dollar General, and Black Diamond. Most of those stops were just “window shopping”. I like shopping in the CrossRoads area of Rossford/PBurg because there are so many stores close to each other.

I had been looking at rosemary plants, but the price range was $2.98-3.49 for one plant! I felt like I had hit the jackpot today at Black Diamond in Pburg. This was the first time I had been there and realized I had a false impression of their prices – I had expected them to have higher prices than Lowe’s on common plants. Was I ever wrong! Rosemary plants (and other herbs) were only 89 cents! Granted, they were a bit smaller than the $3.48 ones; but I couldn’t resist.
Italian parsley, basil, and thyme also ended up being purchased at those prices. Now I just have to keep them alive!

The other day I had purchased seeds - curly parsley, basil, snow peas, and spearmint. Today I added zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, tendergreeen beans, turnips, lima beans, Italian parsley, and butternut squash. Waiting until Memorial Day weekend to plant has to be preceeded by getting the garden ready - Mother Nature has to do her part too - she sure let me down this week of spring break!

My Wednesday wanderings have ended - what does tomorrow hold? ~~K