May 5, 2013 - Wind, Bugs and a Busy Day

I don't know which has been worse this spring, the wind or the bugs.  Even the late frost wasn't as damaging, as the only thing that suffered were the potatoes and they snapped right out of it and started growing like crazy.  Many of my marigolds and a couple of parsley seedlings were chewed to the ground, then of course there was the cutworm damage to a couple of the cabbages and half my broccoli plants.  Now half of my bed of carrots has disappeared.  The parsnip bed is also looking a bit sparse, and there are some big empty spaces in the beets, but I think that is due to poor germination.  So....today I replant!  That is, if the wind calms down enough to allow me to plant without blowing the seeds and seed mats away.

Carrot seed mats and tapes are made and ready to go.

The weather, although extremely windy, was beautiful yesterday, so I got a lot accomplished.

I did some adjustments on the height of the shelves to allow for plant growth, and put the hot peppers and a Patio tomato there for the summer.  I had one geranium left over after planting nine of them in the front yard planters, so I potted it up for a bit of color on the patio table.

I used the leaf blower to give the entire patio a good cleaning, and a damp rag to wipe down the railings.

I cleaned the winter crud off of the barbecue, set the baker's rack up to form a bit of a divider between the potted cherry tomato and the patio, and planted two pots of marigold seeds to set on the shelves.  I gave the barbecue a good cleaning, and watered the remaining (leftover) tomato and pepper plants.  These orphans have no home, and I can't bear to toss them!

I had decided to move the hot pepper pots to the patio, so I pushed some bamboo poles into their spaces and planted Fortex Pole beans there instead.  I've grown pole beans in this spot before, and they provided some nice edible shade as they clung to the lattice patio screen.  The 3 Patio tomatoes will remain here.

I weeded and cleaned up every single flower (I should say flowerless) bed in the back yard.

Including this one, which required much pruning of lilac suckers.

And I mowed the entire back yard with the push mower, which is the only mower we have with a bagger.  Usually Mr. Granny uses the riding mower and leaves the mulched clippings on the lawn, but I needed grass clippings to put around some of my garden plants.  I'm just glad I don't have to do that every week, but it was certainly good exercise!

The shade garden got weeded, and pine tree mess was raked from the path.

Once all that was done, I moved on to the front yard.  Wind, wind and more wind had left another mess of pine boughs, pine cones and pine needles all over the porch, lawn, flower beds and driveway.  I had to hand pick it all off of the mulch, then sweep everything else up and dispose of it.  Then I planted 9 zonal geraniums into the three planters by the front porch.  

They certainly provide a needed punch of color, and I think they will be quite beautiful when they are larger and have some blue lobelia tumbling down over the sides of the planters.  I think I should move the rockers to the back patio.  It's beginning to look like an old folk's home with so many chairs lined up on the front porch!

23 comments:

  1. Wow, what a mammoth task! Well done, it looks great!

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  2. Your porch looks so pretty and inviting and your garden/yard looks really good!

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    1. Thank you, Anke. I think I'll heat up a cup of tea and go sit on that "inviting" porch!

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  3. You are just a whirlwind of activity! ( Oops, sorry about the wind reference!)

    Your place is really lovely. I'll bet you make your neighbors happy. Who wouldn't want to live next door to you?

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    1. Ray, wash your mouth out with soap! We do not like the "W" word at Granny's house :-)

      I wish I had a fellow gardener next door. I've tried to make friends with the old guy across the street, but he isn't very sociable. I visited with him while he was out hoeing a couple of days ago, and expressed my surprise that his peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and cucumbers were still thriving after the hard frost we got. He admitted he lost everything and had just replanted!

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  4. Cripes! You're making the rest of us look like slugs. How much coffee does that take???? LOL
    I had NOTHING to do with the missing carrots. I swear. And sometimes the neighbors here it--hee hee!
    :D

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    1. Sue, it was YOU!!! I should have known. I'm surprised the spinach is still all there.

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  5. Oh dear. I hope you have better luck with your new seeding. I hate cutworms but I seem to not have nearly as many as I used to have. I found a bunch in the cover crop I used. I think I ought to forego that if I want to keep the place cutworm free.

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    1. Daphne, I seeded another bed of carrots today, right next to the one with the missing seedlings. The bed was crawling with pill bugs (sow bugs, roly-poly bugs)! I'm sure that's what ate the earlier seedlings, so I don't have a lot of hope for these. I planted a single row next to some peppers, and didn't find any pill bugs in that bed. I'll look for other areas to plant, because I must have my carrots!

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  6. It's useless to have those chairs because YOU NEVER SIT DOWN. Seriously, I get tired just reading it. Ai yi yi.

    Want to come to my house and whirlwind it into shape?

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    1. Stefaneener, I sat down for a half glass of iced tea today. Only because I had company ;-)

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  7. Sorry to hear Mother Nature is causing you to replant. For me this year it has been rain, rain, rain, rain. Every year since I started gardening in 2010 has been heat and drought. This year has been so wet for so long. The good thing is the drought in Georgia is completely broken, but it sucks for gardening sometimes.

    FYI: I think we have that same model Whirlpool washer and dryer, LOL.

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    1. Kris, now we're getting a heat wave, with temps expected to go into the 90s by Wednesday! This coming so soon after 28F. But the 80s we've seen these past couple of days have made the corn pop up, as well as the cucumbers. I wasn't expecting them so soon!

      Yep, that's a newer Whirlpool washer, but my old Kenmore dryer still works like new so I didn't get the matching Whirlpool dryer. Nobody sees it but me (and my blog readers) anyway!

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  8. Wow! You have been uber busy! Your back patio/deck looks all spiffy and ready for summer. I got started on prepping the bed for tomatoes this weekend, but did not get the job done as I was busy playing too much. ;D I have the day off from work on this coming Thursday and I intend to get the tomatoes planted out then as they are getting huge and either need planting out or repotting (again).

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    1. Thanks, Kitsap. I was happy to get my jungle off of the patio and into the garden. I think I developed a few muscles from packing them all in and out this spring! I'm glad you found time to play, yesterday I made reservations for my playtime which will be during the week of the 20th. Yes, I'm going to do a lot of eating, sleeping and sitting while somebody else waits on me!

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  9. I seem to have lost my first attempt to comment?! Oh well. You have been super busy in your yard! Impressive how much work you get done missy! I need some of your energy to rub off on me as I have a long list of things that could use some attention in the yard and garden right now.

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  10. I hate yard work in the wind. I am still playing catch up this year but I hope to have everything caught up this week. And as usual - You put the rest of us to shame! :)

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    1. Christy, I hate the wind! A little breeze is nice, but not the plant flattening, tree limb breaking winds we've had this spring. My pepper and tomato plants should really be tough after what they've had to go through. Wind and cold, and now wind and heat.

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  11. wow you got A LOT done. I hope you relax a bit today

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    1. LOL. Mr. P, not today! I have to take advantage of this beautiful weather we are (finally) having.

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  12. Nice post. with fantastic images.
    Modular Kitchen Collection

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