April 7, 2013 - Up-potting Day

Sun, Apr 7, 2013, 10:08 AM PDT

... HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PENDLETON HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING. 

* TIMING: WINDS HAVE INCREASED THIS MORNING. THESE WINDS WILL LAST THROUGH THE AFTERNOON... THEN GRADUALLY DECREASE DURING THE EARLY EVENING.

* WINDS: SOUTHWEST 35 TO 45 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH.

* IMPACTS: MINOR PROPERTY DAMAGE POSSIBLE WITH STRONGER GUSTS ALONG WITH DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A HIGH WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO BE 40 MPH OR GREATER WITH GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 58 MPH. THESE WINDS CAN EASILY TOSS AROUND LOOSE OBJECTS AND DOWN LARGE TREE LIMBS AND POWERLINES. THOSE VENTURING OUTDOORS SHOULD USE EXTREME CAUTION AND BE ALERT FOR FLYING DEBRIS. DRIVING MAY ALSO BE DIFFICULT... ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. 

It's a good day to stay indoors and pot up the tomatoes and peppers that are outgrowing their small containers.

 The tools:  Large plastic cups, hot glue gun for making drainage holes and Sharpie pen for identifying the contents.

Thirty-six peppers will be potted up today.

Yes, the kitchen is my "potting shed".

I put a small amount of potting mix in the bottom of the cup, then remove the lower leaves and set the pepper plant deeper than it was grown in the smaller cup.

I add a bit of potting mix around the edges and tamp it down well with the end of my Sharpie.

 Then I fill it up and gently firm the potting mix around the plant.

It gets a drink of tepid water.

Then the plants are ready to go back under the grow lights. 

The small cups are washed and saved for another year.

 I only got a dozen peppers up-potted before Son John showed up to help out in the front yard.

He dug out the flower bed, then repaired the broken sprinkler line.  You can see all the pine tree debris from the wind storm.  I'm trying to keep it cleaned up as we go.

We got the landscape cloth on.  No easy chore working out in 60 MPH wind gusts!  I found a bunch of wire hangers, so John made a bunch of pins to hold the cloth down.

Now it's time to take a short break!

April 6, 2013 - In the Garden

Yesterday it rained off and on, so I didn't spend much time in the garden.  I did move a grow bag to a corner by the shed, then planted it with some leftover seed potatoes.  I spent the rest of the sunny period edging, weeding and cultivating the rest of the flower bed around the patio, and putting another large pot there for a third cherry tomato.  I still have to add the 8' stakes to the pots for the tomatoes to climb.  Those have to be screwed into the patio beam.

Pots are in place for cherry tomatoes, the beds are edged and weeded and waiting for May planting time.

Today I planted 34 leek seedlings, 2 cabbage seedlings to replace the broccoli that survived the winter (the new shoots just bolted immediately) and a 6' long wide row of carrot seed mats (144 seeds) in a windstorm, fun!  I also removed two Shasta daisy plants that never were very pretty.  That gave me room to (maybe) plant another tomato when the time comes.

The leek seedlings are so tiny, not much larger than a blade of grass.  I have a lot of seedlings left for backups if these fail to grow.  I was surprised to see my first planting of potatoes breaking through the soil already.  Last year it was four weeks from the time I planted them until they emerged.  This year it took three weeks.

Red Norland potato plants are peeking out of the soil.

The Kennel Garden has green things growing everywhere!  I can even see the peas from my kitchen window.  There still is no sign of germination for the shelling peas.  I even dug around a bit and couldn't even find a pea seed.  I paid $4.99 for a packet of those seeds from Burpee.  I certainly wouldn't think every single seed would be bad, but it's never taken this long for germination to take place in the past.

The rhubarb plant I thought was dead lives.  It's looking quite healthy now.

The warm weather seedlings got to spend their days outside for three days, coming into the kitchen at night.  

Then it turned rainy and windy, so they are back in the bedroom under the lights.  It won't be long until I'll have to up-pot them.

We discovered another broken sprinkler line by the front driveway.  This was evidently another "oops" from the heavy equipment they brought in to demolish our septic tank and hook up to the city sewer.  It's in a real bad spot, wedged between the concrete driveway and the big roots of the pine trees.  We were kind of scratching our heads and wondering which of us had the stamina to dig it out, when Son John stopped by.  He had read my blog about the front flower garden and my disappointment in Son Scott and Grandson Kevin not helping, so stopped by to offer to dig the bed for me on Sunday.  He's a good boy, I'm sure he'll help us dig out the sprinkler line.

April 4, 2013 - Promises, Promises

I really shouldn't show you what a sad state of affairs my front flower bed is in.  Actually, my entire front yard looks like it has been abandoned.  We had so much stuff blow off the pine trees this winter, it was all I could do to try to keep the mess cleaned up, let alone get anything else done out there.  The front yard always looks nasty in the spring, while the back yard is always so nice and green.

More than a month ago, I decided the bed by the front porch needed to be revamped.  It had been several years since I had dug a trench in the front of it and installed a perforated drain pipe, then covered it with rock to aid in draining water runoff from the driveway.  That worked fine for a while, but soon the soil built up to a level higher than the edge of the driveway, then the violets took over and created a solid barrier, and it was right back to square one with no drainage.

I tried to bribe Grandson Kevin with $$ to dig it out for me, but he wasn't interested in doing that four letter word........W-O-R-K.  So his father, my youngest son, said he would do it for me.  Like I said, it has been more than a month, and Son has used every excuse possible to NOT dig the bed.  Every time I ask him, he says he can't do it today, but "call me when you want it done".  I don't know how many times I've heard that.  Promises, promises.  I give up.

So.......here I go again!

Our irrigation water was turned on this week.  As if the people who did our recent sewer connection hadn't made a big enough mess, we discovered they had also broken some sprinkler lines.  I had just begun to dig out the bed, but work had to stop for repairs, and to let the flood subside.  This is how far I got on Tuesday.  I did get the pile of dirt shoveled up and I sifted out the roots.  That soil is being stored in the garden cart to be reused when I'm ready to fill the planters.  Wednesday (yesterday) was spent digging up lines and repairing them, flushing the dirt out and getting all the sprinklers up and working again.  At least I got Mr. Granny off his butt long enough to help.  Good thing, because I've never met a connection I couldn't cross thread.

 This morning I did some more digging.  The hardest part was right up next to the driveway, because the violet roots had grown down into the rock below.  It took me all morning just to get this much done, and then it started raining.

It doesn't make it any easier when the bed is full of huge roots like this.

 I shoveled up all the dirt, then got the new power washer out and cleaned up the driveway and the edge of the porch.

I moved the dirt, a shovel full at a time, over by the fence.  There is a low spot there, so I'm using it as fill, and will seed it in grass when I'm finished.  If I ever finish.  I think I need to dig it out about 2" deeper.  The plan is to cover it in weed block cloth and bark mulch, plant two small evergreens, and then set the three planters back over the tall sprinkler risers before planting them with something colorful, probably geraniums, dwarf marigolds and lobelia.

I'm glad I got rained out.  Now I can sit and enjoy that cup of tea!

April 3, 2013 - Goodbye Anonymous

I really hated to do it, but comments from "Anonymous" finally wore me down.  I was getting 15-20 comments at a time from the s-e-x-c-a-m person, along with several others, some really nasty ones that I just didn't care to read through.  It was either block "Anonymous" or put the dreaded word verification back on, and you all know how I hate word verification.  I'm sorry that it also blocks a few valued readers/followers.  Blogger used to be so good at removing spam, but it's been very lax this past month or so.

*My dear Frank from VA, I'm so glad you figured out how to create an ID that allows you to comment!  I hope others follow suit.

April 2, 2013 - Spring Cleanup

Yesterday was another glorious, sunny 75-degree day, so I took advantage of the weather and spent some time cleaning up the patio.

The first thing I had to do was build a walkway from the west end of the patio to the yard.  This is where we removed a section of railing to make an entrance to the dog kennel that ended up back in the veggie garden.  I didn't want to do away with this entire end of the flower bed, so I hauled in some concrete pavers and set them in for a walk way.  Then I edged, weeded and loosened the soil and placed a couple of large (bottomless) pots at each side of the opening.  I'll be planting a couple of cherry tomatoes in them, and training them up the posts.

Then I edged, weeded and loosened the soil in the rest of that bed.  Not much is growing there, just a single rose bush, an old thyme that I want to dig out, and what remains of the clematis Mr. Granny mutilated last fall.  He thought it was a really tall weed  :-(   I'd like to replace the thyme with a rosemary, and I'm still up in the air over what else I want in this bed.  I'd like to leave room for planting spring bulbs next fall, and I'm thinking I might just fill it up with impatiens for summer color.

 I moved the table to the east end of the patio, so I can put my seedlings on it for morning sun, and I moved the seating area to the center.

The barbecue went over to the west end.  

Maybe I can get used to using the patio door on the right, which exits from the dining room.  We haven't used it in years and years, as we always had a doggy door insert in it.  Now that we put an "in the wall" doggy door in, and have a direct entrance to the back yard, we'll have to get use to using the door again.

Lovely weather again today, so I played with Mr. Granny's new birthday present.  I bought him an electric power washer!  Yes, I really bought it for me, but don't tell him, LOL!  I soaped and power washed the entire front of the house and garage, including the windows, then I dried the windows and doors with a big soft towel.  It looks so sparkling clean!  I got out our two outdoor rocking chairs and two newly purchased folding chairs, two small tables, and a couple of pots of tiny evergreens.  The front porch is all ready for relaxing and watching the traffic drive by.

Sparkling windows and comfy seating.  Too bad I'm too busy to take advantage of it!  Maybe tomorrow.

April 1, 2013 - Soaking and Sunning the Seedlings

Once a week I give the indoor (warm weather) seedlings a good watering in the bathtub.  The containers are filled with tepid water, and I leave the seedlings to soak it up for about an hour.  I keep a spare empty flat handy, and transfer one flat of plants over to it, then dump the water from the now empty one and transfer the other flat of seedlings over to that.  The smaller baskets have openings so the excess water can just be poured from them without removing the cups.  This once a week watering seems to be just about the perfect timing, as the seedlings are looking quite robust.  It won't be long before they will all be needing some up-potting.

I'm giving them some natural light after their soaking.  The very slight breeze, 60 to 70 degree temperatures and dappled sunlight should make the little plants very happy.

March 31, 2013 - Easter in the Garden

It was a busy day, between cooking the ham dinner (baked ham, scalloped potatoes, mixed veggies & coleslaw) and getting outside to enjoy the 75-degree weather!  I couldn't pass up such a lovely day in the garden.

The seedlings were still quite small, but with warm weather for at least the next week, I decided to go ahead and get the Hybrid Mix broccoli (5 plants) and Gonzales cabbages (6 plants) in.  They had been living outside for more than a week, so I think they will be fine.  If not, I can still direct seed them at a later date. Potatoes are planted to their left and right.

Next I planted 5 Golden Acre cabbages.

That leaves me with only a single flat of marigolds, leeks and leftover broccoli seedlings that are living outside 24/7.  

The next job was to trim back the Sweet Williams and hollyhocks, and get that mess all cleaned up.

 Then I pounded in the hose guides and defined my meandering garden path.  I hoed a few tiny weeds, and raked everything smooth.

It's all cleaned up and raked, from end to end.

After moving the old barrel to the corner of the fence, and filling it with good soil for future cucumbers, I did some daydreaming about how I was going to plant the East Garden.  I have decided to put a 16' strip, 2' wide, along the fence on the right.  That's where I can plant a bunch of my many, many pepper seedlings.  The corn bed will go on the left, approximately 16' long x 4 or 5' wide, with a path separating the corn and peppers.  There should be enough room at the far end for a couple of hills of cantaloupe, and the near end for carrots and bush beans.

I began running the garden twine for the peas, and got about half done before my back gave out.  There's always tomorrow.

The sugar snap peas are emerging nicely, but the shelling peas still have not broken ground.

I noticed the radishes I planted last week by the lettuce were showing, so I decided to plant another row bordering the parsnip bed.  I got about 62 seeds in this row.

I changed my mind on pulling some of the strawberries out of the bed to make room for the six new (different variety) plants I purchased.  Instead, I think I'll put them in these planters inside the Kennel Garden.  If I like them better than the old berries, I can root the runners and do a replacement later.

The raspberries are leafing out in this warm weather.

Flowers are blooming.

And the lettuces are growing larger.

My final gardening chore for the day was to heap composted manure all around and over the rhubarb plant, then make a little fence to protect it from the dogs.  It's not in the main garden, but next to the fence that keeps our dogs and the neighbor's dogs apart.  They love to trample that garden while sounding like they're all going to kill each other.

But......my work wasn't over!

The garden shed was a mess....again.  I cleaned it up, put everything away, swept it out, and it's lookin' pretty good!  Now it's time to sit down and relax with a cup of hot tea.

March 27, 2013 - Another Busy Day in the Garden

It was raining lightly when I woke up this morning, gray and gloomy but 50 degrees.  I convinced myself there would be no gardening today, but right after breakfast the sun came out!  It turned into a lovely, warm, sunny day, so I donned my old sweat pants and gardening gloves and headed out to the garden.

I couldn't put off planting the Yukon gold potatoes any longer, so I started digging holes in the bed I had tilled yesterday.  This potato bed wouldn't be as large as the one I planted last week, because I'm at that area of the North Garden where there are still old roots from the maple tree that used to reside there.  I still managed to get 28 hills of potatoes planted, and I'm sure that will be more than enough for us.

Next to the potato bed, I dug a 1' wide future cabbage bed.  I think there might still be room for a wide row of leeks, if the seedlings ever get large enough to plant.  That will be all that can be planted in that section though, as the big roots are right at the surface.  I set a couple of concrete blocks over the surface roots, and zip tied a garden sprinkler to them.  The oscillating sprinkler waters most of the North garden.  Moving on toward the east, I dug all the soil from the old barrel that held winter squash plants last year, and moved it out of the garden.  It will be repurposed as a container for cucumbers, up against the fence.  The soil that was removed was mounded right in the middle of that garden section, and will be planted with three hills of butternut squash in May.

Yukon Gold potato bed, framed in bright red yarn, future cabbage bed to the right, possible spot for the leeks, then the sprinkler setup.  The hose is coiled over the mound of soil that will be planted to squash.

Next I went to work on the strawberry bed, cutting off all the dead leaves, and doing general cleanup.  I sprinkled on some fertilizer, then scratched it in with my long handled cultivator (which kept losing its "claw").

Strawberry bed cleaned up and fertilized.  Notice last year's broccoli at the end of the strawberry bed.  It was one long stem, with broccoli growing at each end, so I covered the center of the stem and held it down with the frogs on a rock.  It's loaded with shoots!

A bit of leveling, weed hoing and cleanup of the debris, and the North Garden was all ready for future plantings.  I hooked up the hose to the sprinkler and checked it out to make sure it was in the right spot for complete coverage, then called it a day.

As I exited through the east garden gate, I rolled it over my foot for the hundredth time.  Some day maybe I'll learn to keep my foot out of the way.  Then again, maybe I won't.