Our Park Circle Homestead

Of Roosters and Eggs

2012-02-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

Since getting chickens I've heard stories about roosters and hens. Some people think hens are more productive egg layers if there is a rooster around - they also think they keep the hens "in line". I read somewhere that a rooster's crow stimulates a hen's hormones and makes her more productive. Recently I heard all of this again, when my uncle called me, on behalf of a friend who was looking for a rooster for his flock. I've decided to compare out flock with our neighbor's roosterless flock to illustrate the different factors affecting egg production. It's very unscientific, but worth a shot.

We now have eight hens of laying age and are getting 6+ eggs every day. Ours are less than a year old, so they haven't yet reached their prime. Before the last four began laying, we had two very good layers - an egg each every day - and two less than perfect layers - at least one egg per day combined. Since the Rhode Island Reds are brown egg layers, it's easy to tell which ones are theirs. There have been no more than five days that we have not gotten two eggs from the two hens since they started laying in early November. Our other hens are bantams, and white so it's hard to tell the difference between their eggs, but they definitely don't lay a regular as the RIRs.

At one point our neighbors' flock of five hens were probably laying close to four eggs a day, but recently they are only getting two per day. One factor could be age - some of their hens are two+ years old. Apparently that's when egg production starts to decline. When we were discussing the difference recently, their suggestion was that ours were getting more sunlight during some of the shortest days of the year. Egg production is supposed to decrease during the winter because of the shorter days, but we didn't see that in our flock. Our hen house has a green fiberglass roof which lets light in - that combined with the neighbor's flood light could mean they are getting more light. After our neighbor's light was out for two weeks and they replaced the bulb, it seemed brighter than before. Our chickens noticed a difference too - the roosters began crowing throughout the night.

Whether it's their age, or the extra light, or the roosters, we really won't know everything that factors in to egg production, but I thought it was a good thing to try to figure out.

Look what I won!

2012-02-04T19:43:00.000-05:00

Recently I began following a couple of chicken blogs that Robin read about in Country Living magazine. One of them, Tilly's Nest, had a giveaway for a colorful aluminum sign from Baimbridge Farm Goods - you received one entry for commenting on the post, another for liking them on Facebook, and so on. You could get up to five entries for this drawing. I did all of those things, because the signs are really neat - I thought we could decorate the chicken coop with them. Unfortunately, I didn't win.

Another blog I follow, Hen Blog, had a drawing for a print by someone on Etsy - Automatte - I thought her work was nice and thought I would try winning this one. The entry requirements was similar - you got multiple chances for commenting, liking them, etc. I wasn't sure I felt like doing all of that for this contest. It appeared I had to friend them on Facebook and some other things I didn't want to do - a little more that the other drawing. I entered once by commenting on the post, and I told myself I might do the other things later. I forgot to do it, and I remembered seeing a post about a winner, but it wasn't me. It turned out to be the other chicken blog, so when I got an email today telling me I had won, I was really surprised. So I should be getting a print in the mail next week!

January Rainfall

2012-02-03T19:28:00.000-05:00

0.25 inches on January 10th/11th
0.30 inches on January 17th/18th
0.30 inches on January 21st

0.85 inches total for the month of January

The last half of January was really humid. I would walk outside in the morning and it would look like it had rained, but it hadn't. There was just so much dew.

Master Gardener - Soil Test - Part 2

2012-01-03T21:38:00.000-05:00

About a week after I dropped off my soil samples at the Clemson Extension office, I received an email with a link to the results of my soil tests. I had two different soil tests done - one for the vegetable garden and one for the beds in the front yard. When you fill out the forms, it helps to let them know what plants you plan to plant and whether you want organic recommendations as well. I asked for both, but I only got inorganic recommendations.

For the front yard, I am planning more of an edible landscape, a fruit garden of sorts. I'm thinking of planting a couple of fruit trees - plums or pears - and also trellising some blackberries. I also tested the vegetable garden and got similar results. The recommendations were as follows:

The soil test found low levels of potassium, so the application of muriate of potash (0-0-60) was recommended before planting. Later fertilizations with 10-10-10 and 15-0-15 were also mentioned. The specifics can be found here and here.

Since I didn't get organic recommendations, I tried to learn more about these fertilizers and amendments, to understand what they were and what the organic alternatives were. In general you can tell what an amendment is by the fertilizer grade. I knew muriate of potash (MOP) was solely to correct the potassium deficiency, since the third number was so high, but I decided to read more. MOP is actually potassium chloride and there are a lot of people out there that think it's harmful to soil biology, but others say it leaches out of the soil fairly quickly - and supposedly chloride increases yield by improving disease resistance. Since I wasn't a fan of chlorine, I decided to see what my options were - it turns out that there are few. Sulfate of potash is a common substitute, but it tends to be more expensive and it has less potassium (0-0-50), so you need more of it. It is used for plants that are sensitive to chlorides. An organic alternative to these are wood ashes. They may contain around 6% potash, but they also contain lime which raises the pH of the soil, making it more alkaline. There's no easy way of knowing how much potash is in it and, if you don't need lime, you shouldn't use it.

The other fertilizers are pretty straightforward. 10-10-10 is what it seems like and it turns out 15-0-15 is a common fertilizer for centipede grass. I haven't looked into organic alternatives to these, but it seems easy enough. Maybe it won't be in one product, but I'm sure there are things out there that are good substitutes for this. That will have to be a future blog post.

Getting Ready for Winter

2012-01-02T17:24:00.000-05:00

It seems that cold weather is upon us this week - I saw a low of 20 in the next couple of days, but I don't think it will get that low. At any rate, I had some things to do to get ready for it. The most obvious one was to bring in a few plants - I started by putting my citrus plants in the garage. They seem to be the most susceptible to the cold and I've taken more of an interest in them, since learning more about fruit gardening. I have a few random plants in pots that would be affected by the cold. If they were in the ground, I wouldn't worry about them so much, but since they're in pots, they could be harmed more. I had a few plants that have been fine during previous winters, but tonight could be a little extreme, so I erred on the side of caution and brought those in as well. I'll probably keep them in there for a few days, until the temperature returns to normal.

I haven't paid much attention to the pond recently - I'm still deciding what to do with it - redesign it, get rid of it - I still needed to do a little bit for it. I cleaned it out some and filled it up with water from my rain barrels. This was also important - emptying the barrels would potentially keep them from freezing and cracking or splitting. I got the waterfall pump running and the water flowing to ensure that the pond wouldn't freeze completely. I know it sounds like I'm going to the extreme, but I don't want to take any chances.

My biggest concern in the chickens. I have been reading about winterizing coops and most people agree that it's not good to shut them up without a lot of ventilation. Their breath is very humid and their droppings are moist as well, not to mention full of noxious gases which need to be vented. Shutting them up would be very detrimental to their health. I've heard of people putting Vaseline on their combs and waddles, to keep them from getting frostbite, but that's not going to happen here - I couldn't catch all of them to do that before dark. The best advice I found was to make sure they get a lot of corn in the afternoon, before they go to bed. The extra grain will help them stay warm through the night. The last thing I'll do is to bring in their water after they go to bed. It will likely freeze out there and I'll have to dethaw it - I may as well just bring it in and save the trouble later. I just have to remember to put it back in the coop in the morning.

Master Gardener - Soil Test - Part 1

2011-12-30T21:31:00.000-05:00

One thing that everyone should do before planting their garden, or even landscaping in their yard is have the soil tested. I have to admit that I have never done this - until now. I'm planning to put a number of fruit trees and other edible plants in the front yard and I want to give them the best possible start - while I was at it, I figured I would get the soil in our vegetable garden tested for good measure. Here's how you do it.

You need to get a representative sample of the area that you want tested, which means you should collect a dozen samples and combine it into one composite sample. Soil samples should be collected from the surface to 6-8 inches deep. Using a soil tube or auger is pretty straightforward, but if you are using a spade or trowel the technique is a bit different. Dig a v-shaped hole about 6-8 inches deep and use your trowel or spade to take a thin slice from the side of the hole. Combine all the soil samples in a clean bucket and mix them thoroughly. You'll need at least two cups of soil per sample. You can either take your sample to your local Clemson Extension office or purchase a soil sample mailer.

Please see the Clemson Extension Fact Sheet for more information about soil samples:
http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/other/soils/hgic1652.html

December Rainfall

2011-12-30T17:32:00.000-05:00

0.00 inches during the first week of December - it rained a couple of times, but not enough to register in the rain gauge.
0.00 inches on December 7th
0.10 inches on December 12th
0.10 inches on December 20th/21th
0.10 inches on December 25th
0.75 inches on December 27th

1.05 inches total rainfall for December

Countryside and Small Stock Journal

2011-12-12T17:33:00.000-05:00

During the last couple of years, I would pick up issues of farming, chicken, gardening or otherwise "rural living" types of magazines in order to get some ideas about gardening or raising chickens or living a greener life. One of these magazines initially struck me as odd in their articles and their advertising. It seemed like a freaky source of information about living off the grid - solar power, composting toilets and the like. I now think of this magazine, Countryside and Small Stock Journal, as an interesting facet of living the rural life. Recently I've gotten some good information about raising chickens and growing potatoes in straw.

After looking for some of these articles online, I found a site that seems to have the past eighteen years of this magazine online, free. It's something I'd like to spend a little time going through during the winter. Maybe I can learn a little something.

November Rainfall

2011-12-02T07:27:00.000-05:00

0.20 inches on November 16/17th

0.30 inches overnight on November 22nd/23rd

1.30 inches on November 27th/28th

1.80 inches total rainfal for November

Really? Another Rooster?

2011-11-22T18:21:00.001-05:00

One of our supposed hens started crowing the other day. It wasn't that much of a surprise - even though he was supposed to be a hen, it was clear for a long time that "she" might be a "he". What does surprise me is that this rooster came from a batch of sexed day-old chicks. They were supposed to be hens, but obviously sexing chickens is not an exact science. Because of that, most chicken breeders have a return policy for roosters.

I say they have a return policy - I went and talked to the neighbor I got him from and found out he ordered them from a hatchery in Ohio - not exactly a returnable rooster. So, once again, I have to figure out what to do with a rooster. He's not a problem right now. I hear him crow early in the morning, but he's pretty quiet - I haven't heard him during the day, but Robin has.

I'm not sure what we're going to do with him. We'll probably end up putting him on Craigslist like the other roosters, but until then, we have a pretty large chicken running around our yard.

October Rainfall

2011-11-08T07:11:00.000-05:00

0.00 inches on October 9th
0.40 inches on October 10th
0.20 inches on October 10/11th overnight
0.10 inches on October 11/12th overnight
0.50 inches on October 12/13th overnight
0.20 inches on October 29th

1.40 inches total rainfall for October

Local Feed and Seed Sources - Updated - Fall 2011

2011-10-27T19:51:00.000-04:00

For those interested, I thought I would update my list of Feed and Seed sources. I've gotten recommendations from friends and I have a few personal experiences to share.

First of all, this past spring and summer I spent a lot of time driving to Tractor Supply Co. in Summerville. I know - they're sort of a big box version of a feed and seed, but they are really convenient. When I was looking for fence panels to make trellises, I was able to go online and figure out which one I might need before going to the store. Most other stores close around 5pm, which doesn't always work for me. Tractor Supply is open until 8pm every day except Sunday, when they close at 6pm.

For spring and fall vegetables, I've been in the habit of going to one of the feed stores outside of Summerville, either 17-A Feed or Dorchester Feed. My friend Gretchen pointed out to me that Red Top Feed on Savannah Highway is closer than those. Being in North Charleston, Summerville seemed closer, until I went to Red Top recently. It was a quick drive on I-526 and 17 South and I was there.

I've had friends that have been to Cordray's on Johns Island in the past, but recently I called them about fall vegetables, and they really didn't have any. Either they had sold out of most of their plants, or they didn't have a lot to begin with.

I've contacted Cainhoy Feed in the past looking for veggies, and they have never had any. I never bothered to ask why until recently. I called them up and found out they specialize more in farm animal supplies rather than in vegetable and the like. So, if you need chicken supplies, they might be a good source, but I would call first.

I saved the worst for last - 17-A Feed and Seed - I had been there in the past to buy onion or potatoes. At the time I didn't have a real preference for any particular store. I finished building our chicken coop on Memorial day and we couldn't wait to get chickens. I called six stores and they were the only one open, but they were closing at 2pm so he could go fishing. We got out there and on our way through the store to the outside to the chicken coop, we seed a brooder with baby chicks in it - one is dead. While we're trying to grab some chicks out of the pen, we see a rooster in another pen that has something wrong with one of his legs. While we were buying supplies, I felt like he gave us some bad advice as far as what to feed them. Months later, the "hens" turned out to be roosters. When we bought them, he said we could return them, if they were roosters, but when I called later, they asked if I had my receipt. Then they said that I would be taking a chance on the replacements, because they didn't know if they were hens or roosters either. Later, friends went there and told me how bad it was - I think they even filled up the chickens' water bowl.

So here are my recommendations:

Red Top Feed and Tackle Shop
3815 Highway 17, Charleston
(843) 763-6651
Friends like it and it's the closest.

Tractor Supply Co.
1672 North Main St Ste 5, Summerville
(843) 821-5386
Good selection of feed, bedding and other chicken supplies. No plants or seeds, to my knowledge.

Dorchester Feed and Supply
10310 Highway 78, Summerville
(843) 875-9776
I've only been here for cool-season vegetables, but I'm sure they have everything Red Top has.

Cainhoy Feed and Seed
1925 Clements Ferry Rd # 3, Charleston
(843) 884-8787
As best as I can tell, they sell mainly horse and chicken supplies.

Cordray's Grocery and Feed
3455 Maybank Highway, Johns Island
(843) 559-0102
I'm sure they have what Red Top has, but it's farther and they were sold out of what I needed.

17-A Feed and Seed
2026 North Main Street, Summerville
(843) 832-0540
DON'T GO HERE!

Housing (and Feeding) Two Flocks

2011-10-22T21:19:00.001-04:00

After getting our second "flock" of chickens recently, Gretchen suggested that we think about keeping them separated from the others, because they were being fed medicated starter feed. I kept everyone together for the first few days - by necessity - until I could build another little coop for the new birds. Once they were in their new home I felt good about everything - I could feed them their medicated food safely, they had a home of their own. In theory it seemed perfect - until they were separated.

Once that happened, they wanted nothing more than to be with the rest of the chickens. I would let everyone out for a while in the evening and the new chicks would end up in the hen house at dark. I spent a few nights grabbing chicks from the roosts and putting them in their new home. I couldn't do this anymore, so I put everyone together and started trying to figure out how to feed them so they get the proper nutrition.

Presumably - feeding starter to everyone wouldn't be bad, except the laying hens might need more calcium for their eggshells. Feeding layer rations might be fine too, but the young birds might be stunted. I did some research and had a hard time finding solutions to this problem. What I found out about feeding chickens was informative. This is in no way definitive, but it sounds good:

When to switch from starter/grower feed to layer feed:
Some people switch around 20 weeks of age. They think it's good to get a head start on the extra calcium, so, when they do begin laying, they're ready for it. Other people did thinks differently. Some didn't think there was an exact time to switch. I read a post where someone recommended that when they start laying, to finish off the bag of starter/grower before switching to layer feed.

People do have strong opinions about feeding layer feed to chicks that aren't laying yet. Young chicks don't need the extra calcium that is found in layer feed. Apparently it has some negative health consequences - affects bone development. Makes sense. The one recommendation that I saw the most was to feed everyone starter feed and put out crushed oyster shell for the layers who need the extra calcium. That seems like the best idea to me. So I'm off to the feed store to get starter/grower feed and some crushed oyster shells.

Our New Flock

2011-10-21T18:12:00.000-04:00

Along with getting rid of a rooster last week, we had plans to get a couple more hens from our neighbors, Scott and Fred. We also had other neighbors Gretchen and Haley, who had been raising some young chicks, offer us a few. All of us were in contact with each other and the plan was for Gretchen and Haley to give Scott and Fred a couple, and they were planning to give us a couple that were closer to laying. That's what we were expecting when Haley showed up at our door with a box of chicks. What can you do when someone shows up on your doorstep like that?

I left them in the box, but put chicken wire over it, to give them some air, but to keep them from getting loose. We've had trouble in the past introducing new chicks to our flock, so we waited until it was very dark to try it. We did the same thing we have done in the past - we put the new chicks on the roost in the hen house and wait to see how the others react. Our chickens were a little curious, but they adjusted well to the new additions. I'm looking forward to watching them grow up.

Little White Rooster

2011-10-13T19:20:00.001-04:00

I found out recently that our roosters were bothering our neighbor behind us. I tried several times to talk to her, but she never answered the door. I would see her mom cutting the grass, but she would be gone before I had a chance to talk to her. I finally saw her mom at a recent plant swap, introduced myself and asked her about the chickens. She told me that they wake her daughter up every morning - if this was really the case, I would hope she would say something.

To be fair, I did locate the chickens as far away from our house as possible, and hidden behind our garage - which puts it maybe a hundred feet from our neighbor's bedroom. So, it was time to get rid of a rooster or two. Unless it was a big problem, I wasn't going to get rid of our silkie - as I've mentioned before, we all like him and he amsues us when he runs. So that leaves only the little white rooster. I had some success giving away roosters on craigslist, but I had heard that some of the people who respond to these ads were planning to eat them. I was concerned about this when I got rid of the first two roosters, but was happy when the guy showed up with his kids.

I had similar concerns this time, but my fears were allayed when I met the person. It's a little quieter at our house - it was especially noticeable after the first two roosters. I feel like we're down to our core flock now - one rooster and five hens, plus four new hens that we just got. I don't expect any more, but you never know.

Postscript: I had recorded him crowing before we got rid if him, and I just got around to editing it and posting it online. Here it is:

September Rainfall

2011-09-29T20:40:00.000-04:00

0.00 inches on September 4th - a few drops and it threatened, but real rain.
0.00 inches on September 5th/6th - rain overnight but nothing in the gauge.
0.50 inches on September 6th
0.00 inches on September 11th/12th - it rained overnight, but nothing in the gauge.
0.60 inches on September 13th
0.70 inches on September 16th
0.25 inches on September 21st
0.70 inches on September 22nd
0.30 inches on September 23rd
1.10 inches on September 24th
0.50 inches on September 25th
0.00 inches on September 28th

4.65 inches total rainfall for September

Master Gardener - Weeds

2011-09-29T20:38:00.000-04:00

One of the activities for the chapter on weed ecology was the following:

"Visit your lawn. Choose three weeds and identify. After you've identified them, discuss the implications of these weeds in your lawn. Now visit the edges of your lawn, perhaps in the food garden bed or your ornamental plant beds. Find three weeds there and identify. Are they the same as the lawn weeds you saw? How do you manage these weeds in both situations (lawn and other)?"

I would say the main problem weed in my back yard is Florida betony (cool-season perennial). When we first bought our house, I didn't know what it was. In the summer, digging in the ground, I would find these white tubers - I didn't put the two together at the time. For some reason they are almost exclusively in my back yard, so I don't do too much with them. Since I know they are perennials and grow from those white tubers, pre-emergent herbicides will not work. After doing some research on control methods, it appears there are a couple of post-emergent herbicides that will work, depending upon your grass type. I have a good bit of bahiagrass in the back yard - which, to me, is a weed in itself - so I mostly leave it alone. It take a different approach when it comes up in my garden. When I see the tubers I get rid of them, and I tend to hand-pull the shoots when I see them, hoping that, if I pull them enough times, it will exhaust the plant.

I have a problem weed in the front yard, but, for the life of me, I don't know what it's called. I should know this - it is a cool-season perennial, tap-rooted plant with a yellow flower. I guess it could be dandelion, but the leaves are a lot different. It has started coming up recently. I have a tool with tines at the end - it's called a Garden Weasel Weed Popper. It's hinged and spring-loaded. You stick the tines in the ground near the weed and step on it, then catapult the weed across the lawn. It proved effective against these tap-rooted weeds more than half the time, but it's labor-intensive. Usually I'll take some time and spray Roundup on all of them, but I don't realize how many I have until I start doing it.

I used to have dollar weed (warm-season perennial) around my vegetable garden, but I was very vigilant about pulling it up overtime I saw it. It's not a problem anymore. It became a problem in one of our landscaped beds out front, but it was easy to get rid of. The stolons were growing in the top layer - mulch/compost, and it was easy to hand-pull. Long strings of it came up out of the loose mulch. I notice from the photo that it's in the turf as well, but I can tolerate that.

I've been pulling up spurge around our vegetable garden all summer. It's a warm-season annual that I've begun to notice a lot this year. It grow outward from a taproot, hugging the ground. It looks like it covers a large area, but all you have to do is pull it up from the single root and it's all gone.

The past year or so, I've gotten a little purslane in our vegetable garden. I was curious about it, because it have very succulent stems and leaves. It's a warm-season annual related to Portaluca. Like other weeds in my garden, I try to hand pull weed now - since I Roundup-ed my pole beans last summer!

There is another plant that resembles dollar weed, that I believe I have in my yard as well. It's called dichondra and it must get confused with the other because it's mentioned in the dollar weed article on the HGIC website. From what I've seen, it is more of a clumping type of plant. I could be wrong.

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There were other weeds I could mention, but these were the ones I knew the most about. I'm sure a lot of people know what this weed is in the photo - I'm am just drawing the biggest blank. I'll post the answer when someone tells me on the message board, but until then, I'll be in the dark. Comment, if you think you know!

Fourth Annual Fall Park Circle Plant Swap

2011-09-24T22:31:00.000-04:00

It was that time of year again - time for the fall plant swap. We had a lot of stuff going on this weekend and the thought crossed my mind that I might not have time to go this year. Can you believe that? It was only a passing thought - I came to my senses pretty quickly. We have had a lot going on, and I procrastinated until this morning as far as pulling plants together for the swap goes. I got up at 5am and was outside at 5:30 trying to get plants together, realizing that I couldn't see a thing! I promptly went back inside and read the paper, ate breakfast and watched tv until 7am, when I resumed my activities.

I came up with a large pile of plants - more than I expected on such short notice. Earlier in the week, I had dug up all the pups from our century plant. This morning I dug up some irises and some phlox and potted them up. I thinned out the water irises growing in the waterfall of our pond - it needed it. It needs a good cleaning out and repotting, but that will have to wait. And hostas - I have to explain the hostas.

While at the previous plant swap in April, I was in the middle of planting a shade garden and was looking for enough hostas for a mass planting. I didn't find many at the swap, but I met a woman there that offered me some from her yard. A week or so later, I went to her house and we walked around and dug up parts of almost every clump she had in her yard. When I got them home, I broke them into smaller plants and had them in a couple of buckets of water. I planted as many as I could and put the leftover bucket of hostas, dirt and water in the driveway, intending to plant them in the next couple of days. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, and so I ended up bringing them to the next plant swap. I wanted to tell her the story, but she wasn't there. I did save a clump for myself - I still have plans to plant some in the near future, along with what I got at the swap.

I mention this every time now, but I don't find as many plants that I have to have as I used to, and it was trued this time. Inevitably I end up doing more socializing in the beginning, rather than scoping out plants. I see people who I don't see all the time and I end up talking to them. I eventually find my first selection - there's usually one must-have plant - but I didn't see one today. Just like last time, I found my groove - I changed my first selection from a Euphorbia trigona to a citrus I found after Darren mentioned that there were some mixed in with the rest of the plants.

Before I go any further, let me mention the plants I didn't get. These were high-ranking choices, that got picked by other people while I was picking other plants: Euphorbia trigona, night-blooming cactus, corpse-flower cactus, giant papyrus, canna and ginger lilies. I think that's about it for the plants I didn't get.

I had a little trouble prioritizing this time. Every other time Robin was there and, for the first few rounds, she would help me get the plants I wanted. So I started out with the citrus and then I found some daylilies. I saw someone with one of my friend Joan's Yuccas and I decided to get one of those. I would have preferred Echinacea, but I got some of Joan's Black-eyed Susans instead. I found some more daylilies - I wasn't sure what they were at first. They were in a plastic bag and extremely leggy, like they didn't get a lot of sun, or they were over-fertilized with Nitrogen. They reminded me of the Narcissus bulbs I brought previously - in their case, it was not enough light. I got some Persian shield and a couple of beautyberrys to add some native plants to our landscape. As always, I feel satisfied by what I brought home from the swap, and the fewer plants mean that they won't be neglected because I don't know what to do with them. I've already planted the Yucca and I know what I'm doing with most of the others - nothing should be neglected this year. I would say that I'm happy about this swap and look forward to more in the future.

Master Gardener - Leaf-footed Squash Bug

2011-09-14T20:51:00.000-04:00


Leaf-footed Squash Bugs

The leaf-footed squash bug is definitely a pest in my yard the last two summers - before that, I never noticed it. Besides my squash plants, the only other place I saw them was on my flowering yucca. It appeared that they were mating?!

From the order Hemiptera, which means half-winged, these insects have a partially hardened forewing, while the rest of it is membranous. Leaf-footed means that part of their hind legs are flattened, possibly resembling a leaf. They have sucking mouthparts - a proboscis pierces the plant tissue and sucks out the liquids. While some bugs transmit pathogens, it is unclear whether this one does, although any damage to plant tissue can be an opportunity for diseases to infect the host plant. They also can be a lot larger than other garden pests, measuring a inch or more, including the antennae.

In the spring, eggs are laid typically on the underside of a leaf of a member of the Curcubit family - squash, cucumber, pumpkin, etc. In about ten days the eggs hatch and the nymphs begin feeding on the host plant and in about 4-6 weeks they will have grown into adults, having completed simple metamorphosis. The adults don't mate, but overwinter until spring when they emerge, mate and begin the whole life cycle again.

The best control for this pest is vigilance. Check regularly for egg clusters, hand pick individual bugs from plants, remove dead host plants and cultivate the soil, hopefully disturbing their winter resting places.

Colorful Hydrangeas

2011-09-01T20:45:00.000-04:00

I read a "Garden Q&A" item in the New York Times earlier this summer. It was about what affects the colors of hydrangea blooms. I've always heard about blooms changing colors from red to blue, or the other way a round. the article referred to the availability of aluminum in the soil. I thought it was interesting, but not very relevant to me.

Fast forward a few weeks and I started noticing our hydrangea about to bloom again - and the blooms are pink. It's been a while, but I could have sworn they blue earlier in the year. We transplanted from the back yard just before it bloomed this spring. I found the first photo of the hydrangea when it was still in the back yard. It's definitely blue, but there is a hint of pink in there.

Now look at the plant - the flowers are definitely pink. I have heard about people changing the pH of the soil, just to change the color of the flowers, but I have never seen it before. Very interesting!

Master Gardener - Understanding Fertilizer Grade / Analysis

2011-09-01T20:14:00.000-04:00

Whenever you buy a bag of fertilizer, it usually has three numbers on it, something like "10 - 10 - 10" - Most people commonly think that it refers the the percentage of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) in the fertilizer. The numbers actually relate to the amount of Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P₂O₅) and Potash (K₂O). The numbers also refer to the number of pounds of that particular element or compound in a 100-pound bag, but it can be used as a percentage.

Why is this good to know? Let's say your soil sample test comes back and it recommends you add 10 pounds of Phosphorus to your garden. If you add a 100-pound bag of 10-10-10 you will only be getting 4.4 pounds, since the second "10" refers to Phosphate. The same goes for Potash - 100 pounds of the same fertilizer will get you 8.3 pounds of Potassium.

Just remember these conversions and you'll be an expert at knowing your fertilizer grade. Nitrogen is nitrogen - no need to do any math. Phosphate is only 44% Phosphorus. And Potash is only 83% Potassium. So adjust your calculations accordingly. Suddenly, I feel like Roland Alston - "Happy Gardening everybody!"

August Rainfall

2011-08-31T17:09:00.000-04:00

0.00 inches on August 5th - it rained, but just enough to scare the dog, and that doesn't take much.
0.50 inches on August 6th - it rained light and steady, a good soaking, but not that much.
0.10 inches on August 9th - it looked like it was going to storm, but we hardly got any rain.
0.00 inches on August 10th - There was rain, but none in the gauge.
0.75 inches on August 13th
0.25 inches on August 14th
0.60 inches on August 18th
0.10 inches on August 22nd
0.30 inches on August 23rd
0.40 inches on August 26th - from Hurricane Irene
0.20 inches on August 30th

Total rainfall - 3.20 inches

Master Gardener - Soil Drainage

2011-08-24T11:11:00.000-04:00

One of the first activities we did in the master gardener class was to test our soil's drainage. I thought our soil would have somewhat slow drainage - I remember a lot of times seeing standing water around the yard and in the beds. What I found out was completely different - here's how you do it:

The first thing you do is dig a hole about a foot deep. Then fill it with water and let it drain completely. Immediately after, refill the hole and measure the water level. Wait 15 minutes and measure again, taking the difference in water levels and multiplying by 4, to figure out how much water drains in an hour.

When I did this, I was surprised at the results. I dug my hole and filled it with water. Immediately after it drained I filled it back up, starting out with 8.5 inches of water. Fifteen minutes later the hole was empty. That indicates that my soil, at least in that area, has extremely fast drainage, more than 34 inches per hour! This is just one of the many things that I'm learning in my master gardener class. Try this at your house and see what you get.

SC Master Gardener Class - Online

2011-08-21T20:28:00.000-04:00

A few years ago I decided I was ready to take the Master Gardener class that the Clemson Extension offers every year. I filled out a long application with a short essay and had a phone interview. I felt proud to be accepted, though I didn't take the class because of scheduling conflicts. I bought the MG Training Manual in advance, so when I didn't take the class, I decided that I didn't need to, now that I had the book. Even though my intention was to slowly work my way through the book, I hardly even cracked it, except to read the vegetable gardening section and to identify pests.

Recently, I felt like my gardening skills had plateaued and I wasn't getting as much out of gardening as I used to - so I decided to look into signing up for the class again. I thought I still had time, but when I looked it up, the class was closed and wouldn't be open again until next fall. I was disappointed, but a couple of weeks later, I found out that they were going to offer an online version of the class. It's pretty much the same structure, except there are video lectures, and home activities instead of classroom work.

I signed up for it and it started this week. We have reading assignments, video lectures, activities to do at home, class discussions on a message board and online quizzes. I haven't taken a class in a number of years, so it's going to be a little tough at first. The first chapter on soil has a little bit of chemistry in it, but the good thing is that I can take my time and let it all soak in, since I have a whole week.

Like I'm doing with gardening tips, I think I'm going to do a series with stuff I'm learning in this class. I have at least two ideas in this one chapter alone that I want to write about. I may find too many things and not be able to keep up with it, but we'll see.

Containing the Chickens

2011-08-21T19:34:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week some of the chickens decided to hop the fence and go exploring in our neighbor's yard. There have been a few times before when one has ended up there and we've had to go catch them (we thought they were spooked and flew over the fence and couldn't get back), but this time was different. I watched a few of them perch on the fence, at its lowest point, look down into the neighbor's shrubs and hop down there. I knew I shouldn't worry about them - they would be back - but the fact that they could escape that easily bothered me. I also didn't know how the neighbors felt about it either.

They were back a little while later, which made me feel better, but I saw it happen again the next day. Our black rooster has risen to the position of alpha male in the flock and this time it was he who lead the incursion, followed by the six hens, who have turned into his little harem. I mentioned this on Facebook and my aunt recommended that I should clip their wings. I read many times about doing that before we had chickens, but it hadn't occurred to me to do so. At the time, my first thought was to put up a taller fence, which I had always thought I might have to do in the future.

Thinking it might be a huge undertaking to catch and clip the wings of every chicken, I opted to clip only the wings of the alpha rooster. My theory was that if the hens followed him around, and he couldn't jump the fence, that would contain all the chickens. My first attempt at catching the rooster was rough. I was able to get my hands on him, but he fought so much that I couldn't hold onto him. I was back to the idea of taller fencing, but in the meantime, I really didn't want to let them out of the pen, because I didn't know what they would do.

On a whim this afternoon, I was able to catch the rooster fairly easily, and got Robin to help me clip his wings. I had never done this before, but I had read enough about it, that I thought we could do it. We trimmed the flight feathers on both wings - even though they say you only have to do one. I wanted a little extra assurance that he wouldn't leave the yard. After doing this, I wished some one had taken photos. When I mentioned that we should do the other rooster so we could get photos for this blog, Ella go upset that we would do that just for the photos - so all I have is the diagram.

Thinking we were safe from chickens leaving the yard, I let them out to forage. Much to my surprise, the hens immediately jumped the fence, and the recently-clipped rooster wasn't too happy about it. At that point there was nothing I could do until it was time for bed. Hours later I come home to find only one chicken in the yard - the silkie. The hens are in the neighbor's yard with the black rooster - I'm not sure how he got there, but he might have trouble getting back. And the other rooster is in the other neighbor's yard. He was frantically trying to get back into the yard by running back and forth along the fence. We've dealt with this before - both Ella and I tried separately to get him back over with no luck. He's going to have to try a little harder, or let us help him.

A taller fence is definitely going up back there soon. I just have to figure out the logistics. After talking to some neighbors, the best plan is going to be putting up a fence AND clipping their wings. I don't know why ours have such wanderlust and others we know are so well-behaved?

Weeds and Watermelons

2011-08-10T21:46:00.000-04:00

I feel like I've done a lot in the yard during the past week - it's been mostly weed pulling and brush clearing, but there were some weeds I was going to have trouble getting to. They were in and around what has become my watermelon patch. I didn't plan on having one of those - I was trying to trellis the plants so they would be neat and orderly, and sometimes you can't do that. I finally let them take over a corner of the garden, and they have paid me back with a few surprises.

I started cleaning up the area the other day by pulling all the weeds that the watermelon vines weren't growing through, and then I got out there tonight to do the more tedious part. I began finding watermelon vines, making sure they didn't have any fruit on them, and following them back to main plant and pruning them. I can't tell you how much I cut back, but it was a lot. I must have been a little careless, because I accidentally cut a vine that had a watermelon attached. It wasn't all bad - a 14-pounder that's supposed to grow to 15-20 pounds.

I knew about two fruits growing in the tangle of vines, but I found a third one last week. When I moved it out of the way tonight, I discovered it was split on the bottom. The chickens were nearby so I broke it open and gave it to the chickens. That would have been three fruits, counting the one I accidentally harvested and the one still growing, but I found another one - this one is very small, but that means we'll get to save it for later.

Gardening Tips - Homemade Liquid Fertilizers

2011-08-08T17:42:00.000-04:00

I read an article in Mother Earth News recently that piqued my curiosity. I've been wanting to use organic fertilizers, but I didn't know where to start. The article explains how to make and use homemade organic liquid fertilizers. I'm not going to get into all the whens and wheres of using this fertilizer, or "tea" - you can read all about it in this article. Though I will lay out the process of making them. Be warned - one of these you might not like so much. We'll start with something almost everyone has in their yard:

Grass Clippings
Fill a five-gallon bucket 2/3 full and then top off with water.
Let sit for three days, stirring/shaking once a day.
Strain or decant the "tea" and mix with water at a 1:1 ratio.
Use within a day or two.

Like all of these recipes, they are a good source of instant nutrients. They are good for giving seedlings a boost of energy, or giving potted plants food that they can't get in their containers. While these are fairly diluted forms of fertilizer, you should only use on plants once every two weeks. Something fewer people have that is a good source of fertilizer is:

Dried Chicken Manure with Wood Shavings
Fill a five-gallon bucket 1/5 full with manure(33%) and wood shavings(66%)
Let sit for three days, stirring/shaking once a day.
Strain or decant the "tea" and mix with water at a 1:1 ratio.
Use within a day or two.

The last one I'll mention is a little different in several ways. It needs a lot more dilution and it doesn't need to steep:

Urine
Dilute one part urine with twenty parts water.
Use within a day or two.

See? That wasn't so gross. I've never done it, but I'm tempted, knowing how much fertilizer it could produce! I will say a few things about their use. Watering plants before using liquid fertilizers is always a good thing. It helps plants that are drought-stressed, and it keeps plants from absorbing too many salts in the fertilizer.

Gardening Tips

2011-08-08T14:12:00.000-04:00

I've decided to start a series of posts, collecting gardening advice I've gotten out of magazines, off the web, etc. As much as I will be sharing this advice with my readers, it will also help me collect this information in one place and make it easier for me to find - instead of in a stack of magazines on the floor. Look for these posts in the very near future.

New Rain Gauge

2011-08-08T10:23:00.000-04:00

I've been looking all over for a good rain gauge, but I have had a lot of trouble finding one. Last year I bought the only one Lowe's had - a tiny glass tube with markings on the outside. It soon got broken and I don't know how. I'm guessing it could have been a stray shovel or rake handle - who know? I bought a second one just like it and everything was fine, until the measurements wore/washed off. Luckily there were some still on it when we did Ella's science fair project, but they were gone soon after.

In my search for a new rain gauge, I've found a lot of similar ones, or none at all. The other day I found a combination rain/sprinkler gauge. I wasn't happy with it at first, because it looked like the only way to secure it was with a stake in the ground. It was also too complicated for what I needed. You could also hang the larger rain gauge from a nail or screw, but from the top, which I think would interfere with its accuracy.

After looking around some more, I found this same one again, and after looking at it some more, I realized that I could make it work. The smaller gauge has a place to hang it on a nail or screw, and the larger gauge will lift out of the smaller one, in order to read the measurements and pour out the rain. The one thing I remember from growing up, is the rain gauges my dad and grandfather used had raised hash marks where the measurements were - so if the writing wore off, you still had the raised plastic to indicate the amount of rain. This one doesn't go that far, but it seems like it will be a better rain gauge and last longer than the first one I bought.

Remembering the Roosters

2011-08-08T08:00:00.002-04:00

This post is a little premature, as we have not gotten rid of any roosters at this point. I've been a little anxious about them, because we never wanted roosters, and we're not sure how all of our neighbors feel about them. We talked to one neighbor before we got them and said we wouldn't have roosters - now that we have them, they say they can't hear them unless they're outside. I talked to another neighbor that mentioned the roosters recently. I told her that we were getting rid of them, and she was disappointed and said that we shouldn't do it.

I've been trying to talk to yet another neighbor, but she's never home and we don't really know her. The biggest reason for talking to her is that the coop is probably closer to her house that it is to ours. Being behind our garage, the sound is blocked a good bit, and we can hear the roosters clearly inside the house. I can only imagine what it sounds like at our neighbors.

When the week that I thought we would be getting rid of them was fast approaching, I recorded their crows in the early morning, and then I had to figure out which was which. It turns out this is the rooster that crows the most. I was thinking it was the other standard chicken, but I guess it's our "mysterious black chicken" that rules the roost. When we first got them, he kept to himself more, a loner. It didn't surprise me that he was a rooster - it did surprise me that he would be the most vocal.

This rooster was the one that I thought was the alpha. He acts the part, but I don't hear him crow as much as the black one. He even has little skirmishes and standoffs with the black chicken. So, he definitely acts like he the boss of everybody.

The silkie was the first one to crow - and the only one we didn't want to be a rooster - Robin and Ella fell in love with him. He tries to blend into the flock now. He doesn't crow very much, and he doesn't fight for dominance. Not much of a rooster, but we like him.

We've been back and forth about getting rid of the roosters. No neighbors have complained - which we thought they would. One neighbor doesn't want us to get rid of them. At thins point we decided to keep them, or, at least, not get rid of them right away. After this weekend, I think we want to get rid of them. They're starting to crow all the time - all throughout the day. I know someone who has a farm in Georgetown who wants them, so that's probably where they are going. Say goodbye!

July Rainfall

2011-08-01T22:04:00.000-04:00

0.10 inches on July 1st
0.10 inches on July 6th
0.75 inches on July 8th
0.75 inches on July 9th - so far! 3.50 more inches - can that be right?
0.25 inches on July 13th
1.00 inches on July 14th
0.10 inches on July 24th
0.50 inches on July 25-6th
0.75 inches on July 26th
0.75 inches on July 27th
0.10 inches on July 30th
0.20 inches on July 31th

Total of 8.85 inches

We had a lot of rain this month, but we needed it. I think my rain gauge has serious flaws - like all the numbers have washed off. Even the sharpie I used to remark it has washed off. I just bought a new one today - so, from now on, the data will be more accurate.

Chicken Sitting

2011-07-31T10:32:00.000-04:00

We've chicken sat for our friends Gretchen and Haley when they go out of town, but this weekend was a little different. Several weeks ago they decided to try hatching some chicks, since one of their hens went broody again. They got eight fertile eggs from other friends of ours, Scott and Fred, and they didn't realize that they would be out of town the weekend the eggs were supposed to hatch.

Their plan was to set up a brooder in the house - a box with bedding, food and water, and a heat lamp. They were afraid the hen might abandon the chicks while they were gone. As it turns out, most of the eggs hatched before they left town and they decided to try the way Mother Nature intended. They transferred the hen and chicks to a larger box with food and water and put it in a cage to keep the other hens out.

When I checked on them Friday night, all the chicks had hatched. I was a little concerned about the chicks, so I've been checking on them a couple time a day. I have to take the hen out of the box to see the chicks - that means I have to grab her without getting pecked. The last time I did it, she wouldn't get back in the box immediately. I got a little worried, because if she didn't get back in, I would have to set up the brooder and the heat lamp in the house. I thought she might just be stretching her legs and getting a little bit to eat. That was the case - within five or ten minutes, she got back in the box and I put the box back in the cage. All I can say is, what an experience!

June Rainfall

2011-06-30T22:07:00.001-04:00

1.50 inches on June 15-16
0.00 inches on June 17 - storm, but nothing in the rain gauge
1.25 inches on June 23 - nice evening rain storm
0.10 inches on June 24/25 - some rain overnight, but not much in the gauge
0.10 inches on June 29 - thunder and lightning, but almost no rain
1.30 inches on June 30 - thought it might be like yesterday, but it wasn't

4.25 inches - total rainfall for June

I should have used up my rain barrels between the 17th and the 23rd so they could fill again, but it's been so dry that I didn't know when it would rain again. And then on the 30th I did something stupid. I left the spigot of one of the rain barrels open by mistake, and didn't notice until after the rain. So I have an empty rain barrel now!

You Crow, You Go!

2011-06-17T19:53:00.000-04:00

I don't feel like we had the best shopping experience when it comes to the chickens we have. One reason I say that is the guy at the store wasn't completely sure which were hens and which were roosters. We took our chances and the guy said we could swap them if they turned out to be roosters.

Over the past few weeks we've been looking at them closely, trying to figure out which ones might be roosters. Of the three standard chickens, we have a feeling that only one is a hen. We had no idea about the silkie - until now.

Thursday morning I was checking on them after the rain, and giving them more food when I heard one crow twice - or tried - who can speak properly the first time one tries? I didn't know which one it was, but I suspected the silkie, only because it was older than the others, and of course, it was the one that Robin and Ella fell in love with. A short time later I went out to watch them for a few minutes, when I heard our neighbor's roosters crow. Immediately the silkie perked up, flapped his wings, and crowed back! That settles that - we're going to have to get rid of the silkie.

We haven't made any decisions yet, and he hasn't crowed again - to our knowledge - but if he is a he, the rule applies, "if you crow, you go."

Chicken Training

2011-06-02T21:16:00.000-04:00

Clockwise from feeder - Leghorn, Silkie, Barred Rock, Unknown (we think)

If you hadn't heard, we got chickens on Memorial Day. I plan to write about that later, but I wanted to write about something a little odd - chicken training, specifically training them to do what normal chickens do.

After getting the chickens home the other day, I started to wonder how they know to go in the hen house at night if they've never used one before. I also wondered about the angle of the ramp - was it too steep? The first night I decided that I would spend the first week teaching them that this was their home, so when I let them out to roam the yard, they would return at night - instead of roosting in a tree or something else. About a half an hour before dark, I started catching chickens and putting them in the hen house. I caught one and put her in and as I'm catching a second, a third one(barred rock) goes in on her own. That was very gratifying. The fourth one, the silkie, was a little harder to catch, but she was the only one to actually use the roost the first night - the other three huddled together on the floor. We weren't at home around dark on Tuesday, but when I went and checked on them later that night, the silkie and the barred rock were roosting in the house, and the two others were huddled together on the ground. Wednesday I got all four in the hen house, but when I checked on them in the morning, the white one - one of the two either huddled together or on the ground - was on the ground by herself, while the other three were on the roost.

Tonight I went to put them up tonight and the barred rock was already on the roost. I have no doubt that the silkie will be there as well. It's just a question of what the other two will do.

May Rainfall

2011-06-01T21:43:00.000-04:00

0.20 inches on 5/5
0.10 inches on 5/9 - morning shower, but not enough to measure.
0.25 inches on 5/11

0.55 inches total rainfall for May

Scattered thunderstorms were predicted for 5/8-5/17, but there weren't any.
Now they're predicting a drought this summer. I need to get more rain barrels.

Spring / Summer Vegetable Garden

2011-05-18T21:57:00.000-04:00

First Purple Majesty Potatoes

A few weeks ago I decided to pull up some of our potatoes that were dying back, and also get a salad out of the garden - something I've been neglecting to do all winter. I pulled up one the purple potato plants and I was surprised at how small the tubers were - and how few. I also pulled a couple of red potatoes and we didn't seem to be as many as last year. After getting some lettuce from the garden and making a salad, I was disappointed in the taste - it was very bitter and "stemmy" (as opposed to "leafy"), if that's a word. It was pretty late in the season - some of the lettuce was beginning to bolt - grow a stalk and flower.

I thought I was off to a less than great start this year when it came to harvesting our vegetables, but things have turned around a bit. I have pulled more potatoes and they're looking better, and we're starting to have good luck with our summer garden - we're picking squash daily right now, tomatoes and peppers are coming and beans and corn are right behind them. What I haven't had a lot of success with right now has been cucumbers and watermelon, but I think I know why, at least with the watermelon. The seedlings have been shaded a lot by all of the potato plants, and it's been significantly cooler this spring that others - I think some of these summer vegetables need a little more heat to really get started. I have noticed the watermelon starting to grow more, but I'm still waiting on the cucumbers. I'm always experimenting with new ways of growing things and sometimes this is what happens. You live and learn!

Bamboo Revisited

2011-05-11T07:04:00.000-04:00

More than a year ago I wrote about trying to kill bamboo behind our garage. I decided to smother it with carpet, and I planned to leave the carpet there for a very long time. I didn't know how long - I just wanted to make sure the bamboo was dead. More than a year later I had to remove the carpet, because our Magnolia tree was being removed. It wasn't long enough, in my opinion, to kill the bamboo, and it looks like I was right.

Recently I've spent time back there removing wood chips, leveling the ground and building a chicken coop, and I've noticed the bamboo coming back with a vengeance. I've pulled up some shoots, but I have a lot of work ahead of me. I'm hoping the chickens will help when they arrive.

Removing Grass - Dig, Till or Smother?

2011-05-11T06:54:00.000-04:00

This spring a neighbor was laying out his vegetable garden and debated how to remove the grass. At the time I was laying out a shade garden and had been digging up the grass. I recommended that idea, because it seemed like it got most of the grass without getting a lot of the soil. I warned against tilling, remembering how tedious it was picking out all of the pieces of sod from the turned ground. I was probably going to till after all the grass was up, but not until then.

After I did half the bed that way, I was ready to be done and I ended up tilling the rest of the bed instead of digging up the grass. It went a lot faster, but I ran into the problem that I mentioned - all the small pieces of sod that needed to be pulled out. I wasn't too upset, because this is the last time I plan to do this for a while. I'm finding small pieces of grass growing in the shade garden now, but it's not nearly as bad as the first time I did something like this.

The first time I laid out beds, I decided to smother the grass. I had a few months before I needed them, so this looked like a good idea. It was for the most part, but it does take grass longer to die than you would think. Even after a couple of months it wasn't dead. On some parts I think I used black rubber pond liner which got the job done, but didn't look very good. I've had moderate success with newspaper and mulch, but it's time consuming and not completely reliable - I'm having to go back this year and dig out grass that survived that method last year. It seems the best method may be a combination - digging up the grass like I did with half the shade garden, combined with newspaper and mulch afterward. I know - it sounds like a lot of work.

Rattlesnake Master

2011-05-10T21:48:00.000-04:00

I'm learning more about native plants lately, and I got one at the plant swap called Rattlesnake Master. It's a prairie plant, native to North America, and it makes sense that my friend Joan brought it to the plant swap - her yard is almost entirely native.

After reading about it, it seemed the place for it was in the desert garden. Being a prairie plant, I think it should be drought tolerant, once established. And it has an interesting look to it - it should compliment the coneflowers nicely. It's still small, but hopefully it will get bigger and bloom. We'll be waiting for that!

April Rainfall

2011-05-06T06:14:00.000-04:00

This past month I started looking at my rain gauge and thought I might want to track rainfall at my house - create my own almanac, if you will. This is by no means accurate, especially this month. My rain gauge's measurements on the outside are coming off. These are the numbers for April and I'll try to get a better rain gauge before May.

I know I said this is for April, but I have numbers for the last week of March as well:

1.25 inches on about 3/23
0.50 inches on 3/26-7
1.25 inches on 3/30

Total rainfall for late March - 3 inches

0.30 inches on 4/5
0.00 inches on 4/12 - it rained but only a few drops in the gauge
0.25 inches on 4/21 - it hailed, but not at the house
1.25 inches on 4/22
0.12 inches on 4/25 - scattered showers, maybe 1/8 inches
0.12 inches on 4/26 - scattered showers, maybe 1/8 inches

Ajuga

2011-04-20T22:16:00.000-04:00

I've been slowly getting rid of grass to mow in our yard - replacing it with some other landscaping. We've got a narrow strip of grass along one side of our driveway that I've been wanting to replace with a groundcover, like ajuga, for a long time. We have a few plants in our yard and I got a few from the plant swap last fall. Amy Dabbs, a Clemson Extension agent, brought some last time and I she said she had more if I wanted more. Instead of getting it from her, I was hoping she would bring some more to the next swap. Unfortunately there wan't much there this last time.

The next day on craigslist, someone posted that they were getting rid of theirs, free for whoever wanted it. I went expecting to get all of their ajuga, but another person showed up to get some as well. It didn't matter, because they had enough to go around.

This ajuga is not the compact variety that we have in our yard, but it was free all the same. It's got large, floppy leaves and, at this point, a tall, almost two-foot, flower stalk. I couldn't plant it that afternoon, but I planned to get out there first thing in the morning. I managed to get the grass dug up and the hundreds of ajuga plants in the ground by lunchtime. I've spent almost every day since watering them, making sure they don't die - it has been fairly warm during the past couple of weeks. It doesn't help that it's getting more sun than I expected, especially since they like a little more shade. If I can get them adjusted to their new environment, I'll be doing fine. Wish me luck!

2011 Park Circle Spring Plant Swap

2011-04-11T22:17:00.000-04:00


Plants I took to the swap

When I first started going to plant swaps, I tried to take as much as I could, because I knew I would be coming home with a lot more. I even started propagating plants specifically for the swap. I don't feel like I have that kind of time now, but I do try to take as much as I can. Leading up to this weekend's swap, I had picked up a few plants from people's trash that I repotted, divided or nursed back to health; I had a number of plants from the previous swap that I never did anything with; and I had some plants from the yard that were volunteers or extras that I felt like I could part with.

Neglected Irises

On Saturday morning, as soon as I could see outside, I started gathering plants for the swap. I put the obvious ones in a pile and then I started looking around the yard. I had some Narcissus that I dug up who-knows-when that grew and flowered, just sitting next to the house. I pulled up half of those. While I was at it, I pulled up a couple of irises that had rooted where I dropped them. I unpotted a couple of small cactuses that I had gotten from a previous swap. Doing that reminded me of another cactus growing near our back fence where I had discarded a piece years ago. When I went to trim the cactus out front, I saw some canna that I didn't really want, so I put those in my growing pile. While looking for more plants, I found a couple of pine trees in an untended area of the yard as well as a couple of volunteer root beer plants. After all of that, I was ready for the swap.

I mentioned before that I usually come home with a lot of plants - that used to be the case in the beginning, but not so much now. I have to say I'm more particular these days. This swap I had specific plants I was looking for - ferns, hostas and anything else for a shade garden, ajuga and other groundcovers, and possibly some hardy succulents. I didn't find much of anything matching that description at the swap. I saw maybe five ferns, a few pots of ajuga, a few hostas and five or six fairly large hardy succulents. After perusing the several hundred plants, I decided my must-have first plant was the Agave attenuata, a hardy succulent with variegated leaves - it would be a good addition to my desert garden. (I didn't want to be greedy, but there was another hardy succulent next to the one I had claimed, that I was planning to get next if no one did, but, alas, someone did!) My next plant was going to be a hosta, but they were all gone, so I got some ajuga. During the third round I got the last, sad-looking holly fern. After three or four rounds, we got to grab two plants, so I started getting pots of this Japanese herb that Scott and Fred brought. I'll use it as a groundcover like the ajuga.

By this point I was at a loss for what I wanted. On more than one occasion, I would survey the remaining plants, identify my first choice, and when Darren gave the signal, I couldn't find the plant. Obviously someone beat me to it. I picked up a few more plants, but I didn't take all the leftovers like I once would have.


Plants I brought home from the swap

I am happy with what we brought home. I've already planted the agave and the fern is ready for the shade garden and I have a number of plants I need to learn about. I made a few contacts as well - the woman who brought the hostas gave me her number and said I could come and get lots more hostas from her anytime. And the man who brought the large succulents has more he wants to get rid of. Apparently there's another plant swap at the Elliotborough Community Garden this Saturday at 1pm - I'm not going to be able to go, but Robin's going, so I'll have to put together some plants for her to take. The fun never ends!

Green Roof Science Fair Project

2011-04-07T07:35:00.000-04:00

When Ella wanted to study green roofs for science fair project, I thought it was an interesting idea. When it became necessary to build a green roof (or two), I said sure. That was the first of my mistakes on the road to completing the green roof project - "Rainwater retention in green roof systems."

I knew I was winging it in my plans to build mock-ups of two green roofs, but I thought I had a really good idea and it was cheap. I had a plan to build a chicken coop out of pallets later this year, so I thought I would test them out, while using them to build a couple of green roofs.

I ended up finding some free pallets and I had some various pieces of wood stashed in the garage for a future project, so I thought I was set. Then I found out we needed four roofs, a flat green roof, a 40 degree green roof, a traditional flat roof and a 40 degree traditional roof. The traditional roofs were the easy part - a piece of plywood on a pallet for support, and we even had a pile of shingles in the garage to put on one of them. Working with the pallets was not what I expected. I thought I would be able to take them apart fairly easily, but this was not the case. I practically had to destroy the slats just to get them off the frame. I kept slats on one side and reinforced it with some plywood. I lined the pallets with plastic and landscape fabric to keep the soil from washing away. I got most of this accomplished in a day, and then we got to work on other logistics, like what kind of soil, plants and how to set them up. We ended up mounting them on our fence - it saved energy by only having to build supports on one side and we were able to adjust their angles as needed. Once they were up, we attached gutters for rainwater collection. We found really good soil at Lowe's - it was a lightweight, moisture-retaining mix that was similar to what we had read about in green roof literature. We also found a variety of sedum from local nurseries and free from craigslist. After planting those, we were ready for the science to begin.

It only rained a few times between when we built the roofs until the data was due. Another factor we should have considered was the weather - winter was not the best time to do this. In warmer weather, the plants would grow and spread and cover the roof, giving more accurate measurements of rainwater retention - and I probably would have built the roofs differently. But it is done - it is over. and Ella's grade wasn't horrible, despite all of the project's flaws.

The roofs have been sitting there for the last couple of months, waiting to be dismantled. I broke down the traditional roofs and put them on the street a while back, but I hadn't tackled the green roofs yet. I finally got to those a little over a week ago. I planned to plant them in our desert garden, but I thought some would look good in pots as well. Most of our succulents that were on the porch died back in December - they weren't hardy and I forgot to bring them in on some of the colder nights. These are hardy sedum and will do well all year long.

I pulled up the aloe that had died and I amended the soil in the desert garden with the mix I used on the green roofs to give it better drainage. I had a lot of sedum in it when I first planted it and most of it died - I think it was too wet and didn't drain very well. I'm hoping the soil mix I added will prevent that this time. Most of the sedum is planted in the desert garden and I hope it thrives. We'll have to wait and see.

For a slideshow of the Green Roof Science Fair Project, click here.

Goodbye, Magnolia Tree

2011-04-06T21:28:00.000-04:00

When we bought our house there was a large Magnolia tree behind our garage. I thought the area had potential, but there wasn't much we could do with it at the time. I raked leaves for a while, but It was pointless as they never kept falling. There was also a lot of running bamboo, and enough leaf litter that I was afraid to walk back there, not knowing what was underneath.

Eventually I decided to try to kill the bamboo by cutting it down and smothering it with old carpet. While dealing with the bamboo, I had to wade through the leaves and I was surprised what I found. It's not very interesting in hindsight, but, it was the first time I had walked back there. The area was a lot larger than I thought and there were a lot of nandina plants as well. I tried to dig them up, but the ground was so full of roots, from the Magnolia and the bamboo, that I could never get a shovel in the ground.

Just after Thanksgiving, a few large limbs fell into our neighbor's yard. They didn't hit anything, but it was an ominous sign - is this tree dying? Will more limbs fall? This ended up being a long, drawn out process. We called the city to find out about permits etc. and they sent an arborist to look at the tree and the he gave his approval to take it down. I got a permit for the work - the only thing left was to find a tree company.

Our neighbors recommended a company that did work for their church and had given them a good price. We had no idea how much this would cost, but we wanted it to cost less than $1000. Someone from that company came and gave us an estimate of $1550. It was definitely more than we wanted to pay. We tried to get recommendations from other neighbors, but no one had any - we had no other plan than to pick 5 names from the yellow pages and get estimates from them. The next people we called quoted us $850 without grinding the stump, because his stump grinder was broken. Another company gave us an estimate of $1850 - it was not looking good. We started thinking we couldn't afford to have the tree removed, so we got quotes to trim it as well. Most of these were between $600 and $800. Finally we got a quote that sounded too good to be true - a guy came and quoted us $675 for everything. Once we got a price we liked, Robin asked me if still wanted to cut it down or just trim it - I said, "for $675, I wanted it gone!" She thought the price seemed too low and called to get more information from him, including references. When she called them, they said they felt the same way about his price, but he did a good job.

He came with a couple of guys on Monday afternoon and, in about three hours, they had removed the whole tree, with the exception of several trunk pieces and the stump. He came back Wednesday afternoon and loaded the large pieces onto his trailer and used the stump grinder to finish the job.

Now that the tree is gone, I need to get back there and clean up a few limbs, leaves and a little bamboo - and level out the wood chips left over from the stump grinding. Once that is done, it's probably going to be the site for our new chicken coop.

Summer Vegetable Garden

2011-04-03T13:00:00.000-04:00


Flowering Purple Majesty Potatoes

Our vegetable garden is coming along nicely these days. I'm close to adding another bed, and adding a composting pile - also, I just added trellises that I really like. Since my seed starting didn't go as planned this year, I needed to go out and buy a few plants.

I went to Lowe's this morning with the intention of buying squash, pepper and tomato plants and watermelon seeds, and came home with:

Crookneck Squash
Better Boy Tomatoes
Red Bell Peppers
Sweet Banana Peppers
Crimson Sweet Watermelons

To me, the cost can really add up when buying vegetable plants. I try to find the best deal by looking at the price and the number of seedlings in the pack. A number of 4-packs, for example, will have more than one per section. It might not be the best idea to divide these plants, but it's worth trying. There were nine tomato plants in the 4-pack that I bought this morning. I divided the tomato plants and planted the three largest ones in the garden, stripping off lower branches and planting them deeper, to encourage a better root structure. I also potted the other six and I'll either leave them in pots or plant them in the garden at a later date. I put the plants next to one of my new trellises, hoping to use it to support the tomatoes as they grow.

I got 5 banana peppers, but I had a hard time finding bell peppers. I looked for a long time and only found green ones - I finally found individual pots of red bell peppers instead of multi-packs. I bought two pots of those which got me 4 plants. I had planned to put the squash in the same bed, but after planting the peppers, there wasn't enough room - knowing how big the squash plants will get. I had plans to devote a whole field to corn - when I say "field", I really mean a 4 x 8 bed - but I needed more room to plant the squash. I almost have a "3 Sisters" garden going on there.

Before I went to Lowe's, I planned to buy watermelon seeds - they were cheap and I have all summer, right? So, when I was looking at all of the vegetable plants, I ran across watermelons. There were a couple of different varieties - one would grow 20 pound fruit or the other, Crimson Sweet, would grow to about 10 pounds. I chose the Crimson Sweet variety for a couple of reasons - I grew it last year and it is a recommended variety of the Clemson Extension, and I plan to trellis these plants. I don't know how well this will work, but I thought I might have better luck with smaller fruit than trying to support 20 pound watermelons on a trellis.

Wish me luck and hopefully this season will be great!

Seed Starting 2011...Revisited

2011-03-29T21:54:00.000-04:00

About a week ago, I wrote about starting seeds in Sphagnum peat moss - that doesn't seem like a good idea now. It's been four weeks since I planted the seeds - probably 8 flats of 18 seeds each - and no more than 5 have sprouted. About 9 days ago I planted some of the same seeds in the garden and they have sprouted, so it must be the peat moss.

As I do every year, I felt like I was getting a head start on summer gardening, and as always, I get behind - I don't feel that way this year, though. I'm happy about my new trellises and I've enjoyed working in the yard this spring. Some of my landscaping plans are coming together and my vegetable garden is coming along.

I'll definitely have to come up with a different plan for seed starting, but I really won't need to do that until next spring.

Trellises

2011-03-28T19:59:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned before, I was looking for an easy trellis design that I could put up easily and take down and store during the winter - something that would last a long time. I had done variations on a trellis that Mel Bartholomew uses in his square foot gardening books, but I wasn't happy with that. I wanted something sturdy that I could grow pumpkins or watermelons on if I wanted to. I was browsing GardenWeb, looking for trellis ideas and I found people using cattle panels. This seemed like to idea that I was looking for, but I needed to learn more. I did some research on the different sizes and prices of feedlot fence panels and decided on the cattle panel. They were the cheapest ($22 at Tractor Supply) and they were the best size for me. The cattle panels are 50 inches tall and 16 feet long. I was hoping to find a six foot tall fence panel, so I could four trellisses from it, but this was the best I could find. 50 inches is wide enough for the beds and 16 feet would get me two trellisses with a little extra.

As a frugal gardener, I was a little hesitant about spending this much money on something I haven't tried before. The panel plus four 6-foot posts cost about $42. I was worried that it might not work out as I planned. I went to Tractor Supply on night and did some wind shopping and spend a good bit of time talking to the salespeople, asking how the fence panels work and how easy it is to cut - remember, I had to get these things home. They also showed me a $25 post setter that I might need getting them in the ground. Finally, a couple of Saturdays ago I made my first buying trip. I bought a panel and four 6-foot t-posts - I took with me a couple of different size bolt cutters to cut the panel to be able to put it on the top of our car. In a perfect world I would have cut it in a 6-foot piece and a 10-foot piece, or cut the 10-foot down to 6-foot and 4-foot, intending to use the leftover pieces for half of another trellis - but it was just easier to cut it in half and tie it to the roof racks and go. I used the 36 inch bolt cutters, but when I got home and trimmed the pieces, I tried the 18 inch pair and they worked fine too. Once I got them home, it took less than 30 minutes to trim and put up both trellisses.

A couple of concerns I had was the size of the t-posts. I went with the six foot ones, but I worried they might not be tall enough once they were in the ground a foot, but they seem really sturdy. Also, it was fairly easy getting them in the ground without the $25 post setter. They went in about six inches with a little arm strength and it took a little body weight to get the rest of the way. I would definitely recommend this if you need a trellis of any kind. I put up two more this weekend and I have a couple more ideas for them other places in the yard.

Spring Has Sprung

2011-03-27T10:32:00.000-04:00

I was walking around the yard the other day and was surprised at how many things had started growing again. We've had a lot of consistently warm weather this spring - I was expecting it to get cold again or one last freeze, but it looks like it's here to stay.


Queen's Tears Bromeliad

We had our second bad winter in a row, and it looked like it killed a lot of things - but that doesn't always seem to be the case now that it's warmed up. The most obvious mistake I made when posting obituaries for my plants was including the Queen's Tears bromeliad. As awful as it looks, I noticed the other day that it starting to bloom. This plant has always had odd behavior - the last couple of years it has bloomed very late in the year, so the fact that it's blooming now (which I think is the right time) is odd too. I remember thinking that my bromeliads died last year too, but I was wrong again.


Knockout Rose

Whenever there are free plants posted on craigslist, if it's something I might want, I do my best to get it, even if I don't know what my plans are for it yet. Last fall someone was giving away knockout roses. I spent part of my Friday evening fighting traffic, digging them up from their yard and getting them home. I kept them in pots over the winter and kept them sheltered some. I was a little concerned they might not make it through the winter, but they did and they're starting to bloom. Now we have to decide where we're going to put them in the yard.

Since my bog experiment failed in the fall, I've had my carnivorous plants in pots, sitting in a container of water. The pitcher plants look bad, but I thought they would be ok. I also got some Venus flytraps and sundews in a strange internet trade - I repotted those and put them in a little water and when winter came, I put them in a sheltered place. The flytraps stayed green through the cold, but the sundews appear to have died. I got a close look at them the other day and the flytraps are flourishing - and the sundews appear to be making a comeback. That's a good thing to know. I plan to create a permanent bog garden, hopefully by the end of the summer, and I'll add these plants to it.

Seed Starting 2011

2011-03-21T20:46:00.000-04:00

I try to be a frugal gardener, and I know it works against me sometimes - I'm hoping it doesn't for my latest plan. I've never bought special seed starting mix or peat pellets - I've tried to mix up something on my own that I hope would have things seeds need. This spring I decided to try something simpler.

I've had a large bag of sphagnum peat moss ever since I repotted my carnivorous plants last year. I decided to try using an all-peat mix to start seed in this time. I figured it should be good because, peat can hold a lot of moisture and that's what seed need most of all.

The first thing you need to know about working with peat is that it takes a while to prepare - It's very fluffy and you need to let it soak up as much water as you can. I usually take a large pot of water and add peat to it, continually submerging handfuls of it until it's completely soaked. I was a little disappointed in the peat I had - it wasn't as fine and uniform as I remembered. There were a lot of stems and other large pieces, which I tried to pull out as I came across them.

Once I had the seed flats filled with moist peat, I buried my seed in it - I had a variety of them, from flower to vegetables, slow to fast germinating and reliable and unreliable. It's been almost three weeks for most of the seeds and the only one that has sprouted is the squash - one of the reliable ones. I'm wondering if the peat was packed to tightly, or if they were affected by the frost we had one night, or the opposite - the driveway where the seeds flats are, has gotten hot with highs near 80 degrees recently.

The only thing I can do about it now is try to learn from it and move on. Since our last expected frost date is a little more than two weeks away, I went ahead and sowed seeds directly in the garden. With any luck they'll sprout and my summer gardening will have begun.

Trellising

2011-02-27T19:55:00.000-05:00

I had plans to write about growing plants on trellises last year, but I never got around to it. We have some latticework hiding our garden storage area and I was thinking about growing vining vegetables on it this spring. Those plans changed when we decided to expand the kitchen into the garden storage. We haven't done that yet, but I'm giving up on using it as a trellis. I've decided to add trellises to each of my raised beds to increase the varieties of vegetables that I can grow.

During the past several summers, I had constructed some sort of trellis for supporting pole beans, but it was always temporary or very last minute - it never lasted longer than the season and I would do something different the next year. This year I'd like to do something I can use every year, but also, so that I can put it away in the winter. There's a section in the "Square Foot Gardening" book about building garden structures, but I think I donated my copy during a recent decluttering.

While I'm curious about growing interesting vegetables, I'm also practical. Recently I started growing only vegetables that I knew we would eat and growing as much as possible. Some of the plants I plan to trellis are either curiosities or untested as to whether we will eat them. I saw a photo accompanying an article on trellising and they grew pumpkins - they used stockings to support the fruits as they grew larger. I want to do that!

So, my trellising - I'm definitely going to plant pole beans and cukes in the spring. As it get later into the summer, I'll be planting more experimental plants. In my search for vining plants, I've decided to try winter squash. It's just another variety of squash that takes longer to mature, but will keep for a lot longer - good for use as a winter storage vegetable.

I got a dried apple gourd from a recent plant swap and at some point I cracked it open and collected the seeds. I planted some last year, but they never made it out of the seed flats. This year I think I'll plant some on a trellis and hopefully get some apple gourds of my own.

Planting Potatoes Again

2011-02-09T18:56:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again - potato planting time. Everywhere in my list of feed and seed resources had potatoes this time. Two of them had three kinds of potatoes - white, red and Yukon gold, and the other just had red and white. I'm never sure how much space I want to dedicate to a single crop. They might not be completely harvested until almost June, and I need room to plant warm season crops.

I planned to buy three kinds of potatoes, plus the purple ones from Walmart, but when I got to the feed store, they were sold out of the Yukon gold potatoes. I bought five pounds each of the red and white, and a bag - maybe three pounds - of the purple ones. In the past I have planted them whole, rather than cutting them into pieces, and possibly getting more from them. Everything I read talked about fungi and treating them or letting them "heal" for a few days before planting them, so that's why I never did it before. Since then I've talked to neighbors who do it and have no problems, so I decided to consider it this time. As I was looking at the potatoes, I never saw one that was really fit for dividing. Most of them had eyes on one end or the tubers were small to begin with. The packaging for the purple ones instruct you to plant the whole spud.

I was doing some research on the purple potatoes and thought I would share what I learned about it and the other varieties. Do you know which varieties are better baked, or mashed or made into fries or chips? I don't, so I decided to find out.

Purple Majesty potatoes were created by crossing an All Blue with a white chipping variety. They are high in Anthocyanin, which is an antioxidant found in blueberries. They taste like white potatoes and are good for almost any kind of preparation, but apparently make great fries and chips - plus they retain their color after cooking. Red potatoes have smooth, thin, red skins and white flesh. It is usually firm and mainly used in casseroles, soups, salads or boiled, steamed and roasted. White potatoes are good baked, boiled or roasted, and especially good for potato salad.

Broccoli Flowers

2011-02-09T15:14:00.000-05:00

Once again I didn't harvest the broccoli soon enough. We really must not want to eat it around our house. This seems to happen every year. I think I ought to just stop planting it and grow something we will eat.

I really just wanted a reason to post these photos today.

Country Wisdom

2011-02-08T22:38:00.000-05:00

I say "country wisdom" for lack of a better term - I know there is one, but I can't think of it. I'm referring to that intangible knowledge that older people/country folk have that others don't - call it a "hunch". My friend Darren, neither old nor country (but a master gardener), saw signs of a cold winter a couple of years ago. Oaks were putting out massive quantities of acorns, squirrels were busy gathering them up. From what I remember, he was right.

Our neighbor Mr. Hiers has a feeling that we haven't seen the last of the brutal cold this year. I went by his house last week to see if he wanted me to by him any seed potatoes. Over the last couple of years we have talked about gardening and he seems to get his plants in a haphazard way. I thought I would offer to get him these same plants when I go get mine. So, when I asked him if he wanted potatoes, he said no. He thought we were going to get more cold weather and was going to hold off until March. I tried to tell him there probably wouldn't be any potatoes available in March, but actually he was the one that had me second-guessing my decision to plant in mid-February. I wasn't worried about it until I talked to him. I'm still planning to plant potatoes this week - the weather looks fine for the next week, except for a couple of nights near freezing this weekend. The average low for the rest of the month is 40 degrees.

I bought potatoes today - I got red and white from the feed store (they had sold out of Yukon gold) and I got some Purple Majesty potatoes from Walmart I want to try. I'll probably be planting a bed of each potato and then growing lettuce and spinach on top of them until the weather warms up.

Spring Landscaping

2011-02-06T12:35:00.000-05:00

Besides October, I'm told that February is the time to plant shrubs and other landscaping. Going along with that timetable, I've been slowly preparing our yard for new plants.

Last fall, I chopped down a large azalea hedge and planned to dig up the stumps and put in new landscaping, but have been procrastinating - I knew I had until February to get it done. It's February now and I'm trying to finish up. I'm planning for President's Day weekend - I will have two days off and I was going to put in the new plants then. All I have to do is figure out what plants I'm going to use and dig up the rest of the stumps.

It's backbreaking work so I've been trying to get a little done every day. Each day I spend a little longer working on it, but it hasn't been very consistent. Depending on how much time I have, I may not even get out there some days. Today I have all afternoon, so I plan to get a lot done - taking breaks to rest my back.

As far as the actual landscaping goes, I'm still working on that. I'm leaning toward native plants fro the obvious reasons, but also to limit my choices - deciding what to plant can be daunting. I'm looking for about three different types of plants, maybe a tall grass in the back and a shrub in the middle and a groundcover or low-profile plant for down front. I'm trying to think of it along the lines of container planting - a thriller(back), a filler(middle) and a spiller(front).

This would be my foundation planting and I would fill in the empty spaces between the shrubs with flowering perennials like coneflowers or daisies. I'm still mulling this over, but I don't have much more time. I have to get to work.

PS - If anyone has a good idea, please let me know!

Beekeeping Fun

2011-01-17T13:32:00.001-05:00

Recently Kristen French invited me to her house to get a better look at her bee hives. Ever since reading her blog, The Queen Bee, I've been fascinated by them - even wanting some myself. This was my opportunity to learn more about them an become more comfortable in close proximity to them,

I'm not spooked by the random bee, but I was a little apprehensive around several hives, mostly because I haven't spent any time around large numbers of them. I wanted to get as close as I could without getting stung. Kristen was very cautious with us around the bees. "Us" included Ella, who irrationally feared bees, and Kristen's daughter, who, at six years old, knows more about bees than I do.

Once the hive in her back yard was open, I was able to get a better look and saw it overflowing with beeswax and honey. Kristen left the top upside down on the ground so the bees could reclaim the honey and wax left on it.

She opened up her two other hives to inspect them as well. They were still storing honey, but she wanted to make sure they had enough honey for the winter. In late summer she had harvested, something like fifty pounds of honey from the hives. The bees in one of the hives in the front yard were easily angered, so we didn't get a good look at those.

The visit to Kristen's hives was very enlightening, and it made me want to get bees even more. Kristen mentioned that if she divided her hives in the spring, she could help me set up a hive at our house. It was tempting, but I needed to know more about bees first. After Christmas, the Charleston Area Beekeepers Association announced a beginning beekeeping class for this weekend. I signed up, but I needed to get the time off of work first. After I really thought about it, I decided it needed to wait. I had enough uncompleted projects around the yard that needed my attention, and it turns out I was unable to get the time off from work. When I got an email about the class, they mentioned bringing your veil and smoker, etc. I don't have any of those, so it's best that I wait. I'll put it on the calendar for next year.

For a photo slideshow of my bee experience, click here.

Unlikely Garden Resources

2011-01-16T20:34:00.000-05:00

White Potato Plants in Bloom

Over the past couple of years, there has been a large increase in the amount of people trying to grow their own food. It used to be people grew tomatoes or squash in the summer, but it has expanded to include other vegetables. Excluding traditional feed and seed sources, Lowe's started selling onion sets in the spring a couple of years ago. Last year they had these garden packs - asparagus, strawberries, potatoes, onions, leeks and shallots in small amounts, in various combinations, for the home gardener.

I made a discovery Wednesday at Wal-Mart. I was leaving through the garden are and noticed a display that looked like it had a few winter vegetables. I was expecting a few veggies mixed in with flower bulbs. I was surprised to find that it was all vegetables. They had asparagus crowns, strawberries, garlic, two types of shallots, two types of onions, and five types of potatoes.

Feed and seed stores are usually good for a couple of varieties of a couple of vegetables, in large quantities, at reasonable prices. The vegetables at Wal-Mart are packaged in smaller quantities for the home gardener and they are more expensive. Most home gardener don't have the need for five pounds of one variety of potato or two pounds of onion sets. What Wal-Mart does right is it offers more specialty vegetables.

Asparagus is a perennial, which means that it lives for more than a year. Most people probably don't have enough room in their garden to commit to asparagus for a number of years - I know I don't.

Most people grow strawberries here and there. They can be perennials, but some experts suggest replanting fresh plants every year. I've never grown them, but I know Robin would like me to. I think I have issues with plants that need a certain amount of daylight to produce fruit or flowers, etc. I think I will try growing them before long.

Any reader of this blog knows that I have had no real success with onions. Wal-Mart offers two varieties in small quantities. I may continue to try growing them, but I won't devote as much space to them as I have been. And, on second thought, I may not buy them there either - a lot of them had already sprouted and had fairly long green shoots poking out of the bags.

I tried growing garlic almost a year and half ago. The only place you can reliably find garlic is in a catalog or the grocery store. The catalog can get expensive when you figure in shipping, so I decided to try planting garlic from the grocery store. I wasn't expecting great results, but I thought I would give it a shot. I waited a little late to pull them up - they had been sitting in soil that was a little waterlogged. I put them on a shelf in the garage to dry and forgot about them. They're still there and I noticed that started sprouting recently. I suppose they would be fine plants, but they would not produce very good bulbs. Wal-Mart is selling garlic bulbs and I'm sure it's in small amounts and affordable. I'd rather have found them in the fall, when you're supposed to plant them. Maybe I can buy them and keep them around until October. We'll see.

I've never grown shallots, but I'd like to. If Robin will use them, I'll grow them. I just don't think we've ever eaten them around here before. I also think it's great that Wal-Mart has potatoes. Although I'll buy the bulk of my seed potatoes, I may buy the blue potatoes that they are selling. I like growing a few odd things.

That's it for vegetables a Wal-Mart. I blogged about more traditional sources for some of these here. Go out and try to grow some of these this spring!

Winter 2011 Casulaties

2011-01-12T09:33:00.000-05:00

I thought I would take a minute to remember those that were lost in the Winter of 2011.

Queen's Tears Bromeliad
I got this, probably from Darren, a couple of years ago. This photo is from August, but it also bloomed the year before. I neglected it the winter before, but when I saw this bloom when my sister-in-law was here, I thought it must be fine where it was - I was even planning to put them in our future shade garden. I haven't inspected my bromeliads (yes, I have/had more), but from what I can tell, they all look dead.

Helianthocereus Trichocereus grandiflorus
I "rescued" this cactus from Lowe's about three years ago. I was languishing on the clearance shelf in a pot only a tiny bit larger around than itself. Along with four others, I potted them together, a small cactus garden, but after a year or so, they seemed crowded and this one seemed to be rotting. I thought repotting it would help, increasing airflow around it and keeping it dry, but that didn't help. I had to let it go.

Pachycereus pringlei (left)
Mammillaria pilcayensis (right)
Another rescued cactus, it just couldn't take the cold. Last winter they were all potted together, and up against the house.
Since then, I had repotted them and moved them a little farther into the yard. The cold came early this year and I really didn't believe it would last as long as it did. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Gymnocalycium mihanovichii var. hibotan
This is sort of a strange plant - a Frankenplant, if you will. In this case it is a red ball cactus (Gymnocalcium) grafted onto Hylocereus undatus, a Dragon Fruit plant. It was never my favorite and after I learned more about it from Darren, I put it aside to give to him, but it died from the cold. The read Darren's post on Dragon Fruit, click here.

Euphorbia trigona
We got this at a plant swap two or three years ago. There are usually a couple of mature potted plants that someone will bring that they just don't want anymore. At this swap, this was one of them. I think Robin grabbed it, and it spent the next few years on our front porch. I would bring it in a handful of times between Xmas and Easter, but it was usually fine on the porch. The sun would heat up the concrete during the day and that would keep the temperature warm enough at night, usually. That would not happen this winter. Extreme cold and neglect doomed this plant - and a smaller one like it. I'll probably get another one when the opportunity arises, like the next plant swap. I think they're interesting and if I start small, I'll appreciate it more when it gets this big.

Aloe Vera
Another front porch plant that didn't get brought in when it got too cold. I'm not too upset about this one. I've divided a number of times and given some away or taken to plants swaps - I know I can get more at the next one in the spring. Actually, I'm not convinced it's completely dead. I have a feeling that some of the "leaves" are alive in the center of the plant. I'll wait until spring and find out.

Euphorbia tirucalli "Fire Sticks"
I got this plant as many smaller plants on sale at Lowe's a few years ago. I potted them together to make a larger plant, and I subsequently divided it several times to give away as gifts. It was another front porch plant that lived through last winter with minimal attention. Maybe I shouldn't have so many tender plants - with the weather becoming so crazy these past couple of years.

Pinguicula
You've heard this story before - I got this butterwort plant on clearance from Lowe's - in this case, 48 cents to be exact. I really didn't have any expectations - I thought I would put in the bog with the other carnivorous plants and hope it liked being there. And it did. It thrived until the demise of the bog. Once that started leaking I had to cut it off from the pond, or risk drying up the pond. It was only a matter of time before I had to do something with all of the plants. I repotted the other carnivorous plants and moved them to a temporary home, but the butterwort didn't like the transplant and it got neglected and dried out over the summer.

Stapelia gigante
Last, but not least, is my corpse flower cactus. I got it from a plant swap several years ago, and it finally bloomed this year. The flower is supposed to smell like rotting flesh, but I didn't really smell it - maybe I had a cold. Anyway, we got to see it bloom twice this past summer, but it did not survive the porch this winter. I'm going to have to rethink next winter - either have a plan and remember to put it into action, or have hardier plants. I'll probably get more of these plants, and I'll have a plan, but maybe I'll forget when it gets cold. I'm only human.

Spring Cleanup

2011-01-09T14:49:00.001-05:00

I know it's not spring yet, but I feel like it motivates me to think like that, when I have pre-spring chores to do. I needed to get out in the yard and clean up some dying plants from the dose of winter that we've been having. I planned to tweak Ella's green roof project, pull up the onions and broccoli that were damaged recently, and start planning for chickens - I don't know when that will be, but I can plan, right?

Fixing the green roof project didn't take too long, and I pulled up the onions and some of the weeds and got bored - I've had a long week and it was a little colder than I wanted. When I moved to the beds with the cold-damaged broccoli, I was surprised to find very nice heads on these plants, despite the dying foliage all around. I pulled some weeds from the beds and decided we're going to have to eat some broccoli this week.

We've been talking about getting chickens for a while now. We(I) finally got a dose of what it would be like to have chickens when neighbors went out of town for Xmas and asked us to take care of theirs. They have five hens, two of which are laying. I've read a lot about chickens, so I think I know how all of this works, in theory - reality is a different thing. I had plans to build the perfect coop and henhouse with nesting boxes, etc, but the chickens hardly used the henhouse, didn't like being cooped up - they liked being free range in the yard, and they laid their eggs next to the A/C unit. It was an eye-opening experience - now I just have to take in all I have learned when working out plans for chickens in our yard.

After the Freeze

2011-01-03T16:31:00.000-05:00

The new year is a time for starting over. In some ways I mean that literally around our house. I can't say I was taken by surprise by the cold weather that hit us in early December, but I was surprised how long and how cold it was. I could say that I was preoccupied with Ella's green roof science fair project - which I was - but the fact is, I would have been unprepared even if I hadn't been doing something else.

The extended cold really did a number on all of our winter vegetables - broccoli, onions, lettuce. I've pretty much given up on them - I just haven't pulled them out of the ground nad thrown them into the composter yet.

I also had tender and somewhat hardy houseplants outside - only a few might live when warm weather comes around again. Other plants I'll hold onto and see what happens to them as well. So, I am making a sort of fresh start. I need to get out in the garden and pull up the old vegetables and I think I'm just going to plant lettuce and spinach - it'll be more low maintenance and I can easily cover it when I have to - if I remember.

My New Edger

2010-11-23T19:30:00.005-05:00

When it comes to gardening, I wanted to do things as cheaply as I can. I have trouble spending a lot of money on things - that has caused problems for me recently - I've been wanting to lay out some new beds and spruce up the yard a little bit, but it all seems like a lot of work for little reward.

Take edging, for example - after we bought our house, I needed to make sure I kept the yard looking nice, so I decided to buy an edger. The last thing I wanted was another noisy tool. At one time, leaf blowers were possibly my biggest pet peeve. No, I was going to buy an old-fashioned half-moon edger. Actually, I was lucky to find one. I thought it would be good for me, the environment, etc. It was fine for the first couple of years, but it's gotten to the point where I edge 3-4 times a year - that's become a lot of tedious work. It's also how I spent edging and laying out all of those beds the last couple of years. So when it came time for me to get off my butt and start this shade garden, I needed a real edger.

Gas-powered was out of my price range. I've had other yard tools that were either corded or have a rechargeable battery. I wasn't sure which one I might want. My experience with hedge trimmers is that the battery might die before I finished with the hedges, but the electric, we've cut the cord a number of times. It turns out my only choice was one with a cord.

I took it out of the box and tried it out on Sunday - laying out the new shade garden and edging the driveway and walkway. It has three different depths, 1/2 inch to 1&1/2 inch, calling the deepest "trenching". Not much of a trench, but probably the only one I'll be using it on, especially to get through tough sod.

The Winter Vegetable Garden

2010-11-22T19:50:00.003-05:00

I've been pondering the winter vegetable garden recently - rethinking it. I planted two beds of broccoli, two beds of onions, and a bed of greens - lettuce and spinach. We rarely eat broccoli - especially from the garden, I haven't successfully grown a really good onion, and our greens are nonexistent - the spinach never came up and something must have eaten our lettuce - I don't think it just died.

I need to rethink our fall planting more - I don't want to give up on onions, but I may limit myself to a half of a bed, and only one type of onion - yellow granex hybrid, also know as a Vidalia. I'll stick with the broccoli, though I'll try to grow more from seed. Robin says she's trying to sneak more vegetables into meals. I think my focus during the winter ought to be on greens. We will get the most out of them - they're usually easy to grow, cheap, replenish-able and I really enjoyed all the salads I ate last spring.

R.I.P. Dream Gardens

2010-11-22T18:13:00.004-05:00

I was off work last Wednesday and decided I would visit Dream Gardens and take some photos - and maybe even buy something. If you have never heard of Dream Gardens, you missed a heck of a place. Cultivated over the years on what I'm told was a former car lot, it became an Eden in a world of pavement and just as elusive - its frontage on Rivers Avenue was the size of a storefront.

Once past the front gate, you felt like nature had reclaimed this part of town. You couldn't walk down the winding paths without brushing against every plant - especially in the late summer / early fall. I have to admit I didn't go there as often as I would have liked, so I was disappointed to find that they are moving their operation to Hollywood. Gone is the jungle that occupied that small part of Rivers Avenue. It will be missed.

Ennui de jardin

2010-11-22T17:52:00.005-05:00

When it comes to gardening, I'm not inspired right now. The summer was so hot and long that I just stayed inside. Now that it is turning cold - in fits and starts - I can see only work - landscaping, edging, laying out beds, digging up grass.

I've put off planting our large bed until spring - I have ideas about what to put there, but nothing definite yet. My plan is still evolving. Since I'm not doing that, I told myself I need to put in the shade garden under the oak tree. I have all of the plants and I need to do it before it gets too cold. Unfortunately, all I need is to dig up grass and put in lots of topsoil/compost. That just sounds like back-breaking work to me, and right now my back isn't feeling up to it.

Recently, I had some back pain, enough to keep me out of work for two days and to a chiropractor three times in a week - a first for me. So, I'm a little hesitant to dive back into gardening just yet.

Planting Time

2010-10-08T21:39:00.005-04:00

I just took a couple of days to organize my vegetable seeds/plants and to decide what I'm planting and where. I've narrowed my first planting down to white and yellow onion sets, broccoli plants and carrots, lettuce and spinach seeds.

Also I have three kinds of onion seeds, more lettuce and spinach seeds and broccoli seeds. I plan to use the lettuce and spinach in a succession planting. I'll probably start the broccoli in seed flats and move them to the garden when I have room. I've been wanting to try to grow onions from seed - fall is the best time to do that, but I don't have a lot more room. I'll try to squeeze them in with the carrots if I don't have too many.

If nothing interferes with my plans, I should be planting everything this weekend.

Fall Gardening

2010-10-06T20:01:00.004-04:00

Fall sneaked up on me this year. Back in August the newspaper ran an article about it that made me feel like I was behind in my planting. I could have planted some things, but it seemed really too hot for lettuce, spinach, etc. Onions wouldn't be planted until October, so I really had time to wait and see what the weather did. Strangely fall happened almost at the same time as October - which means I need to get planting.

I called a few feed stores last week, looking for onion sets and I found them. I only know of around five, but after a couple of years of buying potatoes and onions, there seem to be only two reliable ones: Dorchester Feed and Supply and Red Top Feed and Tackle Shop. There is more info on these stores here.

I had today off and planned to go to one of them to get onions and whatever else they might have. I thought I would check with my neighbor, Mr. Hiers - he was looking for collard greens and last year I gave him onion sets, because he couldn't find any. I told him I where I was going and volunteered to buy him what he needed.

I ended up buying Mr. Hiers two pounds of yellow onion sets and five 9-packs of collars greens. I bought a 9-pack of broccoli and a pound each of yellow and white onion sets for myself. I don't think I'll plant all of the onions, so I've offered some to a couple of friends who are getting serious into gardening. I've had mixed results with onions, so let's hope I fair better this year.

After I took Mr. Hiers what I bought him, I began preparing my garden. I pulled weeds and worked some compost into the beds and I sat down and started planning what and where to plant. I've got onion sets and onion seeds, broccoli plants and broccoli seeds and lettuce, spinach and carrot seeds. The broccoli plants and onion sets I have to plant this fall. If I plant the onion, carrot and broccoli seeds I should plant them this fall. I have two packs each of lettuce and spinach seeds, so I will plant one now and one later, so I will have salads all winter and spring.

I think I have room for most of this - I do have two many onion seeds, though - three different varieties. I'll at least try growing one kind just to get some experience at this. I'll let you know soon what I end up planting.

Pond Redo

2010-10-06T19:32:00.002-04:00

It looks like I may redesign the pond this winter. I've been meaning to completely finish it - decide on a permanent design and lay the flagstone with mortar - but I've had things happen. There was a leak in the bog that was a major fix - now there is another leak, so I've quit circulating the pond through the bog. It's slowly drying out - I've watered a few of the plants - but I have to find a new home for most of them in the near future.

One of the reasons I've had problems with the bog is I didn't invest the money in this project that I should have. In hind sight, I wouldn't have spent the extra money to do it right. We didn't have the money to do it that way - we were relying on mostly donated materials and my own sweat equity. I probably bit off a little more than I could chew, and did what I could with what I had. The way I should have done it was to make the bog and the pond out of a single piece of pond liner, rather than the two that I used. I also used about the cheapest liner I could find for the bog - twice!

I'm redesigning the pond/bog to use the current pond liner for both the pond and bog. obviously the pond will be smaller with a very small area used for a bog. I will probably plant some of the other bog plants in the ground around the pond - I just have to make sure they get the extra moisture they need to thrive. Maybe I'll make a bog in the ground like I've seen lots of places around the internet. I'll put most of the carnivorous plants in that area or in pots - the one that's in a pot seems to be doing fine. I have a design in mind for all of this , but I won't know exactly what it will look like until I get in there and get digging.

Third Annual Fall Park Circle Plant Swap

2010-09-25T20:49:00.004-04:00

Today was the 3rd Annual Fall Park Circle Plant Swap. I've been looking forward to this for...well. since the spring plant swap! I didn't do a lot of growing specifically for the swap, but I ended up having a number of things that I was able to take as is. There was a growing number of garden-related items being brought for people to take, so I had a number of things in that area - old tools, pots, books and magazines. I guess there wasn't much of a trend, because I think I was the only one to bring any of that stuff this time.

Getting rid of the books and unused tools was great for me - like a fall purging of junk. I had a few plants that I felt the same way about too. This morning I got rid of most of my water irises around the pond. It's real hard to contain them and by the fall, they are just trying to take over. I still have some in my waterfall filter, but all of them in the bog are gone - at least I think so.

I might have mentioned this before, but I was dividing and repotting succulents a few weeks ago - most of those went to the swap. I got some hibiscus from a neighbor in the spring, and have had it in a container of water since - minus what Robin wants to keep and what my neighbor Joan wants, I took the rest to the swap - about four pieces. I changed my mind about a few things I could have taken - if I don't want them, they can always go to the next swap. I also took the smaller Hymenocallis that I divided earlier this year - I still have twenty left.
I gathered up everything and got there a few minutes after 10am, when the set-up started - the actual swap wasn't until 11am. I wanted to get there a little early so I could socialize a little - I always do too much talking and not enough looking. When I got there, there were about 10 cars and hundreds of plants - I couldn't believe it. I unloaded my plants and stuff and started to look around, but ended up doing a good bit of socializing - catching up with friends and neighbors, helping other people with plant identification where I could. Eventually I got around to looking at plants.

Like the last few times, I wasn't excited about what I saw - there were some things we could use when we do our landscaping in the near future, but nothing that jumped out at me. I remember feeling this way at the last swap, but ended up being very happy with what we got at the end - I hoped today would be the same. When Robin showed up I was able share my ideas about which plants we might want to try to get. One good thing about not being overly excited about many of the plants, is that there is no disappointment when you don't get the plants you want.

I was interested in a couple of hostas and ajuga. Robin found a couple of ferns. There were a number of bromeliads that I considered, but I already neglect the ones I have - same goes for the night-blooming cereus. We got the ferns and the hostas and the ajuga - Amy Dabbs, who brought the ajuga, said I could have more if I ever needed it. After several rounds of grabbing plants, we started running out of plants we definitely wanted - I laughed a little bit when I saw Robin grab plants that I had brought, until I did the same thing a few minutes later! I was impressed by what we ended up with - a lot of what Robin grabbed, I didn't even see! We got a lot for the landscape: rug juniper, liriope, hosta, ajuga, society garlic. A couple of curiosities - pregnant onion, bed of nails. A couple of things that I'll repot and give away - dwarf papyrus, aloe, spider plant.

I was very pleased with our haul and I feel like we will get more use out of these that any other plant swap we've been to. Now it's time to get planting.

Butterwort

2010-09-05T22:03:00.003-04:00

I repotted all of my carnivorous plants today. They had become overgrown in the 18-inch container I had all of them in. One of them, the butterwort, was getting overrun by the Sarracenia purpurea. Originally, I was only going to take out a few and repot, but I ended up repotting every plant, including the butterwort.

I bought the butterwort on a whim last year. I was at Lowes looking at clearance plants and there it was, for $0.48, I believe. When I got home, I took it out of its cube and sat it in a shady area of the bog and then eventually planted it with the rest of the carnivorous plants. I was saying in an earlier post about handling some so small and seemingly fragile - and a little sticky. This was no exception. That was the main reason I was going to leave it in there and not repot it. I lost a few rosettes in the transplant, but it's still pretty big. Who knows how many rosettes it has now. As you can see, it started out with only a couple. To give it room to grow, I put it in a seven-inch pot. I hope that's ok for the next year or so.

Sarracenia "Judith Hindle"

2010-09-05T17:50:00.006-04:00

I repotted all of my carnivorous plants today. They had become overgrown in the 18-inch container I had all of them in. One of the pitcher plants - Sarracenia "Judith Hindle" had grown so much, that it's now in a 12-inch pot of its own.

I got these from Lowes about two years ago - they were in one of those "death cubes" that they sell carnivorous plants in. There's a post on another site I found about "surviving the cube" here.

The first six months or so, I managed not to kill them. I had these along with probably tow other pitcher plants in a pot that was maybe six or seven inches wide at the most.

These are so big now that I'm definitely going to divide them in the spring. Any of my friends that want any of these, speak up now!

More About Repotting Carnivorous Plants

2010-09-05T16:56:00.006-04:00

I still consider myself a novice when it comes to carnivorous plants. I've gotten lucky with a couple of species, but outside of those, I don't have a lot of confidence. I was hesitant to initiate this recent trade because of my lack of experience with Venus flytraps and sundews. I told myself that I really needed to study these plants before I decided on a course of action.

When I got them in the mail, they looked pretty decent, larger and possibly healthier than the ones you can buy at Lowes - known as "death cubes" to CP enthusiasts. I knew I had to take care of them for a week or two before I had time to repot them, so I kept them in a mostly shady spot and made sure they didn't dry out. It wasn't until this weekend that had time to tackle this task.

I remember when I got my first CPs. I was so nervous about handling them too roughly. I've gotten better about that now - they may be small, but you shouldn't be afraid to handle them. So, on to repotting - I was originally looking for some nice pots to put these plants in, but I didn't have nearly enough for all, so I settled for plastic pots a little larger than the ones they came in. Once they're in a better environment, I won't worry about them, and I can take my time figuring out what kind of pots to put them in.

The CPs all came in 3-inch pots - the Venus flytraps in a clumpy Sphagnum peat moss and the others in a peat/perlite mix. The pots were only half full, possibly to save weight or to better protect the plants during shipping. I spent some time trimming the dead parts and firming up the soil, hoping to get a solid mass when I pulled it out of the pot. For the most part it worked out that way. I noticed the peat used for the flytraps wasn't nearly as finely milled as the kind I was using. This may sound weird, but it was sort of the consistency of barbecue, stringy pieces as well a small clumps - not very easy to work with when your plants are fairly small. So I transplanted them into 4-inch pots and, for lack of a better place to put them, sat them part of the way into the water in the bog. This should be a good environment for them - mostly sunny, moist and humid. I hope they thrive there.

Repotting Carnivorous Plants

2010-09-05T16:33:00.003-04:00

This isn't something I would do in September, but I have my reasons. The five carnivorous plants I have were getting overcrowded in their 18 1/2 inch pot. They looked ok back in April when they were blooming, but they must have grown like crazy in the summer. My goal for today was to repot those five and to do something with the twelve that I got in the mail a couple of weeks ago.

At first I thought I had taken on more than I could handle in an afternoon. I had to use a wheelbarrow to move where I had my repotting operation set up. Once I started digging the individual plants out, I realized I had underestimated the size of the pots I would need. Then I would run out of peat and have to prepare some more, by soaking the dry, shredded peat in a container of water.

My original plan was to remove a couple of plants from the large container and replace them with the two smaller pitcher plants I got in the swap. Also, I hadn't decided exactly what I was going to do with my new sundews and Venus flytraps. After I potted up the first couple of plants, I decided I would do the same for all five and put them back in the bog. Although they definitely could be divided, I'm going to wait until spring.

I did all of this the same as before. I took pots with drainage holes and put landscape fabric in the bottom, so they would soak up water without losing any of the potting medium - moistened, shredded Sphagnum peat moss. I'll be writing more about this in the next few posts, so stay tuned.

Plants Swaps

2010-09-04T18:42:00.003-04:00

I was involved in a interesting plant swap recently. There was a post on the Carnivorous Plants page of Gardenweb - someone was looking to trade a dozen carnivorous plants for any number of things - irises, coins, etc. I've been wanting a Venus flytrap, but I haven't been willing to pay for one, since I'm not 100% sure I know how to make it thrive. I saw this as an opportunity to get something for essentially nothing.

I emailed about my irises, but they weren't the kind he was looking for. He asked if I had any old coins - I did, but I wasn't sure what I had and I wasn't sure I wanted to part with any of them. I found my coins - I had wheat pennies, buffalo nickels, silver Jefferson nickels, Mercury dimes, silver Roosevelt dimes and silver Franklin and Liberty half dollars, and other miscellaneous coins.

After a little negotiating, we came to an agreement - half of the Roosevelt dimes and half of the half dollars for the dozen carnivorous plants. From what I know about each of the items in the trade, it was an even swap.

Once the plants arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. They were packed well and looked like I had hoped. There were two pitcher plants, four sundews and six Venus flytraps. Since receiving these plants, I've been reading everything I can find on carnivorous plants - I want to make sure I do everything right. I feel comfortable with the pitcher plants - I already have some of those and they are thriving.

Getting the plants in the mail sent me on a mission to round up all of my pots to figure out which pots I would put these plants in. I started two piles in the driveway - pots with drainage holes and pots without. I thought I would need pots without for carnivorous plants, but after a little reading, that doesn't seem to be the case. Venus flytraps don't like to be swimming, and I'm not sure what to do with the sundews yet.

While I was de facto organizing my garden area, I started thinking about plants I wanted to repot and divisions I wanted to make, to get ready for the plant swap in a few weeks. I repotted some succulents and a cactus. I divided my aloe and Euphorbia tirucalli "Fire Sticks". I've got a lot more that I can do and I'll probably do a lot over the Labor Day weekend.

When You're Not Looking

2010-08-22T15:32:00.005-04:00

Unexpected things happen when you're not paying attention. I didn't pay attention this summer - it was too hot. I gave up on my vegetable garden. I let weeds invade my flower beds and I let some plants die. Some of those plants died during our unusually cold winter - like a sago palm, majesty palm and a queen's tears bromeliad.

Lately, I have felt really bad about letting the yard get to this point. I plan to do alot in the fall, but that's really no excuse. We have friends and family in town this week and I've been wanting to make the yard look presentable, but it has rained almost every day for the past two weeks. I managed to mow the front yard yesterday. I had planned to mow the back, but it started raining just as I was finishing. It rained again this morning, but I was able to get out there this afternoon. I mowed and I did some edging, really just pulling grass out of beds. As I was doing this I noticed the bromeliad was blooming. I had given up on these - I left them outside all winter and I thought they might be dead. I thought the same thing about the majesty palm and the sago palm, but both of those have put out new growth in recent weeks. So, things really do happen when you're not paying attention, especially around the yard.

Free Energy Audit - The Attic

2010-08-14T21:52:00.001-04:00

Last month we called SCE&G about a free energy audit they were offering. We had been meaning to so something like this, but we were procrastinating and companies who do this professionally charge around $400 - so we opted for the free one. The inspectors came and looked around our attic and our crawl space. They inspected our A/C unit and water heater. We also discussed our windows.

The inspectors spent most of their time in the attic. Currently we have R-11 insulation between the joists. Their recommendation was to increase the R-value to R-38. The closest level of insulation to reach that goal is R-30. They recommended either blowing insulation or to get unfaced rolls and lay it out perpendicular to the joists, which would raise our attic to an R-value of 41. (By doing this, we would be eligible for a rebate of $6-per-100-sqft of R-30 insulation we added to the attic. Before doing that, they said we should use the spray foam insulation to seal all the holes between the attic and the conditioned part of the house, which mostly includes where the wiring has been run.

The next day, Robin and I went to Lowe's with the intention of buying spray foam insulation and pricing rolls of unfaced R-30 insulation. The inspectors recommended using insulation without a vapor barrier, which the insulation between the joists already has. I had priced it on the internet and it looked like it would cost a little more than $16 per roll, which is 31.25 square feet. That was almost exactly what we found at Lowe's. We also talked to an associate about blown insulation - apparently, if you buy 20 bags of it, you get the blower free for 24 hours.

We were thinking about all of our options when we walked to the front of the store and noticed the same insulation priced at $10.86. When we compared products, it was the exact same thing. The price was a misprint, but they were going to honor the price. With that bit of new information, we decided to go ahead and buy enough insulation for the whole attic.

I spent Tuesday night insulating wall outlets using the expandable foam. Wednesday I spent some time in the attic filling the holes where the wiring runs into the house. Later, I opened a roll of insulation to lay it out and realized I had few questions. I called my uncle who is a contractor and while talking to him, I found out that building codes require only R-30 insulation, so what the inspectors recommended must be from Energy Star.

While in the attic, I realized that above our bonus room (closed-in porch), there wasn't any insulation at all. So before I add extra insulation to that room, I have to put some in there to begin with.

Robin and I spent the early part of Wednesday morning in the attic rolling out insulation. We seemed to get a lot done. There was more to work around near the front of our house, but when we moved to the back, we had nothing to stop us from rolling out the insulation the length of the house. The first few rolls went fast, but by that time we were hot and ready to call it a day. We don't think it will take us too long to do the rest of the attic. I'll need to leave room to get to the bonus room, so I can insulate that in the near future.

The few other things we need to do is get better weather stripping on our doors and caulk our windows. I'm really glad we did this. It makes me feel like we've done something important for our house and our lives.

Free Energy Audit - Air Conditioner

2010-08-14T21:47:00.001-04:00

Free Energy Audit - Water Heater

2010-08-14T21:45:00.001-04:00

Corpse Flower Cactus

2010-07-31T20:18:00.005-04:00

I got this cactus at a plant swap a couple of years ago. It's Stapelia gigantea, or Corpse (Carrion) Flower Cactus. I spent the first year or so dividing it and giving it as gifts or taking it to plant swaps. We had a really cold winter this year and the cactus seemed a bit traumatized by the weather. It just got some new growth recently - really the first sign on life it's shown since last year.

So when I saw a bud forming, I was excited, as well as surprised. It took about two and a half weeks from the time I noticed it until it bloomed today. I've been watching it intently the last couple of days - it's looked like it was was going to burst any minute. I went to take a photo this afternoon, before it opened, and that's when I noticed it had opened. We all had to go look at it, and take pictures, AND SMELL IT!

We really didn't smell anything, so I put my nose right up in it. That's when I got the faint smell of roadkill. I'm just happy my plant bloomed and it didn't smell as bad as I anticipated.

For a slideshow of the bloom, click here.

From Garden to Table

2010-07-27T19:12:00.001-04:00

There's something I've noticed the last couple of summers - there is poor coordination/planning between what's ripe in the garden and what we are eating for dinner. There's nothing better than picking something from the garden and immediately cooking it. For us - and maybe for a lot of people - that's easier said than done. Every vegetable has it's own timeline, which makes it "feast or famine" with a lot of them.

Salad greens were the easiest plants to work with. Once our lettuce and spinach matured, we were able to continuously harvest it from December through April. We could have started earlier if I had planted it sooner.

Unless you plant the same crop a few weeks apart, some veggies tend to be harvested en masse - like onions and potatoes. You can leave them in the garden and pull up what you need, but at some point you will need to harvest the entire crop. Luckily, these two veggies, as well as other root crops, have long shelf lives.

More tender vegetables are what I have the most trouble getting the most from - tomatoes, squash, corn and beans. Either we don't get enough of these at any one time to use - like squash or corn, or we get too many and they get overripe on the plant like beans.

I don't feel like too much of a failure this summer. We had neighbors give us a lot of early squash they started in their greenhouse. When our tomatoes succumbed to disease, we got fruit and more plants form other neighbors. And we spent May and June digging (and eating) potatoes.

I've learned a little more this year and with better commitment and knowledge of what's ripe in the garden, I think we can eat more garden-to-table meals in the future.

Fall Gardening Already?

2010-07-27T19:07:00.003-04:00

A recent Sunday newspaper had an article on Fall vegetable gardening and suddenly I'm feeling a lot of pressure to start planting. I was already feeling a little bad about my poor summer garden - diseased tomatoes, roundup-ed beans, unpicked corn, late watermelon, etc. There is plenty of warm weather ahead of us - I was planning on a second shot at warm season crops when I read that article.

It's probably a good thing. I tend to be late when it comes to planting some things, so this really gives me a heads up. I have the rest of July think about what I want and to find seed for what I want to plant. (I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago and, as I am posting it, I realize how close to August it is.)

We were at Lowe's today and I saw the seeds, but I wasn't prepared to buy anything. I'll have to get my act together soon, so I can get some early seeds started, before I put onions and potatoes in the ground in October.

Never Fear - William Moss Is Here

2010-07-21T18:57:00.005-04:00

Ever since the demise of HGTV's Gardening By The Yard, I've been looking for another gardening show that I like. I watch the Victory Garden, but it's too much like a slick landscape design show - also I can do without the cooking segment. Another show I've dismissed - without giving it much of a chance is P. Allen Smith Gardens. My impression of it would be if Martha Stewart had a gardening show.

The other show that has a little bit of promise for me is HGTV's Dig In with William Moss. He is a landscape designer who helps people modestly make over their yards. After coming up with a design plan, he coaches the homeowners on proper pruning techniques, planting depth, etc. He tends to reuse plants already in the yard and he's not afraid to use a plant's Latin name. There is usually a hardscape element to his designs, but he doesn't seem as interested in that as he is in the plants.

HGTV's Dig In is not a replacement for Gardening by the Yard, but it's all I've got right now.

Hidden Ginger

2010-07-17T08:24:00.005-04:00

I got a plant called Hidden Ginger (Curcuma petiolata) from my friend Billy in the fall of 2008. It's definitely not like the ginger lily that everyone knows. Its growth habit is similar to that of a canna or banana. I'm sure it's a sun- and water-loving plant, but it's in a good bit of shade during the first half of the day. Despite all of this, it has decided to bloom this year.

The stalk the bloom is on is only about six inches tall - there are a couple of taller ones. I thought this might be why it's called "hidden", but apparently mine is just a fluke. Billy says they bloom at the top of the tall stalks like everything else.

It's been a couple of months since it bloomed and it hasn't bloomed again - down low or higher - probably due to the amount of shade. I've thought about moving it and our other tropicals to a sunnier spot, but I like them by the pond.

Yard Work

2010-07-05T15:36:00.004-04:00

Ella has been asking to help out in the yard lately. I have things she can do, but I feel like I need to show her or explain really well what she can do to help me out. So, here it goes:

The first thing that needs done is the bed along the azalea hedge needs weeding. The newest part, closest to the fence, has clumps of grass coming up through the mulch. There's bound to be some, when you lay newspaper down and mulch on top of that. The best way to pull this grass up is to grab small clumps of it as close to the ground as possible, and pull slowly, trying to get as much of the roots as you can. I know it won't happen every time, but it'll keep it from coming back in the future. As you get closer to the street, there will be more weeds instead of grass. There will be more of them, but they'll be easier to pull up. Use the same technique as before, grabbing it as close to the ground as possible and pulling slowly. There's mostly grass - maybe crabgrass - among the daylilies, so if you pull that out, that would be great. When you're pulling weeds, pick a spot nearby and make a pile - I'll put them at the street on trash day.

There's crabgrass invading the desert garden as well as dollar weed - it has a round leaf, like a dollar coin - maybe not as large. They've got a long root connecting them, so if you grab one just under the soil, you'll be able to pull up a whole string of them. There are a few other types of weeds in there, but they should be easy to pull.

All around the raised beds, in the back yard and a little in the front, crabgrass and dollar weed has invaded the area. All of that needs to be pulled up. I made the mistake of trying to spray Roundup near the vegetables. I ended killing our pole beans, so I don't want to take any chances with that again.

The last thing I need help with is cleaning behind the garage, where the chickens will be. I've cut down (I know it will come back) and smothered most of the bamboo, but I need the rest of it cut down. It'll probably easier to use the small pruning shears. If you cut it as close to the ground as you can, that'll make it easier to smother later. I'm going to cut down some of that magnolia tree, to let in more sunlight, which will be good for the chickens. The most important thing to remember back there is to avoid the poison ivy. (pictured) Thanks!

Potatoes

2010-06-24T18:41:00.004-04:00

If you look at my labels to the right, you will notice that onions and potatoes top the list. Part of the reason is that they are two cool season vegetables that can be grown twice a year. The photo is of the last of our potatoes I harvested this week. I planted them in mid-February and have been pulling them up for the past month. Apparently you can plant a fall crop of potatoes in mid-July for harvest in November, before it gets too cold. No one I know that grows potatoes has done that, but I think I'm going to have to try it out.

The problem with that is that feed stores only sell potatoes in February. I may call around for the heck of it, but I don't expect results. I could try planting some I bought from the store, but I feel like I might be wasting my time with those. They are usually treated so they won't sprout. I thought about planting some that I have already grown, but I'm not sure about those either. There are also problems with catalogs too - the cost of shipping whole potatoes is not worth it. I did find a catalog that sold potato eyes, and I kept it, hoping they would still sell them when it was time to plant a second crop, but I've misplaced it at the moment. It seemed really reasonable - the price was good and shipping wouldn't cost as much since it was only the eyes and not the whole potatoes. Hopefully in the next month I'll be able to locate potatoes suitable to plant for a fall harvest.

Yucca Update

2010-06-17T14:16:00.006-04:00

I wanted to post an update on the yucca that was flowering on my mail route. It wasn't chopped down immediately and was left alone long enough to flower. At that point I started doing research on pollinating yucca flowers.

It turns out that there is only one known pollinator - the yucca moth. These moths will fly around at night, gathering pollen from many flowers - they are very fragrant at night. When they are reproduce, they lay and egg in the stigma of the flower. Also, they seem to intentionally pollinate the flower, which will fruit and provide a food source for the developing moth. As the fruit matures, so does the moth, feeding off the seeds of the fruit. What it doesn't eat is left to grow into another yucca.

The page I found on hand pollinating yuccas, mimics the moth. Using a toothpick and a film canister, you collect pollen and insert it into the stigma, just like the moth. I practiced a little on my own flowering yucca, but without success. Before I had a chance at a serious attempt with the yuccas on my route, they were chopped down by the landscaping crew. Although I wasn't successful at it this time, I learned a lot about yuccas and their pollenation.

Spider Lilies

2010-06-15T20:45:00.004-04:00

The last couple of years I've been bugging my father-in-law to get me a few spider lilies (Hymenocallis caroliniana) whenever he goes kayaking. This was after he started bringing me plants that he had pulled up in the marsh. Being in a kayak, he couldn't exactly pull plants up by the roots, so most of the plants he got wouldn't survive. He got me a couple of cow lilies - the water lilies you see in farm ponds and in the wild - and they had roots, but I already had three water lilies at that point, so I really couldn't use it. When I told him that I would need the roots - bulb, tuber, etc, he decided he would take a shovel with him next time. That really wasn't realistic, and neither of us has mentioned spider lilies until recently.

One morning I when I was dropping Ella off at their house, he came out with a wilted spider lily to show me and said that he knew exactly where to find them now. I didn't think anymore about them until yesterday. That's when some lilies I had gotten in trade from a woman started blooming. I few bloomed last year, but I didn't remember exactly what they looked like. I had decided that they were a giant asiatic lily - Crinum asiaticum.

When the first one bloomed yesterday, I saw the distinct membrane connecting the narrow petals and I knew exactly what it was. I don't know if it's Hymenocalis caroliniana, but it's definitely in the same genus. The ones I have do well just planted in the yard, but obviously they can live in water as well.

Stink Bugs!

2010-06-06T19:27:00.003-04:00

I'm learning a lot about garden pests this year - I'm using these attacks on our garden as educational opportunities, and hopefully I'll be more prepared next year. First it was squash bugs - now it is stink bugs. Apparently they like beans - that's where I found them.

I haven't had a lot of luck with beans this year, but that's mostly my fault. I got a late start this year and my focus was on other vegetables. I also killed half of my beans with some overzealous use of roundup. I had a ton of weeds I was trying to get rid of close to my raised beds. I thought I did a good job of keeping it out of the garden, but obviously not. Half of my pole beans have died and now the other half are being attacked by stink bugs.

According to my master gardener training manual, stink bugs like beans, tomatoes and curcubits - cucumber, squash, zucchini, pumpkin and watermelon. Also they may damage sweet corn. According to the book, the best way to control them is with pesticides. My corn and tomatoes are planted close by - I'll have to keep an eye out for stink bugs on them.

Seeds from the neighborhood

2010-05-31T19:57:00.005-04:00

Robin and I were walking the dogs the other afternoon when we passed Mr. Hiers' house. We saw him working in his vegetable garden and I thought I would take this opportunity to go talk to him. I say "garden", but he has closer to a field of vegetables in his back yard. The lots on our street are a third of an acre and the placement of his house leaves probably close to half of that available to farm in the back yard. I always think I'm doing well with my garden until I see his. Although I did feel that way this time too, I'm proud of what I've done and wouldn't trade it for anything.

We spent some time looking at what he had planted and swapped stories about what we had planted and harvested, etc. He showed me his fruit trees and his grapevines and then we went into the garage. He opened up a cabinet with all the seeds he has saved over the years. He had some he had collected himself, and others he had bought at the Cross Seed auction. He started pulling jars, medicine bottles and paper bags full of seed off the shelves and handing them to me. By the time he was finished, I could hardly carry everything home - that includes the bag of squash too.

The containers of seeds have been sitting on the desk for the past week, waiting for me to have time to plant some and I finally did that today. I planted whole seed flats of each type of seed he gave me:

Butter beans
Bush Lima Bean
Brandywine Tomato
Beefsteak Tomato

Actually, I didn't plant the vegetables yet, but I did plant the flowers.

Gloriosa Daisy Yellow
Hibiscus "Dinner Plate"
Hibiscus "Poinsettia"

Those are his descriptions on the containers of flower seeds. When I opened the bag of gloriosa daisies, there was another bag with more seeds. They were different than the seeds in the original bag, so I planted those as well. I've labeled them separately on Myfolia.com and on the bags themselves so I'll know in the future.

Yard Waste Bags

2010-05-31T16:58:00.002-04:00

I've been wanting to write about the compost I buy at the landfill for a while now. It's made from the yard waste of the residents of Charleston County, so there are no guarantees about anything. We can hope their piles heat up enough to kill or break down all the bad things like diseases, pests, herbicides, pesticides and weed seeds, but there is one thing that does not break down during the composting process - plastic.

People put their yard waste out for collection in plastic bags. I'm not sure, but the composting process probably begins by taking all of the yard waste and dumping it in a shredder, which puts very small pieces if plastic into the compost. I see it all of the time in the compost that I have gotten from the landfill and I think that has had a negative effect on my feelings about getting compost from them.

I decided this weekend to try something new and use the paper yard waste bags that you can buy at Lowes or Wal-Mart or other stores that sell lawn and garden items. I have two reasons for trying these out. The first one is I refuse to use plastic bags for my yard waste - it's obvious that the plastic is ending up in the compost that they sell. The second reason has more to do with the aesthetics of our landscape than anything else. For nearly four years I've been dumping piles of yard waste near the street every week without bagging it, and the city workers come by and pick it up with a large bucket/scoop loader attached to a dump truck. Over the years, or maybe it happened to very first time, the bucket has scooped up our grass in that one area and I want it back. Instead of complaining to the public works department all the time, I thought I would be proactive. By putting everything in bags, maybe they won't need to use the scoop on my yard waste and will leave any future grass untouched. I've got two full bags on the street now, waiting for pickup in a couple of days - we'll see what happens.

Daylilies

2010-05-27T17:42:00.004-04:00

Before I had daylilies, there seemed to be so much hype surrounding them - all the different varieties, etc. So, last March, I bought some off of craigslist - they were just putting out new growth, so I had to wait with anticipation to find out what colors they would be.

Once they finally bloomed, I was a little disappointed. They were mostly yellow, some having touches of red on the edges. I tried to cross pollinate one last year, but I didn't get any seed from it. Oh yeah - another disappointing thing about daylillies? Blooms last only a day.

I've got a different outlook this year. I plan to catalog and label each of them, so I know what color each of them is - and maybe I'll try some cross pollination again.

Cactus Collection

2010-05-26T21:59:00.004-04:00

I bought these five cactuses from Lowes on clearance. I really didn't know what to do with them, but they were either $0.88 or $0.48 each - and they didn't look bad either. I potted them up together in one pot and I thought they looked nice for a while - one recently bloomed, but they're starting to look crowded. I had amassed a small collection of ceramic pots that I never knew what to put in them - so I figured this would be a good idea. I tried to match the cactus to the pot, taking into account size, shape and color. I'm happy with the outcome and so is Robin. Now I don't know where t o put them!

Prickly Pear Cactus

2010-05-26T21:23:00.002-04:00

Our Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia) is blooming for the first time since we've had it. We call it the "Murder House" cactus, because I grew it from a single pad that I got from a cactus at a house where a recent double murder had occurred. Soon after, the owner spruced up the house and the yard, removing the cactus and selling the house. So, in a way, I feel like I did this plant a favor by propagating it. We've had this cactus since 2007, but it's only been planted in the yard since spring of 2009. Last year I saw a couple of other cactuses bloom, but not ours. This year, it finally happened.

Fall Plant Swap

2010-05-15T22:19:00.002-04:00

I know it's not even summer yet, but the date for the fall plant swap has been announced - Saturday, September 25 at 10am at Park Circle. For more information click here, or the link above. To see how the plant swap works click here. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody there

Squash Bugs?

2010-05-15T21:39:00.004-04:00

I think I have squash bugs, although they weren't on my squash. Now that I know what they are, I'm going to have to check my squash in the morning. Actually, I was trying to take some photos of my blooming yucca for an upcoming post when I noticed these bugs all over the flower stalk. It even looked like they might be mating - they were backed up against each other. Sorry for the slightly blurry photo - I wanted to get the closest photo I could. They seemed familiar, but I really didn't know where to start to figure out what they were. I had to narrow it down a little since there are a large number of bugs and insects out there. After consulting the "Basic Entomology" chapter of my MG training manual, I narrowed it down to bugs or beetles. Then I searched Google images for "beetle", "beetle pests" , and then "garden pests". Found on the first page of results was something that looked pretty similar to what I had - it was a squash bug.

I'm quoting from the manual: "Squash bugs overwinter in protected places as unmated adults. They appear rather slowly in the spring. They mate and begin laying egg clusters about the same time the vines begin to grow and spread. Eggs are yellowish brown to brick red in color and are laid in clusters of a dozen or more on the leaves. They hatch in about 10 days into nymphs that become adults in four to six weeks. Only one generation of bugs develops each year. New adults do not mate until the following spring."

So how does one control them? Advice on the subject varies, from not planting squash, to killing them as you see them. I may leave the ones on the yucca alone, but I'll make sure to check my squash and related plants for eggs on the leaves. If you have any, good luck with getting rid of them.

Potatoes and Lettuce

2010-05-15T15:22:00.005-04:00

I get curious about potatoes, probably because they're growing in the ground, where I can't see them - too curious, perhaps. Last year we ate most of them as new potatoes, but I'm trying to be patient this year. I dug up one small plant last weekend, because it was dying and I got a single Yukon Gold potato from it. Then I decided to dig up a potato without pulling up the whole plant - so I got two new potatoes last weekend, but I'm trying to hold out. I pulled up a plant one morning this week before work and got a large handful of them. I and going to be good and wait, but we've got enough for dinner this weekend if we want them.

Earlier this week I knew Robin was planning to cook dinner, but I was hungry when I got home from work. There was nothing I really wanted, so I went out to the garden and pulled up some lettuce and spinach and had a big salad. We did this one night not too long before that, and I told myself I should do that every day this week. Unfortunately, I didn't stick to that plan - when I dug up the last potatoes, the lettuce was in the process of bolting. Summer is definitely here!

Garden Ramblings

2010-05-14T18:27:00.004-04:00

It's been a slow couple of weeks for gardening. We had a neighborhood cleanup three weeks ago and I was a little under the weather for about a week after. I'm mostly over it now, but it's been too hot and humid recently for me to want to do much outside.

I guess I've done more virtual gardening lately. I reformatted this blog a little - there was getting to be too much stuff along the right hand column. I've consolidated most of it under individual tabs. It's also allowed me to add more information without making the site cluttered.

I've been updating my garden at MyFolia.com a good bit recently - adding new plants and photos. I have spent a little time outside taking photos of plants and doing a few little things, like starting seeds and repotting plants, deadheading, pulling a few weeds, etc - really just observing the goings on of the yard.

I don't know if anyone's seen the MyFolia page I have, so if you haven't, go check it out. And if you have, but it's been a while, check it out. I've added a lot of gardens and plants and photos - not a lot of comment, though. I save that for here. Ignore this if you want. It's just a shameless plug for my page there and maybe to pad this blog a little!

Flowers

2010-05-14T18:17:00.002-04:00

I haven't done a whole lot in the yard lately - mainly, I've been noticing flowers. Watching them go from buds to flowers to seed pods has left me wanting to know more. I know the basics of pollination, even if I don't remember what each part of the flower is called. (I started studying today) Last fall I did a little seed collecting and this spring I've been planting a lot of seeds, but I've really become interested in the last couple of weeks. I also tried to cross pollinate a couple of my daylilies last year, but I didn't get any seeds from it.

First it was the irises. I watched each one bloom and die, but I think only the water irises have seed pods - maybe the higher pollination rate is due to the water attracting more insects. Last year I was thinking the same thing - I'll collect the seeds and grow some more - but I always have too many of these things - so I don't know what I'll do with the seeds.

I brought home a few lilies from a now-wild area of the neighborhood and they have since formed seed pods. I've collected seeds from most of them, but I don't know when I should plant them. After some research, there are different techniques, depending upon which type and I don't know what these were. I'll spend some time this summer researching and I'll let you know what I find out.

My pitcher plants have been blooming for the last several weeks and I've been really curious about their structure. I could see into them until a few of the "petals" fell off. It appears that they have produced seeds, but most of them have fallen out of the flower. I'm not sure if I want to bother with germinating them - I've heard it takes months - and the plants you can buy at Lowes - I think those are two years old - too much of a commitment for me.

Before I had planted all of my squash, they started blooming - the same with my cucumbers. I didn't have anywhere to put them in the ground, so I just transplanted them into larger pots. As they continued to bloom, I thought I would try to take advantage of this and hand pollinate the flowers. As I started looking at the flowers, they turned out to be all male. This got me wondering about squash flowers, so I read about them in the master gardener's training manual - apparently most of the early flowers on squash are male. So I'll be biding my time until a female flower shows up.

I know you're supposed to be able to grow potatoes from seed as well as from a potato, so when my potatoes began flowering, I held out hope that maybe there might be seed pods when they were done, but no such luck. That's fine - they're very easy to grow from a potato eye. Same goes for water lilies. I've always wondered about getting seed pods out of them. A big problem is that there are so few blooming at the same time in most situations - except for the wild, white cowlilies that you see in ponds and ditches everywhere.

The last plant I want to mention is probably my favorite at the moment, at least as far as pollinating goes - it's the yucca. There's one on my route that I've been watching flower for the past few weeks, knowing any day the landscapers will chop it off, but it hasn't happened yet. I've been doing some research and I think I've figured out how to pollinate it. I'll let you know how it goes.

Second Summer Planting

2010-05-14T17:36:00.003-04:00

In the near future I'm going to have some empty garden beds to fill and I don't have a clue what I want to plant. I know I can plant more of the same - corn, beans, tomatoes, etc. I'll probably do that - I've got some more corn to plant and various beans - pole beans, bush beans and cow peas (black-eyed peas). If I'm not mistaken, I think you let cow pea pods dry on the plant before picking them. Then you can store them dry until you cook Hoppin' John and collard greens on New Year's Day. If I do plant those, I really ought to plant collard greens this fall too.

I'll probably buy a couple of plants from Lowes. I'm growing peppers, but they're a little stunted and the second group of tomato seedlings didn't fair so well. So maybe I'll buy two pepper plants and a tomato plant or two. I'm also thinking I should plant zucchini - it's not my favorite, but we would eat it - in a casserole or sauteed with other vegetables.

I haven't been successful with everything I've tried growing this year, but it's a huge improvement over last year. I think because I've been landscaping and building raised beds, I didn't start some of my seeds early enough or not at all. So I feel like I'm playing catch-up a little, but overall, I think I'm doing pretty well this year.

Free Plants

2010-04-29T21:17:00.005-04:00

I got a couple of free plants off my route this week. The first was a large pot of ornamental grass - nothing about it looked as if it should be trash, but many people throw out plants when they are redecorating or they just don't want it anymore. The other was a fatsia - it's a Japanese evergreen that has a very tropical look to it. It also has white flowers/fruit in the winter. That wasn't in a pot, but it did have roots. After I picked it up, I really needed to get it in a pot of soil. It was trash day so I figured I would find a pot somewhere. And as for soil - I really didn't want to do it but - Dollar Tree sells bags of soil for a dollar. I figured it was only temporary.

I found a few plastic pots in someone's trash and as I'm grabbing one, a landscaper lives on the same street stops me. He tells me that he has lots of pots if I need them. I explain what I'm doing and he mentions he has soil in the back of his truck. He gives me some soil to put the fatsia in later and we started talking free plants. He's always removing plants from people's yards. He tells me he's getting some sweetgrass later this week and he'll give me some if I want it. I think I might have made a great connection as far as free plants goes!

Garden Update

2010-04-25T21:45:00.004-04:00

A number of things not significant enough for their own post have been happening in the garden and I thought I would lump then all together here.

It turns out the irises growing in the pond filter are two different types. The other type is the same as the one in the bog. In my walk around the yard today, I noticed that one of the irises from the Spontaneous Craigslist Roadtrip is actually blooming. I really need to do something with those.

My collection of canna that was in a plastic bag is growing again this year - the second in a row. I decided today I need to plant that somewhere too.

There's new growth on our cactuses large and small and one of our yuccas out front is about to bloom.

I found some carpet last week and brought it home to smother bamboo. I let it sit in the driveway for a couple of days until I heard it was going to rain. It was heavy enough for me dry - I definitely didn't want to deal with it wet. I got out there that evening and laid it out. I also took the carpet I was saving in the garage and did the same thing. Almost the whole area behind the garage, with a few exceptions, is bamboo free. Now we're one step closer to doing something with that area - like getting chickens. I just have to put up a fence, trim some trees and build a hen house.