Broccoli Flowers

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

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

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!

Winter 2011 Casulaties

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

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.