Pardon My Garden

Hawk

2008-08-14T08:48:00.001-07:00

A hawk has been hanging around our yard and garden. We've been leaving out bird seed pretty frequently resulting in unexpected sunflower plants, savvy squirrels, blue jays, house sparrows, cardinals, red breasted grosbeaks, and several other birds. The hawk in this picture is perched on one of the tallest post of the garden. Our garden is home to many sized frogs, snakes, and field mice.

Container gardening

2008-07-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

On the front steps of our house we planted strawberries, red cabbage, kale, pansies, lettuce, basil, and the last one I can't remember (in order from left to right). The strawberries went missing but they definitely came and went. The cabbage is doing really well. The kale was eaten by worms (the ones in the garden are doing really well), the pansies are stalled. The lettuce is stalled but the basil is doing really well despite the lack of drainage in the pot. However, the heat has certainly compensated along with an occasional dumping out the extra water. With the exception of the missing strawberries and worms these plants have done pretty good.

Garden Vegetable Update

2008-07-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Beautiful and yummy kale and beets... potato plants gone wild!

First Harvest

2008-06-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

We harvest our first veggies of the season -- broccoli, sugar snap peas, beat leaves, kale leaves, onion -- Aaron made a veggie stir fry served on a bed of brown rice. It was so yummy!

Flowers, Birds, and More

2008-05-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

Forsythia

2008-05-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

It's small but getting bigger. Aaron put a couple of branches in some water in a vase on our dining room table. It actually bloomed sooner than the plant in the ground. I am going to plant the branches. It's so beautiful! About a week or two ago driving around had views of mostly barren branches. Houses that looked plain and boring became vibrant and alive with the forsythia in it's wild self, manicured, and in sprays like fireworks. This one's a keeper!

Forgotten bulbs

2008-05-09T08:34:00.001-07:00

The snow finally melted last month and we started to see the bulbs come up. When we first started our garden beds we took notes but then we switched beds and changed things around and I didn't do a good job of taking notes last year. This year Aaron and I are taking lots of notes. The above picture is of bulbs we planted and have now completely forgotten what they are. I want to say Hyacinth but I'm not sure. Any ideas?

Natural Garden Fencing started

2008-05-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a bridge that Aaron's brother built out of fallen logs and a pallet. He also helped Aaron build the garden fence from trees on our property. I'll post finished pictures later. He was a huge help!

Here he is chopping wood!

Chickens

2008-04-14T14:36:00.001-07:00

It's official! We've ordered 8 Rhode Island Red pullets (young female chickens). They are supposedly friendly, easy keepers, who are well known for regularly laying brown eggs. We're not sure where the coop will reside but we are making plans for mid-May (that's when they arrive). We're planning to build a coop and hen house from re-claimed materials with the hopes of adding solar lighting/heating later on in the future.

I've joined BackYardChickens.com to learn all about raising chickens. Our main objectives are all natural fresh brown eggs, chicken manure for our vegetable garden, and "green" building. We're only solar panels away from being able to be "off grid" so the hen house will a little experiment.

We're finally reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle together. I had started reading it last year but loved it so much that I wanted to read it with Aaron so that we could discuss it as we go along. After taking a look at our basic staple foods I realized that most of them come from within a 100 mile radius as is the goal from the book. We're not sure what our goal will be or how we will incorporate what we learn from this book with our life style but living in New Hampshire makes it much easier. New Hampshire promotes buying local so many items are locally made and available.

Spring is finally here! We're ready to turn over our beds and plant our starters. This year Aaron wants to put up a fence to protect our garden. Last year 80% of our garden yields were eaten by local animals. We're hoping to actually be able to eat more than a few meals from our garden. :-)

Spring is Making it's Entrance!

2008-04-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Today was 65 degrees, heat wave!! I took pictures of our bulbs coming up and one of Finn & Sammy on the hammock. Enjoy!

First Day of Spring 2008

2008-03-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

We've done our starts and Spring is here! Ok, almost here.

2007-11-23T11:25:00.000-08:00

Aaron cut down the top of one of our trees for our Christmas tree.

We put it in our living room on a table to make it more manageable -- to decorate, water, etc.

We moved our hammock and outdoor furniture indoors so that they won't get snowed on. Aaron looks good as a woods man!

Naps in the hammock are wonderful!

First Snow!

2007-11-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

First Snow of the season... we had +2 inches that stayed for a few days then melted and/or was washed away by rain. This picture is of the backyard where Aaron had been working on a large, fallen tree that is now firewood. The logs in the picture is an older log, once in tact, is now being prepped for either lining our trail or more firewood.

Aaron has cut down some smaller trees that will sit and dry out for a season so that we can use them next year for firewood. There is a space we want to eventually clear away so he is slowly taking the trees down for firewood because oil to heat our furnace is now +$3/gallon and bit too pricey to use as the sole means of heat for the entire winter.

Fall Harvest

2007-11-05T12:51:00.001-08:00

We planted red potatoes and white but the red ones were the best. Next year I am going to plant more!

Fall Cleanup

2007-10-29T12:05:00.001-07:00

We've been chopping wood for the coming winter while watching the World Series. Go Sox! It's much easier when you have a working chain saw. The man of the house is showing off his working chain saw while celebrating in his sawing accomplishments of the weekend.

In the meantime, we are preparing for winter. The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts snow in November/December and it's just around the corner. There are so many outdoor projects to be completed before we proceed with indoor projects. First and foremost, wood for heating.

When I woke up this morning I realized I had taken pictures of blooming wildflowers just in time. Last night's temperatures were below freezing! The extra large water dish, full of water, froze solid and has stayed that way all day.

Fall is here!

2007-10-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

Fall is in full swing! Our temperatures have fluctuated from record highs for this time of the year back down to the normal lows in the 40's and highs in the 50's/60's. Aaron was able to chop and haul out most of the remnants of the tree that had fallen earlier this year. It's yielded at least a cord of wood or so. He is working his way through the pile, splitting and stacking for winter. Snow is predicted for November/December with the lowest temperatures in January -- just in time for our bundle of joy to arrive! Eeek!

Wildflowers

2007-09-07T16:41:00.001-07:00

Goldenrod is all over our property.
We're not sure if we're allergic to it but we've decided selectively let it grow. It is really pretty in the wildflower garden with the Asters and other flowers that haven't bloomed but hopefully will soon.

Lot of these flowers have come up and some have bloomed. We spread wildflower seeds but I haven't specifically identified this one yet. They are all coming up pink/purple. It's beautiful against the green and goldenrod.

This isn't a wildflower but a mint type of plant that has grown and rapidly spread on the east side of our front stair case. It receives full sun and well drained soil. The blooms are clusters of purple. We think this might be Catmint. I remember planting some and know that none of our mint survived to become seedlings so that we could transplant them. It think we bought a few of these plants at a nursery because our original mint did not survive. I'm not 100% sure on the identification of this plant.

Moose on the Loose

2007-08-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

Moose on the Loose

2007-08-27T10:16:00.001-07:00

We live in a swampy area of New Hampshire. Every time Aaron and I drive by the swamps we keep an eye out for Moose. It was sort of a joke between us because we hear all these stories of people hitting Moose with their cars but we didn't actually think we would see any. Many of our blossoms and veggetation has either dissapeared or has been slept on my a large creature. We thought... big deer... black bear... porcupine... racoons... etc. but not in our wildest dreams did we think that Moose were on the loose in our yard. On Sunday, Aaron was doing the dishes and making dinner when he was shocked to see a female Moose standing just outside our kitchen window. He yelled for me to get my camera and I was able to capture this picture just as she began to walk towards our driveway. We were told and suspected that our property was a popular through way from the open spaces behind our property to the open spaces across the street. We've seen all the other wildlife but this was way cool!

Check out the video!
Moose on the Loose

New Flowers

2007-08-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

Our previously eaten Black Eyed Susan's are back! This pictures if from a week ago and we have three times the blossoms today. They are a wonderful contrast to the little field of green.

Lettuce & Fresh Eggs

2007-07-23T10:15:00.001-07:00

We managed to have some servings of lettuce but our lettuce was so good that something came and ate most of it! Fortunately, we had planted more so we expect to still get lettuce. Our wildlife neighbors are certainly loving our garden.

We bought fresh eggs on Saturday from our neighbor, across the street. They are fantastic! We hope to continue to enjoy fresh and local eggs.

Deer & Flowers

2007-07-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

These were our Soy Bean plants before they grew another foot and begun to flower. Not only have the deer eaten all of the flowers from the Black Eyed Susan we planted (not the native ones), the Coneflower, the squash, and some flower we have not yet identified but they also ate the tops off of all of our Soy Bean plants! I'm hoping some will come back. Oh well, better luck next year.

The Sugar Snap Peas in this picture are from a month ago. They now stand 3 ft. tall. The peas are sweet and delicious!

I'll post some updated pictures of the garden next week. Our Sweet Corn is over 3 ft. tall but the ornamental is still less than 2 feet. The bugs have gotten to our Basil but I was able to pick some for our spaghetti sauce. We have lots of spices now. Our Tarragon is over 3 feet tall and I don't even know what to use if for.

This year we are going to dry some herbs and make herb flavored butters and oils.

Pictures

2007-07-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

Please post a picture of how your garden grows July 2007!

Rain, rain, rain!

2007-07-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

The torrential rain has returned. A few weeks back when the lightening hit the tree it had also hit a van driving on the same road with a mother and teen girls. They were pretty frightened but ok. They ran into their house as soon as they got home but their poor van still has electrical kinks. That same kind of storm has been in and out all day today. The thunder is deafening but the lightening is not nearly as dangerous as before. This is the first time I've seen Sammy come crawling over to me shaking uncontrollably. Poor Gracey has been seen for most of the day.

The mix of the heat and rain has inspired growth in all of our vegetables. We've already been able to eat fresh picked lettuce and lots of herbs. The beans have begun to flower. Our hillside garden had cucumber seeds that have now sprouted but the rain had washed some of the seeds so that we have cucumber sprouting all over the place! I love going out everyday to look at the new growth.

The flowers are doing very well but I think one of the deer didn't realize they were supposed to leave the coneflower alone. It never had a chance to bloom! They ate the top off many of the other flowers. Oh well, better luck next time. All of the plants in the front of the house are doing very well. Goldenrod and Mullein have also bloomed.

2007-07-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Day Lillies

2007-06-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

How to Grow Daylilies
I read this article on line on Garden Supply site and thought it would give you some tips for growing the day lillies.
How to Grow Daylilies

Planting Care
Daylilies flower best when planted in full sun (6 hours/day), on moist, yet well-drained soil. In hot climates, dark-colored cultivars should receive some afternoon shade to help them retain their flower color. When planted in the correct location, daylilies will flower for years with little care. They do not require fertilization other than a yearly addition of compost.
If buying daylilies by mail, plant them within a few days of receiving them. In the South, plant in spring or fall while temperatures are still cool. In the North, daylilies should be planted in spring so they have plenty of time to get established before winter. However, daylilies are such tough plants, that in the North, most can be planted anytime from spring through fall.
Amend the soil with compost before planting. Space plants 12 to 18 inches apart and plant so the crown is about 1 inch below the soil surface. Water well and mulch with bark or straw to conserve moisture and prevent weeds from growing. Although resilient once established, young transplants should be kept free from weeds and well watered the first year.
Daylilies have few pests. However, a new daylily disease--a type of rust--has been spreading throughout the county, attacking many plants. To control this disease, keep the area around daylilies open and airy, remove diseased foliage, and water plants when rainfall is insufficient.
Dividing Daylilies
One of the few routine maintenance chores needed when growing daylilies is dividing them. Depending on their growth, your daylily clump will usually become crowded after four to five years and flowering will diminish. In most areas, late summer is the best time to divide daylilies. In the North, early spring is an alternate option, especially if the weather typically turns cold quickly in fall.
Dig up individual clumps and put them on a tarp. Use a sharp knife or spade to separate healthy young plants (fans) with strong root systems. Cut back the foliage and replant immediately in compost-amended soil or plant in containers for holding. You'll have many extra plants from each clump to give away to friends and neighbors. Discard any small or diseased plants.
Winter Care
In northern areas, newly planted daylilies can be mulched in late fall. This is important for young plants which otherwise may be heaved out of the ground the first winter. Dead foliage can be removed in spring, unless it was diseased. In that case it is best to remove it in fall.

2007-06-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

Here is our house in the late fall before the snow and before we put in the garden. June 2006

Animals Vegetables and Miracles

2007-06-20T08:34:00.001-07:00

I am trying to post this book recommendation to your blog.

I am bringing this great book, Animals, Vegetables and Miracles, by Barbara Kingslover, with me. This story details a year in the life of a family in Virginia who become locavores, eating only what is grown 100 miles from their home. You two will love this book. Great tips and great recipes besides a life altering story!

See you in two days! LOVE Daisydew

See what's free at AOL.com.

Weeds & Bugs

2007-06-20T03:54:00.000-07:00

From the Garden Maven:

Keep the weeds and bugs out of your garden, by pulling and picking them off by hand. Good gloves help in this activity. the task is easier if the days are cool in the spring than if you wait until the hot days of summer when the weeds have a strong root base and have zapped strength from your garden. Encourage swallows and bats to join your garden and they can keep down the bugs and flying insects. Lady bugs are beneficial as they eat aphids, which often gather in colonies on vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts and flowers like roses and pansies.

I hate pulling weeds but we've got them and they are huge! Guess what we'll be doing this week?

Veggies Grow!

2007-06-20T03:48:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of our first growth! I think these are peas. We are trying to get them to grow up the lines. I had thought that we should have used plastic garden fencing. Either one sounded goofy but the string/stakes option seemed to make the most sense.

This year we've decided to grow peas, beans, edemame, and potato in addition to the tomato, squash, and corn routine. We've also added marigolds that have decided not to show themselves yet. So, we may need to buy small plants. The tomato plants are slow coming. Next year we will likely start our plants indoors with a lamp as opposed to no lamp. It stays colder longer up here causing our growing season to be short. We need all the help we can get. At least we have the rain.

2007-06-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

Here is the front of the house from the real estate listing.

Next is the house just after the St. Patrick's Day snowstorm in 2007.

The Bees

2007-04-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

We purchased a Dwarf Granny Smith tree for our first fruit tree and we were in need of figuring out whether or not we could help it live, how to help it fruit, etc.

There is a small section on the weather page of the paper called “weather extremes.” In the paper today: National extremes in the 48 contiguous states,

High: 103 Death Valley California,
Low: 18 Berlin, New Hampshire.

I hope this in no where near you! Don't worry, we are few hours South of there.
This week’s tip is pollination, which won’t happen if it is 18o. In your vegetable and fruit garden bees and insects are important. The blossoms won’t set and fruit and vegetables won’t develop, if they h aven’t been pollinated. Some plants like apples and other fruit need a different variety of apple pollen to fertilize the blossom. This can be tricky because not all apple trees bloom at the same time. I don’t know about your granny smith, but I have listed some web sites and more technical articles below for you to search out what will work. Even if a neighbor has an apple tree that blooms at the same time and you have a good supply of bees, your single tree may b e fine, but you should check it out.

Also keep in mind that some trees are just male or just female. The nut trees like the Hazel nut must be planted in pairs. I am trying to develop more native plants around the fence line. A few weeks ago I set aside some cuttings from the Hazel trunk sprouts when I remembered we have two Haze ls planted next to each
other because they need each other for pollen and fertilization. We had to carefully make stacks of cuttings from each tree and as I planted them, I hope that I planted the sprout cuttings close enough in pairs for fertilization.

Some fruit and vegetables like squash or tomatoes are self pollinating. Pollen on a single plant from male parts of blossoms to female parts of blossoms will create fertilization, but ther e is better and greater chance for fertilization if you have more than one plant or tree. I have played bee or pollinator. When I have grown tomatoes or squash in small spaces like our roof top, where I had only one plant and not many bees, I have picked the male blossoms and stuck them on female blossoms in order to get the necessary fertilization for fruit . You shouldn’t have to do that in your garden because you will have plenty of room for more than one plant of each variety you grow.

One year I planted differ ent varieties of squash and pumpkin too close together. I got zucchini pumpkins! They were greenish orange oblong vegetables suitable for the compost bin ! Those bees just collect and fail to discriminate by variety. Pollenization is probably the way growers are developing the weird color to pumpkins, ghost pumpkins? If you really want to know more about genetics and fertilization read ab out the
monk Mendel and his peas. I read “Mendel’s Dwarf” by Simon Mawer; it is a good read, but save it f or winter when you have time. I'm not sure if we have bees. I honestly haven't see on since we moved in last year.

Sustainable Horticulture from the University of new Hampshire
http://horticulture.unh.edu/links.html

Successful pollination
In order to have successful pollination, it is necessary to have two different varieties of apple trees. Aha! We need another apple tree. How about a Gala? Most apple varieties are self-unfruitful, which means their blossoms must be fertilized with the pollen of a separate variety in order to achieve good fruit set. A few varieties, including 'Rome Beauty' and 'Ne wtown', are considered self-fruitful, meaning their blossoms can be fertilized with their own pollen, but even these a pples produce more fruit if they are cross-pollinated by another variety. It's important to choose varieties that have compatible pollen and bloom times. The Raintree Nursery catalog and Web site have a very helpful pollination chart that details which apple varietie s are compatible.

Apples also need pollinators—certain wasps these we have, lots!, flies, and bees—to transfer pollen from one variety to the other. The apple trees must be planted within 100 feet of each other in order to help ens ure that the pollinators visit both trees. If you have only one apple tree in your yard or incompatible varieties, all is not lost. Crabapple pollen fertilizes apple blossoms. So if you have a crabapple in the vicinity that blooms concurr ently with your apple tree, you're in business. Grafting a branch of a compatible variety onto your existing tree is ano ther option, though I recommend you hire an arborist to perform this job. You can also use an old, very effective or chardist trick, says Matthew Rogoyski, Ph.D., a horticulturist at Colorado State University. "Put a bouquet of crabapple branches in bloom in a 5-gallon bucket of water and place it inside the canopy of the tree," says Dr. Rogoyski. "Then bees can visit the crabapple blossoms and transfer the pollen to the apple blossoms." Hmmm intersting...

A couple of caveats, before leaving the issue of pollination:
The pollen of some apple varieties is sterile, so don't rely on these as your pollinizers. Examples are Jonagold, Mutsu, Stayman and Winesap. The transfer of pollen from one apple blossom to another is largely the work of those busy little garden friends, the bees. So be careful not to apply insecticides during the blooming period -- or you'll lose your best means of pollination.

We're definitely not planning on using insecticides but we will definitely need to employ deer deterrent... dog fur, people hair, shiny objects?

Tips, tips, tips

2007-04-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

Tips the Garden Maven picked out from About.com: Gardening:

Gardening Tip of the Week
Keep you garden tools clean and rust free by keeping a bucket of sand handy. Brush off excess soil, then plunge your tool into the sand. The sand alone will scrub your tool clean. You can add a bottle of oil to your bucket of sand to lubricate and protect your tool. Many people use old motor oil. I like to use a coo king oil, but this isn't practical if you're bucket is accessible to wildlife.

2007-04-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from the Garden Maven:

"If you are gardening, I guess the best thing for you in the garden is to work in the sun and put all your plantings in the sun and cover them at night. If you wait just a week or two more to plant, maybe the night temperatures will rise to the 40's or more and you will not have to cover new starts. Ask around for t he last possible date for frost. Just remember these days next summer, when you will pray for a cool night.

So you want to garden this weekend, keep pulling weeds and trimming. You might plant your forsythia. Forsythia can take the cold. It would be really big and bloom profusely, if the deer would stop eating it!

Bare root plants like roses or trees can be planted if the ground is not too soggy. Bare root plants are cheaper because they are small, dug and wrapped with only a beginning root system. They need lots of water over the heat of the summer, but if you plant them early enough in the spring they can get a good root start while the weather is cool. Dig a hole twice as big as the root ball of the bare root plants and will with a mix of new, enriched soil and native soil from the original hole.

Hardening off your seeds can occur by placing your seed starts on the deck in the sun but continue to keep them in at night. Hardening off prevents the seeds from being in shock when you transplant them to your garden later."

Winter Ice Storm

2007-01-15T08:52:00.000-08:00

During the week of 1/15/07 we experienced an ice storm that covered everything in a thick layer of ice. The ice was so heavy it caused trees to bow to the ground. On a drive to Keene the light would shine through the glassy trees creating a kaleidescope effect. I truly was a frightening but fascinating winter wonderland.

Our neighbor's tree fell on the power line. We lost power, heat, and water for several days during the below freezing temperatures. Sammy, Gracey, and I cuddled on the couch to keep each other warm. Aaron was out of town. Lucky him!