How Not to Fall Asleep at Night!

This winter has been rather slow and relaxing aka lazy!, hence the lack of new blog posts or knitting designs.  

I do have several sweaters in the works and one cabled sweater I’ll be posting about soon, but, in general, my get up and go seems to have got up and left!  

I’m blaming it on all the oatmeal I am eating for breakfast every morning, to help lower my slightly high LDL, to get my cardiologist off my back about taking a statin, which I don’t want to do.  I’m also taking plant sterols, guggul, and artichoke leaf to help this process.  I love oatmeal, but it doesn’t seem to provide as much protein as I need to start the day.

Anyway, one thing I’ve managed to do is to begin to think about what *needs* doing in the garden, and what I *want* to do in the garden, this spring.  And these thoughts unfortunately begin when I’m supposed to be sleeping.  This needs to be nipped in the bud – no pun intended!

The best way I know to get things out of my head is to write them down.  I keep notebooks and binders for just about everything – for gardening, knitting projects (knits for self and family), home reno/repair, weaving info, weaving projects, hand spinning info,  decorating ideas, saved recipes, then there’s all the folders for new knitting designs I’m working on.  

In thinking about the garden, as much as I love to grow veg, our small property doesn’t make it easy, not unless I wanted to dig up one side of the front ‘lawn’ (furthest from the septic), which I am not inclined to do, not the least because it would mean hubby would need to make more raised beds, which ‘he’ isn’t inclined to do!  Manual labor is now much harder for him.

All the pine raised beds have finally hit the limit of their lifespan, which tends to be about 8-10 years.  So, the driveway bed and the 2 front tomato beds need to be dismantled, lest the carpenter ants begin to find our house to be their next tasty treat!

So, I am needing to rethink what will be planted in these beds, after the pine is removed and I border the beds with brick, as I’ve done across the rose bed and around the new hydrangea and azalea beds.

I’d also like to simplify my gardening chores, yet still make more headway with beautifying the garden.  To this end, I’ll be planting the driveway bed (which previously grew green beans, then a few hollyhocks), with part-shade bulbs and tubers: Gladiolus, Ranunculus, Astilbe, Lily of The Valley, and a few Begonia tubers for house plants.

https://www.longfield-gardens.com/plantname/Gladiolus-Katherina

https://www.longfield-gardens.com/plantname/Gladiolus-White-Prosperity

https://www.longfield-gardens.com/plantname/Astilbe-Assorted-LANDSCAPE-SIZE-

https://www.longfield-gardens.com/plantname/Begonia-Superba-White

https://www.longfield-gardens.com/plantname/Convallaria-Lily-of-the-Valley-Bulk

I’ve not planted bulbs yet, but how hard can they be!  It will require a small investment, but is easier than buying plants or struggling with seeds every year.  And they should, hopefully, provide tons of blooms for vases.

I’d love to plant raspberry bushes where the tomatoes used to be (as we are eating a LOT of raspberries lately), but that is ill-advised until 5 years have passed since last growing nightshades.  It will only be 3 years this coming spring, BUT perhaps this Bio Fungicide will do the job, and allow the raspberries to grow nicely.  My poor heirloom roses could also use the help, as they all end up leafless by July, despite watering every other day or so, and being fed Espoma Rose-tone .

I also found a few DIY fungicide recipes online.  I saved this one:
Mix 1 TBL vinegar with 1 cup of water
Add 1.5 TBL of baking soda
and 1 TBL of dish soap
and 1 TBL of vegetable oil

Stir this mixture into 1 gallon of water, and spray it on your roses’ foliage.  Reapply every seven to ten days, or after a rainstorm.

I’ve also read that a simple baking soda solution can be poured directly into the soil, which I may also try.

Back to knitting and a piece of fresh-baked spice cake!
Dawn

Waking the Sleeping Beds

(Originakky oposted on WP 5/1/21.)

Thank goodness for rain!

Well, that’s not what I say when it is raining, as rain keeps me from continuing to weed, manure, plant bushes, lay the landscape fabric, then finally cover it with cedar mulch.

But, I really need a day or so in-between hard-work gardening days, which spring  always is. My brain wants me out there getting it done, but my body says NO, in no uncertain terms! It’s not well yet and so, too much physical exertion lands me in bed for a day. I hate all this wasted time. I’m a do-er by nature, so lying around needing to rest irks me!

But I am pleased with the progress thus far. Both of the (long ago planted) heirloom rose beds had the above treatment, which they’ve been needing since they were put in. Now I can finally not need to weed constantly – that time is better spent on spinning, dyeing and weaving.

This right side of the house bed now has 2 white azaleas and a blue hydrangea planted.

This matching bed on the left side of the house is being done today. 

 

Some of last year’s hollyhocks were coming up, but are still small, so I dug them up, plopped them into a bucket of water, until I can fill some pots to flank the kitchen door and garage door entrance.  Don’t know if they like being transplanted, but it can’t hurt to try.

I also still need to dig out and weed a small area for the honeysuckle, by the arbor.

Then there’s the longgg process of edging around all the rest of the perennials with bricks set at an angle.

Not only does my neat-freakness extend to wanting my gardens neat, but the few times we’ve had landscape guys in to mow the weeds, I mean lawn, and suck up all the autumn leaves, they made a hash of the jobs - whacking down all my Lily of the Valley last summer and then taking away all the leaves off the garden beds last autumn, which I put there specifically for the winter! Grr.

So, the edging is crucial, to keep them out of the beds, IF we ever use them again.

Yesterday, I prepped the driveway bed  (which usually gets green beans) and planted the hollyhock seeds I saved last autumn, then lightly sprinkled some chipped branches hubby did last autumn, until they propagate and grow enough to mulch it better.

I ordered snow peas to plant in these pots, (showing last yr’s green beans). Have plenty of jute to string up a trellis for them. And lettuce of course for the gutters. Early May may sound late for cool-weather peas, but it does remain cool-ish here until the beginning of July. And believe me, I have planted things in April only to have to reseed in May, as April seems to be too cool for propagating here!

On the ‘Eventually List’ is the removal of these way-too-large bushes flanking the front entry. Will find something more to fit the scale of the house.

Not sure what’s better – buying a house with no landscaping, so you can completely personalize it, OR buying one who’s previous owner had a schizo, OK, *freestyle*, approach to garden design. One of this, one of that, everything in the wrong place for it to grow well, and planted too closely to everything else. Good thing it’s only a 1/4 acre plot. Any bigger and we’d not live long enough to fix it all!

Onward!
Dawn