The White House

The White House

Saturday, July 2, 2011

A Little Garden Progress

Emily is pretty excited about her greenhouse. She has some tomatoes and cucumbers starting to show. We now have all the boxes for her greenhouse, but they need painted. She'll be completely set up for next year.

Homer has started to tear up an area so I can plant more grass, but with so much rain progress has been slow. The clay soil is pretty slimy when wet. From this angle I am standing in front of Emily's greenhouse.

That's the bank down to the front gardens. It was growing moss and hard as a rock.

This would be the angle from behind the greenhouse. Emily and I are going to plant some onion sets behind it just to see if they will grow in the clay dirt. A late season experiment for next summer.

That was full of 5-foot brush/trees when he started.

And the area from across the road. There is a stand of Aspen just to the left of the photo that I want to put bird feeders/baths in with a bench. Someday.

We took the dreaded trip to town on a Friday of a holiday weekend. A sure test of patience for all of us. Walmart was the first stop. I am getting my chicken food there for $14 instead of $24 at the feed store. The farmer from Delta that I got the barley and straw from told me that is what they use.  We then went to Lowe's for fertilizer and more plants. Then Petco for crickets and a male marking diaper for Rusty. He's been either locked in a kennel or outside for far too long now. He needs to lounge on the couch like a normal dog. Emily and I gave him a bath and now he's roaming the house. A very happy dog. (Roxie is next).

After all those stores we hit McDonald's. Over-priced, slow, cold food....I should have just taken them to a restaurant, but all three had fun playing in the Play Place.

Here's what I got at Lowe's. Pink Delight Meadow Sage for $2.00 each (normally $25...what a savings!!). It is good to -30 below. We don't see past -20 very often here in the hills. Sometimes we do get -40 and -50, but only for a short time. I figure if I insulate with straw this Fall they should make it. And if they don't it's okay. If Lowe's would have just taken care of the plants they wouldn't have had to discount them. The top shoots were flowers. If they are deadheaded they will flower again. The two plants on the right were 50% off ($3.33) and I don't remember what they are. I'll get the tag and tell you later.

Apparently they didn't get the memo that it has been raining for a week and only 68*. They love the water!

This was the Aster bed that I cleaned the other day. It had all the empty spots so that is where I put the Sage. I'd like to slowly turn some of the beds into perennial beds with discounted plants over the summers. I need gardening to be  a little less work. I think the red bark mulch would look wonderful here, but I bet it would take at least 3 bags. That would be $16.50. Doing only one bed would look funny so then 14 beds would be over $200 and that I cannot justify. (No matter how pretty it would be). I'd like to buy a wood chipper to make my own each year, but the one we looked at was $1500!!

This is what they looked like after I pruned them. I wonder if they grow more flowers this summer?

I haven't been able to use soluble fertilizer with all the rain so I used some slow releasing. Olivia wanted to water it down for me.

Emily and Homer put a "door" on her greenhouse. It's been so chilly it was needed if anything is going to grow.

Remember this bed from the other day?  Petunias on the far end...and see, there really were some Aster on this end. The gnats that came out of the dirt while I was working were such a thick cloud. It was all I could do to force myself to sit there and finish. Everyone else abandoned me for the house.

Two beds look good.

Then I step back for the bigger picture and you can see the work ahead of me. The bed on the right should look like the one on the left. It's all petunias. The grass needs mowing, too, which is where I am headed now.

When Nick got home he helped Dad carry the nest boxes out of the house. He used the backhoe to take it down the driveway and lift it up the hill.They got it situated in the coop, but I didn't take photos. We wanted to get back to our movie. I bet the girls really like them.

2 comments:

Queen-Size funny bone said...

you sure make beautiful babies. those girls are always smiling and like a ray of sunshine.

Tink *~*~* said...

Wondering if you have a pine forest nearby where you could get pine needles to use as mulch. You have to haul it, and you'd have to maybe sweeten with some lime - the needles might leech into the soil and make it too acidic - but it would be free mulch! They use pine mulch a lot here in Florida

*~*~*