Flower Bounty
Minty Compost
As I write this, it is hot! My garden is, well, out there, and I am in here and that is fine with me. Up north here we are not used to this kind of heat and it shuts me down. I was up early this morning picking black raspberries for breakfast and came into the house drenched in sweat before 8 am. My hope is that my garden likes it better than I, that my cukes, tomatoes and peppers are using this heat for some good production and I am sure my compost is cooking.
About a week ago I filled the tumbler with mint clippings. Which tells you how much mint I have. I am slowly learning the importance of cutting back, thinning out and pruning. It is a hard lesson to learn. Lush, succulent growth for which we mostly strive in the garden is really hard to cut down and compost mid summer, but the benefits are almost always enormous. One example is the mint that grows so tall it obscures the view of the Green Mountains from my garden chairs. I hacked off a foot and a half and threw it in the tumbler. My composter smelled like delicious mint for a few days and there is already new growth around the edges for sun tea. And then there are the asters that are lovely in the fall. They grow so tall they fill my living room windows with every shade of purple and pink and then become speckled with orange and yellow maple leaves as they fall from the trees. But this time of year they are just green growth hiding my roses, phlox, and hydrangea from view. So, the top foot and a half of these went into the tumbler this year as well.
I couldn’t be more pleased with the result. The proliferation of flowers has never been more beautiful and filling the tumbler has never been easier. But with all that green material, my compost started to get a little slimy. This time of year it is challenging finding brown dead material for the tumbler. Daily I have been adding wood shavings from the ducklings night time shelter, but that was not enough. Honestly, without a shredder, I don’t have time or patience to shred newspaper by hand, so I ended up dumping in a bunch of fresh wood shavings. It took care of the sliminess in no time and I should have a good batch of compost soon. This heat can’t last much longer and I will be out there again amongst the summer bounty spreading it, but for now the garden is looking lovely from my windows.
Posted on July 8th, 2010 in Compost, Flowers, Garden Planning, Summer | Leave a Response »
Tags: asters, brown material, Compost, green material, heat, mint, wood shavings
Prolific Peas
Early Garden, Nice & Tidy
My vegetable garden is not what I planned this year. As I mentioned before, I had a massive seedling loss this spring. Not only did a mouse eat all of my eggplants and peppers (a not so uncommon phenomenon I am finding out), something was not right with my seed mix. My seedlings emerged from the soil, showed their seed leaves and then true leaves and then completely stopped growing and turned yellow. My careful plans, starting with seed catalogs in the winter, a mapped out plan and dreams of certain varieties have been thrown to the wind or rather the compost.
The good news is my gardener friends have made it possible for me to have a full garden without spending a ton of money on plants. Their extras- tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant, peppers, and broccoli have come my way. And I am not talking about one or two measly plants. I have 28 beautiful tomato plants in the ground. I did buy a few plants I always start from seed, such as celery, parsley, and basil, but this allowed me to support some of my favorite local farmers whose plants I usually drool over, but must restrain myself. As a result I have more of some things and less of others, varieties I have never heard of and many plants whose varieties are a mystery. There has been much on the spot planning, sticking in a basil, melon or cabbage here and there.
And so, despite the loss and regain, and then the business of spring, weed pulling, animals to care for, the transition that comes with the end of school and (did I mention?) a new baby due to arrive in July, my garden is coming together. And it is coming together in a way I could not have imagined- a surprise I am loving. I finish a row of weeding and look over the neatly planted rows and imagine pumpkin and squash vines three feet high loaded with hidden fruits, red peppers and ripe tomatoes filling my harvest basket, cucumbers of many varieties hanging heavily from a yet to be built trellis and every row and pathway perfectly weeded, mulched with compost and trimmed. We wouldn’t be gardeners if we didn’t dream like this would we?
Posted on June 10th, 2010 in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
After a Spring Shower
First, the tulips and daffodils bloomed and I battled weeds in early spring. Now my perennials are doing what I feared they would not. Gaining ground with amazing growth, they are taking over any bare soil and filling in beyond my expectations. I always stick that new perennial a little too close to its more established neighbor or fill in with a couple annuals unnecessarily.
And the blossoms. Could there be a lovelier combination than poppies and delphiniums? Delphiniums are one of my favorites, but have not come easily to me. Sadly, my only blue delphinium decided its residence of two years was no longer a worthy abode. Without so much as a sign, it did not return this spring. I now have all purple with white centers, which are lovely, but don’t do for me what the blue does. But that is not the only tale of woe in my neighborhood. A friend of mine’s sweet little lamb stripped her delphiniums this spring, before the first bud opened. This might just change my view of those sweet little lamb faces forever.
None the less buds are swelling in every direction and there is always something more and different to look forward to.
Posted on June 2nd, 2010 in Flowers, Garden Planning, Spring, Summer | Leave a Response »
Tags: blossoms, buds, delphiniums, perrennials, poppies
