Bringing the outdoors in

We have had our first snow, and it was really fun to see our three-year-old's reaction to it, since she has been talking about winter and snow for awhile. Mike and I have been a little less excited, and are still trying to determine where to turn our gardening energies. 

Before things started to freeze, we did dig up some plants from outside to bring in for the winter. Although it's hard to keep full-sun plants healthy and happy indoors, we figure it's worth a shot, since they'd die outside anyway. Well, a few of them came down with a bad case of aphids, threatening to destroy them. 

At the same time, our home was just recovering from an Asian beetle infestation. You know, this little ladybug-like guys that cover exterior walls and move inside for a short time in Fall? Well, we got a lot of them this year, and even though we got rid of them as fast as possible, Mike expressed a little bit of happiness with them, since they are a beneficial insect for farmers. And, just as those Asian beetles were clearing out, the aphids moved in, and my brilliant husband realized how to put our little interior ecosystem to work. He collected the few remaining Asian beetles and set them on our aphid-covered vegetation. In a couple days, the beetles had devoured most of the aphids!

Here you can see the row of little green dot aphids on a chocolate mint stem, and the beetles who are eating them for lunch. 

Isn't that cool? Rarely do I get to see Mike's pesticide-free practices in action so clearly. What a great illustration of how we can raise food organically. 

If only it were this easy out in the garden! 

I'll have to let you know if our over-wintered transplants make it to Spring!

November in the garden

So the weather hit the low 70s this month. Super awesome!

Mike has been working on mowing up the leaves with his push mower, and collecting them to put over cardboard in the garden. One whole chunk of the garden is now ready for Spring! The more he gets mulched this Fall, the less he has to till and weed in April!

I also enjoy documenting which plants still look pretty after we’ve had hard frosts:

dianthus

penstemon 'husker red'

Also, annuals diascia, parsley, and violas, and perennials catmint ‘walker’s low,’ mums, coreopsis, coral bells, asters, and lavender.

 

With our home set in a wide valley between bluffs, the sun sets early, now setting just after 3:30 pm. 

Lately I have more free time, and with the transition to more indoor activity, I've had more opportunities to do my scrapbooking. Northern gardeners gotta have winter hobbies! Mike has taken up painting, Bob Ross-style. Future blog posts may include nerdy pontifications about my scrapbooking endeavors...

October

The colors outside are beginning to smolder beautifully. Such a wonderful time of year. The past week it has hit 80 and frosted. Tender annuals are starting to die, and the new perennials are soaking up the last warmth, digging their roots deep before the upcoming cold. We may not see 80 again before next May or June, but the more seasons that pass, the greater my faith that despite a first frost in the Fall, there will also definitely be a last frost in the Spring. The Spring, Summer, and Fall this year have been full of beautiful days, maybe more than previous years, or maybe this is the first year in years that I actually experienced so many of those days. I guess there is finally a reward at the end of over a decade of education and training and having babies.

The transition from warm to cold, as marked by the end of sundresses and sandals and sunhats, and the start of boots and corduroy and stocking hats, happened with a trip to Door County, Wisconsin, for a friend's wedding. (Her use of eucalyptus and locally grown flowers to decorate was outstanding, by the way.) The leaves were just starting to change, but being before the frost, we got to enjoy the full glory of garden plots designed with Fall tourists in mind.

So what are the tasks now that the first hard frost is coming up in the next few days?

Dig up and pot herbs to have inside; the houseplant stand has become kitchen herb stand.

Collect bouquets.

Plant Spring bulbs, mulch things, finish outside projects, clean up the vegetable garden, and enjoy the view!

So I guess it's Fall...

I've been in denial. There's no school year for my children yet, given their young age, and a stretch of cold days has been followed by HOT, and the calendar doesn't say Fall until the last half of September, but given that only Fall flowers are in bloom, and the past few nights have been in the 40s, and the foliage of my beautiful Spring flowers is starting to look like it's seen better days, I guess it's time to say it: summer is really ending, and Fall is arriving.

I don't know why I'm so pessimistic about it this year, as if there won't be many beautiful weather days to enjoy still before winter comes, but it is a little disappointing to feel the lack of all the super fun summer activities we didn't enjoy because, you know, young kids and going potty and changing diapers and sitting down in front of peanut butter sandwiches really does consume 99% of your "free" time in a day! 

I'm so excited that Mike found time to work on my front planter this afternoon. I love seeing progress! Hopefully I will have nice "after" photos in the near future! 

Otherwise, here's my perennial bed:

I got to spend a little time cleaning up spent plants and spreading some fresh mulch after I took these pics. So fun! Now, need to make some plans for expansion of my landscaping....

Mountain of mulch

A few days ago, my 3-year-old and I had a blast moving wood chips to the back planter.  Yard work is really fun for me, and I'm constantly working toward the goal of my outdoor areas looking cared for and attractive. Being in an environment like that makes me feel like I'm on vacation while at home! Currently, most areas around the house are full of big, yucky WEEDS. But that's okay, because once Mike gets around to moving rock mulch and building planting beds, we will be able to mulch and plant those areas and they will look nice. These things just take time. 

We were so blessed to obtain all this FREE wood mulch. It's good stuff, too! The trick is following the sound of the wood chipper in your neighborhood, and asking the wood-chipping company to drop the mulch in your yard instead of a landfill. Or having nice neighbors that will convince them for you. Mike used both strategies to obtain the impressive pile above, which would have been a few hundred to purchase. 

Once we get some of the areas around the house ready for planting, I can put in plants like this fountain grass that I have in a planter of annuals this summer:

Below is our freshly stained deck-- such an improvement!

And the beds around it that are now nicely mulched:

 

 

I know the pictures aren't that interesting, but I need them for reference when deciding what to plant next year. I have a couple perennial fruits here (a grape and a raspberry), and I'm planning to continue some annual vegetable and herbs so that I have easy access to them when cooking. Because when you're in the middle of watching small children and working in the kitchen, walking an extra 50 feet out to the garden really is too cumbersome!

A couple more updates:

Mike mowing his garden aisles- he had to get a new push mower because the old one broke, and in the meantime things got a little out of hand (as bountiful gardens usually do by the time August hits!):

 

 

 

And my delightful little perennial garden. My mum has tiny buds that are looking to bloom. The coneflowers are very short but still flowering. And I found another heuchera and a couple asters to add. Now I'm looking to expand the bed to other areas in front of the house.

Tonight we went for a walk and the weather was absolutely perfect. Warm evenings after hot days are the best. Right now, I would be happy if summer lasted forever!

Farmer's Market

Well, I've been too preoccupied with life to blog, but it's been a great summer with beautiful hot weather and lots of sun. Here is a shot of Mike's table at the market today. Hot sellers this time were sweet corn, sour gherkins (which he finds to be a helpful attention getter for passersby wondering what they are), strawberry-raspberry jam, and cucumbers.

He's had some pest and disease issues this year: tomato and onion blight, voles chowing down on large, otherwise perfect sweet peppers, and Japanese beetles swarming the raspberries. But he's still getting a good harvest, and looking for new ways to fight the pests. He kept discovering dead beetles around my geranium, which apparently causes a paralysis to beetles when they ingest it, so I anticipate he will be planting a lot of geraniums next year. He has some traps and natural repellent for the voles. He will replace all of his tomato stakes to help prevent the spread of blight to next year's crop. 

It is really exciting to see all of the stuff going on in his garden, like the mini orchard planted in the corner of our yard and the beautifully ripening clusters of grapes. I don't get a chance to get out there very often, but when I do I am really overwhelmed by just how productive his garden is, despite all of the weeds!

There are always things we wished we had done differently every year, things we should have planted, or planted earlier, or watered more, or weeded or fertilized more faithfully. But considering how full our plates are with my full time job and Mike caring full time for the kids, I think we are doing really well, and I'm very proud of the fruits of his labor! 

Wildlife

The peonies and irises are just finishing up, as are the columbines, and the penstemons are now in bloom.

Above, you see the island bed has its weigela and rose flowering now. It's a quick distant picture I took from my car, but the bright, deep pink of the flowers is really beautiful. Someday, maybe not this summer because there's just so much to do, Mike is going to help me remove the landscape rock and mulch this garden, which will make it much easier to weed and much, much easier to move plants around. Right now there's a barberry and a weigela, and I'm trying to decide what to plan next to them. Maybe a purple barberry and a few more roses?

Today I weeded this bed a bit, knowing that we always seem to get chigger bites when we work in this garden. It was only hours after weeding that I started noticing the itchy welts of chiggers. Hopefully I've gotten them washed off in the shower now! I found this fantastic article that explains all about chiggers: Got Chiggers? It Figures! I found it very interesting.

We have been having a few more fun and pleasant wildlife encounters lately. Today, Mike found this exhausted, hungry hummingbird trapped and buzzing about our garage attic. 

 

 

He brought it inside, noting it seemed weak from lack of food. Assuming it was in a state of hypovolemic shock or metabolic acidosis, we quickly mixed up some hummingbird food, but it seemed too listless to do anything. I did contemplate taking vital signs to try to diagnose the problem, wondering what a normal respiratory rate would even be for a hummingbird (according to random web sites, apparently about 250 breaths per minute at rest and maybe twice that while flying; I can't imagine trying to count that!). We dipped his little beak in the sugar water, unsure whether this was helping or hurting- where are his little nose holes anyway? - and then went back inside. Several minutes later, he squeaked a little and then flew away with vigor. I'm thinking he's going to be ok!

Another very cool wildlife encounter we've been blessed to witness is the evening playtime of a family of foxes living on our property. Like elderly folks with nothing better to do, we gather around the picture window in our living room as the sun goes down to watch the foxes come out. It's entertaining, and about 3 million times more enriching than TV!

Growing plants is great, but it's even better experiencing the landscape providing habitat for wild creatures. This is turning out to be a great summer, with lots of cool outdoorsy things to introduce our little girls to! Can't get enough of the great outdoors!

Evening walk around the yard

Chilly evening last week. Last sunlight of the day. Put the baby in the carrier and boots on the girl and run out to see it.

 

Now that I've found the blogger app, I won't have to wait for great expanses of free time in order to upload pictures.  I love to scrapbook, but prefer to blog my garden photos, which I reference when planning future garden projects. Much easier with the app! Looking forward to documenting the summer.

Perennials Multiply

Spring flowers (and all the best flowers are Spring flowers) are in full bloom, and I love looking out my window and seeing all the fragrant colors. Recently, however, I couldn't stop looking at the bare spots and crowded areas, spots that had been occupied by plants that didn't make it through the winter, and areas where happy plants were spreading into their neighbors' land. There were attractive regions of the small garden, and some not as attractive. 

I like this spot

geranium died off, catmint was divided last year = empty

can't even remember all that was here before

that little hole used to be a daisy

I had been thinking I didn't want to spend any cash on this garden this year, but as I took photos to document bloom times and such, I kept being bothered by what I saw. 

So, starting to dig, divide, and replant, I ended up giving the garden a makeover. 

Helping Mama

The end result feels more balanced, it didn't take long, and I was able to use only plants that I have. Nothing to buy! This is where perennial gardening becomes fun; small plants put in the ground 1 or 2 years ago have grown to a point that they either need to be divided or need more space. Rearranging or dividing to spread them out is fun, well, for those that like that kind of thing.

It may not look like much, but I guess I see some of the tiny plants with their full grown size in mind, and it's a much nicer balance. The constant change is one of the joys of gardening. As soon as you get one area looking all nice, something grows or dies, or your taste changes, or you get a new idea, and it's time to move things around. It may be frustrating to those who don't enjoy a little yard work, but for those of us who do, the persistent drift toward entropy and the need to organize it is what keeps us engaged. 

I can't help but think that retirement will be a blast! 

But the growing season really is far too short here. 

Time to start planning retirement in the South!

In the meantime, I will be enjoying this growing season, and improving my outdoor space one garden bed at a time! 

Morels and Flowerpots

 

May is my new favorite month. Green things go from just starting to grow in April...

... to beautifully blooming in May.

I just love the crabapples, lilacs, and everything else that blooms this month!

And May is when the frost ends, so annual flowers and vegetables can be planted outdoors. Both Mike and I grew up with the tradition of spending Mother's Day purchasing and planting annuals, so we've starting doing that now with our own family, since I love flowers and the date so conveniently coincides with the average last frost. This year we also spent a day going to some Amish greenhouses in the area for the first time, and I'm so glad we did.

 

 

 

 Going to multiple nurseries and greenhouses this year, I purchased a beautiful collection of annuals that spoke to me, and then spent a day arranging them in my planters. Perhaps I could have made things a little simpler, and probably cheaper, by buying a large quantity of just 3 or 4 different annuals and filling my containers with those, but really, a stereotypical overflowing pot of sweet potato vines or petunias is pretty, but just doesn't impress me the way a color coordinated mix of foliage and flowers does. It's also fun to try new plants each year to see how they grow and mesh with old favorites. Someday I hope to extend this hobby of mixing plants to the larger scale with landscaping, where the risks of mistakes resulting in lost time and money are a little higher.

 Mike's farming season is starting off well. He is very excited to have a spot at the weekend farmer's market this year. The first one was last weekend, and he sold a good amount of home-tapped maple syrup, homegrown jam, along with one bunch of rhubarb, one bunch of purple asparagus, and a few containers of shiitake mushrooms and Jerusalem artichokes.

Yes, he really did go to market with ONE bunch of rhubarb and ONE bunch of asparagus. And he sold them. Whatever works, I guess!

Another fantastic part of May are the morels; hunting for them makes me feel like I'm a kid searching out Easter eggs, as if God were planning a fun activity for us every year like we do for our children. Actually, I think that's probably exactly what He's doing. Mike was able to go out sans offspring this year (much easier to hunt on thorny hills without a baby on your back), and he found a nice crop, which he'll be taking to the market tomorrow. 

 

 There's not a whole lot to sell this early in the year. He's yet to even plant his heat-loving crops, which means constantly tripping over tomato and pepper plants and such in my kitchen or on my deck until he can get them in the ground. At this point, it looks like the frost is probably over, but there are still some lows in the 30s in the forecast, and 38 degrees Fahrenheit + tomato plants = sad and stressed tomato plants!

 As much as I'd love a greenhouse, or even just a room to keep all this garden debris in (you can't even walk through the garage, and we have a large garage!), I have to say that I'm loving seeing this green stuff everywhere, feeling the days get warmer and longer, and enjoying the absolutely perfect weather, even if that means stumbling over jars of sweet potato sprouts in the kitchen and a smelly bag of chicken poop fertilizer when I open my car door.

These moments are what we dream of and live for all winter long.

May really is my most favorite month

 

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