Herb Garden

My cowboy has been hard at work!


It has been my dream since we moved in 2007 to have an herb garden close to the kitchen door. Here it is, less than 10 steps from the door in a small sunny spot that gets full sun about 7 hours a day! The old barn beams were sealed with a non-toxic bug proofer last fall and they've been sitting, weathering, waiting for warmer spring days and a thawed out ground. I love that the beams are large enough to sit on while harvesting seasonings, and that they will make such a lovely backdrop for all manner of leafy yummy goodness. He dug down to make sure that there was enough dirt around the beams to keep the bed in place and used a gargantuan drill bit to drill holes for rebar to further reinforce the beds. And now it is my job to plant it full of herbs! YAY!

Cheerfulness Under the Tree

My all time favorite bulb, cheerfulness.


I love the way it looks, smells, waves in the wind, everything about it! Really, this little flower reminds me of a spring break trip I took in high school to England (the one and only time I've been across the pond, so to speak). A friend and I were roaming the streets and stopped at a flower vendor. A lovely lady with a thick English accent told us that they all grew on her farm a few miles out of town and my friend and I just couldn't resist a 3 pound piece of English countryside. She chose red tulips and I chose cheerfulness. So here they are, my planted memory. I love the fact that the tulips and cheerfulness came up at the same time! What memories have you planted in your garden?

Damping Off!

The plague of every start from seed gardener has finally hit me. I've started seeds for 3 years now and never had this problem before, but this year, I've lost most of my lavender, thyme, and alpine strawberries to this awful fungus condition! Brought about by top water, not enough air movement, and slightly too cold temperatures in the basement. Damping off (insert link) is not just my problem, but washing seed trays (or egg cartons in my case) in hot soapy water every spring will help stave it off, as will consistent bottom watering instead of top watering with a mister. Now I've learned my lesson. Anyone else have this problem this cold spring?

Raised Beds

My cowboy has been hard at work!

I love craigslist! I found some Trex boards there last fall for less than half price from a fellow about 15 minutes away that had overbought for his porch. And now my hardworking cowboy has made them into more raised beds! For these, he is determined that they will be level, so the process is methodical and steady (just like my man). Check back after the rain stops for the unveiling of the raised beds so far!

Wildflower Alley

One of the first things we did in the Maple Tree Garden was kill grass. There's a section of right of way that has an awful hill to mow and it's outside the fence and right next to a road. So grass there is pretty much pointless. So we killed it, tilled it, and planted wildflowers. I think our neighbors thought we were nuts.... until they saw this


We had folks slowing down to look at the flowers, which is a really good thing because it's kind of a blind corner and lots of kids walk back there. We even had a few people come up to the front door and knock to tell us how pretty the flowers were. And this spring we were out there pulling up baby maple trees (story of my gardening life) and folks were stopping to ask if the flowers were coming back.

It looked a little hopeless and weedy in mid March

And then a little better in Early April

Mid April was filling in.

End of April it is looking much more like a flower garden.

The evolution of the wildflowers is so neat to me. I love how last year there were so many annuals (I'm actually going to reseed annuals this year. American Meadows has great seeds!) and this year the perennials are starting to show their combinations. If the rain will ever stop, I'd love to post another wildflower alley update, it has changed even more from that photo! Now doesn't that look better than grass?

Frugal Recycled Seed Starting Trays

The first year I started seeds, I used those fun little jiffy pots. I found, however, that when I was digging up the garden that fall to plant cool weather crops, all of the netting was still around the rootball of my plants. Now, for annuals, this might not be a problem, but then again, I didn’t really want all those little pieces of netting floating around in the soil in my garden. So I started using trays. Well, actually, I started using egg carton tops with drainage holes punched into them. Don’t get me wrong, I love to use the cardboard egg cartons for buying eggs because they biodegrade in my compost pile. But I found that starting seeds in the Styrofoam egg cartons actually helps the soil retain moisture for longer, cuts down on fungus (because they can be washed in hot soapy water to help kill bacteria… hot soapy water tends to destroy the cardboard kind of cartons) and helps give me something to do with all those egg cartons!

So here's how to make your own cheap seed starting trays.

• Take a styrofoam egg carton and cut the top off using scissors.
  
• Wash the egg carton top (that is now separated from the bottom) in hot soapy water. Allow to dry.
  
• Take a knife and make holes in the bottom of your tray for drainage. I find that simply inserting the knife and rotating it 45 degrees to each side gives a nice size hole.
• Fill your tray with sterile potting soil or some other seed starting medium.
• Plant your seeds.
• Place your seed tray on a cookie sheet or some other tray that will hold water so that you can water from the bottom. This will help protect your seedlings from damping off and will also make your watering chores SO much easier.
  
• Congratulate yourself on reusing an egg carton and keeping your garden inexpensive!
  

Recession Garden?

I always perk up a little bit when I see mainstream media covering gardening news. I think in my heart, I still want to fit in on the playground, so it makes me feel better when I see that other folks are also starting to get back into gardening. So when I saw CNN covering the savings that a new gardener can expect from a new plot, I was heartened, and then disheartened. Disheartened because the article mentioned that not all new gardeners are going to save money because they simply don't know what to plant and when and how to do it for the cheapest possible.

So I thought I'd help with that a little. My favorite online places for gardening info and how to tips are rather varied, but there are a few that stand out.

GardenWeb Forums are fabulous for asking questions, searching for other questions, and generally gaining knowledge from a huge community of avid gardeners. It's like having a whole virtual neighborhood of gardeners at your fingertips.

National Gardening Association has tons of how to, getting started, find your zone, figure out what to plant when information. Not just food information either, there's lots of good info for the other parts of your yard here.

Vegetable Gardener is a new favorite for me. Timely posts, lots of how to tips, and all from people who have used all of those techniques in their own yards and gardens.

So are you planting your own Recession Garden this year? (Victory Garden? Vegetable Garden? Kitchen Garden? Just plain Garden?)