Tag Archives: garden

Amaryllis, A short story

29 May

My first experience with Amaryllis bulbs was a gift from a wonderful neighbor November 2019. Blooms emerged January, 2020. It rebloomed April, 2021.

My mother loved all flowers. She had a special fondness for peonies, iris and day lilies of all varieties. She had a Christmas cactus that thrived over decades usually blooming just in time for the holidays. One can never have enough blooms :).

Mom requested an amaryllis bulb for the holidays. I ordered one shipped to her Christmas of 2020. In spite of being carefully watched for signs of life…NOTHING happened. The next time I was home, she instructed me to “take it back”.

I decided to repot. To my wondering eyes, I beheld FIVE bulbs in one pot. There was no room for any of them to grow.

For me the next step was to round up five pots to replant and give all the bulbs their own space. In the months that followed: Two did not thrive, Three grew beautiful foliage….

ONE of the three developed TWO blooms.

God bless Mom and Dad this Memorial Day!

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Persimmons

22 Jun
12 seeds planted. These FOUR sprouted.
Fresh native persimmons (fall 2021)
Persimmons Fall 2021 Central Indian

Back story and the reason for celebrating FOUR persimmon seedlings.

Fall 2019: Content and failed trial inspired by

“How to Grow Oak Trees from Acorns” Shelly Wigglesworth Oct 16, 2018, published in New England Today, Living

I like the idea of refrigerating with peat and barley in a sealed container over winter.

Shelly recommended discarding acorns with pin holes.  They are made by “inch” worms exiting the hull.  I believe the worms enter under the cap.  After checking closely and drying  about two weeks, I discarded 20 acorns of the 60+ I had gathered from our backyard.

Here we “grow” again…today March 11, 2020…

Responding to the loss oak seedlings ruined by squirrels going for the meat of the acorn…I have turned the table!  Using a small cage to keep wild life out and protect future tree…rather than keep animals IN.  45 acorns in peat pots.

Hmmmm…what yield will we have? ZERO 😦

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Strawberry 🍓 Surprise

2 Jun

2021 we had aspirations for planting a fair size strawberry patch. After hearing the passion wildlife has for ripe berries, we scaled down, planted what was already ordered near the breeze way. We netted three of 20 plants.

2022 we let the survivors stay in place near a retaining wall. Surprise! Surprise! We have had enough ripe berries to have parfaits for two….five days in a row.

Runners have stretched out to start several more plants.

Great flavor!

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When inspiration hits dirt

22 Apr

Back ground: Winter 2021. When will pandemic end? Seed catalogs: Shumway and Jung. Delightful dreams of spring planting. Adventure! For the first time I ordered strawberry, raspberry and asparagus roots.

The good news (maybe) is that I reconsidered where to plant strawberries and asparagus to prevent them from becoming snacks for wildlife. These are my trials/experiments…what’s my vision?

Veg in One Bed by Huw Richards, Wales

The Family Garden Plan by Melissa Norris, Oregon

Both are excellent! Great photos.

Several years ago, I followed the Instagram account (grandoakfarmtn) of Grand Oak Farm’s launch of a three season three acre project to supply farmer’s market with fruit, vegetables and flowers. I could see what they were doing, but I did not comprehend how it was orchestrated. Some areas of the field were planted with three different crops. What? How did they go together? Veg in One Bed (with photos) discusses three season gardening plan. However, as helpful as the plan is, it did not include examples with my favorite produce.

I turned to The Family Garden Plan which focuses on “likes” and growing quantities to supply the home kitchen year round. Very well done. Bible verses introduce each chapter. Illustrations and planning charts are outstanding.

My long term memory (40 years ago) of the kitchen gardens of Colonial Williamsburg Virginia kicked in. Ah! Ha! Charming. Fruits. Vegetables. Herbs. Flowers. Right out the back door. Narrow paths. Three season. Less than 1/2 acre.

Hmmmmm. There’s a future post on this subject. 😉

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Walk this way

30 Apr

Planting purple wave petunias concludes five days freshening flower beds

with seven cubic yards of hardwood fine mulch.

Stay at home!  2020

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Spring Gardening or…

9 Apr

what are they?

 

Spoiler alert:  Amazon sells them.  (That is how I discovered the name.)

I have been in garden centers often over the years and never saw one.  I acquired them from an estate a couple of years ago.    They are:

rotary tillers (with a broom type handle)

Applied testing:  It does a nice job freshening up last year’s mulch and also works well mixing homemade compost with clay type soil.

 

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Winter Gardening

7 Jan

Winter gardening means trimming dried perennials and raking leaves.  That is…until my neighbor gave me an amaryllis bulb kit.  Delightful!  (The kit includes one bulb, glass jar and growing medium.)

Jan 6 (Ephiphany)

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Update Kiwi story

25 Jun

June 2022

After 5 years, is it possible to produce fruit???
Vines reaching for garden shed.

June 2019:  Woo! Hoo! In this photo…blurry, baby kiwis!

Baby kiwis

Apparently, I focused on the the one top-left of center.  Three in this photo!

It has taken two years for this perennial plant to mature and bear fruit.  Also, we have had significant rain fall this season.  The vines have grown over ten feet long.  Hopefully, the vines will meet the arbor between the house and garden shed…may not be this year.  (I would have planted if closer, if I had understood how it grew.)

May 2018:  Last year’s great expectations deflated.  Here we “grow” again!  Our perennial kiwi vine has a strong start for this season.  It is front and center in the photo below with four vines.  So far, the longest one is over three feet long.

May 2017:  Yesterday, we were pleasantly surprised to find potted “Hardy Kiwi” for $12 at Cox’s Plant Farm.  I thought kiwi grew on trees like apples or cherries.  It is a vine that prefers a trellis to support perhaps 100 fruit.  We’ll let you know how we did.

http://ediblelandscaping.com/careguide/Kiwi/

 

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Dirty job: composting

27 Jun

Yard compost bin

Yard

Kitchen compost bin

Kitchen

 

Compost bins

 

 

 

 

 

Composting is both a dirty job and “Black gold” to enrich vegetable garden….this season’s yield…200 pounds!

For eighteen years, I have used a three step process to mitigate the slime and smell of kitchen waste.  This year I added a fourth step.

  1. Compost kitchen and garden waste (very slimy and smelly)
  2. Compost yard waste (primarily trimmings of perennial flowers).
  3. Add kitchen compost to yard waste = black gold
  4. Top off with ashes from fire pit for enrichment

All gardening starts with dirt.  Yes, it is less expensive and messy to buy compost by the bag at garden centers.  Homemade is better.

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Fabulous Foliage

16 Jun

and thank you to 2,000 followers!

Hosta: Guacamole
Hosta: Golden edge
Hosta: Rainforest Sunrise

Our very cold late spring in central Indiana stunted blooms on our flowering trees.  However, the rains that followed supported the best season ever for our hostas.

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