Before & After: Masha's Rose

I am fascinated by garden transformations - whether those transformations occur through time (many years, or only a season), radical re-designs, or even little tweaks that make a big difference. I'd like to start a section here at Sweet Bean Gardening that features these changes in the garden. (You can see my before & after cottage garden post here).

This week I am very happy to feature Masha over at A Rose is a Rose.  She has a stunning rose garden, and I basically begged her to share a Before & After. :) Masha inherited a neglected Cecile Brunner rose from the previous owners of her home. She says that in November 2006, the rose "had five smallish canes lying on the ground and wilting. We lifted the canes off the ground and gave the rose some water and food. Next spring it bloomed and we had an ID."

 

 

1) How did you find out it was a Cecile Brunner? Do you have a guess of how old it is?

I found out because, being a rose addict, I have seen so many roses I'd know a lot of them at a glance (but mostly by the growth habit, frequency and type of bloom, shape of leaves). Also, this rose is very common in the area. It is hard to say how old it is, but it has some very thick old canes, I would guess between 10 and 40 years old (our house was built 40 years old, so it is unlikely to be older than that).

 

2) When does it flower and what else do you have planted in this garden with it?

It blooms from late April to early June, the peak being in May. It is such a massive rose that it is hard to have anything growing next to it (it shades most things, and the roots are pretty thick too). It basically spreads across the whole planting bed, but I do have a camellia next to it, and some Calla lilies underneath. Click here for the post on how we did the retaining wall for that bed.

3) Is there anything else you'd like to share about your rose and its amazing resurrection?

Cecile Brunner is a climbing polyantha rose discovered in 1894. Old roses are tough and care-free survivors and deserve a gardener's attention no less than the latest release hybrid tea.

 See? Didn't I tell you she had stunning roses?

If you have a Before & After you'd like to have featured, just send me an email. I'd love to see the transformation in your garden!

Swagbucks

Today I'm blogging on the non-gardening front...but definitely on the dirt cheap front.

I wanted to share with you all about Swagbucks, if you haven't already heard about it! I'd heard of Swagbucks in the past, but just recently really got started using it, and I love it. Mostly because I'm cheap, and like earning free money for being online. :) Especially when it's cold out and I can't get to the garden!

Swagbucks is an online site that allows you to earn money ("Swagbucks") while you search the web like you usually do. After you collect so many Swagbucks, you can redeem them for rewards (that are actually really good!) such as Amazon gift cards or credits in your PayPal account.

Joining Swagbucks is easy peasy! You get 30 free Swagbucks for joining, and if you join between now and Monday the 28th, you'll get an additional FREE 50 SB. Here you go:

1) Click here

2) Enter your information to sign up

3) Enter the code 3rdBirthday147 into the window that asks for a special code (This code will give you the additional 50 free Swagbucks)

4) Follow the rest of the instructions

5) Once you're all registered, click "Toolbars" at the top of the page and then "Download" to get the Swagbucks toolbar installed. This is where you will do your regular Internet searches.


The easiest way to win Swagbucks is to search through the toolbar. You won't win every time, but when you do, a little image will appear at the top of your search telling you, "Congrats! You just won (1 or 5 or 10 or 50 or whatever number) Swagbucks!" 

I know there are also other ways to earn Swagbucks - like referring others (what I'm doing with this post!), surveys, special codes, etc., but honestly I haven't done much of those yet. I usually win Swagbucks just by searching with the toolbar. I'll let you know how it goes if I experiment with some of those other things!

So go check it out, sign up here, and start earning some extra $ to spend on gardening books! (Or garden gloves, or garden plants, or garden tools or really just about anything you can buy online!)

Record-keeping in the Garden

It snowed (again). And the Tornado was *so* excited the other day when she finally saw grass on the ground. "Mama, come see! The grass came up!"

So it's a good day to break out the garden records.

My garden daybook is my favorite short & sweet journal. I used to keep it in an Excel file, but recently I switched it over to an actual journal. I like the fact that it's more tangible. Somehow carrying your laptop or iphone out to the garden just doesn't ring true. The daybook is a huge journal that I bought at CVS. Each month of the year is numbered on its own page, then I paperclip each year together. I love being able to look back at what happened on exactly each day in the garden. This isn't the place for detailed records, but it's easy to keep up on, and fun to record little things that I would have otherwise forgotten.

Then I have the Master Garden List in Excel. I record all the plants that I buy or that were passalongs here, along with the year purchased, where I bought it, or any other random info. Usually I just input the plant tag info here - that way I can throw out the tag.  The Master Garden List also has a few tabs for Plants from Seed, Yearly Notes, and Top Fives. (post on the Top Fives is coming soon).

Finally, I have an actual Garden Journal that my very sweet husband created for me for Christmas. It is a blank book that he personalized at Snapfish with photos of my garden and the sweet beans. That's where I ramble on about garden ideas that keep me up at night or keep more detailed records, garden goals, etc.

I don't have a good system going for photos yet, though. Right now they just end up on the computer in folders labeled by month. I read an article over at the Violet Fern the other day though, about a program called Plant Jotter. It is a program that apparently can combine all of this information - photos, to-do lists, notes - in one location. How cool! If you want more info,check out her article about Plant Jotter.

So that's how I currently keep track of what's going on (or not going on) in the garden. What kind of record-keeping system do you have for YOUR garden?

Wordless Wednesday

The Tornado helped plant & label seeds yesterday...these are coreopsis. Isn't it obvious? :)

On the Veg Planning Front

Last night I very bravely cracked open my vegetable gardening books.
I gathered my courage and pulled out my garden daybook and journal.
I valiantly attempted to plan the veggie garden.

Somewhere in between companion planting and oh,where-do-I-put-the-onions and oh, I think I saw that bug on my peppers and oh, maybe I should build a a-frame for my cucumbers, I fell into a near sleepwalking (sleep-planning?) stance. Vegetable garden planning is a lot of work. I managed to get about halfway done and then I realized I have raspberry starts from a friend. At that point I gave up and went to bed!

{Hanni 0, Death Garden 1}

Zinnias from the Death Garden were prolific, though!

I did feel encouraged though, by a book that I got from the library called The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. He advocates using wide, raised beds within your vegetable garden...and not planting in straight rows, but rather in clumps. His recommendations sort of reminded me of a potager garden. I LOVE the look of potager gardens, but they intimidate me, probably because it seems they must be well-planned.


I'm more of a daydream, draw a picture, then plant wherever there's a bare spot kind of gardener. Although I do love record-keeping about what's going on in the garden, trying to plan ahead makes me break out in a cold sweat. My heart is racing a little faster now that I just remembered days-to-maturity. :)

If all else fails, I'll just sow zinnias by the thousands.


{Hanni 3000, Death Garden 1}

 Do you have your veg gardens planned yet? Do you have any tried-and-true veggie combinations that I should give a shot?

Dirt Cheap: Milk Jug Bird Feeder 1

Once you have been brainwashed converted into wintersowing, you will find that you cannot in good conscience throw out a milk jug. Never fear, gardener! There are hundreds (well, at least quite a few) of ways that the humble milk jug can be made to earn its keep.

 I made up this simple birdfeeder this winter, and it was a hit with the finches.

Here's how to make Milk Jug Bird Feeder #1:

1. Cut a hole about 2 inches wide in the center of your clean, rinsed milk jug for the entrance
2. Poke (or drill) a small hole underneath the entrance hole
3. Take a length of dowel rod (about 8 or 9 inches) and push it through the hole you just drilled
4. Mark where the dowel hits the opposite side of the milk jug
5. Poke (or drill) another small hole where you marked in Step 4
6. Push the dowel all the way through. Make sure to leave a nice long length of dowel right at the entrance hole so the birds land there or just stand and admire the food inside.
7. Poke a few small holes near the top and thread some wire through for a hanger.
8. Fill with seed and hang her up!

 The finches would come in flocks and fight over who got to go inside the all-you-can-eat feeder.

"Brunhilda! You've been in there for the past 3 minutes! You're gonna eat up all the good seed! The rest of us can't pull your overstuffed self out of that little entrance, you know! We don't have hands!"

(My apologies if this posted twice on Blotanical...my computer wonked out and published it when I was not looking. Bad computer, bad!)

The Voice of Stillness

The other day I read about enjoying stillness in the garden.
And I couldn't help but think, "I know Who the Stillness is."

 Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake,
but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire,
but the LORD was not in the fire.
And after the fire came a gentle whisper. (1 Kings 19:11-12)
 

He is the Gardener who created and enjoyed the first garden.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. (Genesis 3:8)

 

He is the Sustainer who is faithful to give us the joy of spring out of the dead of winter.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
   and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The LORD will indeed give what is good,
   and our land will yield its harvest. (Psalm 85:11-12)

And He is the Restorer who gives new life to us, too.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; 
old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  (2 Corinthians 5:17)

 

For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
   Praise the LORD. (Psalm 117:2)

Stylish Blogger Award

Karin at Southern Meadows was kind enough to award me the... (insert heartstopping drumroll)

Da-da-daaa! The Stylish Blogger Award. Thank you so much Karin!

And here's the fine print:

1. Post a link back to the person who gave you the award
2. Share 7 random things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered bloggers and drop them a note to tell them about it

I've really been enjoying reading the random info about other bloggers, so here are
my Little Known Facts:

1. I put words in my dog's mouth all the time, and apparently do so in a certain voice.I heard the Tornado the other day asking the dog "Do you want a biscuit?" and then she answered for him in a low, growly tone, "Yeeees."
   
2. My scrapbooking used to be published in several magazines
   
3. I'm a huge list maker and have lists for nearly everything. If it's not on a list, then I forget it. And some of my lists are things that probably could be forgotten.
   
4. One of those lists is my "Books Read" list. I tend to be a super-fast reader...last year I read 92 books!
   
5. I read Gone With the Wind every summer
   
6. Chocolate is a huge weakness of me...plants follow close behind
   
7. It's embarassing how long coming up with these Little Known Facts has taken me!

And since I'm a new blogger myself, I can honestly say that EVERY garden blog is "recently discovered" to me. So here are some of the ones I have been enjoying:

The Bunnies Buffet

The Violet Fern

Signature Gardens

Gardening Asylum

A Rose is a Rose

Plant Postings

Passalong Plants

Plantaliscious

Veggie Gobbler

Along Life's Highway

Fresh From the Backyard

Creative Country Mom

Garden Sense

Carolyn's Shade Gardens

The Whimsical Gardener

Whew! My eyes are cross-eyed now from all that linking. :) Happy reading!

Bloom Day: February 2011

It's my first Garden Blogger's Bloom Day! I've enjoyed Bloom Day in lurkdom before, so I'm happy to be able to really join in this time.

Unfortunately, like everybody else in the Frigid Zone, there's not much actually blooming outside!
I waded through the thawing mud-snow in search of February beauty - there is always beauty to be found even in the yuckiest of days. God is just good like that. :)

The "blooms" of my zebra grass standing in front of the sunset. The zebra grass is right to the side of my kitchen window & I can't tell you how many times I see movement out there and jump! It's just this one wayward piece, too. Zebra Grass, you may want to prepare yourself for transplantation. (I may have just made that word up, too. But it sounds like a good one!)

Obviously not many blooms here, either, but the light was just too pretty not to share! And if you squint you can see the monarda heads.

And last, a hint of green! The feverfew has been green all winter. 

What's blooming in your garden?

V-Day Thaw

Tropical-like highs around 40F have me running about without a coat, rejoicing in the first robin sighting of the year, and searching for bits of green out my window. If the ground wasn't still blanketed in snow, I would be on my knees in the mud searching for crocus tips, even though my head is telling me it's too early. (Although 2 years ago I sighted some crocus green on the 11th of Feb!)

I know it's just a tease of spring, and here in zone 5 there will be several weeks of teasers then yet (another) snow. But I am so thankful! Take note of Exhibit A, taken only a few weeks ago. The water coming off the downspout was a solid, beautiful block of ice. Now observe Exhibit B, taken yesterday. Only a teeny
 little bit of ice remaining...even though it looks like the water is turning into ice, it's really working the other way around. :)

Bring on the Spring Thaw! What signs of spring are you seeing in your garden?

Exhibit A - January

Exhibit B - February

Making Snow Ice Cream

I really think February is the longest month of the year. There are still a good several weeks until we begin seeing signs of spring. My daybook entries in February invariably revolve around the same theme: waiting for warm! spring fever! cabin insanity!

 Instead, last night we decided to take advantage of the deep snow outside and make snow ice cream. I've been wanting to make this a winter tradition - along with the first-day-of-snow fudge, the backyard bird count, our annual Spring Supper. I think it's helpful to have events to look forward to to help pass these extra-long days at the end of winter. (Recipe is below)

Homemade Snow Ice Cream

• 16 cups very fresh snow
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• toppings

Bundle up and go outside to scoop the fresh snow into a large bowl. Add milk, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well. (We added homemade strawberry jam for strawberry-flavored ice cream). Add toppings and enjoy!

We halved the recipe so that the kids would actually be able to go to bed. :)

It tasted a little like a snow cone, a little like a milkshake, and a little like strawberry snow. But the Tornado thought it was GREAT fun, and so I'm sure we'll do it again next winter!

What sorts of winter traditions do you have?

Dirt Cheap: Homemade Seed Starter Pots

This year my seeds aren't going to know what hit them. I usually wintersow my seeds because I fail miserably haven't found my sweet spot with sowing seeds the conventional route. Plus, I am a dirt cheap gardener. 

However, this year I'm attempting to start my seeds in little homemade pots inside my wintersowing container. Naturally, I was on the search for the frugalist (yup, made up that word) pots possible. Enter the toilet paper roll pot. Talk about the ultimate upcycling! And everybody has these around. (And if you don't, I don't even want to know why)

 

Here's how to make 2 seed starting pots out of an empty toilet paper roll:

1.   Foll/smash the roll in half lengthwise
2. Fold/smash it in half lengthwise the other way (the end will look like a rounded square)
3. Cut the roll in half, so you have two pieces
4. On one end of the roll, make a 1/2 inch cut on each fold (4 cuts total)
5. Tuck in the edges just like you would a box
6. Fill with seed starting medium, and plants ahoy!

Another very popular way to make seed starting pots is out of newspaper. I don't even know how many pots you could make out of one newspaper, but it has got to be a LOT.

 

 Here's how to make a seed starting pot from a newspaper:

1. Fold a double sheet of newspaper in half lengthwise
2. Fold it in half lengthwise again (sorry, the pictures don't show this very well)
3. Find something round and about the size that you want your pots to be. I used a large spice container, but pop cans/glass jars/cups also work well. Make sure you leave a little space at the end.
4. Roll the newspaper all the way around your container
5. Smash the ends of the newspaper in as best you can
6. Fill with seed starting medium, and plants ahoy!

 

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. You can plant seeds in egg cartons, in clean, rinsed egg shells,  in yogurt cups, in small disposable cups, etc. & etc. So go on an eggs & yogurt binge while reading the newspaper and collecting toilet paper rolls from all your neighbors, and you will be set to start one amazing garden from seed!

Have you started seed in any of these or any other around-the-house container? How did it work for you?

Project: Save the Bees

Holly at Tasty Travels is hosting a fabulous giveaway - Project: Save the Bees. The gist is to share some of your bee friendly flower seeds with your readers (with rules of your own choosing.) You can go out and purchase a packet of bee happy seeds, like the bachelor button seed below...

...or you can use seeds that you've saved from your own stash.

The bees in my garden go crazy for agastache, bachelor's buttons, and of course, bee balm. I'm also always seeing fat little buzzy bums come crawling out of my marigolds and lupines. Sooo...I have bachelor button (see packet above), lupine and snowdrift marigolds (from my garden) to share - just leave me a comment if you'd like some seeds to make the bees go wild. (US only, please)

And if you want to share the love (the bees thank you!), here are the rules:

1) Purchase a seed packet of bee friendly flowers and figure out how many people you'd like to share with

2) Announce the project on your blog/website and offer the seeds to others (starting Sunday, Feb 6th)

3) Link your post back to this post

4) Mail your seeds to your people

5) Update your original post with a list of places you mailed your seeds

The Smell of Spring

Remember my defunct paperwhites? Last night we were sitting down to supper, and my husband The Inventor asks, "What is that smell?" I point to the couple of paperwhites that did, in fact, survive the Tornado's assistance, and are infusing the whole sunroom with their fragrance.

Actually, I'm not terribly fond of their smell, but I plant them every year just the same. I think the smell is growing on me, but apparently not on my husband.

I can't smell anything today though, since our family has been passing around a cold. (It's true, I'm always telling the sweet beans to share!). If I sniff really hard, I might catch a whiff, but the resulting sneeze isn't worth it! So instead I'm happily dreaming about spring fragrances.

Hyacinths are my absolute favorite spring scent. I remember being a little girl and being so thrilled when my mother let me cut some purple hyacinths. How I wish they naturalized! You know what? Come to think of it, I forgot to plant some last fall. Drat. But I know I have lily-of-the-valley, irises, lilacs, and peonies to look forward to! There's nothing as pleasing as stepping outside in the spring and inhaling the sweet waft of flowers from your garden. Assuming you don't have allergies, that is.

What spring scent are YOU looking forward to the most?

Conquering the Death Garden: Part Two

 So yesterday I shared about the veg garden out to destroy my sanity & my veggie intake, commonly known in our household as the Death Garden. I have high hopes that this year I will overcome. Maybe it's overconfidence, maybe it's just willful determination that comes from staring down the Death Garden out my window every day.

At any rate, I'm armed with a soil test, hope, and an order of seeds from a (new to me) company. E&R Seed is a Hoosier company who offers a HUGE catalog of non GMO seed. They sent me their seed & plant catalog, plus fall & spring catalogs, full of just about any garden item I may ever possibly need.

 

The prices are stinking low (boo-yah!) and check this out...

Bingo. No shipping & handling charge on most items. If you want to order actual plants, there is a charge, but it's $0 (boo-YAH chicky mama!) for seeds. I did some checking online and E&R Seed seems to have received a good review at Daves Garden. The main complaint is that there is no online catalog. I believe I read elsewhere that this is a Mennonite or Amish company (I can't remember which), and that is why they have no online presence. You have to call to request their catalog (1-866-510-3337) - I received mine a few days after leaving a message.

So I've cast my lot in with E&R to help defeat the Death Garden!

Conquering the Death Garden, Part One

Last year I unintentionally planted what became known as the Death Garden.

I never had an "official" veg garden before the Death Garden, but only tucked in tomatoes, onions, & what-have-you in whatever bare spots were available in my flower beds. I had good success! So last year I decided to try my hand at a bigger garden devoted to veggies.

{"Oh, little does she know how I plan to leave her helpless! Sleepless! Vegetable-less!" sneers the sinister Death Garden.}

I put in my seeds & starts at the end of May, and recorded in my garden daybook, "Put in First Official Veg Garden ever."

The entry the next day reads, "The deer found the First Official Veg Garden ever."

{"I'll mock her using my evil compatriots the deer!," the Death Garden laughs in delight.}

I squeaked out a couple of puny veggies though!

 

Only slightly deterred, I replant. This time I get my anti-deer weapons out in full force. We have a deer highway running right along the edge of our property- but they stayed away the rest of the summer. I thought I was on the home stretch to homegrown veggies, but something else happened.

I'm not even sure WHAT happened, but my plants turned partly yellow, and partly wilted. They were still alive & growing & getting new leaves, but looked awful. I spent hours(so it seemed) looking for bugs, checking if I was over/under watering, if there was a lack of nitrogen in my soil, etc.

{Gleeful shouts from the Death Garden. "Surrender now! No hope!"}

The odd thing about it all - the zinnias and marigolds I had growing along the edges were huge & beautiful. The veggies I stuck in my flower beds overproduced and went rampant. My cherry tomato nearly ate my maiden grass. (and very nearly myself a couple of times!) At the end of the season I found beautiful purple peppers stuffed under the echinacea.

Is there hope? Do you have any idea what form of vegetable warfare the Death Garden was imposing on me?

Wordless Wednesday - Outside, Inside

Dirt Cheap: Winter Sowing

Three years ago, always on the search for ways to garden dirt cheap, I discovered wintersowing: the process of starting seeds outdoors in the winter.


I fell in love.

Wintersowing is easy, cheap, and lets me garden in the winter. Um, yes! I have at least a 90% germination rate, and this is from a gardener who steered away from seeds.  Just reading about damping off, whitefly, hardening off, light requirements and such was enough to scare me, so I just bought plants starts instead.

But there is none of that with wintersowing. You plant your seeds in a milk jug, set it outside in the cold & snow, and leave it alone. When warmer weather comes, you'll peek inside a jug one day and see sprouts...once the chance of frost is past, you can take out your little sprouts and plop them in the garden.

That's it. Easy peasy.

Wintersown lupine

 I'm not a wintersowing expert by any means, so if you want a more detailed explanation of how or why it works, check out the info at wintersown.org, or the wintersowing forum at GardenWeb. They will even send you free seeds to try it out. Free seeds? Now you have no excuse not to give it a try!

If you're not convinced yet, walk with me as I go through my favorite method of wintersowing:

 

 1) Drill a few holes (I usually do 4 or 5) in the bottom of a rinsed out milk jug. 

(I LOVE that the bottom of my jug says "hope" - that's it exactly! Hope for spring!)

2) Cut the milk jug nearly in half. Fill it with at least 3 inches of potting soil.

3) Water until it looks like brownie batter, and you have some drips coming out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the jug.

 4) Get those seeds! Plant them in your jug, following the directions on the packet. I usually tamp them down gently to make sure they have good contact with the soil.

5) Mark the jug with what's planted in it. You can haul out those trusty cheap plant markers. Wintersowing is addictive, so I can promise you'll forget what's planted inside!

 

6) The easiest method of closing the milk jug is to hole punch a hole in the top and the bottom halves, then twist tie them together. I save the ties from bread bags, or you can use floral wire. You can still pick up the milk jug by the handle this way and move it around.

7) I also like to mark the outside of the jug with a Sharpie. Set it outside and leave it alone until spring.

You can wintersow perennials and most herbs anytime. Annuals and veggies are best done in early spring, since they are touchy about frost. :) You don't have to sow in milk jugs, either! You can use 2 liter bottles, solo cups, old produce containers...the list goes on and on. Check out the FAQs at www.wintersown.org. it's a fabulous way to recycle AND be able to get your hands in the dirt when it's cold out.

Happy wintersowing!

Little seeds are waiting for spring!