End of Month View: March 2011

Time for March's End of the Month View via the Patient Gardener! I'm thrilled to actually have something going on in the garden this month. :)

A sweet little blossom that just opened today. I dug these up (not sure what they are...squill?) from a friend's house last year. Her entire lawn glimmered purple with these beauties, and she was kind enough to let me dig to my heart's content.

And some crocus sunshine this month!

And yes, you are seeing double here. (No longer! Thank you for the stitched image, Nell Jean!) I used the stitch assist function on my camera, but unfortunately it doesn't actually stitch together. But at least you can get a general overview...which looks pitifully bare right now. The big project this summer is to get some trellising to the left of the window. I have my eye on some David Austin roses to grow up the trellises too. :) 

March 2010

 One of these things is not like the other...can you spot the difference between last year and this year?

March 2011

Yup, they built a house next door...Boooo! Hisss!!!! And their sliding glass door has to look *right* in my garden. Ah well, hopefully whoever buys that house will either:

1) permanently keep their curtains closed, or

2) be a gardener or at the very least, enjoy my garden!

Thanks for touring my little March garden today...what's going on in your garden?

Thankful Wednesday

Ah, sweet nectar of spring:

 

And yes, I am guilty of buying them all up when they go on clearance.

They are like the earliest spring bulbs - they only show up for a short glorious part of the year!

The Great Soil Experiment Meme: Part 1

It's The Great Soil Experiment Meme!

(My brain keeps saying It's the Great Soil Experiment, Charlie Brown.)

My last post on how to create a free soil composition test generated a brilliant idea by a couple of commenters. Why not turn this into a meme so we can see the results of several different soil tests? Now really, why didn't this cross my mind? Thank you Alan and Christine for the suggestion!

So here's the deal. Follow the directions on my previous post on how to test your soil composition. It's super easy & won't cost you a penny. And will take all of about 5 minutes. I promise. :)

Now the test needs to rest for a day or two so that the soil can settle. In lieu of that, I will post Part 2 of the meme on Friday. You can link up on Friday and show us the results of what your soil test looks like!

This should be really interesting! I'm looking forward to seeing how different everyone's results are.

So get out in your gardens and start testing! :)

Dirt Cheap: Free Soil Composition Test

Have you ever wondered what type of soil you have?

When I first began gardening, I had no idea. I found lots of suggestions in books on how to improve soil structure, but really, if you don't know what kind of soil you have, those suggestions are pretty much worthless. You have to know what you're starting with first!

Here is a super-easy and FREE way to find out the secrets of your soil:

1. Mix two parts of water to one part soil in a jar. (I used an empty sour cream container...2 containers full of water, 1 container full of freshly dug dirt)

2. Add a little salt (Not exact science here - I used maybe 1/2 teaspoon)

3. Let it rest for a few days and this is what you'll get:

Apparently, the salt works its magic in the soil. The sand will sink to the bottom, the silt stays in the middle, and the clay rises to the top. Here's a closer look at my jar:

Living in the land o'lakes, I knew my soil was mostly sandy...okay, pretty much almost ALL sandy. :)
But this would have been a really helpful trick at my other garden when I was a new gardener.

Thanks to my favorite magazine Birds & Blooms for this tip! So...what kind of dirt you got?

DIY Chic: Spring Flower Shoes

It's getting close to spring shoe time...and boy, did I ever find a cheap, fun shoe project to do. :)

And it even has flowers!

(Cue cheap-lovers spotlight & drawn-out drumroll...)

.

This idea comes from Cheri at I am Momma Hear Me Roar.

And my grand total cost? 3 bucks! Here's how:

1. Start with a plain pair of shoes. I found these $3 clearance beauties which were even cheaper than Goodwill shoes. And these are new!

2. Using your trusty hot glue gun, glue loops of ribbon onto the front of the shoe. Leave a little ribbon overhanging the edge...then hot glue the overhang under the edge of the shoe for a clean finish.

3. Time to add the cuteness! I created the ribbon flowers using the Hannah tutorial over at Craft Snob. She has several other flower tutorials using extra bits of felt/ribbon/fabric if these don't appeal to you. I also glued on some hardware from my bead stash.

And there you go! Not shoes to garden in, for sure, but cute gardenesque shoes for when you're out and about and are dreaming about gardening!

And I promised myself I wouldn't say "from drab to fab," but hey, if the shoe fits...!

Thankful Wednesday

If I was a piece of dirt,

this would be my beautiful view under the crocuses:

I'm thankful I'm not a piece of dirt.

I am thankful for my hope in Christ.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:13-14)

Before & After: Jim's Seasonal Garden

Today's Before & After comes from Jim at illic est haud equus quoque mortuus barruo. 

Talk about seasonal interest! His before & after photos show the garden in spring and then again in fall. The garden can be an entirely different place in autumn than it is in spring, and Jim's photos certainly show that.

And I just have to add- Holy cow! Those gorgeous hostas are taking over the world!

 

 
When were each of the photos taken?

The pictures were taken in the summer and fall of 2010. 

How did you (or did you at all?) plan for seasonal interest in this garden?

Our first goal, after clearing away 25 years of neglect, was to build stone paths around the garden. Even in August there are parts of our yard that are too wet to walk in. Stone paths allow us to access and garden our entire back yard. They even look pretty cool. 

The next step was to find perennials that would grow in a perpetually wet and mostly shady environment. That meant hosta, lots and lots of hosta. Luckily, the hosta we got bloomed during different parts of the summer. I stumbled upon the garden blogging community while searching for other plants for the yard. That’s how I found ligularia, solomon’s seal, swamp milkweed, marsh marigolds…. The list goes on as I am still hunting for more plants. 

Our goal has been to minimize the amount turf grass in the yard and maximize the number of perennials. We want the turf grass only as a backdrop. We do hunt for plants that bloom at different times. 

What is your favorite part of the garden?

The chair placement was easy. We wanted to sit in the shade. The chair from which I took the duck picture is my favorite. It is shady, quiet, and if I sit there long enough the birds and animals all come out.

 ***

I just love the privacy of this garden...and to create such an oasis in a shady & wet area is no small feat indeed. And definite inspiration to plan my autumn garden a little better! Thanks Jim for sharing.

Remember- if you have a Before & After you would like to share, just send me an email.
I'd love to feature your garden next!

Top Fives of Six

Last year, lurking somewhere deep within the bowels of GardenWeb, I read of someone who had a "Top Fives of Five" list. This was a listing of the top five workaholic plants in their garden over the course of their active growing season, which was five months.

Um, bingo! What else could a crazy listmaker gardener ask for but another list to keep track of? I modified my list slightly to the top fives over six months. And I did one list for perennials and one for annuals. These lists *should* help me better design my garden around my seasonal workhorse plants.

 

Here are my perennial Top Fives:

May	June	July	August	Sept	Oct
irises	peonies	echinacea	agastache	grasses	mums
lupine	catmint	butterfly bush	angelonia*	mums	grasses
creeping phlox	shastas	phlox	roses	angelonia*
candytuft	roses	monarda	candy lilies
garlic chives	daylilies	glads	rudbeckia

Manna? What is it?

*Side ramble: (I bought the plant in the above photo at a local garden sale - it was barely a seedling and was labeled "phlox." As soon as it got a little bigger, I realized That's. Not. Phlox. I let it grow for a year, and thought it might be angelonia. (Mysteriously, a phlox DID show up in the middle of the growth the next year!) I have a sneaking suspicion it might be obedience plant though...which would explain why it was in the plant sale in the first place! Any confirmations here?)

The annual Top Fives are pretty redundant - alyssum, snapdragons, then zinnias! :)

One thing I noticed in keeping track of my plants last year was a lack of foliage plants. What a challenge to outshine the stars of the garden, but a garden without these understudies shines only brightly for a few spots in the season. Last summer I added a few lamb's ears (a childhood favorite), and this summer am hoping to try some of the new sun-loving coleus.

Even if you're not much of a listmaker, I'd encourage you to give this exercise a try. After all, you only have to write down 5 plant names a month! And you may be surprised at what you discover.

Dirt Cheap: Bird Nesting Store

I've spotted a couple of bluebirds in our yard the past week.

One afternoon last year, I watched a very dedicated bluebird go back and forth, back and forth across our house gathering what must have been high quality nesting materials. So this year I've decided to help him out.

Welcome to the Big Box Store of Bird Nesting.

(Less flying, More nesting.)

 

I gathered up a load of (ding-ding-ding) FREE materials that will spruce up any nest wannabe. Twigs and sticks? Those are for the birds. (Well, so are these.)

1. Dryer lint (Some recommend this, some don't. I added just a little)

2. Short lengths of yarn

3. Pet hair*

4. Grass

5. Cotton balls

6. Short strips of fabric

 

*The pet hair was donated against my will. I made certain my Human included this photo of my scowling face to show my disapproval.

Stuff all the pieces into a clean suet cage. This should be a nice one stop shop for the birds as they get busy building their nests! 

I haven't personally tried this before, but I'm hoping that this year I can watch Mr. Bluebird build his nest with some of these bright leftover pieces that were otherwise just sitting in my basement. :)

No Peas for St. Pat

I was hoping to plant peas today...the old Plant your Peas on St. Patrick's Day trick.

But look at the snowball of dirt! (I very nearly made a little dirt snowman for you...a dirtball?) My ground is so soggy-wet that I would have a definite disaster if I tried to plant anything. If the soil is ready for planting, the dirt should be crumble when formed into a ball. Not turn into a hockey puck.

Yeah...the majority of the peas aren't gonna happen today. Sorry St. Pat!

Neither are the asparagus roots that came in the mail. I was very surprised they arrived this early! I'm not exactly sure what to do with them for the next few weeks until they get can in the the ground...

The Tornado, Professor & I may plant a few peas in the cottage garden though, just for the sake of having a fun tradition. We're also planning a "green" (literally! not the sustainable kind of green) St. Patrick's supper...green chicken chili, green salad, green pistachio pudding, and green milk.

And I may have a few gold chocolate coins for dessert. :) Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Thankful Wednesday

 

The one-haired, one-footed Wonder Mama!

Bloom Day: March 2011

It's two days "early" but I'm not complaining!

For the past two years my crocus have first bloomed on March 16th. I was hoping to go for three years in a row, but I can't bemoan an earlier bloom. I took these photos yesterday for Carol's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. And it's a good thing I did, since today is rainy and the crocuses are closed.

Doesn't the bud look like a little egg yolk? If I had a great macro lens (or for that matter, a camera that even required a lens!), this could be a really neat shot. I had been watching the green crocus shoots with an eagle eye, of course, and suddenly the sunshine yellow buds appeared!

Next month there should be much more going on in the garden, but the first bloom of the year is a JOYFUL experience! And I am so thankful for it. :)

Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. (Psalm 85:11)

The Doomed Daffodils

I used to have lovely daffodils.  They came up faithfully each spring, bold yellow pronouncements of spring. I even had some extremely sweet early mini daffs, which I managed to forget about every year. Growing daffodils was the easiest thing in my garden.

Then we moved.

Now it seems I have been transplanted into the garden of Daffodil Doom.

Mini daffs circa 2008

I immediately planted several new daffodils in the midst of a circle of daylilies and anxiously awaited the first spring in the new garden. Spring arrived, and my daybook was full of eerily similar sounding entries: "Where in tarnation are the daffodils?" The sluggards finally decided to show up, but refused to bloom.

I tracked down some possible causes for my Non-Blooming Daffodils:

1. Using a fertilizer too high in nitrogen (Nope- I used a teensy spoon of bonemeal)

2. Planting bulbs in too much shade (Nope- They are in full sun)

3. Poor drainage (Possible but not likely - No drainage problems apparent)

4. Bulbs were not well-watered in the fall (Possible - I can't remember though)

I do recall seeing a recommendation to just give them another year and see if they improve. 

I decided to go with that plan. As a safeguard though, I bought a huge bag of daffs in the fall and interplanted them with the pink daylilies along my fence.

2008 daffodil...oh, how I miss thee

So I've been faithfully obsessively checking on the daffodils this spring. It helped to have bulb markers so I remembered where they were supposed to come up! The non-blooming daffs from last year are up a few inches, and I am hopeful but not terribly optimistic about blooms this year. However.

There is no sign of life along the fencerow.

If I don't have any daffodils bloom this year, I will be broken-hearted. I haven't planted very many other bulbs, since we live right along the edge of a Deer Highway. Maybe, just maybe, the fence daffodils are  running late. Maybe they are just making me hold my breath.

At any rate, I bought some at the grocery yesterday. :)

How are your daffodils doing? Do you have blooms yet or are you still waiting in the wings?

Hap-Happiest Day

It's the hap-happiest dayyyy of the year!

Well, at least one of the happiest days of the year. Now I'm not sure who came up with Daylight Savings Time, but whoever the Daylighteer was, they were obviously not a gardener.

We must be right at the end of a time zone, because it's dark before 5 in the winter and light until 10 in the summer. When the time "falls back" in the autumn, it is so depressing to not only be at the end of the garden season, but to have the dark suddenly smack in your face. Growing up, we used to have a special dinner when the days started getting longer instead of shorter!

But today, O Blessed Day, we "spring forward" and get back that daylight! It was light until 8 o'clock! Yippee!!!!!

 

Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.  (Psalm 139:12)

Sweet Bean Winter Walk

  A Tidewater Gardener is hosting a Winter Walk contest...(I discovered this via a picturesque post over at Plantaliscious). You are to take a walk with your own two feet, and share what you see! One rule though: you can't show anything from your own yard.

What a spectacular idea! We share photos of our gardens so often; I have greatly enjoyed visiting the towns & vistas seen daily by other garden bloggers. And most of them are truly delightful!

So on a blustery March day, I bundled up the sweet beans and we froze walked our short route around the neighborhood. My winter walk, alas, remains fairly stark. A few items of note:


1) It really does feel as bleak & chilly as it looks
2) Add a brisk bone-freezing breeze to the view
3) Did I mention we fairly flew through the walk while I was snapping pics on the run?
4) Brrrr.

 

This is the view from our front porch. How sad I will be when they build houses there.

 

Down around the first curve we met the 4:00 bus. The Professor looked longingly at the mode of travel to the intellectual realms and the Tornado flagged down the driver with waves and shouts of "Hello!"

 

The sun sets through here in the wintertime and is stunning with hot pinks and bright oranges firing up behind the black trees. In the summer the sun sets further north and I can't see it as well from the house.  

You can't see the road, but straight through here is where the deer tried to jump into my car last week. I am thankful that it's still winter and I had my windows up! My Wonderful Husband mentioned that a few days ago - what a shock to the system if the window was down and I suddenly had a deer in my lap.

A spot of mossy green! Hurrah! That was the only green I spotted on our walk. Just give it a month and then there will be green everywhere. :)

 

And the rest of the way home. This is the street behind our house. 

All in all, we were on the road probably less than 10 minutes, but it was so good to be outside. Even if my limbs were close to falling off. 

If I can remember to do a spring or summer walk, we can go the long way down to the lake or out on the country roads some and enjoy the cornfields. But, in early March, this was as far as we got!

Thanks for walking along with me! And do take a winter walk yourself, and post it over at A Tidewater Gardener! :)

Before & After: Shyrlene's Front Garden (Twice)

I am exhausted just writing about this week's Before & After. 

Shyrlene over at The Bunnies Buffet is one ambitious lady! She doesn't just have a Before & After; she has a Before Before and an After After ! (Overachievers of the world, UNITE!)

 

 

Shyrlene overhauled and renovated her home AND her gardens. Imagine seeing your front garden being ripped into the above chaos! Now I know...this is backwards of how a Before & After is supposed to go. I promise I didn't mislabel the photos. :) 

 

You're exhausted too now, right? And this is just the front garden. I can't wait to see how it fills out this summer - talk about a complete transformation! Here are Shyrlene's Garden Redux Secrets: 

(or really, just me being nosy and asking questions!)

1. How did you plan your new garden?

I figured out general areas (sun/shade) of the front and backyards. In the past, before we did the addition, the whole backyard was in sun - so it was sun-friendly plants or nothing.

Started my "Shade Garden" first - because it was next to my new 3-Season room, and I needed some instant gratification to motivate me as I sat there and I sketched garden plans for the rest of the yard! It was also where I re-purposed some concrete sidewalk from front yard demolition during construction. They became my steps to the backyard.

Shade Garden with re-purposed concrete

Designed the "Front Garden" next, so the neighbors didn't have to look at a wasteland any more. I wanted organic-shaped garden beds - so I sketched a number of ideas until one jelled for me. I also wanted to create a visual border/ screen to the house to the West of our home - so plants that would grow large or be an evergreen were important for the plant list.

I learned early, when we originally bought the house years ago - plant your "anchor" plants first. Trees & bushes should be planted immediately, since they are slow growers usually. Mature trees & bushes = good!

 

Is this a Master Plan or what?

 

2. Did you run into any snags or surprises?
 

Surprises: Tree roots! I had no idea just how far mature trees send out roots! They are everywhere, even in the middle of the yard . It will give you 'tennis elbow' when you are trying to dig a new garden.

Snags: Bunnies --- they decimated 2 new Arborvitae, made a 3-yr old Golden Privet a "chew bone" (I thought for sure it was dead as a door nail), almost took out a new Dappled Willow, and snipped new branches off of 6 Red-twig Dogwoods. (Now you know why I call my garden blog the "Bunnies Buffet"!)

3. What is your best advice for someone wanting to start a brand new garden?

Start new garden beds the fall before you really want to plant. Rather than excavate yards and yards of grass & turf, put down newspaper on top of the grass (where you want to put your garden), then add compost and pete moss (+ 6") on top. Let it overwinter. The newspaper breaks down the sod (and is environmentally friendly). The grass, newspaper and compost/pete moss all breakdown and enrich the soil. By late spring, you are ready to start planting.

4. Did you have any great deals on the plants in your garden or a cheap DIY tip to share?

 

Share plants with your friends. I dug up all my plants before construction - and gave them to many friends; now 3 years later - they are sharing "back" to me! (Hostas, Daylilies, Sedum and native grasses)
 

Buy hardy perennials at Lowes, Home Depot, etc. I love Moonbeam Coreopsis and Pink Gaura. Lowes is just down the street, and was selling both for $3/plant last year! It fills in the gaps in your new gardens - for the loose change you collect over the winter! Save the 'big bucks' for your favorite nursery, for the exotic or unusual 'must have' plants, and bushes that you want a 1-yr warranty on.

Thank you so much Shyrlene for sharing all of your incredible hard work with us here at Sweet Bean Gardening!!! I think I'm going to go take a nap now... :)

And a reminder: If you have a garden Before & After, send it to me at sweetbeangardening(at)gmail.com. I'd love to feature your garden too!

Deer vs. the Gardener: Round 1

Last night the Tornado and I were happily driving along to a party, singing our hearts out, a bowl of chocolate mousse to share sitting next to me.

 Then someone threw a baseball at my head.

I heard myself scream, and simultaneously thought, "Why on earth would someone throw a baseball at me?" Never mind the fact that it is still too cold for anybody to even be THINKING about playing baseball outside at that time of night. And that I can't find said baseball in the van. 

Glass magically appears in places where glass usually doesn't appear: in my hair, my shoes, my seat, the Tornado, pretty much everywhere. Not until a friendly jogger stops by and checks on us do I realize that not only is the window busted, but there is a huge dent (dent would be the mild form here...) in my door as well.

Friendly Jogger told me that she saw a deer stumbling drunkenly by the side of the road, and mentioned that she thought that was more than a little odd. Then she rounded the corner and found us, me still frantically searching for the baseball.

Apparently the deer believed I had stashed  a chocolate MOOSE next to me. And he sure did his best to jump right in the van and help himself. Praise the Lord we are okay, with nothing more than a few scratches from our glass bath.

This afternoon, while it was warm enough for me to check for any new signs of life in the garden, I found this:

Deer, oh deer, you messed with the wrong gardener. Bring it.

(Or really, just be intimidated by my trash talk and stay far away from my gardens. I can't even threaten to sic my little shih tzu at you - he would be terrified!)

Hope Grows Day: March 2011

There is always something to look forward to when you're a gardener. The thrill of the first baby spring blooms, bright hot summer sunshine swimming on bright hot summer flowers, autumn leaves dancing on the last of the vegetables, snowy birds peeking in as you plan & dream in the winter.

Every season carries a new hope, a new joy, a new blessing! And if there's anything I've found with gardeners - it's that we eagerly anticipate each new phase of gardening.

In light of that, welcome to the first Hope Grows Day meme!

Here are the guidelines: 

Post a photo of something in your garden that you are looking forward to in the next month. It could be a plant you're hoping to see bloom, a project you're hoping to do, really anything that you are hopeful to see/do in your gardens. Next month (on the fifth), come back and show us:

1. the results of what you were hoping for, and

2. what you are looking forward to for the next month

Make sense? Since this is the first month, I don't have anything to show you from February, so let's just jump in and show you what I'm looking forward to in March. :)

Oh yeah. Bring on the peas.

I should be able to plant out my peas by the middle to end of the month. Peas are usually the first things I get to plant every year, so it's really a big deal. The funny thing? None of us are really overly fond of peas! I plant them anyway, because we do like snacking on them raw. I should also be able to plant out my onion sets, spinach, lettuce & radishes. My mouth is watering already!

What are you looking forward to in your garden in March? Add your link below!