Garden Journal

Today, I mowed the lawn for the first time this season.

Kitchen Garden

Since moving here, I always thought it would be nice to have a kitchen garden of herbs just outside the door. Unfortunately, we didn't have a fence so any efforts to grow herbs would likely have been foiled by deer. Now that we have a fence, the kitchen garden became a reality. On Friday night, I didn't start out clearing the beds to start this garden. I was trying to prevent the spread of a horrible weed that has little spiky spirals. They are green now but dry out in the summer and stick to your socks. I cleared this area because this weed was starting to spread.

Once I started, I continued all around the patio. It was my hubby's idea to plant herbs and I thought it was a great idea. Luckily, I grew several perennial herbs last summer and they overwintered well in the garden. We had enough plants to fill the bed without having to buy anything. Before transplanting, I had to address the soil issue. And by issue, I mean clay. I loosened the soil and amended it with some rich black dirt from the vegetable garden. Once the soil was ready, I planted the following:

Already in the bed
Dwarf Pomegranates

Grown from seed last year
Lavender
Oregano
Thyme
Sage
Parsley

Transplanted from our yard
Lavender

To be added
Basil
Onions
Flowers from Winter Sowing

Garden Journal - Pruning

Pruning has been on my list of to-do's for a while now. We attending a tree pruning class at Eisley's Nursery at the beginning of February. From that class, the first priority was to spray the trees with a fungicide (we were long overdue!) Once the Copper spray had been applied, the next step was to prune. I finally got around to it yesterday.

Above is the Giant Babcock Peach. It has already started blossoming. So has the Fantasia Nectarine. I am concerned that some of the other trees didn't make it through the Winter storms we experienced this year. I will give it another week or two for the blossoms to come out before looking for replacements.

Garden Journal - Winter Sowing

I have read about Winter Sowing at several sites and decided to try it this year. In preparation, we have been saving plastic juice containers to use as mini-greenhouses. Today, I planted 8 types of flower seed:

Columbine: Dragonfly Hybrid Mixture
Black-Eyed Susan
Blanketflower: Gaillardia Aristata
Purple Coneflower: Echinacea
Alyssum: Gold Dust
Dahlia: Unwin's Dwarf, mixed colors
California Poppy: Extra Golden
Sunflower: Autumn Beauty Mixed Colors

We'll see how well the seeds germinate using this method.

Garden Journal

Despite the stormy weather today, my husband planted the blueberry plants he received as a Christmas gift.  Our patch has 6 more residents and is quite full.  He also fertilized the citrus trees, as their leaves were yellowing. 

Garden Journal

The sun finally came out today (technically it was out yesterday too) and we were able to go outside and do some work. There were trees that needed staking after the recent storms, so we rounded up some stakes and tied them up. I decided to pull weeds from the planting area near the pool. It is now cleared of the thorny weeds, but the grassy ones still remain. After an hour of clearing out weeds, I am now able envision a blooming flower bed. I may even buy some plants for it.

Garden Journal

Today, I finally cleaned up the garden. The dead peppers and tomatoes, which had been blackened from the snow and cold weather in December, are finally out. It looks much cleaner now (except for the giant pile of dead plants).

I also discovered that my Winter garden had some survivors. There is an abundance of lettuce, some radishes and turnips, fennel, and Swiss chard. I also found single plants of bok choy and brocoverde. I weeded around the remaining vegetables so they are more accessible.

Garden Journal

Today, I planted our Christmas tree. It is a Lemon Cypress that was purchased in a 1 gallon container from Lowes for $12.99. I planted it near the blueberries so it gets some partial shade. It currently stands about 2.5 feet tall.

I also planted 25 bulbs of the Spectrum Sweet Aroma Daffodil mixture from Brecks. I was sent a coupon for $25 off any purchase, so they were only about $3 out of pocket. The bulbs are in four groups in the middle of the heuchera garden. Some have already started sprouting, probably since I was a little late in planting them.