First Planting of the Vegetables

May 31, 2010

The veggies are planted! YAY

Hot peppers, bell peppers and zucchini are in the first box, tomatoes and onions in the second more bell peppers and watermelon in the third box.

The box on the left has potatoes, brussel sprouts, collard greens and cabbage.

The Prickly Pear cactus is alive once again this year. I'm anxious to see the flowers and plan to try to eat some this year.

Slacker

Yep, that'd be me. I've been seriously slacking on my posts. The backyard is busy growing and I'm trying to keep up. The weather has been perfect for plants but not perfect for the gardener. It rains then it heats up. Rain + sunshine + rain + sunshine + rain + sunshine = a whole lotta growing and not much time to control it. I'm either cutting the grass or pulling weeds during the sunshiny days.

May 31, 2010

Jake standing guard over the yard

When it rains...

I go shopping! I spent a wee bit of cash at Linder's Garden Center this afternoon. Oh what fun! I like to think I was giving to charity. You see, my niece is raising money for a youth group she belongs to and she came over the other night and gave me some coupons for Linder's. If I go to Linder's May 7 - 10, 2010 and use this coupon 15% of my purchase (pre-tax) will go to her youth group so I did my part today. Who knows I may go back again before the 10th.

Now if only Mother Nature would cooperate and stop raining! Seriously, the backyard has had enough rain thank you very much.

For the Veggie garden:

Sweet basil

Graffiti Cauliflower it's purple!

zucchini

Roma, Super Sweet and Champion tomatoes

Golden Bell, Elisa bell peppers

Poblano Ancho hot pepper

Red Cabbage

Walla Walla onions

The purple cauliflower, champion tomato, elisa bell pepper and poblano peppers are new to the garden this year. I'm also putting in beans and peas but I haven't picked up any plants yet. I'm thinking I'll head to the Farmer's Market this weekend.

For the Flower gardens:

White New Guinea Impatiens

Crested Merlot and Butterfly (yellow) Argyranthemums

Lemon Balm one of my favorites!

Double Burgundy Petunia

Snapdragons - a variety

Pansie - mix

Dahlia - mix

Stock -Trysomic Branching Mix

Stock and the Argyranthemums are new to the backyard this year.

Boy do I wish the sun was out and I could dig in the dirt :(

I haven't had much time to work in the backyard this past week. Wednesday I had a curling banquet that turned out to be an allnighter. Thursday I had to drive to Rochester for a union convention. Friday and Saturday were both eaten up by the convention. And today Mother Nature decided that we needed rain. In any case I was able to step out for a bit and grab some photos. As you can see I'll have a bumper crop of Dandelions again this year.

Memorial garden

The Memorial garden is coming in nicely and I can start picking Rhubarb any time now.

Tulip, Hosta, Iris and Peonies

The plants along the garage are looking great, at least the ones on the West side of the garage. The North side does not looks so good. It gets too much shade. I think I'll need to do something else with that area soon.

Tulips, Hostas and Peonies

The Lilacs are just starting to bloom, the backyard will be smelling good soon!

Lilacs

Once again the Forget-me-nots are coming in strong!

Forget-me-nots

More Lilacs, these are the ones that run along the East side of my property. They are super old and each year I cut them back with hopes that they will come in thicker.

Lilacs

Ran out of daylight

Spent several hours working in the garden tonight. I was able to finish two beds and half of the third one before I ran out of daylight. 

The rest of my week is pretty full so I don't know when I'll get the rest done. Maybe I'll have a couple hours Thursday morning before I leave for Rochester. I know I sure have some sore muscles tonight!

These three beds will be used for vegetables and I'll be adding one more to the left of these for cut flowers. I still need to decide where I'm going to put the compost bin but I think I have it figured out. I'll make the final decision once all of the beds are built.

Now it's time for a hot shower and a glass of Merlot :)

New Trees!

The new trees arrived today! I'm so happy. The City came and removed all the Ash trees on the block, ground out the stumps and said they would replace the trees. When I got home from work today the new trees were planted. Now I can get out there and put my plants back. I'm excited to get that job done. I'm hoping to have energy enough to remove all the grass from the boulevard and put in plants. That way I don't have to cut the grass anymore.

Northwood Maple

Redmond Linden

Tulips are blooming!

YAY! The Tulips are booming!




The Hostas are above ground as well




You can catch a glimpse of the Peonies behind the Tulips




The Daffodils have been blooming for about a week now.


The beginning of this year's vegetable garden. This has become a big chore.

My dad and his neighbor Russ came over and tilled the beds. I spent quite a long time pulling nails out of the cedar boards.

Now I just need a free day to get them assembled. I might need an extra set of hands as well so I'm hoping to talk a friend or two into coming over for a couple hours. It shouldn't take long. If nothing else I know I can do it myself I did it the last time. It's just easier with a second set of hands. In any case they will be done soon and the plants will go in right away. This year I did not start my own seeds, I'll be heading to the farmers market for plants. I did receive some seed potatoes from my dad, those will go in tomorrow. I've never grown potatoes before but he had extra so I decided to toss some in the garden. When all is said and done I'll have three 6X6 vegetable beds, one 6X6 cut flower bed and one loose area for the potatoes and compost bin.

I have to keep telling myself "it's only April in Minnesota."