Container gardens

When you think of container gardens, what do you envision?

I would guess most of us think of a large pot with flowers,

all beautifully coordinated and arranged to grow in harmony.  

These are some of my favorite type of containers to pot up in the Spring, and place strategically around my yard during the summer months. 

Many of these pots have unique light conditions.  Keeping this in mind I will meet their needs during the weekdays, and move them to my desired location when entertaining friends.  Heavy?  No not at all, most of these pots with annual specimens are filled with left over packing peanuts in the bottom, only utilizing 5-6" of dirt.  The 1st picture I swiped off of another site. It's June here and mine look more like this in the beginning month.

This pot I wanted to be different than others.  With limited full sun growing areas in my new yard limits my vegetable garden growing abilities.   I decided to tuck in two eggplants along with the Calla Lily (my precious daughter begged me to add to the mix) and the traditional vines to add overflow.  There is a a couple of very small begonias hiding and a spike to add height.  I'm feeling confident that the eggplants will end up dominating this pot with the ivy.  (Yes, one of my dogs is completely photo bombing me today while I was taking photos.)

On to water gardens.  We LOVE the sound of water around our house.  I'm very fortunate to have a large pickling crock to use as a small water garden on my front porch.

I just recently added the water Hyacinth and a few goldfish with a small fountain that gives motion to the water.  The fish do very well in this crock despite the hot summer days, it receives full morning sun and is cool the rest of the day. 

As the plant grows and fills the container I will separate and divide the plant.  If you find you need a piece of water hyacinth this summer stop by I'm sure I can share. (And YES, that is a our little Chimichanga completely photo bombing while I took pictures)

I've experimented with this container in the past using various types of water plants.  Many of them did not do as well, needing a shallow depth for planting or more motion in the water. Last year I went with a simpler approach.

The effect was amazing and guests to our front door couldn't help but smile. 

We keep about 2-3" of small aquarium rock in the bottom of the crock.  This crock is heavy, it is slowly moved into place every year after all threat of freezing has passed and lovingly put back in the garage for storage in the fall after we have dried it out completely.  

The flowering water hyacinth has become one of my favorites.

Tomato Plants ... what not to do!

In an overzealous moment, I thought to myself "Why not fertilize the tomato plants?"  They are growing beautifully, they could use a little food to boost their metabolism "Right?"
Wrong! these little guys obviously did not need fertilizer,  I have managed to scorch and kill all of them.  I'm sure if I had tried a very soft "tea" it might have worked?

I'm sure that many of you will tell me your mixtures that you use to feed the little guys to give them a more vigorous root growth at this young age.  Unfortunately, it is too late for them.

Today I will start a new tray of lovely little seeds.  I still have enough time, It's only April! And with the horrible winter we have had we might get one more snow/hail/sleet session from Mother Nature before it is safe to put the plants in the garden beds.

On the bright side, I did add this mess to my compost bin, along with the household small collection bin, some more leaves and water.  This is one of the reasons I like these types of planting trays.

Time to head out and stir the compost, can't wait to spread it in the garden beds!  Then to the store for more supplies for the seedling trays. 

Artichoke a mystery to me

I've realized that I've become a little bit obsessive over this crazy vegetable.  Sure we enjoy the flavor, like it in our dips, on pizza or a sandwich.  Yet when I saw it in the grocery this week for the low price of $1/ea

I felt the need to stop buying them already prepared in a can or from the deli.  I knew I could do this, I could master the art of cooking artichokes! 

With the wonderful world of the internet at my finger tips I set upon a journey to ready and watch everyone else's tips and tricks. 

First I cut off the top and bottom and trimmed many of the thorny tips, this picture is of my last one and by this time I knew I would not be using the outside parts, skipped the trimming of the leaves.    Lemon seems to work the best for rubbing on the cut areas and keeping them from premature browning.  I also added lemon to the boiling water for steaming.

After steaming them I found a marinade that is a lemon base for the acid. My husband has declared this the best tasting artichoke he has every had.

 Makes me happy since I have been steaming, cleaning and putting them in a marinade for a few days.  Now I have some stored away to easily add to other recipes.

Now to figure out how to grow them here in Indiana!

Thinning day for the tomato sprouts

It was great getting away for a week. The better news is that my tomato plants grew so much in my absence (HUGE THANK YOU TO MY HUSBAND).  I sometimes compare growing vegetables to watching a pot boil.... stop watching and amazing things begin to happen.

They are so pretty, it really was difficult to begin thinning them out. 

They only cried a little :)  

My youngest child really did not like that I had a "discard" pile and thought that all of them should be given a chance.

They really do look much better and after reassuring the small child and placing the "discarded ones" into the compost.  The plants are basking in their space and enjoying the sunlight today.

March 25th....more snow

Today's forecast was for more snow.  When I hear this I always think of the funny story about the man who was so excited to shovel snow during the first snowfall.  By the 2nd week he was less than excited about the white stuff.  This winter I'm beginning to feel a little like Jack Nicholson in the Shining!  Enough with the snow!

On a more positive side, we received a quote from a gutter guard company today.  MasterShield Gutter Guards.  They guarantee that their mesh shield deflects everything that is larger than 1/2 the size of a human hair. Pine needles seem to be a large part of their guarantee.  In fact they give a list of the types of pine needles on their website:

• eastern white pine
• western white pine
• sugar pine
• red pine
• pitch pine
• jack pine
• longleaf pine
• shortleaf pine
• loblolly pine
• slash pine
• Virginia pine
• ponderosa pine
• pinyon pine
• Jeffrey pine
• lodgepole pine

This made me curious as to what is a Loblolly Pine?  Pinus Taeda is commonly referred to Loblolly Pine.  The forestry industry refers to this tree as the Southern Yellow Pine.  This is the 2nd most common tree (as identified by the US Forestry Service) in the U.S., after the red maple.If we had a pine this tall we would be worried about pine needles in our gutters.  Fortunately for us our one lonely pine tree is much small than this tree.

Sometime this Spring (whenever it arrives) we will become the happy owners of gutter guards.  This will keep my husband safe, he likes to climb the ladder at every chance to clean out the gutters.  I'm not trying to keep him from moving about and exercising, just trying to keep his feet on the solid ground.

In the meantime I will keep watering my seedlings, and dreaming of warm Spring days. 

My orchid is blooming!

My excitement can't be contained, my orchid is blooming!  I've been unsuccessful for years at keeping an orchid alive let alone getting to bloom.  In my prior 3 homes I became very good at killing a wide variety of orchids.  Yes, I followed all the instructions, videos, advice from all the orchid growing experts, friends and fellow master gardeners.  It took us moving and building a home with windows that allow just the right amount of natural light.  Or maybe it is the humidifier on the furnace?  Maybe I just became calm enough to finally grow these delicate plants?

Isn't she just lovely?

My first clue that I was doing something right was earlier this winter she began producing more leaves.  I was confused, this is the normal time that my other orchids would begin to shed leaves.  I knew she liked me and our home.

So many colors that blend seamlessly together in this very common household orchid.

Isn't it amazing how much pleasure one can gain from one $9 plant?

The bud just beginning to open, we wait for days in anticipation of the opening of this delicate flower.

Garfield Park Conservatory will be hosting the annual Orchid show in April.

Maybe I will find a friend to keep her company?

Mulch...important things to know

I'm probably one of the few people you will meet who does actually enjoy spreading mulch.  Be it either the 5 cubic yards delivered to my driveway or picking it up bag by bag at the local garden center.  Something about the smell, feel and texture of mulch makes me a happy girl.

I've been on somewhat of a crusade  for a few years now.  My mission to share the proper way to mulch a tree.  Came across this diagram today on a Master Gardener site.  "Volcano Mulching" is a NO NO!

I'm not sure what started the piling up of mulch around the base of a tree.

"Was the landscaper just not willing to dig to the appropriate depth for the tree to be planted?" 

" Did someone start the trend thinking that trees with a giant hill of mulch was attractive? "

" Maybe they thought the tree was afraid to show a little "knee" and should be covered? "

Anyway you look at it, the run off of water and the suffocating of the root structure are a terrible way to to treat the beautiful trees in our landscapes.  Save your self some time and effort, flatten out the mulch, give the tree a slight doughnut (who doesn't love a Donut?) and keep the water going to the roots and let the trees knees show a bit.

This is the time of year I start planning out my mulch purchases.  Many of the local mulch retailers give great discounts if you pre-plan your mulch delivery.  Check out Tiffany Lawn and Garden they were offering great discounts this week due to the Flower and Patio Show.  I've also used Greendell. In the past they assisted with a large mulch supply for my former HOA and they have specials for Church programs. There is also GreenCycle they are taking the yard waste and other items that would normally be headed to the city dump and composting it into a usable product.


Composting... that will be tomorrow's blog.


A word of caution:  get your mulch from a reputable source, mulch that is properly composted.