Plans for Front of House!

Now don't everyone get too excited, because I'm going very ambitious this year, which means I will most likely fall on my face.  The big plan for the front yard this year?  SUNFLOWERS!  I don't know about you but I love sunflowers.  Nothing turns a house into a cozy home faster than these giant monstrosities of awesomeness, which also tend to attract lots of birds.  So my hope is that I'll be sitting on my porch feeling like Snow White all summer with a bluebird army to dress me and mop my floor (or was that Cinderella?).  Anyways, here's the layout.

Closest to the white fence will be normal yellow snacking sunflowers. 

In front of those will alternate between the Chianti Hybrid (a dark maroon) and a white variety called Coconut Ice Hybrid. 

I've tried sunflowers before, and they didn't even get off the ground.  Literally.  I didn't stake them at all so those stupid giant heads shot up so fast on stalks too skinny to support them and they all fell over.  So now to rectify mistake number one with try number two.  And please, if you've planted sunflowers and know of another glaring noob mistake I'm about to make, please FOR THE SAKE OF THE BIRDIES, let me know.  I got a bunch of 6' tall bamboo stakes with soft fabric ties to try to hold them up as they grow.  I've also heard you can use old pantyhose to tie them.  Don't use anything rigid like zip ties or old sandwich baggie twist ties because if the stalks grow in width and you forget to loosen them it will hurt the plants.  So hopefully this week I'll work on digging out the ground and prepping it so I can get them planted and update this blog with a pretty picture of them starting to grow.

Sunscreen-The story of the sad wrinkled 29 year old hand.

http://www.californiababy.com

With all the rain we've been having, I haven't been able to get much gardening in.  But I figure it's a good time to remind everyone that one of the most important things for gardeners to keep aware of is the sunlight in your garden.  Sometimes our obsessiveness over the amount of the sun our plants are getting doesn't transfer over to remembering how damaging the sun is to us.  Just want a post to remind everyone to stay safe out there!  And no one looks good crispy crunchy and burnt.  If you're out working in the garden for any amount of time, 15 minutes or all day, you need to be wearing sunscreen.  I have been trying lately to use all natural or non-chemical sunscreens, which tend to not be as pretty because they leave behind a white residue.  Burt's Bees is a very inexpensive one I use on my body, and for my face I'm currently using California Baby SPF.  It's $20 a bottle at Ulta, so not too expensive when using it for your face, and it actually fades very well into my skin with no white residue (warning, Burt's Bees has the residue, that's why I only use it for body).  I use this daily under my makeup and it gives me a nice 'dewey' look but also evens out my complexion by providing a slight sheer coverage.  If I'm not feeling the dewey look and want to go matte I just use foundation powder instead of liquid powder that day and blot with a tissue before applying.

http://www.marykay.com/skincare/agefighting

If you don't like putting sunscreen on your face daily like all the doctors say you should, then you need to look at better brands because there's nothing to not like!  Many out there (even in the non-chemical) glide on and soak in with no residue or gross SPF smell at all.  Go into a Sephora or an Ulta and ask the lovely ladies for help finding a daily sunscreen that isn't offensive, or if you're a lady look for a foundation that includes SPF.  I used to use Mary Kay's Timewise Day Solution SPF 35 and if I switch back to a chemical formula I'll definitely go back to that.  It is a stand alone SPF, not a moisturizer with an SPF, so you can use it with whatever you already use and not be worried about a super greasy, over-moisturized face.  Very light, no smell.

The sad wrinkled hand of a 29 year old.

Back when I wasn't trying to be so eco-friendly I loved the sunscreen sport sticks when I needed something more than daily coverage at the beach or for an all day excursion.  These are so easy to glide on my face and smear in and much more convenient to carry around.  I don't know about everyone else but the sunscreen I disliked the most was ANY spray sunscreen.  Even wiping it in after spraying I still ended up with little spots everywhere and often burned.  Also, whenever you put sunscreen on your face (which should be every day, even in winter) put sunscreen on the backs of your hands!  This is the first body part to show signs of aging and has very sensitive skin that is constantly exposed and we rarely think about protecting. Seriously, look at your hands right now.  They're disgusting, wrinkly, veiny.  Do you really want them to get worse?!?

And lastly, get yourself a nice, big, floppy...hat.  Your hair is not magically transformed into sunscreen just because you can't see your scalp.  And your scalp needs protection.  Not only is it sensitive, but if you do happen to get skin cancer on your scalp it's pretty darn hard to see and diagnose early with all that hair in the way.  Bandannas or a baseball cap are also okay if that's your thing but the floppy hat does double duty of also shading your entire face.  If you have a good hairdresser they are usually on the lookout (I've been sent to the dermatologist by mine) but there's only so much they can see during your bi-monthly visit, particularly if you have dark hair.  Not to mention, there is nothing less attractive than peeling scalp burn that looks like you've got a wicked case of chronic dandruff.  So at least wearing a hat for an hour while you're outdoors will save you from having to wear a hat for a week indoors while your scalp peels away in disgusting, white-flakey fashion.  And I'd like to see you trying to put aloe or "sun relief" on your scalp.  Ew.  Blow drying?  Forget about it.  Date night?  HA.  Hat up.  Just do it.

Postscript:  Yes, this entire post was to make me feel guilty about not using my daily sunscreen in the hopes I stop being a hypocrite and start using it again.   But hopefully I'm also guilt tripping all of you into doing it too.  Anyone have any favorites that they want to clue me in on?  Also, I was going to post a picture of me in a big floppy hat, but who are we kidding, the best I have is a structured cowboy hat.  So it's likely I'll be amending this with a lovely picture of my nasty burn/peel scalp in a few weeks instead :o)  Stay tuned!

What I did this weekend part 2

Another lovely day outside, so I got out there and planted a bunch of peas (snap or snow and bush) in one row of 2x5' and in the other 2x5' I planted a row of broccoli.  On the peas I planted according to specs, but on the broccoli I'm using a set of seeds from last year so I overseeded probably by about double since I figure the germination rate won't be as high.  Here's hoping they just all sprout and I have to do some thinning.

After that, I set out weeding the rest of my garden beds so I have one less step when they're ready to plant and then weeded around my fruit bushes, which now look lovely.  I have two blueberry and one blackberry.  The only downside, there were wolf spiders all over in those weeds.  I know spiders are good for the garden because they eat pest insects, but they're still scary.

Today it's supposed to be near 90 degrees so I woke up a bit early and hosed my garden beds and all my potted plants so they start the day off a bit cooler and won't get too hot.  A must when the summer months get into the mid-90s for all plants, but especially now for cooler weather plants that can't tolerate that type of heat well this early in the season.

Sorry, no pics, this one is more of a journal entry so I remember what I did :o)

What I Did This Weekend: Part 1

Marigolds keep pests away.

Seedlings transported to larger pots

Ah, a wonderful 80 degree weekend, what ever will I do?  Catch up on my gardening to do list!  First up, the potted plants.  I planted a basil plant, three marigolds to keep pests from my other potted plants, four fruit trees (more on them later), and one GIANT pot that is a mix of red/yellow/white onions and purple haze carrots.  After that I went ahead and moved my seedlings to larger pots.  See my economical use of those old, cheap, plastic pots I got my strawberries in?

 

Poor hoe...

 Next up, I got to hoeing the first portion of my raised garden bed to be planted.  I hoe so good I broke it.  No, for reals.  I broke the hoe.  After trying to hand-hoe for a bit with the top of the broken hoe, I gave up and went back to my mom's favorite method of breaking up the soil to make it loose for planting...a shovel.  Man, kinda time consuming...but I will admit, it works much better and goes much deeper than a hoe.  Jump on shovel til it goes deep, jimmy/crowbar it up, spear the giant clod of dirt into smaller bits.  There are so many "that's what she said"s available in this paragraph.  You're Welcome.

Can't see grooves, but you can see 1 planted and 1 grid onions

But moving on, once the area was loose soil, I gridded out my spot by making little grooves with my hands.  The bed area is 4x5'.  So I did 1 row of rainbow chard, one row of carrots, three 1x2' grids of onions (red, yellow, and white), and then the grids opposite the onions with different salad greens (butter beauty, a gourmet blend, and baby leaf spinach).  As I planted each area I covered it with either top soil because I have a ton leftover, or potting soil.  This way I could easily see each grid where I'd already planted.  I then watered with a lovely mist spray, you don't want a jet spray on seeds because it can knock them out of place.  Be gentle!  Onions can probably take whatever you throw at them, but why be mean?

Thumb Peas, mmmmm

Here's hoping it doesn't rain tomorrow and I can get another 4x5' bed planted!  And as a special treat, look at how well my Thumb Peas are doing!

Uh oh! Frost Monster!

DC has issued a frost alert for this evening, which means when I get home I'll be moving my container pots to the garage, and covering up my strawberries with some landscaping fabric to keep the frost off their leaves.  If moving your container pots indoors isn't an option, you can put grocery bags (paper or plastic) over the plants.  You can cover them with just about anything that will stay down and keep them covered.  Fabric, plastic, newspaper (probably needs to be weighed down by rocks).  From what I understand, early spring veggies that can be planted a few weeks before the last frost date can "handle" a frost...but none of them are going to thrive from it and they will take a hit healthwise.  So if you don't have time to cover up your peas or strawberries...don't start weeping into your cereal, they'll be okay.  Now, the folks who got in tomatoes, beans, peppers, etc...ya know, the things we always plant the second we have a 70 degree day even though they're not supposed to be put outside for another month or two in mid May?  Yeah...get those covered up...well...one frost can and likely will kill these plants.

Strawberries!!!

No need for a witty title here.  Everyone loves strawberries!  Alas, I have a love hate relationship with them.  I love fresh, locally grown, in season strawberries.  Why all the descriptors?  Because I HATE the non-local, winter grown, flown from California, totally tasteless strawberries that you get at the grocery store.  But I still find myself buying them in hopes they're magically delicious. 


Prior Failures
So pretty much each year I try to grow strawberries and fail miserably.  Last year I got a stacking container.  One super hot day later and all the strawberries had withered up and died overnight.  No amount of watering or shade really got them back to life and I gradually threw each one away as the hope for a comeback dwindled. Lesson from last year?  Strawberries enjoy cooler weather, so if you're having a 100+ degree day, water them before you leave for work and put them in a spot that will get some afternoon shade.  If you are growing them in containers, this should be easy.


This Year's Renewed Attempts
On to this year:  to the right of my front fence I planted a line of strawberry plants.  Mostly Eversweet (which is an everbearing) and two Loran (also everbearing).  Picked them up at Lowe's for $2.50 each.  Most strawberries sold around here for home gardeners are Everbearing, meaning they bear smaller fruit throughout the season.  I'm guessing a trip to a nursery would have more variety but I'm just trying to keep a plant alive long enough to bear fruit so I don't care what type they are.  The other type, June bearing, means all the fruit comes at once in one big harvest, and these tend to be the biggest berries.  There's also a type called Day Neutral...which as far as I can tell does exactly the same thing as Everbearing.

Then, I'm also doing a strawberry container pot!  I've heard you need one that's at least 18'', so I got a larger one.  Most places only sell a small pot that's about 8'' high and far cheaper, so it took me some time to find the taller one.  I finally ended up sending out an APB to family that I was looking for one and my sister found a cheap one and picked it up for me.  So if you want one, get the word out to friends to search early!  I got mine well after the season ended.  Last year after getting it I researched how to use this tall pot and there's all sorts of layering with rocks in between each level of plants and some pole in the center with holes to distribute the water, but I'm far too lazy for that.  So I guess if my container plants die, I'll try it the hard way next year.  I just stuffed the plants in the holes and filled the pot with potting soil.  Nothing special.  But in here I have the same two varieties as in the bed and also Ozark. 

Prepping the Strawberry Bed

Fabric, plants, and mounds.

On the strawberries that went in the ground I tilled the area to get rid of grass and weeds a few weeks ago.  Strawberries are an early spring plant, meaning you get them in the ground a few weeks BEFORE the last frost date, as soon as the soil can be worked.  Then I went in and re-weeded the area until it was simply clean dirt.  You really need to weed well for an area you're planting strawberries in because they're not a hearty plant and can easily get overrun by weeds and die.  Supposedly their roots are also very susceptible to grubs and whatnot so they recommend planting in an area that's been unplanted for a while.  Ideally this means clearing the bed of grass and weeds the fall before you plant them.  I ignored this advice, we'll see how it goes.  Also, supposedly any bed with prior inhabitants in the last three years of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers or eggplant is a HUGE no-no for strawberries because they have zero immunity to something these plants carry called Verticillium Rot.  That's why I just plopped them down in the front yard; I know no veggies went there.

Planting

Finished product.

Once weeded, I grabbed some compost and tilled it into the soil, getting the soil as loose as possible for planting.  Then formed 8 little mounds to plant in.  After that, I cut little X's in some landscaping fabric and laid that down around the strawberry plants to keep the weeds from competing with them.  Black plastic landscaping fabric is a no-no because the strawberries are a cool weather plant and will get too hot with the heat trapped in.  Here's hoping my black mesh landscaping fabric breathes better and is okay.  Next up after that is some pine needles for mulch; straw is another good option.

Now...to sit back and wait on how my experiment does.  In order to get the plants growing you're supposed to pluck off all blooms until July 1 the first year for Everbearing types so that the plant tries harder to grow.  After that, you can let them turn to full berries for the rest of the summer and enjoy.  The next year you can just eat all the berries, no need to pinch off the early buds.  Also, don't over fertilize because it leads to the plants growing too many leaves and not enough blooms.  I'll post updates throughout the season on how they're doing!

What Up Hoe? Time to Treasure Hunt.

Itty bitty Abby arm

About a week before planting each veggy outside, it's time for my least favorite task, and probably the most expensive due to the cost of fill dirt or fertilizer for pots or raised gardens:  Soil Preparation.  I would swear that every year I buy 10 bags of dirt for the stupid raised bed and every year it sinks right back down and looks half full.  Hopefully my composting adventures will help cut down some costs here, but it is a pain.  Not to mention as a 5'1'' lady with arms resembling spindly twigs, getting the jumbo super saver bags of dirt is IMPOSSIBLE.  I actually sent a guy into a laughing fit last year just trying to pick one up before he offered to help me get them into my cart only to realize I'll never be able to get them into my car.  Thankfully, Lowe's is awesome about providing car-side help the moment you ask.  But I digress, get thee to Lowe's (and take thee large male muscled friend with thee), and pick up some veggie dirt and fertilizer if you haven't gotten your composting game on yet and get started with the soil prep.

Large male muscled friend arm.  See the difference?

Another thing to keep in mind is having the right type of soil for your plants.  Some plants like acidic soil (berries are a key example) and you can make the soil more acidic by using pine needles as a mulch or mixing into the soil.  Other plants like more alkaline soil, so you can buy garden lime to add to the soil.   These include onions and beans.  A garden specialty store will usually test your soil for free so take up a few samples from your vegetable beds each year along with a list of what veggies you're planning on planting and what acidity they thrive in (so you know whether you need to amend with limestone or pine needles or can leave certain beds alone).

My favorite, basic hoe.

Now sadly, just picking up some happy dirt and fertilizer is not the end of the story.  You need to work it into the garden bed and create a loose dirt bed for the roots to spread in.  This requires tilling.  And lots of it.  Again, with said spindly twig arms my momma gave me.  This is another area where your life will be greatly improved if you have said large male muscled friend to help you out.  They can till a giant area in like 5 minutes that would take you three hours to break the ground.  And they'll usually do it for a wink and a nod.  Or a six pack of beer.  My large male muscled friend is named Walter, and I promised him a shout out.  And no, despite the name, I'm not enlisting my help from the local nursing home and do not endorse such use of old people.

The high class hoe

Ideally, you want a couple inches (at least 6) of loose, tilled soil to plant in.  If you are starting new and have grass, place a black trash bag over it a few weeks or more in advance to kill the grass and then till it into the dirt.  If you don't have a few weeks, use a flat garden shovel going parallel to the ground to remove the grass.  A tiller often times doesn't get deep enough, and in these circumstances, just get out the basic shovel and go to town digging a hole and spearing the dirt you bring up into smaller pieces.  I generally alternate between the shovel and basic garden hoe.  I've found technology in this area will not help you.  I also own a gas tiller, which frankly, I'm scared of.  But it came as an attachment to my weedwacker so I figured I'd try it.  It pretty much just sends dirt flying everywhere in a big mess, but is perfect for quick mixing of fertilizer or store bought dirt with your own dirt.  It's also as loud and intimidating as a weedwacker.  If it hits hard clumps of dirt, often times rather than separating and tilling, it just bounces back up in the air off the hard clump of dirt.  So skip the gym and get to work hoe(ing).



**disclaimer, I have not ever found treasure while hoeing, but I still keep my eye out for the stray dinosaur tooth.