It's a beautiful day: warm and sunny.  I turned off the
furnace, opened some windows and headed out to tackle the
BigUgly Bush on the front lawn.  I cut it back severely but
if last year's anything to go by it will interpret that as a
challenge to grow impossibly tall (and impossibly ugly)
before the next winter.  I got some potentially useful pea
sticks out of it too.

    While I was out there, I noticed some strong shoots from
bulbs planted along the dark, neglected East side of the
house, which adds to the false-sense-of-security feeling of
impending Spring.

60 responses total.

It is raining here and snow all over the place, with predictions of more cold
for Friday (about 5 above at night).

    The small square plot where the Mulberry tree used to be
gained some perennials today.  I planted a couple of Sea
Pinks and a Dianthus and Mrs. ball and I planted a few other
things.  It will be interesting to see how they fare.

    The 'big ugly bush' in the middle of the front lawn
turned out to be suckers from a buried tree stump. Every now
and again I dig down and beat it repeatedly with a hatchet
but not long afterwards, new suckers appear.  A chainsaw may
be in order.

    It looks as though we'll have two flower beds this year
(not counting the odd plants at the front of the house): the
(slightly) raised bed where the Mulberry used to be is about
2x2m and has a few survivors from last year. I'm thinking of
cone flowers and daisies for some height at the back with
medium stuff in the middle and perhaps some mounding or even
(slightly) trailing stuff at the front. Might see if Peonies
can give the bindweed some competition on the chain-link
fence along the side.

    Elsewhere we have a plot that's roughly 3x3m where we
grew cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes and pumpkins last year.
Mrs. ball may have plans for that, probably annual flowers
though she may surprise me.  I had hoped to build a veg plot
elsewhere, but we can't agree on a spot so I may have to
sneak one to two veggies in with the flowers.

What do you mean 'build'?  I dig my plots.  With such limited
space as you have I would not try to grow pumpkins.  Have you
grown lettuce or beans?  

    Last year the pumpkins grew out of the veg plot and ran
off across the lawn.  I didn't complain, just mowed around
them.  My daughter grew them from seeds that she'd scooped
out of her halloween pumpkin.  She grew a row of lettuce
too.

We grew pumpkins unintionally one year on the compost pile, where they got
plenty of nitrogen etc. and actually produced fruits that ripened.  How old
is your daughter now?  

    She's six. Come to think of it, I think I put a scoop of
compost in the hole before she planted the pumpkin seeds.  I
think I did it for the cucumbers too.

I hope it was fully composted first.  It is better to mix it with all the soil
so that the roots will not stay in one small hole eating the compost.
Spread a layer on top before you dig up the ground.

    Typically I'll mix it with the soil I dug from the hole
but it does depend on what I'm planting.

We transplanted a cherry tree seedling yesterday, a couple of days after the
leaf buds started to open.

    Two of the three huge Spruce trees in the back yard were
been removed last week and the stumps ground out.  We now
have an area that's roughly 5x8m (16x26') that's mostly wood
chippings and Spruce needles.  It's been suggested that we
could plant a Black Haw (Viburnum prunifolium) in the corner
of the yard and there are some flowers native to the midwest
that I would like to plant too, once we have more soil and
less wood chips.  I should probably rotovate the area and
hope that they start to break down a bit.

    I was able to persuade the tree people to also grind out
the buried stump that the BigUgly Bush grew from each year.

We found a few morels the year after a spruce was removed.

    The woodchips where the Spruce trees were removed are
breaking down nicely.  I've dug in some compost, a little
wood ash and some unidentified leafy plants that looked as
though they'd make a reasonable "green manure".  Most of it
has been forked over a few times.  In the Spring I'll sow
some of it with grass seed and hopefully keep a flower bed
in the corner.

Do you grow any fruits or vegetables?

    This year was less successful than last year in the veg
department.  We grew some green "zebra" tomatoes that tasted
good once they were ripe but it took me a while to get the
hang of telling when that was.  My daughter planted a nice
row of lettuce.  I failed to thin out the carrots so they
weren't useable.  I don't think the peppers even germinated.
I grew an experimental crop of potatoes and I enjoyed those
so I'll probably plant more of them next year. The vegetable
plot has been cleared and forked over for the winter but the
Zucchini (planted elsewhere in the garden) keep on coming.

Did you plant the peppers in little pots to transplant later?  They need warm
soil to germinate.  Tomatoes are often ripe when they fall off the vine.

    I've been out digging.  It's good exercise and it helps
get the soil ready.  The area where the Spruce trees were is
ready for planting.  I've been told to grass some of it over
but that looks like a costly proposition, what with grass
seed, straw matting and a spreader.  I may visit the local
nursery in search of that Viburnum, too.

Why waste potential garden space on grass?  We have spent the last few days
removing grass and sifting compost to make new garden space.  

If you do plant grass, it supposedly does better in August or September.
You can spread seed by hand, and cover the seed with plain straw also
spread by hand.  

    Mostly because I've been told to.  That said, we'll have
some ornamental stuff at one end and I'll plant a few
vegetables at the other end this year. I try to move the veg
around a bit. Waiting until the fall appeals to me but I may
not have that option.

    Well, that's a new ornamental bed dug out and mostly
planted.  We had to bring in some topsoil.  We planted
through weed membrane and spread a bit of mulch on top.  I
should probably take a picture tomorrow if the sun's out.

    The flower bed by the back door was a success.  I can't
remember the names of all the flowers we put in but I think
all but one of them thrived.  In the middle is a Buddleia
that the butterflies love.  That's open and airy enough that
the shorter flowers planted underneath still get enough rain
and sunlight to do well.

    Lots of zucchini and cucumbers this year along with a
modest crop of tomatoes and a surprise eggplant.  I should
have planted spuds again.  I still don't have that Viburnum.

Do  your tomatoes get fungus diseases?   Ours got them bad this year due to
the cool nights, with condensation.  

    Thankfully I haven't seen that yet.  I should probably
start thinking about what to plant in the Spring.

    Yesterday I planted a tomato plant, some cucumber and a
watermelon plant.  We have more things in pots waiting to be
planted when weather and time permits.

This week I planted the last of 79 tomato plants, 8 peanut seedlings, 26 tiny
pepper seedlings, and half the lentil seedlings, which leaves agretti and
miltomate when they get big enough.  

That's a lot of tomatoes and peppers!

This weekend I am planting 60' of pole beans.  It was supposed to rain last
night and all morning but did not.  Dry spring.  

It has been raining here all day. Couldn't do any planting.

    It's raining again today but yesterday was nice so I got
a few veggies in and Mrs. ball planted/re-potted some
flowers. I also got a bit of weeding done and started a new
compost heap.

    Managed to do some more weeding today, mostly around the
potato plants. Next year I should probably try some mulch to
keep the pokeweed and crabgrass down.

my orane and lime dwarves are coming along nicely in pots

    No potatos this year sadly.  Still, the tomatoes look as
though they're coming along nicely.

My potatoes are loaded with purple and white flowers, and small green fruits.
I will save the seeds.  Fruits on many of the tomatoes, green.

    We've been so busy with the baby that the garden's gone
to hell this year.  We've given up trying to control weeds
that grew up between the pavers in the courtyard and in the
flower bed where the Mulberry tree used to be, so we've just
had the whole area turned into a concrete slab.

    I have a short fence to build and perhaps some planters
for flowers and a few herbs in the Spring.

    Still haven't built that fence, partly because I don't
have a hammer action drill to attach a baton to the wall.  A
very small flower bed is planned but I haven't planted any-
thing there yet. Hopefully I'll get some time to browse this
evening for some things to plant there.

    Bought a picket fence panel and got it home courtesy of
a couple in a pick-up truck who saw me wrestling it in the
wind.  Bought a cheap hammer-action drill but need better
screws to attach the post bases to the concrete slab.

    I'm seeing some seedlings in the experimental tiny
vegetable plot: I think runner beans, corn and perhaps some
radishes. The tomato plant is just about still alive, though
I wouldn't describe it as "thriving" exactly.

    Next up: weeding the overrun buddleia bed and planting
some pumpkin seeds there.

    The tomato plant has perked up a bit and I see some
flowers on it so perhaps we'll get some fruit. The peas look
promising so I've given them some pea sticks to climb up.
I've got three corn stalks though two of them are too close
together so I'm tempted to risk surgically separating them.

    The first few tomatoes are beginning to ripen and some
peas are growing in their pods.  I gave most of the radishes
to the squirrels.

    Last year the butterfly garden was overrun by weeds.  I
started today to clear that out, testing my new scuffle hoe
and sifting topsoil through a riddle.  Only got a small
corner of it done but it's a start.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss