What have you done today in the Garden?

The big tufts of flowers on this cherry tree are from a wild black cherry tree that was growing in the county roadway-clearing area. One year I stopped to eat some, and they were so rich and delicious. Probably a bird-planted tree from some home orchard somewhere and not a native cherry.


Two years ago I beat the county road crew to the punch, and cut off some pencil sized sticks. The road crew has what looks like giant lawn mowers mounted sideways, and just rips everything back on the roadside. I grafted those sticks to a developing young sour cherry tree.

Now it appears the wild black cherry is taking over the tree. The lower blossoms in less abundant clusters, are the sour cherry.

I think that, after they bear fruit, I'll cut them about 2/3 back. We have some other wild cherries (probably sour and bitter fruit) in the duck yard that get mowed down every year. I might graft some black cherry onto those for future fruits.

 

I always find queens hiding in the greenhouse, garage etc. - easy squish. I’m not afraid if snakes, spiders or sharks…just yellow jackets . While mowing , I ran over a ground nest and they all chased me across the pasture. By the time I got to the house I was covered in stings . Now allergic to them and carry a allergy pen when outside.

Daniel, grafting trees surly is your calling . Looks good, and black cherries are far more popular and tasty than the sour cherries.

 

Bought 4 lavender plants and replaced 2 that have died at the moment.
When the hardy geraniums have finished flowering I'll cut them back to give the lavender a bit more light.

 

You always have such a nice selection of plants, Loggie. What sort of soil do you have in those planting places for your new Lavender plants?

Today we planted the runner beans in the lottie, then brought them home to germinate. We planted cucumbers and courgettes today also.
Meanwhile at home, yesterday— the first Blauehilda’s came up! That was quick.
Oh mates, I am really getting the mood now.

 

Logan your garden is really poppin and coming up to a full swing this spring. Lovely garden full of so many perennials , shrubs and trees.

 

Yesterday was a fun outside day, although it was very windy so I only did what was reasonable until a day with less wind. I cut the vinyl gutters for pea planting/starting. I cut 30 stakes to size and pounded them into the memory garden. ( netting will follow on a calmer day). I was able to weed and clean up the strawberry bed. The garden hose was hooked up to the house for the first time and they were fertilized and watered. I have a lot of vole and winter damage to the strawberries, so when I came inside I ordered more starts.

I improved the sweet pea bed and planted the sweet peas, and then covered the bed with clear plastic for a few days. The spinach and lettuce were ready for plastic removal and tented row cover. It's good to see seedlings under there. I cleaned out the asparagus and some of the raspberries. The Haskaps were fertilized with fish fertilizer.

The memory gardens took a huge hit with Vole activity over the winter. I lost two Hydrangeas and multiple sedum's, as well as two peonies. The roots were completely devoured below ground and cut off. Everything was cleaned up and some perennials moved in from elsewhere. Hopefully this year is a better vole year.

To keep the voles out of the strawberries ( and chipmunks) I have some fencing with 1/4 inch holes to bury and place around the perimeter of the bed. I'm still pondering the top. I won't have to get creative until berries form, so I have some time.

Then...it snowed last night. Sheesh. It's mostly gone, but with a high of 6 today it is a day for inside.

 

Thank you Pacnorwest, Sjoerd i have clay soil with a lot of compost in, I've dug in a lot of grit and put some stones in the bottom of the hole. The trouble i had with the ones that have died is that they kept on getting covered with the Knautia that grows by them, I'll have to remember to support it this year.

 

Boy, you’ve been busy, Mel.
What kind of crazy weather do you have there, anyway?!

Good luck with those, Loggie. I like lavender.

 

After 3 days of rain I went out to check on my grapes. I pruned them a month or so ago. They have new leaves opening up! I was worried because we had a cold spell after I did it. Raspberries are getting very leafy. The rhubarb is getting big. Not much else is going on. 30 more days and I can spend as much time in the garden as I want! For a couple months at least.

 

Mel you have been busy…wow energy plus…it’s always a good feeling to get out in the garden…prepare for the upcoming blooms, veggies and tomatoes. Luv sweetpeas. What kind? I like the Monks hybrid they smell wonderful. They are fast growing climb a trellis fast and gorgeous colors.

Willow in no time your garden time will be only a few weeks away for a couple of months…here to …spending lots of time outside. My grapes have leaf buds, I trimmed them last week . I use a battery op clipper saves my hands , wrists and thumbs. Nice to hear your raspberries are on their way and budding for you. Yummm.

Logan when we first arrived here nothing but extreme hard pack clay dirt like concrete, and it was a nightmare. After a few years of adding compost it seems every year the clay would just gobble the compost and disappear by the next season. I was determined to have a garden and had dump truck loads of mushroom compost dumped 5-8” deep and built up beds. So much easier. No more tilling and mixing in soil amendments every year.

Soil is so important, I mean look at Sjoerd’s soil in his beautiful veggie garden . His beds looks like the soil was sifted thru a screen to accomplish the light airy perfection in the soil he has achieved. No wonder his veggies are so magnificent at harvest. Air, light, drainage, soil , sun , water and temperatures are the main ingredients for a good harvest at the end of the season.
I wonder what else Sjoerd has up his sleeve to produce so many perfectly grown vegetables? ? ?

Did the usual today had a small window of open sky /no rain , rushed out mowed checked for ground critters and cleaned weeds in a few areas. The wild blackberry’s are taking over everywhere . Just as soon as it stops raining long enough I will take a paint brush and tackle those that are taking over in between plants. UGH…

 

@Daniel W Four inches of rain in two days is a lot. However, we got another four or five inches of rain over the weekend, and some local flooding making eight to nine inches total. Those mineral tubs that are in my picture are over half full of water. (they will be water tubs for my horse when I finish the fence on her new area)

Back in May of 2017, we had "historic flooding" in Missouri. At my house, I had had 23 inches of rain the last two weeks of April. The first week of May brought another 2 or 3 inches at least. Nearby towns had major flooding with some areas under 4 FEET of water. The interstate highways and major roads were closed in many places. The detour between my town and the next town over which is normally 25 miles was 100 miles out of the way to get there. And 100 miles to come home if we wanted to drive it (we didn't). I will post a link with pictures. My son's work was under 4 feet of water, and he was out of work over a month. His work had recently installed all brand new machinery which was totally ruined by the flood.

Thankfully, we live on top of a good hill.

In the summer of 1993, the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers flooded big time from snow melt up north. My Mother worked with the flood relief up near St Louis someplace.


Apparently, I have not found any collections of more than a few images. But if you do a search, you will get many more pictures come up of the midwest flooding that year. Vehicles were floating and banging into each other, including from dealerships. Water was up to the roofs in some places. Homes were ruined, etc.
A nearby steel bridge (about 15 miles?) which is usually over 30 feet above the river it crosses was under water. I am still trying to get a photo of that one.

Here are a few pictures from my collection. I did not necessarily take these photos. Various friends shared their photos.

I did help with the relief effort through my church and various agencies that work together at such times. It was quite an experience.

Missouri sometimes get floods, and sometimes we get drought.

 

Today, I did get my milkweed seeds planted and the yarrow seeds. I hope they all do well.

Thank you @Willowisp0801 for the seeds you sent.

I also transplanted a couple of blackberry bushes that I had forgotten were in the yard over to the grapevine trellis.

And I did get some overgrown grass clumps dug out and gave them to Horse. And I worked on pulling grasses in the overgrown flower bed by my driveway. I have not gotten into that bed in a long time due to various trees coming down and other things that had to be done. That bed is around 50 feet long and several feet wide. And I do not want to play with any snakes! I use my claw thing to check for snakes before putting my hand in there.

 

Snow! Go away, snow! Arrrgghhhh!

I grew up about 100 miles NW of St. Louis. That year I tried to visit my parents at that time. It was a mess! Let's hope not to repeat that.

There was this guy -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Scott_(criminal)

Those will be nice. The smell of lavender...

I didn't have much time. These seeds came in the mail, so I planted them. Will they grow?



It might be a little late to produce this year.

Also these - it may still be too cool, I will grow in containers.



The four o'clock roots that I found in overwintered containers, and replanted, are starting to grow.



Also the caladium tubers started to sprout.

 

OMG I hope you didn’t get flooded. We have had a couple of severe flooding incidents. Not an experience I ever want to deal with again. Power was out for 26 days. We camped out in the family room by the wood burning stove.
We had no way to get out and down the mountain by any vehicle, ATV etc. Both roads were flooded and crumpling. So I did what any good cowgirl would do and rode my horse 3 miles into the small town, as the crow flies. Ordered Mc Donald’s food to go from the drive up window . They gave the horses a bunch of hamburger buns .It was freezing but on the backs of a horse they helped to keep me warm as steam was rolling off them as we climbed back up the mountain. That’s my story and I’m sticken to it. Of course that was a few years ago. Couldn’t do it now.

Daniel we just cross posted. Your garden is gonna have some fantastic fruit and veggies. The tiny watermelons are sweeter than the bigger ones. Can’t wait to see yours. How long do they take til harvest?

 

Daniel...Mini Watermelon!! I'm waiting to see that one. I don't think I'll be able to try my watermelon experiment this year ( too many tomatoes.....). I'd love to see what yours does.

My daughter just introduced me to Rene's seeds. I started some dwarf eggplants for her. They have some very interesting plants. I'm going to look for the alpine strawberries for next year. My neighbour had them at one time and gave me a bag from her freezer when she moved. They made fabulous pancakes and jam. Then...the new owners mowed the whole meadow they grew in. What a shame. She had them growing as a wild strawberry in a small meadow area and loved searching for them all summer.