Week 3 - April 17-18, 2010

So, apparently Mother Nature got the message from my pathetic attempt at poetry last night, because today was a gorgeous day.  I got my side garden mostly edged, I need to get another roll of edging and finish it.  I am very happy with the way it looks and am looking forward to filling up the new space!

The side garden before I started today.

The side garden as I was working on it . . . for some reason, I didn't take a photo when it was finished!

Here are the rest of my weekly update photos.  There wasn't much to do this week other than the work on the side garden, just a few bits of grass to pull here and there.

The other section of the side garden.

The back garden.

And here are this week's flowers and other interesting things in the garden  . . . 

Bleeding Hearts

Grape Hyacins

Dwarf Irises

Dwarf Iris

Violas

Yeah!  My Clematis is alive!!!

Columbine growing out of the railway ties around the back garden.

Rhubarb . . . almost ready!!!!

Rain . . .

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again on a weekday,
Weekends are my time,
To get in the dirt and play.

Rain, rain my flowers need you,
So that they can grow,
But why can't you come
At night, when I slumber?


OK, so I am not a poet, but seriously, why? why? why? can the weather be GORGEOUS all week when I don't have the time or energy to be in my gardens or yard and then when the weekend comes it RAINS??? I hope that tomorrow is nice so that I can get some pics for my weekly update and have some time to play in the dirt!  Yeah, I totally sound like a little kid!

This week, I am hoping to get some edging done on the one section of the side flower garden that doesn't have wood around it to keep the grass from invading.  Every year, I edge it, but without a barrier, the grass just works it's way in.  I am going to widen it and then just put in some plastic edging, hopefully that will help!  And it will give me a bit more space to fill with new plants!!  I wonder what mom has that I don't have yet!!

Week 2 - April 10-11, 2010

Here are pics of this the flower gardens this weekend . . . not much work was required, just a bit of grass to pull . . . there are a few mysterious green things that could be plants or could be weeds . . . I decided to just leave them for a little while, until they get bigger . . . this happens to me every spring!  There are so many things that I can't remember what they all look like when they first come up!  Despite the fact that I had really good intentions to label things last year AND I actually followed through and put in many labels, it didn't help much.  I used a Sharpie on plastic garden tags and they all faded away to nothing, so I have all these nice little tags sticking out of the ground with nothing written on them.  So annoying!!  I'll have to find something better to use this year!

Back Garden

Side Gardens

And although it is still early, there were a few things worth taking some nice close up pics of . . . 

Violas

Delta Red Hen and Chicken

Pink Bleeding Heart, just about ready to bloom.

Vinca

Tulip bud . . . this is one of my new purple tulips, looking forward to these!

Rhubarb . . . getting bid . . . waiting anxiously for fresh rhubarb.

Here are some close up shots of the buds on my lilac bushes.

Got poop?

Last year, the vegetable garden didn't produce quite as well as I would have liked.  The history of my vegetable garden is that I started it the first summer that we lived here (2003) and because I didn't have a lot of time between the melting of the snow and planting time, it wasn't very big.  But each spring after that I would dig out as much more as I had time for between snow and planting until I finally, in 2007, got it as big as I want it, well, it is as big as it can get, sometimes I would like it to be a bit bigger, but this is it!  I don't think that I got any kind of fertilizer on it the first year, and there was a year or two that I bought bags of fertilizer and then for a couple years after that, I had a neighbor bring me some manure from his farm for it.  But it has been a few years since I've put any kind of anything on it.  I know that the newest part has never had anything put on it.  Like I said, last year, the garden really didn't do as well as I would have liked, especially the newest end, so I knew that we had to do something this year.

So, on Easter weekend, while visiting my family, we took full advantage of the fact that we have a truck and the fact that my grandfather is a beef farmer with a big old manure pile in the field.  My uncle filled up the back of the truck with some good old poop . . . in my opinion, the very best fertilizer that there is . . . not only because it works, but also because it is FREE!!!!  

We spent a couple of hours on Easter Monday unloading it from the truck and spreading it on the garden.  Although we could have used a little more, it covered most of the garden.  Now, it can just sit there and let some April Showers spread it's goodness through the soil before we till and then plant the garden!!  

Week 1 - April 3/4, 2010

Due to unusually warm weather in March, the snow was gone early and was able to get out in the flower gardens during the first weekend of April this year.  I was thrilled to be able to get cleaning up the mess . . . as you can see, they needed a great deal of "spring cleaning."

Back Garden

Side Garden

                                             

Fortunately after a few hours of digging, cutting, pulling and of course sweating, the gardens all looked much better!

Back Garden

Side Garden

Despite the mess leftover from fall and winter, there were a couple of little crocuses.  There is nothing prettier than the first blossoms of spring!

And look at my rhubarb . . . Can't wait for it to be ready to use!

Gardening and Me

Gardening is something that I have always done.  My mother is an avid gardener, both flowers and vegetables.  As a child, I spent hours in the gardens with my mother.  As a teenager, I did everything I could to avoid gardening with my mother!  Now, I regret those hours that I could have been gardening with her and learning about something that has now become something that I love.

When we moved into our house in 2003, the yard was a mess.  There were severely neglected flower gardens on two sides of the house as well as two small ones at the end of the yard.  I spent hours that first summer, just working to make them look presentable.  Sadly, I had to let the two small ones in the yard turn back to lawn as they were just too far gone and I didn't have the time to redo them.

Since that first summer, I have added many perennials to the flower gardens along the house, put in a large vegetable garden and an herb garden.  Many of the perennials that I have planted have come from my mother's gardens, which is a good thing, because I have a horrible memory when it comes to plant names and I can call on her to identify them for me (over and over again!).  I have plans for more gardens around my yard when time and money permit.

I hope to share my gardening journey, experiences and photos here at My Almost Green Thumb.  Maybe someone will enjoy looking at my photos, maybe someone will enjoy reading my musings, maybe someone will even learn something from me!  And it will be a place for me to look back in years to come to see when I planted my potatoes and what kind of carrots I planted in 2010!