Earl of Essex Iris
Pleasant Peasant Iris
Allium - Purple Sensation
 |
| Earl of Essex |
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Fall planting 2019 - Phase One
Wednesday, September 18. I planted the first of three small flower gardens in the backyard.
Earl of Essex Iris
Pleasant Peasant Iris
Allium - Purple Sensation
Earl of Essex Iris
Pleasant Peasant Iris
Allium - Purple Sensation
Monday, July 8, 2019
Garden 2019
Garden Update - 2019
Please excuse this poorly written blog! I wrote this in one go, with no editing.
BACKYARD
This year's backyard is not as good as I hoped it would be. There have been some notable changes. Last winter I moved two dwarf cherry trees to the back of the garden. They are small enough that they were not damaged too much. When spring rolled around the trees blossomed.
DAISY CORNER
I neglected to properly weed and mulch the garden over the winter, as a result the garden beds were smothered in weeds. I tried weeding as much of is as I could myself. When I gave up I hired my babysitters brother to weed the area for me.
I decided that I wanted to put some colorful perennial flowers in that area, heavily mulched to prevent this problem from arising again. I chose a selection of yellow and white daises. As flowering plants look better in groups we have Shasta, yellow cone and Black eyed Susan daises growing in groups. I also transplanted some salvia and a few other varieties.
HERBS
For the vegetable garden I planted potatoes, one of my favorite garden staples. They really are delicious when cooked straight out of the earth. This year I planted a variety of herbs: basil, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, thyme etc... Considering all thing things I grow, herbs are the most used in my kitchen. For the last few days I've been going into the garden harvesting rosemary and cilantro for
chicken, fish, beef, stews and even breads.
FRUIT TREES
The plumb and Nadia trees are growing nicely. This year I pruned them back on the tips. They flowered in the Spring.
The pear trees have little baby pears growing on them, and the leaves have yellow/orange spots. The spots are a rust caused by rust fungus Gymnosporangium sabinae. I have to buy some copper fungicide from either Amazon or Carpinitos. I really need to get a small shed for the backyard, the garage just isn't a good place to store garden supplies.
The espalier apple trees are growing beautifully. Its been five years and not a single apple, but that is okay as espalier trees usually take much longer to produce fruit than if I let the tree grow on its own accord.
PERENNIAL BOARDERS
I planted Canna bulbs - not a single one grew. However one tiny rose bush I planted from carpinitos is blooming nicely. This brings my to my roses. I really do not like the tea roses. The grow all weird and scraggly. I think tea roses are good for cutting, but for the backyard I need floribunda or some other variety. I love roses, but they just do not look great to me. I think I need more patience. What I really want is about 3 Burgundy Iceberg Roses in the backyard. They would compliment the Myrtle Gentry and Bernheart Peonies. Im still looking for the Hotel Savoy Rose bushes, I think I will not ever get them unless I go to England, buy them there and ship them home. The English growers will not ship them to the United States. My co-worker told me there is somebody who sells roses at the Puyallup Street Fair and they always do well. Unfortunately I am in California during the market. If its still going on when I get home I am going to check it out.
The lawn looks like crap. I like a little lawn, but for the most part it is a waste of space and time. I'm going to keep the lawn only as a little walking space. The kids do not care about the backyard, the area is just my playground.
PERENNIAL PEONY BLEEDING HEART BOARDER
The first peony next to espalier apple is myrtle gentry, it bloomed beautifully this year. The problem is that it is planted too close to the apple tree. Peonies like to stay put, but it won't die if it is moved, they last up to fifty years. I would like to move the myrtle gentry to the new perennial boarder right behind the small rose. I have a few other peonies that need to be planted so I will replace the old one with the newer ones to give them a chance. The bleeding heart grew magnificently, I have two more to be planted. Again - I like repetition. As bleeding hearts are so big they do not need to be planted in groups, one will suffice.
HORRIBLE CONCRETE
One more thing on my to do list is to hire a contractor to remove all that horrible concrete. The previous owners layed down concrete and it looks awful. I want to remove the concrete, put down fresh soil and rework the garden. I will probably put the vegetable gardens closer to the house.
This puts into question - what do I plant where we had the vegetable gardens? Five years of digging, removing rocks, amending, and bags of compost made the soil perfect. As I already have three posts up for the raspberries and wine grapes, the answer is simple - blueberries.
BLUEBERRIES
Blueberries need more than one variety for good pollination. The bushes need space to really grow out, I think I can put in no more than four blueberry bushes, three varieties would be good for pollination. As the garden beds are fairly large for blueberry alone I will have to find companion plants. I thought about strawberries but the look like crap and the bugs eat them anyway. Probably some lovely low growing flowers would work in that spot. I do not like wasting space. Rhododendron, like blueberries prefer acidic soil, they would be a good companion plant for blueberries. The problem is there is a competition for space. Rhodies can get quite large. Basil does like slightly acidic soil - boy do they smell wonderful. The problem is that in our climate they need to be planted every summer.
My final thought is about one of my favorite trees, Cedar of Lebanon. Trees of Joy sell them - and they are not cheap. It is an endangered tree and very hard to get. Although it is a slow grower, I simply do not have room for it in my yard.
The lavender is very beautiful and huge! When I stepped outside I was overwhelmed with the scent of lavender. It feels like I am in France again. But the lavender is getting too big for the area and will have to be moved to a new home.
There is so much work to do I do not know where to begin.
FRONT YARD
It is time for me to dismantle the stones for the garden bed under the tree. I find that area just does not get enough rain for vegetation. The tulips all look good there, I think it is time to remove the stones and take them to the backyard. I am going to rework that entire area.
Another thing on my to-do list is to dig a trench along the area where I have the boxwood hedge in the front yard. Behind the boxwood hedge I will transplant the lavender. Let me say this - kids stopped riding their bikes across my front lawn.
After I move the lavender from the back to front, this frees up space in the backyard for more hedge experiments.
Final notes: fence in the backyard needs to be painted. I really hate the look of the ugly cheap wood. Also, typar tree circles protect the trunk and base from being absorbed by weeds. A well learned lesson for me this season.
Please excuse this poorly written blog! I wrote this in one go, with no editing.
BACKYARD
This year's backyard is not as good as I hoped it would be. There have been some notable changes. Last winter I moved two dwarf cherry trees to the back of the garden. They are small enough that they were not damaged too much. When spring rolled around the trees blossomed.
DAISY CORNER
I neglected to properly weed and mulch the garden over the winter, as a result the garden beds were smothered in weeds. I tried weeding as much of is as I could myself. When I gave up I hired my babysitters brother to weed the area for me.
 |
| Daisy Corner |
I decided that I wanted to put some colorful perennial flowers in that area, heavily mulched to prevent this problem from arising again. I chose a selection of yellow and white daises. As flowering plants look better in groups we have Shasta, yellow cone and Black eyed Susan daises growing in groups. I also transplanted some salvia and a few other varieties.
 |
| Salvia |
HERBS
For the vegetable garden I planted potatoes, one of my favorite garden staples. They really are delicious when cooked straight out of the earth. This year I planted a variety of herbs: basil, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, thyme etc... Considering all thing things I grow, herbs are the most used in my kitchen. For the last few days I've been going into the garden harvesting rosemary and cilantro for
chicken, fish, beef, stews and even breads.
FRUIT TREES
The plumb and Nadia trees are growing nicely. This year I pruned them back on the tips. They flowered in the Spring.
The pear trees have little baby pears growing on them, and the leaves have yellow/orange spots. The spots are a rust caused by rust fungus Gymnosporangium sabinae. I have to buy some copper fungicide from either Amazon or Carpinitos. I really need to get a small shed for the backyard, the garage just isn't a good place to store garden supplies.
The espalier apple trees are growing beautifully. Its been five years and not a single apple, but that is okay as espalier trees usually take much longer to produce fruit than if I let the tree grow on its own accord.
PERENNIAL BOARDERS
I planted Canna bulbs - not a single one grew. However one tiny rose bush I planted from carpinitos is blooming nicely. This brings my to my roses. I really do not like the tea roses. The grow all weird and scraggly. I think tea roses are good for cutting, but for the backyard I need floribunda or some other variety. I love roses, but they just do not look great to me. I think I need more patience. What I really want is about 3 Burgundy Iceberg Roses in the backyard. They would compliment the Myrtle Gentry and Bernheart Peonies. Im still looking for the Hotel Savoy Rose bushes, I think I will not ever get them unless I go to England, buy them there and ship them home. The English growers will not ship them to the United States. My co-worker told me there is somebody who sells roses at the Puyallup Street Fair and they always do well. Unfortunately I am in California during the market. If its still going on when I get home I am going to check it out.
The lawn looks like crap. I like a little lawn, but for the most part it is a waste of space and time. I'm going to keep the lawn only as a little walking space. The kids do not care about the backyard, the area is just my playground.
PERENNIAL PEONY BLEEDING HEART BOARDER
The first peony next to espalier apple is myrtle gentry, it bloomed beautifully this year. The problem is that it is planted too close to the apple tree. Peonies like to stay put, but it won't die if it is moved, they last up to fifty years. I would like to move the myrtle gentry to the new perennial boarder right behind the small rose. I have a few other peonies that need to be planted so I will replace the old one with the newer ones to give them a chance. The bleeding heart grew magnificently, I have two more to be planted. Again - I like repetition. As bleeding hearts are so big they do not need to be planted in groups, one will suffice.
HORRIBLE CONCRETE
One more thing on my to do list is to hire a contractor to remove all that horrible concrete. The previous owners layed down concrete and it looks awful. I want to remove the concrete, put down fresh soil and rework the garden. I will probably put the vegetable gardens closer to the house.
This puts into question - what do I plant where we had the vegetable gardens? Five years of digging, removing rocks, amending, and bags of compost made the soil perfect. As I already have three posts up for the raspberries and wine grapes, the answer is simple - blueberries.
BLUEBERRIES
Blueberries need more than one variety for good pollination. The bushes need space to really grow out, I think I can put in no more than four blueberry bushes, three varieties would be good for pollination. As the garden beds are fairly large for blueberry alone I will have to find companion plants. I thought about strawberries but the look like crap and the bugs eat them anyway. Probably some lovely low growing flowers would work in that spot. I do not like wasting space. Rhododendron, like blueberries prefer acidic soil, they would be a good companion plant for blueberries. The problem is there is a competition for space. Rhodies can get quite large. Basil does like slightly acidic soil - boy do they smell wonderful. The problem is that in our climate they need to be planted every summer.
My final thought is about one of my favorite trees, Cedar of Lebanon. Trees of Joy sell them - and they are not cheap. It is an endangered tree and very hard to get. Although it is a slow grower, I simply do not have room for it in my yard.
The lavender is very beautiful and huge! When I stepped outside I was overwhelmed with the scent of lavender. It feels like I am in France again. But the lavender is getting too big for the area and will have to be moved to a new home.
There is so much work to do I do not know where to begin.
FRONT YARD
It is time for me to dismantle the stones for the garden bed under the tree. I find that area just does not get enough rain for vegetation. The tulips all look good there, I think it is time to remove the stones and take them to the backyard. I am going to rework that entire area.
Another thing on my to-do list is to dig a trench along the area where I have the boxwood hedge in the front yard. Behind the boxwood hedge I will transplant the lavender. Let me say this - kids stopped riding their bikes across my front lawn.
After I move the lavender from the back to front, this frees up space in the backyard for more hedge experiments.
Geometric spacers are the outlines for three new garden beds.
Final notes: fence in the backyard needs to be painted. I really hate the look of the ugly cheap wood. Also, typar tree circles protect the trunk and base from being absorbed by weeds. A well learned lesson for me this season.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
peony gardens and sellers
After checking out five books from the King County Library on Peonies, I finally jumped in and made my purchase! I ordered four Myrtle Gentry Peony tubers from Eden Brothers. The shallow holes are dug. According to all the Youtube videos I've been watching, we are not supposed to cover the tubers with more than 2 inches of soil. I plan on making another trip to Carpinito Brothers to purchase a couple tea rose bushes to plant with the Myrtle Gentry.
My philosophy about flowering plants, is that the plants must be seed in groups. The effect of 3 or 4 plants together is a lot more stunning than looking at a single plant all by itself.
Plant in groups!
Where to purchase roots:
This has been a challenge. Peonies are difficult to find, and not cheap.
Eden Brothers (this is where I bought my myrtle gentry peonies)
Klehm's Song Peonies (they have a variety of rare peonies)
Adelman's Peony Farm (huge selection of reasonably priced peonies)
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