Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

[Lily left the valley]

Didn't get much done today yesterday outside. A walk around with Sean, and we rejiggered some plans for the next month and change for the yard specifically. He is itching to move the crapapple tree, but I know how much needs to be done before we should even start hacking it down to size. He's really keen on it, though. Since he's now picked up another day of work this week, I might just bend in my plans to regrade the garden bed this week and instead focus on at least prepping the site for where we want to move the crabapple tree. I still think getting the root ball out will be a nightmare since it most certainly runs under a chain link fenceline between our yard and the neighbors behind us. Time will tell how this goes, but I fear what he thinks will only be a few hours' worth of work will be an entire day if we're lucky, and if the weather co-operates.

If I didn't already mention it, there's a book I found at our local library, The 2 Hour Garden, that I'm finding quite useful as an urban gardener. It's fairly easy to follow along, and I'm working their overall scheme in along with what we're hoping to do that differs from their fairly standard urban backyard sort of suggestions. (As in, no food forests or hugleculture.)

Payday is Friday. I will be ordering $20 worth of seeds--veggie, herb, possibly a fruit or two--we're still dithering over what, and if we can spend less right now, that's not a bad thing. So I'm also trying to figure out what can wait for purchase until the next payday since this one is mostly being gobbled up by a newer larger mortgage payment and what I hope is our last heating oil delivery payment until nearer to the fall.

[Lily left the valley]

Slow but steady progress in the yard. Some of it is coming along without any of our help. The mullein out front has started to wake up in an active way, and I need to give it more room sooner than later now that I know how wide it might spread since it should be a flowering year.

Although the hollies haven't started blossoming yet, we're debating shaping them for this season, and moving them in late fall. It will honestly depend on the weather tomorrow. If the rain is as non existent as they claim, they may get transplanted (or at least one of them!) I also still want to at least finish pulling the turf layer on the left hand side of the front yard. I'll get to the right later in the week.

A few pics I took today. Two of violets in two different spots in the yard, and one of milkweed that has decided a life in crack is what I craves. We have to take that splash guard up, though, because most of it has settled over time and now angles towards the house. There is another of the solid purple only of the violets up front, but it's just starting to leaf right now.




I have a list for this upcoming week of what I want to do in the yard, but time will tell what actually gets done, weather permitting.

[Lily left the valley]

Most of this week, weather wise, is looking good. I have a lot to do!

Later today I'll be working on the safety glass bed. I've decided to shovel out the remaining dirt that still has safety glass in it and container it for now to get it out of the way. That area also has soooo many thorny runners that need something. Then I need to figure out what we'll keep from that bed and set it aside before starting the regrade process back up. I'm truly curious at this point to see just from angling the dirt itself away from the foundation will do to lessen water coming into the cellar.

I also have two other projects I want to start on this week, the garage bed clean up and finally starting to remove the gravel from what we think used to be a playset area. I have containers for the gravel, because I can't yet lay it on the dry river bed we'll be making as I have a lot of digging to do over there. Yet I really want to get all the gravel up and contained so we can also remove the various liners under same gravel.

Seeds are on the way, so even though I want to work on those two bits, I have to start setting up the new food forest area in the backyard. That means setting up the first of the beds, as well as maneuvering the troops of our Berry Army to their new position. Lots of thorns there too, which I'm not looking forward to.

So we'll see how this week develops or not!

[Lily left the valley]

Someone remind me I shouldn't rely on the local forecast too heavily if I mention it again, ok?

I'm a bit regretful at how I started the regrade in the safety glass bed. I should have first focused on clearing the plantings, setting aside what we'll keep, then digging out the soil with safety glass and then focusing on the regrade.

Instead, soon after starting to dig out the safety glass studded soil parts, I found myself focused on unearthing the roof drip cement slabs I suspected lay beneath build up. Right as the new wave of precipitation was moving in soon after, I had made what amounts to a trench line right along the foundation.

If the threatening clouds don't go beyond spitting this afternoon, I'll be back out there picking up where I left off, but in as right an order as I can muster from my sidetracked previous effort.

Our seeds from Heirloom Seeds arrived on Thursday--earlier than I expected, and now I'm scrambling trying to get the supplies to start them indoors since the weather keeps taking wonky turns (supposed to dip to 37°F tonight). I thought they wouldn't be here until next week. If the spritz turns to rain by 3 (I have stuff from noon to about then today), then I'll at least get some seeds in eggcarton starters with soil today.

I did stop by the first Farmer's Market this year in town, and picked up rosemary, parsley, basil, Knight peas, and orange and yellow "Beedance" bidens. Bidens are pollinator plants, but I feel a bit silly because I loved their look, and lo and behold, everything they specifically are a companion plant to, we won't have because they're not from anywhere near our zone because these bidens are not from our zone either. They are in the aster family, though, and we do have loads of those, but more northern varieties. So time will tell if they make it another season self seeding or not. I'm still going to plant them near our goldenrod and where I hope to put some black eyed susans, because at least the aster family is good for those. I'm trying to make the best of a dumb impulse buy.

[Lily left the valley]

Been dancing around the rain of late. So much rain and everything has exploded in the yard.

The rhododhendron we transplanted is doing very well. The first pic is from May 5th, the flower is from two days ago. It and the other early flower are both full open now.



Along the driveway, we have strawberries I've been trying to encourage. Many are throwing runners, but a few flowered. I don't expect much out of that patch, but time will tell.


I did pay for our second rain barrel today. We hope to pick it up next week. Still need to get some gutter bits for that area to help funnel the roof water into it.

We did get one kitchen bed started, but only today did anything go down in it, and I think I might have over watered the Knight peas starters I had picked up from the local Farmer's Market a few weeks ago. We didn't get all the seeds in we wanted today, but at least some are in the ground now. Hopefully the squirrels will let them be! (Unlike all the bulbs and pips I planted earlier in May--they dug them ALL up.)

More later, but I do have to say that I am losing the Dandelion War.

[Lily left the valley]

I'll do my best to sum up what we've been up to since the 1st. If you want to read more, feel free to stop by my site, Growing in Gardner, as I've been using that as a sort of wandery accounting of things I used to put here. I meant to cross post more, but time has been fleeting.

We did pick up the 2nd water barrel, but it's not in place yet because there's still no gutter there though we think we'll just put it in anyhoo because it's better than not getting used and it's paid for, right?

Because of the rain we got when the weather finally warmed, the yard just grew banana crazy. I have once again had to let Mother Nature do what she will, and we've only intervened as far as trying to keep the front yard tidy and getting the first kitchen bed done and started. Because of bad placement (over the stove) in the kitchen, some of our starters I bought at our local Farmer's Market didn't fare well and are in recovery. Except the Knight peas. They have officially been marked as bereft of life. The few Valentine sunflower starters we bought met an early demise, likely thanks to an unknown assailant that landed on them, body first, after attempting to kill the sparrow family in the garage soffit, then slipping off the roof and while clinging to the suet feeder, pulls the fascia away from the building so much it caused a huge crack in the wood. We know -something- fell, though we're not 100% positive it was a certain ginger tabby cat that regularly prowls. We do know the sparrows are gone, that the board didn't naturally degrade to that state, and the sunflowers certainly didn't crush themselves. (I forgot to take a picture of the fascia pulled away because I was so upset over it all at the time, and was more concerned about getting it put back up.)

Since I barely remember what little time I spent as a youth in my grandparents' garden, I have no sense of timing or even any confidence of what I'm doing. I know most of what we got into the ground was late. Some things we're not sure survived being noticed by the Acorn Bombers and other visitors or if they're just doing their thing in a way we can't notice yet. Time will tell. It does seem that one of the scarlet runner bean seedlings has decided growing is too much effort, and one out of three corn seeds planted is the only one poking through now.

Aside from the Knight peas, we haven't had too many casualties, fortunately. We also didn't plant ALL the seeds because the space we've cleared isn't very big, and if this is to be a learning year, we'd rather not waste them.

I did plant a few more seeds of what we suspect we lost indoors, in the hopes that they may take the place of what may be lost. It's still too soon to tell how those are doing.

I did finally attend a local Conservation Commission meeting, and in doing so found myself volunteering to help share some plants with a homeowner that inadvertently removed plants he didn't know he shouldn't because he was in a flood zone. I had a visit from the Conservation Commissioner soon after, and we had a nice visit. He was excited about what we're doing here, but warned me the homeowner hadn't followed up with him. I haven't heard anything since then, but the next meeting is Monday, so maybe I'll find out then.

I also have started to make some gardening friends locally. Some by posting an ad for free lilies (the ones we're thinning out along the driveway), and also from meeting folks at PYCA that know other folks. In about two weeks, when one lady comes back from visiting her kids across country, she'll be coming by for a few bits, and I'll eventually head over to her place as well. She's right here in town, and walks pretty much everywhere like me.

*thinks* The driveway itself is sort of on hold for now, due to lack of funds. Same with the Walipini. (That latter actually annoys me MORE. Both because of the recent water intrusion I know is due to the cellar enclosure abutting the house, plus we would really like to keep growing food as long as possible.)

Strawberries have been a surprise this year. A few have shown up on the front lawn we weren't expecting. They are actually doing much better than what's along the east property line fence. Likely because they get more sun. I may move the strawberry plants that are throwing runners to the front if time allows, otherwise it will have to wait until next year.

Some volunteers from last year are gaining stride, like the vetch and especially our flowering mullein. We also have wild grape this year. I started trellising it with a nearby tall weed (I still haven't ID'd), but I'm hoping to support it better by the end of the month. The Berry Army is going like gangbusters. It turns out the blackberry plants were the pride and joy of the original husband half of the owners here. No wonder we have so many in that corner.

I also found a MA butterfly club, which led to an e-mail with a very nice lady that sent me info about raising Monarch larvae. Which I am totally ready to do, but can't find any eggs or larvae yet.

What else?

The regrading overall continues, but has had long stretches of "nothing" going on.

The front bed changes are also coming along with stretches of same.

OH! Purple loosestrife...my new nemesis. That's been a daily chore ferreting that out. I do not recall having any last year, but I was just as overwhelmed then as I feel now. So if I didn't capture it in a picture, I don't recall.

Oh. Whatever shrub is smothering the rhodie in the far back of the yard? It's forming a WALL.


Did I mention the Oriential Bittersweet is still hanging about? And we found a Japanese Knotweed that had been hidden by a full oak sapling, and it at least three years old judging by the canes? Fun never stops!

Despite the overwhelmeds...I am happy.

[Lily left the valley]

One other pic I meant to link is of one of our original often puzzled out plants last year that turned out to be a mullein. I had transplanted it last year from the back yard to the front, and was quite worried it would rebel against that maneuver, but it soldiered through the winter, and two pictures down is what the top of the stalk looked like two days ago. I wanted to have a visual punch this year, and she is definitely delivering. Most of the folks I've talked to believe they have never seen one before, and I've done my best to tell them to watch for what will happen. Quite a few of these conversations were back when it still mostly looked like a ground level plant.


They flower biennially, and this is a bloom year. You'd never know this was the same plant from last year when it was a wee baby with most of its leaves so close to the ground. The center stalk is almost as tall as me now, and today the lower buds you see below have opened to full cheery yellow flowers, but it was already getting too dark to get a good shot.

[Lily left the valley]

Almost a month since my last garden post here, but we have not been idle.

Two things I want to say straightaway:
1) I have no regrets about letting the back go wild. NONE. So many wonderful finds, and I am learning how to work with them to start to "shape" the look of what just shows up.

2) I am really glad that gardens at bungalows tend to be a little woodsy wild, as the Acorn Bombers alone have dashed many a plan by moving direct sown seeds and hiding them elsewhere so when the plant does grow, it's like a practical joke because I'm thinking "There's no way I planted that there."

This is definitely a year I have had to sit on my urges a bit more because along with the naturalizing does come some headaches. We apparently missed a lot of oriental bittersweet berries we thought we had stripped off the super long climbers we took out of Shirley's trees last year. Nope. Lots of toddler oriental bittersweets have popped up this year, and I simply have not had time to fork them all out.

I don't think I've mentioned this here yet, but I've started attending our local Conservation Commission meetings, and that led to a visit from the Conservation Agent who helped me ID some things, wasn't aware of others, and unfortunately spotted a Japanese knotweed that had hidden itself under a screen of saplings. Worse, I just found the other day that the same plant has sprung a child within a foot of the parent. So now I have to shift my plans for the week and I am just darn glad there isn't much in that area in the ground (the south woodsy area) because it will be easier to simply dig it all up so I can find any underground suckers. I want it GONE. From the canes we could see, it's been around about two years, maybe three (this year being one of those).

We have another rain barrel we picked up for the back, but haven't guttered there yet. None of our local hardware stores seem to actually carry anything but downspouts in the store. You have to order the rest.

Regrading sort of halted a bit when we started dealing with the kitchen garden plants in earnest.

Picked up some free fencing and two sturdy trellis pieces from a neighbor. That's a tale in itself.

On one hand, I'm glad we didn't plant all the seeds we bought this year because we sure have made some mistakes! On the other hand, I wish we had at least planted twice as much.

I've had terrible luck with the seeds I've tried to start indoors in pots to try to avoid the Acorn Bombers moving things. NOTHING had grown. The good news about the orientation of our home plus what surrounds us is we don't get a lot of direct side sun which is great in the summer. The bad news is we don't get a lot of direct side sun, which has not helped me trying to use the window rather than artificial light.

I did move one planter outdoors when this became evident, but I chose poorly. What I thought was a rectangular planter with four planting areas is more likely to be an earthenware mini loaf pan. It does not drain well, and all that did at first show promise promptly died after drowning.

My record keeping is getting better, some now hilarious mistakes were made early on that it took me a while to figure out. The front yard is no where near where we thought it would be by now.

I am learning to live with such. Day by day.

Still, considering how little we've spent on the yard this year (less than $35 since all our water comes from the rain barrel), I think we're doing mighty fine. There are a few crops that we won't get to harvest this year, but of those that have...we are grateful. Sean keeps blaming his black thumb. I keep reminding him I have never started beds from scratch before and we both knew the soil has been through all sorts of travails. I also haven't really gardened to the extent that we are in decades. So much has been forgotten (like sparrows and their dust baths--my poor carrots never stood a chance.)

I'm also trying to take on Monarch Guardianship this year. My first attempt was an epic failure. Instead of monarch larvae, I found milkweed tussock larvae. But they are SOOOOO cute when they instar further and start to show their fuzz. In the first instar, they are near dead ringers for the monarchs. We've had two monarch butterflies that I've noticed (but failed to photograph), but still haven't found eggs or larvae. The pic I took last year of the one I saw was in early August. So there's still time. I even picked up a free aquarium with a screened top for them, so I am ready when I find any.

Lots more, but need to sleep.

[Lily left the valley]

It turns out that our house came with five types of berries, not four.

I think we didn't figure this out last year because what we had last year were mostly first year canes, so they didn't really berry. After a conversation with my neighbor, she said when her daughter lived here there were boysenberries which she now has at her new home. So that could explain why we only had first year canes last year. Or maybe the poor things went into shock since they grow in and around the safety glass bed, which also has all manner of broken toys and other trash we've been cleaning out over time. What my neighbor's partner told me is he thinks the glass actually came from a patio table they had put there which was glass topped. (I'm still not clear if the daughter was the last tenant or the second to last. I think she's the second to last. I know the very last were not here long before they were ousted.)

The berry type is boysenberry. When we add in our blueberry bush we bought and planted last year, that means we have six edible berries on the property. To me, this is fantastic!


Sean put the two trellis pieces together that we'll be transplanting the grapes next to, hopefully Sunday.

I have been having a hard time picking a project and seeing it through. I realized the other day the growing season is over halfway done and there is much we haven't yet gotten to or finished.

I think the next simpler project is going to be fencing in our compost with the pieces we picked up from a neighbor. I actually saw the neighbor outside walking back from errands today. I stopped to thank him and tell him we're putting them to good use. He seemed surprised that I did do, but I think he was glad. He offhandedly remarked he might be putting a few other things out as his projects move forward. I got the feeling he's a bit that type that doesn't make much of matters, but is still appreciative of their efforts being noticed. I could be totally wrong, of course. Barely spoke to the man for ten minutes. He just had that way about him.

I'm a bit disappointed by what didn't make it this year, but I'm twice as excited at what has and is still growing.

I'm seriously thinking about turning the doghouse into a cold frame so we have less troubles with the seed eaters next year, but can still direct sow. We have all those freebie windows taking up space as well.

[Manalto]

...that means we have six edible berries on the property.

Nice! Anthocyanins for days.