It's Deck Time, Part 1

We've come through a highly erratic spring with snow, rain, chill, damp, 80 degrees in February, which I know isn't spring, but it plants the seeds, so to speak. This past weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer. For me, what better way than to spend an hour at Planter's Palette, oogling the offerings. I came home with four flats and one pot of flowers.

Take note of the really dirty birdbath. I have no clue what that red stuff was. I do know birds weren't using the bath at all.

There are 6 flowers in that light blue container to the left. Those were ordered from Select Seeds. I love their plants but I can't, for the life of me, get the delivery correct. They sat in the kitchen for 2 weeks because it was too cold to put them outside. I think it's best that I just don't try to order plants and simply go to the nursery when I'm ready to plant.

Now that I've got most of what I want, it's time to decide what to plant first. The Diva was there to keep me focused on the task at hand. Friends, seeing this photo, have said she has "resting annoyed face".

I decided the first thing to do was liberate the raised bed.

The weeds really took off this spring. The tall stalks are the leftover sunflowers which weren't going back in the bed. They are going out front this year. I've seen one hummingbird around so I need to get flowers planted which are attractive to them. I think I will also put up the feeder. I found it over the weekend. Nothing like a 2 ounce bird to get you inspired.

After weeding, I mixed up the soil and found these.

It's a bit tough to see, but those are earthworms. I am elated! That means, to me, the soil is a good consistency and healthy. Into this box went peppers.

What 15 minutes of weeding can do to transform an area. I should get weed killer and spray around the box to help keep the weeds down. I added the metal poppies although I probably should have washed them out.

The one on the end has a bent stem. I couldn't bend it more straight so it will always be an end poppy. There are orange, yellow, orange, yellow, orange peppers in the box. Those are my favorites. The plants already have peppers on them so perhaps, by July 4th, I'll be eating home grown, assuming the squirrels don't have a taste for peppers.

The peppers are right across from the hosta which has been off the northwest corner of the deck for well 'nigh 20+ years. It's huge this year.

I don't know if the removal of the trash trees to the north and the freeing up of sunlight or what, but it's never been this big. I'm thrilled. The daylilies in the background have started to spread into the lawn to the northwest. That's annoying, but I can mow over what I don't want.

Now on to part 2.

Beverage:  Earl Grey tea

Deb

A Raised Oops

A year ago, I contracted with Evergreen Tree Service to remove the trash trees from the north and northwest side of the house. In the interim, since that was done, I have gone one growing season with no garbage stuff on the northwest side of the house. Sitting on the deck was very enjoyable last year. The money I spent was well worth it.

In part of the space, on the south side of the extended downspout, I put a raised bed. In that bed, I decided to grow Mexican sunflowers and my usual peppers. I love fresh peppers from the garden. I don't buy ones which stay green. I buy "chocolate", yellow or, my absolute favorite, orange hued.

The sunflowers came as seeds. I bought these metal poppies and added them to the bed.

I found seed markers amongst all my garden supplies in the basement.

They marked the location of the sunflowers. I realized the poppies would get lost in the sunflowers so moved them to the front of the box.

The sunflowers took off. I swear they grew inches per day. The idea that the poppies cupped shape would hold rainwater did not account for the competition from growing and fully grown plants. If these are to do what it is claimed they do, provide spots of water to hummingbirds and butterflies, I can't plant something which easily eclipses their height. Pepper plants have the potential to interfere, but not like the sunflowers did.

When I bought the deck plants, I added 4 pepper plants to my cart. The sunflowers had just pushed through the dirt. Planters Palette puts out three-quarter size plants which have begun to blossom. You can stick these right in the ground or in pots and expect fresh peppers in about 2 weeks, assuming the bees aren't surprised there is something to pollinate. I had an orange pepper by the 3rd week of June.

Several more small peppers formed on the plants.

But they never got very big. I couldn't understand why. Then, while watering at the end of July, it hit me. Peppers love sunshine. You can see from the above photos, how the sunflowers shaded the pepper plants. I also seemed to have some issues with yard scamps making off with the small fruits, but, given their golfball size, I wasn't that upset. I got three whole peppers out of last year's crop.

So, this year, the sunflowers are going to the front of the house. This box is solely for peppers. I want to get poppies. I adore the look of poppies, and put them on the other side of the downspout. It would take a couple years for them to establish, but they would fill in that side so it doesn't look so bare. Or, I've contemplated getting a second raised bed. I don't know if poppies do well in raised beds. Something to read up on, for sure.

You spend years gardening and think, "I got this" and then, well, you don't quite have it. Learning as we go. That's the best part; that and fresh peppers.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

How to Buy Plants

Seed catalogues flooded my mailbox at the beginning of the month. There is one, from a company in Maine, which comes in the mass of mail right after Thanksgiving. I have never ordered from them and, because it comes so early, I'm not inclined to consider what I might be planting a full 6 months in the future. I have my favorite companies; Jung Seed, Park Seed and Select Seeds. I received a new catalogue this year, something from a nursery which specializes in prairie plants, which looks very intriguing. Other than these four, everything else has been thumbed through and discarded. You find companies you like and you stick with them.

The same goes for nurseries. I go to Planter's Palette. I've been going here since the place opened and have watched them grow, specialize, diversify. I know, if I have an issue, I can go to them for advice. They told me what I needed to put in the raised bed to get good plants. The guy I spoke with also said, "Don't buy our top soil. It's overpriced. Go to Wal*Mart and get some of theirs. But, you'll need to amend that with our mushroom compost; one bag of compost to one bag of top soil. Next year, mix into the box more compost. The year after that, add top soil. Keep doing this and anything you plant in the box will thrive." I appreciate that kind of honesty. I did that and I think it's one reason the sunflowers in the box were gorgeous.

I want to make the north side of the house, now that all the trash stuff has been removed, a bit more exciting. It's just the bare wall, foundation and the two pine trees which had their dead branches removed with the clearing of the brush. I thought adding a ground cover and filling the area with ferns and hostas would be a cool idea. Unfortunately, the cost of ferns and hostas means this has to be a long term project, but I could start with a couple.

Well, what to start with. Planter's has an abundance, almost mind boggling, number of types of ferns and hostas. Big, little, with color, straight green, you name it. I was prepared to spend an hour wandering around the tables, looking at the varieties, reading about them, pondering, looking at what I was going to buy and deciding how much I could afford. It took me 15 minutes.

This hosta is called "Mouse Ears". You can see it, right? Here's the fern.

It's called "Godzilla".

Yes, while I was prepared to do some research and ask questions, I picked a hosta and a fern solely because they had cool names.

The ground on the north side of the house is hard and compacted. I couldn't get the holes dug as deeply as I wanted to get these planted. I also bought some pachysandra for ground cover. I watered every other day and then we got some good soaking rains so I didn't check up on the plants for about a month. When I came around the side of the house, they had been eaten down to an inch above the soil line. In October, however, the fern and the hosta had put out new bracts, which was encouraging.

Over the weekend, when I rehung the bird feeder, they were nowhere to be seen, but I think they die back. My neighbor to the south has several large cinnamon ferns and those die away completely with the first hard frost. The pachysandra was still there.

I did think that perhaps I need a raised bed on that side of the house. The creeping Charlie has taken over where I had scattered grass seed. I probably need to cover the ground with landscape fabric and let the sun's heat kill the grass and weeds under it. It's an old method of killing weeds in the soil. If I cover the creeping Charlie, that should, in theory, kill that patch and I could start anew with grass. I really wanted to put poppies on the north side of the downspout. I forgot to buy them last year. I love the look of poppies and used to have a couple plants in the front.

There will be some landscaping changes this year. I'm not retiring and moving away, yet, so I want the lawn to look better than it has in years. I was quite neglectful.

Beverage:  English Breakfast Tea

Deb