Lovely Lavender

I am so excited that the lavender that I planted this year is starting to bloom!  It smells heavenly and I hope it is helping to keep the bugs away from the patio area. So many possibilities to use this medicinal herb in the future!!

May Garden Updates 2016

This weekend I accomplished these garden tasks:

1. Ordered some grow bags for the sweet potatoes.  They should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday.  I am hoping that these work since I cannot till the west area because it is too wet still.
2. Added holes for drainage to 3 new containers in the container garden.  They contain beans, carrots, and onions.
3. Weeded. Weeded, Weeded
4. Added the kitchen scraps to the compost pile.  I now need to stir it and add more brown layers.  Wish I had more dead leaves around here...ugh!
5. Picked a few ripe blackberries.  They are starting to ripen now!
6. Trying to figure out a new plan for the cucumbers, cantaloupe, zucchini, and the watermelon.  I am thinking I will try pallets for the zucchini, cantaloupe, and watermelon.  I might put the cucumbers in one of the 3 grow bags I ordered since I only need 2 for the sweet potatoes.  I ordered 3 because they came in a 3-pack.

May Garden Chores

May Garden Chores Included: 

1. Weeding all flower beds and containers.
2. Planting the salsa garden raised bed.
3. Taking pictures of all the flowers and growth.
4. Putting out and keeping filled the Oriole feeders.  They love oranges and grade jelly!!
5. Harvesting herbs.
6. Planted more herbs.
7. Adding more herbs to pots.  I found some wild chives that I added.
8. Finding some volunteer cilantro plants while weeding and transplanting them to the pot of cilantro.  I have 2 pots of cilantro.
9. Planting all seedlings from their little greenhouses.
10. Improving the soil in the large raised bed and replanting spinach, carrots, radishes, broccoli, and sugar snap peas. 
11. Harvesting the lettuce and planting some more for continued harvest all summer.  
12.  Adding more containers to the container garden.  Planted tomatoes (some plants and some from seed to extend the growing season), carrots, bush beans, more basil, and seedlings from the mini greenhouse. 
13. Added pansies to the rock garden area in 2 pots.
14.  Planted another large blackberry bush that I got at a great deal at local nursery.
15. Weeding, Weeding, Weeding

Salsa Garden Raised Bed

Finally got my salsa garden raised bed finished!  Tomatoes, sweet peppers, and jalapeno peppers!

Milkweed Planted

On May 21 I planted more milkweed in my new planters I made.  Hoping it grows quickly for the Monarchs!

Growing Cherry Tomatoes

If you grow nothing else this summer, treat yourself to one cherry tomato plant and savor their flavor!

https://www.almanac.com/blog/gardening/gardening/gro

wing-cherry-tomatoes

Growing A Salad

The lettuce I planted in March was ready to harvest!  Growing a salad is fun and tasty!!

April Garden Chores

April Garden Chores

• I planted  strawberries (I will keep the blossoms pinched off the first year so they develop strong roots)
• The last average frost date was this month. That means I could plant warm-season annuals (tomatoes, peppers, basil, marigolds, petunias, and the like) since all danger of frost has passed.Still working on finishing these tasks due to spring rains.
• I will wait to plant seeds for corn, green beans, squash, cucumbers, okra, sweet potatoes and other heat-lovers until the soil has warmed to 60 degrees F. That's warm enough for you to walk on it comfortably barefoot. This should be very soon!
• Also worked on flower garden areas and getting all the perennials and annuals planted there.  Still need to add rocks to the rock garden area.
• I have 1 more flower garden area to weed and thin out.  That will be done in May because of April rains!
• Weeded the herb garden and the mint garden areas.
• Built a trellis for the sweet peas in the container garden area.

Happy National Wildflower Week

National Wildflower Week takes place each year in the first week of May, which signals a time when most of the country is bursting with blooming wildflowers. This week-long celebration was started by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. As Johnson once said, wildflowers “give us a sense of where we are in this great land of ours.”

THE BENEFITS OF WILDFLOWERS

• Wildflowers are extremely easy to grow. They create easy, low-maintenance color in almost any sunny spot, needing little water once established.
• Wildflowers help our pollinators. Native and non-native wildflowers are integral to pollinators' survival. Planting a wildflower meadow gives bees, butterflies and hummingbirds a nectar buffet to feed on all season long.
• Wildflowers are good for the environment. Instead of spending your time and resources on mowing a huge lawn, replace half of it with easy-to-grow wildflowers that only require mowing once per season.
• Wildflowers provide spectacular color. There’s nothing more awe-inspiring than a wildflower garden or meadow bursting in bloom, and we carry over 240 individual species and 50 mixtures for any garden, big or small.
• Wildflowers are fun. Whether you’re a new gardener or a seasoned pro, growing, caring for and cutting wildflowers for summer bouquets is a lot of fun.

For further information see this link:

http://www.americanmeadows.com/blog/2016/05/02/happy-national-wildflower-week/