April Showers

The weather has been pretty cool and wet.  There have been some breaks of sunshine now and then but after you figure out that they do not last long enough for you to get outfitted and go outside, you realize that they may be best enjoyed through a window.  But every day I go out and do a garden patrol.  This is the time of year when the rabbits decide that the thyme under the apple trees would make a lovely location for a nest.  And I agree, it would be lovely.  But the itty-bitties are trouble enough when they are under foot in the lawn.  I sure don't need them based under the apple tree.  Usually just smoothing back the mulch and sprinkling some repellent granules around is enough to do the trick but this year they are busy enough that I have had to plug the hole with a big ol' rock.

The daffodils are beginning to bloom.  The little tete-a-tete daffs are the first.

The larger ones are not far behind.

The hardy primroses are still a little rough from being buried under snow for months but they are beginning to bloom.

I have been thinking of adding some bulbs to this corner by the deck steps.  I have to keep track of where things are planted.  This will come in handy in the fall when I can either plant accordingly or talk myself out of it completely.  The Winter Aconite should be showing up and blooming at the feet of the snow drops but they aren't.  I need to add some more this fall.

Oh look... the Hyacinths are coming up nice.

Last week I  planted some bareroot Seascape strawberries.  They are already greening up.

The elderberry bushes are leafing out.

I finally finished pruning on the apple trees.  I took a lot out of this one but it is still a very full tree.

Below are the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage plants.  They will be ready to set out in three weeks.  i am pleased with how compact they are staying under the new LED light set up.

And the micro tomatoes and ornamental peppers.  Such tiny little guys.

Yesterday I seeded the indeterminate tomatoes. 

Transplanting More Seedlings

 I'm right in the middle of transplanting season.  I had to kick two grow lights off of the counter to give me more room.  Everything is growing very well.

Top:  Pink Celosia and Salmon Vinca
Bottom: Onions, Sage and Coleus

I am trying a new set up with LED strip lights.  I mounted them up under the upper cupboards and since the seedlings are still pretty tiny, I don't want to risk them stretching for the light so I raised them up on these wire shelf organizers.

Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbages

These were all transplanted yesterday.  They always look a little confused and disheveled at first so it is nice to come out the next morning and see them all standing up straight and moving on.

Micro Tomatoes and Ornamental Peppers with room for dwarf varieties

Now these tiny little Portulaca were a bit of a challenge.  They could have stayed where they were, but they were the only thing left in their seed tray and I wanted to use it for something else.  I had to put my reading glasses on.  I managed not to drown them with the watering can this time, but I also ordered a large syringe which will deliver their water without risking knocking them down with a flood.

Seeded today were four varieties of Dwarf tomatoes and two varieties of Celosia.

More Pruning and Picking Up and Stuff Like That

 We've been working outside a lot and getting ourselves back in shape.  We both have a regular walking routine but all of this upping and downing and lifting on top of that takes some getting used to.  We're not old but we're not as young as we used to be.

After walking past the south apple tree for a week I became determined to top it.  This is not the first time it has been topped.  In fact, the current main leader is not even the original main leader.   There is no point growing apples up there.  I can't reach them even with my apple picker. So I got the big pole pruner out again.  This is how top pruning is accomplished.  This pole is fifteen feet long.  It's main job is to help us lift the telephone wires when we have to get a big truck in or out, but it is still sharp

First I set the pruner then I walk around the tree on all sides.  I've been planning this for awhile, but I have to keep in mind that a tree has at least 360 different angles.  Once I get that leader shortened, the one on the left has to come down too or else it will continue to out grow the leader.  The one on the right is marginal and can stay for now.

Once I get that middle section down, it is pretty gnarly.  I'm glad I did it.

This is better!

The left side looks like it could come down a little too but that can wait for now.

Another pruning project is the Nine Bark shrub.  These grow in a water spout shape and require special pruning.  If you want to size control them you need to make each cut right at the base of the branch or you will ruin its form.  Someone in our neighborhood tries to prune these like a regular rounded shrub and the mess it makes each June is interesting.  I will have to try to remember to take a picture.

To keep this from getting overgrown I take out about half of it starting with any weak or spindly branches at the bottom.

You can't really tell I took anything out.

Another project was the mess created by this big dead Ash tree.  It was actually the neighbor's tree and he got the trunk sectioned up and hauled away to his firewood pile a few weeks ago.  We need to roll the area to erase the heavy scar from the grass so we picked up any leftover bark and started sorting out our junk pile.

This junk pile gets relocated and reduced about every five years but there are still things we find a use for.  We just have to make sense of this mess.

This is better....

Spring Chores

 While the weather can be variable in March, I can usually find a few hours each day when the weather is pleasant enough to spend some time working in the garden.  Time to turn the compost pile.  This compost needs to begin heating back up because if I sifted through this now, only about half of it would be ready to use.  I picked a warm, sunny day so any earth worms that I disturbed would be active enough to bury themselves again.

This is the best time of year to divide and/or relocate perennials.  They are still dormant and this gives them a chance to wake up and begin root growth in their new location.  Any perennial which consists of a thickening clump of small plants instead of a single stemmed plant can be divided and most benefit from it, especially grasses which will begin to die out in the center of a large clump.

 I divided my favorite grass Foxtrot Pennisetum.  I dug the entire clump, cut it in half, divided half of it into ten small divisions and replace the other half back where it was.  I didn't take any photos because this can be (and was) a really miserable job.  I tried cutting it in half with a transplant spade, which was like trying to balance a pogo stick on top of a basketball, then resorted to a really big carving knife.  I planted the divisions in front of the divided ribbon grass in the newly reworked area.

I circled a few but the row goes all the way to the end

I was noticing one benefit of the deep snow pack.  The evergreen  Carex grass (below) is usually burned brown by freezing temperatures, but this year they were protected and look very green.

Carex (sedge) grass is a very resilient grass to have in your landscape.  It is low growing and evergreen so it requires very little care and maintenance.  This cultivar is called Ice Dance.  I bought three of them a few years back and now I have it in nine or ten different spots due to dividing.  It is supposedly good for half sun to full shade but everywhere I have it is in full sun and it grows beautifully.

Seedlings

 My cole crops are up, simultaneously and almost instantaneously.  About three or four mornings after seeding them I went to check and where there had been nothing before there was, all of a sudden, an entire garden on the move.

Except for the lazy peppers

And look at these teeny tiny guys.  These are Portulaca or Moss Rose.  I love these.  They reseed themselves with regularity in my garden, but because I always expect volunteers, I rarely buy any.  Starting my own from seed will be more cost effective and I won't have to wait on the volunteers.

Speaking of lazy peppers.  I seeded three ornamental peppers with this tray.  I had thought I had one up.  Peppers take a little longer.  When the actual peppers, in this case a dark leaved variety, began to show up I realized that what I had assumed was a pepper is actually a wayward tomato seedling.  So, thinking I only got one pepper to germinate, I reseeded all of these cells.  Now I will probably end up with twice as many peppers as I planned.

Patience!

More Poking Around

 I'm still making the rounds assessing the garden and landscape.  Below is the nicest batch of snow drops I've ever gotten.  I planted the bulbs a few years ago but they are spreading by reseeding themselves.  I cannot begin to tell you how tricky it is to leave the tiny seedlings each summer as  I am mulching and weeding.  But my diligence has been rewarded. 

Now that the foliage is gone I can see that the bare root shrubs I planted last year are present and accounted for.  They have not all broken dormancy yet, but the Lilac buds are looking good and all of the stems seem pliable and alive.

The bunny rabbits worked on this one, but there are still plenty of stems left intact.

Crocuses

 

I spent some time today dividing and transplanting ornamental grasses and doing some cleaning up.  Crocus flowers only open up on sunny days.  So far the repellent granules are keeping the deer and rabbits from snacking on them which is making the honey bees very happy.  There are precious few flowers for the bees this time of year.

Yesterday I saw my first flock of migrating robins and I can hear the red-winged blackbirds.

Seedling Progress

Celosia and Vinca

Coleus cuttings, Onions and Sage

The onions are growing well.  I have trimmed them back twice to encourage them to stand up straight.  I transplanted them into pots with potting mix with more perlite and sand added to improve drainage because onions prefer well drained soil.  Next year I will sow two dozen seeds straight into one pot only and pick up some Espoma Cactus Potting Mix so I don't have to play mad scientist with my soil components in deep winter.

The dahlia tubers have been relocated from the workshop to the basement bulkhead and the workshop thermostat has been turned up to 60F.

I write generic names on my initial seed tags so I can reuse them year after year.

In the basement I have micro tomatoes and eggplants germinated and the ornamental peppers are beginning to germinate.  I was very surprised by those Little Prince eggplants. Eggplants are one seed that often take up to two weeks or more to germinate for me.  These took three days.  I went down there two days ago and all four were standing there green and growing, and only one tomato was up.

Today I seeded the broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages and one hot pepper.

 

Easing into Spring

 The snow is finally melting and the sun is shining, but the ground is still frozen hard in many places.  While the wind can be bitter cold, once you got dressed correctly, and got used to it, the weather has been nice enough to get started checking on the garden.  The weather will be unseasonably warm in the 50-60Fs this week so I am making plans as to what needs to be done to take advantage of this.

The first thing I do is check on the rabbit and deer protection and begin moving things from plants that were at risk in autumn to evergreen plants that are at risk in the spring.  While newly planted bulbs (above) may be dug up in the fall by squirrels or racoons, the daffodil sprouts are safe but the evergreen leaves of Penstemon (below), Heuchera, Hellebores or Primrose will suddenly be of interest as they emerge from the snow cover.  Even if the deer just taste them and decide they don't like them, the plants can be set back for weeks.  I have begun scattering repellent granules around the crocuses and as soon as we have some foliage to spray I will switch to spray on repellent.

The rabbits were very hungry when the snow was thick.  Thankfully I had protected all of the fruit trees and they left the other woody shrubs alone.  I can see signs of their munching on the blackberry canes in the bunny patch.

Everything looks pretty flat from having the snow weighing on it for two months straight and some things have snapped.  The Butterfly Bush below shows some damage but it is still too early to prune it.

Any ground that was bare in the long cold has heaved up.  One end of the strawberry patch has heaved because the wire mesh caught all of the snow and the sun shone in under the south end.

Perennial plants are sending up shoots.  Below are the Valerian plants in my perennial herb bed, showing fresh red sprouts at ground level.

This herb bed has a challenging section.  You see that shadow cast by the top rail of the fence?  That ground stays colder and the sun is blocked all winter until the sun climbs up from the southern horizon.  I had planted Parsley in that end of the bed.  You can see that the plants survive to the south and north of the shadow but do not winter over in the shadow.  I seed annual plants in that strip.  I have a similar problem in the perennial bed to the north of the chicken run.  I had low growing Primrose planted in that shadow and while they survived just fine, the plants that lived in the shadow were always late to bloom.  I had to dig them up and relocate them to each side of the shadow.

The end of February, early March is also the time for pruning fruit trees.  This is a chore that I actually enjoy.  Over the years I have gotten better at it or at least more confident.  I have pruned these two fruit trees their whole lives and, for the most part, I think I have done a decent job.  They are both productive and fairly well shaped.  I am very diligent about taking out water sprouts or crossing branches, but I am more timid about header cuts that reduce the height of the tree and change its overall shape.

Before:  I have drawn red lines where I think I need to make cuts.

After:  I was pretty happy with the shape. 
We used a very long, vintage pole pruner to reach these cuts.

One tree (above) is more open and puts out less new growth but produces bushels of apples almost every year.  The other is more of a beauty queen.  She is nicely shaped and puts out vigorous water shoots each year, but is much more fickle about actually producing apples and can either amaze you or totally disappoint.

Before

On this tree I will still need to thin more out on the left (south facing) side.

After

There are a few basic principles to remember when pruning fruit trees. 

• Take out anything dead, damaged or diseased
• Take out anything growing straight up (usually water sprouts) or back towards the center
• Trees send growth hormone to the tips of each branch

That last one is the key principle and must be remembered each time you make a cut.  The last live bud on the end of what you leave, will be the bud that produces a branch.  Below I illustrated this principle on a water sprout, drawing lines from four of the buds.  If you were to keep the branch below you would want to make a cut above one of the buds that is pointing outward away from the trunk.  You would also need to remove the upward pointing sprout to the right of the one I have highlighted because these future branches would eventually cross and rub this branch.  This principle extends to rose bushes and woody shrubs.  There are many factors to consider when pruning a tree, but that is one of the most important.  Next chore: spraying them with dormant oil before they leaf out.

My raised beds have been heavily covered with snow for two months and look as perfect today as the day I prepped them for winter.  And there is not a weed to be seen which is never the case with a mild winter.

We have many snow piles left on the property.  My husband uses the tractor to spread them out where we have room.  This helps them melt faster and also helps control the melt water.  Some of the piles he scoops up and dumps in the roadside ditch where the melt water can run off without causing any problems.

Next spring chore: Clean any remaining leaves from the landscape beds and begin edging and mulching