Garden Fails

Garden Fails

Welcome to the start of a new gardening/yard year!  Every year I try new ideas.  Some I don't like, some don't work out, and some fail miserably.  These  fails are caused by different reasons.  Didn't do my research, pests in the yard, didn't like, whatever. So here is a list of some of my fails as well as why they didn't work. I hope by sharing these you can avoid my mistakes.

FAIL #1

Cute right?  I'm not a big fan of some of the hanging baskets and thought I could make do with some of the stuff I had around the house.  So here's where I went wrong:
1. Basil gets big. I saw these cute photos of herb pots growing inside and just had no idea.  My basil this year was over 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide.
2. Bad location/not enough sun.  I thought because it said that basil could grow in partial sun that this spot would work. Nope. Turns out it only got sun a couple hours a day for the summer and not enough to bring on the growth
3. Wet feet.  I didn't make my little container with enough drainage and so the soil remained wet leading to mold and a host of other issues including wet soil is HEAVY and it warped the container.

FAIL #2, 3

There are actually 2 fails in this photo. Bad support for the peas and bad support for the tomatoes. I liked the idea of the multicolored posts for the peas but they all should have been taller and there should have been more. using long lengths of PVC wasn't horrible but the length was too long (notice the bowing) and it really needed to have additional center support and possibly square shaped.  I was trying out the idea of running the tomatoes up a center line.Now I use the tomato towers from Garden Supply Company and have used them for the last 4 years. 

Fail #5 & 6

I thought I had such a great idea!  Put walk-able thyme between the stones around the firepit and grass around the large outside circle because, you know, fun photos on the internet.
1. The grass died.  First the lawn got a lovely infestation of larvae and cutworms.
2. Hello water bill. Because the sod went in in the fall, I hadn't been through a full Oregon gardening season yet and simply didn't realize how much water would be needed to keep the lawn and the thyme from becoming a massive fire hazard.  Talk about a lot of frustrating, hard work to put it in then take it back out. But then....
3. Settling.  The firepit was put in where the old pond used to be.  Half of the firepit is essentially on fill.  It settled.  In late 2017 I has to pull out all the step stones, thyme and re-level the whole darn think. Hint, Hint: Don't stint on support when putting in block, brick or firepit.

While I had already started replacing the grass with a rock pattern as seen below, this is before I had to re-level the pit. No doubt you can imagine my frustration at having to move many sections of that rock, brick, stone, and weed barrier to add more soil.

 Which leads me to another settling fail:

 1. No base. I didn't use sand.  I thought I could just use plain soil and tamp it down nicely. This led to settling and lots and lots of weeds.
2. The mole.  I learned to hate moles about 6 months after this went in. The mole dug it's tunnels under sections of the brick leading them to settle and collapse as our winter and rain season came through.
3. No spacing. I thought I could just put them really close together and everything would be lovely. Nope. With the freeze/thaw/rain I ended up with a lumpy, weedy mess.

 Yet another cute fail. 

1. Rain.  These teacup bird feeders were super easy to make and were great until the first rains of fall hit.  These are a disaster at my house in Oregon because we get upwards of 45 inches of rain a year.  Everything became a soggy, moldy, sprouting mess.  There wasn't any point in trying to use them for dry food because I simply couldn't keep the seed dry for any length of time.

2. The glue failed.  Why did the glue fail? Because I thought I could leave these out through winter. Nope. After the first couple of freezing nights, the plate went falling down.

Lessons learned:

1. Know your plants.  It's all about the research and understanding what each plant needs to grow and where they need to grow.

2. Don't ignore the experts when it comes to foundation work.  It can save you massive headaches, backaches and money.

3. Consider how weather and temperature will affect the product. Too often I have bought something only to have it fall apart over the winter.  Will the glue fail? Will the wood mold or fall apart?  Will it even last in the elements beyond a summer?

All that being said, I look forward to trying out more creative ideas on the road to creating my little plot of happiness.  Happy gardening in 2018!

Spring 2017 is here! Time for garden planning and rotation

3-21-17

Progress year 3 and Garden planning

Well folks, we are now in year three and the progress is wonderful!  As you can see, we added fence posts to raise the beds. I had considered various methods but this is the new attempt. So here was the reasoning:   Most regular wood only lasts a season or two. Cedar is expensive. Block or brick is expensive.  On sale these only cost $2 each for 8 foot lengths.  It's possible they won't last long either but I'm hoping that the size/width will help. Because they have 2 sides that are flat they are easy to stack and I used plumber tape (metal strips that can be cut to length and screwed to stabilize the stacking and attack the beds together on the inside).   I will, of course, have to replace them at some point and purists may suggest that the staining isn't good for the garden but I haven't found any scientific evidence one way or another regarding anything besides weather treated wood so I forge ahead!  

As of today (march 27, 2017), various seeds have gone in the ground and the following are starting to sprout: sugar snap peas, leeks, radish, garlic, onion. I have also seeded  spinach, broccoli, and carrots.  Celery is a hold over from last year that I replanted and I'm trying a new layout this year based on the following: 

Grapic from http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/

 Each year you would rotate one quadrant so the plants have the nutrients that work best. In other words, legumes fix nitrogen in the soil and leaf plants love nitrogen and so on.  Some plants must be rotated every year or on a three year cycle to reduce pests and disease and these include potatoes and tomatoes.  Therefore, I have to make sure in my planning that I not only rotate the plants but make sure that as companions go, I don't put plants where they are more likely to fail.  An example is that potatoes and raspberries are not good companions and neither are strawberries and cabbage though I have a bed that is likely to have them relatively nearby.

 Here is the graphic roughly adapted for the central round garden bed: 

After creating this basic adaption I then went outside and began the actual planning based on location of current plants, bed size, plant location from last year etc.  The blue lines are the pathways and the pink circles are thornless rasberry plants planted in ground called : http://www.brazelberries.com/varieties/raspberry-shortcake 
(As a side note these have been a wonderful producer but if you don't want them to spread, be sure to plant in a large container instead of in the ground.)

There are amazing amounts of information on garden planning on the internet.  The trick seems to be figuring out what works for your garden.  I'm also doing companion planting which requires a bit of extra work since some companions re-seed and others are more permanent (such as some herbs like sage)  

My garden plan

Here is my layout for this year

I have large beds around the main circular bed that I rotate for other crops and some beds that are permanent such as berries, asparagus and kiwi fruit. This is not to scale but it gives a basic idea of position.

 While the planning does take time, it is much easier for me to plant knowing exactly where it is going in the garden this year.  I have other plants I'll be adding including marigolds, basil etc as the year goes on. 
I'll keep you updated on how it goes! 


  

Garden layouts, yard updates part 1

Welcome to SPRING!

While there may still be a frost day, the chances have decreased considerably. A variety of seedlings are starting to peek out of the soil.  Spinach, lettuce, peas, carrots and radish.  I had planted some sprouting potatoes in February and the warmer temperatures mean they are already  6-8 inches high and wide. Onions and garlic plants last fall and early winter are looking to be a bumper crop.

The yard is showing all of the hard work of fall and winter and I've enjoyed purchasing perennials online this winter and receiving them just last week for more planting fun.

check out www.bluestoneperennials.com for some great finds.

Plot Rotation

 One of the advantages of my garden is that I can rotate the location of various crops. This year I have built a new tomato bed, a wooden Tutuer (which my husband says looks like a medieval torture device) and created color coded stakes for companion planting.  I'm hoping these ideas will help me stay a bit more organized and create happier plants. Photos will be in my next post but to give you a general idea of the changes check out the photos below.



 As you can see, the rain garden is close to complete.  The iris plants in it are getting close to blooming, the clover has filled in as a low maintenance lawn replacement(we dont water the grass during the summer). As always, there is more to do but its getting closer to being drought and heat tolerant.  Last summer I added the supports for hardy kiwi and while it seemed for a while that a nasty infestation of spider mites had killed them off, they are thankfully going spring strong.  I also have 5 celery plants that survived the winter and are putting out new stalks. yummy....


 
check back soon for more photos, ideas and general gardening fun!

'Hell strip' makeover

Landscaping the 'Hell strip'

One of my gardening projects has been to remove the grass from the front yard. While it looks lovely when the grass is green, summer turns the grass a dried-out brown.  There are many great ideas on the internet about landscaping with little to no grass. 

 

 Goal: 

Transform that awkward strip between the sidewalk and the road (aka the hell strip) by planting drought tolerant plants, creating areas to place the garbage cans, and using a visually interesting design.

Warning: getting rid of the grass is a time-consuming, sore-muscles project.  We decided not to go for the larger dumpster (costly) and have relied weekly on the kind neighbors who have let us use their yard waste bins.  Our strip is 50ft long and 3.5 ft wide.  It may not seem like much but each week it took 3 bins to remove a 3-4ft x 3.5 foot section.  The bins get too heavy to move if there is more!

Process:

1. Search the internet for ideas!
2. Measure the strip area
3. Draw up a yard plan with potential ideas and shapes
4. Start removing the grass
5. Determine what areas are going to be for garbage cans
6. Pay neighbor to bring all the remaining rocks to the front yard from previous pond area in back
7. Get supplies as needed
8. Start putting in the design
9. Look at it from all angles, look some more, move plants around, look at it lots more, wave back at the drivers who are watching you work.

Supplies:

1. High quality barrier fabric. Don't stint on this, most fabrics in hardware stores only last a year if that.
2. garden or landscape staples - again, be aware that there are poor quality ones out there. My first ones started rusting with just brief exposure to the air, the second batch - much better!
3. rock and more rock
4. bark (purchased bulk by the sq yard)
5. garden soil (purchased bulk by the sq yard)
6. mint mulch for color contrast (and it smells so good too!)
7. plants - mostly they were transplanted from other locations in the yard.

Ordered from www.amazon.com

Sandbaggy 500-Count Landscape Staples ~ SOD Staples, Garden Stakes, Square Pins
Dewitt 3-by-100-Feet 4.1-Ounce 20-Year Weed Barrier Fabric  

There is still a good 15 feet to finish but it should be fun.

I hope this inspires you!

Burlap for seed starting and groundcover - Excellent!

Burlap

I love to walk out into the garden every day wandering around and watching the plant growth. Is it small, large, a sudden burst? How did the weather affect it? what about the techniques I'm trying?  I recently experimented with loosely woven burlap to cover a mammoth crimson clover ground cover group.  it worked wonderfully!  The next step is to determine how much will get eaten by garden pests.  I have sprinkled a layer of straw over it as well as slug bait and finally some diatomaceous earth (but with the rain heading my way the last isn't likely to last long.)  I've had to re-apply the slug bait once more since the original planting back in March and have added other areas of clover.

Mammoth Crimson Clover as cover crop

 These tiny seeds were simply scattered rather randomly over the barely worked earth that had been partially prepped last year (see previous blog re: no till earth prep)  You can see that it has taken well.  I wet down it down after planting, it rained about 36 hours later and a nice green carpet has emerged.  The burlap I have has a tighter weave unsuited once the seeds are up. The Burlap should be pulled up once sprouting has begun to prevent damaging seedlings by either crushing them underneath or pulling them out when it's removed.

 Wonderful!  Not only will the clover add Nitrogen to the soil but it will be lovely when it blooms. As you can see from the photos below, there have been been big changes since last year and the the clover is coming in well.

Now that the clover is in, I'm re-using the Burlap as a basic mulch and for Basil seedling germination. It worked very well with annual/perennial flower seeds now starting to bloom. Basically,  I highly recommend Burlap as a starter for seed!

In-ground firepit design update

Designing around the firepit...

Last year I was so excited that I had been able to add sod around the firepit!  My vision was a soft, green walkable surround. This sadly, did not quite work as planned.  It seems sometime over the winter the sod got infested with grubs (gross!) and just started dying out.  Sigh.  So I started looking online and decided to go with a rock design (see earlier post).

It has taken about 6 months to finally put in the 1st rock but I am thrilled with the preliminary results.  All stone is from http://www.pacificstonescape.com/home.

The divider is a great product that I have used all over my yard called Easyflex No-Dig Edging. It's available at most major stores and Amazon but you will need additional spikes or garden anchor staples.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKqVc8lApsk

I encourage you to let your creativity out!

Reflecting back on 2014 and looking forward - Happy 2015!

Looking backward and forward

2014 has been a year of big changes. We are already planning the changes for 2015 and 2016. They are going to be fun!

 Despite the freezing temps (it was 21 degrees last night), I was working on extending the bark path to the circle planter.  It also seems that my adventure with sod and grass transplants has not turned out as well as I has hoped.  One portion of the sod has sunk rather badly (this is likely because it is over an area of pond fill) and the section of transplants has just not taken. Instead we are planning to take it out and put in a colored stone design mixed with walkables like scotch moss.  This weekend I'm going out with the ladder to take photos then transfer to tracing paper and start laying out the patterns. 

These are designs called PEBBLE MOSAICS.  I'm not going to go this fancy since it requires mortar but aren't they lovely? They are great inspiration!

This year should see the addition of trees and bushes to the backyard as well as some type of fruit - perhaps grapes or even Hardy Kiwi?
  

We are also going to put in a green house to the west and south of the water barrels. This means moving the raised beds (and soil) and enlarging the area currently designated as the primary garden area (this area is currently having the soil prepped.)

I love this house!  But I'm also interested in building one with what is called a cold sink. (see image below) Rather than soil on the north wall like pictured below, it would be water barrels and bubble wrap and whatever else I can scout out on the internet.
Whatever we choose, it's going to have to be custom  shaped to accommodate the space. It is likely to look a bit like an "L" lying on it's side.



I hope that all of you have great plans for 2015 and will enjoy all the changes that the year will bring.

Happy Gardening!

 

Bird Garden - in progress

Creating a Bird Garden

INTERNET IMAGE Example ONLY

One of the many items I have noticed on the internet are painted poles and I happen to love bird houses and feeders. I decided to put the ideas together based on images I found online.


(If only mine were this fancy!  I imagine they had to paint the designs before putting the poles into the ground. I'm a bit impatient.)

 Earlier this summer I started the bird garden near the Filbert tree that hangs over the back fence line (aka Hazelnuts) While I have not finished painting the poles due to the arrival of wet, cold weather, this is a very easy project.

1. Picked a location
2. Purchased round poles ( $7 each) and quickcrete from the local hardware store
3. Placed poles and painted with primer so they would last longer (same day)
4. attached metal flashing to keep cats and squirrels from the feeders
5. started painting and attaching feeders and houses (with more to come!)

Suggestions - be sure to have various levels of plants, shrugs and trees nearby to encourage the birds. Mine like to fly from the apple tree in the center of the yard where I've attached suet to the "bird garden" to the neighbors lilac tree over-hanging the north fence to a new feeder I put in by my Japanese Maple.

To attract more birds and bees and create shade, I intend to plant another low tree or high bush in addition to the Eastern Redbud we planted this year. 

A Successful bird feeder in action! 

(As of Thanksgiving, I am filling this feeder every 3-4 days.)

Year One - changes and improvements

While there is no doubt that a low-maintenance yard can be appealing to some and certainly at different stages in life- I like to think I'll be able to work for at least another 20+ years before I have to tone down the workload. In the meantime, so much fun creating and changing! Front yard and back yard changes since home purchase 2013

The BACKYARD - NOVEMBER 2014

There is still lots to do! Re-level the water tanks (there was some soil compression) We hope to build a greenhouse in the next two years and enlarge the garden beds. Bamboo fencing is sitting in my living room waiting to be placed in front of the water tanks and cedar chips remain on the driveway needing to be moved somewhere in the backyard.

Below are some pre-purchase images for comparison - the firepit above is located where the pond below used to be.

 Here's hoping that next year is as successful!

1st year check-in - Front yard progress