The Pallet

Last year I finally made my dream come true (through much sweat and anger) of a pallet planter!!

Since it was the end of the summer, I didn't want to fill it up, so I popped in my absolutely favorite Purslane (which I cannot for the life of me get to re-seed itself! 😫) and a couple others and called it a day...

It's spriiiiiiing!!

Time to fill 'er up!

I got some succulents, perennials and a few annuals to sprinkle in some color and boy did it look perty!

I started off with the great success of not watering it as regularly as I should (the side that was tucked against the house under the overhanging level above didn't do so hot). 

And I should have waiting a bit longer, but I was so eager that I propped it up before the roots had fully taken hold in the soil.

This means that watering it is quite the experience. 

(I can't just use the
watering can or regular hose setting because it'll wash the dirt out the front!)

I have to mist it. 

Yeah. 

That's not time-consuming 😑

So it's not as stellar as I would have liked (especially the guys across the top!), but the succulents especially and several others are actually looking ok!

We'll see if they survive the winter, though.

It really is adorable and the perfect thing to fill in an otherwise blank space next to the house!






<<you can see it at the back of the edibles garden when I first propped it up

I love zombie plants!

Several years ago I bought some plants off of Craiglist. A soldier was being deployed so she sold her remaining plants and pots for cheap!

In one pot, along with the primary plant, was a little stowaway...a small tuft of purple shamrock!

After letting it grow with the other plant for a bit, I ended up pulling it out and re-potting it in its own pot.

It got pretty full and bloomed (though nothing like the stock photo to the left!)

Then my coworker gave me a bit of the same plant, but in green!

I put that in the pot too and both did pretty well.

I say "pretty well" because it's a small pot that dries out quickly and needs more dirt and probably some fertilizer and if I was late to watering it, it started looking pretty sad.

I was always able to bring it back from the verge, though.

Except this last time.

I can't remember if we were traveling or what happened, but somehow I missed watering it a week (or few days?) and it was looking real sad and I tried to keep watering and nursing it along and no.

Just no...

It was over. 

So, so sad. 

I did water it (meaning, the dirt 😐) another time or so...just because I hate to come to terms with my yet-another-failure.

I told my coworker about it and she asked if it was really dead and I showed her the picture and that stopped any doubting and she said she'd bring me another green one.

[sigh] Thanks.

And then a few days go by...

And what is that peeking up out of the dirt?!! 

A stalk?!!

Yup!!

I big old purple one and soon two more itty bitty ones to follow!!!

Plants amaze me. 

(And more so, their Inventor!)

There's just no denying it. 

The wonders that are working under the soil. Pretty stinkin' cool!

Shade Garden Still in Business

The pests may well be the end of me! 

Every year is a struggle against mealybugs and now the mole who comes charging under my root systems, but good golly gracious, does this year seem like they ramped up and conspired to take over my gardens! 

AND not only them, but the caterpillars! Oh the caterpillars! They are horrendous this year and it feels like I am in a losing battle.

I've tried insecticidal soap and neem oil sprays, but it seems to just come down to having to hand pluck them from the plants 😑  Yeah, so THAT's fun! 😑

And then there's the rain.

We got dumped on in the beginning of June ... the ground was so saturated that it wouldn't drain in certain spots. I actually completely lost my little pebble path on the right because standing water plunged it under mud.

And then the mazus reptans took over and I had a little Secret Garden look going!

Yeah, that's supposed to be the path in between those two stones! (These photos below are about a week apart, showing how full and fluffy the groundcover filled in!)

At least the elephant ears are doing wonderfully!

And yay little mini chrysanthemums!

Then there's the newer "experimental" and "overflow" and "semi-forsaken" side of the garden...

I have let grow, what I was pretty sure were cardinal flowers.

I love cardinal flowers. I discovered them years ago when first doing research for my "10 year garden plan". Two years ago I finally found one at the nursery!
I put it in a large pot and enjoyed the gorgeous red.

I was stunned last year when the same red showed up in this then-nothing-but-weeds section! My guess is birds helped with that transplant...?

Well, this year, like nearly every other perennial I put in pots, the original cardinal flower didn't come back. Rough winter.

So I took my chances on what I thought I remembered looking like cardinal flowers and behold! I was right!

Little red buds are a'poppin'!

On multiple stalks!













I also believe that I am growing other tall variations of weeds.
Again - it's my experimental section, so it's the one place that I let them grow and since it's pretty shady, they tend to shoot up reaching for sun.

I will likely decide that they are weeds and it's time to pull them out right about the time that they are putting out weed seeds. And next year we'll start all over again.

This is the very effective, scientific process of my gardening.

                                                                        ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Well, this past weekend was literally my definition of perfect weather, so I was out all day and got most of what I wanted to get done in the shade bed.

Weeding, bug control, spraying vines, fertilizing, cleaning out dead stuff, pulling out overgrown groundcover, and rescuing my poor pebble paths (though I still didn't re-do the sunken one; just at least got the groundcover off of it!)  Oh...and watered. Because, yes...we're now in like day 9 of no rain. Go figure. Feast or famine...no middle ground here!

Cute little speckled sun area over groundcover and moss...and the sad spot where my main columbine was decimated by caterpillars earlier this spring and I don't think it's coming back :-(

 (especially not after the mole ran his little inconsiderate fluffball self right underneath what were probably already psycho fragile roots!  😑  )
Here's hoping next year...?!


The good news is that I had divided it in the fall and while caterpillars did get to all of the others, I apparently rescued them in time and they've all put out new green leaves. Phew! I haven't totally failed my friend's legacy plants!



Better, much better!

Not to get all philosophical on what is intended to be a largely humorous blog, but I did have a realization after Saturday clean-up was done and Sunday was hammock-laying observation of the beautiful yard...

I had started to resent this little piece of paradise.

It was my ONE success!
It brings beauty and happiness, basically all by itself, every year!

But this year the pests are atrocious and I'm stressing about not spraying stuff because the bumblebees are out and then there's the vines coming from the neighbor's yard through the fence and bringing more mealybugs with it and probably mosquito and tick infestations too and the columbine is gone and the groundcover is overrun and the mole is destroying things and the water isn't draining and I haven't touched it in a month because it rained every weekend and then we were busy and...and...and...


And it's beautiful.

It really still is.

I let my stress overshadow a reality.
I projected my struggles onto this little section of nature.

And nature won.

Sure, I helped a bit doing the clean-up and pest control and filling dirt, etc., etc.

But just taking a little time to get it a tiny bit more "under control", then stepping back and taking pictures, and suddenly the calmness this little garden brings was back.

No, all the problems aren't solved, but dang it - it's still pretty stinkin' beautiful, with or without me!

Flowers a Bloom

Well this year is quite the year: busy weekends, rainy weekends and just all around kind of neglecting the gardens :-/   

Thankfully the wildflower border at least has been pretty self-sufficiently jungle-like while still being pretty!



I added a cute little cedar plank border that I think adds a very adorable cottagey look to it.

And then the flowers just started exploding in their spring glory!

The clematis reached the top and I had to help train it around the braces. In the end, this is as far as it appears it's going this year. Still not bad at all considering it only made it halfway up last year!

Then the lilies bloomed and all the clematis flowers fell off in the rain...is that it?! I thought at least my Earnest Markham was supposed to last all summer! I'd better get more blooms!! :-(

I totally missed getting a picture of the lovely smelling gardenia in bloom  😑 

But I'll tell you one thing - the hibiscus may very well be spectacular! It's huge!

A few weeks ago

Yesterday

So long as I can keep the caterpillars off  😑

And everything else is throwing out flowers now too...

As usual, it's a bit of a mess, but for the most part, these are all flowers! I've tried to be good about getting weeds out!
So I just need them to bloom to prove it! :-D

Bee's Balm!!

Daisies!!

A jumble of lovely craziness

I WILL Grow Food!

Well, with the giving up of the garden plot, I am determined to make some of my favorites work in my yard.

As I've mentioned previously, my little edible plot in the back doesn't get the sun it needs, particularly as the summer goes on. So until I convince husband that traditional lawn grass is actually an invasive species and pretty terrible for the environment and we should rip it out and turn the whole sun-covered front yard into gardens... (only partially serious...grass is one of the worst uses of resources, but boy is a bright green lawn simply brilliant to drive up to! My gardening hypocrisy is now exposed.) ...I am having to get creative about growing edibles.

The only immediate solution?
Get ginormous pots (thank you, Costco!) and make them pretty since it IS the front yard.

We eat a lot of zucchini, so I wanted one to grow, please!

I also looked up what does well with it since they would be sharing confined quarters.
The answer?
Many types of herbs and apparently hot peppers!

So may I present....

... my front yard garden plot:

A zucchini in the middle, a hot pepper (very specific, I know...pretty sure I left the tag in it to identify...?), parsley, basil, a sweet potato vine and some oregano that I'm also going to try to get to vine over the sides.
I also put one of my horribly leggy (because it's one of my started-from-seeds) 4 o'clocks in the back and in spite of looking like it's gone through the runner, it's still holding on!


Well I planted it days before a bunch of wind. Oh and have I mentioned that the front of our house feels like a wind tunnel some days? Good going, genius.

The zucchini stem snapped and I figured that was that...but there was still some green leaves going on a day or so later and I realized it had tried putting down roots further along.

Another week or more of looking highly sad and I gave up on it.
Everything else was growing just beautifully around it, though!

I come check back a few days later and it's totally growing!!

So proud! What a determined little fellow!


(This is also about the time husband tells me that zucchinis don't climb...they just bush out and spread.
But....but....but....

No!!! I refuse to give in! Zucchini put out vines, so I believe I can train it up my trellis, dang it!
Of course I'm guessing it'll need help with tying it off here and there, but I will not give up on my beautiful vision!)

Well, fast forward another week and great googly moogly, these guys are certainly enjoying the rain!

 (pardon the ugly black bags...we re-did the bricks on our front stoop and did NOT want to drag heavy bags of debris around back just to take them back out front for trash day!)



Look at that zucchini go!
I'm hoping it's getting enough sun tucked down between the monsters consuming it nearby, but it is growing beautifully, so here's hoping! 

Just a couple of days later (and more rain) and things seem to be growing inches each day!

Rather than buying potting soil, a nursery owner recommended getting PittMoss which is essentially shredded newspaper mixed with chicken manure. It's crazy light, so great for pots and gives you your fertilizer and water-retainer in one.
You do a 1:2 ratio of PittMoss to compost. Since I had tons of gorgeous compost, I figured it would be a good product.

Um...yeah, I'll say it's working! 

I need to start making more Italian food so I can use all my herbs!

And ironically, all this container-growing-in-the-front-yard-sun could actually prove to be semi moot...

I'm out in the back yard weeding last weekend and by late morning the edible plot is in shade.
However...around noon the sun starts coming back across it!

4:45PM...the sun is just leaving the final corner. Woot!

What the....?!


My only guess is that it has to do with the neighbor cutting down all (sniff, sniff) their trees. Is it possible that I actually DO get more than 3 hours of sun there now?!!! (I always thought it was my trees that were the shade culprit!)








Time will tell because obviously the sun skips around as the summer goes on, but for right now, my tomatoes and green pepper are having a blast!

We've started eating lettuces too...oh how indescribably wonderful it is for a chronic "aaahhhh, I forgot to grab ___ from the store when I was there!" to have a 'constant', fresh supply of something!













And I'm trying a cucumber! Up a tomato cage! 'Cause when you have a small plot you go vertical! Need to watch that for pests like a hawk 😑

Bummed that not many peas or beans have come up :-/

I keep meaning to pop more beans in the ground and that just hasn't happened. Must have green beans! Love  - them - so - much!!  And husband actually picked our first mini crop of peas yesterday...all 4 of them! 😁

As often happens in the beginning, I am highly optimistic since things are looking so great!

We'll see how the growth and sun and pests and consistent watering (ahem) progress as the summer goes on.