Outsmarted by a Cocker Spaniel

One would think that I could outsmart my dogs.  Cockers are not known for their intelligence. It's a good thing that they are so sweet. As I posted last month, I'm having problems with my dogs running along the fence that borders my alley. In the past they haven't done this, but now they have this new destructive habit.  They have been trampling my oriental lilies, bee balm, and delphinium.


Last month, I rearranged the bed to create some daylily speed bumps. I was hoping that the day lilies would provide enough of a barrier that my dogs wouldn't beat a path at the back of the bed.  I was wrong, and Stevie from Garden Therapy was right. Her comment to the posting was "Good luck! I hope they don't see it as an obstacle course now!" My dogs totally see the day lilies as added fun. Maybe Stevie is a garden dog therapist : )

My new plan is to install hurdles. I bought some cheap garden fences at a home store and installed them throughout the back of my perennial bed. A few years ago, Peanut, the dog picture above, could have easily cleared these hurdles.  He's older now with a little arthritis, so he's not much of a threat. Marci could never be coordinated enough to jump the hurdles. She is rather clumsy and has been known to fall off the bed. I really hope that this new idea works.  I don't want to have to restrict my dogs' access to the back yard.

Harvest Monday

I finally got to harvest something that I planted this year. My volunteer lettuces were ready to cut today.

I filled a colander with an assortment of lettuces. I also pinched off some basil and flat leaf parsley from plants that I bought at a farmer's market this weekend.

I used the lettuce to make a salad to share with my neighbor, Gaynell, and her husband, Ken. I rinsed and dried the lettuce. On top of the lettuce, I placed avocado, tomatoes, and crumbled goat cheese. To finish the salad off, I sprinkled the fresh chopped flat leafed parsley and basil. I made a dressing out of pomegranate balsamic vinegar and blood orange olive oil. We ate the salad with pork loin that was marinated in a Hawaiian barbecue sauce.

Wet Weekend II-The Veggies

Today, I wanted to plant my tomato seedlings.  I looked at the weather forecast until our frost free date, May 10, and the predictions indicate that it shouldn't get below 45 degrees.  I know that the predictions aren't perfect, but I can always plant my plant swap tomatoes if a frost kills my planted tomatoes.  The plant swap isn't until May 16th, so I will have my replacement tomatoes should anything go wrong.

Instead of planting tomatoes, I took pictures of my vegetables.  Tomorrow will be my first day for lettuce harvesting.  I finally have enough to make a salad.  

My container potatoes are looking beautiful.  They are getting tall enough that it's time to add some more organic material to the pot.  I'll probably sprinkle in some aged compost and some leaves.

Maybe I will be able to do some work in my garden on Tuesday.  On Monday, I'm sure that the soil will be too wet to work with or walk on.

Wet Weekend I-Perennial Gardens

I haven't accomplished much in my garden this week other than to raise a strong crop of weeds.  Work has been hectic and it's been raining.  Since it's raining today and supposed to rain tomorrow, I decided to post some photos of my perennial gardens and give an update of how my veggies are growing.

Today, I should have been planting my annual flowers.

Since it was raining, I decided to take pictures of my shade bed instead. This bed is on the north side of the front of my house.

This hosta is sagae.  I love its 3 foot tall vase-shaped habit.

In this back corner of the shade bed, I used to have a compost pile.  It was fairly well hidden from the street by a viburnum and a Japanese maple that the previous owners planted.  Neither the maple nor the viburnum have done well because they get too much shade.  The maple is now dead and the viburnum is   pitiful.  One of my spring projects will be to replace the Japanese maple with a pagoda dogwood and plant some hostas.

I think that the bright green in the pagoda dogwood's leaves will brighten up the corner. 

Wordless Wednesday

Bush Beans

Mondays and Tuesdays are my busiest days.  I did manage to get outside for a brief period of time to plant some bush beans.  

I purchased a package of a Burpee bush bean mix that contains three varieties: greensleeves (green), royal burgundy (purple), and super wax (yellow). They will all turn green when cooked, but I like that they are different colors.  I'm planting bush beans because I don't want to have to find something for them to climb on. I will also probably plant some scarlet runner beans along my picket fence because they have such pretty flowers. 

Bush beans need to be planted about 3 inches apart.  The space from the base of my thumb to the knuckle in my index finger is about 3 inches, so that's how I measured the planting distance.

I poked a hole in the soil with the tip of my index finger. Then, I planted the beans about an inch deep. I forgot to add a light sprinkle of inoculant, but it's not absolutely necessary.  Since I am planting a couple of bean plants every week for several weeks to ensure continuous harvest, I'll try to remember to add the inoculant next time.

Strawberries in Pots

I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I would have liked to this weekend. It was raining so much that I was only able to get my strawberries planted. It was too wet to work on my lawn and weed.

I have a small urban backyard, so I don't have a lot of space. I also have dogs that have free access to the backyard through a doggy door and who also love strawberries. The first year I grew strawberries in pots, they kept disappearing. I thought that the birds were getting the berries until I smelled strawberry on the breath of my dogs. I should have known because the sneaky little snots are also tomato stealers.

Last year, I grew Ozark, an everbearing strawberry, in two strawberry pots but I never got enough at any one time to do anything other than snack.  Only a few of the plants survived the winter, so I have to replace most of the plants.  I left out the pots in a sheltered place on the side of my house over winter.  I should have protected them better. This winter, I will probably overwinter the pots in my garage. Maybe more plants will make it through the winter.

I decided to try a June bearing strawberry so that I can get more strawberries at once. The plants will produce fruit for about two to three weeks in June. I decided to try Honeoye, which is supposed to produce a lot of sweet fruit.  I bought 20 bare roots of Honeoye.

First, I took the roots out of the package and soaked them in water for about an hour.

Then I removed the dead strawberry plants form the pots and replaced them with the Honeoye. When I planted the strawberries, I dug out as much potting mixture from the holes as I could and replaced it with with a mixture of used potting soil and compost.

When I planted the pots last year, I used a blend of compost, coir, and old potting mix from the previous year's containers. I also placed a PVC pipe with holes drilled in it in the center of the pot so that I could get more water to the bottom plants. I was losing too much water through the drainage hole in the pots, so I stuffed a plastic grocery bag in the bottom of the PVC pipe and that slowed down the drainage without blocking it off completely.