Preparing the Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

I went to Home Depot and purchased some new topsoil and a humus, manure mix to work into my small vegetable garden.  They had only one employee in the garden center, and he had to call to get someone else to put those really heavy bags in my trunk (40 lb.)  They are absolutely not expecting us this year!  I am getting ready to plant my cool season crops. 

I need to tell you that I have daylilies at one end (Ice Carnival) and some chives at the other end.  The plants I have in the nursery will stay for awhile until I can move them to a perennial bed.  I also must dig out the parsley from last year.  Oh, I almost forgot, there are some onions that I planted from seed in there also - I may leave them if they look like they are going to grow.

I even bought some plant markers so that I can mark the rows as I plant.  After I have mixed up the topsoil and humus mix I will plant radishes, lettuces (green oakleaf panisse and red rose romaine),spinach (bloomsdale long standing) onion sets and onion seeds.  I am into only planting what we will eat. 

A layering method is an important procedure when the garden is as small as mine.  I planted carrots (a shorter Nantes variety) between the lettuce and seed onions (guardsman) in with the onion sets, parsleys layered with the red emperor radishes.  I do not know if anyone else has the problem of the onion sets deteriorating.  I have even tried putting them in the refrigerator to no avail. I use a vegetable fertilizer that I work into the soil in front on the rows as they sprout.

In May I will plant four tomato plants along the back of the bed, two Celebrity (determinate) one on each end, a new heirloom mix called Brandy Boy and I have to have a Beefmaster.  Some hot and milder peppers will be interplanted between the lettuce across the front (about four or five plants).  I will sow bush cucumber and basil seed right into the soil (has to be warm or they won't germinate).

I used to plan my plantings by spring break for the schools, and I can't tell you how many years my garden did not get planted, cold, snow, etc.  But, this year I was determined to get my cold crops in earlier than ever.  They are in for better or worse - lots of rain and cold weather coming this weekend.

Make My Day!

It didn't start out as a great day!  My grass looks terrible, I needed a haircut and I could only see a lot of work ahead of me in the garden.  It was 64 degrees and my bags of admendments were still strewn around my raised bed vegetable garden.  I needed to move out some plants before I can work the soil and plant my cold weather seeds.

I worked around the back garden cutting, raking bagging, etc.  The grasses are always beasties to cut down, tried cutting the Unique Hydrangea but the stems are so thick I am going to have to bring out the monster pruners to do this.  The Blue Dart Vinca (unlike my grass) is this rich color of green.  I have never seen the leftover fall leaves glued to the grass.  I literally picked some of them off the grass by hand - rake could not lift them. Nothing is blooming in my garden!  I even cut down the rest of my type 3 clematis because I couldn't get to them last week - leftover snow.  Before I rest I must spread my fertilizer in all the beds - just like feeding chickens. 

Oops, gotta run and get that haircut, going right by Home Depot, stopped on the way back home, and what I found made my day!  It is the beginning of my Spring containers - it's early, but I can throw a bag over them if it snows, or I can bring them inside, as the pots slip out.

Solomon's Seal

I have grown Solomon's Seal in three of the four homes that I have owned.  In one of my homes, I had a woodland garden, really a woodland because behind my house had once run a creek that over 100 years ago people came from the city of Chicago to their summer homes.  My house was never a summer home (built after the turn of the century) but my neighbor's home was.  People came by horseback, buggy and the early automobile.  So, you can see why my backyard was a small area of shade grass, farm lilacs, woodland plants on the side and all across the back.

I grew up in Chicago, so I had no idea what I was looking at.  I met the neighbor who lived in a summer home property (not a cottage but quite large) who would come over and rattle off every Latin name of all the plants in my yard.  I immediately went out and bought a wild plant identification book.  I found out several years later that this plant savvy neighbor of mine had a PhD. in Botany - didn't want to intimidate me!

I had a homemade woodland in the previous home to one I am in now.  With a large property I was able to plant a sprawling shade garden but never a "real" woodland like what I had.  Now, I am really limited,to that small long strip along the north side of my house, but I still have my one last woodland plant Polyonatum Variegatum (variegated Solomon's Seal).  The woodland Solomon's Seal was not variegated but plain green'

Solomon's Seal is a medicinal herb with diverse healing properties.  It can be used as a herbal tincture, salve, tea or supplement.  It is a beautiful arching plant with small white to pale yellowish green flowers, blooming April to midsummer.  It will take partial shade to sun if there is sufficient moisture.  It looks great with hosta, ferns and astilbe.

Childrens Book Review:  is there a monster over there? 
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/2271/1/Is-there-a-monster-over-there-Reviewed-By-Eileen-Hanley-of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html

The West Suburban Chicago Flower and Garden Show

We have all heard of the Chicago Flower and Garden Show, but I am sure not too many of you have heard of Wannamakers Flower and Garden Show!  I think it began about ten years ago and each year has become better and better.  It is not elegant or overplanned but is a composite of what we are all about, small planting areas, barbqueing, seating areas, water features.  Best of all, it is free!

Not everyone in suburbia lives on an acre of land.  In fact where I live and many of the surrounding areas we have city type lots that will not accomodate a swimming pool or an expansive patio or deck.

I attended yesterday and I looked like a roving reporter with my small digital camera snapping pictures of the displays.  I had to make a choice between my big digital camera and the pocket version.  I went for the pocket version because I didn't want to make a spectacle of myself.  It is a very personal show, speaking to the owners of growing nurseries, people who make food for hydrangeas that give you pink or blue hydrangeas, your choice!

There were flowers for sale, in fact just about everything was for sale at a discount for the show days.  I was so busy taking pictures and talking that I really was not a focused shopper.  There was this new tomato cage which I bought as an experiment because I have never found a cage that really worked and believe me I have had them all.  Right now I am using an expensive one from Gardeners Supply which still doesn't keep the tomatoes within bounds.  I purchased just one of these new cages because she said Burpee was their biggest customer.  We'll see if it can keep my Beefmaster within bounds!

Maybe these local flower shows are where it's at, servicing and inspiring the locals.  I bought the tomato cage as an experiment and six lilies.

Glorious Grasses

Panicum 'Northwind' is named after a grass found at the Northwind Perennial Farm in Burlington, Wisconsin.  I have been to this business many times and it is a delightful place, filled with perennials, antiques, roosters and of course Panicum 'Northwind.'  The reason I highly recommend this grass is it does not flop even if left standing for the winter.  It is greenish-blue in color and tan in the fall and winter.  I have it in several places around my home.  It finally gives up the ghost about now when it is ready to be cut down.

Miscanthus 'Udine' is difficult to find but is different than other miscanthus in that it is not as spreading, does not flop easily and throws out a pink tinged flower starting much farther down on the stalk than other miscanthus.  I did not cut it down this year in the fall, and actually it looked pretty good all winter.  I think the heavy snow held it up because it certainly needs to be cut down now.

Pennisetum 'Hameln' lines my path as it goes from the front to the backyard.  There are only about five plants, and the first year I wasn't sure this was the right plant for this area.  I had tried Nepeta 'Walkers Low' in the area at first but it was covered with bees, needed consistent cutting back over the walk and just never looked right in this narrow area.  I looked at Hamlin today, never cut down in the fall, and it still looks good with daffodils poking up through it.  It is small and graceful and fluffy looking.

Carex 'Ice Fountains' is on the north side of my house bordered by my home and a cedar fence.  I have these small connectable iron fences that I purchased several years ago placed in front of Ice Fountains all along the planting from front to back..  I just leave them in place all year and when the grass grows and arches slightly the fences are obscured and the grass stays in bounds on this very narrow pathway.  It is not always easy to find a small grass that will grow in the shade and look great all season.  This one fills the bill, but I have found it is important to cut this one down in the fall or you have lots of flat mush in the spring.