There is just one lonely baby robin out in the nest!
The momma is gone all day presumably getting food and returns at night to her nest and baby.
Will keep you updated and hope to have pictures some time soon.
Hi everyone!
Today I planted the seeds in the outdoor garden. I put in broccoli, carrots, zucchini, cilantro and basil. I bordered the sides with cosmos, and made areas for the small plants of broccoli, onions, bell and jalapeno peppers, and tomatoes to go once they are properly hardened.
I have the baby plants up to 8-10 hours of outside time per day. So I am just bringing them in at night now. When I know that I have a good few days of mild weather I will transplant them. Right now we are expecting a storm tomorrow and one next week. So maybe after the storm next week. I just want them to have a few days of over night weather to get settled. If a storm did come I could just cover them with laundry baskets and boxes.
I will be putting the planting date and the harvest date on the Scheduler-Calendar page as well. All my planting and harvesting dates are listed there. According to the packets I should be able to start harvesting most of the garden in mid-July.
Thanks for stopping by!!
~Sara
We now have 2 bird nests on our property!
One is the robin nest that is in a bush that borders the garage, and we have a new nest with no eggs yet in the hanging basket. I have yet to see who is in this new nest but it has been the choice location for a pair of mated house finches for the past 3 years. 🙂 I am curious to see if it’s the same pair. Who ever it is they are too scared right now to stick around when I open the door. The momma robin has finally caught on to the fact that she can stay in her nest safely when we come out. Those babies should be about ready to hatch!
I need to get some pictures up with these posts!!! Sorry about that. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by.
~Sara
Thank you to the bird or rabbit that ate some honey suckle berries and then came to Maddie’s garden! We have had this bush/tree for a few years now and I am going to attempt to train it into a topiary shape this year!
The first year it was going to be a tree = one long stalk/trunk and one sprig of honey suckle at the top. I cut that down to the ground almost. It came back and it brought friends! A little scary at first and I considered pulling it out all together. But honey suckle is such a sweet bush and perfect for a little girl’s garden so I left it.
Each year I prune it aggressively and the next season it comes back fuller. It wants to be very tall so I just cut it down. I think I have enough growth and fullness this year to shape it. In this same garden I have another bush that we call the “monster” bush. It wants to take over the whole garden so we cut it back all the time. And there is a clematis. It is in soil that has not been prepared and used to have several evergreen bushes in it.
I have had the clematis in there for about three years now and it looks like it is finally going to really go!
We call this flower bed Madison Square Garden. She has a lot to contribute about what goes into this garden and always plants an annual border around it which she plants mostly herself and then cares for by watering and weeding herself.
Will post pics later!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Sara
So, as many of you have heard I tore out a large juniper bush and one other small bush in front of my house to extend my flower bed last season.
There is rock packed with mud in this area as the previous owners had a rock bed with evergreen bushes before. (Which I despise!!!!!) I thought I could pick the rock out like I did with my other beds I have created around my house. Not so. There is so much mud packed in this bed that it would take all summer to get it out by hand. So I am calling in a professional service.
I am going to have the landscapers come with a bobcat/back hoe and dig out 1-2 feet of soil and rock and just haul it away. Next I will order square feet of top soil from my *local* *small* 🙂 garden market down the road here. I will need to let that soil rest and then test the Ph level and maybe adjust it a bit before planting because evergreens are so acidic!
Once that is done I can put in my ornamental tree and more flowers!
I will post before and after and during pictures!!!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Sara
We have a robin nest in our front yard! It is in a bush that is right along side our garage door. It has been there for 3-4 days to my knowledge and there is one angry momma bird in there! She flies out whenever we are out side and chirps at us from near by trees.
So in 12-14 days we will have some baby robins!!! (Day of first sighting was Sunday May 2nd.)
Here is a great resource for all things Robin: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/RobinNotes2.html
Pictures to come soon.
Hi everyone,
I figured this needs it’s own post so that people can search for it. 🙂
I have a chive plant (perennial) that I have had for about 4 years now. I love chives in dips and potatoes, but in a flower garden I am reconsidering my choice!
Chives can send out runners and their seeds take well and are very plentiful, and carry on the wind like dandelion seeds! So be careful where you plant one!
I am going to be constricting mine with a coffee can (surround the root ball by pushing the can into the ground around it.) as well as topping them off before the flowers turn t seed.
A flower bed should not smell like chives!!!
So last year I had a small (kind of) infestation of those metalic/green/copper beetles. I think the soil that my roses came in was harboring some larvae. I am thinking they may be back if there were enough eggs in the soil that over-wintered. If they do come back I am going to just pick off every single adult I see!!!
I really do not want to have to resort to a pesticide. Also, when I was researching last year I found out that there are very few pesticides that can kill this type of beetle. AND even if it does kill the larvae and the adults, it still won’t kill the eggs, so you need to do repeat applications.
I will keep you posted if I see any this year and I will be sure to take pictures of the beetles and any damage they get away with.
Keep your fingers crossed that they just don’t come back!!!
Thanks for stopping by,
~Sara
Welcome to Minnesota!
We’ve already had an 80 degree day and what is in the forecast for the next two days?? Snow! For the past 2 nights it has been getting very close to 38/39 degrees Fahrenheit. I have 1 hanging flower pot and one standing that I have been bringing inside overnight just in case.
I also have onions, radishes, peas and carrots in the garden that I will need to protect the next two nights. I plan on using bed sheets and mini shepherd’s hooks to secure a little shelter for the garden plants. I will also use pillow cases for my rose bushes.
If by chance my greenhouse plastic comes I might try to construct my roll-back greenhouse and use that instead! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
~Sara
SO!
Last fall because of an early frost and my frustration with losing just about everything in my wonderful outdoor garden I completely forgot about my carrots!! I never harvested them and they are still alive out there!!! And, THEY LOOK GREAT!
I am curious to see how they taste but they look awesome.
I will post pictures in a future post. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
~Sara
