mealybugs...
I came home from work last night and was wandering around the front yard, looking at our Thuja planting, when I saw they were infested with mealybugs. I hopped in the goth mobile and headed to The Big Orange Box and bought a bottle of insecticidal soap, came home and gave them a good spraying. They look clean today, but I guess I'll have to keep an eye on them to make sure.
Other than that, everything is still growing like crazy, it's been a cool, wet summer so far, but everything loves it. How's your garden growing?


sow what you will...

the kitchen door garden...


click to enlarge


sow what you will...

perfect timing...
It just started pouring and I just finished planting some more flowers in the kitchen door garden. I finally finish painted the new siding I put on the bay window last year (yeah, I know, these things take time...). I dug out all the cactus under the window last year and it's been bare ever since, so today I planted a dozen seed grown Rocky Mountain Scarlet Geraniums, which are now about ten inches tall and were outgrowing their bedding pots. I also picked up three Asparagus densiflorus 'Sprengeri', commonly known as Asparagus Fern and potted them in a twelve inch container that will work nicely to transfer them into the reading nook off the kitchen when the weather turns too cold for them in the fall. My Father's mom, "Nana Toot", had a huge three foot tall by about two foot wide Arts and Crafts urn on her sun porch with an Asparagus Fern that had taken on a fantastic proportion, it reached the ceiling and draped almost all the way down to the floor. It was in a windowed corner and served as a backdrop for a beautiful Arts and Crafts gaming table, with an inlaid chess board, on which we played marathons of checkers, cheating and laughing for hours. She and my Grandfather, "Pop", lived in a beautiful Craftsman bungalow about two blocks from the Raritan Bay front in Middletown, NJ. The front yard had two huge Black Spruce trees and the front grounds were covered with Irish Ivy, which, never until just now, I realize is exactly what grows in the front yard of Stately Sad Old Goth Manor. How about that. Their property was edged with nicely shaped hedges of privet, sheared traditionally, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. Their side flower garden, which was built in a circular pattern, contained a tall lattice-work obelisk, on which grew the ever present Morning Glories, surrounded by Shasta Daisey's, many different varieties of Ferns, green and white variegated Hosta and the perimeter was surrounded by huge chunks of sharp-edged "rocks" of split glass, which were tailings my Grandfather mined from the banks of Delaware Bay in Cape May, NJ, where there used to be a glass factory in the 19th Century. They would dump the left over crucibles of molten glass into the water and it would solidify and fracture into strange and interesting shapes. The glass "rocks" were all shades of pink and green and blue and crystal clear and were a fantastic sight when struck by the sunlight. Their driveway was the typical "twenties" style, two strips of poured concrete, with a strip of grass between them, bordered on the side closest to the house by perennial gardens containing Lupine, Foxglove, Delphinium and the old style single Hollyhock. Around their feet grew a tangle of Nasturtium that would sometimes twine up around the flower stalks. Their back yard was dominated by a huge Weeping Willow, a Salix babylonica, it's pendulous branches sweeping the ground and affording a wonderfully dark and cool sitting area on hot summer days and nights. One of my most precious memories is sitting under that tree with them, watching a summer full moon rise into the clearest of night skies, smelling the drifting scent of the flowers mingled with a hint of salt water, carried on the barest of breezes off the bay, and mixing with the odor of the damp earth under the tree and the green smell of the leaves. No one spoke, the only sound was the shrill calling of the night-time insects and the swishing sound of the willow branches as they slowly moved in the zephyr... the only thing that could have made that scene more complete was someone strumming "Lazy Moon" slowly on a ukulele...
But I digress... and the sun has come back out to play, so I'm going to go tidy up some things and take some pictures for later.
Enjoy your day.


sow what you will...

Planting time...
Even though today had steady winds of 15 to 20 miles per hour, with higher gusts, I spent four hours planting all my annuals and herbs. One flat of orange Marigolds, to flats of deep Burgundy Petunias, three Lobelias, a few annual golden Sedum, a Citronella plant, some Moon flowers for the trellis, some Rosemary and a few more grape tomatoes. I converted the bed where the Day lilies were to a kitchen herb garden, lots of sun and it's up against a South facing wall, so they should do well, and I added a few rows of the Marigolds, just to try to keep the bunnies away.


Golden Sedum - click to enlarge...


The Iris are on the verge of flowering and the Rhododendron is starting to flower. I purchased it because the tag said it had white flowers, but they're the magenta variety. So be it, they're still pretty. No buds on my Azalea yet, though. Lots and lots of new growth, but no buds.
The perennial mums are growing like mad, I pinched them back this morning to start them growing into a mound before they get too tall. I hope I didn't wait too long to start doing that, they're shooting up like crazy.
The Rose Campion is doing well, I love their little rose pink flowers and interesting seed capsules, that look like little urns with frilly edges. They self seed well, they've been growing in the back door garden for about fifteen years. I have to move them sometimes, since they sprout up everywhere, but the suffer transplanting well and, being biennial, they grow into nice, fuzzy ground hugging rosettes, then the next year they send up flowering stalks. Very light and airy plants, the also hold up pretty good in the wind.


Rose Campion - click to enlarge...


Campion seed capsules - click to enlarge...




The rest of the evergreens in the foundation planting I did last year are doing good, the yews are almost twice the size as when I planted them.
I also did the first official mowing of the grounds yesterday, the past few times I just topped it, but this time I did a full scale cutting and it looks great. All the new grass I put in last year is nice and full. The area where the pool used to be is looking less like a crop circle than it did last year.
Well, it's time to get ready to go out to dinner over a friend's house for Mother's Day with Mrs. SOG.
Be well.


sow what you will...

spring has sprung...
around Stately Sad Old Goth Manor over the past few days. About a week ago, I cleaned out all the perennial beds, the shrubbery and the new hedges, fed everything and top dressed the beds with some freshly screen composte. Things were starting to look alive then, but, with the little heat wave we just had and the ample rain, things have popped overnight, or so it seems. The Crape Myrtle in the kitchen door bed had nothing on Sunday, today it is full of little leaves. The perennial mums have shot up from little green buds poking up out of the ground to softball size mounds in a matter of a few days. The Iris are sending up tall flower stalks already, the Pink Campion are really perking up, the scarlet Dianthus is already blooming. The yucca and the Hens and Chicks I potted up in the big planter by the back door are all green and full of moisture. The red maple in the side yard is all leafed out. It's amazing. Even the Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia Aurea), that I propogated from a little clump a few years ago, and has all but covered the sunny end of the kitchen door bed has filled out overnight.
I don't know what's gotten into everything, but it's great!


sow what you will...

whew...
I got outside early this morning, intending to try working the soil in the new bed where I'm going to transplant my daylilies, but the soil is still far to wet to work, and, with rain on the way, I decided it would be a good thing to feed my evergreen beds and the Thuja planting across the front of the property and turn the mulch and do a general tidying up. So, three hours later, I'm bushed. (slightly humorous play on words there... very slight...).
The new foundation shrubbery on the west side of The Manor seems to have been invaded by wild onions, they've grown up right through the weed barrier and the mulch I put down last year when I planted the bed. I can't dig them out without removing all the mulch and barrier, so I just ripped the tops off them for now. Anyone know of something I can use to kill them without effecting the junipers, azaleas and rhoddys I put in?
I also cleaned out, fed and turned the mulch on the Thuja, all one hundred or so feet of them, across the front. We chose Thuja occidentalis "Green Giants" because of it's rapid growth habit and every time I look that them, I think they don't seem to be doing anything, but I went back and dug out a photo I took last May 5th, when I had just finished planting them and had laid in the soaker hose irrigation.
This is what they looked like then:



Skinny little things, just a foot high, if that, all trunk and hardly any side growth.
Here's what they look like today, less than a year later:



They're now all about thirty inches tall, and filling out nicely. I guess they're kind of like kids, in a way. One minute, they're vulnerable little things that you fret over and worry over and then, before you know it, they're grown and doing fine on their own, and life moves on. I think that's what I like about gardening so much, it's constant growth and change and challenges, rewards come only by your hard work and care, but what rewards they are.

Oh, and if you're interested in Thuja or any other evergreen or tree stock, I highly recommend Thuja Gardens. Roy is a wonder to work with, his stock is fantastic and he's a hell of a nice guy to talk to. About the best prices and fast delivery, too.

Well, I'm going to kick back a bit, it looks like the promised rain is almost here, so it's good I got everything fertilized when I did.
Enjoy your weekend.



sow what you will...

rain and more rain...
I can't catch a break here. It's going to be raining all weekend again. I really need to divide and replant my daylilies before much longer, they're already almost a foot tall. It's been too wet to dig and till the new bed, so that's that.
We're going to decide where the new raised beds are going this weekend. I'm thinking eight 6 x 6 beds, with 36" between them should do it. That will allow for adequate crop rotation and large enough for semi intensive growing of produce that can be easily preserved. At least I can head out and look for some cedar planking today and the hardware I need to erect them. This is probably going to be more expensive then I'm imagining, but I don't want to use treated lumber, I don't care how safe they say it is these days.
I'll let you know where we finally decide to situate them, once we stop arguing and I give in, as usual! :)
Later.


sow what you will...

what the fuck..?
The mfcs Commies in Congress are working toward making small farming operations, organic farms, backyard gardeners, vineyard, small animals raised for food all illegal under this effort...
If this passes, the states will no longer have regulatory powers over any or all food production, no matter how large or small. The Government will have the power to not only confiscate and destroy your backyard produce, but you will forefit your property as a result of a successful prosecution. Welcome to Amerika, Comrades. What was is Lenin said? "If you control the oil, you control the country. If you control the food, you control the people."
Well, any asshole that tries to fuck with me and my garden will get a full dose of my Second Amendment rights before I go down.
Get in touch with your so called representatives in Washington and let them know that this needs to stop, now. Right now.


sow what you will...

YAY..!
My Purple Hyacinth Beans have finally started blooming!



I think I'll go back to Morning Glories and Moonflowers next year.



sow what you will...

Sunday in the yard...
Well, I have to admit, I lazied out yesterday and didn't attack the cactus bed. Instead, I watched "Vampire Circus" on MonstersHD and when it got dark, we built a fire in the pit, had some beers and watched the ISS glide overhead in the crystal clear night sky. I did the cactus this morning after I got home from taking care some early morning work at the sound studio I'm working on. I ended up with two shopping bags of prickly pear pads, so if you want some, drop me a line. I hit the local garden center which was having a sale of pots and planters and picked up a nicely glazed, two foot all and almost as wide one. I planted a pot bound yucca, some chicks and hens and a few prickly pear pads in it and set it in the inside corner where my living room and kitchen come together. It gets relentless sun all day and it's perfect for succulents and such.




It should do perfect there, although I'm planning on getting a banana plant next spring, so it will have to share the space.
I also dethatched a bit of lawn in a high wear area and seeded it, watered all the new shrubs and now I'm having a Guinness and scraping cactus spines out of my flesh. Ugh.


sow what you will...

mums...



Here's a not so hot picture of the new mums I planted yesterday. They're small, they were in 6" pots, but they'll fill out the border nicely next year, especially with some astute pinching back. Which made me wonder why I planted them, to tell the truth.
When I was a kid, my father, Jack of the Green Thumb, had a mum border that was almost 100' long and about three feet deep. They were all one color, sort of a dark rust color, double bloomed. When they started to grow each spring, it was my job to pinch them back so they would form mounds. After a while I became quite good at it and the results were worth the time and effort, although, in my kid's mind, it seemed that once I got to the end, it was time to walk back to the other end and start all over again. When I was able to start gardening for myself, many years ago, I swore I would never, ever, plant mums. I used to buy them to put on the front and back porch each Autumn, but never planted them. But, on Saturday morning, when I was at the garden center looking for sales on perennials, I walked past a huge display of mums and their scent was carried to me on the breeze and I immediately thought of my father and how much he loved them. I also thought about the endless hours spent on my hand and knees pinching back his border and how, now it didn't really seem, to my older, if not adult mind, too bad, working with flowers, the sun on my back, the smell of mums permeating my fingers. So, I bought a half dozen and now have a very small mum border. Now, next year, when I'm on my hands and knees, sun on my back, pinching them back, enveloped in their scent, I'll be reminded of my father, which makes it all the more worthwhile.


sow what you will...

busy, busy...
I finally received the two replacement Thuja trees I needed for the hedgerow on the Eastern front of the house, so I could pull out the two dead ones that were run over my persons unknown and plant new ones before it got too late in the season. (getting them is a whole 'nother post). We've been fretting that the ones I planted in the spring didn't seem to be growing very much, especially after how these trees are supposed to almost double in size every year. I guess it's like anything else, if you see it every day, you don't notice the changes that happen gradually. The new plantings are half the size of the old ones. And the old ones are twice as bushy. Amazing. If they keep growing at this rate, we'll have a six foot wall of green across the front of the property in three years. Impressive.
I also planted six mums in front of the kitchen garden, so you can see them when you come up the back walk. Pictures of both tomorrow, I was too tired to take any, since I decided to rake the yard after I got done planting.
It never ends.


sow what you will...

free cactus..!
anyone want some prickly pear cactus?




They are the low spreading variety, Opuntia macrorhiza. Their habit is only about a foot tall, with very tiny, hard to see spines that are the devil to get out of your skin. They bloom in June in zone 6, beautiful yellow flowers that look like they're carved out of yellow crystal. The blooms only last a day or so, but they flower profusely, so you get about two weeks worth of blooms. They are hardy to zone 4. They look awful in the winter, all shriveled and laying flat on the ground, but the perk right up in the spring and send out new growth. They are edible, there are lots of recipes on line for pickling them as well as candied cactus, very good. I don't recommend them for areas where kids play or pets might nose around, but they're great in that dry, sunny spot in your garden or rock garden. Just make sure it's a well drained area, they don't like wet feet and will rot.
Very easy to plant, I will be sending fresh growth pads. Just stick them in the soil where they have room to spread and they'll do great. These particular plants are native to New Jersey and were propagated from plants that have been in my family for over forty years. I'm putting in a patio next spring and they are in the way.
Send me an email if you're interested, but do it soon, they should get stuck in the soil before frost, but, they will root if you lay them flat on the ground after a frost.
Send me an email if you're interested.
sow what you will...

the new shrubbery...



I managed to get in the edging and mulch today before my lungs closed up and I had to quit. I've been battling a chest cold for weeks, I think it may have developed into pneumonia. I have a low grade fever and I'm gasping for air like a fish out of water. It's also pretty painful.
Off to see the sawbones tomorrow. I hope it's just bronchitis, I don't need to get laid up right now, too much to do.



sow what you will...

"we want... A SHRUBBERY!"



I took a ride to the local garden center yesterday morning, looking for some cheap mums to plant in front of our kitchen border and, as luck would have it, they were having a one day only 50% off sale on most of their shrubs and trees. Not being able to pass up a bargain like that, I ended up getting six nice size specimens at a terrific price and loaded them into the truck and headed home. Mrs. SOG has been wanting something to fill the bare western side of the house, which is now very visible from the street, since I felled the Red Cedar and cleared out the Lilac hedge for the planting of the new Thujas across the front of the property. I dug out a free form bed the width of the house and about four feet deep at the two widest areas and spent the day planting the new additions. I got a nice white Rhododendron, three spreading Junipers, a white Azalea and a Gold Dust Aucuba.

Here's the rhoddy, I really love these things. When I was a kid the woods behind my house was full of wild ones, we used to pull off the buds and peel them down like artichokes. They were large enough that they formed bowers you could actually crawl into and hide. A sweet place to hang out when they were in bloom.






Here's two of the junipers, a variety named Andorra Compacta. They will spread out to fill the area nicely and in the winter they turn from grayish-green to a deep plum color.

I added the azalea for some height, although I must admit, I'm not a real fan of them. I much prefer Mountain Laurel, but the price on propagated Laurels is ridiculous, even at half price they were out of my league. It's flanked by another spreading Juniper.

And, last but not least, the Gold Dust Aucuba. That's another one to the right of the new planting that started out the same size. It's taken about five years to grow only half again as much, but it's a beautiful plant. The leave are a bright green base with very light, almost white spots, much like an Apple Leaf Crouton. It does suffer a bit from the winter wind and gets some leaf drop, but comes back in the spring. The new one is suffering from over exposure to sunlight, they really like dappled shade and it will soon settle in to it's new home and provide a nice effect next to it's more mature neighbor.

And, here's the new shrubbery bed, just need to put in the edging and add the mulch and it should be good for winter. I'll post a picture of the final project tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, I never got the mums. I guess I'll have to pick some up one night this week and get them in the ground before the remnants of Gustav Hanna gets here on Saturday. Too many big blows out there to keep them straight.


sow what you will...