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Walkabout – May Edition
With all the plantings done for the year its great to be able to simply stroll the yard and take a moment to enjoy the miracle that is Mother Nature.
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Reminder: Water any seedlings or moved plants
Spent this Mother’s Day over at Sycamore Hill Gardens. Beautiful grounds with a coy pond, stepping stones, fairy garden, hedge maze and so much more. They hold a Mother’s Day Garden Tour that Elaine and I enjoy as it is the place to relax outdoors and the kids have so much fun feeding the fish and running the maze. I recommend it to anyone who lives in the Central New York area. This leads me to my words of warning. Remember to water, water, water any seedlings or plants you move. 7 of the strawberries we moved last night were wilted when I watered the garden 22hrs later… I’ll have…
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An Unexpected Bounty of Strawberries
Lo’ and behold August and I were hoeing the garden to plant some watermelon seeds when we had to double take what we were scraping up. To my surprise there were Strawberry plants growing 25 feet away from my Strawberry Patch. As far as I can tell a squirrel must have sat on the fence eating some strawberries last year and seeded the area with more strawberries. Time to move the plants down to the existing patch. Now with the plethora of strawberries “planted” time to work on the Watermelons. On the scale of snacks it goes #1 Apples, #2 Watermelon and #3 Cherries. I prefer to hoe the planting…
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Caprice’s perspective of the garden
Its always fun when the kids want to help, cooking, cleaning, building, gardening or what not. Today Caprice wanted to help in the garden but decided to instead take photos as its something she’s gotten more and more into. Without further adieu The Garden a la Caprice.
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Cherry Blossoms! and more
Spring blossoms are so rewarding! I love enjoying the outdoors but there is something especially nice in seeing plants mature and thrive. Last year we got a few apple blossoms but nothing from the Cherry Trees. This year 2 of the cherry trees have a few dozen blossoms. Wait a few years and the whole yard will be a bloom! Take a moment and stroll the yard with me.
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Turning the Garden
We saved some seeds from last year and with the turn in the weather its time to see if they will take! Hmm but the garden sure is weedy already. Luckily the straw from lining the chicken coop over the winter is being recycled to help to keep the weeds down this year. As an added bonus it will also stop the soil from drying out. We’re also going to slowly switch to raised beds to help make it more manageable (and keep the kids from tramping on the plants. Working the garden can be hard work but its just great to be outside. Also turned in our own compost…
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Cleaning the Strawberry Patch
With the ground softened up and all the new trees & bushes planted its time to turn my hand to the garden. Pulled up the caging from last year and its exciting to see new growth on all of the strawberry plants. A bit of weeding to do but manual labor is good for the body and lets the mind wander. Hopeful we’ll see some runners this year and can get the patch to double in size.
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Potato Planting… Why not?
After hiking Brickyard Falls this morning in the misty rain it cleared up quite nicely so I was able to get the higher fencing up on the southern border of the garden and get all the new trees fenced and anchored. Last year mid-summer we had some deer trouble so hoping to nip that in the bud this year with the fencing and garlic sticks. They are supposed to last 6 months but the ones I put up 9 months ago still are quite potent. After the fencing was up it was quite easy to hoe the garden with the moisture level of the dirt. Cleaned up the garlic to…
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Unexpected Growth in the Garden
Was wondering around the garden today taking a look at how the strawberries fared over the winter when some greenery caught my eye. After a few minutes of head scratching I realized the garlic I randomly planted last spring are sprouting. I wonder how their placement is going to change where all the raised beds were going to go…
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Strawberry Harvest
There is nothing as sweet as fresh picked berries. With Everbearing plants you continually get to pick strawberries all through the summer, instead of 1 large harvest. Ideal for a quick daily pick for adding to salads or a snack. I’m hoping the strawberries will send out runners next year so that we can expand to 4 rows vs the 2 we planted. It’ll let us do a nice multi-year rotation of the outside than inside rows.
