The Upper Meadow.

Last fall, shortly after building the large raised bed, the leaves turned and color filled the trees out back. In the 2.5 years I've been in this house, I've cleared out a lot of undergrowth and opened up the backyard for sunlight and plantings. Yesterday, I realized, I have a lot more space to plant than I thought.

The new makeshift stepping stone path winds its way around the upper potager and down into the orchard. In a few years, the fruit trees should fill out and take up a lot of space. Plantings will change as more shade is reintroduced into this area.



The ground drops and slopes falling about 8' in elevation from the highest point to the lowest. Two truck loads of leaf mulch were spread here last spring. The landfill no longer gives the stuff away. Something about state regulations and permits they don't have. Drainage here is sharp.



Looking back, there's a lot of empty soil right now. The leaves will slowly turn to black dirt over the summer with the rain and heat. I stuck most of my hardwood cuttings around the edge of the woods here. Until they grow into sizeable shrubs, I'll use drought tolerant plants to fill the spaces. Many wintersown containers will be planted out in this area, coneflowers, black eyed susans, coreopsis, yucca. The perennial bed is nearly full and self-sown seedlings are popping up like crazy. I've got to switch my focus to another area of the yard.



Spring is advancing rapidly. The pollen index is very high.





It's 45 degrees and sunny. The high today should be in the mid 80s again. I've started consuming massive amounts of water during the day.

The two owls just swooped through the backyard. The birds are going nuts. No sign of any squirrels.

It's too hot.

It's 84 degrees and the sun is baking everything. It's too warm to plant out as much as I had hoped. Many of my wintersown seedlings still aren't ready. I did put out some echinacea Harvest Moon, Columbine, Painted Daisies, and a few others I forget. The majority are just sitting there still. Maybe next week.



I did mow the yard again. The wild onions and clover were getting out of control. In the backyard, I found this little blue flowering thing. I'd love to know the name.



On the front slope, the violets have taken off.



Around the oak tree in the front yard, the Purple Queen is returning. All those little green sprouts are Dayflower. Ugh.



I did a lot of weeding in the perennial bed. It's presentable now. Along the privet hedge, I planted some ferns I collected from Robert's property yesterday. They're just starting to unfurl.



The red clover went into the upper potager bed.



I tilled it into the existing leaves and soil. There's still some cardboard that hasn't broken down. I also built teepee trellises for pole beans and put my metal trellis back up for the cucumbers I'll sow in a few weeks.



The long view.



I used UV safe nylon clips to finally attach the concrete wire trellis to the four posts. I've got plans for a few vines this year including Morning Glory.



Near the swing, I noticed cosmos seedlings. There are lots of datura seedlings too.



Self sown Four O'clocks are popping up in the Shady Corner. A few more weeks and I'll stuff that area with brugs. A few hydrangeas that were rooted last summer survived. No sign of the variegated one yet.



I've had a nap in the hammock and have the sunburn to prove it. I've eaten lunch and am thinking about dinner. I'd like to do some more in the yard, but there's laundry that is calling my name right now. I'm tired, ya'll.

Tossing and turning.

Sunday night, I went to bed early, but found it difficult to sleep. Instead, I spent most of the night staring out the window toward the raised beds I built this fall. In my head, I made plans for where things would be planted this spring.

In the upper bed, I will plant squash every two feet along the southern edge. In between, cucumbers will grow on a trellis I need to build. To the north, I'll plant pole beans. The trellis will span the beds leaving room in the center for a few companion plants like nasturtiums and herbs. They'll help protect my squash from certain bugs and provide flavor for summer recipes.

The two lower beds will hold tomatoes. Last year, I started my tomatoes on February 8, indoors, under lights. I'm waiting two more weeks this year. Spring is forecast to be cooler and arrive later than normal. That being the case, waiting makes sense. I just hope the Farmers Almanac is right.

This is the plan. I'll have 36 tomato plants, each with 1.5 square feet. Since they are all indeterminate varieties, they will need to be staked. I am still working on that problem. The goal is to grow enough tomatoes to can one quart for each week during the winter. I still can't eat what grocery stores try to sell us.



The upper bed needs more amendments to the soil. I'll take care of this in April when I remove the hoophouse. If my compost isn't ready, I'll buy bagged compost, peat, and perlite. I'm hoping for a dry spell in the near future so I can pick up some horse manure from a coworker. There's still a chance that I will build one more 4' x 8' bed next to the two lower beds. That may have to wait until fall again. Getting the soil right is the most important part of the equation. Lots of nutrients are needed to grow vegetables in such small spaces. I feel pretty good about what I've done so far. My cabbages will be planted out this week, if I can get the bottles to use as cloches in the lower beds. Carrots have germinated too. They'll mostly be harvested by the time the tomatoes are ready to be planted. But just in case, I'll plant these along the grid lines rather than in the spaces that the tomatoes will occupy.

It's another cold, rainy day here. It's 36 degrees and cloudy. By noon, the rain will be moving in. High wind advisories are in effect for this afternoon as well. The ground is still soggy and wet. The 10 day forecast shows us finally returning to normal February weather in about a week. Highs in the 50s, lows in the 30s are the average. I can't wait.

Problem Child

Under the dining room window, on the front of the house, there's a bed that gets little sun. Any rain that falls runs off the soil and into the "lawn" area in the front yard. This bed is a very dry, shady spot where little grows well. Not even the privet seedlings can take hold here.

Last winter, I amended the soil with leaf mulch and wood bark from the landfill. This morning, I mulched around my two rooted gardenias, the single rooted Aucuba, and the tea olive I planted. Nandinas have always (and will forever) be here. The camellia was one I chopped down in the spring of 2008, as I didn't know what it was then. It's been recovering since then, but it's being slow. It's a sasanqua, I believe.



I still need to do something with the front steps.



The coleus and impatiens were getting ragged. The cold mornings have taken their toll. They came out. I need two more bags of mulch for this bed. The tiny hostas I wintersowed and planted out in July are still very small. I don't expect them to come back next year, but I have been wrong before, once.





With rain in the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, I raked and collected another sack of leaves for the upper potager. I'll spread horse manure over this bed on Thursday if the rain stops by then. If not, it will be another week or more before I have a chance to get out there.



I've already started spreading wood ashes on the lower potager. There'll be lots more over the winter for all the beds. I noticed last year that I had fewer slugs where I had spread ashes too.



I resprayed the periwinkle on the front slope.



Much of it seems to be dying.



Not a foot away, other plants are rebounding happily.



In the basement, the confederate rose cuttings are doing well. The brugs are doing better. I'll pot the brugs sometime this week. The CR will remain in water a bit longer.



Lots of leaves still to fall in the backyard. I think I want the fence to be purple, like the shutters and doors.



It's 63 degrees and overcast. The high today should be in the mid 70s again. Wednesday, we'll be lucky to break the 50s. Three more wheelbarrows of wood have been moved into the basement. I need to spend some time very soon splitting more of the cut pieces for the rest of the winter. The low last night was 39 according to AccuWeather.com.

Dear Noah...

I opened the door this morning expecting a rush of cold air to greet me. Instead, it's muggy and warm even though the temperature stands at 57 degrees. A high of 77 is expected.

Yesterday, the rain started falling about 3pm. I was napping at the time, but when I woke up about 7:30, it was coming down nicely. Around 10pm, the bottom fell out. It was a hard, steady rain that lasted for several hours. When I went to bed at 11:30, it was still falling. This morning, there are a few patchy white spots in the Eastern sky. By mid afternoon, it should be clear. I could use some sunlight.

All told, we got just under 2" of rain overnight. We could use a little more, but not today.



With the yard being so soggy, I have no plans to work outside today. I've got a load of laundry to do, still need to clean the house a bit, and I have to work this evening. My first cup of coffee is about half done.

12:11pm - The sun is out. The humidity is intense. At 61 degrees, it feels like the upper 70s already. I'm thinking of wearing shorts to work.

I packaged up all the seeds that were drying in the basement. Castor beans, agastache mix, salvia subrotunda, salvia elegans, etc and so forth. I scattered the remains in the meadow garden.

Behind the upper potager, I have decreed that the area I intend to plant my figs will also be a red garden. I've got 15 new pineapple sage cuttings stuck today. I've also got enough salvia subrotunda seeds to choke a few hummers and goldfinches. I'll try to find some white agastache next year to plant in between the reds. I may even take cuttings of the white butterfly bush this fall to scatter in between. In a few years, the reseeding qualities of those plants should fill the area nicely as the figs grow.

I also took 5 cuttings from the passion vine in the planter by the basement door. I can't find my seed packet and I have no way of knowing if that plant will return next spring, so I want to be sure I have it.

In the dining room window, a piece of an evergreen wisteria, Millettia reticulata, has finally put out a single, lonesome root. It's been sitting in water for a couple months. I brought it home from work when it broke off while uncarting the mother plant. It has purple flowers all summer that smell of camphor. I'm hoping the smell is something mosquitoes aren't fond of. It'll cover the arbor in the perennial bed starting in the spring. It's not supposed to be cold hardy here in zone 7b, but there are reports of it growing as far north as Raleigh. I'll keep it inside for the winter.



Sitting next to it, roots have formed on the wild ageratum I pulled from the ditch on Brown Avenue. I'm still watching for seeds too.



Pay no attention to the dusty window sills. The construction zone in the kitchen means that nothing gets a thorough cleaning until I'm done. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The bedroom windows are open to air the house out a bit.