My plan was to cut down the large Korean Spice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii) on the right side of the gate. Then I would move the much smaller Korean Spice Viburnum on the left side of the gate to another location in the garden. After all, the larger viburnum has a big dead branch in it, and it's getting on in years. Plus, I have two honeyberries, Lonicera caerulea, growing in one gallon pots on the front porch that I want to plant where these two viburnum are currently … [Read more...] about And then it bloomed
fruits
More precious than gold or rubies
These were delicious! More precious to me than gold or rubies, at least for the moment, are the first raspberries from my garden. I planted these raspberry brambles in the spring of 2011 and didn't expect, or get, any raspberries that first year because raspberries fruit on two year old canes. This spring I was hopeful that I would pick my first crop by mid summer. And then the drought struck and dashed my hopes. The raspberry brambles melted in the heat and watering merely kept them … [Read more...] about More precious than gold or rubies
Strawberry Growing Secrets
My strawberry patch is 4’ x 8’ and located down at the eastern end of the vegetable garden. It gets a bit of shade from a nearby Snowball bush (Viburnum opulus ‘Sterile’) but is mostly in full sun all day. I planted the strawberry plants “bare root” on April 27, 2003. The variety is ‘Ever Red’. I planted all that came in the bundle which was probably 12 or 24 plants, I can’t remember exactly, so I either planted too many or way too many for the size of my patch. I start harvesting strawberries … [Read more...] about Strawberry Growing Secrets
One Bad Apple
According to the song lyrics, “one bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch, girl”. That’s true, unless your entire apple crop consisted of just one apple to begin with, as mine did this year.“Did” because the one apple on my one apple tree fell to the ground sometime in the last few days, rotten to the core. I picked it up and threw it in to the compost bin for the worms there to finish it off. Oddly enough, I felt like I was giving in to whatever it was that was rotting it out to begin with, … [Read more...] about One Bad Apple
Drupes, Pods and Pomes
I went out in search of berries this morning, at the suggestion of Lisa from Greenbow Gardens.In my search around the garden, I found some other 'seed carrying vessels' of interest.These are dry drupes on my Carolina Silverbell, Halesia carolina 'Arnold Pink' .Most drupes have a fleshy skin, like cherries, plums, and peaches. Usually there is just one seed inside, but there may be two or three seeds inside these dry drupes."Dry drupes". I bet you didn't think you would be reading a sentence … [Read more...] about Drupes, Pods and Pomes
May Dreams Gardens: After the Rain
Out in the garden today, if you hadn't been told or didn't see it for yourself, you wouldn't really notice that yesterday we had one of those 100 year rains.Technically, we had a 95 year rain, since the last time it rained like that around here was in 1913.I measured between 5.5 and 6 inches in my rain gauge once it was all over.But it was much worse south of here, where people had to leave their homes for higher ground, with just what they could carry on a boat, and a hospital had to be … [Read more...] about May Dreams Gardens: After the Rain
