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Preparing for Hurricane Irene
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gardenmama's Blog
Lots of rain...leads to a happy, healthy garden.
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:07 pm Over the past 10 days to 2 weeks we have got a lot of rain. Not nearly as much rain that the mid west has got but more then normal for this time of year. The almanac had said expect a rainy spring but normally that means April and May not June. We got a thunderstorm that last several hours last night. We didn't get damaging wind but the rain POUNDED down for hours. This morning Logan and I walked the yard and garden and to our SURPRISE nothing was damaged.I expected bent over tomato plants and destroyed peonies but everything looks wonderful and happy. Everything is so green and looks so healthy. This is one of the Yellow Boys that I bought. I planted 6, 4 in tires and 2 in a large pot in the driveway. All off them have doubled their size and have flowers on them. I can't wait to have yellow tomatoes. They are so good. 
The peas are starting to climb the pea fence. I planted them about a month later then normal. We hadn't set up the tires and needed to bring in the soil etc. Now that they are all set up I can plant them earlier next year. They seem to be doing great though. With all the rain and the slightly cooler then normal temps they are looking great! I hope they flower before it gets too hot and they fry in the sun. 
The Kentucky wonder String Beans are really shooting up! They love this warm, humid wet weather. they have started climbing the strings of their trellis. 
The zucchini really likes the miracle grow that I fed it Saturday. The plants look like they are trying to escape the tire stack that it is planted in! 
I wasn't too optimistic about growing potatoes this year. I have never done it before and wasn't sure about the tire method. But I am changing my tune. They are growing very fast in this wet weather and are ready to have another tire put on top and covered with dirt. So that will be a weekend project. 
The "accidental sunflowers" are growing fabulously since they were transplanted. Here is one that is over 3 feet tall already! I can't wait to see what it looks like when it blooms. These will all be surprises as to what type they are. 
After walking around the veggie patch I took a stroll over to the perennial beds. good news, some of the hosta that were destroyed still have a few leaves and are popping up a flower. can't wait to take pictures of their good fortune. My Princess Elizabeth Peony was hiding a little surprise for me. A day lily has opened. 
Logan and I paid our neighbor a visit this morning. He has some gorgeous lighter pink peonies and he had me cut some and bring them home. He knows I love flowers. Some days when the lilacs are blooming I will find bunches of them in my porch. He is such a nice man. 
On Saturday I picked up a gorgeous hanging basket at my local plant shack. I love the color orange and this one will be covered with little black eyed susanne flowers soon! 
Logan got a package from his Nannie B and granddad today. They live in Southport, England. Here here is to proud of his new clothes from his Nan. 
I hope everyone had a good day and have been able to enjoy their gardens. Bye bye for now. Last edited: Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:07 pm This blog entry has been viewed 380 times
Tin Man reporting to DUTY!
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:10 pm The greatest thing about having the tire garden is that the day to day maintenance is reduced. The past 2 years I would have had to spend HOURS weeding the old garden patch. But now with the use of the black plastic and recycled tires I have only a few minutes of weeding and that allows me to spend more time doing other projects. For instance.....Fixing my biggest tin man who was damaged in the big storm nearly 2 weeks ago. Here is my tin man back on duty. This time not in the veggie patch but over looking the perennial gardens that were invaded by deer a few nights ago. Hopefully he will scare off any more invaders. 
I spent about an hour Saturday morning weeding, fertilizing and putting up a rope fence about the veggie patch. I picked up some tin cake pans, cut them a bit to flatten them and hung them around the fence. Hopefully this will act as a deterrent to any deer that wants to feed upon my veggie plants. Our neighbor Jimmy has a Shepard and I hope that the smell of him and his urine will also help keep the deer away from this part of the yard. Here is one of my other Tin men with the new pie plate deterrents. My little helper Logan says they are shiny flowers. 
We had a very busy Saturday. My mother picked up my 5 year old nephew and my son Logan and she took them on a train journey. They went on a 2 hour train trip just north of here. There was a fiddler on the train. The boys had a great time. Here is my son blowing his train whistle while the fiddle player plays behind him. Logan LOVES trains! 
My brother and his family came over for a little family party for my 14 year old niece. Her birthday is Wednesday. Everyone arrived at our house about 1 and stayed until about 7. It was a very busy day. This morning it was a bit dreary but I was able to get some pictures of the ever growing garden before the rains came. Here is my Princess Elizabeth Peony in bloom with my gardens guardian angel. 
This rambling rose was on the property when we bought the house so I don't know what it's true name is and even if I had planted it probably wouldn't recall so from now I am going to call it Bloody Mary. If you haven't figured it out I am an English history nut and my husband being English I have decided to name all my perennials after the english/british monarchs. I name this one Bloody Mary because she is so thorny that I give blood anytime I get near her. 
My morning glories are doing very well and with all the rain that we have had this week are growing fast. This is a bloom I found this morning. I can't wait to see these gorgeous blooms all over my arbor! 
As I walked around the front of the yard I looked closely at my Clematis. This is the first one that I planted 3 summers ago. It FINALLY has BUDS all over it! I can't wait to see this one bloom. I am sure it will soon as the SUN comes back and the rains leave. 
As I was taking these pictures it started to rain and has been raining for a few hours now. We lucked out on Saturday and even though thunderstorms were in the forecast they hit north and south of us and we had a beautifully sunny day. I also picked up some more hot peppers to put in the garden and a hanging basket to decorate the front entrance area of the house. I hope everyone has had a fabulous weekend. This blog entry has been viewed 372 times
The Only Good Deer is a DEAD ONE!!!!!
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 7:28 pm As I walked around my flower beds this morning to my SHOCK and HORROR I found that 6 out of 10 hostas have been partially to completely EATEN over night! And the culprits left HOOF PRINTS! I have never had an invasion of deer like this. From the number of hoof prints and the different sizes it looks to be a mom and her baby. Well I have spread nasty tasting powder all over the rest of the flowers in the perennial beds and have shaved a bar of soap all over the place. A friend told me that you can shave Irish Spring soap and the smell keeps deer away. the next step will be setting traps and catching some DINNER! Here are the pictures of the destruction: 
Hoof Prints of the Culprits: 
Not all was a HORRIBLE SHOCK this morning...the lovely fuschia peony that I took a photo of yesterday is even more full today and SO GORGEOUS. Her name shall be Princess Elizabeth. 
I hope everyone had a better day then I did in your gardens. Have a wonderful night. This blog entry has been viewed 441 times
Blooming Peonies.....
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:28 pm We have had some uneasy weather this week but all the rain we have gotten and some periods of sun have opened some of the peonies. Here are a few pics: 
The weather is expected to be crazy the next 8 days or so. Lots of Thunderstorms and rain left over from the rains int he mid west. Everything is growing a lot right now. Hopefully when the rains cease tons more growth will start. I really enjoy blogging on this site. The people are so friendly and the comments left are very encouraging. I hope everyone is having a great day or night depending on where you are in the world. This blog entry has been viewed 434 times
Everything is finally planted...
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:59 pm This morning my son and I went out to the veggie patch and did a bit of weeding. I took the floating row covers off the cantaloupe and watermelon. They have tripled their size from 3 weeks ago and have flowers on them. I feel that we will get melons this year. After uncovering the melons we weeded and fertilized. I talked to the lady at the veggie shack up the road and she said it was okay to put in my cukes. So I put in the 10 plants that I had started from seed. I also put in some seeds. I adjusted some of the tom plants and made a few more trellises. The toms are looking very good. They have gotten also more vibrant and have grown a few inches in the past week. everything is doing very well in the tire planters. The weather has been very interesting the past few days...nice sunny skies then intense thunderstorms. We got out there this morning before the black flies and mosquitos got too bad. So far today no storms but PM thunderstorms are predicted. I hope everyone is enjoying their gardens and have a nice day/night. I will post more pics in a few days. This blog entry has been viewed 350 times
1st day of Summer Break....
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:17 pm Today was the first day of my summer break from driving bus. My son and I brought my husband to work this morning and came home for a short nap. When we awoke it was very gray and raining. I decided that this was the day to get some scrapbooking done. I am in charge of our family reunion scrapbook so I finished last years. our family reunion is coming up on the July 4th weekend. After lunch I put to good use some very RIPE bananas. I made a nice banana bread. My son loves it. When we got home from picking up my husband we walked the yard. In just a day I have blooms and more growth. This warm and humid weather makes everything grow so fast! Peonie Blooming 
Bud on Papa's Rose Bush 
Large tomato in patio pot 
Almost ripe Strawberry 
Bees Making Raspberries 
Clean up started on the damaged apple tree 
Hope everyone had a great day! This blog entry has been viewed 480 times
1 tomato, 2, tomato, 3 tomato ......46 tomato plants MORE!
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:54 pm I have had a busy weekend. On Saturday morning I was up at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep. I was having a good friend over for dinner so I cleaned the whole house and made it presentable. Until yesterday morning the dining room table had my grow lights on it and was my inside greenhouse. So i had to find the table. After the table was discovered, I moved on to the kitchen. By 7am the whole of the downstairs was clean and presentable. At 9 I mowed the lawn, I was only going to mow the front and around the flower beds but I felt so good that I did all around the veggie patch, and behind the house. felt good to get it all done. Then I put in about 12 of the tomato plants. I had a loss on Friday. I was so busy getting ready and heading out for my bus route that I forgot to take off the hot house that was over my black krim, brandywine and other plants that had not been planted. I came home that night and half of them were fried. I watered them heavily and left them. about 10 passed. But some survived. I was done working on Saturday just before 11 and had the rest of the day to relax. Novice101 (my friend) came over for dinner. She arrived around 3 and we walked the garden and house. It was a great visit. I was soooo exhausted that I was in bed at half 8 and slept until 7 this morning. Sunday morning we gave my husband his father's day gifts of english goodies and woodworking books then went out to the garden. The weather was perfect for planting this morning. It was cloudy and misty and cool. I got the remaining tomato plants in...the final count is...46! So now I wait patiently and see how they do. Everything is in the garden now expect for the cucumbers. I am waiting 1 more week to put those plants in. they hate the cold and we had a night of around 35 last week. They issued a frost warning but it stayed warmer. My husband and I transplanted a few things that we dug up out of a flower bed that we moved. He was busy while I was planting the garden. He was removing the fallen branch from the apple tree. On Wednesday he removed the pear tree from where it was fallen and somehow it only ripped a hole in the screen of a window. It fell directly between 2 raspberry patches and didn't do any damage to either. That was some kind of divine intervention. I walked around today with the camera and took a ton of pics of buds, blooms and of the garden. 5 buds on the white rose... 
Gorgeous Honeysuckle 
Budding and Blooming Rose 
Morning Glories 
Peonies 
a Box of Sage 
Lots of Small Blueberries! 
Tire planter looking lovely. 
Here are several pictures that show the progress we have made in the veggie garden. Growing green beans. 
repaired bean trellis 
Growing Potatoes 
growing Zucchini 
Happy Peppers 
The transplanted accidental sunflowers are doing very well! 
Here are several views of the newly planted tomato plants. 
Here is a total view of the garden. 
I hope everyone had a great day and to those dads out there Happy Fathers day! Last edited: Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:20 pm This blog entry has been viewed 488 times
Schools out for summer!!!
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:46 pm I don't know if I have told you before but I am a special needs school bus driver. Today was the last day of school for the 2 different districts I drive for. NOW we can have more fun in the yard and garden and the BEACH! I was watering the garden late this afternoon and noticed I have small potato leaves popping out of the dirt! I have never grown potatoes before and am excited to see them grow. Hopefully we will be getting potatoes this fall. Since the storm the other day the weather has been gorgeous. Lots of sun and warmth. Everything in the garden is growing wonderfully. the peas are several inches taller then last week, the pumpkins, zucchini, and sunflowers and really growing fast and some of the tomato plants I put in last weekend have flowers! I am so excited. I love to see everything start to grow. And some of the grass seed we sowed last weekend has started to sprout. Last night I had the camera out and i took a picture of this new iris blooming. It bloomed the night after the big storm. I love the darker shade of yellow that this one is. 
On Saturday it will be time to mow the lawn again and I need to start putting in the rest of the tomato plants. I cukes are going to have to wait another week or so until I am sure it is warm enough at night. Everyone have a great night and weekend! This blog entry has been viewed 359 times
And the wind blew....calm after the storm
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:34 am We knew it was coming. Storm watches and warnings and even TORNADO watches for VERMONT,all day. At about 4pm this afternoon a fast moving, violent storm came through the area. We were not home. I had just parked my bus and was resting at our office when the rain came. When Logan and I got in the car it was raining very hard. The sly was blackish green and the wind was kicking up. Just as we were approaching an intersection Fire trucks with lights and sirens came racing threw. At this point I knew this storm had cuased some damage. I park my bus in Nh in the town of Haverhill. We joke that when the wind blows the power goes out there. As we drove the car was blowing all over the road. Debris was blowing all over the place. When we arrived to get my husband just south of my work. The sky was blue and you would have never known that a huge storm was blowing. I could hear the thunder in the distance. We arrived home about half 5. We stopped on the way home to get the makings for cold sandwiches, because I just knew that the power would be out when we got to Groton. I was right. We knew somthing had happened because a small tree was down near my flower beds...then we noticed my hot house on the front lawn against the fence. That was about 100 yards from where it was left. The pea trellis had been blown over....then we noticed our 50 foot pear tree. SNAPPED about 6 feet from the ground. it just missed our inlaw apartment. Then I noticed a huge limb of our apple tree snapped...and part of a flowering cherry tree....The storm didn't drop a lot of water but it was fast and furious....we wandered around in shock and awe of what had happened. Glad that we were lucky to have not sustained any property damage. We do have some work we will have to do with the clean up. Cutting down the broken limb and cutting everything up for wood in our fire pit. I have to fix the beans teepee trellis. When the hot box got blown around the yard, it passed through the bean trellis and the pea fence. We can see on the black plastic how the hot box got blown around and flipped and landed and put holes in. The wind must have been amazingly strong. I took pictures of the damage and other scenes around the yard after the storm. We were getting ready to spend the night without power. I had just got the flashlight and candles out and were about to light the candles and POOF the power came back on. STORM DAMAGE Apple tree limb broken... 
Pear tree felled 
Small tree down 
Hot house 100 yards from garden if the fence wasn't there it would have done damage to the neighbors house. 
Tin Man down...lost his hat...needs repair work... 
the calm after the storm...Pictures of blooms around the yard... 
This iris has a little visitor... 
I hope everyone had a nice day and have enjoyed their gardens. The severe weather is hopefully past and it should be a lot cooler now that this storm blew threw. We should be enjoying out yard and garden again on Wednesday. Bye for now. Last edited: Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:37 am This blog entry has been viewed 595 times
Today's findings....
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:22 pm we have officially had a heat wave. This is the 3rd day in a row that it hit over 90 degrees. That is very uncommon for this time of year and this area. They say one more day of the heat and then back into the 70's. Hopefully some rain will come tomorrow. Not a drop with all this humidity. After a long day we walked and watered the garden. All this heat has produced zucchini, pumpkin and sunflower seedlings. everything seems to be doing well. I have a couple peppers that were in the hot house that appeared to have gotten too hot. So looks like I will have to purchase a couple more pepper plants to make up for the ones that have died. All in all it is looking good and this weekend the rest of the tomato plants will get planted. The beans and the peas have really sprouted up and the accidental sunflowers that i transplanted on Saturday have recovered from the shock of being moved and look nice. I will take some pictures tomorrow when I am not so tired. There are more iris blooms and morning glories are doing well. Hope everyone has had a nice day. This blog entry has been viewed 411 times
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