Gardening Archives - Page 3 of 6

Winter Onions – 6 Month Update

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In November we planted winter onions for the first time. Winter Onions are also referred to as “Egyptian Walking Onions”, “Egyptian Tree Onions”, “Tree Onions”, “Walking Onions”, “Top Onions”, and “Perennial Onions”.

The blue-green shoots/stalks/leaves are round and hollow and typically grow approximately 3 feet tall. As the plant matures a cluster of bulblets will begin to grow at the top of the stalk encapsulated in a protective papery casing referred to as a tunic.
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Peak at Our Garden Progress

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It seems the weather in April in May has just been a bit bi-polar and our garden is not as far along as we had hoped. But we are finally having some consistent warm days and our garden is starting to improve. Here is a little bit of what’s going on in our garden.

Contender Green Beans, Carrots, Tomato Blooms, Top-Pick Crowder Peas, Leaf Lettuce, Potatoes Plant, and Oregano

How to Divide Hostas

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Hostas is a perennial plant with broad oval or lobed leaves that grows from rhizomes (root mass or cluster). They grow well in partial and full shade. The are very hardy and easy to grow. I struggled for years fighting crabgrass in my flower bed bordering the house in the front yard. I tried black plastic, landscaping fabric, various plants, and lots of weeding! Initially, I only had 2 hosta plants. Over the years I learned that hostas was very hardy and would actually beat the weeds. So, I started planting more hosta in this troublesome area and less of other plants. Most of them I received from my Mama or aunt when they divided theirs, but I did buy a very few small plants of different varieties.

Now, I have 33 hostas plants of various varieties. They are beautiful and I love them. However, my L-shaped flower bed that wraps around the corner of the house is over flowing in spots and starting to look like a jungle.
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Our Cute Visitors

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First, I wanted to share some cute pictures of our recent visitors. Last week Sarah looked out the back door and saw a rabbit inside our fence. We both started watching as it ran back and forth along the fence several times.

Then we realized there was another rabbit on the outside of the fence. They were trying to figure out how to get to each other.

We then saw a third rabbit come in from the left side of the yard. It was just too fast to get a picture of it. It was as if it was trying to lead the one trapped inside our yard to the escape route in our picket fence. Two sides of our fence are chain link and two sides are a white wooden picket fence. Sarah was amazed that the rabbits were able to get in the back yard through the fence. She admitted she now understood the need for a garden fence. Finally, the trapped rabbit found its way out and our entertaining visitors were gone. What kind of protection do you have around your garden?

Tired of Weeding? Cardboard the Eco-friendly Weed Barrier

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Are you tired of weeding? Have you spent countless hours pulling, cutting, and digging weeds? I know I have. Now, we have the chickens we can at least put the weeds to good use.

Weeds aka Chicken Treats

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Transplanting Mint

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Jon and I had discussed we wanted to plant a few herbs this year. We both thought oregano, basil, cilantro, and parsley to start off small with the basics. But I also wanted mint. Jon is not really a fan of mint and just doesn’t understand my need to plant it. I just cannot wrap my head around him not liking mint.

I love mint ice cream, Andes mint chocolates, peppermint patties, peppermint hard candy, candy canes, mint tea, mint gum (but it has to compete with cinnamon). Did I mention mint ice cream and Andes mint chocolates? Yum! Mint is such a refreshing and clean scent. I even put it in my wallflower scented plugin. Who doesn’t love a minty fresh mouth from brushing your teeth? Did you know that mint repels ants? I bet Jon will start liking it now. We have a serious ant issue at our house. Hopefully between the chickens and the mint we’ll rectify that.

So, a couple of weeks ago we picked up a 4 pack of peppermint plants at the farmer’s market. We planted them in a pot and set them out on the deck. They are doing quite nicely.

Peppermint Plants

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Bare root raspberry growth after 2 months

Bare Root Raspberries 2 Month Progress

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Early in February we bought 4 bare root raspberry plants. As mentioned before, last year we did not have any success with some bare root raspberry plants we purchased online.

The raspberries from last year were shipped with some gel on the roots. Although this year we bought our plants at Tractor Supply Company, they were also bare root packaged in peat moss. Just a little over 2 months ago, we planted the raspberries outside and covered them with lots of pine needles.
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Winter Onions – 5 Month Update vs. Annual Onion Sets

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Last year we planted our first garden late in April basically all at the same time. We did have some successes, but we had some failures as well. For instances, our onions we planted in late April from seed! Our oldest even laughed at us for that. He knew we were not going to have any success from them.

Among several things that we have done to amend the soil for this year we were also determined to have a good onion crop. Back in November we planted some winter onions that Mama gave us. Then we bought onion and garlic sets from Tractor Supply in February. We planted the onion and garlic sets in late February and they are doing wonderfully! We are trying to mulch in between rows with leaves to keep the weeds down.

Left: Onions From Sets. Right: Winter Onions

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The Blueberry Bushes are Flourishing!

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The blueberry bushes are flourishing and the fruit trees are growing like mad! Every day Jon and I like to “walk the grounds” to look at everything. This time of the year there are so many changes that spring up over night.

Last year we planted two blueberry bushes. They grew nicely last year. The blueberries and the grapes are the only thing that survived from our two large orders of trees, vines, and bushes. The blueberries are looking awesome already this year. Maybe we will get a few blueberries this year!

Blueberry Bush

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Planting Strawberry Plants

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Spring has finally sprung around our place! We have been blessed with several gorgeous sunny days in the high 60’s-70’s last week and this week we have had a few days of 80’s! The birds are singing and all around our little place there is new growth to be found…except for our 10 bare root strawberry plants. Sigh 🙁

It has been 2 weeks now and there has been absolutely no visible change. They still look exactly like they did when we planted them.