Fig Trees & Blueberries

The rain continued Tues but a little bit of clearing Wed gave me time to pot the fig trees and Thurs I did the blueberries. I bought 3 Chicago dwarf figs from Park Seed and 4 Top Hat dwarf blueberry bushes from Gurney's. I researched all my books and some called for 12" deep pots, some called for 18" for both plants. I went with the 12" pots because all of the books said they need to be root bound to produce fruit. Also they will have to be moved inside for winter and easier to lift but mostly because I had eight 12" pots and only a couple of larger ones which are reserved
for my peppers.

Since transplanting the figs are looking very good with tiny green leaves sprouting and the blueberries have fanned out and are looking well. I added extra humus to the berries. The humus has chunks of clay and blueberries prefer more acidic soil.


I spent a few more hours Thur, Fri and Mon getting my cold crops transplanted - Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cabbage - and setting up row 3. I didn't get pictures so I will go into more details about them tomorrow or Wed.

This was taken last Fri. The large green planters on the left are the fig trees. The ones on the right are the blueberries. The clay pots in the back left are broccoli plants and you can see the other trays waiting to be set out. More about the cold crops tomorrow.

Happy gardening,
Linda B:)

The Garden Thus Far

This picture is what the old garden looked like less than a month ago.

I had purchased some cold weather plants but they practically froze in the house with those single digit temps. I babied them and they are still alive but I figure I am about 2 weeks behind getting them out. I am not panicking too much since we are still getting nights at freezing temps but I do need to get busy. Since I am right at the edge of the National Park and at a higher elevation I am sort of Zone 5 and Zone 6. In years when winter moves out early, I am more Zone 6 but this year I think it is definitely going to be a Zone 5 winter in these mountains.

The Lowe's order arrived Wed morning - three pallets full. I hauled and dragged fencing, lattice, bales of straw, steel gates and fence posts around as I tried to get everything organized. I was pretty much exhausted but this is how the garden looked at the end of the day.

The green striped tarp is covering the bales of straw for mulch (and bedding for the dog houses). I am moving the garden about 60 feet from the old location near the back corner of the trailer because there was not much afternoon sun and the morning sun didn't arrive until about noon. I have a little more sunlight here and have some friends coming who will help clear out some of the scrub trees seen in the back of the pic to give more afternoon sun. That should give me enough hours for my sun heavy crops.

The silver role of fencing in the front of the pic is 330 feet of field fencing. It has wide squares near the top and narrow ones at the bottom so it will be fine for the dogs - keeping them in the yard and out of the garden.

The garden will cover from about 4 feet to the right of the wheelbarrow and about 4 feet to the left of the concrete blocks. I believe I will be able to fit in 6 rows stacked on blocks plus two 4"x4"x6' high frames on the right for my hanging tomatoes, beans and sunflowers. I also want to put 2 or 3 of the 4x4's at the far end of the garden for hanging baskets that would be high enough that they would not block the sun to the rows.

Since I have been house bound I have ordered a lot of things plus friends have been bringing me boxes of food. I had broken down all of the boxes to haul to the dump when it hit me - they would be perfect for lining the rows!! So, I finished two rows Friday and this gives you an idea of how things will look.

Sat evening brought pouring rain and it will continue until Wed. I can't say that I am sad about it. I was so sore Sat I could barely get anything done. I spent Sun and part of Mon in bed but am feeling better tonight. I even managed to sort some seeds, do a little housework and read a couple of my gardening books. I will try to get a little laundry done today and be ready to hit the garden again when the rain moves out Wed. If it is not too windy I might even set up my umbrella and try to work a little.

A note: Gurney's, Burpee's and Park Seeds are running big clearance sales. If you are wanting some extra goodies, now is a great time to jump in and buy. I still want to order a couple of things from Burpee tomorrow - there were a couple of things that are Burpee exclusives that I just have to have LOL. Otherwise I have way more than I can use and will even be making up packets of the extras to take to friends at church Sunday.

Happy Gardening
Linda B in TN:)

More Rain and Cold

The cold and dreary weather continues. Easter Sunday was gorgeous but mostly it has been 50 degree days with rain and drizzle. It is too cold to put anything out yet but I have planted a few of the onions and have lettuce flats growing.

Tomorrow morning I have a huge order coming from Lowes. There will be about 50 bags of compost, cow manure and potting soil. I am getting 4x4's to frame out places to hang tomato and cucumber baskets, string up beans and stake out sunflowers. There will be slats for more rows like I did last year and lots of supplies for fencing in the yard.

There will also be lumber for building two raised beds. One is for the asparagus I ordered from Gurney's but I haven't decided what the second one will be for. I may actually wait and track the summer sun then decide where to put it at the end of the season once I have figured out the best placement.

Well, I am off to rest up for tomorrow.

Happy Gardening,

Linda B:)

Winter is Back

Sunday was gorgeous with 70 degree temps but temps fell all day Monday. It is 3am Tues and there is over two inches of snow on my deck. Luckily I have been too sick to get the cold crops transplanted so it was easy to drag everything inside. I don't have much heat so I am hoping it will be warm enough in here. I am also hoping the cold won't rupture my new water hoses and pipes. I left them drizzling so maybe they will be OK.

I did get several wheelbarrow loads of blocks and pots moved to the new garden location Sunday afternoon. I also found a stack of old totes that I am going to use to grow potato plants. I am trying to do some research right now on how many I can put in each tote. I plan to put a few inches of dirt, lay the potatoes on top and then stack straw on top as they grow so I can reach in and grab new potatoes all summer.

I am also trying to find more info on my dwarf fig trees. One book says a 10" pot, another says a minimum of 18". Everything says the trees have to be rootbound to produce a lot of fruit. One book gives the impression I should start with a 10 - 12" pot and move up to 18 over the next few years. That makes sense if I am going to try to force fruit this year.

As soon as things warm up I will try to get some pictures up of my progress so far. In the meantime, I may spend tomorrow gathering some container gardening links that I enjoy to share.

Hope everyone is warm,
Linda B:)

Homemade Bug Solutions

I tuned in to the Bonnie Hunt Show this afternoon and caught the ending of a segment with Ivette Soler giving recipes and remedies for getting rid of pests in the garden. You can get a PDF of the info here:

http://www.bonniehunt.com/as_seen_on/090330/03friday/gardentips.pdf

Visit her blog here:

http://thegerminatrix.com/

I've had visits from UPS the past two days. First the fig trees arrived and today I got several packets of seeds and some growing bags, all from Park Seed. I was a little upset about the high shipping they charged but I can see why. I got a giant box filled with packing peanuts both times and barely anything in either box and I still don't have the full order.

It is still cold and rainy here so I just unpacked everything and set it to the side. I will get pics of fig trees and give you more details in the coming days.

Happy Gardening
Linda B:)