Pollen + Rain = Yellow Puddles

This past week has been nothing but pollen and rain.  It rained non-stop for three straight days and now the pollen picked right back up covering everything.

A positive from all the rain is that lots of my vegetable seeds have sprouted.  In this picture I have sugar snap peas, onions, and carrots.  I also have three varieties of tomatoes sprouting as well as the red potatoes and yellow squash growing strong in the gardens.

A couple weeks ago my neighbor "crape murdered" her crape myrtle tree and cut it back to the trunk.  I grabbed one large branch and made 20+ cuttings with 10 or more already sprouting.  I'm really impressed how quickly they started growing.  I hope they root well.  Google 'crape murder' if you want some entertainment.

My larger Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia) cuttings are growing real well.  Tonight I trimmed off the dead parts of the cuttings so that they have room to grow tall.  It's amazing how easy these things grow.

Here are more Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia) cuttings.  The softwood cuttings from last fall are in the middle and growing well.  All the bare sticks are hardwood cuttings from the winter.  Some are rooting but no leaves yet.


Seven Sisters Roses

The gutter is supplying plenty of water to the rose cuttings.

Two new cuttings starting to grow leaves.

The previous three pictures are from our front walkway garden.  Originally we had ratty looking boxwood bushes but I removed those by pulling them out with my truck and now I've been planting Seven Sister Roses.

The original rosebush came as a cutting started by my Grandmother.  I started a 2nd bush at my old house and then when I moved last summer, I dug up these two bushes to take with me to my new house.  The rosebushes went through an initial shock and dropped all their leaves, but have rebounded very well.  Since then I've made four more bushes from cuttings branches off the two bigger bushes.

I've learned that when trying to grow these roses from cuttings, all you need to do it remove the leaves, stick them in the ground, and keep them watered.  Mulching around them keeps the soil moist and once the roots grow you have a new rosebush.  The cuttings I ignore seem to grow the best.

Until next time....

Railroad Tie Raised Garden Bed

Just when I thought we were in full blown spring, the temperature drops to 35 degrees.  It looks like everything survived and we don't have any more cold weather on the forecast, so I believe I can officially say that it's finally spring!

The last couple weeks I've been working on building, filling, and planting a raised garden bed out of railroad ties.  As stated in a previous post, I received these railroad ties free from someone offering them on Craiglist.  The previous owner used them for a playground border.  Now I'd like to share my experiences with setting up this garden.

I picked up eight foot long railroad ties and cut two down to use on the ends with a circular saw.  I had to cut all 4 sides of the wood and then use a hand saw to finish the edge so that it was smooth.

The next step was deciding what to do with the grass.  Since this area of grass was so thick, I found some large boards to lay on the grass to kill it before putting in the soil.

I picked up a cubic yard of garden soil and shoveled about 20 cubic feet of soil into the garden.  The grass wasn't entirely dead but I did cover half of it with a fabric to see if it prevents weed and/or grass growth better than no barrier at all.

The filled garden was looking good!

My next step was planting some squash plants that my little girl and I started by seed in the seed-starting tray on the right.  We also planted some carrot seeds in rows by the popsicle stick.  I'm waiting on some bush beans to get bigger to transplant them in the open area of the garden.

Luckily I put pine straw around the seedlings before the cold front came through.  I really hope this protected the squash plants!  So what do you think of the railroad tie raised garden?


Here are some other things going on around the backyard garden:

Red potatoes, herb seed planted, and tomato seedlings.

Cleaned out the butterfly garden planted our lemon tree, and mulched around the citrus trees

Spiderworts blooming in our flower garden.

Mother bluebird leaving her house!  We are excited for our first spring in the new house!!!