Garden Journal: May 11th

This Spring I am going to try and write an online garden journal.  Last year I tried a hand written journal but I have a tendency to get bored with journals and forget them after about a month.  I did better then usual last year, I managed to write in it for 9 months straight before I lost interest.  This time I am trying something different.  Since I can add photos to an online journal I think I will have more fun and better documentation this way.  I also wanted to share my garden projects with my readers in hopes of inspiring someone. 

My Japanese Maple is starting to leaf out.  In the fall it turns a beautiful orange/red color.  It is a species that does really well in containers and stays relatively small.

This past weekend I purchased 9 bags of soil and tons of plants and veggies to start my gardening. Although we had pretty nasty weather on Sunday I found motivation between rain storms and ran outside while the sun was out and finished more than I thought. 



This is a corner I am building a raise patio area using free cinder blocks and Corsica mint as a filler.  When I am done I am going to set my patio table on it.  I thought this corner would be a romantic backdrop to eat outside during warm summer evenings.


Sunday I planted my veggies for the year: sungold, brandywine and early girl tomatoes, bush beans, zucchini, butternut squash, eggplant and some marigold to deter pests from eating my plants.

My potatoes are already poking up through the soil and compost from when I first planted them last month

Now I will bury them back up completely and continue this process until the whole container is filled with soil and compost.

The veggie garden.  Last year we added too many plants to this small space. This year I think I planted the bed just full enough.

I also hung a beautiful hanging basket and planted some impulse buy flowers to make some flowering pots that will hopefully attract the hummingbirds.  I will take a photo of it when its not raining outside.

While I was out in the garden I discovered a new garden pest.  Gardeners already have deer, slugs, aphids, squirrels and rodents to deal with.  I think I found one of the most destructive pests of all and she goes by the name of Charlotte!  Being a puppy she likes to dig in the dirt and mud, which is no big deal.  She also like to snip off blooming tulips and daffodils and jump into plants and destroy them.  She has already ruined many iris buds and lupine stalks.  She even gave my eggplant a nice hair cut before I even had it out of my plant box.  At least I decided this year I wasn't going to fuss over what came up.  If it can survive Charlotte, more power to the plant.  I did decide to Charlotte proof my veggies and put chicken wire up around them so we would at least get some veggies this year.

There she is, the anti-gardener.

 Next week I hope to finish the last of my garden projects which include finishing my patio corner area, finding a home for the last of my gnomes,  adding the last bit of garden art and redesigning some of my planter boxes.

I will leave you with a few photos of the garden pest and her wild antics. 

Jumping up onto the porch

She loves rolling in the grass.  This day she was eating a pineapple top while rolling.