Evolutionary Plume

Wheat Prices and the effect on my relatives

On my grandmother's 90th birthday, we met in the Dakota's for a family reunion. At the time, wheat prices were at an all time low about $3 US a bushel. The price reflected the strength of the US dollar and the competition from farmers in Canada. My relatives were unable to make any profit with prices the way they were. Their response, put it into storage until prices improved. Well, the Aug 24th edition of the Financial Times reported record prices for wheat at $7.54 a bushel. Interesting. My relatives should be happy. Or not, depending on the effect of rising fuel costs and the status of inflation. Hmm.

My garden's are dry even with the cooler weather

Although the following plants are in bloom right now, roses, clematis, daisy, thistle, dahlia, lilies, sage and mallow, the yard is pretty dry. The grass is turning brown. Even with our cooler weather this last week or so. Thank heavens for my hanging baskets. I planted them myself this year using a variety of starts, I need to reconstruct which I planted because they've come along really nicely. My fuscia basket is also blooming again. Our crab apple is loaded this year as is our grape vine, I can't wait until they're ripe.

I did write an article about planting my garden underneath the huge, 60-80' big leaf maple tree and had it published. Click to read more about the maple tree garden story and hear about my wisteria..

I also got my favorite gardening books online at Amazon, click here for more information.

Dahlia's are in bloom

Dahlia's are one of my favorite plants because if they are started right, they require almost no care but cutting the flowers and watering and feeding the plants. In the Pacific Northwest I've had the luck that I never need to dig them up. I have split them into several plants. The biggest difficulty comes in early spring when the cut worms and the slugs like to keep the new shoots trimmed back clear to the dirt. Unless they get those first few leaves past those creatures, you won't have beautiful blooms like this one. I use rose systemic in early spring along with slug bait surrounding the area where the plants come up. It saves the plant and makes me happy.

Spring Planting Tasks...

Each spring, a whole slew of tasks unfold in the garden. I love getting out in the garden and working because it leaves a calm feeling of contentment afterwards. This article Spring Planting Tasks--Oxo Trowel vs. Sentora Garden Knife compares the two different tools and discusses which to use for specific tasks. If you've never used a garden knife, this article may convince you they are a wonderful aid.

Spring Pruning Tasks

My article on Spring Pruning Tasks comparing two different tools used in pruning has been published. It has lots of good tips on tool usage and describes the type of tools used on various plants. I typically prune plants in the fall and in early spring but got delayed by our cold weather. The biggest improvement is in shearing the spirea back and in trimming down the buddleia.

Risked planting my pots early

With only half a week away from the annual, it's not going to freeze anymore day of May 1st, I got busy and planted my hanging baskets. Bought most the plants at Carpenito's in Kent--they have everything and mostly healthy plants. I like to combine various starts together in one pot and let them grow into a mess--this year: geraniums, lacy dusty miller, snapdragons, petunias (my favorites) and more. In bloom right now: viburnum, Lady Banksia rose, money plant, leopard's bane, ground cover daisies, tulips, quince, grape hyacinths, lilacs--all three in full bloom, oh, maples--I have pollen shedding all over us, rhododendron, rosemary, one of my ivy's. The hummingbirds are well happy--we have both Anna's and Rufous as visitors.

A Beginner's Guide to Lawn Care

My article A Beginner's Guide to Lawn Care has been published at Associated Content, woohoo!

Creeping Jenny in anything not a well-armed pot is a mistake!!

Tip for the day:

Don't plant creeping jenny and expect to control it. After I did, my dad laughed at me, told me "didn't you know that creeping jenny is the farmer's bane? They work hard to pull that stuff out." Live and learn.

Why is it bad? It's like this: I planted it in a shady spot (which it tolerates), expecting it to cover the garden. No such luck. Two years went by, finally a few flowers. By the way, creeping jenny self-seeds rampantly!

Well nearby, I created a fake river by putting down ground cloth and dumping all the glacial till remnant river rock I dig out of my gardens (many quite beautifully colored). You guessed it, the creeping jenny preferred the river for some reason (maybe the mulch on the gardens didn't allow it to grow as well). Luckily I used the felt ground cloth so the creeping jenny roots pull off pretty easily, but still, I have to sit among the rocks and remove them all by lifting and replace all that gravel one more time.

Bottom line: Use it in hanging pots and get rid of it before it dumps seeds.

Fertilizers and their use

Fertilizers and their use

By: Sheri Fresonke Harper

Category: Opinion > Other

Read the article on Judy's Book.

The gardening books I reviewed all fail to provide the essential information about when, how and what to use to fertilize your plants. I try to dig in chicken manure into the garden in the spring before everything begins to grow and then cover everything with a steer manure mulch to keep the weeds down (except where I have seeds I want to grow). Then I do my spring feed of the evergreens using Miracid (click for reviews). By then, the roses are coming into leaf, and late April, the dahlias and lilies come out so I use Systemic on them. At the same time, I give everything their first dose of 16-16-16 and all purpose fertilizer. The baskets get built and their first dose of MiracleGro -- note, I also use Systemic on petunias to keep off the mealy bug. Late October, I use bulb food on all the bulbs, plus in spring, if I plant any new bulbs, I use bulb food on them, too. That's it.

Sheri's Favorite garden books for starting new gardens

Sheri's Favorite garden books for starting new gardens

By: Sheri Fresonke Harper

Category: Opinion > Other

Read the article on Judy's Book.

These are my ten favorite books that I use like encyclopedias. I learned to always build gardens one by one and to develop a plan first. I often changed plants after I built the garden when I couldn't find a particular plant or the plant croaked because of conditions, yet in all, many survived to give me the look desired.

See my reviews of :
- Sunset Wester Garden Book
- Botanica
- Sunset Western Landscaping
- Borders Creating and Maintaining the Perfect Border
- TimeLife How-to Garden Designs
- The Border Book
- Garden Blueprints
- The Herb Garden
- Container Gardening
- Secrets of Plant Propagation

It's spring fever time already -- digging in the dirt in more ways than one

It's spring fever time already and loads of work to do in the garden with all the rain or cold having kept us locked in doors. Worked out, played Riverbend again at 103, pulled detritus off the flower beds to remove the maple seeds before laying in compost, a few spring color spots, and laying out seeds. The work is always limited by the space available in the recycle bins. That done, I managed to clean up a bit of my editing feedback from folks.

In bloom

Cantebury Bells for quite some weeks, Monkshood, Delphinium, Foxglove, the first of my Dahlia's, the daylilies and lilies opening, coralbells, first blooms of spirea, many many more. Mary Ann helped with some of the weeding to add to my garbage can full yesterday.

In bloom

Potentilla -- yellow and pink, Siberian iris, German iris, calendula, columbine, coral bells, pink rose, blue stokesia or corn flower?, forget-me-nots, jupiter's beard, salvia, cotoneaster, styrax japonica (snowbell tree), chives, foxglove, ground daisies, maybe more that I'll add later.

Coming soon -- daylilies, lilies, spirea, delphinium.

What's blooming now

Well a long list is the answer. The leopard's bane is on its last few flowers and waiting for deadheading, doing so last year brought me a second bloom.

All the rhodedendrons are in bloom in pinks, reds, and one lilac colored. A couple dropped all the flowers.

Roses -- backyard lt. pink rugosa, front yard two varieties, Don Juan (red), yellow. Lady Banksia is all done for the year.

Iris -- blue bearded iris in two colors, regular iris in blue and white, siberian iris the first bloom opened today -- three colors with flowers set, one not.

Weigela -- a blaze of color three plants in two colors.

Foxglove opened today. Moneyplant mostly done and set seeds, euphorbia still in bloom. So did two varieties yellow and pink ?? now I forgot their name.

Clematis -- pink montana and peach montana and a red variety.

Jasmine, poppies (one orange variety open), calendula, forget-me-not, alyssum, jupiter's beard, blue stokesia?? and my favorite pink snapdragons.

Honeysuckle is near -- three different varieties. So is spirea and my japanese snowbell tree -- styrax japonica.  This year I have buds on my peonies, yeah! And my bears breech.

Tons of grape clusters. Peas climbing poles. Hollyhock seeds and maybe another one  I planted, and some sunflowers and nasturtium all set. Carrots, lettuce, onions, garlic, tomato all alive and thriving.

This might not be comprehensive but its a good attempt.

Kubota Gardens

Tour sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa Association at Kubota Gardens in South Seattle. A definite must see for any gardener. Good walk, too.

SWAG meeting went well. Ran into our friends David and Renate on a walk.

Yes! It is May day! Let the flowers bloom.

re:privet honeysuckle

This is the first year my privet honeysuckle has bloomed, or maybe I just never noticed since I wasn't sure when it bloomed. Also in bloom in the yard, Don Juan rose, and my peach-colored clematis (another montana variety), iris, viburnum davidii, weigela just beginning to open, moneyplant in full bloom, the snowball viburnum has the first green blossoms, and my camellia has its last blossom. The buds are on the styrax japonica and my dahlia's and peas are coming up as is my mayflower.  Lots of seeds begun, but they're probably all for weeds.

At the park, noticed that now is the time for salal to bloom, even if I don't have any in the yard, yet.

In bloom now

Fritillaria -- checkered bells, tiny as can be. Also lithodora -- electric blue flowered creeper, and my gold dust alyssum. Also the first rhodies in my yard.

Let's talk floriforous lilac

All three varieties are in bloom and I finally decided to plant Miss Kim (a fourth variety) in the white garden although it blooms purple to save her life. Half the yard that I've got designated as orientale/evergreen garden suffers from a deep blanket of clay. We're going to rent a hole puncher in order to get past it, I have about a dozen or more holes to do this way.

I've named all my gardens -- the front has three: one along the driveway called the driveway garden (big surprise), one along the fenceline called the honeysuckle garden, and a third/fourth called lavendar garden and veggie patch. It used to be my herb garden which has been moved in back.

In back, we put in a series of perennial gardens along the fence line which I wanted to be planted in a rainbow -- yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, white and silver (named by color) are in front. The main problems with these gardens have been: 1) we put dead dirt in them when we built up the fence line with railroad ties to make a flat grassy area. The solution has been to add more and more chicken manure. 2) the color scheme meant all the flowers merged into each other and didn't give me the year round color I desired. Solution has been to put contrasting plants from each of the beds while maintaining groupings of the main color. 3) The neighbor's storage sheds detract from the flowering view. Solution has been to put in an entire hedgerow of bushes. This also helps with weeding since its hard to get back behind everything in bloom. 4) grass creep from the neighbors -- we put cement under many sections of fence and this has reduced a lot of problems.

Other gardens include the veggie planters (which are now dahlia beds), river, river edge, maple garden, under the stairs, and the rhodie area which I haven't named but it merges with the evergreen plan yet to be put in.

This weeks flowering

Three lilacs bushes flowers are just opening up, as is my Lady Banksia rose, the two new serviceberry plants, tulips, and an iris.

Met with Heidi and Joe. 

Started Coyote Kings.

More on blooms + berries of the moment

My Lady Banksia rose is about to open, the first petals showing, also coming soon is lilac.

Others not listed before and blooming include dandelions (hee hee), apple trees, big leaf maple chains are unfolding, helleborus, oregon grape (mahonia), ranunculous, periwinkle, violet.

Just finished blooming is forsythia.

In berry : cotoneaster, skimmia, honeysuckle, viburnum.

Why is it so difficult to remember/find all in bloom -- with 8 big leaf maples dumping into my yard, I have built in winter mulch that covers all the gardens and it takes time and lots of space in the compost bin to remove it all. I remove them eventually because with the leaves is about a million maple seeds all wanting to take root and grow into 30-50 foot trees.

Just opening up -- wisteria, lilies, no sign of hosta yet, but the astilbe and some ferns. Near ready to bloom is iris, daylily, tulips, montana clematis.

More blooming

Other plants blooming now: quince, bergenia, leopard's bane, alyssum, windflower, viburnum,  euphorbia.

Dentist appt. in morning, walking 4 miles, shooting at Black Diamond in the afternoon, laundry all day.

Finish Touchpoints, PNWA.

Planting and blooming

Well, with record low rainfall and warm, who in Seattle does not have Spring fever? Blooming right now in my garden -- daffodils, hyacinths, skimmia, pussy willow -- french pink and black, camellia, evergreen clematis, pachysandra, rosemary, bleeding heart, trout lily is unfolding. No doubt I've missed some.

Garden duties -- weeding, systemic roses and lilies, planted two new types of lily and several roses, moved the mint to the back garden that didn't grow well since nothing kills mint, put cages over the catmint, rosemary in the maple garden and hyssop. This garden has taken off -- sage, grape hyacinth, creeping daisies, and forget-me-nots and many others coming back.

Finished Watchmen.