Happy News....arugula sprouted !

                                              Blue Bells at River Bend River Park.
                                                               April 17, 2019

Wonderful walk along the Potomac at River Bend Park today with Sandy Batterton. The Blue Bells were magnificent- never seen anything so glorious and serene. There was swath of them flanking the path for at least a mile. So powerful to see the masses of them against the dark bark of trees and boulders. The paths are sandy so the green leaves and blue flowers were beautifully framed.

The good news is that when I returned I watered the transplanted Red Bud tree I moved to the fence line with Tammy's house.... there is a bare spot created when she severely pruned her goldspot bush. I watered the garden beds along the garage and saw something little and green. Upon inspection,  I realized that the arugula sprouted !!!! so exciting.

radishes, onions and shallots

Sunday April 14, 2019

After reading the square foot gardener, I measured 2 inch markers on a 2 foot long strip and used it to measure off the plantings at Nottoway. I planted a strip measuring 1 foot by 2 feet with onions I bought at Merrifield and then measured off a one foot by one foot area and planted radishes in 2 inches squares and then finished off my work by puttting in shallots---all the ones I bought at Merrifield. I marked each of the plantings with wooden stakes with the plant name and date planted.
Have to take some pictures to liven up the blog. 

Nottoway dreams clean up from ravages of winter.

April 14th
Spent yesterday morning planting peas in the garage side garden and then went to Nottoway to (gulp) address the ravages of winter. LOTS of weeds in the paths and more than enough in the planting beds. I brought a carafe of green tea and set to work about 10:30. Tons of weeds although not as many as I feared. The garlic in the bed on the left closest to the gate didn't have a lot and the one closest to the patio storage box wasn't bad, either. I started with the bed to the right closest to the gate and worked pretty steadily as I worked I'd mix it up by weeding the walkways which were amazing in the number of weeds. I didn't work particularly quickly but did work steadily. When I was about 2/3 finished and thinking about packing it in for the day, the older Korean man from the plot next to us came in and started to help me! While we have always exchanged hellos, to my embarrassment , I didn't know his name.   It is  pronounced "Shinn". He not only weeded but more importantly, Shinn hauled away all the weeds. Have to figure out how to thank him. The down side was that I had to stay and continue to work. I left about 2:30.
The garden while not weed free looks great.
After I ate lunch, I weeded the front garden bed with the crepe myrtle....ugh, full of weeds and grass.  Transplanted the paccasandra into the Holly Tree bed to replace the ones that died.
Today it is misting rain and I plan on planting some more peas in our garage garden and planting sunflower seeds along the fence line with Juanita, radishes and lettuce in the  bed along the driveway  at Nottoway.

April 12 2019

Today I planted the first seeds at home. After raking the side garden and reassembling the composter, I planted arugula seeds in the garden on the property line with Tammy. The garden looks better after pulling out the oak leaves that accumulated there over the winter. Since the composter is empty, I dumped quite a few of the oak leaves in the composter. I also set up the tomato boxes in the area near the Holly tree on the property line with Tammy. She did an monster trim on her formerly huge GoldSpot bush and azaleas along the fence line so I hope that the tomatoes will do well there. Should be at least 6 hours of sun there.
I emptied the flower boxes in the front of the house and replaced the coconut mat liners; I bought some potting soil from Merrifield garden center because I didn't feel like treking up to Costco . The bag I bought (32 quarts ) looks itty bitty compared with the Miracle Grow potting soil I normally get at Costco...the Merrifield brand was also way more expensive. While at Merrifield, i bought seed potatoes, shallots bulbs and onion sets as well as some more seeds...sunflower and peas. I am soaking the peas in order to plant them tomorrow. Hope to transplant the Fig tree (I think it's in a bad spot- not enough sun) . I did transplant a little bush from under the variegated holly tree by the garage and moved it along the property line with Tammy and put in a rhubarb plant I bought at Whole Foods this week to the bed close to the garage.
Tomorrow, I'll dig the hole for the fig and amend the soil with some perlite that I bought at Merrifield.  I hope that the tree will eventually fruit. Its been raining a nice gentle rain so I am hoping the transplants will do well.
Am going to stop at Nottoway tomorrow...the problem will be that there will be so much work there that I know I will focus on Nottoway to the detriment of  the herb and veg garden at home. I think the peas will go in here on Verdict Drive since the birds at Nottoway are masters at eating the pea seeds.  the last two years I have not had one successful pea plant at Nottoway. The birds perch in the trees and watch every move the gardeners make a la "The Birds"!

August 28

Amazed at the size of the sunflower-must be at least nine feet tall with the blossom about a foot across

The bees love it!

June 20th first day of summer

I watered today, and replenished the depleted rain barrel. The rain barrel holds 55 gallons. 

Our new next-door neighbor, Juanita , did a beautiful job enclosing plot 17 with a wire fence. The garden looks so much better than it had last week – the weeds are mostly gone and she has actually put in some plants!  I am so impressed – I think back on how long it took Ginny and Me to put up the fence around our plot, and the fence doesn't look so great! Oh well, so it goes.

 I sprayed for whitefly last week with the insecticidal soap I got fromMary-field  Garden center. The Man I asked for advice told me it would kill on contact, and he was right. I don't see any evidence of any eggs or nasty White stuff. Hopefully this will improve the-yield on the tomatoes and brussels sprouts. I guess I need to keep a supply of the insecticidal soap on hand in the event that I get re-infested.

I did harvest some garlic on Sunday, it is drying out in our garage.

Beautiful day, blue skies and white fluffy clouds. The day started out nice and cool but by the afternoon was in the 90s.

First fruits....what a surprise!

I was removing my cold weather covers on the potato seeds and discovered Mr Potato Head! What a surprise.