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Procrastination

July 25th, 2018

I always seem to procrastinate tying up tomatoes and sweet peas. I’m not sure why, I think I just get busy with other garden chores and completely forget until they’re a bit out of control. To be fair, these sweet peas were all volunteers, so they grew up where there was no trellis to support them.  A few sweet peas were seeded this spring, but none of them are blooming yet.

I put up a half piece of stock panel behind them, then proceeded to try to untangle them and tie them up a bit.

I was semi-successful, they’ll at least be easier to harvest and should straighten out a bit as they grow more.

Next year, I may try seeding my sweet peas in the fall, at the base of a trellis where I want them to grow of course! Anything I can find that will save me time/effort during the busy spring planting/seeding season will be welcome. Since my volunteer sweet peas have been blooming for over a month and are much more lush than my seeded ones, I think wintersowing is definitely the way to go.

Have you discovered anything that can be sowed in the fall for the following season?

Another Treasure

July 19th, 2018

My mom always had tiny English daisies growing in her lawn. I’ve been wanting to get some for quite a while, not to grow in the lawn, but to grow in the flowerbed. Last week, while visiting a local greenhouse, I spotted this little pink beauty and picked it up.



I planted it under my tool rack in the main vegetable garden. It’s perfect for that location, adding interest without adding any height or getting in the way of the tools. Lately, I’ve been focusing on adding more layers to my garden, high things and low things. This is the perfect low area to add a bit of interest.

Do you grow any plants that you have fond memories parents or grandparents growing in their gardens?

Future Bouquets

July 12th, 2018

Typically, I grow cutting flowers from seed each year. This year my grow light space was limited, so I cut back on the number of annuals I started from seed. I stopped at a local farm stand last Friday and scored an entire flat of cut flower seedlings for $19. Into the potager they went, filling in the empty space with the possibility of future flowers for the table and for gifting.

I scored a lot of different colors of snapdragons, bachelor buttons, scabiosa, and some zinnias.

Do you grow flowers just for cutting? Which is your favorite?

Blooming Away

June 26th, 2018

The ‘New Dawn’ and ‘White Dawn’ roses I purchased earlier this spring are growing quickly and blooming like mad. I’m really interested to see how well these do in our cold winters. I’d love it if they would grow up and cover the living room wall.


I’m already impressed by their growth, they’ve doubled in size in a little over a month.

Do you have any roses in your garden? What’s your favorite color of rose?

Bouquet Season

June 20th, 2018

Now that I have a large garden and the plants are starting to mature, I can cut bouquets to have on the table most of the spring/summer/fall. With the deer pressure, I’m thinking of turning the potager into a dedicated cutting garden. No vegetables can be grown there because it would need fenced in. Thus, instead of a greens/soft fruit garden, it will be flowers. Now I’m thinking about what vareties of things I want to add there, I’m thinking mostly perennials in that space with any annual cut flowers to be grown in the vegetable garden. (the peonies in this bouquet are: Duchess du Nemours (white), Sara Bernhardt (light pink), and lotus peony of unknown variety (dark pink in back).

We have a local greenhouse that has fields of peonies, I’m thinking of heading up there this weekend to see what they have that blooms later than the ones I have in the garden. Mine are pretty much gone. While I have other things blooming, I could use a few more peonies that bloom later. The best way to find that is to visit local gardens with peonies. When we lived in Ohio, I loved visiting Kingwood Center to see their peony beds in bloom.

What are you cutting in the garden to enjoy indoors this week?

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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