Bulbs + ziploc bag + warm garage = mold

I learned a valuable lesson today (that I will probably forget by next season). Never put your bulbs in plastic ziploc bags unless you intend to plant them right away. Much to my delight I got some surprise bulbs from a friend's mother at Thanksgiving (she had gone to Amsterdam & was kind enough to share the bulbs she had them ship to her). When dividing them up, we put the bulbs in plastic ziploc bags & marked the color on the bag; this would not have been a problem were they planted right away. However, they sat for two to three weeks in my unheated garage, which varied from warm during the day to chilly at night. Needless to say, the fact that the bags were sealed also didn't help. So, when I went to plant them today, having taken the afternoon off to do so, I discovered that much to my dismay they all had bluish-green mold on them to varying degrees. The horror!


Anyway, to deal with the mold I soaked them all in a 1:9 bleach:water solution for 1 to 2 minutes, depending on how bad the mold was. Meanwhile, I gently rubbed the mold off of the bulbs.


Once the bulbs finished soaking, I then patted them dry to remove the excess moisture & as many mold spores as possible (fun fact: you can't kill mold - you can just put it into hibernation until favorable conditions present themselves again). Sadly, they're not as beautiful as they were when I got them, but they don't look totally ruined. Only time will tell, I suppose...


Finally, before planting them, I also hit them with a dose of a powder fungicide for garden veggies & fruits (I couldn't find anything bulb specific, and I figured something was better than nothing) & then dosed them with a healthy amount of bulb booster. Hopefully in the spring I will remember to take pictures of the bulbs to record how well (or not) they did!

Got hummers?

Much to my delight, very shortly after we put out our brand new hummingbird feeder, our resident hummingbird attacked it with unrestrained glee. If that were all - it'd be enough to make me a very happy person. However, much to our surprise & joy, it appears that we have not one, but four of the delightful little critters! To my untrained eye, they all appear to be of the Ruby-Throated variety, as the male has the brightly colored throat-patch and the females have white bellies and green backs.

Now, I've been fascinated by hummingbirds my entire life, but had never seen one in the flesh, so you can imagine how excited I am by the prospect of all of that hummer activity!

It's most entertaining to watch them, as the little male is very territorial; it seems that despite the abundance of bee balm, marigolds, flowering blue sage, lantana, buddleia, and not one, but TWO hummingbird feeders, Rambo, as I've dubbed him, is convinced that he may just starve if he doesn't designate the largest feeder as his property and prevent the others from poaching. As for the other feeder, one of the females has claimed it, and will chase the other two away. What's especially entertaining is that we have yet to see her drink from it!

(In a rare moment of tranquility, Rambo & one of the ladies hang out on top of the tomato cages.)

Shriveling squash!

Today I confirmed what I suspected yesterday. My first & much anticipated yellow squash (pictured below) is withering on the vine. Sadly, it appears that all of my squash plants are showing signs of the dreaded "powdery mildew" (PM) that blights gardens wherever moisture & heat combine to create ideal conditions for this scourge of squashes & other tasty fruits & veggies. I believe PM to be what has killed my poor, delicious little fruit on the vine...














On a positive note, I found a couple of tips/recipes online for preventing or killing PM that I'm going to try out. The simplest involves using "cornmeal juice" to act as a fungicide. The recipe is simple -- add one cup cornmeal to a gallon of water, soak overnight, strain & spray on plants.

In other news, my cucumber plants are producing. I have several little cukes developing, in addition to a number of blossoms. The cucumber plants themselves don't seem to be suffering so badly from the PM that has infected the squash plants. Let's hope they stay unaffected.














Incidentally, as opposed to my first cucumber, these new ones are quite normally shaped. Speaking of the first, nearly round, cucumber - it's still on the vine, although I picked another one that had gotten rather large. I sense a salad in its future...

Much to my delight, my Ichiban eggplants are also finally producing, despite the flea beetles that have wrecked havoc on their poor leaves & flowers this summer. Right now I have one medium eggplant & another tiny one growing on two different plants. So far the Black Beauty variety just has several blossoms, but I'm hoping that at least one of these will take. I may have to finally resort to Neem oil, or other organic sprays, to kill off the bugs.

Finally, my feverfew has started to go to flower. I've thought about cutting or pinching off the buds & blooms, but they're really quite pretty, so I've decided to leave them be. They actually look quite a bit like chamomile blossoms or daisies. The good thing about leaving the flowers is that I read that because of their strong odor, they repel insects.

Gardening in raised beds

After a feeble & short-lived attempt at gardening in the rock-solid clay of Georgia, I decided to try gardening in raised beds. I designed the beds based off research done on line and with the aid of Mel Bartholomew's book, "All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space". Then, with the support of my generous & loving parents (who lent both muscle & money toward the project) & with Jeremy's help, we built the beds in March over the course of a week. The end result is that we now have two 6' long x 4' wide x 12" deep beds & three 4' long x 4' wide x 12" deep beds, which are constructed out of cedar (a rot & insect resistant wood) & sealed with a waterproof stain on the outsides (to provide them with additional protection from the elements). For the soil, we used a mixture of vermiculite, peat moss, compost and top soil. Lastly, we constructed grids dividing each raised bed into 12" x 12" squares, as recommended in Mel Bartholomew's book.














The image at the beginning of this post is of the raised beds around April. As you can see, at that point we had just planted a few things -- mostly lettuce, some tomatoes & peppers. A more recent photograph (above) shows them as they appear today -- filled with cucumbers, eggplants, herbs, peppers, squash, tomatoes, and other plants. However, the cucumbers & squash plants really haven't done very well in the raised beds, so I planted some in the yard. Ironically, those plants are thriving! Just see for yourself!

On the left are cucumber plants. Below are squash plants; we planted zucchini, straightneck & crookneck in mounds behind the raised beds & near to the sunflowers that I planted for the birds. I noticed recently that the squash plants are budding - I can't wait until we have fresh fruit to eat!

Catching up...

It's been quite awhile since I last posted here, which a few very important people have pointed out! Since my previous post spring has melted away into summer. In case you were wondering, I do mean that literally! It is Georgia after all & it's hot as the dickens! The past few months have been spent working on a number of outdoor projects. The first few I worked on, but the last couple have been almost entirely (if not all) Jeremy's accomplishments.

For example, thanks to Jeremy we now have:

• a fenced-in compost area
• several brick bases for our rain barrels, which elevate them so that they drain more easily when we use them to water the garden
• stepping stones & a brick border for our front flowerbed and
  
• a brick ring surrounding the tree & the lantanas planted around it

In April Jeremy & I also planted gladiolas, calla lilies, asiatic lilies & freesias behind the house. Planting them was quite a project, as we had to dig an enormous trench into the rock-solid Georgia clay that makes up our backyard. To give the plants a chance to thrive, we made the trench at least 12 inches deep, filled it with a soil mixture of peat moss, vermiculite & compost, then planted the bulbs at their recommended depths.


Although the asiatic lilies & the freesias have apparently failed to thrive, we've been pleased with the bright & pastel gladiolas that have bloomed (the photo at right is actually a mixture that I picked). I'm hoping that as the plants age they will reproduce so that each successive year will result in more abundant colorful blooms. Only time will tell, as they say! I'm also glad that we put the gladiolas in the backyard, as it doesn't matter if they start to look sloppy as they fall over.

Meanwhile, the veggies & flowers that we planted in the raised beds & directly into the ground are doing great! So far, our crop consists just of tomatoes; we're still waiting for the peppers, eggplants, squash, etc. to get large enough to eat (as you can see I also planted some sunflowers for the birds, which are lovely). Anyway, since it's nearly August, I'm getting a bit nervous & wondering if we've done all this work for so little profit. But, there's always next year! At least then the raised beds will already be prepared, so we'll get everything planted earlier. At the very least, this year has begun the learning process that will likely continue for the rest of our gardening lives...

Dreaming of my garden from afar...

Jer (my fiancée) & I are visiting his mom in Florida this weekend. Just before we left I snapped a few photos of the front flower bed and the raised garden beds in the backyard.

Above and to the left is a general view of the flower bed off the front porch (I planted the variegated wallflower too close to the French lavender, so my project on Monday is to move it - right now I'm thinking that I'll put it and my apricot twist wallflower where I had the purple asters that the drought killed. Along those lines, I had three asters so I need another plant, but I haven't decided whether I want to get an additional apricot twist or another variegated (suggestions are welcome). Above and to the right is a detail view showing our tulips and the Spanish lavender that I put between two of our holly bushes. Right now I'm feeling that the bulbs are unevenly spaced (probably because some of the bulbs didn't come up), so I'm either going to fill in the empty spots or lift all of them in the fall and then and replant them so that the overall look is more uniform. Finally, in the picture below you can see that I'm still trying to decide where to put my Grace Ward Lithodora! The label said to put them in an area that gets morning sun only, so I might put them off to the side of the front porch. However, I'm not sure if they'll be visible behind the holly bushes and the wallflowers that I'm thinking of putting in, so I may just get some hanging baskets and put them in over the porch.

I should have a little time on Monday to work on my gardening, and luckily the weather forecast is showing "mostly sunny". I want to clean up and finish planting the front bed so that I can concentrate on the raised garden beds in the backyard. I can't wait to get to work!

Lily or not?

While I was combing through my numerous photographs of flowers tonight, I spotted this gem; I shot this photograph last summer while visiting my friend Gabrielle's family farm. Apparently her grandmother planted a bunch of these bulbs and the family has enjoyed them ever since! I think that they're some sort of lily, but I've had a difficult time tracking them down. Since the perfume of the flowers is to die for, I'd really love to figure out what this plant is so that I can purchase some and plant them in my yard, so any help would be appreciated! But yes folks, I do plan on planting what I already have before I buy anything else! If you read my previous post, it should be pretty clear that it may take me awhile to get everything done!