Plants plants and more plants! Garden Update

I have been spending a lot of time this year trying to make my yard look nicer and to convert grass and weeds into something useful, tasty, beautiful, or all three.

The raised beds in the backyard and full of life and starting to supply a small amount of food in the form of collards, cilantro, and garlic chives.

The hostas I planted last year were finally seriously mulched and ringed with some free rocks from a friend’s house. I think they are looking really nice. I am glad they all came back. I can’t wait to see how they look at the end of the year all filled in.

My friend Lisa gave me some mint. I planted it on the side yard. I made a rhizome barrier with part of an old piece of edging to keep it from spreading and taking over the entire yard. It was tempting not to put it in. Mowing the yard and smelling mint would be nice. I decided to keep it contained, so it doesn’t choke out the neighboring plants. I mulched them with some cut grass.

She also gave me a couple clematis. I am hoping they will grow up and cover up the fence. *fingers crossed*

A new combination of hostas, lilies of the valley, and some catnip all mulched and edged with extra wood.

I was happy to see my arctic kiwis coming back. I hope they take over the fence this year. They have been slow growing so far. I planted a chive plant in the middle to add some color in the mean time. The kiwis used to be in their own small beds, but I combined them into one big one. There is cardboard under the woodchips to help suppress weeds and grass. Sheet mulching FTW!

One of my hostas in the backyard was getting to big and blocking the new path. I cut it into ten pieces and spread it along one of the fences. I used some more logs and woodchips to make them look nicer.

How is your garden doing?

New Plants!

Today, I bought some new plants for the garden/yard. It was such a beautiful spring day, I thought I should put some new plants into the ground.

My first stop was Home Depot. I had noticed they had more edible perennials this year than previous years. I hoped to get some cheap stuff. I found they had some nice blueberries two for $10. I really wanted them until I saw the little “protected by neonicotinoids” I put them back. Yuck! Neonicotinoids are a new class of insecticide built into the plants. It has been implicated in honeybee deaths. I moved on. I found some gooseberries, boysenberry, and purple asparagus instead.

Next stop was Egg|Plant, a local homesteading store, with a good selection of edible perennials. I have had my eye on several items for a few weeks now. I bought a lot of plants from them last year as well.

This trip I bought a hazelnut bush, josta berry, service berry, and a black currant. I can’t wait to get them all in the ground and producing food!

Microgreen Progress

A few days ago, I posted about starting some more microgreens. I started arugula, sunflowers, and wheat (order in pic). You can see the seeds are just starting to sprout. Each day I check on them. If they are getting dry, I give them some water with my sprayer/mister; just enough to keep them moist, but not soaked.

I have them on a shelf in the basement. The seed will do the work getting the plant started. They don't need light yet. I will move them closer to a window once they have some leaves.

Moving Plants Inside

We recently had our first frost, so it was time to move plants back inside the house. Pictured above you can see the combination citrus tree I started earlier this year. It is a combination super dwarf lemon, orange, and tangerine. It should make fruit in a few years. In the back you should recognize the pineapple I started from a cutting. It’s doing quite well, and it has more than doubled its new leaves.

You can read starting a pineapple here: Grow A Pineapple From a Cutting

Right now, they are all sitting in a south facing window while I decide where to put them and the grow light. It’ll soon be getting very close to eight hours of sunlight a day here, and that isn’t enough for these two.

More Plants!

Costco had some perennials on sale this weekend, so we bought six different gallon pots. On the way home, we stopped by Egg|Plant and picked up two honeyberry bushes as well.



The plants from Costco are going in a partial shady spot that was recently tore up by heavy machinery. It seemed like a good opportunity to get some more plants versus replanting more grass.

The honeyberry bushes will go in the full sun of the front yard next to the blueberries. We haven't eaten a honeyberry before, but I have read they taste like a blackberry crossed with a blueberry. Sounds great to me. I can't wait to try one.

The eight plants we bought:

• tundra honeyberry
• borealis honeyberry
• autum fire stonecrop (sedum)
• first frost hosta
• sentimental blue balloon flower
• gallo fire gaillardia
• plum pudding coral bells
• siberian bugloss

More Plants!

I stopped by Egg|Plant on the way home today to pick up some straw, and I ended up with plants instead. Funny how that happens. What happened to the straw? They ran out. They’ll have more next week, so I guess I have to go back again. Oh darn. hehe.

My Ural motorcycle sidecar had no trouble swallowing all the plants. They were comfortably snug for the short ride home.

All of them spread out, so you can get a good look at them before they go into the ground. I purchased: three varieties of blueberry, three varieties of strawberry, two hardy issai kiwis, and a rhubarb.

Time to tear out some more grass and get planting!