Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Trees and Plants


Even tho we don't have the dirt yet, we are starting to find trees and plants that are meant to live at our garden. On Monday we were at Wal-mart for something else (?) and I found these trees had been marked down to half price. Cleveland Pears, a non fruting but flowering variety with glossy leaves and abundant white flowers in the Spring, and white and pink dogwood trees. They were all in great condition and so we took 7 pears and four dogwoods. Here we are trying them out in the back yard. They won't be large for years, but we can wait.


Four pears will go on the west side of the house and in front the one pink dogwood, which is what I see when I look out the front door.
 
More lovely bargains came from a nursery down the road from us, which I had never visited before. These are young hydrangeas, which are needing a bit of fertilizer, doncha think? I'll be putting them in the front, replacing some loropetalum which are straggly and need to be in full sun, which is not where they are planted. And at Lowe's I waited as these Sunpatiens were marked down from $5 a pot to $1. Woowoo! I will put them in pots, somewhere.
 Here are my tomatoes. Black Cherry, Sun Sugar yellow cherry, Juliet a Roma cherry tomato
and the famous Mortgage Lifter tomato which can grow as much as ten feet high. O dear. Last summer my cousin Celeste convinced me that tomatoes would do well in buckets like these, so again I am trying them out. It will be hot and sunny in this location all day, so they should be happy and productive here. No, I am not going to be putting them in the tubs, since they get so tall, I need to reach them on the ground.
And then, a few starter veggies, Black Beauty zucchini, Mexican Tarragon (new to me), Straightneck yellow squash, Sage, and Burpless bush cucumber.
The hosta nursery seems to be doing well, and the leaves are greening up and hopefully roots are also starting to grow from the crowns. These will go in the front bed, or maybe I'll put some in pots for the minimal shady areas we have.

I ordered the mushroom compost to be delivered on Thursday, so we have work ahead of us to move out the mulch pile to make room for the new soil.

13 comments:

  1. I'm tired just reading about this. I was tired with the last home remodel. now you have this new home all of this gardening and you still continue to put out beautiful quilt pieces. I'm just blown away by all you get done. Thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. I start the day with an hour of Pinterest and two cups of coffee. Pretty soon I am looking for something to dig up...

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  2. Wow! I can almost hear the glee as I read this! I'm sure the neighbors are watching and wondering. Maybe you'll inspire them. It's going to be fun to watch!

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  3. Oh, so much fun to watch this process! I have a brown thumb, my husbands fascination with the chain saw keeps even the hardiest shrubbery in check (think bonsai), so again...thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see your garden grow.

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  4. Those trees are going to add a lot to the barren landscape! I didn't see much in the way of trees from the google shots of your house except across the street. I love watching the progress on the greening of your new place!

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  5. Ah, the memories! I grew up with a pink dogwood just to the side of the front porch like that (in Seattle...different climate!) I believe it was a wedding present from my mother's parents.

    You have more vision than I--I can't imagine how you can amend that rocky clay to support trees!

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  6. You guys are absolute machines in the garden! This is going to be amazing :-)
    I would love a dogwood but I've got a honking big Douglas fir instead. Not the same at all!

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  7. Love it! I know there's a lot of labor going into this transformation, but it's going to be lovely!

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  8. Anonymous9:02 AM

    Your Cleveland pear was new to me; I had a Bradford pear in my last house, and despite all the naysayers, I loved it. You might want to rethink putting them so close to the fence; the color and form are wonderful with some space around them. Beware the Mexican tarragon; it's very invasive. All your vegetables sound wonderful, and they're tempting me. So glad you have the garden under way; I love to see your progress in pictures.

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  10. nina M in BC1:48 PM

    Mel, I too despair with your rocky clay soil. Glad you're doing raised containers. You will put the rest of the neighbourhood to shame. I despair about that brown expanse that is supposed to be lawn, and methinks that you will soon have mounds of healthy hummus growing all sorts of stuff instead of over fertilizing some grass to keep it green. Do you have any neighbourhood rules as to what you can have for front lawn. So many silly rules require a green lawn instead of bee loving flowers for pollination. Also hope your neighbours can be talked into no insecticides to keep the bees buzzing ( getting off my soapbox)

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  11. This is so exciting! Another canvas to work on! Glad your closing went well too.

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