Garden Eyecandy

This might be obnoxious but I haven't been updating fast enought to catch up with my garden. Everything is just exploding!

This tomato is not in an ideal habitat but this isn't about perfect tomatoes, it's about fun and maybe sharing with the neighbors. It's a cherry, either juliet or super sweet 100. Don't be fooled by it's shady spot. I have plans to somehow train this against the railroad tie wall where there is plenty of sun. I just think I will have to tweak the balance of nutrients in its soil more carefully than a standard planting.These feral chamomile have miraculously not been tread upon. Either my neighbors understand that this isn't a weed or they just think I am crazy and are afraid to damage this flower. I think that they somehow understand that I am up to something special.The saladball is slowly filling out. I plant something else as if this were a sketch I sit with every few days. Always a work in progress. It already looks different than it did from this photo which is maybe a week old.For some reason this little bay laurel makes me happy. It suffered so much this winter and now it looks alive.These cascade hops are in their second year. What a difference a year makes! Maybe it will be worth harvesting this year.This blur of plants are pretty much all greens and all edible. OK, a few aren't but they aren't weeds. I thin them pretty much everyday. It sorta forces me to eat my vegetables. There's mizuna, red cabbage, pansies, florence fennel seedlings, onions and probably something I have forgotten. Damn! I have surpassed the 20 item limit of things I may tag this blog with. Sure, I could have made it 2 posts but whatever.This lacinato kale should be pretty graceful in this pot. I tucked in some allysum and some chervil thinnings from the salad bowl. There's even a basil plant, just basic basil. Now if I can find some red russian kale, I will be happy. I might have to grow it myself. hmph. One disadvantage of Pittsburgh is a lack of exotic stuff. Now if there were enough of a demand I WOULD put more effort into growing my own to share or perhaps sell with to other gardeners.These wallflowers are nice, and half haven't started blooming yet. Tansy, monarda and calendula have yet to flower. This wall is built of found things. I am quite fond of thrifting, indeed, my latest project is the result of thrifting, actually a good find. More on that shortly. I don't know if I have said it here, but I sorta feel like recycling in whatever form is a very patriotic thing to do. I don't want to be preachy, but when I think about things coming from far, far away and using fossil fuels to do things when it's all in your backyard it kinda upsets me.This cat always looks scared. here is a rare view of my backyard. It needs a lot of work. This was taken through my kitchen window. I don't think this cat is feral, she's just a scaredy cat.

These are my tulips at their best this year. Already more than half of them are done blooming. Just this yesterday I heard a very small child say very clearly "TULIPS" when he passed by with his family. This made my day.

These oyster mushrooms show a new direction I am going in garden synergy. If my experiments work out, I'll share them. Honestly for the most part if I show you something here I think you should try it for yourself. The stuff I am trying that I'm not sure about, I don't share.

These ants with amber distended bodies fed from my hummingbird feeder until I filled the ant guard with water. I really do not like ants but these look like jewels. These ants are actually, at least on my browser, a fifth of the size they are here. The black surface they are walking on is a cast iron shepard's hook which looks fairly smooth in normal vision.

I hope that in the future that I will stick to my goal of posting twice a week. I think the poison ivy set me back. Anyway, already I have a lot to document.

Poison Ivy

I just did a monster job. I ripped up more than 100 pounds of it. I think I am going to raise my rates for poison ivy removal. I will however consider a discount if it is requested during the fall or winter or very, very, early spring.

You see, poison ivy is one of those weeds I have to admire. It is lovely. The leaves are nicely shaped and shiny. The vines gracefully wraps itself around trees and fenceposts and arcs out like the snakes on Medusa's head. The vines have these furry brown roots that look almost soft. In the fall the leaves turn into the prettiest red. And by winter the whites berries cluster like miniature grapes, which bird love to eat which helps distribute their seeds.

I am very familiar with this plant. I have encountered it in every stage of its life extensively when I was an archaeological field technician. I never had to go to the hospital because of it but I knew many that did. I have been driven close to madness when I had a few bad cases. Well, maybe not madness but it infuriated me.

When I remove poison ivy I assume that I will get a rash. I suppose that there have been a few times that I have not, when it's been a small job but even then I take every precaution. My reaction to exposure is not uniform. Sometimes it is like a few mosquito bites, others, like right now, it is much, much worse. I think I was a bit foolhardy this spring because it's been a while since I had a good rash. I actually got a small blister on my lip! That's a first. I suppose that the fact that a few of those vines whipped my face are good cause for that! It's a small blister, but I look like I have herpes.

So how do I treat this? The best treatment is prevention. First thing, I wear gloves. Really, I should have been wearing elbow length impermeable disposable gloves but I was being stupid. I wore my standard nitrile gloves because it was warm out. Secondly, I wash all potentially exposed skin with technu, a special urushiol oil remover. I have decided, as of the completion of this job that I will wash with technu every hour on the hour. Usually I do not spend more than an hour doing this sort of thing. I also shower and wash with technu the rest of my body. We're talking a major scrub and re-scrub here.

After that, I wait. Usually it takes a few days, sometimes 3 or more for my to react. This is quite fortunate, but this time around it took 20 hours. When the first blisters appear, I wash again with technu, this time on the areas affected. Then I wait til more blisters appear. When I have a good idea of where I am infected and it starts to make me a little crazy, that's when I use zanfel. Most people that are P.I. savvy know about technu, but most have not heard of zanfel. I will quote directly from their site,

"Zanfel™ Poison Ivy Wash is a safe and effective topical solution for poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. It is the only product known to remove urushiol, the toxin responsible for the reaction, from the skin after bonding, enabling the affected area to immediately begin healing. After using Zanfel, the itching and pain are the first things to be relieved, usually within 30 seconds."

Zanfel is expensive, but I swear by it. It does not always irradicate all poison ivy, indeed, I tend to use it as last resort because I am OK with a little itch if only to remind me to be more cautious next time so when I use zanfel, I almost always need 2 treatments. This time around I think it will be 3. The cheapest source of poison ivy protection, including the hard to find zanfel is CSP Outdoors. I have bought technu by the quart from them, and of course they have zanfel.

I hope that some people out there will have a better poison ivy experience after reading this post. I also hope that my clients will read this and NOT casually ask me to remove poison ivy from their garden bed. If there's one thing that drives me crazy, it is a client who is oblivious to my suffering.

I am adding to this post rather than starting a new one because I decided that this blog though primarily based in reality is a bit of a fantasy. The photos of my garden are windows of bliss. I don't show works in progress that are ugly. The actual photos of myself might look a bit better than what I do in real life, though that depends on the day and whether it is dark out etc... so to me, poison ivy is one of those realities that I try to pretend doesn't exist, but every once in a while I have to acknowledge it.

Poison ivy has the most urushiol oil in its roots. Urushiol oil is probably the most concentrated in the spring when it comes out of dormancy. That is why I probably got it so bad this time around. When I severed the vines, there was literally sap dripping from the vines, like water. Think about the sap runs of maple syrup. Generally, sap is collected a few weeks before the buds burst open. Maple comes out of dormancy a few weeks before poison ivy does. If I wanted to collect a chemical weapon, I could tap poison ivy vines in mid-april. Those shiny leaves that have not yet lost their initial blush of red are extra potent.

End of April

This cat is feral. I have taken to calling her/him Orangy or Cheddarhead. Cheddarhead's left ear seems to be clipped. This might be an indicator that at one point thhis cat was caught, neutered, then released. She, I think she's a she, was around the day we moved in. She is actually more likely to be a boy because 75% of orange cats are male but I think she's a she. I am now feeding her almost everyday. She still hasn't let me touch her. Behind this feral cat is some feral chamomile. I also have feral red mustard, fennel and even a viola.

The salad bowl is filling in quite nicely, with Orangy behind.

This fennel survived the winter and has a lot of tender bulbs coming up. I am thinking of making something special with these.

I planted this strawberry last year. I just love the anticipation of the fruit to come. Next to it are 2 flowers I always have, pansies and allysum.

One thing I haven't mentioned is tha a year ago I had a major problem with slugs. I decimated them with sluggo, a bait whose active ingredient is iron phosphate which is safe for pets. There are other baits out there that are really toxic. Don't use them. Only use bait that is pet safe whose active ingredient is iron phosphate. If you do, your slugs will disappear.

Hover Fly

I saw a hover fly laying eggs on my salad ball. Hover flies eat aphids and have these huge eyes so this pleased me greatly. I'm not sure what drew this fly to my ball but it was laying on a pansy that was infested with aphids. I understand hover flies, and other good guys like lacy flowers and on my ball I have some alyssum, an annual I have come to consider a must.Here's a shot of a chervil seedling I tucked in my ball. I'm sorta amazed that it's survived. Chervil flowers are a good guy magnet too, but this one's got a lot of growing to do 1st and I might eat it before then.

It really pays to know who the good guys are, especially when they are still larvae, and not so cute.

Morning

Just a random post here with eyecandy.

My posh saladbowl planter is filling in nicely. I rotate it slightly clockwise everyday to ensure even daylight for all sides.

I am very happy to see these tulips gradually bloom. I got them late last fall and they were marked down considerably. A few of the 40 bulbs were rotten but I planted the rest here in a single spot. A lot of the bulbs have more than one bloom. They are smaller but wow! I'm easily impressed. Another thing about this planting is that it is elevated about 2 and a half feet above the sidewalk next to it. Everyone walking by may look closely at these tulips.

When I looked out my window this morning on the 3rd floor, this is part of what I saw. I am showing what is currently the prettiest part of my yard. You'll recognize the tulips and the swan, but then there's the bonnie artichoke I saved from last year. It grew huge but did not bloom. This year it should bloom if I don't eat all the artichokes. There is above the bed a shepard's hook with a robin hanging out and a hummingbird feeder. I haven't seen any yet, but somebody claims to have seen one around here on April Fool's day. Maybe that was a joke. Below the feeder next to the tulips is a patch of fennel that braved the winter. That should be pretty nice eating soon.

Mizuna is a very nice green. I like to let it get bigger but I enjoy thinning it. The more feathery leaf is a fennel seedling. There's a bunch all over my front yard. I still haven't decided if I want to let any grow up.

My Backyard

Gentle reader, you may have noticed that I give little airspace to my backyard. I find it a bit of an embarrassment. Well, I have decided what I will do with it this year. It is a gardening technique I used a couple years ago in some cases with great success. I am going to do some straw bale gardening.

This is quite useful for spaces that are not tame rich clean beds. These misfit spaces include the wild and weedy, the poor possibly toxic, and perhaps all you have is concrete, or maybe you're into being experimental which is much of my reasoning.

Anyway, I learned a bit when I tried this a couple years ago. My biggest success was a couple cherry tomatoes on my front concrete stoop. They needed a considerable amount of water but they were very productive on that hot alley way. I have pictures somewhere.

Salad Ball

1st I must give some credit to Organic Gardening for giving me this idea, though I put mine together a little bit differently. I haven't filled it out completely, but you get the idea.One problem with planters that have things coming out of the sides is that watering can be very tricky. It tends to seep inside and not get evenly distributed. I can't remember where I saw an idea similar to mine, but mine is unique.What you see here are 2 toilet paper rolls and a small piece of landscaping cloth. I use the rolls to make a temporary brace for this tube.
The tube is stood up in the center of the planter. I guess the ideal length is to a little bit past the center, though mine is a bit longer.

I put the top basket up there to make sure it's not too short or too long. Notice I have it a little short of the top. as I filled this in I moved it up a little.Once it is in place you need to fill it up. I used hydroton, I think pebble would be fine. The idea it to use some inorganic stuff that will let water flow through easily.
Then you plant the stuff in. It's easiest to plant it up, layering dirt on top. The coco liner I used for the bottom is aquasav which made this harder than plain coco, which you can just push stuff through, this required me to CUT into it, though in theory this will need less watering.

My canvas is not blank

I garden like I get dressed everyday. I'm no fashion plate, indeed, I have contemplated doing youtube type videos of things I discuss here but that means I have to do something with my hair! I guess I feel like my garden is half naked right now. I'm a little embarrassed to show it in its entirety just yet.This being its 2nd year, my garden is taking on a number of 'sink or swim' aspects. This budding onion is a leftover from last year. It might be a welsh onion, but I'm not sure. I noticed it budding and have decided to encourage that. Whenever it blooms I should have a better idea of what it actually is.Next my canvas shows what I decided to call 'beau disordre' a reference I recall to some Congolese Afro-pop I read about and encountered years ago. Um, I won't get into what made my brain stray that direction. The largest plant here is an artichoke, then there's a red cabbage. My strategy is to plant fairly low lying plants in front, with lots of little annual flowers at the border including allysum, pansies, lobelia, german chamomile, calendula at the edges. Much of this is selfsown from last year. I will fill in the middle later with more tender taller things like eggplant and tomatoes. Thus you see that I did not start this year with a blank canvas.On the newel post I do have a blank slate. Last year I had a rather anemic planting there. I hope to put something there spectacular but I am torn as to what that should be. There are some logistical problems to growing a globe like this. I should devote an entire post to this when I get around to it. At this moment I am think that perhaps some nastertiums would be nice here, the type that cascade. But alas! It's too early for them here! What to do?

You might notice that hanging from the left side of the sphere is a tiny hummingbird feeder. In the Pittsburgh area hummingbirds typically start showing up in mid April. I intend to make them feel welcome in my yard. More on that later.This final picture shows some of my palette. Lettuce, pansies, allysum, and broccoli. Broccoli is a definite no for the sphere. The rest I could manage.

Anybody out there have any opinions about my sphere? I am trying to decide mainly between edibility and ornamentation. One thing I am pretty sure of is that my whole yard would look better if I covered it all with a fresh thin layer of compost. I probably will do that soon.

Planning your garden

One thing that's nice about a vegetable garden is that in most cases, every spring you have a clean slate. You may rearrange your garden in new ways. Indeed it is often better that you do so. If you grow tomatoes and brassicas in the same spot year after year, it is highly likely that they will be afflicted with various diseases as pests settle in.

Last year was the 1st vegetable garden in front here and I had a lot of weeds and english ivy slowing me down. It started out being fairly structured but that didn't last. I don't seem to have any current full bed pictures this year. I guess there's a reason for that but these 2 '08 pictures were probably taken in late April. Maybe in a few weeks I'll have some idea of what I am doing.

I got trigger happy when I was uploading and lost track of an image. I guess I'll reload it. This one is my lovely 'stage left' garden bed. What looks pretty sparse here rapidly filled in. One thing that is different this year is that I have more stepping stones.

What you see here are 6 red cabbages, lots of lettuce, various onions, some pansies to pretty it up, and some tulips to pretty it up. When the tulips faded I ripped them out and planted tomatoes.On stage right I planted some strawberries in a nice diamond. They barely resemble this shape now but I think I'll let them be. I should have kept the runners in line but strawberries are so cute. This year I have taken the ivy back a bit more. Last year I spent a long time ripping it out of this bed. Sure, it's great groundcover but I like other things more and I just don't have much space. Again, I have put in more stepping stones.

I don't do rows but I try not to walk anywhere in my beds unnecessarily. It does not take long for them to become covered as I tend to overplant.

Catnip

Catnip is the controlled substance of the herbal world. When planting it certain precautions are necessary.
This cage, which is actually an inverted planter minus the liner secured with metal stakes
It became pretty apparent to me that this cage was a help, but not adequate.
This plastic screen might do the trick.
I'm sorry that I did not document Abe clawing at this fruitlessly, but he did. Here he is walking away. He'll get his fair share of catnip later on.

I didn't plant this just for the cats. I have found that catnip repels japanese beetles. Really, they will flee when they smell it. Japanese beetles not only love to eat roses, but raspberries. I just planted a heritage red raspberry which was excuse enough for me to spoil my cats.

Catnip also is supposed to repel fleas but I have not seen this. Catnip tea is supposed to be good for lactating women as well. I do not have as 1st hand experience with this either.

Monetize

Each week I will post images of stuff as they grow. Red Mustard is just lovely. You may see its progress, including last year's predecessor by clicking on the red mustard link below.

This salad bowl planter will also be highly documented. I want it to be just covered with growth so that you cannot even see the container

One of my favorite permanently potted edible plants is this bay laurel. It is in its 2nd year and since I have put it outside a few weeks ago these leaf buds are opening. Though I wintered it indoors, it is hardy to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit so light frost is OK. In a year maybe I'll use some of its leaves. It grew slower than expected last year.

I hope I am not violating any terms of my agreement by acknowledging that I have decided to use adsense. Anyway these are sponsored links, not favorite sites but hopefully some inadvertently will be selling things that I would personally endorse. They are chosen, not by me, to correspond with the content of my posts. They seem to be pretty low-key so I don't think they'll hinder the 'Gabrielle's Landscaping' experience.

Anyway, outside of this post I will not really mention them. If I endorse something in a post, or anywhere in this blog it is because I personally like it. From what I see it's pretty obvious which is an ad, usually there is an "Ads by Google" somewhere, and what isn't, like my 'supplies' box. That's my uncompensated opinion, not an ad.

How much compost do I need?

Maybe this should be in the sidebar but it is an important consideration. I keep putting off writing about this because it's kinda a basic consideration and for my garden I didn't exactly figure it all out because I developed my garden gradually out of a weedy mess.

The 1st thing you know, if you do things like me is the unit of compost is a cubic yard. To most easily translate that to your garden you need to figure how many square yards of garden needs compost. I like to put 2 or 3 inches of compost on each bed, especially if it's a new bed. Sometimes it's a good idea to cultivate a bed a shovel blade or 2 deep and to amend the soil with some compost. I believe that in most cases ideal soil is 25% organic material.

If you have a rectangular garden this is easy, if not you might need to measure each bed remember of course that 9 square feet is equal to one square yard. I like to have extra compost around for topping off beds, making some potting soil, or just to mix in as I plant something, or maybe it just makes me feel safe.

Potting soil is easy mixed yourself. The general formula is compost, peat moss, vermiculite, perlite and some sort of fertilizer. The idea balance depends on what you're growing but I guess I do about 1 part each except for fertilizer. Even though I have a bit of land I still like to grow some things in containers. I also use potting soil to start seedlings and to root cuttings or just to split things up, maybe to share something with a friend.

One thing to remember is that compost breaks down. In most areas it breaks down at the rate of about an inch a year. If your climate is warmer, and perhaps moister, all things living are more active. So in most places you probably do not need to top your garden with compost every year but...

I suppose I primarily subscribe to the author of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, Ed Smith's W-O-R-D philosophy of gardening. He recommends WIDE beds, rather than skinny rows. The rule of thumb is just wide enough for easy access, so that's 3 to 4 feet wide. ORGANIC because well, it's just a better method. He also recommends RAISED beds, and that's the point I wanted to get to. Before I do that, just for completion sake, I must say he likes DEEP beds. I won't go into each point here, just read the book or maybe I'll paraphrase him more, though it is all echos of what others have said but he said it well.

OK, I was trying not to paraphrase anyone but that's it. I greatly enjoyed his book. The difference for me is that putting it ALL together takes a lot of W-O-R-K. A conflict I have in this blog is deciding what audience I want to speak to. I am perfectly willing to W-O-R-K for anyone willing to pay me but I also wish to encourage and H-E-L-P anyone less wealthy to realize their own garden. Or maybe you have money but aren't certain exactly what direction you want to go. At any rate I am here to help all of the above.

My personal philosophy towards gardening is a sort of evolution. Nothing is constant. So, a bed needs an average of an inch of compost topping it a year but my garden is evolving into a RAISED bed so I think I'll end up topping my beds with 1-3 inches a year until I either need to build something to contain them or I just let them spill over. I guess I am building little hills, not a flat topped bed. Now my memory banks recall something I read about rounded topped garden beds in Japan(?) perhaps in a Joy Larkcom book, but I digress.

In short 12-18 square yards is 108-162 square feet and may be covered adequately by 1 cubic yard of compost. That's a rectangle that measures 9 X 12 feet to 12 X 14 feet, though I fudged the larger rectangle. Really, the backhoe just dumps a big bucket into the back of my truck which probably is a bit bigger than a cubic yard. I haven't measured but above is a photo of my half-unloaded truck.

Any questions? Please, pick my brain!

Progress

For lack of a better idea, I titled this 'progress' really because I wanna see some. Spring is here but the my garden has yet to explode in growth like it will.

The romaine lettuce isn't large yet but it is adapting to its habitat. Hopefully something will sprout on the surface above within a week.


This bay laurel is in it's 2nd year. I will try not to neglect it as much as I did last year and maybe it will grow 6 inches like my plant guides tell me it will. Those red pebbly things are hydroton, expanded clay that I've experimented with in making selfwatering containers last year. I topped this bay laurel with it to possibly discourage fungus gnats from getting to it.


Finally, my mint is showing some life!


A friend told me of some hops growing where he works. I asked if he'd share a rhizome with me and he brought me a pot full of these! These are hops seedlings! I decided to save a few and try to figure out their genders later on. Allegedly, these have some sort of Belgian beginnings. All I know is that there were 2 varieties of hops where these came from that have been there for about 10 years. If I am lucky, I might end up with something unique and good.


My red mustard seedling after many months, are growing true leaves. Again, I'll have to thin these when they finally start to grow.


This is cascade hops I transplanted from a pot I grew them in last year. Last year they weren't very productive, this year I believe will be very different.