A Little Tour Around the Garden and Patio

 It's been a celebratory weekend  as we have enjoyed hosting a few outdoor parties with friends and family.

As you can see we have the beginnings of a new back porch! Chris has been working hard but it's not quite finished. I'll be sure to share more on our new space soon but for now thought I would give you a little tour around the garden and patio.

 Chris made a beautiful table for the patio, perfect for snacks, a cold glass of something and card games. It's made from a slab of Kentucky Coffee Tree which he milled himself.

 The Yarrow is in full bloom and the kale growing along the chicken run is so healthy and happy!

 The last of the Kohlrabi growing in pots. It's too pretty to harvest!

 It has been a beautiful year for hydrangeas.

 The 'Sun Gold' cherry tomatoes growing along the sidewalk are beginning to ripen.

 A mixture of Santolina, Black Eyed Susan, Sensitive Fern, Shasta Daisy and Cherry Tomatoes growing in harmony.

 The Trumpet Vine on top of the chicken coop is in full bloom.

 The pear tree has been pinched back and soon will need to be propped!

 I bought a little string of lanterns this weekend to brighten up the patio in the evenings.

 A little cluster of potted plants of all different heights by my back door. I'll be posting about plinths and pedestals in the garden next week.

 A view from our (in progress) back porch.

A succulent garden atop my rain barrel.

Aphids

Recently I noticed my honeysuckle was looking a bit stressed. As I looked a bit closer I saw the tell tale sign of aphids. Several leaves were yellowing and looking a bit distorted and stunted covered in a sticky substance.

Aphids are soft-bodied insects, about a tenth of an inch long. They're typically green or black, though you may also run into gray or black ones in your garden. Aphids suck the sap out of tender plant shoots and leaves. As aphids feed, they secrete a sticky substance, called honeydew, which can quickly become infested with sooty mold. This mold can spread viruses, many of which are incurable. For this reason, it’s important to take steps for controlling aphids in the garden. The good news is if caught early, they are pretty easy to combat.

Killing aphids naturally is not only better for the environment, but it is also a more effective way of killing the insect. Aphids don’t respond well to insecticides, but you can get them under control by taking advantage of their weaknesses and making a few changes in the way you manage your garden.

Aphids have a number of natural enemies. Pampering and nurturing these insects is an excellent method of organic aphid control. I have mint, fennel, dill and yarrow planted about to help attract these insects to my garden which will then feed to on those pesky aphids.

If you have a big enough property,  you can create aphid traps by growing plants that are attractive to aphids. Growing plants such as nasturtium, aster, cosmos, hollyhock, larkspur, verbena, dahlia and zinnia far from other favorite plants will lure aphids away and keep the garden aphid-free.

Another easy way to get rid of aphids is a strong spray of water from a hose which will knock many of the pests off the plant, making it pretty impossible for them to return. It also rinses off some of the honeydew. Spray the plant every day until the plant is aphid free.

Starting Fresh

Please welcome our guest today, Erin Little, of  Bluebirdbaby and A Love Supreme Photography fame. Erin is a lady of many talents, and I think it's safe to say that growing beautiful gardens is one of them!

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I've been gardening for almost my entire adulthood. As a child, I used to help my mother and father in their garden. We grew all kinds of vegetables that wound up on our dinner table. The neighbors would walk by and tell me my mother had a "green thumb" and go on to tell me how jealous they were of our lush garden full of fresh vegetables and fruits. I never thought much about it until I had my first raised bed as a young adult.

I never quite got my plants to grow, which is a pretty essential thing. I was frustrated and thought maybe I hadn't inherited my parents' gardening skills. But I certainly didn't let it stop me. Since I was 19 years old, I have started and maintained five different gardens. Each starting from scratch. It's always a big undertaking: making raised beds, filling the raised beds with a combination of loam, peat moss, and manure, starting seedlings and purchasing some, planting, watering, weeding, pest maintenance…it all takes a lot of energy and time. But I have found the rewards are well worth it!

Last fall I purchased an old church to live in on a busy road in midcoast Maine. I spent the winter renovating and painting the inside, but spent a lot of time dreaming about what I planned to do with the yard. We had established perennial gardens out front, but no vegetable garden. I opted for 6, 4x8 foot raised beds. I have found in the past that 6 beds that size are perfect for our family's needs. The beds went together in an afternoon. We used hemlock and screwed them together. We reinforced the corners with an extra piece on the inside. We were planning on digging up the sod on the insides, but we figured that 12 inches of soil would probably be sufficient enough to kill any grass on the bottom, so that saved us tons of time.

My favorite combo to fill the beds with is 6 parts organic loam, 2 parts peat moss, and 2 parts alpaca manure. I don't actually measure these, as I tend to eye what the composition looks like and how it feels running through my fingers. But I swear, alpaca manure (if you are lucky enough to find some!) is the magic part. It makes my plants grow like crazy. 

We also purchased a few self-pollinating fruit trees. I made the mistake in the past purchasing fruit trees that actually needed a pair to pollinate and produce fruit! This time we went with self-pollinating pear, plum, and peach. Also, three high bush blueberries were bought, each producing a different month so we'll have berries all summer long. We have a large apple tree that was already on the property, and we've been enjoying munching on those already! We also added a flock of chickens (16!), so by next spring we'll be enjoying fresh eggs daily! 

So these are all pictures from my new garden. The plants went in late May/early June, and well…you can tell how they're doing. My gardens tend to look more like jungles, which basically means I don't prune, I water like crazy (thanks to our rainy Maine summer this year), and I just let things go nuts. Our friends constantly comment on my "green thumb" and how beautiful it all is.

Maybe I did inherit my parents' gardening talents? Who knows…but I am very excited about enjoying this garden for at least the next twenty years! And it's nice to feel like we are supplying the majority of our fruits and veggies on our little 1/4 acre lot!

my new garden companion

I have no  acceptable excuse for my absence here other than it's been so darn hot and I haven't had much gusto to do much of anything in the garden and oh yes we got a puppy!!

Luckily though the garden still grows without my help and we have had plenty of rain to keep it going. Thankfully the weather broke last week and has been quite pleasant allowing me and Harry (our new pup) to get out there.

It's been so nice to have a companion in the garden who follows me around and keeps me company as I weed and harvest. He absolutely loves cucumbers!

The garden is showing signs of late summer and even peeks of early fall with it's Black-Eyed Susans and Joe-Pye Weed in full bloom. The Crape Myrtle's bark is beginning to shed  and I have seen a few Aster and Toad Lily buds beginning to form.

I hope to sow some fall greens in the next week or two, dry a whole lot of mint and get a spring bulb order in. All with Harry's help of course.

backyard chicken workshop

chris and i have taught several different kinds of workshops, all related to our backyard.
but one of our favorites is backyard chickens.
we taught one on tuesday night at a local high school through a community class program.
we give a really fun slide presentation with all of our own photos.
we talk about coop designs, breed selection, chicken care basics and the wonderful benefits of keeping a small-scale backyard chicken coop.
this time we thought it would be fun to give a two part workshop,the second part being in our backyard.
we wanted people to see how small our space really is and what you can do in such a tiny space.
today participants came for the second part.
some brought their kids (who got the biggest kick out of petting the girls and feeding them sunflower seeds) as well as partners and spouses.
two women even went home to get their husbands and bring them back to talk to chris more about how to build themselves a coop like ours:)
it was such fun showing every one around
and sending them all off to come up with their own little backyard operation.