Grass Villian

I posted our plans for having a beautiful green lawn. My husband and I are officially over the whole grass thing for this year! Ahem, before I rant, let me focus on the attributes of lawn filled with grass.
(Here's where I leave a blank post.) No, in all seriousness:

• grass is nutritious for cattle (I honestly would feel better if we were growing grass for horses and cows)
• grass prevents erosion of topsoil
• grass provides the nitrogen soil needs 
• grass contains chlorophyll 

Ok, I am really scrambling for any other reason it is beneficial in suburbia, but moving on to our mistakes so that you can avoid repeating them.

Before

Before

After

 As you see above, the month of April started out great. We were able to redo the landscape. We even planted our trees, shrubs, and grass seed hours before a week of gentle rain. We were elated.

Downpour

 After the week of rain, we watered with the sprinkler for at least 30 minutes a night. The temperatures went from up 70s down to the 50s and our dying rye grass sprang to life. That's actually what you see in the after picture posted above. Twenty-one days passed and not a single blade of grass came up.

So we were back to the store grabbing a bag of rye. We figured the rye comes up in 7 days and it would stop the rest of the summer grass seed from washing away. The last week of April, first week of May turned into torrential rains. 10 - 20 minutes bucket and gully washers. All our grass seed washed away because it was too cold to germinate. The rye looks beautiful. For now we will enjoy the last of the rye before summer burns it up.

Rain washing down the side of the hill

washed away dirt

what washed out

used to spread the grass seed

 Moral of our garden mishaps?

Rye is great from Fall to Spring. Wait to plant summer seeds until the temperatures no longer dip and the spring rains aren't around to wash it out! Establishing grass seed requires patience, a lot of water, fertilizer, great soil, and ideal temperatures!

My advice is don't give up, take your time, and "if you don't succeed, try, try again." For us we will attempt it again next year.

rye grass

Name that bush

Healthy bush

I need help naming this bush. I have searched google to no avail on this one. Here is a picture of the healthy bush next to it. I would be forever grateful if someone could identify what it is. I am afraid the unhealthy bush is getting pretty close to being past saving which makes me sad.

Unhealthy bush

 The unhealthy bush pictured left, has already lost half of its size because the limbs were completely dead. The limbs broke off in one snap. I'm hoping to discover the name so I can look up how to treat its problems. The leaves are not falling off, but it is not producing any spring leaves and the old leaves have burnt spots and some type of mold on them as well.


Exactly on the other side of the house, the landscapers planted this bush. I think it may be a Dwarf Burford Holly? It's leaves are turning yellow. I read this is an iron deficiency. Due to the wet winter we have experienced, it seems the heavy rains washed the iron from this shrub. They don't like to be watered a lot. I amended the soil with iron and it seems to be perking up a bit, but we still have been having quite a bit of rain and am not sure if I need to keep adding more iron or what.

Dwarf Burford Holly? Sickly

Current

Evergreens!

The post I've been promising! It's finally here! Upon moving in last year, we faced many challenges with our landscape. I am not a landscaper. I am just a lover of gardening, plants, and all it encompasses. Faced with this new landscape of challenges, we sat stumped for an entire year. This Spring we took the plunge.

When we bought our house, it was the latest house built. The "yard" beyond ours did not have a house yet. We had our hearts set on Leyland Cypress. As the year progressed, we saw our neighboring lot develop, the house be built next to our property line, and our privacy tree idea needing to be revamped.

Privacy Trees

This year we researched Cypress trees all of February and in great earnest all of March. Each weekend in March we drove around to local nurseries pricing screened topsoil, mulch, and trees. In the end we chose Italian Cypress for their small circumference and Green Giant Cypress for their medium circumference.

We fell in love with the idea of Cypress Trees because:

• They have soft bristles: who wants to mow along scratchy leaves?
•  They grow 10-30+ feet tall
• They create a great screening
• They block the suns rays from heating the house
• They are low maintenance (no need for trimming!)
• They grow 2-3' a year 
• Drought resistant

Green Giant

 One problem we ran into was that no one    carried Italian Cypress. We found Trees2go and liked the fact they delivered. Let me tell you, what great service! They worked with our schedule. The trees came in 3 gallon pots. They were delivered right to us. 20 trees in 3 gallon pots at around 2 feet tall came out to $300. They carried Italian Cypress! When they delivered the trees, they not only gave us an instruction pamphlet along with the trees but also gave us tips on planting them, gladly let us know if where we planned to plant the trees would be good place or not, and gave us advice on what to consider. The greatest part is Trees2go tracks your purchase and you earn cumulative discounts! Happy customers here :)

We followed their advice and spaced the Green Giant and Italian Cypress 6' apart. This allows for the trees to interlace. We shall see in a few years!

Never bury the Cypress tree in clay soil! The roots do not like to sit in water. So well drained soil is key. This is why you see these trees planted in  mounds of topsoil and mulch to allow the water to seep below into the clay soil beneath the roots.

To keep the trees in a straight line, put up a  string and dig along it. When a slope comes into play, make sure you level it from the top! We wanted a curve to our hedge near the back.

The Green Giant has a circumference of 10-12'. To create a hedge you can plant them up to 8' feet apart. We wanted to mix them with the Italian Cypress that has 6' circumference. This means Italian Cypress need to be spaced 3' apart to create a hedge. We ended up mixing the two trees so that we could plant them 6' apart and cover more ground that way.

A good rule of thumb to follow is always buy a couple more plants than you think you will need. We bought Emerald Arborvitae for the driveway side of the house. Hopefully it will create a nice hedge in place of a fence.

After all we have researched about Cypress the past year, we are pretty excited to observe the results over the years.

Garden Plans

7+ ton additional pile

Spring break weekend was busy! The funny part of this week was we did not plant trees. The whole point of this spring's prep ended up incomplete.

So what happened? From my last post until now a lot of shoveling was involved! All Tuesday and Wednesday I shoveled dirt and pushed the wheelbarrow because I was too impatient to wait for us to purchase a cart for behind the lawn mower. The 7 ton dirt pile managed to fill in the holes and extend "the beast" partially. We simply ordered another load of dirt. Communication somehow became muddled and we received twice as much as before. I wanted to cry.

halfway finished

Here sat a pile twice as big. We now only had four days to complete our list. The clincher was the muscles sore from the previous two days. Another pile of mulch was added to the list of piles needed shoveling, but at least we had our cart to tote it all in!

The good part of all of it is, although we still have not planted our evergreen trees, our yard is mulched for another season and we got the grass seeded right before the rains came. Now we wait. The grass is supposed to come up in 10-21 days and then we can seed whatever washed away.

halfway sloped

completely sloped and seeded

We did decide on a local place to order our evergreens from and are waiting to see how it will turn out. They are supposed to deliver and set the trees in the ground for you. That would be amazing.

Spring Prep Update

7 tons topsoil

I honestly did not know what to title this back-breaking experience. Saturday we were scrambling around trying to see what local nurseries offered in trees, soil, and mulch. In the process, we added to our outdoor plans. (more on that later)

Saturday we visited three nurseries and our local Lowes in search of the perfect evergreens for the "the beast" side of the house. What a nightmare! Due to how narrow that side of the house is, our options continue to narrow. 

While searching for trees, we began to really think through the process. Local nurseries were advising us to kill all surrounding weeds, amend the soil, add fertilizer, and mulch on top to maximize the amount of growth the trees could grow yearly.

We went to Lowes to look at all the plant labels. We were looking at the evergreen labels, tree labels, and shrub labels reading how much sun they would need, how big they would become at maturity, and viewing the overall picture of them at maturity level. A waft of sweet smell caught our senses. There on display sat gardenias. We had gardenias at our old house. My husband appreciated their delightful smell at our old house, so we bought them. The nursery worker warned us to wait until the last frost before planting them........yes, we have more plants to plant now, ha!

Since our house was built last year, the ground has been stripped of its topsoil. The rains have created rivets in our soil. We decided we would start with purchasing topsoil. The topsoil was only $135 for a 7 ton load, including delivery.  So there was that huge pile on Monday staring at us.

Here we are four days later sore from hauling dirt in our wheelbarrow all day yesterday. Our sweet neighbor suggested another local nursery to check out. Needless to say, I am excited! The more nurseries the more options, I say!

Our total list for this year is starting to look like this:

• Fill in rivets with topsoil
• Level out the yard
• Seed the yard with zoysia grass seed (should come today)
• Plant Gardenia bushes
• Dig holes for trees
• Decide on trees!
• Purchase trees this weekend
• Purchase and bring in mulch this weekend
• Plant trees

 And all because it's Spring Break this week....we're a gluttony for sore muscles.

New Adventure Update

It's almost been a year to date! Yes, we are still working on last years plan.....sad to say, we have not begun implementing any part of our plan. I will say we have successfully decided on a landscape plan!

For our current yard, we are branching into the low maintenance theme. We took forever deciding on a grass last fall. It was late fall when we planted the perennial rye 50 lb bag for $30 we found at our local Hudson store. Because we planted so late and the winter weather turned hot so fast, here in NC this year, the grass has turned brown this month. Typically rye grass will last from fall until late Spring. Perennial Rye enjoys cooler weather below 70s. We were spoiled with a wet winter so we did not have to water the grass seed.

This spring we will be planting with two different grass varieties zoysia and Kentucky bluegrass and will update on how well they do. This time we simply ordered from Amazon. The key to grass is a great fertilizer and keeping the seed moist until it sprouts.

On a side note, I hate grass!!!! It's not economical, it robs plants of their water, it requires a lot of mowing which translates into gas, etc. Needless to say this yard does not make me feel relaxed, at the moment. Ok, off my rant. :)

We have gone from 2.5 acres down to .8 of an acre. Our plan is to create a low maintenance property boundary and privacy hedge around the sides. Once that is established we want to create the back yard more like I prefer a yard to look like. Stay tuned. This upcoming month will be a lot of posts on planting our privacy trees!

back yard with steep slope

Needs retaining wall

Back yard sees into all the neighboring yards

side yard

side yard

side yard

Side yard

Companion Planting

The below synopsis is as far as my understanding of companion planting and Permaculture. These rough explanations are no where near scratching the surface of these deep subjects.

The concept of Companion Planting is intertwined with Permaculture practices. Herbs and aromatic plants, (truly, any plant) leaches its properties into the soil and its surrounding plants. This creates a kaleidoscope of plants that either kill their surrounding plants or benefit their surrounding plants by providing them with much needed nutrients.

One idea behind permaculture is that by using companion plants to attract beneficial insects through BIRB , beneficial insect reservoir beds, we can cut down on bad bugs and pollinate much needed plants. Creating a habitat that mimics its natural surroundings encourages healthier plants, attracts native species, and keeps nature balanced.

There are so many variety of ways to plant companion plants that we have not even come close to realizing all the combinations. Last year's minor experiment with companion planting produced varied results. I realized that, when the plants were benefiting from their companion plants, they grew very large and became crowded. I also learned that cucumbers, honeydew, cantaloupe, and tomatoes require a lot of nutrients!!!! They were all beautiful green and huge one day, then a week of rain washed out all the fertilizer and nutrients from the composted soil; and they shriveled up before I could harvest any of the plants.

2014 Companion Planting Garden experiment

Individual Planting

This page is my favorite companion planting guide. You can click on the picture itself as well as zoom in.
In a nutshell, the below list is what not to plant together. This is by no means a comprehensive list. The words in uppercase are the "seeds" (so to speak) and the words in lowercase are the "plants". Example: do not plant TOMATO with cabbages. I am pointing this out because some of the lowercase words in a group may be able to be planted together no problem.

APRICOT

tomato

BEETS

climbing beans

tomato

CHIVES

beans

broad beans

bush beans

climbing beans

peas

CLIMBING BEANS

beet

chives

garlic

onions

sunflowers

GARLIC

beans

broad beans

bush beans

climbing beans

cabbage

peas

strawberries

FENNEL

beans

broad beans

coriander

lavender

tomato

GRASS

apple

apricot

cherry

fruit trees

sage

ONIONS

beans

broad beans

bush beans

Climbing Beans

peas

PARSLEY

Lettuce

PARSNIP

carrots

celery

POTATO

apple

celery

cherry

cucumber

RUE

basil

broccoli

cabbage

cauliflower

sage

SAGE

rue

cucumber

SHALLOTS

beans

peas

SILVERBEET

basil

STRAWBERRIES

broccoli

cabbage

cauliflower

SUNFLOWER

climbing beans

garlic

potatoes

TOMATO

apricots

beets

cabbages

fennel

rosemary

New Adventure

If you have not discovered from my previous posts, I am not a great writer. So hopefully, you won't have to endure many of these disjointed posts! 

There is a quote about following your passions to discover your purpose. Well.... gardening is my passion. An edible yard is my ultimate dream! Just the thought of friends, neighbors, and family tasting everything in sight makes me happy.
2014 has been a journey of discovering:

1. I can plant peas very well in NC.
2. Tomatoes are very fickle when planted outdoors. 
3. I have learned a myriad of other NC nature features, as well.

This year, we just moved to a smaller yard. I am trying to find if I have a book on how to feed a family on a quarter of an acre. Since everything is packed, I am really hoping that I have that book! Either way, we are beginning with building stone steps: not exactly plants. I plan on taking pictures of the yard's before and after. The new challenges we face with this yard are:

• smaller acreage
• less variety of organic sources for compost
• sloped landscape

I plan to come up with new compost sources by adjusting to these challenges.

• I can still use egg shells. 
• I can also use a lot of my fruits, veggies, ect kitchen scraps. 
• I plan on using our coffee grounds, epsom salt, and since this property has nothing but pine trees on it, I will have no shortage of pine needles to use as landscaping mulch. That's a plus!

I missed planting season for onions, asparagus, and such. I won't have much money as usual for buying a lot of garden soil so I think I will focus on building a successful worm farm. I am trying to convince my husband to try our hand at key hole gardening, but he's not buying it.

There are not only environmental challenges but also social challenges when it comes to our new garden. We now live in a suburban environment and I am fully aware of how some people do not appreciate the decay of nature, they wish to only visualize a vibrant, growing, living yard. With that in mind, I am trying to come up with a permacutlture yard unique to NC that encompasses all seasons. No small task, I'll admit. Lots of planning going into the next few years. I've gotta admit, as a Texas native, I find a lot of the NC plants hideous; but that is just my personal viewpoint and hope to learn to love a lot of their foliage and appreciate their native beauty.

So far, our plan is for evergreen back drop. Evergreen means the plant is green all year long. I've found  Coastal_Planting_Guide.pdf of NC native plants. Another website I'm perusing is NC Cooperative Extension

On that note, I leave you with an oldie but a goodie.

2011 Tulips from our previous yard

Garden Update

I accidentally deleted my previous post which saddens me! It is lost. Just to recap! Because we outgrew our house, we sold it along with our beloved yard. I am missing our 2 acres terribly, but am anticipating (impatiently, I might add) our new yard and house.

 

Fall Garden

Fall is here

Fall Garden

Carrot Flowering

Pea Flower

Pea Pod

Tomato and Jalepeno

Fall has reached eastern NC. I have not forgotten about posting. I have not forgotten about gardening. With three toddlers, homeschooling, making food from scratch, no babysitters, cleaning house, ect. ect. I end up having to choose what gets my utmost priority which is the kids.
Yesterday, we finished repotting all of our banana and citrus trees. The kids had a blast. Just hoping we didn't wait too long. :/ It is hard to find the potting soil for the citrus plants so they didn't get any soil in spring and they suffered greatly. They are all yellow and did not bear fruit for the first time in three years.
Back to the Fall Garden. Not sure if I planted the pumpkin seeds to late or too early. Either way the pumpkin seeds grew beautifully right before a gulley washer of a week rained them out. They turned yellow and died. I thought for sure the rains had destroyed all the lettuce and kale I had planted, but they survived. The spinach, broccoli, and cabbage did not survive.
The other night it got down to the 30s which destroyed the greenest tomato plants I have ever seen. The Tomato plants were planted from seed and finally took off. They were vibrant, lots of leaves, fruit, ect,  even a caterpillar pillaged one, but it took them all summer to take off from seed so the above picture is all I got after the frost. I'm going to harvest the seeds and try planting them in pots this spring since they did so well. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what kind they were.
The peas as usual are flourishing. Peas seem to be the only crop I can consistently grow. Beginning to think it has something to do with my soil prep since I make my own soil so to speak.
That wraps it up for fall. We had over 3 lbs of carrots.....from what I can tell they are simply a root that continues to grow. When you get into the different kinds of carrots it basically is referring to how soon you can pick them and they have flavor and size when you pick them. My petite carrots left for a year in the ground have turned into monstrosities. Gorgeous even with a ton of caterpillars eating them stems last months they continued to produce stems and some even budded. Just have to learn how to harvest their seeds now!

Fennel Companions

• potatoes
• tomatoes

Middle of Summer garden

This summer garden was a mixture of successes and failures. The basil turned out beautiful and I was able to dry out enough to fill my Sams jar! The key to basil is constant harvesting. The more often you harvest, the bigger the plant grows.
We harvested quite a few cucumbers. I learned, although cucumber may be green one day, you must fertilize and tend to these plants on a weekly basis.
The one Zucchini grew beautifully! We were able to harvest over 6 off of the one plant.
I planted the tomato plants so many times, I have lost count. They do not appreciate NC summers. The heat, rain, humidity fluctuates to much for them. I will try next year to start them indoors and transfer them outside.
I have yet to harvest any bell pepper. Pepper plants need to be planted in the middle of summer or started indoors because they love warmth.
Onions
That is all I can think of. I know I planted a few more plants, but they were either unsuccessful or escape my memory at the moment.

Dill, Bouquet Companions

• asparagus
• broccoli
• brussels sprouts
• cabbage
• cauliflower
• kohlrabi
• chervil
• corn
• cucumber
• lettuce
• onion

Zucchini, Cucumber, and Honey Dew. OH MY!

Cucumber flower

Zucchini Flower

Honey Dew and Cucumber

Zucchini

These three plants have many similarities in look at least.You may remember back in July I had a hard time telling the plants apart. Once the leaves grew larger, their shape was easier to distinguish, but I soon discovered they all grew yellow flowers, as seen in the pictures above.
Aside from the Honeydew, the veggies are similar in color as well. Out of the 20 zucchini only one plant provided us with produce. The Cucumbers were doing amazing, but got drenched by the summer rains. They require a lot of fertilizer and spray from bugs. Out of the three honeydew plants we got two honeydew.
Overall I believe it wasn't a bad result for my first try.