Prepping for spring

This weekend I tore out my garden. Sad.

I am turning my current bed, see last post, into another raspberry bed. The kids keep eating them so why not. I might throw some blackberries in there too. Depends what is on sale. Anyway, I tried something called raspberry tipping. I have no clue if it is going to work and only saw one place on the internet that mentioned it. You take a primocane and cut it off at the top. Working in two inch segments you snip them and plant them in the ground. I put about two in each hole about an inch down. Supposedly some of these may actually start growing that is how invasive raspberries can be.

In sad news, the bush cherry I just purchased appears to be gone. :( Maybe a deer ate it. No idea. Good thing is they are having 50% off trees at home depot. I am going to see what they have...maybe. I keep telling myself not to plant more but then I find something I can't pass up.

Lately I have been getting a ton of emails from Gurneys, Spring Hill and a few other suppliers for sales. Too bad they aren't selling what I am looking for.

Current years little garden

I just started gardening and I know that I made several mistakes this year. Hopefully I do better next year. The plan is to do raised beds along the fence line and turn this into another...wait for it...berry patch. I already have one Caroline raspberry in there so I am going to try tipping it to see if it will work.

This year I had squash but the borers killed most of it. The borers got all of my zucchini. I managed to harvest one tiny guy before the plant died on me. My bush beans did a pretty good job. I needed to space them better. Worst of all was my tomatoes. We had a very very wet beginning of the summer and all my friends and neighbors complained about their tomato harvest.

The funniest plant award belongs to my cucumber. This plant has a really odd relationship with my other ones. It manages to get a stranglehold on my tomatoes and killed one (I had mono this summer and wasn't as vigilant about toxic relationships as I should have been). It also managed to climb up through my lilac bush and produce cucumbers in the crooks of the branches.

Here is the cucumber growing up out of my lilac. Next year I will trellis these.

I think I learned a lot this year but can't wait to see what I can come up with next year.

My new apple trees

I was at Meijer the other day and came across trees over 50% off. I scouted around and found these little guys.

 This is Luna a dwarf Honeycrisp apple tree. Pretty good branching but will need plenty of pruning in the spring. I followed the directions on the card for planting and hope that she makes it through the winter. My neighbors have a crab apple tree so if this tree blooms before my McIntosh I will still be able to cross pollinate. Apparently apples don't like incestuous relations and you not only have to find a tree with a similar bloom time but also a different variety. This Honeycrisp will bloom mid to late season and ripen in early October.

This sad little guy is Neville. I named him that because he doesn't look like much now but I have great hopes for him. He is a dwarf McIntosh that will be HEAVILY pruned in the spring. As I understand it any branches that go straight up, except the central branch, need to come off. McIntosh is a mid season bloomer so it should work with my Honeycrisp and the apples will ripen mid September. That will give me a little offset for working with my apples. Supposedly McIntosh make great sauce, but I don't expect to get many apples in the next few years, if any.

I put these in my side yard. They get a moderate amount of light. If I could kill the neighbors tree they would get more. Just kidding. Treeacide isn't in my immediate future.

Some Geeky Talk about Soil Acidity

Let’s talk about chemistry. This isn’t going to be one of those annoying personal ads that keeps landing in your inbox even though you have been married for seven years. I am assuming most people know the PH scale but let’s review just in case. Because I am a geeky wannabe and it’s fun. No, really. It is. Trust me. Ok, I will try to amuse you best I an.

pH stands for “potential Hydrogen” and is a measure of hydrogen ions in the soil. The more ions the more acidic the soil. pH is measured in a logarithmic scale. Meaning a pH of 5 is 10 times more concentrated than a pH of 6. A pH of 3 is 1000 times more acidic than a PH of 6.


The scale for pH goes from 0-14. 0 is the most acidic you can get. Battery acid or an ex-boyfriend would be one example. On the opposite side at a pH of 14 is the most basic you can get. Drain cleaner would be at this end of the scale. pH of 7 is neutral. Pure water has a pH of 7. Anything under 7 is acidic, anything over 7 is considered basic. Or if you are a more visual person:


-----------------------------------------------------------------
0 7 14
Burn your face off not doing much Hella basic

A couple of examples: Stomach acid pH 1, Coke pH 3-4 (one reason it rots your teeth), blood somewhere around pH 7.3, household ammonia around 11, oven cleaner (sodium or potassium hydroxide) around 14.

Soil has a lot of different elements including: Phosphorous, Potassium, Calcium, Iron, Copper, Sulfur, Boron, Magnesium, Manganese, Molybdenum and Nitrogen Try saying that 5 times fast, especially Molybdenum. Silicon, Aluminum, and mostly-bound Oxygen; these three make most of the earth’s crust, but they are more of a medium than active participants). Certain plants need different amount of these elements. Phosphorous is available to plants at a PH of 6.0-7.0 and Nitrogen is available at soils with a PH greater than 5.5. Most of these are pretty happy in the 6-7 range. Happy plants are productive plants, I hope.

Incorrect soil PH can tamper with the ability of your soil to provide nutrients. Ever seen yellow leaves on a plant that ought to be green? Sometimes that is caused from an Iron deficiency. The Iron becomes trapped in a form the roots can’t use. So I on the neighbor hood watch program with my blueberries for signs of yellow leaves since this is a problem in alkaline soils, aka where I live.

There is a whole bunch of geeky stuff that goes into this but that serves our purpose for now.


Most food crops prefer a slightly acidic soil. Fantastic you say, I live in clay soil (basic). (Much of the US from the Appalachians to the Rockies is clay... Clay is made mainly of hydroxides, which are the basic. Not fun for blueberries.) That’s ok, you can modify you soil over time to conditions that your plants will favor. Potatoes, strawberries and blueberries prefer a more acidic soil, while things in the brassica family (something we people with a thyroid condition should mostly avoid) prefer slightly alkaline conditions. Plants in the brassica family include broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, and wild mustard. Yup, kick us while we are already down.

It is important to test your soil PH to know what you are dealing with if you have plants that have high acidity needs such as blueberries. Strawberries are more forgiving, at least they seem to be since I can grow them here and my soil is between 7-8 for PH range.

All these ways take time and my least favorite thing…patience. Really I need to find a better past time for those of us that prefer instant gratification.

An easy way to acidify you soil is to add sulfur. I think it is better to use than Aluminum Sulfate, at least that is what I read somewhere at. I used the Organic Traditions Soil Acidifier. I got mine from Lowes but they sell it at Home Depot and on Amazon. It seems to be working as my PH has gone down about 2 since I started the process.

Organic Matter like compost is great for adjusting soil PH. I am going to make a barrel composter hopefully this winter as a project.

Lime: used for making acidic soils more alkaline. This is not an issue here so this might be the last time you see me mention it.

Wood ashes: also effective at raising PH but not as good as lime.

Peat moss: Supposedly goes acid when it degrades. At least that is what they told me. As an aside, peat bogs are pretty acidic, enough that people have found mummified human remains. So in other words, hide the dead body elsewhere. Robin, my uncle’s girlfried, suggests dumping at sea in an area with lots of fish or having crabs eat them. Apparently they are quite voracious. I have also heard the same thing about pigs. Just get rid of the teeth. Bet you didn’t expect murder tactics on this blog. I digress, a lot, just one of my many charms.

I have been using test strips with varying success. Anyone have a soil PH meter they love that doesn’t require a calibrator? I found some on Amazon but the reviews aren’t stellar.

I have been using pH paper with some mixed results. The picture doesn't show the colors as well as they came out but my normal soil is between 7 and 8. The pH of 7 is my water and the strip on top is my blueberry bed. I just started composting so it will be interesting to see how that changes the soil acidity in the future.

Something Good about Global Warming.

I know I shouldn't get excited but silver lining, anyone? Apparently in 2006, The Arbor Day Foundation took climate data for the US and created a new zone map. Who knew? Well it still sticks me in a zone 5-6 but I am much closer to 6 than the previous map so that excites me.  Plus, this was done four years ago so if the trend continues I will be in zone 6 pretty soon. I have dreams of being a snowbird, but it looks like Chicago winters aren't as bad as they used to be. Now just have to do something about the lack of sunlight.

To see the full map you can click here:
http://www.arborday.org/media/zones.cfm

This could mean a new bunch of crops will work in our areas. I am going to try some zone 6 plants and see if they survive. Details to be posted later.

Harvest Moon Sale at Gurneys

This looks like it could be good for getting seeds for spring planting depending on what you are looking for. Up to 70% off. I wish they had better search options. After looking through most of the sale I didn't find much I was interested in. I might purchase this blackberry but that seems to be it for now. Kind of sad considering the last deal I got from them.
http://gurneys.com/black-satin-blackberry/p/69481/

To check out the sale yourself go here:
http://gurneys.com

Making your own barrel composter.

So I have been looking into composting for about a year and my friend made her own rotating composter. It looks great. I was going to make my own but I think I found one at Meijer for $70.00 on clearance, which is about what this would cost to make, I think. I was looking at the barrel as the most expensive part and they seemed to range from $40-50.

So if you want to make one, this looks like a pretty easy and fun project.

http://www.julietiu.com/2010/07/27/making-our-own-rotating-barrel-composter/

Great time to buy discount garden supplies

I went to Target today and was able to find Miracle Grow potting mix. The stuff to the right for 1.74 a bag. Not the small bag either.

I also scored some pots for my container gardening for next year at 75% off or less than two bucks. I went  a little crazy.

Just thought you all should know. I am going to start prepping containers for next spring to try and work the acidity of the soil.

Raspberries: The easiest fruit you will ever grow.

Ok, I am not sure about that yet but supposedly you can try and kill them and they will still come back. In some areas of the US they are considered a menace they spread so much. I found one website that told me NEVER fertilize them. You don't want to encourage them.

This is a fantastic situation. Raspberries are delicate and terrible shippers. Half the time you buy them and they are almost inedible or start growing fuzz within a day or two. Not the sort of longevity I want to see on something I just spent 2.99 for. Add to the insults of only getting 6 ounces for that price making raspberries one of the most expensive things I buy, per pound. Blueberries are up there but not as easy to grow.

So what you need to know about raspberries. Raspberries come in four different types, red, black, yellow and purple. I think the yellow is derived from the red. My kids love my yellow the best, I have Fall Gold, because they are so sweet. As it happily turns out Fall Gold are ever-bearing. Bonus. I didn't know that before I started writing this. So thanks. Don't plant your black and purple near your red and yellow. Supposedly there are diseases the reds may carry but are resistant to that the black and purple can't handle. I think 500 feet was the recommended distance. I have a Jewel on order so it will go in the side yard.

The canes are biennial. The first year cane is nice and green and called a primocane. This doesn't produce fruit unless it is ever-bearing. Ever-bearing produces a crop in the fall on the primocane at the top and you get a second crop the next summer on the bottom 2/3 of the cane. So know what you have before you cut the canes down. Your second year cane is called the floricane, and will produce the fruit for you. It is pretty easy to see what is a primocane and a floracane.

The primocane is green and on the left and the floricane is brown and on the right. This one is a little confusing but I imagine I will just trim the brown wood back to the junction with the primocane. Anyone know if this is correct? I don't know what kind of raspberry this is because I got it off freecycle so I might just let it wait and see what happens.

The roots are perennial. So they will multiply like rabbits. Supposedly. I have to wait until next year to see how we do.

Here is my current raspberry patch. It was just planted in July, I had mono and missed out on early planting. But everything lived so all good.

In this patch I have Heritage, unknown and Killarney. I keep my reds together. 

This is my little patch. I made the simple trellis by splitting a 2x4 with a radial arm saw. Ok, my husband did it, thanks dear. Pounded many many times into the ground and just attached some string. Great thing is that if this doesn't work I can always turn it into a T type trellis with nominal effort. This bed was slated for patio pavers until I learned that raspberries will tolerate partial shade. This used to be all weeds. This bed is in the corner of our house and it was scary. No one walked back there. I wish I took a picture. It had one huge hosta in the back. Tons of daisies, three day lilies and weeds. SO SO SO many weeds. And grass. No one can really see this bed so why spend the effort? I am still fighting the weeds but I put in a little stepping stone walkway and a bigger trellis for grapes and blackberries. The kids love the walkway. They skip all around it and it makes it easier to separate the plants and collect the berries. I waited until the fake flagstone was one sale for 99 cents at Menards. So the path cost me 35 bucks to make. Here is the full bed. Kind of looks like a pitchfork.

To the left of the green downspout is another strawberry patch. Going right are two blackberries and some grapes on the trellis. In the middle is my Fall Gold raspberry and on the right are my raspberry bushes with the trellis. In front is some crazy basil I planted. I will probably put some herbs in there next year towards the front since that gets more sun.

The sad news. Of course there has to be some. Raspberries aren't that pretty. Most have thorns. They get kind of scraggly and unattractive looking so I use them in the back of the house. The Fall Gold looks more like a bush so I am going to wait and see on that one but I am going to try prettier things in the front. They also require a bunch of pruning so it is better to put them in a row so you can have access to them.

These are my kids favorite plants. We go outside every day and look for berries. I cant' wait to see what they do next year!

Plant Naming

Just so you know I name anything bigger than a bush. I grew up without much money as a child and really cherished all my possessions. So much so, they all got names. My bed was Samsonite. I had the Chair of Power. It was a papasan, what else would you call it? So it just makes sense I name my trees, but only if I plant them myself. Hey, every girl has to draw a line somewhere.

My sister bought me a scheffaera as a housewarming gift about 10 years ago. I named it Neville. Sadly, Neville suffered the same copious neglect inflicted on most of my former plants that refused to bear fruit. He was left outside froze and never recovered. See how I still anthropomorphise him? Anyway, that started the Harry Potter naming theme.

Residing in my yard currently are:

Percival (or Pearcival hahah get it. Well no, really it is cute.) the dwarf Bartlett pear tree. He is getting friend to mate with this spring.
Neville (I couldn't resist. I promise to do better this time.) He is a dwarf McIntosh apple tree. He got the name because he doesn't look like much right now but I am sure given time he will reach is potential.
Luna     My dwarf Honey-crisp apple tree. 

I have plans for an small arbor this coming spring so I will get to name a lot more. It will be fun for all. Ok, mostly me.



 

Strawberry Ground Cover

Who doesn't love a good ground cover? You have less weeds, less much expense and they are usually pretty to look at. To make it even better, why shouldn't it grow fruit? I found a cranberry ground cover but it requires the same soil treatment as blueberries so I am going to stick to strawberries. I don't really like cranberries but I have this odd need to try and grow everything if I can get something off of it.

Supposedly strawberries like slightly acid soil. I have heard that using the strawberry food from Gurneys is great but I haven't tried it yet. Think I might in the spring. My kids and husband LOVE strawberries. I went to Costco and bought the huge container on Sunday. By Tuesday afternoon the kids were asking for more.

I purchased two ever bearing plants at Lowes in June. One of these has been a star, producing runners and berries at a Duggar rate, and one has been nominal. I have no idea why one is still fruiting and the other isn't. What I do know is these things send out runners like crazy, that means more berry plants for free. WOO HOO.

 You can see all the runners this plant still has to be transplanted. Between the two plants I had 14 transplants this summer by August. I potted both of them in 1/2 garden soil and half potting. No idea if that is the right thing to do but as they did really well I am not complaining. 

 This guy stopped producing in August. No idea why. both pictures were taken September 13th.




I had a really boring bed on the side yard. It is still boring but I am working on it. I had verbena ground cover which was acutally quite unattractive looking. For some reason it wouldn't stay on the ground and grew like a crazy wild Einstein mane all over the place. There were also two evergreen shrubs, of which I pulled one out to what must have been the neighbors delight. It took me 1/2 hour to get out the small one of grunting, heaving and swearing. To add insult to injury I was stupid enough to not wear long pants and scratched my legs up terribly. Face palm. When the next ones time comes, I will know what to do.

Here the little sucker is.

Check out that root structure. I finally had to hack at the tap root to get it out. Looking at it, it doesn't seem that impressive. I totally feel like a guy who caught the big ass fish only to have it revealed it was 10 inches. So just trust me when I tell you I felt like a stud when it finally came out. This is a back view which was dead from facing the house side. No one wanted it, sad, so I am going to use the needles to help acidify the blueberry bed and burn the rest. Should be one hell of a campfire.

Anyway, pulled out the ground cover and my one manly bush and transplanted strawberries. I should have waited until the plant got bigger in some areas before transplanting but I think they will have time to get established before winter.

I am going to construct a trellis and plant arctic kiwi to cover the wall. That is for next year though.

Th is is the other offending bush. There are several day lilies in the bed. I am going to keep them until I figure out what else I can put there for visual appeal.

All in all I am happy with where this is going. I have other strawberry transplants in other beds as well. I am going to do alpine strawberries in the front yard around the trees since they don't send out runners.

And of course my mistake. I think I transplanted this too soon and it didn't get enough water at first. It is still holding on though.  You are supposed to pinch off new flowers to they produce more later. Ugh, I have a problem doing that but hey, I will do it next year...promise.

Blueberries in clay and slightly alkaline soil.

Yup you can all start laughing at me now if you want, but I am determine to try. If I were a patient person, as previously discussed I am more like a 3 year old in the patience department, I would have prepped the soil this fall and planted in the spring but as typical my enthusiasm got the best of me. Looking around my yard I saw a place that could be separated from the rest of my soil so it might be easier to control the PH. Blueberries like a PH of 4-5.5 and our soil in the Chicagoland area is not even close. We have the exact opposite soil preferred by blueberries. Oh well, the kids love them and they are ghastly expensive at the store so why not. I know people who prefer to container garden these and I am considering that as well. I honestly don't think I can have too many berries in this household.

So I started with this bed:
Sorry the picture is so far. I always forget take pictures at the start of the project. It is too bad I didn't take pictures of this process. It was a real pain in the patootie. A seventeen foot yew bush, which was five different plants, was my nemesis. I have never like Yew bushes so it was almost cathartic ripping it from the ground. They are a pain and give you nothing except green. Boring. It was about 20 years old and had roots like (insert great analogy here cause I got nothing). I acutally used bolt cutters to snip some of the more burly roots.

Yup, there the beastie is. Many scratches and muscle pulls later and it was out. I should mention my FIL was going to come with his car and help pull them out with a rope, which would have been great if not for my enthusiasm getting the best of me, again. All I had to do was wait two little days. Nah, I got out the shovel and got to work. After they were pulled I put down 3 cubic feet of moss, which will acidify the soil as it decomposes. I also mixed in needles from the yew bush. Hey, it might help. Then I put in Espoma Soil Acidifer. It takes time to work but I have so far reduced the PH from almost 8 to about 6.5 and my moss isn't doing its thing yet.

So here is the new bed. From left to right:

Unsure      Chippewa     BlueJay    Polaris     Chippewa
The small bushes in front at patio blueberries from Gurney. I am getting one more patio blueberry for the naked spot. They are small and I hope I didn't crowd them too much.

The one I am unsure about had some smoke damage but that is another story. I have read to not prune these guys for the first three years. Stay tuned to see if these manage to produce berries in the next few seasons. Anyway, the ugly Yew is gone and that makes me happy.

Saving money on plants

I love couponing and saving money. As an accountant I want to get the best ROI from my plants, part of which means paying less for my plants so they can pay themselves off earlier. Some great places to get plants:

Free or cheap:
Freecycle
Craigslist
Trade with friends
Ask a neighbor

Paying:
End of season clearance at Meijer, Home Depot, Kmart or Lowe’s. (just make sure plants look in good condition and have time to get established before winter)
I picked up a dwarf Bartlett pear tree from K-Mart for $10, a  Dwarf Honeycrisp and Dwarf McIntosh apple tree from Meijer for 12.99 and 6.99 each. They do require more pruning but I think they come larger sized than some of the other stores. Home depot had 50% off trees but I missed it. Sad.

Websites with deals. Gurneys, Spring Hill Nurseries, and a few others have deals with free shipping or $25 off a purchase of $50. If you buy what is already on sale and add the 50% off you can score some sweet deals. Signing up for their newsletter is great. They will email you when they have deals.

I really like the $25 off $50 deal. You don't get free shipping but this more than makes up for it. The idea is to get as close to $50 as you can.

My purchase at Gurneys:

1TOP HAT DWARF BLUEBERRY $11.99 (regular 11.99)
1RASPBERRY BRISTOL $4.50 (regular 8.99)
1PIXIE CRUNCH APPLE LI'L BIG 2-3) $11.24 (regular price 44.95)
1JEWEL RASPBERRY $5.00 (regular 6.95)
1PRIME JAN BLACKBERRY $6.00 (regular 6.00)
1 OUR CHOICE BUSH CHERRY $13.59 (regular price 29.95)

First Total 52.32
Less deal 25.00
Total 27.32
Shipping 8.35
Final total $35.67
Notice I purchased a tree that cost more originally than I paid for everything. My total would have been $108.83. I did pay full price for the blueberry but I my impatience got the best of me and I wanted to plant it before the winter sets in.

I go onto the sites about every two weeks and look to see what is on super sale. That is how I found the apple tree.

I will not receive my mini dwarf apple tree until the spring ship but that is fine with me. After the discount I got it for less than 10 bucks. Even I can wait for that. Plus it gives me more time to plan my arbor. I only have one tree planted where I am planning my little tree farm so I have lots of thinking to do.

Greetings

Hi! I live in the Chicago suburbs, or for gardeners zone 5a, and am an accountant turned stay at home mom. I dabble in all sorts of crafts from sewing, jewelry making, candles, cross-stitch ect. I have always longed to find an obsession in the form of a craft but alas am stuck as a generalist. If they sell it at Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann or Michaels chances are I have tried it at least once. So last thing I ever expected to do was fall in love with gardening and small farming. I am calling it farming because I am transforming all my plants and shrubs into something edible. Fear not green friends, the lost plants are donated via freecycle or to various friends. Gardening seemed to denote a dedication to all plants so I went with farmer. I am even considering getting myself a hat.

(insert hazy flashback mist) It all began two months ago on a hot July day. We were visiting friends who had a raspberry patch. At this time I bring you back to the present with me hating to do anything much with the lawn. I have severely overgrown weed beds in the back. It neither stimulates me nor excites me to have anything to do with hostas, day lilies, spirea and other random assorted plants that only look pretty but require some care. I preferred to deal with these plants as little as possible. One sad anemic looking aloe plant that was all the green I had inside my house. (back to hazy mist) At this party they had a raspberry patch. My daughter went crazy for it. She is 3 and easy to feed. My son, 4 and as easy to feed as hand feeding as starving alligator, was not. But that was ok because my daughter could down a 6 oz package of Raspberries in about 10 minutes. Here they cost about 2.99 per package. I am notoriously cheap figured this would be an economical solution to the problem. I decided to take the bed of weeds, which had been slated for patio pavers, and plant our very own berry patch.. I went to Lowes and just purchased random plants with little regard to much of anything. I planted them and they did nothing. I should mention patience is a virtue I admire in others because it is completely lacking in my own character. But I held on and caught the fever and started pulling up old plants and replacing with edibles. I planted a little garden. Then Mister Pickey Eater started devouring the green beans and raspberries and I went a little crazy. I searched and researched and did some more online searching, got books, planted, researched more and maybe did a little more research. I am still learning but spend hours in my little garden looking for ways and places to add more.

Come grow with me. (more puns to follow...that is a guarantee, unlike my tomato plants which need a little work) Watch as I remove all my old landscaping, put in new plants, make tons of mistakes and journey into the world of edible landscaping. I am sure we will have a lot of fun. I will post with money savings tips, plant info and care, might try some canning, and some baking. As an impassioned generalist you never know what I might get into.