Weekend Landscaping

It was a somewhat miserable, cold and clammy weekend, but that wasn't going to stop me from getting more yard work done.  I got up early and headed up to American Soil & Mulch to order 10 yards of triple shredded pine bark mulch delivered, and also filled up the truck with a yard of compost blend garden soil.  They were slow so the delivery truck followed me home.

I started up the rototiller and tilled up the clay in the front corner of the wild area, where the figs and camelia used to be.  I had already removed most of the legitimate soil from this area, and mounded it elsewhere.  After I tilled the clay, I emptied the entire cubic yard of compost blend soil, spread it out and tilled this in, making for a nice mix to plant stuff in.  I also mounded it up away from the sidewalk and driveway.  I also decided to use my leftover landscaping blocks to build a nice little wall - the very front corner of the wild area would make a very suitable location for our succulent garden.  So I removed pretty much all of the soil here, dug down into the clay and removed some of that, then Adrienne and I filled it in with a mixture of black soil, sand and gravel.  We mounded it up nicely for drainage then Adrienne planted all of her succulents.  We finished it off by mulching it with pea gravel.

Here's a picture of the finished area, including a Black Cherry Tree that we planted (which you can probably barely see because it's small and has no leaves or anything yet).

Succulent garden and newly planted Black Cherry tree.

You can also see a partially finished raised garden bed that my daughter insisted on for strawberries.  I don't know how well this location will work for strawberries but we'll see.  The soil should be well drained and rich especially after we build it up a little more.  I just need to get some more 6x6 lumber to finish squaring off the bed, which will be about 4'x4'.

The other thing worth mentioning is that I used some extra 8 foot 6x6 lumber to square off the garden bed in the wild area - sort of like a retaining wall.  In this area I also planted a "Black Mission Fig" which I picked up at Home Depot yesterday for $20 - they are hardy to Zone 8A and we're in 7B so it may not last!  I also replanted another one of the knockout roses here, and Adrienne wants to put a bird bath in the middle.

I also did a LOT more mulching and some weeding.  Didn't really do anything in my "gardens" proper, but I figured that was enough for one weekend.

Seed Starting Schedule - Start Planning Now!

If you're planning to start any or all of your gardening items from seed this year, now is the time to start planning your planting schedule!  In fact, depending on your location, you might be behind the ball already.

Johnny's Selected Seeds has a really nice seed starting calculator to get you started.  You simply enter the date of your last frost, and it gives you indoor seed starting dates and outdoor planting dates for transplant.

Johnny's Seed Starting Calculator

I created an Excel spreadsheet containing all the things I would be planting, along with the first seed starting date and the first "set out" date that the seed calculator gives me.  Then, Some seeds that I have were not listed (some of the herbs, for example) so I had to do a little extra research.  I then made a few adjustments to the schedule so I was planting certain things at the same time, and I've scheduled almost everything for a transplant date of April 27, which is one week after my last frost.  This allows me to set things out early if I need to (if they are getting too large for their starting container).  It's okay to set out transplants early as long as you keep them protected from the possible cold.

Ultimately, I came up with the following schedule:

• LAST WEEK - plant Thyme and Foxglove.  I'm a little behind on the Foxglove, I will plant that Monday probably.
• February 24 - Plant eggplant and peppers.  These items will not be planted outdoors until May 4th, and this will give them 10 weeks to get established.  I will start them in small peat pellets, and transplant them into 4" pots after about 6 weeks probably.
• March 2 - HERB DAY!  I will start Parsley, Mexican Mint Marigold, Catnip, Oregano, Chives, Cilantro, and Dill.
• March 16 - Tomato, Basil, and Pole Beans
• March 30 - Cucumber, Pumpkin, and Zucchini, along with my two flowering vines, Morning Glory and Cardinal Climber.

I've already direct sown my lettuce, spinach, green onions, and yellow onions under a cold frame in one of my raised beds, and my peas have already been sown in another raised bed.  I will also probably direct-sow my carrots sometime in late February (NC State says I can plant them from February 15-March 1).

So, aside from getting my Foxgloves started ASAP, I have four big planting dates - February 24, March 2, March 16, and March 30.

Additional Seeds Ordered

Amish Paste Tomato

I was looking at my tomato varieties and I noticed that the Juliet and Olivade tomatoes, which I purchased for "sauce making" are rather small.  In fact, the Juliet's are "grape" tomatoes weighing at only about 1oz each.  The Olivade apparently are 3-4oz each, which should be more tolerable for making sauce.  I may or may not grow the Juliet variety, as I've already got "Sun Gold" for my small tomatoes.  I have purchased a packet of "Amish Paste" heirloom tomato, which are supposed to be 8-12oz each and very meaty.  I could make a batch of sauce with only 4-5 of these!  The less peeling I have to do, the better!

In addition to the new tomatoes, I also ordered packets of the following:

• Mexican Mint Marigold - an herb that can be substituted for French Tarragon, but I'm planting it for its insect repellant properties.  It allegedly repels aphids.  And it's pretty!
• Big Smile Dwarf Sunflower - Adrienne doesn't like sunflowers.  I don't care.  These are short (12-24") so they shouldn't be too obnoxious.
• Champion Pumpkin - large pumpkins.  I may not have space to grow this but I'm gonna try!!
• Morning Glory - Flying Saucers Mix - a vigorous vine to clime up on my bench.
• Cardinal Climber - another vigorous vine for the bench.

Saturday's Yard Work

Sunny and 65 degrees in January is a recipe for yard work!  First thing I did this morning was head out in the truck and go get a load of "Compost Blend Garden Soil" from my supplier.  I needed this to complete my new raised bed garden (which I actually finished last night with some rebar stakes and some screws.  Unfortunately, I dramatically overestimated the amount of soil I would need to finish it up, and it only took 3 or 4 wheelbarrow loads!  The picture to the right is the finished product.

Now, since I had a half a truckload of soil left, that meant I had more work to do.  That meant working on the sidewalk area out front.  This is an area of our yard that gets complete full hot sun all summer along, is hard to water, and has the poorest quality soil.  It used to have grass but we gave up on that years ago and mulched it.  It contained some ornamental grasses and a creeping phlox groundcover, none of which did very well due to the heat and poor quality of the soil and my indifferent to watering them.  So I dug those up and moved them to a location in the side yard, and then proceeded to till the whole area.  I then removed all of the tilled earth - bringing the ground level down to an inch or so below the sidewalk and curb.  It had mounded up quite high with several years of mulching.  I moved all this dirt into a part of the side yard in the wild area, probably 30 square feet and and a foot deep.  Seriously, I moved a LOT of dirt.  I then dumped the remainder of my compost blend soil along with a few wheelbarrow loads of leftover compost, and tilled all that in. Here is the finished product:

Newly prepared sidewalk area.

Creeping Phlox and ornamental grasses moved from the sidewalk area.

New mound of dirt to contain...?

In the sidewalk area we are going to plant a 5' tall Catawba, which is a beautiful purple, and it should enjoy the hot sun.  My man Russ will be taking care of that in a couple of weeks.  We're going to sod the rest with a nice warm season southern grass like bermuda - something that will require a lot less water and won't mind the summer heat.  The amended soil should help a lot too.  Of course we can't lay down bermuda until mid-April at the earliest, so I guess this area is going to sit empty for 3 months.  That's what I get for getting overzealous!

I might actually keep a strip in the middle and plant perrenial evergreen herbs - rosemary, oregano, thyme, etc.

So, now I just need it to be spring.

And my arms are sore.

Seed Starting Has Commenced!

I planted 53 "Creeping Thyme" plants this morning using my heat pad and Jiffy 7 peat pellets.  I suppose technically I planted 150-200 ... the seeds are so tiny.  Germination rate according to the package is 78% so we'll see.  14-21 days for germination, so I should have some plants in a couple weeks!

This is on my desk at work under a pair of fairly standard flourescent lights.  Suitable for seed starting at least.  Worked great last year for my peppers!

This is, by the way, one case where I chose to buy 1/8th of an ounce of seeds instead of one packet.  A packet included about 200 seeds, while an eight of an ounce included around 18,000 seeds.  I probably used 200 seeds to plant these 53 pellets because the seeds are so tiny.  Hard to drop just one or two at a time.  This way, I'll have plenty of seeds left if I don't get enough germination, and plenty of seeds that I can share with others who might want some thyme.

Zoning in - your USDA Hardiness Zone may have changed!

The United States National Arboretum has updated its USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map for 2012.  This is the first official update since 1990, and more than 80 million potential gardeners have moved a half-zone warmer.

If you're not familiar, here's the low down:

The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones.

Click here for the Interactive Zone Map

Although the map doesn't let you zoom very far in when you click on the state, and the color variations are a bit hard on my eyes, it appears that Wake County (where I live, home to the state capitol of Raleigh) is still in Zone 7b, but most of eastern north carolina has moved into Zone 8a - including the county just east of Wake County (Johnston County), and the one just south of Wake County (Harnett County).  I live maybe 15 miles from Harnett County.

So, your zone may have changed.


Don't let this fool you into thinking you can plant any earlier.  If you looked up your average last frost date last year, it's not gonna be any different.  Do NOT use USDA Zones to determine last frost date.  I know, some of you are saying "Who would do that?"  Well, I give you about.com.

The USDA Hardiness Zone Maps only predict low temperatures.  Some of us think "Wow you're in Zone 9, that must  be hot!".  Nope.  It's not hot in North Bend, Oregon (Zone 9a).  Well, I mean it's certainly nice there, maybe a little rainy.

My point is, that the Hardiness Zone Maps don't predict weather, climate, or heat.  They ONLY predict cold so you know what to plant and what not to plant.

Zone 7b has a minimum temperature of 5-10 degrees.  The web site is a bit misleading as it refers to the "average annual minimum winter temperature".  Don't confuse this with the "average low", which for January in Raleigh is around 30 degrees.  I don't actually know how they come up with 5-10.  I've lived here since 1998 and I haven't seen it get below 10 even once.  It's only been below 15 a couple of times.  But the State Climatology Office informed me yesterday that the all time record low recorded at RDU International Airport was -9 degrees back in 1985.


Damn!


So here's the deal.  If something is hardy to Zone 7 (not specifically Zone 7b), it should be able to handle 0 degrees but it might not be able to handle -9 degrees, and the plant could thereby die and NOT come back - or be heavily damaged by the freeze.

The zone maps are not a guarantee.  You can plant Zone 8 plants in Zone 7 if you want and they might survive a "normal" cold winter, but they probably won't survive an extreme cold winter like that.  You are just taking a bit of a risk.

On a side note, some plants can't survive the low temps, but some plants NEED them too.  The Blue Spruce, commonly referred to as the christmas tree in my home state of Michigan, is hardy only to Zone 8b.  Frosts are rare in zone 9 I guess and these trees need a little freeze in the winter (they're also not very tolerant of it being 100 degrees).

So whatever you do, plant accordingly.  Check your zone - it's possibly you've moved into a zone where you can more easily plant Palm Trees or perhaps a zone where Rosemary is a perrenial shrub (this is you, if you've moved from 6b to 7a!)

Seed Ordering Complete!

Having ordered my pepper seeds the other day from the New Mexico State University Chili Pepper Institute, I hit the web site for Johnny's Selected Seeds last night and ordered the rest of my seeds.  Last year, I got most of my seeds from Home Depot, and grew a fair number of things from starts purchased at the Farmers market.  Home Depot, which limits my varieties to whatever I see on the shelf.  By purchasing my seeds from a seed company online, I have access to a much greater variety.

Some things I grew last year I won't be growing again.  I won't be growing cowpeas (aka black eyed peas), nor will I grow any Serrano peppers.  I won't grow any "grape" tomatoes, and I won't be using the Topsy Turvy again.

Creeping Thyme

I will be growing a LOT more herbs this year.  My purchases of herb seeds this year include:

• Purple Basil "Amethyst Improved"
• Italian Large Leaf Basil
• Catnip
• Purly Chives
• "Calypso" Cilantro/Coriander
• Superdukat Dill
• Creeping Thyme

I actually bought a large amount of creepign thyme as I'm going to try to use it as a groundcover for one section of my yard.  It's cold hardy and evergreen!  I ordered 1/8 ounce, which is apparently like 18,000 seeds.  Hah.

Valencia Heirloom Tomato

I'm choosing a few different varieties of tomatoes this year too.

• Sun Gold - yellow/orange cherry tomatoes that are vigorous and extremely flavorful.
• Juliet - a meaty plum tomato for sauce
• Olivade - another meaty plum tomato for sauce
• Big Beef - The only returning variety from last year, this makes nice big slicing tomatoes good for sandwiches and caprese salad!
• New Girl - According to Johnny's Selected Seeds, this variety is "better tasting and more disease resistant than Early Girl" - which I grew last year with good success.
• Valencia (heirloom) - "Round, smooth fruits average 8-10 oz. Their meaty interiors have few seeds. This midseason tomato is among the best for flavor and texture."  Honestly, I wasn't real happy with the other heirlooms I grew last year (Prudens Purple and German Johnson).

Zucchini - Goldy

And, for the non-tomato non-herb stuff ...

• Pole Beans, Fortex
• Eggplant, Nadia (Large Dark Purple)
• Ornamental Gourds, Small Mixed
• Carrots, Nelson
• Flowers, Foxglove, Camelot Mix (pelleted)
• Zucchini, Cashflow (green)
• Zucchini, Goldy (yellow)

The only thing I plan to grow that I did NOT buy is cucumbers.  I had great success and enjoyed the flavor of the "Straight 8" variety of slicing cukes that I grew 2 years ago and was not as impressed with whatever it was I grew last year.  So I will find the Straight 8 seeds at Home Depot I guess.

Of course, I won't likely have more than 1 or 2 of each item in my gardens.  Makes buying seeds less cost effective since I paid around $3.50 a packet.  Seedlings would be cheaper =)

If you live near me and want some seeds, feel free to ask!