Gardening Tips!

Tip #1 - Moles Moles have been mowing through my garden for two years now. Last year they ate little rows in all of my cucumbers and this year they chewed my lettuce down to the nubs. So, I bought a few pinwheels on Memorial Day for a couple dollars and placed them throughout; especially near the veggies they seem to enjoy the most. At this point there has been no damage since installation! The vibrations apparently scare them away. Try it and save your garden from these pesky critters.





Tip #2 - Cage Want to have more space for plants? Grow your cucumbers up a cage/fence/lattice. Whatever you choose, the cucs will climb up and still produce a healthy harvest.




Tip #3 - Grow grapes along your garden fence




Check out more of our crop here

Garden Update!

After moving the vines to an area with better soil (less water retention) and more sunlight we have grapes! The vines are beautiful spread out on the garden lattice and you can't beat edible decoration. Curious how this garden was started? Check out this post!

What is in our garden

Corn and Carrots Zucchini Broccoli Assorted Peppers Assorted Tomatoes Peppermint/Spearmint Bushes

New Flowers & Our New Art Store!

Red and Black Lilies

Delphiniums

Dahlias

Rhododendrons

 

 

If you enjoy these pictures feel free to check out the art prints from our new art store below!

http://john-baumgartner.artistwebsites.com/

Collection Cup Art Store is now Live!

Set up an Art Store for all of the photos from the site! Check it out and if you have any requests please let us know!

Evolution of a Garden - before and after

When we purchased this house a year and a half ago I was so excited to have a nice spot for my garden. Little did I know just how overgrown this 24 x 12 foot plot of land was. Okay, yes it looks overgrown but I assumed it would be a quick clean up job. I later found out that this garden hadn't been used in many, many years and it took weeks to pull out the bushes, grass, weeds, and rocks. A garden was planted in a hurry so that I could make the most out of the upstate New York growing season. It was not my best harvest and this year I was determined to make the most out of my garden.

This picture is post winter frost and mid build of the lattice border. When raking leaves during the fall season we threw some into the soil for composting along with fertilizer pebbles. The soil was healthy and dark when it came to tilling.

Evolution of a Flowerbed

On to my new flower bed! This area just needed some "oomph", so we got out the shovels...

After digging up the layer of grass and tilling the remaining soil to even it out, Voila! Rather than buying stones to border the bed, I used the many, many, MANY rocks that are found in the yard. I planted a Laceleaf Weeping Japanese Maple tree (Acer Palmatum Dissectum) which will grow 6 to 10 feet, or an average of 8 feet. This tree must be "trained" or pruned as they grow to encourage the weeping top and I am on my way out the door to do some trimming as soon as I post this. My other favorite plant that does great in this area is a Delphinium. It isn't flowering at the moment but around mid summer it will produce beautiful blue towers of flowers that last into fall. There are also various colors of lilies scattered throughout; spearmint and peppermint are surrounding the bird bath.

I hope this gives you some inspiration. With a few hours of hard work and some creativity you can give a boring landscape a little personality!