ROUGH CUT LOGS AT LOCATION

HERE WE GO AGAIN ANOTHER LOG USE

We decided we need something to break up the blank area at the bottom of the driveway and help complement the entrance to our Gardens.  So off to the woods for some pine logs.   Found just what we where looking for, cut it into 6 pieces and deposited them at the location.  After a little deliberation we decided to move down the hill a little to get away from Snow plow in the winter.

ALL CUT AND SCREWED TOGETHER

All assembled and ready for set up of pole for hanging plants and bird feeders.

AT FINAL LOCATION POLE FOR HANGING PLANTS IN PLACE READY FOR LOAM

Next move is to layer the bottom with several layers of news paper, then some Horse manure and then loam, vermiculite, peat moss and organic slow release fertilizer.

COMPLETE AND PLANTED

Petunias and a couple of Cleome planted next to the pole.  Hanging baskets in bloom and humming bird feeder ready to go.

WHAT’S BLOOMED OR IS BLOOMING THIS YEAR

In spite of the cold wet weather the perennials are coming along and providing us with some exceptional viewing. This is a quick view around the gardens showing some of what has bloomed and what is in bloom now.  End of June 2009

FOX GLOVE

COLUMBINE

HANGING PLANTS

Hanging plants  Fuchsia and Impatiens.  We also have Petunias, Thunbergia, Million Bells and  Lobelia.

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ROSE

As things grow, get rearranged and have additional plants added, each year will bring a new  look to Liza and Johns Garden.

As for the vegetables we do have a good crop of snap peas, broccoli, kale and cabbage.  In spite of  having to plant late the cool wet weather has allowed a good harvest of these.  Other veggies  also getting planted late but we have some corn up and going and another crop following.  Tomatoes have been planted at various time along the way but until now they just sat there doing nothing.  Now they are starting to grow in spite of the wet weather, ground temp coming up.  We are still planing to put seed out for a few things, crops will be late but will be OK.  Almost time to start veggie’s for fall crops.   Looks like we will have a lot of veggies this fall.   Some of the summer veggie’s will be come fall one’s.

Not much we can do except work around the weather, forecast for the next few days is rain.  Tell us what’s going on in your garden.

A QUICK SCAN AROUND TO SEE  PROJECTS WE ARE WORKING ON

Lots of things moving slow this year because of the wet weather.  Slowly completing a few projects we started this spring.  This year we will be building a few structures for the gardens.  Lots of limbs and saplings available from the ice storm.

BUILDING OUR OWN

Another Raised bed using Logs.   We have lots of pine logs dead standing and some others slated to come down giving us amble supply of logs.

ANOTHER RAISED BED USING LOGS

Could not dig deep enough for Asparagus bed so up it comes and will eventually be in the middle of some garden rooms.

ASPARAGUS BED

We have close to 300 each Petunias and Marigolds as well as Tomato and a mix of other plants coming along it the green houses.

MINI GREENHOUSES HAVE OVER 400 PLANTS WAITING

Picked up some cement edger’s at a yard sale. used some of them to give this garden a face lift.

FENCE GARDEN GETS FACE LIFT "CEMENT EDGING BLOCKS"

Due to the delays caused by weather we are still planting vegetables and this week end and will be cleaning up the gardens and completing seed planting for now.  We have started some perennials in the “Garden is Born Bed” and will be filling in with the Petunias and Marigolds.

The next post will be a look around at what is blooming and what has bloomed so far this year.  Then after that  some posts about the different projects that have been completed and others we are working on.

We are trying to encorage more of you to make comments, asking questions, telling us what you think or what you would like more of.  I will try to reply to each comment that needs an answer or comment.   You can also sign up for Email notices of new comments for selected posts and or RSS Feeds.

CERTIFIED WILDLIFE HABITAT

Yesterday evening we had unusual visitor to our Habitat, a Turtle.  First time we have seen this one.   Took some photos and then went to The N.H. Fish and Game Department’s Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program to identify this Turtle.  To our surprise we found that she is a Blanding’s Turtle and is on the Endangered Species list in New Hampshire.  We have classified her as the first official unusual visitor to the habitat.

Still wondering what or who will be next to show in our garden this year.  We have had a Red Fox wander through a couple of times this spring and we have a nesting pair of Chipping Sparrows.  Also saw Three Turkeys one day. Now the Blanding’s Turtle and a Female Fox and her two Kits have been seen in the neighborhood.  What’s Next?

WHAT TO DO WITH OLD STONE WALL

Old stone wall was looking pretty bad and we had tried to garden around it for years but not much grew except for rocks.   On one side a lone Daylily had made it,  on the other side several daylilies had survived.  We where opening the area up to get more sun in and needed to do some thing with the stone wall.   Due to the fact that it would be a major operation to remove the wall and several stumps and all the tree roots we decided to build a raised bed around it.

OLD STONE WALL

Those old pine logs where handy and became the frame of the raised bed.  Dug out as many rocks as we could and put them on top of the stone wall.   Then we set the logs in place and lined the bed with news paper working around the daylilies.   Next step was to put a good layer of old horse manure on top of the news paper about 4″.  Then a layer of compost covered with a layer of  decomposing leaves.  Final layer was super-loam covered with some mulch.

Turkey Helping to Set logs

In June we went to a Round Up  plant swap and came home with a bunch of plants.  Most of them went into this bed.  We also had some Petunia’s  that needed a home so in they went.  Things did real well considering when they were planted.

Fill Up Complete

In the fall we went to another Round Up and came home with some more Daylilies, in they went.  Late in the fall another layer of mulch was added for the winter.  This spring things have developed very well.  Most of the plants are up a going, no great losses.  Some old Daffodils that had never done much came up and had full bloom.  Planted some more daylillies on the back side along with some other lillies and so far all is well.

Late Summer 2008

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Lets take a look around the gardens.

This is a random view of our gardens over the years, they are in no particular order and are not arranged in any way.  As we are ever expanding the gardens what you may see as grass in one photo may be garden in another.  We have no particular plan for the garden except to keep expanding and creating different rooms and gardens.  We have thousands of photos and this is just a few, as things progress we will be posting about particular gardens and garden rooms.

As you will see we are not into keeping track of the names and details  of flowers, we just like to grow them  for their color or shape or whatever  we like about them.

Hope you enjoy the visit, please leave a comment to let us know you where here.

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Doug Green has a interesting post on his blog this morning: Relax for Crying Out Loud

Doug says “it’s just fine to make a mess of your gardening”   Its worth a trip over there to read it.  Those of you who are not familiar with Doug Green take a look around while you are there,  Doug has lots of good gardening information in his blog.

Relax for Crying Out Loud

↑Click Here↑

WE HAVE IDENTIFIED THIS HAWK AS A “BROAD-WINGED HAWK”

NOT A RED SHOULDERED HAWK

Our thanks to johanna-lea for her observation, did a little research and have to agree with her that this one is a BROAD-WINGED HAWK.   The post has been edited.

First time we have had the pleasure of a visit by a Broad-winged Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk was here today for about 3 hours.  First saw it on the tray feeder at computer window then on kids play gym, next on the house feeder outside kitchen window, then on orange feeder pole then on the ground and back to orange feeder.  Around the house towards the sheds and  was last seen on the kids gym again.

Broad-winged Hawk

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Wondering what or who will be next to show in our garden this year.  We have had a Red Fox wander through a couple of times this spring and we have a nesting pair of Chipping Sparrows.  Also saw Three Turkeys one day.

Spring of 2007 we decided to setup a water garden in our yard, Liza’s Mother had given us a pool liner “Plastic Tub Type” and we had never set it up.   OK next we had to dig out a hole in the ground to put it in and we selected to put in in the area where we had a little depressed garden full of Daffodils.  We dug the hole brought in some sand and set the tub.  Filled it with water and went looking for plants for the water garden.   Not only plants for in the Water but for plants around the Water garden.

All Set Ready to Go

Now you have to know that 2007 was an exceptionally dry year and a great transition took place not only in the water garden but throughout are whole garden “FROGS” all sizes and many types moved in.  We started with one  Lepord frog in the pond but he soon left and got replaced by many others.  Don’t know much about frogs but seems to me we had two or more types.  We also got some fish for the pool and we now have a tank inside the house to keep the fish through the Winter and that’s another story.

Early Summer 2007

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We ended up in the fall of 2007 transporting about 100 FROGS to  a local pond and running stream  so they could survive the winter.  We have to drain our pool for the winter  because it  will freeze in and nothing will survive.

2008 was a little different, not as many frogs and we were able to move them in the fall to our own Bog and wet area for the winter.   We also had a few other creatures move into the garden in 2008, like this frog who keeps the pond water clean and aerated.

Spitter and Gator

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2009  looks like a totally different scenario as our local wet area it now running water.  We have not attacked this area yet as it is a major project and may be best left to its own.  We do have two new additions to the garden so far this year.

EGRET and FROG

Time will tell what develops this summer, pool is full and pump is on,  frog is working.  Daffodils are just going by, so soon it will be time to put some plants in the pool and start planting around it.

FIRST FROG OF 2009

This week end was a busy one in the garden.   Started spring clean up and planted a few plants.  We also had some new arrivals at Liza and Johns Garden.  We got our first load of fresh Horse manure from the farm up the street.  Lots of things poking up, Daffodils in full  bloom and two new creatures are now living in the garden.

We have identified one as a large Frog from China and the other is a White Bird that we have seen only in Florida.  It seems they both have taken up residence in our garden.

FROG FROM CHINA

FLORIDA EGRET

Not sure what will move in next but we welcome all types of creatures to the garden.  Lots of Seed coming up in the Aero Gardens and other starter systems.  This week will be planting outside some lettuce, Broccoli, Cabbage and the peas are up and going.

One of the things we enjoy while on our trips to Florida is watching the Alligators. During our visits Liza has taken many photos of the alligators. Here are a few of them.
In the park where we live in Florida there seems to be a lot of controversy about Alligators living around people.

What are some laws protecting Alligators?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) lists alligators as a species threatened due to similarity of appearance, which specifically refers to the similarity between alligators and the endangered American Crocodile.  In Florida, alligators are considered a Species of Special Concern  but can be harvested legally under proper license and permits issued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

It is Illegal  to FEED or HARASS Alligators in Florida.

Here is a Link to: Living with alligators

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Last Friday Morning I looked out the kitchen window and there was Lucy sitting on my truck.

We had not seen her since last November, guess she went south for the winter.  Lucy had visited us on a regular basis all last summer.  One of her favorite spots to stop and rest was my black Pickup Truck.  She checked out around the bird feeders daily and wandered around the yard looking for what ever she could find to dine on.   She was a regular visitor at the horse farm up the street, liked to visit with their chickens.  We are looking forward to her visiting us again this summer on a regular basis.

LUCY IS BACK

MR. BLUEBIRD

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