Category Archives: Back Yard

DIY Nesting Wreath

I stopped by Los Gatos Birdwatcher last week and saw the coolest idea: a wreath made from nesting materials. They covered the wreath with soft wool, feathers and other natural material.

For a few years I’ve saved my laundry lint, then tied it to a tree in a mesh bag. Making a wreath looked like way more fun.

I picked up a frame at the craft store for a few dollars and got to work. I wrapped the entire wreath with soft, oatmeal-colored yarn. I pulled the yarn taught to prevent entanglement. It also gave me a base to push bits of lint, string and wool into the frame.

Wire Wreath Frame

Wrapping Frame with yarn

Small pieces of laundry lint

I pushed the lint through the taut yarn with the round end of a small paintbrush

Having nesting material on hand is a great way to attract birds to your yard. Spring’s coming. Start making those wreaths and stashing them throughout the yard.

Materials:

Wire wreath frame (any size) I used a 6 inch frame.
Neutral colored yarn or string
Laundry lint (neutral) Birds build nests in subtle colors that blend with the environment
Scraps of yarn, or string, cut into short lengths no longer than one or two inches (to avoid bird entanglement.)

I found the cutest hook to hang it from at our local fabric store for just $3. It’s a bird (of course). Let me know what you think.

Nesting Wreath

Bird hook

Eggshell Seed Starters: Cracked Eggs, Happy Pumpkins

City Picker: Grow Tomatoes on your Porch, Patio or Deck

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City Picker

A few years back, a friend raved about an Earth Box, a self-contained planting system for vegetables. I’m not sure if they were hard to come by at the time, but I never stumbled across one in any of the garden centers I frequent, or I simply didn’t take the time to look.

Our raised beads spread out across the back of our house in past years, but they were too close together making it challenging to get around them without getting your foot caught between them. When we refurbished our back yard this winter, we widened the path in front of the beds, to make room for our summer pumpkin vines. We added gravel, since part of that area isn’t easily plant-able due to pipes, irrigation shut off valves, the electric box, etc. It was a great place for a chair in the cooler months, with the sun reflecting heat off the side of the house. Hoping to capture that trapped heat for our tomatoes this summer, I went looking for an Earth Box. What I found instead was a City Picker, virtually identical in every way, but almost double in width.

City Picker’s are perfect for urban gardeners, since they are a fully contained system in a portable box. The planting box comes with casters, a ventilation tray, a watering tube and plastic mulch. You can roll it around your patio or deck to maximize sun, while at the same time containing the mess. No need to worry about watering your downstairs neighbor!

Here is our setup:

1.5 CU FT. Organic Potting Mix

Dolomite Lime and Fertilizer

Fully assembled City Picker

Fill with potting mix to about two inches below the top
Add a thin layer of Dolomite

Organic Fertilizer:
Make a two-inch trough in the center of the box
Add three cups of organic fertilizer

Mound Potting Mix:
Cover fertilizer with mix, about one inch above the box

Plastic Mulch:
Cover with the elasticized plastic mulch
Clip in place with the enclosed binder clips

Cut Holes in Plastic Mulch:
Cut a hole for the irrigation pipe
Cut additional holes and plant seeds/seedlings

Ready to Grow

I’ve provided links for the Earth Box and the City Picker for feature comparisons. Please let me know if you’ve tried one in the past, or if you plan to set one up this season.

True Leaves: Seedlings Ready to Go

1 Reply

Pushing Up Seed Casings

I learned the expression “true leaves” on a gardening forum called I Dig My Garden. True leaves are the second pair of leaves on an emerging plant indicating all systems are go for transplanting outdoors. I like that expression, and find it far more interesting than my heretofore “second set of leaves” terminology.

Our Burpee Growing System delivered in spades. We have over 72 pumpkin seedlings ready to go. I prepped the garden beds a few weeks ago anticipating this day. The stars have aligned, which is to say dry, warm inviting conditions to launch our pumpkin crop. Here we go!

“The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies.”
- Gertrude Jekyll
☼☼☼

April 11th: Planted seeds indoors in a Burpee Seed Starting System.

April 18th: Will you look at these adorable sprouts? What personality!

April 29th: True Leaves! So excited…

Kitchen Counter Pumpkin Crops

In the Garden: Give your Seedlings Room to Grow (mgnv.org)
Organictivity #4 Transplanting Seedlings (organictivity.com)
Progress and my other ‘kills’ (unpetitjardin.wordpress.com)

It’s Arbor Day: Have you Hugged Your Favorite Tree?

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Proud Tree Hugger

If you can’t plant a tree somewhere today, arbor day enthusiasts suggest taking stock of your own. Are they healthy? In need of a trim? Perhaps some fertilizer is in order.

Our suburban lot is about 6,000 square feet. The house occupies a third of that and what’s left includes the garden, a deck, a patio and a few trees. Three established trees grew in our backyard when we bought the house, but not a single tree out front. I started researching approved street trees before escrow even closed, and together my husband and I settled on a Chinese Pistache. The Pistache grows in the strip between the sidewalk and the street, perfectly situated for viewing from my home office and the kitchen.

After years of broken sidewalks, car damage and probably lawsuits, the city arborist requires well-behaved “street” trees. No invasive roots, no sticky sap to damage cars and they’ve banned Liquidambar styraciflua which toss down ankle-turning, stroller-jamming hard, dry fruit. They are lovely trees in the right setting, but not well suited curbside. No pip-squeaks either, which is to say, 15 gallon trees (at a minimum) when planted for safe traffic visibility.

We love our tree! In the first few years, we measured its growth, but eventually it grew too tall. We had boys by then, so all our attentions shifted down, as we measured their height in inches and eventually feet.

Planting Our Tree
September, 2006

In the fall our tree turns multiple shades of amber, then quietly drops a blanket of leaves, so subtle they hardly need raking. We hang our singing skeleton from the branch to entertain passers-by around Halloween, and by winter the tree strips to its own skeletal form.

Stunning Fall Color

My youngest son loves climbing that tree and when it was dense with foliage, he once hid up there so he could drop down and surprise his unsuspecting friend. Last summer, he and a friend rigged a series of buckets and tubes and created an impromptu dunk tank, supported by the trees now-strong limbs.

Enjoying Our Tree in the Winter Months

If that tree could talk, it would have a story to tell. Have you hugged your favorite tree today?

Tree Hugging Spring Days

Newly Planted, September 2006

Arbor Day, 2012

Weeds: Green Isn’t Always a Good Thing

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Oxalis, pretending to be ground cover

If you garden, you weed. The end.

Seriously, every garden has weeds; it’s only a matter of degrees. I’m an expert weeder myself, probably because pulling weeds falls into the category of garden organization. I pull weeds and restore order. It’s therapeutic clearing out the interlopers, those pervasive plants that sneak into the garden beds when you aren’t looking. They pretend to be the real deal as they vie for water and nutrients, using clever camouflage and stealth tactics to avoid detection. I know the regulars around town: oxalis, dandelions and spotted surge. Now and again I spot something new and unfamiliar. I pause overhead, garden fork in hand, wondering if I should give the newcomer a chance. I once let a glossy green plant grow in our side yard, only to learn from my friend Doug that it was invasive. It’s still popping up! I’ve also yanked out plants, only to realize it was an annual re-seeding from the previous year. I was amused to discover this week that the plant I left growing next to the Chinese Pistache is a volunteer broccoli plant. How fun that was!

When you garden you have an intimate knowledge of weeds and their habits; where they’ll grow and when. If you don’t pull them out by the roots early, they’ll flower and drop seeds. Once they go to seed you’ve extended an open-ended invitation to return year after year.

To Weed, or Not to Weed?

I made my rounds today, fork in hand, with a strong wind kicking up pollen. We have rain in the forecast, so I figured I would get this first round done before the rain helps plant a new batch.

Do you have a garden “chore” that you secretly love?

Mystery Solved: It’s a Squirrel’s Nest

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Peanut Tester

I photographed a nest last month, high up in the orange tree. There was no sign of activity so I assumed it belonged to a nocturnal mama, most likely an opossum. This week, purely by chance, I looked up to see a squirrel enter the nest. How I wished I had my camera! I’m fascinated by what looks like a paper bag at the bottom of the nest. I’ll have to dig out some binoculars so I can get a peek without getting any closer than I already have. It’s such a compliment when nests appear in your garden.

According to A Squirrel Place, “Squirrels are usually born in the early spring. The average litter consists of four. This varies with climate and location.”

What have you seen nesting this spring?

Squirrel Nest: March 25, 2012

Squirrel Nest: April 19, 2012

Mystery Nest: Sticks and Twigs (gardeningnirvana.wordpress.com)
A Squirrel Ran Up My Leg~by rldubour (ourpoetrycorner.wordpress.com)
Squirrels on a parade (mothergrogan.wordpress.com)

Blooming Thursday: Geranium Containerem

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Geranium: Old Faithful

Geraniums are the garden work-horse. In our zone, they flower three seasons of the year and remain hardy down to at least 30 degrees Fahrenheit. They enjoy full sun and a good soak during the summer months, but the rest of the year they just hang out in the pot, content. Our pretty-in-pink geranium asks for very little, yet produces these beautiful blooms. I don’t see geraniums in local gardens like I used to, so perhaps they’ve fallen out of favor. When I envision geraniums, I imagine them tucked up along white picket fences or grazing the corners of a bucolic cottage porch. Time and again, geraniums appear in greeting cards and calendars, imparting a sense of nostalgia and harmony. I saw several varieties when I traveled through Europe in 1989, dreaming of recreating that essence when I returned home.

Do you have geraniums in your garden?

Geranium Pink

If I were a paint color:
Several shades of subtle pink

Geraniums: Cheerful Splendor at the Edge of our Deck

Spider Catcher: Witness Relocation Program for Arachnids

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Humane Bug Catcher
Available from PETA

Spiders used to freak me out. Seriously, I considered sleeping on the couch if I knew a spider lurked above my bed. I once read that people ingest about six spiders during an average lifetime. Well.

Over time, I’ve faced those fears. Though I’m not fond of the over-sized wolf spiders or the dark-legged lurker, I can deal. Interestingly, unless they are really large, I don’t mind them so much in the garden. They eat non-beneficial insects and, I recently learned, provide silk for hummingbird nests.

In my early renting days, one of my roommates set up a primitive version of a spider catcher: a plastic cup and a nice strong piece of cardboard. He knew I couldn’t kill a spider so an at-the-ready bug catcher was the next best think. Cup and cardboard in hand, unwanted arachnids were unceremoniously evicted into nearby landscaping.

About a decade ago, I found a super-cool spider catcher at a local wildlife bird center. It has a long handle (distance is good!) and a clever little chamber to safely cup over the intruder. Once confined, you gently slide the bottom closed and the spider remains captive as you head for the shrubs in the far, far, far corner of the garden.

Humane Bug Catcher available from PETA’s catalog.

Starter Pumpkins: Countertop Seeds

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Seed Starter

For the past several years, we’ve purchased a variety of pumpkin seeds for my son’s Christmas stocking. We start the seeds indoors in April or May to give them a fighting chance against birds and squirrels. We have them in the ground by June, ready to harvest in August or September.

This year we started our seeds in a Burpee Self-Watering Seed Starting System®. The kit comes with 72 cells, a planting medium, a moisture-mat and a greenhouse-styled dome. Everything you need for success except water! Our new crop includes Lumina (white), Baby Pam (pie), Magic Lantern (20 lb orange), Munchkin (miniature, orange) and Howden Biggie (40-60 lb. orange).

In the past the seeds were usually jumbled together, so we never knew what was what till they started to produce. We were more methodical this year now that my son is older and more interested in the varieties. I photo-copied the seed packets on heavy card stock and taped them to chopsticks. When we transplant outdoors, the plant labels will be ready to go.

Every year we hope for one large pumpkin, but we’re never willing to sacrifice the other fruit to nurture just one plant. Once again, I imagine we’ll simply let nature takes its course (except for the squirrels of course). The chicken wire barrier keeps the nibblers at bay till the young plants begin to grow.