gardening requires patience

I recently walked home from church and went past some American Holly trees that were about20-30 feet tall. I picked a handful of berries and brought them home. I looked up information on growing Ilex species from seed, and found that they can take 2-3 years to germinate. Also the seeds are usually spread by being eaten by birds, which strips the flesh off the seeds, and broadcasts the seed in the manner you can imagine. So to prepare the seeds, you need to soak them in warm water to ferment and soften the pulp. I did this by putting the berries in a glass of warm water, which I perched on top of the crock pot which Mindy had cooking some beans over night. This kept the water just warm enough to turn the berries soft and brown by morning. Then I rubbed them over a window screen I had in the basement, and rinsed the pulp off the berries. I dug a trench in the back yard in a place where I've been wanting to put a hedge and planted over 300 seeds (there are four seeds in each berry) I figure this will increase my chances of getting enough to germinate and grow, and I can thin out the ones I don't need.

So in 2-3 years I'll have some tiny shoots, and then in about 10 more years I might have something resembling a hedge. God knows whether we'll even be living here by then.

New veggie patches

Mindy and I decided to grow more vegetables next year. Up till now I've just been growing tomatoes in a narrow strip next to the house, and I've tried zucchini in a little hole dug through the sod, but that wasn't very successful. To save work putting in the beds I tried the lasagna gardening method, where you just lay down newspaper on top of the grass and then pile on layers of green and brown compost.

I wanted to be able to walk between the rows of plants, and have it look a little nicer, so I left grass in between the rows. I know this will be more work, keeping the grass from growing into the beds, but I thought I'd give it a try.

Leafless transplants

Fall is a good time to transplant bushes and trees because all the energy of the plant can go into re-establishing its root system rather than supplying the leaves with moisture. Also the cool temperatures prevent moisture loss.

I have been intrigued by Witch Hazel because it is a native tree that blooms in fall, and the seed pods when ripe, pop open and the seeds fly out up to 30 feet. Here's my new small Witch Hazel (Hamamelis Virginiana), I put burlap around it because this spot is quite windy, and the winter wind could kill it. I'll try to remember to post a picture in Spring when it leafs out.


I also transplanted an unknown sapling from the far back corner of my yard out into a spot where it will have a little more room to develop. I went through the indentifying key for Ohio native trees and the closest I could come up with was the Pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba) but the leaves on my tree aren't as big as the description says.

It was very difficult to dig up because it was right at the base of a clump of American Hazelnut (Corylus Americana) and the roots were all intertwined. Also my unknown sapling had a taproot 34" long!

I had to use this post-hole digger to dig the new hole. Even then I hit rocky soil after only 26" so I had to cut off the last 8" of roots. The spot where this tree was originally growing was near the corner of the black chain link fence. Just behind it is the Hazelnut, which unfortunately didn't produce any ripe nuts.

Black-eyed Suzies and Karl Foerster

Volunteers and forgotten seedlings

Last fall Mindy and I were walking through the Italian cultural garden on MLK Blvd. and I saw some perennials with interesting seed pods. I didn't know what they were, but I decided to harvest a few pods and try growing the seeds. So I planted them about 4 inches deep in my new bed with the ornamental grass clumps and black-eyed susan (see the posting about my patio for a view of the bed). This spring I checked for them anxiously many times but never saw any signs of life, so I just assumed they weren't going to come up; but this morning I was walking around the yard eating a bowl of cereal and I noticed these tiny little blade type shoots and remembered my mystery seeds!

And here in my herb garden there are a number of volunteers: Chives at the base of the mother plant that reseeded themselves from the multitudinous purple ball flowers of last year.

I am amazed at how quickly in the spring the chives are completely covered in blooms. Normally I'd be pleased, but the herbs stop producing new foliage when they go to flower.

Last year our parsley completely stopped producing leaves there were so many flower heads. Fortunately there are some Parsley seedlings this year.

Also Dill - this is the second year dill has volunteered.

Potential new patio

This is a photoshopped image of my backyard showing a possible patio made of paver stones. My workplace is planning to install a green roof, which would make these pavers available cheaply, so I wanted to see how they would look in our yard.

And here it is with furniture! Pretty cool huh? This was all done during my lunch hour yesterday.

Rainbarrel

I've been excited about installing a rain barrel since last fall. I bought this used barrel from a lady who makes and sells pet hair care products, so I had to wash and rinse it thoroughly. The red hose you see coming out the top is for overflow when the barrel fills up. The first time it rained after I installed it was just a gentle sprinkle that lasted most of the day and it was completely full when I got home from work! I've used the water collected on plants already - plants like rainwater much better than city water. Of course it is kind of ugly, but I hope to put a trellis around it and grow some vines to cover it up.

Handmade Trellis

The last couple years I have been using a rose trellis for my two clematis plants. The bars on the trellis were too wide for the clematis to grab onto, so I decided to make my own. I like to use branches and twigs from my yard as climbing aids for other plants, so for the uprights I used branches from a Mulberry tree that I plan on cutting down sometime, so I didn't mind cutting off some branches. The woven part that the clematis will actually grab onto I used twigs pruned off the maple tree in the front yard in February. They are nice and straight and flexible. The only drawback is it takes a long time to make, and now I've run out of Maple twigs. But I just discovered a small Oak sapling growing along the fence in the back yard that I can harvest. I'm sure it'll come back again so I can keep on using it.

Hornbeam hedge

My last post about the hornbeams was a picture of them in a wooden trough over-wintering in the coal cellar. They were planted last Spring and all but two survived the Winter. Last year at least four got cut down by deer, and two of those didn't come back, so I've replaced them with new plants that arrived in the mail last week. They were tiny 6" twigs with half a dozen leaf buds each. The year old plants have already leafed out.

Here is a tiny new hornbeam plant

Spring is coming

My roses have survived the winter with their burlap windbreakers. They have some dead twigs that'll need to be pruned off once I can see what is growing. The irises at the base of the rose bushes need to be moved. They have expanded so much that they are crowding the roses.

This is a welcome sight. I really need to remember to plant more crocuses this fall. I'd like to have more purple and white ones.

I had a great picture of this maple tree last fall where the new growth on top was still green while the rest of the tree was orange, but I lost it. I am pleased at how it is filling out and getting thick on top.

I planted this new bed next to the driveway last fall. It has a line of ornamental grass called Calamagrostis Karl Foerster, it should grow to 5' tall and form a nice green barrier for this narrow side yard. I chose this species of grass because it is supposed to grow straight and stay very upright so it won't fall over into the neighbor's driveway. Then there is a row of black eyed susans which I've always wanted. I planted some seeds from an unidentified perennial in the Italian cultural garden on MLK Blvd last fall, but I don't know whether they'll come up. I may have planted them too deep.

I hate deer.

Here is a dendrobium orchid that a friend gave me two years ago. Back then it only had one cane, now it has three, however it has never bloomed. I don't even know what color it should be. It began simply, I just put it on the window sill and hoped for the best... nothing happened. Next I began fertilizing it with something that is supposed to encourage blooming...nothing happened. Then it was summer, I put the orchid in the sun room, and eventually it grew a second cane. I thought for sure it would bloom now that it had two canes, but no. Time went by, and I did some research and discovered that dendrobiums like a lot of sun, so I put a grow light over it... nothing happened. Then I discovered that most orchids need high humidity, so I put a pan of water with gravel under it... nothing happened. Eventually it grew a third cane, this one was the biggest of all the three, but nothing happened.



Here is my latest attempt: behold the Orchidarium.
A 29 gallon tank with a glass lid, and two grow lights: one fluorescent and one incandescent. It also has a little fan to create gentle breezes. There is also a digital hygrometer/thermometer to record high and low readings and allow me to make adjustments such as sliding the lid on or off by 1/4" to 2" to either remove humidity or preserve humidity. There is also a space heater underneath the tank that cycles on and off during daylight hours to keep the day time temperature around 75 F. The humidity varies between 60 and 75 %. Still, nothing...

My only hope is that with the onset of summer and higher daytime temps and also I will increase the hours the lights are on, will trigger the blooming response. My good long-time friend David suggested I just buy an orchid that is already blooming.

That would be cheating, and it would offer me no degree of satisfaction.