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 Welcome to my garden. We are in Zone 6. This pictorial garden diary will be added to from time to time, so for those of you who are interested, just scroll down to see the latest of what is happening in and at Home Farm Herbery in Munfordville, KY. Also as you scroll down, you will discover links to gardening articles I have written that may help you as a gardener.
Here we offer gardening tips and ideas. We also welcome any gardening news, ideas, tips or photos from your garden. email them to us and upon review we will publish them here if we think the content will interest our readers. We may even create a whole new gardening page just for you! Send to askarlene@scrtc.com
Arlene's Gardening Diary for 2004 with tons of gardening articles. Below is a sample of some of the articles.
Growing Raspberries and Blackberries? Here is an article I wrote. , also Caring for Crape Myrtle, Deer Resistant plants and trees. "Drying Flowers" , Here's how to make a wildlife garden., How to Make Your own Liquid Potpourri and other good stuff! ,Growing Roses ,Dividing Daffodils ,Planting bulbs.
Arlene's Gardening Diary for 2005 with tons of info, photos and informational gardening articles.
The tail end of 2005 half of our lovely village of Munfordville, KY devastated with 4.4 million dollars of tornado damage. The townspeople pulled together and cleaned up the mess in less than a week. Amazing. We sustained no damage to our homes here at the compound, but the side of the high winds destroyed our greenhouse and all our lovely flowers and tomato and pepper plants.
I saw the end of the year out with the flu and lots of high winds.
January 11, 2006
We are experiencing incredibly warm days in the mid 50's and mid 60's and cold nights right now. We have had lots of rain and high winds for a a couple of weeks. Strange weather for this time of year.
The nursery catalogs are coming in by the droves and it has started me thinking about the garden for 2006 and especially container gardens again read more
January 18, 2006
On the night of the 17th it started to snow. Great big flakes and thickly coming down so one's vision was almost impaired. Our Cottage Garden in the East section is retched looking this time of the year, but that night it was brilliant.
 The next morning was lovely, but by the time I got around to taking a picture, the snow was gone again.
Many times when researching gardening items I find that the question is not what zone am I in, but what section of the country, i.e. South, North, Midwest, etc. I also know I am in zone 6, but I am never sure what section Kentucky is in. I finally found a definition I can live with and a map to show me where Kentucky is. The Midwestern United States (or Midwest) is a region of the north-central and northeastern United States of America.
The term is now somewhat archaic, as this region was the "Middle West" of the United States before the Louisiana Purchase. Presently, this region is primarily neither the middle nor the west of the United States (see map), although the US's geographical center (excluding Alaska) is in Kansas and the Dakotas have most of their territory in the western half of the country. More accurate regional terms for these locations are the East North Central States and the West North Central States, as defined by the United States Census Bureau.  The section in red is considered the midwest. KY is still considered zone 6. Now I know.
Here are some of the things I have to do during the month of January.
We no longer put up a Christmas tree, but if you do, don't throw it away. Get out your pruners and remove the boughs. They make excellent attractive mulch for your beds
We no longer have a fireplace, but if you do , use wood ash from your fireplaces and wood-burning stove to increase the ph of your garden soil, but don't overdo it; too high of a ph level will prevent the uptake of some plant nutrients. Test the ph of your soil to maintain the correct balance.
If you place a burlap screen around outdoor plants that are susceptible to splashing or runoff from road salt or deicing chemicals then make sure the burlap is 12"-18" away from the plants. To avoid harming sensitive plants, try using a cat litter and sand on you icy sidewalks
When the tornado in December took away part of our greenhouse, we lost all our flowers, peppers, tomatoes and our pointsettias. Now we have one from Christmas and perhaps you do also. The proper care of Poinsettia's is critical to ensuring a plant that will perform well throughout the winter. If the pot is wrapped in foil remove and discard to provide drainage. Let the soil dry completely between watering. Keep out of drafts both hot and cold. The ideal temperature range this plant likes if 60-68 degrees F.
January is a great time to repot any houseplants that are outgrowing their containers. Place your plants in a cool shower once a month to remove dust and eliminates any pests that might be on the leaves.
January is also a grand time to redesign any beds you weren't happy with. Use graph paper to plan several designs for spring, taking into account such factors as sun, shade, natural features and so on. I hope to change some of our beds this year and this is a project I am currently working on.
This month is also a good time to be checking any tender bulbs you have stored for the winter. Discard any that show rot or shriveling, and mist those that appear to be drying out. Store in a cool, dark location.
All ready I have had to inspect flowerbeds for frost heaving. I have had to place many plants back into the ground and add mulch when the ground refreezes. We have warm days and very cold nights here during January and February.
February 1, 2006
Glynis has a couple of daffodils up around her home. Lovely, but foolish. We are really having mild weather in the mid to high 50's these past 30 days. The bulbs are getting fooled!
February 3, 2006
Even our bulbs are popping up all over the place. I discovered some hyacinths had popped out of the ground and even one with a pink flower. I hauled over some top soil and covered them up.
February 4, 2006
My birthday! Turned 71 today and woke up to 32 degree weather, high winds and blowing wet snow! I sure hope all those little foolish bulbs survive.
March 4, 2006,
This morning I was able to get a lot done in the garden in the cleaning up mode. The spring violets are popping up. I finally cut down those invasive cannas that I must move to the "way-back" part of the garden. Many of the daffodils are popping out, as are the crocus, narcissus and Hyathcins. Days are now in the high 40's to mid 50's with cold nights in the high 20's to mid 30's. We are experiencing a little March wind, but not as much as usual, so perhaps March will go out as a lion! Saturday afternoon we bought the mulch and 2 large flowering Japanese Cherry trees, and some other perennials that we will have to get into the ground. March 6, 2005, Windy and in the high 40's but I got all the mulch spread in the areas where we had lost a lot of it. Had some rain last evening and off and on today. Hoping for some warmer weather this week so I can get some more racking and cleaning up done.
March 12, 2006
Carl and I planted the new azaleas down by the main entrance to Home Farm and then we planted 5 very large containers of them along the edge of the driveway.
The Cleveland and Bradford pear trees are all blossomed out making our allee look very lovely as one comes up the long drive. Glynis replanted the planter at the post box at the end of the driveway and that is really pretty. She is currently scrapping the large post box and will repaint it.
It is looking like spring around here with all kinds of flowers and bushes popping out in their full colorful glory.
Not much doing here. Cleaning up the yard between tornado watches, rains, winds and 75 degree weather. But it looks like cold nights for the next few evenings. Poor posies! I hope they make it.
March 21, 2006
The first day of Spring and we woke up to snow, sleet and cold, cold, cold. No chance of planting all the stuff that is sitting around here. By 4 p.m, most of the snow was gone, but is rained very hard during the night.
March 29, 2006
Today was bright and sunny in the mid 60's and I was able to get into the greenhouse today and it looks like a tornado hit it, which it did! At least the side winds of the big tornado in Munfordville got into our area. It has to be totally rebuilt. However, I was able to clear a space big enough to work in there as the strawberries came. These are the ones in the hanging bags. I had ordered 4 bags from Park Seeds, so there was enough strawberries left over to make up about 4 big patio pots. I am not going to deal with that big bed that was accidently weed whacked by the landscaping crew. This is what they are supposed to look like, so we will see.
I was also able to plant a good share of the the plants and bulbs our neighbor, Nedra Morrison brought over.
April 2, 2006
I was able to plant all the rest of the Azaleas and all the new roses. I am very unhappy with the Antique Roses we bought from the Antique Rose Emporium last year. So far I have found 4 that did not make it through the winter. They only guarantee them 3 months and they are about $18.00 + shipping for each rose. So we will not be buying from them any more. At least Lowes etc guarantee them for 1 year.
April 13, 2006
I was able to clean out another big portion of the cottage garden that seems to be determined to do anything and everything except what I want it to do. I put in my favorite perennials, Delphium (Magic Fountains, Mixed Color), Foxglove (Dwarf Foxy), Lupin (Russell's Hybrid Mixed Colors) and Larkspur ( The Pinks Mixture). Hopefully they will grow and become a dazzling part of our cottage garden.
Carl is busy replacing outside faucets and hoses that finally bit the dust this past winter.
I was also able to clear out a large garden in front of the Bunk House and Avalon Stained glass studio. It meant hauling up a lot of bulbs and replanting the glads etc, but I planted Red Hot Poker (Tritoma) & Cornflower (Prairie Yellow) planted. Then I put in some of my most favorite annuals. Zinnia!! I put in some mixed Lilliput and some Giant Catus Flowered Mixed Colors.
Every time I got a space cleared out, Chocolate decided that nice soft weed free dirt was a lovely place to lie down for a bit.
April 17, 2006
Another nice day. We had a good rain yesterday. I finally started replanted all those Cannas that have gone crazy over the past 3 years. I put 3 little one inch roots into the ground in the wrong place and now I have a jungle of them all over the place. I am trying to move them way to the back. It was a pleasure to use one of the new shovels I treated us to.
I was able to plant some Evening Glory Moon Flowers, more Zinnia, Achillea, more Zinnia, Red Hot Poker, more Zinnia, Wildflowers, more Zinnia, more Wildflowers, and more Zinnia. I could really use some of Kate and Marty's good horse, chicken and goat manure as I no longer have a compost pile that makes any sense. For good info on Compost piles click here.
We drove over to Glasgow again and picked up another 36 Geraniums. These will be for the Cottage Garden containers. I have to get out to the Amish to pick up some wave petunias.
On the way back it was a true marvel to see all the green lawns, meadows and pastures, the fully flowered dogwoods in all their shades of white, cream, and pink, the red buds and the lilacs. The woods are blooming with some kind of purple phlox and some red flowers which I think are called pinks. Spring is truly here!
April 18, 2006
Another beautiful day in Paradise! I was able to plant all the Cottage Garden containers with the new geraniums and also try out those new upside down tomato hanging planters we purchased.
We will keep you posted on their progress. One thing is they are very heavy to handle once they are full.
The strawberry bags have taken real well, maybe the hanging tomatoes will do the same.
April 20,2006
The carport foundation holes have been dug and the birdhouse and fence on the west rose garden side were removed before I could get out the climbing vines. Oh Well!
April 24, 2006
The Azalea are all in bloom now. The ones in the north garden are huge and very showy. The newly planted ones down by the entry gate to Home Farm and even all the container ones are doing their stuff. The North garden is full of bleeding hearts and again the Hostas have gone crazy before I could divide them. I think the problem is I still cannot think of another shade area to put some in.
The night time weather is warm enough now to invest in the big hanging pots of flowers and get them up. Also to start filling the containers with my beloved geraniums. We still need to rebuild the greenhouse that had been destroyed by the side effects of the tornado that ripped through our village. Hopefully we will get to it this summer.
The lilacs have come and gone. We have a mass of white tulips in one of the west gardens that desperately needs weeding and the Dutch Iris, the double Iris and some of the early roses have burst forth with masses of color. The window boxes have been filled.
We discovered a mass of snapdragons hiding among the Lamb's Ear.
The dogwoods are just starting to peak out and in some places starting to lose their blossoms all ready. The lawns are needing to be tended to in full force now.
I recycled those old wooden benches that have been sitting around the yard in places no one sits. I re-painted them purple and beet red. Barbara says they look very "French". I am pleased with the end results.
I still need to replant a lot of the Cannas I dug up and dig up and move a lot more.
I just finished a birdhouse made out of old wine corks and wrote an article titled, "How to Make a Birdhouse Out of Old Wine Corks"
April 25, 2006
Trying to plant between the April showers is challenging and trying to clean out old garden spots and replant under the same conditions is equally challenging.
Between the raindrops I was able to find a shady place for some more caladium rizomes, plus I planted some bi-annual sweet williams. I wonder if one planted some in 2006 and then in 2007 would one have some all the time? At any rate, I planted some in a big cement basket container and hopefully I will remember it there each year.
I was able to clean out the old wheel barrow and put in some annuals such as Pacific Beauty mixed colors Calendula and some Shirley Poppy of bright mixed colors. I found a place to put the last of the holly hock seeds in.
April 27, 2006
A bright sunny, but cool day and when I returned from judging the 24 annual Congressional Artistic Discovery, Melina Soukal and myself stopped at Pleasant View Greenhouse run by the Amish. Their products are amazing and very affordable. Needless to say I bought a nice tree which I immediately forgot the name of and a dozen nice butter leaf lettuce plants and tons of other stuff. I was motivated to start right in and get everything planted. I added many shades of purples and mauves and some whites to the window boxes filled with geraniums and planted about 8 hanging baskets. I hung up the new wicker cornucopia filled with pansies and other good stuff, plus another wicker wall hanger for our front door. It is starting to look pretty good around here.
 
 
April 28, 2006
The weather was cool this morning (43 degrees), but by the time the sun came up it was just right for weeding out two big areas of the Cottage Garden. I was able to plant a Pink French Pussy Willow I purchased over a week ago. I was finally able to plant all those Cannas I dug up a week ago and put them in the back. I don’t think I will ever be able to keep abreast of the 3 I planted in the wrong place. Their root system is still coming up where ever I do not want them. Oh well, a lesson learned.
I was able to plant in the rear Mammoth Sunflowers and mixed colors Sunflowers. I also put in some of that lovely perennial, Moss Verbena and I also started some lavender seed directly into a patch of ground just to see how it will go. With the greenhouse still not being repaired it is just about impossible to start anything in my starter pots.
May 6, 2005
I have been working on the weeds and the weeds have been working on me. The lawn service people finally got here yesterday and they mowed about 7-8 acres. Now they are back today, weed whacking everything. It takes two people weed whacking for about 4-5 hours to get it all done.
I got half of the big rose bed weeded and mulched, but ran out of mulch. It will take about 8-12 more bags and a couple of days of weeding to hopefully get it under control. The roses are coming out all over the place. The lettuce is up and looking good.
I planted some Columbine seed in a semi-shaded area today.
May 9, 2006
I was able to find time to weed out half of the last half of the rose bed and get it mulch. I ran out of mulch and now just one more day left and about 6 bags of mulch needed.
Today was a good overcast day to weed and I started in on one end of the big South garden between the pergola and the walkway. As I weeded, I planted some perennials. I put in Rosepink Malva, "None-so-pretty" Catchfly, Shasta Daisy, Purple Cornflower, and Royal Blue Forget Me Not. Near the house I planted a dozen seeds of the Giant Grey Stripe Sunflower which is supposed to be the World's largest variety. A few years back I had planted some Russian Sunflowers there and we had one taller than the roof of the house.
The hanging flower baskets look nice, but one has to remember to water them everyday and to feed them once a week. Even when we get rain, they do not seem to get enough water because we have very deep overhanging eaves and they hang from the edge of the eaves. I suppose if there were no gutters they would get rained on, but we do have gutters and that diverts the water somewhere else.
The Cottage Garden is becoming more comfortable and started to smell lovely.
The roses are coming out all over the place. Sitting in the back is lovely just listening to the pond.
We had visitors from Kent, England today and they loved roaming around all the gardens. They said we are about 2 months ahead of them right now.
May 12 2006
We are dealing with March winds, April showers and trying to get pictures of our May flowers between the raindrops. What a month!
The Roses are coming fast and furious and the Iris are peaking out in some parts of the gardens. It looks like a great year for blackberries if the signs of the vines loaded with blossoms are to be taken as an indication.
The Mediterranean herb beds are doing their things, but I cannot seem to catch up with the weeds that are tying to burrow in among them. Where is help when you need it? Oh well, if I get to it, I get to it.
May 16, 2006
Weather cool today and very overcast with sprinkling showers throughout the day. I was able to get another little space weeded out in the South gardens and get Red Corn Poppies planted. I find dragged out the big cutters and cut out some of that big spreading yew that lives in the south garden. It is the only one of 6 planted in 1999 that has grown and it has really spread out and should not be where it is, but it is! Under it I found some beautiful purple Clematis which I tied up to the pole that it should have been climbing up on this year.
I was able to plant 6 large pots of Coriander and 6 large pots of sweet basil before the rain set in. Carl is putting my birdhouses back up next to the Northwest rose beds and is putting the fencing back up. All had to be removed when the foundation holes were dug for the new carport.
I found our first strawberry today. Delicious! The lettuce is coming along and the pots of tomatoes have blossoms as do the pots of peppers. I also was able to plant Nedra's gift of some kind of peppers which I think are the decorative kind. There was 6 plants in one of those little potting widgets that swells up when wet. So I put 3 each in big hanging pots and we will see what we get.
That beautiful old antique rose that has about a 10" wide root stock is starting to blossom over the rose arbor. I am watching it every day and when it peaks out, I will take a picture of it.
The other roses around here are really doing their things. All different shades of reds, yellows, pinks and salmon. I love it!
May 18, 2006
When Carl finished cleaning up around the new carport foundation he ended up with a trailer load of dirt and gravel. I told him to throw it into one of the old big raised beds that has gone astray. I went down and found about 10-12 Iris and some Glads had started in there. I removed them and replanted them. Now all we have to do is unload the dirt into this space. It is a lot of good old KY red clay and driveway gravel. Perhaps a new Mediterranean Herb bed!
May 21, 2006
I planted a kitchen window ledge garden of herbs today. Cilantro, Corianda, Broad leaf Sage, Oregano, Rosemary, Parsley, Tarragon and Chives.
Today I was able to feed all the Azaleas and the Roses and hopefully we will get the predicted rain tomorrow.
I also planned to get the root killer on the weeds coming up through our walk ways.
Plus I got 2 new Clematis (one Pink, one White) planted on the new fence and but I was unable to bring around the big purple one from the South garden. I hope I did not kill it off.
We got all the fruit tree stakes in throughout Fred's orchard. That is hard work.
May 22, 2006
When Carl was up the the ladder putting the roof on the new carport, he discovered our whole roof was covered with pink roses from the one great antique rose bush we planted 5 years ago in the arbor. They are fragrant pink blossoms that bloom end of May thru early June. I planted this Albertine Antique Rose in 2001 and it was a little rose root about 12" tall. Now the root knob is about 12 to 15" across it is almost 30 feet across on some of it's vines.
The top picture shows the roses across our roof and the bottom shows them on the arbor.
Today I planted some Sugar Baby watermelons in the new raised bed. I never have any luck with melons, but who knows, this year it may change. I also planted oriental red perennial poppies and some Orange Z-Scape annual poppies.In the perennial department I was finally able to find places for the Blud Cupid's Dart, the Butterfly Flower, Dame's Rocket in mixed colors and Achillea/Yarrow in summer pastels.
Now is the time to plant Columbines. How to Grow Columbines.
May 31, 2006
Here is the update on the strawberry bags. In this gardener's personal opinion they are not worth the money.
Price was $19.95 for 2 bags with plants, plus shipping and handling. I bought 2 sets so my initial investment was about $49.00. Plus the correct kind of potting soil, so lets say I am up to $59.00. They perked along looking good when all of a sudden two of the bags for some reason lost their 2 rows of bottom plants. This week we had a harvest of 11 strawberries. That is correct Eleven! Not big ones either. Scrawny little ones. Not worth the money or effort as far as this gardener is concerned.
Finally, after 3 years, a friend of mine was able to identify that lovely elusive, tall, purple flower that comes back every May. A Lupine. Not a wild variety. Who knows how it got there, but we are glad it did.
The rains and wind raised havoc with the roses taking lots of petals off, but have enabled others to bloom. The lilies are coming up all over the place.
We have a few tomatoes on our plants.
June 7, 2006
Remember the theme song from the TV detective series, "Monk"? "Its a Jungle Out There.". Well in the big rose bed and many other places around here, "Its a Jungle Out There!" So that was where I was early am before the sun came up too strong, cleaning out the big northwest rose bed again. As much as I hate to I guess I am going to have to take the rose shears to some of the archways, pergolas etc. They are really going wild.
June 27, 2006
The days have been hot and mostly dry with an occasional thundershower, but the nights have been in the 60's. Yesterday, the Cleome seeds arrived and I planted them. A gamble because it may be the wrong time of year. However, If I wait until fall, I will probably forget about them. So I will just keep them watered for a couple of weeks and hope they will come up. I also ordered at the same time, from www.reneesgarden.com , who sells heirloom seeds, Blue Boy Cornflowers, Fragrant Stock (10 Week Bouquet), Batchlor Buttons, and Cypress Vine (Maiden's Feather). I cleaned out a whole section of the north bed, put in new top soil and planted those also.
This www.reneesgarden.com site is the loveliest, easiest and most concise gardening site I have come across in years. The shipment was prompt and the packages arrived well with great directions. I heartily recommend this site to any gardener!
At this time of the year, many places are marking down their seeds, so I picked up some Ferry's Seeds, Coreopsis (plains (bicolor), Purple Cornflower (Echinacea), Achillea, (Summer Pastels (Yarrow) and Persian Cornflower. I also put these in that new bed. When they are all matured and blossomed they should present a showy bit of color in that area and these are all perennials. In our area even the Cleome will reseed itself.
The northwest corner of the "Bunkhouse" is making a nice display and just in time since all the roses in the archway and near there are gone by.
I am not happy with the results of those hanging tomato bags I purchased.
They may be good for larger tomatoes, but the cherry and grape tomatoes, as they grow all have had the ends of them rotten which I think is from over watering. However, every time I turn around the bushy tomato plants need water because they get dried out so quickly.
Yesterday, while at a local nursery, I noticed that someone had taken a 5 gallon paint or spackle can, drilled about a 2 inch hole in the bottom, filled it wih dirt, inserted a big boy tomato plant in the hole and hung it up by the handle. It was doing great and loaded with red tomatoes. So much for $16.00 each, plus shipping for the tomato bags!
We are going to start putting birdhouses and feeders on the fence coming up the drive and I just finished these two 3-D bird houses and one bird feeder.
July 27, 2006
It has been hot here and we need rain again. I was finally able to hire 5 people for 2 hours each morning for 3 mornings to clean out a great deal of the weeds. Unfortunately they also cleaned out some of the perennials. Oh well! However, it does look better.
Carl and I finally got 50 trees mulched and especially in the orchard. Perhaps that will keep our lawn service people from "girdling" them with their weed whackers. We have two trees that will need to be replaced this coming spring because of that.
The pear trees are so loaded again this year that they are breaking the boughs.
This year we were finally able to correctly identify that lovely blue flower that has been gracing the front entry to Avalon Stained Glass School for the past 4 years. False Indigo. Donna Seymour took a stalk of it home to Randy who thought it was some sort of wild lupine, but it took Scott Baird who was visiting with her husband Stokes, to declare, "That's a False Indigo"! So she and Stokes took home some pods to dry. I have spent the morning spreading the seeds in other places I would like it to grow.
False Indigo grows about 3-4 ft. tall and likes the sun. It will re-seed itself and spread. The flowers arrive around the beginning of June and their beautiful blue color stays for about 6 weeks. Then one just has this great plant with green pods that eventually turn black and open to re-seed themselves. The plant is "stalky" and the stems are strong and almost woody, but not quite. Small green leaves give it an added attractiveness. When one wants to try and re-seed somewhere else, just cut off some of the black pods, but the re-seeding must be done immediately.
August 20th, 2006
We are back from our holiday and we cut it short by 2 weeks. I cannot think what these gardens would look like if we stayed away the whole pre-planned 4 weeks. We came back to burned up flower containers and weeds 4 to 5 ft. high! The mower people keeps the lawns well, but my work was not done. I spent the morning cleaning the one long walk way on the rose and grape arbor side. What a job.
August 22, 2006
Today I was able to completely clean out the big Northwest rose garden. I had hired it done in mid July and when we returned it looked like no one had touched it all year. But now after removing 5 huge tubs of various weeds including batches of Johnson grass, it is lovely again.
This afternoon I was able to do 3 more birdhouses for the fence posts coming up the driveway. This new project is an additional 10 birdhouses. We have about 15 or so now. So 3 down and 7 to go!
August 24, 2006
The day broke with 62 degree weather, bright and crisp at 6 am. So I was out into the south east part of the Cottage Garden and worked from 7 am until 9 am doing some serious pruning of the Garden Cottage Roses and weeding around the Garden Cottage, plus pruning the crepe mytles that had sprung up with 4 foot suckers. Got a lot done and it looks better. All those big Canna's I dug out (or thought I dug out completely) and replanted have taken well where replanted. However, the whole dug out area is loaded with about 20 6 foot Cannas again. A word to the wise. Think well before you plant them because they will spread and spread and spread and never, never leave you.
I went back in and started on some more birdhouse painting. Here is one called The Rose Arbor.
Here is a greenhouse birdhouse.
Here is one with a Goldfinch.
August 27, 2006
The early mornings and evenings are cool here so we have been able to enjoy our breakfasts and dinners on the screened in patio and the daytimes are not too bad. We have been getting a lot done around here since we returned. I made this door kickplate for the patio door that goes out into the Cottage Garden because Chocolate scratches on it everytimes it rains or lightenings. She is such a big dog that I had to make it a big kickplate. She has a big barn to go down into, but she does not like to be alone.
It does't look too bad from the Cottage Gardens.
I hired a young man for some jobs around here to help me, but even though he said he would be here at 7 am sharp on Saturday morning he never showed up. So the heck with him. I really cannot abide shiftlessness or unworthy people.
Carl replaced the old planter seats that Kane and I built out of the stained glass shipping boxes in early 2000. These are made from pressure treated lumber and marine plywood, so they should last longer than we will
Carl has done well making the landscape timber retaining walls around several of the gardens. They look quite nice and should be easier for the mower people with their weed whackers. Now all I have to do is to get them weeded out and reseeded with the new perennial seeds I bought from Cheap Seeds. This will be a test run for these seeds. When Carl built the walls he stacked them 3 high, drilled holes in the landscape timbers and then drove in 18 inch steel rerod. They are not going anywhere. This is a good shot of Jeff's house down in the back.
I have been working in the gardens cleaning up what went crazy while we were on vacation and I managed to get covered with poison ivy again from somewhere. I got some on my hand, then on my pillow and now all under my chin. Very uncomfortable! Here are the last 4 birdhouses I painted for Carl's driveway posts.
September 13
We have a cool overcast day today, but at least it is not raining as it has been for the past 4 days. I finally found a nice young man to work in the gardens a couple of days a week and he is an industrious little fellow. I hope he stays at it. He is doing a fine job.
I am back to working on 9 more birdhouses. Here is one called The Barber Shop.
I am going to start putting the fall perennial seeds into the ground this week.
I finished a birdhouse called Kenny's Signs after our dear friends, Kate and Marty Kenny who have a thriving sign company over in Horse Cave.
September 15
One of my new gardening helpers has gotten into poison ivy and is off the job. Hope the other one lasts.
September 16
I was able to get some more area weeded out with some help and I got 100 new daffodils planted. I was also able to finish some more birdhouses for the driveway.
Another bakery.
A variety store.
A post office as suggested by Nita.
Day Lillies
Here is a new article titled How to Handle Garden Problems. It tackles some good gardening issues.
September 23
We have had tremendous rains with lightening and thunder plus tornado warnings for the past 2 days. I had just gotten in the fall perennial seeds on September 21 and hopefully the rains will not have washed them away. For those of you who want to start a garden here is a new article I wrote. How to Grow an Easy Garden. It has good information on some tried and true flowers plus lots of colored pictures to give you an idea of how your garden would look.
September 27
I finished planting the last of the mums today. Also found several bulbs that needed to be replanted as these were pulled up when the weeding was done.
I finished the last of the bird houses. Here is one called, College of Hard Knocks.
And this one is called The Spook House
Then the last one is called The Doll House
So the driveway now has about 50 assorted birdhouses on the fence posts as one comes into our place.
October 5, 2006
Today I have been vascillating back and forth as to whether or not to totally take down the big green house. It is an eyesore at this point with a gapping hole from the Munfordville tornado side winds we got. I have a man starting to dismantle it, but I may still leave the ribs and just put plastic on next spring. I don' t know at this point.
Regardless, I spent the morning spreading down new layers of top soil in the areas that we cleaned out last week and I have put in the following perennial wildflowers:
wild Maine Blueberry,
Rocket Larkspur,
Wild Sunflowers,
Multi Cornflower,
Indian Blanket,
Wild Lupine,
Indian Paintbrush,
Purple Cornflower,
Siberian Wallflower,
Arroyo Lupine,
Perennial Sunflower
and a package of miscellaneous wildflower seeds that was thrown in free when I ordered all this stuff. Perhaps the Gardening Gods will smile on them and we will see lots of good stuff next season and thereafter.
October 9, 2006
Our weed whacker man did not show up today so I could get our "forest" cleaned out between the trees. This is something we do 2 times a year.
Just when I thought I was finished with birdhouses, Carl wanted 6 more.
So here they are.
October 12. 2006
Autumn is my favorite time of the year and the gold and yellow is starting to show up on the trees in our neck of the woods. This past Thursday was our first cold day with 40 degrees in the morning and a good brisk wind after 2 days of rain. The temperature never got over 48 degrees and even the skies looked cold. It is supposed to get into the mid to low 30's tonight. However, we know we will bounce back with warm weather and lots of Indian summer.
We have some white dinner plate size dahlia in the garden right now. So I cut some and put them in with some of our zinnias in a small pot called secret desires.
We were finally able to get our man up to weed whack my "Forest" which is what I call an area where I planted a lot of pines and cedars on a slope that cannot be mowed without killing yourself. We have it weed whacked twice a year.
This is the time of year to catch up on all those things that need to be done before the cold weather sets in on you in your area.
This is the time to start raking up those leaves and putting them on your compost pile. Please don't be like all those folks who rake up their leaves (which are biodegradable and make future top soil) and put them into heavy duty black plastic bags (which take about 500 years to be biodegradable). Run your lawn mower over them and they will breakdown into the soil faster or better still make roses from your maple leaves.
I feel sad with the cold coming in because our geraniums have taken a second swing at life and are going great guns as is the clematis by Carl's bedroom window. Of course the asters are out all over town. I never seem to have any luck with them after the first year. Perhaps some of my hired help pull them up each spring thinking they are weeds.
The holly hocks are just 6 and 8 ft. stalks now, but I will leave them there as a reminder of their faded glory.
This is also the time to get in your fall perennial seeds before you get your frosts and also your bulbs.
October 15, 2006
The last two nights of 32 degrees has wiped out all the flowers except for the mums. The poor Cannas look horrible.
Here is a stained glass birdhouse Carl made. He now has about 85 assorted birdhouses on posts coming up the driveway.
I made his this snake going into the Garden of Eden.
And then this one out of scraps of stuff.
We added these two also.
If it is getting cold in your area remember to mulch up your roses. Also this may be the time of year for you to start thinking about any water features you have in your garden or gardens. I know within about 4 to 6 weeks we will have to take in our earthernware planters and close down our ponds and empty them for the winter or everything will be cracked or broken by the time next spring arrives.
October 25, 2005
Still no sign of Indian Summer and still too cold, windy and rainy to do the remaining fall gardening chores.
Ken says Glynis has gotten the Birdhouse insanity. She has made us 5 birdhouses and now over 90 birdhouses line the driveway leading up to Avalon Stained Glass School and our gardens.
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When making your gardening calls, try to keep your costs down, even the long distance ones because part of gardening is saving money by finding out about the current costs, what's new, whether it is cheaper to buy it yourself or maybe do a plant exchange with a friend. Sometimes calling up an old friend or two and asking their opinion helps you make the best choices. Talk about it! We have a real inexpensive plan where you can call from anywhere for only 3.5 cents a minute. No need for cell phone plans or other expensive items. We all want the best value for our hard earned cash and we can do it for only 3.5 cents a minute nationwide or 10 cents a minute to over 200 countries with Telcom3. We have been using them for years. No state or federal taxes and we can call from anywhere using a toll free number. Check out Telcom3 today!
Home Farm Herbery offers Gourmet Blends of Organically grown herbs and spices.
What we don't have Mountain Rose Herbs will.
Come and stop in for a visit or emai us at askarlene@scrtc.com to share gardening stories or tips.
Do you live and garden in zone 6? Then check out our tips on things to do this month.
 
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