Whitewater
Attractive To Bees
Greetings!
Some of you may remember me from the BackYardChickens forum, I'm the same person
For those of you who aren't part of that board, let me introduce myself!
My name is Whitewater, I live in zone 4A in Central MN and shortly after my husband (then-fiance) and I bought our first home, I discovered that I have a wild green thumb for veggies, fruit and herbs, though not flowers, for some reason! I discovered also that I LOVE to garden! There's something about it that's as addicting as anything I've ever experienced (which isn't much, really, but you get the idea, lol) and I cannot wait for this spring/summer to start seeing the results of what I planted last year -- my first year of gardening.
We bought and planted an apple tree in the front yard, 'cause our first house hasn't got a whole lot of curb appeal, if you know what I mean, it's really quite blah, and this summer will be its 3rd year growing, so hopefully we'll start getting apples soon! Other people on our block have apple trees as well.
I've also planted 4 raspberry bushes along one of the fences (I hope they'll grow high enough to help screen us from the neighbors, we have no privacy! Our property is entirely surrounded by a 4' high chain link fence) but something this fall and winter ate them right down to the ground, so I hope they can come back. I have no experience with raspberry bushes, eaten or not!
The other side of the fence has a *huge* established lilac and I received a baby lilac from a friend last summer, I hope to plant it this spring, so that it can start to grow and give us some privacy (and the dogs some shade) on the other side of the yard!
I have a bit of land slap up against the side door (which leads directly into the kitchen) which was obviously used as a kitchen herb garden plot by the former owners of our house, so I turned it into a herb garden again last spring and planted tarragon, lavender, sage, dill and rosemary. Nothing did well except the sage and the dill, I'm hoping that they both come back this year! The rosemary grew but I pulled the entire thing up this past fall and dried it for our own use, because rosemary just won't survive the winters and we don't have enough light inside to grow herbs indoors.
I am planning to add chamomile this year and mint, in a large container, and possibly another herb as well if I can find one that will survive in our climate. Purple Coneflower, maybe, ecinachea is good for colds and butterflies love the flowers. . . we'll see.
A few feet away from the herb garden is the strawberry patch, approximately 10'x10' which we can't use for anything else because a large bush of some sort is planted there and there's nothing but weeds around the bush. I cleared a strip last spring for our 1st year of strawberries that's approximately 3'x6', and this year I plan to clear even more so that the strawberries have room to expand. And, I may buy some more plants, so as to start that whole rotation thing. Hubby and I both LOVE strawberries. Last year we only got about 3 dozen from our 8 plants, we ate 1 doz fresh and the other 24 wound up making 4oz of the best pectin-free strawberry jam I've ever tasted. Hoping to get more berries so that we can make enough jam to freeze some for over the winter, and to give as gifts.
Out back, by the alley, a couple steps from the garage, we have essentially a HUGE (at least, by our neighborhood standards!) raised bed for vegetables. This is obviously what it was for when they built the house originally in the mid 1940's and last year we put it to good use. We raised tomatoes, zucchini and peppers and tried cantaloupe and watermelon (a dismal failure). The peppers didn't grow nearly as much as we'd hoped, but the 'maters and the zukes did well, so well in fact that we were giving the produce away every week for most of our growing season. There's only so many zucchini you can eat, you know? And we made a good dozen loaves of zuke bread too, and wound up giving about half of those away also.
This year I'm planning on growing beans, beets, cucumbers (Hubby wants to try to make pickles), 3-4 kinds of tomatoes (we had 2 last year, both hybrids, this year I want to try some heirlooms), zukes (both regular and patty pan), jalapeno and bell peppers (I'm not giving up!) and maybe carrots if we have room. Our 4' fence abuts the veggie bed, so I'm planning on using it as a trellis for the cukes and beans. Nice to have one built-in, LOL!
I firmly believe in heirloom veggies so that's what I'm going to try to find this year, I hope that well over 50%, and possibly getting on for 100% of my garden will be heirloom veggies, which I raise as organically as possible.
Our property was vacant for two years before we purchased it, and last summer we had absolutely no problems with pests, the birds and butterflies and so on ate ALL the bugs and the aphids, etc, and the squirrels and rabbits left everything totally alone. Alas, that's not going to happen this year, already my raspberries and my viburnum have been eaten down to the ground!! Luckily I have purchased some bird netting and other anti-pest stuff and I hope that will discourage the rabbits, or whatever it is that's chomping my shrubs.
Thanks for letting me be a part of this forum and I hope I can be a good contributor! Sorry this post was so long, I do tend to run on . . .
Whitewater
who lives with:
Hubby and
Dog 1 (2.5 yo Standard Poodle)
Dog 2 (4yo Standard Poodle)
Cat (14 yo indoor-only grey-and-white)
Some of you may remember me from the BackYardChickens forum, I'm the same person
For those of you who aren't part of that board, let me introduce myself! My name is Whitewater, I live in zone 4A in Central MN and shortly after my husband (then-fiance) and I bought our first home, I discovered that I have a wild green thumb for veggies, fruit and herbs, though not flowers, for some reason! I discovered also that I LOVE to garden! There's something about it that's as addicting as anything I've ever experienced (which isn't much, really, but you get the idea, lol) and I cannot wait for this spring/summer to start seeing the results of what I planted last year -- my first year of gardening.
We bought and planted an apple tree in the front yard, 'cause our first house hasn't got a whole lot of curb appeal, if you know what I mean, it's really quite blah, and this summer will be its 3rd year growing, so hopefully we'll start getting apples soon! Other people on our block have apple trees as well.
I've also planted 4 raspberry bushes along one of the fences (I hope they'll grow high enough to help screen us from the neighbors, we have no privacy! Our property is entirely surrounded by a 4' high chain link fence) but something this fall and winter ate them right down to the ground, so I hope they can come back. I have no experience with raspberry bushes, eaten or not!
The other side of the fence has a *huge* established lilac and I received a baby lilac from a friend last summer, I hope to plant it this spring, so that it can start to grow and give us some privacy (and the dogs some shade) on the other side of the yard!
I have a bit of land slap up against the side door (which leads directly into the kitchen) which was obviously used as a kitchen herb garden plot by the former owners of our house, so I turned it into a herb garden again last spring and planted tarragon, lavender, sage, dill and rosemary. Nothing did well except the sage and the dill, I'm hoping that they both come back this year! The rosemary grew but I pulled the entire thing up this past fall and dried it for our own use, because rosemary just won't survive the winters and we don't have enough light inside to grow herbs indoors.
I am planning to add chamomile this year and mint, in a large container, and possibly another herb as well if I can find one that will survive in our climate. Purple Coneflower, maybe, ecinachea is good for colds and butterflies love the flowers. . . we'll see.
A few feet away from the herb garden is the strawberry patch, approximately 10'x10' which we can't use for anything else because a large bush of some sort is planted there and there's nothing but weeds around the bush. I cleared a strip last spring for our 1st year of strawberries that's approximately 3'x6', and this year I plan to clear even more so that the strawberries have room to expand. And, I may buy some more plants, so as to start that whole rotation thing. Hubby and I both LOVE strawberries. Last year we only got about 3 dozen from our 8 plants, we ate 1 doz fresh and the other 24 wound up making 4oz of the best pectin-free strawberry jam I've ever tasted. Hoping to get more berries so that we can make enough jam to freeze some for over the winter, and to give as gifts.
Out back, by the alley, a couple steps from the garage, we have essentially a HUGE (at least, by our neighborhood standards!) raised bed for vegetables. This is obviously what it was for when they built the house originally in the mid 1940's and last year we put it to good use. We raised tomatoes, zucchini and peppers and tried cantaloupe and watermelon (a dismal failure). The peppers didn't grow nearly as much as we'd hoped, but the 'maters and the zukes did well, so well in fact that we were giving the produce away every week for most of our growing season. There's only so many zucchini you can eat, you know? And we made a good dozen loaves of zuke bread too, and wound up giving about half of those away also.
This year I'm planning on growing beans, beets, cucumbers (Hubby wants to try to make pickles), 3-4 kinds of tomatoes (we had 2 last year, both hybrids, this year I want to try some heirlooms), zukes (both regular and patty pan), jalapeno and bell peppers (I'm not giving up!) and maybe carrots if we have room. Our 4' fence abuts the veggie bed, so I'm planning on using it as a trellis for the cukes and beans. Nice to have one built-in, LOL!
I firmly believe in heirloom veggies so that's what I'm going to try to find this year, I hope that well over 50%, and possibly getting on for 100% of my garden will be heirloom veggies, which I raise as organically as possible.
Our property was vacant for two years before we purchased it, and last summer we had absolutely no problems with pests, the birds and butterflies and so on ate ALL the bugs and the aphids, etc, and the squirrels and rabbits left everything totally alone. Alas, that's not going to happen this year, already my raspberries and my viburnum have been eaten down to the ground!! Luckily I have purchased some bird netting and other anti-pest stuff and I hope that will discourage the rabbits, or whatever it is that's chomping my shrubs.
Thanks for letting me be a part of this forum and I hope I can be a good contributor! Sorry this post was so long, I do tend to run on . . .
Whitewater
who lives with:
Hubby and
Dog 1 (2.5 yo Standard Poodle)
Dog 2 (4yo Standard Poodle)
Cat (14 yo indoor-only grey-and-white)
