Word of Mouth Garden Job

 I have been working on my gardens for the last 7 days.  Know that my yard and garden represents my skills and if I am to get jobs in the neighborhood then my yard and gardens better be near perfect.     

My yard and gardens are not formal because every plant that I grow is to benefit wildlife.  The only way to describe my yard and garden is to say that it is a sensory garden with fragrant flowers, wind chimes and water features.  Plus there is an original (came with the house) American Indian sculpture and cement sculptures that I have made scattered throughout the garden.

Upper-level garden; patio and sandstone walkway

My gardens take up a half acre of land and they are a sight to behold especially when in full bloom. There are three levels of gardens plus paths and garden nooks then a meadow that has a path that goes around it where you can view the pretty flowers, stop to watch the birds at the feeders, sit on the garden bench and read from your Kindle or sleep on the hammock. The meadow is an area that I created for neighborhood children to learn more about flowers and nature.  

Lower level garden by grass garden

This week the bee balm, Asiatic and daylilies are in bloom as well as the roses, black-eyed Susan's red clover, catmint, and coneflowers.  So if you walk down the alley you can look down into my yard and see my pretty gardens. 

Stella de Oro lilies and Black Eyed Susan's in bloom

To make a long story short, people from the neighborhood were walking down my alley to get to the nature trails and a man stopped to look at my yard and gardens.  He came into my yard and took the path that winds around my pond,

Garden path to brick patio and grass garden

I went out to talk to him and we had a nice chat, he told me his daughter just bought a home in Branson, MO and she needed help with planning her landscape and asked if I did this sort of thing.

I gave him my business card and that is how word of mouth got me my next digital garden job.

 

Gardening at Dawn

Now that the rainy season has finally come to an end the days have gotten hot and muggy which makes gardening uncomfortable so I have been getting up at dawn to work in my yard and gardens.

Cleaning up garden paths and doing hand pulling of weeds in flower gardens

I find I can get a lot of things accomplished as long as I do not violate the noise ordnance I am in good shape.  So today I started working on my checklist. The first thing was to remove the maple tree seedlings.  This is my biggest project; pulling out the maple tree seedlings when there must be thousands growing in my lawn and gardens.

Maple tree seed.  these fall from the trees in the spring and the seed grows FAST

This year I set 30 seedlings aside because I thought I would transplant them into pots and grow them in a sunny location. Then when they get to be approximately 16 to 18 inches I would like to donate them to families in my community that are in need.  

Many residents lost their homes due to a tornado that touched down in our city.  Families have moved into their new homes but all of the trees are gone.  I bet they would be thrilled to get a maple tree for their yard.

So I am up at dawn gardening but also transplanting the maple seedlings into pots.

Know that I am hydrating the seedlings in a shallow pan of tepid water before transplanting them into 1/2 gallon milk containers that have been recycled to be planters. 

The maple trees will be grown in organic soil and will be fertilized with my homemade compost.  Then water until it drains out of the bottom.  I intend to grow the maple trees in a sunny location and will continue to watch them for hydration.

So gardening at dawn was good, I worked on removing the seedlings and also set up the soaker hose and timer that I bought at Walmart.com.  Now I do not have to worry about watering my gardens in the morning.

Learn more about planting maple trees by reading my post here

Another Day of Rain: Yard Cleanup will Take a Week

The weather forecast called for sun today and I cleared my schedule so I could go outdoors and start pulling the weeds from my garden beds.  The entire yard is saturated with rain water and there are standing puddles and mud everywhere.  When I look at my yard I do get overwhelmed because clean up will take at least a week.

Rain Rain go away, come again some other day

Rain has made the gross grow FAST.  Need to mow the lawn

Need at least a week to manicure the lawn and gardens.  Too much rain made weeds grow FAST

The only thing I accomplished today was pulling out my rotted vegetables from the organic raised garden bed.  Too much rain, flash flooding and when the soil is saturated with water the veggies will not grow.   To do this garden task really  made me sick because we grow our own food.

I started to clean up the garden mess when the dark clouds rolled in, then heard the lightening in the distance and knew it would be another day of rain.  Hoping that tomorrow will bring sunshine and that I can work in the yard and gardens for several hours.

Before I go, I wanted to share with you all a new organic weed killer that I picked up to kill the weeds between my stepping stones.  The product name is Avenger weed killer and it is available in concentrate or ready to use.

I prefer the ready to use 1 gallon size.  This formula in non toxic and is safe to use around your flowers.   Know that if you plan on killing weeds do not use this product on a cloudy day or when the ground is wet.  For best results use this weed killer on a hot and sunny day.  The heat from the sun will activate the formula and the weeds will turn brown in a couple of hours.

Avenger weed killer does work and it is great for controlling weed growth between sidewalk, garden path and where hand-pull is not easy.  You can find and buy this non toxic product at most home and garden centers including Lowes.com  Homedepot.com  and Walmart.com

Spring Rain Makes Flowers and Weeds Grow FAST

April showers are welcoming to any gardener but when it rains too much then it creates a horrible mess. During the month of May we had horrific rain storms every single day which left standing water and a whole lot of mud in my yard.

The back lily garden has grown in too thick, It must be thinned out. 

My home is on a hill so my neighbors new top soil traveled down his yard and is now backs up against my river rock wall and some top soil backed up onto my patio.

Yes I need to clean up a muddy mess plus cut the grass, trim all the new brush that has grown in and weed the gardens again. I like to have all this yard work completed before June but all the rain sure did make a mess out of my yard.

Today was first day of part sun but not enough to dry out the grass or to evaporate the standing water in my yard so hopefully by the weekend I can address my yard and garden issues and get it cleaned up and looking presentable and not like a jungle.  

When the weeds are all hand pulled in the gardens I will treat them with weed preventer Preen

Transplanting Liriope Lilyturf Groundcover

The April shower continued through May and now my low growing groundcover has become invasive and needs to be divided and transplanted.

I grow three groundcovers in my yard; Baltic ivy, Vinca flowering vine and Liriope  lilyturf which is a low growing grass like plant that flowers in the fall.  

Know that in late winter I did trim back the liriope but the spring rain made it grow in twice the size that it was before and now husband says we need to thin it out and shape it before it takes over the entire front yard.  I agreed and added this garden project to my list of things to do.

The best time to tackle this garden project would be on a cloudy day. Today was cloudy so I started to thin out the liriope with my spade. I selected large clumps and dug them up. Then dividing the clumps and transplanting to grow around my mature oak tree. (the photo you see above was taken in the fall when the flowers were blooming) 

I was able to remove six feet of the plants before calling it a day. The mosquitos were very bad, and my repellent did not seem to keep them away. Even the citronella fire torch did not keep the biting bugs away so I called it a day and went inside.

Know that my groundcover garden does not look thinned out but I think that when I remove several more plant clumps that it will look better.  I plan to get up early tomorrow morning and work on this project before it rains in the afternoon.

View this youtube.com video to learn more about dividing and transplanting liriope.

If you are interested in growing liriope in your garden then I would recommend that you ask your friends if they are transplanting and if they can spare to give you some plants.  Otherwise you can buy groundcover plants at any of the following online stores.

eBay.com

greenwoodnusrsery.com

gardenerdirect.com

ckassygroundcovers.com