It's Dream Home Time

Every year HGTV gives away a "Dream Home" worth millions that the winner usually opts to sell for the cash. This year, the home is in Sonoma, CA. The house looks lovely, as do the interiors, but I have to admit, I was less than impressed with it's gardens. Tons of grass out front, some boring shrubs around the foundation, a teeny, tiny area tucked between the house and the garage for gardening, and more grass in the back. The patio and pergola look nice, but sort of plunked in the back. Don't get me started on the Arborvitae hedge in the back. The one sort of cool thing was a grape arbor (which makes sense when the house is smack in the middle of wine country).

Don't get me wrong, I'm entering the sweepstakes daily. And telling everyone I meet to do the same, but it does sort of bother me that the "G" in HGTV is a bit neglected.

Graphic from HGTV Dream Home Web Site.

22, Feels Like 3

Apparently, it is unseasonably cold this week. I'm hibernating due to the frigidity, but I did lean onto my front porch to get this shot of my Scotch Broom (a pink one). I have my doubts about whether it will survive the winter in a container, but I bought this plant on a whim (curse you, Home Depot) and was never happy with it (just read all the nasty reviews on Dave's Garden, it will make you shudder). So I dug it up and put it in this container to see if I will like it any better. The jury is still out.

My sister gave me this houseplant over the weekend. Well actually, I stole the houseplant from her (thanks Maria and Don). It was a little sickly looking, so I did a little pruning, and voila, healthy as a horse (well, maybe except for those black tips).

Yesterday I went to Home Depot again, this time for some screws to hang this gift from my sister.


Then, acting on the same urge that struck me when I bought the Broom, I couldn't leave without the following:

Happy New Year!

Should I Even Bother?

Why am I posting a picture of some scraggly-looking Pelargoniums? Well, this is my first attempt at overwintering and I wanted to share my progress. I seem to have overcome the worm infestation (you can still see a little of the Dipel powder I hit the plants and worms with). I fed the plants about a month ago and they put out quite a bit of growth. This is the sunniest spot in my basement and the plants, though a bit spindly, seem reasonably happy. Every so often, I do check if they need water and I rotate the plants 90 degrees.

In other basement news, I've started to think about my little seedling nursery. I put together this comically delicate worktable, made out of an old door and some scrap wood. I bought two different kinds of 4 foot flourescents (cool and warm spectrum), as suggested by some helpful Home Depot guy. I also bought a timer this year (instead of mostly forgetting to turn off the lights at night like I did last year) and another shop light fixture (I'm doubling my seedling capacity!). Combined with an old fan, I hope to have the makings of a seedling factory. I've already ordered and received some seeds from Pinetree Gardens, so despite the winter gloom, the gardening will begin again pretty soon!

-SG

Not about Gardening

Sorry for the major digression, but since the weather has hit freezing here in coastal Massachusetts, I have to find other ways to pass my time (other than cleaning my dirty house). So here's my latest project - Grandma's old buffet. I took the circa 1960s buffet (believe me, not an antique), made out of veneer and fiberboard, sanded it a bit, added casters, painted it black, coated the top with polycrylic, and voila, newish looking buffet. It took a couple of hours, but brought the old girl back to life for a few more years.

I also painted an old, extremely heavy, mirror black and hung it using this French Cleat/Walldog screw system. Can I just say, these screws were awesome! I've been futzing around with wall anchors for my plaster walls, but these things just went right into the wall and actually seemed to stay there. Miracle!

-SG

Worms!

In my quest to prove to my husband that I can save money by growing plants from seed, I split and potted up about 10 Pelargonium plants (zonal geranium) that I had started from seed last Winter. I found a home for them near a sunny window in the basement, and hoped for the best. (Here's information about keeping your Pelargonium's alive until Spring i.e. overwintering).

Some people don't really like Pelargoniums, but I think I'm a fan out of nostalgia; my grandparents always grew them in a pot on their patio, next to a statue of St. Francis. They are pretty drought tolerant and they were really easy to grow from seed, so I'm not giving up on them.

However, I may have to -- I went to check on them in the basement, to see if they were alive or needed water. To my dismay, they were clearly being eaten. There were little holes in the leaves, or sometimes entire leaves eaten to the stem. On closer scrutiny, I was thoroughly grossed out to discover little green worms were the culprits. Some were tiny, others were more than an inch long. I picked off as many as I could find, and went about researching if my plants were goners.

After some googling, my suspicion is that the worms are cabbage loopers. I did buy some Dipel Dust (an organic bacterial insecticide, which kills the worms), and I'm hoping it will do the trick. It's possible I have Tobacco Budworm, a common Pelargonium/Geranium pest, but the worms weren't reddish or brownish, and the Dipel might work on them too.

Wish me Luck!

-SG

P.S. Why is there so much confusion over Geranium's? If I refer to them as Pelargoniums, no one has any idea what I'm talking about, but Geranium is actually the scientific name for a Cranesbill. Which are much more rare (though awesome)...

Photo credit: Extension Entomology, Texas A&M University

Even Less Mowing!

Why, you may be wondering, have I posted a pic of some grass, a pile of compost, and some scraggly looking plants? In fact, you are witnessing the birth of my newest plan, tentatively titled, "The Hedgey Strip." As part of the plan, I spent the last few glorious October days expanding the strip of earth that borders the fence in an effort to bring some sort of organization to the chaos that has been reigning thus far in the Side-yard.


You see, the yard has this gentle slope and anything I have planted near the fence is at eye-level and provides little privacy. You can sort of see the slope from this angle, and the reason why I might want to have more privacy (and it's not to hide the kid's toys, Maria). The only way I can think to solve this problem (besides ripping out the existing fence and adding one that's 2 feet taller) is by planting further up the slope in certain areas. In the early summer, I bought a bunch of tall grasses to make sort of a hedge, but I haven't been happy with the results. The grasses have done fine, but they have a tendency to get beat up by the winds that wip up the street and hit my corner lot. So now I've expanded 75% of the bed (for more flowers, of course) and I'm researching/contemplating what kind of plants to fill it in with. Whatever I plant has to be pretty wind resistant, take full sun, kind of erect (since I don't want anything flopping onto the turf that borders the bed), and pretty too. This problem may take a while to solve, but luckily I have all Winter to ruminate! -- I'm trying to accentuate the postive aspects of the upcoming season.


I leave you with this picture of Frog-gardener, the mascot for my yard. He's bedding down for the Winter, surrounded by Siberian Iris and Columbine, dreaming of Spring. I probably won't be posting much as it gets colder, so Happy Fall!
-SG

There's a Fungus Among Us

My hostas look horrible right now. I think I have found the culprit; anthracnose!

Apparently it's becoming a problem for formerly indescrutable hostas, attributable to the humid, rainless weather. I probably won't do anything about the ugliness other than clip off the leaves and rake them up, but I'm thinking my hosta nursery in the backyard may need some major TLC. It's overcrowded, there's no edging. It's an eyesore even without the anthracnose. I better add it to my "To Do List."

-SG