Only one garden center???

I have been to only one garden center this spring to pick up plants.  Crazy for me as I love to go and see what everyone has growing.  I am understanding now why my former boss (when I was a laborer) only went when he finally had time to see his friends at their greenhouses.  After spending all that time over-seeing all those plants, it just isn't exciting to go see more.
I finally made my run to my favorite place.  Two weeks later than usual, the selection had diminished.  The houses were empty and everything was outdoors.  Luxembourg Gardens in Franklin is a wonderful little gem of a garden center.  Run by the owners and tended by other knowledgeable staff, it is a wonderful place to unwind and shop.  It is not a fancy place, but it has just what I like.  Sue never lets you leave without making sure you know what you are buying and the best way to care for it.  If you are buying things before they should be set outside, she will let you know that, too.
I picked up my herbs (including my Mojito mint which I am enjoying right now in the proper beverage) and an assortment of annuals to add to my beds totaling just one flat plus the seven pots of herbs.  I think I will be lucky to get these in with the rest of my plants I have waiting to get in the ground at home.  I am still hardening off some of them as well.  It will be a late to come flower garden this year.
I have been enjoying Pak Choy and radishes.  The early cabbage is forming heads so I want to cover them from the moths this year.  I want to try the pantyhose method on some of them and see how they do.  
Nothing has hatched from the praying mantis cases yet.  They got out a little early this year.  The birds have been fun to watch in the backyard this spring.  I have feeders with nuts, thistle, and nectar so the variety has been good.  We have a nesting robin right outside the bedroom window.  The babies are visible from the window and also from the ground.

The Little Free Library has also been going well.  It sits just off the walk, but inside the front garden on an old stump.  I am glad I went this route to put it up as it really fits the garden style better than up on posts.  It also makes it fun for little ones to pick out their selections.  I recommend putting one up if you are a reader who loves to share.
I will be out in the garden tomorrow to finish off the final planting.  For now, I think I will just enjoy the fruits of my laborer and the cold drink in hand.

A whole lot of planting going on

The new job responsibilities have been challenging and have given me a new reason to go to work each day.  Sometimes there is some frustration.  There are long hours.  A greenhouse alone is long hours in the spring, but the City of Milwaukee runs a nursery operation on 160 acres as well.  I came into the job and work was almost a month behind.  I know will will never catch up now, but each day priorities were set and reached.  Some days fell short due to weather and breakdowns, but we just move on and do the best we can.
I got some amount of gardening done in between the work hours and a spring cold.  The lingering cough has kept me from going "balls to the walls" with gardening on the usual Memorial day blitz.  I have been doing a fair amount of plant eviction and getting things acclimated.  The weather is running about 2 weeks or more in Milwaukee with bloom times so far.  It postponed moving many plants out, but I had done so much more late seeding that the timing is working out beautifully so far.
The veggie garden is about 50% planted as I have several cold crops going.  It has been a good season for those.  I have tomatoes and peppers in the basement yet.  I am waiting another 2 weeks for planting out of those.  I am doing a little soil solarization on the tomato bed right now.  I was fortunate to have a 3' x 20' piece of clear plastic on hand to lay over the bed after pulling out the weeds and snatching up a few of the reseeding annuals from last year's flowers.  I am swapping out the two planting spots this year and putting the tomatoes in the back yard and enjoying a little bloom along the driveway.
I have pulled up liner and filled in my little pond this year.  I did not feel the desire to scrub the algae off the stones and fish out the leaves.  I have another pump set up for falling water, I just have to put it together.  I will have the option to move it around then and put it away from the leaf and petal fall as the season's dictate.  I now have a nice pile of pretty rocks to do something interesting with.
I am also trying to initiate the mushroom growth on my spruce logs.  I innoculated them with chicken-of-the-woods mushroom spawn.  It will take about 6 months to know if I have been successful.
I think I have caught up on my journal for the time being.  I promise, pictures of the new work area soon.

Another grafting session

I spent some quality time with my new grafting knife.  After I took my grafting class in Mike Yanny's Nursery School last month, I took some scion cuttings from my neighbor's Golden Delicious tree.  I wrapped them with moist tissue and bagged them in the frig to hold until the time was right for outdoor grafting.  Mike had explained to us that it takes a week of temperatures in the 60's to get a good graft.  The tree or shrub has to have expanding leaves on it (growth has been initiated for the season) as well.  This week provided the temperatures that popped my espalier apple tree this past week.  Saturday morning I went out with the necessary tools and supplies and made my grafts.  I had taken four cuttings, three went on to my Goldencrisp apple which I am trying to turn into an espalier.  The fourth I grafted to my Snowdrift crabapple as an experiement in ornamental to fruiting apple tree.

Besides my new grafting knife, I also had my Felco pruner, grafting paint, masking tape, and an old toothbrush.  I made my cuts like Mike taught us and fixed three grafts at an upper level of my espalier.  Hopefully, two will take on opposites sides to make my life easier.  The grafts are held in place by pressure and tape.  The grafting paint covers the whole scion and I found that the tooth brush worked well for applying it and was disposable besides.  Time will tell now.

In addition to my grafting, I transplanted a bunch of seedlings to trays indoors, seeded a few more things, and set things to order in the yard.  The lawn furniture came out and the snow blowers were drained and put away.  By the end of the day I was tired but pretty happy about what got done.  

Time is running short on seeding indoors.  I will just do my cukes and squash from this point now.  I soaked my sweet peas for my flower trellises so those have to go in today.  The Thunbergia will also have to be transplanted for indoor sprouting.  It is a little late for those, but I will just have to wait a little longer for their bloom.  I guess I better get out and drop those sweet peas in the soil before the day gets away from me.  Happy Mother's Day to the rest of you mothers out there.

Life changes

Life has changed at a rapid pace.  10 to 12 hours at the office are the norm with spring in full bloom at the greenhouse and nursery.  I do not mind the change or the hours as they have been interesting and challenging days.  A far cry from the code enforcement days of winter.

I laugh to myself to think that last spring I was debating where to put the two fruit trees I bought at the garden center last spring.  This year I have 5,000 trees to think about where they have to go.  Last spring I was stretching my space by staggered seeding so I could fit it all in my basement.  This year I am working with a crew to get everything done at the same time so it is ready for shipping by the end of May.  Life has changed indeed!

Whether you are working with a large operation or enjoying your own hobby the concepts are still the same.  Light, water, food, and sanitation are still the key ingredients for growing plants.  You have to watch for insects and disease and decide what is your acceptable threshold before you do something to try and stop the pest from devouring your hard work.  It requires daily attention and tender loving care.

When life settles into a rhythm, I will share some shots of the larger operation.  Until then, we will depend on sunshine and a dedicated team to bring the crop into full season.  I am lucky to have such capable people to work with to reach for that goal! 

Fitting in the spring tasks, a photo tour

My basement greenhouse is full with overflow to the kitchen window and south facing upstairs window.  I have many transplants to fit soon, so I have to come up with a plan for all the large pots occupying space here.

I have been cleaning out the gardens so I start with a clear base to start this spring.  This is my herb garden with several perennial herbs and reseeding herbs.  I added additional cilantro seed in a larger plot than normal for an early spring harvest.

My potted stock from my grafting class is coming along.  It has been super exciting to see that the grafts are taking and sprouting.  I am keeping my fingers crossed for great success.  I do have the small greenhouse set up this year.  It is a low tech design, but with my husband home during the day he can vent the front for me!

Tomatoes, peppers, and many flowers are close to getting true leaves which means I have lots of transplanting ahead.  I have cabbages and baby pak choi rooting for transplant into the garden.  I think I will have to toss them to the wolves in the outdoor greenhouse soon to make space.

Potted fruiting bushes are a direction I have started to move in last spring.  I have honey berries which have overwintered and are sprouting.  I will be able to take these with me if we have to make a move.  I can't say the same for the peach tree, apple, or kiwi.

I got small variety blueberries from Jung's this spring.  I potted them up to straight peat moss yesterday.  It is my plan to keep them as potted stock so they can go wherever I need them.

Two out of three raised beds are planted.  I have carrots germinating under the cloth (it helps to keep the bed moist) as well as lettuce seeds.  I also have several varieties of kale this year, half a bed of storing onions, a row of bunching onions and radishes.  Some radicchio overwintered, my new crop I am growing as a fall crop this year.  The garlic is also up 6 " already.  Peas were also put in last week but no sprouts as of this morning. 

Where did she go?

Being spring and high planting season, I should be posting like a mad woman now.  I do have several seeds in the trays and have been transplanting things as they are ready.  There are a few things that didn't get done as soon as I wanted but I have kept up o.k. so far. 

Today will be a busy day in the garden as the onions need to get in as well as the pak choi and cabbage plants that are ready.  It is also high time that I soak my peas and get those going as well.  

The weather has been cool with some night below freezing yet which has kept me from accomplishing as much as I normally would.  Life has also taken an interesting turn.  Besides a second knee replacement (on the same knee just two years later) for my husband, work has gotten interesting in a chaotic sort of way.  I have been working at my present job for almost 4 years.  When I took the job it was my dream job.  I was working with the citizens of the city and the Department of Forestry to balance the wants of the citizen with the resources of Forestry.  I was a customer service rep in the most basic terms.  The challenge was just what I needed.  Things turned quickly with the new Wisconsin anti-labor laws and economic hardships brought on by the foreclosure crisis.  I became a code enforcement supervisor and city properties manager as a result.  I never left my job, my job left me.  

Prior to what I do now, I spent 19 and a half years working in the City of Milwaukee Nursery and Greenhouses.  It was a great job, but very physically demanding.  I experienced burnout and my body was needing a break.  Times and circumstances have changed and I now find myself finding a new career challenge.  I will be returning to the nursery and greenhouse to try to accomplish the task of carrying out the spring season with the exit of the present manager and crew leader.  I don't know yet where this is all going, but the city has a very capable work force that was under utilized.  I will miss the capabilities that the crew leader brought to the table, but she has been offered a job that she just can't refuse.  It is unfortunate that she will not be there to finish what she started.  The rest of us will have to pick up and press forward to salvage what we can as a team.  I am fortunate to have the support of the other managers and staff to see this happen.

I may not be updating my planting progress much this spring, but I will continue to do what I love.  Stay tuned to find out how this all turns out.  In the meantime, keep us all in your thoughts and prayers as we move forward to accomplish the task.

My last Arbor Day program after a very good day on the job.

A very wet weekend, cold is back for now

After a week of such fine weather, we were hit with precipitation most of the weekend.  Lots of precipitation in the form of rain.  The temperatures stayed mild which made being in the yard a pleasure when it was dry.
I have a few wooden garden items needing staining, so those I pulled into the garage to keep them dry.  If I can't work in the yard on my vacation, I will get something done.  The pots and flats that were stacked on my mobile plant rack had to find a place on the garage shelves instead.  Spring will come, and I am going to be ready for it!
I wandered down into the vegetable garden and decided to pull out the strawberry boxes and pots of perennial daisies that were heeled in.  I let them sit out and collect rain for the weekend.  The strawberries needed some cleaning out of dead foliage also.  The forecast for the week is cold, sometimes below freezing, so I provided some cover between the raised beds to hold them for a little while longer.  The planter box that I keep them in is one of my staining projects, so a home in the vegetable garden is suitable for now.  Taking the boxes out of their winter bed allowed me to prep one raised bed for spring planting.  I had just put down and secured the edges of the plastic cover when the first rain drops started falling.  There is one 4 x 8 foot spot in my yard that didn't get a total wash out this weekend.
I located my parsnips that I overwintered in the ground by the tiny green shoots poking up through the dirt.  I dug those out and cleaned them up, so this would make them (technically) my first harvest of 2014!  I also put some frost cover over the few plants that made it through the winter.  I was very disappointed to find that the two baby cabbage that made it through the winter were dug out by squirrels rooting around for hidden nuts.  My yard has divots in every garden bed from their spring time digging.  I have new seedlings in the basement for red cabbage and baby pak choi.  The Brisk Green pak choi and spring seeded baby cabbage is well on its way to being ready for spring planting along with my Alisa Craig onions as soon as the weather allows.  I seeded all my peppers on Sunday and the tomatillos as well.  I am going to give them a little more time than the tomatoes this year, hopefully give them just a little more growth before June planting.

Alisa Craig onions, Baby cabbage, Brisk Green pak choi

The weather men have cold and snow in the forecast for today.  They have promised that it will not stick.  Several of the local rivers, including parts of the Milwaukee River, are at flood stage.  I consider myself lucky to still have hope for getting in the garden soon.