What’s Happening In the Garden-May 31

We’re rolling right along out there! The impending heat today was a great incentive to get things deeply planted and watered yesterday. It finally feels like summer is here in Salem!

The potatoes are coming right along. I’ve been adding soil to these as they grow. This pot is full (I hope) of early red potatoes. I’m a little worried about that Japanese Maple. There are tiny buds but no leaves at all yet. It seems a little late?

These are newly planted (last week) Adirondack Blue potatoes.I’ve been working on pots and containers in preparation for our high school graduation visitors next weekend. Hopefully this will fill in in the next few days.
Tomatoes are in! We went for a large variety this year. I’ll have to do a separate post on that sometime soon.Peppers, cabbage, brussel sprouts and shallots. Please notice the complete lack of perfection here. I just don’t allow myself to get bogged down by that. I would never get anything done.Lettuce, cauliflower and bush beans planted at the end.One lonely zucchini plant can grow into the space currently used by the lettuce. I had such horrible squash bugs last year that I swore “no zucchini”. Of course there is a tiny bit of zucchini.The chicken coop window box is in!
Sweet peas are creeping up beautifully.
And we have iris!!This is a German iris. And of course, siberian.

Maybe there is just a little bit of perfection out there, but not because of me!

Enjoy everything!

Love, Michele

For the Lady I Met In Walmart Yesterday…How To Start Your Garden

Hi there!

I heard you ask for help yesterday in Walmart and spoke with you a few minutes later and told you a little bit about my blog. Since then I’ve been thinking about how I can help people like you who are just starting out with their very first garden and I came up with a few simple ideas. These are my thoughts after talking with you for just a minute or two.

—You said that your garden will be next to your driveway and you want some things growing and some color. I didn’t say it, but I should have said that you would want to dig down 12-16 inches to loosen the soil really well. If you just scratch the surface it will be tough for the roots to grow and establish themselves.

—Then, see what kind of soil you have. It may be nice topsoil (black, brown and crumbly), or sandy (light colored and very fine) or clay like (sticks together in a clump when it’s a little wet). It may be very rocky (try to take out as many as you can), or not. Adding compost that you can buy in bags from garden centers will help improve most soil. If you have an extreme version of any of the above you may need to work at it a little bit more. Here’s a link that can help you with that.

—As you work on getting the soil ready watch the way sun shines on the space. How many hours of sun the garden gets is really important in choosing plants that will do well. It might be over 8 hours a day (full sun), 3-6 hours a day (part shade) or less than 3 (shade). Match the light requirement on the plant tag with the type of light you have. It’s really important to do this!

—Look for plants that will fit the light requirement and the type of garden that you have in mind. Read the labels again to get an idea of how tall the plants will be and when they’ll bloom. Some tags even tell you what to plant together which is really handy when your first starting out!

—Try to arrange the plants so that the tallest are in the back and shortest are in the front.

—Pull the weeds as you see them pop up. If you do this for a few minutes every day you’ll be able to keep up with them easier.

—Watch the weather and be sure to water if it doesn’t rain.

—Take off dead flowers and leaves so that new ones can grow.

—Leave me a message here if you have any questions. I’m happy to help if I can!

— Most importantly, enjoy it! Don’t worry too much if plants don’t make it, it happens to all of us! You can do it!!!

Michele

ps/ Other gardeners, feel free to chime in with your ideas and suggestions in the comments section.

Let’s help this lady have the best first garden ever!

English: Soil types by clay, silt and sand com... — English: Soil types by clay, silt and sand composition. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Salem Garden is a Year Old? Really? Your Kidding Me!

WordPress sent me a message the other day to tell me that I’ve been blogging for a year. Seriously… one year? They must be kidding!

Lots of great things have happened since I started The Salem Garden and I didn’t really plan on any of them. You know that I turn everything into a list, so here’s what happened:

1. I found out that blogging is fun, interesting and maybe a little bit addictive.

2. I also learned that blogging takes a lot of time and energy.

3. However, the time commitment decreased as I kept blogging.

4. But, the time commitment then increased because I loved reading other blogs and learning about the craft.

5. I connected with friends, interesting people and gardeners from all over the world.

6. I also connected with friends, interesting people and gardeners from right here, in fun, new ways.

7. I learned a lot about gardening. This happens when you read gardening blogs, so keep reading!

8. I found my blogging voice.

9. I got a wonderful paid position as an adaptive gardening specialist (I had never even heard of an adaptive gardening specialist). My first job in seventeen years has given me the gift of vision about what I’d like to do professionally in the future.

10. My family did well with all of the above, almost all the time.

A year ago I had no idea or expectation about where this would go. I knew that I had something to say or do but I didn’t know what it was or that it would be life-changing. I had spent many years raising my young children and enjoying every minute so I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Thank you so much for reading, following, encouraging and sharing your thoughts with me. You have all made the last year into an amazing journey!

I love sharing photos, so here are some of my favorites from the past year. Click on any image to view them as a slide show.

the first photo ever posted on The Salem Garden

from my most viewed post about the Bewitched statue, who’d have ever thought?

taken by my daughter in the Pocono Mountains last summer

More of Blaire’s work, the tornado cloud over Salem last summer

Children’s Garden at the US Botanic Garden

a great day with our dear student from Japan

the school garden at Bowditch School in Salem

Uncle John, up in the rigging, photo by Michael

With lots of love and gratitude,

Michele at The Salem Garden

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day– May 2013

How could it be the fifteenth of the month already? When I woke up this morning and saw another blogger’s Bloom Day post I had to quickly look at my calendar and check the date. It just didn’t seem possible. A lot has happened here in New England in the last month. The garden continues to soothe and heal all of us.

My long awaited dogwood is still in bloom. I know that I just have another day or two with it so I’m enjoying every minute that I get. Soloman’s seal is unfurling. This is “almost a bloom.” Viola, lots of them, everywhere! Lily of the valleyCrab apple

My little girl’s favorite, the bleeding heart. She’s been able to identify this since she was three.

And there’s still plenty of pollen! I’m so allergic to it, but I’m hoping that in just a few more days or after another good rain (this afternoon), it will be better.

Be sure to check out the other blogs on maydreamsgardens.com to see what’s blooming all over the world!

Michele

Check Out the Link to This Wonderful Post: Creating Your Own Special Retreat From the World by Linda Buzzell

Don’t we all need our own special retreat from the world? Here’s the link to a post by new-to-me author and blogger, Linda Buzzell. She writes about the healing benefits found in nature and the garden. She expresses my feelings so well that I had to share!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-buzzell/nature-health_b_3134900.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

A Quick Derby Garden Update, With a Stop at West Beach

Here’s the Derby Garden when I blogged about it on March 26th.

Here it was on Sunday. It’s greened up beautifully. I’m sure that it’s at an even different stage now, a few days later.
I love these old chimneys. Maintaining them here on the waterfront is probably quite challenging. This was taken by my littlest girl. We girls were out for a ride. Aren’t these tulips great? Donna Seger at Streets of Salem posted a photo of them in bloom on May Day and I was sure that I was going to miss them. I was so happy to see that they were still going strong on Sunday. Beautiful peach columbine, coming into bloom.I’m not sure about this plant’s identity… does anyone know what it is? Let us know!
Before the garden we stopped at the beach for a few minutes. It was windy and cold but still a nice little break in the busy weekend. Sorry, no kid pictures… girls don’t always want to be photographed. That’s okay, neither do I.

I thought that the view might make you smile 🙂

Summer is coming~

Enjoy Everything!

Michele

A Spring Morning In The Derby Garden (thesalemgarden.com)

What’s Happening In the Garden- May 1

Happy May Day!

I hope that you had as nice a day where you are as we did in Salem. It was gorgeous out there!

I had to spend some time poking around outside and checking things out. Here’s what I saw in between dropping off and picking up children…

Lady’s mantle and siberian iris, with the bleeding heart in the background.

I pruned the beejeebes out of this poor butterfly bush the other day. I’m planning to move it way over to the left in the next few days. I ran out of time and steam when I started this project so I have to get back to it (or get Michael to help me, soon)…
The sweet peas are all in a row, ready for their climb up the fence and trellis…
Asparagus is peeking through! And we have this beautiful pile of red twigged dogwood branches. I have to decide what to do with them. I think that they would make a great little fence!The rhubarb is ready. I wish I liked rhubarb more. My mother-in-law makes the best rhubarb custard pie in the world! I should work at that.
The flowering pear tree that we planted last spring is turning out to be beautiful! The soloman’s seal is poking through. I need to clean up and get rid of the dead stuff around it, however that requires me to steel up my courage because it’s snake country over here, not across the yard, just over on this side ;)! There’s a pot of potatoes underway. This year I’m planning to add a little bit of soil at a time, as the plants grow. The radishes pushed through. Radishes are great to grow with kids because they germinate in 4-6 days and you can be harvesting them in just a few weeks. Here’s the view looking down through the dogwood tree. Dogwoods take several years to flower after transplanting. I think this is going to be the breakthrough year for this tree. I have a feeling that it will have been worth the wait. And finally, looking out at the juneberry tree. This is another example of patience paying off. I was very tempted to cut it down a year or two ago because it just looked so sad and sickly. We treated it with Treetone organic fertilizer last spring and fall and the comeback is dramatic. It looks quite healthy and happy this year!

Try to hang in there with your plants and trees. If your having difficulty with something in your yard go ahead and google for a solution, or ask me to help you find one.

My husband will tell you that I live for this stuff 🙂

Enjoy everything!

Michele

Containers With Pizazz ! Not Your Ordinary Container!

I’m heading out to the garden to enjoy this absolutely beautiful day, but before I go I want to share this great post written by Claire Jones at “The Garden Diaries” about using containers. It has lots of ideas for your containers, with tips on how to choose and arrange plants that will really pop. I’m going to plant some canna tubers below the pansies on my front porch in preparation for summer. I’m sure that you’ll be inspired too! Enjoy! Love, Michele

The Garden Diaries

Finesse With Containers

Anyone with a flower pot can put together a container in an afternoon with a trip to the local big box store or nursery. But here are a few pointers which help with the final result that will turn your finshed product from the pedestrian geranium with vinca vine to a showplace masterpiece with Wow factor.

Artful Containers

The best piece of advice that I picked up over the years was the secret to coordinating your colors in a container. Choose a piece of fabric or piece of art that you really like and take it with you when you plant shop. Of course, you can’t take a painting with you so grab refrigerator magnets with famous paintings on them from museums, or cut out paintings from magazines. My most successful container was inspired from a Van Gogh magnet obtained from my many museum visits. Van Gogh’s iris painting has that intense…

View original post 1,170 more words

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day- April 2013

And now for something new and different–I thought that I’d participate in “Garden Bloggers Bloom Day” this month. This is a group of garden bloggers from all over the world who share a post about what’s blooming in their gardens on the fifteenth of the month. You can see all of the participants and link to their blogs here at maydreamgardens.com. It’s really fun to check out all of the beautiful gardens and see the huge variation by climate!

My one reservation about doing this is that it’s still early here in Salem, Massachusetts. I didn’t plant daffodils last year and everything is a few weeks behind due to the cold weather we’ve had. In spite of that I’ll show you quite a bit of green, and a little color. Don’t worry, in May and June we’ll be overflowing with blooms!

Since it hasn’t snowed or sleeted for the past three days the primrose popped out!This morning there was dew on the lady’s mantle. And I had my first glimpse of the bride and groom plant that my mother gave me years ago.The chives are ready to enjoy.
And the tomato cages are waiting. Our neighbors gave us the lupine plants last year. I’m hoping that these will be blooming as beautifully as theirs do soon. This is largely a children’s chicken garden, as evidenced by the “sculpture” that Michael brought home recently and the three gnomes waiting for their summer assignment out in the garden.The chickens may not be blooming but they add lots of color and personality.

Lamb’s ear is poking out… Siberian iris And finally a little bit of bloom from the scillaand from the pansies that I planted a few days ago.

Happy Spring from the Salem Garden! Thanks for visiting!

Enjoy everything!

Michele

A Spring Morning In The Derby Garden

I had a chance to pop into the Derby garden this morning. This garden is really precious to me. Michael and I helped with it’s installation about 23 years ago. At that time I had an appreciation for gardens but no experience or knowledge. This is where gardening really started for me. The young couple who created it worked very hard to design it to represent a garden typical of this setting and the early 1700s time period. I should back up a bit and explain that it sits behind the home of the first American millionaire, Elias Haskett Derby, hence it’s name the Derby Garden.

At first glance over the fence it may look a bit barren and gray, but if you slow down and look closely you’ll see that the beds are about to spring to life.

I believe that these are the first few leaves of hollyhock.There are plenty of snowdrops.They really are one of the first signs of spring. These will be there for a few more days before it’s time to say goodbye till next year.I’m pretty sure that these are small daffodils. I’ll have to try to check back in a few days to confirm.Something from the allium family? Time will tell us exactly what.CrocusA beautiful carpet of green, maybe grape hyacinths?

This apple tree bears small, tough fruit but I’ve made a pie or two from here.

Here’s the view looking out toward the water. We lived in the blue building to the left when we were first married. It was a perfect honeymoon loft for us. We have lots of good memories from our days on Derby Street.

I loved thinking about how we were looking at the same view that the Derbys did when they lived there.

It has changed a bit but their spirit is here. I can feel it. Especially when I spend time in the garden and imagine what they might have grown and raised in the yard.

Enjoy Everything today!

Michele

Gardens to visit #001 (wearecultivate.wordpress.com)
The First Day of Spring and our Trip to the Spring Flower Show at Phipps! (pittsburghmommyblog.com)

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