Gardening at The ToadShed

Puttering- pass time with trivial things: to do trivial or unimportant tasks in a random, leisurely way v. intr. To occupy oneself in an aimless or ineffective manner. v. tr. To waste (time) in idling: puttered away the hours in the garden. I guess this is what I spent most of the weekend doing, pulling a few weeds here and there, raking up leaves for the compost bin. I spent, or should I say wasted a lot of time walking around looking for my misplaced bypass pruners. I also went through all of my plant tags. Do you save plant tags? Some plants were long forgotten,these were the ones that just didn't make it. I have tried to grow some things over and over vowing that this time, I would MAKE it live. I ammended the soil, made sure that it was watered and fed and was receiving the proper light conditions, yet still it would die. I think this makes a gardener even more determined, so we try again. I had one plant that I became so displeased with, that I literally yanked it up and bega...

I was up bright and early this morning, long before the sun. If this had been a work day I would swear that come Saturday, I'm sleeping in. I really enjoy the early morning when the rest of the world is still fast asleep, yet I rarely get to enjoy it because usually I am on my way into work. I was already out and about when the little Hummers began to buzz about, the feeders were almost empty so I made up some fresh sugar water and boy were they ready for it. I then took a little stroll around the garden, I noticed some things are beginning to look a little tired, and I think this year I want to take a few cuttings and try rooting them for next spring. I am really pleased with the performance of several annuals that I tried out this year. Sutera - Giant Snowflake, this little flower really outdid itself, here it is planted with Purslane. It however is only an annual in zone 7. Here Purple Queen is planted with Lantana, a combo I will repeat more of next year. Spider Lily, and I ha...

Cuttings taken from tomatoes in August. I put them in water for seven days and wala! roots. Now, I must not take the credit for this, I learned it from a nursery owner that was a guest on the local news. now, I already have little tomatoes. Your fall tomatoes will tend to taste better than those that you’ve harvested in the heat of the summer from your spring planting. And there is also less insect and disease pressure. Tomatoes take around 60 days to grow up, mature, and start producing fruit. That means if you get them in the ground by August 1st, then you’ll start producing tomatoes in early October, just as the heat begins to break. Also, many times, that first freeze or two are actually light frosts. By protecting your tomato plants through that first frost or two, you could actually be harvesting tomatoes for the Christmas Dinner table!

You can find so many wonderful deals this time of year at local nurseries and home improvement stores. In fact I went on sort of a plant binge this week, it started on Thursday after work and went on into Saturday. I never stopped to think as I was loading up my cart with so many shrubs that I would actually have to dig holes for all of these! Well, I guess I had better get started.

I recently stumbled across this item in one of my gardening magazines (you see what trouble these can get you into). Anyway, I really think it would come in quite handy. I don't believe it is designed break up new ground, although, I think it would be wonderful to use for mixing in compost or digging small holes. I have looked in Lowe's and Wal-mart and ,apparently, it is not carried in the store. However, site-to-store shipping is available. The price is good too, only $99