Creatures in the Garden

A garden attracts all kinds of life, not just raccoons. Right now, I have lots of animal friends in the garden. My neighbor feeds the birds for me because seed on my balcony tends to attract the squirrels. We've built a pretty big community of bird species. I love to watch the birds. I have a pair of cardinals that visit the pine tree at the NE corner of the deck. The male if bright red with a dark black mask. The female is more of a brownish red, not nearly as bright as her mate. I've been spotting them since the winter. There is also a flock of at least 20 house sparrows that live around the garden. Unfortunately they don't get close enough or more slow enough for me to get more than a grainy picture, and I've been trying almost all day. In the winter, I will put the suet feeder back out and throw handfuls of seed onto the deck; maybe I can get some better pictures then.

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the hummingbirds. I got a male and a female rubythroat last summer. I have two feeders out at either side of the deck, I've also planted hummingbird flower mix in a hanging flower box, and spread petunias throughout the deck. When the hummingbirds get here they will have plenty to eat. In the meantime, this cute little ant found the nectar today and stopped just long enough for me to snap this photo. Ants are great because they carry pollen through the garden. I don't mind the ants, but there is an evil carpenter bee that lives in the corner of the roof. Carpenter bees look almost exactly like a bumble bee, except they are slightly smaller and their abdomens are shiney instead of being fuzzy all over. Carpenter bees nest in the wood in walls, decks, or the roof. You know you have a carpenter bee because it will look like someone drilled a perfect 3/8'' hole in the wood, and you will see a sawdust like substance on the ground below. The female stays in the nest while the male keeps guard outside. Male carpenter bees can't sting, but they are still aggressive. Sting or not, it is totally freaky to be sideswiped by a giant bee while you're working in the garden. The best way to get rid of them is to fill in the nest with expaning foam insullation and seal off the whole nest.

I also tried a new experiment a couple day ago. My idea was to take some 2'' shallow aluminum dollar store cake pans and plant ground cover or small rock garden plants among short decorative grasses. They are meant to be used as fillers underneath the herb garden and stair-stepped plant stand; and are better seen from the ground looking up at the balcony. I found a great deal ($1.89!) on six-packs of flowers at K-Mart. I planted assorted colors of Alyssum, Blue Lobelia, and Blue Hawii Ageratum. I planted a mixture in rows across the the trays and sprinked the blue fescue grass in between. It's kind of like mini-lawn. I will keep the grass trimmed short when I comes up and I am also looking for more varieties of decorative grass seed, which means a trip to my favortite place - MENARDS!

I cut holes in the bottom of the tray for drainage and filled with potting mix. Potting mix is better in a container garden because it weighs less and drains better than soil. If the garden is on a balcony it is good to consider the weight limitations of the structure. A good trick is to fill the bottom 1/4 to 1/2 of the container with some light, recycled material. Styrofoam peanuts are perfect - my parents had a full trash bag of them in the garage that they were happy to part with. I did four of these trays, and used the leftovers for a small one. I put two large trays in the bottom of the greenhouse. I am hoping that the soil and the plants will help retain the humidity better than the two trays of water that evaporate faster than I can refill them. If my experiment goes well, I have room for a couple more trays and I will create a few more with different plants, maybe succulents next time.

Happy Gardening!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! Especially to my mom, who gave me a present on her day. As far as moms go, I think I got the best one. We spent most of the day planting flowers in the yard. We had so many Lillies and Dahlias to plant that we had to peel up a few layers of grass to make a new flowerbed. I have an Eastward facing balcony, I get most of the morning sun, and full sun on some parts of the deck until about 2:30 in the afternoon. The great thing about a container garden is that you can move pots around to get more sun; or rotate the containers when your plants start to lean sideways. So mom gave me this really cool digital camera that has this nifty little function...I takes vivid pictures of flowers! How cool is that?! So I thought I'd give a little tour of the garden in pictures. Here are some of the flowers bloomed out in my garden.

I bought a couple miniature roses in the houseplant & floral section, they stay small and are easy to take care of. I transplanted them into bigger pots immediately and they have been very happy on the balcony every since. The red roses share an old 2.5 gallon aquarium with a vevelty silver mound and Fire-Witch Dianthus. Later in the summer a White Gladiolus will grow up in between.

I bought a mixture of miniature gladiolus from Moir (another garden friend of mine) which get about 1.5' tall; and I found a bag of 30 full-size White Glads for $2.50 at Menard's, a deal I just couldnt pass up. I planted the miniatures in the flower boxes I suspended from the deck rail; and I grouped the full-size white Glads in containers against the railing. They should grow into a pretty nice privacy hedge later in the summer.

I also love tiny flowers. I bought these rose pink forget-me-nots at the local garden center. I planted blue forget-me-nots from seeds, but they haven't come up yet (Keep your fingers crossed). I planted blueish purple violas with blue bachelor button, black holly-hock, and chocolate morning glories.

This is a North facing view of the balcony. I tiered containers with a variety of plants around and angel statue. I filled in the gaps between containers with violas planted in mason jars. The jars give the flowers a little height over the containers and are slim enough to fit in between.

The fenced off area is the vegetable garden. I am already snacking on baby spinach and mixed greens. I planted baby carrots and strawberries in the hanging baskets. I also planted hot & banana peppers, a couple varieties of tomato, and eggplants (which are just tiny baby seedling right now). I have just enough room left in there to plant a bush sugar baby watermelon. Bush babys can are good for small spaces and can be grown on a trellis. Potatoes are planted outside the fenced area, and I have to trim them back constantly. The raccoon I traped a couple nights ago "helped" me with that when he shredded three plants while fighting desperately to get out of the cage.

The house next door has a gorgeous back yard. This is a view of one of my hanging flower boxes overlooking the neighbor's back yard. He has apple trees and a big white barn. I planted Money Plant that will get big draping, opalescent, leaves. My mom's friend Sama made the terra cotta tile and she was nice enough to give it to me for my garden (Thanks Sama!). I planted Chinese Lantern in a row in front of the money plant. It will produce little green fruits that attract butterflies; and in the fall the little seed pods dry up turn bright orange. Jade Plants drape on either side of the box. They haven't done so well since I transplanted them, but I'm hoping they will perk up in the next week or so.

There will be way more pictures to come. I've been clicking away with the camera since I got it (Thanks Mom!). There are a whole lot of pictures to go through. These were just a few of my faves.

The Balcony Gardener

Hello, my name is Brittney, and I'm a plant-aholic! Container gardening on my balcony has become my new obsession! I honestly can't stop myself. The local garden centers are like HEAVEN to me and if you unleash me in a Menard's or a Lowes it will be almost impossible for me to leave without at least one treasure to add to the jungle of plants that are steadily taking over my 5' x 11' balcony. I find myself taking home all kinds of strange plants and seed packets, mostly just to see if I can grow such a thing in a small space.

Susan (one of my gardening gurus) says that gardening is an experiment and a learning process in which you spend most of your time asking "Now how am I going to fix that?" So far, I made an organic repellant to fight a meddling squirrel, built and rebuilt a fence around the vegetable garden (3 times!), moved everything off the deck to lay a tarp so I would stop throwing dirt on my downstairs neighbor, and last night I live-trapped the raccoon that dug up my garden and tore holes in my screen door.

These little buggers can make a lot of trouble in your garden. If you decide to live-trap a raccoon that is damaging your property, you should contact your local animal control,wildlife center, or department of natural resources to figure out what you will do with the animal after you catch it. Your area might have some very specific rules about catching and releasing raccoons. It is also VERY dangerous to screw with a raccoon, they look cute, but they are wild predators; and when cornered or threatened they will bite and claw. Raccoons carry rabies, so if you do decide to live trap and release the little pest without a professional's help, you should take precautions to reduce the risk of a serious bite. You should wear thick gloves, long thick sleeves and long pants.

This is the first year that I have invested some serious time and money into building a container garden, but I have done my best to be a frugal gardener I try to be as green as possible in the garden, I like to use recycled garden materials, organic pest control, and on-the-spot composting for small spaces. One of my favorite places to find garden statues and decor is the housewares department of my local Goodwill Stores. It's a great place to find intersting planters, decorations, even a battery operated tabletop fountain or two. Thrift store finds make some of the best garden treasures.

I got an early start this year by germinating seeds in a 3-tiered miniature greenhouse. The best deal I found on a greenhouse likethis was from Amazon.com, you can buy one for about $35, plush S&H, it'll be about $45-$50. If, like me, you begin daydreaming about building your garden in December, an indoor greenhouse is a good way to feed the urge to play in the dirt. If you're into instant gardening satisfaction, seedlings can test your patience, some people like to see the fruits of their labor after digging in the dirt for hours. Growing from seeds was a little overwhemling to me, I was almost certain I would find out my thumb was black instead of green. Although seedlings are less forgiving than more mature plants, they are realively easy to grow. I used two large Jiffy peat plug trays to germinate my seeds inside the greenhouse. The plugs are handy because when the plant is ready to be taken outside, there is no need to risk damaging the delicate first and second leaves by uprooting. After transplanting the seedlings, you can protect them from frost with towels and blankets, or you can cut gallon milk jugs and 2-liters in half and use each end as a cover for the seedlings.

Starting from seedlings is also cheaper than buying more mature plants from the garden center; and if you're growing vegetables (Yes, I said vegetables - almost anything can be grown in a container!) for between $10 and $20 worth of seeds you can grow more produce than you would ever need buy at the grocery store in a whole summer, for way less. It's also nice to walk out onto the deck and pluck a snack straight from the railing or a potted plant. Vegetables begin to lose their nutritional value and flavor as soon as you pick it off the plant. The veggies at the supermarket were picked days ago. Susan says that grocery vegetables have no flavor after you eat veggies straight from the plant.

I also like growing from seedlings because I like to watch the way my plants grow. At the end of a long work day, I like to walk around the balacony to see which plants have sprouted new leaves or flowers. Each day there are new changes in the garden, the plants get taller or bend to reach the sun. New buds are popping up all over the place, and I enjoy keeping pace with all of it.