Spring Cleaning Check List

Can you believe it's April already! It's hard to believe this year is already going by so fast! I think it's partly hard to believe because we've had such a long winter. Winter seems not want to leave us! But with each day passing it's getting warmer, staying light out longer, we know that Spring is indeed here and Winter will have to leave us! 

Garden Season is about to be in full swing! Here's a check list of items that need to be done by now: 

Prep your beds! Give your garden beds a little freshening up by tilling in compost or well rotten manure.

Have your hedges pruned!

This is the time of year to cut back for new growth. March is the perfect month to do this, but our Spring is a little late arriving so we are slightly behind. If you plan to do this, do it quickly before it warms up too. However - you should not prune brushes or shrubs that bloom in the Spring. Those should have been done last fall. If you cut or prune Spring blooming plants you'll be cutting away all of the flowers that were suppose to bloom this spring. So be careful of that and wait until after they are done flowering to prune or cut them back. Here are some good links to check out on Pruning: Better Holmes in Garden  and This Old House: Do's and Don'ts of Pruning

Do a little Spring Cleaning by clearing up brown dead foliage away from the plants. This foliage provides a nice blanket throw winter, but now with Spring arriving we want to clear it and make room for new growth! 

Rack up the dead leaves or debris  that could have blown into the gardens during winter. 

Cut back your ornamental grasses to about a few inches above the ground. This clears away the brown dead grass and gives room for thick green grasses to grow in. Your ornamental grasses will look healthier by doing this. 

Hope this gives you all something to do now that Spring is here! 

Have fun getting dirty in your Garden! 

Until Next Time! 

Garden Storing Tool Ideas

Hello Garden Friends! Sorry it's been so long! One of my New Years Resolutions is to stay more on top of my Garden Blog posting! 

It is mid-February right now and I don't know about you, but I am so looking forward to Spring! We have had such a bitter cold and long winter! Yesterday we had a lot more snow than expected and are expected to be in a Winter Storm warning tonight. 

But enough of that 'cold' talk... have you all been planning what you'll be planting in your garden this year? I'm hoping to have a nice produce garden. Instead of going over board and planting a whole bunch of different things, I'm going to try and have a productive garden. Something that has the basics that I use quite often in the kitchen and something not too big that it gets away from me. 

I came across these cute pictures and thought they were really clever! I want to incorporate the mailbox for sure! 

Landscape Design:

This is one of my favorite parts about Gardening – Designing the Layout. Over the winter I had a lot of time to plan and sketch out different ideas. When I was selecting my plants, I decided to use plants that I already knew were good, hearty plants that grew well in this area. I took note of what was already growing well in my other gardens. However, here is one book that I did find to be to be helpful: “Garden Plants for Iowa”

I can’t tell you how many different drawing and plans I drew! Things you’ll want to keep when in mind when you’re planning your garden is, what is the purpose and function for this garden. My garden was to be decorative, something fun for our customers to walk through and enjoy. With that in mind, I knew I wanted something of a path/walk way in the garden. I also wanted a center focal piece. That’s where our Lady Fountain came into play. Everything would revolve around her.

Selecting an Area:

When selecting an area to convert into a garden, keep in mind what you’re wanting to plant and look for areas that will well suit that plant. For example does the plant prefer full sun, part sun, or shade? Does the plant need well-draining soil? Also, be practical and realize how much time you have to give to your garden. Remember, it’s always easier to start small and expand later. You want a space that you can manage and keep up on. I think nothing is more discouraging than seeing a garden that’s gotten away from you and weeds have taken over!!

We built our location from scratch. The goal was to create a ‘secret garden room’. We already had two 'walls' with the Tearoom on the North/East side and the new Bed and Breakfast just perpendicular to the Tearoom.  So we needed to just create two more walls.

Bed and Breakfast Side Wall

 Because our ground sloped downwards, we needed to build it up. We did this with wooded pillars. We built it up about a foot. Filled the area with dirt.  Because of the cattle that we have on our farm, we have piles of composted dirt that we used. It’s been composting for a few years, so the soil is rich and perfect for plants! I’ll be going into more detail on Composted Dirt in a later post.

We constructed the groundwork last fall and let it sit there all winter. It was good for the soil to settle. The only planting we did was plant our Arborvitae trees. If you decide to do your groundwork in the fall, I’d recommend putting a tarp over your soil. Unfortunately, we didn’t do this and the wind blew our dirt everywhere all winter long!!

Lattice Corner Wall

We know that it will take a little while for the Arborvitae trees to grow thick into a wall-like hedge so, this Spring we added a lattice fence behind them. This creates the illusion of a wall and also provides wind protection to the Arborvitaes.

Garden Room Project

Over the past few months we been working on our newest garden bed "The Secret Garden" room. It's right behind our tearoom, Miss Spenser's Special-Teas and next to our Longview Bed & Breakfast. It's been a long process but I'm very happy with the results so far. So be watching for posts on Garden Room Project. I'll be sharing tips, tricks and be giving advice on how you can construct your very own Secret Garden!