Month-by-Month Guide to Lawn & Garden

Great article in The Charlotte Observer this week, written by Nancy Brachey, providing a month-by-month list of lawn and garden activities for our area & climate. I'll summarize for a quick "to-do" list:

January

• Check flower beds to make sure no perennials have dislodged.
• As daffodil tips emerge, fertilize ground with 10-10-10.

February

• Prune evergreens (laurel, holly, boxwoods, etc. to improve shape & size.
• Cut back monkey grass w/ shears or lawn mower.
• Fertilize fescue grass.
• Prep garden area with organic fertilizer.

March

• Set out broccoli, cabbage, and sow seeds of cool weather peas.
  
• Cover young plants on very cool nights with a sheet or milk jug (bottom cut out)

April

• Sow seeds of green beans, melons, corn, cukes, and squash.
• Set out tomatoes and peppers mid-month. (Later if chilly)

May

• Plant flowers and vegetables in beds and containers.
  
• Okra, lima beans should be planted now.
• Plant grits.
• Just kidding about the grits. Wanted to see if you were paying attention.

June

• Pick ripe vegetables to keep plants productive. Keep careful watch!
• Deadhead annuals and perennials after first big flush of bloom.
• Plant summer annuals to fill in.

July

• Water regularly through hot dry weeks. (Avoid heat of the day for watering).

August

• Begin planning & planting fall vegetables (lettuce, spinach, beets, broccoli, collards)

September

• Renew your lawn. Rack, aerate, seed and fertilize.

October

• Plant bulbs for spring.
• Plant pansies, snapdragons, hardy perennials.
• Dig, divide and replant crowded daylilies, daisies, other perennials.

November

• Plant new shrubs and trees.
• Fertilize fescue.

December

• Use cuttings of evergreens in wreaths and flower arrangements.

Thanks for reading my blog! Leave comments for other lawn and gardening tasks, and I'll add them to the list. For more blogs about Lake Wylie living, gardening, Lake Wylie real estate, and Southern wisdom, please visit TheLakeWylieMan.com.

Words Cannot Describe . . .

It's time to face facts. Words such as bountiful, prolific, abundant, and thriving simply do not describe my garden. It is a darn good thing that my family doesn't depend on my farming skills to put food on the table each night. If that were so, words like tragic, unfortunate, sorry charlie, and too bad so sad would come in to play.

My plants are scraggly. Puny. I didn't realize how much until I visited Todd Ames this weekend. He had tomato plants six feet tall, industrial sized stakes needed, thank you very much, to hold up the bounty of fruit being produced. I coveted. I know thou shalt not, but I did. If I tried to tell you I did not, I would be lying, which is another thou shalt not, so I'm kinda stuck on this one.

I have harvested a few cherry sized tomatoes, and a couple of ping-pong ball sized ones. If not for the generosity of my neighbors and mama, I might be tomato starved this summer.

I can't understand it. I prepped the soil. I've mulched, not watered, then watered. Slapped on some Miracle-Gro when things got really desperate. (Sorry, oh organic ones. I have fallen short of the glory.) And yet, puny.

I've given you sunshine, I've given you rain, you've given me nothing, but heartache and pain! I'm begging you sweetly, I'm asking you please, please, grow for me!

Who knows how much longer this garden blog will go on this summer, but take heart. You can read my Lake Wylie restaurant reviews, and other blogs on Lake Wylie living and real estate. Thanks for reading!

No Bugs, just Slugs

Whew, it has been hot hot hot this past week. I feel like I'm on the deck of a Carribean cruise ship with the bongo band, "Hot hot hot!"

We've had a sprinkle or two w/ the thunderstorms, but I've had to water the garden about every other day. The plants, in general, are not as robust this year. I do have some fruit on the vine, though, so I can't complain too much!

My pepper plants are TINY, yet they have peppers growing (albeit one at a time!) to maturity. Kind of like babies having babies. Wonder if there's a teenage pregnancy center for garden plants?

I plucked a DingWall Scotty (tomato) today - - about as big as a golf ball, very light red in color. Not sure if it was ripe, but it seemed to want to come inside.

My squash plants are in TROUBLE. I began to suspect late last week that something was gnawing on their roots, as they seemed to be perishing from the roots up. This morning I spotted a SLUG making its way over to the squash. I grabbed a sturdy leaf and hurried over. (HA! Just kidding. I sauntered over and still beat the sorry creature.)

I carefully put the slug on the leaf, then balanced him gently over to the driveway, where I placed him in the soothing shade of the tire of my husband's pick up truck. Right where he'd get squashed. (Seemed appropriate, given the condition of my squash.)

I know, I know, God's little creature, right? Whatev. I'm thinking God created the slug when He was peeved at Eve.

So that's what happening in the garden. Stay cool.

Thanks for reading my blog. For more stories about Lake Wylie, plus a complete guide to Lake Wylie Events and Activities, visit The Lake Wylie Man website!

Is it June already?

Wow, end of the school year festivities, chaperoning the Choralier trip, graduation, etc. have left me little time for the garden. Thank goodness we've had lots of rain. Everything has survived my neglect!

I went out early this morning, and found that while we were involved in graduation festivites, the garden was having a festival of its own. Weeds were rampant, and some of the tomato plants were growing in rather unruly fashion. It was definitely time to cage 'em up - - actually I think it was time about a MONTH ago. It was a bit of a struggle putting the wire cages over the plants to stake them up. Kind of like putting a snow suit on a wiggly toddler. Unfortunately, I broke a couple of fruitful branches trying to set the wire around the plants.

I've picked a couple of yellow cherry tomatoes so far (from the Lowe's hybrid plant . . . ) Several of the heirlooms have fruit growing now, while others are pretty bare. I'm going to take inventory tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!

Deer? Oh, Dear!

The garden is growing quite nicely, and nothing has died at this point!! I was a bit concerned about the Marizold Red tomato plant - - it yellowed shortly after planting. I think it just had an upset tummy, though, from a little too much compost. You gotta watch those young 'uns when they've just left the greenhouse . . . they are prone to overindulge.

Meanwhile, the deer have been feasting over at my Mama's garden (just around the corner from me), so I've taken precautions. When we planted, both Mama and I bought deer repellent kits from Lowe's - - little canisters that see on top of a wire post (see photo). The repellent is supposed to last ALL season, and contain a scent that is not detectable to humans, but deer find it quite frightening. Guess my mama has brave deer.

She strung up some pie plates in her garden to beef up the security. (I dunno about you, but I can't figure out why deer would be skeered of pie.)

I've been encouraging my dog to "mark" around the garden. He isn't always cooperative, and doesn't understand that I don't want him to whiz ON the tomato plants, just NEAR them. So I enlisted my husband and son. I figured that Jimmy (my son) used to go in the yard all the time when he was younger . . . so why not now? Ah, life in the country. Fighting deer with my dears.

Stay tuned for more facinating progress in the garden! For more blogs, check out Lake Wylie Living blogs on The Lake Wylie Man.

And It Begins - Garden 2010

I got a call from The Tomato Man on Saturday, and the word was: It's time to plant! I headed over to his half acre farm - - it's a town farm - - and found him and a teen aged helper digging in the dirt. By the end of the day, he'd have a couple hundred tomatoes in the ground.




My aspirations were much more modest - - I asked for twelve plants, well behaved and prolific, if you please. I don't want a repeat of '08, when I had the most beautiful plants of all time, and like, three tomatoes the entire season.

We stepped into Phil's 4'x8' greenhouse, filled to the rafters with eighty (80!!) varieties of heirloom and specialty hybrid plants. Phil raises these youngsters first in his kitchen, then moves to the greenhouse once weather permits. He rotates them religiously, up and down the shelves, to the front, to the back, checking their progress several times a day.

Phil carefully selected a dozen plants for me, explaining the characteristics of each as he placed them in a box. "This one dates back to Thomas Jefferson," he'd say. Not sure what that means to me and my BLT, except I might be eating the same salad as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, which is pretty darn cool in my book.

At the end of my visit, I went home with a Great White (big & white, just like the name), a Brandy Glick (some sort of Bradywine variety), an "Earl of Edgecomb" (a particularly flavorful orange heirloom), a "Ferris Wheel" (looks like a ferris wheel when you cut into it!), a "Marizold Red" (Phil had never tried, but said you couldn't go wrong with a Marizold family heirloom), a "Ding Wall Scotty" (a mid-sized red that grows in clusters), a "Pineapple Fog" (hybrid mixing a Pineapple yellow tomato and a San Francisco Fog), a "Mule Team" (like a work horse, keeps on producing and producing!!), and a Limmony (light yellow in color).

Twenty-four hours later, after my sweet husband plowed up my garden, I had the tomatoes plus a few assorted peppers buried up to their little necks in my garden, wondering what happened to the Holiday Greenhouse Spa and Resort. I planted them just as the Tomato Man Phil instructed me last year - - deep hole, a shovel full of organic compost, about a gallon of water, then plant the tomato up to its neck, burying a good 2/3 of the vine and leaves. I won't have to water for about a week.

I've checked on my garden each evening after working all day with the Lake Wylie real estate man, David Coone. With this warm weather, we're staying quite busy! Check on my other blogs about Lake Wylie waterfront and living in Lake Wylie on TheLakeWylieMan.com. Have a glorious day!

Visiting the Mater Man

As the growing season comes to a close, I paid a visit to Phil (a.k.a. the "Mater Man"), who supplied me with the heirloom tomato plants this summer. I got to see his greenhouse, where my little plants were born, and got to visit with all of my tomatoes' relatives in Phil's garden. Phil and his wife showed me their composter, and I was duly impressed!

By the way - - the picture to the left is a picture of SOME of Phil's harvest . . . just a bit more bountiful than mine, I'd say. Must be something to that composting!!

I also got to see some of Phil's pottery collection - - turns out he's a collector & trader of antique Edgefield Stoneware, pots made by Dave the Slave, and rare Catawba Valley pottery. Quite a fun & enlightening visit!

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day!

Thanks for reading my blog! For Lake Wylie, Rock Hill, Fort Mill, and Tega Cay Events and Activities, please visit my website, TheLakeWylieMan.com. Your source for Lake Wylie waterfront real estate and more!