All posts by Tom Roberts

Today was 60 or so and mostly cloudy which makes it a good day for potting up and setting plants out for the first time.

While the plants are safely in the greenhouse they are not subjected to the wind and sun although we do have fans for air circulation, these fans do not have the same effect on the plants as the natural variation of a breeze.

We find it best to start plants out side for a few hours a day or in this case, today and tomorrow will be mostly cloudy so we just leave them out. The next two days will be partly cloudy so that should give them time to break in. The proper term is harden off meaning to make the plant used to being out side and in its intended environment.

Its important to make sure the plants are not subjected to full sun for an extended time burring the hardening off period. Just as important, to be sure they are not allowed to dry out or left out in strong winds. This is an important and critical time for the new plants and it deserves and demands our complete attention.

We put up a bunch of really nice fancy leaf geraniums today. Some cox geraniums, which have very colorful red, yellow, green and gold in the leaves and some green gold ones as well. Also we potted lemon scented Martha Washington type as well as silver and burgundy Martha’s. These plants were big enough to put them in 1/2 gallon pots. We put them up with a some time release fertilizer so they will not go hungry.
Then Phyllis moved a lot of German ivy and lots of alysim too. We grew 3 types of alysim this year.

Carpet of snow, which as the name suggest is white, royal carpet which is burgundy and rose and that one is a bit of a cross between the two other ones with some pink thrown in.
All this activity is making more room on the sunny benches for plants which prefer to be quite warm, like the tomatoes, peppers, zinnias, and some of the smaller geraniums.

Tomorrow we will put some stuff up front and try to sell it ! We are about 2 weeks behind the big box stores but that is normal. They give no thought what so ever about what they are offering. The other day we were going into the food store when we saw some sorry looking pansies. Now pansies are not as delicate as the name would sound, under the correct conditions.

These plants were obviously moved out of a greenhouse and into a truck then put in the direct sun and wind and left bone dry. They were pathetic.
And then again today we were at Lowes looking for some bark mulch. Not to confuse bark mulch with what the garden centers call bark mulch. What is often refereed to bark mulch is ground wood, colored and sold in bags or by the truck. And I defy anyone to produce so much as one piece of bark from a truck load. When we get this stuff we always get it in the truck because it is way cheaper that way but it is just colored ground wood, to be sure.

What we were looking for was the bark nuggets mame, just the bark and nothing but the bark. We need it for a section of the herb garden where we use all containers but we want something neutral and natural for the area. We don’t need a lot so we can get by with a few bags and it was free.
No kidding, we won a $10.00 gift card and the bark was about $3.25 per 2 cf bag so we ended up with 6 cf of pine bark nuggets free. What a world.

They also sell mulch and here is a comparison and why we buy it by the truck. A 3 cf bag of pine bark mulch, ( ground colored wood ) is sold for about $4.50. Now follow this .. One cubic yard has 27 cf meaning it take 9 bags of mulch to equal 1 cubic yard. Do the math .. 9 times $4.50 is $40.50. The last time we bought mulch we paid about $25.00 for what was suppose to be a yard but it was much more. Our full size pickup holds about 3 yards to the top. One scoop for $25.00 just about fills the back of the truck. Its way cheaper.

Even if one could not use that much mulch it would pay to go in with the neighbors, unless of course one neighbor wanted dark brown and the other wanted neon red or what ever that color is.
Anyway we were looking at the plant tags and it is nothing short of amazing the number of perennial plants, shrubs and trees which are not hearty in this zone. Some of these were not even close. When I asked about it the clerk told me that the plants were guaranteed and to keep the tag and if they died bring the tag back and get a refund.

I don’t consider musical plants to be a good use of my time so I don’t buy plants out of zone.

It seems like this will get done at the end of the day, and quite often that is beyond the end of the day, so to speak.

On uh count of everything piles up and gets pushed back until the next thing you know ole Jeds’ a Millionaire.. or its 2 or 3 tomorrow morning.

It looks like the weather is going to be 60 or so during the day and 40 or so at night. We shall put the herbs out. In addition we will put some of the hearty annuals and most of the perennials out as well.
Some stuff will stay in the greenhouse. This would include marigolds, zinnias, tomato and pepper plants. Any of the tender starts will stay in for now as well.

Its important to keep an eye out for fungus in the cooler weather. We hit most every things every 7 to 10 days with serenade fungicide. Like everything else we use it is organic certified and can be applied up to the date of harvest, although the only thing we have ever used it on would be paste tomatoes.

SO we watch to see what might need a shot. Last year the spring was a bit cool and wet so to keep the marigolds in good shape we applied the fungicide every 7 days or so. The marigold blooms tend to hold water and they can stay wet all day, allowing fungi to grow. If it gets a foot hold it will go into bottom of the the bloom or bud and the flowers will fall apart.

Some folks might think we are a bit anal when it comes to what we use on the garden and plants but we eat the fruit from the same plants we grow to sell and we do not wish to bombard our systems with any more toxins than we have to. Plus we have to work with this stuff. We want it to be safe.

Today was a low water day being cool and a bit cloudy and tomorrow ( or today to be correct ) looks to shape up the same way. We will be moving stuff around and probably potting up some geraniums.
We have a really great batch this year, good selection and they look nice. Zonal, ivy, Martha Washington, fancy leaf and some others. The regime of fungicide really helped to keep everything in good shape. Some of the lemon scented with the Martha Washington type leaves were a bit yellow but they really turn around when they get out doors.

Same goes for the golden sage and the pineapple sage. They seem like the most fussy herbs we have and it’s odd that the tri colored sage and the broad leaf sage do really well while the others are more trouble.

We took some cuttings from each and the tri colored sage started when all the others seems to crap out. So we tried leaving them in some water for a few days and that seemed to do the trick. We want to use the fancy herbs in the baskets this year for some variations while we will probably do some with the tried and true varieties.

SO that’s it for now. Time to hit the hay because even thought when we wake up in the morning and it seems like Saturday it will really be Friday and we have other chores to do as well as the garden.

Today was the day for snakes. We met this lady on our walk today. She was very curious and wanted to get right up to the camera. There were about a million peepers in the area and she looked like she was ready for supper but still took the time to check us out.

It’s always a bit of a shock to see snakes in the woods or on the trail but they are quite harmless.

They blend in to the litter on the forest floor and quietly slide along tasting the air with their tongues.

This is a common garter snake, plentiful and found anywhere in Northern NY.

The combination of cool temperature and strong sun made this a perfect day in the greenhouse, and the warm days make for lots of snakes.

Outside it was about 60 f while inside the hoop house it was about 75 f with the fans running all day. The smaller house stayed about 70 f with just the door open but the best part was the strong sun which is giving the geraniums a big boost.This morning it seemed like all the snakes in the world were in the greenhouse. It has been said that a snake in the greenhouse is good luck so judging by attendance today we are in for a string of it! We counted 3 at once.

They were every where on the floor and the benches. Since no one here has issues with snakes they are welcome house guests. I should say they are the common garter snakes, Thamnophis sirtalis, and they eat earthworms, small rodents, frogs and so on. We are at war with the voles so any help is appreciated although the ones we are seeing do not seem large enough to tackle a vole.

Yesterday we saw 3 out side basking on the stones. The need to regulate their body temperature by laying in the sun to warm up. At night they pick a spot to rest and it is not uncommon for 2 or more to sleep together to stay warm.

I am not sure why we are seeing so many but it is the romantic time of the year for garter snakes so maybe they were just having a little fun.
Yesterday we borrowed my fathers mantis tiller because we had some small areas around the herb garden that needed a little work, and since we had never used one before we wanted to see what they are all about.

Our usually go to machine is the troy bilt horse tiller which weighs more than 150 pounds. The mantis on the other hand weighs in at 20 lbs. The troy bilt is a rear tine design and it leaves a smooth, ready to plant path behind it. The mantis has no wheels or depth gauge, just a set of revolving tines which madly claw at the earth while you hold onto the the handles for dear life, pushing or pulling, depending on if you are cultivating or tilling.

Its a good thing its light, other wise it could be a problem to handle but with the small engine and tines its manageable even for my 84 year old dad.
I tackled the small annual beds next to the herb garden without too much trouble. The biggest problem is the lack of a depth gauge which makes it difficult to do an even job. Next I hit the cool garden as we want to get the lettuce and peas in right away. This garden is about 6 ft wide and 32 ft long. It took about 10 minutes to mix the compost and mulch into the top layer but again with out the depth gauge it made for an uneven surface. We will definitely need to rake.

The troy built would have done the same job in a similar amount of time but without all the hauling and pushing. I guess one would stay in better shape with the mantis. I can see it would be handy for some cultivating between rows but the place where it was really handy was the edger.

One nice feature is the slide off tines which are held on each side of the tiller with a friction pin. Not only does this make it a snap to change from tiller to cultivator to edger but it makes it really easy to remove the twisted vegetable matter and mud from the axles. ( or is it madder. When ever I am trying to clean the bolo tines on the horse I get madder ) The edger is like a single disc tine on one side and a 4 or 5 inch wheel on the other. To edge we just ran the wheel on the side walk and followed the edge with the rotating disk and it worked like a charm. We just ran a 6 inch ice spud along the top edge of the walk and the overlapping sod easily came lose. It was harder to wheel the barrow load to the back lot than to do the edging.

We used this edging/cutting feature when we hit the area around the herb garden. By measuring out from the garden and staking the distance we were able to get a straight job and the nice thing is the edger will run right up to the making stakes so we could leave them in place until we were finished.

Besides being a nice edger it started really easy compared to our horse tiller. 2 shots of the primer bulb, a little choke and 2 pulls. Its a 2 cycle and it really turns up. Probably the worst part of the whole experiment is when the gas can tipped over in the back of the station wagon and leaked gas. And even thought the lingering gas smell is bad the thought of $3.00 a gallon gas being wasted is far worse.
So the verdict is as long as I can borrow one for the 30 minutes work I need to do I would not consider buying. But if I won the lottery, well that another story.

We made these drop down greenhouse benches so the snow blower would not send all the stone into the yard and in the summer they do double duty as plant stands.

We used larch, which is a very durable wood. We prefer larch to pressure treated lumber as there are no chemicals used. It’s naturally suited for use outdoors.
Here’s how the benches work.


Laid down they make a path for the snow blower.
Up they make benches for plants and space underneath for tidy storage.

We use a framework on the ground to contain the granite gravel. The gravel is laid on top of landscape fabric so weeds and plants do not come up through.

Cinder blocks hold the benches up in the summer.

At last The Wedding Department page is finished and uploaded so we can continue with other things, like work. There will still be some tinkering to do but at least the basic architecture is there.

The weather today was in the low 80s and its a good thing we built the small greenhouse with a removable side. Even with the side off it was over 80 inside. The weather is going to go back down to the 50s and that is a good thing. If the weather stayed warm we would be forced to put the shade cloth on the greenhouse.

The shade cloth cuts the sun 60 percent and that is not what we want this time of year. The plants that want sun “need sun” to look the best and stay healthy. To much cloudy weather or using the shade cloth will make the plants leggy. The cool weather will allow us to leave the shade cloth off and still take advantage of the light. Even a cloudy day has more sun than a 60 percent shade.

We are making good strides in the gardens. The perennial bed is cleaned up and edged around the border. Its always a mystery what will come up so we just watch and cross our fingers. Some of the plants are starting to show like the lupines, the Shasta daisy’s, sedum and that yellow stuff that Phyllis got from her sister the used to be around the bird bath in Black River. Can’t remember the name and we did not get any pictures but its coming up in good shape.

Hold it, Phyllis just said its Yellow Loosestrife, not to be confused with the intrusive Purple that chokes swamps. Although it is very prolific.

We put the benches up on the side of the greenhouse, see the photos. The benches are made of larch which is the Monty Python term for tamarack. Its so full of pitch that it does not rot. We use larch for the foundation of the greenhouse and anywhere we need wood that will be in contact with the ground, with the exception of cedar posts. For years prior to pressure treated lumber larch was used as the wood posts that supported road way guard rails.

It requires no finishing and weathers to a nice soft gray.
We put stone around the outside of the greenhouses, 3 feet out on all sides. The stone is held in place by 1 by 4 larch that we anchored with pipe driven into the ground. We laid landscape fabric down and covered it with small red granite. This way we do not have to weed under the benches. It is really tidy because we can use the weed whacker against the boards to trim the grass. The mower gets the paths.

In the summer the benches are supported with regular cinder blocks. This gives them a nice height and there is space under the benches for storage. Some plants can be placed on the gravel to save space. This system works good in the early spring when the days are warm but the nights may be cold. We can just hustle the plants under the benches and if its really cold we can put some plastic on the benches to protect the plants. Next morning they go back on the benches. This is a lot better for plants than just covering them with plastic as the strong morning sun will not cook them as can happen when plants are covered with out ventilation.

In the winter we lay the benches flat on the gravel to make a road for the snow blower. They have to be stored some where. The snow must be kept clear around the greenhouses and the snow blower would pick the stone up if we just ran it around with out the benches in place.

So we have them up and the hearty herbs are being brought out. We put them under the benches for a day or 2 to harden them to the wind. Its amazing as to how well plants respond to getting out doors in the breeze. The English daisy’s were limp and lifeless but 2 days under the benches and they are holding their leaves up.

So time to hit the hay. Its been a long weekend.

The sun shone again and it is really working to dry things up. And the weather is coming around to where we can put some things out. We had to pick up more cement blocks because our supply has become depleted with the temporary greenhouse benches. Seems like another nice day indeed.

Normally we do not think much of using pallets for benches because they are usually big, heavy, bulky and greasy, however we made a lucky find that changed our minds.
When we built the new temporary greenhouse we did not build it with the intention of using it for a greenhouse forever. So there was not a lot of thought about benches but when we were finished building we had to face the fact that unless we were going to put the plants on the ground we needed something for benches.

So off to town we went in search of something to use. We considered every thing we saw. Perhaps if we found some abandoned shopping carts we could cut the bottoms and the sides out. After all they would not rot and air would circulate, but what would we do with all the cart carcasses. It might look fishy to see a lot of shopping cart parts in front of the house, out for the trash. Not to mention the karma thing.

After a lot of looking at the lumber and hardware stores we were about to call it a day when we happened by a local commercial trucking firm. To our surprise, out in front by the drive and stacked for the taking were the nicest little pallets we ever saw. And we just happened to have the truck.

They are 2 feet by 4 feet and perfectly clean. Nice and light, easy to handle, and free. It just takes 2 cement blocks to hold them up and each one will accommodate 4 flats. On the blocks they are at a nice height for working.

Then when we are finished we can stack them very neatly and cover them with a green tarp making them invisible. Of course one of the property rules is that anything left in the same spot for more than a week becomes invisible anyway but if we use the tarp it gives the impression that we are at least trying, even if we are really slacking.

Anyway they used up all the cement blocks so we had to get more for the benches around the greenhouse. We will have enough blocks for a good sized foundation before long and moving them around will give us good biceps to boot.

The sun came out today with a vengeance. What a difference a day makes in the garden.

This is exactly what we need. The weather has been gray for some time and not only is it depressing the cloudy conditions make the plants leggy. The tomatoes especially. We managed to put up about 8 flats and the idea was to get them buried up to their necks.

Some people wait until there are 2 sets of true leaves but in this case the seedlings were going to be more than 2″ tall and if we had waited one more day they would be too tall to work with.
This way we can put them in the sun and they will grow wide. We will probably pinch them in a week and that will help a lot. The weather report looks like nice bright days for the coming week at least and that will help dry things out. And with a little luck we can put a lot of the herbs and plants like Johnny Jump Ups and Pansies out, making more room for tomatoes and peppers.

Another bit of sun came into the greenhouse today. We were not thinking about school being out as we were busy feeding and planting up. There was a noise at the door and there stood Miranda. She is one of the local kids who come buy in the summer and help with chores like watering plants, washing equipment and generally making fun contributions to the general atmosphere. She was checking to see if her job was going to be open this season.

We chatted and caught up on the going on. She cleaned up a bunch of geraniums that had been on our list to do but somehow did not move to the head of the “things to do now” list, then left with a plant for her mother. With our kids living away its nice to have some one to nurture.

And so now its midnight. I was suppose to get to bed but seeing as how some one did not put enough hours in today I will have to stay up a while longer. I must finish the wedding dept page for the relaunch as it is hanging over my head. Maybe if we had not spent part of the afternoon tramping around the woods on the island ….. oh well, life is too short not to tramp around the woods.

Its been above freezing for the last 24 hours which means all the snow is melting.
The trouble is it is turning back into water which collects in the back yard.
We were not considering that when we bought the place but I can still hear Don Doney’s words echoing in my head, “always buy a house on a hill”.

The trouble is this place was available for a really really good price and we were considering the favorable electricity rate, not the geography.

Upon reflection, the fact that the back yard was inhabited with frogs, and snakes, and the ground seemed rather spongy when we first looked at it should have told us something. It turns out the well is the lowest spot in all directions, for as far as you choose to look. The good thing is the well can be used to water plants.

I would rather not wear my boots to go to the gardens or greenhouse. When I went out this morning I figured Phyllis was in the studio because there were no foot prints in the slush and I was supprised that she was in the greenhouse when I got there. Turns out she went way around on the neighbors property and then along the side of the greenhouse, walking on the benches to get in, all because she did not have her boots on.

And so that’s the way it goes back there. We would like to have a raised walkway sometime but we do not wish to restrict truck access to the back of the lot. Maybe a floating bridge.

On another note the peppers, which we thought were vole chow, started to come up. It looked as if the voles had eaten them all before they sprouted so we ordered more seeds. The flats were put on the center benches to see what would happen. Lo and behold there are peppers sprouting every where. But no husk cherrys. More seeds are on the way and we can plant them when they come.

Phyllis made this up from some broken flowers and a piece of parsley.

There is something nice about making an arrangement from rescued blooms.

Not to mention using herbs in the mix.