Category Zone 4 Gardening

One of the nice things about gardening is that it’s not all about gardening.
Last summer while watering the dill plants we found a caterpillar. Although we like to think of ourselves as up to date in the bug department we went to the Audubon book for an identification. It turns out it was a swallowtail butterfly caterpillar.



The butterflies lay eggs on plants favored by the caterpillar, in this case dill. It turns out that the swallowtail prefers plants in the Umbellifer family which included dill, parsley, fennel and carrots.
We brought the dill in to a safe spot so we could watch the whole affair with out interference from a hungry bird. In just a few days the caterpillar attached to the plant with 2 silken threads and began to harden into a chrysalis.



We watched for about 10 days and then with out warning the butterfly emerged from the chrysalis. We looked around and soon found the butterfly on the window sill. It had dried it’s wings but was not quite ready for flight so we removed it to a sheltered part of the garden and left it alone.
Here is a picture of the swallowtail butterfly on a piece of cardboard as we were moving it to the garden.



Next season we will keep a sharp eye out for the caterpillars and we will tell our customers to watch for them as well.

A week ago last Monday we were visited by a mob of 1st graders, most welcome visitors to the garden.
Early that morning one of the teachers from the Theresa Elementary School which is just around the corner from us, came with a request. “Could she and another teacher bring the 1st graders over for a visit?” Who could resist a visit from first graders !!
2 or 3 times a week young students parade by, hand in hand, for a walk around the block. We had often thought of inviting some of the children over but we never seemed to get the chance and now. here they were.

The teacher was Mrs. Walentuck and the other teacher was Mrs. Howard and they were in charge of about 35 or more inquisitive and very active children.
The day was blistering hot, in the high 80’s and the sun was hotter. As soon as they were down back we were met with a barrage of questions; “What’s this, what’s that, can you eat this, can I have a flower, my mom forgot my sun screen…..” It was great to see them and for the most part they were genuinely interested in the plants and gardens.

We finally split them into 2 groups, Phyllis took one and I took the other and we tried to give them an idea of what was going on from what we hoped would be a kids prospective.
They stayed for around 45 minutes but had to leave because they had another class right after that. The time went by so fast and we would have been happy to have had them longer.

Afterward the teachers brought giant thank you cards made from construction paper and with pictures of the kids in the garden. The cards were signed by all the kids.
Here are the cards.

I was going to write a post about the foolish way that Lowes is selling flowers at this time of year but that will have to wait for a day or so.

I cut my left hand index finger with scissors as I was clipping some fancy leaf geraniums for propagation because I forgot to be careful in with scissors in the greenhouse.

This particular plant is Mrs. Henry Cox and it has a very colorful leaf. For one reason or another we are left with a single plant and it is a few years old but has some healthy shoots that I wanted to clip for rooting.

In a case like this, when we have only one plant, we try to get the best yield without ruining the mother plant.
I was cutting into some very hard and old wood and was using quite a bit of force with the Fiskars garden scissors. All at once the scissors snapped shut and my finger was in the way.

I felt the pressure and held it tight because it was one of those times that you know it’s bad and you would rather not see how bad it was. I managed to keep the end of the finger gripped between my thumb and palm while I finished the last 2 cuttings.

Naturally my hands were covered with all kinds of dirt and were stained brown and sticky from handling the cuttings.

I came up to the house and washed my hands with antibacterial soap and dried it up. I let it bleed freely for a minute or so with the thought that this might clean any foreign material from the wound.

Then some band-aids and tape and it should be fine. The only problem is the cut is near the end of my finger and I need it to type. So I will take it easy and keep the posts brief for the time being.
I have had a tetanus shot within the past 10 years so that is not a worry. Tetanus shots are a good idea for people who work in soil and handle sharp tools. Thank God we do not have a giant wind chime order to tie.

It’s been a busy week, with the garden and other work around the house and yard.
We have picked lots of cukes for pickles. We grow eureka for bread and butter pickles and regal for the dills. They get washed and stored in the frig until we have enough to run a batch.
Finding the dill was a bit of a challenge.

Trying to call the grocery stores is an exercise in futility. After numerous hang ups, and goof ups, no we are not looking for dill pickles, we abandoned that approach.
We should have grown it but for some reason it was overlooked. It was a hectic spring with numerous emergencies and life happens but we will not forget next year!

We finally found some dill on Wesley Island at Cross Island Farms.
Dani, one of the owners, gave us a tour of the farm and a great deal on the dill. They sell organic vegetables, eggs, and more.

It looks like we will have enough for this batch but we will have to find some more.

The tomatoes were reaching a point where they needed some support. Many of our tomatoes like the super sweet 100s are indeterminate and tend to grow very tall. As a matter of fact a neighbor had one that was around 7 feet tall. These plants yield a lot of cherry tomatoes and especially if they are kept off the ground. In our case, where we plant 3 foot rows separated by a 3 foot grass access row, it is important to keep the plants where they are suppose to be so that we can mow between the rows. This way we can easily pick from both sides.

This means staking them with bamboo, a job I never looked forward to because the bamboo is about 1/2 inches wide and the hammer head is around an inch. Striking a solid blow every time is very difficult and the hammer head often glances off making it slow work at best and ending up with bruised hands at the worst. I thought there must be a better way.

While looking through a garden catalog I saw a post driver that is made from a length of steel pipe with one end sealed and handles on the sides. The idea is to slide the driver over the post and use the weight to drive the post. If driving a bamboo stake seems dangerous think about swinging a sledge hammer trying to hit a post. I have done it and it is not as easy as it looks.

Why not make a smaller version or the post driver for garden stakes? No reason why not so that’s what I did.

A one and a half inch piece of pipe would be wide enough so I checked with the metal supply and they had a piece that was about 2 feed long. The weight was good, not too heavy to use but enough oomph to drive the stakes. The metal supply company spun some threads on one end and I think they charged me something like $12.00 for the whole thing.

I bought a one and a half inch pipe cap for around 2 dollars from the plumbing section of a hardware store.

The cap gets threaded on the pipe. Hand tight is good enough.

The pipe is slid over the end of the stake. It’s nice to have someone handing the stakes because this method works fast.
Having a helper means there is no bending or stooping to pick up supplies.

Slide the pipe up and down to drive the stake, using the weight of the pipe to do the work.
If a stake should split the splinters are held safely inside the pipe.

The job went quick and easy compared to driving with a hammer. Now all the tomatoes are tied up with pieces of old t-shirts, just tight enough to hold them up and out of the way of the lawnmower.

Other than that we have just been busy trying to get things in order to move the “storage” greenhouse to the back of the property. That meant moving one of the boats up and putting it undercover for restoration. As a matter of fact we started a blog to document the progress. It is Collecting Fire Wood.
When fiberglass boats became popular the dealers would burn the wooden boats taken in trade thinking there was no value in these old relics.

They would strip the hardware and power then burn them in a pile.
The weather had turned more seasonal with 70’s and low 80’s and that makes working outside easier, and more fun.

The cherry tomatoes are coming in good and their first for us but they all are late compared to other gardeners. We started late this year but we are only a bit behind at this point. Growing so many cherry tomatoes was an experiment that is going well.

The main problem is how to get rid of them. Giving them to friends and family works fine but we had high hopes of selling them at farmers markets.

Farmers markets are fine to visit but for us the time spent is not productive. Our present arrangement does not allow use enough space out front for a proper vegetable stand.

So we will continue to experiment in the hopes that we can find a better spot in the future.

This year we are forced to buy basil starts to get a jump start on the season.



We have been very busy and have not been able to find the time to get anything started.
Since fresh basil is one of our favorite cooking herbs we settled on buying a 6 pack of starts to get the ball rolling.

In the past we would have had numerous flats of genovese, opal, Thai and lemon basil already to the size of first harvest but with everything going on and with no practical greenhouse there is nothing started at all.

So a week ago we found ourselves at the regional market, Syracuse NY. Unfortunately the power went out the night before so with no alarm we slept in and we were late, and the market shuts down between 2 and 3 so we were luck to find anything at all.

And if that was not enough we were in a rush and did not stop by the ATM. We had about a dollar and a half in change. But the young lady behind the table was satisfied with that and we were happy to find at least something.

When we do buy plants we look for fresh vigorous starts, with nice clean stems. We always look under the leaves for aphids and other unwanted hitch hikers. The soil should be moist and free from any hint of mold.

It’s a good idea to keep the plants in isolation for a few days after bringing them home just to be sure they are indeed healthy. Some pests can take a few day to show up. We don’t want to jeopardize the health of our other plants.

These basil plants were nice and green with big leaves and strong stems, not leggy at all. Someone had been taking care of them.

Now with our wet and miserable weather we still do not have the plants potted up but they seem happy on the window sill. We picked up a few bails of pro mix so when the dust settles from opening the store this coming weekend we will be ready to get at it, hammer and tong.

I remember back a few years ago we had snow on Mothers Day. This is not such a rare occasion in this part of the country where the plant by date is Memorial Day.
My Mom has a Cup and Saucer Magnolia and while we see more and more in our Zone 4 the chance that frost will kill the blooms any given year is high.

Most of what I have been able to glean from tree sites say this one is zone 5 to 8. That said this would not be the first plant to make this Cup and Saucer Magnolia out of Zone.

As it is, at the time of this post, the temperature is in the mid 30’s and with luck it will stay above freezing tonight. The temps for the next week or so are suppose to be moderating so the chances are the tree will bloom.



The fact that this flower bud is nice and green with a hint of the red showing means this will blossom. Had this bud been frozen the color would be black and the buds would simply fall to the ground.

So while the tree will grow in a zone 4, it will not always bloom. This year, as we ease into spring looks like a good year for an out of zone cup and saucer magnolia.

Yesterday, while returning Toby, Phyllis’s sisters Yorkie, to his rightful owner after a weeks vacation we noticed the bright green and purple shoot of a crocus poking it’s head through a winter blanket of mulch and so It looks like spring has sprung.

Then Phyllis saw 2 robins hunting behind the studio and a flock of geese headed north and this morning I heard the whistling and clicking of the starlings calling to each other.

It looks like spring has finally sprung and after this long and dreary cold winter it’s none too soon.
This year we are approaching the gardening in a different fashion than we did in recent years past. That is, we have not even looked at a seed catalog.

Last year the garden was a disaster mostly because of family health emergencies and the poor economy.
This year we have not even thought of what we would grow. As a matter of fact, after looking at the books it is evident that we loose money with the greenhouse, it actually costs us to keep it going.

So we may not even open it up to the public this year.

We have decided to concentrate on the perennials. They are easy to grow and we can dig them from our existing beds.

At least that is the plan for now. More will be revealed in time!

Corn is everywhere. We don’t grow it because it takes up quite a bit of space so we get it from a road side stand. One stand we like is Hunters just outside Plessis on RT 26. They usually have a good supply of corn, pumpkins and other crops for sale all season.

They have an interesting way to buy the corn. It make buying just a few ears easy. They also furnish a can for husking and this year they are selling totes to carry the corn.

We had the corn last night night with our tomatoes and cucumbers. Perfect.

The green peppers are going gang busters. We set about 100 plants and with a yield of about 5 peppers per we have a bumper crop. The walls are not quite as thick as some we have grown but they are juicy and the flavor is great.

What we do not sell or eat fresh get cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces and frozen for future use. Already there are at least 10 stuffed quart bags in the freezer. We cull the crowders so the others have room to grow. More will be picked green and about 1/2 the crop will be left to turn red. The peppers sugar increases as they ripen so we ill have tart green and sweet red peppers for stir fries and casseroles for a year or more.

Other choirs are winding down. Most of the perennials are sold and it looks like we will be starting fresh next year which is find because some of the old pots were full of weeds. Plus we don’t have to water them. I think we are not keeping the green house going this winter. We will be using a smaller version, yet to be built.

I procured a greenhouse hoop bender that will turn 2 pieces of 10’6″ 17 gauge chain link fence top rail into a 12′ greenhouse hoop. This make s the hoops much less expensive and there is no shipping cost. A larger bender available for 20′ hoops but we figure it’s better to start small and move up. Judging by the requests on Craigs List for greenhouse hoops we may be able to sell a few as well.

We are still putting up the end of the pickles. Last week we picked a wheel barrow load of cucumbers for pickles and they are nearly all caned as bread and butter or dill pickles, depending on the size.