Drainage solutions

We've seen a huge increase in the amount of rain we're getting here in East TN, and although I know no water can be much worse, it's causing a lot of flooding and several areas of concern.

So this was Christmas 2015, after adding all the veggie boxes to this side of the yard and more stone mulch, the water just didn't have anywhere to go.

 The driveway drains back here too, and when it rained last week the water was over the boxes and the outlet for the driveway drain. We had to come up with something to keep this from reaching the house! So we decided to put in 3 drainage solutions and hope that the combination will be enough to keep the lake down to a small stream.
We started with a french drain under the path by the fence that separates the flower area from the dog's area. The water was collecting leaves there and would cause a dam, that we believe was the biggest issue inside that area.

We moved the rock and pavers lining the path and dug a 12 foot trench 1 foot wide and 1 foot deep. 

Then we filled it with a french drain pipe (the black corrugated one with a sock and peanuts surrounding it). I failed to take a picture of it or the gravel we put around it to fill the trench. 

We then re-laid the fabric, pavers, and gravel path that was there. 

This should allow the area to drain into the trench and water can come out the other side of the fence where the grass is and keep it from clogging up this low spot.

The second part of our drainage solution is to expand the current rain garden to hold more water. We can't expand inside the fence, because of the boxes and current landscaping, so we're expanding the part outside the fence. 

We dug an additional 6 feet of the lawn out today, and we're using the dirt to create a large berm (on the right in the photo above) that will  direct the water to the left so it slows down a little. 

It's right in front of the bees, so once it's full of flowers it should be a great resource for them. 

We're hoping to finish digging it tomorrow, and we still have to dig a pit for our dry well, the last part of our solution. Then it's just the fun stuff, starting flower seeds for plants to put in the rain garden! 

I'll post an update when we finish the digging ;) And it's scheduled to rain Monday, so we get to test it out soon! 

Prepping for Blueberries

I'm finally adding the blueberry hedge to the yard this year! We need to get it built and leveled before we can put in the path, and the path is on my 2014 to-do list as well. So last weekend we started. We plan to put them in front of the fence to create a hedge and give us some privacy for the hammock shelter. Right now the chain link fence borders an open yard and faces the street. You can see all the neighbors from there, and they can all see us ;) But that part of the yard is also a steep slope, so we're putting in stairs or landings to help even out the grade. We got three levels in Sunday, and plan just two more and we're ready for rocks!

The blueberries and path are my big project for the yard this year, and he wants to put in a garden shed to house the lawn mower and all my "junk" ;)
Anybody else planning big changes to their yard?

Spring starts tomorrow!

I'm so excited! Spring officially starts tomorrow! Starting to see some signs around here, things greening up and beginning to grow again. Been going outside everyday to check on things, and start pulling the weeds that came back with a vengeance even after that freezing winter. I thought for sure the cold would have stamped some of them out.... oh well ;)
Here's a few shots of the things greening up for spring, what are you seeing in your yard?

The Asters in the Rain Garden are coming back!

See all the carrot starts?

And the lettuce starts...

The onions in the strawberry bed are doing great, and seem to be encouraging the strawberries to spread out some more too!

And the box of orange daylilies that the hummingbirds love is really starting to fill in. Might be the year to divide some up!

Pre-Spring Planting

So our February weather has been crazy! Cold and more snow than I've seen since I moved to east Tennessee, and then this weekend it's over 60! Not sure what's going on out there, but hope it evens out soon!
February is also the time to start seeds in the raised beds, so weekend before last we went out and filled the boxes with seeds, trying a bunch of new lettuces and greens this year, and even purple carrots! It's my goal to get more out of the garden this year, without expanding beyond the beds we have (except the blueberry bed we've been planning to install since last year).
We planted our seed potatoes, Red, Russet, and Yukon Gold. We love the Yukon Gold and have had great success with them before, but we added Red and Russet potatoes for some variety this year.

We also planted dill, carrots, broccoli, spinach, arugula, marjoram, parsley, cilantro, oregano, onions, rosemary, savory, and 7 different kinds of lettuce! We filled the beds that will house peppers and tomatoes later this summer with short-harvest lettuces, so they can do double duty for us this year.
I'll admit, it looks like we went a little crazy with lettuce, but it's the easiest veggie to grow and use, so we picked a bunch of new varieties to try, and we figure we'll re-order the ones that become our favorites.
Hopefully this warm weather sticks around and we see some starts soon!

Dealing with Frost

I was discussing winter veggies with a friend on FB and thought it would be a good topic for here too!
As I posted earlier, we had great success with the garlic and onions we planted last December to over-winter in the garden. We got a much better harvest than ever before, and still have a bowl of each that we're working on using up! This year I'm going to try to plant the garlic from the bulbs I grew this year, and only buy new onion sets. The onions haven't arrived yet, but I hope to get the garlic in the ground over this long-weekend, and a wonderful delivery of leaves from a co-worker today should be the last needed ingredient! Last year I planted both in garden boxes and covered with a thick layer of leaves for mulch. Then when the last frost warning passed this spring I removed the mulch and "voila!"
This year I'm planting the garlic in another box (I track all my plantings every season to ensure that all the crops are rotated each year) and the onions in the strawberry bed. I've heard great things about the benefits of companion planting strawberries and onions, and since the strawberries thinned out a bit this year, there's plenty of room there!
We've had several nights of frost already out here in East TN, so last weekend we attached the frost cover to the large garden box to cover the lettuces and carrots I just planted.

 I know there are easy instructions online to create a cold box or greenhouse, but I don't want anything permanent that might be in the way of larger plants in the spring, so we use cinder blocks and buckets to keep the frost blanket propped up above the plants. We attached it on the back side using some scrap wood and screws, so the edge is flat and secure, and weigh down the front with logs and bricks, so I can easily get into it to tend and pick.

On warmer, sunny days I prop the blanket up to allow the plants some fresh air and sunshine, but the Agribon AG-30 frost blanket we use allows sun and water through, so it's not necessary daily.

I recently planted leaf, bibb, gourmet leaf, and four season lettuces in there, and all appear to be sprouting. The carrots are beginning to poke their heads out, so we'll see how everything does!

I still have to put the mini-greenhouses on the citrus trees, and do some more cleaning up, so I'll post new pictures again soon :)

New plants this year

So I seem to be awful at keeping this updated, it's November and my last post was July! Just to catch everyone up, here are some photos of new plants we put in this year:

This is the arrowwood bush that we planted in the back yard. It's still only a twig, but hopefully it'll grow more next year. 

We planted the bird circle with a tulip tree and iris, the tree is already over 4 feet tall, and the iris are starting to spread out. 

We got this butterfly bush from Nanie on our visit to NC. It's doing great next to the patio, and already attracting butterflies!

We bought this Carolina Jasmine to grow up the arbor next to the patio.

This is a Gray Dogwood tree we planted this spring.

Some new mints next to the porch, Chocolate, Peppermint, and Lemon. 

The Rose of Sharon bushes around the bird circle. 

A Trumpet vine we planted to grow up the door out front. 

Summer Veggies to Plant

So the cabin fever is really staring to get to me. It has rained every day this week, to the point that we can't go outside, can't take the dogs outside, and can't do anything more outside than plan yard projects on paper and dream of sunshine!
But, with all that free time I managed to log on here and notice I haven't posted since May! Time for an update on the garden and yard projects :)
In June we harvested the onions, potatoes, and garlic from the garden, and planted new plants for summer.

The onions and garlic turned out great! We planted them last fall to overwinter in the box, and they did better than expected! We got over a pound of garlic and three pounds of onions! I've never gotten so much out of the onions before, I highly recommend the products at Grow Organic, where I purchased the purple Italian garlic cloves and white onion sets http://www.groworganic.com/ Both have grown fabulously and have an amazing flavor!

We also tried a new system (or new to us) for growing the potatoes this year, and we harvested over two pounds this June! Yukon Gold potatoes are what we planted, and I think they're our new favorite. They hold up great for frying and baking, and still make a rich mashed potato with just a little more boiling time than russet potatoes. This year we cleaned all of the dirt out of the box we designated for potatoes and planted the seed potatoes in small hills of dirt in the bottom of the box. As the sprouts grew tall enough, we layered in compost and mulched leaves, with very little dirt to try to keep from compacting the roots. Seems to have worked, we'll try it again this August and see if it works more than once!

All that harvesting left us with plenty of open space for new plants! In the back row of the box we added bell peppers, banana peppers, yellow sweet cherry tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes, and a German basil. We replaced the cold lettuces with some bibb and other leaf lettuces in the center box, and I'm hoping to replant the carrots soon. We also added watermelons and pumpkins to the corn patch, to help keep down the grass down, and they're really starting to spread already!

Only thing I'm not having success with is broccoli, I can't seem to keep the bugs off of it! I think I'm going to pull it out and toss it, that seems to be the only thing the worms are eating, I want to keep it that way!

Hopefully the rain stops soon and I can get some new pictures! I'll update soon!