Applied organic grub killer to the lawn and garden

As we've planted the apple trees and blueberry bushes, tilled the garden area and removed bushes from around the house, we've come across grubs everywhere we've dug.

After doing a bit of  research, we came across (providence?) an organic grub killer sold in some local hardware stores.  I'm very surprised to find an organic grub killer in such small (read: not Home Depot) hardware stores since event the big box stores don't have many organic options among their considerable selection. 

Anyway, I spread that over the lawn over the last two days and applied that to the front bed and side garden area using a hand spreader.  Since my research on the stuff indicated that the milky spore is safe for garden application where people and animals will be, I felt comfortable applying it to the garden areas and not just the lawn areas.

This was a great time to do it, too, since we're forecasted to get about an inch of rain today.  That'll be great for watering the granules into the soil.

Slow progress tilling the garden

As the title indicates, I've made a little more progress tilling the soil for the side garden.  It's slow going.  I think it's a combination of things: we haven't had a good "soaking rain" in a while, I'm using a front-tine tiller, the soil almost certainly hasn't been turned over in many years, I'm tired. 

Regardless, I think I'm around 70% finished with the task.

Critters by the side garden

While mowing the lawn yesterday afternoon, I saw some movement next to a rock border in the side garden.  After stopping the mower, I saw a large (3.5" long) toad.

Later on, while dumping a load of collected leaves in the garden area, I saw a large spider.  Thankfully, he wasn't nearly as large as the toad.

Nice to see the ecosystem at work on my property.

A productive day off

With Wifey volunteering at The Boy's school today, I'm off of work to keep and eye on The Bear.  After dropping The Girl off at preschool, The Bear and I made a trip to the local hardware store for some stuff.  While there, I picked up some seeds (amazingly, non-GMO and organic) to supplement what we already have.

After we got home, I planted two pots of radish seeds (Cherry Belle) and Basil.

I also transplanted some mint that is already growing back by the pool.  Since it's rather invasive, putting it in a pot will contain it.  After I did that, I sunk it in the front bed to help provide some moisture and cooling to the roots.  I was careful to leave the top of the pot above the ground to allow for inevitable mulching.

Figs are in the ground.....sorta

My parents came over to celebrate Wifey's birthday with us.  While mom was cooking dinner, I had some time to get the figs in the ground.  As the picture below will indicate, one fig tree is in the ground permanently (left side) and the other is temporary.  I had to temporarily plant the one fig tree because I haven't cut down and removed the pine tree from the area by the driveway.  Unfortunately, the chainsaw is in the shop getting serviced and I haven't checked if my dad's is in operation.

Thus: temporary planting of the second fig plant.  I just stuck the second tree -- pot and all -- in the ground to help retain moisture and keep the roots cool.

Walking the yard

While The Bear took his morning nap, Wifey and I walked the yard with our morning cups of coffee.  We saw a few things:

• I really need to do something to anti-deer the blueberry bushes and apple trees.  They've been obviously been snacked on within the last week.
• Despite my zealous use of the brush hog a few months back, we have a few bits of black raspberry that survived in the side yard. I'll have to transplant that somewhere useful.
• The ice from last week did some damage to a variety of virginal growth.  The peach tree and butterfly bushes in particular aren't happy.  Both sets are showing newer growth, though, so they should bounce back.
• Speaking of the peach tree, Wifey saw her first (my second) bee this year.  He was working hard doing his job.

Unfortunately, now she's talking about getting an apiary up and running.  Not until next year at the earliest.....

I have the fig trees for the front bed!

Behnke Nurseries is running a sale right now for 20% off fig trees.  There are other things on sale, too, but it's the figs that I care about.

When I got there yesterday, I immediately was faced by a quandary: do I get the Celeste or Turkey Foot fig plants for the front bed?  The Celeste descriptions seemed to have a better description of the flavor but the Turkey Foot is good to Zone 5 vs "only" 6 for the Celeste.

In the end, I went with the Celeste.  The MD Cooperative Extension page for figs said Celeste is a good fig for Maryland and can withstand our winters.  That's good enough for me.

After examining the 20 or so trees (if you can call something that's 2' tall a "tree") they had, I picked the two with the most new growth and actively-sprouting leaves and called it a lunch break.

More transplants - California Wonder tomatoes

I got some time this afternoon after work so I transplanted the California Wonder tomatoes.  Baby steps.....

More tilling, transplanted first starters

The weather warmed back up some yesterday.  As a result, I was able to do some more roto-tilling in the side garden.  In addition to the swath in the middle of the picture, I also tilled the rest of the area in the back left of the picture.

The Boy helped me keep plenty of distance from the orange markers (note the flags meandering down the middle of the picture) to not hit any wires.  This space will be one of our paths through the garden. 

We now have almost half of the space turned over.

I also got the first set of seed starters transplanted.  Because they were started first, I transplanted the Roma (San Marzano variety) tomatoes into their new peat pots.

More household oddities

In keeping with the theme of "Improving the House/Property" we have torn down the decaying split-rail fence around the pool to allow for installation of a fence that meets the state fence code.  While removing the fence (and some overgrown bushes nearby), we came across some thin black wire.

Separately, we'd come across more of the wire in the front landscape bed as we've been removing other bushes from there, too.

As part of the paperwork for the permit for fence installation, we need to state that we have checked all wiring in the vicinity of where the fence is going.  Thus: Wifey called in an electrician to trace everything.

The electrician found that the wiring in the back of the house is tied to that in the front.  As near as could be gathered, it was for landscape lighting that doesn't exist.  It was plugged into a transformer located in the front of the house and daisy-chained to cover lighting in both the front of the house as well as back by the pool.

We will be removing all of that wire.

They finally striped the yard correctly!

The alternate title for this post could be "Greg wins!"

Despite getting home a bit before 4:00, I got here a little too late to be here when Utiliqest came to mark the yard.  Regardless, there are now two sets of orange stripes across the side yard.

Because the forecasted weather is supposed to be cold and occasionally rainy over the next week, I took some of the extra flags the second SMECO guy gave me on Thursday and marked where the orange lines are.

As a result of this, the yard is covered in red flags with a smattering of white flags (courtesy of the dog fence marking in the fall). 

At least I am now far less likely to hit a utility while putting in the garden.

Me vs Miss Utility

Back in late September, we had Miss Utility mark the side yard where the garden will go.  They had stripes all over the place.  For a variety of reasons, I didn't roto-till the area in the fall.  Over the winter, the stripes faded (or dissolved) to the point that I can't tell exactly where they were.  It's not a good idea for me to do more roto-tilling beyond what I already did since I have a good idea of the general area where they were.

It's been quite a saga to try to get the garden re-striped.

• Wifey submitted an online request for them to come out in late February. 
• On March 3rd, we received emails indicating that our power company would come out to mark the space, but that the other three utilities didn't have anything in the area in question.  
• Considering they already marked that they did have two data lines and considering I found a coax while digging out one of the juniper bushes, they were clearly incorrect this time.
• SMECO marked the area.  I was able to talk to the tech who was doing it.  I learned a bit about the process.  Even better -- his family owns a farm up the road.  I learned they have no interest in allowing their farm to be developed.  Great news!
• On March 7th, I called Miss Utility to try to get this resolved.  Another ticket got submitted to have the area marked within the next two days.
• On March 9th, SMECO came out and marked the same area.  We received the same emails from the data companies saying there was nothing there.
• Around 11:00 this morning, I called Miss Utility again.  The very helpful operator I spoke to sort of figured out what was going on there.  The pointed me to the company (Utiliquest) who actually does the marking.
• When I called Utiliquest, I got some info from that operator.  She helped get some traction on obtaining a resolution.  
• I learned that I needed to file for a "discrepancy" with Miss Utility.
• I learned that Verizon is looking at the info online.  I need to make sure Miss Utility puts a special code in the request to make them actually come mark the space.  I also learned that the lady I talked to doesn't think much of Verizon.
• I received confirmation that these companies are only looking at blueprints online to determine where my utilities are located.  Clearly, they're looking at the wrong spots.
• Also, it turns out that I got the Baltimore office when I needed the one from a closer company -- Miss Utility had the wrong phone number on file.  Regardless, I had to call Miss Utility back.
• Around 12:30 I called Miss Utility again.  Armed with the info provided by Utiliquest, I was able to file a discrepancy report.  The lady I spoke with recommended that I call Utiliquest in about a half hour to verify they got the right coding to come out and mark the area and not just do what they've been doing to this point.
• Shortly after that call, I called the other Utiliquest office.  I explained the situation to the new lady.  She said they'd send somebody out within a couple of days but also said I needed to call Verizon on my own because, according to this lady, they wouldn't believe what's in the Miss Utility request.
• After grabbing some lunch, I called Verizon. After 15 minutes on hold, I got a helpful lady who, after listening to what I told her, said, "okay, we'll have them send someone out."  And that was it.
• So I called the second Utiliquest office back to "close the loop."  I got the same lady in this office as before.  I told her what the Verizon lady told me and she said, "okay.  I talked to the tech in the area.  He's going to mark you this afternoon as his last stop of the day.  He should be there around 4:00."

I'll leave work a little early today so I can be there when the tech is there.  I don't want to have to deal with this any more.

Finally some progress in the side garden

I had to stay home from work yesterday to address some window-related issues.  Conveniently, we had some more warm weather so I was able to put the newly-serviced roto-tiller to work in the yard.

First I tilled up a spot for a new garden box in line with the rest.  Once that was finished, I built the new box, excavated the soil and sunk the box.  As with the other three, after the box was in the ground, I filled in the box with equal parts of native soil, bagged top soil, and LeafGro.

Once all that was completed, I tilled a swath along the west fence border.  The tilled area is roughly 40' long x 3' wide.  There's a lot more tilling to be done.