Take a tour with me to see how the garden is growing!
The work in the garden this week was mostly maintenance including weeding and cleaning out last year’s growth from the side flowerbeds.
My main learning focus this week was proper care of peonies, lawn care and how to keep cats out of my vegetable garden bed.
Peonies
Tips and Tricks for Peonies. This short Youtube video answered all my questions and even identified the kind of peony I have. Our home is 40 years old. We moved in last June and all of the gardens are already mature. I have no idea how long some of the plants have been there but I do know that the peony plant is well established. From the video, it appears that I have a double-bloom garden peony. They like the sun and can grow 3- 4 feet wide and tall. To grow bigger blooms, I can pinch off small side buds, which is similar to how to grow better tomatoes. Finally, established peonies don’t require much care in the spring and I should cut them back to 3 inches in the fall which I didn’t do last fall but did pull it all out this week.
I found another helpful article on Almenac.com: Caring for Peonies: 10 Tips and Tricks. I always see ants on the peony buds. The ants don’t harm or help the buds they just love the taste of the nectar, who knew!?! Also, because the flowers are so big, they can be very heavy so staking the plant can help, even using a tomato cage. I have a little fence and a rope holding mine. I will see how that holds up this year.
Lawn care
Lawn care seems to be the ongoing “issue” in my yard. We are keeping the grass longer so it doesn’t get burnt and watering it daily in the early morning. The No Mow May article I previously mentioned, suggested cutting the grass every two weeks. Since I made the above video, we decided to cut the grass this evening. I found another article called Slow Mow Summer suggested that it’s not the time between mowings but the length that should determine when to cut and never cut more than a third of the length. This is how we decided to cut the grass today. With all the recent rain the grass is growing like crazy!
Stop the Cat
Finally, someone or something is digging in my vegetable garden….The size of the prints leads me to believe it is the friendly neighbour cat that I often see crossing through the yard. I want to safely deter the cat from stopping in the garden. I found an article on the David Suzuki FDNs Twitter page which gave many ideas I am trying this week. I have added orange peels as citrus is supposed to deter the cat as well as egg shells and pine cones to make it uncomfortable to walk on. Finally, I added grass clippings so the nice soft dirt is hidden.
Best resources this week came from Youtube, Feedly and Twitter.
Stop by next week for an update on the project Stop the Cat as well as tomato planting. I have found lots of great information I am looking forward to sharing and also planting my tomatoes this week.
Thanks for the tips Laurie! The length of the grass is a big debate at our house. The information you found suggests my husband might be right with the longer length! Ssssh don’t tell him. I love the look of freshly cut grass!
Good luck with your garden.
We had to get rid of our Peonies it was attracting carpenter ants which led to a battle with them inside the house.
I also struggle with our lawn. We share the front space with a neighbour, so to avoid any issues I just match their schedule and height. It has not worked in my favour, he is retired and spends hours adjusting sprinklers and picking weeds. If you come across a way to defeat clover without killing grass, I would be very grateful! My journey through YouTube was not a productive one.
I love your post! We spend a lot of time (and money) trying to get our yard looking sharp every year! I really enjoyed your information about letting your grass grow! Our next door neighbour gives his grass a buzz cut every 5ish days and it makes ours look like the wilderness!! bahah! Your flowers look beautiful!!
Thank goodness for the rain!! I appreciate your thoughts on the grass length, as I have always been one to cut when it is looking slightly long. You have clearly put time and effort into your project and it shows! How long have you been interested in gardening? I am loving your journey and cannot wait to see more!