Author: Liz Braithwaite

Peter

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Peter is growing up. He’s over six month’s old now and gets smarter every day. He can sit up by himself  and is starting to hate doing anything but sitting. He rolls from his back to tummy. (But not the other way. I thought that was supposed to be easier, but he just doesn’t get it.) He absolutely loves solids and is eating three meals a day. His favorite thing is jumping in his jumper and having lots of people’s attention. He is as big as some 1 year olds–22 lbs, 29 inches! I love the little guy, and his continually emerging personality. 

Not Yet!

We went on our first spring hike, and I’m out of shape. It was a good thing we took a short hike to Battle Creek falls. It is my favorite hike, at least the one I’ve been on the most. Peter enjoyed it too. My grandparents live just down the street, but they had left for a trip to Israel that morning. Bad timing for a visit. Somebody did drop off some muffins on their doorstep-we thought it was a good idea to go ahead and eat them.


I also have my first garden coaching and design client! I need to do some more advertising–but I think one at a time is all I can take with Peter. It’s been a lot of fun, and I think I could do it the rest of my life. Check out my site that has been redesigned, and my blog that I actually add to.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

I grew up around Thanksgiving Point, and actually had a season pass to their gardens one summer. This spring, I went back during the annual tulip festival with my husband. The day we went, it was very rainy. I saw three other groups out, and one bride taking pictures, who I felt very sorry for. Our umbrellas kept us out of the rain, and it was nice to go when the gardens was empty.

Now, a little background before I go into my description of the gardens. I went to school in horticulture, and worked at the Utah Botanical Center one summer. Good horticultural practices and sustainability are ingrained into me. When I go to a garden I don’t just go to see pretty flowers. I want to see interesting ideas, good gardening practices, and a bit of sustainability. Thanksgiving Point is a bunch of really gorgeous gardens. But no ideas, and lots of problems.

I did thoroughly enjoy my trip, but I also spent the entire time wondering why they couldn’t do things a little differently.

Here’s a picture of the prettyness:

Okay, now for a problem. Here is a hedge. I’m not a big fan of hedges, and this one is awful. They’ve planted yew and privet. They have grown into each other now and are quite hideous. The hedge is not flared out towards the bottom, and its resulted in a lot of die back.

I found this grove of aspen quite nice. Aspens are planted too often in places they don’t belong. They sucker, and can die back easily. Don’t put them near a lawn, and not in a little kidney-bean shaped bed in the middle of grass. This is done frequently when I live. Here, they have a naturalized garden. Suckers aren’t a problem. A disease tree can easily be taken out. The aspens can be enjoyed without the headache.

One last note on sustainability. The garden have lots of lawn, and its mostly perennial ryegrass. Utah is dry, and ryegrass takes a lot of water and other maintenance. (It’s one of the highest maintenance turfgrasses in our area). Not a sustainable choice at all. I would have liked to see ideally, not so much lawn, and at least a better choice of lawn.

Blooms

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My little patio garden has daffodils! It’s about the only plant I have in the garden, so I am taking advantage of today’s Garden Blogger Bloom Day.

The forsythias are also out, and there are tons around my neighborhood. This one looked the best. Lots were overgrown, shered or otherwise neglected. I like forsythias–but they seem to be one of four plants that everyone has planted. (Roses, lawn, boxwood, and forsythias) There could be lots more plant diversity in my neighborhood.

Some of the fruit trees are also starting to bloom, along with tulips, and an Aubretia (that’s one of the flowers that the name came to me without me really realizing I knew it: I could be wrong).

I wore shorts today, and went hiking without snow. Spring is here, and what a joy after winter!

The $64 Tomato

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The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while, and I finally got around to it. I found it absolutely delightful. It’s not a how-to-garden kind of book, but rather a memoir about the author’s experience with his kitchen garden. Any garden advice you do glean from it isn’t bad–he’s done his research–and in some ways I find it more useful to see what someone has done, rather than have someone tell me how to do things.

Does the tomato really cost $64? So, he itemizes his garden expenses, subtracts the value of the other produce based on produce stand prices, and assigns the reaming value to his brandywine tomatoes. If you didn’t need an electric fence for deer, the value would go down tremendously.

Weeding

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I think weeding is one of  the most hated garden tasks, but it doesn’t have to be that hard. One of my professors taught me to love weed science. (And yes there is a science behind. You can get doctorates studying weeds. So don’t feel dumb if you have a bad weed problem.) Give me a field full of weeds and I will conqueror. Or at least fight pretty hard.

So, your weeds have gotten away from you, where do you start? For starters, I usually consider starting over. A good weedwhacker can make the first dent, then come back with a tiller or herbicide. Spray it all down, till it under and do something else. If what I had before was weedy, it can easily become weedy again. If I did want to keep some plants the weeds are chocking,  just get rid of what you can see. Don’t worry about roots. If I started to worry about roots I might never get past the first couple of weeds. When the weeds start to come back, they are usually more manageable.

Here are also some good questions to ask:

  • Why is the weed there?
  • What conditions encourage growth of the weed?
  • What will be there if we kill the weed?

I think you can choke out the weeds  or let the weeds choke out your plants. Here are some tips to make weeding a little easier:

  • Weed early and hard.
  • Use mulch. Any type of mulch helps. (Except low quality weed fabric. Hate that stuff.)
  • Herbicides are useful. I’m all for using less chemicals, but herbicides can save hours in a week and they’re not as toxic as other pesticides.
  • Use good tools.
  • Plant something to take the place of the weed.

And if the battle seems lost, there’s usually two option. One,  accept the weeds. Bindweed will hardly every be eradicated. (50 yr seed life, and 10 feet deep roots, it’s not going anywhere). Tall fescue in kentucky bluegrass really doesn’t look that bad, provided your not a golf course superintendent. I wouldn’t leave five foot tall prickly lettuce, but weeds are always going to be there.

The second option: spray everything with glyphosate (round-up), and hope your weeds aren’t resistant. If they are, spray something else. Sure, it really isn’t the eco-friendly way to go. But I don’t think a large infestation of noxious weeds is either.

Moved

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I am now living in Springville. Joe is working for a security system company doing tech support. Peter has cut his first tooth, and is wearing 12 month clothes. It’s been quite busy recently.

Funny thing about living in Springville. I went to church, expecting not to know anyone, and I ended up in the same ward as my high school science teacher. She is one of the best teachers I have ever had: I took multiple classes from her, worked as her TA, and she was the advisor for science club of which I was president. (I’m a science geek if you didn’t know that about me). She is also one of the reasons I choose to go into horticulture, which is why I went to USU and why I met my husband. It’s fun how life works out like that.

Garden Questions

I’ve worked at my local extension office for the past several years as a part-time intern/educator. I just finished up teaching a free community education class, and a large part of that class is answering people’s questions.

First, I would like to say that one of the reason’s I like Extension, is the opportunity it allows to answer questions. I feel I am helpful to others, it helps me be a lot smarter and learn more about gardening, and I get to apply all the knowledge I have to real life situations.

With all that said, I know I often give less than great answers. Over the years, I’ve started to learn how to say “I don’t know” when I really don’t know. Other times I do know but my knowledge improves or changes.  I’ve also found that I can give a pretty good guess at some things, without any real knowledge of it. So, how do you get the best answer, the one based on evidence, experience and actual knowledge?

I think the best way to get a good answer is to allow the person answering the question time to research it. I know my best answers tend to be messages that I respond to or ones that I tell the person I’ll get back with them. I don’t think anyone can answer every question of the top of their heads. At my gardening class I need to give spur of the moment answers. I’m a little nervous and not as sharp as I might be otherwise. (I think anyone in front of a group as experienced the situation of being unable to access the knowledge that you know is inside of you somewhere). But give me five minutes with my books and a computer, and you’ll get the answer you are after.

Other ways to get the best answer include asking for additional information or sources. That way you know the person isn’t just making up something weird, but it’s based on real research or otherwise good sources. I would be much happier to give you a factsheet on codling moths than try to explain all control methods myself.

Finally, feel free to ask multiple people in different positions. The Extension service is a great tool, but often they don’t have the experience that someone who has done landscaping for 30 years might have. Garden centers tend to have better knowledge of availability because they are selling the products, but sometimes offer wife’s tells instead of good advice. Everyone has strengths and weakness, so ask around and compare answers.

Moving

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So Joe is going to Rocky Mountain University. We should be moving to that area in the next few weeks. It’s nice to finally know what we are doing. I’ll miss Logan I think, but I’m also excited to move on with life.

We’ve been having a lot of fun together. Joe has been hired by my parents to finish their basement. My mom is very excited to get it done after 15 years, and Joe likes the work. Peter seems to have slowed down his rapid growing a bit. I’m happy about that–he’s already 20 lbs. I’ve been giving him some rice cereal –he has a huge appetite and it helps me keep up with him. He likes it a lot too.

I was just thinking of all the things I will miss about Logan:

  • Numerous hiking trails–still so many I have yet to try! But I did make it to the top of Logan Peak
  • Family–it’s fun having brothers/sisters and in-laws close
  • Extremely close temple–a two minute drive is great

That’s about it. I didn’t make that many attachments. Too cold in the winter, traffic is horrible, and way too many red air days.