Spring at Setters Run

Just walking around the property and decided to share some of the colors of spring here at Setters Run. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Bank of Azaleas~

Apple tree branch~

Orange Trumpet Creeper~

White Tulips and Blue Muscari~

Last of the Camellia~

The chives are in bloom~

Rhododendron

Lollipop Daisy

Spring Odds and Ends- Wash your Tools and Gloves

What if you don’t know what to plant in a certain area. Just bring a photo of the area to your planting center and tell them what kind of light you get in that area. They will be able to point you in the right direction. You may also want to get your soil tested. Go to UGA Cooperative Extension for more information or your local Extension office.

*When is the best time to plant an oak....30 years ago! The second best time is now. :D

Again, make sure your tools are clean and ready for another season and wash your gardening gloves and get them freshened up as well.

The best way to help prevent mosquitoes from taking over your yard is by removing all standing water on your property. That’s true for trash cans, toys that are stored outside, gutters and any other area where you see standing water. You can add mosquito eliminating briquettes to places where you just can’t keep the area dry. We have drains in the lawn that we aren’t able to keep dry so I throw in a briquette every so often to kill the mosquito larva.

Prune any shrubs or trees in order to promote new growth and remember to use Holly Tone.

I have a Mahonia (also called an Oregon Grape) I’d like to share with you. I love this plant and it came up wild. I moved it to a better location for me and it’s done well. The birds love the berries and I love the yellow cap it gets on the top. It’s so pretty and is non-deciduous or an evergreen. Another Holly Tone candidate.

Gazpacho Gift

After watching Carla Hall from "The Chew" present dips (Hummus, Blue Cheese and Goat Cheese dip) with crudités in clean clay pots (just like they were growing out of the containers) it gave me a great idea for the perfect gift.

I love gazpacho and I know many other people do too. What if I filled a pot with some of the major ingredients that you’ll need to make a fresh gazpacho and include the recipe! I found the most awesome pot to put all these yummy fresh plants into and I included my own gazpacho recipe. This will make the perfect birthday gift or housewarming or anniversary present!

Container gardening needs a great soil, (I like Espoma Organic Potting Mix) and moister pellets for when you can’t water. Containers get dryer faster so it’s important to make sure you have something like Soil Moist to insure that they don’t dry out and hurt the plant. Plus a good fertilizer- everyone knows how much I like Espoma Gro-tone™. It’s a fish based product that works like a charm. Just follow the label directions.

I’m planting a tomato, pepper, cucumber and parsley plant. I will include a recipe for my favorite gazpacho soup. Tie a ribbon around the whole thing and you’ve got the perfect summer time gift.

Gazpacho:
Two seeded tomatoes, cucumber and pepper chopped
Chopped celery, carrot, onion and bunch of parsley
2 chopped garlic cloves and a bunch of arugula chopped.
1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper
Splash of olive oil and worcestershire sauce.
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 cups tomato juice
Combine the ingredients together - cover and refrigerate
*You can use any color pepper you’d like
*You don’t have to seed the tomato if you don’t want to
*Use scallions, red onion or sweet onions
*Use balsamic, red or white wine vinegar
*Refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight
*If you don’t like an ingredient - don’t use it

Spring Cleaning - Outdoors

The weather outside is delightful so lets get on with spring cleaning our yard. First lets tackle the weeds! It’s always best to weed after a heavy rain. All that is undesirable in your lawn will come up much easier. You will however need some tools to make sure you get all the weed up and out. You don’t need special tools, but if you have them - great. If you don’t - well an old fork will do in most cases so never fear or spend money on things you really don’t need.
I’m focused on wild onion for today. They are all over the place and won’t usually come up out of the ground with just a yank. You’ll need to dig down and leverage the whole complete plant, bulb and all. If you don’t then they will just come back and spread.

Once you have all the plant up what should you do with it? You can eat them but only if you know for absolutely sure that they were never sprayed with lawn or bug chemicals. If you can’t be sure, than throw them away.
Speaking of chemicals....If you get your lawn sprayed for weeds by one of those big lawn care companies (or you get the pest guy to spray your lawn for bugs and ticks) you need to let him/her know what plants in your lawn are edible. Many of our edibles are part of our landscape and I can’t expect a lawn guy to know the difference. So I tie a ribbon around all the plants that we use for food all around the lawn so they won’t get sprayed.

Now is also the time to wash your gardening gloves. You can throw them into the washing machine if they aren’t made out of leather and make sure to add a little bleach. This will make spring so much nicer for you and your manicure.
One more quick thing. Take a jar and filled it with clean fresh water then add some crumbled egg shell to it. Let it stand for a day or two and you’ll have the perfect pick me up for your roses or tomato plants. The calcium in the eggs leach out into the water and the plants drink it like a 5 o’clock cocktail! They will love you for it.

Happy Days Everyone!