10 Things to do in your garden during Corona Virus crisis

Well, I first wrote the title of this article as "10 things to do this spring", then realized, 'dear God, this whole spring is going to be in quarantine', which isn't too bad if u r into gardening. So i decided that i will make a list about 10 things to do in the garden during this quarantine, things that will get the gardening gloves on and boredom away.

1. Okay, lets start with something simple, mow the lawn. Mowing is fun. It gives us sense of achievement to see the tidy look. Not to mention, it makes the place safer.
2. If u don't have a lawn, then there is no better time than now to start one. All it needs is good prepared bed and grass seeds and plenty of water.
3. Make a flower bed. This MY essential to do. My current front yard came completely covered in wooden mulch. Not that there is anything wrong with mulch, i prefer to see more plants, blooms, fragrance and greenery when i enter my house.
4. If u r into edible gardening, then a vegetable patch is a must. Now is great time to start preparing your bed.
5. Seed. Start the seeds now. Be it for your flower bed, or herb garden or vegetable garden. Bulbs have to be planted now to bloom in time
6. Trimming. Hedges, trees, bushes. Clearing the old growth helps rejuvenate your fruit trees.
7. Add new look to your garden by adding a fountain or a fire-pit.
8. Start composting.
9. Plant the seeds that comes with your fruit and vegetables wastes
10. Sit back and enjoy the garden u have made with your family.

Tree Pruning

After the extreme mowing yesterday, I decided to take it easy, not that i had much choice what with the light drizzling and cold weather here. So all i managed to complete today was clear the bushes starting to grow under the trees.

Yesterday while mowing i realized something about my garden, it was more a mini forest than a backyard. Not in terms of size, but in terms of types of trees and plants growing there. My mower kept stumbling upon  stump after tree stump. Looks like the previous owners had to clear off a lot of the trees to get enough space. But they haven't done much with that space than keep it mowed maybe. I have in my backyard now a huge, fully grown eucalyptus tree; atleast 10-12 palm trees of 2 variety - the fan palm and date palm; other variety of ornamental trees of which i have no idea and finally 2 fully grown apple trees.
I know for a fact that palm trees grow slower and take a very long time to reach maturity, but i am kind of intimidated by the almost bushy grove like dense growth these trees together make in parts of my garden. So job numero uno for me was to start trimming the trees. Trouble i don't have the right tools now with me. Which means I am due a shopping session in garden section. But with my existing tools namely a manual hedge trimmer, i started on the task.

End result, most of the palms,  branches look severely shortened. Though i should say the date palm manages to carry the look far better than the fan palm ;).

Saving my Rose bushes from Aphids and Mildew

My house came with 5 rose bushes in extremely bad condition. Mildew and white aphids infested. So the first order of business was saving them. I initially did a extreme trimming of the bushes and have started spraying neem oil on them. Initially I got the neem oil spray from home Depot at 10$ per bottle

But with the 7 day of spraying needed, it was going to be little tight on purse, so I went and found concentrated neem oil in a local Indian store for 3$. Add quarter of it and fill the bottle with water and spray. Very effective. Day 3 the aphids are gone, and 2 bushes have recovered from mildew..3 more to go. I am hoping to get beautiful roses from them this spring.

My poor vegetable bed

While the front yard is tale of weed and pebbles my backyard is entirely different ball game. Filled with hip high grass and weeds, I managed take apart a part of it to plant vegetables. And with all the eagerness of a first time garden owner went and bought all the vegetable seeds I could lay my hands on seeds.

Understand my dismay that after all the weeding, digging, planting and patient watering., I found that crows absolutely enjoy digging out my sunflower seeds for a midday meal. And the dear tiny beans, cucumber and red radish that managed to sprout make excellent dinner for slugs.. everyday morning I would see a tiny seed sprouting only to be completely munched through by next day. I refuse to use chemicals in my garden other than organic ones so I am now scrabbling to find a viable solution for the slugs.

In spite of odds, 5 beans sapling have fought through and are growing. And I finally learnt my lesson and planted my sunflower seeds in cups. I also directly planted some okra and sugar snap peas about 2 weeks ago and they started to sprout. In order to have a longer harvesting time I have been planting seeds in cups every 2 weeks. So far I have planted beans, cucumber, red radish, kale okra, sugar snap peas, bok choy, broccoli. I also planted some potatoes and ginger that started sprouting in my pantry. For herbs I am trying to grow cilantro, lavender, Rosemary, mint. Though I already have tiny container plants of Rosemary and mint.

Spring is here

Spring is here and with it comes the fun of gardening. I have enjoyed gardening in a container till date and for the first time get plant them directly in ground. Oh boy, is it a challenge!!!

The previous owners in an effort to reduce weeds have taken extreme steps, I tried digging the front yard and managed to dig out about 6 inches of just pebbles and this was below a 3 inches worth of wooden mulch and plastic weed smother cover. Trouble is none of this has been very effective. I have already had to mow down and pull out by hand trees of common mallow and crab grass.. back breaking work.. but for all right reasons, utterly enjoyable, what with having to stay indoor all the time due to Corona virus. 

After all the weeding and digging I managed to plant 2 rows of flowering plant in front yard.. can't wait for them to root and grow and of course flower. 

Managed to plant hydrangea, honey suckle, rose, snap dragon, 3 pink geraniums, lillium bulbs, 2 lavender, yellow African Daisy and purple osteospermum, pansy and Marigold