Last year I received one of the UP and DOWN planters that encourage putting cherry tomato plants in the top where one typically plants, then putting one in a secure hole in the bottom.

The pictures showed a delightful display of lush tomatoes producing ripe fruit on a beautiful greet plant.

WRONG.  The theory worked fine, but cherry tomatoes almost all are indeterminate.  That means they want to ramble.  In a hanger, that turns into a single swinging stem.  Eventually the new growth and tomatoes are working at the tip end of a brown, ugly ropey stem.  My last tomatoes were almost on the ground!

So, this year, I planted a purple Wandering Jew vine in the top and the bottom.  So far, so good.  The planter shares the eye bolts on the front entry of the house with another larger Wandering Jew pot and a pot of Sweet Potato Ivy Vine.  The first week, the UP and DOWN pot was right where Richard likes to take a short cut heading for the door.  He kept bumping into it as he headed for the house with the bill of his cap between his point of vision and the pot.  Until I came home to find bright orange flagging ribbon tied to the pot; long enough to show beneath the bill of his cap!

One of the hangers is in a bright morning till noon spot that also draws a lot of heat from the roof.  Pots there get to looking kind of tough.  The Sweet Potato Ivy Vine was ‘bleaching’ out.  I’ve set up a rotation plan on the three pots where each only spends a week in the ‘hot spot’.  I have to do some planning for moving because the UP and DOWN pot can’t be set on it’s bottom. I think the purple/silver/green striped vine will work beautifully in the double approach as they are good about curling up around their environment.

I miss hollyhocks.  We used to use the flowers as skirts for stick dolls and play with the leaves.  But it has been years since I’ve had some at a house where I live.

These plants came from Wolf Creek Nursery near Mansfield and look really strong.  I planted one last week and decided that I needed to get serious about it. So, we drove the delightful short trip (about 3 miles) to Wolf Creek Nursery where I got some more yesterday.  They have a swap meet there and had an estate auction on the grounds too.  There were puppies, chickens, turkeys, goats, CRAFTS and more on display for sale or trade.

Despite our rainy weather, the sun was shining and we actually picked up a little pink sunburn.

I plan to ‘document’ the hollyhock progress.

They are in red dirt but have their toes nested in a layer of worm castings from the worm composting bins in the basement.   They are in a sunny area just under my office window.  They aren’t supposed to be the tall ones, so I will probably have to get up and walk outside to see them.  A little exercise is good for me.

Jasper is very serious about his job as protector and guide of the flock. He nags, plain and simple.  He directs when it’s time to go to roost at night.  He supervises treats especially sunflower seeds, making sure the hens know about the goodies.

These chickens are not an economical boon, but more therapy.  We know where our eggs are coming from and we enjoy the chickens and the chores…good exercise.

The possibilities of backyard chickens are becoming more and more intriguing to people who are concerned about their food source and because they find the company of the birds comforting.  Our chickens are not quiet, they ‘sing’ quite a bit.  A quiet neighborhood would have to make adjustments for them. They really love all of our weeds that are pulled and popped into their pen.  We do not let them run all over the place, but limit them to a large, protected run.  That run protects our other vegetable and flower gardening while it keeps the varmints that prey on local chickens away from our babies.

We are having a chilly ending to this middle week of May, 2011.  Last year, the chill came a little earlier — we recall a chilly, breezy birthday party in a Shawnee, KS play park. This year, the birthday was on a hot spring day.

Now, that hot spring weather was great, because a couple days of it warmed the ground and the plants that are set out will benefit from ‘good light’ and cooler temperatures.  A neighboring nursery, Wolf Creek Nursery,  with generations of experience gardening in the Ozarks gave me the expression for the chill — Blackberry Winter.

We have a few of the larger tomato plants in the ground waiting for the warm-up that the weatherman promises.  They are not ‘shocking’ from the transplant because of the cooler, cloudy weather.  Some potatoes are coming up from an earlier planting and the second rotation of potatoes and onions are in the warm soil.

Most of the rest of my gardening has been the flowering planters that decorate our yard, porch and deck.   We have some young peach and apple trees looking good and the pear tree was loaded with blooms again.

I’m tolerating one wild blackberry invasion in a lower garden patch, close to the woods.  It is small and full of the thorns we all dread. I will have big time bird competition for berries.  We haven’t gotten any berries set out for ourselves, but the Ouachita Blackberry cultivar available in the Nature Hills Nursery catalog looks tempting.  Thornless, nice.

Do you have berry tales to share?  We invite you to do just that in the comments

Our peonies are the very old-fashioned ones. We have three colors of pink, but not a really dark ruby one that was always a favorite at my childhood home.

The Peonies page at The Legacy Garden’s website has been updated this week.  We are working on the entire website, and at the moment, the peonies are all that are available at the Flowers portal.

When I was building and adding links to favorite nurseries, I simply drooled over the exotic peonies available at  Nature Hills Nursery Perennials

Check them out today.

Garden dreams are part of the winter season and often get a chance to become reality by summer if we dreamed ‘right’.  Dreaming about a way to control the environment with a greenhouse ranks up there pretty high with the plans for beautiful and bountiful gardens.

I found an e-book, Building Your Own Greenhouse, that the big dreamers will enjoy.  It’s available free at The Legacy Gardens.  Download, dream, maybe build.

While you enjoy the e-book, please share your dreams or your experiences with greenhouses or other innovative gardening projects.

One rooster has always been bigger than the other birds. About a month ago, his MUCH sturdier legs and feet added to a fine comb told us the truth about his gender convincingly. Now, his tail feathers are starting to flow — they are a bit like the pubescent beard of people boys…kind of hither and thither and only a few. He hasn’t developed manly manners of finding a tasty tidbit when scraps are tossed to the hens and leading the girls to the find. He jumps right in and enjoys the lettuce, apples, bread or whatever comes their way along with his brothers and the girls.

It is hard to look at these sturdy birds and realize they are only about four months old. I’m really glad we got them in August because they will be ever more sturdy each day and when the weather turns cold (for the Ozarks) they will be able to handle it. We won’t need to run a brooder light to keep hatchlings warm and healthy.

As teeny-bopper chickens, they have healthy appetites. They go through a bag of feed every week. But, they are healthy all over and we enjoy them. Economical? Not one little bit, unless you consider the exercise that we might have to get at an expensive gym and the mental therapy of admiring them that we might have to seek a counselor to match. Then, maybe they are coming closer to a savvy economical investment.

A couple Boston Ferns, one which was a tough survivor from last year attracted my attention. The larger one received a major haircut and may be trimmed even closer before spring, but it carries a pretty big fluff of fronds in the beginning.

A jasmine plant, Gerbera daisy and peace lily occupy smaller pots. The jasmine and peace lily are previous winter survivors, making themselves quite comfortable inside. The Gerbera daisy is a first time and is a trial. Since we have a shelf full of other refugees from the cold, I’m going to see what can happen with this pretty daisy. The jasmine and the daisy are gifts and it would be most pleasant if I can keep them into the future.

A lush wandering jew was simply slipped with the slips dropped into a container of water. Past experience has shown me that these slips will thrive through most of the winter in their hydroponic environment, ready for planting in a post in the spring.

I haven’t had much luck getting slips of the wax begonia to take off. Finally, after looking at the 4-5 pots that just simply refuse to freeze, I clipped one of them ‘way back and brought it in for the winter. If they respond like other hothouse plants for the containers, they will expire in February no matter where I put them or how carefully I manage their water. But, it is only one pot, so I’m going to gamble that I have something to slip into small pots in the spring or divide into larger ones.

It is NOVEMBER, for cryin’ out loud. Time for the plants to take a break.

Just in case, I brought the plants I wanted to save that aren’t outdoor plants which appreciate some colder weather.

I had a really nice wandering jew vine that a neighbor was going to try to rescue.  But, when I was taking it down from the hanger, the entire mass broke off in one clump.   I have plenty of slips put back for next year.  That has been the policy for several years because I don’t have a good house place to keep it.

This year, there are a couple ferns, a daisy and a jasmine in the chilly spare room.  If company comes, the plants can go to the basement for a few days, but I hope they make it through the winter.   I overwintered one of the  Boston ferns in a place that must have been too dry last winter.  By spring, the two ferns where just a mass of brown.  One had a single frond of green, so I didn’t through it away till that one bit the dust.  The frond became two and three, then a pretty nice little fern for the summer.  When I brought it in today, there were several new little ones trying to take off along the side of the old one.

Slipping a few things for next year and letting the rest go.  It is just something that has to happen.  Marks the end of the season.  The walnuts are nearly all gathered and the jalapenos that were the star performers for the garden this year are done, done, done.

Redworms thrive on the microbes of deteriorating kitchen garbage.  Coffee grounds, filters, tea bags, loose tea, peelings of all types, scrapings and paper provide organic nutrition that the worms turn into wonderful black dirt.

Because vermicomposting is a cold process, the seeds aren’t killed.  Every spring when I add some of this rich, freshly made dirt to my container gardens, I am rewarded with more little volunteer plants than I can use.  Often they don’t produce well in the containers shared with flowers.  The water and space needs are just different, so they are pulled and returned to the soil.  This year a jalapeno pepper plant grew quietly till it was large enough to let it go and see what would happen.  I’ve picked peppers from it a couple times and there are  a few more red and green peppers ready.

I began working with worms for composting several years ago.  I really like having a resource that I can turn the garbage into something beneficial.  The worms are quiet ‘pets’ and also do a great job of eliminating my junk mail.  They don’t care for light.  When I pour paper shreds over the beds, that creates a simple ‘lid’ on the tub and the worms glads stay ‘under covers’.  Meanwhile, the paper begins to get worked into the bed along with the garbage and before I know it, they need more paper.  Paper is organic and decomposes like any other garbage, hosting the microbes that feed the worms.