Gardening: Peony Bed
With some nice weather this weekend, it was a good time to put in those peonies promised in the previous post! We purchased 3 varieties: ‘Nippon Beauty,’ ‘Doreen’ and ‘Peter Brand’ - two dark pink, and one light. Our head gardener also brought over some of her own hardy geraniums that will hopefully fill in and create a nice ground cover.
We spread a layer of compost over the top to enrich the soil and keep it from cracking.
We also topped off the step gardens with some mulch made of cocoa shells, a recycled by-product of the chocolate-making process. It helps conserve water by keeping the moisture in the soil from evaporating too quickly, and gives the garden a nice finished appearance. And makes it smell like chocolate.
We’ve got tomato sign! The first little fruits showed up on our Sungold tomatoes this week. But don’t break out the basil and mozzarella just yet - they’re only the size of a marble.
Keep an eye on the dog when he’s around that mulch. Apparently some dogs like to eat it, and it can be dangerous for them:
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp
Thanks for the link! I actually found out about the toxicity problem AFTER I bought the mulch, but the doggy didn’t show any interest so I decided to risk it. If I’d top-dressed the garden with jerky or baby carrots, it might be a different story…
I think you should plant a jerky garden.
A turkey-jerky garden.