Eden, ever after

My Back Garden Looks like Heck

2011-05-21T19:43:00.001-04:00

Ok, there, I've said it.

It just doesn't look that good right now.

I have Rose's lovely Bleeding Heart and one of the Hellebores to the left and the Money Plant to the right and some "is it a weed is it something I want?" seedlings and some "hope it will come up" spaces and a few "hope it will survive" seedlings scattered between the patchy "we'll take over the world!" strawberries.

Behold:

Not exactly a thing of beauty, is it?

But, until some of these things decide to take off and grow, followed by another good decision to bloom their little hearts out, it's another opportunity to practice patience, I guess.

Also had a fun surprise in the midst of all those strawberries:

Totally needs the arrow at this point, but I have a surprising little Money Plant coming up next to the bigger one (shoving up through the strawberries). Very happy to see that little guy!

And at least we finally had some rain-free days again--Rose mowed the lawn (push-mower, and right now it's novel for her--hope that lasts!) and helped me build this (on the left):

I planted in some scarlet emperor runner beans and asparagus pole beans--I like beans and hope to get some meals worth of vegetables out of them, plus the scarlet runner beans are really pretty to look at in bloom.

I also transplanted the Blenheim Melon seedling, the Musk-melon seedling, and the mysterious Pineapple Melon seedling:

Left to right: Blenheim, Pineapple, Musk-melon

Unfortunately, the Musk-melon rewarded me by withering off the very next day (today), but at least the other two seem pretty happy. This is the second time I've tried and failed to get a musk-melon going. I've heard they don't transplant well and I guess I'm a believer now--too bad since our season is so short I'm don't think I'd be able to grow it from seed outdoors, but hopefully I'll still have something to show for the other two. Blenheim Melons are a lot like Musk-melons and Cantaloupes and are supposed to be good for short seasons, so turns out that was an excellent choice ;-)

And while I wait for the mysterious Pineapple Melon to show me what it is, and wait for the seeds to show me some love and grow, at least I'm finally close to solving a 3 year old mystery. Way back in 2009, Rose planted some Mixed-color Columbine (she also planted some blue last year, but those never came up). Last year, one of the Mixed-color Columbine came back but never bloomed. But this year, it's back again, looking great, and--finally--has some buds!

Stay tuned to finally find out what color it is!

May Garden Blogger's Bloom Day!

2011-05-15T15:09:00.000-04:00

Another Garden Blogger's Bloom Day (from May Dream's Gardens blog) is here already, but for me this one is so much nicer that April's!

In April is was darn cold out still as I put on a coat and went out to take a picture of the single bloom I had to look at.

Thank goodness it's now May! It's raining, as it was yesterday, as it will be tomorrow. and the day after. and the day after that, at least according to my friends at weather.com, but it's not chilly (for a drizzly day, at any rate) and, glory of glories, I finally have blooms!

So, without further ado, I bring you Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, Eden ever after style:

First we have the Lilacs that I love so much, they still have opening buds but, I guess with all the damp, at the same time they are going a bit brown here and there on the flowers--still, smells like heaven.

And we also have strawberries--in general, the strawberries are making a good effort towards a hostile takeover of every spare patch of dirt they can find--so far I'm waiting and watching, but I do expect some fruit as payment for my kindness.

Bleeding hearts are really huge this year with tons of hearts on tons of stems--Rose's red ones in the back are the most glorious, but my white ones in the front aren't too shabby either.

And, we still have Hellebore blooming--this is the first year it's bloomed so I didn't really know exactly what to expect, but I didn't expect it to last a month! Not sure if I can expect this to repeat, either, or if it's just a benefit of a cool wet spring? This one is in the front garden--it was budded but not quite blooming in time for Bloom Day last month.

The Red Coral Bells are back this year and looking lovely, not in full bloom but just about ready. Especially under cloudy skies, the shots of red are a nice warm touch.

What started as 3 Freckles Violets have decided to fight the strawberries for total domination of the front garden--they're everywhere, but it's nice to have them. No johnny jump-ups yet which looked so pretty with them last year--I'm pretty sure we had them by this time last year...could be the cool weather or could be that the violets smothered them out--have to wait and see.

The Lunaria/Honesty/Money Plant that I planted last year is blooming this year--again, didn't expect to see it up with the early spring perennials, but it's a bright spot in a pretty sparse back garden right now. I just put in more seeds so I can (hopefully) have more of this biannual blooming next year.

And one thing to thank the cool damp for: the pansies still look nice and bright. Some years it seems like spring lasts about a week and we're right into summer--this year is different, but at least the pansies are thankful.

And, last but not least, look what I found tucked away from the rain in at the side of the front garden--the lily-of-the-valley is back. I thought it looked pretty sweet hiding out from the rain under it's leaves.

Now I'm off to take Rose to the fabric store (she's waiting, occasionally patiently) and then I'll grab a nice hot cup of tea and enjoy all the other pretty (and many sunny) blooms in the blogosphere today!

Playing catch up

2011-05-14T18:43:00.000-04:00

Been dealing with a mix of busy days and a most ungardeninglike cool drizzly days with a few nice sunny days just to keep hope alive.

Sorry to be so out of touch!

As a short recap of the past few weeks, here's a bouquet Rose picked this evening as I finally got out there and pulled some weeds before transplanting a few of the seedlings which now, I suppose, have earned the right to be called plants!

Yep, that about sums it up! Bleeding hearts are looking fabulous, rhododendrons are bright and pretty, crab-apples are at the end of things now and lilacs (be still my heart) are perfectly in the middle of their week of glory!

Happy Spring!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 2011

2011-04-15T12:54:00.000-04:00

In honor of May Dreams' Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day I'm posting pictures of my blooms, which in this case won't take much time at all!

Ready?

The hellebore in the back garden is low to the ground and facing the back wall, but it's blooming!

And, right now, it's all I have.

But I know there's more to come, I have these:

lilacs

pansies

and more hellebore

May's bloom day should be a whole lot more fun!

Surprise me!

2011-04-13T10:25:00.006-04:00

Ok, I'm not usually one to want surprises in my garden. I like to know what's coming and plan ahead, which I know is kind of like begging for disappointment when you're dealing with nature, and I like to think I can roll with the punches pretty well, I just don't like to go around asking for punches to roll with!

But, based on Pam's (Pam's English Garden) recommendation on her blog here, I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (I'm enjoying it a lot--there's a little preachiness, but much more a very delightful account of her and her family's year of local food and gardening).

That, combined with some interesting sustainable gardening posts here on Jan's Thanks for Today blog, and some general "Heirloom Seed" shout-outs that seem to be everywhere lately...

I seem to have jumped both feet into the historic varieties deep end, at least long enough to purposely and intentionally order something completely unknown and unpredictable.

That's right...I'm going to be growing Pineapple Melon.

What is Pineapple Melon, you ask? Um...well...beats the heck out of me...

I was charmed by Baker Creek's recent resurrection of Comstock Ferre seeds and requested their free catalog. Flipping through it during the early spring grays, dreaming imaginary dreams of Rose and I sitting out on the patio in the summer sunshine, gazing at the lovely flowers and cracking open ripe sweet melons for a refreshing summer snack...

I think there must have been some strange fairy magic afoot--I turned right to the melon section (never mind that I've never successfully grown a melon) and saw this:

Pineapple (melon)
This historic heirloom was grown by Thomas Jefferson in 1794. It was offered commercially in America in 1824, and it was illustrated in color in France in 1854 in the Vilmorin Album. This wonderful variety is very rare. The productive plants can be trained on a trellis. The fruit is highly perfumed. This was one of the ten melons we offered in 1846 from our Wethersfield Seed Gardens.

Contains 35 heirloom seeds

And I was all: "Thomas Jefferson (I went to UVA, it's a Pavlovian thing)... 1824... Vilmorin Album (I'm a sucker for botanical illustrations, see "addiction, Botanical Interests seed company")... productive... trellis (remember, space, especially sunny space, is an issue here)... highly perfumed" and before you could say, "what on earth are you doing?" I was completely sold on having this glorious thing in my garden.

So...skip ahead to now--the seeds are ordered and on their way and I'm wondering what on earth I've gotten myself into! Is it red? green? yellow? netted? smooth? crisp? Darned if I know.

Googling was not especially helpful. It might look like this:

Photo by Andy Nightmaar here

or, looking at another seed website, it could look like this:

from Cherry Gal seeds here

or it could look an awful lot like cantaloupe, like this:

from The Seed Kingdom here

or, for something a little different, it could look like this:

from Kokopelli seeds here

The funniest part is each of the 3 seed catalogs linked above all say "this" is the variety Thomas Jefferson grew...

Curiouser and curiouser!

I'm feeling a bit like Jack and the Beanstalk; I'll throw these seeds in the ground and wait to see just exactly what grows up my trellis this summer...stay tuned!

US Postal Service and an Interesting Link

2011-04-11T07:36:00.001-04:00

Came home on Saturday to find our letter carrier had left me this:

Very exciting! I have just the hard to plant spot that I'm hoping the Jupiter's Beard will take to and make beautiful.

And, not just good news to share but an interesting link, too: http://volantefarms.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/beneficial-biological-controls/

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to grow in a healthy way and how that's accomplished on different scales--the blog post linked above details how one greenhouse is using bugs to get rid of other bugs and reduce or eliminate the need to spray chemicals on their plants. It's not preachy and the thinking isn't black-or-white--very interesting stuff (at least to a geeky kind of gal like me!)

Hope all of you have a not too crazy Monday on your hands!

Signs of things to come

2011-04-09T10:28:00.000-04:00

Between the many cool gray days and the hoping that seed will really come up and the waiting for strong indication that there will really be a garden this year, this is a rough time of year!

My inner toddler is ready to stomp her feet and hold her breath until she turns blue or until strong spring finally comes, whichever! Good thing I'm actually a reasonable adult (ha!) or I have the feeling I'd be stomping and blue a lot these days....

And, looking around here, I do have some signs (beyond the intermittent warmish days, right now still followed by cool grayish days) that the good things are on their way.

My Lenten Roses look like they're going to be blooming this year! I put them in 2 years ago and last year was a time spent settling in but not blooming. Guess it has to get with it if it's actually going to make it for Lent this year, but I think it has a chance. I bought 2 plants in "mixed" colors, so I'm excited to see what colors I actually have (feels odd, but I think it's good for my plan-everything-to-the-nth-degree self to have some surprises in the garden every now and again!).

Hellebore, aka Lenten Rose

The Lilacs, which I adore, are starting to swell their buds--definitely a happy sign for me!

Lilacs

Plus, we've had another sunny day nice enough to take the seedlings out for a little sunshine:

And, speaking of the seedlings, they're looking hopeful, themselves--remember the Crème de Cassis Hollyhocks? Alive and well and growing rapidly:

one Crème de Cassis Hollyhock seedling...

....another Crème de Cassis Hollyhock seedling

And the Snowdrift Marigolds? They've starting to show off their first sets of leaves:

Snowdrift Marigold seedlings

(Probably best to ignore the roundish Dwarf Ten Weeks Stock seedlings that I'll pinch off eventually--I had a little issue where I planted the Stock seeds in half of the tray, was briefly interrupted, and couldn't figure out which had the stock and which were completely empty! I figured better safe than sorry and just replanted the whole thing--not hard now to tell which is which!)

And....drum roll please...the weather report says the temps are going to be nice today and rising steadily over the next 10 days--happy days are coming!

Wishing you all the same,

Where's that Crystal Ball?

2011-04-06T20:27:00.001-04:00

Blue Boy Bachelor Button
from Botanical Interests site

It's that time of year--the time when I obsessively check the 10 day weather forecast and try to guess when the last frost will be.

This is the 3rd year now that I've done some direct sowing outdoors and the 2nd year now that I've tried to determine (with lots of failed research and a final desperate guess) when it's a good time to plant those things that do best when planted a few weeks before the last frost.

The first year I went blithely on my way aiming for Memorial Day and counting back. For some things that worked--all the veggies and some flowers--and for others it seemed to be the wrong move--first columbine didn't come up until the next year, and then last year columbine and nodding allium didn't come up at all and may or may not come up this spring--which may have been because it was too warm and they needed some time in the cold, or maybe it was something I did and has nothing to do with the weather?

Wish I knew!

The thing is, experience tells me that Memorial Day is way past the safe time here where we are (not necessarily true even 10 miles west of here, though!), but I have yet to find anyone who has a better answer.

Plus, I'm impatient to get going with it already--it's been a rough winter!

So, I planted some bachelor buttons (blue and dark pink) today and the dream is (for now) alive--hope Mother Nature plays along with me....

Sustainable lifestyle, a hill of beans one bean at a time.

2011-04-04T09:37:00.000-04:00

The other day I was reading this post on Pam's English Cottage Garden and, through Pam's eloquent description of Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (a book I'm excited to get from the library--I loved Kingsolver's Animal Dreams and several other of her books I'd read a long time ago) I discovered this post on Jan's Thanks for today blog.

Not only are there some terrific give aways involved (Really. They are terrific. Don't believe me, check it and see!), but a lot of links to lots of other garden bloggers with some very interesting things to say about sustainable lifestyles.

Now, I'll be honest here, the first thing I did after reading Pam's and Jan's posts was to google "Sustainable Lifestyle" to figure out exactly what that was supposed to mean. Ok. Found it on Wikipedia and it's a fairly broad term.

But that brings up my next question--and no, it wasn't "what of the many things I do on a regular basis to help the earth should I blog about?"--it was actually more along the lines of "hmm...do I do anything on a regular basis to help the earth?!?"

I like a clean and healthy planet, of course, but in my real life there's an effort to find the balance between what we should do and what we can do with the resources we have here and now.

I'd love to purchase only grass-fed beef and grow a huge garden plot to supply all our vegetable needs for the year, but also need to be mindful of meeting our food needs within our food budget, andour yard is not so big and not so sunny and is governed by its own set of condo rules and regulations.

Which means 1) I'm not going to be raising urban chickens, but also means 2) I'm in exactly the same boat as a very large number of other people.

To quote my favorite FlyLady saying: sometimes you just have to hit a lick at a snake. Which is a way of saying, "heck, even if it can't all be done and done perfectly, maybe I'll just take a stab at it and see what does get done"

So, what do I do, exactly? Well, I'm glad you asked...

I compost, for one--not a huge series of self-heating bins in different stages of composting, but a converted trash bin that I can put by my door and fill and fluff and, when completed, spread over my gardens. It works for my situation and my gardens seem to really like it--plus I get a real kick out of getting useful stuff out of my garbage scraps--my inner Rumpelstiltskin spinning gold out of straw!

I shop with reusable bags--I made the 2 above a few years ago out of some favorite fabrics from my stash (lots of free patterns online to do this) and have since sewn another (currently in Rose's room holding the latest haul of library books) and amassed a few others from various sources.

My brother gave me one of them (from the grocery) last year as a gift bag with a birthday present--they tend to be cheaper than paper gift bags and can be reused many more times after the big day is over--pretty clever idea, I think!

And, at least around here, you get 5-cents off your grocery receipt for each bag you bring--not enough to buy a Prius or anything like that (at least in my lifetime of shopping), but after a few visits that packet of seeds is paid for, right?

I pick plants that attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds--but I need to fess up that this is just self-serving on my part. Really, I didn't even know this was a sustainable practice until I read it on a couple of posts linked to Jan's blog (above), especially this one from Betsy S. Franz's Metro DC Lawn and Garden Blog. I actually just like butterflies and bumble bees and have only ever seen a hummingbird once in my life--I'd really like to see another one sometime before I die!

I built a trellis out of found materials. Ok, so I did it mostly because I like the rustic look and partly because there was no harm in trying something for free--still, no fossil fuels used in production and no harmful chemicals into the environment--win-win!

As I've recently posted, I grow my indoor seedlings in "fossel fuel free solar growing system" (yeah, I hear you, putting seedlings in a bright window probably doesn't count, really, but there you have it--and if blogging about it encourages someone else who doesn't have the space, money, or desire to go out and get a big seed starting system to give it a go in the window, that's not a bad thing)

But really, the big thing I'm proud of is taking a stab at growing things. Simple, but big.

When we lived in our apartment, my garden looked like this:

(and, yes, it did usually feature some of Rose's toys in some way or another--this was one set-up when she was 6, some game about exploring the jungle or something like that--turns out these are the only really good pictures I took of the balcony garden, but they make me smile because they remind me of my 6 year old Rosie)

The "garden" was small, used soil donated from my parents' garden, and it tended to look especially hodge-podge before the plants grew enough to fill in, but we got to enjoy the flowers and have some meals' worth of green beans, lettuce, and tomato for our trouble. Again, it was really very self-serving as I got to enjoy the gardening and the fresh produce, but that just couldn't be helped, right?

These days we're on to some bigger areas and more experiments to see what does and doesn't work around here, both decorative and eatable.

Last year we ate a bit of this:

and some of this:

and a bit of this:

and this:

Which couldn't be any fresher or more locally grown if it tried.

(and, yes, I do know those are a lot of pictures to say "I grew some food" but it's dreary outside today and Spring still isn't sure it's going to stay, so please just indulge me here this once...)

Now the astute reader will notice that while I talk about sustainable measures, at the same time I'm really just going on about things that I enjoy:

making free enrichment to make my gardens better
shopping with pretty bags and saving pennies each time
planting things that will attract things I want
getting a free trellis that I like the look of
eating fresh delicious food for pennies...

Ok, I won't argue that I benefit from it (benefit a lot, actually!) but maybe sharing things that benefit us and help our world at the same time is a useful thing to do?

I've learned so much about gardening from other garden bloggers out there and gotten lots of great ideas.

But I also had fun reading the links from bloggers who have answered Jan's challenge and written about their own projects in sustainable living.

Like Cinj's making produce bags out of sheer stash fabrics, and Ramble on Rose's rain gardens (never heard of that before!), and Jezibel's painted rain barrels (check those out, they're really neat!), and Patty Hicks' milk jug tomatoes (I'm dying to see how those come out!).

Crazy thing about blogging is that it's a great way to share ideas that might suit someone else, too, and in doing so "hit a few more licks at a snake," if you follow what I mean. (And also I enjoy blogging, but let's leave that part out of it for now, shall we?)

Yesterday in the garden

2011-04-03T13:11:00.000-04:00

Two days ago we had a "last hurrah" kind of snow but yesterday saw a warm enough day to melt a lot of it and get out into my gardens for the first time this year.

the front garden, looking a little alive!

the back gardens - more shade more snow

Spent some time stirring the compost for the first time since fall (not good, I know), and shoveling the uncomposted stuff into a bag so I can put the done stuff in the gardens today (well, done-ish stuff, truth be told--but I think it will finish ok on the ground).

Followed that up by digging up some of my "we will overtake the entire earth if it's the last thing we do" strawberries from the front garden and put them in the strawberry pot (these guys (Ozark Beauties) spread like mad, but haven't been especially heavy producers yet).

Dug a bit farther on the side of the shed where we had tomatoes last year to make a garden the full length--Rose and I are going to make another trellis and put the beans there this year (the Scarlet Runner Beans again and also some Asparagus Beans which aren't real beans but are bean-like)--not sure it really has the best sun for it, but they say you shouldn't grow the same crop in the same place each year, so I'm trolling for a new spot.

Funny thing--might be timing or might be nature working things for me, but the ground was a lot easier to dig this year than when I started at it last year. Also, both front and back I came upon several earthworms, which I rarely did when I started gardening--I'll take that as a good sign!

I took the seedlings out for a bit of a vacation since the weather was nice. Too early to really harden off, but I figured they could use some time in the light and breeze, kind of like me:

seedlings on vacation

And, not to be outdone, I also brought out my poor leggy herbs that have been surviving the winter on my windowsill, adding to my cooking while counting the days till spring (and from the looks of it, reaching as spindly and long as they can, trying to find a more spring-like place to grow):

my poor herbs--leggy and then some

But, Rose and I did also go to our local nursery to pick up some good looking plants (apologies to all my bad looking plants, it will get better, I promise!). A 6-pack of Pansies are now potted on our front steps--Rose is not really as interested in the gardens as she was last year, but she certainly spent enough time checking out every one of the 100's of mixed pansy packs to find the one that had the best combination of the colors she likes! We have 2 deep burgundies and a dark purple (both with faces)--we'll just have to be surprised on the other 3 once they bloom.

And, while I was poking around, I saw a few signs that we may just have something to look at in the future:

under the snow, the bleeding heart looks alive...

and the hydrangea has some branches budding

and I think this will eventually be lily-of-the-valley, but I'll need to see more to be sure

I love seeing the signs that plants are still alive and planing on coming back--welcome, spring!

Seeds - you're doing it wrong!

2011-04-02T10:20:00.003-04:00

So, about these seeds.

I love starting with these itty bitty dead (looking) things, throwing them into dirt when the world still looks like winter and ending up mid-summer with a (small) world of flowers and multiple meals. Especially because none of the seed packets cost more that $3.00 and they last over several years.

Guess it's the power hungry dictator in me. Or something like that.

I also adore the selection gardeners get when they start with seeds. Last year, when I used purchased seedlings, I couldn't get my now adored deep purple nicotiana--instead I got something nicotiana that didn't smell or look as heavenly and was kind of disappointing. Plus I was suck with only one variety of full-sized tomato that just didn't do that well for me.

But, being the kind of person who researched everything do death before starting, I know there are lots of awesome ways to properly grow seeds indoors. And I know I'm failing miserably at being as properly awesome as any of them.

This is what my seed set-up looks like:

It does not look like this:

from Burpee's website

or like this:

from Burpee's website

And it especially doesn't look like this:

from Gardener's Supply Co. website

(which is really too bad, because wouldn't that be cool?)

It just looks like a motley of trays, cups, and one newspaper pot, filled with top-soil this year (sorry, little seeds, it was all I had on hand and we were not spending money that week), draped with saran wrap where needed, sitting on my sunniest windowsill, leaning toward the light (I do turn them regularly--I'm not that mean to the poor little things) and waiting for spring.

Ideal? Not hardly!

But, and this is the point of my crazy rant (see, I have a point!): they are growing anyway and will most likely survive in spite of their less than optimal beginnings and will most likely this year do just what they've done in past years, which is to grow nicely in my garden when the weather grows warm.

Which is pretty much all to say, if you're anything like me (or Rose, who is a lot like me) and want to make sure you know exactly what you're doing before you start and want to do it exactly and perfectly right once you do start, why not give it a go in spite of yourself? Using whatever you have on hand and meets your budget, no less. What's the worst that could happen, anyway?

And come to think of it, our gardening fore-bearers never had heated tray bottoms, growlights, or poly-hoop-houses, and they still managed to feed themselves off it, right? Wonder if I could sound cool and trendy if I called my method "Heirloom Seed Starting"? (and, yeah, please don't answer that!)

Why yes, that is a sandwich bag over my muskmellons....

I caved in to a hollyhock

2011-03-30T22:24:00.004-04:00

Sad, but true.

Apparently I don't actually have a spine (see, a little book pun there). Or maybe it was just meant to be.

I was looking for balloon flower seeds the other day--once again thwarted in my efforts by the fact that I couldn't actually find any for sale. One more item to order ahead next year.

But while I was there, I happened to glance ~~at every single other seed they had, just to see what wonders were available~~ in the direction of the "H" flowers and saw my old love, the hollyhock.

If you read back far enough into the archives, you'll see that this isn't event the first time I've been sucked in by hollyhocks--last year I started some way too late in the season, but lost them to a heavy wind that knocked over the flat and let the survivors dry out before I found them.

Maybe it just wasn't meant to be--or maybe the powers that be were just saving me from missing out on these ones! (I know, denial this bad has got to be a bad sign)

Look what I got, not just any hollyhocks but these beautifully lovely Thompson and Morgan Crème de Cassis ones!

from the Thompson and Morgan website

All kinds of Victorian old fashioned vibe from these babies, I'm so excited!--now if I can keep them out of harm's way...

My once and future Marigolds

2011-03-25T22:57:00.005-04:00

Snowdrift Marigolds
(from the Burpee website)

In 2009, at Rose's request, we planted some Snowdrift Marigolds in the back garden.

I believe they were newly introduced at the time (but don't quote me, I couldn't find any back-up so it could just be one of those strange wrong impressions) and, unlike most marigolds, the packaging said that these guys really like a little afternoon shade--at the same time we were newbies looking for some cottagey-looking things to try in our afternoon shady back garden. Perfect!

And really, in my humble opinion, they were perfect. The color was a really sweet, creamy shade--not the usual vibrancy of yellow marigolds. And unlike the small marigolds I was used to, these were giants, much more like the zinnias my grandmother grew than the marigolds I was used to (which probably tells you more about the narrowness of my experiences with marigolds than anything else, but there you have it...)

I like marigolds, but I loved these!

In 2009 with Rose

Last year, however, I was not able to plant any seeds until the end of April and didn't even try to buy any, for that matter. When I was feeling a bit better, I did try to pick up a pack of these at my local big greenhouse (they have lots of varieties you don't get at most places) but with no luck at all. Either they were sold out completely or they never were around to begin with. And I assumed it was the latter.

I even tried to find them on the Burpee site, but either I was missing them or they weren't there in May.

I have no idea why I didn't save seeds in 2009, but by the time I hit 2010, I figured these were no longer available and wouldn't be in our garden again.

Fast forward to today--I was at our smaller really local garden center, trying to pick up some tall Stock seeds on a whim to give those a go this year. No luck with those at all (note to self: next year order some) but guess what I found? That's right--welcome home Snowdrift Marigolds!

It's probably still too early to be time to plant these--they did great direct sowing in 2009--but I confess, I did put a few in some dirt inside to see how they do. I figure I've waited long enough!

Guess I shouldn't have worried - 1st sprouts of 2011!

2011-03-24T08:27:00.005-04:00

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was planting some older seeds - I was a bit concerned and put one more seed in each cell than I would normally do to make up for the fact that they probably wouldn't all be viable after a couple of years.

Turns out I shouldn't have worried; here we have them--my first sprouts of 2011 - ta-da!

brand new best boy tomato sprouts

The moonflowers and my hybrid best boy tomatoes (both from 2009) are both coming up, and at least for those tomatoes, I'm seeing 3 sprouts for 3 seeds in almost every cell. Don't know if viability is more in line with my grandparents thinking or keeping the seeds in a ziplock freezer bag in the freezer for years is just the way to go? But either way, I'll take it!

Slightly humorous side note: Not only did I wake up with moonflowers and tomatoes, but also snow!

Moonflowers, tomatoes, and snow!

Rose is pretty unhappy to have the snow back again (it's been a long sort of winter around here), and I'm looking at the lawn furniture we set up last weekend and having a hard time wrapping my brain around still more of the white stuff...but, at least I have these lovely little sprouts to wish me well and hint very strongly that winter is really nearing it's end.

Things that like broccoli

2011-03-22T22:43:00.005-04:00

One of the worst things about my garden last year had to be the slugs and worms. Hadn't had much of a problem with them they year before, but in 2010 I decided to mix it up a bit and plant some broccoli and beets in with my flowers in the back garden.

The beets (bulls blood, golden, and chioggia) were awesome (even if I enjoyed them lots more than Rose or my dear husband did, both of them did eat some, and I got a kick out of them, at any rate).

The broccoli (Waltham 29) tasted really good (more tender and sweet than store bought heads) the one and only time I actually ate it, but jeez was it trouble with pests!

Broccoli, mid-summer 2010--see the beginnings of slug munching?
or maybe this was the cabbage worms after slug recovery?
at any rate, see my broccoli being eaten, and not by me?

First off were the slugs (ick, slugs!)...honestly, at first I had no idea why the leaves were looking like Swiss cheese, until one day Rose and I were out in the rain and noticed some orangy brown things stuck on the wall behind the garden. Looked a bit closer and found they were clearly and unmistakeably slugs. Looked more and more and noticed more and more--on the walls, on the ground, on the leaves of just about everything--just about everywhere.

Rose and I plucked an killed slugs for an hour or so until we couldn't find more. In the process we learned that they are slimy, stick hard, and stain your hands a nasty orange yellow.

That very day I made some slug traps* out of soda bottles bated with yeast-sugar-water. Also, my husband bought us some rubber gloves for slug picking.

Maybe this was enough to scare them away, or maybe it was just the dry sunny weather that followed, but after the great slug massacre of '10, we rarely saw them again (outside of our nightmares, of course).

But...just when I thought it was finally safe to enjoy a tasty batch of broccoli, we ran into trouble #2: cabbage worms. No point telling these nasty things that broccoli isn't cabbage--believe me, they don't care a bit.

The worst part of these is that they refuse to leave--you may think you looked over every inch of the broccoli, soaked it carefully for an hour, cut and picked and carefully examined--doesn't matter a bit. After that first clean batch that let me know that garden broccoli is very nice, every single time after that, I opened up my pot to find steamed broccoli mixed with, yep, steamed worms. ick, ick, ick!

I'm sure there is something good and natural I could do to control them, but I never did come up with it. After a few more attempts all ended with chucking the broccoli and worms together into the trash, I just waived my white flag and left the broccoli alone where it grew. Truly, I finally yanked up the bent, smelly remains of stalks just last week--bad gardening habit, but I guess that's how much I wanted to just wish the whole mess away.

At the time I was so disgusted I swore I would never grow broccoli again, but the long cold winter has softened me a bit, I guess. This week I put a few early broccoli seeds in the dirt. But, I put them in one of my big pots away from the free ground. And I plan on covering them with netting the instant they show themselves (and if I think too hard about it, I'll probably be tempted to go out and cover them right now before they've even had the chance to sprout under the dirt, just to be on the safe side!).

And if I have the same troubles again, I guess giving up fresh broccoli is going to seem like a pretty fine deal if it lets me give up on these nasty things.

* I found my slug trap design online somewhere--cut the top 1/3 off a plastic soda bottle, inverted it over the rest of the bottle, buried it nearly to the top in the garden, filled it with bait. The idea is to lure them in and, once in, they fall into the bottom part and can't slither back up. Of course, I did find a few hanging out at the cap part dipping their [whatever it is that slugs dip, tongue? toe?] into the bait. Believe me, I was neither too squeemish nor too tender-hearted to help them all the way in, not after the nastiness that lead to the trap idea, at any rate.

This old seed

2011-03-21T18:21:00.085-04:00

For better or for worse, 2011 is starting out as a lean year around here and I'm trying to make good use of the seeds I have left over (ok, or purchased and not used...I admit it!).

I know they (yes, the big and powerful "they") say to always purchase and use fresh seeds because they (the seeds, not the big and powerful "they") are more reliable and less frustrating. But, problem is, I actually have these older seeds here with me and, even in more plentiful years, I am pretty cheap.

Also, I have my grandparents to thank for setting a good/bad example for my seed holding on habits--I have fond memories of my Iowa grandparents incredible vegetable garden (and, to be honest, memories of me and my brother griping our way through the daily task of picking rows of bush beans and peas--but even that has turned into a fond memory!). Really, they were incredible and probably the inspiration for my gardening--not only would they proudly grow all kinds of everything, but my grandma would proceed to can, pickle, and blanch and freeze to feed themselves all through the winter. Amazing (and absolutely the best pickles ever, bar none)!

And, as I was saying, they set a good/bad example for my seed holding on habits--in addition to the fond garden memories, I have fond memories of them going through the old seed packets they had saved in a coffee can in the outdoor shed and deciding what would or wouldn't be fine to use--10 to 15 years old might be pushing it, maybe, but 1 or 2 years was a no problem no brainer.

So, I figure what's the harm in trying?

But, along with the trying is a bit of trying to evaluate what did or didn't go so well for me last year and make another step or 2 in a different, more hopeful direction.

One of those strange failures was actually my Brandywine tomatoes--weird, huh? Everything I've read says these are slow but the best tasting tomatoes anyone will ever have the privilege to eat. Slow was right, but tasty? No, not the plants we had, anyway--neither Rose nor I were very impressed. Too bad because I had hoped to be able to save the seeds and have them for this year, but didn't seem worth the effort to us, both with the unimpressive taste, the unimpressive wait, and the impressively small yield we ended up with.

Best Boy from Burpee Website

Now I fully understand that sometimes some plants just don't go true to strain, and I even wonder if these nursery purchases had been mislabeled, but for whatever reason, with high hopes and without much space to spare, it was not the highpoint of our 2010 garden. This year I've started some Best Boy Hybrid seeds that I had in the freezer from a couple of years ago--I'd like to get my hands on something heirloom to try again and save the seeds, but that may have to wait for another season.

Chocolate Cherry tomatoes

At least I have some 2009 Chocolate Cherry tomatoes started, as well--I had those in 2009 and they grew well and tasted nice--at the time Rose was quite put off by the purple/brown color, but I'm hoping that will go better now that she's an 11 year old and not 9--and one way or the other, those aren't hybrid and the seeds should be just fine to save and grow again for free! Does my frugal heart good.

This is me waving sheepishly...

2011-03-20T21:51:00.001-04:00

It's been a while, hasn't it?

We finally had a springish day around here and I planted some seeds indoors in flats and a few hopeful cold-liking (or at least not cold-hating) things outdoors (some peas, lettuce (lettuces?), broccoli, and spinach)--feels good to be planting things and even better when I remember what shape I was in last year at this time that putting things in flats felt like too much to handle--ahh, this is better!

I do sincerely apologize for being such a terrible blogger. And a lazy blogger. And a blogger who got very sidetracked by a one week vacation and didn't find her way back for 9 months--sheesh!

Hope to recap the rest of 2010 here as I go along, and wishing all of you (or any of you who still read this?) a blessed and bountiful 2011 season as it is or will be (I'm extremely jealous of the Southern garden bloggers I'm catching up on--imagethey're predicting snow to rain for us tomorrow and you have actual blooms and sunshine!).

Now for something completely different...challenge time!

2010-06-03T15:09:00.000-04:00

Pam at Pam's English Cottage Garden has included me in an 8x8 photo challenge--post the 8th picture in your 8th album.

Turns out it's one of my other loves (besides growing plants)...growing bread!

This particular loaf was my first attempt (and so far only) at a Pan de Campaign from the Baking with Julia cookbook. Love that book and most everything I've made out of it, but I can't say I was all that impressed with this attempt. With practice, I hope I could work out the shapes a bit better, but the taste and texture of this attempt were, frankly, kind of disappointing.

It's a wild yeast risen sourdough that takes a few days, not continuous ;-) to make. I enjoyed the challenge and will probably try it again, sometime, but I really prefer a nice loaf of French bread....

Thanks, Pam--I enjoyed looking back at this!

My garden is getting ready to RUMBLE!

2010-05-28T19:35:00.002-04:00

Well, maybe not rumble, exactly, but lots of things are suddenly getting set to happen.

My Poker Primrose now has little--what? are they buds, or maybe not when they aren't really a mass of petals, but what are they called then?

At any rate, the Poker Primrose is starting to happen and you can even see the pink color beginning. I wasn't sure the Red Coral Bells would still be blooming at the same time, and truly they do look a little rough around the edges by now, but it looks like it may just happen after all.

Even if it doesn't though, it will still be nice to have the Primrose giving me something pretty to look at between the Bleeding Heart (now done blooming) and the Hydrangea (no buds yet).

The Poker Primrose isn't the only one getting ready to go. One of my Scarlet Emperor Beans has just started to climb!

A few more are definitely feeling around for something to hold on to, so it shouldn't be long before they're climbing, too.

As I'd mentioned before, I'd never grown these before, but somehow I expected them to climb with tendrils like peas. I just wasn't expecting them to wrap themselves around the sticks exactly like a Morning Glory--love it!

Not to be outdone, the buds on the biggest of my Foxgloves are getting bigger and bigger--looks like I won't have to wait too much longer.

They are just lovely right now with the soft pink blending into the cream-colored tips--right now it's just the few at the bottom, of course, but they do bode well for things to come.

And, slightly less exciting but still kind of fun, I have a potted Fuchsia on the wall above the back garden that I picked up earlier this month.

It's had a bit of an adjustment period with minimal blooms on the bottom branches only, but it's now starting to bud on the upper shoots, as well.

I only just learned of May Dreams Garden's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day so I have yet to share my blooms that way, but somehow it looks like maybe my plants have been keeping it in mind.

If this keeps up, I hope to have these guys in all their glory come June 15.

Hello Nasturtium (and hopefully not "welcome, bane of my garden")

2010-05-27T13:51:00.001-04:00

I enjoy Nasturtium.

Their leaves remind me of lily-pads and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum where the courtyard is lush and green even on the very least pleasant of winter days and in April, fifteen-foot-long Nasturtium vines are hung from the balconies in honor of Mrs. Gardner's birthday.

Rose does not enjoy Nasturtium, at all.

Last year at this time, she too was a fan--pretty flowers in part-shade? What's not to love?

Then she planted some.

And they grew. And grew and grew. My husband and I thought this might be a happy thing. She planted things that were thriving--awesome, right? Well, for her not so much.

Rose's Nasturtium going crazy last year

She's an orderly sort of person, and these nasturtium were not following her plan. To her they were like Kudzu only really, really invasive.

Fast-forward to this year, I wanted a bit of "something" in a spot between the daisies and broccoli.

I saw these Botanical Interests Mahogany Nasturtium and thought they'd look great. A bit of deeper color and a pretty shape. And goodness knows they grow well.

And, I have a new little project which was planned to either a) brighten up the edge by the fence or b) let me plant more, more, more--you can decide which it is ;-)

There's about 1.5" of space between the poured concrete patio and the fence. There's dirt with grass on the other side, so it seems to me to be more like a strawberry pot (big dirt, small opening) than the 1.5" tray it looks like.

I dumped a bit of potting soil between to fill it up a bit higher and planted some Thumbelina Zinnia and the rest of the Jewel Nasturtium seeds from Rose's garden last year.

My expectations for the zinnia aren't so very high since they like lots of sun, but I figured it was worth a shot. I think the Nasturtium should do better (unless Rose is right and they end up eating our fence and patio and spitting them out as toothpicks).

So far the Nasturtium are coming up and looking great, in their distinctively pretty round-leafed little way. They're definitely growing well and gaining size every day! Right now I take that as a good and happy sign, but I guess I'll be keeping an eye on them in case this lovely growing thing starts to get out of hand.

Rose did try and warn me. Several times.

Don't trust Nasturtium.

Progress, Stock, and Another Large Pot

2010-05-21T18:30:00.001-04:00

We've finally had two days of sun in a row after lots and lots of rain. It really feels like summer is here and should (God willing) for at least the weekend.

The foxglove that I started from seed last year if making definite progress and looking like it's planning on blooming sometime in the next month (give or take!). All of them seem to be starting stalks, but one of them (pictured) is much farther along than the others--strange since all 5 surviving plants are the same variety and were planted at the same time. This one was also the only one of the original 6 to bloom last year. It's obviously an overachiever.

And look at the strawberries! These are the ones I put in the part- shade as an afterthought but they're also my star pupils--hope no critters catch on because we're getting really excited to think of all those blooms turning into lots of fresh berries.

The bed were these strawberries and foxglove are is the one I took the most care of with compost last year--could be a coincidence but it does make me wonder. Guess I'll keep up the scrap-and-coffee-grounds gathering and try to keep the compost project alive. It seems to be worth while.

And, guess what I found last Monday? Another large flower pot! I had gotten the 3 large black ones (with the lettuce and now a grape tomato) from a neighbor who was giving them away. At the time we lived in the apartment and they seemed (and were) perfect for growing some nice things on the balcony. I'd forgotten that I had picked up 4 of them and only remembered when I saw the identical sized and shaped one in white in my mother's garage.

Strange how these things work--I would have thought I'd have had more use for pots on the balcony, but actually space and weight were problems there. Not so here.

I had been thinking of growing carrots, but our soil is pretty rocky--not boulders, but little rocks (1" or less) and plenty of them. I'd heard that (unlike beets) carrots split and gnarl pretty much every time they hit a rock--didn't seem like they had much chance of success around here.

But...

Enter the "new" large pot, add some rock free dirt and I'm ready to give it a try! Rose and I picked out these funky colored Carnival Blend carrots. Don't know if they'll taste any different for all their crazy colors, but Rose thought they were pretty and I figured if I was going to grow my own carrots, I wanted them to look like something I didn't just pick up anywhere :-)

And finally, Rose's garden to the left--isn't it looking sweet? I'd been gifted some alyssum and stock plants and Rose really liked them. Plus, while we wait to see if the columbine (areas marked out with sticks) do anything at all this year, the poor kid really needed something to enjoy.

So, now it's pretty and rosy and very sweet...just like a certain young lady I know of.

And again with the seeds....this time Nodding Onion

2010-05-20T07:56:00.005-04:00

Rose and I both were beguiled by this Nodding Onion Allium. For once, it wasn't the artist's drawing that fished us in, but the photos we googled up under Nodding Onion--just lovely!

I'm not usually much of an allium fan--they can look extremely cool in formal gardens and fun for kids in a Suess kind of way, but they aren't a very good fit for my own style. I'm certainly silly enough, but I don't tend to like my garden flowers to be too bold or too statement making.

Unfortunately, while Botanical Interests seeds are sold in one of our local grocery chains (lucky us!), this particular seed is not in their rounders (unlucky us.).

But, finally I broke down and ordered them online. Spent more on the shipping than I did on the seeds themselves, but at least they arrived quickly (on the 3rd day--not bad at all).

These are part of Botanical Interests' "Botanic Garden Series" which aims to help preserve native plant species--these aren't actually native in our neck of the woods, so I don't know that Rose and I are really doing our part here, but then again if we can keep them alive that's something right? Of course, nice as that is, to be fair, we really just chose them because they tolerate shade and are very pretty.

So, we planted them yesterday in the back garden in front of some blue bachelor buttons in a little crescent that bridges Rose's and my areas. The packet says they may or may not come up without being chilled, so we may or may not see anything this year--arrgh! Where's a sure thing when you need one?

But, as I remind myself very regularly, we're not just here for a year, we're looking to get better and better over time. And, as perennials, these (assuming they eventually do grow) will be a part of that. And, years and years from now, when Rose is grown and off on her own, I can still look at them and remember the summer my little Rose and I were beguiled by these pretty things enough to take the plunge.

Welcome, little Brandywines

2010-05-19T11:40:00.004-04:00

As I mentioned before, this spring was a bit tricky for me and I didn't get any tomato seeds started indoors so they could be big enough to produce anything before the fall frosts. So, last week I picked out some seedlings from a local nursery--Brandywine Tomatoes.

I've never grown, or to the best of my knowledge even eaten a Brandywine before--I'm going into this only based on their reputation as an extremely tasty variety.

They're also a very slow growing variety, but hopefully that won't be too much of a problem. I have a single Grape Tomato plant in a big pot on the patio, so I'm thinking that will help us manage the waiting.

Because Brandywines are an heirloom variety and not a hybrid, I'm planning on saving some of the seeds (assuming they grow pretty well and taste very good)--it will be my first time fermenting seeds (more info here) so that also will be a new adventure. And, I love over time getting the seeds from the plants that do best in my little spot under the sun.

But, obviously, I'm getting way ahead of myself (as I usually do when I start thinking about gardening! But that's the point of planting things, isn't it?). It's a rainy, dreary day and I only just dug up a strip of grass to plant these little guys in--and even with that, on account of the rain and general drear, I didn't do much more than the minimum, as you can clearly see from the photo. Fruits of my labor will still be a long way off (if at all, to look at it totally realistically).

But since nothing will come unless I take the first step, I hereby consider myself and my Brandywine Tomatoes on our way. Hooray for us!

ETA: the whole heirloom thing reminds me of this very funny recent Garden Rant post. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm on board with having some water and canned foods on hand in the winter, nothing wrong with having flashlights, extra batteries, and blankets when you need them--just don't try and sell me $20 of heirloom seeds for $159.95 because I'm supposed to be afraid not to.

Guess between my beets, spinach, and now the Brandywine tomatoes, we'll be good to go in case of governmental collapse. But don't worry--in the event of a catastrophy I'll be happy to share them with you all, no $159.95 required.

What a difference a week makes...

2010-05-16T20:37:00.001-04:00

...or maybe 3 weeks makes? All of these pictured except the strawberries are now 3 weeks from the time their seeds were planted. All kinds of everything growing right now--I love this early spring time!

My lettuce is looking really lettuce-like and (much to Rose's delight) the red leaf varieties in the mix are looking like red leaves--why didn't I ever grow these before, they are so pretty!

The spinach now all have a first set of real (and spinach shaped!) leaves.

Lavawa Spinach--3 weeks after planting

The Strawberries with lots of blooms--no red yet, but lots of signs that berries won't be long

And, remember how I was losing hope that these runner beans were even viable--look at them now! I'm actually going to need to thin them out soon :-)

Happy spring, everyone!

Want to see something cool?

2010-05-15T09:57:00.002-04:00

Last year I had a pot of jewel toned pansies on my porch. I was a bit surprised (but not unhappy!) to find a pretty yellow one had reseeded itself and was growing in the front garden.

I was even more surprised to find (about a month later) these pansies (above)--the yellow/cream and the purple/yellow blooms there are both on the same plant. But the really cool thing is that I'm pretty sure that the purplish one started out cream/yellow--I could be wrong, but it looks to me that the bees have cross pollinated my yellow pansies with my yesterday-today-and-tomorrow violas to make these pretty little yesterday-today-tomorrow-and-yellow pansies--how cool is that?

Hollyhocks, meet World

2010-05-13T18:35:00.001-04:00

This photo makes me smile, the little bitty hollyhock sprout looking out at the big wide world!

The hollyhocks are starting to come up, but 2 have already damped off (the first two, so maybe I didn't get the wrap off of them fast enough?) and most of the others aren't sprouting.

Don't know if it's the hardware store seeds, my own incompetence, or just sheer stubbornness on the part of hollyhocks, but these guys aren't doing as well as I'd hoped.

It's funny, because the ones that are growing well look great, but the suicidal ones aren't shy about it either.

I'm going to throw a few more seeds in the unsprouted cells and re-plasticwrap only those, hopefully getting something from them. I started with 2 seeds per cell, but I think I need to up my odds a bit more.

And you are...? (or: where's Nancy Drew when I need her?)

2010-05-12T17:42:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, I found this little guy growing by my back spigot. Being very new still at gardening, my first thought when I saw pointed leaves and thorns was, "a rose? how'd that get here?" (it's ok if you laugh with me about it, I am laughing)

After roughly 30 seconds on google, I found out, sadly, it wasn't going to be a rose when it grew up, but I still don't know what it will grow up to be!

I've moved it to a more empty area in the garden and am watching it, waiting to find out what it does.

My husband (who, like me, knows a whole lot more about google than he does about the identifying traits of local flora) thinks it's probably in the blackberry/raspberry family, but what exactly it is (much less whether it does anything pretty and/or yummy!) is still a mystery.

Stay tuned....

Red Coral Bells

2010-05-11T22:57:00.002-04:00

Well, the lilacs are officially done, plus it's been chilly and the seeds are slow to grow any further, but my red coral bells are blooming and (much to my surprise) I really like them. A lot.

I guess I should like them, since I'm the one who ordered and planted them, but to be completely honest, I picked them because they tolerate partial shade, are reputed to attract butterflies, and looked a little wild. There are some plants that I'd been wishing for long before we had a place to grow them, but these just weren't one of them.

But now that they're here, I'm really, really enjoying them. They have an ethereal look to them, kind of fairy-like and graceful. Rose has been building "fairy homes" out of rocks and sticks in the backyard and I think these look like the fairies made them while they were waiting for their new homes.

I also like the way the coral bells complement the bleeding heart, their low leaves and tall vertical blooms make a good pair to the bleeding heart's higher and lighter foliage and almost horizontal bloom stems. Who knew?

Plus, I am again delighted that they sent me the wrong color bleeding heart--I think the pinky-red one I ordered wouldn't look nearly as pretty with these as the white one does.

And, for about the millionth time, I'd like to take credit for my excellent planning, prediction, and decision making skills, but (as usual), in reality it's just another lucky mix of blessing and blind luck (story of my life!).

One funny thing, Rose is far less impressed with these in the garden than I am! She thinks the red looks plenty bad with the purple violas--I can see her point, but I actually enjoy the "pop" of it--maybe she'll be happier when the poker-primrose blooms and adds a bit of pinky-red to the mix?

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T22:33:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day, from Rose and Daphne!

It turns out that Runner Beans can read....

2010-05-08T16:16:00.003-04:00

Or something like that.

Not 24 hours after I bemoaned the lack of action where I planted those Scarlet Emperor Beans, I took another look and there were a number of them showing themselves to be alive and growing.

I am so relieved!

Not only that, but one of the Strawberries is definitely getting ready to bloom (no need to talk myself into it this time--I see white!).

And indoors, the hollyhocks are also starting to sprout (well one hollyhock, actually, but still a good sign). I really enjoy these large-ish seeds that need the light to germinate--keeps them in my sights this way. Still have a year or so to see those flowering, but, that can't happen without this step, so I'll take it.

Hope any of you who have been joining me in staring at your dirt trying to glean any sign of anything at all that might hint at something about to happen have some similar joy in this lovely season.

Rose Talks a Little (lot) About Gardening

2010-05-07T21:03:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd say a little something about my garden- which is flourishing. :-)

I guess that's because I got a Bleeding Heart plant from my Grandmother, and although its practically done blooming, its still a big plant that's green!

Both of my Bachelor Buttons, Black Ball (which is really maroon) and last year's Blue Boy are in the ground, and Black Ball has "popped surface".

I have two Columbine-Harlequin Mix from last year (perennial) and three more planted, but still underground, and three of my new Blue ones also just seeds. and in the ground.

Another last-year plant that is green is Hellebore -which I forgot I had.

I also found a Violet behind our shed (don't ask me what it was doing there) and, finder's keepers, losers weepers, put it in my garden.

Finally, there's the Pink Pansies I got as seedlings (You see, I do cheat at this) that are in a line in the front. It all looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

The picture on the left is of the three seeds I wish I'd planted this year: Moon flower, Foxglove (of my own), and Balsam. Especially Balsam. It just looks sooooooo pretty, doesn't it?

But today I bought some Canterbury Bells-Cup & Saucier Mix from Burpee and they looks really good too. Even better than the moon flowers and foxglove. I can't wait to plant it in the summer!

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

2010-05-07T18:48:00.021-04:00

Patience.

I usually think of myself as a very patient person. And yet, instead of teaching me greater and greater patience, these seeds that I love so much just seem to take all the patience right out of me. Gone.

Case in point? Look at that lovely patch of moist and sunny dirt to the left. Beautiful, no? And isn't it lovely the way the afternoon sun makes shadows across the earth? On a lovely spring day, no less.

And instead of marveling at its beauty, all I can think of is, "Where the heck are those stinking Runner Beans?!?"

Rose and I put them in on April 24. The package said seedlings should emerge in 10 days. I do the math and every time I come out with May 4. Seedlings should emerge on May 4.

Either those beans can't read or they aren't very good at math.

What I want to do is stick my fingers in the dirt and check up on them--see what they're doing in there and maybe give them a little nudge. But instead, I wait.

Rose kept me waiting 10 days past her due date. Ten days of waiting, but at least they had sonograms to check and see how she was doing in there. No such luck with these beans.

We've got a lovely place set and ready for those beans.

Before we even planted them, Rose and I rebuilt the trellis for them. Rose ran around gathering sticks while I sawed and arranged them and together we tied them together. Even added a bit of Elmers and some cross strings in the corners for lateral stability--something missing from last year's model, as evidenced by its slanting collapse in high winds while heavily laden with non-blooming Morning Glories.

Wouldn't you think any climbing bean would be proud to sprout in the shadow of that? Lovingly made and ready to roll? Just the perfect foil for lush green foliage and deep red blossoms?

I try to have faith. These things take time, and all that. But then I wonder--do these things take time or did I kill them? Were the seeds mishandled between the factory and the store? Between the store and my house? What if I wait too long and I miss my chance? What if the stores sell out or it gets to be too late in the season? What then happens to my lovely runner bean dreams?

So then I go back and look at my beet shoots. There was a time when those were nothing but dirt, too. Then I take a walk over to the lettuce, trying to breathe in deep and calming breaths.

No matter how many ways I try to get out of it, it seems there's really nothing for it but to wait.

Look! It's a beet!

2010-05-06T20:00:00.006-04:00

Actually, it's two beets!

I was beginning to worry just a bit, but this morning I woke to find the beets were sprouting. I'm guessing by the deep red of these two that this is the Bull's Blood Beet part of the mix.

There's actually a light green sprout as well, on the other side of things, so (assuming these keep on living) I should have at least 2 varieties of beets this year--hooray!

And, if that's not enough, the lettuce (lettuces?) are still alive and looking good.

You can see them just starting to shoot up past the paired baby seed leaves to what will be the real lettuce leaves.

And the spinach (yes, the real spinach) is looking pretty sharp over there.

Spinach sprouts definitely don't look the way I would have imagined they would.

I guess it will be fun to watch and see when these guys change from Kelly green and grass-like to spinach green and spinach-like...

And the straw- berries --can you see that pretty little mass of pointy, leafy things? I'm expecting (hoping? wishing?) those will develop into buds, then blooms, leading to....mmmm....fresh strawberries!

These are Ozark Beauty strawberries (part of my free-ish Spring Hill haul from last year). It's what's optimistically called an "ever bearing" variety. Which, as I understand it, means we don't get a billion berries at once, but we do get some all summer.

Of course last summer the berries "ever bore" a grand total of 3 berries, but they've got an earlier start this year and we're all hoping for a few more.

Actually, these live strawberry plants (which look so green and lovely) are the survivors in what I should probably call a (small scale) strawberry massacre. I had a bunch in a strawberry pot last summer (one of whom contributed to one of the 3 berries in our 2009 berry crop)--turns out they don't do so very well in frosty climates over the winter exposed in those pots.

Lucky for us (and an unexpected blessing), we had more plants than pot space and I put a few in the front garden and a few in the back garden--good thing we had those backup "plans."

Now if I can only get Rose to forget what really happened, I could probably pass this off as another example of my excellent gardening know-how....

And, last but definitely not least, we have one stalk of Lily-of-the-Valley blooming in the front garden.

My mother grows these under her pine trees where they've taken over with almost weed-like vigor. When I asked her for some pips (aka: roots that act like bulbs to keep these things coming back each year) she told me she "certainly had enough to share, take as many as you want! Go right ahead!"

Guess I may someday rue the day I couldn't take a hint here, but look at those sweet little white bells--and they smell so beautiful.

It's hard to imagine the day I'll be irritated enough not to melt at their sweetness.

More Columbine, and the Broccoli shows itself (I think)

2010-05-05T13:44:00.005-04:00

Picking up some furnace filters yesterday, Rose and I had to stop and look at the rack of seeds (obviously) and she spotted these pretty Blue Columbine seeds.

We already have 2 Harlequin Mix Columbine growing in her garden that we're hopeful will bloom this year, and more seeds of it planted, but that blue is so lovely, isn't it?

Not entirely sure where they're going to go--mixed together? next to each other? far apart?

They're Rose's for her garden, so she get's to decide this one, but I think I'm in love with them already (honestly, I'm in love enough to yank up the Harlequin Mix and put all my money on the pretty blue ones, but Rose doesn't share that opinion.)

Right now in the front garden, my All Summer Beauty Hydrangea is looking alive and quickly gaining size. It's another of those perennials I got last year from Spring Hill.

It's supposed to bloom traditional blue Hydrangeas on old and new canes--didn't bloom last year but I expect I'll see something this year.

As you can see, it's pretty close to the white bleeding heart, but those die back in the summer, so I was hoping the hydrangea would get big as the bleeding heart dies back and everything would be dandy.

Fingers crossed, but I guess I can always dig things up if it get's bad.

Also in the front garden, I have a Poker Primrose coming up. Yet again, one of those Spring Hill things.

Should eventually look like the picture to the right--kind of interesting and seems to like shade.

I'm not very heartened reading the customer reviews for both of these on the Spring Hill website, but they're there now, and they were free, so I'll keep hoping for the best and plan a replacement if it doesn't work out.

(wouldn't blue columbine look good there?)

In the back garden, all but one of my foxglove (Gloxinaflora from seed last year) are back.

One of them actually bloomed last year, and that's the same one that looks so much bigger and fuller this year (little pic on the right).

Also last year I planted some Foxy Foxglove in the front garden--one of those bloomed last year but none of them are back this spring.

It's a very good thing I planted both kinds--I love foxglove and I don't know if I would have tried again if all I saw was the foxy's poor turnout.

Still confused with the Gloxinaflora, but not unhappy--I think I need to watch these guys (and their descendants) for a few more years before I can figure out how these guys work.

And, finally, I have (hopefully!) Broccoli!

I'm a bit afraid to say that too loud, what with the whole spinach, not spinach fiasco, but it's in the right place and I'm pretty sure it looks right.

About 11 days ago, along with the spinach, Rose and I put some Waltham 29 Broccoli seeds from Botanical Interests in the back garden, among the flowers.

I thought it best to focus on part-shade tolerant veggies back there this year, and save the tomatoes for big pots in the sun.

At this moment, no beets or beans (also planted on April 24) but I'll take the broccoli as a hopeful start.

Dead Plants, Basil, and the Toyota Prius

2010-05-04T20:23:00.001-04:00

See the little shoots in the center of the dirt there? That's real live basil.

Even though it's May, this is already my second attempt at basil this year.

I grew basil last year from a small plant that I'd picked up at our local big Lowes hardware store late May or early June. It looked good most of June, but I spent the better part of July trying to pinch off bolted flowery parts and by the end of July, early August I'd just given up and called it a loss.

So much for my dreams of a lovely homegrown basil and tomato salad--it was gone before the tomatoes even started producing in earnest.

I can't say if the lesson is:

"don't buy plants at Lowes," or
"learn something about caring for basil, why don't you?" or
"it's a wild world out there and things happen--this is gardening, get used to it!"

But now it's a new year and, this year as I was cruising the produce aisle in the grocery store and they were selling basil. In pots. With roots.

"What's the worst thing that could happen?" I asked.

I brought one home and stuck it into a pot of dirt alongside some cilantro and let Rose arrange them in the sun. (Rose is very big on order and also thinks of things that wouldn't have occurred to me).

They maybe lasted about 3 days before wilting straight to their doom.

Lessons learned:

Hardening off is not a bad idea
Produce aisle herbs were not born for the outside world--don't be fooled by roots and dirt, these are just for show so the herbs can feel good about themselves.

So, undaunted, I dug around in the ziplock of seeds in my freezer and found the 3 packets of Toyota Prius organic basil seeds I had stuck there in the summer of 2008.

Now, I know Toyota and fresh Italian herbs don't normally get passed around together, but the connection is, of course, Green Marketing.

In 2008 Rose and my stepson and I went into the city to entertain ourselves at a big marketing festival. We got Blackberry reusable shopping bags, Egg Beaters measuring cups, samples of Pillsbury cake and Rose and I each got our picture taken with the Pillsbury Doughboy (strangely, my stepson declined).

Not to be outdone (not that they could really match the Doughboy, but they did try), Toyota had a trailer with games and movies on hybrid technology focusing on the utter fabulousness of the Prius. Rose got a pencil made from recycled blue jeans and a tree planted in her name. My stepson and I each got battery free flashlights, neither of which is currently working. And all of us got packets of organic basil seeds.

So, back to 2010--even without my track record of dead basil, I wasn't really all that optimistic that 2008 Toyota basil seeds would grow.

But, "what's the worst thing that could happen?" I asked.

With little to lose, about a week ago I sprinkled them on top and some under the soil from a dead African violet that used to be in that pot and...

Surprise--I have basil!

What's up? (seedlings and playing "weed...or not weed?")

2010-05-04T06:53:00.002-04:00

It's been a nice couple of days around here--lots of good things turning up. Or, at least what I think may be good things, from what I can figure out.

The problem, of course, is that I'm never at all sure if I've gotten the right ID for the little green things that sprout up around here. Mistaken for spinach this year, butterfly weed last year--and those were in pots I planted.

First up, one I know I can be sure of...this violet is something Rose found growing in the grass and decided to dig up and put in her garden. The grass attached, of course, will need to go, but I think the violet needs to root itself into the ground better before we can pull that stuff out.

This is the daisy I planted last year--it took a while to start to show some life, it's pretty puny next to the foxglove, and downright disappointing compared to some of the blooming things, but I guess that's just how this one works and I'm really glad to see it's still alive.

And this is a red geranium I brought up from the basement yesterday.

My grandma used to put geraniums in her unfinished basement near the window to survive the winter--but I was only there for the "put it away" part, and not the "did it live?" part.

Still, in her memory, I tried putting mine in my unfinished basement near the window in 2008-09 and pretty well surprised myself by having it stay alive all winter without watering or even much light.

It looks pretty pathetic right now, but last summer it branched out nicely and sent out blooms after it got into the light so I'm hopeful that this year it will do the same.

I have no idea why it doesn't die down there--wouldn't you expect it to?--but I'm happy it doesn't.

And I'm pretty sure this is one of 2 little survivors of the Harlequin Columbine seeds that Rose planted last year. I didn't think any came up last year, certainly nothing bloomed that looked like columbine last year.

To me, it looks a whole bunch like a weed (one of those cloverish kinds we have so much of), so it could very well be that I pulled up anything that did come up last year. Or maybe it just wasn't properly chilled and needed our nice cold winter to make it grow?

No idea.

But, in addition to its weed-like looks, it also looks alot like online photos of of Columbine, so I'm willing to wait and hope and see.

This one, I'm pretty sure is a blue Bachelor Button that's reseeded from last year's group of them.

Again, it has a sort of weed like look to it, but it's also kind of Bachelor Button-ish. Plus, it's in the right area.

Rose and I planted the rest of our Bachelor Button seeds (left over from last year) a week ago along with some new red/maroon ones, but they haven't sprouted yet.

I'll know better about this one either when I have some to compare it to or at least when I see if it shoots up and flowers.

Tell me this gets easier with experience, please?

And, yes, I really do have spinach now!

The Lavewa Spinach is the light green needle-y, grass-like thing (and, as I now know) not the spinach colored round, spinach shaped things that are also all over my pot!

See, I learned a new thing this year.

I'm sure I'll make many, many more mistakes as I go along with this gardening thing.

And maybe some of you can learn with me, or laugh with me, or at least not feel so bad about your own mess-ups. And it's probably good for Rose to see that we all get things wrong some times (or at least she and I do, I'm assuming you all do, too).

And, one way or the other, I still have my fingers in dirt and these silly little black specks (with some sun and water) do mostly keep turning into something green and growing and often pretty and that usually makes me pretty happy.

And anyway, it's not life or death, just a lot of trial and error and, hopefully, some pretty cool rewards.

5 reasons I don't need hollyhocks

2010-05-03T06:52:00.000-04:00

1. They are tall and bold and I can't plant things on the front or side that will take away from the development's uniformity/cohesive look. They'd have to go in the back and there isn't much room in the back.

2. They like sun and I don't have enough.

3. They are prone to rust and I don't know what I'm doing.

4. They don't transplant well and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing.

5. They don't even bloom the first year unless you start them early and it is not early.

And there you have it.

Unfortunately, Rose is currently reading Kate Douglas Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

And I know full well that shouldn't have anything to do with anything. But it does.

Her copy looks like this:

It's illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators, Barbara McClintock--notice the pretty lilacs behind the clothesline? Lovely, and like my own lilacs.

But the thing is, I got Rose this book not only because it was illustrated by Barbara McClintock and a story I though she'd enjoy, but also because I read the book the summer I was 9 and loved, loved, loved it.

Rebecca's old fashioned story made me dream of the day I would have my own home with a lovely, old fashioned look and a lovely old fashioned garden.

(I think you can see where I'm going with this, right?)

And the clincher is, underneath Rose's book's lovely illustrated dust jacket, her copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm looks just like my old copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm:

And, long story short, that is why yesterday I picked up this:

And they are now sitting in seed starter mix in some trays on my windowsill.

They may very well not grow very well. And if they do, they may very well not bloom very well (this year or ever).

But $1.99 is the cost of dreaming, and I know what Rebecca would do.

In other garden happenings,

I planted some Money Plant/Honesty/Lunaria yesterday in the back garden. I'd gotten some free seeds from a local bank and decided they might look nice next to the foxglove. They definitely shouldn't bloom this year (they're biannual) but when they do come around, they're supposed to be fragrant and seem like they might be pretty and kind of interesting. So I sprinkled some on the bare ground and am excited to see what comes up!

Heriloom Beets

2010-05-02T09:11:00.001-04:00

I have to confess, I've never actually eaten a fresh beet. Ever.

And yet I've got a whole bunch of them hopefully about to sprout up amid the flowers in my back garden.

I'd like to tell you it's because they're highly nutritious, rich in antioxidants, full of blessed healthfulness (which they are), but I'm afraid that isn't true.

I was mostly just beguiled by the picture. Those damn cross sections with gorgeous concentric rings of rich color. The idea of pulling up bunches of full, pretty colored leaves to find these lovely orbs of red and orange, yellow.

And, lest you think I didn't do my research, see here--they look just as good in real life, too! (picture from grassrootsgourmet.net)

Plus, the other day I made Jamie Oliver's roast potatoes, carrots, and parsnips with garlic and rosemary and thought, "wouldn't this be lovely with beets?"

Plus they're Heirloom. (swoon)

Yep, my fate was sealed.

So, more of my money right to Botanical Interests (I hope they pay those artists well) and Rose and I put in 2 short rows of mixed Bull's Blood, Chioggia, and Golden Beets right in the middle of our back garden flowers.

Of course, just this morning I noticed we were supposed to soak the seeds 24 hours before planting--whoops!

Guess I'll need to water them a bit more and hope for the best.

Wish me luck with the seeds, the plants, and hopefully with actually liking beets!

Daphne, Rose, and Freckles - getting all pretty with it

2010-05-02T06:42:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago, as you may recall, I wrote a bit about our Freckles Violets.
Today, in a fit of wow-my-garden-is-doing-things-and-I-could-use-this-to-my-decorating-advantage I picked some of those pretty little things and used them to my decorating advantage. I feel downright decorating blog nice today (doesn't hurt that it's lovely, sunny and 80 degrees!).

Rose, of course, always feels downright decorating blog. I showed her how to float blossoms on water the other day (totally my speed--take a blossom with short or no stem. Place gently on water. Let it float. Do not poke it so it goes under.) and she's gone to town with the idea.
Rose favors pretty teacups and I have to say, I think that was very inspired. She has a Pink Bleeding Heart this year in her back garden that her Grammy divided for her from her own garden. I have a White Bleeding Heart in with the violets and violas in the front garden (I'd thought I'd ordered Pink, but turns out the white is so pretty with all the white and purple and green that I'm, in the end, happy it turned out this way). The resulting floating bleeding hearts are really nice.

Of course, I'm her Mama and I think everything she does is absolutely fabulous, but there you have it.

In other exciting news:The lettuce and spinach are both starting to come up! No sooner did I write that they were just pots of dirt than they decided to make a liar our of me and pop up some sprouts!

Edited to add on May 3, 2010: Not so fast on the spinach.

Did I mention that I'd never grown spinach before? I've noticed some different looking, bright green sprouty bits just beginning to pop up in the spinach pot that look distinctly different from the ones I thought were the spinach sprouts--a basic bit of googleing for pictures and it looks like I had it wrong here.

So, good news is I do actually have spinach beginning to pop up--bad news is in this post and the picture below I'm guilty of actively spreading spinach misinformation.

Sorry!

Yes, we have life!

"Gourmet Blend" Lettuce

Lavawa Spinach (ETA: not really, see note above)

And, to end this up, here's a couple more shots of Freckles Violet (and I do have to say, I feel pretty silly every time I type that, I just keep thinking it's a better name for a clown, but it is a pretty violet, truely)

In my garden...

...and in my home.

Made in the Shade - This year's lettuce (and spinach for a salad)

2010-05-01T09:03:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, among other things, I planted some lettuce and spinach.

The Spinach was Lavewa from Botanical Interests and the Lettuce was Burpee's "Gourmet Blend" which is Prizeleaf, Royal Oak Leaf, Salad Bowl, Red Salad Bowl and Ashley all mixed together in one packet.

Between shadows from the house and fence, and shade from several larger trees, I don't have a lot of full sun. Fortunately, that's actually a good thing for lettuce and (so I'm told) fine for spinach, too.

Last year, what looked fairly bright before the trees leafed out (doh!) and the condo people put up a fence, ended up pretty lacking in sun. After dismal results for my cantaloupes and so-so tomato growth last year, I'm focusing more on food that has a reputation for doing ok in part-shade.

I've grown loose-leaf lettuces for a number of years now and always had an easy and tasty time of it. In the past few years, I've done "Salad Bowl" variety (kept the same packet of seeds in a zip-lock bag in the freezer for a couple of years and it just kept working...). So, this year, as I passed the Burpee rounder at my local grocery store, I thought I'd branch out into a mix of lettuces--same amount of work, greater amount of pizazz--woo hoo!

And, since I like spinach--at another grocery trip, I let Rose pick the spinach of her choice and put those guys in, too. As they need to be planted 1" under, it required poking holes rather than just sprinkling, but we were up for that.

To the left is a photo of the lettuce from last year--imagine the same thing with just dirt and no plant and you'll know what things look like so far this year. I like to use tall-ish pots for the lettuce (and now spinach) to keep the rabbits out of it.

I sow the lettuce very thickly (just sprinkle the tiny seeds over the dirt in the pot)--the baby greens make a nice salad when you thin them out, so you can start eating earlier that way.

Finally, I leave you with a photo of last year's first home-grown salad (balsamic vinegar and a side of chicken, for good measure). Hoping this will be our plates again this year!

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (viola)

2010-04-30T07:13:00.000-04:00

(please note: the picture to the right is the viola in front of a Virginia Bluebell--that's what the long wide leaves behind are all about)

Last year Rose and I started some seeds for a viola from Burpee called Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. I don't see it at Burpee this year, but it looks like Thompson and Morgan has it still.

This was one of our success stories last year--it grew easily from the seeds and thrived in the front garden (partial shade). This year is even better as it self sowed, not only in the 3 spots we put plants last year, but also other random places throughout the garden.

I would expect in another year it will be acting as a very pretty ground-cover around the other plants!

As you can see, it blooms profusely, and even the tiny seedlings have a bloom or two on them! The blooms start out white (with tiny dark purple faces) and the next day are light lilac, the following day are a deeper shade, sort of a medium purple. So, each plant ends up with a lovely shading of flowers all mixed together. Very nice.

Also lovely, of course, is the fact that this year we did nothing but watch them come up and bloom--especially nice given my slow start this year.

I had also planted some freckles violets last year that I got with a "money off" coupon from a place called Spring Hill Nursery. These also reseeded (or spread?) and came up again this year (they are perennials, but they're in new places, as well).

I wasn't sure I wanted a "twist" on violets with the freckles instead of solid color--I really wanted an old-fashioned look in my garden--but I was getting plants for the cost of shipping and they didn't have a classic purple and I really wanted some kind of violet, so this is what I ordered. Turns out I really love the way they look with the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow violas--guess God was looking after me on my headfirst dive into this new world of planting my own garden, more than I knew!

Lilacs

2010-04-29T09:50:00.001-04:00

They're here!

We bought our condo in the fall and the development people had come in with some landscape "elements" of their own devising (aka they put in whatever they wanted).

So, after the fact I checked the plastic tags attached to the plants and had no idea whatsoever what "Syringa vulgaris" might be. Thankfully, armed with my trusty Google, I looked it up and found--much to my delight--that we had LILACS!

Lilacs are a funny thing, they only bloom for a week or two and then they're gone, but with their lovely shape and color and their strong, absolutely heavenly scent, for that one week or so it's magic.

You almost wouldn't think something with so short a period of glory would be so popular, but I guess I'm not the only one who thinks something so wonderful is worth the wait.

When I was very little, maybe 4 or 5, my friend had lilacs around the rectory where she lived and we used to pretend we were fairies, we'd pick single lilac flowers and try to sip honey out of the end. Needless to say, it never worked, but even many years later, the scent still brings me right back to that time.

I heard somewhere about old forgotten homesteads in what's now wooded areas where lilacs by the door stoop stone are one of the few signs that there was once a family living there. Don't know if it's true, but it's a lovely thought, isn't it?

For something so short lived, lilac blossom have made a big impression. Louisa May Alcott wrote a book called Under the Lilacs (I tried to read it once, but in my humble opinion, there may just be a reason it's one of her lesser know works), in the ballet Sleeping Beauty it's the Lilac Fairy that puts everyone to sleep.

And then there's Walt Whitman with lilacs as a metaphor in his poetic elegy for Lincoln
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"

And now I promise to get out of my poetic lilac-inspired fugue and get back to growing things. But, since I still think it's beautiful, I'll let Whitman stay in his own fugue and have the last lilacey words.

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings,
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle -- and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break.

Hey, look, things are happening!

2010-04-28T14:52:00.000-04:00

This year, mainly due to some minor yet hassley health issues, I did not get around to starting seeds indoors in time to make it to the garden in proper time, so I'm going to need to pick up tomatoes as seedlings.

But...I've still gotten a bit of a seed fix by sowing some seeds outdoors last weekend. I've planted some more bachelors buttons (they did very well last year), as well as lettuce, spinach, broccoli, beets and (with a wish and a prayer to the weather) some runner beans.

We haven't had frost in a while, and don't have any in the forecast, but it's still a little early.

So, I'll be posting more on each of those plants as I get on with it, but I want to talk about the beans now, before I live to regret putting them in so early!

I grew bush beans a few years ago on our apartment balcony. They did ok, but not crazy-good and they took a lot of space and when they were done, they were really done. I don't remember that happening with my grandma's bush beans, especially when I was out there picking them (hours and hours, I'm sure!), but I've read that bush beans are like that and pole beans aren't.

If you read back to 2009, you'll see that last year I planted Morning Glories and Moonflowers to climb on a homemade trellis by our shed. The Moonflowers got eaten before they had the chance to vine, and the Morning Glories grew beautifully but never flowered (I've heard that happens if they're fertilized, but I didn't so I don't know what happened--never had that problem before!). Not much glory in that.

But I've been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and, as I always like nearly free fresh food anyway, I thought I'd put in some pole beans. After looking around at my choices, I switched course only slightly (apparently, runner beans aren't quite the same--whatever) and got a pack of Scarlet Emperor Runner Beans (packed by Botanical Interests--this is a fun seed company--go on and let their website pull you in, you won't be sorry!).

If the internet is to be believed (and when is it not, right?) Scarlet Emperors have gorgeous red flowers, tasty snap beans when picked young, yummy lima-like beans when mature, and pretty mottled dried beans when, well, when you dry them, I guess.

And, runner beans are supposed to produce all season long!

So, despite temps in the high 30's just after I planted them, I'm holding out hope and dreaming of fresh picked, fresh cooked green beans, most likely eaten while gloating over the utter loveliness of the stunning red flowers on my trellis, most likely while watching a flock of humming-birds fly in formation while (insert humming-bird verb here-what is it they do with flowers? sip? peck?) -ing on those stunning flowers and thanking me profusely.

Might not happen, but if we can have some good eating, I'll be more than happy!

A Late Start to the Garden this Year-by Rose

2010-04-25T08:57:00.000-04:00

Somehow it's late April already! We didn't do any gardening until the last few days, and now (I can't say why) a lot of plants from last year popped up, and we got some new seedlings, and our garden, front and back, looks really good! Well, I guess that's just luck.

Long time, no see

2009-05-02T16:59:00.000-04:00

Sorry for my MIA status the past few weeks. Things are under better control here now, so hopefully that won't be an ongoing thing!

The good news is, while life has been busy and blogging has been on the back burner, the seedlings have been growing great guns.

Take a look:Plus, we've had a run of nice weather so they've gotten used to the sun and wind and are fully ready to go out to stay. Only problem is, despite the good weather and a warm enough 10 day forecast, I'm not sure I'm ready to trust that they won't get frosted to death.

Funny thing, too, since these were started as seeds and not much money that way, they've taken a lot of time to get where they are and if anything I'm feeling more protective than ever!

I did, however, bite the bullet with the moonflowers. I've never had trouble but I've heard they don't transplant well, so I figured I'd just put them out and let them grow when I planted a row of morning glories (heavenly blue) on the side of the shed.

Moon flowers like richer soil and morning glories bloom best in poor soil so I've dumped a bunch of compost in holes before planting the moon flowers. In the past I've had the luxury of having each in their own pots but hopefully this will work out.

Morning glories grow fast and easy, so it shouldn't be long till they start to take off. I'm planning on getting a trellis for them to climb, but depending on time, money, and my mood at the moment, they may just get to grow up some strings this year.

Accessorizing

2009-04-22T10:04:00.000-04:00

Look what we got:

Lovely for coffee in the morning or lemonade in the afternoon--not real big but neither is the space so that all works out, and the plastic "wicker" will hopefully wear well, too.

Now all it needs is a garden!

More signs that things are alive

2009-04-19T15:03:00.000-04:00

Anyone ever read in The Secret Garden where Dickon is showing Mary the garden isn't really all dead, just dormant for the winter--"it's quick" he says, not as in fast but as in ALIVE?

That's what I've been feeling the past few days!

There's a crab-apple tree in the yard that seemed a bit creaky. Only a few weeks ago, there was no sign of life and I was trying to figure out which of the boughs would have some life and which were already too far gone. The joke was on me, look at it now:
In other fun news, get a load of this:
That little bitty bud is going to be a lilac bloom--how's that for incredible!

Happy, happy spring!

A Plan? Sure, I have a plan...

2009-04-18T10:40:00.000-04:00

Well, kind of a plan anyway.

But yes, for the back garden I do have a thought out and measured trial plan. We'll see how it comes together, and hopefully with it this year it will give me more ideas about what works and what doesn't to keep improving from there.

So, without further ado--the plan:
I think if you click on it, you'll be able to read the words, but basically, we have tomatoes (cantaloupe, too) to the left, shasta daises and foxglove to the rear, and in the middle/front, from left to right, we have butterfly weed, nicotiana, balsam, nicotiana, and blue bachelor buttons. Rose's garden is to the far right (she has a plan, too, more on that in a later post).

Remember, this is the area:

The "vision" is for the veggies to get enough light to grow and the flowers to be a full, wild-ish, profusion of color, kind of old fashioned and cottage like.

Stay tuned to see how it really works out!

So this compost thing...

2009-04-16T10:51:00.000-04:00

Just not so sure it's working out.

I've been diligently saving my scraps, cuttings, egg shells, and coffee grounds. Throwing in a few handfuls of dead leaves from time to time. I occasionally pour over it a glass or two of rain water or Brita filtered water. I even hoist it over and roll the barrel around at least once a week, sometimes more.

Honestly, I don't see any sign that it's doing anything at all.

It doesn't stink or even smell much like anything (small blessings, I guess). It doesn't feel hot or even luke warm. Just nothing ever looks different at all from the way it was when I put it in the barrel. Ever.

Not sure how long this is going to take. Maybe I'll get some progress when it's warmer out. Other than that, I guess it isn't hurting anything, but shouldn't it just do something?

Little lettuces

2009-04-14T07:13:00.001-04:00

The past few years, I've grown loose leaf lettuces on my apartment patio. They've never minded the lack of TLC or the partial shade and having them up on the second story meant I didn't have to deal with rabbits eating my salad.

A few weeks ago I took out a packet of seeds packed for 2006 that I had kept in a zip lock in the freezer and tossed them over the dirt in the planters I had moved to our new place. I just dusted them with seed starter to keep them in place and let them go. Because the seeds were so old, I spread them very thickly.

Right after I planted them, We had lots of rain, including some very heavy rain. This past Saturday, I remembered to take a look and, lo and behold, I have lettuces! Lots of lettuces!

I'm hoping the planters will give me a head start on the rabbits here, too. I'll let the thick layer of seedlings go a bit more and try and thin them out when the thinnings are big enough to count as "baby greens" on my table.

I'm very please because a) I didn't have very high hopes for these old seeds, and b) I love fresh lettuce and am always happy to get it for free (or nearly free) and with very little actual work!

2009-04-12T05:13:00.001-04:00

Wishing all who celebrate a happy and blessed Easter

Moonflowers, the way God intended them to be

2009-04-11T11:42:00.000-04:00

Finally, the first of the moonflowers, second attempt are coming up and this one, fortunately, is showing none of the suicidal tendencies the first batch did. You can look back in the blog and see, but basically, 1 left the seed/leave part in the soil and popped up headless and the other two couldn't break out of the seedcoat. Bah.

This one:as you can see, has decided to split open the seedcoat and come out. Good moonflower!

Not a big garden Saturday for me today--I'm baking our traditional lamb cake for Easter and lots of sweet bread for Easter morning, so I'm busy growing baked goods today.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Lilacs are coming

2009-04-10T08:03:00.000-04:00

When we moved in here, there were some very young bush-like plantings already in place to make the place look less like a ship that had docked and more like a permanent home.

On one of the warmer days a month or two ago, when Rose and I felt like we wanted to be outside, rather than my usual winter state of "there's really no other choice, really?" I took a few minutes to notice the tags still on these plantings and see what they had planted there.

Turns out, we have not only:

Inkberry (a most un-holly like member of the holly family)

Snowmound Spiria

But also....

Lilacs, which I love.

Right now the lilacs are so little, less than 3' tall, but the buds are swelling and what a few months ago looked like a few bunches of dead sticks are suddenly looking like they're ready to burst into spring.

I, for one, can't wait!

See how they've grown!

2009-04-08T10:42:00.000-04:00

We've had quite a run of gloomy weather with more gloom on the horizon, so the real world doesn't feel much like spring right now, but at least there's the inside happenings to cheer me up.

The foxglove's real leaves are getting bigger and stronger, take a look:

And the Balsam I just planted last week are sending out their little roots into the soil--got to love those seeds that like little or no covering so you can see what's going on! They're still a little hard to spot in the Miracle Grow Mix among all that pearlite, but I've marked the photos with big yellow circles, so look close and you may be able to see them.

Plus, look at this, it's the real butterfly weed, not that crazy other weed that fooled me the first time. Isn't it a funny sprout, looks like little twins more than a single seed, and if you look close a the base (in real life, not so much the picture) you can just make out little leaves starting to shoot off from the side. Strange.

And, last but not least, check out the progress the tomatoes have made! These are by far the most vigorous of my seedlings--I'm coming to the conclusion that flowers are nice, but if you want to feel like you're thumbs are really green, tomatoes are the only way to go!

The Front Garden

2009-04-07T06:19:00.000-04:00

This little area by the front porch is what I'll be calling the front garden. As you can see, it's a fairly small place with partial shade tucked behind a curved retaining wall.

Right now is has mulch and some sparse pachysandra (not my favorite), but I envision it as a delightful little hidden space with bleeding hearts, a hydrangea, and some interesting little things like trillium and hellebore. I've started the shorter "foxy" foxglove for this space.

I'm undecided about that pachysandra. My gut instinct is to just yank it all up and make it go away, but I'm also wondering it it wouldn't be good to keep it there as a green mulch thing, at least until the rest of the stuff takes root and fills out.

I've also ordered some strawberries and a pot for that front porch--that (like the whole rest of this) will be an experiment with a lot of high hopes riding on it!

Muskmelons and Balsam

2009-04-05T06:16:00.000-04:00

Those are two plants you probably don't hear of that often, Muskmelon and Balsam.

Last Friday I started seeds for both of those plants.

As I understand it, both are heirloom varieties. Your great-grandparents would probably be fairly unimpressed, common as these were way back.

Muskmelon Cantaloupe is basically what we think of as cantaloupe with that sweet orange flesh and the net-like exterior.

Balsam Plant (not to be confused with those balsam firs of Balsam & Protein Shampoo fame!) was, I hear, a Victorian favorite. It's the grandfather of the modern impatiens, but unlike impatiens, the flowers grow close to the stem and the leaves come out around them. I've never seen a Balsam in real life, but the combination of Victorian heirloom and the showy and slightly unusual look (not to mention "easy to grow" reputation) was intriguing enough for me to want to try some.

Muskmelon Cantelope: Hale's Best Jumbo (Cucumis melo-Reticulatus Group)

Seed from Botanical Interests. (this is a fun seed company--the drawings are beautiful and they fill their packets with tons of information)

Very thick, sweet salmon-pink flesh with a small seed cavity.

Started indoors April 3, 5.5 weeks out (recommended 4-6)

In zone 6, these need to be started indoors, but they don't transplant well. To ease the eventual transition, I started them (as recommended) in paper pots--mine were made by wraping folded newspaper around a drinking glass as seen here.

85 days to ripe fruit.

Balsam: Camellia Flowered Mix (Impatiens Balsamina)

Seed from Livingston Seed Co.

Pink and Purple double flowers.

Started indoors April 3, 5.5 weeks out (recommended 4-6)

18-30” tall, needs appx. 12” spacing

Annual

Hope amidst the ruins

2009-04-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know that's way over dramatic--so some moonflowers didn't make it and my hard drive is titched, and also the sweetpeas may well be rotting under the 6 inches of mud that filled in their trench under all this rain. Not the end of the world.

This is spring and I'm starting a garden--gardening is about hope, right? Looking at little brown specks and piles of dirt and seeing green growing beauty.

The Nicotiana and Viola are (finally) coming up. These were planted at the same time as the butterfly weed, and Rose's iceplants and the herbs, but they just looked like a nice tray of dirt long after we started thinning the iceplants. I was beginning to wonder if they would ever come up.

The viola started first (3 days ago), but the viola also showed little roots out the pointy end of the seed a week or so ago, so I was less thrilled to see them. The Nicotiana, however went from nothing to something just yesterday morning and I am so happy. I'm more excited about having these deep purple fine smelling things and they seemed, until yesterday, to be doing not a thing. Ha! They fooled me.

Also, less new but in it's own way lovely--the tomatoes are starting to grow their real leaves so I went ahead and thinned the 2 out of 6 cells that had 2 seedlings in them (I planted 2 seeds in each cell, but they seem to have germinated at just over 50%). Get this: I happened to get a whiff of those little plucked seedlings and they smell like tomato plants--instant summer! Of course, logically they would smell like tomato plants seeing that they are tomato plants, but I guess I just wasn't expecting that from little sprouts. Funny how smells can take you places--instant summer, I love that!

Don't rain but pour--moonflower suicides and other troubles

2009-04-03T09:47:00.000-04:00

Well, this is going well.

Remember how I planted some moonflower seeds and I was so happy to see them popup and mentioned that sometimes a few of them die because the leaves can't break out of the tough seed coat. See where this is going?

Yes, that's right: I planted 4 seeds, 3 came up. 1 left its seed/leaf part in the dirt and popped up headless, so 2 made it to seedling. BOTH seedlings died in the seed and now I have none.

Yesterday I put 6 more seeds in the cells. I nicked the seedcoats (which I rarely have to do) for good measure. Better luck next time, I hope!

I'm wondering if the seed mix was so light that things didn't get the chance to soften up as usual (in the past I've planted them in garden soil), or if maybe this is just a difficult batch of seeds. Possibly it's just an unlucky luck of the draw?

Also, a little Eden Ever After warning: my computer's hard drive is failing (see, seeds aren't the only things that can go wrong!). I have a new one on the way and will hopefully get things switched over easily without missing a beat--BUT, if I seem to be MIA for a while, please bear with me.

In other news, it rained (real rain) gallons and gallons the day after we planted the sweetpeas outside--hopefully that will help them a lot and Rose will have something fun to watch of her own soon.

And, today or tomorrow, I'm going to start some balsam and cantaloupe inside so they will be ready to go outside when the time comes.

A Seedling Mystery

2009-04-02T13:26:00.000-04:00

Remember that butterfly weed seedling? The one I was so impressed by because it was thread thin and hardly seemed able to grow into a perennial thick-leaved butterfly weed? Well, turns out it may not be able to do that!

Look what I found this morning in that cell:
Can you see those two new identical sprouts sticking up with thicker, more plausible butterfly weed leaves? So what the heck is that first thin seedling?!?

I planted these in a brand new package of Miracle Grow seed starter right from the bag, so it's probably not something that was in the soil that way. Could be something that blew in when I wasn't looking? I have half a mind to try and transfer it to another cell just so I can see what it grows into--I do love a good mystery!

Miss Rose can cook too

2009-03-31T07:00:00.001-04:00

One of the best things about moving here and starting a garden is that Rose can experiment with a garden, too. She's a funny, methodical girl and her plan is very nicely laid out in a binder with lists and dates, notes, and an organized map.

Rose picked out what she wanted based on looks and mostly based on our part sun environment. But, for all her planning, she doesn't mind giving something a shot just to see if it really won't work.

This is what she has going and what she's planning to add:

Marigold: Snowdrift

Seed from Burpee

Cream colored, 3.5" blooms, likes part shade (unusual for Marigolds)

Will direct sow after frost

22” tall, needs 9-12” spacing

Annual

Nasturtium: Jewel Mix

Seed from Burpee

Double flowers in orange, yellow, red (bush, not vine)

Will direct sow after frost

12” tall, needs 12” spacing

Annual

Sweet Pea: Knee-Hi Mix

Seed from Hart's Seeds

Mix of colors, fragrant (bush, not vine)

Likes cool weather and tolerates frost so we started outdoors March 28

29-30” tall, needs 6” spacing

Annual

Common Thyme

Seed from Burpee

Started indoors March 21, 7.5 weeks out (recommended 6-10)

6-12" tall, needs 12" spacing

Annual

Spearmint (Mentha spicata)

Seed from Burpee

Started indoors March 21, 7.5 weeks out (recommended 8-10)

18-24" tall, needs 12" spacing

Annual

Columbine: Harlequin Mix

Seed from Burpee

White, yellows, pinks, blues, purples, bicolors

Will direct sow spring to early summer

30-36” tall, needs 10” spacing

Perennial

Ice Plant: Harlequin Mix (Dorotheanthus)

Seed from Burpee

Succulent plants covered with bi-colored daisy-like flowers with red centers--this one, as Rose knows, is probably the biggest stretch for our part sun/part shade area, but she had the seeds and wanted to give it a shot. And why not, really?

Started indoors March 21, 7.5 weeks out (recommended 8-10)

2" tall, needs 6-12" spacing

Annual

More on compost--making my own

2009-03-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

Between being impressed with the difference the compost makes so far in the back garden and being less impressed with all the work involved in hauling the stuff, I did a little googling about making the stuff right here at home (outside, at home that is--I'm not at all at the point where I want a box of worms in my house, no thank you), and decided it might be interesting to give it a try.

I don't have a garbage disposal, so in our case it really can reduce the garbage we put out there, so that's a side benefit. And, to be honest, it really appeals to me as a science experiment and a challenge, so that's the biggie right there.

I'm not interested in spending $200-400 on a spiffy "composer" and I don't really want to use lots of my limited and precious outdoor space as a pile or series of piles or as the docking area for a specialized compost bin system.

Fortunately, I happened to recently be at a kids' science night where I was given a compost brochure (either great synchronicity or the topic is just a hot one right now?) that had, among other things, a drawing of a compositor made from a trash barrel with holes drilled all over it.

Well now! I can buy a $15 dollar garbage barrel and I have a drill and I know how to use it. Plus, if the thing is a real bust, I can always put it back to work holding bags of trash, right?

There seems to be some online discussion about whether or not a 32 gallon can is big enough to heat up enough to compost effectively, etc, but some people say it works for them, and like this whole gardening thing is for us: nothing ventured, nothing gained, so away we went!

I picked up a trash can (Rubbermaid, $15, even has wheels and a "locking" lid--whoo-hoo! this must be the good life!). I got out our drill and put in the 1/4" bit. I started drilling holes in the bottom and worked my way around the sides. Rose became a little more interested in composting (or at least in power tools?) and I guided her hands as she drilled many more. Rose got tired and I drilled even more. Finally the thing looked like a disco ball from the inside and I called it done.

I've put it in the back by the door and dumped in some dead leaves I had cleaned up from the yard. I made an apple cobbler (mmmm....apple cobbler) and put the peels and cores in. I added some shredded paper and coffee grounds. I cut off the dead branches off last fall's chrysanthemum and added those. Dumped a little water in it too.

I'm pleased to report that right now I can easily tip it over and roll it around.

So far it doesn't reek, but it doesn't seem to be doing much else either. I was trilled to see it felt warm, but then I discovered it was probably the sunlight on the lid, which was a bit less thrilling, I have to admit.

I have no idea if this will do much of anything. I guess the 12 hour point is not really the place to see what fate has in store for my compost. I've read online that even terrible brown/green mixes with little attention or aeration will still compost, it just takes longer. And again, as I keep reminding my "plan-it-out-and-know-what-will-happen-before-you-even-dream-of-taking-a-first-step" self throughout this whole garden thing: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I'll keep you posted.

Sunny Saturday--things alive

2009-03-29T05:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a lovely, sunny day--I thought I'd share some photos of our world looking spring-like (and share them real quick before things get more typically March around here!).

Rose planted the first "crop" outdoors in the newly composted back garden: her sweet peas. These are Knee-Hi Mix sweet peas and they call for sowing in 6" trenches and filling them up as they grow. I've grown sweet peas a few times on the balcony and this trench thing is a new one for me, but who am I to argue with Hart Seeds? Here's our trench with Rose's sweet peas planted in it (look close, a little toward the back, see it now?):

In the middle of the day, it was warm enough in the sun to let the seedlings sit outside for a bit. May not be enough to make a difference in the long run, but we wanted to give them a little breeze to toughen them up and some extra sunshine for growth (look to the back you can also see the geranium I put in the basement for the winter--it's actually sprouting a ton of new little leaves, so I'm hopeful despite it's current spindly look):

And here are the seedlings, only 5 days or less since they started popping up and look at them go!

The tomatoes:

The foxy foxglove and the moon flowers (now 2 up--didn't I tell you they start out like seeds on a stem!):
And the tray with unsprouted spearmint, viola and the little seedlings of common thyme and butterfly weed--I finally got a shot of that little thread of butterfly weed that will turn into a 2' bush with bright orange flowers, amazing!

Lots of happenings!

2009-03-28T11:35:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was an interesting day here in my little Eden:

The Butterfly Weed sprouted yesterday! I tried to take a picture but the sprout is this little tiny thread-like piece, I just couldn't get close enough to make it show. Even the little first leaves are these thin needle-like things. Times like these, it's hard to believe this little frail sprout is really going to grow up into an 18-24"-ish winter-hardy bush. Also hard to believe these things manage to survive in the wild. Honestly, if you don't look close, you'd hardly even know it was a growing thing.

Pansies--went to the home store and they had beautiful big pansies at 16 for $8 (plus change). Today Rose and I are going to pot some up for the front porch--a little cheery visual evidence should help us remember that the chilly weather won't last forever.

Rose and I went to the community compost project pile and shoveled our last few barrels of compost. That makes 120 gallons on the back garden. That also makes approximately 4-5" over the full thing, which also makes DONE! I shoveled it in to mix and used my hoe to level it down. Now we're ready to plant the sweet peas and, once the last frost passes, we're good to go!

Funny thing about the compost, I've changed my mind and don't think it's evil any more (Rose, on the other hand still thinks it's the work of darkness).

Partly that's because when we started shoveling it into buckets and dumping them into barrels already upright in the trunk, the horrible problem of how to get this bolder-like trash can of infinite weight up into the car, the biggest part of the problem, was solved. Still had to move the compost bucket by bucket, but the bodybuilding part of my workout, at least, was mercifully removed.

But mostly I had a strange conversion experience yesterday when I was digging the layer of compost into the ground.

Because the compost transport was a fair amount of work (and also because we only owned one trash barrel) we'd been spreading the process over a few days. That meant that while I had worked the soil in the full garden, only half of it had compost over it the first day. The second half had less compost the second day, and by the third day I finished spreading the compost and started digging in.

When I went to mix it in, I strangely found that the whole thing was much easier to dig than it had been and also the part that had the compost on it for longer was easier than the other part. Strange.

Now, I freely admit there was nothing scientific about this, lots of things could have been happening. Obviously, the compost was added to make things better for the plants, not for me. But, I've been reading a bit about "No-Dig" and "Lasagna" gardening, and I just have to wonder if something was happening with the earthworms/microbes/dirt-stuff?

At any rate glad the mixing was better than I had anticipated and glad to have that bed ready!

What 'ya got cooking?

2009-03-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

Seeds, glorious seeds! Love 'em! The possibilities are just endless and, for the moment, everything is possible (and in my imagination, everything is gloriously working, fitting, looking goooood!). No reality to get in the way here, not yet.

Add to that the live plant catalog--look at those photos of pretty happy plants! They attract hummingbirds, butterflies, bloom early, smell great--yep, just what I want, just what I need.

So this is what I've got in the works (that is, bought and started indoors in seed flats), and so far, believe me, at this moment nothing is buried under a pile of ravenous beetles and nothing turning into a massive tumble weed before my very eyes. Nothing but beautiful possibilities--wish us luck!

Tomato: Chocolate Cherry (Lycopersicon esculentum)

Seed from Livingston Seed Co.

Dark cherry tomato, 70 days to mature

Started indoors March 18, 8 weeks out (recommended 5-7)

These tomatoes may be a bit of a stretch--don't have full sun at all, but I figured as much as I love fresh tomatoes, it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot.

Indeterminate vine, need 18-24” spacing

Tomato: Best Boy Hybrid

Seed from Burpee

Full size red tomato, 70 days to mature

Started indoors March 18, 8 weeks out (recommended 6-8)

Determinate, 3-4’ tall, needs 36-48” spacing

Foxglove: Gloxinaflora Mix (Digitalis Purpurea)

Seed from Livingston Seed Co.

Pastel rose, lavender, cream and yellow

Started indoors March 18, 8 weeks out (recommended 8-10)

LOOOOOVE the foxgloves! So old fashioned and sweet. These may not bloom the first year, but hopefully I can get them going for 2010 and get some reseeding for the years after.

36-60” tall, needs 18” spacing

Biennial, blooms summer, fall (but maybe not the first year)

Foxglove: Foxy Mix

Seed from Burpee

Full range of soft colors

Started indoors March 18, 8 weeks out

36” tall, needs 18” spacing

Biennial, blooms summer, fall (but Foxy is a variety that should bloom the first year!)

Moonflowers: Giant White

Seed from Burpee

White and fragrant night bloomer

Started indoors March 18, 8 weeks out

Normally a direct sow, but I’ve grown these for years in zone 5 and when I’ve waited for warm weather I’ve gotten frost before blooms—starting them indoors early has worked for me for several years

Vine, needs 12” spacing

Annual

Nicotiana: Perfume Deep Purple (Nicotiana x sanderae)

Seed from Thompson and Morgan

Remember, these are “Perfume Deep Purple” Nicotiana! I'm hoping for something lovely with these. Besides, 2009 is the "Year of Nicotiana" so can I really go far wrong?

Started indoors March 21, 7.5 weeks out (recommended 6-8)

20” tall, needs 12-15” spacing

Blooms late spring to fall

Annual

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Seed from Burpee

Bright orange, attracts butterflies, feeds monarch caterpillars, has milkweed like pods but not the milky sap--not sure how well it will work, but wouldn't some butterflies be nice?

Started indoors March 21, 7.5 weeks out (recommended 6-8)

24” tall, needs 15-18” spacing

Blooms summer to fall

Perennial

Viola: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Seeds from Burpee

White blooms that turn blue/purple as they age

Started indoors March 21, 7.5 weeks out (recommended 12 weeks, but we had some empty cells and found the seeds we had forgotten about in all that winter cold—just planted on a whim)

6” tall, need 6” spacing

Annual

A few words about Moonflowers

2009-03-26T10:25:00.000-04:00

The tomato and foxglove seedlings are still going strong (anyone else think it's cool how the tomato seedling's first leaves close together like praying hands at night and open up again in the morning light?), and Rose's Iceplant seeds have made the upgrade to seedlings yesterday, as well.

This morning brought us even more sprouts--Rose's Common Thyme is starting to come up only 5 days after planting, and my Moonflowers are poking up their seeds now, too--8 days after planting.

Moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) are one of the few things I've grown for a few years running. Before we moved here, we had an apartment with a west-facing balcony and I grew them next to Morning Glories, both in pots.

Once I'd gotten a few things worked out, they did pretty well there.

They are a very impressive flower when they bloom, with lots in common with their cousin the Morning Glory, but kicked up a notch or two. The leaves and vines look like Morning Glories, but bigger, thicker, greener. The blooms, when they finally bloom, are really big, 6 or 7 inches across, like a lunch plate, and they smell just glorious.

The seeds, too, look like Morning Glory seeds, that kind of asymmetrical football shape with a hard shell, but about 4 times the size. And when they sprout, they do it just like big Morning Glories--popping up like a seed on a stem before pushing out of whatever remains of the seed coat (and often quite a lot remains) to open into a pair of notched cotyledon leaves.

I've read that you're supposed to soak both types of seeds before planting, and nick the seed coat for good measure. Over the years, though, I've gotten lax on that, but they always work just fine anyway. Whether or not I do that, some of both types of Ipomoea sprouts seem to die trying to get out of that seed coat, but soaks and nicks don't seem to change the rate of that.

You're also supposed to be able to direct sow both types of seeds, but in zone 5 (the apartment), I've never been able to get the Moonflowers to bloom that way. Lots of promising vines and leaves, but nothing like a bud or bloom before the fall frost killed it all. Maybe with more sun than they got on the balcony it would work, but since the sun didn't bend to my will, I needed to change the things I could change, and starting them indoors before the last frost did the trick for me. Could possibly be better here in zone 6, but I certainly don't think it's likely enough that I want to try it and risk a year without Moonflowers. And besides, since they do so well starting indoors and it gives me something to play with in the early spring, what's the downside, right?

They are pretty adaptable, I've found, and can be started a month or two before they get transplanted outside. I bring them outside for sun once the days get warmer (which, by the way, would not be March around here!) and back in at night until the last frost. They, like the Morning Glories, start a bit slowly but take off once you let them vine on something, but that pre-vining growth is fine in a pot or biggish flat, and that's been the best way I've found to get them to bloom by mid-summer.

Not a bad trick, actually--you get something green and growing to play with indoors while you wait for the good weather and, once that good weather comes, you get astounding, fragrant flowers showing bright in the moonlight on summer evenings. Who doesn't love that?

How Rose and I learned that compost is completely evil

2009-03-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Rose and I went down to shovel a barrel of compost from the community compost project to give the back garden something a little more organic to bed the plants in.

Community compost projects are a nice idea--the price, at least here, is pretty darn good, and it helps support and encourage good earth practice, right?

Guess what we found out....That's right, compost is heavy. Very heavy. 30 gallons of compost is too heavy for Rose and me. Way too heavy. Probably ok for Schwarzenegger, maybe ok for a few strong men, but way, way, way too heavy for Rose and me.

Ended up shoveling some back then struggling to get the rest in the vehicle and home. Left the barrel where it fell and shoveled compost out into a 14 oz bucket and carried that to the back garden. Bit by pitiful bit.

Guess what else we found out....30 gallons of compost is very heavy but it doesn't go very far, even in a not-even-that-big garden like the back garden. Don't even have 1" thick over half of it yet, much less 2-3" thick over the full 73 square feet (give or take).

Going to have to go back for more trips, I think.

Next time I'm going to have to leave the barrel in the vehicle and shovel the compost into it right there. Next time I'm also going to have to bribe Rosebud with something really good, because right now the very mention of the word "compost" and she's off and running in the opposite direction.

Isn't this supposed to be fun?

Signs of Life!

2009-03-25T07:45:00.000-04:00

Look what I came home to last night!

My little tomato seeds have decided to be alive!

Funny little guys, they were still underground in the am, though the dirt had been looking a little rumbly for a few days, and by the end of the day, 5 of the 6 cells had life!

I planted them 7 days ago (in seed starter mix, covered with plastic wrap, inside at appx 68 degrees) and right on schedule up they came.

I have 3 cells of Chocolate Cherry variety and planted 3 cells of Best Boy--right now only 2 of the 3 are up, but I guess it's still early days.

In other news...the Foxglove seeds I planted at the same time on the surface of the soil started to show their little first roots on March 22nd (4 days out). Yesterday morning they had some little leaves and also a little fuzzy white mold (yikes!).

I uncovered them from the plastic wrap and the mold problem seems to be resolving itself--the seedlings don't seem to mind, they're growing great guns right now.

I planted some Foxglove Foxy (shorter for the front garden and supposed to bloom the first year) and some Foxglove Gloxinaflora--both seem to germinate really well.

I can definitely see where I over did the seed sowing--lots of seedlings going to need to be pulled out to make room for the keepers. Lots.

What we were given

2009-03-23T19:12:00.001-04:00

This is the back garden, mine and Rose's. She has the little section on the right and I'll deal with the rest. So far I've dug it up a bit, pulled out a ton of rocks, then put many of the rocks back on site, but this time where I wanted them to be.

Since the whole bed is new, there was nothing growing here last year--nothing to pull up, but nothing nicely settled, either.

Later this week, I'll pick up some compost from the community compost operation and try to make it into more than pulverized granite.

Setting up in Eden

2009-03-22T12:49:00.000-04:00

Here's where the blog begins, with me digging up dirt in March and waiting for more cups of dirt to sprout on my table and waiting for Spring to make it all work out...