Rain and Planting

June 2, 2008 at 6:35 pm (Planting, Rain barrel, seedlings)

We’ve had some rain the last few days, mainly showers and overnight so the plants are happy, as is the rain barrel. Since I’ve gotten it it hasn’t been more than 3/4 empty.

The flowers on the chives are coming out. The purple looks ss pretty against the green. The peonies has blooms already. And that means that the ants are all over them. I hope they bloom soon. The Morning Glories that I planted last week have been looking pretty happy. That is for two. One has died and the other one’s leaves are all shriveled up, and I think it’s just a matter of time for him. I have more Morning Glory seeds though so I’ll replace those two.

I planted a few radish seedlings a couple days ago. They don’t look so great though. I think I’ll plant a row or twp of radishes and carrots. The radishes will be ready before the carrots will so once the radishes are harvested the carrots will have more room.

I also planted two hanging baskets with petunias. I forget the variety, but they’re supposed to trail over the side of the basket and look really pretty.

On the last trip to the garden centre I got cushions for the two loungers in the backyard. They’re SO much more comfortable with the cushions than without. I know I’ll be spending more time sitting in them this year.

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Weeding and Morning Glories

May 30, 2008 at 4:58 pm (Planting, seedlings)

Before weeding

I was able to get out early (or at least early for me at 10 am) to get some weeding done. The tulips that feebly tried to bloom this year just grew leaves, no actual flowers so they came up along with some weeds and grass that was growing in the flower bed.

After weeding

I had to be careful to only take up the tulip bulbs cause there are other bulbs in the same bed that were planted a couple weeks ago. It wasn’t too tough to tell the difference though cause the tulip ones were mostly soggy and squishy – I understand now why they never put out flowers – they weren’t in good shape.

Morning Glory seedling

Yesterday I was able to plant my Morning Glories (Convolvulus major) in a container. They’re under a trellis so they’ll be able to climb up it. The seeds were planted April 5 in peat pots because I was told Morning Glories don’t like to be transplanted. I’m not exactly sure what colors they’re going to be, but the seed package had purple and pink flowers on it.

I have 8 or 10 seedlings in the container, I hope that’s not too many. Some of them don’t look so great because I was out of town for the weekend and no one watered any of the plants for me. I guess I should have made sure someone would do it for me.

On the other side of the trellis are Hollyhocks Chaters double. We’ve always had the hollyhocks in that spot and until this year they’ve always self-seeded. I think there was too much dead stuff under there though and the seeds weren’t able to reach the soil. So we dug it all up a couple weeks ago and I planted the Chaters double last week. They should take 15 ro 25 days to germinate.

Zinnia Seeds

I also planted some Zinnia seeds this morning. I wasn’t sure about the quality of the soil in this container so I dumped it out into a big bucket to see what it was like. It looked good so I put it back in and was amazed to see that it took almost 1/4 less soil to fill it back up. It must have been really compacted in there. I’m glad I decided to empty it and refill it otherwise I think the tiny roots would have had a hard time trying to grow. The seeds should germinate in 5 to 8 days.

Well, I’m off to the garden center this afternoon to get some dirt and more flowers (not that I really need them……).

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Hostas, Succulents, and Spider Webs

May 29, 2008 at 5:46 pm (Hardening Off, Hostas, Planting, Succulents)

These are the Hostas that I planted in the garden this morning. I found them at Home Depot for $6 each. Everywhere else I’ve seen them they’ve been more expensive and not nearly as big as these guys. They’ve been hardening off for awhile and last night spent their first night outside along with the succulent.

The Hosta on the left with the white in the edges of the leaves is called Patriot and the one on the right is called Aurea Marginata. This is the perfect spot for them, as there’s trees on either side of them and the leaves prevent that spot from getting much sun. Hopefully they grow well there.

The tag says that for the winter you have to dig them up when they turn yellow in the in the fall, cut off all but 4″ off the top, clean the dirt off the roots and store in a cardboard box filled with dry peat moss in a cool dry place until spring.

This succulent is called Alpine Stonecrop (Sedum anacampsteros). I bought him at a garden centre a few weeks ago. i thought he looked interesting so I bought him. I planted him in the pot when I brought him home and have been hardening him off for the last week or so. Last night was his first outside. He’s a perennial so he should come back again. In a couple weeks he should start blooming with purple flowers. He should grow to be about 6″ high and 12″ wide.

I found this spider web while I was watering this morning. At first I totally didn’t see it, I almost put my arm through it. Once I saw it though I thought it would make a great picture so I grabbed a spray bottle and sprayed some water on it so that the camera would be able to pick it up. I think it’s a very pretty picture.

The rest of my plants are outside right now hardening off as I type. They’re going to stay out tonight and hopefully tomorrow I can start planting some of them. I have a ton of containers to fill up.

So I think I’ve finally figured out how to put photos into posts. It took me 20 minutes to do it today even though it took 5 yesterday when I tried to do it for the first time! Hopefully I’ll remember how for my next post.

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The Mysterious Germinating Peas

May 12, 2008 at 3:18 pm (Peas, Planting, seedlings)

I planted the peas on Saturday morning. Yesterday I went out in the garden to see if the crocuses had bloomed yet and I noticed that there was a tiny seedling where I had planted the peas!

Is it possible for peas to germinate in 24 hours, even if it’s just one? I looked online and it said that peas germinate in 7 to 14 days. I moved around a lot of the surrounding dirt when I was planting the peas, so I doubt that it was there before I planted them, or else I would have killed it. I guess I’ll have to wait til it gets bigger to have a look at it ans find out if it is a pea.

Does anyone have any ideas about the mysterious seedling?

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Peas!

May 9, 2008 at 1:14 am (Peas, Planting, Rain barrel, Spring)

So, I’m brand new at gardening. This is my first season. I’ve been itching to get into the garden and do some planting but there are still a couple more weeks left before the last frost. It feels like it’s going to take forever. Just to drive home the fact that I still have to wait it snowed today. Yes, snow. In May. But then again May has a reputation for bringing crazy weather to this city.

I was looking through my packages of seeds tonight and I opened up the peas because it said “Look inside for tips”. So I tear it open and lo and behold it says to plant 6 weeks before the last frost! How come it doesn’t say this on the OUTSIDE of the package? I could have planted them a couple weeks ago! Tomorrow (hopefully the snow will melt in the morning) I will plant the peas and finally be out in the garden.

On a side note we got a lot of rain along with the snow and our new rain barrel is already full of water. We didn’t have to wait very long for mother nature to fill it up.

I was also planning to post of pics of what’s already coming up in the garden, but it’s been pretty miserable the last day or two with the rain/snow. But pics are coming.

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