Seed Catalogues
I’ve been checking out some websites and it looks like most of the seed catalogues that I want to get come out in January or February. I can’t wait. We’ve had some pretty awful weather the last few weeks (though it feels like months) and I’m missing the garden. Once the seed catalogues come out though I’ll have something to look at that reminds me of warmer and greener times.
Peas and Peonies
I have to apologize for my lack of posting during the last few weeks, I’ve been busy. But now on to what’s happening in the garden……
I have three patches of peas growing. Two are under wooden trellises and the third is by the fence. I didn’t think they’d get enough sun by the fence so I wasn’t expecting many to grow. Boy was I surprised though when the ones by the fence grew the best! The package the seeds came in said they need full sun, but maybe they don’t. Anyways I had to jerry rig something for them to grow up so I made a thing for them out of twine. I’ll get a photo of it in the next few days to share.
The Peonies are finally in full bloom, well, at least one of the Peony plants is. They’re so beautiful this year, and big. I’ll have a get a photo of those too.
Weeding and Morning Glories
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……).
Hostas, Succulents, and Spider Webs
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.
Peas
My peas are finally starting to come up! I was out of town for the weekend and when I went out to check the garden yesterday morning I saw them poking up. I’m actually surprised at how many germinated. We’ve had almost constant rain for the last week or so and I was worried that it was going to be too much water.
As for the mysterious germinating pea, it wasn’t actually a pea. It was something else that came up in between two peas. It has yet to be identified.
These pansies were planted last spring and somehow survived the winter and came up again a couple weeks ago. I think they’re so pretty. Are they supposed to survive the winter? I didn’t do anything special to protect them during the winter.
Container Gardening
What great weather for the first long weekend of the summer! Today it’s gotten up to 27. Tomorrow is supposed to be 26, and on Monday it’s going to be 19. Tuesday how ever the temperatures head south and we get rain.
This morning I planted a couple seedlings in containers. I put a couple marigolds in two pots as well as putting one of my many (really too many) tomatoes in another one. I also brought out a pot that I had some lettuce, parsley, and basil in to harden off a bit. I guess I left it out a little too long (even though it was in the shade) and the basil started to look a little droopy. But it’s a couple hours later now and the basil looks like it’s recovered.
I’m not looking forward to having to harden off the plants that I have. It’s going to take forever to take them out and then bring them back in everyday.
The backyard it starting to look so green now, with the leaves starting to come out on the trees. I love this time of year with the weather and the new plants, it’s all so fresh and new.
The Mysterious Germinating Peas
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?
