I accidentally killed my collection of agave plants (started from a few of the gazillions of babies sprouted from a dying agave in our yard in Tucson, AZ). They were becoming cumbersome to move in and out of the house with the seasons. I moved them outdoors about a week too early this spring….oh well. I guess, trying to grow a grove of cactii in zone 4 is tricky business. So, that left me with a bunch of pots to fill. I had a few stored in the garage from other uses, too.
I used patio tomatoes, a variety of herbs, and a few ornamental annuals. I also used the remaining coleus that I started from seed this winter.
I anticipate moving my herb garden indoors this winter. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I think my dear old, broken St. Francis statue gives this garden the focal point it needs. Perhaps, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I have stock blooms. The smell is so worth the wait!
Dianthus is starting to bloom, too. I started a few varieties from seed this winter without labeling them (Why did I do that?!). This appears to be one of the Ipswich Pinks.
Gotta love those marigolds! They get my vote for easiest annuals to start from seed using Petite Mix (Tagetes patula). Second place goes to the petunia. I had great results with the Petunia Multiflora F2 Mix this year.
I have waited patiently for three years to see this peony bloom. It started from little leftover shoots after transplanting a bigger plant to a better spot.
No signs of foxglove blooms yet. At the bottom of this picture, you can see tiny morning glory seedlings. I started two morning glories indoors in March and direct sowed several more. The ones started indoors looked strong and were trailing well up a support system in my greenhouse. However, they didn’t transplant well. One was eaten by a critter and the other seems weak and isn’t growing very well. Possibly, these could have used a more focused hardening-off effort. I’ll just direct sow next year.
Continued progress in veggie gardens. Alternated Scarlet Runner and Heirloom Purple Podded Pole Beans are starting to climb.
I need some practice building/ choosing support structures for tomatoes, cucumbers, and all climbing plants. My structure here is sturdy, but looks quite crooked. I worry that I am not optimizing air flow and sunlight with this structure. Not enough time to try to do everything perfectly all in the same year.
I finally found the inner strength needed to thin my radishes properly. Had a hard time yanking any of my precious baby seedlings in previous years. Here’s another rickety support structure:). I mulched with leftover straw from last fall’s halloween display.
This little garden looks so cute to me, but I’m reminded by my inner critic that it probably looks like a mess to some. I am not a neat-nick. I’m trying to love this about myself, but I’m not quite there. I think maybe when my kids are older, I’ll have more time to do things in a more orderly manner…..maybe.
I love watching the strawberries develop! So do the chipmunks, I suspect.
My hybrid tea roses are getting ready to look gorgeous. Like clockwork, the pests and problems are appearing on my rose leafs. Now, it’s a race against the inch worms to treat the problems before they destroy the blooms.
Why did I put Johnny Jump-Ups all over my garden beds? I’m too sentimental. I’m thinking of transplanting these to the back yard very soon.
Various seedlings becoming stronger and filling-in. I hope I get some blooms from the Lupines this year.
I have many tiny red flowers on what I thought was Scarlet Penstemon (Penstemon hartwegii)? They are much smaller than I expected them to be. It’s a mystery. Maybe this is the Poor Man’s Weather Glass (Anagallis monellii) in orange instead of the blue promised on the seed packet?
One of the various lilies brought home from church after Easter. I think this one is about three years old now.
My shade garden is filling-in. I started this hosta garden after struggling to get grass to grow under these silver maples. The violets are really taking-off.
Pots are filling-in.
Cool color patterns on this maple seedling. Not sure what causes it.
New perennial this year. I love the purple foliage to break-up all of the green back here.
Astilbe.
Unknown wildflower. I think blooms will be yellow.
Trumpet vine from my aunt. (BTW, The ferns and lupine are doing well, too. Thanks, Aunt Candi!)
I’m relieved to have signs of life in my new veggie garden. Now, my neighbors will see that the big pile of mud in my front yard has a beautiful purpose.
Radishes, lettuce, spinach, pole peas, tomatoes, strawberries all making progress.
I’m watching my stocks carefully for the first blooms. I’ve dreamed of having stocks in my garden since working in a floral shop one high school summer long ago. I love their old-fashioned look and dreamy aroma.
Petunias are blooming like crazy. They are so easy! I love the color they lend to the beds in the spring.
Wisteria started from seed this winter is looking strong. I have one lonely moonflower vine emerging. I soaked and planted approximately ten seeds!
More geranium blooms!
The pots in the back are filling-in.
Still enjoying spring blooms among the wild-flowers.
Being the impatient and busy mother of three that I am, I secretly moved my seedlings out a week earlier than I had planned. The forecast looked decent: mild evening temps and cloudy skies. I didn’t really do the hardening-off process other than choosing the weather carefully and doing some covering with burlap to protect from direct sun and the cooler evening temps for about one week. I purposely didn’t write a post about it until now because……I was afraid I would lose all of my seedlings due to my impulsiveness. I can write now because, so far, it turned-out okay.
The tomatoes, peppers, and most of the geraniums just left the greenhouse on the back deck to be planted in the gardens today. Actually, the geraniums seemed to need the hardening-off process more than any others I planted, which makes sense because they spent the longest time under lights in the house. They started to fry after only a short time in the sun and were quickly covered.
Two weeks ago, the seedlings looked like this:
Today, they look much stronger. The straw is covering sections where I direct-sowed poppies and bachelor buttons.
All of the marigolds, stocks, snapdragons, penstemon, “Poor man’s weather glass”, foxgloves, columbine, morning glories, wisteria, lupines, violas, impatiens, petunias, lavender, dianthus, moss roses, and some coleus are in this one bed that borders the front of the house. Many are annuals and will need to be started again next winter. Sounds like a lot of work to me now, but I bet by next January I’ll be ready to do it all again.
I tucked a few new perennials into my rock-garden flower bed. That bed was being consumed by lemon balm, oregano, violets, and tiny self-sowed asters and delphiniums. I pulled the larger invaders, placed some perennials and covered with a thick layer of cedar mulch.
The back yard received some attention today, too. I planted the pots with purchased impatiens and the coleus I started. No vinca vines at the garden center today, so I’ll try asparagus fern.
Added three new coral bells between the hostas, ferns and native plants.
Jack-in-the-pulpit and trillium(?) are especially gorgeous right now:
I’m happy with the way the shade garden is shaping-up. The perennials I planted over the last two years are coming back bigger and stronger than last year. I love the violets back here.
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I had enough geraniums from my seed-starting efforts to plant the front porch pots and all eight deck pots. I added some purchased lobelia and a pack of verbena to the front pots.
As a last note, I tucked-in some moon-flower, zinnia, morning glory, and wisteria seeds to the front gardens over the last few days. Also, I noticed that I have two “cup-and-saucer” vines and a possible climbing sweet pea that recently popped-up from the seed tray that I was getting ready to abandon. I planted those under the maple tree in the rock garden bed.
One year ago today, I took this picture of the boys “helping” me plant corn at our community garden plot. Since we didn’t till our plot in the spring before planting, it ended-up looking like this:
The weeds were impossible to keep-up with. If I did it again, I would rent a tiller in the spring and improve my mulching methods as a start. Since the plot was very far from available parking, hauling tools, materials, and water in and out was difficult even without having three young children in tow.
Last fall at “clean-out” time, I decided to create more space for edibles at home and ditch the community plot.
Since my home is south-facing, the front yard offers the only full-sun gardening space. We added three new 4 x 4 raised beds right along the curb.
I planted marigold, nasturtium, and basil seeds along the street-side in rows. The short sides are bordered with peas. Cucumber seeds are planted in the first and third bed, with tomatoes and peppers in the middle. The back border holds a few varieties of pole bean seeds. I’m planting in a symmetrical pattern in an effort to make the bed as attractive as possible. Unfortunately, the tomatoes I started from seed in February are extremely leggy and unattractive. If I had more depth available, I would bury the stems. As it is, I barely had the depth available to cover the established roots in the pots. Also, my tomato cage building skills need work. I tossed a thin layer of straw on the seeds to attempt to protect them from shifting with the heavy rains we’ve been having.
My other raised beds are located on the side of the house. The shadiest bed is full of Mesclun lettuce mix. The middle bed has spinach and radishes. The sunniest bed is filled with the rest of the tomatoes that I started this winter.
With the addition of the new raised beds, I planted all of the edibles that I wanted to plant this year at home.
Here is the flat of Coleus I started from seed in mid-January and potted-up in early March.
I have enjoyed watching them grow so much that I didn’t gather the courage to “pinch” them until I realized I could use the “pinched” tops for cuttings.
I decided to start them in water because I haven’t figured-out where to buy rooting hormone powder and other necessary supplies. Um…maybe tomorrow.
I gathered my containers and garden snips.
Made the cut just above a set of leaves.
I guess you can make two cuttings from a branch like this. I didn’t. I guess you should remove any leaves on the stem below the top set of leaves. I didn’t do that either. Feeling like a rebel.
Stuck all the tops in the water cups.
This is what my flat looks like now. I feel hopeful that they will become bushy and beautiful now. The ones in the middle were quite lanky.I stuck the cuttings in the greenhouse to keep them away from the cats. If I notice that these cuttings aren’t looking good, I’ll venture-out and find some supplies to try rooting them in seed-starting mix. I found several articles on the web that detail the process.
suburban garden zone 4 