Moving the Seedlings Outdoors

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.

🙂 Jenn

 

 

Veggies in the Front Yard

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.