I potted up my rhubarb and 'Kent Beauty' oregano seedlings into 4" pots, and so far I haven't lost any. I've had to tuck them into a corner by the cellar door to keep them from the bluster. Still in the cellar under lights are Zinnia, Spanish Lavender, Lisianthus, black Dahlia and cabbage seedlings, and still to germinate are plugs of Lupine, Verbascum, Delphinium and Gerbera Daisy. Lots of flowers this year. Something new. As soon as I get some room on the heat mat, I'll start some herbs.
As always happens, I couldn't resist a peony I saw recently, and so I planted 'Sorbet' with my other peonies on the west side of the house. Here's the label picture that hooked me:
When I took the black plastic off my rose bed, I was delighted to find that, other than three small green sprouts which were easily plucked, it was completely clear. I did put a lot of work into creating it last fall, double digging and all, but there were some tenacious wildflowers and some kind of mint growing there, so I wasn't at all sure I wouldn't have to pull out the herbicide to get control.
I had planted the 'Pink Enchantment' rose in the middle of the plot last fall, and my fingers are crossed that it survived. I think it did, but I won't be sure until some buds open. I pruned all my rose bushes into neat and tidy forms, and 'Julia Child' had already leafed out near the ground where windblown leaves had built up around it. The third and only remaining 'Shazam!' from two years ago also had broken bud at the ground. I moved it to the rose garden plot, creating a nice bed of humus and composted manure worked into the soil for it to grow in. Its roots were looking water-logged when I dug it, so perhaps its original place was a poor site and may be why the other two didn't make it. Fingers crossed. It's a beauty.
My original plan for the rose garden includes herbs as well as roses, and it may end up changing a bit, but I've got my eyes out for some rose varieties that I'd like to plant. I may have to order small bare root specimens online, but since I'm not in a rush to finish the plot, maybe I'll come up with these or something similar over the next two or three years: 'Earth Angel' (is that not fabulous?), 'Dark Desire', 'Good as Gold' (if that picture is close to the real color - wow!), 'Neptune' (or some variety that is more silver than lilac), and 'Rio Samba' to replace 'Shazam!' if it doesn't make it. They are all supposed to be disease resistant, which is a must for me now (unless something spectacular comes along and I just HAVE to have it). 'Julia Child' and 'Shazam!' are prone to black spot, making them troublesome, but 'Pink Enchantment' had none. Perfection.
'Pink Enchantment' October 2016
So, until further plantings of this year's herbs, my 2017 rose bed as currently planted is laid out like this:
The four empty circles are for future rose bushes. I moved the orange thyme and rosemary from my vegetable garden. The thyme stayed green (purplish due to cold) all winter, and I'm hoping the rosemary is still alive. The Dianthus was in the same bed that 'Shazam!' was in, and again, I'm hoping they're alive and just still dormant. They actually did ok in that bed, which is an old forsythia and trumpet vine bed that was raging out of control when I moved back here. I got it cleared of all but five forsythias which I'm trying to rejuvenate, but they don't yet look very happy and are only sparsely blooming. It could be a bad site now that needs to be totally cleared and new soil and compost worked into it, but that's not going to happen. Not for some years anyway. So, if the Dianthus survived the winter, they should be happy to get a new, fertile bed where they'll get extra attention.
Rose bed dug and covered last fall
Rose bed planted and watered yesterday
I had kept the creeping phlox and lavender in pots under lights in the cellar all winter. They actually look good despite that and are braving the strong winds. The pot of phlox has been blooming for two or three weeks now.
Yesterday, because I needed to get rid of a load of dogwood leaves and cypress needles that were covering my hosta garden, I used them to mulch the rose bed. I'm going to have to make sure I get them off earlier next year, as they were so thick the bleeding hearts that are also in that bed were unable to break through and are now white and spindly. Hopefully the sun will start shining and they'll green up and get sturdy.
When I put the leaf mulch down, the wind was blowing so hard that I had to work in small patches and water it down as I laid it. Being the eighth hour of gardening/landscaping (I'm too old for that!), I was too tired to put on a light top layer of bark mulch, but the leaves held on overnight and are currently managing to resist today's gale. If they do manage to stick, I'll just leave that extra mulching for a less windy day or whenever the leaf mulch breaks down, whichever comes first.
Rose bed, planted, watered and mulched
That lush lavender plant is actually three smaller plants I bought at the end of the season last year and crammed into one larger pot. (And I do mean crammed - there wasn't any room to speak of to add soil.) The label said it was Spanish lavender, but when it finally bloomed, it was obvious that it was an English variety (no little rabbit ears on top). I was disappointed, but it was so healthy that I put it in the cellar to see if it would overwinter under lights. It did beauifully, and when I took it out of the pot to plant it yesterday, it was pretty much a solid mat of roots and no soil, which is no doubt how it was when it went to the cellar. I hacked a slice into the root ball on four sides and stuck it into a hole amended well with humus and manure. So far, so good.
I finally got all the remaining weedlings out of my vegetable garden plots this morning, and I managed to crumble up cypress needles to lightly mulch the plots I planted yesterday. It was trickier even than mulching the rose garden, trying to get the mulch down and sprayed before it blew away since there were no heavy leaves tangled in the needles, and as I crushed them, they got even flittier. It's a lighter layer than I'd like, but hopefull it will be enough to hold a little more moisture. The ground had already cracked from my planting and watering yesterday.
The last two years, I had a supply of dried grass clippings from the fall to use as mulch over seed beds, but I didn't have any this year. I don't have enough cypress needles for the entire garden, so hopefully the grass will have grown enough to mow down clippings for future plantings.
Freshly composted carrot (l) and pea (r) plots
The green planting at the top of the pea plot is
perennial Egyptian walking onions
In the ground now are peas ('Improved Maestro' which is supposed to not need a trellis), 'Rocky Top Mix' lettuce, Red Veined Sorrel (a dock), Chinese White Celery from seeds I saved last year (there are four or five of these plants that overwintered with some minor injury under light mulch), and three carrot varieties: 'Cosmic Purple' (a free gift from my Baker Creek Seeds order), 'Koral' and 'Kyoto Red'. I haven't tried any of those varieties before, so hopefully at least one will be good!
The rhubarb is up and growing by leaps and bounds. I had to cover the large ones a few nights ago when it got below freezing for several hours. The leaves stayed bunched together from the shape of the basket I put over them, and it hasn't been warm enough since for them to relax. I had to cover them last year as well. They come up very early, and are then susceptible to freezing. They would probably pull out of it even if I didn't cover them, and maybe next year, I'll do that, but I hate to see something this far along sustain freeze damage.
I found this fat chrysalis as big as my thumb in the compost pile when I was laying the fresh layers on my garden plots:
No doubt a tomato hornworm. It was wriggling when I picked it up, which surprised me. I didn't know they pupated in the soil. If I had thought about it, I would have wondered where they were during winter. He went in the burn barrel. Sorry, dude. (Actually, dude is probably a lady.)
Planted and watered: peas (top) and carrots (bottom)
It's just so satisfying.
I hope you're enjoying your early spring, wherever you are. Happy gardening!
UPDATE March 7:
No good deed goes unpunished.
Last night, after creating this post, we enjoyed a tornado watch, along with the entire state of Missouri (and others). Afterward, the rain gauge read 1/4", but there may have been lots that it didn't catch, considering the winds (gusts up to 50 mph, so said the weather lady) were making it rain sideways.
I was happily surprised this morning to find that almost all of the dogwood leaf/cypress needle mulch I put on the rose bed was still there. But the newly seeded vegetable plots were bare again. There was no wind at all this morning, so I put down some more needle mulch on those plots. It's now blowing again at 20 mph. Sigh. The forecast looks like day after tomorrow might be a better time to try again. Hopefully the seed layer of ground won't have dried up or blown away by then.
Gardening is fun!
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