Apologies

Getting my blogs mixed up. If you got any political posts on this blog, I apologize, and will try to be more careful!

Getting in some gardening time at last

 Every year I tell myself I'm not going to start so many seedlings the next year, and every year, it turns out I lied.

This was all that's left of my huge compost pile from 2014 when a section of the yard was skimmed for my garden.:

It's about a quarter at most of what it was originally, and it was covered this year in Egyptian walking onions.  They spread like wildfire.

And this is what I reduced it to:

I won't be terribly surprised to see some of those onions spring back up.  But, I planted some potatoes around the outer edge, and I plan to add gourds, pumpkins and ornamental corn in time.

'Rouge D'Hiver' leaf lettuce that overwintered is harvestable now.  Tasty, sweet and tender.  And so pretty.

Also harvestable is a red romaine and a green/red leaf lettuce, neither of which do I know the variety name for.  They're from a mix of saved seeds.

The rhubarb I harvest are several varieties that I've tried in a failed search for a red-stemmed variety.  'Holstein' - nope.  'Cherry Red' - nope.  'Canada Red' - nope.  When the weather is still quite cool, they show some degree of red surface, but I'm looking for one that has nice red stems through and through.  My latest attempt is 'Kangarhu', and it's not looking very healthy right now.  If it survives but doesn't produce red stalks, I'll quit trying.

The first of the rhubarb made a delicious pie, with a pinch of cinnamon, pinch of ginger, and pinch of rosemary.

I decided to mulch the tulip/daffodil plots with black mulch this spring in order to make the colors stand out.

In the pictures from the website where I ordered 'Tom Pouce' tulip, the coloring was more peachy pink with yellow coloring at the base.  I don't know if they sent me something else by mistake, or if these will change colors as they age, but even if they don't, I love the color of this tulip.*

The red-veined sorrel started out a few years ago as a salad green but has since settled into the tulip bed as an ornamental, from which I rarely pick the newest leaves to add to a mixed greens salad.

I don't recall where I got the pretty purple Chionodoxa, but I didn't order it.  Sometimes I can't remember what I did a few hours ago, and those were planted last fall, so there's no hope I'll remember. And that is why I try to be vigilant about writing everything down.  (Sometimes, even then, I mess up my records.)

Until next time, enjoy the spring awakening of plant life!

'Orangery'

*I still don't know what the purple tulip is, but it's not 'Tom Pouce'...I can't find any record of ordering the purple tulip.

This is 'Tom Pouce'...