Planting fever

This is the first year in the seven I've been  back in Missouri that we've had an actual months-long spring.  What a joy.  Planting conditions have been perfect for several days in a row.  I've now got everything in the ground aside from the tomatoes, which are still too small, and a few flowers.

This is what I started with:

My last attempt at propagating roses has failed.  'Poseidon' was the last holdout, and I thought it was taking hold.  

Alas, this method of pinning a branch to the ground in hopes it would sprout roots eventually failed, just as all my attempts at rooting cuttings and air layering.  I think I'll give up.

My late timing this year has robbed me of grass clippings for mulching to retain soil moisture while plants are getting established.  So I had to resort to other things, like scissor-chopped cilantro on small patches...

...and chopped up fall leaves from 2019, which didn't last through the next morning's winds, even though I thought I had watered them down enough to hold at least some of them.  This isn't the first time that's happened.  I may have to give up on that method, too, unless I chop them much more finely using the lawn mower.  That worked out pretty well one year.

The overwintered lettuce has gone into the fetal position.

While this year's tender babies are coming on strong...

One of the free seed varieties I got from Baker Creek this year was 'Russian Red' kale.  It's pretty.  I haven't tasted it yet.

'Calima' French style green beans are up.  This is my first year planting green beans.

Basil transplants are in the ground all in an arcing row.  I've planted several varieties this year: 'Cardinal' and 'Purple Ruffles', which I've planted before, and three new to me varieties, 'Amethyst' (a purple variety), 'African Nunum', and 'Mammolo', both green (as is 'Cardinal').

Cucumber transplants are in.  I stuck with my standard 'Marketmore'.  I thought about running string from the plants to the top of the wagon wheel for them to climb, but I'm afraid, unlike tomatoes, cucumber stems are not strong enough to hold the weight in that method.  I'll have to install a wire fence piece, I think.

Pepper transplants are in and mulched with a humus/manure mixture. There are yellow and red bells from saved seed of grocery store peppers, 'Quadrato D'Asti Giallo' bells that I planted last year as well, a kind of neon gold/red variety, chilis, snack peppers (also saved seed from grocery peppers), and Tam jalapeños. I never have very good bell peppers, and I'm hoping some extra fertilization will make a difference.

So far, the garden is coming together nicely, with herbs and rhubarb already large and bushy, and the grapevines with oodles of tiny little flower buds...

Finally, here's a nostalgic look at the garden in the beginning...

 

What surprises me most is how much the mimosa tree (left side of the picture) and smaller of the two redbuds in the background have grown!  I didn't realize they were that much smaller seven years ago.

Enjoy your spring...we're bound to be feeling the heat soon.

A window of sunshine

This weekend has been lovely, mostly sunny weather.  The next three days are promising rain again, though, so I had to go ahead and get as much planted as I could (including 90 snapdragons and 100 prairie gentians (Lisianthus), along with tomato plants, cucumbers, melons and eggplants).  The ground was still wetter than ideal in many places, particularly where the tomatoes are, but I would lose a week - at least - if I didn't get it all done.

I finally got a bit of grass clippings to use as mulch and put it down where I had large areas of bare soil, such as this bed with Mexican Sunflowers.  They've not been very happy with the cool weather.  Nor have the zinnias.

The arugula patches (above), and the Baker Creek 'Red Wing' lettuce mix (below) have liked it just fine.  Grazing on these babies while I work in the garden has been a treat.

The red lettuces are mixed in with a green highly-lobed leaf variety whose name I don't know, because it came from seed I saved from plants that were in another mix I planted a couple of years ago.  Interspersed are celtuce plants, an oriental lettuce that supposedly develops a tall stalk that's good to eat.  (I'll let you know.)  You can pick them out in the picture: they're the ones with the large spatula-shaped leaves.  It might not have been a good idea to mix them in like that.   They may shade out the others, and then again, they may simply protect the others and give them a little cool shade.  We shall see.

Here's a picture of the celtuce plants (on the right) that I started indoors and set out the first of April.  The rabbits ate them down to the ground, but they're coming back.

The peas are okay with the cooler weather, too.  I'm growing a variety that doesn't require stakes or trellises: 'Improved Maestro'.  I've grown them the past two years, and they're very good, with 4-10 peas per pod and lots of pods.  Last year, however, was so hot and dry from the beginning of May that they didn't produce well.  Fingers crossed this year.  So far, so good.  Other varieties I tried were 'Wando' and 'Green Arrow'.  Neither produced much, both had to be trellised, and the peas weren't nearly as sweet and juicy as 'Improved Maestro'.

I got a good double row stand this year, so hopefully I'll have a nice harvest.  I may lose my paths when they're fully grown.

The tomato plants were already getting root-bound in their 4" pots, so even though the ground was really a little (ok, maybe a lot) too wet, I planted them anyway.  Otherwise, who knows when the next window of opportunity will come?  I don't want to keep potting them up until I've got gallon size plants.

Actually, they'll be fine.  I worked some good, dry composted manure into the soil and sprinkled in some epsom salts.  Well, they'll be fine if it doesn't actually rain all summer.

Here they are, all in their cages.  A tomato zoo.

There are six of them, with a marigold planted between each.

A friend read about a tomato developed by a woman over a 60-year period that's supposed to be delicious, so she (my friend) ordered some seed and asked me to get them growing to try this year.  It's another potato-leaf variety like the 'Missouri Pink Love Apple' that has come to be my variety of choice every year.  The potato-leaf tomatoes are much less common than the regular, highly lobed ones. I'll put in a couple of these myself, to see how they compare.  It's called 'Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian'.  What a pairing of tomatoes by name I'll have this year.

'Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian' tomato seedlings

Bottom: Lisianthus (Prairie Gentian)

Speaking of seeds, I decided to freeze my leftover seeds from this year, as they're supposed to keep for several years that way.  Otherwise, I end up throwing some away and having to buy new within a year or two.  Even keeping them refrigerated, melons and cucumbers (same family: curcurbits) don't germinate well the second year.  I hope it works, as it will save me some money and waste.  And if it doesn't, it will set me back timewise when I have to order more seeds after a failure of germination.  It will work.  Believe.

As for the flower beds, I love the lupines that are starting to bloom.  The seeds don't germinate well, so I only have a half dozen or so plants after three  years of trying.  I watched a video on taking basal cuttings to propagate them, so I'm trying that this year instead of investing in or trying to save more seed.

Rose and perennial beds

I'm growing three varieties of basil: 'Dark Opal' - a purple one, 'Cardinal' - a large leaf green one with beautiful large maroon flower heads, and 'Spicy Bush' - a very small leaf globe variety.  They've all grown very slowly due to the cool temps and lack of sunshine.  I had to start some more of the globe variety, as the perfectly forming 20 plants I had got soaked in a downpour and then stayed cold, so they ended up damping off (the stems rotted at the soil line), and I'm left with only 6 that made it.

The basils and peppers are still quite small since it's been so cool and overcast for so long, so they won't be ready for a while.  Hopefully "a while" will be after the rains have stopped long enough for the ground to be workable.

Top: 'Dark Opal'; bottom: mini bell peppers

The only thing left now to plant are the basil and peppers - the heat lovers.

Oh, and 'Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian'.   😊

Rain and more rain

The cypress mulch stayed put during a short downpour and a long rain, so that's a bonus.  The hardwood mulch I used in previous years would have been pretty much washed off by now.

But it's a shame deer don't read.  Otherwise, they'd know that my 'Navaho' thornless blackberry label says it's deer resistant.  They didn't resist.  Fortunately, the plants were large enough that they'll recover - when the deer stop coming up to graze.  I would have thought there'd be enough forage in the wooded areas by now that they'd not bother going near houses, but maybe they just like night roaming.

The grapevines finally decided they could leaf out.

I'm having a battle with prostrate knotweed this year.  In fact, I had to remove a huge dead patch (~12'x15') in the yard and reseed.  I don't know why that patch grew so large and then died.  I keep it pulled out of the garden, but I haven't been paying much attention to it in the yard.

 
Environmental conditions didn't lend themselves to me being able to get grass clilppings (too many weeds going to seed), so most of my plantings are now growing without mulch.  They don't need it to retain soil moisture when we're getting as much rain as we are, but everything is dirt splattered.

The peas are really enjoying the rain. 

And the arugula.  The beets are now clearly visible in pictures, but the arugula is well ahead of them.
I must remember to follow my own instructions next year and delay the arugula planting for a couple of weeks after beets and carrots.

This is a great stage for eating arugula.

The lettuce is starting to take off.

Red wing lettuce mix, arrow leaf green lettuce from 

saved seed, and transplanted celtuce

I still have several things to be transplanted into the garden, but they'll have to wait, as the soil is too wet after the 2 inches of rain last night - and more on the way tonight.  It's forecast to be a very small amount.  Hopefully, they're right.

A couple of days ago, I set out some 'Lao' eggplant - a free seed that I got with my Baker Creek seed order.  They always send free seed of something.  I wouldn't have planted any eggplant on my own, but these are pictured as small, white, egg-like fruits, and I figured they'd look pretty even if I don't eat them.  I wonder if this type is the origin of eggplant, hence its name.

I also got some French Charentais melons in the ground: 'Savor' and 'Petit Gris de Rennes'.  I planted 'Savor' last year, and they were delicious.  Looking forward to having lots more this year.  The fruit on each plant was not plentiful, but it was fabulous.  So I've put out three of each variety, and have more in reserve that I'll probably - no, certainly - be adding in when I get the chance.

Purple basil and mini bell peppers are not in any hurry to grow with the cool and cloudy weather we're having.  

What is encouraged is mulch mold.  It won't hurt anything, and I find it quite interesting.  This is a new one for me:

I don't know its name, but I think it might be tapioca slime mold.   Yum, huh?

The weather is not cooperating

We got another inch and a half of rain that we didn't need, plus two nights with temperatures below freezing, at the end of March, so I haven't been able to get anything planted in the vegetable garden.

We did have several nice days between bad spells earlier that allowed me to get the paths mulched and the beds topped off with more compost.  With a little luck and sunshine, in a couple of days, I should be able to plant lettuce and carrots, since they are essentially sprinkled on the top of the ground and raked in.  And hopefully I'll also be able to plant peas and beets in shallow furrows.  Normally, I would already have all those things sown, and the peas and lettuce even coming up.

This year, I mulched the paths with shredded cypress.  I had been using red-dyed hardwood mulch, which is prettier when fresh, but costs about twice as much.  And since it's only prettier for such a short while, I decided it wasn't worth it.  For a bonus, the cypress was also easier to spread.

I'm lucky to have a generous neighbor who farms cattle and composts the manure - a generous neighbor, who gave me a pickup load of three-year-old compost to spread. 

I literally stumbled across a way to easily break up the larger clumps.  If this is something everyone but me was already wise to, skip the next four pictures.  Otherwise, here's what I discovered:

Using a hard rake (not a leaf rake), like this one:

Rake up the clumps onto the tines, like so:

Then take your foot and, applying slight pressure, scrape back and forth once or twice across the clumps on top of the tines.

Voila!  Fine crumb soil!

Note:  This won't work if there's a high clay content in your soil.  That will just coat your rake tines and stick to the bottom of your shoe.  Otherwise, what a toil-saver.  I can't believe I spent the last four years hammering away at stubborn clumps with the back side of the rake, or stabbing at them with a shovel, and still not coming up with such nice texture.  Old dogs can indeed learn new tricks.

Most of the roses have started to leaf out, but there's not much to look at in the rose garden yet.

The new tulip bed is coming up.  Little grape hyacinth (Muscari) planted there have popped open their doors to let in the sunshine.

That's it for now.  We're in a bit of a holding pattern, hoping we're finally seeing the back side of old man winter.  And, as a footnote follow-up to the last post, I was indeed able to leave the rhubarb plants uncovered in spite of the freeze, since they hadn't grown so high above the ground to be injured.  Probably the fact that the freezing temps were in the wee hours of the morning instead of late at night helped as well, since it wasn't long until the sun came out.  Thankfully, everything that was up even 4-6 inches (eg. daffodils, columbine, chives and herbs) hunkered down for the night and came through unharmed.

One last thing:  my daughter-in-law sent me a picture of some beautiful lilies my son got her for her birthday.

She said my son told her they were like people who have two rows of teeth, which kind of spoiled it for her. 😂  But I couldn't resist.  I ordered some from Michigan Bulb Company:  Double stargazers.

image from Michigan Bulb Company website

I did a little research and found out they're bred as clones from a mutant stargazer whose stamens failed to form, becoming an extra set of petals instead.  They have no stamens, so no pollen.  

And, while I was at it, I ordered a pure white Oriental lily as well.  And a fern.

I've got to stop.

Spring is going to arrive after all

We've come through a winter like the ones I remember as a child: frigid temps and lots of snow.  I haven't seen one of those since I came back to Missouri in 2013 and started gardening.  But I haven't ever seen a long, hot summer like we had in 2018, and I hope I never do again.  But who knows?

In January, we had a doozey of a snow - about 14" that piled on the bird feeders, tilting them to 45 degree angles, and covered everything in sight.

Following that, we had a heavy ice storm that took out a couple of very large tree limbs, shattering the small terminal branches into bits within a couple feet of the living room window and providing lots of pecking and hiding fun for all kinds of birds until the weather let up so a tree crew could come cut it up and shred it into a big mulch pile.  (Does that qualify as a run-on sentence?)  I assume the birds were finding insects, but I don't know.

Every blade of grass got its own coat.

The bird feeders' lids were frozen shut, so I had to just scatter seed on the ice-coated ground.  A little birdie skating rink and cafe.

The mesh cover on the arbor turned into an inverted bed of nails.

Still, we have been more fortunate than others around us in this record-setting late winter weather.

One good thing about the late winter: the rhubarb didn't try to come up early.  So maybe I'll get by without having to cover it to protect against early spring freezes.  Maybe.

Rhubarb emerging - mid March

I started so many new flowers this year that I had to add another strip light to my growing-on bed in the cellar.  I also encased it in metal screening to prevent last year's disappointment: a mouse garden.  They probably thought they hit the jackpot with green seedlings in the middle of winter.  It's crowded and not as easy to work with, but I get to enjoy the rewards of my labor.

Seeded trays on heat mats

 Seeded and labeled trays

top row: ornamental strawberry; globe amaranth;  middle row: dianthus, yarrow

bottom row: zinnia, cabbage, dianthus, cardoon, tithonia (Mexican sunflower)

Don't ask me why I have such a compulsion to keep records, but I do.  Perhaps it's from my days of research at UC Davis.  It does come in handy when I wonder when to expect my seedlings to germinate, or if I should give up on them.  But mostly it's for curiosity's sake.  And it gives me an idea of what to be watching for in the spring that might have come up and needs attention.  (As if I don't watch EVERYthing like a hawk as soon as the weather stops dipping into freezing territory.)

I have a complex set of records in an Open Office spreadsheet file that includes all my plot layouts, my seed starts, and a record of rain, seedling emergence, flowering and even bird sightings.

The weather finally turned toward spring-like so I could set up my portable greenhouse, but the very next day we had winds of 25 - 35 mph all day long.  I thought for certain they would rip the aluminum and plastic thing out of the ground, but after last year's experience, I  managed to batten it down securely enough that it held.  

I'm afraid my ornamental vegetable garden is taking a back seat to my expanding rose and flower gardens.  So expect to see as much or more of pretty flowers as you do vegetables.  There's a list in the sidebar index (labels) on the right hand side of the page, so you can find specific plants you might be interested in rather than have to wade through a bunch of things you're not.

It all started with the roses.  I planned to buy one hybrid tea rose per year, keep it in a pot on the patio until fall, then plant it in the garden.  I planned for a total of five over five years.  Hahahahahahaha.  It's been three, and after moving two shrubs out of that plot that turned out to be more rambling than upright and replacing them with FOUR new varieties, there are  twice that many in the rose garden.  There's no space for  more. (This year I also added a climber on the garden arbor and two ramblers, thanks to a generous birthday gift from my sister, on the yard bank near the highway.)

It's only fitting.  The name of this farm is "Rose Hill".  I assume at one time a hundred years or so back, there were roses.  I'm going to try to air layer most of them so I'll always have at least two of each in case I lose one.  I've not had any luck trying to root them, so I'm hoping I'll have better luck this way.  And then what will I do with them if I do have good luck?  Prepare another plot, but boy, do I dread that chore again.

I order my roses from Palatine Roses in Canada, and they send beautifully healthy bare root plants in March.  This year,  from them and other nurseries, I ended up with seven roses, a lily, Siberian iris, and echinacea that I couldn't plant, because the GROUND WAS STILL FROZEN and the top 2 - 6" was positively saturated from snow melt and rain until just a few days ago.

The ground was so wet that I put on my wellies and walked the vegetable garden paths that will eventually get mulched, sinking in enough to make troughs.  I won't have to do any digging out of the soil this year to keep the mulch in its place!

The bulbs, roots and tubers I ordered can keep until the ground is suitable for planting.  (I did manage to get the Siberian iris in the ground today.)  But I had to heel in the roses, and to do that, I had to have soil, not bog.  The day before they were to arrive, knowing it was going to rain again the next day, I took large plastic sheets and tarped my giant compost hill, so that when the roses arrived, I could find a dry enough spot to bury them.

 Two days following that, I was able to dig holes in the rose garden, amending them with dry - well, drier - composted manure, and given three sunny days, I was able to finally able to plant them.

I also planted two muscat grapes at the garden arbor, and potted up a 'Pink Lemonade' blueberry, all of which I got from Stark Brothers.  I had potted up the grape vines until I could get them into the ground, but I had too many roses to do that with them.

I'm slowly taking over more and more of the wildflower garden next to my rose garden to plant perennials and cut flowers.  Don't worry.  The wildflower garden is huge.  I say slowly, because it is a bear of a job to dig out 20-year-old echinacea, monarda, rudbeckia, and the like.  Not to mention the fescue and other grasses that are taking over.

Perennial bed in progress

I finally got smart last year. When I raked up leaves for this year's mulch, I chopped them up with the lawnmower before bagging them.  Works very well.

Thanks to a generous Christmas gift from my son, I got some nice manual hedge clippers that work very nicely, and I used them to chop back the lavender, tarragon, oregano, perovskia and mound fescue.  Soooo much easier than using hand clippers!

Tabor Tools hedge shears

Check out my tools page (always linked at the top of the site) for other equipment I can't live without.

This is actually one of my favorite times of the year, seeing the new growth after a long winter, and knowing that my favorite perennials I grew from seed survived.

Lupine

Belladonna Delphinium

So, we're off!  Another year.  I wonder how this one will go.

Don't forget to let me know about your gardening adventures.  Comments to the posts are always welcome.  Unlike most blogs, this particular design for some reason has the comment link at the top of each post instead of the bottom, and coding has become so much more complicated than when I used to do it that I can't find where to change it.

Be well, and enjoy the signs of spring.