This post covers my OTHER (non bulb) flowers, plantings in
general, landscape plans and the month of April. (except for the spring cat show – that will
be the next post.)
Let me see--- where to start.
Other flowers: Well –
the first year I planted Johnny jump ups or violas, I didn’t have much
happen. I had a few come back last year
(2012), and get bushy – but that’s it.
THIS year however, is a different story. I have a scattering of JJs popping up in the
area they are supposed to be in – that CLEARLY reseeded….. and I have a few
that aren’t where they should be. I
have a line in the area between my brick porch and a wooden “frame” There is about 4-6” gap that I think once
was filled with sand – now weeds typically grow there. I’ll take the JJs any day. There is even one growing in the middle of
the patio – between bricks. (I also end
up with way too many weeds on the patio.)
There is also one growing between stepping stones. These flowers have survived the snow waves
intact. Now I just have to make sure I don’t
accidently pull the non-flowering ones as weeds. I have a ton of weeds starting and I want to
get out there and dig /pull them up but have been doing other things planting
wise.
I noticed that I have several columbines coming back. Woot!
I admit that sometimes I have a hard time getting them established. If they die mid-summer – they aren’t coming
back. :(
The snapdragons, however look like they died. If your confused, as snapdragons are an
annual, let me explain.
When I lived at my condo, to my amazement my snapdragons
never fully died. I’d go outside and
see green and small leaves at the base in December, January, February. The tops died, but the bottoms never
did. Then they would “bush” back up in
the spring, larger then ever. This was
NOT re-seeding – though they did some of that too – this was the original plant
never fully dying.
I was hoping that they would do the same thing here – as I
planted them in the same area – the warmer south side of the house. They appeared to do this somewhat last year
(from 2011 snaps) but this year they
just look gone.
Other things that are coming back: My strawberries. Second year – I heard they spread – they
are. I even have a small one growing in
the pathway. There is a LOT of dead material left on top of them though. I’ve left it there because I figured that
kept the plants underneath warm, possibly was breaking down into nutrients the
new growth can use, and keeping weeds down.
However, I am going to have to remove that soon to allow the new growth
to come through better. My chives. Really unexpected, I thought chives were
annuals. I just moved them though… from
the side of the “lettuce” area to the
front. I left a big dirt ball around
them so I hope they take. My
oregano. Ok ok so that IS a perennial –
it just looked so DEAD that I didn’t think it would really come back. But now I see new grown mixed in with the
old. And a re-seed surprise ---- I
think my celery re-seeded.
The story: I planted
three small celery plants in 2011. I
never did anything with them because they were supposed to have an insanely
long growing season in cool weather which wasn’t going to happen. Well they never died in the winter of
2011-2012. So they bushed back up in
the summer of 2012. I DID eat some of
it – though I didn’t really try to harvest like they said (your supposed to
“bleach” or blanche or something it.) so
I don’t know if it was any good. It
SMELLS good though… so I bought some celery seeds this year.
Except I may not have needed to do so. See the celery went to seed last year. This year I was in the process (this past
weekend) of pulling up the dead plants to clean the garden area. I noticed lots and lots of little seedlings around
the base of the plant that I was also pulling up. I swore I got a wiff of celery. I sniffed the seedlings. Celery.
The ground is COVERED in that area with 100s of itty bitty
seedlings. The area to one side is
strawberries – the area to the other – mostly bare ground with very few weeds
yet. So I doubted these were
weeds. I smelled the seedling
blanket. Smells like celery!
We will see if it really is celery or if the ground somehow
absorbed the smell. – Hope they don’t
die in this latest round of storms.
Landscape: Well I
wanted to get some stuff done by the end of April. Mainly cutting the front. But the snow kept pushing us back more and
more. My landscaper is actually my
neighbor across the street and down two houses or so from me. (I can see his house from mine). He doesn’t charge me much but I’m probably
lower priority and he is behind on his other jobs. Well he was finally able to cut my xeriscape
down on Monday – ready for fresh growth.
He also took out two dead bushes in the back and started on my third
planter box. There are still a few
things left for him to do – that he is going to try to do by Sunday of this
week because he will be getting VERY busy soon. I had forgotten I wanted him to help me with
bookcases as well – putting them together.
Now I don’t know if he will have time for that. :(
I’m going to be putting up (well having him put up) some
latticework that I HOPE I’ll be able to cover with morning glories, moon
flowers, and another flower that I can’t spell without looking at the
packet. N something. I’m trying to grow some from seed right now
but at least half I’ll sew directly into the ground rather then transfer
seedlings. Most likely at the end of
May.
The third garden bed I plan to put some potatoes, and my
radish and carrots. I already got my
onion sets in, as well as lettuce, spinach and collards. I’m also going to try to plant snow peas – I
like them in the pod. I’m putting them
in the same place I’ll be putting squash plants. They will be finished about the time the
squash really gets going. They will be
put in a row at the back of the bed and also have a piece of trellis/lattice to
lean on.
Seeds: Indoors I’ve
planted my tomatoes and started some morning glories, moonflowers and the “N”
plants I mentioned earlier. I haven’t
had time to do the others yet, but I plan to plant (hopefully tonight – May
1st) extra lettuce, collards and spinach
- in case the stuff outside doesn’t come up. And carrots, radishes etc – even though I’m
planting them outside later, I’d like a back up inside. Just a few plants. I’m not planting squash inside because of
the large seeds I’ve never had a problem growing them from seed outside. Then I have to do my flowers. I have mixed results – I tend to kill them
inside so this time I’m hoping just to get them up and a few inches tall and
then plant outside. Last year I must
have scattered hundreds of baby snapdragon seeds – and nothing. Inside I put what I think is about 4 seeds in
and end up with 20 sprouts – that get leggy and do nothing and then die. I hope to plant them outside before they
get to that point – and hopefully they will establish themselves outside better
then directly sowing seeds outside. I’m
doing baby snaps, tall snaps, columbine (of which I already have two decent
plants that I started several months ago), and violas. (seeds I got from last year’s plants). I also have some Red yucca seeds from one of
my plants. (It’s name is misleading as
it’s not a yucca – and the flowers are more hot or deep pink then red.) - It’s a sloooooow growing plant but I’d
like to try.
The last thing I’m plant… though I may regret it… is apple
seeds. Some at bible study last fall
passed out apples from her apple tree.
And I saved some seeds. Don’t
know what I’ll do with the result if it’s a success but hey- I’m planting a few
just to see.
Oh! I almost forgot about the snow! Ok first – I telework most Monday’s
now. And for several weeks in a row it
snowed Mon-tue. For two of those weeks
I ended up teleworking Tue as well. The
first of those storms was the 8th into the 9th.
I believe that is the storm that dropped 10-12 inches. Roads were horrible and we got permission to
telework Tue --- so I just worked from home both Mon and Tue. It was nice to watch the snow come down –
and know I didn’t have to drive in it.
Then the next week – there were two storms. 15th into 16th and 16th into 17th. So I ended up teleworking Mon AND tue again
(15th and 16th). Wed I went to work, but
the snow intensified so much that we were let early on Wed the 17th. Another 10 or so inches… just divided by 3
days. By the weekend everything was
melted EXCEPT for the spot I wanted to plant my lettuce. (I’m just glad that it was perfect weather
during the cat show – the 13th and 14th)
.
One of my bosses had wondered if it was going to become a
habit. (For me to work tue as well as
mon) I told her that I don’t think so
because it can’t possibly snow three weeks in a row.
Really shouldn’t have said that --- it did.
But this time I NEEDED to be at work – it was starting to
get into rush and I had to be there to do the deposit if needed. Tuesday it took me 3x as long to get to
work. I made it… but was almost an hour
late. This time the snow stopped
before the afternoon and it was clear by the drive home.
-- But it again delayed my plans for landscaping and
planting.
Now (this week)…. it is one day off. The snow that is. Originally they were predicting a rain/snow
mix and high of 49 on Wednesday, May 1st.
– That changed to a high of 34 and snow. So it’s snowing right now --- as I
type. The road was warm enough that the
drive to work was fine this morning- I don’t know what it will be tonight. But then again I’m not posting this until
tonight. Hopefully this will be the
last *snow* storm this year. (bring on
the T-storms!)
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