Spring is getting here :-)

Yesterday I picked up my first load of mulch, along with some mushroom compost and potting soil.

I put the bags of mulch in an area that was the remains of a raised bed that I raked out but never got mulched last fall. It's going to be nice weather the rest of this week, so I'll open and spread them soon. The potting soil is for potting up the annuals I'm growing from seed. I've started some early, so they'll be farther along when they go in the ground, but I'll need to pot them up once before that.

Our soil temps are still pretty low, and not much is even poking up yet. That is likely because of the second blast of polar air we had in February, but it is going to be warmer than average this week so perhaps spring bulbs will start showing tips soon. 

My white hellebore had opening buds in December, but they were killed by the cold temps in January and February. I cut back the old foliage and dead flower buds today, but I don't know if it'll put out any new buds. The pink hellebore has something coming up, but I don't know if it'll be flowers or just leaves (like last year). 

Seedlings of four different salvias and pentas are coming along. This week I'm going to seed zinnias and sunflowers.

 

Returning Light

When I woke up this morning at 7 am, it was completely light out! Such a relief! And hopefully this past week is the last polar lobe we'll have to go through.

The world is in a dark time, but there are still joyful parts, and maybe it's more important now than ever to embrace them.

I've started some seeds: salvia and pentas. The red Summer Jewels sprang right up and already have a set of true leaves. The various blue salvias are proving to be very slow germinaters in comparison, but there are some coming up. 

Pentas are so funny --I have never in my life seen a tinier seedling. They are just microscopic for quite a while. I'm actually leaving them on the heating pad to see if they will grow a bit faster in warm soil. Last year they had hardly any growth by the time I had to get them in the garden.

I've started all of these a bit earlier than in past years, and I'm hoping to pinch and pot up at least the salvias in order to get blooms sooner. Last year's blue salvia didn't start blooming until September. 

I have zinnias, sunflowers, and tomatoes to start in March. Last spring the chipmunks ate all the sunflowers I seeded outside, so this year I'm starting them inside, and then caging them outside until the critters find them unappealing. 

Rob is slowly regaining some strength, and his PSA is holding steady at under one. For now, the hormone treatment is doing its job, and we go in to check numbers every three months.

The Dark Season

 

Today we disconnected, emptied, and put away the hoses. We collected the various garden art and secured it in the shed, and put Rob's gravity lounger in the garage.

Yesterday we were both quite depressed, and spent some time talking about how it feels to be surrounded by people who actively want to vote for someone so dumb and mean-spirited. 

But Rob's stage 4 cancer diagnosis this past spring put life in a different perspective for me. We've made it through 6 cycles of chemo, and are just beginning to move toward a more normal life again. The doctor's prognosis hasn't changed from the beginning: 3 to 12 years. Even though his blood work looks good, they simply can't predict how the remaining cancer cells will evolve. 

You are alive until you die, and I want to make sure we take advantage of that time doing the things he wants to do. Physically, it's a new and different normal for him, and sometimes he gets depressed about this. But I think the more we can be out in nature, exploring, the more he will be able to put the cancer in the background to enjoy his time. 

So we'll snuggle in for the dark season and celebrate the holidays, and then look forward to a new growing season and new places to enjoy.

Last of the Bulbs 2024

The Brecks bulb order arrived a few days ago. Some for me, and some for Emma's garden.

Today I put the crocus in a semicircle around the pink monarda in the third raised bed. I did use cayenne pepper when I planted these, since they are shallow (3") and small.

The honey lily turns out to get 3 to 4 feet tall, so that went in the back of the NW triangle garden.

Then I took a break :-) But the weather was so nice, I went back out. I dug up the great daffodils from the abandoned garden where Emma had marked them for me, and put most of them along the curve of the northeast garden, with a few extras near the entrance walk to the porch. 

Then I had two sets of daffodils from the Breck's order. 

The Original Poet's Daffodil (5 bulbs) went in front of the big pot by the mudroom porch. These are white with orange tipped cups.

The Golden Dawn daffodils I dug into the dragon head garden, around some other perennials that should help to hide the foliage after they bloom. They're near the carex, the plant with the very soft whitish foliage (whose name escapes me at the moment), and the dianthus. These are the same that I have already in the NW triangle bed with multiple flowers per stem.

Planting Bulbs and More

 

I got a set of bulbs from Longfield Gardens: 5 of an orange and dark red Asian lily, 5 of a white allium (Mt. Everest), 6 of the Purple Sensation allium, and about 25 of the little iris. 

I planted one white and three purple alliums to the left of the big pot off the mudroom porch. That is the location where I removed the extremely tall pink and white Asian lilies. Before I planted the bulbs, I added a bunch of compost, and moved the short garden phlox to the area. Then the alliums went in behind it. 

I put the Asian lilies in the NW area around the dragon head. So behind the hoary vervain there, and left of the clematis. I did slice and dig up one of the species tulip bulbs in that area unfortunately, but those are mostly farther to the left. 

I scattered the remaining allium bulbs in the dragon head bed, around other perennials that will hide the foliage of the allium as it dies back. Then the last set of bulbs, the little iris, went around the base of the clethra, where we'll be able to see them from the kitchen window in early spring.

The photo at the top is of the dragon bed, with all the pavers and bird scare tape trying to stop the wild turkeys. I added more scary tape today because it does seem to make a difference, even if it looks ridiculous. (Rob is in the background, cleaning his bike.)

Turkeys, Grrr.

 

The wild turkeys have spent a lot of time digging up the young plants I put in. It has been incredibly frustrating. I have covered most of the ground around the plants with pavers and boards, and finally put up bird-scare ribbon. I actually don't know if the ribbon is working because I haven't seen any turkeys in the yard since I put it up. Replanting and raking out all the mulch was getting very tiring. 

My order of agastache was canceled, along with one of the two groundcover sedums. I did receive one of the groundcover sedums, although I haven't put it in the ground yet. I'm still waiting on Tyler to finish the decking --I really am beginning to wonder if he's going to do the job. 

I did move some of the solidago fireworks from the east bed to the area in front of the hollyhocks and prairie dropseed grass. I also added one to the dragon bed, along the back. 

I am really looking forward to seeing this new bed next summer.

We also had a fiery skipper in the yard for the first time (unfortunately being killed by an ambush bug) --I think they're more common south of here. That's the photo above.

More Planting

With some additional rain in the forecast for today, I needed to get the 10 plants I had on hand in the ground yesterday. It was a nice cool morning for it, but the digging was really hard! Most of these plants went into the outer edge of the Dragon bed, where I pulled up landscaping fabric this spring. The dirt here is still so awful! I added quite a bit of compost with each plant.

Because I double-ordered hoary vervain, I put these two plants in the area behind the dragon head where I had removed some of the Baby Joe pye weed. That was easy digging, because I'd dug it up previously, and it has been mulched for several years. 

All the rest was like digging in dry cement, even after that 3/4" of rain. I actually dragged the hose around and watered the holes I dug for everything else, before putting the compost down and the plants in.

Behind and to the west of the baptisia, I put in the two amsonia plants. Behind and to the east of the baptisia I added the two obedient plants. 

The two heart-leaved asters went a few feet east of the armillary compass. 

Finally, after resting, I got the black cohash and goat's beard planted to the west of the hydrangea.

It has rained all day today, but it's only added up to 1/2". The next few days are sunny again, so I'll have to run the soaker hoses in a day or so. And I do still have Blue Fortune agastache, and two groundcover sedums arriving in mid-October. Plus the bulbs :-)