A Random Gardener

 

Fixed leaks in west irrigation lines, including removing several annoying sprayers that I have not liked for years.     

 

 Just taking a walk around the garden.... Grecian Windflower (Anemone blanda) in tomato bed, hot and dry Tulips, back yard under Redbud tree Striped Squill (a species of Puschkinia) Crocus, back yard ( a little late, due to shade) Sweet violet (viola odorata)

  The hawk moth does not seem to mind a messy garden.  Soaring over evening primrose, plumbago and oregano.   I like it, too, now passing by other's orderly gardens and coming back to mine. Today I counted  pearly everlasting, phlox, blue mist spirea, sunflowers, potentilla, mallow hollyhock, black-eyed susan, brown-eyed susan,  blackberry flowers, plumbago, purple asters, bee balm, goldenrod, oregano, tomatillo blossoms, borage, sage, larkspur, amenone, white bellflower, arugula flowers, tomatoe blossoms, squash blossoms, fennel, evening primrose, bean blossoms, catmint!

  Six inches of snow, heavy snow, broke branches and crushed plants.  I covered the tomatoes and they emerged fine afterwards.  I'm in a mad dash to finalize the drip system and do some serious newspaper and  mulching.  It's so satisfying!  I got the wood chips for free from a woman up on Balsam and the newspaper is finally being used.

Growing in back:  beets, turnips.  Germinated in a couple of days!! Planted Amante tomato by the pearly everlasting in the back. East garden:  Black Beauty zucchini, cantalope, two kinds of cukes

  Centaureus Montana, just blooming now.  Got this last fall from Elise.  It's in the back garden,  too. The start of crab apple tree blossoms.  Spectacular. Alot of work these last couple of days.  I covered large areas of the front garden with wet newspaper and mulch/branches from the blue spruces that fell.  Around the Nanking Cherry, Spirea, and Asian lilac.  Finished checking the drip system on west side.  Need to make sure everything is watered.  Planted five tomatoes in front west by door.  

Very slow start to veggies.  Cover crop impeding germination?? Tomato transplants - a bit late and not all of them made it. A packet of wild flower seeds starts to germinate. Got these from Daniel. Very happy to see this big fat bubblebee out on the Nanking Cherry blossoms  

Yesterday, I planted a give away from Elise.  A Centaurea Montana. The plants I adopted last year from Elise, lavender and some other ones.  I'll leave them here this year. Lilly of the valley Flowering: Service berry in east garden is almost done flowering. Nanking Cherry done flowering Lilly of the Valley is flowering Grass: Looks terrible...large bald spots, not sure what to do. Grape Hyacinth are all over the place. Goal of this year: to keep weeds at a dull roar, especially creeping bellflower  

 Planted in AeroGrow seed starter: March 20 10 days later (March 30) This photo April 6 (17 days after planting)

Ah, the  Daffodils Grape hyacinth (not shown) Hyacinth (below) radishes, about 1/2" tall tiny sprouts of lettuce garlic inside:  tomatoes and shallots

  I don't plant this way,   instead dispersing the seeds evenly across the soil.  Seeds don't care, they come up where they are planted. We will eat them anyway. I meant to do this years ago, every year,  in fact.   Beneath the soil, I find open ended tubes,  no wonder the flowers liked certain areas as  the water must have gushed out there,  and no where else that the flowers drooped  and sagged in the hot summer sun.  Oh, but I have not yet moved into orderly  laying of drip lines. The flowers will not care.

Karen M. and I planted seeds a couple of weeks ago, but I'm seeing precious little progress.  I decided to remove the cover crop and replant in the lower part of the bed to compare.  I also spread wild flower seed that Daniel used up in his yard, around the chokecherry tree.  It is small, so the plants will have plenty of sun. I covered all the seeds with a thin layer of soil and watered everything well. The next job is really to fix leaks in the drip system.  I don't remember what I did with all the native seeds I planted...I wrote it all down and of course, can't find anything.  The tomatoes in the basement are going crazy.  The germination rate has super high with this seed company.  I definitely am impressed.  Southern Seed Exchange is what it's called, I think....