First shoots

I am so pregnant and swollen that I can’t get my feet into any of my shoes right now, but yesterday I wore my Ugg slippers out for a little inspection of the flower beds. The chionodoxa are several inches tall, though aren’t anywhere near blooming yet. Daffodil tips are showing up all over the back border, as well as in the garage bed–those are the pink ones I transplanted from the other house, and I’m very glad they survived. There are also new shoots coming from the mums, pulmonaria, achillea, and the clump of orange poppies that were transplanted twice last summer, and that I had thought were probably dead. It’s charming of them to be so forgiving.

Spring will come. Some day.

Notes to self

I also finally put the back-border plants in. I’m leaving the heuchera and sedum in for the moment, hoping someone will take them on Saturday. I put in three fiery-orange geums, three apricot-colored first-year foxgloves to combat the increasing tendency toward white blooms in that population (next spring I will dig up all the white ones and transplant them out front, yes I will), and one apricot-colored coreopsis. The foxglove is proven to be deer-proof of course, the other two are experimental replacements for things that aren’t working out.

In front, I added three blue geraniums, three blue-and-white columbines, and the oh-so-on-sale hellebore. I adore hellebores. I just wish they didn’t cost $12 apiece.

The echinacea Coconut Lime and Prima Donna are finally blooming, which makes Sunset the only variety that didn’t bloom in its first year. The Tiki Torch arrived about a month ago, and is safely in the ground for overwintering. Both of the black snakeroots, which are both suffering brown edges on their leaves and some defoliation, make a single feeble attempt to bloom–which makes me think they’ll be alive next year.

Football mums are starting to bloom. The deer ate off some of them too severely for flowering to happen, I think, but others will be okay. French Vanilla is ready to go to town. Cushion mums are doing very well indeed; Odysseus, Jewel Box, and Honeycomb are all blooming already. The deer didn’t bother them at all. Note to self: next year, DO shear down all the football mums on July 1, so they grow back shorter and bushier in time to bloom. A lot of them are too leggy and have fallen down all over the place. Sparks will mow over them if he isn’t careful.

The four half-dead cleome I bought at the end of the nursery season are still alive, and I have high hopes that they will seed themselves all over tarnation for next year. Ditto all the coneflowers. Ditto all the bee balm. Ditto the one mature hollyhock… the little ones I started from seed are bug-eaten but still alive, so here’s hoping for a blooming patch of them next year.

Note to self: next year, stake the hollyhocks. Stake the gladiolus. Find a way to elevate Irish Spring bars in front of the lilies and gladiolus so they don’t get eaten off. Euell Gibbons says that lily buds are as tasty as green beans, y’know?

All of the squash and pumpkin vines died (we have a blight in Illinois). The okra is slowing down in the cooler weather. The French Breakfast radishes just weren’t all that. Sparks is pulling up the tomato plants, as we harvest the last fruits off of them. Note to self for next year: gourd vines MUST have something to climb. Planting them among the okra is a possibility… it’s sturdy enough to to hold them up.

I am going to plant the gooseberries in between the mint and the hollyhocks. The perennial herbs all have good purchase, by the way…. Tasha’s spearmint has emerged as the dominate variety, and the thyme and oregano are spreading everywhere. I really should get some stepping stones down this fall, so I don’t have to tear it up to get them down next spring.

Re-seeding the dill and cilantro failed. Parsley doesn’t bolt.

May 26

We put the eggplant and pepper seedlings in the ground last night. We will probably buy some hot pepper plants… and I will buy some more eggplants. I really want to harvest some, this year. I have had bad luck in the past.

The quarterback mum is alive. Three cheers.

Last night with dinner we had sauteed radish greens, and rhubarb crisp for dessert, out of our own garden.

May 24

Back from five days away. The number of maple seedlings that need to be pulled is truly fearsome. Note to selves, next time we decide to mulch, do it before the seeds fall.

Pulled the last of the radishes. Extremely pleased with the Easter Egg mix; it seems to contain four varieties (white, red, pink, purple). They’re all delicious, they were easy to grow with nearly 100% germination, and the greens are divine when sauteed. Do try some.

Peas are flowering. We must get a trellis for them.

Strawberries are beginning to redden.

The whole back border was looking rather wilted, so I gave it a good watering. I am surprised and disappointed to discover that, of all things, the echinacea are the first to droop at lack of water. Good grief, buck up!

The quarterback mum may have been the only casualty of the heat and drought. I watered it thoroughly, but it looks like it may have curled up and died. I have no luck with this variety, obviously, and ought to dig up some Coral Cavalier from my old house.

The sedum rosettes have suddenly stretched out, I supposed because of the rain followed by sun. I never liked it when they did that… but it couldn’t be helped. Saw pictures of garden borders full of them, and now want more. They could fill in the cracks between the lavender. All of the lavender plants look very happy, by the way. I think they will do well.

The new heuchera has sent out three new flower spikes.

The astilbe have formed buds.

The irises are all over, boo hoo.

May 18

The Bluestone order came in. I just put black snakeroot, plumbago, globe thistle, sea holly, and echinacea hybrids into the patio bed, and wished good luck to them. Most of the same things have done fine in the garage bed, so I’m confident.

Into the back border went monarda “Aquarius” to the left of the peonies (among the portulaca) and a replacement “Quarterback” football mum. The defunct Quarterback easily snapped when I pulled it up, but the inside of the stem was green, so I extracted the root ball and buried it beside the mystery-bush-that’s-almost-certainly-a-hibiscus. Then to the flowering quince, Chaenomeles toyo-nishiki. I had wanted to begin a bed of flowering quinces in the protected southern wall by the garage, though I can’t go full-out this season because Sparks is storing drainage pipe there. It’s currently filled with a few pathetic cedars that the deer gnaw to death, and a spray of scrubby something in the corner by the back border. I bought the quince to go there. A little bit of hacking at the scrubby stuff and a try with the shovel revealed that the turf there is too tough to dig up. It’ll have to be tilled and maybe pick-axed some other time. So, I planted the quince at the far other end of the back border, between the buddleia and the mystery-bush-that’s-almost-certainly-a-hibiscus. And there it will stay until, perhaps in a year, we get the original spot cleared out.

In other news, in the back border the honeycomb mum is going to bloom, dammit, seasonal or not. Go go little mum, I can hardly stop you now.

May 11

Can see now that some of the foxglove will be pink, hooray!

The clump of chives that had bloomed pink has opened a second wave of blossoms in purple. ???

Recognizable strawberries on our strawberry plants… oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Echinacea “Double Delight” is making a funny pathetic attempt to bud. It is, maybe, six inches tall.

Looks like the leafless “Quarterback” mum is going to die. Bluestone is shipping a replacement.

The transplanted shasta daisies are still less than a foot tall. Have seen other people’s clumps blooming. Don’t know if this is transplant shock or if they need more sun than they’re getting at the back of the garage bed… the snakeroot and gladiolus there seem happy.

The radishes are supposed to be ready in nine days, so we pulled one experimentally. The bulb was maybe 1/4″ across, so nine days is doubtful. Washed it off and nibbled it–radishey.