Containers Filled

As work on the garden expansion continues, I decided today would be a good day to get all my containers planted.

 

True to form, I did purples and pinks across the board.

Like last year, I put in a few perennials, which I plan to plant in my flowerbeds come fall. 

Here's what we've got:

 

#1: Tall & Skinny Blue Pot

This is all herbs this year.

I've got a pineapple sage (just for fun), plus one sweet basil and one purple basil 'Amethyst Improved.' I wanted rosemary, too, but have yet to find it for sale.

 

#2: Dark Blue Pot

Carpathian Bellflower (Campanula carpatica) in the middle, with 3 wave petunias spaced around it. Yes, it looks a little strange right now, but soon those petunias will start billowing, and I wanted something tall enough to still be seen over the petunias.

The bellflower will go in my front flowerbed this fall.

I already have the perfect spot picked out!

#3: Round blue pot

Loaded with pinks this time--literally!

Every year a dianthus practically leaps into my cart. This was the one!

Also in this one, 1 wave petunia in purple, light pink calibrachoa, and a few deep pink stems of stock.  I'm hoping once the dianthus is done with its main blooming, the rest will keep it going through the summer.

 

#4: Gray-Green Pot

These are "Regal" geraniums. They were each going to go in a separate container, but as the name might suggest, they did not play well with others. At least not the others I already had purchased. The pink has some deep red undertones that clashed with my other pink stuff, once I brought it home.

So they got their very own container, with only a few white lobelia on either side to share it with.

I hope Their Majesties are satisfied, and keep giving me those gorgeous blossoms all summer.

 

#5: Green Pot

 The tall plants sticking up are Snapdragons, 'Rocket Mix'. I have never tried snapdragons in a container before--or at all, actually. So I have no idea how this will go.

Also in there: white stock, deep pink & yellow calibrachoa, pink petunia.

I don't love it, but we'll see how it looks when things start to fill in a little more.

 

#6: Blue Boat

Last, but certainly not least, is the succulent boat.

No petunias this time to steal the show!

Clockwise from top left:

Blue Chalk Fingers 'Serpents' (Senecio vitalis). The tag says it produces white flower clusters and it's actually supposed to grow 12-18" high.

Jade 'Hobbit' (crassula ovate)

Zebra plant (Haworthia fasciata)  This one is my favorite!

Hens & chicks, which survived the winter in my back flowerbed.

Senecio 'Blazin' Glory' (Senecio cephalophorus) Supposed to have bright orange blooms

Aeonium 'Tip Top' (Aeonium arborescens)

 

I may move them a little closer together and put a couple others in there, as well.

And yes, I am planning to bring most of them inside this fall.

 

Do I really have SIX containers?

It's more than I thought, but still doesn't seem like enough!



Operation: Houseplant Rescue

My houseplants have to put up with a lot.

Things like only getting watered when they're visibly drooping, and pretty much being ignored the rest of the time. No fertilizer.

Did I mention not much water?

Somehow the philodendrons, spider plant, and the aloe have stuck with me anyhow. Oh, and a mystery plant I got at a garage sale, and an orchid that was given to me.

In fact, I think they were all given to me (except for the garage sale find.)

Lucky them.

I guess.

 

This orchid, by the way, is not the finicky customer all those websites would make it out to be. Just when I think I've killed it off for sure, it grows a new leaf, or blooms...again.

It hasn't been my favorite, because it sort of looked like an alien life form for a long time. It had a baby plant growing out of the top of a dead flower stem, complete with roots reaching into the sky.

Call me heartless, but I finally just snipped off the whole shebang.

I just can't handle orchid offspring right now.

It makes the plant look so much more normal.

It's better. Much, much, better.

 

ANYWAY, back to the topic of hand...

Oh pish! It can't be that bad! (I can hear you muttering.)

Oh yes, friends, it can.

It's pitiful, really.

Houseplants and I have had a rocky relationship from the beginning.

I like having them around, but I just don't have it in me to baby them.

...or provide basic care, it would seem.

 

It was past time to do something about these poor, long-suffering plants.

 

 Some of the extent of the problem becomes clear in this picture:

the overflowing aloe vera, several inches of orchid roots clearly visible in a pot way too big for it, and you can't see it, but the spider plant actually had a root coming up out of the top of the soil.

I've never seen that happen before with a spider plant.

 

Houseplants: post intervention

 

I can almost hear the spider plant's sigh of relief as it stretches out in its new pot. Ditto the aloe.

Meanwhile, the orchid is in a pot much more reasonable for its size, and wouldn't you know it--all the roots are actually covered up. I read somewhere you can use bark as a planting medium for orchids. So I got some mulch out of my flowerbed. It's probably the exact wrong thing to do, but knowing this orchid, it probably won't matter one bit.

One philodendron got a bigger pot, and the other got a new cache pot. The mystery plant in the back was put in a slightly smaller pot, as well.

 

I have 3 containers of aloe starts to give away now.

 

Okay, everybody set for the next couple of years?

Ha!

I only wish I was kidding.

Flowerbed Tour: Front

These front beds make me so happy.

I like to walk along the walls often to see what's blooming.

 

These were taken on May 23:

 

Overview, right side

I can hardly believe how tall the peonies have grown this year! (middle terrace)

They are twice the height they were last year, and all three loaded with buds!

 

Overview, middle

I like the contrast of the barberry on the bottom and the elderberry on top.

 

Overview, left (part-shade) side

I need to add compost to all the shrubs up front.

That little barberry is just a nub!

A pretty little nub, but still...

 

top terrace, looking toward driveway

 

I'm so tickled with this snowball bush!

Covered with blooms in its first year!

 

top terrace, looking toward elderberry

 

This was actually from May 16, I think.

Back when these tulips were blooming.

 

Middle terrace, May 23

Everything filling in, a few tulips.

 

Lamb's ears getting huge!

Plus, tulips, salvia, and columbine.

The tulips on this corner must get the most shade: they are last to open and last to be done.

 

middle terrace, part-shade side

I had to cut the 'Burgundy Iceberg' rose way back this spring.

I was afraid I had lost it at first.

I hope once the rest of the pine tree gets cut down up top, it will get enough sun to really thrive on this corner.

 

Bottom terrace, corner view

 

 A few more mini daffodils blooming at the same time as the English laurel. 

 

 closeup of the potentilla

I don't remember it even blooming last year.

I think it must be much happier in this new location.

Flowerbed Tour: Back

May 5:

 

Those tulips are so beautiful.

{sigh}

 

Overview from the deck-side.

...and from the gate towards the deck, complete with dead rose bush on the left.

 

Mockorange, surrounded by tulips.

 

May 23:

 

Overview

End of May is a lag time for this bed, without the big purple irises.

Tulips are done, mockorange and rose have yet to bloom.

I may have to do something about that.

 

'Yellow Topaz' rose.

Lots of buds--it should be gorgeous in another week or so.

Plus, see that one random iris in front?

I swear I did not plant that there.

It will have to be moved. 

 

Geum 'Totally Tangerine' is picking up the slack down on the far end of the bed.

Plus, poppy buds! (right side)

This dwarf pink iris 'Bubbles' has been a welcome addition.

 

The lipstick pink penstemon is going crazy this year!

I have 2 varieties planted, and they are both covered in blossoms.

 

Overview from the gate-side down.

Full, just not much blooming at the moment.

Flower Family

 

My two assistant gardeners have caught the flower arranging bug.

They can pick all the dandelions and wild flowers they want.

Also, they have free reign to pick any that are done and need to be deadheaded.

(They love that chore!)

Even so, they often beg to be allowed to pick the living flowers from my flowerbeds.

Thanks to our experience with Erin's Garden Appreciation Society last year, I have been much more willing to let them.

 

I'm a complete amateur myself, but we have talked about trying to get as long a stem as possible, to make it easier to arrange them in a vase. Also, how it's better to snip one here and there, rather than leave a big hole in the middle of a section.

Mostly, though, we have had fun choosing and arranging what we bring in.

Giving the bouquets to friends makes it even better.

 

This time my daughter realized we had little, medium, and big vases all being used.

A flower family!

 

 

 

Assistant flower pickers and garden helpers.

The biggest vase on the left ("Flower Daddy") had the remnants of my purchased Mother's Day bouquet in it. The rest of the Family was all home grown.

 

It was a bit painful at first, to allow my precious flowers to be cut.

But the sparkle in those eyes and their eagerness to be involved with the arrangements has been so worth it.

I am planning to add a section of cutting flowers to my vegetable garden this year--a small patch, probably 4x4. Just because it is so much fun to say "yes!" and see what they come up with.

 

Veggies and Berries Update

Almost everything is up! 

 

Potatoes

Since this photo was taken, I have filled the holes up to the top of the plants again.

 

Beets and spinach

The beets are about half up. I may use the extra space for spinach, as I have started thinning it out a bit and transplanting the seedlings.

Peas

I'm not sure why the ends are doing so much better than the middle.

 

Carrots are up in a few patches, but not much overall yet.

Berries

This is the raspberry patch, May 5:
 looking good, but nothing to write home about

May 5

 

Here it is just last week:

a solid wall of green.

 



They have filled out so much!

I think it's going to be our best crop ever.

 

And these little beauties are just covered with blossoms.

Strawberry season is soon to be upon us, and I for one can hardly wait! 

 

My 4 year old asked me the other day if she could pick some of the strawberry flowers.

"Ack! Nooooooo!"

At least she asked first, I guess.

 

Even my 'Blue Jay' blueberry bush has some blossoms on it.

Alas, nothing nearby can pollinate those blossoms, as the other two bushes have nary a flower to be seen. Good effort, though. Good effort.

 

Flowerbed Tour: Shade & slope

Shade Garden, May 5:

 

Overview: from the far end down

 

Brunnera leafing out, with a few mini daffodils.

Lady's mantle and heuchera slowly getting bigger.

 I finally ripped out that sickly fern.

This columbine was from a neighbor--they were going to rototill the spot where it was at and offered it to me. I knew columbines could live back here, so I gladly took it!

 

One of the heuchera's from VW Garden. 

 

Heuchera and columbine.

I love that electric pink color back here in the shade.

It lights up the whole bed!

 

Red-twig dogwood, also taking its time to leaf out.

  

Overview: this time from the yard end down.

 

May 23:

 

Overview: everything filling in, including slope grass encroaching!

 

Columbine in bloom.

The one the left must be a doubled form--it hardly looks like a columbine.

I love how the one on the right has 2 different colors of flowers on the same plant.

Pulmonaria ("lungwort") also a gift from the neighbor's.

It settled in very quickly and has already grown new leaves.

You can also see the hosta starting to leaf out.

Heuchera and violas.

Those little violas are from last year's plants.

Awesome!

The lilac bush.

Still no blooms, but it looks healthier this year than it has in the past. 

 

Slope: May 5

 

Tulips along the top of the garden wall.

 

Daffodils between the garden and the aspen.

 

and...May 23:

 

So cheerful. Glad they came back this year.