A Few Hardy Souls: November GBBD

Hello Bloom Day friends!

I didn't think I would have anything to contribute this month.

But despite most nights below freezing, and even a couple solid days of snow cover, I still have a few blooms hanging in there!

 

Winter--what?

 

A virtual round of applause for these tough beauties:

 

I knew unassuming salvia could take the heat.

It looks like the cold is also just a minor irritation at this point.

Even the leaves are still green and fresh-looking.

The dead, yellow phlox in the background is how just about everything else looks right now.

 

I had an inkling this hollyhock was tough as nails when it lived on our back deck this summer. It had died completely, I thought, so I stopped watering it. Two months later, I noticed small leaves and buds forming around the base. So I started watering it again.

Now it is out front in its new home and blooming like all I've done is treat it right.

Now that's my kind of plant!

Of course, the mums are hanging in there.

The colorful foliage almost swallows up the blossoms.

 

Almost as good as blooms this time of year:

the last of the fall colors.

This the strawberry patch.

It is easily visible from my kitchen window and I just can't get enough.

Those brilliant colors make me happy.

I was excited for the fruit.

I had no idea a gorgeous fall display was part of the package!

Thank you, strawberries!

 

 

The delicate leaves on this hardy geranium are a little harder to see, but they also have some multi-toned fall colors going on. Love it!

These pretty purple 'Hens and chicks', along with the Echeveria, just got replanted in my back flowerbed, in the dry strip along the house.

Not a moment too soon, either, as it is snowing right now.

 

Happy Bloom Day!

 

Lupines & Daisies: June GBBD

Hello friends! I'm happy to linking up to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day once again.

It's a good chance for me to take a look around and see what's happening in my garden--and in yours.

 

Up on the back slope, lupines and daisies are coming on strong.

Both wild and fairly indifferent to work projects all kinds, not to mention unruly children (who, mine?) running roughshod over and around them.

The best part is: they compete with all the weeds and weedy grass up there!

Go! Go! Go!

 

[That little yellow lupine in the corner is one I planted, in hopes of starting a bicolor display. I'm sure I'll have to put in a few more if that's really going to happen.]

[Will somebody plant me, please?]

This lovely hollyhock is destined for the new flowerbed that will be built soon out front.

The dirt is there already. The blocks...not there.

On order, though! There is hope!

So in the meantime, it gets to live on the back deck.

I'm quite enjoying it back there. I hope it survives to live in its new home.

I've already put it into a bigger pot once.

One of these days maybe I'll learn to not buy things until I have a space for them!

We can't leave the backyard behind without a salute to the peas.

Soon, very soon, we will be picking peas straight from the garden.

And loving every minute of it.

 

 

Let's head to the front, shall we?

 

Front Flowerbed

Dianthus, 'May Night' salvia, plus a pink salvia--'Rose Queen,' maybe.

This flowerbed makes my heart happy.

Pretty soon purple phlox, shasta daisies, and yellow daylilies will join the show.

Maybe for next month! 

 

 



 My Dutch irises bloomed!

(Behind the salvia.)

 

Dutch iris.

I have only 5 of these, and now I'm thinking I need to scatter more little groups of them throughout this whole front flowerbed.

The dainty height they bring on those long slim stems is just perfect. 

I have to give this tough little viola a mention.

This is growing in the ground in front of the wall you can see above.

It was planted there last summer.

It has been neglected, walked on, covered with gravel, surrounded by weeds, frozen and snowed on--you name it, and it has probably happened to this viola.

Look at it! Blooming like it hasn't a care in the world.

Every time I see it down there, I'm impressed all over again.

And I make sure to step over it.

I'll end with a mystery.

Does anyone know what kind of bush this is?

Each branch has those flat clusters of small white flowers along the top side.

 

Happy June everyone!

Potting Up & Hardening Off

Or, what to do when you don't have a cold-frame built yet!

 My friend Colette gave me this brilliant idea.

So to harden these seedling off (i.e., get them ready for life outdoors full-time), I have them out on the back slope under these clear bins. In the afternoon, I either prop up the bin a bit, or take it off completely, if it's warm enough. Then cover them back up at night to keep them warm and keep the frost off.

So far so good.

Today the bins didn't come off at all, mostly because we were busy with other stuff--church, mother's day--all day. But tomorrow is supposed to be in the 60's (yes!) so I'm planning to give them some sun in the afternoon.

So here's what's out there:

 2 pumpkin plants, borage, several marigolds and cosmos, and a few basil.

Oh yeah, and some hollyhocks.

I took about 2.5 hours Saturday night and got the rest of the seedlings potted up that were still in the very small starting trays. Violas, petunias, more marigolds and cosmos, a few more basil and hollyhocks, and some delphiniums.

They all needed it pretty desperately, but I had been waiting, because I just didn't have any more window-sill space. Then I talked to Colette about starting to harden some off outside.  So that freed up my window-sill space.  Basically, I put all the bigger stuff outside, and kept the little ones in.

I figure in a couple of weeks, all these will be ready to be planted outside, and I can start hardening off the ones that are in my windowsill now.

p.s. I have no idea what to do with those beans! They are all flowering in the basement windowsill, even though it's about 15 degrees colder than the main level, and I only water them about once a week!

Go beans! I just...am not sure what to do with them. They are so tall that I think this bin method of hardening them off would smash them down too much.  I'll have to talk to Colette again and see if she has any ideas! I give her a hard time about being my personal extension agent! :)

The Ways of Seedlings

I haven't planted very many things from seed. So I have been fascinated to see how these different plants grow. You saw the beans last post. Here's the other half of that seedling tray:

 L-R: violas, Marigold Mars, and Marigold Bonanza mix

The violas, from such a tiny seed, start out with those 2 round seed leaves, then begin adding more leaves from the juncture of the leaves, one at a time, the same round type.

As you can see, the marigold 'Mars' is a dud. I haven't had a single one germinate! I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, or if I ought to call the seed company and have them send me out another package.

The other marigolds, though, are going strong in all the trays. They start with the long slender seed leaves on a short stem. Then first put out the two larger toothed leaves you see there. It's kind of hard to tell, but after those first two, the leaves grow in groups of 4, with 2 pairs, each coming below the bigger main leaf.

This tray, L-R: hollyhocks, violas, cosmos, basil

So the hollyhocks' seed leaves are big and round in shape, then their new leaves come one at a time, also round, growing from the juncture of the seed leaves.

Cosmos resemble marigolds at first, with the 2 long, slender seed leaves, but their stems are all about 4 inches tall. Then the true leaves, as you can see, are very finely cut, coming out in pairs close to the seed leaves.

The basil has been very interesting to watch, too. The seed leaves are those larger, spade-shaped leaves. They originally were so close together they looked like one leaf, with two little eyes in the middle. Now they are growing apart and the true leaves are appearing, so far in pairs, right from the middle.

By the time the trays are at this point, you don't need to check your paper anymore for what's what. It's very obvious by their growth.  I have really enjoyed this learning process so far!

Seedlings up!

We've got some seedlings up already! I wasn't expecting to see any for another week or so.
As far as I can tell from my awesome note-taking skills, they are marigolds, cosmos, and hollyhocks.
Jacob and I were so excited when we saw them!

Some of them were bending sideways under the saran wrap, so we used toothpicks to make a little saran wrap tent for them. Some of them were quite dry, so I gave them a little drink.

Seed Starting

 We had fun starting some seeds today!

Since my only sunny windowsills are in the kitchen, and they are narrow, I actually took one of the trays and cut it down to fit, so 4 rows wide by 8 long. I ended up not using the second tray. I will probably hold onto it for next year, though.  These trays were really hard to pry apart, and some of the cells were damaged in the process. So not all of my trays ended up exactly the same size.

Tray 1: 4x8, above stove

2 rows + 1 cell: Cosmos--Sensation mix

3 cells + 3 rows: Marigold 'Mars'

2 rows: Marigold--Bonanza Mix

Tray 2: 4x7, above stove

3 cells + 2 rows: Petunia EasyWave Beachcomber mix

3 rows: Genovese Basil

1 row: Hollyhock--Summer Carnival mix

Jacob's Tray: 3 cells + 4 cells, above stove

3 cells: Royal Burgundy beans

1 cell: Cosmos--sensation

1 cell: Basil

2 cells: Marigold Bonanza

Tray 3: 4x7, above sink

3 rows: RB beans

2 rows: Marigold bonanza

1 row: Marigold Mars

1 row: Viola--Johnny Jump-ups

Tray 4: 4x6, above sink

2 rows: Hollyhock Summer Carnival

1 row: Viola

2 rows: Cosmos sensations

1 row: Genovese Basil

Since this was my first time doing this, I thought I would just list out what we did:

1. Poured special seed starting dirt into bin, added water, mixed with our hands until all medium was evenly moist, more or less.

2. Filled seed tray with mixture.

3. Put seeds in, covered them with more soil if needed.

4. Recorded what was growing in each one.

4. Covered trays with saran wrap and put on window sill.

I'm not sure if I'll have to water them at some point or not. Almost all of them say they should come up in 7-10 days, so I marked the calendar that we planted them--that way we'll know when to start looking for some green!

These seed trays are super small, so I may need to pot them up to a bigger size at some point before putting them outside. We'll see.

Seeds to plant outside: Royal Chantenay carrots, Super Sugar Snap peas, Wildflower Mix (on the slope), Bellflowers, and Sunflowers (when it gets warmer).