From faithful commentor Marvel:
I hope all’s well with you and yours, and that you’re finding time to sit and stare off at the far distance in your garden (WARNING: Do Not Attempt To Focus On ANYTHING In Your Garden. Yes, Yes, It ALL Needs Work, But Give Yourself A BREAK Every Now & Then – ‘K?).
A truthful representation of what’s up in my garden would convey simply a sweaty, groaning blur comprised of an uncountable repetitions of the age-old Bend And LIFT And Bend and STRETCH routine. Why does everything happen all at once in the Spring? Weeding unto death; rebuilding soil; transplanting seedlings; weeding the seedlings; weeding the weeds…it’s endless.
But there ARE wonderful moments. Here’s a snapshot of one such moment — a poppy that’d do Georgia O’Keefe proud.
We’re all slipping into Giddy here in the Willamette Valley (OR) — a toasty heat wave (low 90s) is on the way, JUST in time for the annual Master Gardeners’ plant sale. All our clear beds are prepped and waiting for the few veggies we start with, um, starts. The little veggies already in the ground are doing well, including (1) young lettuce enjoying a day in the shade whilst their pea-buddies laze in the sun; and (2) garlic & shallots planted last year (above) and this year’s onions. (If I could have planted olive oil and a small saute pan next to them, I would’ve.)
***********
What’s going on in your gardens this week?
Nicole
Question for the gardeners- I’m thinking about approaching my apartment building’s people and asking if I can, at my own expense, replant the large planters on our building’s rooftop. When we moved in, they had some kind of ornamental grass in them which has now died and the boxes haven’t been touched. If I go through with it, what kind of flowers (I’d prefer something with color) would you gardeners suggest? The boxes are about waist high, divided into six sections of about 18 inches square, and get full sun all day long (building is 12 stories high)- taller than most of the buildings near it so it doesn’t get any afternoon shadow.
WereBear
@Nicole: What a delightful option; is there enough heat that these planters dry out (thus, perhaps, the ornamental grasses?)
Some of my full sun favorites are cosmos (for pastel beauty and height) coneflowers (for reliable rugged color and more of a tap root for dry conditions) and miniature roses (if you can use some of that soil gel, and/or make a daily trip to make sure they have water.)
These are examples that will bloom their heads off all growing season.
Linda Featheringill
@Nicole:
You might search for “perennial full sun garden plans”.
Here is one such source:
http://www.plantationproducts.com/PerennialGardendesigns.htm
It sounds like a lovely idea. Seeds, of course would be cheaper than already started plants. Water could be an issue but some plants are more drought resistant than others.
If you go ahead with this, share pictures with us.
Linda Featheringill
I actually have a garden! Hooray! Had my doubts for a while.
It’s raised bed, 4×12. Tomatoes and pepper plants are in. Cucumbers, beans, and corn seeds are planted, as are green onion plants. We haven’t yet planted garlic, kale, and lettuce but I have the seeds and we’ll get those in the ground this coming week.
Hooray!
Altogether, this has cost me about 100.00. Should cost less next year.
Linda Featheringill
Daughter would like to plant some bushes that are colorful in the winter along the back fence. Current plants are deciduous, and apparently Philly doesn’t get enough snow to make the winter look interesting. She is tired of looking at “dead” plants along the back.
Suggestions?
WereBear
A serious favorite, growing wild around here, is red twig dogwood. Flowers, berries, and second only to holly for winter color.
Of course, holly is your ultimate Christmas plant.
OzarkHillbilly
Finally relented and planted my tomatoes Thursday and Friday. So what is my weather forecast for today?
Patchy frost before 8am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 64. Light northwest wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the morning.
Figures. Not likely up here on the ridge top, but Mother Nature just had f with me one more time. I can barely wait for the first prediction of thunderstorms with hail the size of baseballs. I actually went thru one of those once. Pretty damn impressive. Especially the spikes on them.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear:
Coneflowers, once established, are nearly indestructible. I do so love the tea roses, but in that location I would shoot for drought tolerance.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Remember that tea roses are not the only kind of roses!
But yes, roses of all kinds are heavy feeders & drinkers.
Still, my favorite; and I plant minis every spring. I hate to treat them as an annual, but I’m in a zone 3/4.
geg6
Onions, carrots and beets are in and peeking out. Tomatoes and peppers are still in the greenhouse but more than ready to go in but there’s frost warnings until Wednesday so they will have to stay in the greenhouse for now. Herbs (basil, thyme, rosemary, mint and chives) are almost ready to into pots to green up our deck. We have already harvested two handfuls of asparagus. Had some cut into little tiny pieces with pasta, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan the other night (my first solid food meal) and they were delish.
Linda Featheringill
@WereBear:
Red twig dogwood is a handsome plant. I’ll pass the suggestion along. Thanks.
Riley's enabler
Reading with envy. One of the things I lost in the divorce/great mirgration was my beloved garden. This is the first year in manymany that I haven’t put anything into the ground. I’m in a rental house, so no ability to put in beds; I’m limited to a few pots on the little porch. But the sun is good and I have some cheerful petunias to great.
Trying to look at it as a restful year, no weeding.
But damn. I miss my citrus trees, the figs, and all the fresh veggies.
Keep posting your goodies, I shall live vicariously through them!
jnfr
Still too much precipitation here to be able to dig, although at least it’s falling as rain now instead of snow. Tomatoes and eggplant seedlings are looking good, but they’d really like to get in the ground soon please.
Munira
I’ve been eating a lot of asparagus. I’ve planted peas, lettuce arugula and greens. Arugula and greens are already coming up. Lots tomato, squash, melon and cucumber plants started inside waiting for the danger of frost to be over here in southern Quebec. We finally had a nice long soaking rain and now the sun is out and I’m going out, too.
gelfling545
I got my mothers’ day present from daughter #1 & her kid yesterday: a cubic yard of mulch. They stayed & spread it, too + helped me dig out an overgrown rose bush. A very fine gift.
debit
This morning when I woke up it was 35 degrees. I haven’t done anything to my garden except stare resentfully at where it should be.
I am about to embark on a 70 mile bike ride. I’m cramping, it’s cold and I don’t want to. But I can’t think of a face saving way to weasel out, so off I go.
Linda Featheringill
@Riley’s enabler:
Container gardens for renters:
I have successfully used grocery bags, the cloth like reusable ones, as containers. Drainage is great and you can move them around if you need to chase the sunlight. You can grow almost any determinate veggy in these and flowers do well, too.
the Conster
@gelfling545:
Awesome. I’ve hired a Mexican gardener for Mother’s Day this year – a rare find for the Boston area. They’re pulling weeds, pruning and digging up a big pricker bush, then will lay 6.5 yards of mulch by hand. Worth every penny, since it’s gray and rainy here.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear:
I love all roses, climbing roses, red roses, white roses, peach roses (right now I have 5 growing)…. But ever since my wife found the little tiny rose bush growing in the middle of our new lawn where I (and the previous owner) had mowed it several times, I have a special place in my heart for the little ones! I look forward to it’s perfect little white blossoms all summer long.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: Oooops… 6 of the beauties in addition to the tea rose.
becca
Finally got everything but the rhubarb in, which will wait until fall.
This year has been a banner one for weeds here in Midtown Memphis. That is not always a bad thing, as we enjoy some of the prettiest uninvited guests I’ve ever seen – pink evening primrose and orange bugle vines, violets and heather, all sorts of others I can’t identify.
I noticed a new kind of dandelion popping up that looks like something Dr Seuss and Tim Burton dreamed up in collaboration. Two foot slender stalk that appears from a distance to be a mini-chrysanthemum, but , on closer inspection, is really a base mass of ominous looking gnarled leaves.
It’s like they’re saying “Fuck you, roundup!”.
OzarkHillbilly
@Riley’s enabler:
I admire your strength of character. I would probably just end it all.
Schlemizel
Colder than a well diggers ankle here still. Might have gotten to 40 yesterday with scattered rain (a tiny bit of snow) and 40 MPH winds – it sucked. Woke up today to 34 degrees but the sun is out at least.
But, this being Minnesota they are predicting 90 degrees on Tuesday – seriously.
Spent yesterday helping rebuild my sisters deck as she prepares to sell & move into a senior place. Paying for that today. paying for that today.
Schlemizel
@becca:
You sort of have to admire the dandelion. They have hung on very well & have adapted to our efforts to kill them.
I pluck the heads off of any one I see to prevent them from seeding before I can dig the roots out. I have noticed over the years that if I don’t get to the root right away and new heads appear they will be on shorter stems. If I just pop the flower and let them go again the new head will be at ground level.
OzarkHillbilly
In addition to the tomatoes I also put in sweet potatoes for the first time. The wife does love them so they are for her. Started on the sweet peppers yesterday and will finish planting them today. I sowed carrots directly and not a one come up. Maybe the soil was still too cold tho I could have sworn otherwise. Try try again.
Also want to say thanx to werebear and others who enlightened me to the wonders of Diatomaceous Earth. Went here on the internet to get some and COULD NOT make it happen. Every time I filled my cart and then went to checkout, their site said I had an empty cart. Gonna have to get the local computer genius to help me out with it. Meanwhile I did find it at the local Lowe’s but I still have to get a duster (hence the need of my wife’s assistance). Used it anyway yesterday and worked like a charm.
Maude
@Nicole:
Think about this first. Up on a roof, it is a lot hotter and the sun is stronger.
I had a roof garden, second story and it was a real pain.
The plants dried out very quickly on hot days. The heat and sun was difficult for them.
I wouldn’t do this unless you put up a shade cloth over them.
I had full sun plants and they had a hard time.
Roof gardens have some form of shade to protect the plants.
If the roof gets afternoon sun, you are not going to have a good time.
Do a smaller project lower down.
MomSense
I’m really pleased with the way the perennial beds are coming in–even the things I transplanted that had been abandoned by the previous owner.
Unfortunately the lawn is in terrible shape–we have grubs and big brown patches and it looks awful. It is definitely not greening with the rain.
Can anyone recommend a good source for organic lawn information. This is the start of my third year in a house whose gardens and lawn had been badly neglected. It looks to me like the soil can’t sustain healthy grass.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
Finally have a warm weekend day without rain today, so my goal is to prep my two 4×4 beds, put up the vertical supports and get ready for Lambeth Seed’s sale next week (they’re right in town here).
Then pay my son to mow the lawn and help spread the 30 bags of mulch the Boy Scouts delivered to our driveway two weeks ago.
And take out the weeds that overtook our foundation plantings.
peej
The tomato plants have been in their containers for the past 3 weeks. Now all I have to do is to figure out how to protect the plants for the next 2 nights of low temperatures.
the Conster
@MomSense:
You need to work on sweetening the soil – in the northeast everything is too acid. Lay down a lot of pelletized lime for starters, then you’re going to need to amend the soil in the brown patches by working top soil into them. I’ve found that those garden weasels work the best.
Riley's Enabler
@Linda Featheringill: I handy thought of that; they sit on the ground or hang up?
I have great sun, very little space (who pours a 7 by 7 pad? Why bother?). I could see repurposing garden hooks to hang a bag though- not destructive.
Wheels are turning, thanks!
Riley's Enabler
@OzarkHillbilly: Like a weed, I persevere. One day there will be gardens again.
quannlace
My indoor seedlings are coming along nicely.
But with my usual good timing, I sowed a lot of seeds outside, greens and the like, at what turned out to be at the end of a spell of beautiful weather. After three or four days of pounding rain, I wonder if anything will come up or just rot in the ground.
MomSense
@the Conster:
Thank you. I think you are right about the acidity and the need for topsoil and lime.
Kathi
Mebbe frost tonight/tomorrow night. Figures. Guess I’m spending Mother’s Day rigging protection for the raised veggie bed, which is already heavily planted…
Nicole
@Maude: I wish I had a lower down option, but we don’t even have a fire escape. There are only two of these boxes; it’s not a whole roof project. Thanks for the tips and warnings about heat; that gives me a place to start. Thank you, everyone!
Kristine
Outdoor mesclun coming along nicely. All sprouted, and leaves taking shape so I can begin to tell which is what.
Indoor seedlings, for whatever reason, died. They looked good at the start, but over the last week or two lost leaves and shriveled. Could have been the cool house temp–mid 60s, or maybe the potting mix or overwatering or who knows. I wound up going to the nursery and buying tomato and basil plants: Sweet Italian Basil and Juliet, Black Crim, and Kellogg’s Breakfast tomatoes. We’re experiencing a bit of a cold snap now, but I hope to plant them later in the week. First time in 4-5 years I have no tomatoes started from seeds.
As for the rest of the yard, a friend gave me a bunch of her ferns, and I planted them on the shady side of the house–they’re doing great. She also gave me some ginseng and a tall grass native to Illinois–forgot the names, but they’re coming up too. Crabapples are budding. Forsythia all over the neighborhood still in bloom, which should indicate how cold this spring has been–it usually blooms in late March-April.
Some daffs still opening. Begonias in the planter. The need for flowers is strong. Color. Want color.
rikyrah
have no garden, but I totally enjoy your weekly pics. I admire those that have the green thumbs.
JCT
Jealousy here — still trying to figure out how to have some semblance of a garden out here in the desert (Tucson).
Gretchen
@Nicole: Marigolds don’t mind heat, and 6-packs are pretty cheap. I’d second the cosmos idea too. And maybe a small ornamental grass for contrast, or some ivy spilling out down the side? Our garden center actaully arranges their plants for contrast in container planting, so you can pick from the tall-for-height group, the flowers-for-color group, and the spilling-over-the-side group for a nice variety in your container.
Does anyone here love David Austin roses as much as I do? I’ve got some I’ve had for years without spraying or fussing, and they have lovely old-fashioned-shaped fragrant roses. I’m not willing to spray or fuss, so my tea roses have all bit the dust and been replaced with Austin. Of course, some of the Austins have bit the dust also, but by trial and error I have some huge lovely ones now.
JR in WV
@MomSense:
For those grubs, which are often larvae for japanese beetles etc, sprinkle BT powder around the yard with a duster. The grubs will become sickened and die, which will improve the brown spots.
Grass and most plants have a hard time when their roots are being eaten.
We live in the deep woods, once the leaves come out there’s almost NO direct sun around the house. We go mostly with deep woods perennials – trillium, jack-in-the-pulpit, helleboros, spiderwort, hostas, astilbe, some others I don’t remember their names.
The soil is thin, when we started it was bare hard clay that had been underground for many years, perhaps even centuries. So then there was 4 or 5 bags of soil, composted manure, the plant goes in, then 3 or 4 bags of mulch.
Now I’m old, so we pour miracle-gro on the flowers, and they have to go with the soil they’ve got.
waratah
I called a local nursery to order a flower pot for my mother in law for Mothers day. She likes to have a pot on her walkway to the front door which needs plants that take all morning sun afternoon shade. This year they put a perilla, sunpatien, ice plant draping over the edge and rosemary. She loves it.
After looking up the sunpatiens I am anxious to go to the nursery and find some for my flower pots on my front porch.
artem1s
too rainy this weekend to do much in the garden. radishes have sprouted though. lettuce shouldn’t be far behind. next week i’m going to try and get the tomatoes in. i have about 15 plants i started in february and they are going wild. its starting to look like the night of the triffids in here.
artem1s
@Nicole:
maybe succulents would be a good idea? you could try potted cacti and bury the pots if they need to be taken in when it gets cold. My aloe plant can go weeks without watering with no visible distress.
Yatsuno
@JCT: I know people who garden in Phoenix with quite a bit of success. You could do some citrus or avocado trees, but just make sure you water them. Also tomatoes, peppers, and onions do well (Southwest diet) as well as eggplants and basil. Rosemary I swear will grow anywhere, as will mint. So you have quite a few options, the soil in Arizona is actually quite fertile. They used to grow cotton in the Valley of the Sun!
Moe Gamble
For the best garden, stop bending and digging and weeding and pest-killing. Read The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka. It’s a life-changer.
andy
Up here in Brainerd MN the gardening is as yet mostly of the aspirational kind, though the greenhouses are full of seedlings to buy- but it’ll be Memorial Day before it’s safe to put out the tomatoes. I’ve got a handful of fava beans I might plant in a few containers along with mixed greens/kale/radishes since that’s all cold-weather stuff anyway.
Chilly as the nights still are though, my chives are up, and have been up since a week after our last snowstorm about three weeks ago. It’s positively eerie how abrupt the change in seasons has been this year.
The bigger lakes, though, still have ice on them, which made the fishing opener yesterday extremely quiet…
Mnemosyne
@Yatsuno:
They still grow at least some of it there — we drove past several cotton fields when we visited last month. Apparently the Pima were involved in helping the USDA develop the strain in the early 1900s, which is why it’s named after them.
I need to drag myself down to the Armstrong Garden Center and talk to them about what to put in my neato balcony pots, but I won’t have time until the Great Bookcase Move is over. I’m thinking hummingbird plants (fuschia and salvia) in one and kitchen herbs in the other.
gvg
roof top gardens several stories up, have problems with wind drying as well as sun. Shade cloths and umbrellas catch the wind and get blown over if you don’t anchor very well and plan for it. Small potted trees also catch the wind and go airborn. Dryingf out is a big issue. Apparently the wind is much harder and faster for each story the garden is up.
I haven’t actually done this myself but I’ve read several interesting articals and thoughtg I might do it one day. If you google I’m pretty sure you can find the info but not if you don’t get hinted to look. There are some lovely ideas.
I think I might try succulents and mediterainian types first. keep the costs down while you learn too. Rosemary grows for me in hot full sun sand in Florida with a pretty stiff breeze. Needs watering to get established then forget. Pleasant smell when brushing past on lawn mower. Purslane for color. I guess lantana too though I don’t like them.
I personally would want some shade to make it more pleasant for me up there but shade that won’t blow away may cost more than you want to start with. The pleasantist ideas I saw in magazines had some trellisis to break the wind ans well as become shade. Very sturdy trellis work with seating. Easy water source was highly recomended too I think.
MomSense
@JR in WV:
So you are saying I should do something about the grubs rather than just watch the carnage the crows are inflicting on my side lawn! There is an insane feeding frenzy going on out there!
I love the plants you mention–please do post some pictures.