Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

No one could have predicted…

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

Books are my comfort food!

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

… gradually, and then suddenly.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby 1

From master gardener, rescue angel, and beloved commentor Satby, April 20:

Because tomorrow we’re heading into two days of hard freezes overnight I went out at the tail end of today’s rain to take a few memorial pictures of the flowers now blooming. I’m going to cover what I can and cut some bouquets of what I can’t.

Front hugelkultur bed with spring bulbs and hydrangea
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby 2

Soon to be frozen crabapple in bloom
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby 3

Maroon tulips that have come back for 5 years — they were here when I moved in.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby 4

One of the double tulips that were supposed to be bicolor.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby 5

Front bed from the other side. Yes, those are corn starch packing noodles I recycled.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby 6

Side porch bed with tulips and Salome Daffodil, azalea just leafing out in the background.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby 7

At top: Rhododendron
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Update, May 6:

It’s been a couple of weeks and late tulips are supplanting the early spring daffodils. It’s been a mostly cool week since they bloomed, so they still look good…

Updated hugelkultur bed picture with late blooming Clayton flower:

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: An Update from Satby

***********

What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  2. 2.

    satby

    Thanks Anne Laurie! Those pictures looked sharper on my Pixel ?. There’s been 2 more light frosts, but every thing I covered seemed to come through ok. The confirmation will be if any fruit shows up.

  7. 7.

    satby

    @Steeplejack: That’s Clayton, elderly rottie mix boy who was unadoptable because he “purred” so enthusiastically at every adoption event 11 years ago he scared people. So I just kept him. He’s a love bug, but this is likely to be his last summer. His age is really showing, but he’s still ever alert for squirrels.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: The 2 weeks of single digit and below weather we got was not near enough to counter the 2 1/2 months of late fall and early spring that substituted for our winter.

  9. 9.

    satby

    @Baud: Thanks.

    Edit: today I was hoping to assemble a new raised bed I got from here, but it’s pouring rain and will only be a high of 48°.  So it won’t be today, and I don’t know when else I’ll have the time.

  11. 11.

    Mousebumples

    Great pictures, Satby! Such pretty flowers. Our daffodils and tulips are up, and I have some flowering on a cherry tree right now. Everything else is still weeks away…

    Related – my massage therapist was raving about your creams when I saw her last week. (She asked if I had plans for another order, but since I stocked up on the last order, I’m good for a bit longer! ?)

    Note for the moderators – apparently FYWP decided i should change my nym to my email? Please delete the comment in moderation. Thanks!

  12. 12.

    satby

    @Mousebumples: Thanks! And yes, I heard from her. I need to get back to her.

    Just went to feed my feral buddy who is nowhere in sight, and the rain is coming down hard. Bet the river floods if it rains all day, it was already running high and streams of water are running down both gutters of the street.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Not garden related, but this is Balloon Juice:

    Former President Barack Obama’s dog Bo died on Saturday from cancer, the Obamas said on social media.

    News of Bo’s passing was shared by Obama and his wife, Michelle, on Instagram, where both expressed sorrow at the passing of a dog the former president described as a “true friend and loyal companion.”

    “He tolerated all the fuss that came with being in the White House, had a big bark but no bite, loved to jump in the pool in the summer, was unflappable with children, lived for scraps around the dinner table, and had great hair,” Barack Obama wrote.
    …………………………….
    “He was there when Barack and I needed a break, sauntering into one of our offices like he owned the place, a ball clamped firmly in his teeth. He was there when we flew on Air Force One, when tens of thousands flocked to the South Lawn for the Easter Egg Roll, and when the Pope came to visit,” she wrote.

    Mrs. Obama wrote that she was grateful for the time the family got to spend with him due to the pandemic, and said that over the past year, “no one was happier than Bo.”

    “All his people were under one roof again,” she wrote.

  16. 16.

    Kristine

    Lovely flowers, satby. Thanks for the pics.  Hope everything lives through these blasted cold dips.

    Everything is popping here in NE Illinois even though we’re officially in a drought with occasional temperature dips for added fun. My Carnaval de Nice tulips have all opened. Once there were two. Now there are nineteen, all clustered in the same little spot. Some of my irises should open soon. I scavenged them during morning walks do I don’t know what variety they are. Crabapples are blooming. The wood anemones in the shady side yard have opened, and it looks like the cinnamon ferns I planted last year all survived their first winter. Rose of Sharon bushes are leafing out, and one remaining native columbine is close to opening—I had a bunch last two years but I don’t think they last long. Everything else is in various stages of exploding. I love spring.

  27. 27.

    Gin & Tonic

    Wish I could have tulips, but they’re too tasty for the deer.

    And happy Mother’s Day to those of you who are. Blue sky here this morning, and a crisp 47. When the mother in this house rises from her slumber, we have gardening chores to do. Something to take her mind off a bad day at the hospital yesterday.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    @satby:

    What a lovely spring yard! I hate what weather has done to spring this year. People here are worried about their hydrangeas blooming this summer.

  30. 30.

    Kristine

    @satby: those are beautiful. I love the doubles.

    Mine are actually singles. My folks planted them in the 90s along with a few hundred more tulips, daffodils, irises. After a few years, only the daffodils remained thanks to squirrels and other predators.

    Then a few years ago, a couple of CdN popped up. They’ve been multiplying ever since. They’re on the short side, maybe because they grew from young bulbs? I admit my tulip knowledge is lacking.

  32. 32.

    The Golux

    The drought we endured last August brought significant changes to our gardens.  Several large hollies that had been growing vigorously for 18 years dried to a crisp, an orange azalea that bloomed spectacularly last year did the same, and this year the ferns have thinned out considerably and the area that the petasites occupy is about a quarter of what it was last year.  The hydrangeas, other than the oak leafs, were hit particularly hard, especially the tall limelights by the street.  We keep discovering more losses every day, it seems.

  33. 33.

    satby

    @Gin & Tonic: Happy Mother’s Day to Mrs. G&T, and to all the other moms among us today.

    My kids sent nice gifts and I know they’ll call later. I made chicken and cheese enchiladas last night and will have that for dinner, considering the rain it looks like a cozy day at home is in store.

  34. 34.

    satby

    @The Golux: It wasn’t just drought, though that helped, but it looks like I lost a lilac and several perennials including rudbeckias (Black Eyed Susan) which I thought were pretty indestructible between the dry and the erratic cold. All along the front edge of my yard, which is the most exposed to weather and hardest to keep watered.

  36. 36.

    Buckeye

    The tulips here in Dayton are done for the year, as are almost all of the flower trees.

    The wisteria budded too early, because it was in the 80’s in late March, and then we’ve had several hard frosts since then. And a couple more possible this week.

    There is an area along the garage that I’ve been working on, and should have been working on years ago. The owner from about 30 years ago wasn’t interested in anything but rock gardens in that area. There was some poor quality soil over them, but nothing much grew. Now I’ve got an excess of flower seed, and the landlord finally chipped the piles of bark left over from the removed Chinese elm trees. So I can de-rock, mulch and sow seeds. I planet alliums last fall, the only bulbs I intend to plant there. Planted some sunflower mixes and other mixes, so hopefully in a month I’ll get an idea of what the ‘finished’ areas might look like.

  37. 37.

    MomSense

    I saw my dad for the first time in over a year and a half.  We had a really nice day.  He was so emotional when we left and that’s unlike him.  He missed everyone and was afraid he would never see us or home again.

    My poor garden will be neglected again this year because I plan to spend a lot of time on the porch with my dad this summer.
    Going to see my oldest this morning and then this afternoon will have an early dinner with kayak friends.

  44. 44.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Lovely garden, satby! It’s so nice to see it and the fruit (and flower) of your labors after reading so much about its development over the years. Our daffodils are on the way out and the columbines are starting to bloom. No tulips here, thanks to the various critters who devour them. Some of my perennials are returning–salvia, pineleaf penstemon, agastache, spirea–but quite a few are dry twigs that have declined to resurrect. So I’m going to seed the front bed with annuals and herbs and see how that works. You can buy a lot of seed packets for the cost of one artisanal xeric perennial.

    I finally got around to reinstalling and testing my automatic drip system for the vegetable beds. As always, I had to google how to set the timer since that’s done just once a year, well beyond the retention capacity of my memory, but after a few false starts, I got it to work (the drip timer, not my memory). Triumph! I need to replace a few clogged drip lines, but I can start transplanting my hardened-off seedlings today. If only the dad-blasted wind would stop. That said, it’s a hopeful time of year and the dining room table is lined up with seed packets to plot out the planting schematics, which makes me happy.

  46. 46.

    satby

    @MomSense: My poor garden will be neglected again this year because I plan to spend a lot of time on the porch with my dad this summer.

    Sounds like a beautiful summer to treasure. Gardens will always wait, they can’t go anywhere.

  47. 47.

    satby

    @JPL: @O. Felix Culpa: ?

    Edit: of course, just looking at the tulips I ordered inspired me to order two more types. And though I already ordered Exbury Azalea seeds to try to grow, I found a Mandarin Lights azalea for $6.99 at my local Tractor Supply. Yep, I bought it. I’m incorrigible.

  50. 50.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Whoa, how long does it take to grow an azalea from seed? I’ve always wondered how old the larger azaleas in my neighborhood are, but from seed???

  52. 52.

    oldgold

    Satby,

    Your yard is very impressive. Given the late frosts,  your flowers are a testament to mad gardening skills.

    I do have one suggestion. Have you considered planting a weeping willow – preferably close to the house?

  55. 55.

    FelonyGovt

    Lovely pics, Satby! Those purple rhododendrons are gorgeous!

    My herbs aren’t doing as well this year, don’t know why. But the lettuce I planted is yielding some nice salads.
    Happy Mother’s Day!

  57. 57.

    Jeffery

    Ever so slowly the yard and garden are coming together. I am especially grateful the weather remains cool. Makes doing stuff so much easier with my limited energy reserves.  When the heat rolls in I am pretty much done for the duration.

  58. 58.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby: It’s a shared addiction. Every year I allot myself a certain number of new plants and seed packets according to a well-defined plan and every year I buy just this one more, and just that one more, and etc.

  59. 59.

    LiminalOwl (formerly The Fat White Duchess)

    Satby, thank you for the lovely garden pictures. (And all of you who post. Inspiring to this non-gardener.)

  60. 60.

    opiejeanne

    Thanks for sharing your nice garden photos, Satby. I always enjoy looking at other people’s gardens even if I don’t always comment.

    My two daughters, their SOs, and my niece are coming for Mothers’ Day, but late in the afternoon. It’s not supposed to rain, supposed to be sunny and low 60s by then, just outside Seattle.  I’m making Italian White Bean and Sausage soup and a strawberry posset called Strawberry Dream, recipes thanks to Chef John with modifications by me. They think they’re going to help us put up the new greenhouse for us, but since they’re only arriving at 4 pm there’s a fat chance we’ll get very far. It’s in pre-assembled panels, but a project like this will require at least an hour of faffing around and arguing about what goes where. I’m not going to help with that part because I seem to have developed dyslexia in interpreting instructions. I verified it this week when we put together a wheelbarrow and then had to take it all apart and reassemble it the right way.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    Nice!
    This is my new favorite tool:

    This Floral Shovel has a small head that measures 8-1/4″L x 6″W – making it the perfect shovel for working around closely spaced plants

    It’s like a hand spade with a bigger blade but with a long handle and a rest for your foot so it’s much easier to dig. It all but eliminates kneeling while you’re working in a bed or row.

  63. 63.

    WaterGirl

    So jealous of your azalea/Rhododendron!  I still don’t really understand the difference between the two, all I know is that they are stunning.

    The one I bought after Easter 2 years ago has about 10 buds that look like they are ready to bloom.  The seemingly endless 12-hour rain last night thru today seems to be making the azalea and the grass happy, at least.  That’s the least it can do since it is destroying the blooms on my tree peony.

    I ordered 2 more azaleas this year, which arrived last week.  But you can’t plan when you have 3 nights of frost predicted, with a noah’s ark rain in between.

    This has been a great year for azaleas, dogwoods, and for white spirea around here.

  66. 66.

    jnfr

    I had an unusual experience this spring when I discovered two or three of my potted patio plants had rotted from being too wet all winter.

    This is totally bizarre for Colorado, where plants that die over the winter usually die from being too dry. I was trying to figure out why these did not come back (after growing steadily for years), and dug into the pots to find mushy corms and stems and such.

    Never have seen that in my 30 years of living here.

    ETA: Nice beds, satby!

  68. 68.

    satby

    @WaterGirl: I got lucky with that rhododendron because it was a good size when I bought it. Normally I never buy anything in thatcolor, but it’s so pretty in bloom! My much smaller azaleas haven’t done as well, but I think they need a little more sun. Deciduous azaleas are members of the rhododendron family, so not much difference, I don’t think.

    @debbie: for the price of one azalea I can get a packet of seeds shipped from Devon, UK, so I decided it’s worth the experiment. If I successfully grow just one I’ll break even.?

    @oldgold: Willows are never going to be planted in my yard. Ever. ?

  69. 69.

    StringOnAStick

    I’ve been doing hard labor, and have installed half a pallet of landscape blocks stacked two deep to deal with how high the dirt is in our yard and how low it is next door, which had resulted in the lower 4-6″ of the fence being buried. I’m 2 /3’s done, but I can sure tell I’m a couple of decades older than the last time I rehabilitated an entire yard, and this one is bigger.
    Today we are joining a volunteer group to work on a local small farm, the first time we’ve done this. A week ago the weather guess was 80, but now it will barely get over 50.

  73. 73.

    satby

    After multiple days over the past few weeks where we got frost overnight with no warning, the weather service sent out an advisory for tonight, which probably means it’ll be a hard freeze. Off to cover more plants ?

  74. 74.

    Dan B

    The Rhody looks like PJM. It’s a tough one and blooms in March in some years in Seattle.

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