Sunday, February 28, 2010

Anticipation

All of the flower seeds have arrived, and yesterday I planted delphiniums (cross your fingers), pansies, phlox, dahlias, coleus, snapdragons, geraniums (1 is already germinating!), violas, and dianthus. And a multi-herb dish garden. And there's another stack of flowers I plan to direct sow in Spring.

Mike's jalapenos and bell peppers have all sprouted, but we're still awaiting his fancy hot peppers...

As far as planning is concerned, we're going to construct a planter made of gray landscaping stone in front of the house. Here I plan to test just how much shade a flowering plant can tolerate. And there are sooo many awesome shade plants, so I'm going to narrow it down to only cool colors and interesting foliage. Here is my rough sketch:

This includes Siberian bugloss, monkshood, coral bells, and astilbe. I'll probably use Solomon's seal, hosta(s), and ferns I already have. In front of the windows would be violets, forget-me-nots, and lily of the valley. Of course, if nothing tolerates the shade, I'll have to go with a pure-hosta garden, or maybe a single boring groundcover (aaaah!).

Mike has generously offered to dig up Spring wildflowers from the woods to landscape our house. Besides the legal issues, I don't think these would have enough presence to produce eye-catching curb appeal. Not that there aren't really cool wild plants out there. These are some Mike found last year:

(Yeah, this is a pigment-less flower in the Iowa forest. Totally looks like it's from Brazil.)

(The fungi are all edible, but not all yummy. Check out the blue shroom!)

Breck's, who gave us those bulbs last fall, has a decent selection of shade plants, and conveniently is giving $25 off orders of $50 or more. And now, I'd better check out the budget and measure the space between those two windows. I have plants to buy!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Gardens Indoors

Houseplants, freshly repotted and excited about a summer outdoors. And the peace lily is blooming!



Mike's trove of peppers and stuff. Allegedly one of the jalapenos is beginning to show a little green... I don't see it, but this is from a man that's known to half dig up seeds to see if they're germinating.


And my indoor bulbs are GROWING! This pot may or may not actually bloom this year, since it's its second year indoors- can't wait to see!

Bad pic, but these are lots of little blooms to be.

Still awaiting a few more flower seeds in the mail, but it's time to start planting tonight!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

The very first signs

The bulbs I potted inside are starting to sprout...


And in front of this window, behind this snowdrift

the crocuses have sprouted!!!

And today I finish buying my seeds, deciding what to start indoors, and start to plan exactly what I'm going to plant where this year!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Winter Attacks

Right now, my house is surrounded by a fortress of white stuff. Pretty, sparkly snow... that makes things look all wintery and drifted... but I just wish it would go away! Thankfully, mid-February means serious garden-planning, because the first buds can't be more than a month away, and the last frost couldn't be more than two.

Close your eyes unless you can handle the graphic horror of the initial attack by these un-welcome flakes. And to think I happily photographed their deceptive beauty, before I ever realized they would suffocate my petaled friends and never, ever let them go.


Way too dramatic, I know. But how else can I mourn the loss of leaves and sunshine when I look outside and all I see is this:



No, I love winter, truly I do. It just makes me sick.

Does anyone know the diagnostic criteria for seasonal affective disorder?

Bulbs

Did I tell you about the great bulb miracle of 2009?

One day last fall, dozens of beautiful bulbs, somewhere near $200 worth, showed up on my doorstep. Turns out the previous owner had ordered them and the company had accidentally shipped this particular box to her old address. And what did they say when Mike called them? Keep them. Check out our Web site to see how to plant them. We'll send the lady a new box.

Are you kidding me?!

So in my worries about how much to spend on bulbs, since I've never planted any and have no idea if I'll just screw them up, I ended up with more bulbs than I could even plant! But even more miraculous still is that those we never got around to planting (blame the 80 hour work weeks, people!), have now started to sprout in their little netted bulb bags.

Perhaps there's a lesson in this for me? To be more adventurous with my gardening; the worst that could happen is a few dead plants! And some lost money. But it's not like I get my gardening money back anyway. It just turns into pretty plants. And Grandma always said growing plants is like gambling, although a little more so in her case, since she was a farmer.

And now, I excitedly await the crocuses and irises, other bulbs I don't know the names of, the the five glorious, big red tulips that just may sprout this Spring. If the stupid chipmunks didn't eat them all. Until then, we'll see if I can force the neglected, already-sprouting bulbs indoors!

Planning for 2010

This Spring, I hope to do several projects to spruce up the outdoors. First will be this depressed plot in front of the house, under the too-shady tree. I noticed it was beyond sad and destroying our curb appeal through the snowdrifts last week. Although the bench, wilted hosta, and stolen Solomon's seal did a little, I think I'll go for a more substantial planter and mulch with as many deep-shade loving plants as I can get to grow here.


I love growing fresh food, but I'm lucky that the husband loves it more, freeing me up to focus on my true love of flowers. As you can see, Mike marked out his plot for next year before any snow flew. This baby will be fenced in to keep the bunny friends fenced out. In addition to every pepper, squash, and bean variety known to man, we'll have a few heirloom tomatoes, garlic (already planted in the early snow), several kinds of herbs, and who knows what else the man already ordered from the seed catolog!



Full, flowering shrubs quicken my heart the most, but there really are no sunny spots to plant them, so I've decided to beef up my seed-starting skills this year. There will be flowers I've successfully grown from seed before (zinnias, nasturtiums, sweet peas, sunflowers), favorites I've only bought as baby plants (coleus, dahlias, violas, snapdragons), and what I'm most excited about, new beauties I've never planted before (stock, columbines, delphinium). The big question is which ones the bunnies will try to eat-- no impatiens this year!!

There may be many failures; I may blow my entire gardening budget on seeds that wilt before gaining their second sets of leaves; there may be no blooms before mid-August. But I've already prepared my husband for the possibility of spending a bunch of money on plants on impulse once May hits, so what's there to lose?

Remembering Late Summer Beauty...

....In the middle of February





New Friends

Fall 2009 saw the addition of a few new perennials to my front door flower garden. This toad lily looks more like an orchid... so cool!

Harvest 2009







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About Me

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I'm a flower enthusiast married to a man with organic farming dreams. We're enjoying developing our own outdoor paradise in our first home, with 3 little gardening girls by our side. When not spending my free time gardening, I'm recording our memories in my pocket page scrapbooks.