Well, as it stands right now, I've given up on all of my flowerbeds. I just can't deal with the quack grass any more and it has taken over 90 percent of the beds. I've waved the white flag of surrender. The quack grass wins! It's the only thing I hate about living in the country surrounded by farm fields that never get mown. ~sigh~
I'll continue the war in the veg garden, though. We might have an ugly lawn, but we still gotta eat!
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Just a quick update -
Busy, busy!!!
I've gotten tons of WinterSown stuff transplanted to the flowerbeds . . . finally! This weather has been crazy. We had another freeze Wednesday night, so I was very glad I was a slacker getting things planted.
Time for some crappy pics. I think someone messed with the camera settings and I can't get a good pic of anything lately!
I finally got a bloom from the May Apple. Yay!
Unfortunately, something ate the buds off the Virginia Bluebells and there's no sign of the Blood Root this year. ~sigh~
But the Cat Birds are back (my nosey birdie), so that's another yay! They haven't been here long enough yet to start getting comfortable with me enough to almost let me touch them. It won't take them long. It never does :)
And (gross out warning!!!) the wire worms are already out there in huge numbers. I don't mind spiders, snakes, bugs, but these things totally gross me out! Ick, ick, ick! I imagine you're pretty darn glad that this pic is awful . . .
Happy (spring has started - for real) Gardening!
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Some cool things going on this week...
From 35F and pictures of snow in my yard to 84F in the span of three days - Who knew!?
I'm soooo not complaining. It's gorgeous, it's about time, and we deserve it, damn it!
Airborne Adventures is already up and flyin' around our house for the season - Who knew!?
(I didn't get to the camera quick enough before it got away!)
Icicle Pansies really will overwinter in my crappy zone 5 - Who knew!?
Jumping spiders love graham crackers - Who knew!?
Apologies to the squeamish, I like spiders :)
And I didn't get a pic, but I held the first black swallowtail of the year. I think he may have recently emerged because the flight muscles weren't working so well yet and he was in an area where I'd thrown last fall's dead stalks of parsley and fennel. I never even remembered to check in the fall before I cleaned up! (this is why I usually leave my yard such a mess all winter) Sadly, he eventually took flight.
I have never seen Black Swallowtails this early in the year. The first of May? Really? - Who knew!?
Happy (who knew!?) Growing!
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This is a very strange year so far.
My daffs are usually opening the very last of their buds when the tulips are still tightly closed and deciding whether it's time to open theirs.
Here is this years situation -
The daffodils are just barely beginning to open their buds:
And the tulips, who should be at least two to three weeks behind total bloom of the daffs, look like this:
I have never, ever had tulips this far along this early in the year. Certainly not trying to beat out the daff blooms! (See the hyacinth tucked in the tulip foliage? Not even thinking of sending up a bloom yet. Say what?)
Honestly, I don't blame the tulips for thinking it must be time. The weather has been complete wackiness for the last month, going from record 80's F temps back down to freezing every night for this coming week.
I think I'd be a tad confused myself.
I sure hope this wackiness doesn't continue through the summer. Three sucky growing years in a row would, well . . . suck!
Happy (bloomin' tulips!) Growing!
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Spring seems to have sprung everywhere around the country except for here.
Fine! I'll just have to give it a little push . . .
I think Mr. Cardinal agrees with me. Hurry up Spring!
Happy (impatient for spring) Growing!
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The first thing people tell 'new-to-gardening' beginning gardeners is to do some research before you begin.
Good advice...
Most of these people take the most convenient way out and hit the internet.
But, there is so much misinformation wandering around on the web that they should probably take what information they find with a grain of salt, unless it is from a well known and trusted site. And, even then...
Take last frost dates as an example:
Old Farmers Almanac results for close to my area-
Syracuse, NY - Last spring frost date - April 28
Albany, NY - Last spring frost date - May 7
Victory Seed results for close to my area-
Syracuse, NY - Last spring frost date - May 14
Albany, NY - Last spring frost date - May 24
Big, big difference in dates.
And if you ask an experienced gardener in this neck of the woods - both WRONG.
Granted, Victory Seeds is close, but that date isn't anywhere near reliable. You'd be taking a huge gamble on believing those dates and planting warm weather veg and annuals that early.
Hardy annuals, no problem. Peppers, well...most likely dead if you didn't know enough to cover them.
Here, the safe date to plant is usually Memorial Day or after.
I almost always wait to plant on June 1, after checking the 10 day forecast. Sometimes I'll take that gamble, but not often. The last fog of winter was February 24, so the last frost should be before May 24 this year. According to the full moon for May, we shouldn't get one after the 20th. We'll see.
The problem most new gardeners run into is that they check, check, check the air temps and completely ignore the soil temperatures.
Warm season plants like warm soil much more than they care about warm air.
You can go ahead and plant, but if the soil is cool they'll just sit there doing nothing or end up stunted waiting for the ideal conditions. If you've lovingly nurtured your plants from seed all through the cold spring or don't have the cash to replace dead transplants, are you going to take the chance on gambling with Ma Nature?
I hope not.
Do you live at a weird elevation, slope or micro climate? Then those last frost dates are going to be even further off in one direction or the other.
So, got questions? Seriously, forget the net, find a book specific to your area or/and experienced gardeners and ask away.
You'll find the books inspirational and the gardeners more than happy to pass on their tips, tricks and hard learned knowledge.
It's snowing. Freaking snowing.
And I don't care - those Spirea are getting moved today if I have to do it in the middle of a blizzard with my winter coat and boots on!
Go ahead and bring it Mother Nature, because I don't care anymore about your foolishness and playing peek-a-boo with spring and old man Winter. Someone please tag Spring and say "your it" already, will ya?
Everything is popping up.
Here I was so anxious to see some growth, green of any kind.
Well, things are suddenly popping up everywhere after two days in the 60's.
Making an appearance:
Poppies (there are some coming up in a spot I don't remember planting them(surprise!) - anyone know which varieties have smooth edged leaves as apposed to ragged? No, they aren't prickers. lol)
Rhubarb (at least one lived!)
Peonies
Bleeding Heart
Delphinium
Martagon lily
Trout lily (I hope the Virginia Blue Bells, Mayapple and Jack-in-the-Pulpit that I bought with them made it. They were cheap, so who knows. No above-ground signs yet)
Lizard Tail
Chives
Clematis (three of them have large leaf buds)
Lupines
Spirea (also have leaf buds and I need to move them yet!)
Hollyhocks (have nice green leaves)
Weigela
Iris (showing new, green growth)
Daylily
Variegated Fountain Grass (WS'd last year - showing signs of green)
And, of course, there are tulip, hyacinth and dafs finally peeking up from the soil.
Poor things. Today is suppose to be the last day of decent weather before it all goes to hell - temps in the 20's, rain, snow, wind, you name it. Now I want everything to crawl back beneath the soil and wait for better weather. ~sigh~ 40 years of gardening and even though I know everything will be fine, I still worry about every single plant pulling through our crappy spring each year.
I dodged raindrops and got quite a bit accomplished today.
Go me!
I repaired the cracks in the pond stream. I hope I got them good enough. This winter was a real pisser on the concrete. We've never had a problem before, but this year beat the crap out of it. The stream wasn't the only thing to heave - every freaking perennial I have is sitting a few inches higher than it was in the fall.
I started weeding the cracks between the stone path (who said the weeds and grass could grow there all winter?), got half done and had to postpone the carnage due to a rain delay.
Hey, I got half done before another task ... ummm ... caught my attention before the next bout of rain vs plant-slave-lady. The soil is so pliable right now, it was pretty hard to resist digging in it.
After much searching (why, oh why do I never pay attention to where I store tools?) I found my happy little half-moon edger and went to town on one of the front flowerbeds. The grass had actually creeped into the bed a good 6 inches through winter. Urg!
But, might as well make it even bigger while I'm at it, right? The hubs will never notice? Ahem ... yeah, right.
Now, that bed is a foot wider. Alrighty then, so all that removed sod is flopped onto the lawn and looks like hell. Shhh! It'll go away (eventually).
The oldest son brought me some tiles someone was going to use as fill (no, no, no!) and I got them all into the ground as an edger for the bed. It looks pretty nice! They're brick colored, but only about a quarter inch thick, 4 inches wide and maybe 6 inches long. They worked nicely. I'll still have to keep an eye out for grass roots creeping between where the edges are butted together, but it's sure better than letting the grass just go to town and taking over the whole freaking flowerbed. I got them as tight to each other as possible. (who knew a trowel worked just as good as a rubber mallet?)
Another rain delay. I tried to work through it, but do you know how wet your butt can get when you're bent over and it's facing the sky? Yeah - enough said.
I finally got all the edging done, thought about finishing the weeding in the walkway, but decided the dianthus ('fire witch' I WSed last year) might as well be moved. It sure as heck isn't happy where it is and those tiles looked so lonely a whole foot away from anything green! So, I moved almost all of them, at least 50, to the edge of the front bed.
Honestly, that wasn't all that much work to do in one day, but for the first real after-winter workout it was more than my body thought was necessary. My legs and ankles hurt, my back aches, and my arms are asking if they could please fall off and be left in a heap on the floor. I'm kind of shocked that I'm hurting already. It's usually the next morning that the bod starts the protests.
But, it's a good hurt, you know? The, "I got something accomplished today," kind of hurt.
It sort of feels nice! We won't talk about the stained hands and dirt under the nails. Hmmm...now where did I stash those gloves...
5 inches of snow on the way.
Yup, that's what I get for wishing some heat would move in, or that spring would at least peek in at us and say, "I'm coming", or that Old Man Winter would just go away already.
If wishes were horses...I'd have a herd living under 200 feet of snow.
Serves me right for drooling over everyone's burst of yellows, whites and purples sprawled across their blogs.
Ok, I get it. I've been not such a good girl in the jealousy area.
No, really. I get it.
So, no more wishing!
Yes, ten degrees. Ten freaking degrees on March 25th. We're suppose to be somewhere around mid forties during the day, but it ain't happenin'.
Global warming, my ass. Yeah, I wish my ass was warm. :)
On the bright side - the sun is shining. Is it a sign when the hubs asks, "What the hell is that strange, bright, shiny, orb thingy in the sky?" I luuurve the sun! Welcome back. (snow is coming but I'm ignoring the forecast - what I don't know, I don't know, ya know?)
The tomatoes are up. Yay!
Large Yellow (came from wintersown.org, so unknown but delicious - according to the fam)
Rutgers
Yellow Pear (some I received in '06. thanks Kim!)
Beefsteak
San Marzano (another thanks to Kim)
Ace 55
Large Red Cherry
Ok, so it's weird that I'm psyched over growing tomatoes and don't eat them because I don't like them. Shhh!
I still have to get the buckets washed out. Half will go to my Aunt D. Since her MS is progressing, she can't bend down anymore without falling over. If she sits, she can't get up. So, hopefully the buckets will raise the veg plants up enough that she won't have so much trouble, and if she'll turn one over to sit on (the woman can be so stubborn sometimes!) she should be able to stand back up a little easier without falling over.
The peppers I had to resow (thanks to that dern James Mouse) are germinating. I'm not too concerned. We still have 8 weeks to last frost and I usually don't put them in the ground until a week or two after that, just to be on the safe side. I received a packet of leftover seed last year from one very kind man and there were a few of Parks 'Whoppers' seed included. I tried germinating half of them last year but got nothing and assumed the seed were too old. I tried again with the rest this year and got 2 to germ! I'm excited to see what they'll do.
Everything seems to be doing pretty well. The Hungarian Wax already have little peppers on them. Very cool!
I'm suppose to be hardening off my onions as of April 1 to get in the ground sometime around the 8th. Not gonna happen unless we get some kind of freak heat wave soon. Hey - I can hope!
Well,
if they can't, I'm never going to get them planted.
Snow - rain - hail - rain - snow, and yes, it's raining again at a pretty decent clip but will turn back to snow tonight. There are a few school delays from icing. A quick glance at the forecasted temps for the week tells me things aren't going to warm up any time soon.
Carol is already sowing seed in the ground and we're in the same damn zone. That pretty much shows how zone really doesn't mean a darn thing except the average low temp - she's seeing spring everywhere and we're still staring at Old Man Winter. Planting times can be eons apart. No wonder so many new gardeners are confused!
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It's suppose to hit 40 today, so yay!
I took a walk around the yard and cleaned up the perennials. Not much showing yet. What do I expect - the ground is still frozen solid and I was walking through patches of ice and snow!
Anyway, there are a few small, and I'm talking tiny, signs that spring can't be too far away.
I was cutting back the mums and chopping up the dead stems (I chop everything into really tiny pieces and leave it to do its thing rather than shluff it to the compost) and low and behold - new green growth! Wahoo!
Both the regular and variegated thyme are looking fantastic. Here and there I can see the dafs, tulips and hyacinths peeking up. The 'fire witch' dianthus got heaved like crazy this winter! But it's looking very healthy. I even had a gloriosa daisy make it through the winter!
The sweet williams look half mush, half nice and healthy. The allysum by the pond has spread like nuts. (definitely not a problem). I cut back the sedum and they're showing signs of waking up.
The rose campion looked good all winter (of course) and this should be the year I'll see blooms.
Obviously, there's no action in my wintersown containers yet, but I don't expect to see any until next month at the earliest.
I got the buddleia cut back. I'm not sure what to do with the cuttings. I don't want to chop them onto the compost pile or I'll end up with a million sprouts, sure as anything. It's really pissing me off that the ground is frozen like a rock and I can't pull all those freaking weeds. They're everywhere!
I have a real mess of labels spread all over the beds to pick up, but I'm sure I'll be wandering back out there this afternoon to do some more cleaning. Who can resist when it finally hits 40? God, it's been a long winter!
Seed Starting Weekend!
March 1st and 2nd. (Planned that pretty good, eh?)
Ready, set....start those seeds!
Not sure what seeds you should start inside? (yeah, yeah - or outside for you 'special' people where spring has already hit)
Try this ---> Grow Guide
Yes, it's also prominently displayed in my sidebar. I love the stupid thing!
So, whip out those seed packets, start dreaming of a lush full flowerbed or garden and...GO!
Don't forget to post a list of what you started this weekend in your blogs next week and let me know you did so I can be nosey. lol.
Yes, winter sowing containers count but, before you even try it, no, things you've already sown or have seedlings of don't count. I guess you'll just have to start more!
Enabler? Who, me?
Ki, who blogs at MucknMire, is asking everyone who has a blog to do a little write up and share the info about Project BudBurst.
From theBudBurst site:
"Join us in collecting important climate change data on the timing of leafing and flowering in your area through Project BudBurst! This national field campaign targets native tree and flower species across the country. With your help, we will be compiling valuable environmental and climate change information around the United States."
It started February 15th this year, (they collected data last year) and I'll bet all you lower zoners (yeah, I'm envious!) already have some of that 'BudBurst'. Isn't that a cool word?
Why not pop over to Ki's blog and give her post about it a quick read?
I know there was something along these lines that I participated in last year, but for the life of me, I can't remember what, or where, it was.
Well, shoot!
Every other zone 5-er seems so far ahead of us this year. Heck, I'm still WSing! Thank goodness, because I think every container rotted in this awful weather.
We seem to be stuck in some localized long-gimme-a-break-drawn-out-forever-it's-never-going-away winter. There's still snow on the ground :(
The peonies are barely jutting from the ground and finally (yes!) saw some daffodil blooms. The tulips are pretty much still sitting in limbo...they know it ain't quite over yet. Smart boogers!
Sunday, we got peas, broccoli, onion and cabbage planted - wet soil be darned.
The poor koi are still sitting in 40 degree water :( Grrr. And we expect another freeze tonight.
My clematis' have itty-bitty green leaf tips showing. I hope they'll be ok. Hostas are still nowhere to be seen. Poppies got up about 3 inches and stalled - maybe they know something.
But, of course, that freaking chocolate mint and its bishop weed buddies have sure made an appearance! How stupid was I?!
Here's hoping next weekend will bring us some better weather, because the forecast until at least that far ahead looks like total crap.
