garden glory

pink clematis! (purple one just has fat buds and is all misshapen because I did a bad, hasty job of pruning it last year when not thinking straight) 

First columbine

Alliums are starting to open in the front bed

I thought my 'espresso' geranium was dead- but it's not! and blooming

Soon clary sage will too. One of my favorites.

progress in the garden

Tokyo bekana is big enough to eat now.

Same with the lettuces- 

and tatsoi- which is getting bitten however- probably flea beetles

I had sowed more beet seeds in the gaps and some are coming up now- smaller plants on either side of these larger ones

I really like sitting on the garden bench and looking at the light through the young beet leaves- with the red veins

Have mulched the turnips- though they probably don't need it - but it keeps the beds looking tidy and uniform.

Seems like just a week ago my peas were barely emerging-

and now they're climbing up

things growing

First true leaves of parsley!

My tomatoes have grown taller than the coldframe.

There's a few nights of frost still expected, I'll have to bring them in.

And move the plant cage again- it's now out on the deck protecting some things from my cat! I put a bit of fencing around the lower part of the deck railings, so the cats don't lean out so far looking like they'll jump. They really like hanging out on the deck with us now. But Eliza chomps all the plants. The foreground pot in here is of sprouted wheat I pulled out of the mulched beds and stuck in dirt for her- but I have to keep her from chewing it down to nothing, give her access to it only occasionally. Also protected are- thyme, chives (which she chewed a lot of) and dill. The mint pot is unsheltered, she leaves that one alone.

I also had to block her from getting onto the greenhouse shelves and biting plants in there. With the coldframe window.

The cats especially like being on the deck right now because there is a bird nesting under one corner of it- on top of that carpenter bee trap I hung.

Today I managed to get a few photos of it- I think they're house finches. The male has a rosy chest and head.

From above, you can put your eye to a crack between the boards and see straight into the nest- five small very pale blue eggs. I can't wait to see the baby birds hatch! 

one more sowing

Probably the last one of the year. Pole beans straight into pots in the greenhouse. Summer savory, basil and hyssop in starter trays on top of the fridge. Sage just pressed onto the top of seed starter mix, lidded with plastic and set by a window.

Outside, I dug up the smaller of my two lovage plants to take to swap next week- one plant is really far more than I need, and the bigger one sure is thriving. In its place I put the two smaller dill plants that were still in their little pots. (So now there's two in the garden and two in a large pot on the deck). Come fall I might dig up the larger lovage entirely, move it to be more centered in the bed. Right now it kind of crowds the edge.

work outside

I've been pulling dandelions and purple dead nettle. Think am starting to finally get ahead of the creeping jenny- the patch didn't take nearly as long to clear out this year as the last time I tackled it, and only three more pieces were showing green when I walked by it again today (pausing at once to tease those out of the ground). Cleared vinca off the smaller sideyard today, will get to the rest of it on the upper area around the lilac bush soon. 

Peonies and turtlehead are up, black-and-blue salvia showing lots of leaves, joe pye just starting to peek above the ground.

The week before when I thinned the beets, I tucked some of them back into the ground. Didn't expect a high survival rate, but actually most of them are still alive and have perked up again! So I tried the same with the carrots. The bed is full of weeds and unevenly spaced carrot seedlings, crowded here and there.

I tidied it up and all the pulled carrots that actually had some roots, put them back into the ground in blank spots, using the blade of a butter knife and sliding them into the gap, then pressing tight around. Except- I think a bunch of these weren't carrots after all, but grass of some kind? Did I just save a bunch of grass bits in neat little rows. They don't have the pretty ferny leaves. Will keep an eye on them and yank out again if I've made a mistake.

At least it looks more orderly now.

Have started eating tatsoi- there's not enough of it! and lovage, which is thick and lovely. And today had some sculpit sauteed in butter with rice and carrots. There's actually only one sculpit plant left in the herb bed- I think the winter cold did them in- and two that sprouted under the deck which I will move.

Monarda all seems to be missing from the rear flower bed, too. Just one or two, and lots of mock strawberry, where they used to be thick. I wonder if it was too cold for them (but all the echinacea are alive and well). However there's this one that was in bed 9, which I dug up and moved to the larger sideyard, so when multiplies itself I can restock the back area as well.

learning more IDs

that blueish plant I have admired so often I take photos of it almost every year, that changes leaf shape as it matures and sends up a small white flower when it gets taller? It's white avens, a native. So I'll happily continue to let it grow in parts of my yard. However, I also learned that the purple dead nettle (flanking the white avens upper right of second photo) is considered invasive, so now I pull that one.

This plant I think is cleavers, though I'll have to check if it's actually 'sticky' next time I find some. It tends to grow on my narrow sideyard among the gladiolas and joe pye weed.

Garlic mustard, highly invasive. I know to pull this one carefully in wet spring, to get all the roots without breaking. And I throw it away, not risking the compost. Too bad, as I find the leaf shape rather attractive.

If I have it right, this is a vetch and probably invasive-

Lastly, a speedwell. I am not sure, but my best guess is not native however one of the ones that is just naturalized in my area- not a huge problem but easy to pull out if I want to put something else there. I am trying to keep it from reaching the lawn.

Don't know this one but feel I ought to:

I am working on pulling out the ones I regret having planted- creeping jenny and bugleweed (where it has jumped into the lawn). And all the mock strawberry and vinca that was here before me.

up and up

My parsley came up yesterday! Doesn't look like much yet- little loops of stem unfolding.

More plants in the yard I am happy to see again- the mayapples I transplanted across the very back edge a year or two ago-

Lysimachia-

Pulled back some leaves to see the little shoots of late boneset-

Wild geranium trimmings I stuck in the ground various places the year before- are growing! (this one next to some ajuga)

And I'm trying to change how I feel about this plant- I now think it's some kind of fleabane, a native plant that provides early blooms for pollinators. There's a few clumps of it in the lawn that have annoyed me by coming back persistently every year- and they grow pretty fast after getting mowed over. I dug up and moved several into an area in the back around base of a shade tree- where I'd rather have something else not the yellow salvia anymore.