plant swap!

This was great. Local gardener's plant swap was today. Here's what I took to give away: two young tomato plants, three pots of sorrel divisions, a half dozen coleus, one african violet, a small pot of miniature geranium cuttings, three pots of jade cuttings, 

a pot of tradescantia 'bolivianus', some rooted spider plant babies, one pot of cuban oregano cuttings.

And here's what I brought home! The obvious: another ostrich fern.

Two Lysimachia Lanceolata var purpurea. They have purplish leaves, and will bloom yellow.

Four strawberry plants

a sad-looking handful of lamb's ears

Salvia lyrata (I think I got this plant before from swap, don't think it survived, hope to do better)

Red Monarda 

And what makes me most happy: some young trees and shrubs! American Persimmon:

Two Spicebush:

One Pawpaw (!!) (I think- it wasn't labeled)

and seven little Redbuds (!!!)

more spring stuff

Today pricked out the tomato seedlings into pots. 

Over half my tatsoi got eaten by a slug before I remembered to put out a beer trap. A single slug I think, because I only caught one medium-sized slimer, and the remaining three tatsoi are undamaged now. 

Squirrel is (as always) irritating me by digging in the beds. Where the peas, collards, lettuces and chard are planted it does little damage- I just fill in the holes again.

Where the young beets and turnips are coming up, quite a few have gotten destroyed. I put wire mesh over those beds, held down with rocks- but the squirrel digs through the mesh! Must be very determined to recover whatever nut he remembers hiding in that spot. Grr. I need to finally fence the garden, or build a few frames with chicken wire to cover the beds that are direct-sown more securely. 

My rhubarb is making funky fat flower stalks. Cutting them off to encourage more foliage instead. 

Delighted to find that the wormwood survived winter!

Bed of collard greens, tatsoi and tokyo bekana (although this picture from a week ago, plants are bigger now!)

Pink clematis is blooming!

more plants out, and 4th sowing

A few days ago I planted out parsley, dill and chervil. Parsley into planter boxes on the deck railing, chervil into deck pots, half the dill in deck pots and the rest in a garden bed, alongside the arugula (which has gone bitter now) and chard.

Last year was not a good one for summer savory, but this year looks promising! So many little seedlings I am probably going to double them up in pots, and discard the smallest.

Only eight tithonia seeds sprouted, but I got a whole thirty marigolds. Which is fewer than normal, and just enough to handle. I went ahead and potted them all up.

Moved basils to pots too- these are the purple aromatto.

More stuff got pricked out of seedling trays and potted today: blue sage (fewer than I'd like- only six)

Clary sage- saved from seeds on plants I bought at the nursery last year, then planted out just too late for the flowers to be enjoyed in the yard. But now I'll have plenty!

Mishap: my two fenugreek seedlings died one day when it got too hot in the mini greenhouse. I sowed borage in the empty tray, but then a far-too-tiny seedling sprouted the very next day. I think this is one of the fenugreek that hadn't sprouted the first time around.

A while back I sowed two large trays with over a dozen seeds from a cedar shrub (small tree?) that grew in my mother's yard. I'd harvested those seeds 12 years ago, wasn't sure any would sprout. Stratified them in cold, between a layer of damp sand in fridge for month and a half. Only one came up, so I am really trying to be careful with it!

Also potted one culinary sage- I'd sowed five or six seed but only got one. My sage out in the garden hasn't shown signs of growth. Also no sign of green onions yet this spring, I sowed a tray of that too. And two trays of celosia, to put out in the mailbox spot where nothing is growing yet.

what's coming up

Actually, that was not so hot for April yesteraday. I suppose it just felt so. I looked it up- record temperature for this area in April was 97°. Doing more cleanup around the yard- clearing away dead stems and foliage that I'd left overwinter, spreading mulch (still have a good supply from the maples we took out last year). The oakleaf and pannicle hydrangeas are leafing out, and the rose of sharons just barely starting to. Lilac is nearly in full leaf- but oddly one side of the plant has hardly any. Insect damage? Too much shade from the neighbor's tree? 

 Cranesbill are all sprouting up, bleeding hearts are in full bloom and the columbines look nice across the rear of the front flower bed, where there's nothing much else yet. Later on they'll be obscured by coleus and more when they die back in summer neat. My peonies are putting up shoots, hosta and gladiolas are emerging, yellow salvias already in full leaf around the base of trees. Ajuga spreading bright color so nicely, and I'm very happy to see the ostrich ferns emerging- there seem to be a few more this spring! Beautyberry is leafing, which makes me very happy, and all the heucherellas are still here (not eaten up by rabbits yet). Joe pye weed is growing back. I need to tidy up the liriope and hellebores. I have not yet seen any growth on the black-and-blue salvia, milkweed or mums. And disappointing, there's no borage seedlings. I think a few had come up months ago in the garden, but I dug them out when preparing the beds for planting, thinking plenty would grow in the perennial spot, or around the mailbox. Nope. I wonder if they sprouted earlier when it was unseasonally warm, and then died in the cold again.

Here's a few hellbore flowers I cut and put in tiny jars on the kitchen windowsill to admire for a week.

Just now I planted out the mulberry seedling, mulched and watered it, fenced it around to keep off the deer. The young holly I moved to a spot just downslope of it on that hillside is still alive! The other two look dead but when I scrape a tiny spot with fingernail on the bark, still green underneath so I'm leaving them there in case they can recover. Dug and planted the two canna lilies in a spot near the ostrich fern where it gets pretty damp- water flows there from both the downspout on that side of the house, and output from our basement sump. I've been thinking of someday putting irises in that area, too . . . 

Lovage is thick enough to eat now, so I might strike celery off the grocery shopping list.

spring heat

It's crazy hot today- for April. A few weeks from our last frost date, and it's 85°. But a few nights this week still below forty, so can't plant out my coleus and other tender ones yet. I actually brought the sweet pea, chervil and parsley seedlings back into the house in middle of day, to avoid the heat. Lettuce is done for. I never got more than a few bites. Hope my snap peas do okay and tatsoi doesn't bolt early from this hot day. 

On another note, I just picked up some free plants from my library. Went there for books, came home with two canna lily rhizomes and a bare root mulberry seedling! I think I'll plant the mulberry on the sunny sideyard where we took out the maples last year. There are small plantings of salvia, daylily, turtlehead, gladiolas and one small hyssop over there so far- just to have something to look at. I stuck rue plant trimmings in the ground- just for the heck of it, maybe a few will take root. But really the space needs a new tree- however a smaller one that won't tower over the house again. Mulberry is perfect, plus I like the fruit. I did want a redbud or witch hazel, but will take a free mulberry instead!

seedlings up!

 Yesterday my tithonia, marigolds, fenugreek and summer savory sprouted. This morning the clary sage, sweet basil and most of the tomatoes- just not the self-saved ones. It's an older packet so probably time to toss that one.

3rd sowing

Sweet basil 

Aromatto basil

Banana peppers

Ancho peppers

Sweet Italian peppers

Summer savory

Fenugreek

Marigolds

Tithonia

Culinary sage

Blue sage

Clary sage

'Sweetie' cherry tomato

Black cherry tomato

Beefsteak tomato

Cherokee purple tomato

random self-saved tomato I forget the variety or it was a cross- from 2017, not sure if they'll sprout

Also as a what-if experiment: seed I gathered off a cedar shrub in my mom's backyard years ago. Don't know if they're viable, or even really how to sprout them- I looked up info but (of course) found conflicting advice. I put the seed in damp sand in the fridge for a month and half (maybe two, forgot to note the date) and now have sowed in trays ordinary soil mixed with some sand. If it works, yay. If not, no surprise.

little holly

I'm trying again, to dig and move young holly plants. This one a three-year-old plant that I'd let grow up beside the fence.

Because the two I dug and moved in fall, appear to have failed. I had only watered them once a week or so but maybe even that was too much. This time, I'm not going to do anything past the transplant date.

violets

For the first time, most of my african violets are blooming simultaneously. It's hard to get a good photo of them together because of the backlighting from window.

Vintage lace

Royal rage

Frosted Brandy

Lady in Red

Paprkia

Which I like just as much for its tidy little leaves, as for the flowers

Lavender Magic bloomed for the first time! 

It looks a lot like 'Vintage Lace', and so pale against the very dark leaves, the contrast is a bit much

A little whorl on Paprkia petals

No picture of steady 'Bob Serbin'- that one just recently bloomed and was done.

spring planting

Carrots and beets are sprouting. Yesterday I planted out into the garden beds shelling peas, yellow snap peas, the collard greens and half the leeks (rest are too small yet). Today planted out the leaf beet chard, swiss chard, arugula, tatsoi and tokyo bekana. Those last two shown here, crowding their seedling tray. Pricked directly out into the ground.

Almost all the beds have something in them, now. And there's a lot more still to plant! But I hope to stagger some of it- tomatoes will go in where the lettuces are, green beans and squash into the beds that have snap peas, amaranth greens where the shelling peas are, and so on.

Delicate little true leaves emerging on my parsley and chervil seedlings. 

The overwintered tokyo bekana in greenhouse bolted- I emptied the pots to re-use. Greenhouse stands empty now ready for the next round of plants- tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, amaranth . . . 

There's a robin been frequenting the messy bed between the pannicle hydrangeas, where salvia and wild chrysanthemum are emerging from leaf litter. He sang short bursts and poked in the litter and eyed me, came pretty close after a while, just across the bit of grass from the garden bed where I worked. Cheering. Even better was to see the perky little wren flit about, I just saw and watched it for minutes. Wren makes me feel happy. There's a cardinal appears to be nesting in the large holly shrub. I can't wait for the return of catbirds, and the skinks.