coleus crowd

I potted up my grown cuttings of coleus- they were starting to topple over in the 4" pots. Now in pots twice that size.

The orange/lime duo are looking great.

'Kiwi fern' pretty fantastic too.

Old standby pink one. I have tried to identify this but was staggered by the number of varieties when I found coleus sites online to browse through. So many look the same with pink centers and ruffled edges. No idea of its name. But I like it.

Here's the two rootstock pieces I have left, growing again after being cut back a third time. And there's even more cuttings inside the house, waiting on windowsills for space to open up in the coldhouse. I'm going to have enough to try planting some in the yard this year, not just accent pots on the deck.

some that didn't do well-

Most of my plants did fine with the late winter storms and bit of snow we got. The few that seem to have suffered are

my pathetic rosebush. Although it is growing out new leaves alongside the dead ones now.

Nandina. Both of them the tops seem to have died. This one it's two-thirds of the plant gone dry and brown, the other one is about half. I don't know why. Lower part of the plant still green under the bark, so I am hoping if I cut off the damaged part it may recover, not sure.

Sedums- well, at least half of them. I thought the purplish stonecrop I bought last year had all died, so dug up a few portions of sedum from around the stump and transplanted it into that spot behind lilac bush. Transplanted bits survived the snow, and the others ones came back shortly after. Now I've got a mix- and you can see how different their colors are. Definitely think it's a related plant. I like the green one better so don't mind if it outcompetes the other.

The lysimachia appears to have died. I see no sign of it growing back. Bummer, I did like that plant.

garden crown

Hosta on the rise.

nice surprises

When you get down low to the ground pulling weeds, find all kinds of surprises that went unnoticed earlier. Like this:

fiddleheads!

They always do try, my ferns. To come up and thrive. But it is just too hot in summers here. I think this is another plant I need to move to the deep shade hillside of my house...

I was really happy to see this one emerging: mayapple. I thought they had died of disease last year.

I see at least four coming up again, very glad.

They emerge in a funny, folded-up shape.

columbine

This is one of the prettiest plants in my yard right now, and I'm just looking at the foliage- it doesn't even have any flowers yet. Definitely want to move some of its scions into the front.

vegetables in the yard

Rhubarb is doing pretty well, considering how I dug it up and moved it.

From my kitchen window I can see the bright color of its red stems. I still have to wait a year or two to eat any...

Thinking of putting more culinary plants out here in the backyard bed- since I've used up the space in my raised garden beds and this area gets lots of sun now.... already thinking of putting in the okra to fill some space where I'm going to dig out the hostas. Would like to grow cucumbers, zucchini, butternut squash, cantaloupe and maybe icebox watermelon- have to see how much more compost I can get out of the pile and worm bin to make it.

coming up!

Peas are emerging in the garden. Also beets, arugula, swiss chard and some of the lettuce I direct sowed. No carrots yet.

So far so good with the borage- no more squirrel holes in the garden. I am ecstatic, but there is a chance it is just coincidence- come to think of it I have not seen many squirrels in the yard at all these past few days. Maybe something else is keeping them away, or they have found bonanza in another yard and are busy elsewhere? So I'm still holding off satisfaction thinking I've found a permanent deterrent.

tank shot

Quick picture (no effort to obscure reflections). Seems like this week my aoponogeton crispus have really busted out some growth- the leaves are very broad and hitting the surface again. I had to trim a few out that were getting too big, it's been a while since needed to do that.

The 'asian' crypt bunch next to my crypt wendtii is changing shape and color- surprise! I think it has been doing this gradually since the last alteration I made to ferts dose. Leaves and petioles have both lengthened, some of the foliage is turning darker, stems and primary vein turning reddish. So I still don't know what it is!

Crypt retrospiralis are getting nice and tall- but also to my dismay this week I found some tufts of BBA on a few. I hadn't noticed the glass on that side of the tank was starting to get lots of algae spots- the very dark green, stubborn kind. I spent so much time scrubbing algae off the glass today my fingers cramped. I have a suspicion that those dark algae spots turn into BBA when it spreads onto nearby plants, but not sure. Nitrates were lower in the tank this week (surprising, since I have a few more fish) that always seems to correspond when I see BBA crop up again too.

Need to get better photos but have been so busy (vegetable garden outside needs a lot of attention right now w/the seedlings and all). My trio of serpae tetras seems to be doing ok, although I have not seen them eat much yet. They are not bothering the barbs and act very shy. Hoping that when I get a few more they will feel more secure in here.

more plant stuff

There is so much going on in spring I never find time to keep up with it all. Some day I will get tired of taking photos and delighting in the progress of so many plants, but I don't know when!

Patch of arum is getting lush. Must remember not to plant over this with something else if it dies back in the summer heat.

I am thrilled to see how vigorous my echinacea looks in its second year. Pretty confident for flowers this time around. All seven have come up again!

All the new-to-me rudbeckia are coming up too.

Salvias I transplanted to grow around the tree in the front yard

are all emerging- I am very happy about that! But the last two I planted near a backyard tree as just rooted cuttings straight out of a jar didn't make it. So I know not to do that again. (They need time to mature a bit in a pot first, and transition to terrestrial growth I guess).

Here's this one that was a last-minute transplant- I moved it from the mailbox spot to just in front of the porch (next to peony). It's the one that makes blue-violet flowers and I still don't know what it is. Anybody?

bye, fish

I gave away the lamp-eye tetras today. Also picked out about fifty malaysian trumpet snails from the window tank. There's still no algae to speak of, and I don't think the food left behind by two fishes would sustain that snail population so I thinned it out. Left in a handful of baby mts (size of a pinhead) and there's still a few adults I missed. Got a few plant packets from the pet store today- java fern 'red' variety it's the first time I saw it for sale. Won't have a chance to plant it for a few days- it will be fine in the gel container until my maintenance day.

emerging

Checking up one what's growing is one of the thrills of spring.

My lilac bush always looks so promising with its flush of young leaves.

One of the hydrangea has fat green buds ready to bust open with new growth. The other one doesn't, but it's still green under the bark so I hope it is still healthy too.

The mums are mounds of dead sticks- I cut them back an inch to the ground recently- but showing signs of green!

Deep in the heart of the aster there are signs of life, too.

I almost didn't see these coming up- because of the ruddy color it blends in with the leaf mulch-

 it's the astilbes.

Turtlehead!

Also coming up but I didn't get a photo: the peony.

planting

Yesterday I planted a good part of the garden.

Lettuces have done really poorly for me this year. I think perhaps my seed packets are finally too old.

I planted out these puny ones and sowed more seed in the ground, finishing off the packets. If I get any decent plants will save seed anew, but probably have to buy more next season. I've got a bit of simpson, some romaine and cesar. Didn't bother planting the bibb lettuce this year- it's just not a favorite.

Also sowed direct three varieties of beets, two of carrots, arugula and some swiss chard. I planted out seedlings from pots into the garden: leeks, marigolds, two kinds of broccoli, and five kinds of tomatoes.

Funny thing about my broccolis- I grew from a new seed packet this year and the seedlings look different in color and leaf shape

than ones from the older package. Both are Di Cicco variety, just from different seed companies.

Yes, I put in tomatoes and marigolds a month before the frost date. It just feels so mild. There is only one night of temps predicted to drop below 40° this week and I am putting plastic cloches over them overnight for protection. If they do get hurt by a frost, there's extras to replace with- I still have six marigolds and two of each tomato type still in pots.

The tomatoes are growing so fast.

I made a mistake, though. I meant to put carrots in one of the more established beds, which has deeper, richer soil built up- and to put lettuces in the new bed- their roots don't go as deep (and the cardboard I smothered grass with is probably still mostly intact under there). I forgot when I was busy working, and put the lettuces where I meant to do carrots, vice versa. Too late now. Will just have to see how they do. Also I meant to plant newer green onions next to the one survivor in the herb part of the bed- but they look just like the baby leeks. Green onions are still in the coldframe- they need more warmth- but when I was setting out the leeks I forgot and put them in right next to the one mature green onion. Oops.

Extra bit: my thyme looks just fantastic. It's in the first picture- the green mound in the background (top just left of center). Here's a closeup. I'm really hoping I can detect whitefly or whatever pest shows up earlier this year and keep them at bay.

scarce riches (and thoughts on grass)

I went to turn my compost pile the other day, preparing the garden. What I got from the bottom of it was lovely dark crumbly stuff and had lots of worms- perhaps more than usual thriving because the winter was so mild? But there was not much of it. Usually the finished compost at bottom of my pile is a good foot thick- or more. This was only a few inches, not even above my ankles. I emptied the metal can composter from under the deck and total between the two it was just one wheelbarrow load- all applied to my vegetable/herb beds. The yard plants will have to make do with leaf mulch this year- unless I get a better lot of compost from turning it again later in the spring. Most of them are at that point anyway- I tend to only pamper yard plants with compost the first season they're in the ground.

Wondering why it was such little yield, though. Did noticed when I turned it there was a lot more leaf debris than anything else- I think it was low on "green" material. My backyard lawn looked poorly last year- far less grass to cut- it used to be a separate heap beside the compost pile that I would use at intervals. Last year I didn't have that excess- most of it went straight onto the garden as mulch or used in the bin right away. Not sure if this is due to the heat we've had (I won't water the lawn unless I'm starting seed- did that in the front in the fall- but I do encourage the kids to run through the sprinkler when it's hot, serves two purposes) or the japanese beetles- I saw lots of them last year and killed as many as I could but probably didn't make any impact. Don't want to use pesticide on the lawn but I might have to. Tried spreading compost and later ashes (for lime) on the lawn. Lots of moss, which thrives at a different pH than grass- this spring the moss appears to be dying and some patches of grass look very healthy so I think that did help, I just didn't do enough of it.  But other areas of grass just tear up easily- another sign of the beetle plague.

I really don't want to pay a company to do stuff to my lawn, I'd rather do it myself but haven't learned all of what it takes yet. I don't care enough about lawn to spend a ton of effort and money to make it look perfect without a single weed- but at the same time I don't want it to look terrible and spread disease or weed into others' yards. Trying for a happy medium. I guess this admission here is a start, as I don't usually talk about the lawn.

early flowers

My first hellebore (lenten rose). I was delighted to see it, but it's a flower that's difficult to appreciate. The bloom hangs its head, facing down, and this particular one came up angled towards the tree it's growing next to. When I first saw it glancing out my window I thought a scrap of paper had blown across the yard and got stuck in the foliage!

Heartleaf brunnera is flowering.

Very pretty but such tiny things hard to see unless you are close. I don't have enough of them to make a noticeable area of color. Perhaps I will move it to the front by the walkway and porch, where it can be seen.

Glad of the vinca this year. I have moved some cuttings to grow in front of our porch and even though they got hit by a late March snowstorm a few days later, did just fine and are spreading already.

Forsythia finally bloomed in my yard- weeks after all the neighbors'. Maybe because my planting of it doesn't get enough sun (surrounded by trees)? Or because it is still small. Can barely see the spray of yellow from the house.

protector of the garden?

The squirrels irritate me. I admit I like watching their antics, and I really admire their tenacity. However we have quit putting up home-made birdfeeders because they destroy them all. I don't mind that they dig in the mulch around my yard plants, I can even ignore the holes in the sorry lawn. But I hate it when they dig in my garden beds, and they do it constantly. I have tried spreading cayenne powder, the hottest red pepper flakes I can find, and coffee grounds. It works for a day or two- then if I forget to spread deterrents again they are right back. Rain washes it away, too. And pepper flakes in the garden make me sneeze (although I do love the smell of spread coffee grounds).

Later in the season it's just an annoyance to find holes where everything was tidy the night before, but in the springtime it's actually destructive as the squirrels will tear up my little seedlings and scatter them.

I may have found a real solution.

Noticing how the only plot they didn't dig in was where this oldest borage plant survived the winter, I carefully spaced out all the young ones when I planted them a few days ago, two or three to each plot. Most on the corners but when I ran out, the last one dead center. I kept an eye out. Funniest thing, the first place I saw new holes dug was right next to two of the young plants- it almost looked as if the squirrel was trying to remove them. There were a few small shallow holes in the plot with one central borage plant (far away from it). As if the squirrel tried and gave up. I think they don't like the scent of it!

I looked again this morning- not a single new hole, and I'm counting six garden plots plus the frontyard space around the mailbox- I put two borage plants there as well. No new squirrel holes. I almost can't believe it. Even though my garden is rather small and these plants get rather large and take up space, I'd much rather have them doing the job than a constant reapplication of substances. If that's really what's going on here. I'll keep this updated!

They are growing quickly by the way- I swear I see a significant increase in size in just two days.

full tank shot

Haven't done one in a little while. Here's the main tank. You can see the new fishes- two serpaes on the left side by the glass wall, one darting in the center past the aponogetons.