Garden Walk

Some pictures were posted yesterday that show the overview of the garden.

FRONT YARD
By the mailbox, the peony is a deep, burgundy red and about 8 inches tall. We have some pink and vanilla gerber daisies, pansies, sweet pea and violas around the mailbox as well. The spring bulbs are starting to poke through the ground. We have daffodils, freesia, ranoculous, muscari, narcissus, and one blue hyacinth. I divided the tulips, and replanted them, although I doubt we will see them again this summer. Up along the front porch we have a latham and a heritage raspberry, as well as a amber gold raspberry. The heritage are leafing really well. The yellow has me worried, because the one leaf is dry and withered (even though I know it isn't lacking moisture). The bumblebee-attracting flower seed mix is growing well in the front bed as well. Some of the flowers are 4-6 inches tall already. Okay, not flowers yet, but the leaf spread that will someday have flowers as well. We have 4 horseradish roots in a container that gets moved around to get moisture easily.

The peppermint plant got moved out to the side bed, to take advantage of the lovely weather we have been having. I hope to encourage significant root growth, so it can spend energy reproducing and spreading this spring. I see buds on our lilac, indicating that come spring we should see new growth. Our hydrangeas are showing nice, healthy growth of leaves and buds at ground level. (They were pretty heavily pruned this winter) I don't see any evidence of the money plant germinating yet.

BACK YARD
The beds are all built, but keeping them lined is a pain in the butt. The newspaper dries out, and when I get home, it is blowing all over the yard. Hopefully we will get some dirt this weekend and it will hold the newspaper down. Anyway, the apple tree is alive, but it has reddening and drying of the outer edge of the leaves. The garlic around it is doing really well. I fertilized all the fruit trees today with Citrus-tone, which is an organic fertilizer for fruit and nut trees by Espoma. I love that brand!! I buy it almost exclusively for fertilizing purposes.

The bleeding hearts burst into bloom last night, with tiny little hearts on one branch. I was so excited that I dragged Richard outside in his PJs to go see, even though I know he could not care less.

I pulled up the (dead) plum tree, and will include it in the refund package from Burgess. (If I ever get ahold of them, that is). But the garlic that was planted around them are all up and doing well.

The blueberry patch is undergoing extensive amendments. I pulled up the pine needles and (on the advice of the Clemson Cooperative Extension) sprayed it with a solution of aluminum sulfate, which is supposed to be fast-acting. I will repeat the process again tomorrow too. Once the soil is at a high 5 pH, I will buy another couple blueberry bushes. After a couple months when the soil sulfur kicks in, it will drop it slightly more, so I don't want to overdo it. The best varieties to buy for our area are the rabbiteye blueberries (Clemson extension). So, I will watch out at Woodley's for those when we do our plant shopping.

The strawberries are doing well after being cut back. They all look green and healthy. And there are 4 garlic plants mysteriously growing in with them. Also in the strawberry bed are a few early pea plants. Just to hold impatient me over until Spring. :) And a healthy-looking baby hollyhock is hanging out in that area as well.

The compost heap is still sitting there reminding me of the horrible compost failure this last year. I am about half done shifting it into the beds. But it sucks, so I am ignoring it for now. The venus fly traps I think are gone for good as a result of trying to move the compost bin, and its contents.

I supplemented the asparagus plots with 3 new Jersey Knight crowns. No shoots yet, but it is only February.

The cherry tree looks dead, but I know it is not because the trunks are definitely green. Plants that are dormant can be deceiving. I can't wait until spring when it starts blooming! I love cherry blossoms!!!

The honeysuckle is still in its dormancy, so I haven't seen any new growth yet. The tangerine was dead so it got pulled up. Amazingly, the lemon and lime are still alive!! After a winter outside unprotected. We will see how they do over the course of the spring and summer. If they don't grow, though, they will get pulled up. The lavender is still little. All three plants seem to be alive though. I replaced the rhubarb with 2 new crowns, which are getting pretty big.

The pear tree still has bunches of green leaves at its base. It is definitely alive, and I hope it will grow rapidly this summer. Our grafted trees definitely seem to be the most vigorous trees we have.

CONTAINERS OUTSIDE
Right now we have a bunch of seedlings that are hanging out outside pretty much all day and night. They would be planted out except that there's no dirt in the beds. We have some bell peppers, cauliflower, peppers, popcorn, one of each of the potatoes, Swiss chard, some lettuce...

INSIDE
We have 5 flats of seedlings in the living room, as well as our seed potatoes that are chitting. The seedlings seem to be doing really well in there, and we have even moved things out of the trays already. I am psyched because we have 2 luffa sponge plants that have sprouted. I don't know why but I had this feeling like it wouldn't really work. Like some obstacle would come up that would make it so I don't get to grow luffs. Upstairs we have a tray of tomatoes and peppers, as well as more of our curcurbit seedlings, peppermint, echinacea, chives, stevia, more peppers, and broccoli. I am excited because one of our peanuts just pushed through today as well. I will use these trays every year. They are wonderful!! I am a little bothered though, because some of our seedlings are pretty leggy. We have cantaloupe plants that are close to a foot tall. We have to rotate the trays, and switch their locations to keep them from growing crooked. They turn their heads toward the window like this every day. Also, I found seeds for German chamomile and globe artichokes. They have both been sown, but only the chamomile has germinated at this point.

MODIFICATIONS
I can't think of anything that stands out as needing to be modified.

TASKS
The biggest thing that needs to get done is that the beds need to be filled. Gardening is largely at a standstill at this point until we get soil in the beds. Secondary to that, some kind of trellis system needs to get put in place along the fence for the climbing flowers. I decided that I will drive the posts for the beans into the ground now, and fill the dirt in around them so that they are securely anchored. (We also added black beans to the roster too, I am unstoppable)...

BIGGEST JOYS
The bleeding heart makes my soul just incurably joyful. The trays of seedlings are full of hope and possibility and I love to see how much they've grown just since the day before. I cannot wait until Spring!!