More Fall Plantings

The rest of my fall planting order has arrived! Woo hoo! Here's what I've got:

Moon River Peony
California Hard Neck Garlic
Naturalizing Daffodils
Apricot Beauty Tulips

With that, and the fall season, comes some to-do's:

1. Find spots for and plant my new goodies!
2. Plant bulbs given to me by my voice teacher and his wife (I have a giant tray full of bulbs! Mostly daffodil...they think)
3. Plant more green onions, lettuce and mustard greens
4. Clean out pots. I have some iris and daylilies in containers from the apartment that I have been waiting to plant in the ground. Others are just past their prime and are looking scraggly or need to be brought inside before it gets too cold.
5. Stir compost and add leaves as they fall and are raked up

What does your fall clean-up/to-do list look like?

Blooms Day

Still on a role with cheesy blog post titles....I think the heat is starting to go to my head.

There are lots of blooms in my garden right now.

I've only gotten one bloom from the ranunculus tubers I started in my tiny greenhouse back in February. *sigh* It is lovely, though I was definitely hoping for more of a show!

The nasturtiums are really going to town. As many blooms as there are on this one, there are that many more buds ready to pop open!

The hydrangea is kind of a showoff. It blooms green and then turns pink, looking something like a disco ball in the process.

You can see there are many more blooms coming on this one!

Truthfully, I thought violas were not heat tolerant. It has been in the mid-high 80's though, and if anything, they are blooming even more vigorous than they did when it was still cool outside.

The ivy geranium has been giving wave after wave of these pretty clusters of white and pink blooms

The hosta hasn't bloomed yet, but I am hoping for more lovely purple flowers this year! Any suggestions yet on how to move this lovely?

The iris I dug up from my student's yard have finished their blooming, but this lily (also from my student's yard) is just getting started. There are several more buds on this one that have yet to open. Isn't the orange and yellow happy looking?

What kind of show are you getting in your garden? Any ideas on how to pack up and move my garden??

News, News, News

I hinted a few weeks ago here that I had some pending news to share. Well, it took a little longer than I expected, but here it is....

WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!!!!!

Just in case you couldn't tell, I'm a little bit excited about it. The property is still in Inglewood, so we're not going far, but now I have to figure out how and what to move from the garden. I have purposely put off transplanting my started seeds into the ground, but what about stuff from the flower bed?

I am considering digging up the still tiny boxwoods and putting them into containers to put by the front door.

As for all the bulbs planted in this bed, should I dig them up? Just get new ones? The same neighbors that gave me these offered to let me dig up more from their overcrowded beds.

What about the daffodils that bloomed for the first time this spring? Should I dig those up and take them with me? Is it worth it?

I definitely want to take this hosta with me. I think it needs to be divided, but I'm not sure that would be a good idea while it's in the middle of it's growth cycle. Any thoughts on this?

Have you undertaken a garden move before? Did you take everything with you, or did you decide that some things would be too much trouble to move? HELP!!!

The Beauty of Pass-Along Plants

I spent about an hour today digging up some divisions of plants in the yard of one of my music students. Sadly, her husband passed away a few weeks ago and she is moving out of their house out in the country to a smaller home that will require less maintenance, but she offered me the chance to dig up some of her iris and day lilies before she left for good.

I love pass-along plants. They keep one person's garden from becoming over crowded while giving another person an economical way of filling bare spots in their garden. They also create great memories. It's great fun to walk through a garden that has many pass-alongs and recalling who and where each plant came from.

I know this is the worst time to be transplanting iris and day lilies (right as they are blooming or are about to bloom), but here is what I came home with...

 

 This day lily is about to burst into bloom with orange flowers!

I also brought home some lovely white iris, so tall I had to give them help to keep them standing.

Lastly, a few purple and yellow iris.

I didn't want to take too many, since I don't yet have a yard for them, but these plants will multiply and I'll be able to pass them along as well!

Do you make a habit of giving and/or receiving pass-along plants? I feel like bulb plants are the most obvious ones to pass along, but what other kinds of plants have you done this with?

Update from the Container Garden

I know, I know.....I promised to finish the garden update, but in the interest of not creating the longest blog post ever, I decided to split it into three sections: flower garden, container garden, and vegetable garden.

SO.....without further ado, here is the latest on the container garden....

I can't remember if I've gotten to show this guy off before now. This was Jacob's (my husband) St. Patty's day pick: a shamrock. I wasn't sure how long it would last, but it seems to be thriving.

Since it was so warm for so long (most of March was in the 80's here), I took the ranunculus (the one in front) out of the greenhouse. There are a few more hanging out on my newly painted plant shelf. Behind that is something called an orchid lily, which I am really excited to see bloom. My voice teacher and his wife gave me this from a division of theirs. Apparently, it blooms in an arch like an orchid, only the flowers are lilies! How cool is that?!

Ok, let's talk about the one on the top of the shelf....I knew that nasturtium were effective as natural "bug traps", but I was really unprepared for just how effective they really are....see how the leaves are mostly chewed off? None of the other plants have been touched....not even the tulip in the same pot!

This one's a baby. I decided it would probably be ok to go ahead and transplant some of the dill seedlings that were in the greenhouse. I may have to bring it inside later this week though...they were talking about frost on the news today.

I was starting to get a little worried about this rosemary plant. I had overwintered it and it was looking pretty anemic for a while, but it seems to be greening up nicely with some sunshine and warmer temperatures.

And lastly, the strawberry plant is starting to make berries!

Latest Update and Pictures from the Flower Garden

Ok, so I've been a little MIA lately....things have been a tiny bit crazy in my neck of the woods and I hope I'll have some good news to share SOON!

In the mean time, here's some pictures from around the flower garden to tide you over. I'll cover the rest in another post!

 

Ok, here's a full shot of the right flower garden. Look how giant the hosta is getting! I think it's bigger than the boxwoods.

 Also, here's a closer look at the Roman Chamomile (it doesn't make blooms for tea, but it smells nice when you walk on it!) that's going gangbusters around the ornamental grass that has yet to show anything but dead straw. I'm not worried yet....it did this last year too.

Even though I didn't dig up my dahlia bulbs last year, they're still growing back...who knew? Maybe it was just the crazy mild winter. Also, you can see that the busyness of late has kept me from keeping my flower bed completely weed-free.

Said dahlias are in this left flower bed. There are lots of irises in here, but they haven't bloomed yet. I'm thinking they aren't getting enough sun.

However, the hydrangea and geraniums seem to be lovin' their spot on the side of the house. It's an east-facing wall, so they get plenty of sunshine.

And if you look closely, you can see that I'm starting to get some buds on the hydrangea! Hooray!!

This handsome fella decided he needed to get in on the picture taking...and I couldn't resist showing him off!

What's going on in your garden these days? Any fun happenings?

Sunshine on a rainy day

Ok, I promised pictures when the daffodils started blooming.

Aren't they lovely? It was a nice surprise to see them blooming because it's rainy and gross in Nashville today.

And speaking of gross.....my garden "helper", Seger had a very smelly end to his (and my) day yesterday. One of the neighbors behind us has a large garden, and I'm thinking it was just mulched with cow manure. Well, Seger apparently decided said cow manure mulch was a good place for a good roll on the ground.....needless to say, he was not on my good list! One bath didn't get the stink out.....it took two....gross!

So I guess lesson learned, right? Don't let your dog roll around in cow manure? Not sure there was any letting to it!!

Update: seed starting and ranunculus

It's a gorgeous day here for some gardening. It seems spring has officially begun, whether the calendar says so or not. I even spotted a few yellow butterflies flitting around the backyard.

After one more trip to Home Depot for more Jiffy Pots (we don't use enough tp to ONLY use the tube cups...I'll have to start saving them earlier next year!), I have got seeds started for each variety that needed an indoor start. My poor little green house is stuffed to capacity!!

Also, exciting news.....I have one teeny tiny ranunculus sprout!

I'm very excited. I bought a few tubers a while back knowing that they aren't really hardy in zone 6B, but hoping I could get them to grow in a greenhouse. I've had to clear out a few of the pots of ranunculus and relocate them to my windowsill while the food seeds are going, but I think I'll be able to put them back in there in a few weeks!

I also spotted a couple pea sprouts as I was walking around the garden.

And this friendly little bit of sunshine.

I'll take another picture when it opens up all the way.

About to Bloom

I'm pretty excited to report that I have a couple plants that are about to burst into bloom!

My daffodils are one.

Look at the big old bud on there! Looks like I'll have some sunny flowers in a few days.

Also, the blueberry is about to flower. The buds on this one are pretty tiny, but you can make out their pink-tipped buds if you look real close.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to make my camera take a true close up photo without getting blurry on me! Any suggestions??

I have some more seed starting to do today (some more tomatoes, dill and red-leaved perilla), along with a greenhouse cover to fix (the one storm casualty), I've put grommets on it, but need to redo some of the zip ties so it will close all the way.

Blueberries and Tulips

I think I mentioned a while back that I ordered a dwarf blueberry bush called "Sunshine Blue" from Park Seed Co. Well, it arrived this morning and when my husband brought the box in the house looking confused, I got really excited. We went to Home Depot to get some potting soil and I went to work!

Here is what the bush looked like when I pulled it out of the box. I was expecting a bare root transplant, but I think this was probably easier to work with.

I already had a large container from an ornamental banana tree that outgrew its welcome. I took that up the hill to the garden area where it will get plenty of sunshine and filled it with potting soil.

Then I placed the baby blueberry, filled the pot the rest of the way and watered it well to settle the soil.

I'd say it was a success! Here is another picture...

While we were at Home Depot getting soil, my husband spotted the blooming flowers. We ended up walking out with a lot more than we'd planned! But he continually surprises me with the things he points at and says "Ooohh I like that! We should get some of those!" We left with some white and purple violas (I'm going to have to retake my pictures of those....will post tomorrow!) and some dramatic red tulips.

Do you ever buy flowers on a whim? What is growing in your garden?

Sprouting Daffodils and other Bulbs

My grandmother and I used to plant daffodil, tulip and iris bulbs together when I was a little girl. Not sure how much help I really was since as a very young child, I would often plant the bulbs upside down and my grandmother would have to dig them up and replant them right side up (oops), but we always had a good time gardening together. Some of those same bulbs were blooming last year at my wedding, held at my grandparent's house in South Carolina (my mother now tends the garden there, now that both of my grandparents have passed). To this day, bulb flowers are some of my absolute favorites, so seeing my own daffodil, tulip and iris bulbs begin to grow this spring is very exciting.

One of the flower beds in front of the house is currently filled with bulbs that are beginning to grow. No flowers yet (though I have seen many blooming daffodils in my neighborhood), but the foliage is definitely coming along nicely. Here's some of what I've got so far...

I've even got a daffodil sprouting on the side of the house...

Is there anything growing or blooming in your garden?

Unplanted Tulip Bulbs

Last fall, I ordered some tulip and daffodil bulbs. The daffodils got planted, but the tulips never made it into the ground. I was going through my utility closet yesterday and noticed that they were starting to sprout anyway! So after my war with the Bermuda grass, I took a few minutes and potted my tulip bulbs.

I know that tulips have to have a certain number of hours where it's cold. Hopefully they'll get what they need outside in their pots and I will have some pretty red tulips come spring!