Onions look like they are getting stronger after an iffy transplant. Not all of them, mind you, but a decent amount for my first try.

I mulched the Disney rose bush because it’s looking pretty bad. I hope, hope, hope it survives. If it dies, I’m going back for another. I absolutely love the blooms.

I think I figured out what is happening to my blackberry lilies. Either doves or quail are doing their butt-imprints and snacking on them…including the ones I just planted. If any are left, I’ll be very surprised. Two of my 5 dahlias have fallen over. I’m half tempted to think that the doves or quails had a hand in that as well because it looked like somethings tried to uproot my tulips, too. Might it be raccoons?

Had to replant some things for the swap. Since I hate the wind, I didn’t go out and peek at the seedlings I left outside to harden off and they dried out.

Other than that, I’m at a point where I just want to see if what I have and what I’ve planted are going to get to a good start from here on out. This is the last night in the next ten days at least where the night will be in the 30s. The lows are projects to stay in the 40s for most of the week with low 50s showing up by next weekend. *crosses fingers*

Dear Michelle 2011,
Has 2010 taught you anything? I hope so. For instance, I hope the first seeds you sow are your cool-season crops on or around St. Patty’s Day, as is the tradition in Reno. If you order seeds online, I hope you remember to give them to Ralph when they arrive so that he can hide them from you until Tax Day. You hear that? TAX DAY.

If you forget and you sow early, you totally deserve the crowded areas around your windows, the gnats you detest so much that you forewent indoor plants for so long to avoid, the sad-looking seedlings that look like they won’t make it, the pain of hardening off too many plants that you didn’t winter sow (in and out, in and out, in and out), the realization that your Spring Cleaning efforts are almost all for naught after one weekend of said hardening off, the legginess of more than half of your seedlings because you don’t have a grow light.

Isn’t that what you should be doing right now, instead of fussing over seedlings? Spring Cleaning, finishing up any indoor projects before the warm, non-windy weather beckons you like a siren and doing more of the personal art projects I hope you accomplished in 2010. On nice early Spring days, did you spend the time to amend your clay soil in the front yard? The soil that make planting any new plants or seeds a pain in the ass? Have you at least mulched?!?!?!?

Please remember that late April through most of May is windy, and you hate the wind, don’t you? You’ll neglect things outside on the really windy days and realize that you may have to redo a lot of what you have already accomplished because you started too soon.

If you’ve found a way to create a hoop house, cold frame, cold tunnel or other contraption to lengthen your growing season, do not forget to only start with seeds you know you can replace/resow if they don’t make it your first year using your newfangled thingamajig.

DO remember that you liked using iced mocha cups for starting eggplants and tomatoes and that baggies over red plastic cups (for Sugar Baby watermelon, lemon cucumbers and zucchini) will only work if, as soon as the plant is big enough to not fit in the baggie, it should be near planting-out time. Beans grow fast and do not need to be started indoors.

Remember to try wintersown gardening. If you forget your reasons, look at token’s blog for 2010. He had hundreds of plants that were hardy and good-sized to work with.

Exercise patience, don’t use the generic Ace soil in the white bag and remember to order & use the nifty spray you found that reduced the clay-i-ness of your soil.

Best wishes,
Michelle 2010

I planted the Disney rose bush and two bishop’s weed. We’ll see if I regret the bishop’s weed in the coming years. It can be invasive but is such a nice-looking ground cover that I hope I won’t. That’s the hard part about ground covers, finding one that will spread a decent enough area that you don’t have to buy a million plants. Maybe that’s why I like my lamium so much. It grows about 18″ wide and then stays that size. If you cut some out to transplant, it fills back in. Of course, it’s a gorgeous ground cover, too. One of my lamb’s ears is not looking so hot so I moved an urn-shaped planter that was next to it in case it just wasn’t getting enough sun.

I wish I had more to report on the veggie gardening. At least I’m down to just one window (with a card table) of seedlings still indoors. I left a good portion of Plant Swap seeds and seedlings outside. Figured I can start the hardening off process for the future owners.

I still need to plant my pieris. I hope to do that this weekend, if not sooner, so that the plant doesn’t die in the pot. Each year, there seems to be one plant that suffers that fatality. Watered everything and it looks like half of the dianthus and poppies that were put in ground might make it. Keep your fingers crossed because tonight it’s supposed to be cold.

I hate working outside when it’s windy so I didn’t, even though my new Disneyland rose bush has already brought me so much joy. I love staring at it and kept a picture open of it on my desktop all day. I hope I can plant it out tomorrow. Also, due to the wind, I didn’t bring any plants out for hardening off.

I did a lot of potting up over the weekend. But now I think I’m at an awkward point where I should plant this weekend and hope for the best, but I also want the plants to “rest” a bit in their new pots. As gentle as I try to be when repotting, I’m sure it’s still enough of a shock to the little seedlings. The night time weather is still going to be in the 40s for the next ten days as least, so maybe I won’t be planting this weekend. Damn me and my early planting!!! A lot of my squash already have buds on them. I think they’re a bit small for that right now, but I have plenty of seeds left over to start from scratch if I need to. They are fast growers so I’m not overly worried about them. It’s the tomatoes and eggplants I need to worry about.

It’s bright, warm and windy today so I brought all of the seedlings out. Decided to plant all my poppies and dianthus in the bed where I direct-sowed a portion of them. I decided that I wouldn’t do the hardening off of these guys because they are at a point where my taking care of them inside will either do more damage than good, so I’ll just see how they fare in the location I allotted them outdoors.

Cleaned up the driveway bed of weeds and the one boxwood that is totally dead from being one of the neighborhood dog bathrooms. In a little bit I’ll wet down the soil, plant the xeriscape seeds and then cover them up with what’s left in a compost and garden soil bag. Will do that for other areas I plan on sowing seeds in.

Bought some things at a couple of nurseries on the way home yesterday. A Felix Crousse peony that I put next to my Sarah Bernhardt peony, a Summer Wine yarrow whose foliage was just too pretty to pass up (and I have been thinking of getting a yarrow anyway), a japanese spiraea, spanish lavender and a Mountain Flame japanese pieris. I planted the Southern Comfort heuchera bought a couple of weeks ago, but I still need to find a place for the lambs ears.

My Queen of the Night tulips are in full bloom and gorgeous, but my friterallia have not bloomed yet. There are plenty of buds on it, so maybe it’ll bloom this month.

Break’s over. Time to get back into the garden.

Break #2
The front yard is done for the day. I started taking pictures to share and the camera died. So I’ll let it recharge over night and then take photos tomorrow.

I’m really dreading prepping the last veggie bed, even before I spent the first part of the day working on the front yard. I’m half tempted to just cover it in compost since it’s so full anyway. This is one of the things talked about in The New Square Foot Gardening book I got. In a raised bed with good soil, you’d just need to add compost as your compost bin is ready. No need to work the soil. I just get such measly yields though, that I think the soil could use something.

Right now, I’m just ready to have the house back. So if I can think of a way to not bring the seedlings back in, but give them the protection they need, I’ll be happy.

Today has had fog, rain, snow and bone-chilling cold. After a client meeting, I hiked it over (as in drove) to Barnes and Noble to get The New Square Foot Garden book, per Angela’s recommendation. On the way home, I almost took a detour to get more blackberry lily bulbs because I can’t see a single sign of the ones I planted, but decided to wait until the weekend. I’ll be itching to be in the garden so it will give me a good reason in case the plants from the nursery don’t survive before I can plant them. I just hope there will still be blackberry lily bulbs available.

The green stick is still near my peas and beans, and hasn’t changed at all. Everything that is currently outside in the veggie beds are looking like they might survive the stupid weather (I hope). I suppose I should get the last bed prepped and a decent plan for both the front and back gardens. I’m currently feeling some anxiety that nothing will survive :\

Earlier in the year, we bought a pack of mixed seeds that we think will do well in the driveway bed because it’s so sandy and the seeds are for xeriscaping. It’s supposed to go along the lines of the cottage garden I want to have. In the mix are phlox, which I don’t care for because they are so darn prickly. I Googled what phlox seeds should look like and took most of them out of the big messy mix. While doing that I started sorting seeds so that I can have some nice clumps of similar flowers. I figure I could plant some groups of similar seeds in “pockets” of the bed and then scatter the rest willy-nilly. Of course, Ralph saw me doing this and couldn’t stop laughing. I can’t help that I’m addicted to gardening and the Type A part of me that makes for a sometimes anal-retentive graphic designer, wants some order in the chaos. I thought it was a pretty good compromise of random and controlled but Ralph just kept laughing.

I started a bunch more seeds for the plant swap, scattered a few hellebore seeds that I hope were ripe, covered the gargoyles for the impending frost we’re supposed to have starting tomorrow and admired the first Queen of the Night tulip that bloomed. Oh, and I threw some Kentucky Wonder Beans in with the peas. I don’t know why I never bothered planting beans before, when we eat them regularly, but this time I did. Mainly because I’m pretty sure I’ve planted too much of everything I already have seeds for.

By the end of the week, I will plant cleome seeds as well as the two packets of mixed seeds (after I plant the groups of seeds I’ve sorted). Why is gardening so addictive? Is it because you “create” a plant from start to finish? That must be it. I like making pretty things and gardening helps feed that desire in me.

Thinking of relocating the veggie beds in the next year or two. Seeing how big Ralph wants to put in a pond makes me think that moving the veggies to the unused side yard will help to keep the lawn big enough for the dogs. I really hate taking away any grass from them.

To see if there will be enough sunshine for them, we bought these little plastic flowers that you stick in the ground. They change color depending on how much time they were in the sun. If it all works out, it’ll kill a few birds with one stone. The side yard won’t be unused space, I can create hoop houses that won’t have to contend with snow run-off from the patio roof, the dogs get to keep as much yard as possible and my dearest Ralph gets to have his pond. Moving the beds will suck big time, but I have an idea that should help make it a tiny bit easier and will also allow for taller beds where I won’t have to bend over as much.

We had a couple of bad weather days this last week and there are supposed to be a few more next week. So on this beautiful weekend, I will hose down the lemon tree and get it ready to bring inside before the bad weather. Everyone at the nursery and Ralph think that we should be good to go after that.

So I want to get ready for planting right after the bad days go away. I’ll do some weeding and prep some areas where the soil looks uninviting. Once the weather clears, I’ll plant out what I got at the nursery last weekend and throw some seeds out as well as start the hardening off process. To do that, I’ll need to clear off our little iron plant stand as I think it will make it easier to move the plants in and out at night.

I also need to start a new batch of seeds for the plant swap. I think I’m a bit behind on that but I’m out of room for seedlings in the house. I hope I have stuff to trade.

Before the weekend is over, we’ll have to make sure the gargoyles are protected for the bad weather and that the roses will be easy to cover.

Day one of two-day forecasted rain/snow weather. Then it jumps to the 70s! Things aren’t looking like some plants will survive. They’ll wilt and then fry. :(

I know this will put my lemon tree into dormancy and who knows what it will do to the hoya that is in quarantine with it.

Spent the evening working on the seedlings indoors. Had to repot a lot of them, dump a few and just water the rest. No planting tonight. From the looks of the 10-day weather forecast, I may be able to start hardening off the seedlings in a week or so. I hope a majority of them make it to mid-May, which is our average last frost date AND the plant swap. Things look a bit more organized though, so I hope that helps me come planting time.