Good morning, and here comes McCain — oops, the rain — again! Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
We've had a wickedly wet, windy week here in Denver — well, not really, but I like the alliteration.
We did get a blast of much-needed rain on Wednesday, the day starting with the hard downpour of a thunderstorm, followed by on-and-off drizzles for the remainder of the day. And the wind has been blowing pretty consistently since it brought the clouds in Tuesday afternoon.
The clouds and wind have stuck around since then, and more cool and wet is predicted for today. I'd be pissed about it — after all, this is Denver, it is Saturday, and we expect lots of sunny days chasing the clouds away — but we desperately need the moisture.
And Arwen the Terrible looks so pretty and proper posing amidst the posies (damn, just can't get rid of that alliteration!)
I did get quite a bit done last weekend, before the rains came. All the potatoes are planted, as are the cauliflower and broccoli seedlings.
Although I didn't get all the dahlias and gladiolus in the ground, I made a large dent in the stockpile — including get three large pots filled with dahlia tubers.
And I did get the squash and cucumber seeds sprouting — I learned last year to put them on damp paper towels, and then pot them up as they sprout. A few have already made their way to Dixie cups, although I'm waiting on a lot more.
Of course I did not manage to accomplish everything that I had set out to do. I had wanted to finish filling the planters with potting soil, in preparation for average last frost — only a few days away! The need to finish that job has gotten more urgent as — since it was too cold and wet to work outside on Wednesday — I made the annual trip to Paulino Gardens for annuals (would that be the annual annual trip?). So I have a whole buncha plants lounging on the front porch, ready to spread their roots in their final homes.
And ooh, ooh — one of my orchids is re-blooming.
I've also had a few surprises this spring — some good, some bad, some changing — while taking stock of what is and is not growing.
Like what didn't survive the winter. For whatever reason, a large amount of my achillea died off over the winter. Two or three clumps remain out of what was a solid square yard of the stuff. I'm not too upset; after all, I just have to let it go to seed and it will spread out again, but it's one of those WTF things. Achillea died?
Ditto with the plumbago. I've been beating back a patch of plumbago in the front beds for years It can get extremely invasive — indeed, that patch had spread its roots down a foot to emerge from between the railroad tie walls in the front beds. But over the winter, while the stuff growing out of the front wall survived, the main patch is almost completely gone. A few random bits remain.
And the passion flower vines. When I removed the mulch from over them earlier this spring it looked like they had wintered through. But now — more than a month later — there is no new growth, and I think they may be dead. Same thing with the reverse-color Carol Mackie daphne. The plant is extremely small, so it's hard to tell for sure. And the little tiny twigs are still flexible. But I see no new growth.
On a more pleasant note, however, the California poppies in the front beds self-seeded nicely, and I'll have a fine spread. And the Lauren's Grape poppy — which I'd tried to grow from seed with no luck, so I bought a plant last year — self-seeded, and I have lots of little poppy starts in the back yard.
The Siberian iris planted two years ago, given up for dead last year, are growing lushly and I see buds on them — whoo hoo!
And the dwarf repeat-bloom lilac planted next to the front porch two years ago is taking off this year. Soon I'll be able to see it without being right next to it!
The garden, like life, is full of surprise twists and turns.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your garden?