Good morning, and it's show time. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
Denver's had typical March weather this week — minus the snow. We've been fluctuating between sunny warmth, sunny wind, cloudy cool, and cloudy cool wind.
And more wind.
But no snow.
We've had about a half inch of snow this month — average March snowfall for Denver is a foot.
Between the lack of moisture and the wind, the fire danger is very high. Had a little bit of a scare on Thursday; there was a wildfire out near my sister's place. When I first saw the report, I thought her house was within the evacuation zone, but Hilltop Road, the nearest major street near her house was the northern boundary, and her house is a couple of miles further north. Luckily the fire was fairly small and winds died down enough that it was contained by Friday morning. But March is extremely early for fire season to start here on the Colorado Front Range. Although temperatures are forecast to remain on the cool side, in the 50s and 60s, we have only a slight chance of receiving moisture through the end of the month.
The photo is of my front flower beds, so all ya'll can know what I'm talking about when I refer to the "parking strip planters" and the "main beds". And it's a fine example of microclimates: the parking strip planters trail two to three weeks behind the main beds because they are shaded by parked cars and don't have as large an area of redstone exposed to gather radiant heat from the sun.
I do have a nice variety of daffodils blooming, along with the hyacinth — although the hyacinth are disappointing this year. I think I didn't feed them enough last year, so I have two bags of bulb food and a bag of bone meal sitting on my front porch ready to be spread. Last year I did bone meal, but no bulb food because I had spread a heavy layer of compost across the beds.
And I'll plant more hyacinths this fall. I have several spots along the front of the bed which need more hyacinths.
I have the next week off work and I hope to get the veggie patch ready for planting and the peas in the ground — if the weather cooperates.
But now, on to the main event: what plants I have to share.
I have a buttload of Johnson's Blue cranesbill; it's a lovely plant, spreads and seeds but not too aggressively; drought tolerant and hardy.
And as always I have lavender asters; plant those once and you'll have them forever.
I'm not sure if I'll have dahlia tubers — I did a fast check of them last week and I think most of them are OK, but I didn't see sprouting eyes yet. I'll be dragging them upstairs next week. Let me know if you're interested and I'll let you know if I have any.
I do have a lot of mixed color gladiolus bulbs and would be happy to shove a handful in the mail if anybody wants to try them.
If you want anything, send me a message (isn't the message system cool?). If you have anything to share, post what it is.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your garden?