Good morning, and it's WET! Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
I tell ya, the weather here has been driving me nuts. On the few nice, non-windy days we've had, I've been dreaming Percocet dreams (the only advantage to dental work). Otherwise we've been windy and/or cloudy — but until Wednesday evening we've had a dearth of moisture.
But Wednesday… ah, Wednesday… Wednesday evening the clouds finally parted and it rained.
Okay, okay, not a large amount in the larger scheme of things. But it rained off and on all night, and most of the next day (with a little snow mixed in Thursday morning).
By the end of it we had about a half inch of moisture; more than we had the entire month of March.
Today we're supposed to warm up into the 60s, up from the 50s we've had the last couple of days. Perhaps I'll finally get out and get the delayed gardening chores accomplished.
Of course the pooties will be glad to help, although Arwen the Terrible and Caligula are disappointed that their favorite dust-rolling places are wet. They both love to totally impregnate their fur with dirt, then nap on my pillow. Ah yes, nothing says loving like pootie-shaped dirt puddles.
The last two days I've come home from work, wandered about and pulled weeds. Yes, it's wet enough to pull those carrot-rooted mallows and dandelions, and the huge clumps of crab grass that spring up everywhere.
I've also been scoping out what did, and did not, make it through the winter. Which is often confusing: things that I thought were dead are showing signs of life, and things I thought were alive now seem dead.
The good news is that despite our dry weather, the gas plant I put in last year survived its first winter. Gas plant is drought tolerant after established — but getting it established in a dry year can be tough, so I'm very pleased.
I'm unsure about several penstemons and sages, and I haven't seen a sign of the three types of coreopsis I planted last year. Those are in the new planter boxes which run a couple of weeks behind the main beds, so I haven't given up hope yet.
And, for whatever reason, I had a huge die off of both lemon and wooly thyme. Both patches had been established for years. Sigh — that's one of the things I've never figured out, why thyme will do great in a spot for a long time and then just suddenly… die.
I also discovered, when I went to plant a line of snap peas along the edge of the main beds that the tulips I planted along that strip had totally failed to perform — they hadn't sprouted, hadn't done anything. It could be that they were diseased, as about half of them were rotted from the center. Or it could be that with our dry fall and winter they didn't get enough moisture, as that area dries out faster than deeper the beds. Whatever — I just won't plant any more bulbs that close to the edge next year.
Since we do have some moisture in the ground now, I'll be able to sow the white clover seed I picked up a few weeks ago to add to our small grass patch. I like the look of clover in a lawn — every lawn had clover when I was a kid and the nitrogen will help the grass. I also plan on getting the rest of the snap pea seedlings planted, and start hardening off the brassicas to go out in the ground next week.
I've had the tomato plants down under the metal halide light for a couple of weeks, but they haven't been growing well — I think that, as I feared, it's too cool down in the basement for them yet. The peppers and eggplants which are still under the plant lights upstairs are doing much better, so I guess I'll truck the tomatoes back upstairs for a couple more weeks and see if they do better.
I still need to start Heavenly Blue morning glories — I have cardinal climbers and maiden feather started, and think the Heavenly Blue morning glories will look, well, glorious planted with the red climbers and vining up the hummingbird pole in the front yard.
I also bought another new hummingbird feeder — it's what they call a "lunch pail" style, with two flat bottles in a carrying cage with little red glass flowers for feed ports. The big draw… it can't leak. I have a horrible time with hummingbird feeders dripping and attracting ants and hornets.
Although I haven't yet dug out the dahlia tubers from the back of the cold storage space (and clearing out the cold space is another chore I've been putting off), I did get a lot of repotting done over the last couple of weeks. I repotted wayoutinthestix's clitoria in with a gloriosa lily, and I have the other gloriosas potted; put the fuchsia and geranium cuttings into hanging pots; and have all the begonia tubes potted and growing. One of the older fuchsias is looking pretty scraggly, so I think I'm going whack it way back and root the trimmings — if the mother plant doesn't survive it's no big whoop as I'll get so many baby plants out of it.
So I'm looking forward to a busy weekend in the garden and if I actually accomplish all the raking, weeding, chopping and planting — or even half of it — I'll feel well satisfied with my progress.
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your garden?