Garden 4.12.15

Emma and I had a glorious day in the garden today.  It's just so nice to have my own yard!  It's also nice to have established plantings- everything is really blooming.  The flowering quinces are so beautiful right now.



I did the first grass-mowing of the year yesterday, and it took less than half an hour!  Much nicer than the vast expanse of grass I had at the old house.  I also tidied up the beds that I planted a couple weeks ago.  Just a little weeding needed- I'm still winning against the grass!

Here's the greens bed- left to right there's two kinds of lettuce (2 rows each), spinach (3 rows), and pak choi (1 row).  All my little greenlets have at least two sets of real leaves.  The strawberry bed is behind the greens, and there are new leaves shooting out all over.



The onions and peas are also doing great.  The peas are about 2 inches tall and I put some trellises up today.  Possibly not tall enough, but I went with the scraps of cattle fencing I found in the yard for now.

All the onions are up and most are 6-8 inches tall.  I went ahead and planted the rest of the leftover sets that came in the bag, just 'cause. Don't want to waste them! I put some between the rows of onions, and the last few in with the pak choi.

The fourth bed, behind the peas and onions, will eventually have tomatoes.



I also tidied up my big herb boxes, adding some new soil to the tops to rejuvenate them.  I trimmed back the thymes, pulled out the rosemary and mint that didn't make it through the winter, and the leftover chamomile stalks from last year.  In those now-empty boxes, I planted a new rosemary, and lemon balm and peppermint clumps that I got from people on Freecycle.

So from left to right, this picture shows:  a curly willow tree that came with the house (some branches died over the winter, but it's leafing out now, Anne!), a rectangular planter in which I planted pansies and Stargazer lilies today, a strawberry jar I planted with extra runners a couple weeks ago, a barely visible round blue ceramic planter that I planted lily-of-the-valley in today (I have A Vision of how that's going to look when it's mature, and it's lovely...), then the square pots with oregano, rosemary, lemon balm, peppermint, and lemon thyme.

Someday I'll replace these five-year-old cheapo plastic planters that are getting brittle and shattery from UV exposure, but they have at least one more good year left.



I also started three new planters this year, big round half-barrels.  I've always wanted half-barrel planters, and since they were on sale I got some.  I filled them with a nice mix of topsoil and compost, and Emma and the neighbor kids spent a fun hour digging in the future tomato bed to find worms to put in these and the herb planters.  These kids love worms!  They're going to be sad when I plant the tomatoes and they can't dig in that bed anymore.



I don't have the planting plan all worked out for these yet, but I want to try growing ginger, turmeric, and lemongrass this year, and each barrel will get one of those in addition to some veggies and flowers.

That leads me to this:



I got a great looking piece of ginger at the grocery store this week, and I potted it up today. I'm starting it in a small pot inside the house, because it's still too cold at night to have it outside.  I'll put it in the biggest half barrel when the weather warms up.  The starting weight of the rhizome is 270 grams, and we'll see if there's any increase by fall.  It's an experiment.

I also have a little lemongrass plant inside already, and have ordered a piece of turmeric rhizome that should be here Monday or Tuesday.  Experiments everywhere!



So that was the gardening I did today.  I also just walked around to bask in the prettiness of the yard.

Apple blossoms


A drift of red tulips with one yellow


So pretty!


SO PRETTY, I say!


Another drift of red tulips and narcissus in the front yard


And more red tulips being friendly with the neighbor's yellow ones


A gorgeous red and yellow one


One of the last standard daffodils


But a very pretty frothy double narcissus opened yesterday

and these are so cheerful.


My bowl of primroses on the front porch is blooming like crazy, and they have almost doubled in size.


So that's my yard today.  :-)