Beth
I'm sure it did. I wonder what I'll find.
Today was gorgeous. Did some more poking around and neatening at my apartment and then went to my sister's house. We hacked away at some dead branches on the cherry tree. She continued and I got bored, went to the front yard and cleaned up the huge mountain laurels, hacked down two of the four ridiculous ewes (why do people put these big guys smack up against the house where they can't possibly contain them?). Then sis and I went to the nursery to buy big caste iron (oof!) urns to put her red whatchamakalits..... they remind her of italy. We set these up one either side of the front door.
i didn't plant anything yet, but I gave away a few seeds .
I planted coleus in big pots on either side of our front door for the first time this year. But the house is on a hill and the pots cannot be seen from the street. I tried to live with that, accept that only those few who come thru the front door will get the pleasure of those plants (there's another entry off the driveway which just about everyone uses) but I can't live with it and plan on raising those pots up somehow so they can be seen. But it amused me and now I wonder, do we plant beautiful flowers and gardens for our own satisfaction or for the oohs and aahs of our neighbors and passersby?
I planted my vegetable garden on Good Friday, a good day to plant. Puple hull peas, crowder peas. squash, eggplants , tomatoes hot and sweet peppers, onions, okra. last year we had a bumper crop of tomatoes but just when they started to get ripe my son was severly injured in a car wreck and we spent our days at the hospital with him in ICU.
Francie~
I am so sorry to hear of your son's accident. I hope he recovers quickly!
This weekend the kids and I planted their easter Lilly in a pot out on the front porch. They used their Sand buckets and shovels to hold the potting soil. it was soo cute
Tidied up the cotoneaster, bridal wreath spirea and rainbow spirea in the front yard. Cleaned the area around the false solomon's seal up. It is going to be amazing this year - i think there will be about 8 or 9 stalks of it. The poppies are popping - i can't believe i'll have hundreds of flowers this year from what was 1 flower 5 years ago. The lungwort is looking really good. Trying to decide where to put the perennial crazy daisy and gaillardia. I love the smell of the ground right now. mmmmmmmmmmmm
I spent 3-4 hours at a nursery with a client. She chose some interesting plants which I will no doubt be planting when she realizes she doesn't have the time.
I planted, here at my place, a whole bunch of shade things: several epimediums in 3 colors, several trillium in 3 varieties, a bergenia, some yellow wood anenomes, lenten rose, a non-bleeding heart corydalis (solida, 'bright red')..... I transplanted toad lilies, monkshood, hosta, bulbs, and another type of plant I can't remember the name of. I still need to do more clean up of the winter-dead branches on the hollies, rhodies, etc.
I looooove new england forrest wild flowers.
I planted my tomatoes and lettuce inside today, and tomorrow I'm planting my turnip, onions, garlic and radishes in the garden.
Weeding, weeding. and
Weeding.
Heading into garden downtime. Haven't been able to mow the lawn for weeks as it rains every weekend, right now we have grass nearly as high as the littlest child. Have to send her out with a hat with a flag sticking up till I get that job done!
Bit of a long-term project going that has taken up available outdoor time. We have a considerable drop from street level to front law. There is a bit near the road that is a real cow to mow, so I have been covering up the grass with newspapers and then mulching heavily with leaf litter. It's taking me ages (read months), but I couldn't affford the amount of mulch needed to do the job.
Fortunately, I have a good source of newspapers and there's always leaf litter. I'm trying to use mostly gumleaf as they are good for supressing weeds, a top layer of Norfolk Island Pine leaves holds the lot together. I'm thinking about some sort of ground cover, but that can wait till Spring.
Didn't do much this weekend. Rained Friday eve and all day Saturday. Yeasterday, I picked up some lantana and a pretty plant with pink and white flowers, trumpet shaped. Got a lilac colored one a couple of weeks ago. Lots of flowers. Lots of deadheading. One lantana went into a large pot with begonias. That should look nice. I also got a very beautiful plant, a mona heather. Know absolutely nothing about it. Annual or perennial? Sun, part sun or shade? Anybody?
Finally decided to raise the two pots on the front porch by setting them up on smaller terra cotta pots. Simple. Cheap. Less than a dollar apiece.
Ericas (I assume that this is one) do have some fairly specific requirements.
Quote:Winter flowering heathers are an outstanding source of winter colour in the Pacific Northwest. The loss of all our lovely fall foliage often makes November seem far more bleak than other winter months. The fresh appearance of new heather buds, however, can really transform a dull winter garden into an attractive show place, and with a little careful planning, you can stretch that colour from September until May of the following year. There are, however, a few secrets to planting and displaying these colourful plants.
One of the finest features of Erica, or winter heather, is its ability to grow in areas where other plants have some difficulty. Certainly they perform well in good soil, but they are also ideal for rocky, gravelly areas or in sloping hillside gardens. Over the years, I have had the most success by preparing the planting hole with a 50 percent mixture of bark mulch and sand. Heathers will not tolerate heavy clay soils or wet feet, but I'm surprised at how much shade they'll accept. Although they are sun loving plants, heathers bloom just as profusely, perhaps a little bit taller, in shady locations. One very important feature to remember is the fact that heathers have hundreds of finely textured roots. Unless you moisten the rootball thoroughly and ruffle up the root system, your heather will probably get into trouble fairly quickly. A rootbound plant has difficulty pushing its roots out into new soil unless the outer mat of solid roots has been carefully loosened. I have seen even nurserymen lose heathers when they neglect this small task while potting smaller plants into larger containers.
Winter heather is very hardy, but we have always had better luck planting them away from the coldest winter winds. Throw a bit of 'Remay' cloth or landscape fabric over your plants if we get a bitter cold spell without any protective snow covering.
Heathers can be used in many ways. They make ideal ground covers when planted at 24 inch centres. They're a good, compact summer cover that becomes a sea of colour when you need it most in the winter. They make ideal border plants and just sensational small hedges. I love to use them in containers, especially in winter colour gardens. At this time of year, heathers would certainly liven up your outdoor planters, and they would undoubtedly look much better than those unhappy annuals. No rock garden would be complete without a grouping of heather, and blocks of white heather planted among your evergreen beds would create quite a pleasing effect. However, the most impressive way to use heathers is to plant them as groupings in a bed by themselves. You may wish to mix in some summer blooming varieties as well. If you can blend a few colourful dwarf conifers, like 'Blue Star' juniper, golden 'Hinoki' cypress and 'Sungold' Thread cypress in with the heathers, you have the beginnings of a well textured planting. Ali a few carefully chosen stones and some early flowering shrubs like viburnum 'Pink Dawn', corylopsis and Chinese witch hazel, and you will have a beautiful floral bed around your home. A few spring blooming bulbs and summer annuals, blended into the bed, will make an outstanding display during the spring and summer months as well.
Mr Stillwater - the high grass is good sunblock!
Recently I've been in Agent Orange mode. Not been planting stuff as much as killing it. Snagged some industrial cardboard boxes, flattened 'em out and laid 'em over a huge patch of goutweed, and covered them with a layer of wood chips. In two years we will have a goutweed free patch of yard.
When we bought this place a year and a half ago, one of the first things we did was drop forty trees. On 2/3 of an acre. And we still have plenty of trees left.
The previous ower got too old to maintain the lawn. Bless her heart, though... she left a beatuiful old house that has never been wrecked. So...
Mrs. SealPoet is studying to be a landscape designer, and that means that the front yard is going to be her resume. Last summer we dug up and sifted and added compost and all that good stuff to the front two to four feet along the sidewalk. Last weekend I continued the job somewhat of carrying the flower beds along the neighbor's drive. Again, that menas that last weekend I didn't plant anything, just killed stuff and dug.
That's the arrangement at chez SealPoet anyway. She makes the plant decisions... I'm the shovel.
Here in VA, USA, we have had so many rainy days that keeping up with the lawn mowing is a challenge. If we get a relatively dry day, one had better mow.
We had a false spring in mid-April and, judging from the traffic at Lowe's, a lot of folks planted annuals as well as vegetables like tomatoes. The frost at the end of April probably hurt.
I was taught that, in our region, Mother's Day was the time to plant.
I like the symbolism suggested there but I also appreciate the earlier reference to Good Friday which might be appropriate elsewhere. I've also heard that planting after the last full moon in April was good. The idea there, I reckon, was that that would be the end of clear and chilly nights.
planted the seeds of enduring friendship and love
I transplanted peonies from my back yard to my parents' grave site.
Not just any peonies, though. When my mom moved a few years ago from her home into an assisted living apartment, she insisted that I transplant her peonies to my yard before the house was sold. She, in turn, had transplanted them from her parents' home back in 1946 when she and my dad bought their home.
A good day's work.
Today I only planted my garlic and onions since the tilling took longer than I thought. Tomorrow I'll be planting my radishes and turnip and then it's gonna rain for a few days. Talk about perfect timing.
