Purple Beauty ...and Pests!

Time for the not-native-ginger (mazus reptans) to bloom. Loooove it!

The avocados are spreading their leaves and everything is filling out marvelously.

I hadn't made it to the newest section so it's been a weedy mess as shown here.
I did finally get to clean it up Saturday - still a bit messy since it's my
"testing zone" to see if things that look like weeds are really weeds. 😆

My white bleeding hearts from my friend finally bloomed!
Think this is the first year they've been hardy enough!
The pink bleeding heart plants are holding on by a hair;
looking pretty rough. Definitely no blooms this year :-(

And a moment of silence for the columbine :-(

I saw that the columbine were blooming, but hadn't gone close for a couple days. I finally went out and wondered why the flowers looked so sad. Then my eyes moved down the stalks to realize that the bottom was skeletonized!!

I looked at the other ones I had divided throughout the bed last year and every - single - one...destroyed! 

Tiny bugs that I later identified as aphids AND small green caterpillars. Seriously?!!

So off to the nursery I trotted for insecticidal soap. Boy does that do the trick!

But so sad that I didn't catch it earlier. 

The columbine usually bloom so long! 

I'm very thankful that I caught it before they likely moved to other plants. Can't believe they only targeted the columbine which are spread all throughout the garden!   

Alas.

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In happier news, I've seen little friends in stores and decided I needed a little turtle or snail or something. But I'm cheap. So imagine my happiness when I'm strolling through a flea market and find a little snail friend!!

I was so excited when the guy said $3, I didn't even think to talk him down to 2!

Perfect!

Annuals

Took me forever 2 Saturdays ago, but I got the deck pots done!

Chives a'bloom with Thai basil and some
annuals...gorgeous Dogwood in the background!

Fabulous against our new blue house!
 
(New as in new siding we had installed in December)

The siding looks marvelous, but meant that I had to re-arrange a few pots since my blue ones now look hideous against the siding (differing blue colors - not great!)

So that's part of what took so long - I wasn't just planting, I was designing!
What pot goes where and which flowers go in which so that the colors are split up appropriately, etc. 
Highly important work! :-D

Love all the color!!! The canna in the big blue corner pot has just poked its first little head up!
(Also can't wait for yellow pollen season to be over so I can scrub the deck!)

My newest pot (green) with a lemony herb and I
believe I put one of my grown-from-seed zinnias!

The fabulous curly grass isn't looking so hot -
teeny greenishness is peeking through, so we shall
see if the winter did it in or not.

This time at the nursery, I looked for plants that had low water needs; never looked at that before for the sun-scorched deck pots!

I also watered THREE times in a week!! Very proud of myself.

And now the forecast is 10 days of rain...soooooo...sorry little plants; I tried!

Cleaned-up (almost)

Two weekends ago I spent half of a Saturday cleaning up the shade garden. 

It took hours longer than I expected, naturally.

Probably because it is nearly a month later than when I usually get out there. The weeds were spreading their greedy fingers.
It's also harder to rake leaves out when you're gingerly trying not to crush brand new tiny greenery.

Before (after I'd already raked a bunch out into the grass...so many leaves!)...

After!

HUGE difference! 
The plants are doing so well and growing crazy fast. So excited for this year!

I also spent time fixing my nearly buried stone path...

But didn't have time to raise the sinking right path or extend either...

And I didn't even make it all the way into my newest section of the garden, so the weeds remain!

I did, however, get to use something just too stinkin' adorable!

My Grandma got me this little gardening belt that says "Plant Lady" and has the cutest little pictures. However, bending and kneeling with a belt on sounds like it would be a very unfortunate problem of sharp / pointy metal objects falling out, so I had this genius plan to wrap it around my weed bucket! 

Perfect!

Except for the part where I have to untie it every time I dump my weeds. Oops!

Still, it's real cute.

Hate to get it dirty!

I had hoped to get back out there this past weekend and finish the clean-up, but other activities meant my outdoor time was limited and what I did have was devoted to thoroughly turning the compost.

As in, removing everything in the nearly full bin, putting it on a tarp, then scooping out the gorgeous soil at the bottom and putting it in a wheelbarrow. I ended up with about a wheelbarrow and a half of good stuff!

Then I scraped it well and pulled out the clumps of tree roots where the oak tree next to it was like, "oooohhh!! Thanks for the fabulous fertilizer!"    Stop it!     It's not for you!

So I laid down cardboard at the bottom to help prevent that and make turning it easier in the future (raking / shoveling through woven clumps of teeny tree roots has been oh so fun :-/ )

Hoping that the cardboard lasts at least 2-3 years judging on the condition of what we put down years ago under the garden plot paths.  Please!

Then piled back in the uncomposted stuff mixing the well-on-its-way stuff with the dried leaves I pulled out of the shade garden. And the bin is filled to the tippy top again!

So yes, much-needed project producing much-needed soil, but phew! I hurt!
And my other gardens are still in need of clean-up, not to mention being behind in planting summer bulbs and fertilizing flowering bushes.   Gracious, spring gardening is too busy to be so cold that you can't start in March!!



Anyway, other thing that got "done" was checking the forecast and deeming it freeze-safe enough to move the avocados back out!!

Look how happy they seem down there!  Wondering if this is the year they outgrow the bird house!

All this time...

How many times have I been calling my favorite ground cover "native ginger" over the last 4 years?!

How did I never Google image it?!!

So, it is with horror that I must confess...ladies and gentlemen of the public:

This accidental gardener does not have native ginger ground cover.

Ok, that's not true, I actually do.

See there was this big blob of leaves that just shot up and I left it hoping it would turn into something pretty. All last summer and it did not. It expanded its creepy, worm-like roots and heart-shaped leaves, but that's it. No flowers or such.

"The blob" circa July 2017

So I figured it was a weed and I dug it out and tossed it over to my forsaken weed cemetery.

Yeah, so turns out that was native ginger.


Let me back up...

3 years ago, a fabulous gardener friend of mine was moving away and offered me a bunch of plants from her shade garden. She emailed me a list of kinds and I Googled them and told her what I wanted. (Why I didn't take all of them, I'm not entirely sure...I think because some were more aggressive that others and I was still twitching from the vinca groundcover experience.)

I'm not sure if I said no to native ginger or if I did get a little from her, but it's taken this long to get established...and now I just dug it out. mmmhm.
I would feel bad, but apparently it is a bit aggressive and has taken over too much natural landscape, so we'll see if I want to go rescue some of the worm roots and put it in a little pot or something.


Sooooooo...what is this gorgeous ground cover that I love?!!

I just went back at her email and looked up the plants she listed again...

Yup! That's it!
Ladies and gentlemen of the public:

I have and love and continue to grow and spread and share Mazus Reptans.

Seriously?!
Why couldn't it be native ginger? That's WAY easier to say and remember!

So don't judge me if I call this the "mazzy reptile stuff" or something like that.


Anyway. There you have it. Sorry for the confusion, you may now return to your regularly scheduled programs.


In related news, it has taken off splendidly around the HVAC unit and nearby bushes. I've wanted to keep that area "clean", but obviously open dirt = weed city, so this nifty groundcover is doing a marvelous job filling in and keeping them at bay!

It's still in its winter reddish color over in the shade garden (will post on that soon). Not sure why it's green over by the house...maybe less exposure to the elements...?

Anyway, I still love it and it's doing great, I'm just super bummed it's not what I thought it was.

See why even in my successes at growing I'm still an accidental gardener?! 😁

Oops

There may have been an accident.

One of those fabulous marital miscommunications resulting in unwatered seedlings ("No, I meant I had watered the OTHER little plants before I left for the weekend!")  ...

Many would have been fine, but I did not give them the full love they needed having been on the verge. If you haven't gathered by now: watering faithfully is not my strength.

I've saved several of them, buuuuut....zinnias and tomatoes very likely are a no-go this year. [sigh]

So off to the nursery we go! :-/

Oh no!

As if gardening isn't difficult enough with the usual issues, pests and unpredictable weather, now we have this psycho invasive species to watch out for! 

And I just got back from a weekend in PA and forgot to check my car for any hitch-hiking egg sacks!  😱

One Nice Day

We had ONE lovely Saturday 2 weekends ago.

So I got out to turn over the edible bed and get my early stuff planted.

I became concerned when I didn't see peas. :-/  I had planted them the day before the several inches of snow we got and it had been 10 days and no little heads of green.
I veeeeery gentle brushed some soil and saw a little neck bent over just below the surface, so phew! Brushed the dirt back over and am waiting for them to emerge ... a week later and some have JUST broken the surface...only slightly later than normal (and by "slightly" I mean like multiple weeks!).

All cleaned up with cauliflower, onions and 5 different kinds of lettuce planted:

I'm doing this fun thing where I didn't label what I planted. Soooo, that will be exciting! :-/

Also, upon reading the cauliflower packet, it says that it's rather finicky to grow; harder than broccoli. Needs consistent watering and proper soil conditions.

Most definitely an accidental gardener high success rate crop!  {heavy sarcasm}

My confidence in its yield is right about 3%.



On the flower front, however, things are looking lovely!

The clematis are putting out leaves!!!

And the spring bulbs are slowly growing larger, but are at least a month behind where they were last year in terms of blooming (on April 1, husband tells me the "on this day a year ago" photo was my tulips in bloom! And no - it wasn't a joke!)

Peony, daffodils, clematis, day lilies, crocuses and the green of some other bulb I planted, though can't recall what, all poking their little heads!

And in the tulip border, lots of  greens poking and cute little mini daffodils in bloom, but the crocuses made a miserable flowering show and are fading away. 

Wacky, weirdo year! I'm ready for some "normal" spring weather!

And warmth should be coming mid-week and it'll be nearly 80 over the weekend!!!

Very curious to see how things explode by next week!