Peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants!

This 3x8 foot bed was an experiment in small-space gardening! There are 8 tomato plants, trained to a trellis, in the back of the bed. Eggplants in the middle, then peppers in the front. The plants seem to be doing well! Unfortunately, they were planted so late (we only got the bed built in mid July) so I'm not sure the eggplants and the tomatoes will beat the frost. But next year this should be great!

Trellising works great for the cherry tomatoes... for the larger, heavier tomatoes, the verdict is still out. One of the plants broke the twine it was tied to this week... and the plants are having trouble holding up the heavy fruit. If we try growing Dad's prized Brandywines, I don't think this system will work at all (his tomatoes are dinner-plate sized!).

They yellow pear tomatoes are voracious growers... if I miss a week maintaining the trellis, they have shoots in all directions! In another bed that is not trellised, the pear tomato plant just took right over and choked out everything except the pole beans. But since the tomatoes got such a late start, it is nice to at least have some tomatoes, and the yellow pears are tasty!

Just a day...

Views of the terraced rock garden... April 8 and April 9th.

Enjoying spring flowers from inside...

View from the bedroom... it is hard to see, but there are dozens of yellow and purple crocuses in the leaf-littered lawn.
View from the kitchen window.

Phalaenopsis

My Ikea orchid, in bloom again (3rd year).

Hardy Geranium

Hardy geraniums flourishing in the sunny window in my bedroom. They're some of the only plants that made it through the winter in less-than-ideal conditions on various windowsills. They were started in late summer and autumn from seed.

This seems to be the only hardy geranium that made it through the winter outside. It was the strongest to begin with... the other two were a bit wishful!

Signs of Spring-April 9, 2011

Signs of Spring-April 8, 2011

First signs of the brand new peony, planted as a bare root last fall.
Crocus Flavus "Yellow Mammoth." These were a last minute purchase-- October sale at Van Engelen but they were a great purchase. They really stand out against the dark and muted colors of early spring.
Early signs of a white Bleeding Heart, planted as a bare root last fall.
Crocus Biflorus "Spring Beauty": small but lovely!
Crocuses coming up in the lawn.

Signs of Spring-April 4, 2011

Volunteer snowdrows... I didn't plant any!

Signs of Spring- March 21, 2011

Summer-started hardy geranium that successfully overwintered!

Crocus.
Very early daffodils?

Helleborus Seedlings in January!

I have made a rather embarrassing new gardener mistake. Like the wren that raises the cuckoo, those seedlings below are weeds. I'm not sure which ones... perhaps garlic mustard? But the observation stands that they are some pretty hardy weeds to be coming up in the middle of winter!

Sadly, I didn't get a single hellebore seedling in the dozens of pots I had out on the porch. It could be that the seed was too old... it was purchased in early August. I already submitted my order in for fresh seed this season at Winterwoods. I did end up getting three precious seedlings from a few reserved seeds that I put in coffee filters in the fridge. I nearly forgot about them... I'm unsure how long the radicles were languishing on that moist filter. It is heartening that this method works. However, all three seedlings failed to get free of their seed caps, and my attempts at helping them had no effect (tweezers, misting, droplets of spit!). All three put up sets of true leaves, but they seem to be a bit stunted... we'll see how they do. But at least I KNOW that they are true helleborus seedlings and not pretenders!

After a spell of particularly chilling subzero weather, it suddenly dawned on me that the bit of green in the pots on the porch was no ordinary weed. The helleborus has germinated! There are several vigorous looking seedlings in the 4-inch Helleborus Foetidus pots. No signs of life in any of the other flats, at least not yet.

Then, I remembered the 1 gallon pot where I had put the extra seed (red/purple x. Hybridus). I had left it under a bush by the front porch. Sure enough, under 3 inches of snow and a bunch of fallen leaves there were several tiny seedlings!

What an incredible plant-- the fact that its tiny, tender seedlings don't freeze solid seems to defy laws of nature.

Fall Bulb Planting

Asarum Canadense roots. I ordered 12 from Prairie Moon Nursery, and they sent big, healthy looking rhizomes... I was surprised at how alive they looked!
I also ordered some Trillium grandiflorum from Prairie moon, and they were also huge, healthy looking clumps of roots and shoots.
Here are some of the bulbs... Fritillaria Meleagris (Checkered Lily) and Erythronium Pagoda (Trout Lily), if I remember correctly.
My (first) order from Van Engelen. Here is what I planted this year:

10 Erythronium Pagoda (trout lily)

100 Allium Sphaerocephalon (drumstick allium)

100 Fritillaria Meleagris (checkered lily)

100 Iris Blue Magic

100 Muscari Armeniacum

100 Narcissus Ice Follies (daffodils)

100 Crocus Flavus Yellow Mammoth

100 Crocus Vernus Flower Record

100 Crocus Biflorus Spring Beauty

In addition... from Praire Moon Nursury

12 Asarum canadense (wild ginger)

2 Trillium grandiflorum (large white flowered trillium)

And from American Meadows:

15 Crocus Sativus (fall blooming saffron crocus)

3 Trillium Erectum (Red Trillium)

1 Paeonia lactiflora Karl Rosenfield (Peony)

1 Dicentra White (Bleeding Heart)

That makes... 810 spring blooming bulbs, 15 fall blooming bulbs, and 19 other plants that will supposedly show their heads for the first time this spring. I did give away some bulbs to friends and neighbors, but I planted at least 700. I sure hope some of them come up next spring!

Crocus Sativus, Fall Blooming Saffron Crocus

The one crocus blossom I managed to photograph before it was eaten by our ravenous deer.