Heather's Garden

Oh This Is Dangerous

I'm spending a few days in Myrtle Beach with a friend -- yes, poor Lee stayed in the frozen north even though he was invited to join us.  We drove down on Wednesday and even though the weather isn't absolutely perfect it's a lot better than it is back in CT.  It will even hit the 70s over the weekend!  We're still recovering from the drive and didn't do too much today, but we did grab lunch at PF Chang's at Market Common.  And it was immediately obvious that here in South Carolina it's a completely different season:

 

Tomorrow is another day of not too much special, but Saturday, oh Saturday will be a big day.  We are going to Brookgreen Gardens.  I'm practically giddy!  I'm just hoping I get good pics with my new camera.  But in the meantime I have the worst case of spring fever.  It had better warm up at home so I can get planting!

Interesting New Site -- Especially For My CT Peeps



Regular readers will recall that I get all sorts of weird offers and press releases, but every once in a while I'll hear about something I really like or I think you will enjoy seeing.  A few weeks ago I was offered some Home Depot gift cards in exchange for posting about a new site.  Home Depot gift cards?  Well, yes, of course I will look at your site and tell my readers about it.  But trust me, if it was crap or a scam I would have said no, gift cards or not! 

Happily the site is one that I would probably have shared with you anyway -- THE GROVE. 

 
The purpose of The Grove on-line community is to inspire people to plant trees in their neighborhoods and local communities.  Who can't get behind that?  It's also a place for tree and nature lovers to share their planting stories and photos, offer their gardening expertise (like!), find out about events in their communities (double like!), and discuss ways to live a 'green' life.  Now I have my issues with people telling me how to live 'green,' but nothing's perfect, is it?  They say there will be certified arborists and staff members from the state and national forestry agencies on the community to answer your tree-related questions, but I admit I haven't tried that part out yet.

They have specific sites for your state -- CT's is http://americangrove.org/ct/ and it says it's sponsored by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Division of Forestry (CT DEP Forestry) and the Connecticut Urban Forest Council (CUFC).

I particularly like the tree selector function that allows you to select your state and the life event you'd like to commemorate and then suggests a tree and gives a description of the tree and its meaning.  How cool is that?!

So visit www.americangrove.org/thegrove to create your profile and spend some time digging around the community (forgive the terrible pun).  If you're a Twitter addict you can also get updates on The Grove by following @PlantYourLegacy.

And what did I do with those Home Depot cards?  What else does a gardener do in the spring -- buy gardening supplies of course!

It's Seed Starting Time!

Let the record reflect that I started the herbs, marigolds, and coleus on March 22nd (the plant tags are the cut up mini-blinds):

I planted 6 each of Chinese garlic chives (Botanical Interests), slow bolting cilantro (Botanical Interests), tetra dill (Botanical Interests), purple dark opal basil, aton basil, sweet basil, genovese basil, lemon basil, lime basil, tarragon, true lavender, marigolds, and rainbow mix coleus:

I have a bunch of peat pots that still need to be filled with seed starter, moistened, and seeded.  Those will be 6 of red acre cabbage (Botanical Interests), 3 each of early pride hybrid cucumber, spacemaster bush cucumber, black beauty zucchini (Botanical Interests), a hybrid zucchini, and 2 each of beefsteak tomatoes (Botanical Interests) and better bush tomatoes (Botanical Interests).  UPDATE:  Got the rest of the seeds started on 3/26:

  

But I still have careful watering to do.  I was hoping soaking them in water would do the trick, but I'm sure you can tell which one pot I've actually watered:

 

And it's a good thing that I have all these seeds growing inside because it appears winter isn't done with us:

 

I finally gave in and admitted that my camera was done.  It kept switching itself to video.  I managed to swing an awesome deal and got this Canon Powershot for about $70.  Yes, I'd love a fancy SLR if someone with lots of money would like to buy me one.  It's going to take a little time and practice before I master it, but I think I like this first round of photos:

 

Calendar worthy?  Certainly one of the better photos I've taken in March, but that's not saying much:

 

I wish I had more interesting stuff in snow to photograph -- only crocuses and chives so far:

 

I really hope this is the last time I see the garden covered in snow.  Please, please, please let it be the last time:

 

And I feel totally justified posting this photo because there is plant material in it.  But really it's all about the awesome platter I painted.  Girls night out at the local pottery painting place brought out the anal planner in me.  I googled for a stock image of a bird on a branch (bonus points that it has two!), printed it out, cut it out, traced it on contact paper, cut out the contact paper, stuck it to the platter and painted around it like a reverse stencil.  And they even had a paint color to match the kitchen chairs!  Here it's on top of a bowl and shoved over towards the window because the table is covered in seed starting supplies:

I can so see it covered in tomatoes from the garden this summer!

Another Season Underway

Friday was insanely beautiful in our neck of the woods.  Upwards of 75 degrees and brilliantly sunny.  I had to work, but when I went outside at the end of the day and saw this mess in the patio garden:

 

I just had to clean it up.  Okay, I didn't get that far, but it's a start.  It's tough getting around those lilies and irises without breaking the emerging leaves:

One of my friends recently asked me about our composting method.  We have a composter (think it might have been too shady and cold next to the house this winter for it to work), but this was our first year putting the leaves in chicken wire to break down.  The pile is smaller by half, but I don't know that it's ready to be used for anything.  The 2nd wire bin in back is holding all the debris I cleared out of the patio garden:

 

I found quite a few crocuses about to bloom under the leaves: 

 

But today, the first day of spring, was a whole different story!  Lots of blooming crocuses and a welcome sight after a ridiculous winter:

 

Again, still a lot of work to do here, but at least my cheerful little bulb border isn't under cover anymore:

 

Now back to cutting plant labels from old mini blinds.  I think I may finally plant some seeds tomorrow!

Once Upon A Time

I had a really nice planter on the kitchen table filled with golden oregano, basil, rosemary, and edible ornamental peppers:

 

But it didn't do so well under my really inattentive care.  I don't know if I watered it too much, not enough, it got too much sun, or not enough, but it didn't thrive.  The golden oregano survived though and some hot & spicy oregano I stuck in there sometime in the past month seems to have rooted.  I forgot to do anything with the bulbs I so carefully saved last summer, but bare dirt, container indoors...I stuck a bunch of bulbs in here last week and so far so good:

 

At least there's something growing in the house!  I've been cutting up an old mini-blind making plant labels, sorting seeds, and making plans.  One of these days I might actually plant some seeds.  Where are you in your gardening process?

I Hope We Don't See More Of This

I'm not quite sure why I never blogged using these photos from January, but since I moved them off the desktop onto the external drive this evening, now seems like a good time share them.  The snow this winter was awful, but it was also beautiful, especially at night as illuminated by the streetlamp:

 

And a "light" snow made the winter garden much more visually interesting:

It was beautiful:

 

But you know I'm going to have to replace the hoses and nozzles -- curse Lee with me for not putting them in the basement in the late fall as requested:

I really like photographing this side of the house in all conditions:

 

And one of these days I have to assemble a review of this new arrangement of perennials in pots through the seasons:

 

Right now the garden is wet, brown, and gross.  I can't wait until spring really begins, clocks springing ahead this weekend or not!  Are you stuck in an ugly stage in your garden too?

Sometimes It Pays To Be Crazy

Here's what a terrible winter it has been -- on Sunday it was rainy and 50 degrees and I was elated.  I was walking around with a light sweater and a rain jacket and couldn't have been happier.  It felt like spring and I had a bad case of spring fever.  I know I can't plant anything -- it's far too wet out there still.  Look at the puddle in this container along the driveway:

 

And a nice layer of gravel left over from the shoveled snow piled on top of them (thank goodness it's all melted at last):

 

I can't believe there's still spinach in that container.  I literally haven't seen it since December.  But I don't think we'll be eating it:

 

I remember last year when I went looking for seed potatoes and was told that they had all sold out.  So spring fever on Sunday had me thinking of potatoes.  Lee laughed at me.  We stopped by Agway and they had nothing.  Lee laughed at me.  We stopped by Van Wilgen's and wonder of wonders they had many different kinds!  I laughed at Lee.  I came home with four bags, 2 each of Blue Adirondack Blue and Banana (a type of fingerling).  I even pulled all my seeds out of the fridge to start thinking about what I will plant this year:

 

Stay tuned for seed starting and before too long we'll be able to get outside and tidy up now that the snow cover is all but gone (one tiny little patch by the shed still):

 

I went to the gym tonight, so I'll be in great shape when gardening starts up again! 

Could It Actually Be Spring?

Mother Nature is playing with us I suspect.  In February she sent us several days in the 60s, but today it was only 20-something.  I guess March will be a lion.  On February 18th my buddy Ryan came over to hang out and it was so warm I had to take a walk with him.  Massive melting gave him all kinds of puddles to stomp through and rushing water in all the storm drains.  He had a ball:

 

Luckily traffic was light because he was so excited he ran as fast as he could until I'd yell at him to stop and let me catch up.  It was heaven being outside just wearing a hoodie over a t-shirt:

 

The warm temps have led to a lot of melting, but man, there is still a lot of snow out there (the rest of these pics were taken 3/3/11): 

 

This is the north side of the house, so this pile (reduced by half -- it used to be all the way to the bottom of the windows) will be around for a while: 

 

I haven't seen these planters (or that chair) since December:

 

I have a feeling that this berm (did you know that the word for a large pile of snow?) may be around until May:

 

One of the reasons I haven't posted in ages is because Lee and I have both been down with a virus since last Monday/Tuesday, hence the cough drops below next to evidence that the indoor plants haven't exactly flourished:

 

Here's some more evidence.  The coleus is probably the most successful of the window plants, but one of the containers of strawberries failed completely.  Still it was a little green to get us through a very long winter: 

 

Lee bought me a very nice plant for Valentine's Day.  I'm not certain what it is because it didn't have a label, but I'm pretty sure that it's a peace lily:

 

Still in the container that it came in above, but Lee came home and suggested we put it in the "magazine basket" we had used for another plant years ago.  Good idea, Lee:

 

I suddenly felt like it was spring today so I went out to the garden to see if I could find any signs of it despire the 20-something degree weather.  I may have been wearing a heavy winter coat and boots, but sure enough there were signs of spring to be found.  A daffodil in the patio garden:

 

And a sure sign of spring, chives in one of the herb containers:

 

I was so excited that I bought a seed starting greenhouse kit today at Walmart.  It's definitely that time of year.  A few more weeks and we'll be springing ahead and tidying up the garden!