Bet you expected me to start off with a photo of the veggie garden! Nope. Lee hit Home Depot early Saturday morning to get some more garden soil and potting soil and then got out into the garden while I was supposed to be getting a facial. They messed up and cancelled my appointment, so I headed back home just in time to approve the placement of the new azalea SS2 got me for Mother's Day. It had to be out of the roof drip-line, but not too close to the walk:
He did a great job and I'm very happy. Now I just hope it thrives there:
Then Lee headed off to do other things (weeding, sucking up more leaves, etc.) and I dug out those 6 Japanese maple seedlings I found in the driveway and added them to ever growing collection of plants on the wire shelves in the driveway:
While I was doing that I somehow managed to knock over the plastic container holding the Japanese maple in the middle of the lamium spilling it all out. So I took the phlox that is barely holding on out of this ceramic container and put the poor spilled plants and soil in instead. I don't have a home for it, so I just stuck it on the wood table on the gravel patio:
Then I went to work planting the tomatoes and peppers. Lee helped out by following behind me putting the cages in the containers. From L to R -- Purple bell pepper, 3 empty containers that will hold beans, 2 Lillian's Yellow tomatoes, Purple bell pepper, Soldacki tomato, 3 empty containers that will hold beans, Soldacki tomato, Lilac bell pepper, red potato, red potato, Lilac bell pepper, Brandywine tomato, 2 Hillbilly tomatoes, Brandywine tomato and then the two metal trash cans of potatoes and the small one in front of them has mint:
I was part way through the containers on the gravel patio when Lee brought me lunch -- chicken salad on rye/pumpernickel:
After lunch I got back to planting and Lee headed inside for a shower. The gravel patio is all tomatoes, from L to R -- Black Krim, Black Carbon, Paul Robeson, Paul Robeson, Black Carbon, and Black Krim. Nothing in the raised beds yet. I'm thinking herbs on the right, probably a lot of perennial herbs too, and zucchini and cucumbers on the left:
And I wanted to point out our first attempt to grow tomatoes in the ground in the veggie garden. 2 Black Krims on each side of the Hillbilly tomatoes in the trellis planter. People ask why we garden primarily in containers and tree roots is one answer. This is our fifth year gardening and we can finally dig a hole here without a pick-axe to break up the tree roots. I hit one big one on the left but was able to get through it with just the trowel:
I managed to come home with more tomato seedlings than I had containers large enough for them. Two went into the ground above, but I didn't have another in-ground spot that would work. So one Lillian's Yellow is in the pot that the azalea came in on the driveway:
And the other is in a largish pot on the patio next to the patio tomato. I don't see this working long-term, but for the moment it will do:
Here's another view of the gravel patio and raised bed from the patio. I love this angle (the one I see most often):
I was so happy to be done with the tomato and pepper planting. I forget how long it takes to plant 22 seedlings. I sprinkled fertilizer on each container (the gray stuff in the photo of the wooden trellis planter above) and after taking photos, watered them in. More on the fertilizer I'm using this year towards the end of the growing season. I wasn't quite ready to call it a day because rain was forecast for the entire week, so I went over to play with my herbs:
In addition to rearranging them, I potted up the variegated ginger mint and sqeezed it in. I think this is the final arrangement of the pots, but their contents may change a little:
I'm not very happy with the way the herb barrel looks. I think I may finally give up on growing herbs in this spot and instead plant the barrel with some shade loving perennials because I just don't think it gets enough sun. The chives do great, but the golden oregano is barely there, only one sage came back, the creeping thyme is okay, and the silver thyme is sparse. Oh, and there's a bit of parsley. I'll give it a few weeks to see if it's going to bounce back at all:
Actually I drafted this post on Saturday night and since then I've found a sage blossom and the rains have the whole container looking better. But mostly I'm excited about the sage blossom:
I think I'll try to stick some hot & spicy oregano in this hanging basket, maybe some basil too. The chives and creeping thyme look great, but again, another sage that didn't overwinter:
And I pulled the thyme and sage that didn't make it in this one and replaced them with more golden oregano and a lavender that I grew from seed that overwintered successfully -- in a tiny little pot no less! Will likely also stick a basil in here:
And this is one of the things I'm most excited about this year. Nasturtiums in hanging pots:
Planted at exactly the same time as the other one in the same configuration. Where are my seedlings? I will give them another few days and if none appear I will plant more seeds:
I have mixed feelings about the 7 days of rain in the forecast. We're two days in and I'm not going stir crazy yet, but I still have a little bit of clean up to do -- the beans along the house from last year. Ugh. At least I won't have to water anything like I did last week. Then when it stops raining and warms up again beans, zucchini, and cucumbers!
Why is everyone fond of the chives photo? The spinach 'bolt' and the sage bloom get my vote for calendar inclusion!
Posted by: Mummer | May 17, 2011 at 07:18 AM
Heather, the rain is making me a bit cuckoo already. And it's COLD!!! Good thing about this is that now I can clean my house, do laundry, go the grocery store, deal with the mail, and tend to all those other things I easily neglect this time of year. Thunderstorms tomorrow. Yikes!
Posted by: Wendy | May 17, 2011 at 07:53 AM
Mom -- I like the sage bloom too, but it's a vertical so I don't think it's going in the calendar.
Wendy -- I hear ya. It is cold, especially when I wander out into the garden in the rain because I miss it and get soaking wet!
Posted by: Heather's Garden | May 17, 2011 at 08:34 PM