The Nitty Gritty

A lot of gardening isn't much fun at all.  Especially in the spring when it feels like all you do is clean up bed after bed endlessly.  So I try to find things to be excited about as we get the grunt work done.  Like lots of buds on the irises:

And the pretty pink flowers on the phlox:

 

Well, back to the work.  Lee's first task on Saturday was mulching the perennial shade garden:

  

Then the Mother's Day garden.  There are a few signs that the azalea isn't dead, but it sure doesn't look good:

 

I was so impressed by the speed at which Lee mulched.  He is now calling himself the mean mother mulcher.  I blinked and he had the hosta/rhododendron bed done:

 

While he did all of that, I surveyed the patio garden.  And then I started pulling the tulip/daffodil/crocus border in front.  It hardly bloomed this year (well the crocuses did pretty well, but the others not so much) and will definitely need more bulbs in the fall:

 

I have to admit that I got bored and had to take a break.  That rosemary that I picked up cheap at the grocery store will be very happy in this beautiful pot:

 

And it's looking very at home in the herb garden, but there's still room for one or two more pots:

 

Back to the patio garden...there were lots of marsh marigolds mixed with some other weeds.  And then I found a little baby lupine.  I wonder how many I weeded out before their true leaves appeared.  This one will stay:

 

There, isn't that much better?  I even mulched this one myself: 

 

I think Lee was scared of getting in between the irises, which frankly I was kind of frightened of doing myself.  They have lots of flower stalks beginning and I was sure I was going to break some, but I didn't:

 

We called it a day a little earlier than we normally would because we knew that we'd have all day on Sunday to garden too.  My first celebratory Red Stripe of the year -- and it's a 'light' one:

 

And here's Lee lighting the first fire of the year.  We didn't need it for warmth, we were trying to drive away all the little flying insects buzzing around.  Lots more this year than usual.  Probably the cool wet spring we've been having:

 

SS2 even came out and sat with us for a while.  We enjoyed it until a strong thunderstorm blew in, but the thunder and swiftly darkening skies gave us plenty of time to get ourselves and all our tools inside before the rain arrived.  Lee got outside early on Sunday, while I hid inside from the sun, and SS2 went to have brunch with his mom (who's in town for a few days).  By the time I got outside he had the veggie garden tidied up and mulched.  It's ready for plants:

 

I stood in the shade and transplanted the jalapeno peppers to the hanging containers.  Hopefully we'll actually get some peppers this year:

 

Then I was down in the veggie garden leveling out the containers when SS2 got home.  He brought with him an excellent gift -- a 'Hershey Red' azalea.  Now I just have to figure out where we'll be planting it (I think I have an idea):

  

Then he gave me the best Mother's Day present by helping to assemble the new raised bed without complaint.  Plus he's really good at it:

 

And here it is in place.  We were hoping that it would be level enough that we wouldn't have to dig, but it's not.  So Lee and SS2 will get there on Monday and get it done:

 

SS2 did one more thing for me before I excused him from garden duty.  He almost stepped on that little lupine seedling several times, so it's now "protected" from wandering feet by two of the butterflies on stakes.  Yeah, I don't think it will work either:

 

Then I headed back over to the potting area and transplanted really the only seedlings that survived my tough love...the marigolds:

 

I finally got around to potting up the dahlia tubers and I got the hose cart reconnected.  It's possible to garden without running water to the entire garden, but it's a whole lot easier with it:

 

I had two dahlia tubers left over, so I stuck one in this pot next to the purple fountain grass that I don't think is coming back.  You can see it just above the coleus that I brought out from the kitchen and stuck in there too:

And the basil from the windowsill went into a pot added to the herb garden:

The hot and spicy oregano went into the other big pot along the driveway as did another leftover dahlia: 

 

I'm not sure that the scattering the radish and carrot seeds together method worked.  They're all kind of in clumps around the container like this:

 

And that was the end of Sunday/Mother's Day...or was it?  Lee and SS2 did promise to get that raised bed in on Monday when Lee got home from work.  And they did!  First up was marking around the bed in place and scraping back the 'sod' which was mostly weeds:

 

I was helping too, so no more photos until we'd already finished leveling the spot...well mostly leveling it, nothing's perfect.  I take credit for the idea of filling in that little channel between the patio and bed with some river rocks we had on hand:

 

Items to note in the photo above: 1.) The soil looks pretty good, lots of worms, not too much debris, some glass, so we didn't line the bottom of the raised bed.  2.) The planter table is making getting to the back of the 4 foot deep bed a little difficult.  That's easily fixed...the new home of the planter table:

 

Oh, and while I'm over here, the two wooden containers to the right of the potatoes will hold climbing beans.  We need something to make that fence less ugly.  We really miss the ivy:

 

So here is the raised bed filled with soil and ready to plant.  Even once those pots have tomatoes I'll be able to easily reach all portions of the bed (and there's something funky about this photo, I swear it's all level, not slumping in the middle):

 

I'm very pleased with our progress in the garden.  One more push to get the tomato and pepper starts in and we'll pretty much be finished.  Now let's just hope that mother nature and my work schedule cooperate!

Comments

[Wendy]

I love seeing your photos, Heather. You got so much done. Mundane stuff, as you said, that makes all the difference in the world. I notice you grow all your herbs in pots. Do you mix herbs within the pot? Or just one herb per pot?

[Heather's Garden]

Wendy -- I grow a lot of herbs. They will end up in mixed with ornamentals in containers along the driveway, in individual pots next to the patio, in the raised beds, the half barrell that is exclusively herbs, and in at least one hanging container. I start some from seed, have a lot of perennials herbs now, and end up hitting a local grower when they discount their stock to close for the season. I get a lot of $1 herbs in late June/early July. Herbs are wonderfully decorative and useful all at once. I love growing them in the little pots because they don't mind drying out quickly and look so pretty.

[Wendy]

That's smart. Herbs smell so good, too, that it's nice to have that sage (pineapple sage is unbelievable) and oregano and what not all over the place. Some spread so much (I have used oregano as ground cover in walking paths) that you can spare to transplant pieces here and there. I'm with you on the whole "sale rack" thing. As I've said before, I've bought amazing things at supermarkets and "dead tables" for peanuts and it's done remarkably well.

[Mummer]

You are so right about 'sale tables'. My geraniums, purchased at 75% off, were yellowed with neglect - you should see them now! Blooming with incredible vigor and color in this 90% heat when all else is dead.
I've noticed that potted items here in Southwest Florida seem to have root-rot so when I attempt to rescue stuff I cut off a good third of the root system, pull the remaining roots apart, and plant slightly dry. If the plants survives all this abuse, they usually last for a year.
But I don't have your good results with herbs, Heather, any tips?

[Heather's Garden]

Wendy -- I can't tell you how well oregano grows in my garden. It is so easy to propigate, you can just pull a little bit up and stick it in soil somewhere else and all of a sudden you've got another oregano plant!

Mom -- We know you're a bargain shopper! I bought 4 phlox plants last year and two had root rot. They survived, but they're sure not thriving. I don't know if I'm all that successful with herbs. Only one of my sage plants came back this year and I lost a lot of my thyme too. It was a rough winter. But I know I can replenish with bargain plants from Vaiuso when they close for the season so I'm not too worried about it.

[fern]

Well, I guess you've been busy!