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Spring 2010
message 1:
by
Bloomin’Chick (Jo) aka The Eclectic Spoonie
(new)
Mar 20, 2010 08:29AM
Happy First Day of Spring Everyone! And Happy Birthday to fellow member Brenda! 
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Happy spring! Thanks for the picture Jo, what a wonderful thing to see today! We're supposed to get snow tomorrow, but it's exciting to see green grass starting to pop out.
BEAUTIFUL! Our daffodils aren't in bloom yet, but my hyacinths are opeing and the neighbors weeping willow is covered in spring green new leaves.
Love the photo, Jo. I don't care if it is 30 degrees here today, the calendar says spring and that's good enough for me!
I agree Cheryl - it's almost time to start planting! Whoohoooooo!!!
Welcome All! The pic is pretty isn't it?! I came home from our sister town's St. Pat's parade to find my Grape Hyacinths standing tall and blooming such a beautiful purple blue! And one lone Viola bloomed yesterday, the same color!
Tulips in an Unusual Place: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?i... This brought such a smile this morning!
I've been dragging my roll-out trash container around the yard for rose cuttings and perennial clean up. After I cut back the roses, I apply rose food systemically and top dress with MiracleGro Garden Soil. It's been four days and I still haven't reached the last part of the yard. Also dividing Siberian Iris and daylillies and replanting. What therapy!
It IS such Good therapy isn't it Nancy?! I'm in desperate need of some of the same myself though I've raked all the debris from the back yard (again) and been cleaning up the containers out front. I saw Pansy's & Forsythia at the local farmer's market stand today and we were supposed to stop by on the loop back - I Told hubby they closed at 5pm - we arrived at 5:12pm and the place was locked up for the day and they're closed tomorrow.
He gets how much joy I get from seasonal/holiday decorating but he still doesn't get that gardening gives me a thousand times more joy. Not sure why he gets one over the other. (And yes, I've told him & told him...)
Ah well. Guess where he'll be taking me bright & early on Tuesday? :-)
I'll be at Lowe's - getting more MiracleGro!
LOL! I love Miracle Gro products. They have organic soil and (flower/plant/tree/shrub/veggie) foods now too!
The Miracle Gro bagged soil is wonderful stuff. I love to put it in my planter boxes.A couple of trees in our yard have popped their leaves yesterday and today. The hyacinths are open, pansies that scatter seeds from last year are bright little faces through out the garden. AND we saw our first gold finch at the feeder yesterday afternoon.
Ahhh, life is wonderful isn't it?
Sounds like it is Kathryn! The Black Capped Chickadees have been at the feeders & boy they are messy little seed eaters (more ends up on the ground than in their beaks or left in the feeders) but I love wathing & listening to them!
So, turns out the farmer's market is open now on Mondays AND the owner is my husbands cousin! They're both from Very large local families who constantly run into people they turn out to be related to! He knows we (I) frequent the farmer's market (for their greenhouse) and will take care of us from now on - yay! Picked up 5 four packs of Pansy's (light & dark purple) and tomorrow we'll run back to pick up a Forsythia. (Wasn't thinking and we took the suv instead of out pickup today).
Don't you just love digging in the dirt and planting? I adore pansies...their little faces pop up everywhere. Jumping Jacks are my all time favorite, but where we live now, they struggle in our HOT summers....
Here too! And it's too late for me to plant pansies here, tho some people do, - the warm weather knocks them out. I just found two great huge Majestic Palms at the grocery store today for $17 each. Go figure....
Sigh......... I'm living vicariously on all the new entries above. It will be weeks before we are at the digging in the dirt stage, but I love hearing about it. Can't wait for the pansies either, but our greenhouses don't open until the last week of April, so it will be a while.
There are few Pansy's to be had this year because of our actual Winter (we've had winter's that consisted of fall & spring like weather instead in recent years) but seeing them just made me so Happy and I really need to get my hands into the dirt. This is my longest stretch without gardening since I started in 2001! (That tells you something about our climate right there!) And I'm in desperate need of some soil therapy! lol Pansy's definitely Love the cooler & cold weather & shade and definitely dislike the heat!
I picked up at Dinner plate Contraste Dahlia yesterday for $2.99!!! They go for $10 & up! http://images.google.com/imgres?imgur...
I just keep looking and looking at dahlias in the catalogs. I have to figure out a way to store them in the winter so I can start growing them this year. Anyone have any suggestions? I don't have a cool storage spot in my house and neither do my kids.
I used to keep them in our pantry which is dark and fairly cool/even temp's all year in a paper bag. I've heard you can keep them in the fridge in the crisper drawer - try Googling "Dahlia storage suggestions" and see what comes up.
Despite my raging sinus headache, (I've lost so much time to headaches as of late) I brought my Pansy's & Tulips inside (going down into the 20's tonight & tomorrow and 34 on Sunday) and I started seeds today in little peat cups (couldn't find the un-waxed paper cups I've used before) with Miracle-Grow Seed Starter Potting Mix.Veggies:
Spinach (Bloomsdale Longstanding)
Swiss Chard (Mixed Colors)
Chives (also an herb/spice when dried after harvest)
Squash (Dark Green Zucchini - the seedlings smell Heavenly!)
Tomato (Rutgers)
Tomato (Kellogg's Beefsteak, orange color)
Herbs:
Lavender (True, pale purple)
Cornflower
Lavender (True, dark pink purple)
Perennials:
Echinacea (Purple Coneflower, pink color)
Columbine (Blue)
Mix (Mainly yellow & pink perennial flowers)
Viola (Johnny Jump Up, purple & yellow)
Black Eyed Susans
Annuals:
Zinnia (Enchantress Rose, pink)
Zinnia (Envy, pale lime green)
Vinca (Little Choice Mix, pink, dark pink & white)
Gosh these are wonderful choices. Here in Washington we put our garden in, including annuals, right around Mother's Day. I do want to get my sweet peas in soon and the sunflowers will be planted soon also. We just haven't had the best of success at starting things inside. We plant the seeds directly in the soil except for tomatoes, cucs and melons which we buy at the store as starter plants....All in a wonderful day's work....
Thanks Kathryn! I've got some more I have to find/order in the veggie dept soon. I do much better usually with direct sowing outside but I always try some indoors anyhoo! lol I only use some from each packet and keep the rest to sow outside.
Indeed! And a wet & chilly (for the most part) at that, lol! March is going out like a lion I think!
I hope the rest of our week is a calm one. Is there anywhere special I need to click on Thursday when we start the book? I added why it was picked today.
Brrr, it got cold last night. There was frost on our roof. My bleeding heart is just starting to bloom and there are green shoots all over the garden. It truly amazes me that I don't remember what each and every plant is that is coming up. On the other hand it's great to be surprised. We have three Quaking Aspen trees along our fence line that we look out from our great room windows and see. Two have not popped their leaves (I have them named daddy on the left, the baby is in the middle and mommy is on the right) and the daddy has his leaves about mid point down and nothing on the top. The buds are there just not opened yet. These three were planted at the same time three years ago and started out the same height. Just like children they all have their own personalities!
We are busy breaking weather records here in Minnesota. We have not had 1 flake of snow in the month of March which is an all time record. Even through there has been flooding both north and south of us we are dry, dry, dry here in the east central part of the state. Tomorrow and Thurs we're supposed to hit the 70s and be very windy. The fire danger is very high and there are burning bans everywhere.Some plants are popping through the mulch and I'm going to have to start watering.
Dee wrote: "I hope the rest of our week is a calm one. Is there anywhere special I need to click on Thursday when we start the book? I added why it was picked today."Just start your discussion thread(s) Dee and place in the "Garden Themed Group Reads" folder.
We're getting as much rain since yesterday (or more) as we did in that last storm which was 5 days long! Our basement's flooding today and our kitchen flooded yesterday. It could be worse, I know and I'm thankful it's not, but, sigh!
Nancy wrote: "Here too! And it's too late for me to plant pansies here, tho some people do, - the warm weather knocks them out. I just found two great huge Majestic Palms at the grocery store today for $17 each..."
Excuse me while I eat my words. Lowe's had pansy flats for $2.50 each. You can guess what I was planting this morning.
LOL!!!
I just couldn't stand it any more and went out and started cleaning up the flower beds this morning. We are having this incredible warm weather and even though I don't dare uncover anything I did cut back dead stuff and work on edging the bed on the south side of my house. As far as I can tell all my plants from last year (I totally redid this bed the fall before) have returned and look healthy with the exception on one Peegee hydrangea. I think it might be dead. I also discovered I really need to water and will be doing that later today after the direct sun is off of the area. So encouraging to see healthy looking hollyhocks, gallardia, daylilys, sedum, Asiatic lilys, tall daisys and blackeyed Susans poking through the mulch. I've decided I will be adding more sedum to this bed and I think some purple salvia too. So much fun to get my hands in the dirt!
I was so excited that it wasn't raining when I got up this morning that I immediately ran outside & started making headway with re-arranging my pots on the front porch! Before I even had breakfast! LOL!It IS so much fun getting our hands dirty, isn't it Cheryl?! Sounds like you have many Lovely things coming up!
I'm hoping they keep coming--only two out of 15 so far, but I'll take whatever I get!
Me too!!!
It's snowing in Eastern Washington - my husband just hollared "It's sticking on the roof". All the little birds are busy at the feeders - they must be in total shock. It will probably be gone by dinner.
We had about 15 minutes of rain today and supposed to go back to sun tomorrow. The temps did drop from the 70s to the 50s which seems more normal. Grass is still dead brown and there are dead leaves everywhere. The bright spot is the robins are back! Usually our first harbinger of spring.
Wow Kathryn! We're hoping we're past that point here, lol!It's 74° up here at our place in North West NJ and 55° down at home on the coast! Now that's a switch! Surprisingly our property is pretty dry and the area fared pretty well w/all that rain thank God! We weren't sure what we'd find when we got arrived yesterday. We raked leaves & picked up the oodles of branches all over the place. Since this is our first Spring up here (we haven't had the place a year yet) I've got a garden to plan from scratch! (Happy happy joy joy!!!) I picked up 2 pots of 'victorian' Pansy's and a Butterlfy Bush this moring at a local old as dirt garden center. Next weekend I'll bring up my perennial & wildflower seeds and get started on those (direct sowing outside).
How fun to be in the beginning stage of starting the gardens at your North West NJ place. This will be our 3rd summer where we are and I love seeing how tall the trees have grown and last fall we even moved some things as they were a bit too big for their current space. I want to get my sweet peas in as they are such a favorite in the early summer and of course I've got to get the sunflower seeds in, too. That's all I do in flower seeds, the rest are veggies...
What fun, Jo, to plan and plant an entirely new garden!! I am jealous. I'm glad to hear the storm damage wasn't to bad. I am contemplating a new flower bed which will incorporate two other areas where I already have some plantings. It's going to be a huge undertaking and I probably won't get to it until after my trip to Boston in June, but I have been doing some planning and have been saving pictures and ideas from magazines.
I have a row of massive old pine trees across the back of my yard. The neighbor and I keep them trimmed up so we can mow under them more easily. However, the view is very unattractive when I look at them out my kitchen window. The yard between the house and the pines is relatively bare with the exception of an area to the right where I planted around my kids' old cross bar swing set, it's cemented in, so I have to deal with it, and another area to the left where I have peonies, asters and Asiatic lilys. I would like to tie this entire area together (about 40-50 feet) with a meandering long narrow bed with perenniels, shrubs, grasses and maybe a small tree or two. The idea being to screen the ugliness under the old pines from the house. I'm thrilled with the idea of the planting and planning, not so much the actual digging and preparing the soil.
I'm excited and trying not to get carried away up there, lol! I need to find some very cheap fairly large containers, preferably 'apple barrels,' at least 3 but if cheap enough, 6. That's going to be a tough challenge, so I've got to start hitting the flea markets, garage sales and thrift shops, especially up there. I've got lots of re-arranging to do here at home out front and out back with the containers - I already re-arranged the front porch, so now I've got to switch out the veggie pots out front for larger ones from the back and add a larger pot to my little wheel barrel out front and that's basically done except for seed sowing which I may get to this week. I'd like to get 1 more Rose and put it on the front of the front porch and move the Dianthus (red) to the side with the Purple Ice Plant and small Butterfly Bush (white).
Out back, I've got to raise the Dogwood bed by one more 4x4 post because it's not holding enough soil (roots are starting to show) and see what pots I'm left with back there and what I'll do with them and I may sow the rest of my seeds there too. I'd like to raise the rest of the containers out back up off the ground some how because our back yard is more dirt than grass because of drainage "issues" and a heavy rain gets dirt all over everything, the pots & what's in them included.
LOL, Jo. After sitting around all winter it's like there's a thousand things to do at once when spring finally arrives. My favorite kind of crazy.
I know! Suddenly I feel as though I have a thousand things to do, both inside & out! I started my Project Spring Purging yesterday while cooking dinner and now there are a Dozen cookbooks in the donation box we keep in the back of our suv plus I got rid of a few knicknacks I didn't care for. (Felt good yet oddly stressful, lol!) So on top of all I want/need to do outside, my mind is making mental notes of what else I want to purge around the house! lol
Re-arranging done out front, yay! And for the most part done out back too, yay! Hubby helped me of his own accord, I didn't have to ask, yay!
Good job and boy does it feel good, right Jo? Well we had unexpected snow on Friday and it melted and again this morning lots of rain that turned to snow. Now it's sun shiny and you would never know it snowed. And to think my husband was planning on fertilizing the lawn today. Never a dull moment around here, that's for certain....
Mother Nature and her Seasons certainly do keep us on our toes & guessing!
There was rain within 15 miles of us yesterday, but not a drop here. My allergies are terrible due to all the dust in the air plus we have had some prairie fires very close to where I live so there's also smoke. Seriously, Mother Nature needs to give us a break and open the waterworks!!
I finally feel like spring is really here as I made my first trip to the greenhouse yesterday. Picked up some onion sets, a white bleeding heart and my favorite pansies. Also got my first big bargain of the year--a large ceramic pot originally priced at $60.00 marked down to $20.00!! I've decided to set some large pots planted with annuals in a couple of my perennial beds and this purchase will be perfect.
