Been busy outside!

I just have a bunch of pictures and explanations today! Hopefully all the beds will have mulch very soon.

This first picture is where my jelly melon bed.  The trellis is for the jelly melons and in front of them I have alyssums and off to the right a purslane. Also, the rain gauge.

Next, my around the tree bed.  Dusty miller, grape punch petunia, Lemon slice Calibrochoa, some awesome smelling bush I can't remember the name of, peppermint, another yellow purslane....and on the other side, candytuft, dusty miller, komachi balloon flowers

My ketchup and mustard rose.  I potted it and then put it into the ground because we have moles floating around and I don't want the roots to get eaten :(

Spinach on the left (not doing well), beets in the right.

The rest of that bed- Asiatic lilies, Citrus Blend Lantanas, my blue fringe daisy and the japanese barberry bush that is like a chameleon throughout the seasons.

hops!

radishes and carrots (need to thin the carrots some more)

peppers and tomatoes and sweet gherkins

peppers and tomatoes!

peppers and tomatoes!

and more peppers.  All this will move onto the deck when I finally get a chance to finish staining it! If the rain could hold off long enough, I'd be able to finish it!

My husband's pond (with our new lovely coral bark japanese maple on the left)

Some petunias and bells in the pot and what I like to call "the fairy shrub".  I can't remember its name either, ha!

Getting ready for the last frost!

So in between powerwashing and sanding my deck...I've been trying to get a few things planted.  Crossing my fingers we're done with snow. It's APRIL.  

My daughter got this plant (mum?) from her friend for her birthday.  It sneakily hid next to my media tower and by the time I remembered it was there, it was drying up fast.  So in the ground it goes with a salute and a "may the force be with you". 

My new grow bag finally arrived (cat confiscated the other one).  So in went the radishes!  Watermelon and Crimson Giant.

Rosemary stopped its fussiness.  Doing fantastic now.

Here's my big "oops" in the gardening world for the week.  It was doing so much better than when I bought it.  And then...the table got moved out from under the eave for my daughter's birthday party...and it got snowed on.  Six inches of snowed on. Whoops. Holding out hope...maybe? I can't bring myself to trash it.

And the spinach came outside finally!

Hah! Well that didn't work like I meant it to...

I finally got my beets and carrots planted! Not the radishes because I couldn't take the grow bag from Hula. But....I did order myself another one, so hopefully I'll get those planted soon. 

I bring my resin barrel over to its "spot" and notice the water that is already in it, isn't draining well.  (We had a pretty big snow here a few days ago.) I see you, water!

It probably isn't/wasn't a huge deal since it was the bottom-most part of the barrel and the center that was raised up a bit had all the holes.  But still, I didn't really want water sitting in there.  So I brought outside my awl and tried to poke a hole.  I do mean "tried".  I couldn't do it.  The plastic was too thick.  So what did I do, then?

Why brought out the tamper to give me more muscle, of course.  Don't all crazy things seem like a good idea at the time? I tap one time....and.....

Boom. Cracked my barrel.  Oh well. Drainage is looking super duper now!

We planted some Purple Dragon Carrots and Big Top Carrots in the carrot grow bag.

And we planted (in sort of a "bullseye" pattern to keep it a decent distance apart) the Detroit Supreme Beets.

And just when I was starting to worry that my cherry trees weren't going to come back up this year! (No idea why, just random paranoia).

Flowering....waiting for spring

So nothing really new to report except I have some gorgeous flowers popping up. And the limes are getting big! So just some pictures today!

Whoops

I'm saying whoops to a few things.  So comes to find out that probably all of my tomato losses were due to overfeeding.  The good news is- easy fix from here on out....stagger feedings.  I lost a black truffle yesterday.  Oh well, I'll take an excuse to buy some starts!  And whoops for leaving my plants in the greenhouse too long.  Nothing happened except they are huge.

This is a block of roots.  Even Hula is intrigued. This is the Jelly Melon.

This is the Starlight Rose Zinnia- look at those roots!!

All potted up!

The grow bags haven't been able to go outside yet...while I wasn't planning on it being summertime yet, I thought the snow would at least stop.  Wrong. This is what my afternoon looked like yesterday.  March 24th.

Luckily, there's a little spring inside the house.  A couple of the snapdragons have bloomed! They are just gorgeous. I can't wait for them to go outside.

Nothing here to see....or is there? Sneak attack!

Like I said, frustrating.

So a couple days ago,  I tossed my last hazelfield seedlings.  They had all taken on that wicked leaf curl and all the leaves had become crunchy while still remaining green. I was going to say something had to have been up with the seeds (4 dropped like flies.) and then I went to post the link to the seeds on Baker's Creek's site...and they're magically gone.  Hmm...I may be right. I'm just going to buy some starters for my red beefsteak.  I mean, I technically have time to start new ones if I desired....but, there's no harm in buying a start.


Look, how can I plant in these? She'll be so sad!

In other news, my order from Michigan Bulbs is here! Back at the beginning of January, they were having a wicked sale, so I ordered the Ketchup and Mustard Rose (top picture) and the Blue Fringe Daisy (bottom picture).  Thankfully the company is awesome and doesn't ship until it's an appropriate time for your area, so I didn't have to worry about getting daisies or roses in January.  The warmth is almost here!!

Oh...and bloom snapdragons, bloom!

New Bed!

So in searching for a place for my new grow bags yesterday, I decided to extend two of the beds into each other. (And no, I haven't planted the beets in that plastic barrel yet- but, in my defense, it's supposed to snow tonight so it seemed like a bad time).

I'm a dunce and forgot to take a before picture....but you can see where there was grass in this picture to the right.....

A little edging with a straight-edge shovel, a lot of tilling, and bam- connected bed!  I'm planning on throwing down river pebble rocks leading back to the heating/ac unit. The grow beds will just sit on top of the rocks when they have stuff in them.  Unless Hula manages to convince me that I should let her keep the radish bag.  I mean, today is her birthday.

In other gardening news- the snapdragons are about to bloom!  These were taken yesterday morning, so I might have full sized snapdragon flowers waiting for me today.