In the Yard-Monday

A little more done. Table and chairs put away until Spring. Planted 3 pansies, 3 black eyed Susan's, a shasta daisy, and a shrub. I didn't get to plant garlic yet, maybe by the weekend. This will be my first time. Although it's October, gardens in Philly are still mostly green. Trees have been dropping leaves but I have yet to see a beautiful tree adorned for Fall. Most of the fallen leaves are brown. The Norway maples that hang over my yard are still green and have dropped hundred if not thousands of seed pods. I have read that trees require certain conditions for the leaves to change colors. It seems to me we had those conditions in Philly with many cool days this year. The weather was such a variety of temperatures and conditions this year. While planting perennials I dug up a lot of bulbs from last Fall. I thought I had taken most of them up after the foliage died. I will plant more, but after seeing the bulbs coming up in my container I will wait until November maybe even December to plant them. I planted late last Winter and they did fine. The ground was not frozen when I planted them.

The yard is small. I would love a full sun yard where I could grow some other flowers that require at least 6 hours of sun. Well I don't have a full sun yard. It's more of a mix of dappled shade and one area of almost full sun next to my house. I plant any vegetables here in containers. This is what I love about gardening. You can try anything. Sometimes plants can tolerate a little shade. I love black eyed Susan's and I have read that they can tolerate some shade but prefer and bloom best in full sun. Next year I will find out if they can live in the conditions in my yard. Shasta and montauk daisies prefer full sun but I planted them in partial shade. I took the montauk daises from the front of the house several years ago. They were beautiful in the Fall but they took over the small flower bed. They really need to be cut back or they won't grow up right. When I planted them in the yard they didn't do well but it didn't bother me. I really should locate a spot in the yard for them that gets more sun but when I was planting today I didn't move them. Lets see what the shasta daisies and black eyed Susan's do.

I have dry shade and I took a risk this Spring planting astible. They shrivled up in the heat. I saw some remnants of them when I was digging today. I read a suggestion about digging a hole and lining it then putting in the astible and this will help keep in moisture the plant likes. Other moisture loving plants may also benefit from this. If more come back in the Spring I will think of doing this then. I planted several this past Spring. I feel better that I have done something to prepare for Winter. One year I didn't do anything including not even rake the leave up. I regretted this when Spring came although many leaves in the flower bed composted over the Winter and it did wonders for my soil. After the leaves fall and are raked up I will top off the flower beds with manure and humus. The Fairmount Park Commission in Philly does provide free compost but I don't know that I will get there to get any. I try to add some type of ammendment every Fall to improve my clay soil and it has improved. I really need to do a soil test so I know what to add for the type of plants I have. I have a soil kit but have not used it yet. I would love to add the ashes from the wood I burn but I need to know if the soil needs it.

Another beautiful day. I don't know if I've seen these type of clouds before?

The view from the window.

Not completely cleaned up buy I will leave the broccoli and calendula seedlings and see if they will make it till Spring. I will plant garlic my favorite.

The nasturtium has a nerve. I planted this in the Spring as a companion plant to the cucumbers. I even soaked and nicked the seeds and when does it show up? I planted more than one seed but this is the only one to show it's face.

Closer view of broccoli and calendula.

The pansy may just sit. I dug and there were daffodils. After digging into them I don't know what they will do in the Spring.

I like the spider plant and will add it again next year. It has a lot of babies but I really don't want to take them into the house.

Canna will grow in shade but may not bloom. This one did not although I did plant it late. They are hardy to my zone so I'll see what it does next year if it makes it through the Winter.

I will remove the ceramic planters before it gets too cold so they don't crack.

In The Yard-Sunday

A beautiful day to garden. Temperatures in the 70's and windy. I love the wind.

Can't do anything in the yard without this. Hate to endorse a product but these work spectacular. No worrying about mosquito's or other flying insects. My brother bought this for me several years ago. I used it once but tried it again this Summer. I was amazed. I can actually garden without socks, long sleeves and pants, but I still did cover up when I went in the yard.

Time to get started. Lets go down.

I normally put the yard furniture away for the Winter so I can see the whole yard and what the garden is doing.

Coleus still growing with nights in the 50's and some 40's.

The fig tree is doing well.

The cherry tomatoes did well this year. I will take off the last few and pull up the vine.

Time to take the peppers off. I wonder will they be bitter?

I will get to these tomorrow. Black eye Susan's and a phlox that looks dead. In the back is a daisy much in need of planting.

I have read about micro climates, but can you believe that these bulbs are coming up? The are daffodils. I guess I won't have any in this container in Spring.

The end of the vinca and impatiens. Weeds, grass, and moss on the ground.

I cut the broccoli off I believe in September. Surprise. I guess you have to pull up the whole root. I have three new broccoli plants!

It will be interesting to see what it does over the Winter.

The moss grows best in the cool weather. 

I have little grass due to the shade from the trees in the yard.

It bloomed. Better late than never.

I hate to cut them but I want to plant the perennials.

My Winter project on sunny days is to work on a different boarder for this flower bed.

 Changed the position of the coreopsis. It needs more sun and may not due well where I wanted to plant it.

The grass near the wood fence gets about 3 feet tall. I wanted some height behind the peony in the center.

I want to move this out of this spot and put a bush I brought for some height. This needs more sun. I'm happy to see some coneflower babies.

This is pumpkin on a stick not the botanical or Latin name for it. I grew it from seed. They are actually ornamental eggplants. I first saw it at the flower shop in the Reading Terminal for an insane price for one stem. They look beautiful in Fall arrangements because the look like pumpkins. I hope to do better with these next year.

Undecided as to whether to plant them or just let them sit in their pots.

I wanted to top everything off but why. Why not just wait for frost?

Still color from the butterfly bush and begonia.

Yes, orange pansies for the yard since my seedlings didn't make it. If they lived I doubt they would be looking like this by now, but who knows.

These were for the second window box out front but I don't think so. I will wait to dress it for Christmas and plant these in the yard.

This was a raised planter. Now I use it for what ever: a pot of Arizona sun seedlings I grew and will plant, bulbs I pulled up in the Spring and did not store them properly and a host of other plants.

Not out back but beautiful, asylum and pansies only $4.00. It was over $20.00. This is my type of price and the scent is wonderful.

I have to show them again although the picture does not do justice to the bright red color.

Till tomorrow!

So Little Time, So Much to Do

Not much gardening has been going on. The front porch has become a holding place until cuttings I rooted can be planted and come in for the Winter. I hope the coleus and sweet potato vine makes it to Spring. I think I will try something different this year and plant all the cuttings in one large pot instead of individual ones. Less to water and not worry about maybe needing to increase the size of the pot. 

 I like a pumpkin on each step but this proved to entice someone to steal them last Fall. I had pie pumpkins not Jack O lanterns and I guess someone knew what they were. I have pie pumpkins in the planter. So far they have done okay and no one has borrowed them!

On the porch. I must plant them before they all die.

I hope this coleus is not like a large bush in the house. I might be surprised and it may not grow over the Winter but loose leaves instead. I wasn't going to save this but it's too unusual not to.

I would love to have red geraniums inside during the Winter. I just don't know where all this will go and I really don't want to change the soil and pot. Better to do this than to have insects inside brought in with the plant. I haven't decided, but if choose not to bring them in I will let them go dormant and not water them over the Winter. I usually don't remove them from their pots or hang them upside down.

The sweet potato vines rooted almost right away. They are waiting to be potted and taken inside.

The orchid my mother sent back from Georgia is still actually living and the bloom has been on there since after it arrived in August. I'm glad she's coming home in 3 weeks because I would hate for it to die before she takes it home. The small one in the white container is one she bought me. I need to take it out of that small pot. The pot is pretty but I think the orchid could use some more bark and maybe a clear container. I am making an effort to lean about growing orchids since I insist on buying them. So far I have learned that they like to be moist but not sit in water or they will rot, they need light and the clear pots that I have seen them in are sometimes best because this allowed them to use light for photosynthesis. Not too much direct sunlight though because this may burn the leaves.This will be my excuse to go to the nursery to get some orchid medium since they don't do well in regular potting soil. I didn't realize they were like air plants and in their native countries they are epiphytes and grow on trees and bark. The tree is used for support not nourishment. The Christmas cactus hanging up was almost dead this Summer. I got the bright idea to feed it a week fertilizer and it burned the leaves. You wouldn't know it to look at it now. This is the time to start putting them in the dark for Thanksgiving and Christmas blooms. I have never done this but maybe I'll try it this year. The blooms are so beautiful.

This has been doing well. It will hang in my bedroom which has South facing windows and lots of light and the room is the warmest in the house in Winter.

I'm supposed to be writing this post but I'm also watching The Victory Garden on television. I know that the shows are all repeats but I still enjoy any gardening show. It comes on every day with 2 episodes and also another garden show named Garden Smart. Today's topic on The Victory Garden was roses, and building your own green house.

So, there is so much to do: plant cuttings and bring inside, find room for them inside, maybe try pansies for Spring, clean the back yard and plant perennials I purchased a while back, plant garlic cloves, pull up Summer vegetables, plant the second window box, plant bulbs, buy more shop lights, bring in house plants off the porch after I spray them. This could go on and on. There never really is an end to gardening. 

How could I forget the pansies!

Getting Excited About Gardening Season 2014

Excitement is starting and I find myself smiling when I think of the approaching gardening season. It's hard to believe that December is almost here. The weekend after Christmas is when I started seeds for geraniums and vinca last year. Vinca takes a long time to reach mature size. When the seeds germinated and I saw how almost microscopic they were I said, "I will never grow them again." I never thought I would end up with the beautiful plants I had by Spring. I read a lot about starting them on different sites and felt I had "bit off more than I could handle." I read that they don't like to be over watered and like certain temperatures. In essence many sites felt they were difficult to grow. What did I learn from growing them? Leave them along. Provide 16 hours of light daily followed by 8 hours of darkness, water when dry, and just watch them slowly grow and they will reach full size. 

They started to bloom under lights by Spring. Of the seedlings I have started the last couple of years, they were the prettiest and healthiest looking. Some seedling don't compare inside to what they will look like later outside and take until planted outside and temperatures warm up to look normal. Vinca is beautiful before this. The seedlings were the perfect size by Spring. They did well outside in containers this Summer but not as well in the window boxes. None died though. I also started petunias but won't start them this early this year because they were so large and spreading they were too hard to keep contained until time to plant out. I planted wave petunias and had no idea of what they should look like when adult size. I couldn't understand why they branched out from the center. They outgrew their pots and who wants to keep planting lots of seedlings into larger pots. This year I bought pelleted seeds. Bacopa and petunia are mixed in each pellet.

It's exciting to plant seeds and see them grow day by day, but this year I will try to be reasonable and realize that I do not own a greenhouse and I can get bored quick with trying to keep a multitude of seedlings alive and healthy until planting time. Reasonable talk now but when it comes time to start seeds I want some of everything. Of course I can't plant everything. Some seeds are harder to grow. I love cape daisies. I started these last year and they germinated in less than a week. I could never get them to mature size and eventually they died. I may try again this year.  I removed my geraniums from the steps outside and onto the porch. They are still blooming in colors or red, orange, white, and hot pink. I bought seeds of a different variety for December. I have the trailing ones for the window boxes and a dark leaf foliage one for the step planters. I did not plan to overwinter them but I may on the porch. I planned to pull them up and add Spring bulbs. I will uses other clay pots instead to plant some bulbs.

My biggest surprise were dahlias. I still have them in a pot it my yard. When I prepare the yard for Winter I will pull them up and see if they formed tubers. I got my beautiful foxglove that I had out front this Summer from seeds sown. I planted it from seed one year and it overwintered and bloomed the second year. I am disappointed that this year it seems to have died. It normally stays green all Winter. I love foxglove and may try starting some this Winter or perhaps Winter sow some outside. I have never done this. I seem to do better starting my seeds inside. I purchased the dahlia seed from Baker Creek. I also planted blanket plant, I think that's the name of it. I have many in a pot and will separate them and hope they do well next Summer.

Things are still green outside and in the yard. I may wait for the first frost to clean up. I would love a leaf shredder to shred the leaves that will fall in my yard to mulch and cover bulbs that I will plant. In Spring I can incorporate them into the soil. Covering the bulbs with leaves seemed to deter the squirrels from digging them up. If they detect fresh turned soil they dig them up may bite them and then discard them. Perennials are still in the yard to be planted before frost. I will get it done. I have been waiting for the garden to die down so I can see where it would be best to plant them. I'm excited aren't you?