No Gardening on Mother's Day

The yard looked like a jungle from the window compared to last weekend. I had to see what was in store for next weekend. Today is Mother's Day and I will rest!

Looks like work. What am I going to do with the foliage from the spring bulbs. It is recommended not to tie up the foliage but this has to look neater.

Such a graceful lady.

Love ferns and this one loves the moisture from the container.

I hate to see the tulips go. Until next spring.

Not a wise decision to plant sedges and other perennials in this bed. They aren't even visible.  I will see what I can do about that. If they live another location maybe.

Ants are already on the peony and the blooms have not opened. I'm disappointed that there are few blooms. I didn't fertilize them in the fall as I planed. This usually results in an abundance of blooms loading down the peony to the ground. Maybe next year.

This is not the look I've been trying to develop. What to do? Until tomorrow. It's way past my bedtime.

A Day for Moms

Happy Mother's Day! Before I go spend time with my mother, out to the garden. I'll share later. Enjoy your day.

I planted 3 of my chocolate mint coleus seedlings and 1 begonia seedling.

They're showing off before the weather really warms up in June when they'll probably need to be pulled.

It's larger and prettier this year.

Both planters contain heuchera, lirope, sedum, and one has a perennial. Some of them did not survive the winter. 

The tulips have started to die. They will be missed until next year. They were beautiful. The blooms will probably have faded and I'll top them off on the weekend. 

Helenium bare root doing well. I can't wait to see the flowers. Hopefully it will spread and fill up this area.

Thunbergia grandiflora blue sky vines. They look bad but usually the end up doing well. I hope they do well this year. Last year it was black eyed Susan vine. Blue sky vine is in the same family but different and quite invasive in it's native country India and other tropical areas.

Can't get rid of ajuga. Every year I think I've pulled it all up but not.
Yes the flowers are pretty.

Sedum, echinacea, heuchera, and day Lilly.

I had plans for this area for several years. A lot could be planted here but enough is already going on in the front  to maintain and I'm trying to make things as easy and maintenance free as possible. I think I need to leave the ivy along. I read that Norway maples have shallow roots and not many plants can be planted near them. The ivy only requires a trim during the summer so, no more maintenance free than this. My flower bed in the front of the house was once all ivy like this. One weekend years ago my mother and her friend came over and dug up all the ivy and thick roots. This taught me never to plant ivy in the ground if you ever want to plant anything else. This was the start of my attempt at gardening. It took years to have success and start reading and learning about gardening.

Norway maple brought the shade.

Last fall's pansy. Nice to see it survived.

This is the older lambs ear. My sister gave me a small piece several years ago. The winter was hard on it this year and it's just starting to come out.

Marguerite daisy on the porch waiting to be planted. Thought I read it was drought tolerant but no. Every time I see it is has wilted begging for water. I will have to keep her watered when I put her in the pots on the side walk.

Sweet potato vine has arrived. Got loose at Produce junction on Saturday. It was awful. I have never seen so many people there. My sister wanted to go pick out some Mother's Day flowers. Never again on the day before Mother's Day. The annuals were super cheap. I couldn't pass up 36 coleus for $9.00. I think of all the work it took to grow mine. All annuals were cheap. I will have to start here next spring. There were so many plant for so little but the rain was poring down. That didn't seem to stop anyone. I know the market had to be sold out by the time it closed. I have my coleus and now more varieties what a luxury. I will share some with my mom. We spent Saturday together shopping and I also pulled her tulips from her planter and added annuals. It came out beautifully.

Salvia, dasies, and paint. I have an ambitious goal this summer to paint the inside of the porch, the floor, and some of the trim that I can reach outside. I will leave the higher areas for a painter. I painted the porch and floor before years ago. It's time to be freshened up. I still have not done the upholstery on my love seat. When I make some progress I will post pictures. On to the yard.

Lone Pansy Seedling

While outside after work drilling holes in pots and planting geraniums, I picked up the last surviving pansy seedling. What did my eyes behold? It bloomed. It took 6 months for the seedling to bloom and it's such a pitiful small bloom. This being said, I was thrilled. It certainly doesn't look like the pansies I bought from the nursery but I learned some things about growing them. There is more to growing them at home than I know or have read about. I have done many searches on the web in the last 3 years about growing pansies from seed. The sites I looked at have great looking pansies in a shorter period of time and they look good. I am always envious. I have seen others that looked similar to mine. 

The fact that one survived and bloomed only encourages me to continue searching for a blogger who grows their own pansies at home and has had good success and will give solid facts for envious unsuccessful pansy lovers like myself. Some sites I have viewed and continue to go over thinking I missed something include http://doorgarden.com/08/starting-pansies-from-seed and http://www.glenns-garden.com/growing-pansies-from-seed/.
Another web page I look at is http://floristpansyviola.wordpress.com/
Home pansy growers lets talk because as you know, summer is pansy starting season for fall planting. Do I dare try again? I need to give the seed starting station a good disinfecting  and clean all the trays and pots.

The bloom is dark purple and white.

Gardening in the Rain

I was adamant to garden today after work. The first thing I thought about doing was driving to the garden center to purchase a hydrangea I saw yesterday but didn't buy. I also saw some beautiful roses. The one rose I attempted since I have lived in this house is still in the yard in the shade. Back then I didn't know about what conditions a particular plant required and that you just can't buy what you want and plant it anywhere and expect it to live and thrive. You can buy it but it's sad to watch it die. 

So the rose has never thrived and yields several red roses each year followed by black spot disease. In the spring her leaves are healthy and reddish green. The rose has been in the ground so many years I haven't yet been successful in digging her up. One lift of the shovel by a sturdy male hand may do the job. Maybe this year I will have it dug up and move it to a brighter spot out of the shade and see what it will do. I don't even know what type of rose she is; shrub, tea rose, climbing? I'm not up on my type of roses but I love them. Their smell if aromatic is wonderful. My mother told me she bought my sister and I something for Mother's Day. A new plant perhaps. I will be looking forward to seeing what it is. My sister's and mother's roses are beautiful. My yard is the only one without their flourishing blossoms in the summer. I am envious of rose growers.

An ambitious plan after work but I decided to come home instead, tired. It had started to turn breezy and cool down from temperatures in the 70's. The sky was gray with the threat of rain any minute. That didn't deter me from getting some gardening in when I came home. First stop, the back yard to look at the spring flowers in the drizzling rain. Tulips still alive and in bloom. More blooms on the bleeding heart. Such unique beautiful blooms. The geraniums seedlings I put outside without hardening off looked dead. Not upset. All the work it took and they were still tiny. By this time they should have been full sized. That's what the garden center is for. I like the red ones so I have some although they won't be the ones I grew this year. I also bought 2 ivy geraniums. I waited late and someone else likes them also because those were the last 2 at the garden center. I watered the geranium seedlings although it was a light rain. I don't know if we expect a soaking rain tonight and I want to see if the water will revive them.

Back to the front to pull up the spent tulips. As I stated in a previous post I didn't put drainage holes in the pots on the step before I planted the tulips because I couldn't find my drill. I put perlite and gravel in the bottom to hopefully keep water off roots although their roots are shallow anyway. Not smart. When the first heavy rain arrived the water sat on the top of the soil and had to be poured off. Today was the day to pull the tulips, empty the soil and drill holes. Guess what? I found the drill a while ago but it's not charged. Hole drilling and planting geraniums in the pots tomorrow.

On to the planter on the stoop. I pulled red tulips that bloomed but looked frost bitten. In their place I put 3 chocolate mint coleus and 2 begonia seedlings. The roots on the begonia were small. This probably explains why the geranium and other seedlings didn't do well. Fungus gnat larva probably ate the roots. I have to have a plan for the fall when I start seedlings. When I opened a new sealed bag of soil to repot my clivia it  was full of gnats. The house plants inside will have to be carefully taken care of during the summer so they are health and free of insects before I start seeds again. What amazes me is that I never see gnat in the house until amaryllis, paper whites and seedlings come into the house. I know the theory that they come from over watering but the gnats already have to be in the soil of plants and are drawn to fresh organic matter. They come from some where. Winter bulbs may be planted in pebbles and water this year. I'm undecided.

The coleus and begonia have been on the porch for at least a week. I hope the begonia does okay. Coleus has always done well in the past for me even if they fuss at first.  I have other plants to squeeze in like sweet potato vine when I go to the farms market in Center City to get them. A women who sells plants always has a nice variety for reasonable prices. I haven't been to the market yet since the weather warmed up. Not a day for picture taking. On the weekend maybe the window boxes can be planted?

Gardening in the Spring-In the Yard

Beautiful sky, beautiful sun.

The shade has arrived. If only I had full sun. Bloom Where Your're Planted.

Cut the crab grass. I use a weed wacker.

Plant impatiens and begonias.

Fig tree seedlings form Georgia. I think the winter got them, sad. I'm not going to throw them out yet.

Blueberry. Are those the blueberries or do the blooms fall off and the blueberry is there? Other plants there broccoli, tomato, cucumber, chives, sage, and bell pepper. Soon to be planted. Maybe on Sunday? 

Bleeding heart returned and in bloom.

Purchased in the fall for $16.00. Now in store for $69.99, for what? I always wanted a black urn. Which do you like before or after?

The hosta are pretty. To think I thought that canna will go behind them against the fence. How am I going to get them there? One of my clematis didn't come up. Maybe another causality of the winter.

Can't wait to see what type of flower this is. My mother gave me these. There are 2 bunches.

Glad the fern came back.

There are still canna in here. I don't think they will come back up. If they don't I have more to insert.

I need to hose down the fence. Lots of soil on it from the torrential rains we had this week.

Garlic

Almost done.

Waiting for peony to bloom. Gardening ended with carpenter bees running me out of the yard. My neighbor has a wood trim on her kitchen and they are buzzing around it drilling holes. It's another yard but they seem to think I don't have a right to be in mine, so..

Taking pictures can get you stung. I never knew I could run so fast! I will take care of them next Saturday. I like pollinators but they aren't pollinating anything. I didn't get to work on the containers for my vegetables and plant them. Maybe I will be allowed in the yard tomorrow. Happy gardening!