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That time of year
May. 12th, 2005 01:48 pmI guess it's time to do a garden post. We haven't actually spent that much time in the garden this year, between uncooperative weather and our trip to Italy. We've only spent one night in Gloucester this spring!
Anyway, we were there on Tuesday, to see how things had fared while we were gone and to plant some more seeds (I had intended to plant the second set of lettuce before we left, but I forgot). Fortunately, there had been a fair amount of rain while we were gone (and after we got back, for that matter), as proven by the presence of almost 3 inches of water in the rain gauge. So nothing had died of thirst. The grass was much longer and greener than it had been three weeks earlier.
The peas were all up, although some of the snow peas are kind of sparse; this is the seeds' third spring, so the germination rate is probably down. The first set of lettuce is mostly up, but the plants are very small indeed. I planted more lettuce, plus two kinds of cosmos, the big purple zinnias that did so well last year, California poppies, and some supposedly purple asclepias (butterfly weed), which should be interesting if it works. Unlike last year, most of the perennials seem to have survived the winter.
I know I complained last year about the bergenia that never seemed to bloom (I can't find the post in order to point to it -- maybe it was a comment in somebody else's journal); well, one of them is blooming this year! Nice pink flowers, just starting to open. While I was looking at it, my eye was caught by the surprising sight of a couple of small forget-me-not plants in bloom, a short distance away from where we had planted one a couple of years ago. Like every forget-me-not we've ever tried, it didn't last, but it's nice to see that it managed to produce offspring. We'll see what happens to this generation.
The cotoneasters mentioned here are thriving, although they're not showing any signs of approaching their advertised three-foot height. Maybe in a few years (or not). Meanwhile, their territory has not been reinvaded by blackberry and multiflora rose, as I feared it might be. We have, however, pulled out a few hundred maple seedlings from there and elsewhere, and there are plenty more.
Lots of plants waiting in the laundry room for transplanting once "all danger of frost has passed".
Anyway, we were there on Tuesday, to see how things had fared while we were gone and to plant some more seeds (I had intended to plant the second set of lettuce before we left, but I forgot). Fortunately, there had been a fair amount of rain while we were gone (and after we got back, for that matter), as proven by the presence of almost 3 inches of water in the rain gauge. So nothing had died of thirst. The grass was much longer and greener than it had been three weeks earlier.
The peas were all up, although some of the snow peas are kind of sparse; this is the seeds' third spring, so the germination rate is probably down. The first set of lettuce is mostly up, but the plants are very small indeed. I planted more lettuce, plus two kinds of cosmos, the big purple zinnias that did so well last year, California poppies, and some supposedly purple asclepias (butterfly weed), which should be interesting if it works. Unlike last year, most of the perennials seem to have survived the winter.
I know I complained last year about the bergenia that never seemed to bloom (I can't find the post in order to point to it -- maybe it was a comment in somebody else's journal); well, one of them is blooming this year! Nice pink flowers, just starting to open. While I was looking at it, my eye was caught by the surprising sight of a couple of small forget-me-not plants in bloom, a short distance away from where we had planted one a couple of years ago. Like every forget-me-not we've ever tried, it didn't last, but it's nice to see that it managed to produce offspring. We'll see what happens to this generation.
The cotoneasters mentioned here are thriving, although they're not showing any signs of approaching their advertised three-foot height. Maybe in a few years (or not). Meanwhile, their territory has not been reinvaded by blackberry and multiflora rose, as I feared it might be. We have, however, pulled out a few hundred maple seedlings from there and elsewhere, and there are plenty more.
Lots of plants waiting in the laundry room for transplanting once "all danger of frost has passed".
