Garden Update – Page 3 – Gerd's Garden

Posted on May 20, 2021May 20, 2021 by Cara

Garden Update, 5/20/21: Overwhelmed by May

So the garden progresses. Ever feel like you are making progress, only to find that the space you cleared just makes room for everything else to move to the front? That’s how I feel with my garden at the moment.

Maybe this is the usual May overwhelm that many gardeners feel. As a new gardener, and one working under the constraints of both a pandemic and a surgery, I’ve felt particularly behind the ball. I made up for this with research and purchasing power. (I did my part for the economy, boy howdy.) But this research and purchasing power may have ended up working against me, as I have far too many plants and, due to my healing knee, no real way to make all of the physical changes in the garden that would be needed to plant them all. So. Into pots many of them go.

Granted, my plans for the garden this year were a lot. Upon review, I realized I couldn’t make all of the landscaping changes I wanted in one year, even if I was at full health. So I scaled that back. The rock garden overhaul will have to wait, as will the thinning of the overgrown iris and daffodil bulbs along the side of the house and the back alley. The evergreen bushes and overgrown lilac and magnolia trees in the front of the house will have to limp on for one more year without my help. And in the main flowerbed, all of the clumps of old lilies and Shasta daisies will get to enjoy one more season before I replace them with something prettier. (Or, if I get really energetic–or desperate for space for my dahlias–some may get up getting dug up later this summer.)

But I just don’t have the mental bandwidth right now, honestly. I’m already growing about 20 species or varieties that I’ve never grown (for example, I love apples, but I’ve never actually grown them), and keeping their growing needs and the details of how to counteract all of the things that could possibly go wrong ready to pull out of my head at the appropriate moment is keeping me pretty tired. Luckily, I could do my day job in my sleep at this point, so it doesn’t take much of my mental bandwidth, usually. And working from home, I have a lot more time to devote to the garden than I normally would. If/when we go back to the office full-time, though, I’ll be SOL. That’s probably part of what’s driving my anxious need to get everything squared away in the garden right now, actually–the pandemic is winding down (yay!) which means we’ll have to go back to the office soon (boo!)

My two new 3’x8.5′ raised beds are built and filled with soil–mostly a mixture of peat moss, top soil, and manure, with some lime, worm castings, and insoluble fertilizer mixed in, a la Gary from The Rusted Garden. I would not have been able to do this without the help of my father, who ended up doing most of the heavy lifting. (As a trade-off, I fix his computer, on pretty much a monthly basis.) The beds themselves are cheap metal raised beds that I picked up on Amazon back in January. Both raised beds have wooden trellises supported by t-posts, and they are already almost full.

As of now, almost of my tomatoes are out; I had started my Sungold cherry tomatoes too soon and as a result, by the time the weather was warm enough to put them out, despite my best efforts they were 2′ tall, leggy and weak. I now have two-week old seedlings going and I’m sure they will catch up with the rest of the tomatoes soon enough. I picked up a few brassicas as the local nursery–brussels and a red cabbage–as I wanted to give them another go but had no desire to start any more seeds. They ended up in the ends of the beds. This week, we had a day of rain followed by what was predicted to be 6 days of 80s weather, so I sowed my cukes directly into the bed, and added more carrots, because why not? I also had some melon seedlings ready, so they went in as well. And since I have a metric ton of dahlia tubers–most of which are now sprouting–I added an HS Date and a Great Silence went into the melon/cuke bed as well. I figured it would make the bed look pretty 🙂 In the other bed, the tomatoes are surrounded by calendulas and ranunculus corms, which will hopefully draw pollinators.

Eggplants are in fabric pots, and the tomatillos are in large plastic pots, as I recently found out that, despite what the seed packet says, they usually grow rather bigger than 3′ and spread more than tomatoes do. (From what I’ve seen, they look a right mess and I don’t want them anywhere near my raised beds.) I also picked up some seed potatoes, and also planted some from my kitchen that had started to sprout. And I’ve potted up some of the dahlias and ranunculus together; hopefully, even if they don’t bloom at the same time, the pots will always have at least something blooming in them. Tomorrow, I will finish potting up my peppers–why waste trellis space if I don’t have to?–and do some general clean-up. Planting and potting up is a messy business. And, finally, I need to figure out what to do with all my extra seedlings. I’ve already passed on as many as I can to friends and family, but as I was a paranoid grower, II planted a ton and therefore have a bunch left over. Ah, well. At least we have good weather finally, and soon–soon!–my garden will be fully planted, and I can move on to simply managing adult plants, without having to also worry about constantly sowing and caring for baby ones, too. Sounds like paradise to me!

Posted on May 9, 2021May 9, 2021 by Cara

Garden Update, 5/9/21: Trees

So my Japanese Maple arrived Friday, somewhat unexpectedly. All of my tree babies have now come home to roost! I received the maple from Nature Hills, which is a big online live plant store, and also one I as a bit concerned about, as their delivery time frame was “Spring”, no matter how many times I emailed them for updates. Still, the tree did arrive in good shape–4.5′ tall or so, with many branches and leaves–and it did arrive in, well, Spring. Currently I have it in a tall fabric pot where the moon garden will be, though long-term it’ll be in the lawn next to to Moon Garden.

The apple trees in the yard are also coming along nicely. They all have started budding–even my branchless Charlie Brown reject from Home Depot has miraculously started budding. The HoneyCrisp in particular is looking quite healthy.

I also have a Dwarf Mulberry I bought as a seedling from Baker Creek last year. It grew well and survived the winter–as far as I can tell. It hasn’t started budding, but I found last year that Mulberries LOVE the heat. And the branches are still flexible, so hopefully it will rebound come summer. I have a Russian Hardy pomegrante tree which I also got last year as a seedling, but it was attacked by the cat multiple times. Still, it’s survived this long, hopefully it will put on some height this year!

Dwarf Mulberry, with three strawberries planted at its base. Russian Hardy Pomegrante in the background.

The 30-year-old Bartlett Pear tree as are chugging right along. They just finished blooming in April and are now putting on leaves. I should trim the tops, but we’ll see how it goes. (They had a huge harvest least year, and I hear pear trees only put out a big harvest every three years, so pruning it is pretty low on my to-do list currently.)

Posted on May 9, 2021May 9, 2021 by Cara

Garden Update, 5/9/21: Tomatoes

Tomatoes. Tomatoes are my bane.

We’re past the last average frost date, which my local weatherman says is 4/30/21, but despite most days being above 40, we’ve had a few nights that are flirting with frost. This week alone we’ve had (or will have) two nights near 34F. Augh! I’ve had to bring in my nasturtiums and tomatoes that I’ve been hardening off. The calendulas and zinnias would have liked to have gone inside as well, but they are already scattered throughout the garden, as well as the basils. Luckily I have plenty of back-ups of the basils and zinnias and calendulas are not hard to grow from seed outside.

My tomatoes, however, are another story. (Sigh. Tomatoes.) I can’t even eat fresh tomatoes due to acid reflux issues (cooked tomatoes are easier on my stomach) but I’m determine to grow tomatoes, as they are easy to grow in my climate and I want to be able to put up some sauce for winter. I’ve also got tomatillos growing, but they won’t be put outside until June at the earliest.

Today I went to check in my greenhouse downstairs, and found that the pots are drying out almost every day and many of my tomatoes are 8″ or taller–way too big for their 2″ pots. They are fine standing upright when smooshed in with 20 other plants but when I take one out of the tray to check on it, the stems, though thick, are a bit limp. As the weatherman is not recommending any planting until next week, I decided that I’ll go ahead and up-pop the tomatoes into much larger pots now.

I have several sowings of 9 different varieties b/c some seedings either were burned from over-fertilizing or were eaten by my cat, or whatever, and at this point I’ve lost track of how many of which variety I have, so I just keep sowing back-ups. Today I’ve brought up most of my oldest seedlings, which are the ones that need to be up-potted. The tomato bed is almost ready for them, and should be completely ready come this weekend. It’s built and 75% filled with soil–as it is 3×9′ long, that’s a lot of soil. Once I get them up-potted, I can harden them off; then, some this weekend, I should finally be able to put them into the bed. What a relief!

These are the varieties I’m planting this year:

Tomato, Barry’s Crazy Cherry	Baker Creek
Tomato, Bonnie’s Best	MI Gardener
Tomato, Carbon	Baker Creek
Tomato, Dad’s Sunset	Baker Creek
Tomato, Paul Robeson	Baker Creek
Tomato, Sun Gold Pole Cherry	Botanical Interests
Tomato, Thornburn’s Terracotta	Baker Creek
Tomato, White Tomesol	Baker Creek

The white tomato was a freebie from Baker Creek; if it grows, great; if not, oh well. It’s mainly a novelty. The two large orange slicers (Thornburn’s and Sunset) were from a list I read on a blog somewhere, and as I’ve never grown orange tomatoes, I thought I’d give it a try. The purple slicers (Paul Robeson, Carbon) are supposedly the best tasting tomatoes, and they are my main plan for making sauce. (I tried San Marzanos last year; in my opinion the flavor does not make up for the fact that they are small and it takes a ton of prep work to make a good amount of sauce.) Bonnie’s Best is also supposedly a good sauce tomato. The cherry tomatoes (Barry’s, Sun Gold) are both yellow cherry tomatoes that are supposedly very tasty. I’ll mainly give these away to friends and family.

Posted on May 1, 2021May 1, 2021 by Cara

Garden Planning: The Moon Garden

So this week I had good news and bad news. The good news is that the weather is continuing to not dip below 47F for the foreseeable future (usually our last frost date is 4/30). Another bit of good news is that I was able to find many cheap annuals at the local independent garden center. The bad news being that I have to yet again scale back my plans for renovating the garden due to my physical limitations. Currently I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck pretty much any day that I do any gardening, so…. it’s going to be a very long, slow rehaul this summer. (Who knew that simply bending down to weed and moving bags of soil could be so tiring??)

Anywho, I have been able to slowly clear out a space in the back yard flower garden for my Moon Garden. This will be an all-white garden with a few plants that only bloom at night. It will be against the fence where the neighbor’s very tall fence ends and my way-too-short fence begins. I picked up a cute 6′ trellis to add to help add height and more privacy.

The plants I had originally planned for this area were the Moonflower vine (obviously); Fleurel dahlia (large white dinner-plate dahlia); white Malva; White Swan Echinacea; and some Acidanthera Murielae (“Abyssinian Gladiolus”)–all grown by me from seed or bulb. I’ve also added to this list some Roman Chamomile, mainly as a filler. The chamomile seedlings are coming right along; the echinacea seeds were extremely slow to germinate and as a result may not even bloom this year. The Abyssinian glads have also been very slow to sprout. 😦 Luckily, yesterday I was able to pick up a good array of annuals from the garden center, all already in full bloom: a couple of four-packs of while dwarf gladiolus, some white single-bloom border dahlias; and white cosmos. I also have a few ranunculus from a mix that might turn out to be white; they’ll get added if there’s room. I may even add one of my night-blooming jasmines, though it will have to stay potted as it is not at all hardy to my area.

Before I realized that I could get so many white annuals locally, I also ordered a few more seeds; Marshmallow from Baker’s Creek (all proceeds going to help India in their current Covid crisis), and some Indian Peace Pipe Nicotiana seeds from Botanical Interests. Now I just need to sow them when they arrive, and sow a few back-up moonflowers (my cat and the sun ruined a few already), and I think I should be good to go. I also have about six mature white Shasta daisies further up in the garden; unfortunately they are not close enough to the moon garden area and I’ll have to transplant one or two over, maybe using them to mark the borders. And once I get everything set up, I’ll likely add some kind of solar “fairy lights” to brighten things up.

Finally! A plan comes together. 🙂 Slowly but surely.

Posted on April 27, 2021April 30, 2021 by Cara

Too Many DAHLIAS, 4/27/21

Currently, in my house, I have 18 varieties of dahlia bulbs and four dahlia seed mixes. And I still have five (edit: six varieties) varieties that haven’t even arrived yet! I blame this on a number of things. My recent knee surgery required me to stay off my feet for six weeks, and I ended up getting hooked and watching too many flower farming videos as a result. Also, Floret Flowers’ new Dahlia book came out this spring. Finally, lo and behold, Walmart has $5 dahlias! And many are worth buying.

Why dahlias, you ask? Well, they look about a luxe and dramatic as a flower can possibly be. Plus, there’s the fact that, should you take care of your tubers, they will multiply and you will never need to buy them again. (You could even sell or give away your extras!)

Here are a few of the dahlia pictures that lured me in:

I’ve had many tubers sitting in my basement greenhouse, waiting to see if they would sprout. Most did. However, space in my greenhouse is very limited, what with the tomatoes and peppers getting way too big and taking up most of the space, so today I finally decided just to pot up those tubers that clearly showed eyes but weren’t producing large sprouts. Here is the list of tubers that got potted up today:

Dahlia, Crème de Cassis	Van Zyverden (Walmart)	1 bulb
Dahlia, Cafe Au Lait	Skyfall Flowers	6 bulbs
Dahlia, Fleurel	Longfield Gardens	3 bulbs
Dahlia, Great Silence	Longfield Gardens	1 bulb
Dahlia, Karma Choc	Terrain	2 bulbs
Dahlia, Motto	Van Zyverden (Walmart)	2 bulbs
Dahlia, Noordwijks Glorie	Longfield Gardens	2 bulbs
Dahlia, Pacific Time	Van Zyverden (Walmart)	2 bulbs
Dahlia, Electric Flash	Van Zyverden (Walmart)	2 bulbs
Dahlia, Kelvin Floodlight	Van Zyverden (Walmart)	2 bulbs
Dahlia, Zingaro	Van Zyverden (Walmart)	2 bulbs

Each of these tubers should guarantee me a flower, as each had visible, sprouting eyes. So, 25 guaranteed dahlias this year, assuming no pest or disease damage.

For the Cafe au Lait dahlia, while I did end up purchasing bulbs for this from two companies (I wasn’t sure the first dahlia bulb I received would survive), most of these bulbs came from me manually dividing up tuber clumps. Also, Cafe au Lait appears to be an especially prolific variety, which is awesome as it is widely considered one of the most desirable dahlia varieties.

Also, despite having no luck whatsoever in potting up dahlia cuttings up to this point, I wanted to try it again. I went back to the source (Swan Island Dahlias, http://www.dahlias.com) and rewatched their cuttings video. They use a specific r ooting gel and fertilizer for their cuttings, neither of which I had been using. In theory, you could simply take a cutting from any dahlia tuber and stick it in moist potting soil and it would root naturally. I’ve not had any luck with this approach, even when using the cheaper but still highly recommended rooting powder. I used the gel on today’s batch, and tomorrow I’ll add the fertilizer; here’s hoping it works this time.

This week’s dahlia cuttings:

Dahlia, HS Date	Longfield Gardens	5 cuttings
Dahlia, Café au Lait	Longfield Gardens	1 cutting
Dahlia, Crème de Cassis	Van Zyverden (Walmart)	3 cuttings
Dahlia, Great Silence	Longfield Gardens	1 cutting
Dahlia, Melody Pink	Longfield Gardens	2 cuttings

Another lure of the dahlias are the seeds. Due to dahlia genetics, only clones made from the original tubers will produce the exact variety of dahlia that is anticipated. Seeds are a crapshoot, and could exhibit a wide variety of dahlia characteristics. The downside is that dahlia seeds tend to produce smaller blooms and more single blooms as compared to the lavish ones produced by the cultivated cloned tubers. The cool side effect of the dahlia genetics, however, is that every dahlia produced by seed is unique, and if it turns out to be cool-looking or otherwise having unique or interesting properties, you can name it and start selling it. Currently there are 42 categories of dahlias and tens of thousands of specific hybrids, so finding a unique one is probably pretty hard.

As with most things in my garden this year, the dahlias are an experiment. Maybe I’ll love them; maybe I’ll find that they are not worth the hassle. (They are not hardy in my zone–they are only hardy is zones 8-10, if I remember correctly– and so they need to be dug up and stored over winter.) We’ll find out. Currently all I have are a bunch of potted-up tubers and some cuttings; but the potential for beauty contained in each is overwhelming. Maybe one of them will be that one flower that I can’t live without. Who knows?

Posted on April 26, 2021 by Cara

Garden Update, 4/26/21

Spring is finally here; time for an update!

Since my last update on 4/12, I have not done much seed planting–mainly repeats of previous starts, just in case.

Seed sowing, 4/15/21:

Carrot, Dragon	SeedSavers
Carrot, Shin Kuroda	Botanical Interests
Carrot, Sugarsnax 54 (pelleted)	Johnny’s Seeds
Carrot, Uzbek Golden	Baker Creek

The carrot bed is finally up! No germination yet, though 😦

Seed sowing, 4/16/21:

Basil, Mrs. Burns Lemon	Park Seeds	seeds
Rudbeckia, Gloriosa Daisy Prairie Sun	Park Seeds	seeds
Rutabaga, Navone Yellow	Baker Creek	seeds
Eggplant, Listada de Gandia	Botanical Interests	seeds
Tomatillo, Grande Rio Verde	Botanical Interests	seeds
Beet, Cylindra	Johnny’s Seeds	seeds
Lettuce, Little Gem	Baker Creek	seeds
Chives, Common	Baker Creek	seeds
Onion, Tokyo Long White Bunching	Sustainable Seeds	seeds
Lettuce, Green Sweet Crisp (Salanova)	Johnny’s Seeds	seeds
Tomatillo, Purple	Baker Creek	seeds
Cabbage, Wakefield	Sustainable Seeds	seeds
Cabbage, Napa One Kilo Slow Bolt	Botanical Interests	seeds

This was my last big batch of seed sowing this year. I added in a rudbeckia I’d just received and a basil that a you tuber had recommended. I resowed my eggplant and tomatillo as the seedlings have not been looking healthy and these nightshades take forever to grow. I also did succession plantings of lettuces, onions, and brassicas. One thing I did find out from this batch was that rutabagas and cabbages germinate overnight and grow insanely fast. Too fast, in fact. I ended up turning this into microgreens and eating them right out of the trays 🙂 I’ll plant them again later once I actually have some beds prepare for them.

Seed sowing, 4/20/21:

Cabbage, Nero di Toscana (Dinosaur)	Baker Creek
Nasturtium, Cherry Rose Jewel	Baker Creek
Nasturtium, Tall Trailing Mix	Baker Creek

I received a new nasturtium and needed some more trailing nasturtiums, so into the dirt they went. The Nero di Toscana cabbage is actually more like a kale, and didn’t germinate nearly as fast as the other cabbages.

My main focus the last two weeks has been on my live plants and on WTH I’m going to put everything.

This past weekend, I received a bunch of Purple Passion asparagus crowns as well as some Joan J Thornless raspberry canes, both from the same Amazon seller from whom I picked up my green asparagus. Raspberries went into large fabric containers for the time being because I’m just not up to digging up every single bed in my yard this year. I tore out the obvious 30 year old raspberry canes and placed the fabric bed on top of it; however, due to raspberries having rhizomes, who knows what the full extent of the 30-year-old root structure at the moment. (All I know is we constantly find random raspberry sprouts everywhere in the backyard.) Golden raspberries should be on the way, but as they are from Stark Bros, that’s a dicey bet–all of my orders from them keep getting pushed back, and as I found, they don’t give cash refunds. 😦

I’ve received all three of the apple trees I ordered. Two from Gilby’s Orchard in MN (the Haralson and the HoneyCrisp dwarf trees) and look as good as bare root trees get. They are both 4 ‘ tall and have a few branches, and flower buds are already starting. I potted both up in extra-tall fabric grow bags as my plan currently is not to put anything large into the ground until I know exactly where I want to put it.

The third apple tree, a dwarf Fuji apple, was originally ordered from Stark Bros, but they kept pushing their delivery dates back 3-4 weeks, so I eventually canceled it. I then saw this particular apple also listed on Home Depot, so despite having ordered it through Home Depot last year and the order eventually having been canceled on me, I went ahead and ordered it there as well. I honestly expected it to be canceled like last year, but it shipped almost right away. When I received it, however, it was nothing more than a long stick with a few roots sticking out perpendicular to the base of the tree. Truly a Charlie Brown’s apple tree. It was also marked “standard size”, not dwarf. I contacted HD right away, and amazingly, within minutes I had a refund approved and was told to keep the tree and dispose of it as I would. (I checked their reviews for this particular tree and almost all of the reviews from this month said the same thing–they received a standard sized tree, contacted HD, and got a refund. So clearly HD is having an issue with that particular supplier.) I also noticed that the entry on their website now reads “standard sized Fuji apple”, not dwarf. The sad part is that I was in my local HD the other day and saw several lovely, tall, potted standard sized Fuji apples for the about the same price. (Wish my yard could fit a standard sized apple, but alas, I live in the city.) No one local seems to have dwarf Fujis, so it’ll probably have to wait until next year. As for the poor tree I did receive, I potted it up and we’ll see if it’ll grow. If it does survive, I’ll keep it potted and pass it along to someone else once it gets too big.

I made a pleasant discovery at another big box store. My partner dragged me into a local Walmart last week so that he could pick up a belt, and of course I wandered over to the garden center. Where I found, to my surprise, many of the fertilizers and other soil components I was already using, and at a much cheaper price. And, even better, I found DAHLIA BULBS–2 bulbs for $5 a pack, and a good variety of them. So of course I picked a bunch up. I wish I had know earlier that Walmart sold dahlia bulbs; it would have made this year’s dahlia experiment so much cheaper. I even picked up a few things I hadn’t planned on trying this year, but since they were so cheap and I never go to Walmart, I figured now would be the time: elephant ears, hollyhocks, peonies, and some kind of golden potatoes. (I also got a clematis, but it didn’t survive.) I only chose dahlias that I could see were already sprouting, so I was guaranteed that the bulbs are viable. I’ll put an expanded list of my dahlias up in another post; it’s gotten a bit ludicrous, honestly.

Finally, I did get some of my roses planted, with help from a good friend. I was replacing some 20 year old peonies along a side fence with some huge Double-Red Knock Out roses I picked up at Costco the other day. My friend wanted the old peonies, so we both benefited. And let me tell you, 20-year-old peonies have bulb clusters. Hopefully they will survive transplant; though they haven’t yet bloomed, they have already sent up a good amount of foliage, and so weren’t dormant when we pulled them. The roses look great planted next to the fence and in a year or so should be bushy enough to start providing a pretty, fragrant privacy screen.

Next up: finishing all of my raised beds, and filling them with soil.

Posted on April 24, 2021 by Cara

Things I have learned, April 2021

So I’m nose-deep in seedlings of all size, needs, and variety. Many things I’ve had to re-sow at least twice, because germination was low or my cat ate them. (He specifically likes the hot peppers.) Some of the seedlings I almost lost due to overwatering–apparently seedlings turning pale yellow is a sign of overwatering! Some of the seedlings needed to be babied more than you’d think–my green peas and sweet peas are not nearly as cold-hardy as everyone says (at least not while germinating.) And, you will always need more heat mats and lights than you think.

Now that the local stores are selling seed starts, I’ve also learned a few more things. One, unless they are some kind of rare or otherwise interesting variety, don’t bother growing pansies and violas. You can get 6-packs of them in stores cheaper and quicker than you can grow them. Despite being small flowers, they seem to take forever to grow. Also, poppies, though very pretty once mature, are thin, frail-looking seedlings that take forever to grow and are a pain to pot on. (Cabbage and turnip seeds, on the other hand germinate almost instantly and grow an inch a day–probably why they make good microgreens.) Finally, box stores can and will be actively selling full-grown tomato plants long before our last frost date has passed. (I hate to imagine how many inexperienced gardeners lost their entire veggie garden after our unseasonably warm days followed by a hard freeze last week.)

Finally, you will almost always be able to get better deals in person at the store than online. For example, if I’d know Walmart sold dahlia tubers ($5/bag, two tubers per bag), I’d have saved a good bit of money and also gotten my dahlia cuttings started sooner. (A tuber is pretty much a tuber, no matter where you get it–especially plants like dahlias that you can take cuttings from.) As I was house-bound due to the surgery, though, there was only so much I could do. 😦

And finally finally, I’ve had to admit that, due to the surgery and the longer-than-expected healing process, I won’t be able to do everything I had planned in the garden this year. I had hoped to avoid container gardening almost entirely, but as most of my garden space has old established plants that need to be dug up or moved–or is still lawn and not yet garden space at all– into containers they’ll go. In the long run, this may help with the big plants. especially, as it gives me time to figure out the best spots for them. But it means, in the short run, much more hand-watering that I had wanted to do, as running irrigation will be a pain.

Posted on April 12, 2021April 12, 2021 by Cara

Seed Starting Update 4/12/21

And, finally, a seed starting update. You didn’t think it was all live plants, did you?

(This one will be long. Luckily this blog layout goes to a cut on the main page after a few lines.)

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, March 27th. So, since then, this is what I’ve planted:

Seed starting, 3/30/21:

Tomato, Thornburn’s Terracotta	Baker Creek
Tomato, White Tomesol	Baker Creek
Tomato, Dad’s Sunset	Baker Creek
Tomato, Barry’s Crazy Cherry	Baker Creek
Pepper, Biquinho Yellow (hot)	Baker Creek
Sweet Pea, My Navy	Botanical Interests
Sweet Pea, Little Sweetheart	Botanical Interests
Sweet Pea, Royal Blend	Botanical Interests
Dahlia, Café au Lait	Skyfall Flowers
Dahlia, Giant Hybrid Mix	Johnny’s Seeds

I bought a bunch of orange tomatoes to try, and received a free packet of white tomato seeds as well. Also, technically, the Dahlia was a tuber that I pre-sprouted, not a seed. ANd, another round of sweet peas. They are currently my bane.

Seed starting, 4/2/21:

Purple echinacea (stratified)	Sustainable Sprout
Peppermint (stratified)	Sustainable Sprout
Valerian (stratified)	Tradewinds Fruits
Giant Columbine (stratified)	MI Gardener
Lavender, Provence Blue (stratified)	Sustainable Sprout
Calendula, Pacific Beauty Mix	Baker Creek
Aster, Giant Perfection Mix	Baker Creek
Bachelor’s Button, Blue Boy	Botanical Interests
Calendula, Pink Surprise	Baker Creek
ECHINACEA, Green Twister	Swallowtail Seeds
ECHINACEA, Primadonna Deep Rose	Swallowtail Seeds
ECHINACEA, White Swan	Swallowtail Seeds
Morning Glory, Purple	Wild harvested
Zinnia, California Giant	Botanical Interests
Zinnia, Queeny Lime Orange	Botanical Interests
Zinnia, Senora	R H Shumway’s
Pepper, Aurora (hot, decorative)	Seed Savers Exchange
Leek, King Richard	Johnny’s Seeds
Dianthus, Sweet William	Pinetree Seeds

One day, I will get those Echinacea seeds to sprout! Perennials are the next frontier, apparently.

Seed starting, 4/3/21:

Sweet Pea, My Navy	Botanical Interests
Sweet Pea, Royal Blend	Botanical Interests
Sweet Pea, Little Sweetheart	Botanical Interests
Salanovas	Johnny’s Seeds
Basil, Lettuce Leaf	Baker Creek
several nasturtiums	misc
Sugar Snap peas	Johnny’s Seeds
Bulgarian Giant Leeks	Baker Creek

I had just gotten a new order of Sweet Peas in, as my last batch did not take. And it seemed prudent to get some more nasturtiums, leeks, and lettuces started.

Seed starting, 4/4/21:

Pusa Carrots	Baker Creek
Sugar Snax Carrots	Johnny’s Seeds
Dragon Carrots	Baker Creek
Breakfast Radishes	Botanical Interests
Yellow Turnips	Baker Creek
Mulberry Tree	Baker Creek

Working on getting some carrots planted, and filling the Greenstalk.

Seed starting, 4/5-4/6/21:

Dahlia, Dwarf Cactus	RH Shumway
Sugar Snap Peas	Johnny’s
German Chamomile	Botanical interests
Pink Hollyhocks	Baker Creek
Giant Dahlia	Johnny’s
Cylindra Beets	Johnny’s
Botlhardy Beets	Pinetree Seeds
Ruby Swiss Chard	Botanical interests
Lollipop Mix Gaillardia	Baker Creek
Hollyhock, Nigra	Trade Wind Fruit
Pansy, Got the Blues	Botanical Interests
Poppy, Amazing Grey	Botanical Interests
Poppy, Spring Melody Blend California	Botanical Interests
Poppy, Falling In Love	Baker Creek
Poppy, Hungarian Blue Breadseed	Baker Creek
Rudbeckia, Autumn Colors	Pinetree Seeds
Snapdragon, Madame Butterfly Mix	Johnny’s Seeds
Viola, King Henry	Botanical Interests
Dianthus, Sweet William	Pinetree Seeds
Delphinium, Magic Fountains Sky Blue/White	Swallowtail Seeds

Here I was, attempting to get more cold-hardy plants started from seed outdoors. As of yet, none of the flowers have sprouted, so back inside to the heat mat they go.

Seed starting, 4/8/21:

White Malva	Pinetree Seeds
African Daisy	Baker Creek
Bachelor’s Button, Classic Romantic	Botanical Interests
Bergamont, Wild	Botanical Interests

A small batch of seeds started–Botanical Interests is having a free-shipping deal during all of April, and I couldn’t resist.

Also on 4/8/21, I starting trying my hand at taking cuttings from the bushes in our yard: purple lilac, honeysuckle, and our large quickfire hydrangea. Still waiting to see how these turn out. So far, the honeysuckle cuttings look good while the rest seem just eh.

“Seed” starting, 4/11/21:

A big chunk of my dahlias arrived yesterday, and I spent a few hours pruning and splitting them. I also potted up ‘Melody Pink’ and ‘Great Silence’ in the hopes that I can start taking cuttings off of them. Nothing like a plant that is easy to propagate 🙂 Makes me feel a little bit better about how much they all cost.

Seed starting today, 4/12/21:

Sweet Pea, My Navy	Botanical Interests
Sweet pea, Royal Blend	Botanical Interests
Sweet Pea, Bouquet Blend	Botanical Interests
Sweet Pea, Knee-Hi Blend	Botanical Interests
Sweet Pea, Perfume Delight	Botanical Interests

One last attempt at growing sweet peas, again thanks to Botanical Interests.

From now on, I’ll likely just be focusing on live plants and potting up my current seedlings. And the, you know, actual gardening, since I should finally be able to get out and start working in the beds next week.

Posted on April 12, 2021April 12, 2021 by Cara

Live Plant Update 4/12/21

So, a lot has happened in the garden in the last ten days or so. I am finally up and mobile (and in PT, oh joy) and am able to get out and do some of the larger planting. Luckily, last week my orders of living plants started rolling in.

First to arrive was a Coral Knock-Out Rose I ordered from Home Depot (I was getting impatient waiting for the nurseries and garden centers to send out my plants, so I did finally buy a few from Home Depot). My plan for the rose is to create a screen between myself and my neighbors on the right side–our fence is a picket-style fence that is only 3′ tall, and the lack of privacy is killing me. The rose was smallish, in my opinion, for a 1 gallon rose, but seems healthy and has a ton of fresh growth on it. I know it’ll take a few years for it to turn into the screen I envision it to be, but hopefully it’ll be a great yard decoration until then.

Next to arrive were my Night-Blooming Jasmines (Jessamine). Trying to veer away from large corporations (on the whole), I canceled my order with Burpee and found a dealer on Etsy who had amazing ratings and a decent price on the jasmine. I ordered three plants, thinking that they would be tiny and I’d need three or so to fill up a large pot for my deck. They were not. They were exquisitely packaged and each were at least 10″ tall and fully bushy. And, despite our week of 50s/60s temps and on-and-off again rain, they are thriving, with plenty of new growth. It looks like I’ll need to re-home at least one of them, as these are in no way hardy to my zone and I’ll have to bring them inside to overwinter them.

Next up were my strawberries from Johnny’s Seeds. All of the 25 bare-root strawberry plants in my order were healthy and moist with long roots. I planted about 18 of them in my Greenstalk and the rest went into small planters to give away to friends. The strawberries are not much to look at now, but since I took the pics they have sprouted–and at least one of them has been eaten by some unknown critter 😦 Which is probably why the smallest order is 25 plants–they assume I’m going to lose some of them, one way or another.

I think in the future, when I buy annual or biannual live plants, I’m going to stick with Johnny’s. They are the only company (aside from the Etsy dealer) that delivered the quality product that they said they would, when they said they would. They are a bit more expensive than places like Burpees or Ferry Morse, but from all I’ve seen and heard, they are extremely reliable. I have an order of sweet potato slips due to arrive in May; hopefully they’ll be of the same quality.

This week a few other plants have arrived: a ZinFin Doll hydrangea and a small order of Jersey Knight asparagus roots, The hydrangea was from Home Depot (same order as the rose) and arrived in pretty good condition. The plan for that is to also be a living screen blocking off part of the fence with my next-door neighbors. I hear that hydrangeas grow fast, and sooner is better than later. (We also have a ten-year-old QuickFire hydrangea next to the house, which is about 8′ tall at this point and looks like a small tree. If the ZinFin Doll gets anywhere near that height, I’ll be happy.) The asparagus was a last-minute panic buy from a random seller on Amazon, but the crowns arrived today in very good condition–I was highly impressed. Assuming we have no rain, they’ll go into the ground tomorrow.

New plants that are on the horizon: two Limelight Prime hydrangeas, both to help block the fence on the other side of my yard. Also, after forty-four years of waiting, I’ve finally ordered a red Japanese maple to fill in the empty spot between the garden and the back of the house. Bloodgood Japanese Maple, I can’t wait to add you to my growing menagerie of plants. ❤

Posted on April 12, 2021April 12, 2021 by Cara

Splitting and Pre-sprouting Dahlia Tubers

The day has finally arrived! I received my first big batch of dahlia tubers yesterday, from Longfield Gardens. I had also received one tuber each from Skyfall Flowers and Dutchbulbs.com a few weeks ago. With all of these tubers, I decided to try my hand at pre-sprouting–for some of them, just to make sure the bulbs were viable; for others, because I wanted to take cuttings and grow more of them 🙂

The first bulb I received, back on 3/25/21 (I’m in zone 5a/b), was from Dutchbulbs. It was a Fleurel bulb clump for my Moon Garden, and it looked absolutely dead. It was a dehydrated as could be, with the outer layer sloughing off most of the tuber clump. I trimmed everything off except for one damaged tuber which looked like it had a bit of crystalized sap on it, and planted that just to see if it was actually viable. The tuber from Skyfall Flowers, on the other hand, was a finely trimmed and cared-for Cafe au Lait tuber (that I paid way to much in shipping for–$15 for one bulb!). It looked happy and healthy. I planted both in pots indoors, and both have now pre-sprouted! The desiccated Fleurel actually has three sprouts coming off of it. I am amazed.

By far the bulk of my dahlias, however, have come from Longfield Gardens. Their prices are amazing (for us non-wholesale buyers, anyway)–3 full clumps of tubers per order, with each order usually ranging in cost from $14-$16.50. (Plus free shipping over $50!) I realized, when I received the bulbs, how they could offer such a low price on their dahlias, when so many other online companies are charging the same prices but for one bulb only. The clumps, when they arrived, were kind of a mess. Some of the clumps were almost immaculate, while others (such as the Melody Pink, for some reason) were so beat up I could barely salvage one good tuber out of each clump. Still, I was able to get at least one good tuber per clump for each type of dahlia I ordered–and some of them had up to 6 or 7 viable tubers. Here was how I processed them.

The Longfield Gardens order: Cafe au Lait, Great Silence, Fleurel, HS Date, Melody Swing, Noordwijks Glorie, and Melody Pink Allegro; plus assorted ranunculus and caladium bulbs.

Check out the small pale sprouts starting to make their way out! One is as small as a sweet pea seed.

Though I hadn’t ever split a dahlia tuber before, I’ve now watched countless videos on how to do it, so I decided to give it a go. With the Longfield dahlias, I have at least three of each variety, so I figured the odds were good. I had heard that people often choose to divide the tubers in the spring because it is easier to find the eyes, and I have to agree. A good 2/3rds of the bulbs had eyes already sprouting. With the rest, I took an educated guess, or just kept them together in one clump.

Finally, I potted up two varieties yesterday: Melody Pink, as it was so beat up and I was concerned none of the tubers were viable; and Great Silence, as a friend of mine has already put in a request for that one. (I’m waiting on a set of 10×10 trays from Bootstrap Farmer to arrive before I pre-sprout the rest.)

Pre-sprouting dahlia tubers for cuttings

The sprouts on my first Fleurel and Cafe au Lait bulbs from my earlier orders are just about ready to be cut, so I should have a Pre-Sprouting Dahlias Part 2 coming up soon. Wish me luck!