Margaret Tempest Seed Starting Bunnies

 Via Under the Whiteoak tree, charming gardening Rabbits.

A Vegetable Garden Companion Planting Plan

 I'm going to try to duplicate some of this planting plan in my vegetable garden this year.  Wish me luck!

https://livelovefruit.com/companion-planting-chart/

Raking Out The Vegetable Garden 3/25/21

 The vegetable garden actually has a fair few perennials, but it keeps the name anyway.  I went out and raked most of the leaves out of the in ground beds and the raised beds.  

There are lots of things coming up!  Including my hollyhocks both purchased and grown from seed. I had Hollyhock fever last year.  Only one hollyhock, that I purchased, put out a tiny flower last season.  I have high hopes for this year.

Somehow, I'm also going to cram in sunflowers (which I've only grown successfully once).  Also, morning glories of various shades.

I wanted to be that person who got their peas and sweet peas planted by St. Patricks Day, but there was still ice and snow.  

All I did was uncover everything to warm the soil and provide my babies with more light and water from upcoming rains.  Tomorrow the weather should be fine again and I'll go out and bag up the leaves and cut back any dead foliage on the plants.

I'm pretty thrilled my strawberries seem to have filled in their area.  Last season they didn't produce much or look happy.  

Two blueberries I grew in pots last season went in the ground in the fall and they're budding!  They live!

Spring At Last, Fool's Spring Or Not

 March 25, and the skies are blue.  More importantly, all of the snow and ice are gone from every part of the yard.

There's a Garden Bloom Day on the 15th of each month hosted by May Dreams Gardens.  I either don't have anything in bloom or forget about it in summer, when I actually have blooms, so I thought Ms. Inconsistent would try taking a picture of the gardens on the 20th of each month.

You can see there was still snow and ice on the 20th.

March 20, 2021

 

The bed I call P1 (Perennial One) to avoid calling it "The Kidney Bed".  Note the beagle who loves zooming through this area.

 This is P2.  I put the chicken wire "temporary" fence around it last year when I noticed both dogs using it as a toidy.   I also went wild and loaded it with perennials that may or may not make a comeback.  I suddenly found myself wanting to grow some of the perennials I used to grow.  If they do all make it through winter, I'll be in a pickle for space in short order.  It happens!

This is P3.  Two lilacs, some scrubby volunteer trees I'm going to see if Mr. DOA can remove this year (don't tell him yet), a dwarf tree of some kind that is unhappy but alive, a heuchera that needs to be moved, random hostas...I put little garden fence around it.  I plan to put my two greenhouses here right up against the vegetable garden fence so I can have the benefit of that sunny area for sprouts without taking up precious garden space.  I thought it might make a sort of nice little "nursery" space.

This sad little spot gets medium sun and I've never used it well.  I put a Sarah Bernhardt Peony here last fall and a couple of other things.  I'd like it to be a sweet little spot.

The side yard which typically looks better than the rest of the yard because of it's sunshine.  It is a bit of a challenge now that there are once again two dogs in the space.  I got this.  Last year I went crazy buying shepherds hooks as a clever way of using the space here.  The problem is it's easier to find the hooks than it is to find hanging baskets to use with them.

I found two macrame plant hangars I thought worked nicely, and had a brief period where I thought I should learn macrame to create my own.  I never picked up on it when it was sort of a craze.  We shall see if I pick up the craft now.

The little patio my husband created last season is already a nice warm (relatively) place to sit and dream of the garden and write up my garden notes.

The glorious vegetable garden.  This year, weary of the pandemic shortages even in the seed biz, I decided to just buy seeds locally and only things that can be direct seeded.

The "crescent" garden.  Last year I had marigolds and moss roses here. Rabbits ate every single thing down to the ground.   Very discouraging.  I'm not sure what I'll try. Something in a large pot would have a chance.

Last year this was filled with flowers and a new tall garden shelf/stand.  There was some rabbit damage here, but not so much as in the crescent bed.  An odd thing that got devoured were some hollyhocks I planted from seed at the very back.  I'll have to find a way to protect them if they come back till they're tall enough to be out of reach for the rabbits.

Ms. CrazyPlants extended this bed around the corner and put in a few perennials.  It's highly likely I'll extended it just a tiny bit more this spring.

Plastic Jug Herb Garden

 We use gallon milk jugs so this wouldn’t be practical for us. Maybe in the summer, however, hanging from the vegetable garden fence.

Load Up The Car!

 Ah, not only is it seed dreaming season, but we start to see local nurseries pages come alive, and you picture yourself like this:

Seedy Saturday January 16, 2021

 

Welcome to Seedy Saturday.  Here are pictures of the lovely posts I've seen this week with delectable flower and vegetable seeds of note.

I'll also add any seed acquisitions, plans and thoughts for my garden.

Lovely Greens Planting Strawberries in a Pot

 

 I planted quite a few varieties of everbearing and June bearing Strawberries last year, hoping to get a nice ongoing collection of strawberries last season. I thought I was so clever, honestly, planting both, and planting them sort of thickly, to ensure some success.

Apparently I'm a strawberry fool, because only a few kept going, and we shall see what comes back in the spring.

Seeing this article by Lovely Greens on planting strawberries in pots revives my hopes I could have enough of a teeny harvest to make some strawberry preserves for my garden this year.  

https://lovelygreens.com/the-best-way-to-plant-a-strawberry-pot/

Proven Winners: Differences in Supertunias

 

As you'll see if I get around to posting pictures from last year's garden. I've gone over the side for hanging pots and anything I can find that will raise my plants off the ground to deter creatures of all types from snacking in my garden.  

I've come to love Supertunias, which, when happy, are in constant bloom.  The challenge is finding local nurseries which have the color choices I prefer, that being pink, purple, pink.

Back to the Garden: 2021

 

 

So, when last we were interrupted by the Plagueopocolypse, I had a fine start to this blog, posting every day, if you can imagine, for quite awhile.

Now it's a new year, with a new garden season incoming.  Time to do what gardeners get to do yearly, wipe the slate clean and begin with fresh dreams and intentions.

One of the reasons I stopped writing on this blog was nobody, not a soul was reading it.  How discouraging is that?   This year, I'm going to ignore that, and let this be what blogs were initially meant to be, an online diary.

All the garden sites and blogs are dashing into 2021 and I just need to mark here where I can find it, as many of the cool ideas and information as I can.  As one of my sisters used to say "I like to share with you".