Today in the Garden...

One afternoon last week, Kirstin took this picture of the house as she came home from college. I like how much blue there is. Doesn't Princess make a nice addition to the steps? Today was a wonderful day for working outside so I cleaned up the bed to the right of the the steps, as you are facing the porch.




There are all kinds of pretty green things poking their heads up out of the soil. I am sooo happy to see them! I've got a number of blue Hyacinths in this bed. The Hyacinths in the bed on the other side of the steps are pink.



The rose bush, Pink Gruss An Achen, has teeny tiny little bitty red leaf buds on it. I pruned it and cleaned up around it. I won't prune most of my roses just yet, but this is the warmest spot in my garden. The Iris is coming up and so are some Daffodils.



I haven't opened up my greenhouse for several months now. It has been way too cold. When I opened it up this afternoon, it was pretty hot in the greenhouse. I'll have to be careful that I don't cook the plants now that it is warming up. I think most of the plants survived.




Some of the plants that look brown and dead may not be. It's too early yet to start pruning them to check, but this plant obviously has plenty of green at its base. I'm so glad.



Here's something I didn't expect to see in the greenhouse. A tiny praying mantis. Actually, I saw a couple of them. There must have been an egg sac on one of the plants and, because it is warmer in the greenhouse, they were tricked into hatching early. I don't know how much they will find to eat in there.




I've saved the best for last. Look what I found today. It's a bud of my False Crocus. Julie and I were jubilant. Julie said, "Does that mean that it is Spring now?" I don't know, since it is a False Crocus. Even in its bud stage, we could detect a faint scent. Oh, I am so thrilled for my flowers to be returning.



Have a beautiful day!

Winter worries...

With the temperatures falling into the lower reaches of the Zone 7 range, I worry about my plants.

{Artemisia 'Powis Castle'}

I worry about the new ones, the ones I haven’t learned enough about yet, the one that my not be established sufficiently to withstand this cold.

{Tradescantia virginiana}

I worry about my plants in the greenhouse. Are they warm enough? Do the 2 sheets blanketing them actually make a difference? Am I going to loose treasure ones?

{Erigeron karvinskianus}

As I was flipping through the pages of a seed catalog, it seemed unreal. These plants couldn’t really grow. It’s not possible. Spring, at this point, is just an impossible dream.



Right now, I feel incapable of making a garden. Winter does that to me. It taunts me, laughing at the hopes I have for a beautiful garden.

{Weedii invasiacum}

Moving through the cold and wind, I feel numb. Not only my fingers and my face, but my very soul. I long for the warmth to return and I ache to be able to once again work in my garden.

{Nepeta x faassenii}

Have a beautiful day!
P.S. Just so you don't worry, all the plants pictures above should be just fine.

In the greenhouse...

As I started carrying plants into my wonderful greenhouse the other day, a thought hit me: I need a bigger greenhouse! Then I started looking at the plants I was putting inside. Almost all of them were plants that would be fine outside IF they were in the ground. Even if they were in their pots outside, they would probably make it through the winter here, but it will be a little easier on them in the greenhouse. So, if I had planted my perennials earlier in the year, I would now have more room in my greenhouse. Hhhmmmm.




Now, there are a few that do need to be in the greenhouse. Ones that need a zone 8 or a zone 9 or a zone 10 rather than a zone 7. Take, for example, J’s eucalyptus plant. In Southern California, no problem. Here, even to have it in the greenhouse is an experiment, because I am not sure my greenhouse will keep it warm enough. Then there is a salvia, whose species I can’t recall at the moment. (I know I have the plant tag somewhere.) It is said to be hardy to zone 8 and it will probably survive o.k. in my greenhouse. I sure hope so because I really like its grayish foliage and intense blue (I know, shock) flowers.




There also needs to be more water containers in my greenhouse. The water holds the sun’s energy to help the greenhouse stay a little warmer at night. I don’t have enough gallons so far for my greenhouse, but I am still working on it. Also, some of my containers haven’t yet been painted black, but I was kinda running out of time to get them into the greenhouse before it was getting too cold. Are you seeing a trend here?


Have a beautiful day!

My new greenhouse...

Yesterday, a local craftsman built my new greenhouse to my design specs. I am SO thrilled with it, even though it's not quite finished; we're still working on the doors.




For the past 2 winters I have used a PVC pipe hoop greenhouse that I had to literally crawl into to take care of the plants. I planned this one so I could actually stand up in it! In his book, "Four-Season Harvest," Eliot Coleman has a seating area in his huge greenhouse so I hope to be able to steal his idea and see if I can at least put a chair in mine so when I am cold and starved for living plants, I can go sit in my greenhouse.




Yipee!!!




Thank you, Harvey!




Have a beautiful day!

Next year...

In “From the editor” of the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Horticulture magazine, the question is asked “What are you planning to do in your garden in 2010?” The layout box titled “new year’s resolutions” offers these ideas, linked to articles in the magazine: conquer dry shade, start a terrarium, plant something native, something honored and something new and/or choose the right mulch.




What am I planning to do in my garden next year? That started me thinking and here is what I came up with. I am planning to do better. I’d like to stay on top of the weeds, get stuff planted on time, keep things watered and fertilized when they need to be, get the nemesia out of the ground and into containers and into the greenhouse BEFORE the first frost so they don’t have to live in my kitchen for a week. I guess that amounts to spending more time in my garden; making it more of a priority in my life and not a guilty pleasure.




And conquering dry shade, planting something new, and choosing the right mulch are all good, too.




Have a beautiful day!

Not coleus...

Coleus just didn’t seem to be the right thing to write about, waking up to about 25 degrees, so it will just have to wait until another day.

Last evening, as it was getting colder and darker, I was digging up plants I wanted to try to overwinter in my greenhouse. What? I could have done that earlier? Anyhow, they are now on my kitchen floor, awaiting more permanent assignments. I do think they will be more comfortable in their own pots rather than crammed into the storage tub in which they were hastily dumped.

My daughter took this picture of the frost on the windshield this morning! Isn't it amazing!?!





Lamb's Ear (Stachys byzantina), already silvery looking, is even more so with a frosty dusting.




There should be something in here about iced (catmint) tea, but I can't think of what it is.



One of the last roses, fading in the cold of fall. The sun had already hit this one, melting the frost into drops of water.



Have a beautiful, warm day!

Nemesia...

When I lived in Southern California, I planted a rose named Sweet Vivian that my dear friend, Carol, gave me in a half oak whiskey barrel that one of my sisters gave me. Underneath the rose, I grew Nemesia. The original ones were deep blue. It may have been the cultivar 'Blue Bird', although I am not positive about that. However, they reseeded themselves and the seedlings grew up to have pale flowers that were incredibly fragrant. So, when I passed the whiskey barrel on the way to the front door, I would be greeted with this wonderful scent. And in California, the Nemesia wouldn't die in the winter. I would cut it back when it got too leggy and it would just continue to grow and reseed.




This year, I grew the cultivar 'Blue Bird' along my "stone" wall and 'Blueberry Sachet' in a pot at the foot of the deck steps. Yes, they look like miniature snapdragons because they are indeed related to snapdragons!




The Nemesia I have grown here in North Carolina hasn't reseeded itself or overwintered. This winter, though, I am planning to put it into my greenhouse and see if it will survive. I think it is such a charming little plant. I like it in pots, I like it in the ground, I like it on my "stone" wall. And I like it that the honey bees like it, too.



Have a beautiful day!