One of my beautiful double shasta daisies petered out this year, so I planted a pretty Daphne near it, which should grow large enough to fill the spot while still giving that one little leaf a chance. Don't know why, but all of the rose bushes I bought last year are dead looking, though the ones I got for free several years ago and have moved around from time to time are going great guns. One of my blue redhot pokers got rot from coming up too soon, too, so it's always disappointing to see what didn't make it.

I've gotten some cold tolerant annuals in and planted the weirdest looking stokesia I have ever seen, extra broad leaves and flowers like artichokes. Trying desperately to cut down on gardening costs, but couldn't resist two little white salvias, as all those I planted last year have come back very nicely. I dug up one of the tree peonies which leafed too early and appeared dead. I saw a couple of tiny living roots, so replanted it in a spot that seems to be healthier for plants. We'll see.

Was very dissappointed that my two kiwis, supposedly hardy to -10%, appeared to have frozen. I hardened them off before planting, but I guess they just weren't hard enough. I'll keep watering them, as they are more or less bareroot and might come back (wish, wish).

Did a little watering and a little dandelion picking. Will need to replace the two dead plum trees, but haven't wanted to spend the money yet.

Noticed the lettuce, spinach and pak choi are up now. No sign yet of the beets, carrots and cauliflower, but it's only been one week so not a worry. Surprised the pak choi is up so soon.

As far as what's blooming, not much. The veronica ground cover, a bit of campanula ground cover, the big plum up front and the big nanking cherry bush, creeping phlox, lenten rose and still the muscari. Daffies are about done and the couple of tulips that I have are about to open. One of my new stokesias is blooming white, a surprise, but the bed is mostly white and blue, so not a bad surprise.

I am amazed when reading trin harder's report, as he is only about 30 miles away, but a good zone ahead of me. We are supposed to get a little snow on Tuesday here. Well, I will just be patient, I know I'll have a garden in time.

Maggie

Right now it's naught but soil, seeds and flea beetles. Those bugs travel in herds, I swear.

Carrots are in, I'm building a new garden soon for melons (can't live without 'em), pumpkins, tomatoes and ground cherries. I had grapes there, b/c for a while my family made wine, but with the grapes dead (they hate this part of NY)I guess I can use it for whatever I want.

My currants are flowering, more than I've ever seen on single plants. I just hope the bushes won't break when the crop ripens. O_o Lookin' good so far!

Constructed frames for three more raised beds.
Moved one of the old beds to a better location.
Rebuilt the pathway down the center of the greenhouse.
Moved the potting bench.
Repotted 35 tomato plants.
Planted two rows of peas.
Cleaned and put out the humming bird feeders.
Prepared a new bed for twenty more asparagus plants that were supposed to be here already...

Sounds like everyone is enjoying the blessing of abundance when it comes to gardening work this time of year.

We've been slooooooowly cleaning out our 4 x 12 veggie bed and adding to it. It's been so cold here for this time of year, that we haven't really been wanting to go outside. The past couple wkends we moved our raspberries and blueberries to a sunny locale in our yard, covered all with compost, cleaned out our Celtic Cross garden and trying our hands at more groundcover in there. I am going to plant a few lipstick strawberries in there today. I think their hot pink flowers will look amazing with my french lavender when it blooms. Planted more herbs in that garden too to make it more of a kitchen garden, since it is right off our deck. Got the celery planted this wkend and the artichoke moved into a better locale. Hardening off the tomatoes this wk and planting corn and more broccoli today and will be helping our daughter plant her portion of the cross garden--she still needs to plant some butterfly attracters, her sunflowers for the chickadees, and some carrots to go with sugar snap peas.

And of course, we are busily caring for our new chicks we adopted on Friday.

Good luck to you all and your seedlings this wk!

You short season guys must be itching to get going!!

I had to chainsaw out some native coyote bushes. The wood is so hard there are burn marks where it cuts. I am undoing my mandalas. Lord have mercy, I should have done one and then decided! Oh, no, I had to do 6 of them!! Then realized the water lines would be a hopeless tangle. They are too small to work comfortably in (for me, anyway, I need wide paths). So that meant transplanting raspberries and blackberries (soaking, digging, amending, hauling, packing in and mulching).

My nasturtiums are showing up everywhere, which is great. Vetches are blooming in yellow, purple and violet. Tomatoes are knee high and have lots of blooms. Blackberries only have a few weeks to go. Lettuces, peas, spinach, and beans are looking good. The gophers are trying to get the sunchokes. I got a Big Black Box trap, but they just filled it up with dirt.

The seed potatoes are sprouting (not planted yet), and not quite ready to cut.

I got a couple of Agastache plants, licorice mint, and it has a heavenly fragrance!

We sit and insert drippers into waterlines while watching TV.

Mowing, mowing, mowing... mulching, mulching, mulching, did I mention mowing?

I trenched out a 250 foot ditch from my pump house to my new big garden. I had to go under 4 fences and 2 drain lines. I got it all plumbed today and watered the garden for the first time. Man, what a good feeling. Just in time, too. We are going from 55 to 90 degrees for the next 3 days. What a difference a 1" diameter hose makes. I can fill a 5 gallon bucket in less than 15 seconds with the wand

I've been very busy the last week or so yanking weeds and adding bought compost, fertilizer, and topsoil to existing beds. I moved into a home in late Febuary (thus no compost of my own) and am watching with anticipation what pops up in this beautifully landscaped yard. The house was vacant from Feb to last July 1 so you can imagine the weeds. The established garden has 7 raised beds (irregular shaped but about 6x3 or so each) plus the entire outer garden is rimmed by an 18 inch border with flowers. I've cleared out 4 of the beds of weeds and added compost and topsoil. 3 more to go! There's another part of the yard with three 3x3' raised beds that I've prepared as well.

I started seeds in early mar with expensive dirt, buffalo dung pots, etc. and these did not fare well at all. They grew but stayed little. That was $35 wasted (plus the timer and electricity). I think I needed some more heat (I kept it at about 66-68). So this Saturday I went to the local farmers market and just bought lovely 6" veggie starts for $1 and $1.50 each and got all those in. Why did I bother w/ expensive seedlings? So far what is planted:

Spinach and lettuces are up and tasty already
Snap peas (about 15 plants) are 6 inches high
Tomatoes and pepper plants (4 of each) are planted
Cuke starts are waiting space
Planted two types of pole beans (10 seeds each) with a plan to plant the same again in 2 wks.
Planted marigold seeds with the tomato plants. I seem to recall some synergistic relationship there.
Herb garden is established (usual stuff there plus camomille. I wonder what I do w/ that) with plants I dug up and moved from my old place.
All sorts of different flowers are everywhere. Wish I knew what they were.
One very large leafy flowery thing is taking over a 20 foot by 5 foot area and I'm trying to rip it out as much as I can. It spreads with large roots and is difficult to tear out. All the plants seem interconnected.

I've also weeded lots of walkways and laid down 22 50-lb bags of crushed filbert shells. 5 more bags to go! It's the weeding of the walkways (basically lifting the grass 'sod') that's taking so long.

I also have 15 creeping thyme plants ready to be planted in a sitting area at the back of the garden. But before I can plant, I must weed, dig out sod and blackberries, and set a bunch of large stones. I hope the plants can hang in there.

Oh...I also planted about 18 feet of window boxes and two wine barrels with a mix of flowers.

Happy planting,
Linda

Wow, that's impressive. What a treasure to find a new home with so much potential.

Maggie

David, you got the heat, too? I've got everything covered within an inch of their lives, mulched up to their chins, and I'll spend most of Friday making sure they survive this blast. Wow, what a trench! 250 feet!! You didn't do it by hand? I rented a trencher once and it took it forever to do about 125 feet. Isn't the sound of plenty of running water one of the best?

Linder, what are you going to do with all that thyme?

Hi Sweetpea-
The thyme is going to be planted as ground cover with the stepping stones in the sitting area at the back of the garden. There's a lovely old wooden loveseat in the back and I moved a bunch of stones from another place on the property (oh my aching back). Right now it's all bad tall grass and dandelions with a few blackberries. I've been attacking the dandelions as much as I can before they go to seed.

I figured out how to post photos before so I'll do it again...sometime soon when I get a moment or two. The garden is the cutest thing with an interesting fence all around.

Linder, sounds nice! That should work well among the stepping stones. Yeah, lugging those things around is no small feat! I know what you mean about the dandelions. I've got a ton of thistles this year, more than usual, I guess I should try to snip off their buds before they get a foothold.

Hey all. Long time, no post

Garden wise, everything seems okay. The bed closest to the street might not have faired the Buffalo Winter so well, but we're moving it to a different location anyways.

All of our Carnations (save 2. just TWO!) and two of our lilacs were eaten by the rabbits and/or deer. My mom and I are ticked about that. We'll replace the lilacs, but the carnations... we might have to change it to something different.

Everything else seems to be coming out of hibernation here, despite the cool temperatures. Birds are singing, rabbits and squirrels are everywhere, and so on. I can't wait for warmer weather though! Then our yards will be "remodeled" -- don't know the right term for redoing the grass lol. :P

Done for the weekend, as my DD's graduation is this afternoon. Almost done for the year, in terms of planting. I put the warm weather seeds in, three types of pole beans including collected scarlet runners, my collected honeydew and cantalope (we shall see), sugar baby watermelon early enough if things go right, two kinds of summer squash, one very early acorn, two types of tomatillos and two types of cucumbers, and cilantro. I now only need tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, which I have ordered.

Up in the garden are beets, two plantings of peas, cauliflower, pak choi, spinach, a couple of asparagus shoots, lettuce, arugula, self-seeded cilantro. Everything planted earlier but carrots, which are typically slow. My onions planted from sets look good and the garlic is beginning to recover from being squashed by snow.

Planted annuals this weekend, stuck to geraniums and a couple other types which I know are easy to care for. I still need to get portulaca.

I worry about some of the perennials. One of my red hot pockers had very bad root rot. I dug it all out and left one off shoot hoping it will take, as you can seperate those. But I don't know where the root rot came from. One of my poppies seemed to have root root, too. Maybe it was just all the snow, as plants right next to those are fine.

I pruned a few bushes back, but realize I need heavy duty pruners for the old and tired spirea. Clippers won't work. Still do do early next week is mowing the dandelion patch (aka lawn). So, aside from a couple of annual pots to fill, the vegie starts, and regular watering, weeding and mowing, the garden is about ready for the short, sweet summer.

Blooming now are mostly groundcovers. Creeping phlox, creeping veronica, lamium, creeping campanula, panda and fruiting strawberries. I have two basket of gold plants, one is in bloom, the other very healthy looking but no blooms. Pink sea thrift is blooming, too. Ox-eye daisies about to bloom and some early iris. Wish it would all bloom in April and stay blooming until October.

I bet you all get a lot more than me done this weekend. Well, got to go move the sprinkler. It snowed four days ago, but with the winds we have, everything dries out quickly.

M

I mowed my lawn. I mowed my absentee neighbor's lawn too. I cleaned the alley behind the garden and behind my neighbors houses too. I planted 20 asparagus, 30 potato sets and a 190 onion sets.

I cleared out the pathways between, and worked up the edges of my 8 waffle beds.

I added another raised bed in the front garden. I repotted a dozen peppers, some squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins.

I pulled up all the flowering white top (don't know what it is really called, but it's invasive and the county fines us if it is not pulled up regularly) that is growing in the hellstrip all up and down the block. My neighbors owe me!

It's too hot to do anything except water and dead head after the sun goes down.