New England, April 2015

CapeC....I just pushed my chives down a bit and found they indeed are white at the bottom of the grasses.  Mine are onion chives, and have purple blossoms.
I've been wanting to put in some garlic chives, which have white flowers when they blossom, but that will be when my flower bed is in good order first.




I went to Home Depot today for their $2.50 each perennial plant sale and got Columbines in pink and white, Leopard's Bane (yellow), English daisy(white) and Pincushion (Scabiosa) flowers in blue.   I need to get these into the back 40 this week.


Lowe's across the road had the same plants for $3.98 each (not on sale).

I need to get these into the back 40 this week.
It rained off and on all day but at least the broccs are in.  No, I won't cover them tonite.  They are safe to transplant up to 5 weeks before last frost so they can take some frosty nites.  We're not supposed to get that low anyway.

I went to Home Depot today for their $2.50 each perennial plant sale 


Doh! I was just there today and got the Salvia and I didn't know they were having a perennial plant sale. 


I see the ad online. I wonder if the website lists their entire inventory. I'll study it now.

Good to see you Molly! Hope to hear more about those new varieties you're trying!

Guess what guys!!!

Checking in from Zone 5B... drumroll please...







It's official! The season has begun! Right on time too. It is so weird how that happens.

Some other garden photos:

The flowers I've been working on:




2 garlic beds:





Kale, on a raised row, with lettuce tucked into the side (yes, those other things are weeds, but are they dandelions? I might let the dandelions stay):


Kale tucked beside some rocks, just to see how they do:


I didn't think last year's kale overwintered, but when I went to pull out the "stump" from last year, there were shoots growing from it, so maybe I was wrong?



This is lettuce I tucked in between a rock and a raised bed, in empty space:

Oops, forgot the strawberries pictures, poking up thru the leaf mulch:




And one of the 2 pawpaw trees I planted. When they're 1-2 yrs. old they get burned by the sun and need shade. When they're big enough, they need sun. Weird. An understory plant. In order to give it shade, I covered it with agrabon, and on the southern side I clothespinned black garbage bags to shield it from the sun. I transplanted some raspberries in front of the black bags so that hopefully the raspberries themselves will cast shade - eventually. I also planted some peas so that maybe they'll cast some shade.


Edit: oh, and it's very breezy out there today. Makes me want a super short haircut...

Edit edit: And you can see how terribly rocky this lot is. Challenging.

NH Gardener,

Love your asparagus!  Mine are doing pretty well, though not as well as yours!

If there's any chance of freezing temps, don't forget to cover these treasures.  I lightweight cover, such as an old sheet, is useful, since it won't break of the taller stalks.  Don't ask me how I know....  And don't let plastic touch them when there's a danger of frost.  They'll suffer frost damage.

You have granite, we have lava and river rock.

This is year #3, so I'm really hoping to eat a lot of asparagus this year! Finally!

New Englanders - have you planted potatoes yet? I just got my seed potatoes yesterday from a Fedco order.

OMG!  I'm enjoying all these updates and photos so much!  Don't feel like the Lone Gardener anymore.   Everything looks fantastic and it all seems to be happening so fast.  


Glad you got asparagus, NHG...AND a working camera!!! Your flowering plants are beautiful!  And your strawberries look just like mine, fresh new plants poking up from all that mulch:
I'm going to build sides on their old school SFG this year, probably very soon, so they won't jump out all the time.

Garlic is looking happy:
I'm thrilled with it so far this year after last years troubling crop.  I think there was some kind of disease in my hood coz my neighbor completely lost hers & mine barely hung on.  

This is the lettuce bed with potato onions in the 4 center sqs & radishes in the 2 center sqs on the left by Lilly.  This box seems slow but it could be me.
Sometimes I wonder if I remembered to add compost before planting in some boxes.  Do you guys ever wonder about that?

2 spinach sqs then a broadcast lettuce sq:

This box is filled with carrots, potatoes and broadcast turnip tops & spinach mustard which have sprouted already, see them?  I saved the 4 sqs on the right for a trellis crop. 

This is my little Honey Crisp apple 'tree' that I started from seed last year and planted out in the fall.  It made it!!! 
The peach & pear trees are budding out like this, too.

I'm thinking of taking tomorrow off work and planting a 'nursery' in the currently empty summer veggie box for these kales & collards, along with some volunteer lettuces, which will later be transplanted into the perennial gardens:

Onward, ever onward...


CC

Ooh, CC, I love that blue groundcover - what is it?

Did I tell you about my camera? I had had an Olympus C-5000 that I got in the early 2000s and it cost $400 at the time. And then, like I said, I took it to FL and in my luggage the conditioner spilled on it and it never worked after that. So I went camera-less for a long time, but then I looked on amazon, and someone was selling one for $10! So for $10 (+ shipping) I got the exact same camera that had cost me about $400 ten years ago - LOL. I attribute that to so many switching to camera phones, who needs a digital anymore... But I'm still on a flip prepaid cell phone so it's going to take awhile -- 

CapeCoddess wrote:
Sometimes I wonder if I remembered to add compost before planting in some boxes.  Do you guys ever wonder about that?

CC

All the time.  I thought it was just my age but maybe it is because we are so excited to be planting that we just forget (or don't remember if we did).

CapeCoddess wrote:
Sometimes I wonder if I remembered to add compost before planting in some boxes.  Do you guys ever wonder about that?

CC

I always have empty squares scattered throughout my boxes. That used to be a common problem for me until I came up with a method to prevent it.  

An empty looking square can be in one of three conditions.

1. Just planted with seeds, in which case it has a plant tag.

2. Just harvested and needs replenished, it gets no tag.

3. Replenished and waiting to be planted, it gets a green tag.

I use the same method for various pots and containers that I grow in, too.

I saved used plant tags and painted them green with plastic spray paint.  It took a couple years, but I now have a green tag for every square.  When I remove the green tag for planting, I keep them altogether as shown in the pic, or I stick them in the corner of the square.

Good idea boffer.  That way you always know what's what.
Today I got out in the Back 40 and transplanted a dozen Brussels sprouts and 3 Winterbor Kale and 3 Columbine (pink and white variety).  I think the flowers wiill be safe from frosts since its such an early grower for a flower.  The other flowers have to wait for frost free date.

My 3 Columbines are in, 'Songbird Robin' a pink and white variety.

9 of my Brussels sprouts, 'Bubbles' variety.

I tucked 2 Winterbor Kale to the right of my 2 rows of Broccs.

And my white Bleeding Heart is really perking up now.

Its so nice to be able to plant things outdoors.  I have lots just waiting for that last frost date and there's several tomatoes still growing under the lights indoors.


Our evenings promise not to be near the frost numbers this week so I'll leave my trays of pots outside day and night.  They will be nicely hardened off by the time I put them in the ground.  I've got some containers to get ready and my flower bed needs composting so I can get a few things in there this week, but I'll wait on the herbs til its warmer.

Doesn't it feel good to get your hands in the dirt once again?

NHGardener wrote:Ooh, CC, I love that blue groundcover - what is it?

I'm sorry, NHG, I can't put my finger or memory on the name of these flowers.I even tried googling it and got nada but we call them star flowers. Here's a close up if you want to try to look it up yourself.
If you find it would you please let me know because for some reason  this year everyone is asking about them even though they've been there for years and years and years.

HA! I just found it - glory of the snow!

Chionodoxa
Plant
Chionodoxa, known as glory-of-the-snow, is a small genus of bulbous perennial flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, often included in Scilla. Wikipedia
Scientific name: Chionodoxa
Lower classifications: Chionodoxa luciliae
Rank: Genus
Higher classification: Scilloideae

Wow, thanks CC! I am so going to look for those for my new flower garden area. The blue is such a pretty color in spring, up against the yellow, etc. Perennials and they spread... what more could you ask for?

Edit: I see Fedco sells them in their bulbs section, in August.

P.S. - I glanced at my 3 new beautiful phlox plants last evening - pink, white, and purple - to gaze on them and find inner peace, and those blasted chickens ate all the flowers off! Already! Grr.

OMG, NHG! I understand! I have a terrible time with rabbits and my phlox. I've even taken to putting a circle of chicken wire around some of them. The ones along the driveway I can't cage so I just add Lilly fur and that seems to help. Maybe if you have a dog you could put your dog fur around them?

Thanks for the tip, buffer. My first thought was, oh I have black spray paint, I'll use that.  Not! I'll figure something out.

New england update:magnitude 2.3 quake in Sanbornton, NH, at 4:11AM today!

CC,

Did you even feel the earthquake?

When I lived in Southern California, I generally did not feel anything much less than a 3.0.

Nope, I've never felt an earthquake. I've seen and heard things shake but that's about it. This one was somewhere in New Hampshire so I wondered if our New Hampshire members knew or felt anything.

I didn't feel this one.  Felt the one in Maine a few years ago and an earlier one about 14 yrs back that shook the house while I was sleeping and I incorporated the feeling into my dream.  When I woke up I found there had been a quake.  NHG might have felt it, though as it was closer to where she lives.

Didn't feel either of these 2, but I did feel the 4.x that shook everything as we were eating dinner a couple years back. We ran out of the house, it was pretty scary.

3 dog ticks in the past 2 days crawling in the house...

All those photos look great. Things are really getting started in New England. I noticed little spots of color on my peach tree and one of the apple trees.  I'll have some flowers on them soon. Also noticed buds on the grape vines and the raspberry bushes are taking off. Ahhh spring!!!!

CapeCoddess wrote:
If you find it would you please let me know because for some reason  this year everyone is asking about them even though they've been there for years and years and years.

HA!  I just found it - glory of the snow

Oh, those are so pretty!  I ordered some bulbs last year and planted them    but they never came up.  So sad.  I guess I'll have to try again this year.

I saw another beautiful blue flowered ground cover this morning when I was out. Googling, it looks like Veronica/Georgia Blue.

https://www.google.com/search?q=creeping+veronica&espv=2&biw=1093&bih=522&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=srBDVZ6GNYemNr6OgMAJ&ved=0CB0QsAQ#tbm=isch&q=creeping+veronica+ground+cover&revid=550052445&imgrc=dGOvJxkAkkFRBM%253A%3BRXT9oCfqP8uh9M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.hootowlhollow.com%252Fphotos%252Fground_covers%252Fveronica_georgia_blue.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.hootowlhollow.com%252Fcatalog%252Fperennial2.html%3B492%3B328


Actually it looks like it could be several different things, I guess there are a lot of pretty blue perennial spring ground covers!

I like the deep purple-blue

NHGardener wrote:I saw another beautiful blue flowered ground cover this morning when I was out. Googling, it looks like Veronica/Georgia Blue.

https://www.google.com/search?q=creeping+veronica&espv=2&biw=1093&bih=522&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=srBDVZ6GNYemNr6OgMAJ&ved=0CB0QsAQ#tbm=isch&q=creeping+veronica+ground+cover&revid=550052445&imgrc=dGOvJxkAkkFRBM%253A%3BRXT9oCfqP8uh9M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.hootowlhollow.com%252Fphotos%252Fground_covers%252Fveronica_georgia_blue.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.hootowlhollow.com%252Fcatalog%252Fperennial2.html%3B492%3B328


Actually it looks like it could be several different things, I guess there are a lot of pretty blue perennial spring ground covers!

I have these.  They grow wild out of the lawn, like the Glory of the Snow is doing now.  But they aren't up yet in my yard.  I didn't know they were a type of Veronica.

I love Veronica.  I have an upright pink spikey one that I planted just last year but I'm not seeing any sign of it yet.  Those photos show what looks to be a Catmint, Miss Lilly's favorite.  I didn't know that Catmint was part of the Veronica family....?  Btw, Catmint is beautiful, hardy and the bees LOVE it.

So, Mr. Coon dug up my old school SFG with the Green Mountain onions in it last night. And the 3 sisters box is totally destroyed.  I quickly plopped the onions back into the ground haphazardly this morning and will repair and water them in tomorrow.  So bloody cold and windy out today that I barely got the collard and kale plugs out into the temp nursery during lunch today. 

He's getting a little to close to the 3 borage seedlings that came up.  I may need a recipe for raccoon stew soon...
  I bet Cappy has one.

CC

That's the thing CC - it's not just struggling with mother nature to get these things growing, it's also fighting the vermin! I looked at my transplanted kale and lettuce and naturally, leaves are getting nibbled on! Probably by some kind of cut worm, or caterpillary or sluggy thing, altho I'm not visibly seeing anything yet.

Catmint family? Is that the mint family? Because I hear mint is really pervasive once it gets going, and yup, I hear the bees love it. Groundcovers are great because then there's less mowing work.

I put my plants outside in the portable greenhouse shelf unit on the deck. My face has been itching terribly for 4 days now and I'm wondering if it's something I'm growing, maybe even the elderberry cuttings. So everything is out of the house now. Tomorrow it's supposed to warm up anyway - yay. I will bet there are no more freeze nights here, at least judging from the 10 day forecast.

I got 4 new phloxes at the grocery store today, one of them a bright pink I hadn't had before. 

Can you cover your boxes that the raccoon is getting into?