Garden Start-Up

   Winter lingered a bit longer this year, making up for the 3 extra weeks of spring we had last year, I guess.  But I have been very busy getting ready for my garden.  I picked up some new seeds at the flower show and spent a lovely afternoon "playing in the dirt" as my long-suffering mate calls it.  (I am not the neatest gardener)  

  My seed packets are mostly flowers, a few annual herbs, a few tomato  and pepper plants.  Because we planted such an extensive flower and shrub garden, and we belong to a vegetable and fruit CSA, AND most important,  because we don't have a large area that gets sun all day, our vegetable garden consists of a tomato plant or two,  several pepper plants and a lovely teepee of green bean vines.

 Herbs will tolerate some shade and I experiment with various annual flowers each season  to see what works well in my yard.  My favorite flowers are the ones that attract the butterflies and the hummingbirds. 

  This year I started cayenne peppers, an heirloom variety of plum tomato called 'San Marzano,' Genoese Basil and I'm trying some Sweet Cecily from seed I collected a year ago.

  The butterflies and hummingbirds are going to enjoy zinnias, cosmos and a rare variety of morning glory called 'Split Personality.'  They are a lovely shade of red and white and are attractive to the hummingbirds!

   The rest of my annuals will be direct sown later when the ground warms up sufficiently.  Those include cilantro, lettuce, arugula, the green beans and calendula.

 

    After spending many hours pouring over the garden catalogues this past winter, we decided to add a few roses to our front yard.  We have no flowers to speak of in the front of the house and have a sunny corner along the property line.

 There are so many things to choose from, it took us all winter to decide but we chose a  red  'Double Knockout ' Rose to fill the spot.  We've been admiring this rose for several years now.   It blooms profusely and, in our area, the bloom season extends into December! Very disease resistant, long bloom time and a gorgeous color, what more could we ask for?   Pictures to follow, once they bloom!


Take-Away for Today:  April is here!  Time to put on those gardening gloves and get to work!