Resurrecting

It's been a long time since I was by here, and a very long winter!

It's the very end of March, almost April, and we're still suffering with snow and very cold temps. Just a few weeks ago we were still having some subzero and last week we got a few 8" - 10" dumps of snow. The rest of the world is celebrating Easter and delighting in their daffodils, and we are a frozen tundra.

The yard is not totally without signs of life, however. During the day we're getting some thaws now though, and I have been checking things out.

The hyacinths by the laundry window are in one of the warmest parts of the yard and they are almost always the first to come up. And they have - solid ground but their little green points are just breaking the surface.

Today I saw the first shoots of the candy cane tulips out front poke through too, although when I went to brush some dead leaves off I noticed they were frozen solid, poor things!

The rose bushes almost all look like they have come through winter OK! The only one I am worried about is the Morden Sunrise - pity as it is my favorite. The others all show good green and red canes near the base with life in them.

My beloved blueberries, too, have made it, at least so far. The canes have new green life and new shoots already in the snow. New weeds in the bed too already - amazing.

I noticed tiny hardy fronds of sprouting camomile taking up on the South side this morning during my walk around so that will come back strong having reseeded itself, I see.

I have a lot of winter pruning and cutback to do, especially in the perennial garden and veggie garden. I need to plot out the girls new veggie bed, and I need to do something new and dig up and divide the salvia this year as soon as the grund thaws a bit. Then there's that shade garden that never got going last year...

ToDo list

Things I need to accomplish in the garden this weekend:

Place stepping stones by front hose
WEED - break out the roundup before it gts out of hand
Plant the blueberries and wood poppies
Start clearing the veggie garden
Add compost to the perennial garden before it gets more growth
Take pictures of current growth.

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The daffodils are enjoying their time in the sun and have made quite a pretty addition. They are still scattered though and I am keeping my fingers crossed they will naturalize a bit.

The snowberries are really leafed out now and look fantastic.

To my joy, I noticed today the beginnings of faint color in the rose canes. Maybe they aren't dead after all?

The weeds are already crazy and everywhere.

Blueberries in the bed look wonderful and like they will do well. The patio blueberry, not so much!

I wonder if I could plant my peppermint in the old red wagon?

Not really any rain so far this year - I've been doing a lot of watering.

Spring is Here, blooms at last!

Well the "green wave" hit us this past weekend. We went to bed one night with the lawns all still brown and the trees all still bare. By the following afternoon, all the laws were jade green and every tree and shrub was covered with buds!

Bulbs - right now I have some hyacinths, daffodils, and a few crocus blooming. The hyacinths came up a while ago and were mostly killed off by a hard late snow. :( I pruned them all back though and they reflowered, and are blooming right now. I have the daffs in the sun blooming now, and the ones in the shade just starting to set buds. The crocus came into bloom about a week ago and are just finishing up. They're sure pretty, but they are FAST. Bloom and gone!

We finally got my beloved blueberries in. Last weekend (not just gone but a week ago, the 14th, Pete and I alone moved FOUR TONS of materials. Stone, soil, peat, manure. I fertilized and acidified the bed with sulfur and aluminum sulfate. I have the two suffering bare root blueberries from Henry Field's at the edges and the back. In between them is a potted one from Lowes. All are Northland varietals. Any day now my drawf northblues should come, two of them, and I will plant those in the front. I have heavy pine mulch to cover them in.

While my mom was here this weekend (the 21st) we planted the shade garden. The forget-me-nots were all rotted :( But we planted the bleeding hearts, bluebells and lily of the valley.

My snowberries are all just starting to leaf out. They all look healthy and good!

My roses - sigh. After all that work I poured into them last year, I think all but one have died overwinter. They had a significant amount of rabbit damage (I looked at them this spring and thought, I didn't prune them back like that?) and they are just dry dead sticks now. The Will Baffin, the rambler at the back, has done fine. It is leafed out nicely now and looks happy. But the others are dead. They are still under warranty so I can replace them, but I'm sad and now unsure of myself as a gardener!

The lillies are starting to come up in the back.

The maple is covered in buds.

The lawn is too soft to sit a chair in but fine for walking on.

I haven't done a thing with the vegetable garden yet. It's still full of weeds and last year's stakes. I have some work to do. I gave up on almost all of my seedlings started in the window. They just got HUGE (like 2 feet tall) and leggy and in the snow I had nowhere to put them. All are gone, with the exception of the chamomile (which I can't get anywhere else.) I'm planting everything else right in the ground.

I'm finding it hard to get enthused about the garden right now. Sad, because this is usually the most exciting time! But I just feel so... apathetic. Maggie says - and I think she's right - that I should plant anyway. Because in 2 months I'll come out of my funk and be mad that I didn't do anything when I could! So I"ll make an effort.

Blueberry Bed

Well, after horrific amounts of drama over the blueberries - where my two Jumbo Northlands arrived several weeks early, in the snow, we had storms, the ground was frozen, then it rained for 3 weeks straight... I called Henry Field's and they offered to replace them, which was good.... then they were sold out of those and could ship them next year (yeah right) and me attempting to keep the poor blueberries alive in a bareroot state for more than a month in the garage - they will finally be put in ground tomorrow!

This weekend Pete and I worked our tails off getting that bed built. It's HUGE, 12ft long X 4 feet wide X 2 feet deep. We had to buy topsoil by the 40lb bag and it took 40 bags (1600lbs) plus 13 cubic feet of compressed peat moss plus 200lbs of composted manure to fill it. Not to mention the stones to build the thing! We ordered a pallet and a half and used them all except 8. Each pallet weighed 4,000lbs and contained 80 stones. So basically the two of us, by ourselves, moved almost FOUR TONS, 8,000lbs, of materials in 2 days.Holy crap do my feet hurt.

But, the bed looks GORGEOUS. It is built with Oxford stones in a beautiful grey color that sets off the house nicely. The mixture inside is a roughly 1:1 ratio of topsoil to peat, with some manure thrown in. I added roughly 2lbs of ammonium sulfate and 3lbs of sulfur to the soil. Originally the soil tested at a pH of 6.0, and I would like it around 4.5 for the berries, so in a few days I'll retest it.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with Dr. Lowe and Katie comes over around 10am. I know, that's not early for any normal human, but it's early for me! Before I go I want to get the three bushes I have into the ground so they can settle a little before the heat of the day. I have one northland in a pot that is younger but substantially healthier than the bareroot plants, from a garden center. I plan on putting it in the middle towards the back, and the other two at either end. Then I have 2 dwarf northsky bushes coming and I will put those in the front. I also have 5cf of pine bark mulch waiting to mulch them in.

FINALLY!!!!! My dream from several years is coming true at last!

Blueberries are here!

Two of my blueberries arrived today! The bigger ones. I'm SO excited, and nervous. Highly prized blueberries that I have been waiting for forever, the main cornerstone of the south side gardens, and I have never planted bare root plants before. I am so afraid I'll kill them somehow! It is poor timing for them to arrive as we've had a week straight of soggy wet rain; and now we're heading into another week of rain and cold temperatures. That means I'm not able to get out and build their raised bed for a while, and I'm worried sick about them staying in their packing material for another week. I can't even heel them in with all this rain. For now they are in the garage, cool and dark, with damp soil around the roots covered by damp shredded newspaper. Fingers crossed.

Spring!

Well it seems like Spring happened overnight here, as it alwys does. an it really be that just a few weeks ago we were in subzero temperatures and 3 feet of snow?

My hyacinths are looking good, about 2" tall now, and no signs of pest damage (rabbits and deer) so far.

The ground everywhere else is still frozen solid, except for a few spots.

I planted a lot more seeds today; basically everything went into jiffy pots except for the vines which are so tender. I managed to find some old fashioned hollyhocks even! SO excited. Oh, and if my lemon balm doesn't do well from seed this year, Bachmanns sells it in pots.

I also had a chance to give the big snowberry a bit of pruning today. It REALLY needed it, it's so overgrown. I reduced its size by about 1/3, shaped it, and got a few of the canes out. I need to clip a few more. It's a lot more work than I remember - it's a big bush!

I repaired some damage to the lilac from falling roof bits - lost about 5 canes 1/3 of the way from the ends. Too bad.

My sprouted onions look thin, stringy, and weak. Not sure what it is they need but apparently they aren't getting it. Everything else except the few peas affacted by mold are HUGE and out enjoying the sun while they harden off. I may need to buy onion sets and plant them.

Even the grass in the lawn is starting to green up again, where the drainage is better (like in the fenced area.)

Chamomile

I almost forgot, I also planted (hopefully) my German Chamomile tonight. I read that the seeds seem to have better germination with a freeze and thaw, so I tried putting them in a greenhouse tonight and out on the back deck. (It's supposed to be like 22 tonight, and around freezing or above every night for the next week or so.)

I used one of the 6-pack peat greenhouses, topped the peat off with 1/4 - 1/2" of generic potting soil, moistened it, and then just touched my damp fingertip to the seeds and to the soil. They're slightly mixed in from the moisture but basically on the surface for getting some sunlight. Hope it works!