Category: Garden

New seedling planter

I recently had a milestone birthday. The kids, as always, asked what I would like. I told them I wanted something special that would be fun for years. I asked for a long rectangular planter with a squirrel and bunny proof lid to grow my daylily seedlings each year.

Wow! It is beautiful, and perfect for me!

They bought the planter part, and put that together, and then designed and built the squirrel and bunny proof part. The top is built with a lip on the frame so it doesn’t slide around, and it just lifts off, so no hinge, no chain, and no tipping if there is no weight in it yet each spring.

I want to be able to move it at leisure, so no dirt directly in it either. (They brought me 3 buckets of dirt from the local garden store.)

I used to plant the seeds indoors in March, and have a table of seedlings indoors for 10 weeks, but last year I said no to that, and now plant all of the seeds from the same parent together in a pot (or two if there are a lot from that plant). I do that in late May, because we can get frost even until Memorial day, and I want those plants to be hearty. They get covers until germination and about an inch or so of seedling, and then – open air. I know – but last year I had a bumper year compared to other years with other methods.

This year I used five plant pots – two pots with seeds from Purple d’Oro, one with seeds from Marque Moon, one with seeds from China Doll, and one with seeds from South Seas.

I identify the parent plant just for fun, but, in reality last year’s seedlings all got planted in one new garden, with no markers identifying the parent plants. I know! 😦 But I’m not the propagator. The bees and birds are. I’m just in it to see what happens. So far a lot of greens, but no blooms. Yet. Still fun 😊

I only have one daylily from the direct sow years. It is four years old. I am hoping it finally blooms this year.

“Baby” from “South Seas” parent, surrounded by forget-me-nots that will bloom next year.

I have 15 plants from the potting method – three from two years ago when they were started indoors, and a dozen from last year when they were started in a “community pot” of same parent, outdoors. All still waiting to bloom. Some still tiny.

This takes patience – haha!

But it is fun.

Hats off. Weekend fun.

The buckets and plant pots that protected the daylilies, hostas, and sedum during the roofing project are off, but will have one more appearance in the next couple weeks when the gutter and fascia work is going on.

After that very long, hard to wait but dreading the potential collateral damage May, it was great to get back in the garden.

First up was removing the remainder of the tree seedlings. That got done yesterday. The total of buckets this year was down from the past few years – 5, compared to the usual 7. Hurray!

The dying tulip greens that got smooshd also got pulled. They were done anyway.
sadly, also a daylily piece from the project smoosh, but next year …

Then the pollinator created, harvested daylily seeds from 2021 finally got planted. Another post on that coming soon.

The sunflower seedlings also all got pulled. They were an experiment, but the rolling roofing dumpster made that decision for me. My husband was very happy – hahaha!!!

Today my thoughts turned to the front entry garden. It needs love.

One of the Blue Mouse Ears hostas out back also got a little smooshed with the roofing project. That was ok because it needed to be divided anyway, and the flowers get hit by the sprinkler, so moving the whole plant is probably a good idea. Blue Mouse Ears are the perfect size for the entryway area, and with dappled sun due to the Amur Maple they will look great for years to come. That area also had the remnant of a Rainforest Sunrise hosta I mostly moved up north, but it got a bit smooshed too so this will not be it’s shining year. I had to cut away the smooshed leaves. No worries, it will pop back next year. But besides a center hosta and the few Blue Mouse Ears divisions, and the low growing sedum, what to put in that area for color? No to annuals I think. Daily watering – ugghhh. That is for bird baths – haha! No to sedum divisions – the two low growing sedum are enough. Asian lilies seem to die out there, and the stems are not great after bloom either. They require layering to cover those up. So it may be daylilies. I am concerned about the dappled sun, but maybe. Still contemplating.

Finally, the center of one of the back garden areas was pretty bare. Plenty of baby forget-me-nots that will bloom next year, but it needs something additional. I pulled a nice daylily from there to go up north last year, and right afterward I saw how bare that area was and regretted it. Bummer. So that area needs love. But low investment. Trying out the green shamrock. Not sure. Might need a trip to the garden store.

So that was the weekend garden fun. Super enjoyed it.

Couldn’t resist

After an intense work day yesterday I sat out on the patio with my husband. As we relaxed, and I looked out over the back garden, the tree seedlings got to me. And two in particular were really getting to my husband. They were getting to him because he is used to my gardening habit of keeping the tree seedlings out of the rock, they were getting quite tall, and I was saying not to pull them. Quite tall for tree seedlings in the rock is over 4″ – lol. The two tall seedlings were from the cherry trees around the neighborhood. I was deliberating trying to transplant them and see if they survived.

After sitting for a while, I couldn’t resist. The hundreds of tree seedlings fell prey to the start of my annual ” next steps” cadence. Despite my intentions to leave them until the roof/gutter/fascia work here is done, the gardener in me was sad. The garden looked sad. So, I went and got my weeding bucket and started the clean-up.

I have shared my experience that gardening is excellent exercise. I must have REALLY needed that yesterday.

Today unofficial summer starts here. It feels good. And more normal. There is no construction noise. The nature sounds are the backdrop to a beautiful morning. A little thunder in the distance. Ahhhhh.

Next week the roof project turns the corner to our area, and it will be increasingly noisy as we are kind of in the middle of the remainder. But that can be dealt with by filling up the gas tank and heading north. For this morning, when the rain finishes up, I think I will get out and fill another bucket with tree seedlings. That would be bucket 2 of the usual 7. Everything in moderation 🙂

Garden decorations – 2022

Up next in the spring garden work is the swap out of seasonal items in the gardens. Since we are getting new roofs at the townhome this year, and the schedule is very much tbd, I will not be putting out many garden decorations there. Things that are sturdy, things I can pull back inside easily will be it. The frogs playing checkers have already found a home. The concrete welcome frog stays inside this year. So that only leaves the frog on the swing and a few little frogs. Good enough. For this year.

Winter
spring – swinging

Watch is not Experience

A few posts ago I wrote about Talk is not Do.

Yesterday I said to my husband that I was adding Watch is not Experience.

Here’s what happened. I realized that my favorite ship was coming in to Duluth at noon. I have no idea why I love this ship so much. Maybe it’s awesome magnitude. Not sure. So I planned an impromptu day trip. I want to stop at my favorite candy store. I want to take scenic route 61. I want to tour the Duluth Rose Garden. I want to end up at Canal Park watching the Paul R. Tregurtha come in to port. I want to bring Sandy our dog.

so I finished my coffee, packed a little day bag, grabbed my coat and hat (just in case), and we headed out – Sandy in his crate (safety first), and me thinking “I might have finally lost it – what am I doing?”

We had an incredible day!!! It was not a watch other people’s adventures day. It was a “do a bunch of my own favorites” day. And when the Tregurtha came by and I stood once again in awe, and waved, and had Sandy wave his little paw wave I just experienced the moment in person. I wasn’t watching someone else’s moment. It was my moment.

Compost?

Last fall when my husband planted the five daylilies in the front of the little house up north, he put the dirt and grass he removed into a plant pot in the garage. Today I was doing the final weeding of the year, and needed a plant pot to throw the weeds in. I dumped the dirt and dry grass into an even larger pot, and went about weeding. When I was done weeding I realized there was a fair amount of mulch I had pulled with the weeds.

Before I had even started weeding I had moved two earthworms from the driveway to the grass. They would have died. They were drying out. I like earthworms. They are great for the soil.

So I had saved a couple earthworms and they were now on their way back to do what they do, I had half a plant pot of weeds and mulch, and some dirt and dry grass in another plant pot. Where did my mind go? Compost.

I put everything together, minus the two worms of course :), put it in an area where I am going to finish a lasagna style garden next year, and walked away knowing I didn’t end up putting all that into the garbage. It’s not official compost, but the weeds and the mulch and the dry grass will mix together with the dirt and the rain that is coming and it will decompose. Go forth and make a good foundation for next year’s completion!

(That tree you see by the base of the shed is coming out. It was there when we bought the house, I didn’t get on that, and my husband knew I was wavering. But that’s no place for a tree, so … )