In the Garden: May 2010 Archives

I may be pushing it just a bit, but I started planting annuals, and herbs today and I think I may plant tomatoes this weekend. I'll have to keep an eye on the forecasts for the next ten days or so, to be sure that we aren't surprised with a frost, or I could loose everything I planted today.

I have an inordinate number of volunteer ox-eye daisies. I ripped out several pods of them about ten days ago, and a few more today. (I'm going to send them to Bogie for her gardens! lol) That made room for Homestead purple verbena, nicotiana, petunias, and allyssum. I've already planted two more lavender plants, and a dahlia. I think I may have crowded that dahlia a bit. I'll just have to see how things develop as the weather warms up.

This evening I planted Genovese basil, sweet basil, lemon verbena, rosemary, flat leafed and curley parsley and dill. (I forgot that I have two globe basils to plant.) I need to clear a section of the herb garden that has been taken over by plants I don't want, to make room for a miniature pear-shaped yellow tomato, and a cherry tomato plant. I think they should do well there because they will be easier to water.

My iris are going to open a week or so early. I already have a gorgeous dark blue, a garnet, burgundy, peach, and two rose bi-color iris open. I'll take pictures of them tomorrow, and post them on the blog.

I decided to use the Homestead purple verbena as a theme through three of the gardens. I've planted it at the sidewalk garden today, and tomorrow I hope to plant it in the long driveway garden south of the house, and the smaller garden across from the house on the east side of the drive. I think the purple will be a good contrast for the plants in those gardens, and will give a sense of unity to the landscaping.

More, tomorrow!

Twenty years ago, Dear Husband created a raised herb bed for me during the summer. I was eager to have some color and display, so that first year, I planted a wildflower mix in the center box. I thought that I'd be able to cut flowers for the house, and the following year the box would be ready for herbs.

What I didn't understand, not having had a place to grow wildflowers, was that the chipmunks would harvest the seeds of the annuals and store them, and the following year I would find flowers growing in all sorts of unexpected places! The hardiest of all those flowers were ox-eye daisies. They are the traditional simple white daisy that everyone recognizes. They start with a low mound of leaves and then shoot up multiple stems with blooms. I still have the relatives of those first plants growing twenty years later!

We have had two days of rain and these low mounds of leaves have exploded into two foot tall plants ready to bloom! They were shading the rose, the iris, and several plants that I have been babying, so some of them had to go! I went out for two "weeding" sessions today, and by the time I was done there was a pile of unwanted plants roughly four feet by three feet by two feet sitting at the edge of the drive.

The sidewalk bed is looking much better, and now I have a place where I can put in a few annuals to give the bed color during the hot months. I planted two lilies, a dahlia and two lavender plants, and potted a geranium. My iris already have buds (it seems just a little early), and we'll have masses of daisies to accent the iris color later this month.

My next foray into the garden will be to plant spinach and wildflowers. I'm looking forward to my trip to the nursery. I need to pick up tomatoes and basil and some alyssum, but I'm going to do one bed from seeds. Spring has arrived so early that I may be able to get things started by the end of the week.