Queen of the Night Black Tulips, Rembrandt Tulips

So much gardening work to do, so little time!  Yesterday after a few productive business meetings in the afternoon, I met John at Lowe's and we selected edging for the border of the island garden in the middle of the front lawn.  We placed it last night but didn't actually install it (we need to chop out a lot of turf first) but boy, does it look nice.  More importantly, we bought a gorgeous Cleveland pear tree. It's a flowering variety (no fruit) but the spot we planted it in will eventually mean beautiful dappled shade over our front porch and the dining room area, and a lovely spot on the porch to rest in the afternoon.  We planted the tree last night and I managed to get the petunias and pansies planted.  It's a little late for the pansies, but my father in law came home with a flat of them - "Just fifty cents!" - and he was so happy to bring them home for me. He knows they are one of my favorite flowers.  I had pansy flowers on my wedding cake, I love them so much!  No roses for me, just the humble pansy....

To wrap up this week's discussion of tulips, I reached into my writing archives and found two articles I've written about special kinds of tulips.  The first is the Queen of the Night black tulip.  It's a really stunning tulip and very unusual.  Plant it with yellow pansies for a really superb effect.  The second article shares information on the Rembrandt tulip - one of my personal favorites.  Click the underlined titles below, and they will take you to the articles.

Enjoy and happy gardening!  I am tackling spring cleaning inside the house today, and then more weeding, planting, weeding...if I'm not cleaning indoors, I am cleaning out!

• Queen of the Night Black Tulip Flowers
• Growing Rembrandt Tulips: History and Use

How Long Do Tulips Last?

Tulip bulbs should last for many years - or should they be treated as annuals? My blog post earlier in this week on Tulip Growing Problems prompted some interesting comments, and I want to thank the readers who took the time to share their experiences with these beautiful flowers.

For those who said, "Yes, tulips are annuals and should be treated as such because they don't come back as vigorously as in the first year - " the bulbs that I had which grew into the short, stubby and small flowered tulips were new bulbs planted in November 2011, so it wasn't the fact that those bulbs were old.  In fact, the bulbs I planted three years ago are producing the best tulips this year.  I purchased a bargain package of pastel colored tulips heavily discounted at Wal-Mart about three years ago, planted them, and crossed my fingers.  Now they are tall, vigorous plants and it actually looks as if I need to dig them up this year and separate some of the little bulblets off of the parent bulbs - I have a feeling it's getting rather crowded in there.

Also of note is this statement from the North Dakota Cooperative Extension office: "Tulips will last much longer than two to three years, but they often need to be dug up and spaced every three to five years to maintain their blooming vigor. I would suggest that, this fall, you dig them up and reset them with more spacing and possibly in some new locations."

So why do some people treat tulips as annuals and others expect many years from them? I know that the commenter who posted about the famous Dutch gardens treating the bulbs like annuals is correct.  When my sister worked at Old Westbury Gardens, the famous mansion and gardens on Long Island, the tulips in the Walled Garden were treated as annuals. Ditto for when I worked at Martin Viette Nurseries; the two years I worked there, the Pink Impression bulbs planted by the front gates would be dug up and new bulbs planted for the following season.

Given the bits of information I've gleaned online from the various extension offices, as well as my favorite tulip reference books here in the home office, I think there are multiple answers to the question of how long tulips may be expected to flowers.  Some types, such as the species tulips and in my experience many of the Darwin hybrids, will flower for several years.  However, if you want tulips looking their absolutely best, it's best to treat them like annuals.  That probably explains why the garden center I worked at and the two famous demonstration gardens mentioned do the same thing.  The public expects such places to look spectacular, and they must provide a great show of flowers for the visitors.  So to ensure the best and most beautiful tulip displays, my best guess is that they do replant the bulbs each year.

Here in Virginia, between the critters and the weather, tulips are a tricky operation.  I look forward to them every year and I guess I do need to adjust my expectations to view them as annuals, and if they return for more than one season, count my blessings and be thankful.   Well, I guess this means I just have to order more for next year....! (Someone tell my husband only AFTER I place the order for more bulbs, okay?)

During my research, I found the question and answers on tulip bulbs previously linked to for the North Dakota Extension Office, plus a great reference publication from the Illinois Cooperative Extension Office.  If anyone has any additional Extension links to share, post them in the comments.  

The photos on today's post are from Morguefile, a photo sharing website.   Not my garden. I wish!

Tulips and Tulip Blooming Problems

I picked a bouquet of tulips this morning and have been enjoying their pretty pastel colors all day as I work.  The bouquet contains probably the best tulips in the garden, for most of them this year are stunted looking - about half the size they should be.  It's as if they all began blooming before they attained their maximum height. I lost all my Darwin hybrids in the bed next to the garage from the heat.  I had one day of blooms and the poof! All the petals were on the sidewalk.

Tulips are one of my favorite flowers, and I plant them despite the deer, the rabbits and the weather in southern Virginia. Perhaps I just enjoy a challenge. Or perhaps it's part of that German-Dutch heritage.  Tulips may be in my DNA.

I added only a few last year, a bag of Rembrandt tulips to the pastel mixture gracing the garden by the kitchen. The photos of the tulips in the garden shown here were all taken last year, by the way. I shudder to show you what they look like now. Unless you like to look at petals straggling off of a tulip, it's not a pretty site.

So why was last year a great year for tulips and this year is a bad one?  I can think of a few reasons. First, the heat. This winter was so mild that I wonder if the bulbs got enough of a chilling period in the ground to flower properly.  The heat wave that hit so soon this March also appeared to encourage earlier flowering, hence my stunted tulips.  I found one Cooperative Extension website which described a similar problem and the extension agent answering the questions basically pointed to an environmental cause, but nothing specific. Since I can't do anything about weather, I'll just leave my tulips and hope for the best for next year.  Cooler weather is expected this year and the large mass planting I have behind the house hasn't flowered yet.  I can see buds, but hopefully the cooler weather will give the tulips more time to complete their flowering naturally and not fool them into rushing into blossom.

In the meantime, my little bouquet gives me such joy.  Only tulips can make me smile like this. They are truly some of my favorite garden flowers.

At least I have pictures from last year....

Bagworm Moths on the Fruit Trees: Identify Garden Pests

Bagworm moth female on our apricot tree.

This is my first experience with the bagworm moth, and I'm am grateful to my Master Gardening mentor Liz and to the folks at the Cooperative Extension who positively identified what we, in our ignorance, originally thought was an 'interesting leaf'.  My husband first noticed these things hanging from our apricot trees in the fruit tree orchard last fall when he was cutting the lawn. It was after the leaves had fallen, and he simply assumed it was two leaves that just hadn't fallen off of the trees yet.  He took a closer look and pointed them out to me, suggesting they were some sort of moth or butterfly cocoon.  The creature had used pine needles to camouflage its cocoon and we thought that was interesting. We found another one on the wire cages we use around the apple trees to keep the deer away from the young trees.

Another bagworm. They're clever with that camouflage.

We're both sort of amateur naturalists and love to observe nature, so we left the cocoons there and started checking on them every day when we walked Shadow in the orchard.  We play ball with her there in the afternoons. The daffodils and peach, pear, apple, and plum trees blooming, and we look forward to our walk there every day to experience the beauty of an orchard in full bloom.


About two weeks ago, my friend and gardening mentor Liz gave me a copy of Virginia Gardening magazine. Another friend who is a garden writer and photographer and in the Master Gardening program too, Cynthia Wood, published a lovely article on Liz's water gardens in that March issue, and Liz lent me her copy so I could show my husband her beautiful gardens.  John was reading the magazine and called me over to look at an article I hadn't noticed. It was a two page spread featuring insects and there was something that looked like our cocoon.  It was identified as a 'bagworm' but the article didn't give us any information on it. Was it bad? Did it eat the fruit or the tree? Or was it a benign presence in the garden?

I took the photos you see here and emailed them to Liz. I printed them out too and brought them to my Master Gardener class on Wednesday night.  Sure enough, everyone positively identified it as a dreadful pest called the 'bagworm moth.'

The female larvae find a host tree and create the thick bag you see in the picture using twigs, leaves and evergreen needles as camouflage. In the spring, the male moths fly to the females for mating, and the offspring larva emerge from the bag-like structure. The female spins a larger, silky bag to protect her offspring.  They emerge in June, according to the Virginia Cooperative Extension website, and begin eating the leaves from the trees. Females remain on the tree or have to crawl to a new host while the males fly off eventually to start the cycle all over again.

Liz tells me that an infestation of bagworm moths killed a large row of juniper trees in our town of Farmville, and that they can be quite bad.  John and I used gardening pruners and removed the bags and threads from the trees and from the wire cage. I sealed them into an empty cottage cheese container that we had in the recycle.  We will kill them later today.  I dislike killing anything, but honestly, I can't catch and release something that can potentially damage our garden or a neighbor's farm. It just isn't right.

I'm grateful for several things. First, that both my husband and I are vigilant. We are observers and love to note and discuss what we see on our walks, or while gardening.  We're always calling attention to unusual insects, wildflowers, animal prints and such.   We're both curious by nature and enjoy researching things too, so researching insects and such is in our nature.  I'm grateful for the Master Gardeners (thank you Liz and the team at class!) and for the Cooperative Extension to help identify such pests. Most of all, I am grateful we were able to remove what we could see NOW in March and not have to deal with an infestation in June.  I can only imagine the potential damage, and we have invested three years of TLC into those apricot trees!

Here are links to more information on the bagworm moth:

• Virginia Cooperative Extension
• Penn State Cooperative Extension

I'd be really upset to lose any of our fruit trees! Bartlett pear tree in bloom this week.

Starting a New Vegetable Garden

All that talk about working in my own vegetable garden inspired me to write a new article today for Hub Pages on Tips for Starting a New Vegetable Garden.  If you're new to gardening or you've just moved into a new house, these tips may help you start your very own home vegetable garden.   I've shared with you how my little investment in seeds and starter plants yields big harvest.  Not only does the garden produce food that saves me money, but I know exactly what went into growing my food, where it came from, and how it was harvested and stored. Think about it for a minute.

While I am not in a position to raise my own beef cattle, I can certainly raise my own lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, peppers and a bunch of other vegetables. I know that my vegetables haven't been doused with a bunch of chemicals because I take care of them. I'm fairly certain that the soil is mineral-rich thanks to the compost added to it over the years. More importantly, I know that it is fresh - and the fresher the vegetables, the higher the nutrient content. Important vitamins such as vitamin C degrade with time and yes, vegetables contain vitamin C. It's not just your oranges and orange juice that contains vitamin C!

So think about growing a few vegetables if you can.  Most people can grow a tomato plant in a pot, a few lettuce plants or some herbs on a sunny kitchen windowsill.  Whatever you can grow, I encourage you to do so. It adds so much enjoyment to your life - and frankly, tastes so much better than store bought food - that you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

March Madness in the Garden

Bartlett pear tree in bloom

It's March madness in the garden as the spring temperatures continue - and it's technically still winter!  We've had two weeks of highs in the 70s and 80s and evening temperatures in the 50s.  This is mid to late April weather, perhaps May weather, and the trees, shrubs and flowers are responding by blooming.  I saw multicolored butterflies and moths fluttering about the garden today and I can only hope that whatever plants are currently blooming provide enough sustenance for them all.  I can't remember such a warm spring, not here and not in New York where I used to live.  Oh sure, you'd get the occasional warm day - I remember sweating through my suit jacket at a conference at the Helmsley Hotel in Manhattan on a particularly hot 90 degree April day, with the hotel management apologizing profusely for not having the air conditioners working yet nor having fans to circulate the air - but weeks of this type of weather? Unheard of!

Not that I'm complaining. It just seems as if spring has arrived, and fast, and I'd better play catch up.

On Saturday, I started gardening at 10 a.m. and aside from a brief lunch break, didn't call it quits until 3 p.m. By that time, I'd managed to get my share of splinters, cut my finger pretty good on a pair of garden shears, and scraped my inner wrist so that someone looking at it did a double take this past weekend. I think the poor man thought I'd done something horrible to myself on purpose,  but honestly, it was a thorny vine entangled with a Buddleia we cut down that gave me three long scratches right on the soft part inside my wrist, just where my gardening glove ends.  John saw it happen. Honest!

Pierre, my gardening kitty

Pierre and Shadow came outside to help us garden.  Shadow proved her worth by following the trail of the resident mole who is making my walks in the yard miserable. That darn creature left the vegetable garden, thank goodness, but now he's created a maze of tunnels in the back near the garden shed.  It's ankle-breaking stuff, those tunnels. You're walking along and BAM, next thing you know, your foot has sunk into the earth up to the shin!  Well, Shadow found that mole hole and I think she smelled a fresh scent. Suddenly she was going crazy digging, digging, digging.  She dug out the hole but no mole.  Later on that day, Pierre was also running crazily near the mole tunnels, zig-zagging this way and that. He went to the same spot and stuffed his whole face into the mole hole.  I was hoping he'd catch the creature but alas, it was too fast for him.  Shadow chased it out of the vegetable garden last year and it hasn't come back since then, but it has made itself quite at home in the back corner of the field, and I'm hoping that between the two of them, they have made its life miserable!

Blooming peach tree with vegetable garden behind it.

I settled on asparagus Jersey Giant and the box of 24 arrived from Park Seed last Thursday.  I kept them in a pail of moist soil in the garage until Saturday.  We decided to move all the herbs from the herb bed in the vegetable garden and use that bed for the asparagus.  It was a good idea, but we should have moved the herbs sooner.  First of all, the oregano had not only spread out to about half the bed, but it crawled under the wood frame and has now infiltrated my lawn back in the vegetable garden. I've got mint growing in some areas and oregano in others.  Mowing the lawn releases some interesting smells - you can't tell whether you're in a Bed, Bath and Beyond from the mint or in a pizza parlor from the oregano.


The cat nip stinks but we moved it one of Pierre's favorite spots, near the garden shed. We transplanted two and if it spreads out - so be it.  We can live with it.

The lemon balm and sage made it into the flower garden. The sage is so tall that we've named it 'sage bush' half jokingly.  It really does look like a bush out there.   The lemon balm is now under the wisteria, and I'm hoping it takes hold there and creates a carpet under the wisteria.

Unfortunately, two herbs didn't survive the move.  My rosemary, which I especially wanted to save, broke and we seemed to have lost the roots.  I've got the big stems drying in the garage now, so at least it won't go to waste. And my huge patch of yummy garlic chives, which I love to dice up and add to omelets, also somehow got lost. I suspect I will have chives now growing in my lawn to complement the oregano and mint.  I did manage to pot up a few chives, which I'll keep near the kitchen when the omelet urge strikes.

Removing the herbs also removed a good portion of the soil from the beds, too.  On Sunday, I made a quick run to Lower's after church to buy some soil.  We turned the compost on Saturday too and I squealed with delight - worms!  Big, fat, red worms, the best kind to find in a compost pile.  I know, I know, you may think worms are gross. But they're not.  I've never spotted them in my compost pile until this year and a good group of worms in there means they are doing their job and helping compost down all those kitchen scraps.  We dug down into the pile, turned it, and found lovely dark, crumbly compost - the kind that looks like chocolate cake.  Into the asparagus bed it went along with fresh soil and a bit of peat moss!

The other vegetables that arrived included a sampler package of 60 onions - three different types, 20 sets of each.  I can see red onions, white ones and a smaller one.  We planted those on Sunday, along with 48 bulbs of garlic.  I also planted seeds for Romaine and fancy micro greens on Sunday, and spinach for salads.  I added radishes and my beloved broccoli rabe to the garden this weekend, too.  My mouth is watering thinking about sauteed broccoli rabe with olive oil and garlic and white beans.  I can live off of that and frequently do enjoy it for lunch throughout the spring.

Last but not least, we cleaned up the strawberry beds.  We moved some strawberry 'daughters' and added compost. 

The peach trees are almost finished blooming, and now the pears are in full bloom in the orchard.  This picture shows me standing next to a peach tree. Can you see me in my pink top? That shows you just about the size of the trees. I am tall, nearly 6 feet tall, so that gives you some perspective. The daffodils are blooming throughout the orchard too and it is just so beautiful.  I know it to be true, because both our mail carrier and the UPS guy said so.

The orchard - I'm the spec in pink next to the blooming peach tree.

March madness...spring gardening...and we are a few days from the official start of spring.  The windows are open, the bird houses are hung. Let the gardening begin!

Getting Your Soil Professionally Tested

A friend emailed me last night with comments about yesterday's blog post, and I wanted to add a few thoughts.  First of all, I didn't want to leave folks with the impression that testing your soil yourself is the best or only method of determining pH.  Actually, the very best thing you can do for your soil is to have it professionally tested and to talk to your local Cooperative Extension folks about the specifics of improving it. Call your local County Cooperative Extension office for details and instructions on how to take soil samples.   There is a fee for the test, and that fee will vary from place to place, but it is well worth the money and it is not very expensive.

I had our soil professionally tested here at Seven Oaks several times. My goal with obtaining my own home pH meter is to use it on many sections of the garden that I don't feel merit a full professional test, but that I think need some work.  Before I planted the flower gardens, I did indeed have the soil professionally tested and that helped me understand some of the challenges my garden would face.

Sometimes when I talk to the "people who kill plastic plants," the newcomers to the world of gardening, the entire world of soil pH, soil testing and analysis and amendments to improve soil makes their eyes glaze over.  Or worse, they look at me like they're going to panic, and they stutter, "But I don't like all that science stuff - I just want to grow a tomato."  The thing about soil is that you do have to know something about what you are working with so that your plants will be happy and healthy. 

You don't have to be a soil scientist or an expert to grow a great garden.  But it is always a good idea to let the experts help you, right? That's what they're there for!  So use the link above to find your local Extension office and find out more about how you can have your garden soil tested.  It's always safe to add compost to your soil, but before you start piling on commercial fertilizer, lime and other amendments, know what you've got to work with in terms of your soil.

Exploring the World of pH Meters

Today I've started researching pH meters.  One of the many things I have learned in the Master Gardener classes is the importance of testing soil pH, and making sure that I'm providing my plants with the pH they need.  My dad used to have the old-fashioned test tube kits, and then he had one of the newer electronic gadgets with the probe and the meter on top. I think we threw it out when we cleaned out the house after he died; I don't think any of my siblings took it.  I'm actually surprised that he continued to test the garden soil in our little garden on Long Island.  My dad built raised beds for the garden, the same as I did here at Seven Oaks, but he spent an awful lot of money buying Pro Mix and pouring bag after bag into the beds.  He had wonderful compost and the beds were a beautiful fluffy mix of commercial potting soil and excellent compost.  I think you could stick anything in that garden soil and get it to grow, like in the Narnia books when a piece of toffee falls out of the pocket and grows into a toffee-tree in Narnia.  It was that good of a soil.

But what I have learned in my Master Gardener classes, among many things, is that soil pH matters. I take soil pH for granted because in the place where I learned to garden, my dad had already done the hard work and spent the money on the best quality soil he could buy and the best quality compost he could make.


Soil pH makes nutrients available to the plants. When the pH is in the proper range, the plants can absorb more nutrients.  That makes them healthy and strong - and in turn, provides me and my family with better nutrition.  Not only that, but in last week's lawn care lecture, I learned that the massive amount of weeds we have here may just be an indication that the soil pH remains too low.  The instructor said that certain weeds thrive in lower pH areas; once the pH returns to where lawns like it, around 6.5 - 6.8, the weeds don't like it.  Hmmm.  Make my land inhospitable to weeds simply by adding lime to raise the pH?  That sounds like a wonderful idea.

I don't think I will ever be totally weed-free; weed seeds blow in from the cattle field around here, and there are many acres of wild, untamed woods where 'anything grows.'   But if I can prevent blossom end rot on the tomatoes...if I can keep those awful weeds from choking out my flowers as they are threatening to do...all by adjusting the pH, it's time to test the soil.

I've started looking into the various pH meters and I think I am going to get the electronic one with the probe. You just place it in the ground, leave it for a few minutes, and you get a reading. It also provides a ballpark estimate of the N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, the three macro nutrients plants need and the numbers on the bags of fertilizer at the store) so I can get a good estimate of that, too.

I'll start looking tomorrow at the big box stores after church services for my pH meter.  In the meantime, though, I'm heading out today to start prepping the vegetable garden beds and we need to trim the phlox before it over runs the front walkway.

Happy gardening!

pH Meters I am researching:

You Know It's Spring When

You know it's spring at Seven Oaks when...

• Peepers are peeping!  Yes, I can hear peepers...faintly...probably back on the boggy part of the land way in the bank, near the creek, but they're peeping.
• Moles are tunneling EVERYWHERE.  I suspect I've got some mole-courting going on. I wish Mr Mole would bring his girlfriends flowers and candy instead of worms, but if he finds a few Japanese beetle grubs to give her I won't complain.  I will, however, be mighty mad if I turn my ankle again in a mole hole.  The tunnels are everywhere throughout the orchard and on the edge of the woods.  Shadow continues to harass the mole whenever he tries to live in the vegetable garden, and while she makes a mess, he leaves. Thank God.
• Shadow snaps her first wasp.  Have you ever had a dog that eats bees and wasps? She'll snap at anything flying by her head but she has a special quit-chomp-chatter that she saves to sever all sorts of stinging insects.  Only once did I hear her yipe as if she got stung.  She's got the swift CHOMP down to a science. 
• Pierre once again jaunts into the woods. 
• The weeds have returned. With a vengeance. I have weeds growing UNDER the landscape fabric on the little bit of pathway we didn't finish last year.  Big, thick, healthy weeds. Guess I made a nice little comfy micro climate for them under the black fabric...high moisture content, warmth, the works.  Sigh...

 So what are the first signs of spring in your garden?

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By the way, I am going to start posting some of those essays everyone likes. The ones where I ramble on about childhood fun, things I used to do in New York, stuff going on here and Pierre the cat stories.  It took me a while to figure out that 1) I can't be serious all the time 2) I need a creative outlet and most importantly 3) you, my readers, like that stuff.  I heard from several folks who wished I'd get back to the good stuff like what it was like growing up in Long Island, discovering the remains of the old buildings on the land here at Seven Oaks, and of course,  Pierre's latest antics.  So I am going back to my usual eclectic mix of posts.  Enjoy and please DO comment or contact me if you have a special requests. I take requests....

Orchard Blooms

The overcast skies today and warm temperatures led to two things: several trees in the orchard finally began blooming, and the lighting provided an interesting contrast. I love to take nature pictures and I hope you enjoy my photos taken today in the garden....

Peach tree blossom

Peach blossom

Pear, ready to bud

Crocus

Bluebirds in the Garden

One of the best parts of moving from urban Long Island-New York City to rural south central Virginia is learning about new wildlife, and my favorite new friend is the Eastern bluebird.  Phil, our neighbor and friend, gave us a cedar bluebird house the first year we fenced in the vegetable garden.  He explained how to hang it and to make sure it faced south so that the birds would like it.  We didn't know anything at all about bluebirds, but I love bird watching and so John hung the house as instruction.  That first year we had a family of bluebirds move in and two sets of babies born!  My friend Joan gave me a bluebird house last year for my birthday, and John built two more.  All of them are hanging on various pine trees and the fence post around the garden.  We have had two occupied consistently these past several years, and two remain unoccupied. I don't think it is a coincidence that the two occupied houses are facing south, and the other two, southeast.  I believe they are far enough apart so that the birds won't feel as if they are competing with each other; but who knows what goes through the mind of a bluebird?

This morning, the liquid trilling song of the bluebird woke me up at sunrise. I know that some people love the sound of roosters crowing, but for me, that bluebird song is the most country sound I know.  Better than the beeping of the garbage trucks on Long Island or the wailing of sirens in New York City which were my typical wake up calls in my past life.

The bluebird inspired my essay today for MainLine Gardening. I hope you enjoy it. And if you live in an area where the Eastern bluebird lives, do provide a nesting box for them.  They are beautiful, friendly, and eat garden bugs.  Now that's a friend you want to keep.

For more information on the Eastern bluebird, visit:

• The Cornell Lab of Orinthology
• The North American Bluebird Society

Today's photo is from Morguefile and is used under their license.

Time for Serious Garden Clean Up

The bluebirds are darting in and out of the nesting boxes, looking very serious and business-like. I think the home inspection stage is over and it's time for nest building. I love to watch them from the kitchen windows in the morning.  They fly to the peach tree and perch on the topmost branch, waiting, swaying in the morning breezes.  Then they swoop away and return minutes later with pine needles.  I see the females standing on top of the fence posts by the vegetable gardens, and the males darting about too. Every bird is into the serious business of creating a secure nest for the babies to come, and making a house a home - even if it's a bluebird house!

The vegetables are all ordered, for good or for ill.  Seeds are purchased and waiting.  I walked Shadow through the raised bed garden last night and made notes on what needs to get done.  I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed but I need to remember that a little done every day adds up to a lot.

• The strawberry bed needs to be weeded and the plants separated.  I've got daughter plants too close to the mother plants, and a giant area of die-off in the bed.  That's actually good news because now I  have room to transplant those daughters!  Strawberries reproduce with runners, placing so-called 'daughter' plants at the end of the runners. The mother plants, the older plants, die away after a time. If you don't separate them out the beds get too crowded the they don't produce as much fruit. I've also got the weed from hell taking over another corner of the bed.  Where do these weeds come from? How come they are tougher than my vegetables?  
• We've got one of the untreated wood sides of the raised bed warped, split, and threatening to spill compost everywhere.  I need help from hubby to fix that one before I can get the onions and garlic into that bed!
• We still have dead chard plants, a few straggly cabbages, good looking turnips and carrots out there that need to be removed, composted or stored before the new plants can be added.

When I have a bit more time, I'll share with you the varieties I've chosen for the vegetable garden and why I chose what I did.  Gotta run now, and I have Master Gardener class tonight.   Class is going well and I am learning a lot more about other aspects of gardening that I don't normally tackle, so I'll have plenty to share with everyone in the weeks to come!

Favorite Cold Tolerant Flowers

Candytuft, non stop bloomer this year - not typical!

My blog post today for the MainLine Gardening community focuses on three flowering plants, two annuals and one perennial, that tolerate and even thrive in cool and cold weather. The local university, Longwood University, plants beautiful displays of pansies as early as February, as does the local shopping center.  It really cheers you up on a gray winter day to drive by and see something blooming.

In my garden today, heather and pansies are blooming alongside crocus and daffodils. I didn't add my perennial candytuft to the list on MainLine Gardening, mostly because I think mine is sitting in a little protected micro climate bubble.  It's in an unusual spot with the slate walkway in front reflecting southern and western sunlight and heat, and sheltered by the overhang from the front porch. I think those two factors keep it nice and snug and encouraged it to bloom all winter long.  It took a rest in November and December, but in January the candytuft began blooming again. Someone asked me if I'd placed a fake silk flower out front - they thought it wasn't real! It's pretty amazing.

I also wrote an article yesterday for Hub Pages on How to Choose Trees for Your Yard.  I think you will find that one interesting and I included links to many resources as well as a video. Enjoy!

Panies blooming in February

Spring Garden Flowers in Bloom

It's a soft morning today, all damp with yesterday's rains, with warm spring breezes smelling of hay and pine flowing through my office windows.  I had to take two walks today (oh yes; poor me) because Shadow refused to go out early.  She's afraid of the neighbor's tractor trailer truck, and won't pass it when he's warming it up to go to work. So early this morning, I walked myself up to the mail box to leave some outbound mail for the mail carrier, then took Shadow out an hour later after our neighbor left for work.  She was very happy about that and gave me a big, silly doggy grin in between sniffing all the deer tracks in the mud alongside the driveway.

Last night while driving home from my Master Gardener class, it was pouring rain and windy, and I thought some leaves were blowing over the road. Our country road does not have street lights, and in addition to heavy rain and wind I had to contend with patches of thick fog that popped up mysteriously, as if a blanket was thrown over the windshield of the car.  Well, as the "leaves" moved across the road, I suddenly realized what I was looking at: toads!  Dozens and dozens of big toads hopping around.  I guess the heavy rains had flooded them out of the roadside gutters where they hide among all the fallen leaves.  I tried my best not to squash any but they seemed determined to hop under the wheels of the car....

During my morning walk, I saw bluebirds beginning their hunt for the perfect nesting box.  They act as if a realtor is showing them many properties; try this birdhouse on the fence next to the vegetable garden, sir.  What, not to your liking?  How about the one next to the shed?  And on and on the males flit, stopping to trill their lovely liquid song on top of a fence post, then flying into the next box to scope it out for their mates.  I'm so glad that John remember to clean the boxes this past weekend.  Now they are all clean and waiting for the nesting pairs to find them.

I also took my camera into the garden, and was rewarded by many spring flowers blooming weeks early.  This is what normally blooms in our garden around April 1, not March 1.  Everything is at least a month early.  The pansies are from plants I added to the foundation garden in front of the porch back in 2009...they reseed and love the spots under the azaleas, and so I have color there throughout the season starting with pansies, then moving into the bright neon azalea colors, and finally green azaleas and pansies blooming sporadically in the damp, cool northwest exposure.

All of the vegetable plants and seeds have been ordered.  The seeds have finally germinated thanks to a fresh package of pepper and eggplant seeds I used after the older seeds refused to germinate.   Plenty of tomatoes - four varieties in all - are up, and now the peppers and eggplants join them.   I plan to start more perennial seeds from seeds I gathered over the years this week, too.

Enjoy the pictures, and I hope today brings you warmth, friendship, peace and love.