adventures in babysitting

If making mistakes leads to greater understanding and advancement on the path to excelling at a subject, I'll be ready to teach a master class soon.  I've already talked about my winter-sowing debacle...soil too wet, top container holes too numerous, bottom drainage holes too few, and containers not secured from wind.

Undaunted, I decided to start a new set of seeds once the weather got warm enough.  Inside, of course, because we're working on new options for the front field, and it's not ready for planting yet.  I felt fairly prepared.  I had big, shallow plastic tubs...a soil-less mixture of peat moss and vermiculite...and clear labels.

I'd even gone through the trouble of cold-stratifying my perennial seeds - moving them from freezer to refrigerator to freezer - to help break their exterior shell. 

In no time at all, I had tiny rows of seedlings. 

Then I realized - GASP.  We were heading into a week of rain, and I'd have no real light to aid my plants.  Without some kind of light, they'd become spindly and die.  Emergency run to Menard's for shop lights.

Since I'd planted so many tubs, we had grow lights, rows of tubs, and big tangles of extension cords everywhere.  The lights dried out the soil, and then I realized the reason why people start their seeds in those thin plastic containers that sit in long plastic trays:  my plastic tubs didn't have drainage holes, and that you aren't supposed to top-water.  You pour your water into the plastic trays and the plants absorb as much as they need.  But it was too late to remedy that, so it was constant spritzing with the water bottle to keep the soil moist.

I was so pleased with the progress and germination rate...and then I saw roots hitting the container bottoms.  I realized with a Simpsons-level D'oh! that another reason why people use those black plastic containers is that they're about 5 - 6 inches tall, allowing room for root growth.  With Todd shaking his head and wondering at my sanity ("We can just buy full-grown plants when the garden is ready!"), I set about re-potting over 1,000 seedlings into deeper containers. 

The transplanted seedlings have to be watched carefully, because they're out in the sun now.  Late-afternoon sun is too hot for them, so they all have to be dragged into the shade.

Of course, they cannot take the torrential rains that we've been having.  Just the other day, we had hail!

Last night we had another flash storm, so, since there's no room inside for so many tubs, I dragged them all to a protected spot under the pine trees and covered them with a tarp.  The next morning, I discovered that rain had pooled on top of the tarp, pressing the delicate stems flat into the soil.

ARGH!!!!

They seem to be incredibly resilient, though.  I've got them back in the sun, and I suspect - hope - that they'll straighten up today. 

Of course, I have another ten tubs to transplant.  I am devoting an hour a day to it, trying not to feel discouraged, and hoping that I can salvage this mess and get everything into the garden by the 2nd week of June. 

Other experiments have been a little discouraging.  "I'm going to re-pot this volunteer sunflower from my front garden!"

Whomp whomp.

"Maybe I can ripen seed heads away from the parent plant, since it's been so wet that some of them are rotting, or I just miss them completely!  I can't seem to find much information online, but it makes sense.  I'll label them, dry them, and collect the seeds at my leisure."

(Two hours later, I'm informed on a garden forum that it just doesn't work this way, and that seeds should ripen on plant.)

I definitely feel like I'm stumbling blind through this, despite all the reading I've done.  I have to console myself with the thought of next year's garden, when I will presumably make fewer mistakes.  I'm trying to take some encouragement from the more established garden, too.

Irises are blooming!

They look so pretty.

One peony bloom so far, whose stem broke in last night's storm...but that just means a new bouquet.  ;)

The catmint has filled in, so I finally get the purple-on-purple color scheme that I like so much.

The same with my lupines and false indigo.

New columbines are opening up!  I bought any clearance columbine at Lowe's last year, even without knowing the color.  They're so resilient, and they re-seed so well, that one single columbine will have enough seed to color an entire garden!  My two newest colors:  pure white and pale yellow.  I love it!

Bleeding hearts are still going strong...and it's nearly June!

Yarrow, delphiniums, balloon flowers, foxgloves, daisies...all ready to open up soon.  We've got beautiful sun in between all the storms...

(back pond and field)

And I've got great company in the garden, of course.

And sometimes, in the house.  :)

Have a great week!

yarrow in my marrow

The garden is a never-ending delight right now.  Everything seen in the photo below:  yarrow, lupine, sedum, bellflower, Jacob's ladder, false indigo, obedient plant, coneflower, foxglove, wild geranium...is a perennial that I planted last year.  Perennial = comes back every year, bigger and better.

Columbines...another perennial...are starting to open up.

Little surprises cause a sense of wonder.  I was given a big clump of wild geranium last year.  It didn't look like much, but I split it in half and planted it.  Wilted last year, and covered with flowers this year...possibly tripled in size.

A spontaneous greenhouse purchase, the Japanese anemone huddled against the soil last year.  But this year, nodding bells open up into beautiful white flowers.

Hostas are coming up in places where I maybe, possibly remember tucking little bits of split-up hosta plants last year...

The huechera!  I selected them for their gorgeous leaves...

...and had almost forgotten about the delightful flower spikes that start nodding in early summer.

Did that little dried-up lily of the valley twig really come back?  Sure did, and then some.

Last year's lupine certainly didn't have any flowers...

...and I just don't remember planting FIVE foxgloves last year, but here they are nonetheless!

I remember buying two peonies last year, not five, but that's how many stalk bunches are coming up.  One is over three feet tall!  I have no idea what it will look like when it blooms, but looks like I might find out soon!

I was unimpressed with the pricy spirea I picked up at the Lowe's clearance rack last year.  A few sad, dried leaves clung to the spindly branches, and it looked dead...but for $3, I could afford to take a chance.  This year it's covered with bright, healthy leaves.

No matter how rough a plant looks, I remind myself, they want to live.  It's a good lesson to learn, because last week I got the opportunity to pack my car with new plants!  A local woman posted in a Facebook gardening group - too many plants, need someone to come and thin them out.  I was the fifth person to stop by, and even after loading up my car, the yard looked almost untouched!  I came away with hostas, ferns, toad lilies, surprise lilies, four or five different types of daffodils (all in big clumps), several different types of irises, daylilies, chocolate mint, sedum, and more.  In the end, I think I had over 500 bulbs/tubers.

It can be overwhelming to contemplate planting so many things, but I was determined to get everything in the ground.  I started a new shade garden under the pine trees by the driveway with the toad lilies, hostas, and ferns.  I've never been completely happy with the bare slope of lawn that terminates at the pond's edge, so I decided to plant most of the daylilies and irises there. I envision having plants on both slopes and a garden bench in between, under the big pine free. 

If you think those look sad, check out the tired heap of leaves in this 4-foot swatch of surprise lilies...maybe 50 in total planted here!  The daffodils clumps were split, mixed and planted in three big groupings by these same bushes.

They look awful, and they will look worse as the year goes on.  The leaves will never stand up and will turn yellow.  They will look dead.  But next year, I suspect I'll have a fantastic display in this area.  Because plants want to live.  They're just recovering from the relocation.  Next year they'll be ready to shine!

(so says prognosticator Claudia, my garden assistant)

Bosewichte promises to forecast good news too, if I let him outside.

But I already have some good news...two loads of compost have been delivered (only 1 shown in pic).  Now this field just needs to be plotted out...spread with compost...and plowed.

How is she going to fill a huge field?  You might wonder.  Well, I'm starting to experiment with propagation again...taking a bit of root or stem from various plants and rooting it in soil.  Then, of course, there's my thousands of seeds.  And happy reseeding from last year, too!  I noticed little yarrow seedlings in a front garden and decided to dig them all up and move them into a side holding bed.  In the end, I transplanted 55 seedlings.  I also saw quite a bit of reseeding around my white coneflower, and ended up moving 50 seedlings.  Total time investment:  1 hour.  Considering I spent $10 each for ONE yarrow and ONE white coneflower last year, it certainly seems worth the trouble!  When the field gets plowed, they'll be moved to a larger holding bed and then distributed around once they get large enough, and I decide where I want them.  They won't look like much this year, but should be amazing next year and especially the year after.  I look forward to giving a lot away to friends, too!

I hope that it looks quite different soon.

Have a great week!