Gardening in the pouring rain
May. 1st, 2004 03:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaWell, it wasn't pouring when I started, just by the time I gave up and went inside.
Vegetable update: Peas have blossomed, are 18 inches tall, and have baby pea pods dangling (up to 2 inches). Spinach has one 6-ich stretch where it's flourishing, and the rest of the row is straggling but may be edible yet. That's the back bed.
The front bed is now completely turned over, but still needs a heavy dressing of peat and manure, which unfortunately are not yet purchased. Last weekend saw the planting of tomato seedlings and mesclun mix - the latter now just beginning to sprout. Today I bought cucumber and zucchini seedlings and planted them at the opposite end from the tomatoes. My cucmbers did unexpectedly well last year, and zucchini are of course famously foolproof, plus I actually like to eat them. Still to be planted: beets, carrots, lettuce (it may be too late, but it's black-seeded simpson, a slow bolter, so I think I'll risk it. If it goes, I'll do a fall crop - I have plenty of seeds). Not sure when to plant the french beans or what the need for support - must check the catalog. Need 2 more tomato cages (they make excellent supports for cucumbers).
Herb garden: I've added a rosemary which is doing fine in the death spot (which killed a catmint last summer - I thought those were unkillable). Strawberries are blooming; we'll see if the fruit is actually edible this year. Sage coming back okay; everything else is fine. Must plant basil soon, but I think I'll put it around the tomatoes.
Flowers: I moved the pansies from the front planter to the front bed which was a straggly mass of fading daffodil foliage. The pansies are getting leggy and spent themselves, but will cover for a little longer. For high summer I'll put toronia (IIRC - the blue ones that look like snapdragons) and impatiens (very shady). Planted some pink impatiens in the shady bits by the back door where the rabbits/squirrels like to dig but I'll hope. The front planter got a fuschia wave petunia and 4 regular purple petunias. Petunias didn't like it there last year but I am trying again. The lily of the valley I brought from CT has come back in the front.
In the side yead, the azaleas are fading but I have giant royal purple iris - the ones I dug up and split last summer are doing okay, but the ones I didn't dig up are spectacular, despite doing almost nothing last year. So much for effort.
Back flower bed has sweet william, a biennial I stared from seed last year, an orange lily coming up, gaint allium which I think got a little sunburned at a tender stage, and an amaryllis and a poinsettia, both from our landlady who was going to throw them out. It is definitely the inchoherent catch-all area.
I mowed the rest of the lawn at 6 am in my summer bathrobe. It was really fun. We have a reel mower, and our lawn is mostly clover, which sprays up from the reel like a green fountain.
It's May Day, which at my college meant white dresses and strawberries and champage for breakfast, dollowed by a day of debauchery. I did get my strawberries, over wholegrain waffles at Elmo's.
Vegetable update: Peas have blossomed, are 18 inches tall, and have baby pea pods dangling (up to 2 inches). Spinach has one 6-ich stretch where it's flourishing, and the rest of the row is straggling but may be edible yet. That's the back bed.
The front bed is now completely turned over, but still needs a heavy dressing of peat and manure, which unfortunately are not yet purchased. Last weekend saw the planting of tomato seedlings and mesclun mix - the latter now just beginning to sprout. Today I bought cucumber and zucchini seedlings and planted them at the opposite end from the tomatoes. My cucmbers did unexpectedly well last year, and zucchini are of course famously foolproof, plus I actually like to eat them. Still to be planted: beets, carrots, lettuce (it may be too late, but it's black-seeded simpson, a slow bolter, so I think I'll risk it. If it goes, I'll do a fall crop - I have plenty of seeds). Not sure when to plant the french beans or what the need for support - must check the catalog. Need 2 more tomato cages (they make excellent supports for cucumbers).
Herb garden: I've added a rosemary which is doing fine in the death spot (which killed a catmint last summer - I thought those were unkillable). Strawberries are blooming; we'll see if the fruit is actually edible this year. Sage coming back okay; everything else is fine. Must plant basil soon, but I think I'll put it around the tomatoes.
Flowers: I moved the pansies from the front planter to the front bed which was a straggly mass of fading daffodil foliage. The pansies are getting leggy and spent themselves, but will cover for a little longer. For high summer I'll put toronia (IIRC - the blue ones that look like snapdragons) and impatiens (very shady). Planted some pink impatiens in the shady bits by the back door where the rabbits/squirrels like to dig but I'll hope. The front planter got a fuschia wave petunia and 4 regular purple petunias. Petunias didn't like it there last year but I am trying again. The lily of the valley I brought from CT has come back in the front.
In the side yead, the azaleas are fading but I have giant royal purple iris - the ones I dug up and split last summer are doing okay, but the ones I didn't dig up are spectacular, despite doing almost nothing last year. So much for effort.
Back flower bed has sweet william, a biennial I stared from seed last year, an orange lily coming up, gaint allium which I think got a little sunburned at a tender stage, and an amaryllis and a poinsettia, both from our landlady who was going to throw them out. It is definitely the inchoherent catch-all area.
I mowed the rest of the lawn at 6 am in my summer bathrobe. It was really fun. We have a reel mower, and our lawn is mostly clover, which sprays up from the reel like a green fountain.
It's May Day, which at my college meant white dresses and strawberries and champage for breakfast, dollowed by a day of debauchery. I did get my strawberries, over wholegrain waffles at Elmo's.