It’s Spring!

Since it’s still to cold to work outside, (although the snow IS melting) I have been planting seeds, and potting up Dahlias. In preparation for summer gardening. This is what my kitchen looks like right now! My dining room is full of potted up dahlias, my living room and dining room windows have shelving in front of them, holding trays of seedlings and other plants. In previous years I have been able to put all these outside into my little greenhouse, with a heater. But it’s still below freezing at night here!

Messy Kitchen

Living room windows

Dahlia potted up on dining room floor

Dining room windows

I am so proud of myself! Last year I had Salvia Amistad in my garden with my Dahlia’s. And loved it! I read somewhere that you can propagate it by taking cuttings. Last fall I took some cuttings, and what do you know they actually rooted! I grew them over the winter, at one point they grew tall and leggy, I needed to trim them back, I rooted the trimmings. Now for this growing season I have 12! I don’t know if I will have space for them all, but I am sure I will be able to find homes for any extras. (ignore the geranium in the corner, that was another trimming)

I have also over wintered a gerbera daisy, actually I have had them and over wintered them for a few years now. Recently I split a 10″ pot and ended up with 15 from just that pot! Plus I have a couple other pots of them from a split last spring. I might actually plant some in the garden instead of keeping them in pots.

My begonia tubers from last fall are starting to sprout.

My plan is to plant them into hanging baskets, so I took cuttings from some creeping Jenny (saved from last year) to plant with the begonias. And they are growing too!

This is the most I have ever over wintered and propagated, and I think I am now addicted! I might need a new bigger better insulated Greenhouse. Time to start saving my pennies!

Dirty hands make me happy!

Blooming Gerbera Daisy

Spring Flowers

It’s been a busy spring, I am still working on cleaning up some of the beds after a few years of neglect. But I thought I would share some images of the flowers in the garden so far this year.

Purple Iris

Pink Tulip

Peach Iris

White Oscar Pederson rose

Poppies, Peonies and Salvia

Bringing the Peonies inside

Geranium that matches the Clematis perfectly

That’s it so far, but there are Dahlias, Delphiniums and much more to bloom yet!

An evening walk

It was beautiful outside a couple nights ago, it was still cool enough the gnats and mosquitos haven’t arrived yet. And there was a storm coming in off in the distance. A perfect night for a walk down our country road. The peepers and frogs were singing down by the pond and every so often the lightening would flash in the distance.

Storm in the distance

As I came back up to the house the image of my little greenhouse lighted in the dark was enchanting, so I tested the camera on my iPhone and took a picture.

Green house at night

Update from the garden

I have been lax in writing again, but not in the garden! We have the raised bed veggies planted, I have cleaned out one of the neglected flower beds and filled it full of Dahlias. I have a number of annuals I started in the house, ready to go out into the gardens as soon as they harden off. It’s been a busy busy month of May. I can’t believe JUNE is just a few days away.

We had a bit of water this year, but because of our dike our home was OK. I can’t say the same for the local farmers, the fields were covered in water.

Looking towards my home, just on the other side of the trees, there is a dike to keep the water out.

I had neglected this flower bed for a couple of years, I spent about 4 days digging out Creeping Bellflower (which I call Hellflower) which is a terrible invasive weed. But I got it done, then I amended the soil with compost and some locally sourced peat, replanted the salvaged delphiniums, iris and geraniums and put in this years Dahlias.

Before

After, but before Dahlias were planted.

There is a lot more that has happened but that’s all for today.

My hands, legs, feet and even my hair were dirty while doing this job!!

Frozen Ground

I took a walk around the yard today, needless to say not only do we still have snow, the ground is frozen solid. It’s only 32 degrees and cloudy today, so I don’t think much melting is going to happen. I saw no signs of anything coming up yet, no tulips, crocuses, snowdrops or anything else. I don’t have a lot of these spring flowers, but I do have a few.

What I did find was rabbit pellets, I swear the yard is coated in a layer of rabbit poop! On the bright side, FREE FERTILIZER!

And boy they did a job on my plants. Last fall I was so busy at work I didn’t have time to wrap or protect my Roses in anyway. Well I am paying for that neglect, I don’t have many roses, but all of them have been chewed by rabbits to nubbins. And what the rabbits didn’t take care of, the deer did!

Good news is, these are all shrub roses, some have been established for years, hopefully even the ones not so established will come up from the roots. I will have to wait and see.

In the meantime I think I will start some more annuals today, maybe some Ageratum, or Scabiosa or both! Lord knows I have plenty of seed!

Its Spring 2022!

Here it is, April already! We spent most of the winter as snow birds in Mesa this past winter, our first time doing this, and it might become tradition. In fact there is still a few piles of snow in my yard. And that means that as of yesterday I had not started ANY seeds for the garden.

Today I fixed that omission, I pulled the mini greenhouse out of the basement, planted up some snap dragon seeds, put some sweet pea seeds to germinate inside damp paper towels, which I will plant in root trainers after germination.  

This is an experiment for me, I have never started these before, and in fact have never grown sweet peas. I am excited to see how I do with them!

Although we were gone most of the winter, my friend stopped by the house regularly and watered my plants. She did a great job, my hibiscus, geraniums, gerbera daisies (one is even blooming) and more came through the winter with flying colors. Sometime in the next day or two I will give them all a dose of fertilizer.

Tonight, I am making a list of other annuals I need to get started! Our last frost date of May 21 is not that far away.

OH also need to check on my Dahlia tubers down in the basement.

“KNOG” the planter

I work in polymer clay, which is a man made clay that comes in colors, and is cured at around 275°. In 2004 I created this pot, he has lived outside in my garden, sporting a new “DO” every year.

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Image from 2004

This year I decided he was looking a bit tired and tattered, the paint used on him was flaking off. It was time for a makeover!

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flaking paint

SO! yesterday (actually late last night) I pulled out my new paints and gave Knog a makeover, including a new eye color. (I am partial to blue eyes) Now it’s time for a trip to the greenhouse for this years hairdo!

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Another Garden Object Reclamation

I am not sure what to call this, a globe, a ball an orb? I think I will stick with ORB; it has a mystical sound.

My hubby and I were on a road trip about 10 years ago, we stopped for lunch, then popped across the street to some type of store (I don’t remember the details) I fell in love with this ORB, and thought it would look great on top of an old television antennae tower I have in one of my beds. Unfortunately, it never made it to the top of the tower, I am short and I don’t have a tall enough ladder. So, it has floated around in my flower beds ever since.

I took this picture of one of my neglected beds I am in the process of rehabbing, and the orb was in the picture. I decided it was time to do something with it.

Surprise It has a hinge! I don’t know if I knew that and forgot, or if I never knew it, but I like it!

I decided to plant in it and hang it from a tree along the sidewalk to the front door. First step was to paint it.

Then I lined it with black landscape fabric, filled it full of potting mix and after a trip to the garden center and consult with one of the gardeners there, decided to plant it up with “Santa Cruz Sunset” begonia.

My plants are still small

Flower Image from web

Hanging from the tree

The project is done, now comes the hardest part…. waiting for things to grow!

Until next time don’t forget to get your hands dirty!

Jenny P

Rejuvenating A Resin Garden Figure

I am sure all of us have had some of those resin garden figures at one point or another. I have a whole collection of them! And if like me you forget to take them inside or put them away for the winter, eventually they lose their color.

I decided to tackle this on one of my favorite pieces. I didn’t want to spend hours trying to imitate the original colors, and I love the look of patinaed copper. So, I experimented.

This is a resin angel I have had for a number of years, her wings kept breaking, and I got tired of trying to repair them, so I took them off. She was originally all stone colored, but as you can see that color has worn off in places. And while it does look sort of cool, I still wanted to play.

The first step was to take her into the kitchen for a nice hot bath and a scrub with a brush. Then it was photo shoot time.

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Next, I sprayed her with a coat of flat black spray paint, actually it took a couple coats to get into all the nooks and crannies. Then of course it decided to snow! So, she came into the house to dry, and wait a few days until the weather warmed up again.

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After the snow melted and it warmed up outside, my next step was to paint her with a patina-colored spray paint, but not fully covered! Just the highlighted areas, I wanted some of the black to come through to give her some depth.

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Then came the fun part! Using a copper-colored spray paint, I sprayed it into an old pie tin, and used a piece of old fabric to pick up the paint and brush it over the high points.

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I have to say I am thrilled with the results!! Now I need to find some sort of pedestal for her, and an appropriate spot in the garden.

Today instead of getting my hands dirty, I ended up with hands covered with paint spatters!

Until next time,

Jenny P