Photo Update

Since I last posted, our weather has had quite the mood swings. We've been from Winter to Summer to Winter...must mean it's Spring!

We were out of town the weekend of the 18th. We barely missed one heck of a snowstorm. It was snowy that Friday for about 30 miles and the rest of our trip was just rain. While we were gone, we got enough wet snow to leave almost an inch of water in the rain gauge. By the time we got home Sunday, the roads had thawed and the snow was disappearing fast. Just a few miles north, they were snowed in for the weekend, but I think we got less than a foot. Then we had a few beautiful, sunny, warm days in the mid to upper 70's. Soon, winter returned. Sunday night, we got another 3-4" of snow (and another 7/8" of moisture - very very wet snow). Today was cold (40's) and wet until afternoon. By dinner, it was 60!

The tulips are so close to blooming. Last year when they got this close, they froze. I've tossed a bit of straw over them when it's been nasty this year. I'd really like to see them bloom!



I started some more seeds winter sowing style. These are my lettuce sprouts. I have lettuce, mesclun, broccoli and spinach all sprouted in the jugs. I will do these this way next year for sure.



This is one of the rhubarb roots I got through Freecycle trying to pop up. I have another one that I ordered (a couple days before the Freecycle offer) that is finally showing some signs of life. I wasn't sure, it didn't look great when I got it.

Some of my berries arrived. Here are the Caroline & Anne. The Caroline looked so-so but alive for sure. The Anne looked really good. Large canes with lots of healthy roots. I was impressed.

You can only see the indent, but the patch is now it's intended U-shape. I used some cedar pickets I scavenged from the neighbor's scrap wood pile and pretty much built a floor, 2 boards thick, to act as a center barrier to help keep it orderly later. It shouldn't be terribly hard to keep track of varieties when they creep. Caroline -red, fall bearing- are on the left. Anne - yellow, fall-bearing- are by the fence and Canby - red, thornless, summer bearing are on the right.

The Honeoye strawberries came right before our trip. They are doing quite well. There were 26 in the bundle and they all are still there. I put the plastic hoop over the bed to help warm it a bit more. The ends don't close on this one, so I can just leave it for a while. These have been in the ground probably 12 days at the photo time.

The rest of my fruit is en route. I need to use the one nice-weather day (Wed) to do some prep work before they all come. The blackberries, Canby raspberry, grape, saskatoons, 2 apple and 2 peach trees are all on the way. Here's hoping they arrive in good shape! I will admit, I succumbed to the $25 coupon on the catalog with the iffy ratings (the yellow, G one...). So far, I think I'm doing ok. The asparagus roots seemed a little more dry than I would have liked (and I'm still waiting for them to come up) but otherwise, the plants have been alright.

If you noticed, I slipped a couple more items into my fruit selection. I was planning to use a $100 gift card to get 2 apple trees locally. When we went to look, I couldn't get the kind I want in a price that I could justify. They were about $99 each. I just couldn't do it. I'll use my card for another tree and some shrubs. I ordered 2 semi-dwarf apples (Honeycrisp & Golden Delicious) and 2 standard peach (Red Haven & Intrepid). I bought all 4 of them for less than the cost of one local apple.

The Sugar Snap Peas are still growing and the row I added is making some progress. I take off the plastic whenever the weather is over about 50 so they get sun and fresh air.

I have 3 little Daikon radishes started. The other 3 didn't make it. I don't really water enough under the plastic. I need to start some more. I'm not sure how well they'll do since they are considered a winter radish (planted for fall) but I wanted to try.

The little lettuce has been out there for quite a while. It's finally starting to grow, just a little.

Finally, a little trip to the backyard. The lilacs seem to be doing well. The bigger white one gets a bit of a lean after a strong wind, so I know they need some serious root growth. They are getting ready to bloom soon though. I'm hoping that's a sign that they are doing ok and not a last-chance-to-reproduce-before-I-die reaction. With the thick mulch and having gotten lots of moisture, I think they should make it. Lilacs are tough plants.


Hopefully winter will finally end soon. Our last frost date is May 15. I had really hoped to get more veggies planted out early. The weather guy mentioned the other day that we're really not safe from snow until about Mother's Day. Let's hope it's sooner.

March Updates

It seems I have garden projects scattered all over the place right now! I have a few seedlings under lights in the basement. I'm pre-sprouting the seeds in the egg cartons on the cable box then moving them to the lights as they come up. Here are a few of the baby tomatoes I have down there. I have tomatoes, a couple peppers, herbs and a few ornamentals for companion planting. I found a pretty helpful website on companion planting not too long ago. Some of them I knew but many were new to me. Check it out at http://www.homeandgardensite.com/companion_planting.htm . I actually have seeds for a number of plants on the list so I'm going to work them in around the garden this summer.

Here's a look in the garden today. The peas I pre-sprouted and moved out are doing pretty well. They're about 3-6" tall now. Of the sprouted seeds I moved out, most of the seeds I started on the paper towels didn't make it. I might try this method one more time but only if the upper layers of the bed are more like soil than mulch. I think they just dried out. The seeds I started in the organic starting mix are doing better. When I started putting these out, I planted them into a layer of more finished compost I added to the mulch layer so they'd have a little more to grow in.

Here's a rather messy view of the garden area today. The bed in the foreground with the plastic is where I'm starting the cool season plants. It's covered because it is still very early in the season here. Out last frost date isn't until about May 15. More than anything, I'm playing with these seeds and learning a few lessons along the way. Eventually I'll find the right combination of methods or the proper planting time will come along. Either way, eventually, something will grow...

Along the fence are the 3 new beds. These are filled with the horse manure compost from the straw bale bin, the contents of the temporary beds, the last of the pile of aspen leaves that wouldn't shred last fall, coffee grounds, a bit of compost and a handful of worms. I topped these off with pads of straw (that I soaked in water first). I'm thinking the straw pads will help keep the beds from drying. I'm really wanting these to break down and settle so I can top them off before planting. The straw does seem to be working. I also have them covered with some old landscape fabric to also keep them from drying out and to keep the straw from blowing away. I saw on the news last week that so far this YEAR we have had about 1/4 inch of moisture. Yep, it's dry! I also added a little more to 3 other beds (I stole some material from the raspberry area - where the path will be) and topped them off with straw as well.

In between the beds (adding nicely to the look of the garden I must say...) are the bags of shredded leaves I'm saving to use as mulch. Next year I need a nicer looking storage (or hiding) spot for those. I had them tucked away a little nicer until I moved the lilacs out and the new beds in.

In the left corner are the stacks of large (I think 35 gal maybe?) nursery pots I'm going to use for potatoes. In front of the bins is the kiddie pool that I used to park the strawberry plants I was given in October. Their bed wasn't built yet, so I thought they'd be ok in the pool. I stabbed some drainage holes in the pool and filled it with some of the (fairly fresh at the time) horse manure and hay mixture I had cooking in the raspberry bed. The plants looked ok in the fall. I let them grow until freezing weather came and I mulched them with straw and circled the pool (which was in the corner by the fence) with the bags of leaves as insulation. I didn't want it to thaw too early. I pulled out the pool this last week and uncovered the little guys. I should have done it sooner. The survival rate does not look good. Most of the crowns were rotting and very few show signs of life. I think they have recently rotted because the roots are black but still attached. If they had rotted in the fall, I doubt I'd see the roots. I pulled out all that I could find and moved them to small trays filled with the starting soil and put them on the front porch until I can see how many survived. I didn't dump the pool in case I missed some that might be alive. It's really quite a bummer. Now I think I'll need to order some. This is a little bit of the life left in that whole pool full of strawberries. (sigh...)

But spring is coming, the hyacinths are appearing... Daffodils and tulips are coming up as well.

And I had a moment of excitement this weekend. I was giving my wintersowing containers a drink and I noticed I have a few sprouts!! Not many yet, but I was happy to see that it just might work! I found a couple sprouts of Rocky Mountain Penstemon, Dianthus knappii, and Liatris. Here are the Liatris sprouts...

I actually sowed 22 more containers this weekend. I'm trying lettuce & spinach that way too.

These are the lilac bushes we moved (remember those fun-to-dig holes a while back?). I have one more to move but the straw bale poo pile is still in the way. I had it all planned out, but when we moved the bigger bush a piece split off so we planted it where the other one (from the front yard) is supposed to go. I really wouldn't mind the lilac in the front yard but it's planted in a spot where I don't think it will work well when it grows big. It's at the corner of the front walk. When it grows, it will encroach on the walk and block the view of the front door. I think they're going to survive the transplanting. We were concerned about the larger one but it has the biggest buds of them all. We dug up a saucer-shaped area around the plants to break up and aerate the soil for the roots. We put a layer of the composted manure around the plants, then mulched that with a layer of hay topped with some wood mulch. They actually stayed moist for two weeks this way. They may have gone longer but we watered them for good measure. I want them to have enough moisture to re-grow the roots they lost in the move.

And finally, some things don't really change... This seems to be how a game of fetch always ends... if only Wilson would play fetch... he prefers to play keep-away with the occasional game of "chicken" mixed in. I actually got smacked in the kneecap with his hard head the other day. Ouch. :-)

What's that plant again??

I put out all those containers of seeds to hopefully sprout this spring and give me something to put in my new garden. They're all labelled so I'll know what they're called. I was concerned though about remembering what was what. Most of my seeds were sent to me from very kind people from the Rocky Mountain Gardening Forum on Gardenweb and are new plants I have never grown before.

Here's what I have out there: (I have one more crate full of 2 liter bottles not in the picture)

Agastache foeniculum
Agastache rupestris 'Apache Sunset'
Asclepias tuberose 'Gay Butterflies
Aquilegia chrysantha
Belamcanda chenisis
Crocosmia 'Lucifer'
Dianthus knappii
Echinacea purpurea
Gaillardia 'Burgundy'
Gaillardia 'Goblin'
Lavandula angustifolia
Linium perenne
Marigold, French Dwarf
Penstemon pinifolius
Rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldsturm'
Rudbeckia hirta 'Rustic Colors'
Scabiosa ochroleuca 'Moon Dance'
Shasta Daisy 'Alaska'

I also have some seeds we collected this fall from mixed Daylilies near my husband's work, Liatris, Goldenrod, Mountain Mahogany, Clematis and Sage from the yard, and some Rocky Mountain Penstemon, Seafoam Sage and Russian Sage from my neighbor's yard.

Most of these plants are new to me so I needed a way to keep track of what they look like and how they grow. Using photos of the flowers, information sent to me with the seeds and filling in with information from the web, I created a book of plant files. Here's a little sample of what I did. Each flower has it's own page.



I included on my pages the scientific name (the pronunciation key is good- I may actually learn these plant names properly...), how large it grows, bloom color and time, light requirements, sowing information and any other tidbits I thought could be useful.

When I was done, I thought of one more thing I missed. Since I am trying to plant a waterwise garden, I went back and wrote on the pages what the x-rating for each one is. The x-rating is a guide to xeriscape plants. More X's, less water needed. A pretty handy list if you ask me.

http://www.gardencentersofcolorado.org/xratedgardening/perennials.htm

I have a few that I don't have marked, but most on my list are either XX or XXX rated so I should have a less thirsty garden, a huge plus in this dry land!

Very Cool Seeds - Cercocarpus

I wanted to post a few pictures what I think are some pretty cool seeds.

These are seeds from Cercocarpus or Mountain Mahogany. We have several small bushes lining the south fence in the back yard and one of them produced seeds this year. This fall I was trying to find information about planting the seeds and I read that the curly-cue tail helps the seeds travel in the wind. When they land, the tip goes to the ground and the tail uses changing moisture in the air to twist the seed down into the ground.

I decided to try to winter sowing the seeds. I hope to plant them along the east fence, though they may take years and years of slow growth to look like much. I sowed them in the 1 quart containers that our orange juice comes in. I had purchased a bag of soil from W-World (you know the one...) hoping to find a cheaper solution to the really expensive bag I purchased at a nursery. I gave it a shot because it was a product of Colorado, and I was holding out hope that it would be good. I don't think I'll be purchasing more... I had containers that were wet like the mud pies I made when I was little. I decided to use it for some of the seeds I had collected from what few things grow in my yard. I had collected the Mountain Mahogany as well as a lot of Liatris and Goldenrod. I have enough to try again if these don't work. I didn't want to risk the seeds that are of a more limited supply.

I planted 6 seeds in each container (I think) 13 containers total.

I didn't worry about labeling these because these are the only plants that are in OJ bottles.

I went to check on the containers after they had been out for a little while. I found that all the tails were straightening out with the humidity. This photo was taken after 2 days of being outside. I was quite surprised at the difference.

When I was looking for information about these plants I found quite a bit of information about the bushes in the wild but not much about how to grow them at home from seed. I found one person on GardenWeb in another state who had grown them from seed in the past. I'm fairly sure these are Alderleaf Mountain Mahogany since the plants are not evergreen like the Curl-leaf and I don't think the leaves looked like the Littleleaf variety. I do know that these are some very tough bushes. They survive on very little water. I gave them a small drink once last summer and they got a very thorough soaking (close to drowning) twice in August after a the 2 heavy rains we had (all summer). They are planted at the bottom of a sloped area and in addition to the rainwater they also caught a lot of the water that came from the sump pump in the basement. I moved one of the bushes toward the end of summer because it was growing up into the fence. I watered it a couple times after moving it and then I forgot about it for a bit. When I went out to check on it, it looked quite dead, but the little guy surprised me and put on some new leaves in the fall! I can't wait to see if my cool little seeds will grow!!

Winter Sowing

What is Winter Sowing?
"Winter Sowing is an easy germination method that starts many seedlings for just pennies. During Winter seeds are sown into mini-greenhouses that you make yourself from recyclables. After sowing, the mini-greenhouse is placed outside to wait for the end of Winter. The seeds will begin to germinate at their own right time when weather warms. "
(from http://www.wintersown.org/).

After reading about winter sowing and the success that others have had with this method, I decided to give it a try. I am planning to convert a pretty sizeable area of my front lawn into a flower garden. Some of the nice folks from the Rocky Mountain Gardening forum (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/rmgard/) were kind enough to share some seeds with me (yay!) and I picked up a few other packets on clearance this fall so I have something to start with.

The containers used most often for winter sowing seem to be milk jugs and 2-liter soda bottles. We get our milk in re-useable containers and don't often have soda in 2-liter bottles, so I had to do a little scrounging. I picked up a few milk jugs at Starbucks when I went in for coffee grounds but I got the bulk of my containers through Freecycle. I had to do a little picking & choosing (and some washing) and my recycle bin got a little extra material, but I got enough containers to start.

First I moistened the soil with warm water in a bucket and let it sit while I cut the containers. I started the cut with a small exacto knife and then used scissors. I cut 3/4 around the jug and left a hinged area. We get such strong winds I didn't dare completely cut the tops off my containers. I also used the exacto knife to poke about 5 drainage holes in the bottom.

To avoid confusion later, I labelled the containers before sowing seeds. It's too easy to get distracted and since I am working with plants that are new to me, I probably wouldn't recognize most of the seedlings. I read a lot of comments about sun fading the ink so I wrote on the jugs and for safety, outside and inside my folded (metal) mini-blind labels which I tucked into the front of the jug.

Next I scattered the seeds on top of the soil. I covered some of them, but left most of them on top of the soil. Others reported the seeds heaving up to the top on their own so I decided just to let them start there. I hope that doesn't turn out to be a mistake. I did lightly tamp most of them to be sure there was seed-soil contact. Then I put a piece of duct tape on the front to hold the lid closed.

When sown, I put the containers into some well-used storage crates we had in the basement (hey, these were a bookshelf once upon a time- many moons ago-) I put all the containers into something else because of the wind.

Then the little guys go out to the container corral (yep, more straw bales!) I actually added one more crate full of 2-liter bottles after I took the photos. I'm also trying some seeds in strawberry containers and chicken containers. I put the strawberry containers in the boxes because I read that some of them are made from plastics that don't hold up well to the elements.

I put the containers in the corral for a couple reasons. We get some very cold temperatures and some very warm temperatures, often in the same week and the change usually comes with a lot of wind. We also have very intense sunshine here. This corner has slightly filtered light from the neighbor's tree. The straw is to provide a bit of shelter from the wind and sun. I hope this will moderate the temperatures some so the little guys don't get fooled into popping up too early. Although they were watered before going out (I put them out Jan. 8 & 15) I did notice they dried pretty quickly. I'm sure this is due to the VERY dry windy climate. I moistened them with the mister setting on the hose sprayer one warm day and will check them during our next warm spell. Watering will be much more crucial as spring approaches but for now they should be ok.