April Fools :(

The national weather service has issued a winter storm warning for the East Coast on Friday, April 1. They are predicting 6-10 inches of accumulation during the day-long wintery mix. I'm really hoping that Mother Nature is intending this announcement as an April Fool's prank. Is it really too much to ask for spring to arrive sometime soon?

Indoor growing obstacles

Seedlings take up a lot of space. I currently have eight trays of starter pots living by my sliding glass door, the perfect sunny spot for my new little babies. The problem with this location is that the sliding door is a major traffic zone. Dog out to pee. Cavan out to play. A main path from our kitchen/dining room to the half bath (so with a potty-trained toddler and a preggo mommy, this route is soon to have pot holes!) But the awkwardly-mobile two-year-old, the oblivious beagle, and I seem to be able to avoid the plants without incident. Now enter Hubby. Apparently size 12 sneakers are difficult to navigate around delicate obstacles. "Damn plants" I hear this evening followed by the crinkling of the plastic domes. "Damn feet" I reply. Maybe the mini-earthquakes will stimulate plant growth.

Spring planting progress

I love weekends—who doesn't!? Today the temperature reached 60 and Cavan took a nap—the perfect recipe for garden progress.

Erica x darleyensis 'mediterranean pink'

Today was not an immensely productive day, though I did accomplish what I set out to do. I dug up and returned a Mediterranean Pink bush (erica x darleyensis) to Home Depot; mine had not fared well over the winter and HD has a one-year guarantee on all plants. I didn't have my receipt (honestly, who can find a specific receipt from a year ago?) but I knew they were selling the same variety so I hoped for an even exchange. I left happily with my new, but significantly smaller bush, and six 14-inch terra cotta pots for our deck. I am planning on planting red impatiens to accent the red door to our screened-in patio. But that will have to wait for about three more weeks until after the last frost here in NY.

So, I replanted my bush at home, planted six more Starlight Lily bulbs to extend my summer lily border on the north side of our house, removed more dead foliage from the winter, and planted snapdragon seeds in starter pots. Yet another flower with minuscule seeds. We'll see how they do! Hopefully I'll see at least a couple of seedlings emerge from each pot—I'm sure I dropped at least 20 seeds in each 3-inch dwelling. I have high hopes for all my seeds, but I haven't yet ruled out buying flats of annuals if they don't work out.

Speaking of high hopes, here's my seed update from last weekend's plantings: All 12 of my marigold starters have emerged. Most of my broccoli, spinach, and bibb lettuce has as well. No noticeable progress on the peppers, eggplant, or carrots, but I think they all have a longer germination period. Hopefully all will poke through by next weekend. I'll keep you posted.

The best gardening task for a two-year-old

Today I discovered the best gardening task for my two year old. My daughter, Cavan, decided (after a long afternoon of running errands) that she did not want to take a nap. Fantastic. The tedious job of filling hundreds of starter seed pots I had planned for the afternoon was on the verge of derailment (and I'm already weeks behind schedule for having blooms as soon as the cold weather breaks).

Cavan is not quite at the age where she can just occupy herself in the yard, and she still needs to be monitored loosely. So that meant she would be hovering in my work zone, begging for attention. Brainstorm: I set out my bag of soil and the rows of seed pots and asked her to fill them up with her little yellow trowel.  She loved it. Other than having a more-than-usual amount of stray soil all over our deck, she helped me accomplish a necessary task, and I got to spend quality time with her (while nurturing her baby green thumb).

But then, she wanted to put in the seeds too. Eek. This resulted in a no-nap meltdown. I barely have the dexterity to manage some of those teeny-tiny seeds, so relying on her fine motor skills would be begging for disaster. (By the way, portulaca seeds are about the size and consistency of dust, so I probably put about 500 seeds in each one-by-one pot).

But all in all, it think it was a successful pre-season planting day. I now have marigold, zinnia, portulaca, four-o'clocks, candy lily, and gaillardia flower seeds started, as well as my herbs for the season—rosemary, dill, cilantro, basil, mint, chives, lemon balm, and parsley. This is the first time I have diligently tried to grow from seeds. (It can't be that hard, right? Aren't plants designed to propagate via seeds?!) Oh yeah, and 12 begonia tubers. These are also a new experiment this year—I am hesitant to plant tubers or bulbs that require lifting and winter storage (that seems like a whole lot of maintenance), so more on this at the end of the season.

Garden Buddies=Free Flowers!

Lysimachia punctata

I have five garden buddies and counting. The first, Sonia, gets a big shout out because last year, when I mentioned that I might want to start a garden, she enthusiastically volunteered to dig up her own plots and divide out a bunch of perennials for me to transplant. I left her house one early spring weekend in 2010 with two buckets filled with dug-up bulbs, roots, and baby shoots, including day lilies, oregano, forsythia, lamb's ears, and my favorite, lysimachia punctata, which produces a abundance of yellow flowers all summer. Funny story about the lysimachia—her mother-in-law actually dug these up when on vacation in England some years ago, and their life has now spread to at least three different families on the East Coast. Thanks Auntie Sugar! That's one of the best things about gardening—the sharing! But back to Sonia, without her, my garden may never have gotten off the ground.

Second, Edwin and Joan. They thinned their garden as well, and gave me two more buckets of day lilies and lamb's ears (have you noticed the day-lily-lamb's-ear trend in my recent posts) as well as my starter plot of daisies. All of these have thrived and spread, even despite a deer invasion last spring.

Third and fourth are my two neighbors (on two different sides), John and Paul. Paul's landscaping is to die for—he's my go-to expert on perennials of all kinds! If I have a question, he knows the answer. AND, every time he divides his plants, he brings me wheelbarrows full! He has single-handedly helped me fill giant spaces in my landscape with lilies, phlox, lilac, astilbe, and irises.

John, in addition to sharing plants, is my true garden buddy. My social garden buddy. My get dirty together garden buddy. My "here-I-went-to-the-nursery-and-found-this-pretty-plant-for-us-to-try" garden buddy. My moral support garden buddy. He's the one I can cry to when the deer eat my hostas or when yet another March snow storm kicks in and covers up my crocuses (yes, that happened today.) He's the one who understands my joy when I get my first rose of the season. He shares my passion and we are two peas in a pod.

And finally, there is my mom. She's my 1000-mile-away garden buddy, but every time I visit, I admire her garden (and her ability to grow all her annuals from seeds each year, which is something that I'm trying again, but so far hasn't worked out so well for me). And every time I visit, I dig up chucks of her plants to smuggle onto the plane. The Black-eyed Susans, echinacea, and sedum are not only beautiful new additions to my collection, but they are reminders of "home" and family.

More than half of my garden was obtained free of charge with the bonus of friendship, love, and support. Gardening shouldn't always be solitary, though it is nice to enjoy the peace and quiet of nature without a two-year-old hanging on your leg. Bum off your friends. Compliment your neighbors (and then go dig up their gardens under the shelter of night.) Wait. Wrong. Please ask them first! Any gardener worth the flowers they grow will be happy to share their petals with you.

Why aren't you getting dirty? A reflection on my own change of attitude.

If you asked me two years ago to start my own garden, I would have said "no way, I can't grow anything." Every house plant I've ever kept has died—even unkillable bamboo. Even now, I'm not even meagerly proficient at house plant maintenance. But outside is a different story. Maybe its more natural for plants to live outside; maybe mother nature watches over them (okay, sorry, I'm going off the deep end.) Whatever it is, I have learned that the main pitfall to my own gardening was my own nay-saying.

Here's what I used to think (and here's my current advice):

1) How can I start a garden? I've never grown anything! I'll risk a cliche and say "there's a first time for everything." There is such little risk (and even knowledge) needed to begin, why not give it a whirl.

2) How can I start a garden? I don't know where to begin! When I said just before that there is little knowledge needed to begin, it's really true (though I have immersed myself in garden literature over the last year and love learning about the vast world of botany/agriculture). When I started, I simply had the desire to see some pretty flowers in my backyard. So I went to Home Depot to buy some plants. What do you need to buy your plants (other than money?) Essentially, all you need to know is how much sun your garden plot gets. You can figure this out in a day. Is it sunny (6 hours+ of sun), partially sunny (4 hours of full sun), or shady (2 hours or less)? Sure, I can describe more of the technicalities of planting sunlight, but it's unnecessary to begin. Really, your main goal is to just get a damn plant in the ground so make an obvious observation about your lighting.

All plants come labeled with sun recommendations. There ya go. Buy the right plant for your sunlight. Put it in the ground. Water it regularly (duh...I sorta think that this is a no-brainer). Watch it grow.

Lamb's ears

3) How can I start a garden? I know my plants will die! First, try looking at the situation with a glass-half-full attitude. Gardening should be a stress-relieving activity! Now, let me revise a previous statement—buy the right plant for your sunlight. No. Buy an easy plant for your sunlight!

Some plants will thrive (survive) even at the mercy of the most ignorant gardener. I'll give you a few to try that have proven hardy at my own, inexperienced hand.

Day lilies

If you want plant-'em-forget-'em flowers, lilies are excellent choices. Day lilies are fantastic beginner plants and will spread year after year with no maintenance. Unless a deer or a dog digs up your lily bulbs and eats them (yes, deer DO dig), you cannot kill these plants. Case in point. My neighbor gave me a wheelbarrow full of day lilies that he thinned from his own garden. I didn't have space for all of them all so I threw the remainders (bulbs exposed) in the corner of my property to rot away during the winter. As I was doing garden clean-up this weekend, I came across the pile of lilies, and saw that they started growing! They were exposed to below freezing temperatures and endless snow all winter, without any protection from soil, and they were growing! If a New York winter can't kill 'em, you can't either! (P.S. Most lilies will grow in full sun or partial shade).

Black-eyed susans

Daisies and black-eyed susans. These classic wildflowers like full sun, but will survive through both drought and rainy seasons. These also spread rapidly, so your flowers will become more beautiful year-after-year with no effort whatsoever.

Hostas

Hostas. For shady places, these beautiful leafy perennials are a must have. They are sold as either starter plants or bare roots and grow bigger and fuller each year. They are often slow to come up in the spring, so be patient before you panic, thinking they died over the winter. They come in a variety of green or variegated shades, even some blues and whites.

Lamb's ears. These flowers feel exactly like their name suggests—the foliage is super-soft with a silver layer of "fur" on each leaf. My two-year-old daughter loves picking off the leaves and rubbing them on her cheeks. Yes, they are that soft. While these plants to send up spikes of purple flowers, they are grown for the foliage and is typically used as a ground cover or  border. Again, these plants spread rapidly, come back every year (perennial) and don't require much water, though they do need full sun.  

3) How can I start a garden? I don't have time. Whereas I love tending my garden on a daily basis in the summer, gardening need not be a time-sucker. Start small. Plant only a small area close to your house to begin. Depending on how many holes you have to dig, this can take a few minutes or a few hours, but once it's done, it's done. Once established, flowers really only need water every few days, and often nature's own rain will take care of them (if it is really hot or dry, water in the morning or evening so the plants can actually drink it before it evaporates. With a small garden this should only take you 10-minutes or less). Too keep weeds out, mulch your garden. You can also use the Brilliant Blooms fertilizer/weed preventer under your mulch to keep weeds to a minimum. That's pretty much it—I guarantee you spend more time in the bathroom (doing whatever you do), than a garden requires!

4) How can I start a garden? It's too expensive!  Check out yesterday's post and try mail-order gardening if you want to fill an area that requires more dough than you're willing to spend at your local nursery. OR, find a garden buddy! Many perennials can be easily divided out of your friend's or neighbor's gardens...more on this tomorrow.

sNOOOOOOOOw! My winter fix + the cheap way to fill your garden.

Waking up this 30-degree morning to find a blanket of heavy wet snow on the ground was a bit depressing considering the beautiful spring weekend I just experienced just hours before. But at least it was a workday (with no chance of me spending a minute outdoors apart from my commute). All I can hope for is a warm front by this weekend. 

So what gets me through through the winter (and bi-polar spring days)? The equivalent of the Sears Christmas Book for kids—my mail-order gardening catalogs. Last year I discovered mail-order gardening: a super-cheap, low risk way to try plants and fill bare beds on a budget. It's awesome and not just for bulbs and bare roots—real, live plants, ready to go in the ground and bloom! But mail order plants, you say skeptically? It's true. The plants come packaged beautifully to withstand postal travel and have great root systems to acclimate quickly to your garden. I have ordered 30+ plants this way and as much as I love browsing a local nursery or even Home Depot, the mail is my go-to flower source.

Daisies in the background. Miniature hollyhock (pink)
in foreground.Not such a fan of those, so I got
a refund voucher to use on my next order.

I use a web nursery called Spring Hill (www.springhillnursery.com). They specialize in perennial flowers, but also offer some roses, grasses, shrubs, and trees. They get mixed customer service reviews online, but a) I have had great success with their products, and 2) they are the cheapest I have found, especially when they run their one-cent sales (essentially two-for-one offers). And 3) the best part: They offer a lifetime guarantee on any plant they sell. This I have fully taken advantage of.

Plant dies—they'll send you a new one or refund your money. You don't like the way the plant looks in your landscaping—same thing. I have had multiple replacement plants and refunds sent over the last year with no hassle; it's a no-risk way to learn what grows in your conditions and what plants you actually want to look at year after year.

So have a little fun before the weather warms up and make your wish list for the season! I already have new plants on the way!

Welcome spring (and welcome back to the blog!)

After my "experiment" last year, I am officially hooked and have dubbed myself a gardener. One year after beginning my quest to rid our two-acre property of leaf piles, pebbles and pricker bushes (yeah, I'm sure that's the technical botanical name), I have officially planted and more than 50 varieties of perennials and I am beginning to see their second season of life poking out through the faded mulch of last fall. Hooray!

Stargazer lilies 2010.

My big plans for this year started this weekend (my embarrassing pallor and mood thank god for 70-degree weather in March)! After being cooped up in the house and under sweaters for four months, there is nothing more satisfying than picking up sticks and other winter debris from your yard—without a coat. I don't know if spring cleanup is every gardener's delight, but yesterday, I truly reveled in the opportunity to prune my rose bushes, rake up dead foliage, and even transplant some dormant roots to more appropriate growing locations (now that I know how big some my plants will get.)

While this first entry doesn't have the pizazz of current photos (who wants to look at pictures of mulch and still-brown bushes), I'll throw in some images of successes from last year. After all, with only two posts to this blog in 2010, they can still be considered newly published photos.

So anyway, what are my big plans for this year? The start of a veggie garden, for one. Two, significant additions to the rose bed. Three, starting my annuals from seeds (oh yeah, I planted some marigolds and zinnias in mini peat pots this weekend too!) Four, a usable herb garden. Five, and most importantly, wage war on the deer! That's all doable, right??! Even with a two-year-old in tow and a five-month pregnant belly? I'll keep you posted and I promise regular entries to hopefully inspire your own garden experiments. Now go get dirty!