Feeling a Little Guilty

I'm thinking I should have just taken some time off from school during planting season. Yesterday I was feeling a little under the weather and way too exhausted to go to school. I called in so that I could go home and sleep. But did I? Of course not, not with more gardening needing to be done. Silly me, of course I wasn’t going to sleep when there were things to be done. But I feel accomplished now and got some final things done.

Ran over to Bachman's last night and oh boy do they have some cool things. I guess I never knew they had so much! Hundreds of types of plants, many different seeds from different companies, everything you could ever need in the way of trellises, poles, netting for vines. You name it. I’ve been gardening for quite some time now, I’m kind of ashamed I haven’t shopped there before. I found a healthy looking watermelon plant and some honey dew seed that I’ve been trying to track down for days. I didn’t find popcorn seeds but I expected I could only get that online. Oh well, guess I’ll save that for next year.

After Bachman's I ran over to the community garden and planted the remainder of the garden. I added basil, 3 different kinds of watermelon, cantaloupe, a Roma tomato donated by my grandma and 2 honey dew plants. My garden is mostly full though I need to do some hand tilling on the edge where the grass has taken over a good 12 inches of my dirt. That will be a project for this weekend.

Once I got home I started on the new garden bed along the patio. I pulled out some of that dirt, filled it with good garden soil and evened it out. I replanted the carnations, added my white delphinium, and planted seeds for marigolds, and 2 different kinds of zinnia. I also planted something I don’t know the name of which is supposed to get tall and produce purple flowers. This was also a donation from my grandma and I think it starts with a v or something. I’m sure I’ll find out later. Next step is to finish that whole area, add more good soil and plant my hundred or so gladiolus. Yes this should have been done already but what can I say, I’ve been a little busy. I’ll just have a late crop to look forward to. This year I think I’ll follow the rules though and plant them in 1 or 2 week intervals so they are continuously blooming all season.

It’s amazing how much time I spend thinking about flowers and gardens and vegetables. Who knew I’d become such a devoted gardener. “I won’t rest until the garden is planted” haha TGIS (summer)

Gloomy Weekend Weather

Another weekend without sun, I'm surprised my plants are doing anything at this point. What a bummer, I could use a trip to Florida right now.

I actually got some things moved to the new house last night. Not as much as I had hoped but some is better than none. It was cold and wet and sprinkling and I'm sure I looked questionable at a house that has been mostly unoccupied for a year. Some young girl trudging around the yard in an oversized hoodie with a garden tool and some tiny plants.

At the new house there are rocks instead of mulch, with a complete landscaping fabric layer, something I have never had to work with and I'm not sure I like it. I feel like it limits my planting creativity because every plant takes careful placement planning. I've gotten used to my way of throwing things in the ground and just seeing how it looks. Now it is very difficult to just plant one small plant.

I discovered a raised patch in the back yard. Not sure how I missed this before because it's great but I have found it now. It is very overgrown at the moment but once we get in there, I will clean it up, add some new dirt and plant away. It is right up against the back fence so I will probably end up putting my clematis there, maybe some grapes eventually. I temporarily planted some carnations and Pam's Choice Foxglove. They were looking miserable inside the house and I'm glad I could give them their freedom. I also planted two new rose bushes in the front of the house to hide the AC unit. The owners have a nice white plastic fence to cover it but now it will look even better.

Those glads I planted too early are just starting to poke out of the ground. Maybe I did okay. I was worried because this last winter was the first that I kept gladiolus to plant the next season and hey, I didn't kill them (yet). I'm excited for those, they are my second favorite next to hibiscus. I also noticed big buds forming on my irises, also a big deal for me because they didn't bloom for me last year after transplanting them at a bad time. It seems they forgave me.

I cannot wait for this weekend. I will take some pictures, move some more items and probably make a few more rounds to check out what's growing, blooming, dying etc. It looks like all of this will be in the rain but oh well. It's rain not snow and that's all I can hope for at this point.