Organic gardener growing food and flowers, lovin' pollinators and birds.

Tea Talk: 2 watermelons, 3 tomatoes and 29 zinnias


It's time for some Tea Talk in the Garden! So much has happened since I last heard from Angie at the The Freckled Rose, my virtual letter exchange pen pal! Help yourself to the freshly brewed tea and (maybe even a fresh sweet or two!) and join the conversation in the comments section below. We're so happy to have you join us!

Dear Angie,

I'm officially finished with winter. With spring technically only a few days away, I'm pretty unhappy with the arrival of snow so late in the season. For a few weeks, the snowdrops and hellebores were appearing steadily in the back garden, but they are now covered in over a foot of snow from a storm earlier this week. Now, instead of hints of color dotting the brown landscape, there's a blanket of white that makes the garden resemble a black and white photograph, literally frozen in time.

Yet as I write this, the pansy seedlings and verbascum seedlings I started under my grow lights are green, lush and vibrant. The daffodils that I planted and kept in the fridge for 10 weeks are out on my kitchen counter and beginning to grow. I have a shoe organizer hanging off the door of my book room (also Max the house rabbit's room), where I've sorted seeds according to the week they need to be sown. I have a confession to make: I'm terribly behind. One of the things I have struggled with the most these past few months is budgeting gardening back into my busy schedule. There's always some task or activity clamoring for attention, and even though I value gardening very highly, sometimes it gets the slip. Luckily the last few months have been winter, so I haven't felt as guilty, but now with the growing season under way, I need to get moving!

Verbascum seedlings under grow lights.
There's always a lot to do at this time of year, and spring is my favorite season. I think it's due to the slowly emerging clues that winter will end and the garden will be filled with color again. Each year I still am surprised when the trees have suddenly leafed out.

What new seeds are you trying this year? After successfully growing watermelon last year, I have decided to try two new varieties: 'Rainbow Sherbet' and 'Doll Babies' from Renee's Garden*, who have graciously supplied me with courtesy seeds to try out this season. I also have decided on a new home for my vegetable plants: this year, they will be located along the front walkway of the house in pots. This is the spot where I usually plant annual flowers in my blue pottery, but this year I'm going to move the annuals and the blue pottery to other parts of the garden. I think this is a better location for the vegetables because they will still receive the sun they need in the front garden, will be a bit hidden from the road due to the tall perennial flowers I plant near the walkway (which will also attract pollinators!) and it will be easier to harvest veggies (or snack on cherry tomatoes on my way to the mailbox).

Speaking of tomatoes, I almost decided to forgo growing them altogether this year. Yes - you read that right! Have I lost my mind? A garden without tomatoes? That's like a summer without tank tops and flip flops! I've had a love/hate relationship with tomatoes for the last couple of years, and it's mostly due to being forced to grow them in pots because I don't have areas in the garden that are sunny enough to plant them in the ground. I've put a lot of work into growing them and then I don't end up with a lot to show for it. So I've decided to scale back on tomatoes this year, and instead of growing multiple varieties, I'm only allowing myself to try three. At most four. That's it. I swear.

I'll be upping the number of zinnias 
in the garden this year!
As I write this though, I technically have 29 different varieties of zinnia seeds I want to grow this year. Some are leftover packets from the last two years that I didn't get a chance to grow, and in my mind I have this beautiful vision of the front garden being covered in zinnia blooms. If it works, it will be amazing. If it doesn't ... well, let's not think that way!

One of my major garden goals this year involves making my garden more pollinator friendly. I already grow many different types of flowers, but now I want to focus on growing more host plants as well. This includes continuing to work on my milkweed patch (which I started last year) to host the monarch butterflies. I also want to create more "insect hotels" to encourage beneficial bugs in the garden. I'm also looking for more wildflowers to include in the garden (a topic touched upon during last year's National Pollinator Week.) In addition to being more selective about the plants I grow, I also want to continue to focus on the type of plants I already collect, specifically hellebores, peonies and daylilies.

I hope you are faring well with our Northeast winter, and I look forward to the photos of your garden you will be sharing soon on your website!

Talk to you soon!
Jen

To view previous letters in the Tea Talk series with Angie, click here.

* The watermelon seeds were provided as a courtesy by Renee's Garden.
SHARE:

Floral Friday: March 10

After a seasonably warm week, we are yet again plunged into frigid temperatures in Connecticut. Yesterday brought some snow, which covered most of the the hellebores, crocuses and snowdrops in the garden, and apparently we are due for a major snowstorm this coming week. (I'm debating cutting some hellebore flowers and bringing them inside, even though they usually hold up under the snow.) In the meantime, here's a glance at what is blooming outside - and inside - this past week.

This is the first year that this hellebore ('Sunshine Selections') has bloomed.





Another hellebore emerging and getting ready to bloom.

A different hellebore getting ready to bloom. I have them surrounding my patio so
I can get a better view of them during the winter time.

The snowdrops are standing up quite well to the cold weather and the snow.

This little snowdrop is so determined to bloom.

One of my favorite photos of the snowdrops out back.

Crocuses hidden under the snow.

The white forsythia is getting ready to bloom. I may cut these branches and bring them inside before we
get more snow this week.

As I was outside taking photos, the sky looked very ominous. 

Earlier this week a flock of cedar waxwings stopped in the garden to visit
the birdbath. I had the wrong lens on for the camera and was trying to shoot
through the glass, but this photo didn't come out too badly.

A new orchid. 

I've nicknamed this orchid my mom's orchid because I bought it after she died (about 10 years ago) and it always
blooms around her birthday.

Here's another shot of it, being backlit by the front window. It loves the west-facing window.

My verbascum seedlings are doing really well! I'll have to transplant them soon!


What is blooming in your garden - indoor or outdoor - this week?
SHARE:

The Gardener's March Calendar ~ 2017


In typical New England fashion, we started out March with seasonably mild days, and as I write this, snow is falling and covering all the snowdrops and crocuses that emerged early. 

Even though the garden is still technically sleeping, there are tasks that can be started outside. For example, pruning pear trees and cutting forsythia and Kwanzaa cherry tree branches to bring inside for forced flowers. Of course, there's plenty to do inside as well, mainly concerning seed-starting!

Despite the snow, here are some tasks to keep in mind this month for gardeners in Zones 6b and lower:



  • Seed-starting: 
    • It's time to start more flower seeds indoors and under lights! Think New Guinea impatiens or impatiens, salvias, ageratum, calendula, sweet Williams, coleus, snapdragons and portulaca. Sweet peas can also be started outdoors as soon as the ground can be worked since they enjoy cool weather. Perennials such as delphiniums, yarrow, foxgloves, hollyhocks and carnations can still be started in mid-March as well.
    • Vegetable seeds can also be started this month, including broccoli, leeks, cabbage, onions and celery. You can get a head start on growing lettuce by starting seeds indoors as well. Sow peas as soon as the ground can be worked; peas are less likely than other seeds to rot in cold, damp soil. It's also important to get them started early before the heat moves in. Peas produce in cool weather so to get the most yield, you need to beat the heat. For the warm-weather crops, I usually wait until the last week of March to start my pepper, tomato and eggplant seeds under lights. 
    • Herb seeds that take longer to grow - such as chamomile, thyme, parsley and sage - can be started now. (Parsley seeds can be soaked for a few hours to enhance germination.)
    • If you haven't sown your poppy seeds yet, do so quick! Sow bread poppy seeds in an area (where the snow has melted) where they will be undisturbed in early spring. Do not scatter on top of the snow. Wait until you can see the frozen ground. (I've accidentally pulled them out in the past because I didn't recognize what they looked like, so make sure you mark them.)
  • Pruning:
    • Finish pruning fruit trees by mid-March. Make sure you don't leave stumps along the trunk where the branches are cut off, and aim for nice, clean cuts. This helps prevent infection in the tree. Wondering what to do with all the branches you trimmed? You can put them in a vase of water to force flowers indoors, or you can dry pear (and apple) branches which make great rabbit treats (which is what I do for my house rabbit). 
    • Pruning paniculata hydrangeas is a good garden chore for the first warm day of spring when gardeners need an excuse to be outside. "You take about a third of the plant off to increase branches in the growing season," said Chris Valley in a previous hydrangea talk. When pruning, make sure the cuts are uniform so the entire plant grows at the same rate. He also recommends that "after five years, to remove the main branches to reinvigorate the plant and spur new growth."


  • Pruning:
    • Wisteria can be pruned, but don't cut off the flower buds. I grow Amethyst Falls, which is a less invasive version of wisteria. If the shape of the plant is fine, you can leave it.
    • Remove older leaves of hellebores so new growth can fill in. (I wait until the threat of really cold weather has passed.) This clean look helps hellebore blossoms to look their best when they bloom in your garden. They are already blooming outside in my back garden.
    • Roses can be pruned when the forsythia begins to bloom. (Speaking of forsythia, did you cut your branches and bring them inside to force flowers?)
    • Raspberries need thinning in order to grow well. If a stem had fruit last year, cut it out. If it's thinner than a pencil, cut that out as well. Raspberries produce fruit on new stems. Everything left can be shortened about 12 inches as well. This is also a good time to check that the supports for raspberries are in good shape. I plan to put in a more permanent support this year, like this model I found through Pinterest.


  • Cleanup:
    • Wait as long as possible to remove brush from the garden because hollow stems may be housing (sleeping) solitary bees. If I do cut back perennials, I lay them on top of the compost pile so the nesting bees still have a chance to survive. I usually hold off on doing this until the ground is safe to walk on; if it's too wet, you can compact and damage the soil.
    • Clean out old nests in birdhouses to encourage use this year.
What garden chores are you hoping to accomplish this month? Let me know in the comment section below.


I live in Central Connecticut and garden in Zone 6b.
SHARE:
Blogger Template by pipdig