go go gadget gardener

You have to love it when a productive weekend spills over into the next week. I'm working my way through a load of mushroom compost, and so far 1/2 the rock garden is has compost worked in, and I fertilized the day lilies & boxwoods.

Happy Day Lilies

Beginnings of my raised veggie bed

The big accomplishment this weekend was starting the raised bed for my veggies. It's about 16' x 4' x 6". The previous tenant had a raised bed here about 10" deep, but took it with her when she moved out. She did leave a third of the dirt, so I was able to work compost into it, and get a good 10 feet out of it. I'll section this much off for my tomatoes and peppers and plant squash in the remaining part of the bed.

Its so nice for my tomatoes to be out of pots and in the ground! I planted two Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes, a German Johnson Gold, a Cherokee Purple, a Pink Brandywine, and what I hope is a Yellow Brandywine (note to self, label your seeds better). Most of these plants are a mix of farmers market plants and discount hardware store finds. Only one of my tomatoes from seed was in good enough shape to plant, and I will be THRILLED if it survives and bears fruit.

I also have managed to put some flowers in the ground in the past few days! This is kind of a big deal because I wanted to wait as long as possible so I could see what my growing conditions are, and also just to see what comes up....but who can resist pass along plants :)

I've added Black Eyed Susan's beside the Yuccas in the boxwood garden, and sown some Chiante Sunflower seeds between the boxwoods to add height and color.  One of the Black Eyed Susan's came from my mom and lived in a pot on my balcony last summer, and the other came from my grandmother.  The plan is to add some zinnias too, to make this a mini cutting garden.

I little color will go a long way here

In the rock garden I planted one lavender plant, and have sown some lavender seeds.  This is really just a test to see if I have enough sun to grow lavender...I'm not holding my breath, but I think it would look really pretty with the basil I planted 2 weeks ago in the hollow tree trunks. Last summer I figured out that if you put dry, whole, basil in a freezer bag, the next day you can crunch it up without ever having to chop basil.  My goal for this summer is to have one large bag in the freezer, and one small bag that I can pull out to use on what I'm sure will become a daily basis :)   I've also planted a flowering ground-cover and some volunteer impatiens in and amongst the rocks. A neat surprise in the rock garden are the wild geraniums.  It will be neat to see what they look like as they grow this summer.

I also planted some woodland poppies and money plants by my back door.  This area is last on my list of gardens to tackle, but I come and go via the back door, and I think this will make for a really pretty spot by my back door next spring.  I'll add some daffodils this fall, and at least this little spot will be good to go :)

woodland poppies  (left) and money plants (right)

The plant for the rest of the week is to plant some Lily of the Valley from my mom's house, finish working in the compost, and to get a load of mulch.  Pretty much everything needs to be mulched, and even the beds I'm not really working with right now need to be mulched so I can deal with them this fall & next spring.  I'd love to plant my Confederate Jasmine, but my to do list is still pretty long!