New Outside Plants

When I got home from work Thursday afternoon, there was a box waiting for me on the porch.  Plants!

I had placed an order with High Country Gardens before our city decided to tighten our watering restrictions.  They are all drought tolerant plants.  And, my plan was to plant them just off the patio where they will get some extra rain from the roof.

The plants looked good in the box.

There were two layers of plants.

I did a double order on one of HCG's preplanned flower beds.  I sorted out the plants.

There was a planting chart included, but my space wasn't a square and will be viewable from all sides.  So, I made my own plan.

There are some dame's rocket and bachelor buttons in the bed currently.  A lot of them stayed, but I had pre-dug some places for the new plants a few weeks back.  I decided which plants would go in which place and started planting.

Since I like to keep the tags with all the info in my folder in the house, I wrote numbers on spoons and put the numbers on the plant list to mark each one.  I've found plastic spoons last a long time in the garden, are easy to find when needed and remove from the garden easily when you're done with them.

After the plants were planted, I gave each a little straw for mulch, poured some bathtub water on them and snapped this photo.

All tucked in.

What did I plant?

Agastache 'Blue Fortune'

Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'

Liatris aspera

Physostegia 'Miss Manners'

Echinacea purpurea

Sedum 'Matrona'

Solidago 'Fireworks'

And, I moved in some white yarrow from another bed in the garden.

In other news, I filled in the center rocks in this bed for the new garden art that is coming.  I'm hoping for some predicted rain this weekend to settle it a little before placing the art on the paver.

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New Houseplants

I finally put some plants in the pots my sister-in-law sent me for Christmas.  She's currently living in South Korea with her husband who is stationed there at an army base.

The shapes of the pots are very different from anything I've seen before.

Both plants are a type of sedum.  I will keep them inside the house in a sunny location.  They're small right now, but should eventually hang over the sides a bit.

Donkey Tail "Burrito" Sedum Hybrid

Donkey Tail "Burrito" Sedum Hybrid

Kalanchoe longiflora coccinea

Kalanchoe longiflora coccinea

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April Tour 2014

Front Garden

Forest

Back Garden

Side Garden

Vegetable Garden

Patio

Alley

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Red Pansies

April started out quite cold in the morning, but the afternoon was pleasant.  Still chilly, but no wind!

On Monday, I planted pansies in a large galvanized tub around a galvanized bucket.  Other plants will go in here too when it gets warmer.

I decided to go with the red pansies this year.

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Not My Favorite March

March certainly roared itself out today.  We had awful winds with visible dust in the air.  The world had an odd color as the dust acted like a filter for the sun.  No clouds today, but the sky wasn't blue either.  I did manage to put the pansies I purchased yesterday into a container and I planted two new house plants in the pottery my sister-in-law sent me for Christmas from South Korea.  I'll let them all get settled a bit before their photo shoot.

We've had nice spring afternoons, cold winter mornings, wind, wind and wind lately.  No rain to speak of.  I think it did smell like rain last Friday, but that was it.

I won't bore you with the details, but I've devised a watering plan using our shower water, bathtub water and eventually the rain barrels once we stay above freezing.  Hopefully, the rain barrels will have some rain to catch.  Since we have a lot tighter watering restrictions, I've greatly reduced the number of containers I will have on the patio.  There will be no hanging baskets.  For the limited use of water from the faucets, I will focus on the areas with trees and shrubs.  Not expecting a lush garden this year, just hoping to keep plants alive to flourish another day.

The spring bulbs are starting to bloom.  That always helps perk up a landscape.

Bye-bye March.  Please bring some April showers!

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A Day In The Garden

The temperature was a bit cool today, but it was sunny and there was no wind.  

A day to be in the garden!

I fixed a soaker hose and dug up some weeds.

Then, I dug up some daylilies just off the patio which haven't been blooming.  I'm guessing they're in too much shade.  The plants look healthy though.  They went out into the alley where they'll get a lot of sunshine.

The final project I worked on is for a piece of art I'm adding to the garden.  We have some concrete pieces from tearing out a slab that used to be under a shed in our back garden.  I placed some of them in a ring inside one of my flower beds.

The plan is to fill in the ring with dirt, place a flat paver in the center and set the art on top of the paver.  Can't wait to share the art with you.  Before I haul dirt to the ring, I'm going to have my wonderful husband check it out and get his opinion.

I also watered the veggie seeds I planted last week and updated a few flower lists.  

So glad for a day in the garden.

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First Seeds In The Ground

On this St. Patrick's Day, I did not plant potatoes.

I planted kohlrabi, radishes, lettuces and peas.

I gave them all a drink of bathtub water.

The spring planting has begun!

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