This is a nice development. I've been trying for several years to grow strawberries. This is a raised bed that I kept despite more or less giving up. It's covered with fencing because deer regard it as an all you can eat salad bar. For the first time, they actually have flowers. Looks like it might be a nice crop.
The Romas are mostly planted now. That included the hybrid, determinate Romas, and the indeterminates.
These are Amish Paste and Tiren, both indeterminate but Amish Paste is open pollinated and Tiren is a hybrid.
These are mostly the slicing tomatoes. They are the second group that I planted out, so they didn't get cooked in the Wall-o-Waters.
Some of these did get cooked. However, I think they might be starting to grow anyway. That would be nice.
These are the hybrid Romas. They are determinate. I hope they do well. The nonhybrid Romas are only two plants, and not yet ready to plant in the garden bed.
Then there are the first of the Dwarf tomatoes. This was a large plastic container that was originally a water feature filter. I drilled nine 4-inch holes in the bottom, filled with a mix of home soil and home compost. Also some left over peat moss. This container should be large enough for these two dwarf tomatoes. I read that they can be grown in 5 gallon buckets, and this container holds about 5 of those buckets of soil. They do seem close together.
I have these forsythia cuttings in my home office window. There are two pots with smaller cuttings that I scored and treated with Dip-and-grow. They are in peat moss / perlite mix, seed starting medium. They are covered with plastic sandwich bags. At 4 or 5 days, no wilting. There was slight wilting the first day.
There are also 4 cuttings in water. They are much bigger. I also scored them and treated with dip-and-grow. I doubt that did anything, since the water probably washed it off. It's possible some is absorbed and not washed off.
If all of these take, that's about all I think I need for a nice hedge. If they don't, well they are free plants, so not a problem. Plus there are the ones I have soil layered in the mixed hedge row.
One thing I'm guilty of that frustrates me when I'm reading other gardening blogs, is that the start is nicely presented, but there isn't always follow up. That's especially true if they don't grow. If they do grow, the info is easier to present. I'll try to keep a record of how these do whether they grow or not. I've read that forsythia can be started in water, and I think I have done it, but my memory isn't perfect.
A few of the pansies that I planted last month. These were purchased plants from Tsugawa. They are in a vegetable raised bed.
Today I planted old cucumber seeds. I forgot to plant the cucumber seeds I saved, last fall, so will go back and do that. The potential problem with those is, I don't know if they were hybrids, so I don't know what they will be like. I planted these seeds in 4 inch flower pots.
I also planted some Swiss chard seeds, directly into the garden soil. Swiss chard is my favorite green, although sometimes they are other colors.
The lilacs are in full bloom today, so I took a bunch of photos. The two with more delicate flowers are Korean lilac. Also there's a viburnum in there, which is not a lilac. I imagine that the lilac bush in front of the house was planted by the first owners of this house. Last summer I pruned out all of the underbrush and left it as a kind of grouped tree. It's more airy that way and I think nicer.
Here are most of the remaining tomato seedlings. They are the dwarf types and the Romas.
The dwarfing trait is already showing on the dwarf tomato seedlings.
I'm growing a forsythia hedge along the fence. On the other side is a gravel road built on an easement. Since that was done, there is an unwanted view of ugly property as well as loss of property on my side. I thought about buying Leyland Cypress, but they are evergreen, so I have concerns about flammability. Plus Leyland Cypress grow so huge, which I'd rather not. There are other choices, but Forsythia is fast growing, grows a thick hedge, pretty flowers in Spring. Starting from cuttings and small bushes is a bit slower but better than nothing and cheap.
To plant the hedge, I probably need about 10 or so. On the sides of the gate, I also planted lilac starts. I found two small Forsythias two weeks ago at Tsugawa, $11 each. I have trimmings in water to start. Low effort, not sure they will grow and I doubt it. I can try some cuttings with rooting hormone as well. Finally, I have two starts that I started to air layer on the original bush, yesterday. This will probably root. I left another stem for the same purpose to try today.
Meanwhile, while trimming the original Forsythia, I noticed this small bush growing next to the larger one. Doubtless, it was a pruning that was dropped and took root. I dug it up and planted in the hedge space. Given how dry and hard the soil where it was, and the thick grass, now it's in a lot better condition and should take off and grow nicely.
Last night I planted squash family plant seeds. Zucchinis, winter squash, and pumpkins. I finally learned to write the year seeds were bought, on the front of the seed packet. These are largely known good performers - Pink Banana Squash, Red Kuri Squash, Galeus d'Eysines Pumpkin (Squash), plus last year the Illinois Squash was good. Not sure about the variety Gete-Okosomin,, Nativbe American variety which has a. probably false, legend of the seeds having been found in a clay ball in an 800 year old archeological site. The Zucchinis are heirloom types, so I can save the seeds. The one exception is "Sure Thing" hybrid which I bought last year and didn't plant.
This year the plan is to cover flowers to avoid insect pollination, and hand pollinate so that each variety is "pure" so that I can save my own seeds.
Some nice Spring flowers are blooming. In addition to lilacs, there are the apples of course. And this Prairie Fire crabapple, that I planted about 8 years ago.
Someone on the old GardenWeb site said it wouldn't grow here. Obviously wrong. I don't believe everything I read.
An Iris germanica and some Camassia.
I like the Camassia because they are native, and because deer and rabbits don't eat them.
Some Hyacinthoides. In town, these are invasive. Here at my country place, they have a hard time establishing. I think herbivores eat them. A few clumps survive.
An Iris florentina, in the woods border. It gets almost no care - no watering and only weeding when I can. These, and the I. germanica, are much earlier than most bearded iris.
