Spring Bulbs, Flowers and Irises. Progress Report. 3.7.14

Sedum sarmentosum in iris bed

Allium spring growth

Unknown bulb sprouting.

 With the warm days, many bulbs are growing rapidly.  A few daffodils are blooming.

Sedum sarmentosum ("Cemetery moss") survives the winter and growing nicely in the bearded iris raised bed.  I planted this fro starts taken from my previous garden.   Sedum sarmentosum grows easily.  I've seen some web information that it's invasive.  I've grown it for many years.  It grows and spreads easily, but also pulls out easily and does not self seed.  This plant is not invasive.  One reviewer didn't like this plant because they observed it attracts bees.  To me that's a plus.

Ornamental alliums are several inches tall.  Fortunately I labeled a couple, so I knew they were alliums.

A few will have to bloom so I know what they are.  One especially large sprouting bulb could be an allium.  I'm guessing it's a Camassia.

 Anemone blanda is blooming around the yard.  They are only a few inches tall.  Nice cheerful flowers.  Rabbits ate most of the De Caen anemones, although there is a chance some might bloom.  I planted them specifically  because they are described as rabbit and deer resistant.

I bought some hollyhock starts.  Hollyhocks are considered a short lived perennial.  If they survive and grow, they should bloom this year.  They are a long shot.  The roots don't look like much, and the root ends were ragged.  I trimmed them more cleanly and planted in a somewhat protected spot.  Hollyhocks are considered deer susceptible.  The spot is close to the house, surrounded by other plants.

I plated seeds for Four O'Clocks in containers.

Irises and bulbs.  Early Spring Growth.

Anemone blanda

Hollyhock Starts

Kitchen Garden Progress Report. Potatoes. Vegetables. 3.7.14

Potato Well.  Pontiac Red

Potato Well.  White Superior

Today the  temperature was in the mid 50s.  It's still early  to plant potatoes.  I planted some in the "Wells" that I built from tree surround rings.  The wells are dark brick-like material.  They should absorb heat from the sun.  That will warm the soil further.

If a frost is predicted, I can cover the wells to protect the potato plants.

Planted in soil:compost 50:50 mix.

Scallions are growing rapidly.

I planted some additional spinach seeds.

I planted some snow peas in small flower pots.

That's about all.

Kitchen Garden / Raised Bed Garden. Progress Report. 3.6.14

Chinese Chives, rejuvenation project

Garlic Inchelium Red and others

Cilantro, Yellow Potato Onion, and some iris starts

 Haven't done much, due to illness.  It only takes a small effort to do some things in the yard and garden.

Garlic Chives.  These are the ones I dug out of half-barrel bed in Vancouver and planted in raised bed at Battleground.  I've added a row cover to the bed, although it's off today to let in rain.  Probably due to warming effect of row cover, they are more vigorous than other rows of Chinese chives that I established last year.  Here they have more room, and a real local soil/compost mix instead of potting soil.  I hope they will rejuvenate and provide significantly more vegetable.

Garlic bed.  The Inchelium Red looks like corn.  It's big and vigorous.  The German Porcelain is doing pretty well too.  A few plants did not make it through the winter but most are sturdy and healthy appearing.  The row of unknown is a rescue variety.  The starts were smaller and later, so not a fair comparison.

The overwintering cilantro is growing nicely.  I didn't know until now that cilantro could be fall planted.  Good lesson to learn.  The Yellow Potato Onion is less vigorous this year.  I don't know why.  It seems to be growing now, including bulbs that did not germinate before winter started.

Egyptian Walking Onions

 The Egyptian Walking Onions are growing nicely.  Whatever was eating them seems to be leaving them alone now.  We should  have fresh scallions from these in 2 or 3 weeks.  We could now, if we will settle for small ones.  As apparent in the photo, on the left I replanted bulbs that I kept from full grown plants.  On the right are small topsets.  The bulbs have much larger, sturdier plants.  This difference should mean an extended window for harvesting scallions.

Raining - several inches in past few days.  Having prepared raised beds during the winter, no digging is needed to start some seeds.  I planted a row of cilantro, a row of spinach, and a row of Cincinnati Market Radish, a long carrot-like variety.   The spinach and radishes may need protection from animals.  Cilantro does not need protection.

Seeds Planted 3.6.14,  Radishes, Spinach, Cilantro

Not shown, the low tunnel bed has nice onion starts, about 2 inches tall.  The radishes, turnips, and mesclun are nice little rows, with big cotyledons but no adult leaves yet.  I don't know if the cover is protecting from animals - mice/voles - but so far so good.  Rabbits and deer can't get in, I think.

Peas haven't come up yet.  I will plant some in containers.

Overall I am very pleased.  Even though I don't know what I am doing sometimes, some useful and fun vegetables made it through a winter with historic freezes, and are growing earlier than the soil can be worked for Spring gardening.

Creating a Bouquet Lilac Bush. 3.2.14

Three of the freshly grafted lilacs.

First steps of Bouguet Lilac.   First graft onto original sucker.

Bouguet Lilac.  Fall of 1st year & Spring of year 2.

 Here is my thought about how to develop a Bouquet lilac.

Step 1.  Spring of year 1.  Graft first new variety onto suckers of a parent lilac bush.  Leave in place at least first Spring and Summer, so the new plant can draw nutrients from the parent bush.

Step 2.  Fall of year 1.  The connecting stolon can be severed and the new little bush planted in a garden bed.

Step 3.  Spring of year 2.  Lilacs have buds in pairs.  Assuming the first 2 pairs of buds made adequate stems, graft new varieties on to each of the new stems.  Graft them above the first 2 pairs of buds, which will be allowed to grow.

If a bud or 2 grew from the rootstock, which itself is a nice lilac, then allow that to grow as well.  At this point, if all grafts take and all varieties grow, there would be 4 varieties.

Step 4.  Spring of year 3.  Additional varieties can be grafted.  I depicted grafts onto the new grafts from Step 3.  It depends on whether the grafts take, and which is the most vigorous. 

I think, if the new shrub produces suckers, those would need to be removed.  If not, the original rootstock variety may take over with more vigor, and overtake the grafted varieties.

I don't know if this will work.  It will be an interesting project to work on.  It takes a certain amount of confidence in the future, to plan a 3-year grafting project.  Then again, so does growing almost any tree or shrub.

This also assumes that my grafts take.  I've read that lilacs can be grafted.  I don't know if my technique will be good enough.

Bouquet Lilac.  Spring of year #3

The big lilac bush is an "OK" variety.  Not very fragrant, and not as lavish as some.  It must be pretty rugged, to have survived here and grown as large as it is.

Moving established bulb clumps. 3.1.14

Moving established clumps of bulbs.

I dug a few clumps of Hyacinthoides hispanica and a clump of daffodils from the lawn at the Vancouver place and planted at the Battleground place.  They are big enough to readily identify them, and small enough that they are not too floppy to move.  I take a big soil mass so as not to disturb them too much.  I did this last year and the bulbs that I moved grew and bloomed without missing a beat, and are growing again this year.

Transplanted and Established Bulbs

Deer and rabbits eat all of the tulips and all of the muscari.  The seem to leave daffodils alone, for the most part.  They also seem to leave the Hyacinthoides alone.  There might be an animal digging up some of the Hyacinthoides bulbs.  Or a mole that pushed them out of the ground by accident. But most of them seem intact.

Moving big clusters of bulbs, the result looks like they have been growing in place for a while.  Planting individual bulbs in the fall, they look less robust, and take a few years to make nice clumps.