Peony. 5.24.14

Nice flowers this year.  I don't know the variety name.  The plant is 15 years old, and has been moved once.

Four O'clocks. 5.20.14

Four O'clock Seedlings.  5.20.14

 Four O'clock / Mirabilis jalapa seedlings are growing nicely.

The seedlings in planters are growing fastest.  I don't know why expanding the root space helps so much, but there seems to be a rapid burst of growth, after transferring plants to larger container.  Even though the seedlings were not root bound.

The container is on North side of house.  It gets am and pm sun, and in summer will get full day sun.

I have planted several in containers and several in the ground at the Battleground place.

They are not anywhere close to blooming but with the current growth I am optimistic.

I think starting them ahead is helpful.    So far the Four O'clock experiment is looking good.

Four O'clock Seedlings.  5.20.14

Puttering. 5.17.14

Early bloom on wildflowers

Early bloom on wildflowers

Tomato seedlings planted.

 Ning's wildflower meadows are starting to bloom.  He seeded these in March.  The mix is from outsidepride.com, NW wildflower mix.  Plus I added in some agastache  for bees and domesticated California poppies to be different.  There may be some snapdragons in there too.  The wild type poppies are blooming but not the domesticated ones yet.

This mix contains annuals for the first year, and perennials for subsequent years.  The annuals may also self seed.

The flowers are minimal now, but they are just beginning.

The seedling tomatoes have settled in.  I have a couple of plants left over.  Not sure what to do with those.

The store bought tomato plants are growing fast, sturdy and dark green.  The Sungold have their first flowers.  I gave them a dilute dose of organic nitrogen boost.

The peppers are growing nicely.

I planted the last batch of potatoes.  Those were fingerling potatoes from Tsugawa.  They are in the 4th tree-ring potato well.  The earlier potatoes have nice leaves.  Something is eating some.  Maybe slugs.  I sprinkled around organic slug bait.  The late potato planting should mean we get a few months of fresh potatoes.

Radishes continue to produce.

Deer and rabbits continue to be a challenge.  I need more fencing.

Store bought tomato plants in place.

Pepper bed

Snow Peas

Raised bed garden

Puttering. 5.15.14

Egyptian Walking Onions.  5.15.14

Meadow, first flowers.  5.15.14

Rhododendron.  5.15.14

Planted most of the tomato starts.  Gave them a dose of diluted natures plant food.

Ning's first meadow is just beginning to bloom.  Those seeds were planted in march.  Others are just germinating, planted a couple of weeks ago.  There were bumblebees on the flowers, no honeybees yet.

The rhododendron is one of the few nice plantings from the original owners.  Nice size and nice flowers.  This is the first year we've had a good bloom on this one.

Bearded Irises, Better Photos. 5.15.14

Alcazar  1910

 I think Alcazar is generally larger.  This is the first year.  I'm surprised it bloomed at all.

Bumblebee Deelite 1985

 In 2012 I dug out the overgrown bundle of Bumblebee Deelite and replanted at various locations around the Battleground yard.  There were too many rhizomes, so I planted left-overs in the fence row.  They look nice there.

Caprice 1898

 While planting Tomato plants 2 beds over, I smelled the fragrance of Caprice wafting in the wind.  The writers are right, it's like Grape Koolaid.  But better.

Red Hawk  1995

 This is an excellent depiction.   The  color is richer than most photos.

Edith Wolford 1986

 The Walking Onions add a nice appearance to Edith Wolford bearded iris.

Mislabeled Pink Fragrant

 This was sold as Whole Cloth, which is blue and white.  Whatever it is, the fragrance is very sweet and floral.  The downside, it is less vigorous and more disease susceptible compared to some of the others.

Bearded Iris Bed.  5.15.14

Gay Parasol.  1974.

 Smaller flower than some modern tall beardeds, but very nice and very fragrant.  Gay Parasol.

Indian Chief.  1929.

 Really wanted this Indian Chief bearded iris to bloom this year.  And it did.  Also a nice fragrance, mild.

Gracchus.  1884.

 Gracchus bearded iris was one of the most disease resistant.  And all of these flowers from one rhizome.  Small but vigorous.

Unknown from Tennessee.

 Must be an early plicata, or an unnamed seedling.  Sold by a Tennessee company via mail order.

Red Zinger.  1985.

 Miniature.  I grew Red Zinger from a dried out sale rhizome late 2012.  It didn't bloom last year.  I'm surprised, now it's vigorous.  You almost have to be on  your knees to smell them.  It's worth it.  A candy fragrance.

Loreley.  1909.

 Loreley historic bearded iris.  Almost like Japanese irises.  Some are fully open, some partially.  The white outline on the falls makes them stand out nicely in photos.   Sweet fragrance.  Same Tennessee company as the unknown.  Slow start, but this year very nice.  Seems to be disease resistant.

Bearded Irises.  5.15.14

I'm happy with the bearded irises, both modern and historic / heritage irises.  I thought they might all die off this late winter, but they are blooming nicely.  Some varieties have the most and largest flowers I've seen.

Some of the leaves don't look great.  As long as they grow out of it, I'm OK.

Apple and Pear Fruit Thinning. 5.13.14

About the only puttering today - used a kitchen scissors to thin apples and pears.   Thinned all of the varieties.  distance between fruits is the width of my hand.  That makes for larger, earlier, better tasting fruits.  The technique is simple.  Just cut off all apples or pears, save one, in each cluster.  If clusters less than about 4 inches apart, just leave one.

Historic Irises. 5.13.14

Heritage Iris Bed #2

Heritage Iris Bed #1

Mostly Heritage Irists

Heritage Iris "Indian Chief"

Heritage Iris "Loreley"

These aren't the best pics.  Forgot camera so used Ipad.  Now it's in the 70s and 80s. Much drier and warmer.  The onslaught of illness has abated.  These can be considered among the toughest and most resistant, simply because they survived and bloomed.

In Iris Bed #2, "Orange Harvest" looks out of place, so should be removed.  It is labeled as fragrant but I don't smell anything.

Caprice and Pallida dalmatica both have a grape soda fragrance.  Very nice.

The colors here are fairly true, but a little washed out.  That is effect of Ipad and it is very sunny.

Potatoes 5.11.14

Potato "barrel" made from concrete tree ring edging.

The potatoes are growing fast.  I didn't have a chance to buy more compost to fill in around them.  So I used partially decomposed, compacted maple leaves from last fall.

They filled in around the potato plants nicely.

I don't know if this will work.  I've read that straw works, so maybe leaves will work.

Strawberry Bed. 5.11.14

I know why the caged strawberry blooms

The strawberries are blooming nicely.

Last year I transferred the strawberry plants from containers to this raised bed.  That was about one month after my surgery, so I didn't have the strength or energy to do anything else.  They looked good, then deer ate off all of the plants.

So it has an ugly chicken wire cage.  The flowers give promise of a good crop this year.  WIth strawberries, deer, rabbits, and birds are a risk.  But I can still say they are grown in local soil, and local conditions.  Home grown strawberries are very good, way beyond what you can get from the store.

Bearded Irises. 5.11.14

Alcazar

 I'm happy there are still some bearded irises.  With each rain, another is lost.

Now that the rains are over, or almost over, I'm curious to see if the epidemic is over.

Alcazar bloomed.  I'm surprised and glad.  Slight fragrance, nice.

Quaker Lady is not as prolific as year #1, but at least it survived.  Slight fragrance, nice.

Gracchus is very vigorous, small, and appears more disease resistant compared to a number of others.  Slight fragrance, nice.

The unknown from Tennessee  survived and bloomed, which surprises me.

The yellow iris that came with this place, and is all over the property, is blooming much better this year.  All I did was weed, and give a little very dilute fish emulsion last summer.  It did not succomb to bacterial rot, so I think it must be quite rugged.  No fragrance that I can detect.

Quaker Lady

Gracchus

Unknown from Tennessee

Yellow Unknown from Battleground

Yellow Unknown from Battleground