Quick Trip to the Garden Center

I needed some potting soil and the closest place that has nice potting soil is also a garden center (my local hardware store only carries the dreaded MG brand).

So I made a quick trip.

Uh....

Saturday Morning Walter Update

It turns out that snails are THE MOST BORING pet ever. Here's a very good picture of Walter.

Usually he's buried in the leaf litter I put in his cage so the only evidence I have that he's still alive is that he's eaten his daily lettuce.

So, to liven things up, I decided that having to keep him in an enclosure was a great excuse to have a modern take on a Victorian House Plant Glass Case thingy (that's the technical term, I'm not up on Victoriana).

Ta-da! Now I have a place to grow some high humidity plants that normally wouldn't survive in my house.

[The Spathophyllum in the back is for when I forget to feed Walter - he's nibbled on its leaves.]

And, no, I haven't notice any smell. Maybe it's because he's in a large container with a screen top so the enclosure gets to air out a bit. Maybe it's because the smell of my blooming Hoya drowns out everything else.

I just really hope he doesn't lay any eggs!

Foliage Follow Up May 2014

It's still spring here on The Edge. Leaves are still unfurling and a few plants have yet to poke their heads above the soil [I'm looking at YOU, Asclepias].

This is a new Agastache [Bolero]. Most of my Agastaches just have a few leaves up so far.

Baptisia australis is a wonderful plant but it gets big and floppy. I think I have a few more days to get the supports in before it gets too big - it's growing like a, well, native wildflower. 

Fern, unk sp [unknown species]. This is a volunteer that started to grow along my foundation. The woods behind my house contain quite a few different species of fern so I suspect that's where this one came from. The new growth doesn't form traditional fiddleheads but I like it!

Heuchera Midnight Rose. I have quite a few different Heucheras  around the garden but it got too dark last night before I could finish taking pictures.

Epimedium lostus tagus. The Husband likes Epimedium but I think it's because of their common name.

You know the one.

Horny Goat Weed.

Physocarpus Diablo - one of my favorite shrubs! Gorgeous color all summer, it provides an excellent backdrop to my Butterfly Bush, Buddleia Evil Ways [they SOUND like they go together, don't they? Evil Ways has bright yellow-green leaves and I love, love, love the high contrast in leaf color between these two. No photos of Evil Ways - it's just starting to leaf out.]

Penstemon Husker Red. A nice little plant in my yard, the bane of my persnickety neighbor's lawn.

I'm not going to fret about that, though, it's revenge for him parking his boat where we get to look at it every time we're in the backyard from Labor Day to Memorial Day every year.

Spirea Magic Carpet. We moved it last year and it's not that happy. I hope it bounces back. I expect it will, Spirea are tough little plants.

Thanks to Pam at Digging for this meme.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day May 2014

I know it's late in the day but here it is!

 Aqueligia Little Lanterns - great little plant that spreads gently

 Nepeta Walker's Low

 Fothergilla gardenii Blue Mist, nice plant that actually stayed as small as predicted

Ilex one of the "blue" series [this one is female], not an exciting bloom to me but boy, oh, boy are the native bees happy when it blooms!

Bleeding Heart, inherited from previous homeowner, now a clump of over 3 feet wide and high 

Iris Devil Baby 

Iris one of the "Jazzy" series 

Iris forgotus varietus 

Iris Flower Child [I think] 

All irises pictured are from Rainbow Iris Farm. They don't bloom long but they are spectacular right now!

Scabiosa Butterfly Blue - one of my absolute FAV plants. Will bloom from now until a killing frost in the fall. I find they do great for 3 or 4 years and then start to fade and die.

Viburnum Burkwood - the first of my Viburnum to start blooming

Wild Violets reddish purple - I don't mind these spreading through the garden. They're cheerful, they crowd out more aggressive weeds and the rabbits like to eat them so they nibble these first and leave my other plants alone. And when it's time to remove them? They come out pretty easy.

Wild Violets Blue Purple. Ditto.

Pieris that the previous homeowner planted in the wrong place and The Husband and I successfully moved, even though it was over 4 foot high [whew! what a long name, huh?]

And friend.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for this meme.

Veggie garden - the beginning

For the past couple of years I've worked with neighbors on a community garden. The neighbors that owned the bed moved and while the new neighbors are nice it disrupted the communal feeling we had going. This year, I'm going it on my own. 

I don't have a lot of full-sun locations and I want something close to a door so I decided to put in a bed next to my driveway. I bought corner connectors and cedar planks, measured out a location and waited until this weekend to put it in. I wanted to move some existing plants so I had to wait until they were up but the tomato plants I ordered arrived on Friday so it needed to be done soon!

And here it is! Just big enough for a few tomato plants and some basil. I have access to some great local farm stands so I don't need to do a lot but we will use as many tomatoes as I can grow and this way I should have enough for freezing, too!

We put it in place, added soil, put in the chives and the garlic chives that had already been in that spot and our first basil of the year (it's probably too early but it's worth trying one plant, right?).

Only one small problem.

I didn't plan to do this when I planted these tulips last fall. Looks like the bed won't be completely finished until after these tulips bloom! Then I'll have to decide if I should try to move the bulbs or just compost them. In my experience I can get a couple of years of bloom out of these types of hybrids but then they quit blooming. I think I could get them going again with a big dose of fertilizer but most of my plants don't require large amounts of fertilizer and I don't want to burn the perennials. Major problem, right?

If only all my problems were so small!

Watch Out!

Spring has finally started to creep into New England. The weather is warmer, the trees are showing signs of green and bushes and bulbs are starting to bloom.  Better watch out - I'm a Distracted Driver!

Oooohhh, are those leaves? [hint: no, they're pollen filled allergy producers. And an over-polarized sky.]

Look - the forsythia is FINALLY blooming. I always thing of this as a February plant and it never blooms that early.

I love grape hyacinths when they are planted in large numbers. They are a great drive-by plant.

So if you see me on the road - look out cause I'll be ogling the signs of spring.

Sucker....

A month or so back I brought a new houseplant home. When I went to water it I discovered that I got more than I bargained for.

Meet Walter.

At first I tried to ignore Walter, hoping he (actually s/he is a hermaphrodite but we don't have a good gender neutral term in the English language) wasn't still alive when he arrived.

No such luck. 

This week Walter came out of hibernation/ estivation and starting taking walk-abouts so I knew I had to do something. A logical thing to do would be crushing him.

I couldn't justify that to myself - why destroy him just because he ended up in a houseplant I bought?

But I know enough biology to know I can let him go, either. This isn't where he's from and even if he can survive in my garden (and eat my hostas, shudder!) he could bring diseases to the local wildlife.

So I sent The Husband down to the basement to haul out the old herpetarium. This is a set up I bought when a Cuban Tree Frog ended up at a local garden center and I took him in (he's long since passed away, rest in peace, Mack). Now it's clean, with a nice layer of composted leaf litter, a water bowl, a hide and some food. We'll see if I can get Walter to eat anything. Strangely enough there isn't a lot of information out there on how to care for garden snails in captivity... I'm having to use data from a UK site on keeping Giant African Land Snails (illegal in the US).

Every life counts, even invertebrates.

PS. Even if Walter doesn't make it this herpetarium is ideal for growing Pepperomias and other small humidity loving plants! bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!