Garden History Chapter Twelve

UPDATE:
Only a month later, these snaps were taken on Feb.12,08.
The jonquils are getting ready to open. These border the entire fence, hope I didn’t repeat myself! Narcissus are already open, too.

Must be their location!I can’t believe they are open before the snowbells. Must be their location!
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This is the updated picture of the Mahonia (Oregon Grape) which is in full bloom.

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And the Winter Daphin (just know I have been spelling this name wrong). Wow, those tiny blossoms have such a beautiful fragrance, shame I can’t share it with you. If it weren’t so cold I could sit on the patio and enjoy the smell just a little longer.

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Now, Here is a picture of the crazy cold frame that my hubby puts together every year. It is made of cut plexiglas that he gets from work. They are old golf cart windshields. But they really work well as a cold frame too! I did have to put a couple of bricks on the top because it got so windy the other day.
Just goes to show ya, you can use a lot of recycled stuff to accomplish what you would like to do.

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Of course I had to get a close up of the lettuce radishes and kohlrabies. Not too sure about the state of the broccoli. The seeds might have been too old. I think I see only about 5 broccoli plants.

That’s it for the latest part of the saga.

Spring 09 City Gardening

March, 2009, Spring is just around the corner.
Thank goodness the weather was in the 70’s today. What a glorious day, around here you just never know what you are going to get from one minute to the other! Just 6 days ago we had snow on the ground.

The birds have been chirping all morning and I got up early, opened all the windows in the house to air it out, put on my duds and headed outside to dig around in the yard. I might be a little stiff tomorrow because the Hubs and I have been hibernating all winter. *giggles*

I pulled weeds in one of my azalea beds and turned over the pine straw before I did anything else. I took a lot of breaks in between because I was sweating so much. It is always better to take things a little slower when you have sat idle all winter. Then I started to think about where to put some seeds and just what seed I had that could be planted this early in the season.

I told you in the previous post that I had to remove some bushes, so I decided to plant some lettuce, parsley and radishes in this location until I figure out what type of long term plant I want to place there. Why waste good space? Seeds are in the ground and I covered them with some leaves. We still might have some cold nights.

The Hubs put the makeshift cold frame up (recycled golf cart windshields) and made it a little larger this year. I put the Kohlrabi in there. If we have another cold snap we will be able to protect them after they have germinated.

I promised a friend that I would post a picture of the leaf lettuce that I planted last November. I covered them with leaves in the late fall and now they are doing beautifully. They survived our cold winter months! I can’t wait till I get to pick some. Next to that row of lettuce I just planted three rows of radishes. I have to be very careful of where to plant things this time of year because certain spots in the garden don’t get full sun enough hours in the day.

The plum tree, as much as I have worried about her over the years, still stands and is getting ready to open in full bloom any day now.

Last, but not least, are the empty pots at the base of the lattice. I plopped some pretty Morning Glory seeds in those and when the weather warms up they will climb up and over the lattice and bloom every morning.

If you would like to view some pictures that I took today you can CLICK HERE and look for Chapter 18 in my garden journal.