Originally I was thinking I would be planting pretty good sized Romaine and Bok Choy at this point, but the Romaine looks pitiful. And the Bok Choy is just barely germinated. This is bullshit. I think last season I had almost full grown plants by now. I guess I should just go ahead and plant the Romaine that I've got. It's not like it's doing anything where it is, one way or another. And then I can start more seeds! Maybe it's not doing well because it's too warm up there? I've got 9 that are technically alive. So that's fine, I 'll do like, 5 and 4. And that will fill up the bed, so maybe it's ok that I don't have any Bok Choy. (No it's not, I loved growing that stuff. And I liked eating it. More than I like eating Kale...)
In the raised bed, I dumped all the old containers of potting mix and that raised the soil level up to the top, and I worked in a generous amount of the Espoma fertilizer. Last weekend I dumped out 2 trays from the worm bin, and it was a pitiful amount. It probably had no effect at all. But hey, that's in there too.
I looked at the compost in the tumbler, and it's not so bad. Of course, I had some big chunks of stuff, like the stump from some ornamental grass, and sticks and root balls and crap, but other than that I think it's ok. I could probably pull out all the really big stuff, like things I can grab by hand, put that in a bin or whatever, and then dump out the rest and use it as compost, even though it won't be all nice and homogeneous. Yeah, I do have a compost sieve, and I could sit there and shake it all through and get some really beautiful compost, but that sounds like a lot of work.
I would like to totally remove everything that is in there before starting a new batch. I've got that trash can full of leaves, and plenty of leaves in the patio and on the beds, and when I start to clean stuff out I should accumulate more compost-able stuff. I'm not going to add new stuff to almost-finished stuff. I'm also hoping that the stuff in the trash can has already started to break down a little. If I can add that and just leaves and small stuff to the tumbler, and then add a bunch of coffee grounds, from Starbucks or from work, hopefully it will move along quickly in the warm weather and I will have usable compost by like, June.
So about these other beds, the non-vegetable ones- The front bed is looking pretty promising. The perennials are all starting to show already, including the Black Eyed Susan, the Echinacea, and even that sad little Clematis. I'm going to move the obelisk over top of it so it can start to climb it, after I take off the Christmas lights. Or maybe I could leave them on. They can't do any harm, and I don't have to put them on again next year. (About that- maybe this would be a good time to take down the rest of the Christmas lights, please?)
The Liriope border in the front is fine, I guess. There isn't any new growth on it, or on any other Liriope. The internet says to prune "before new growth," which isn't really that helpful because I don't know when the new growth is coming, but they say late February to early March. Maybe pruning stimulates some new growth. I saw Liriope starting to come in strong when I was in Raleigh, and they are only a few weeks ahead of us- tons of Daffodils, only a few Tulips, Dogwoods all in full bloom and Forsythia was pretty much finished. So what I'm hearing is that I should prune these fuckers now. Ugh, ok. It's not that bad, they're smaller now that we dived them all so normal loppers should be able to handle it.
The Daylilies are only starting to show, and there aren't very many of them. I thought in previous years I had a ton of them. Maybe I should put in more. They're pretty awesome plants. Hm, I can buy 18 bare-root Johnny One Note daylillies from White Flower Farm for $60. That might actually be the most cost effective. And that would need to be done like, now-ish. 18 would probably be the right amount.
Now, the sidewalk bed, that is another situation entirely. Right now it's a big pile of old ornamental grass stalks. And I am glad they didn't chop all that down in the fall, it's supposed to be left there. But I am really hoping the do it soon, along with last year's Liriope.
If they do that, I think I might want to dig up the Liriope and divide them and rearrange them. There are like, 4 or 5 that are really, really big, and they're closer to the center than I would like. I would like to do the same thing in there that I did in the front bed. I want to plant them along the edge and create a kind of loose border. That would be good for aesthetic reasons, because they're the lowest growing thing and they should be in the front, but also because I think it would make a nice barrier to weeds. Most of the weeds seem to be right along the edge. And I guess that's convenient because that's where they are easiest to reach and to pull, but that weed mass just moves inward and takes over entirely. The Liriope would be a very sturdy defense over the whole year.
I'm not going to do anything with the ornamental grasses. We already did that and I'm not going to try to fight with those monsters again for like, 5 years at least.
The Daffodils seem like they're doing fine. I kind of thought there were more of them in there? Maybe if they do clean it out and cut stuff back, I should take some careful pictures and maybe even mark where the Daffodils are so I can plant new ones next fall and so I don't dig them up accidentally.
Eventually I think I want to plant all of these Rudbeckia in that sidewalk bed. I've got 18 of them, which is pretty awesome. I'm looking at Google Images of this plant, initially just to see what the plant looks like, what's its growing habit. It's kind of a dense mound of leaves, with tall stems that flower. Burpee claims it gets up to 42 inches tall, which seems like a lot. That's like, bar-height. That can't be true. I would say more like 2 feet. But that's still tall. Images show it being planted with Echinacea a lot, which makes sense because they have the same habit and the same flower shape. It looks like Echinacea is consistently a little taller than them, only by like, 6 inches, so they form this nice solid wall of flowers. But of course they always look the best in very large masses. And I've got 18 plants, for basically free. Burpee says the "spread" is only 12-16 inches, and that's pretty much true looking at the pictures- they have a nice, compact base. So I can plant them a foot away from each other, in a row, or in a mass, and they will hopefully grow full and create a nice bed of dense flowers. I'm so good at this!
I also wanted to plant all the Sunflowers in that sidewalk bed, and some of the Zinnias. Basically I am using this as my cutting garden so I don't totally overcrowd my other beds. I've got 12 of the giant Zinnias that I started nearly 5 weeks ago, and 12 of the Zahara Zinnias that I started 2 weeks ago. And I have the Thumbelina Zinnias, which I was planning to just direct sow.
These big Zinnias (which are actually the "State Fair" mix, not the Giant mix) are all mixed colors and there is a lot of pink and stuff. So maybe they won't be the best thing to grow in there. And they need a decent amount of attention, they need to be staked and all that, and they get to be like, 4 feet high. What if I grew them in containers against the patio wall? That's a great place for lots of sun, and they are really accessible. The container would add like, 8 inches, so maybe that's not ideal. The other thing I could do is plant them in a row behind the roses. I would need some serious support, like a trellis, but that might make for a cool looking screen. I think I got like, 3 feet or so, and that would be plenty of space for 12 plants. Or I could put them in the rectangular containers on the patio wall. I think on the outer wall, I will stick with the Morning Glories. I think if it was Zinnias, they would branch out and get in the way of people walking by. If I put them on the inside wall, it doesn't matter if they spread out a bit. And since they aren't in the ground they will be more susceptible to drought, so it's good they will be right where I can keep an eye on them. It will of course cover up the gutters, but I don't have big plans for those in the summer. I was going to throw in some Nasturtiums but that's fine, we can start with those and if they get covered by Zinnias, that would be fine with me.
Anyway about that sidewalk bed and Sunflowers- I've got a total of 70 Sunflower seeds to plant in there. I know they are usually direct seeded, but I kind of want to start them in containers so I can plant them with some confidence that they would actually grow where I put them. I mean, if you just throw sunflower seed on the ground, isn't a bird going to eat it? They are all around 3 feet high, and I've got a normal yellow one, a mostly red one and one with red streaks in the center. I think I can expect a pretty decent survival rate, so I am really looking forward to a big mass of sunflowers in July or whenever they happen. I need to be careful because when they first come up, they are real ugly little things and look like some kind of asshole weed. That's another reason to start them inside first, so they can get some good growth on them and I know what they are.
Ok so what do I need to do?
- Plant the Romaine babies. I've got them outside now to "harden off" (not really, it's almost 70 outside), and I'll plant them tomorrow. Actually, it's going to rain tomorrow. I'll plant them today.
- Prune the roses. This shouldn't be that hard, other than navigating the thorns. Then clean out the leaves and weeds, and feed the Hyacinths with bone meal.
- Cut back the Liriope in the front bed. This will make it easier to see what's there, and maybe it will help them to start regrowing.
- Water the radishes.
- Start some Cilantro seeds
- Cut back the ornamental grass, Yarrow and the Liriope in the sidewalk bed.
- Pull weeds out of the sidewalk bed
- Divide the 5 big Liriope in the sidewalk bed and replant along the border.
- Buy lots of potting mix
- Transplant Morning Glory to the long containers. Direct seed some more.
- Transplant the big Zinnias to 2 of the 24" containers, with fertilizer.
- Start more big Zinnias.
- Deal with the compost in the tumbler.
- Plant leaf lettuce in the gutters
- Sweep up leaves in the patio
- Clean out bird baths.
And also, I'm thinking of giving up on the Bok Choy. They don't look right at all! I swear this is not how they grew last time. They're like, dense heads, there is no way something that is tall and leggy like that could become a real Bok Choy. I would suggest that right now they are just a waste of space under the lights. I would rather have more Zinnias, some Cilantro, and maybe even Swiss Chard going in that space. Same with that one tray of Basil. Half of them are dead, and I've got like, a dozen full grown plants. I guess I'll keep that around for another week or 2, and then transplant the 3 good ones into larger containers. Same with the Coleus.
I'm concerned about the Strawberries in the raised bed. There are some that have been green all the way through the winter, although I thought they were supposed to die back completely. I think if the others were going to come back, they would have done so by now. So maybe they're just totally dead.
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