Counting Seeds

It is seed counting time.   The garden is resting… mostly.

The garden was abloom this summer.  There are plenty of seeds to show for it.   Way too many for the spots where they might be planted next spring.  Still enough to be well worth planting.  Enough to get me back into the garden next spring…  even a few times during the winter.

16 days till solstice,  105 days till spring…. but who is counting.

And yes the Dayton Midwest Hybridizers meeting was awsome.

No time for hibrination

ttfn

PS – if you are terribly bored and have the bandwith and a few minutes here is a link to some of this summer’s blooms

Seedlings

I need to get back out and dig in the mud.   The thunderstorm is past and there are new daylilies to plant.  More than I am quite ready for.   Some old lawn is about to become garden.   Then there will be room for another 25 plants.  Yes I have a problem…..

But it only bothers me when I run out of lawn to remove….

Here is a link to a lovely new plant that has appeared in the seedling bed today… ( insert traditional exclamation here… and capitolize and bold of course )

deep breaths and exiting to the garden… gotta go !

ttfn

Daylilies at Lake Metro parks

Our local club is sponsoring a Daylily sale this weekend. It is a good way to find out about the many varieties of daylilies, get good information, and pick up some great plants at a great price. Besides it is at a great location with plenty of other things to do.

Check out the sale and the park !

have a great gardening day

and now back to the garden…

Help (not), I am in the garden and can’t get out !

I keep meaning to post, right after I get back in from the garden!

So how many weeks later here I am, ready to go back to the garden. And just maybe having enough time for a short post.

Last falls heap of compost is back at work, feeding this year’s heap of plants. How the heck did we use all that compost? It is black gold and does no good just sitting there. Besides as we spread it around M&M Robins ( ms & mr ) follow us around for the worms.

The daylilies have started. Wind Frills and Ahoya, a couple of older beauties have started the season. And the seedling beds are starting to send up lots of flower scapes too! This is a cross of LITTLE RAINBOW and TALON.

And now it is time to sneak back into the garden for a moment or two….

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Lawrence Woods

Last Saturday we went to see the Rhino Tree of Lawrence Woods.

The wild flowers of the Black Swamp were in bloom.

The buzzards were circling, the sun was shining.

It was a glorious day in the woods.

The trillium were still in bloom, including weeping trillium.

The May Apples and the Hawthorn were in blooming too.

And the Swallowtails were posing in the grass.

A magnificent and totally wild garden.

Time to put away the Christmas tree

It was time.   Treebeard no doubt took it hard, but the old christmas tree had done its part.  A few weeks indoors for the holiday season,  a few months next to the bird feeder, and this last month tucked in the back corner of the yard waiting to jump onto the compost pile.  At least this year no nests were disrupted.  Leaving the old tree laying around often results in a little nest made by some determined bird.  I must have been early this year, or there were better places to build the nest !

Out came the loping shears and off came the branches.  Pile the branches into the wheel barrow and make like a loping Cuisinart, lottsa little branch pieces.  Into the compost pile and put the rainguard on top.  Put the old trunk on top for a counter weight to the wind.

Maybe Treebeard did not take it so hard after all.  Christmas tree did not end up in a landfill.  He is still hanging around the yard, even if he is having a little more trouble than old scarecrow.

Curing the great zucchini problem

there used to be a zucchini patch in the vegetable garden…

then we discovered the cure,  no patch, no running neighbors, and no vats of fermenting zuke-brew ( is it really better than pumpkin brew ? )

Some will say it is not a cure, just farther over another and stranger line.  The tomatoes are gone, green beans, peas, and peppers too.  All gone.  Except maybe the garlic and horseradish.  They never give up…

Besides the blooms on daylilies fry up real nice… if an when one gets tired of the view.

Planting time

I meant to do this planting thing last fall.

But there was no time, the bed was not ready, the seeds were barely sorted and there were too many, and it just was not going to happen.

So the seeds sat in the pantry all winter long. And I waited too. Yesterday afternoon and evening the planting bed was raked and measured into shape.   The worst of the weeds were  pulled.  The rows were laid out and the dark claimed the garden back to itself. Wait one more day….

Well today there was no more waiting. It is time for some daylily seeds to get into the dirt. And some did. There are about 300 in the ground and ready for the rains. The rest will have wait a few more days. And I will work out a few new gardening year aches and pains. Much more satisfying that those from shoveling the white stuff.

We have a good five days of rain forecast. With luck we will get rain on three. And that should get things growing.  And in a year, maybe two they will be blooming.

I don’t mind the waiting so much, when there is something else to do in the garden.

Spring is sprunging …. finally

It is spring – enough of wondering what to post.

Taking a walk, or was it a slosh, around the garden there were greening and blooming things to see. Crocuses are sitting in the rain, waiting for a little sun to open them up. There are perennials starting to show signs of growing green. The daffodils have pushed off the snow piles and watched from above as they melt away.

There are daylilies sprouting and ready to turn into fans.  The early yellow daylilies that were here when we moved in…. waaaaay back when..  are ready to follow the Columbines into bloom.  No they are just the first green leaves.   But that is just what they are green, reaching and unfolding.

It should not be too long and then the hint, the promise, will be a bloom to see and enjoy…

The beds are ready to offer up grass and broadleaves that have crept in again. Weeds… hmmm or just fresh fodder for the compost piles. In a few weeks they will be hungry again as their bounty is spread around the yard.