Getting Ready!

Got the beds cleaned up!

Tim and Seza were tilling their new flower beds while I was cleaning up our front bed, so Tim offered to till. (And oh, yes -- that's Seza's pregnant belly in the background!)

Freshly tilled, the front bed is ready to go.


And here's what I came home with from the nursery!

This is an annual red salvia, which I've grown for several years to attract butterflies and add a pop of bright color, but this is a very distinctive cultivar.
The "Forest Fire" has more interesting foliage and stems (check out the contrast between the purple stems and the red blooms!) than the "regular" red salvia (like "Hot Salsa," which I grew last year). I had trouble deciding on this one: was it interesting or just weird? But I figured I'd give it a try and if I hate it, I'm sure someone will want it and I can add something else mid-season.


I love Dusty Miller, although I hadn't left any room for it in my nerdy garden plan. But when I found this "Silver Lace" cultivar, I had to get it. It's more deeply cut than any other Dusty Miller I've seen, giving it that delicate fine texture. And the gorgeous silver color of any Dusty Miller makes all the other foliage in your garden look even better.
Gotta do ageratum: gorgeous purple color (not sure why this cultivar is called "Fields Blue"), easy to care for, butterfly magnet.

And I need a whole flat of alyssum to edge all the beds. I went for "Snow Crystals" rather than "Snow Carpet" because it hits about six inches (versus three), so it will spill nicely over the edging bricks.

A spectacular perennial choice for foliage contrast (and a dark heuchera that can handle full sun!): Obsidian.
Finally, I decided I had to do more "Golden Jubilee" hyssop. It's a lovely smelling perennial herb with purple bottle-brush flowers that (surprise!) are a butterfly favorite. Plus, that fantastic chartreuse color is amazing next to the heuchera and Dusty Miller above.

The Garden Nerd ...

... not only creates spreadsheets of all her gardening information (bloom time, moisture and soil requirements, etc.), but also makes graphical maps to follow as she's planting.

These are the mixed beds in the west and northeast parts of the backyard, outlining locations for heuchera (coral bells), black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia), hyssop (agastache), peonies, perovskia (Russian sage, which I'm going to move later this spring), aster and --

"What are those alien heads?" M asks.

"Those are annuals: ageratum and salvia. The two of them take up about the same space as one of the perennials, so I put them together in one spot. They really attract butterflies."


The question is: Does the Garden Nerd follow her plans? My goal is to stick 85% to the print-out. You've gotta have a little wiggle room for things that take up more or less space than expected, or for fun unexpected plants you bump into at the nursery and have to have.

Putting in the Edibles

Spring gardening is a great opportunity to look back at what did or didn't work last year and adjust accordingly. For example, I really liked how much color variety I was able to incorporate into last summer's recipes by growing tomatoes in three colors. This year, I'm trying the same for basil (on the left), with traditional sweet basil, a variegated basil called "Pesto Perpetuo" and African Blue Basil. In the pot on the right are chives and cilantro.

Another adjustment: Last year, I used the fresh dill so often that I killed the plant, so this year, I planted twice as much (lower right, next to the Italian flat-leaf parsley). Something that's staying the same as last year: I potted two miniature "Ballad" sunflowers because the goldfinches loved them last summer.When it came to tomatoes, I wanted to adjust a few things this year, but how I dealt with the soil (adding manure and compost) wasn't one of them -- that seemed to work perfectly.
I also stuck with last year's technique of putting a whole raw egg in the bottom of the planting hole.
However, an early season wind storm last year made me realize that each tomato plant needs its own trellis. I lost of lot of tomato plant branches -- most of which had started to set fruit -- last year because of the wind. This year, each plant gets its own bamboo teepee: tall ones for the two Brandywines (I can't get enough of them!) and smaller ones for the two "mini" tomatoes, black cherry and yellow pear (for the multi-color effect in salads).

I'm also planning to ring the tomato beds with alyssum this year. No reason not to have the ornamentals in with the edibles! Plus, I can't get enough alyssum, so this year, I'm planning to buy a flat of it and have it edge all the beds. Stay tuned!

OMGeorge!

Remember George? M referred to him as a "retard tree" all of last year, even after he put on a lovely fall show -- which turned out to be nothing compared to this spring's bloom! Here's a progression of photos from mid-April to mid-May.

(Blogger's note: I'm pre-dating this post to better reflect when these photos were taken. George's bloom time peaked around May 12 this year.)

Garden in Late April -- Blah

Remember when I mentioned to Dad that the garden was pretty much dead in early April? Yep, still looks like that now, albeit with less snow cover. This is where the peonies will come up, at some point.

The corner of the back bed by the gate, aka Seza's favorite part of my garden, will have really lovely foliage color contrast in a month or two. Here's what it looked like in late June of last year. See? Pretty!

Here's what it looks like now ...

... although that is some nice color on the heucheras (aka coral bells).

At least the grass is greener (thanks to a couple of recent thunderstorms). But last weekend, my favorite thing in the backyard was Sam. :)