Herbs & Stuff

I was at the Co-Op today and saw they had some more herbs. I had about 5 of them picked out only to realize they were super pricey! :( So....I put back 3. Picked three things I might use. Turned out to be a good idea as my herb pot is getting a bit overcrowded! Stuff I did not expect to come back did or re-seeded itself! I still have yet to plant all my Helleborus. I did however pot up my dahlias that were sprouting the other day as well as the tulips. I think most of the tulips died tho. :( We'll see!

I ended up losing my Michaelango's Angels umbrella that I have had for almost a decade and a half at the gardening symposium I volunteered at tho :(

It's been raining so much lately I haven't been able to do any foliar feeding of my garlic! The ones getting more sun are much bigger plants!

Bulbs

I've been so busy I forgot that I bought bulbs to plant in the planters up front till today when I found them! Unfortunately, I already planted something in them! What to do...? I have no where else to put them!

Sunfarm.com & Symposium

Hellebore, Hellebore, Trillium, Jack in the Pulpit, Trillium, & Hellebore

This post is a bit late as I did not have time to post earlier...On 4/16 I volunteered at the Chatham University Gardening Symposium. I picked up some stuff, but by the time I was able to shop all the good stuff was gone, BUT...there were some goodies left still! Not only that, but the showy more expensive versions were all sold. All that was left was the stuff that were just coming out of dormancy and MUCH cheaper! So score for me! :D

I wanted Helleborus and I got Helleborus! Five to be exact! Scored two freebie Stevias too! I also got the Trilliums and Jack in the Pulpits. Native plants are nice because they are pretty much guaranteed to grow given the right area! So I am excited! There were a lot of natives there this year, but a lot of them I did not get. I only got the showier ones. :) Some anyway! The one I was most excited about when I found it was the Soloman's Seal. I saw that someone bought one that had come out of dormancy completely and it was GORGEOUS! I so wanted one, but did not find it on the sales table until a few passes later I saw it on the master gardener table juuuuust coming out of dormancy and for $6 only! It's the variegated kind and SO pretty! I can't wait! I am fast running out of space in my yard. I don't know how much more I can cram in it!

Btw, www.sunfarm.com is the vendor that had all the Helleborus and the natives in the first picture. They had some awesome deals! I hope they come back next year!

Stevia, Stevia, Hellebore, Hellebore, mini Hosta, Soloman's Seal

Frost Blanket

As I was watching the weather on weather.com the forecast said we were going to have some almost freezing nights. I didn't feel like moving my peppers or my pitcher plants in and out again so I decided to go get some frost blankets. I almost didn't find any, but when I finally asked someone, not only did we find some, but I got them for $5 each when they were normally $15.67 EACH! I bought three, even though I probably did not need three! It was too good of a deal to pass up! I hope that is enough so that my peppers won't pout at least. I know the pitchers will be fine.

This summer, I need to clean out some gardening supplies I haven't been using! Time to purge and get ready for the next chapter in my life!

Hyacinths in Full Bloom!

A Warm Spring Day

What an amazing day! I woke up late cuz I stayed up till 3am reading a really good book and I just had to finish it! It was so warm today! It was a bit too warm almost! I got a little bit of a tan line on my feet already!

In the garden, I sprayed the garlic w/ the kelp & fish emulsion spray again. I forget how often you are supposed to do so. I need to refresh my memory again.

I went on a search for all my carnivorous plants I overwintered outside. I almost forgot the two smaller ones! Trimmed all the dead stuff off. They sure could use a bath! I swore I blogged about where I put them, but I couldn't find the post! I hope that this was all of them!

Cleaned up some other plants, thinned the burning bush and all the dead stuff around.

My neighbors got chickens! They are the cutest!

A Day of Deals

On my way to meeting a friend for lunch today, I remembered I had a Wild Birds Unlimited Groupon to use, but I forgot to print it out! At least I think it was with Groupon! Thank god for the iPhone! I pulled up the app and there it was! I walked in and redeemed it for a bunch of bird food. $15 for $30 worth. Probably ended up paying regular price for it all since that place is so expensive!

But that wasn't the deal...! When I went to do my first walk through to see what was new, there were a bunch of bird baths for 50% off! WOW! These were the heated kind also! The heaters itself usually ran about $40+ and lo and behold....there was a small one sitting right there on a stand even! The lady said if I wanted it, she'd give it to me for 60% off instead! SOLD! :D So I left with my new bird food and heated bird bath. My birds are going to love me next winter! :D

After meeting my friend for lunch, we went to Borders Bookstore. Unbeknownst to me, they were closing and everything was 60-70% off! WOOHOO! I scored a bunch of books there!

After coming home with my goodies, I got to hang out w/ my favorite neighbor kiddos next door. The little boy told me that in the summer I am always gardening :D Imagine the memories he will have with a gardener as a neighbor with really cool plants, feeders and animals! :D

Foliar Feeding Garlic

I completely forgot I had to foliar fertilize my garlic! I was supposed to have started doing it with fish emulsion and kelp when they were 3" tall. They are about 4-6" tall now instead! Oops! So I did some just now. I hope it's ok! They look like they have a thicker stalk this year. I'm hoping for bigger garlic due to the cow manure I put on last fall!

No Flowers for the Show

I just went and watered all my orchids. There are a few in spike, but only one that is starting to bloom. If it hangs out a bit it'll make this next weekend's show. Otherwise, I don't think I will have anything! :(

Spring is Coming!

How do I know? We just sprung forward in time yesterday, my dog started shedding and my garlic are peeking out of the soil! I can't wait! I'm hoping the garlic will grow nice and big this year! All that manure I put on last year better have helped! I need to find my sugar snap peas and get them in the ground this week!

Show Time!

We are in full swing for the orchid show next month! This is an exciting time! All except that the aphids have found their way to some of my budding orchids! GRRR!!! Some of them are also starting to bloom too, which is way too early for the show. I see some spikes too, but hopefully they will bloom in time for the show! Guess I better more regularly now! I maybe too late, but I will try anyway!

Winter Wonders?

My peppers have come down with aphids. I was going to spray them this past weekend while we had the freak warm weather, but time got away from me and I wasn't able to. Need to take them down into the basement and at least blast them off with water.

The one Phrag that has been in spike is still in spike! I don't know what it is or isn't doing! I do have two other plants in spike.

Neofinetia falcata 'Shutennou' 'Red Emperor' possibly in bud!

Rhctm. Fuchs Stardust X Rhctm. Lilac Bloom x Rhy. colestis Pink in bud!!!

Ping laueana is also in flower for the second time. Ping 'Aphrodite' are all in bloom and blooming their heads off. Not much promise though for the spring orchid show... :\

I Need a Greenhouse!

So I had my hot peppers on my enclosed front porch and I bought a thermostat to monitor how cold it got out there. It has dipped below 50˚F and the peppers are really showing that they are unhappy with this weather with droopy leaves and lots of leaf dropping and winter hasn't even hit yet! So I moved them into the actual house into my dining room as much as I was trying to keep plants out of there. I still have two Clivias and a Mandevallia out there. They seem to be holding up ok. I will probably move the clivias up to my third floor and find some space somewhere for the Mandevilla. Winter is so hard to do in this house. There are hardly any windows and if there are any, the window sills are so tiny! I keep trying to downsize, but I amit, I'm an addict :)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention....I was at Lowes a few days ago and they had the new and improved Meyer's Lemon on sale for....$3! What's so new and improved about this one? It is self pollinated! Unlike the one I have already, which needs a pollinator for me to get any lemons! I couldn't pass it up. $3!

Last Minute

The nights have been dipping into the 20s lately. I finally brought my Cymbidiums in the other night. Today I finally had the time to go get mulch, only to find out it was slim pickings! :( I got a bag of cedar mulch instead. On my way out, I noticed they had cow manure! Never seen it sold before and it was cheap enough! So I picked up a bag of that too to dump over my garlic bed. I just put it right on top of my clippings in hopes that it will decompose faster this way! The mulch I put over my buried carnivorous plants. Still need to put more down, but I was running out of sunlight to see so it will have to be done tomorrow instead!

I also picked up another Amaryllis. I just couldn't help it! :D

Thanksgiving Cactus & Meyer Lemon Blooms

Meyer's Lemon

These are actually red, but the camera doesn't show it that well.

Window of Rain

Woke up this morning and thought the weather reporters were wrong as it was sunny and dry! I hurried up and got outside to bury all my carnivorous plants so they could overwinter. Good thing I did as I got closer to finishing the rain started falling! Tried to get some mulch at Lowes, but the one I chose was sorely lacking in materials! Sometime before the hard frost hits I will have to get some mulch! Hopefully I will remember where I buried them next year! Just to document it...I planted one in the garlic bed, one in the place of the bell pepper and four in between the two houses!

A bit late....and on time.

I've been quite busy so I haven't had much time for gardening this year, much to my dismay. The sun set at 5pm today and by the time I got home, it was dark already. I had cut my dahalia a week or two ago and I needed to dig it up before winter set in hard. So begrudgingly I went out in the dark since it was going to rain tomorrow. The clump was smaller than last year, but I probably severed it from a larger root system and only got two small bits. It's probably enough though. This way, I don't feel obligated to save and plant all of it. If the rest of it dies underground I will just consider it compost!

While digging my dahlia out I saw little green nubbins. My garlic had already grown! I hope it has a nice nap this winter and grow some big bulbs for me!

I still have yet to figure out how to overwinter my pitcher plants and the like. I think I will bury some outside. My plans of keeping them inside over the winter were shot as the perfect room to keep them in will be occupied soon for a few weeks. I can't exactly ask guests to sleep in 44˚F weather :) My coal cellar isn't cold enough yet and neither is my front porch, but hopefully my front porch won't get too chilly as my hot peppers are overwintering there since I am out of space, especially out of light!

Overwintering Peppers

This year I'm trying something different...since my hot peppers take so long to mature I am bringing them indoors to overwinter. Not sure how well that will work, but it's worth a try!

The Bhut is Ripening Up!

October happenings

I have been really bad at keeping this up to date....

Last week, Tuesday after Columbus Day, I planted all new garlic as the bulbs I grew this year were really disappointing in size. I planted more Music, German Red and this unknown bulb I got from the farmer's market that I once knew the name of, but I have forgotten since! :\

Last night I discovered that my Phrag. albopurpureum 'Sir Arthur' was in spike! I am excited as I have never seen it bloom! It must be a nice one as it is awarded!

Then just a few minutes ago I discovered a little oncidium I have is also in spike!

My B. nodosa flowers are fading. It has bloomed for quite a long time! My first time flowering it since I got it as a seedling in flask!

I also have a Masdevallia Copper Angel x floribunda in bloom at the moment!

My double tuberose is in bloom at the moment, but the buds aren't opening up for some reason. It smells just as good all the same though!