Dahlias

I can't believe I am writing about Dahlias!  Many years ago I grew Dahlias and they did very well in my summer garden.  I had ordered them through a catalog and planted them directly in the ground when it became warmer outside, sometime in May, as I remember.

They were of the smaller variety, about 15" high and had  the vibrant colors of red and yellow.  I did not grow them again because I thought they were a bit stiff looking and not at all natural in my garden.  Also, they were expensive, and I did not dig them up in the fall.  In zone 5 they are not perennials.

For some reason, I found myself thinking of Dahlias again this year when envisioning containers for myself and my daughter-in-law.  We both needed something taller with a bright pink mostly for a Cezanne color scheme in our containers.

I chose a medium sized Dahlia called Mystic Beauty (Biltmore Estates Collection), growing from 28" - 36" tall, requiring full sun.  Some Dahlia flowers are 12" in diameter and can grow to eight feet in height.  I have started Mystic Beauty indoors so they have a jump start because of their later bloom time, August through frost.  I am hoping I can at least bring on an early July bloom time.

I am choosing Dahlias this year mainly for height and color, so we will see if this works out.

Bringing The Outside Indoors

I have to stop myself many times in the spring when I go to buy cut flowers for a special dinner or just to enhance my home during this exhilarating time of the year. 

Why not use something more sustaining than the traditional grouping of gerbera daisies, iris, mums, etc.  Take little pots of pansies, daffodils, primrose or hyacinths, place in a decorative pot and moss them.  When the festivities are over and you have enjoyed them in your home for a few days or more you can plant them out in the garden.  Believe me, they will come back, just do not cut down the foliage.

I am doing pansies today for my daughter-in-law's birthday, and of course I could not resist buying some beautiful daffodils for the children's table.  I love doing this, such as beautiful pink geraniums on the dining table for my daughter's birthday in May, plant them in the garden and think of that special day all summer.

Another idea for seasonal flowers is to decorate your home with potted geraniums, gerbera daisy, lavender, fibrous begonias, etc. (they can be small 4" pots) wrapped in foil and given as party gifts to the attendees to take home, such as for Mothers Day.  Don't hesitate to intermingle some faux items to enhance the overall setting.

I love to moss my outdoor containers and hayracks with an Oregon moss.  It adds a wonderful woodland feel that cannot be duplicated with the moss found at local garden centers.  I order this greenish-tan moss from http://www.kinsmangarden.com/ .  It can be soaked in a large bucket and then easily handled to moss all of your baskets and containers.

When I am doing this outside I will show it on my blog.  But, I know now is time for me to order before they run out!  If we can't have spring outdoors, let's move it inside for awhile.

Preparing the Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

I went to Home Depot and purchased some new topsoil and a humus, manure mix to work into my small vegetable garden.  They had only one employee in the garden center, and he had to call to get someone else to put those really heavy bags in my trunk (40 lb.)  They are absolutely not expecting us this year!  I am getting ready to plant my cool season crops. 

I need to tell you that I have daylilies at one end (Ice Carnival) and some chives at the other end.  The plants I have in the nursery will stay for awhile until I can move them to a perennial bed.  I also must dig out the parsley from last year.  Oh, I almost forgot, there are some onions that I planted from seed in there also - I may leave them if they look like they are going to grow.

I even bought some plant markers so that I can mark the rows as I plant.  After I have mixed up the topsoil and humus mix I will plant radishes, lettuces (green oakleaf panisse and red rose romaine),spinach (bloomsdale long standing) onion sets and onion seeds.  I am into only planting what we will eat. 

A layering method is an important procedure when the garden is as small as mine.  I planted carrots (a shorter Nantes variety) between the lettuce and seed onions (guardsman) in with the onion sets, parsleys layered with the red emperor radishes.  I do not know if anyone else has the problem of the onion sets deteriorating.  I have even tried putting them in the refrigerator to no avail. I use a vegetable fertilizer that I work into the soil in front on the rows as they sprout.

In May I will plant four tomato plants along the back of the bed, two Celebrity (determinate) one on each end, a new heirloom mix called Brandy Boy and I have to have a Beefmaster.  Some hot and milder peppers will be interplanted between the lettuce across the front (about four or five plants).  I will sow bush cucumber and basil seed right into the soil (has to be warm or they won't germinate).

I used to plan my plantings by spring break for the schools, and I can't tell you how many years my garden did not get planted, cold, snow, etc.  But, this year I was determined to get my cold crops in earlier than ever.  They are in for better or worse - lots of rain and cold weather coming this weekend.

Make My Day!

It didn't start out as a great day!  My grass looks terrible, I needed a haircut and I could only see a lot of work ahead of me in the garden.  It was 64 degrees and my bags of admendments were still strewn around my raised bed vegetable garden.  I needed to move out some plants before I can work the soil and plant my cold weather seeds.

I worked around the back garden cutting, raking bagging, etc.  The grasses are always beasties to cut down, tried cutting the Unique Hydrangea but the stems are so thick I am going to have to bring out the monster pruners to do this.  The Blue Dart Vinca (unlike my grass) is this rich color of green.  I have never seen the leftover fall leaves glued to the grass.  I literally picked some of them off the grass by hand - rake could not lift them. Nothing is blooming in my garden!  I even cut down the rest of my type 3 clematis because I couldn't get to them last week - leftover snow.  Before I rest I must spread my fertilizer in all the beds - just like feeding chickens. 

Oops, gotta run and get that haircut, going right by Home Depot, stopped on the way back home, and what I found made my day!  It is the beginning of my Spring containers - it's early, but I can throw a bag over them if it snows, or I can bring them inside, as the pots slip out.

Solomon's Seal

I have grown Solomon's Seal in three of the four homes that I have owned.  In one of my homes, I had a woodland garden, really a woodland because behind my house had once run a creek that over 100 years ago people came from the city of Chicago to their summer homes.  My house was never a summer home (built after the turn of the century) but my neighbor's home was.  People came by horseback, buggy and the early automobile.  So, you can see why my backyard was a small area of shade grass, farm lilacs, woodland plants on the side and all across the back.

I grew up in Chicago, so I had no idea what I was looking at.  I met the neighbor who lived in a summer home property (not a cottage but quite large) who would come over and rattle off every Latin name of all the plants in my yard.  I immediately went out and bought a wild plant identification book.  I found out several years later that this plant savvy neighbor of mine had a PhD. in Botany - didn't want to intimidate me!

I had a homemade woodland in the previous home to one I am in now.  With a large property I was able to plant a sprawling shade garden but never a "real" woodland like what I had.  Now, I am really limited,to that small long strip along the north side of my house, but I still have my one last woodland plant Polyonatum Variegatum (variegated Solomon's Seal).  The woodland Solomon's Seal was not variegated but plain green'

Solomon's Seal is a medicinal herb with diverse healing properties.  It can be used as a herbal tincture, salve, tea or supplement.  It is a beautiful arching plant with small white to pale yellowish green flowers, blooming April to midsummer.  It will take partial shade to sun if there is sufficient moisture.  It looks great with hosta, ferns and astilbe.

Childrens Book Review:  is there a monster over there? 
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/2271/1/Is-there-a-monster-over-there-Reviewed-By-Eileen-Hanley-of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html