The bulbs and flowering shrubs are really taking off this week! The weeds are too. Shotweed (Cardamine hirsuta) is flowering, so it is time to get that out of the beds before it starts flinging its seeds everywhere. There are suddenly dandelions, too, which I am pulling from places where they really shouldn’t be, and otherwise leaving them for the bees.

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Let’s take a tour of the garden!

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In the front yard these salmon and white daffodils appeared this week, and an early Apricot Impression tulip. The flowering quince is in full bloom, and the magnolia is just starting to pop. I’m happy to see the little English daisies blooming in the lawn. Finally, I got the roses pruned and shaped, and because I had the whitewash out for the baby trees I decided to hit the roses a little bit too.

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Tiny Orchard

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I did a bunch of weeding back here, and I painted the trees too. I’m using IV Organics 3-in-1, which is an all natural tree whitewash. It contains essential oils and diatomaceous earth, and is used to protect the bark of baby trees from splitting due to temperature changes. This is the same stuff that I used on the Roses. To apply it, first I sprayed them all with horicultural oil, let it dry, and then used the white wash product.

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Rudy is posing with the cold-hardy Mexicola Avocado. I hope I can keep this tree happy, I know there will be a few nights every year when I will need to protect it, they can survive down to about 20F. I don’t expect it to make avocados, necessarily, but the leaves are used as a seasoning.

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Vegetable Garden

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This is the third year for the asparagus bed, and I’m supposed to be able to harvest freely. I’m skeptical though, as it wasn’t particularly lush last year. So far, I have this one giant spear. I did start some more seedlings to tuck into empty spaces, once I see what decides to emerge.

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I planted some cane berries along the north fence. Last summer was hot, and I got the canes in kind of late, so they didn’t do very much last season. I’m happy to see that every variety has at least a little growth. It may need to be nursed along, but eventually I will be picking my own jam.

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Lastly, a “before” picture of this week’s job to tackle. The salad bed is bolting.

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Seedling Nursery

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I’ve definitely hit the point where I’m afraid that peppers aren’t germinating, tomatoes aren’t growing, and that I’m terrible at starting my garden from seed. This doom and gloom tendency was not helped by whatever critter was sneaking into my garage and digging up seeds and chomping the heads off of seedlings. I had to bring the shelves into the house.

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I don’t know who the culprit is, but my guess is a squirrel. There’s no smell, no poop, and while I am not happy about it, the damage was fairly minimal. Whatever it was licked all the peanut butter off of the larger live trap without springing it, but was too big to get inside the mouse box.

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Front Garden

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There is a brick planter up against the foundation of the house. It’s hard to see here, but the foundation is a couple of feet high. When the house was inspected as part of the purchase, the inspector told us that the foundation vents are boarded off behind these planters, and that it should all really come away from the side of the house. If you look closely at the center picture, you can see a crack in the brickwork, too. I think it will look nicer without the privet smashed up tight against the shingles and the window.

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I’ve been digging out a trench so that I can smash the bricks and move the privet away and into the edge of this bed, hopefully reducing stress to the plants. Then I will set the arch in place for the Bathsheba rose.

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Garden tasks for this Weekend

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  • Keep weeding and removing bolted vegetables.

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• • Harvest the rest of the carrots and beets before they bolt.

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• • Clear out the raised bed and plant some spring salad.

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• • Keep working on dismantling the brick planters.

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• • Start bringing in mulch for around the trees.

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• • Scatter cool spring seeds.

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What are you working on this weekend?

Let us know what the weather looks like where you live. What zone are you in? What’s coming up in your beds? Can you plant anything yet? Let us know!

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