A Beautiful Spring Day

After several really warm days, we've had a bit of a cool down.  It was only in the upper 50s today, but the sky was blue and the sun was bright.  I stiff breeze made it rather brisk.

The potatoes are up!

The beautiful white Pacific Coast iris just opened today.

And this pretty little bulb opened yesterday.  It closes up tight every night.

 

Some of the veggies I started in pots on a heating pad have come up.  It's melons, squash and cucumbers. 

Today was a day of rest.  David's shoulder is bothering him and my right wrist has just refused to do any more work for now.  Fortunately, we have almost all the major weeding done, so we can relax a bit. 

Archaeological Dig

More pots planted today.  Also tarragon and chives.  As I was digging in the herb bed to plant the chives, I found some interesting things in the soil -- a plant tag for onions, one nail, one deck screw, and one champagne cork.

Busy Days

We've had a wonderful couple of days.  Lots of sun and up to 80 degrees today.  Tomorrow we start heading back to normal, with rain to come. But for now, it's been great.  We even had breakfast outside this morning.

I've  now sowed dill and chervil outside, started all my melons, cucumbers and squash, and sowed parsnips in the carrot and beet bed.  The peas are looking great, having finally found the trellis. 

Today I went to Terra Gardens nursery and bought a bunch of plants for the deck.  I got a windmill palm, a Eureka lemon, some red geraniums, and several other things for pots.

I also found some larger artichokes to replace the puny ones I had planted.  They were being devoured by slugs.

Strawberries!

Today I noticed the first tiny strawberry coming.  I think they like the black plastic, and of course all the warm sunshine.

Shorts!

For the first time this year (other than on the cruise, of course) I'm wearing shorts.  We got up to 68 today with the promise of warmer still the next couple of days.

We got lots of things done today.  We put the edging along the back of the deck, just in time for delivery of our new deck furniture this morning.

I amended the soil below the deck with a couple of bags of fur sawdust and lots of compost.  I then added some fertilizer and planted six new blueberry plants.

I also fertilized the old plants.  I used Black Gold natural and organic for acid lovers.  It looks like pretty good stuff.

My basil that I started a few days ago is up, so I gave it a little filtered sun today. 

New Natives

I've planted a couple of new natives in the woodsy area in back.

This is Erythronium oreganum (Fawn Lily).

And this is Dodecatheon hendersonii (Shooting Star).

My New Favorite Plant

I have a new favorite plant.  It's Helianthemum.  I already had 'Wisley Pink' and now I have 'Henfield Brilliant.'  They are low growing and spreading ( weed barrier) and are sun loving and drought tolerant.

I'm still looking for one called 'Wisley Primrose' (yellow) and 'Chocolate Blotch' (orange with a darker center).

Garden Paths

This morning we had three yards of fir chips delivered.  I've spread them in the vegetable garden paths.  They really look nice.  I'm hoping they'll keep down the weeds and keep the mud at bay.

The carrots, beets, chard and kale are up.

Tulips

When we moved into the house there was a large raised bed in the front that was full of red tulips.  I removed the bed and the tulips, but kept a few bulbs and replanted them.  They look very nice now.

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

I've been hearing about this nasty guy for about a year, and looking at the stink bugs that I occasionally find.  Today I found one.  He's now in the freezer.  Now that I know we have them, I'll keep watching.  Reports are that they are very destructive.

More Projects

Yesterday was a nice day, so we did a few of our projects.  The first was to put up lattice in the corner of the deck where we put our outdoor table.  I'll put pots of plants along the benches.

 David redid some of the edging in the bed where the berries are planted along the side.

And I planted the asparagus and put down IRT plastic in the strawberry bed. 

With the lattice up in the corner we decided that a better place for the hanging bird feeder would be under the trellis along the back.  It took the birds about two minutes to find it.  The pine siskins love it.

The squirrel has made several attempts to figure out how to get to it.  I'm not sure why he's bothering, because it contains the same seed as the house feeder, which is mostly for him, and the stuff on the ground under the other feeder.

Epimedium grand

'Red Queen'

More Planting

With another decent day I finished most of my planting.  I put in a bed of German Butterball potatoes and sowed two short rows each of beets and carrots.  I also threw in a row of Lemon Gem marigolds.  I added a row of Bright Lights chard and Nero di Toscano kale in the onion bed. I planted the artichokes between the fruit trees and threw some purple poppy seeds and magenta columbine seeds around them.  I got both of those from Barb Crothers.  I hope they come up.  I noticed that the squirrel has already been digging in the nice soft dirt.

I've dug up both red-twig and yellow-twig dogwoods at the edge of the deck.  I have six blueberry plants to replace them.

Onions

Yesterday I went to 13th Street Nursery and bought lots of vegetable plants and starts.  I bought several kinds of onions, four artichokes, potatoes, and asparagus.  I also bought six more blueberry plants.

The showers eased in the afternoon, so I planted the onions.  After adding fertilizer, I planted three rows of leeks, one row of shallots, two rows of red onions, and four rows of yellow 'Storage' onions.  I also sowed two rows of spinach.

Spring!

We're back from our cruise and spring has arrived in our absence.  The fruit trees, except the pears, are blooming.  The pears are just leafing out.  Here's the nectarine.

The apple trees are loaded with flowers.

The blueberries are all showing signs of blooming, but the Earliblue has flowers.

The celandine poppy is blooming, as are the red-flowering currants.

 

There are a lot of weeds, but yesterday was a nice enough day that we were able to get out and attack them.