Garden News

Spring has definitely sprung in Orofino Idaho!  We've still had some clouds and rain, but some spectacular days for getting lots done outside.

Here is the UV set we bought.  It WORKED!!  The pond is clear to the bottom.  

Since the pond is clear, now I can take pictures of the fish.  3 Koi, and 2 feeder fish.  The white Koi is 8 years old.

Here's a different view of the spitter, showing more of the landscape now that it has had some time to mature.  We just moved the two Japanese Maples from the front yard to the current spots here.  They were volunteer seedlings many years ago.

That's my lovely Hanna in the background.  This is a close up I took that evening.

A frog and a toad have made the pond their home.  I didn't want to disturb the toad, he lives in the skimmer.  But my frog buddy doesn't complain about the paparazzi bugging him.  I want to name him, but am having a hard time coming up with something.  Post it on Facebook if you think of a cool name.  Can't be Kermit, that's my husband's name online.

Tomorrow I'll post some pics of my transplants and tell you a story of "The Lizard that Lived."

Been busy in the yard...

In between rain that is. But, it is perfect weather to transplant things. Cloud cover, light rain are nice to transplants.


Put out some chamomile recently, transplanted some lavendar and sage. Three new lavendar plants, don't remember the type. It has foliage that is a little bit more gray than what I have now. Joan at Green Things said it has a nice mounding habit, which is what I wanted.


Our pond was really, really, green. Additives are very expensive, so we blew a big wad of cash on a UV filter for the pond. It's housed in a Koi sculpture that is a spitter, so it looks good too. Of COURSE, I left my camera at school this weekend, so no pics today. I'll take and post some this week.


We rearraged the rocks a little, and I started to add flower pots for the season. I could not find bowl planters in town, so I'm going to have to buy two online. I'm going to hide the new hardware with them.


The fish LOVE the new spitter. It also makes the water go in a nice circle. The fish float in the stream, then get under the waterfall and Swwwooooossshhhh....get pushed into the middle of the pond. If they don't want to be pushed, they just go off to the side. Quite fun to watch.


I did a LOT of work up on the hill last week. Cleared the paths, put out poppy seed, did a bit of weeding. None of the ferns made it through the winter.


Today I put out about 8 sweet pepper plants, two large variety of tomato, two Sungolds, and four Early Girls. I hope it stays cloudy for a few days.


On the stairway going up the terrace, I put three different varieties of Petunias. Two Waves, four Dreams Midnight, and another dark purple type that I can't find the tag for. In a low bowl, I put Live Wire fiberoptic grass, and a Mezoo Trailing Red Dorotheanthus.

Finally, no rain!

On Saturday, I finally got out and was able to set out a lot of seed.  We did some transplants about a week ago and I don't think I told you about those either.


We added two Japanese Maples, two Daub's Frosted Juniper, and two Canyon Blue Willows.  I'll get pictures of those when the Japanese Maples leaf out.


In the annual boxes, I put out mesculun, radishes, spinach, carrots, larkspur, and a flat leaf parsley that mimics the taste of celery.  I used to have a plant called Burnet that tasted like cucumbers.  I need to get that again.


I took some pictures of my spring flowers a week or two ago.  Here they are:


Open Hyacinth - you saw the unopened ones a few posts back.  They are now in their decline.  I love the way they smell out in the garden, but they are like lilies to me; too strong a fragrance for inside.

Daffodils

An early season tulip.  There is also a more orange variety in the garden that multiplied quite well.

I didn't take pictures of the seeded beds because they are just dirt and boring.  I look forward to chronicling their growth though.

So how are the seedlings you ask?

Some are good thank you, I mourn the loss of others, cut down in their prime.

Under the heading of "If it isn't broke, don't fix it."  All the starts I tried to put into dirt out of water died.  I do not have pictures of the carnage.

Things are going well for the Peppers and Chamomile.  

Some Boxwood Basil and the Catnip are doing fine too.

The weird looking brown stuff on top of the dirt is cinnamon, which is supposed to stop damping off, which is what happened to this poor flat of basil.  

They all toppled over, so I stopped doing anything to them and let the dirt dry out.  I dumped it out into a pot outside today.

Yes, I went outside today even though it is Raining, Raining, Raining.  Hanna went out with me.  She loves being out in the rain.  She also loves to be toweled dry, but you'd never know it from looking at this picture. 

She just hates the flashbulb.  You would also not be able to detect that SOME Rottweiler (who me?) was in my garbage can.  Hence the basil seed packet top by her schnozzle.

If it ever stops raining, I will go plant some seeds.  Here's my stash right now.

I can hardly wait!

Birds! Lot of Birds!

The other day a flock of Grossbeaks (at least I think they are) flew in.  They got into the top of the tree across the street and flew around in it to release all the seed.  Then they all flocked to where the seed was dropping.

Luckily it was my yard!

Find the Grossbeaks (Post how many you find!) - I'll tell you tomorrow how many I counted in the picture.

Using the pond like I hoped the birds would

Waddaya Look'in At?

We don't get these birds a lot, but once in awhile, so I'm really glad Kermit called me over to see them from whatever  was doing.

First Bunny Romp of the Season!

Here it is Spring Break, and it is NOT raining the whole time.  It was nice enough yesterday to get out the x-pen and let Pepper run around in it.  He had fun digging, ate a dandelion I put in there for him.

Of course, my Rottie side-kick Hanna was out there with me, keeping the bunny safe while I puttered around the yard.

Pepper

I have Pepper, and two God-Rabbits (my sister's, but I'm caring for them until she can have them again), so you'll be seeing more Rabbits.

Hanna

Hanna loves being out in the yard with me.  Penny was out in the yard with me yesterday, but I didn't get any pics.  She ALMOST caught a squirrel, and man, it was just chittering and chattering LOUDLY at her from up my neighbor's tree when it got away.  Just cussin' her out something fierce.

Here's the Hyacinth from a little bit back.  I have some early tulips that the foliage is up, but no bud yet.  A few daffodills right by the house have bloomed.  They get heat from the dark color of the basement paint, so they bloom a good two weeks before the daffodils out in the garden.

See ya soon since I'm on break!

Back to Spring...

at least in theory.  I was able to get outside today and putter about in the yard.  I try to be as organic as possible, but one thing I do that isn't kosher is use Preen.  I love that stuff.  Really does work.  Picked up a bunch of leaves, raked in some Preen, pulled some weeds, and of course, took some pictures.


Hanna supervising my work.

Crocus in two different spots in my yard

Why deer are cute as long as they are not eating in MY YARD!  This was, repeat, was a nice little row of crocus.

Hyacinth that used to be out front, but I had to relocate them because of the earlier mentioned deer.

I'm really looking forward to buying a lot of perennials this spring to fill in our new border in the side yard.  Today while I was doing some spring pruning, I found two new Sage starts.  Some branches made their way under the mulch and started new plants for me.  That was a nice surprise.  I put them in the front slope today.


Happy days and happy gardening!