Gardening on a whim

[nuranar]

I put in another flower bed this afternoon. It's a sheltered corner on the southeast side of the house; it needs a retaining wall someday, so I've been hesitant to put significant plants in. But it's really a good corner, and quite visible from the family room. I planted some snapdragon seeds five years ago, and a few of the plants are still alive. (Plus some of their descendants.) They're not really supposed to be perennial, so that amuses me. They even survived multiple ice and snow storms, including the Epic Cobblestone Ice Event.  So by elimination, it's not the harshest environment in which I can attempt to grow things...

Another boat load of rocks came out of the ground (though no monsters this time; nothing bigger than a softball), and I replaced that volume and built it up slightly with 160 pounds of humus.

And all that because I was going to plant the first round of seeds (4 to 6 weeks before the average last freeze, which is really anyone's guess). Poppies! I hope they come up and thrive.

I also seem to have ordered more seeds. I decided I must plant English wallflowers, tall Sweet William mix, and blue cornflowers. They're all supposed to be drought tolerant, which is never, ever a bad idea here. (When a plant is glowingly recommended for the Pacific Northwest, it is immediately eliminated from my consideration. It wouldn't be fair for either of us.)

Comments

[nekhbet_love]

This sounds thrilling, I think we are quite lucky this year, the climate has been mild many times, and I have already ordered some seeds today to start growing from seed. Mainly kitchen plants as a start, but Im waiting for some trees too. I will be delighted if I can see in the future how your plants are growing. I love gardening :) xx

[nuranar]

Ooh, I hope you have good luck with your seeds! What are you planting so far? Vegetables, or herbs? And what trees?

I certainly plan to take photos and share them as soon as things start happening. One of the snapdragons is blooming already.

(Cute icon, BTW!)

[nekhbet_love]

Thank you:) I got it from a DW user here.

Snapdragons are so beautiful. The weather has been crazy lately and yesterday we had a tornado watch and lots of rain and thunders. Today it is a beautiful day and the air feels so clean!
I was thinking of planting herbs, but also I remembered the hummingbirds. How could I forget, I asked myself. So, I have ordered a few flower seeds, like scarlet sage, monarda bee balm in red, cardinal flower (lobelia), trumpet vine in red-orange, Orange impatiens and Eaton's Penstemon. As for herbs, I will start with peppermint :) Trees...3 White Flowering Dogwoods, 3 American Redbuds, 2 Sargent Crabapples, 2 Washington Hawthorns and 2 Crapemyrtle. We must renew our trees here, three are dead, so we will do something good for our front and backyards.

[nuranar]

Ooh, that cold front moved through here but all the storm activity was well east and north of me. Are you in Arkansas? Those seeds and trees sound ideal for you. It's too dry for me for some of them in North Texas, or the wrong soil pH. They will be lovely. Be careful with any of the mint family - it's a vine and will take over the garden, plus it's hard to remove completely if you ever want to. It may be safer in a large pot that you can keep outside in the garden.

[nekhbet_love]

Yes, I intend to keep the peppermint on a large pot. These are all native trees and probably not all of them for the kind of soil where you live. I have been to Texas a few times, I love it, but yes, it is a dry area. I live in Missouri, very close to Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas.