Winter Sowing - day 7

Okay, so, in the post Winter Sowing - day 6 I stated there were only a few more seeds to go.  That's not quite accurate anymore.  I did buy and trade (more on that later) for more!  But, I also removed a few from my carts and wish lists, so I'm practicing self-control.  Besides, I do have a new Herb Garden bed, and a new Pollinator Bed to fill!  Plus a lot of empty containers, both large and small. Oh, and the fruit tree "guilds!"  Something I'll discuss in more detail.  Let's just say the old thinking of nothing gets planted under trees is no longer "in!"   See the empty Pluot bed in the photo below?  Well, not completely empty, it does have one gladiola that came with the soil, but nothing I've planted... yet!

Starting off where we left off on January 13th:

          64 - allium flavum (it's yellow!)
          65 - allium Purple Sensation
          66 - bergenia, Red Beauty (for under the cedar)
          67 - orange thyme
          68 - salvia Amplexicaulis (stem-clasping violet)
          69 - wild basil (a perennial plant)

These Winter Sown seeds will have their mettle tested next week when we're expecting snow!  It will be especially challenging for those that have already germinated.  Although mentioning my snow and cold weather isn't important right now, when it isn't cold cold, like so much of the US.  Please, take extra care of yourselves and animals if you are in those super cold areas.  


         

Around the Garden and Around the Town - Winter Pretties on Wordless Wednesday

camellia outside the Central Point library

spring crocus

Firefly crocus

Firefly crocus

winter or Persian speedwell (a weed!)

winter or Persian speedwell growing wild in the grass

Is that what's called a "Wordless Wednesday?" 

Seems to me to be "wordless" there'd be no captions!

Garden Update - late January 2019

Personally, for me and my family, this "new year" really sucks.  So, it's very therapeutic for me to be able to get outside and do even the most mundane gardening tasks.  Over the past week I've..

• pruned the rose way back (I've always played it a little too safe, a bit to conservative in the past.  If it comes back, it comes back.  If not, oh well, it wasn't mine to begin with, and I'll use the space for something better!)

• steer manured most of the raised beds (the pool in preparation for pea planting next month) 

• pruned the fruit trees (the pluot could use some more trimming high up, but it's advised to do 1/3 a year, so it can wait.  The peach was brutally pruned in an attempt to get it to stop leaning over and get some weight on the other side.)

• relocated some Tete-a-Tete daffodils (they were almost covered by the prostrate rosemary's growth) to the new Herb Bed

•  noticed the prostrate rosemary had created its own two new plants by layering

•  found Firefly crocus flowers closed

•  took pretty pictures of what isn't usually considered photogenic (spider webs in the morning dew)

• noticed buds on the flowering quince

• and buds on the lilac

• then found not only bracket fungus, but white rot fungus on the lilac

• heard from the Master Gardeners at https://ask.extension.org that, no, it won't spread to other trees, it's nature's way of breaking down dead ones, so while not dead, my lilac is on the way out, with nothing to do about it

•  noticed how big the volunteer Up Tick coreopsis has grown (Ha! It's really a bachelor button!)

• looked out back and noticed the entire backyard and far backyard was filled with robins (it's hard to see just how many by this photos, but they were all over the yard!  Sitting on the overhang, bouncing through the herb garden, pecking in the lawn.  These pictures were taken from my bedroom French door window, where I sat on the bed with the cats, staring.) This accounts for the amount of white bird poop I notices in various places in the garden this morning!

• found a nutshell half (probably a walnut), which brought back a memory from when my oldest was quite little.  He really loved pigs.  An older boy, the son of someone my late husband knew, told him a walnut shell half they saw was a pig snout.  A bone, or petrified, or just what he meant, I'm not sure, but my son broke down and cried and cried.  That wasn't the only jerky thing that boy and his brother did...  

• found more Winter Sown seeds had germinated (including the Mexican red sunflower, which is a heat lover and will not be happy when the forecast snow gets here next week.)

Mexican red sunflower

red plains coreopsis

Tidy Tips

ummm... I forget

• learned there is snow in the forecast for next week

So, that's been my gardening lately.  

Crocus!

Looked out my front window this afternoon and saw crocus in bloom!

 These are Crocus sierberi "Firefly,"  a very early blooming crocus.  I need to mark where they grow and after the foliage dies back dig up the bulbs for relocation.  Many of my crocus and grape hyacinths in the front yard are hidden under rockroses I didn't realize would get so big!

I'll be watching this spot in hopes of getting a photo of the buds, they more amazing than the open flowers.

A Flower!

The first of the season wild violet.

Excellent Herbs

I love herbs!

 

I was hoping for alliteration in the post title, but "Hopeful Herbs" or "Happy Herbs" just didn't do it, what with Herb not having the "h" sound.

Here's a bunch of photos of my herbs taken yesterday and today.  Herbs in January always make spring look closer than it feels!

catnip

lemony catnip

creeping winter savory

French tarragon

garlic chives

horehound (and weeds!)

chocolate mint

citrus basil mint

lemon balm

onion chives

Greek mountain oregano

English thyme (or ordinary garden thyme), which I severely pruned back

Foxley thyme after severe pruning

yarrow

Since my only remaining orange mint is growing wild in an abandoned bed I pulled out a few runners to grow.  They don't look like much now, but orange mint is my most invasive and I have no worries these will become big strong plants!

orange mint runner

The germander has been transplanted into the New Herb Garden ("New" to distinguish it from the original Herb Garden).  I divided it into two, plus got one very small rooted piece I've sown in a small plastic pot.  This new bed has plenty of room for spring plantings, including Winter Sown chamomile, alliums, and something new to me, spiked thyme (Thymbra spicata) or donkey hyssop (I love that name!) - knock on wood.

germander divided and transplanted in New Herb Garden

germander

germander start