New Wooden Gates

When I got home from work today I discovered that Dad had made me two new gates. The first gate is for the kitchen garden, replacing the sad old chair that kept out the cats and the deer. The second gate is for the west end flowerbed. Last year the deer wrecked havoc in that bed, eating all of my sunflower starts. Once the house painting gets completed, we can secure the gates a bit more. They look good, are easy to handle, and should keep out all of the pesky critters. Thanks Dad!

Dwarf Bearded Iris

Our patch of dwarf bearded iris have started blooming. Each Spring they are some of the first plants in the flowerbed to bloom and then sadly, they are among the first plants to be finished for the year. With their bloom-time so brief, it is extra important to enjoy them while they are at their peak. Above, "Devoted".

Pictured above "Giggle Fit". We have the fewest of these plants. Below "Bourgeois", our most prolific dwarf iris.

Dicentra Spectabilis 'Gold Heart'

One of the plants who's arrival always signals Spring in my mind is the bleeding heart.

In a dark corner of the front flowerbed, we have a single plant of Dicentra Spectabilis "Gold Heart". This bleeding heart has the most amazing lime green leaves that just glow. It completely lights up this difficult space and commands your attention. This year it has really outdone itself. The plant must be almost four feet wide and over three feet tall. 

Its red branches are just covered with hot pink and white hearts.

It is a bold color palate that might not be to everyone's taste, but I love it.

Crab Apple Buds

The last time I really inspected the crab apple was over three weeks ago. The tree had just broken its Winter dormancy and was starting to unfurl its first red leaves. I was shocked to discover today that it is already covered in buds, precariously close to blooming.

After I got over my initial surprise, I was really pleased to see all of the buds. This tree seems to be following an "every-other-year" pattern. One year it will be absolutely covered in blooms and the next year it will hardly produce any blooms at all. It has followed this pattern ever since we planted it in 2009. I don't know if this is just a coincidence, due to weather and other factors, or a trait of this crab apple variety.

Either way I am so glad that this year we should have a wonderful display of hot pink blooms.

Kokopelli Daffodils

My clump of narcissus "Kokopelli" are in full bloom.

It has been three years since I planted the original 6 bulbs. Last year the bulbs sent up 37 stems. This year they more then doubled - I counted 83 stems!. Not all of these stems were full sized, with multiple tiers of blooms, but that is still an impressive number.

And the best part about "Kokopelli" is the scent. As soon as the sun comes out and the temperature warms just a bit, the air is filled with a heavy, perfumed aroma.

Early April in the Kitchen Garden

Back on March 25th, we attended Plant Nerd Night at the Eugene Garden Club. As always, I was most excited to see what Alice Doyle from Log House Plants brought to sell. After a lot of mental comparisons and hard decision making, I came home with this "new-to-me" Kale. Kale "Fizz" is described on the Log House Plants website as "tender, finely lobed, light green leaves deepen to emerald green. Use baby greens in salads or full size leaves in steaming, stir-frying. OP."

Log House Plants had so many new and interesting kale varieties for sale that night. It was really difficult to pick only one to bring home. I was taken with this variety's lovely cut leaves and the promise of tender leaves to eat after the first frost.

After I was done planting the Kale, I took stock for the rest of the kitchen garden. The garlic has grown like gangbusters this last month. It is now taller than the hoops which use to support the remay cover.

Just like last year, the "Russian Red" garlic is attaining an immense size. Each plant stock looks like bamboo!

Next to it, the "Chesnook Red" plants look small but they are perfectly normal. Their stocks are now thicker then a finger and they too have outgrown the metal hoops.

It does look like one of the "Chesnook Red" plants had dwarfed, so I will have 14 plants to harvest this year instead of 15. I certainly don't want to save the cloves from a misshapen plant. Fortunately, all the other plants look great.

My real surprise this Spring are the potatoes. Last year I planted 4 grow bags with 2 varieties of Potatoes. Because of an incredibly busy Fall, I only ended up harvesting one of the bags. The other three bags remained outside in the kitchen garden all Winter, exposed to negative temperatures and two snow storms. So I was more than a little shocked when I noticed that the two bags containing "Nicola" potatoes started to grow a few weeks ago. And now, pictured below, the "Dark Red Norland" have just begun to sprout in the remaining bag. So I guess I will have potatoes this year after all!

Joyful Color in the Gloom

In this time of grey skies and dreary days, our red Witch hazel in the front flowerbed always stands out. Each year it is the first plant to "bloom" adding a wonderful pop of red to the otherwise brown and green world.

The Garlic in January

I last lifted off the remay hoop and checked on my garlic three weeks ago. We had just come out of our record cold spell and snowfall and some of  the garlic was still sprouting.

I am pleased to report that three weeks later all of the garlic is up and growing well. The "Chesnook Red" garlic came up first this year. This is my third year growing this variety so I now understand its unique growing habit. Per usual, the young plants are growing horizontally more than they are vertically. This will continue until April or May when they will suddenly straighten and grow straight upwards. But all 15 young plants look good.

The rest of the row is planted with 12 "Russian Red" garlic cloves. These plants were much later to push above the soil line this year than the "Chesnook Red" but they are catching up in size quickly. The final two cloves are just now pushing a green shoot through the soil but the rest of the young plants are a good 2" tall. This is my second year growing this variety that I brought back from Maine in the Fall of 2012.

Fogged In

Happy New Year. I had hoped that today would be a productive day. There is still so much to do outside. Flower beds still need to be cleaned up from last year and fields need to be mowed. But our foggy weather returned with a vengeance today and all energy and motivation for outside work disappeared like the sun. So, the first day of the New Year will be a day of rest. There is still 364 more days left to get something accomplished!