Friday, April 9, 2021

Bursting into bloom

Both of our cherry trees are in full bloom and it couldn't be more gorgeous. What a blessing! To think we just got to have these as part of the house deal. Wow. I saw some sapling versions of these trees at Lowe's for $249 a piece. Gulp. So thrilled to have them grace our yard every spring. 
In the kiddie pools I have planted some peppers, Grand Marconi, Big Bertha, and Coolapeno. I've grown all of these before and have had good yields. I still need Poblanos, but will have to wait until the weather gets hotter. In the same pool is the half price Gerbera Daisy. 

 
My friend Patsy has had hers overwinter, and she lives up on a mountain top, so I guess they are hardier than I expected. Great! I'll keep my eyes open for more, greedy little gardener that I am.
In another pool I have four tomatoes in the bags, plus some extras that I will share. German Johnson, Black Krim and two Celebrity.  The extras are all Celebrities. I'd rather get them as 6 packs than bigger plants, and  in a few days they are all the same size anyway. I am using Patsy's shredded newspaper as mulch. 

The my new shade garden plants arrived and I am so happy to have them all. Hostas, heucheras, heucherellas, and hardy geraniums. And one oddball. Jack Frost Brunnera. 

 Here's a special newbie, Wu-la-la a sport of the humoungous Empress Wu which I had take over my last garden. This one is slightly different in the leaf, with a lighter green edge, not all that visible in this picture.

 And finally I am so happy to have Boom Chocolatta Hardy Geranium to add to my collection. The flowers are blue (my fave) and the leaves will darken to almost black. So dramatic.
I've also planted Hyacinth Bean seeds, cucumber and Sugar Peas. In the front garden in the peony bed I planted two Baptisia varieties and a Black and Blue Salvia one of the most vigorous and floriferous members of the sage family. Here's an example: It gets this crazy in one season. Woowoo!



5 comments:

  1. Well your blooms continue to inspire..... I have spent days trying to figure out how to get the pools home..... I have a small car.... so tomorrow 7 AM will go back to Walmart and see if I can get two into car..... if so will get the bags as well.... happy spring!!

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  2. Melody, how are you going to stake your tomatoes in the pool? punch thru the pool bottom?
    Geez, I have a tiny car too - I have not thought about the pools fitting! I want to try this too.

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  3. Melody, I was all gung-ho to use this method until I brought it up with my son who I would have to enlist to do all the heavy lifting and drilling for the project as the perfect solution for my gardening wants (Last year's small raised garden that was located too near the road with lots of traffic and was too tempting to passers-by to pick ripening tomatoes ended up with me getting to eat just one tomato from my plants all summer). He questioned how I was going to deal with the mosquitoes that would breed in the standing water in the pools. Did the posts on Pinterest make any mention of if or how they dealt with that issue? Our city has a pretty aggressive enforcement policy against any containers with standing water that mosquitoes can possibly breed in.--Joan from Missouri

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  4. The pools have been pre-drilled about an inch above the bottom. The water drains through these holes, if the pools are filled with rain. But so far, the bags have wicked up the water and I have moved them to sit on the puddles if they form.
    The yard we have slopes so the water that might have collected can't get too deep. Actually we have puddles in the yard when it rains, and we'd get bugs even without my set up. Luckily we have a huge amount of birds at the ready, always looking for a buggy-snack.

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  5. I guess the Walmart bags would be OK for growing flowers but I would have grave concerns about growing vegetables or fruits in them. I can't imagine what kind of chemicals might leach into the plants when watered or rained on. Be safer and stick with organic.

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