Dinnerplate Dahlias

I've finally gotten all of my Dahlias planted. As predicted, a few of them did not survive. I took way too long to get them planted. The poor things dried up or rotted. I've got 9 plants of 3 varieties each that were planted first and they've come up with huge stocks. I really can't tell you what varieties they are since I didn't keep track.



I finished planting about 4 more a few days ago so I'm waiting to see if they'll survive. Those are the empty pots in the photo. I will be ecstatic if I even get a few decent blooms!

Calibrachoas

Gulley Greenhouse has become my favorite nursery this year. I always get great service and their staff seem very knowledgeable and that's a good thing since I rarely have any idea as to what I am doing. The last couple of times I've gone, I've noticed these beautiful mixture of yellow and purple flowers lining their fence along the road. They seem so bright and cheerful that I decided I wanted some in my garden, though I wasn't quite sure where. I asked the staff and they said it was called Calibrachoa. They're like miniature petunias (about the size of a dime - see photo below) and they deadhead all by themselves so they will continually flower through the Fall! This is my kind of flower!



I had an empty self-watering container after transplanting my Snaps so I decided I would plant three of them there. They are a trellising plant, but we'll give this a try. I purchased two yellow plants and one deep blue (it looks purple to me) plant. Getting one plant to separate from the others around them was a bit of a challenge though. They had grown intertwined with each other and really didn't want to separate. They seem to have survived it ok. After a just a few hours in the container, they are already perking up!

Herbs

My container of herbs (clockwise from upper left): Flat Leaf Parsley, Basil, Sage, Rosemary, Cilantro, Flat Leaf Parsley, Parsley and Chives in the middle. I don't think the Cilantro likes the sun much. :(

Vegetables

Shortly after my last entry, I went to several of the local nurseries and bought some herbs and vegies. I purchased two tomato plants and what I thought was two bell pepper plants. I decided to go easy on the vegies this year since I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with them last year. I purchased an heirloom Brandywine plant and a Sweet Snack Cherry Tomato plant. These were planted in my raised bed planter from last year. It has been about a month now, but I can't say I've seen significant results. The cherry tomato plant tried to fruit a few weeks after planting so I nipped it in the bud to see if I could get it to grow more before bearing fruit. It has grown an inch or two I guess. The Brandywine hasn't done much of anything so far. I guess I'll just have to keep feeding it and cross my fingers. The photo below shows the two tomato plants in the front.



In the back are the pepper plants. I purchased what I thought were two bell pepper plants. After a week or so of being in the planter, I noticed the larger pepper plant seemed to be splitting. When I looked closer, I saw that they were actually two different plants. One was a bell pepper, but I think the other is some sort of hot pepper. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what it turns out to be. The mysteries of gardening! :)

Late Bloomer

Well, we're almost to June and I haven't started on my garden yet. I've opened up my raised bed and mixed the soil, but still no plants. I've got a box of 3 dinner plate Dahlia's that still haven't been planted. Hope they're ok still. I can't decide where or how to plant them. I also need to get the rototiller fixed, but haven't had the chance to get it into the repair shop. Maybe this week I'll get started on something. Not quite sure if I will have a vegetable garden or not. I'll definitely be buying plants if I do.

Tomatoes Out of Control!

It's been about a month and a half (see the May 21st posting) since I transplanted my tomatoes outside and boy, have they taken off! In all, I wound up with about eight plants so if they all produce, I will have tomatoes coming out of my ear! I have two of the smaller self-watering containers (see photo at left) and a self-watering raised bed that has both tomatoes and peppers, though I'm afraid that the tomatoes will over take the peppers. I may have to do some very careful mid-season transplanting. The tomatoes in the other small self-watering container aren't looking so good, but it does have blossoms on it. I don't know if the seeds were too old or if it didn't get enough sun at the beginning. It was one of the last to get transplanted outside.

We've been eating farmers market tomatoes and savoring the rich flavors, but we can't wait to be able to eat our own, home grown tomatoes! I've lost track of which varieties these tomatoes are so I guess it'll be a surprise when we eat them!

Snake!!!

Well, we've been living with this little fellow for the past month now, playing hide and seek. Every so often on a nice hot sunny day he would be lounging in our rock bed by the grill. When he would notice us, he'd slither under the wooden post that was the rock bed border and wouldn't come out for days. Today we were both brave (or stupid) enough to peek out at each other. I found enough guts to get the camera and shoot while he peeked out and stuck its tongue out at me. After the photo shoot though, he disappeared for another few days of hiatus.

I didn't need to search long though and found its relative. Under another wood border for a tree. I was getting ready to put down a tree ring, lifted the log and there it was. I gave a scream and my husband went and got the waiting Tuperware to catch it in. An outside observer might have found this very amusing. Anyway, my husband caught it and I called up my friend who'd said he'd wanted one for his kids. Much to my relief, he came over right away and got it out of my house! Whew! One down, how many more to go?