Tag Archives: backyard

Ye Olde Garden

Consequences of Overspray

I aggressively sprayed the backyard with vinegar solution yesterday. This morning’s review of the backyard beds reveals the hideous consequences of vinegar overspraying on plant foliage. I believe that because this corner bed in particular was down at the bottom of the slope from where I began spraying, it incurred a lot of foliar damage.

Unfortunately this bed is host to new-to-my-garden plants such as Butterfly Gold buddleia, purple coneflower and salvia blepharophylla. Bronze fennel, blackfoot daisies, Nepeta Picture Purrfect, salvia reptans, Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum muticum), agastache and Mexican tarragon also bore the brunt of the damage

It seems most of the damage is concentrated on the south end of the yard. It may be that winds of 10-15mph swept towards the south side of the yard, carrying the 20% vinegar solution with it.

Most other beds including my raised grow bag garden appear spared most of the damage.

Ye Olde Garden

Plants I Wish I Had Started (Sooner)

Now that we are entering summer, I find myself reflecting on what I could have done better this year in terms of starting and growing plants. I’ve compiled a list of seeds/plants below that I hope to get started for next year.

Herbs:

  • Basil
  • Dill
  • Common chives
  • Variegated berggarten sage

Flowers:

  • Marigolds
  • Zinnias
  • Cosmos
  • Nasturtiums
  • Mexican hats ratibida columnifera and pinnata
  • Scabiosa
  • Coneflower

Veggies:

  • Peppers
  • Tomatoes
  • Eggplants
  • Romaine/leafy greens
  • Onions
  • Garlic

Other ornamentals:

  • Salvia
  • Variegated lantana
  • Mexican oregano poliomintha
  • Skullcap
  • Asclepias
  • Yarrow achillea
  • Gaura
  • Variegated society garlic
  • Stachys coccinea pow wow or mountain red

I’m sure to amend this list throughout the year.

Ye Olde Garden

End of March Garden Scenes

Progress pictures on the late winter, early spring garden.

Take a look closer and one can see the seedlings starting to pop!

Lest we forget, the narcissus and tulip show ramping up for April blooms.

Ye Olde Garden

Cuttings and Seeds Spring Edition

It’s been a busy week sowing seeds and taking cuttings, not to mention putting new plants into the ground and all around maintenance. Weather has been mild enough to promote outdoor yardwork. Hey, it’s spring!

Potted lavender needed haircuts, so the White Anouk and Lavender Lady got pruned down to the base. I kept some Anouk cuttings to see if I could get them to root.

Other cuttings include silver thyme, golden sage, variegated berggarten sage, and catnip. I sheared half the catnip bush sitting in the Rogue Bed to give the Silver Fountain gaura some room, plus propagate more plants for the catkids, who are delighting and rolling in all the pots that house them. This particular catnip has a very lemony fresh scent, one that I hope to make more child plants out of.

As for seeds, I’ve indoor sowed mirabilis jalapa, Thai long green eggplant, lemon bee balm, Korean hyssop and Sirius blue sage. I’m also giving the habaneros another go, and started some Fish Pepper as well. I hope that starting in soilless sterile mix plus 80F+ temperatures will produce better germination rates in the habanero peppers. My previous success with ornamental peppers did not prepare me for the stubborn nature of the spicy hot ones.

For outdoor sowing, I decided to chance the mild weather and broadcast flower seeds directly into the flower beds: lemon bee balm, marigolds, cosmos and zinnias. The majority of these were from my stash of Botanical Interests seed packets that I received earlier in the month.

Ye Olde Garden

Will It Live: Fern Edition

I’ve been fretting about the ferns in the shade bed. Since nearly everything but the ferns and hostas have emerged, I’m getting a little anxious to see if they made it through the freeze.

The ferns in question are of three varieties: two specimens of Japanese painted fern, Anisocampium niponicum, and two specimens of Silver Brake ferns, Pteris argyraea (?), and a clover fern, Marsilea macropoda,

The marsilea overwintered in the garage, but perished when I moved it inside in March. But I had already anticipated getting another specimen from Painted Flower Farm.

Clover fern in the garage bottom styrofoam container

The Silver Brake ferns were marked for zone 9 hardiness according to the Lowes plant tag, so they could have been misidentified/mislabeled. Instead of Pteris quadriaurita argyraea, these may actually be Pteris cretica, at least based on the image lookups I’ve performed. Regardless, I didn’t expect them to resurrect. But I potted up the rootballs anyway to make room for an assortment of new plants.

Ejected the silver brakes from the shade bed

The Japanese painted ferns were giving me the itch to go buy new ones. But I waited them out.

First sign of Japanese painted fern