Where'd the spring go?

Well it's been a long time since I last posted, and I've finally gotten around to it only after a bustling weekend of activity.

More renovations! Yes, we're insanely doing it all at once, and we're on the bathroom now. Last weekend my dad helped us put in (OK, my dad put in) a new counter, sink and faucet, which completely changed the look of the place. This past weekend, we helped my dad install a tile floor. It's starting to look spa-fabulous in there, so much so that all I want to do is hang out in the bathroom and look at it all the time. I will post photos when it's all done and the mess has cleared.

As for the garden, well, it needs some TLC. I was completely discouraged when my little tomato seedlings didn't transplant very well (they burned to a crisp), and I kindasorta threw in the towel for a week or two. Now I need to get in there and weed, and get some straw to mulch everything because I think it's all big enough. Yesterday I went to the garden centre and bought a flat of tomato seedlings. It was a major pride issue for me not to grow all of my tomatoes from seed, but sometimes you have to go to drastic measures. Whatever makes it from my transplants is a bonus, but in the meantime, I got six plants of 'Lemon Boy' tomatoes from our local nursery, where they DO grow them from seed on-site. They don't have the dark-green hard-leaf crunchy look that the one I bought at the grocery store does, which has probably been Miracle-Gro'ed into oblivion. I also bought a tray of broccoli and a tray of brussels sprouts, but we'll see what happens there - I've never successfully grown anything in that family.

Other failures in that garden include a couple of zucchinis that I crushed while transplanting, and a bit of a weed infestation. Aside from that, everything seems to be OK. I've kind of lost track of what I've got, but I think this year's list goes something like this:

- yellow zucchini
- patty pan squash
- cucumbers
- butternut squash
- one plant of a tomato-shaped hot pepper
- red peppers
- cayenne peppers
- eggplants (don't remember how many or which kind)
- golden pear tomatoes
- lemon boy tomatoes (not in the ground yet)
- (regular red tomatoes, don't remember the name! Ack!)
- thai basil
- parsley
- coriander
- regular basil
- borage (ugh)
- thyme
- 'royal burgundy' beans
- yellow beans (not up yet, just planted them)
- broccoli (not in the ground yet)
- brussels sprouts (not in the ground yet)
- sunflowers
- potatoes
- the rhubarb and mint and onions that keep coming back
- the coriander that keeps coming back all over the veggie garden! yay! This is good - we eat a LOT of it.
- on the deck: yellow cherry tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes, leaf lettuce(forget the variety), romaine lettuce, and a basil. Most of these are in the same galvanized tub.
- in the perennial garden, in a tin pot - rosemary and garlic chives.

I also bought some marigolds to put here and there, but I need a few more things to fill it out. I will wait to see what it's like after I put in the broccoli and brussels sprouts, but I may go to get more flowers - maybe nasturtium or other edible ones to sprinkle into salads.

My hanging baskets are a bit sick too. The scaevola (sp?) died in two of them, so I bought some gorgeous purple sweet potato vines to replace them. I need some kind of watering system for the baskets, so any suggestions are appreciated. When I water, the soil runs out of them - they're these coir basket-liners that I don't think I'll be using again. The rest of the plants seem to be acclimatizing, but those darn scaevola make me so sad. They're so pretty, and look so crappy when they're not happy. Damnit, the most successful hanging-basket plants for my full-sun spot are petunias and geraniums, just the ones I like the least!

The perennial gardens are looking fabulous, however. I've had to do quite a bit of weeding and culling, but everything's coming up properly now, and all of the new plants that I put into the terraced garden last year are working together beautifully. The theme right now is pinks and purples, but soon I'll start getting some oranges and hot pinks and reds and yellows. I added annuals to it this year, which I've never done before, and I must say I will do that again. Also soon, my dahlias on the deck will get big enough to start blooming.

New favourite flower: Gazanias. I have put them everywhere, in all different colours.

The irises are exploding right now, as are the poppies, lupines, centaurea, tradescantia, veronica, columbines, and the malva that I bought earlier this year. The peonies are ready to go, and I'm excited. I love my peonies like crazy, they make the best arrangements for the dinner table, and they smell so beautiful. I get all girly silly around my big pink peonies.

My cleome seeds sprouted, much to my surprise. I took them from last year's flowers, and dumped them all into a barrel to see what would happen (I've not had success before), and they all sprouted. So I moved a bunch of them to various spots in the yard, and will give some to my mom as well. She gave me morning glory seedlings; we've got a little exchange program going on.

I put in an order for a whack ($76 worth) of bulbs to plant in the fall, and included some garlic. I can't wait for that - I wish I had garlic in the garden right now. There's nothing worse, in my opinion, than running out of garlic in the kitchen. Garlic powder just doesn't cut it. With these new bulbs and a lot of luck, my gardens will be riotous next spring.

Phew, so I hope that post was long enough to make up for my absence. The weather's been weird, but as soon as it warms up a bit I'll be back out there and get everything fixed up for photos. I've been busy, too busy for blogging.