Garden Report: March 21

Welcome to spring, even though it has been spring here for what seems like forever. Today I had to turn the irrigation back on because it has not rained in so long that everything is starting to really dry out. Seriously, did we just flip over to summer?

Today I spent some time hacking away at the grass that has grown over the path through the orchard.

Here's the garden a few days ago:

And you may be able to see, in the upper middle of the photo, where I have hacked and hawed for a couple of hours to clear out about four square feet of pathway. Oh, yeah, that was fun. Not even a whole bucket worth of trimmings to haul away. (The upturned pots are my attempts to block out the sun and save myself some weeding, not that that works perfectly.)

It hardly even looks like much, but there you have it. Hours of work for nothing much at all: this is the joy of Bermuda grass.

But there's good stuff, too!

Like, all the alliums are covered in buds and ready to flower.

As are the dianthus.

And even the new apple trees want to get in on the action: this is Summer Rambo putting out the little buds; the older apple trees are just barely leafing out right now, because they quite sensibly are paying attention to the light rather than the temperature.

And we have the reliable bloomers, like my lovely Lady Jane tulips. I must remember to get more of these and put them around the garden so I can spread the love.

And the anemones, who have been blooming more than usual this year. I think they like being watered.

In the Garden of the Future category, we have the last fig to leaf out, Green Greek, sporting possibly the cutest ever fig leaf. Look at that? Isn't it just adorable???

And it's time to plant out another flat full of seedlings. Some people let them get really big before planting out, but I just don't have that kind of patience (and it looks like the weather is going to cooperate).

In this tray I have scabiosa, knautia, some monardella, dianthus, and zinnia. Most of them have done a fairly good job of hardening off already, and most of them will go right in the ground. I will probably pot up the dianthus to let them get a bit larger.

Technorati Tags: apples, dianthus, digging, flowers, gardening, paths, plants, grass removal, springtime, summer

posted by ayse on 03/21/08