a nice, warm Mother's Day

It is not easy to gain momentum -- to go from 0 to 60 after a week of nothing -- but we did manage to get a few things done in the yard.  The one task done, from start to finish, was planting the Topsy Turvy containers.  Of course I couldn't do it as instructed, I had to make it more complicated -- though it looked like everyone else's in the end.

I found the TT a bit difficult to wrangle so I devised a way to hold the planter up, but not so far up that the kids and I couldn't get the soil in easy using string.  I found the hardest part of the whole exercise was getting the plants and the sponge into the planter without harming the plant -- but once that was done, it was all downhill.

I got a lot of help from the bigger kids.  They filled buckets with potting soil and brought them to the deck for me. 

I added some extra vermiculite to the potting mix -- worried that they might dryout too fast in the summer.

The instructions said to stop adding soil 2 inches from the top -- so I stopped at 4 and added some compost.

Then I put in a 'water spreader.' 

I thought that the water would drain slower with such a device (though that didn't seem to happen.)  Maybe it will still serve to disperse the water more evenly throughout the bag.  I am not sure at this point that it was worth the effort -- but I did it with some friend's milk jugs, a power drill, and a pair of scissors.  A fun and easy project.

And while this was the only completed project this weekend -- we got a lot farther on several more.  I did some necessary shopping for supplies, my husband got the kiwi trellises into the ground, and we got started on melon trellises and some of our watering systems.  Overall, a very productive weekend.

a good day to buy and plant

Turns out gardeners are not desperate brides.  This morning I headed off to the the Seattle Tilth plant sale with my son.  We got there a few minutes before opening: me towing him in the wagon.  The line was long but there were still 9 am (opening) bracelets available.  Everyone was very friendly.  And my growing boy wanted to start his adventure with a snack.  So the first place we stopped was the Patty Pan Grill booth for a quesadilla.

Once we took care of my son's hunger, we managed to find most of what we were looking for.  As the wagon began to fill, D took over dragging it around himself.  He did a great job -- expertly navigating the crowds while I moved back and forth hunting down our next picks. 

Ok. Maybe not so much.  He is only four.  A few people were bumped and apologies were offered.  Gardeners are very nice people.  

 

We brought our picks home and I started to set them out while D took a nap.  I hope transplanting is not rocket science.  I tried to treat everything gently -- but I was pretty quick about it.  In the end I imagine time will tell -- we will see what is still thriving next weekend.  I hope it all does.  Today I put fennel, rainbow chard, some flowers, two types of cabbage, bull's blood beets, choy sum, and osaka purple mustard into the ground.  The last two are things I have never tried in my life but sound tasty -- so I really hope this experiment works.

My final garden task of the day was to tuck the plants in for the night -- which I did with some remay and clamps.  I hope everything is still looking good in the morning.

PM project: the fruit bed

This afternoon I turned my attention to our fruit bed.  I had already laid down the soaker hose so I pulled the strawberry starts from my fridge.  I was having a hard time visualizing 50 strawberry plants one foot apart, so I snagged 50 toothpicks from my baking supplies and spread them around to help me with my spacing.

I left the hairy mess of starts out on a plate between damp paper towels since it was short-sleeve weather and I didn't want the roots to dry out. 

Raintree Nursery (where I got them) says that strawberries are very flexible: they can be planted in mounds, beds, rows, containers, etc. -- but their root tips should be straight.   Now the rest of what I show you I might have gotten wrong.  I am NOT an expert.  I did what seemed right for me -- it may or may not be right, it may or may not be right for you. 

Disclaimer complete, I will now share my process: when I planted my starts I would flip the berries upside down and open up their root skirts.

Then I would place them in a prepared hole.  I prepared the holes by shoveling out a spadeful of dirt, then crumbling most of the dirt back in careful to be gentle with the worms.  Then I would shape the crumbled dirt in the hole into a mound that was essentially soil level high before setting the strawberry start on top so its skirt would fan out.

Then I would cover the roots with the remaining soil.  If you look around you can find a lot of pictures like this one from Ask The Berry Man that give a visual of the level at which the crown should be planted.  I hope I got it right. 

For the most part though I didn't worry much about planting my strawberries because I knew that the area would be covered with compost later this afternoon -- and that made me feel like I had backup.  So by day's end, with the help of a neighborhood teenager who hauled all the compost, my fruit bed looked like this.

I can't wait to see what it looks like this summer!  But for now, with an achy back and a mild fever, it is time to get myself to bed so I can recuperate for tomorrow.

Blueberries are in the ground ...

I ran out of time today but I am feeling pretty pleased.  I have a good start on my fruit bed.  Below are my four new blueberries straight out of the box. 

 

The biggest had amazing roots.  And three cheers for my soil -- a few years back worms were a rarity.  Now I run into them all the time.  You can spot at least 3 in this picture.*

I didn't get as far as I hoped.  My strawberry starts are still in the fridge and the soaker hose is still a figment of my imagination -- but the blueberries are in the ground and stepping stones have been placed so I don't crush the strawberry plants in the fall. 

And though everything is so pale in this picture -- where was the promised sun?!  You might have noticed that my new blueberry is as tall as my columnar apple and espaliered pear tree.  It must be feeling pretty proud of itself.  That's okay, cause I am feeling pretty proud too.

*If you are looking but can't find the worms, there is one off the right side of the root ball and a cluster in the upper left of the photo.  Perhaps, like me, you can be amazed by the presence of small, good things.

The epimediums are in the ground ...

I have heard that it isn't good to mess with wet soil because it is damaging to its structure -- but we haven't seen a dry day since Monday and the epimediums were thriving in a box in my garage.  I understand that epimediums are rather rugged for their delicate looks so I am hoping they will over come their rough start. 

They morning started with using my pulaski to break up the soil under the rhodies where the sod used to be.  I did some worm damage but didn't see my green enemy again.  Then I laid down some compost based soil mix and turned it with the original dirt.  I have heard that you don't want to disturb the soil surrounding the plant -- which makes sense to me if you are planting a speciman.  But I am planting a groundcover and want to spread -- so I am more worried that running into a different soil texture will inhibit its growth  than I am worried about overturning weed seeds.  Then I took the epimediums out of their box, careful to keep the orange and yellow bloomers separate.  I bought 5 epimediums but was able to get over 12 starts out of them.  Hopefully this means they will fill in and become a beautiful groundcover quicker.  I laid them out into a nice pattern, made shallow depressions, and covered them with dirt.  My final step was to cover my work with way too little compost (less than 0.5 inches).  Maybe I will fix that later. 

It was a real Seattle day today.  It was raining the entire time I was outside.  Normally I am a fair weather gardner but those epimediums were begging for soil and finishing that raised bed is going to get my attention this weekend (or maybe my husband's....)  The rain didn't mean much until I got the epimediums laid out under the rhodies.  Then it quickened and gave me the feeling I was wearing a hat.  And not a pretty one at that.

Anyone else garden in the rain?