It is snowing here today.
Oh my, I forgot what snow feels like - it's 82 today, feels like 90 and it's very breezy to boot, sucking the poor baby plants dry.
Supposed to rain - ha, I believe it when I see it.
I'm bummed and a bit depressed that I had to stop gardening for other pressing projects, which means most of my remaining seeds will not be started until next spring. I plan on a bit of late fall gardening for a good start and if I feel up to it lots of early spring gardening.
The good news is that I planted a lot of perennials so this will be less work and it will be exciting to see how the new garden addition turns out in years to come.
Weather permitting I plan to make the last changes to the garden for this spring. One last row of stone borders, a few layout adjustments and reluctantly I have to call it quits - too hot - too dry - too humid and miserable to do anything but watering, weeding and maintenance - hoping that close plantings and mulching will pay off and reduce maintenance.
I will do a little seedling planting today - got basil to sprout in water for the first time ever, two dills that decided to come up weeks later - the other dills have already reached maturity - looking rather pretty with their fine filigree blooms.
Will transplant the last flower seedlings - white marigold and poppies and a couple that I lost the info on:).
The lemon verbena made a really nice comeback, I'll harvest the leaves as I cut it back so it can grow bushier.
The lemon balm I seeded is taking its sweet time, took over a month to get three/four inches tall. Today I'll plant a row of them in the ground, we'll see if they survive, normally I only keep two in a pot.
Other than maybe five specialty seeds that I really wanted I have no choice but to call it done for this planting season.
I'll draft Mr. R. to help with one big general clean up, organization of potting area and then finish with fertilizing, composting and mulching.
The only things I'll keep seeding into June are Cosmos and Zinnias, both heat lovers who have proven to do well in my garden without any attention.
My new absolute favorite is California giant Zinnia - wow, impressive size and beautiful blooms with a slightly bushy habit.
The bananas and the cassava are seriously starting to take off, everyone else is growing slowly, but steady and looking happy.
It may be too early to tell, but I think the Blackberry Jam fruit tree is doing better in the ground than in the pot - looking stronger and growing a wee bit faster - it is apparently a slow grower. I have one left that never got transplanted so I will put him into the ground as well. Can't wait to see and smell the scented blooms.
Oh, and those two dwarf apple trees I was worried about? They have both decided they like their new home after all, leaves and blooms are showing up. YAY:)
It is amazing to actually have a cutting garden - Mr. R. and I walked around the garden on Easter Sunday and picked a lovely flower bouquet.
The wild Elderberry is in bloom and I can't wait to see the first blooms on my store-bought elderberries - they were supposed to be black elderberries but their leaves turned green once they started growing - but maybe I'll get lucky and at least the blooms will be pink.
I wonder if it is my soil that changed the color or if this new strain simply reverted back to its original color?