wildflowers

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Garden Triangle

Around this time last year, I removed a wedge of lawn near the sidewalk to make room for some flowers.  That nifty little triangle of dirt proved to be a lot of fun.  Through spring, summer and early fall, an assortment of flowers bloomed. By late November, most of it had gone to seed.  All that remained was the Statice, relocated from the curb garden earlier in the year.

My reward for letting the plants go to seed: a host of spring ‘volunteers.’

Here is a photo from February 25th:

wedge garden

Wedge garden: February 25th

Here it is today:

wedge garden march 26th

Wedge garden: March 26th

The Statice really filled out. It’s also about to bloom. The purple and yellow pansies are blooming for the second time and the seedlings have doubled or tripled in size. Now that the growing pattern is taking shape, I transplanted a few volunteer seedlings heavily concentrated at the curb. Spade in hand, I held my breath and took the plunge. They drooped for half a day, then bounced right back. Now I’ll have a nice mix throughout the triangle.

congregating at the curb

Congregating at the curb

garden pansies

Garden pansies spring back to life

purple statice

Purple Statice

any guesses

Still a mystery. Any guesses?

I collected a lot of seeds last year, including Cosmos, Bachelor Buttons, Four O’clock’s and Zinnias.  Between the collected seeds, the volunteers and the bag of wildflowers (intended for last year but lost, then found) the garden should bloom all season.

Do you have a favorite spring flower?  Is there something you’ve always wanted to grow?  Let me know in the comments below.

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If it Were a Snake

Do you know the expression If it were a snake, it would have bit me?

According to the Urban Dictionary, the expression is commonly used in the southern United States, when after searching for a misplaced item, you discover it right in front of you.

Last year I bought a canister of wildflower seeds, planning to scatter them in the new curb garden. It would be a fun activity with the wee gardeners next door.  They had such a good time planting and harvesting carrots.

As happens in life, one thing lead to another and before I knew it, time was running out. I searched high and low throughout the garage for those seeds, but to no avail.  After a cursory search, I went back and did a methodical search.  Still nothing.  Then the self-doubt crept in.  Did I just *think* I bought them, but only thought about it? Could I blame this on ‘menopause brain’?  Where is that canister of seeds?

You know where this is going, don’t you?

While putting away my bucket of tools, I noticed a *bag* of wildflower seeds.  Head slap.  I didn’t buy the canister after all, I bought the bag.  Since I was looking for a canister, my eyes continuously bypassed the bag of seeds staring right at me from the shelf.

widlflower mix

Wildflower Mix

I had a good laugh at myself, before putting the bag back where I found it.  I would not be fooled again.  The first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere is two weeks from today. This time I’m ready.

Has this sort of thing ever happened to you?

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Blooming Thursday: Lemony Yellows

 

The first flower on my lemony yellow tour self-seeded from last year. Within two weeks it was covered in buds and blooms and tripled in size.  My friend Laura, referred to it as a Four O’clock, the time it usually blooms.  Our plant must think it’s in a different time zone, as it was in full bloom at 9:00 this morning.

Yellow Wildfowers

Lemony Yellow Wildflowers

Next up are the ‘Evergreen Yellow’ daylilies surrounding our Magnolia.  Is it just me, or do the stamen look like delicate, curling fingers?

yellow daylillies

Trio of Daylily Flowers

Yellow Daylily

Yellow Daylily Up Close

Rounding up the tour, we have Fuzzy little Kangaroo Paws shooting up behind the lilies. They’ll grow to about three feet tall and will bloom now through fall.  Aren’t they sweet?

'Harmony' Kangaroo Paws

‘Harmony’ Kangaroo Paws

What’s blooming in your garden this Thursday?

 

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Flowering Wonders

The packet of wildflower seeds we planted late spring, continue to produce a few blooms.  We scattered some of the seeds in the side yard with the sunflowers and the dwarf lemon and they bloomed for months.  We still have cosmos flowering in the large pot outside our sliding-glass bedroom door.

Cosmos

To keep that color going throughout our moderate winter, I plant cyclamen each year.  They were one of my mom’s favorites, and always remind me of her.  A friend gave me a red cyclamen for Valentine’s Day one year, and it bloomed for a month on my coffee table.  When the plant seemed to fail, I moved it outside, but it continued to “decline.”  Little did I know then that this plant is a tuber.  It was simply going into its dormant stage.  We have some planted outside near our laundry room and they make me smile each year when they re-emerge.

Cyclamen

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Wildflowers

We have a patch of earth that we share with our neighbors, affectionately know as the children’s garden.  It’s evolved over time from a large, overgrown shrub, to a variety of plants including some transplanted azaleas, a dinosaur topiary and an assortment of experiments.  This time last year, my son wanted to turn the plot into a “hot tub” so he happily dug down as deeply as he could, before eventually abandoning the idea.

This past spring we planted a row of sunflowers, as close to the border as possible for maximum sunlight, then filled in the area behind them with a packet of wildflowers from our local nursery. The birds and squirrels helped themselves early on, leaving the earth pock-marked with overturned pockets of soil.  Here’s what survived:

Children's Garden