Native Seeds

Several weeks ago, I signed up for Native Seed Gardeners.  Its a local organization that promotes native plants and landscapes.  In a nutshell, they give you seedlings, you grow the plants at home and then you collect seeds and send them back so they can continue the cycle.  Last week, when they gave out the plants, I wasn't around so my friend Julie picked them up for me.  They were delivered this weekend and I took some time in between coats of drying sealer to plant them.

I got three plant varieties: aromatic aster, upright aster, and white false indigo.  The asters look pretty good but the false indigo is downright tiny.  I hope they all make it.

Julie is a Martha Stewart type and has a blog of her own.  She's very handy, great cook, etc.  She also brought along a need seedling tray that she made from recycled materials.  I'll have to find some more plants to start in these. 

For the plants, I dug out two new areas in the front.  I figured I could use another couple square yards of lawn anyway.  I can figure out how good my location was once the plants start to thrive. 

A third plant was put in the herb garden.

With all of the rain we've been having, the yard is both lush and "trampled".  The birds and butterflies seem to be happy though.  I'll update on this subject once it's time to harvest seeds.  

Getting ready for spring

Though it seems like spring, I know that we have several more nights of frost on the way. Regardless, I decided to take some time in the yard on Sunday and to begin prepping for when I can actually do some planting.

Last fall, I took the time to save seeds from various plants around the yard: the sunflowers, cone flowers, hollyhocks, etc. I planted them in one of the trays of seeds along with some rose of sharon from my mom's house and cucumber and tomato seeds we picked up at the store. I don't know if we'll do much of a garden this year. I guess we'll have to see what kind of energy I have come May. My daughter has also been anxious to have a bird feeder outside her window. I find this curious since, though only 4 years old, she acts more like a teenager when it comes to sleep. She is impossible to get out of bed and the words "5 more minutes" are all we hear from her room most mornings. She and I got a feeder anyway and hung it outside her window. I have a feeling that once the birds discover it is there that I'll be moving it so that they no longer wake her up in the morning.

Finally, the last batch of crocuses that came up were quickly devoured by our bunnies. Oddly, we have a couple blooming right now, or at least they were yesterday. I don't hold out much hope that they will last for long.

Garden plans and plants

I laid out a plan for planting in the front yard. It has already changed but I have been a bit lazy and haven't updated the drawing. Frankly, if I did, I would end up updating it daily as my ideas about the yard are constantly changing. I love this time of year. It is easy to dig because the ground is pretty wet and once a plant gets going, it is hard to kill it because of the same. I started moving plants around this morning. This is a process that will continue throughout the summer. Blue bells have been sprouting up all over the yard so I have been pulling them up and transplanting them into a patch in the front yard. Then again, I sure hope the are blue bells or I have been wasting my time moving around weeds. This wouldn't be the end of the world though because I like letting things go, even if they end up being weeds. I think I get this from my grandmother, who would let a weed that she didn't know grow and grow and grow just to see what it does. There is a bit of this going on in the back yard. I just hope some of these things I am letting go turn into something nice.
I added a new planting area next to the garden. Last year, we had sunflowers here. I threw down a bunch of marigold seeds this year (saved from last year). We'll see if they ever come up. The gladiolus that I put in are all coming up now. I hope that they eventually flower. The day lilies and irises nearby look great.
The herb garden from last year is a bust. I think I am going to dig out all of the herbs and make this into a "mint-only" zone. Can't wait for the first mojitos of the year!
The back corner of the yard is starting to look a bit crowded, and it's only May. I may need to expand this area a bit and I think I am going to move some of the hollyhocks out front. There is a small variegated plant, I think it's called a vinca or something, that has taken root beneath our wash tub. This is left over from last year and was an annual that was planted in the wash tub. I guess it wasn't really an annual after all. The clematis looks very happy. It has already outgrown the height of the trellis.

I typically putter around the garden early in the morning. Next weekend, I'll be planting all of this year's annuals (with the help of my mother in law) and hopefully I'll get a few perennials and start making some progress on transforming the front yard per my plans.

Is there such a thing as a caulk fetish?

I think that everyone I know that reads this blog has asked me, "how is the bedroom going". 'Slowly", is my only response. I turned a corner, so to speak, this weekend and I now have a majority of the baseboard stripped. I have also been hunting around stores for some window stops so that I can begin stripping the window casing.

I need these because (hard core restoration folks, avert your eyes) I am seriously thinking of throwing away the ones currently on the windows. They are painted and would need stripping but worse, they are cracked and chipped all to hell. I intend on restoring the old windows but stripping all of these stops is just a bit much. I may not have a choice though - I have yet to find anything the right size - gotta love old homes.

This morning I pealed one stop off, to take with me to the hardware store. I made what is becoming my typical discovery in this house when I remove something - caulk. The previous owners must have had a caulk fetish - it is everywhere. When I took down the molding/rail at the ceiling, it was there, they had it at the toe molding too, I can't believe I didn't find it holding down the wall to wall carpeting I tore up last year. It is everywhere!!! Were they afraid of something getting in - were they getting infested, was there a draft??? I can't believe this stuff really helped. I have convinced myself that this was the only thing that the PO could do well so they did it a lot! I have images of this couple, their array of caulking guns, spending the weekends filling every crevice of this home with that wonderful white goo.

Enough with the caulk rant. I have finished the first three coats of plaster on the south wall of the bedroom and will begin working around the remaining walls. It will kill my mother in law, who is visiting in a couple weeks (and who reads this blog) to know that she will not be sleeping in a finished bedroom. Mom, you can now go scream.

It has been beautiful here the last couple of days so we decided to take advantage of it and "HGTV" (verb) our backyard. I gave myself a strict budget and a time limit and came up with something to dress up our garage. I believe we have the ugliest garage in the OP. It seems like almost everyone's garage looks like a cute garden cottage - even the small homes in my neighborhood have them. Unfortunately, ours is a mess. As part of our dress up, we spray painted our trellises and put them up against the garage wall. We planted clematis beneath them and put hanging baskets on the walls above them. If everything starts to grow it might look nice - for now, I am just glad it looks better than it did.

Everything is primed for my mother in law's visit. We have tons of empty containers, planting bed space, and a huge sink in the backyard waiting for plants. This will be nice - we didn't start planting flowers until July last year - maybe we will actually have things looking nice before the summer is over this year.