THE LIFE OF A FLOWER

I have been enjoying the garden so much the past few weeks. It's sort of a sweet time in the garden for me as most of the plants have done (or are doing) what they are going to do, the weeds, although ever present, don't have a lot of places to grow and, thanks to a lot of rain, everything is looking pretty good. In fact anything that's looking shabby got that way because of slugs, and that's just a given with rain.

So I've been doing a lot of something I rarely do: Sitting in the garden. Mr. Much More Patient and I seem more intent than ever to soak in these glorious summer days while we can. Several times during the week we have a glass of wine on the patio. This is pretty much a required activity on the weekend, but in previous years we've not done it much on weekdays. This has allowed me to spend more than two weeks watching the same flower, just a couple feet away from where we sit.

I grew 'Crichton Honey' dahlias for the first time last year and stored the tubers over winter. It's a short-growing ball-type dahlia that blooms in a range of colors from yellow and apricot to coral and pink. I wish that some of those planted farther back in the garden wouldn't have been ravaged so badly by slugs.

I started taking a quick snapshot of this particular flower when it was just breaking bud. It was the first time I noticed how beautiful an opening dahlia bud is, like a fiery pincushion. I have taken pictures of this same flower as it got bigger and changed.

The last photo was taken this morning. Its petals are getting tattered—I blame that on slugs as well–and started to turn brown underneath. I have to say it's been fascinating documenting it.

THIS YEAR'S MASTER SEED LIST

Since I started growing plants from seeds in earnest a few years ago the amount of plants I produce has increased almost exponentially. That is only problematic from a space standpoint. I plant or have homes waiting for all of the plants so none go to waste and I think my garden is better because of this exercise.

Tiny basil seedlings pop up giving hope for delicious herbs to come.  A few days past this stage I'll thin out two seedlings so just one is left in each soil block or cell.

Last year, as I spent every day after work tending to plants, watering, moving trays, transferring things from the growing area in the house to the temporary greenhouse I set up to grow on and harden off plants I swore I wouldn't grow so much from seed. You can guess how that turned out.

This year I'm growing more different plants than ever from seed, and an increasingly large number of flowers. I'm trying to limit the amount of each thing I grow (I don't really need 15 parsley plants) and made a conscious effort to add flowers that can easily be direct sown.

Here's what I'm growing from seed this year (links take you to the specific seeds I ordered):

Baby nasturtiums

VEGETABLES

• Peppers *
• Tomatoes (multiple varieties from several sources)
• Eggplant
• Kale
• Cucumbers (multiple varieties, multiple sources)
• Lettuce (multiple varieties, multiple sources)
• Peas
• Arugula
• Carrots (maybe)

HERBS

• Parsley
• Basil (multiple varieties)

FLOWERS/ORNAMENTAL

• Iceland poppies
• Foxglove
• Asclepsias
• Gomphrena
• Ageratum
• Castor beans
• Nicotiana
• Calendula
• Sweet Peas (multiple varieties)
• Ammi
• Night phlox
• Zinnias (multiple varieties)
• Lobelia
• Nasturtiums (multiple varieties)
• Spanish flag
• Flax
• Cosmos
• Amaranth
• Signet marigold
• Verbena bonariensis
• Plectranthus

* Some seeds from Renee's Garden Seeds were given to me free as part of a garden writers trial program.

When you're starting that many things from seed (and trust me, seeing the list in print makes me realize I've really gone overboard this year), you need a plan. And that's where my geek flag starts flying. I'm not a big spreadsheet person, but it's the only way I've figured to efficiently manage this seed-starting operation. I keep it pretty simple, using a combination of information from the back of seed packets, Annuals and Tender Plants for North American Gardens by Wayne Winterrowd (out of print but I found a used copy on Amazon) and online resources including Margaret Roach's seed starting calculator. 

Plants grown in soil blocks are ready to pot on or transplant when the roots are coming out the sides.

When I get a seed starting date (X number of weeks before the last frost), I count back from what I think will be our last frost. That part is a bit of a guessing game, but because in general things have been warmer than usual here (well they were until we got a foot of snow this week), I used the 50% frost free date, meaning based on past data, there is a 50-50 chance the risk of frost has passed for the year. This year that date is May 14.

Once I figure out dates, I include notes on germination requirements, how to plant the seeds, germination time and anything else that's necessary to know for the seed starting portion of growing. That way I don't have to look up each thing when I'm planting. Here's a copy of my spreadsheet that you can download. Keep in mind this isn't anything fancy and all of the timing is based on my frost free date of May 14. You'll have to adjust it for your date. 

I use large rolling shelving to start seeds on, making it easy to adjust the height of lights. In the off season the rack serves as storage in the basement.

Here's a list of equipment I use for seed starting. Keep in mind though, that these things are nice to have but not necessary. Seeds WANT to grow, so if you give them some warmth and light they should do their thing. You will, however, have a lot more success if you can optimize their growing conditions, which is where this stuff comes in handy. The links below are affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase I get a small commission. You pay the same either way. Thanks for your support!

For more information on how I start seeds, check out these articles:

• How to start seeds in soil blocks
• 5 steps to growing great plants from seed
• 5 flowers that are dead simple to grow from seed
• The one vegetable you must grow this year

What are you growing from seed this year?

NO MATTER THE FUSS, SWEET PEAS ARE WORTH IT

This spring I grew more flowers from seed than I ever have before. The process was incredibly rewarding and I feel like my garden looks better than it ever has, in part due to all the plants I produced from seed.

Among those flowers were sweet peas, which have a reputation for being a bit particular about their conditions. I tried multiple ways of starting them and will admit they seemed to require more nursing than a lot of other plants.

But I can confirm for you that whatever extra pains I took to grow them were worth it. They are gorgeous and their perfume wafts across the entire garden.

I picked a small bouquet of them the other day to bring inside. They are a treasure.

Yes, sweet peas will have a spot in my garden, no matter how fussy they are, for many years to come.

The Garden Appreciation Society

As I've mentioned in the past, I'm extremely tight with my flowers. I rarely cut them and bring them inside to enjoy. But on the rare occasion I do, I absolutely love seeing them displayed in the house.

Last year I went out before the first hard freeze and cut all the leftover flowers I could find. Without so much as a thought to arranging them, I threw them in a vase and stuck them on the table. Even though some were past their prime, it brought me immeasurable joy to see that little haphazard bouquet brightening up the kitchen.

I'm not the only gardener I know who does this. I was amazed how many people told me they do the same thing.

So here we are, this group of people who love our gardens so much that we spend countless hours (not to mention money) working in them and yet we get tight about allowing ourselves to enjoy the fruits of our labor in some of the places we spend the most time in.

Well I say enough is enough. Gardeners deserve to be surrounded by the beauty they create in spaces other than their gardens. And I refuse to believe that the beauty of a garden will be greatly diminished by moving just a tiny bit of that beauty somewhere else.

An Instagram picture of the last flowers cut from the garden last year. There is no rhyme or reason to this bouquet but it brought me immeasurable joy.

I give you the Garden Appreciation Society.

The idea is to appreciate our own gardens in different ways. To have a daily reminder of the bounty that our gardens provide. To catch a glint of beautiful color out of the corner of our eye while standing in the kitchen, or the bedroom or the living room. We all have plenty of flowers growing outside. OK, I  know that there is no such thing as too many flowers, but all of us can spare a bloom or two.

So I'm challenging you all, whether you are an experienced gardener with a yard full of beautiful flowers, a new gardener just figuring it all out or even a balcony gardener making the most of a small space, to appreciate your garden more this year.

A bouquet I whipped up three years ago after some delphiniums broke off. 

And here's how you're going to do that. Every week (or so) you are going to go out in the garden and cut a few flowers or interesting foliage and bring it in your house to display. It might be an extravagant bouquet, but it could just as easily be a single bloom, or even a lone hosta leaf. And then you're going to take a photo of it and link it up here.

It's not a flower design competition and it certainly isn't a photography competition (phones take perfectly good pictures). It's just about bringing in a little piece of your garden to enjoy inside.

I'll come up with a linky tool early next week. I hope to find one that can link to a blog or a Facebook page so if you don't have a blog (or don't want to put it on your blog), you can just put it on Facebook or Flickr or whatever and we can all see it. If it takes off I'll come up with prizes or something down the road, but for now we'll keep it simple.

So when you're out in the garden this weekend, enjoy the flowers, and then pick a few to enjoy inside.

Appreciate your garden.

What is the sound of spring springing? Sprong?

Funny how spring goes. One day you're belly-aching about the horrible weather and wishing you could  do more in the garden and then the next day you turn around and the garden has come alive, bringing with it all the good (flowers!) and bad (weeds!) bits.

Silly me, I was feeling pretty good after two weekends of garden cleanup. I had raked out most of the leaves, cut back any perennials that weren't dealt with in fall or late winter and spot weeded as necessary. The next step was to top dress everything with a nice layer of compost, a pile of which is waiting for me by the veggie garden.

And then last night as we were re-hanging bird feeders (which were displaced when we removed some trees), I looked around and saw that somewhere along the line, the garden had sprung to life. More daffodils had opened. Perennials are sending up shoots out of the ground. Spring ephemerals are popping up everywhere.

And the weeds. Oh my, the weeks. Dandelions the size of dinner plates are appearing overnight in the garden. I SWEAR they were not there on Sunday because certainly I would have pulled them. The first round of garlic mustard weed is threatening to flower already. I just want to tell the whole garden to just wait a cotton-pickin' second for me to catch up a little!

Instead of dealing with any of it last night though, I grabbed the camera to get a few "golden hour" shots of just what is happening.

The Virginia bluebells are thinking about flowering.

Bloodroot, one of my favorite spring ephemerals is popping up. I love everything about this plant. The leaf shape is amazing, the white flower is gorgeous and of course there are those red stems.

Is there a flower that is happier than a daffodil? I think not.

I planted a couple of new plants this weekend, including two Victoriae ferns. Looking at this photo I see that someone has already been taste-testing it on the right side. Seriously, is nothing sacred with deer?