[now this is a real entry]
This is a fake entry. I am not fond of draknet right about now. My database is in limbo. I can't add anything. I have no time to deal with it. So updates will be scarce until I get it fixed.
Now for nothing special.
I was startled by a mouse in the kitchen this morning and silly kitty didn't even notice - didn't even smell it. Oh well, he's old. We know we have an occasional visitor now and then and they often get caught by the traps, but until this morning, I never knew they'd come out when people were about. At least I frightened it as well.
Still, We need to figure out a way to plug up the holes - time for foam insulation, I guess. I am tired of these mice.
(Garden Journal follows)
Meanwhile, we had particularly lovely weekend weather - high 70s! - so I spent most of Saturday and Sunday preparing for Spring. I purchased a mini greenhouse (more of a greenhouse bookshelf, really) and began working on my container garden. I thought everything had died because I didn't prepare any of the plants for winter and have watered them once since November. Plus, it hasn't snowed enough to either insulate the plants or provide water.
But lo and behold, out of all the containers I have, only one shows no new growth. That one, alas, is a rose bush (either kaleidoscope or victorian spice) but I'm not very surprised as it struggled all last year as well. So the artemesias are all coming back (yay!) as are the hellebores, roses, vinca (I think that's what the mystery plant is?), mums, delphinium, catmint/nepeta and violas or pansies. The 1300 or so bulbs that I had planted in the last 2 years are coming up en force (the fritillaria persica and imperialis/lutea are already a foot tall!), although something has been digging up part of our lawn and that same thing has been in and out of my plant pots and flowerbeds looking for grubs. We suspect racoon or opossum but haven't yet caught a view of the nocturnal critter.
After cutting back all the container plants and remulching to protect them from the cold snap this week, I turned to what I thought was a pot of soil (I'd had something in it like lily of the Valley or hosta but it had died last Summer). So I start digging out the dirt, mixing it up so I could plant something else in the pot when I realize that something's roots are holding on and something is growing. So I don't know what is growing but I'm wondering if it's the peony that I thought died before I planted the hostas or lily of the valley in that pot? Or maybe it's hosta? Seems too large for lily otv. I'm hoping for peony because, much as they are popular, I am pretty ambivalent about hostas. I was growing them because my mother in law gave me some of hers and I figured that a few of them might come in handy since they like the hot weather that wilts some of my other plants.
So then I turned my attention to the flowerbeds. The one in back is long and pretty ugly, still, but I have some plants starting to nicely establish themselves (besides the 1000 bulbs, that is). The honeysuckle bush is doing well, the shrub rose is hardy (wild spice) and should do well again, the salvia is starting to grow back (finally) after suffering a lot from the slugs last year, and the foxgloves are not dead. The gueniviere rose is doing quite well, as is the rose from hell (we inherited this very aggressive rambler with a profusion of red blooms/no smell). I've been trying to kill the rose from hell but it keeps coming back. I can't budge it, so I cut every cane off down to the rootball top, dug a one foot hole around it to expose all the root I could and let it sit out the winter exposed. And what do you know? It's starting to grow again. I'm going to have to poison it. I wanted to pull it up and give it to someone who needs an aggressive rambler to discourage people from clamboring over her property, but I just can't get it out. sigh. It's also the most thorny rose I have ever encoutered.
Also in that bed are the nigra hollyhocks, a nice-sized clump of maidenhair grass, and snapdragons. Oh, and balloon flowers. They never emerge until June, though, just when I figure them for dead. I have some in containers, too. I think the lavender is gone. Time for more! I am thinking of digging up everything that is not a rose in that bed (besides the honeysuckle bush) and moving them to another area. Then I can plant more roses and make the whole bed rose bushes. They would get the right amount of sun, shade, water and dryness there. I have to plant four from last year (tropicana, angel face, victorian spice and kaleidoscope) and three that I just bought (sterling silver, disneyland, and honey perfume).
The passionflower and carolina jessamine vines seem to be doing ok. The jasmine plant wintered indoors this last winter and is ready for replanting. Other plants that overwintered in the kitchen window are nasturtium, cinnamon basil, provencal thyme, peppermint (now sharing a container with spearmint), lambs ear, tender lavender, and dusty miller. The other plants are all pretty much house plants (orchid, rubber plant, schefflera (arboricola), aloes, and zi zi).
New Plants
Along with the roses, I purchased two more hellebores, two different kinds of artemesia, a spearmint plant, and seed starting supplies. Oh, and another mini greenhouse on Sunday, as my first one is currently housing the new roses, hellebores, and artemesia plus the older balloon flowers and lumina pumpkin seeds. The second mini greenhouse has flats that will hopefully yield lemon balm, cilantro, marrow, nicotiana, woodland nicotiana, scallions and poppies. Plus the two mums from last fall. Inside, I started 4 caladiums and two cannas.
So far, all I have left to plant are the nigella and lily of the valley (new). But I'm still looking for some other plants, so there will be more to do!
Hopefully I will be able to find black elephant ear taro, imperial taro illustris, butterfly ginger, carolina allspice, mock orange, black or blue bamboo (clumping, not running) and purple ornamental pepper.
Later: I heard the news. Spalding Gray's body was found in the river.
( 05:07 EH | she's crafty. )