Spoils of Seedy Saturday

* Cleome in pink, purple and white. Last year I got these as bedding plants, so it'll be interesting to see how seedlings compare.

* Phacelia Tanacetifolia. A very interesting-looking annual; package claims it's good for bees. From what I'm reading the foliage looks like something between ferns and yarrow.



* Poppies. Going crazy with these this year, apparently, because I picked up two more varieties - both self-seeding annuals:

English Elegance


Flanders Fields


* Malva Zebrina. Was it these or Lavatera that get super self-seedy-aggressive? Hmmm.



* Gigantor marigolds (aka CrackerJack Mixed). Last year these didn't germinate so well, but I think the seeds may have been old.

* Nice red hollyhocks. Where to put them?? Maybe in the front yard, at the back of the new bed? It will be nice and sunny there. Not that they'll bloom until next year anyway.



* Mixed Lupins. I hear mixed reports about these - that they're mad persnickety and unreliable from seed, and that they naturalize wildly. I gather they need very particular conditions, but that they go nuts when those conditions are met. Will have to check again.

Latest seed purchase, inspired by a tip from a gardening magazine: "Bright Lights" Swiss Chard.



Not that I have any idea how to cook with it, but isn't it awesomely colourful!

February, I hates you forEVARRRRRRRR.

To distract myself from how far away spring is, I went seed-shopping. The spoils:

* Parsley. I was surprised to learn from the package that this stuff is actually biennial, meaning last year's parsley will be back. Mom tells me, however, that it bolts in its second year - although it's okay if harvested early in the season, it still doesn't taste the same. So: new crop. At least the old stuff will be ornamental.

* Basil. Nom.

* Cilantro. Judging from the picture on the package this stuff is actually quite pretty in addition to being tasty.




* Poppies: "Paeony Scarlet" (annual), Californian Poppies (annual), and mixed oriental poppies (perennial).




* A cute ornamental grass called "Bunny's Tails", or lagurus ovatus.




* Blue fescue ornamental grass. I am going to have to do some more reading on this one, I've been warned it may be a thug. I suppose I could plant it in a container or something, anyway.




* Cerinthe "Purple Bells". An annual.




* Dianthus "Brilliancy".




* Coreopsis "Early Sunrise".




* Matthiola. This image is a lot prettier than I remember these things - to my memory they were pretty unremarkable, except for they smelled delicious (like lilacs but later in the summer). Possibly they needed more sun to actually look decent.

Walking down the bike path on Friday night, Corey and I took a little side-route that we'd seen but never actually used before, and in so doing we happened across the most beautiful garden. At my exclamations of delight, a passing gentleman told us that this was actually maintained not by the city but by a private individual living in a nearby condo.

I'm pretty sure some of the gorgeous plants I saw were mallows, which confirms that I need some in spite of their reputedly near-invasive self-seeding. There were also these gorgeous pink poppies everywhere. A google search suggests that they were actually opium poppies (papaver somniferum), another self-seeding annual.

In my googling I found this website - I don't think I share this person's passion for organic gardening, but I'm happy to buy from a local source. I also note mention of an event called "Seedy Saturday" that happens practically in our backyard - will have to keep an eye out for that next year!

I've also been thinking about shade plants, since I have acres of shady beds to fill. Leafing through a Fine Gardening magazine, I see repeated mentions of a Japanese forest grass, Hakonechloa macra, which makes for nice bright green foliage. I think I actually saw some in Kanata earlier this week but I wasn't sure of the latin name at the time and left it there, and now am kind of kicking myself. And fine, FINE, I will probably give in and get some hostas, but for the record it will be under duress. And I will only be bothered with the nice colourful ones.

Recent discoveries, notes, observations:
* The things I thought were geraniums, with the bright orange blood? They're not geraniums. I have no idea wtf they are; 99% sure they're a weed, though. Celandine, maybe? Anyway, they are EVERYWHERE, but not for long.
* Mowing the front lawn this morning, I found patches of what I think are daisies and yarrow growing in the middle of it. I am going to mow around them and see what they turn into.
* As sad and scraggly as said lawn is, it does look better for having been mowed. The backyard lawn, meanwhile, is so weed-ridden and generally lame that I can't find the motivation to bother.
* I posted before about the lovely purpleleaf sandcherry, which we wants, precioussss. As it turns out, it looks like we already have one in front of the front steps. Awesome! Pictures to come when it blooms.
* The front yard in general is actually looking not-half-bad at the moment. The hanging baskets full of mini-petunias I hung by the door certainly don't hurt, either.
* The probably-a-spirea looks a hundred times better with the dead wood mostly chopped out. As a bonus, this freed up a nice chunk of sunny dirt to weed and plant stuff in. After the thing blooms I will take out the remaining low-hanging branches, thus freeing up more dirt, and call it pruned for this year. Also, I ♥ my new bigass Lee Valley ratcheting pruners.
* Blaze climbing rose is already twice the height it was when I planted it. Eeeeexcellent.
* Something is eating the flower buds off my rhododendron...close inspection suggests insects. Grrrrrr. Dammit, City of Ottawa, I want my rotenone powder back! Well, at least the leaf spikes seem to be undamaged.

Patio Progress:
So the UsedOttawa vendor with the rocks is a private individual with, well, a lot of rocks on their land. I am going to go visit them on Tuesday, hopefully, to check that said rocks will be barefoot-friendly enough to use for my purposes. If they are, this will be an unbelievably kickass bargain, to the tune of saving me $2.50 per square foot, aka about $1000 when taxes and pickup vs. delivery are figured in. So needless to say I really hope this works out. The stones will not be as schmancy as the $3/sqft limestone variety, but I'm going for a rustic look anyway, so whatevah.

Brought my seedlings home from mom's place. Mixed results - no pinks, marigolds, jacob's ladder or astilbe. One single solitary delphinium. And one of the cats has just chowed down on the pampas grass, and then to add insult to injury, threw it up all over the floor. Siiiigh. Well, we'll see if they recover, it's not as if the stuff was likely to bloom the first year anyway.

The annual seedlings are doing well, though. Cosmos, asters, bachelor's buttons, and zinnias are all looking good. Need to assess what annuals to buy...after tomorrow's plant sale, I guess, so I know what space I have. Lots of begonias and double impatiens to fill the shady west bed, anyway. I would really like to track down some cleome, too, but have never yet seen it for sale. In any case, the prospect of being able to mess around with all the sunny annuals has me drooling. Although it would be very easy to spend a lot of money this way, so I will endeavour to use annuals only as punctuation and container plants.

Anyway, need to make dumplings, so my garden fantasies will have to wait. Till TOMORROW. Ahahahahahahaa!

I planted seeds!

TRAY 1:
Gigantor marigolds
Jacob's ladders
Mimulus
Astilbe
Canterbury bells
Pampas grass
Delphiniums

TRAY 2:
Parsley
Shasta daisies
Cupid's darts
Asters (white with blue fringe)
Zinnias
Cosmos
Bachelor's buttons

GROW MY PRETTIES, grow, grow! Ahahahahahaa!