Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Waning Moon Third Quarter Leo
Mars Retrograde
Saturn Retrograde
Sunny and cold

My calendar had Sunday the 5th designated as a planting day. It’s a little too cold to put anything outside, in spite of the mild winter, but I’m itching to get started and see things grow.

So I repotted.

I planted some lemon seeds I’d had sprouting in a window sill, but the rest of it was getting plants in quarters too tight for their comfort out of them and into better ones. They’re pretty darn happy now, ready to stretch and breathe and enjoy a bit of room for their roots.

The introductory package from the Arbor Day Foundation came. I’d sent in a donation, and in return, I’m getting 10 trees and 2 bushes. I thought they’d be tiny — sort of the way I thought the Huckleberry would be a real bush instead of a twig. However, I seem to have gotten it backwards this time. These will be saplings, but pretty sturdy ones.

So THAT will be an adventure.

The birds already sing me awake in the mornings, and, in spite of the cold, you can smell the change of season.

Devon

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Waxing Moon Second Quarter in Taurus/Gemini
Mars Retrograde
Celtic Tree Month of Rowan
Cloudy and mild

The weather’s been totally wacky this year; way too warm. While my bank account is grateful, in terms of the heating bill, I’m worried about my plants. Was it cold enough for the tulips, or will all 125 that I planted (on time, for once) last fall — my very first attempt at tulip-ing — rot? The barrel of heather is blooming beautifully — will it wear itself out before spring? The forsythia and lilac have buds — but my witch hazel hasn’t popped yet.

I’d hoped, since the weather is mild, that it would also be sunny today and I could get outside and do some more yard clean-up. The front’s in good shape, but the back needs work. So far, though, it’s drizzling, which means there’s not a whole lot I can do. I figure if I do a little bit every nice day, by the time it’s warm enough to really plant and tackle things, I’ll be in good shape.

I’m going through the garden books and magazines and the designs, dreaming big dreams. Then, I have to scale them down so they make sense in my life!

I have a lot of seeds, so I’m okay in the seed department. I’ll buy a lot of the herbs in 4” pots to start, instead of doing them from seed. I’ve got some repotting to do today, and, in the spirit of it being Imbolc Eve, I’m planting some lemon seeds from a zested, juiced lemon. I’ve got a lovely tangerine plant started the same way.

This year, I’m going to start the moonflowers and morning glories inside first, then transplant them up the big wagon wheel at the side of the house. Last year, I put them directly into the ground — not realizing there were hostas there, who popped up and didn’t give them enough sunlight! Plus, I think my seeds were too old. This year, fresh seeds, start indoors — in March, I will probably set up the grow light and a seed table in the back room to get things started.

The Elsa Memorial Orchid has two new shoots! I’m very excited. As long as I leave that plant alone, it’s happy. I get the hint. For those of you new to the blog, the Elsa Memorial Orchid was sent to me by a group of friends when my beloved Elsa died shortly before the move to the Cape. It blooms beautifully at least once a year, sometimes twice, and the agreement is that it will keep blooming as long as I don’t try to “help” too much. Message received.

I’m looking forward to a deck and an expanded back area full of plants this summer, especially more medicinal herbs. I’m thinking about getting some clematis or American wisteria to grow up the sides of the deck, like a natural privacy screen. But I don’t want the deck to feel closed in. The roof is so wonderful, it’s nice to have the breeze coming through. The big lilac in the ground and my neighbor’s hydrangeas work well on that side. It’s just on the other side that we need a bit more coverage.

Devon

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Waning Moon Fourth Quarter in Scorpio
No Retrogrades
Celtic Tree Month of Birch

I ran into an acquaintance-on-the-road-to-becoming-a-friend a few weeks ago at a music event. She asked why I stopped writing the blog, because she enjoyed reading it! So, here I am!

My heather’s blooming, out front, in the barrel. It looks lovely, but

Learning how to maintain a garden was a little overwhelming for me last year. All in all, although I won’t win any prizes, I learned a lot, I had a LOT of fun, and there were great times. The Black King eggplant (who lived in the house until a spider mite kerflamma) grew to be nearly six feet tall and spat eggplants at us until nearly Thanksgiving; the tomatoes were put in late, so it was nearly Thanksgiving before we got any, but I’d pulled them in and put them under a grow light in the back bedroom — so we had tomatoes. It was too wet for the pumpkins, and they died, which was disappointing. The cucumbers would have been great, but the squirrels hollowed them out and left the rinds; the green peppers were good. The salad greens were amazing.

Supposedly, anyone on the planet can grow a radish. Not me.

Win some, lose some.

While I’m glad I don’t have to live through the winter on the harvest, it wasn’t bad for a first time out.

The culinary herbs did well, and I need to add some more medicinals in this year. The lavender was kind of hit and miss. I’d been told lavender is easy, but I must not have given it what it needs. Some of the plants are dormant now, cut back, so we’ll see what happens in spring. In fact, I have a whole section of the garage with dormant, cut-back perennials.

I bought a witch hazel tree from Country Gardens. I absolutely adore it. It was beautiful all summer, it turned lovely colors in fall. It wants to bud, but hasn’t yet.

My Blue Prince and Princess hollies are doing very well. I also dug up another holly from a difficult place in the yard and stuck it in a pot. It’s doing well, too. From this past Holly Walk at Ashumet, where we get to take branches, I took some of the Goldie berries and planted them — hoping something will come up. I’d love to have a holly that can trace back its lineage to Ashumet, which is one of my favorite places on the planet.

The Boomerang Lilac is still on the back deck, along with the hollies and the witch hazel. I pulled them back, to protect them from the harshest weather, but they’re out there on the deck and seem happy. It looks like the Boomerang will have some nice buds in spring.

The strawberries gave us a small harvest over the summer, but a second, much larger one in fall. We had strawberries for breakfast for weeks up until late October. And they were delicious. They’re cut back and resting, so hopefully they will be even more productive and delicious this year. The kitten (Tessa) doesn’t each much people food, but she does like to pick her own strawberries from the plants and eat them.

The plants from Territorial Seed Company did not do well, other than Black King eggplant (which was magnificent). The Peppermint Ice Hellebore (the most expensive) was unhappy (it’s struggling, but unhappy), the Huckleberry is struggling, and everything else died. Well, the Lemon Verbena arrived nearly dead, but that was simply ignored. I may buy the Black King from them again, but . . .moving on.

Eden Brothers seeds did pretty well, and the locally bought seeds were fine, too. Johnny’s, as usual, worked the best for me. The bulk of my purchases this year will either be from Johnny’s or from the local shops.

I’m sitting down and planning for planting season. I want (and need) more herbs. It makes more sense to buy them as small plants locally than start them from seed. I hope the rosemary comes back, and some of the others. I want more different varieties of thymes and basils. The Feverfew did well — this year I have to harvest it, instead of just oohing and aahing about how pretty it is. The Echinacea did NOT do well, so I’ll give that another go. I want to add chamomile and dill to the mix, and I need tansy, rue, and pennyroyal. I’d like to expand to coltsfood and horehound, but don’t know if I can this year. I use both herbs a lot in cough and cold mixtures.

Vegetable-wise, I’ll put some things in the bed as last year, and others in pots that will line up on the ground below the terraced area in the back. It gets a lot of sun. I need to grown the Asian vegetables I like to use in cooking, and have a hard time finding.

I’m going to start tomatoes earlier, and go with locally-started plants instead of trying to do everything from seed. There will also be more marigolds, and they’ll be EVERYWHERE. Cucumbers, eggplants, zucchini, peppers — hey, a girl’s gotta have enough for ratatouille, right? And cucumber sandwiches. I want to try some lettuces, cabbages, spinach, and peas. I like the IDEA of corn and beans, but don’t know if I’m actually ready to deal with them. I will try pumpkins again.

My questions for planning the season are:

–what do I use most in cooking, and like best?
–can it grow here?
–what herbs do I use and need most?
–can it grow in a pot?

And then, it’s just trial and error.

I wasn’t as dedicated to good note-keeping last year as I should have been. I kept buying plants and not making up sheets for them or noting when they were replanted or died. I have to be better about that this year.

I am an azalea and rhodie convert, and I even fell for the hostas, once they were up. When we first moved here, I did not understand the love of hosta — to me they looked icky and wilted when I cut them back. Then, they came up in spring and summer and were gorgeous. I can’t wait for the Stewartsonian Azalea I bought last year to start blooming again. It seems very happy in its barrel.

I want more pansies this year, and more petunias. The petunias looked lovely with the coleus and the dusty miller in the urns out front. The mums were a little disappointing — the orange, which I loved, where the quickest to fade. Some of the deep reds and the yellows stayed much longer. We will see if they are annuals or perennials. I was told if I got them into the ground quickly, they’d be perennials. Some went into the border in the front, some stayed in pots, so we’ll see. The cosmos looked lovely, so hopefully they’ll come up well this year (I’ll plant more), and I plan to put the poppies in early enough so they can actually come up.

I planted 125 tulips in the fall — a true red, a white, a red-and-yellow (Carmen Del Rio), a yellow and maroon, and a maroon (Queen of the Night). I’m concerned, with the temperate weather, that they’ll get confused and come up before it’s time.

The Arbor Day Foundation is sending me ten trees and two flowering shrubs, so getting those situated (in pots — this is a rental) will take up some time.

The peace lily which was bought for last year’s Twelfth Night party is huge and gorgeous. The small roses are struggling — I think the spider mite plague was more than they could survive. Last year’s primrose is doing well. I bought three more small ones for this year’s party — they’re not as happy. I’m not sure if they need replanting, or were just forced too early or what. We’ll see how they fare.

I want to schedule my time better. Now that I know the garden needs more time, I want to schedule my writing day so that the writing and the garden both get what they need.

Really, this is the best time of year, garden-wise, because anything is possible!

Devon

Wednesday, June 1, 2011
New Moon in Gemini
Solar Eclipse at 5:16 PM
Saturn Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Celtic Tree Month of Hawthorn
Sunny and pleasant

What a busy time! First, Spring dragged its feet getting here; now, everything needs to be done at once!

I can’t keep up deadheading the rhododendron; there are too many, and it’s too time-intensive. I just do as much as I can each day that I can, and that will have to do.

I still have not found my mowing Zen, although I’m getting better at the physical aspects of it. And wrestling with that heavy mower means no jiggly arms — they are toned for summer tank tops! Look for the bright side, right?

The back meadow looks awesome when it’s mown!

The irises are starting to bloom! Iris is my favorite flower — heck, I even have a cat named Iris! However, the Very Expensive Iris I bought from White Flower Farm — the Moonsilk, black, and SuperEgo — not much happening there. The black iris vanished, the Moonsilk is dying, and the SuperEgo — not sure what’s going on there. Disappointing.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned this year — get everything locally. The local growers have to deal with you because we live and work alongside each other, so they are going to make sure they sell you something that won’t keel over in ten minutes!

The herbs I bought as plants and repotted are doing well. The lobelia is not coming up in the urn, so I will get some flowers, such as petunias or geraniums (the pelagorums, probably, not the cranesbill) and fill the urn with that. An empty urn out front just looks sad.

The yarrow and echinacea are starting to sprout, so there’s hope. I think I have a pair of male hollies, rather than a male and a female, as they were sold. We’ll find out — if Princess has berries, I’ve got the mixed set; otherwise . . .

I’m madly in love with my witch hazel plant, and need to repot the small lilac. The big limb that broke off my in-ground lilac, which the nursery said would quickly die, is thriving in its bucket of water, so I plan to enjoy it for as long as possible.

Most of the vegetables are in the veggie bed — I hope they survive and thrive. The tomatoes still need to grow a bit stronger before I plant them, but the pots are already prepared, with marigolds and basil.

The strawberries are blossoming like crazy, so maybe we will have some strawberries, even if they’re late.

I love going out every early morning, tending the garden, and then sitting with my morning coffee. The squirrel still races next door, takes two leaves of something, and comes back. He’s checked out my veggie bed, but left it alone. He came right up to the deck yesterday, while I ate lunch, and I tossed him a blueberry. He caught it and dashed off.

I named the woodpecker Carlos, and we have a little morning and evening ritual, where he’s at work, I call to him, he comes and stares at me, then goes back to work. The seven crows in the front leave the owl in the back alone, but they mobbed a hawk that tried to invade the territory the other day. They also tell me when the mailman’s here. Gossipy little things, aren’t they?

I’m in a battle with ants, who’ve pockmarked the front lawn to an alarming extent. I was told I could get rid of them by pouring boiling water down the holes, which seems cruel, but I don’t know what else to do. However, it also kills the grass. I have to call the owner and have him deal with it — that’s why I’m a renter!

The poppies and the morning glories didn’t come up — I waited too long to plant them. I should have started them inside — I’ll know for next year.

I love to sit on the deck in the evenings, with a glass of wine, reading a book, or just sitting there, listening. There’s a lot to which to listen.

Devon

Saturday, May 21, 2011
Waning Moon in Capricorn
Saturn Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Celtic Tree Month of Hawthorn
Foggy and cool

This is what a witch hazel looks like. This is when it’s not in bloom. I hear that when it blooms, the leaves fall off, and there are just white blooms, but I haven’t yet experienced it.

When things start to pop here, they really start to pop! The trees are finally in bud, the lilacs are blooming, rhododendron and azalea are blooming, things look beautiful.

My Black King Eggplant is enormous — the leaves are about 12” long. It got its first flower that’s preparing an eggplant, so that’s all good. The little Nadia eggplants are tiny, but I think will be ready to transplant to the vegetable bed next weekend.

The pumpkin vines are enormous and gorgeous. I hope they can hang on one more week until I can get them into the ground. The cucumbers are coming up, the marigolds are coming up. The green peppers haven’t come up. Neither have the morning glories or the moonflowers, outside. I may have put them in too early, and I may need to start some more inside and transplant.

The male holly is blooming and growing; the female still sulks. Strawberry-wise, the one plant inside is blooming, and the three big pots outside look like they’re preparing to bloom. Things are later here than usual, but that’s okay.

The huckleberry is happy. I think it’ll be a few years until I get any berries, but that’s okay. It’s a cute little plant.

I have two ENORMOUS beds of lily-of-the-valley around the house. One is in no-man’s land, between this house and the house on the left. It’s about eight feet long and four or five feet wide. The other is in the back bed, along the tree line at the back of the property, where all the lilies and extra hostas are. That one, too, is huge. They’re beautiful, and what a lovely, unexpected gift!

I’m starting to understand the hosta love around here. Now that they’re actually coming up and growing, they’re pretty darn lovely! The shape of the plant and the leaf shape, and the variegated colors do add a lot to the garden.

I also found some ferns unfolding! So many surprises! I get up every morning wondering what new plants I’ll discover.

Purslane is growing in my vegetable bed, even though I didn’t plant it. I may have to move it, once I put in the other vegetables.

The catmint I planted in the terraced border is starting to bloom. The stonecrop is naturalizing well. Most of the silver mound artemisia is also doing well — I love its texture. I always wind up petting it! It’s soft as a cat.

I put in some poppy seeds yesterday, and planted lobelia seeds in an urn in the front yard, along with moving some big pots to one side of the driveway.

If the weather clears up a bit, I have to mow the back meadow today, and then I want to set out the English garden carpet out in no man’s land, given to me by Costume Imp, so that can start rooting. I think it’s warm enough to do so.

It’s so wonderful to sit outside in the early mornings and in the evenings and listen to the yard. I am so lucky and so grateful.

Saturday, April 30, 2011
Waning Moon 4th Quarter in Aries
Saturn Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Celtic Tree Month of Willow
Scheduled to post

I’m scheduling this to post, because I’m out the door early to volunteer at a local wildlife sanctuary to help plant a butterfly garden. I’ll have lots to tell next week.

I feel like I’m falling behind; can’t keep up. I’m going to use the lawn mower for the first time this weekend — my yard is starting to look like a hayfield. I pulled up lots of dandelions the other day, and it seems two more came up for every one I pulled!

The back bed just overwhelms me — it will take me weeks to clean it out, weeks to rake and mulch under the trees, weeks to clean up the section between this house and one of the neighbors. I’m doing as much as I can every day that it’s not raining, but I have deadlines — I can’t blow a book contract in order to rake. Or I won’t be able to pay the rent and live here.

I feel very behind compared to the neighbors, but I have to remember that the garden is a work-in-progress, and I’m not just doing my work, I’m catching up on what was left undone by previous tenants.

On a happier note, the Black King Eggplant is huge; the India eggplants are starting to sprout; the zucchini have started to sprout. The foxglove sprouts are so tiny — amazing that some of those stalks will eventually grow to be seven feet tall!

The lilac bush has arrived, and is preparing to bloom. The huckleberry is much smaller than I expected — a huckleberry sprig rather than a huckleberry bush — but it’s adorable.

The pumpkins are doing well, and the strawberries are thriving out on the deck. The borage is large enough so, once I can replace the dinner plate I’ve got under the pot with the proper saucer, I can put it on the deck to protect the strawberries.

There’s a lot to be joyful about; I just feel like I’m constantly behind.

Devon

No photos today; sorry. I’ve got to take some more and upload some more.

Things are blooming in the terraced border — not quite sure what they are, but they’re pretty. The magenta azalea continues to bloom, the daffodils and hyacinths are gorgeous. My neighbor’s tulips are lovely.

Much to my surprise, the strawberry plants are doing well. They like being out on the deck.

The hollies need to be replanted, though; that mucky earth is hurting them, not supporting them. That’s a task for me to do this weekend.

The Black King Eggplant is huge; the others have yet to germinate. The pumpkins are doing well, and the zucchini are just starting to come up.

I hope, within the next week, to finish prepping the vegetable bed, and maybe, next week, starting some mixed greens and some radishes directly in the bed. I’m still trying to figure out if I should buy marigolds already up or grow them from seed. Probably the former — they’ll offer more protection.

There are certain places on the property where I’m just going to sprinkle some annuals and see what happens. Yeah, I know, I’m supposed to use graph paper and do all this intricate planning. But I’m learning what’s already here, and filling in as I go. There’s only so much I can learn from other people. The rest has to be trail and error.

I’ve got to call the Master Gardener Hotline — the previous tenants didn’t prune the lilac last year, so there are dead patches on it. I need to know if I can prune it now, or if I have to wait for the first bloom to prune all of it.

My boomerang lilac shipped yesterday, and the huckleberry bush is on its way, so I’ve got arrivals to look forward to!

With any luck, the weather will clear up and bit and I can get more work done on the back bed. My neighbors are out every minute it’s not actually raining. I’ve got to finish my contracted work first, and then I can go out and putter in the garden!

Devon

Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Waning moon third quarter in Scorpio
Saturn Retrograde
Mercury Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Celtic Tree Month of Willow

Saturday was pretty exciting. First of all, the tiniest of green shoots started coming up from the chamomile — very exciting! So petite and delicate.

If you know what kind of bush this is, at the top of the post and here, would you tell me? It’s lovely and blooming, but I can’t figure it out, and therefore don’t know how to take care of it.

Then, a box from White Flower Farm arrived with my three Siberian Iris plants. I have one called “Chyrsographes black-flowered”, which is black shot through with tiny strands of yellow. The other is “Moonsilk” — a buttery yellow that reminds me of banana cream pudding filling, which compliments the yellow in the black -flowered iris, and “Super Ego” a lovely variegated pale blue and white with dark streaks that will also compliment the black.

White Flower Farms ships bulbs cosseted in shredded newspaper

Monday was finally a nice, seasonable day, and, according to my lunar calendar, a planting day. I ran around to get more potting soil and organic garden soil. I visited several stores and was inspired to do a more layered and complex design for the front than I originally planned — instead of just a long row of pansies along the front, I think I’ll also put in some English daisies and candytuft. I’d never particularly thought about candytuft one way or the other when I saw photos. However, when I saw it in person, I was enchanted. The heathers also fascinate me — I want to buy one of those whiskey barrel things and plant it full of heather for the front yard.

I bought my two little holly trees — a Blue Prince and a Blue Princess — ilex x meserveae –so they can pollinate. I love the dark, shiny, blue-green leaves. Travelled to another store and got a good deal on pots for them, too — although I had to point out that the clerk charged me for three pots when I’d only bought two, and we had to do a big return thing.

Some of my lovely plants needed seriously repotting already. The two Racer pumpkins that germinated are growing rapidly, so I put them into a shared pot. Hopefully, it’s big enough to keep them happy until I can put them into the ground in about six weeks. I had to replant the thyme, curry, and chocolate mint, which already outgrew the pots I put them in a month ago, although the chocolate mint isn’t growing as quickly as mints usually do. I repotted the catmint, which is growing beautifully, and the Big King eggplant, which is HUGE. I put it into the pot I hope it will live in all summer, but I’m starting to have doubts. I may have to get an even bigger pot for it. Or maybe I will put it in the ground, and let it lead the Nadia eggplants. I started the Nadia eggplants, the zucchini, and the foxgloves that I plan to keep in containers. I may sprinkle some foxglove, hollyhock, and delphinium seeds in the front of the house, so we get some height. The baby bushes planted just before we rented the place just sit there and look bewildered. They need some company.

Black King Eggplant keeps growing

I’d picked up a different kind of potting soil, that’s supposed to be great. I HATE IT. It’s so wet and mucky that I’m afraid it will cause the roots of the iris and the hollies (which is what I planted in them) to rot, in spite of pots with good drainage. It was like handling mud. I’ll keep a close eye on the plants; if they look like they’re struggling, I’ll get a different type of soil and switch them out. It would break my heart if I killed the hollies or the iris because I made a poor choice in potting soil. I mixed in the bonemeal for the iris, as directed, so, hopefully, that will help.

I cleaned up most of the front — got the rest of the leaves from overwintering out of the front beds. Revealed some sort of tiny lizard near the house — gave him back some of his leaves, so I didn’t destroy his home, poor little thing. Cleaned up around some of the bushes in front, and the rocks-with-tiny-plants flanking the driveway. Fed everything. I didn’t have enough organic soil to re-bed everything, so I set most of it around the baby bushes, and put the rest in the border behind the house. Once I’ve put plants in around the bushes and seeds down, I will mulch the front. I HATE mulch — I hate the way it looks, I hate the texture, it always looks like corporate landscaping to me. Strip malls and industrial parks have a few twigs and bushes here and there and huge swaths of mulch in between them. I hate it. But, I do understand that it’s necessary, and, once the plants are big enough, I guess I’ll be forced to do it.

I want to plant more at the bottom of the driveway, to make it more of an entrance, and I want to plant a tub of heather in front of the twin oaks.

Unfortunately, I’m at budget now, so I have to wait a couple of weeks until more money comes in.

On Tuesday, much to my shock, the strawberry plants arrived — I wasn’t expecting them until mid-May. I’ve got no place to put them, and I can’t place them outside yet, due to the night cold, so I’m a bit flummoxed.

Tuesday, however, is when the forsythia burst forth in bloom, and they’re lovely. Forsythia is such a cheerful plant! I adore them.

We picked some daffodils on Monday, and placed them into a small vase. They’re thriving inside, and it’s fun to have flowers cut from our own garden (even if we didn’t plant these bulbs).

Yesterday and today are rather rainy and gloomy, so not much can be done outside. Tomorrow’s supposed to dry up and bit and get sunny, so I hope I can clean out at least one of the big back beds, and maybe start on the side beds.

I hope, soon, it’ll be warm enough to put a few plants in the ground out front, and add some catmint, lavender, and maybe a little thyme to the terraced border in the back.

I love going out every morning with my coffee and listening to the garden. And I love to take a glass of wine out there at the end of my writing day and see what’s happened during the day.

Devon

Forsythia earlier in the week, just starting to bloom. They really popped yesterday.

Saturday, April 16, 2011
Waxing Moon second quarter in Virgo
Saturn Retrograde
Mercury Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Celtic Tree Month of Alder
Sunny and cold

I love sitting outside in the mornings. I feed the cats, take my coffee, and sit outside for about twenty or thirty minutes, listening to the garden.

More and more birds are migrating back. I’ll have to get a Petersen or Audubon guide to learn what they are. I’ve never heard some of those songs before.

The owl in the back usually wakes me up, just before dawn. I love owls, and I’m pleased we have one in the vicinity. The neighbor’s pine has a nest high up in it, so perhaps that’s where he’s staying. I’m not sure which kind of owl he is, but from his call and the nest, I’d think it’s a Great Horned.

The songbirds and other birds fill in as I sit there, and there’s a spring robin jaunting around the grass, getting his breakfast. Before I moved here, I didn’t even know that there were spring robins and winter robins.

The blue jay zooms past, yelling at the top of his lungs, because, of course, it’s all about HIM. I know most people think blue jays are pests, but I’ve always had a soft spot for them. They’re scrappy and stubborn and independent. And the blue coloring is so intense and lovely, much more vivid than anything artificially created.

The crows stay out of the back. There’s a group of seven who visit the front lawn every morning, usually a few minutes after I sit down to work. They wander the yard, peering at the windows, and give me the news of the neighborhood, then go off on their rounds. They come back and hang out in the neighborhood, though, and let me know if someone is coming. They seem to know the difference between people who live on the street and “intruders”, and only call out if a non-resident approaches.

I learned, at the various wildlife seminars, that crows mob owls and hawks, but, for some reason, My Mob of Seven seem to have a truce with the Backyard Owl. The crows stay out of the back, the owl stays out of the front, so they’ve worked out some sort of a deal.

This morning, the jays had a fit because a hawk was just outside of the property, circling, looking for some breakfast. The crows came racing around the side of the property, mobbed him, and chased him off. What was interesting was that they kept whatever truce lines they’ve drawn with Backyard Owl, not crossing through the backyard, but going around it, to get to the intruding hawk.

I’m going to start some more seeds on Monday, the next planting day. Some of them, I’ll start in seed pots, and some I’ll start in the pots I plant to put outside. My dilemma is that, in all the design books, the advice demands mixing as many different plants as possible in each pot for a lush, abundant look. However, I feel that, since I’m so new to all of this, that I should start them separately — a pot of chamomile, a pot of lemon balm, a pot of lobelia, etc. Then, as they grow and I’m more familiar with them, I can figure out what to mix and match, dig some out of some pots, put them with compatible, pretty plants in other pots, etc.

The Racer pumpkin that came up a few days ago is getting big, and the second one which came up is racing to catch up. The Chucky pumpkins are growing at a much more sedate rate.

The Lemon Verbena didn’t make it, unfortunately; it was too traumatized during the shipping process.

I heard from White Flower Farm that they’ve shipped my iris plants — iris are among my favorite flower, so I’m excited.

I like roses when other people take care of them — they seem like an awful lot of work — but some of the shrub roses I’m reading about look rather intriguing. I remember there used to be a special type of climber specific to the Cape, but maybe I’ll see more of it in June. The stores are carrying the “hybrid tea” roses, which , as I say, are pretty in OTHER people’s gardens, but I’m not up for the work.

I love sitting on the porch in the mornings, letting the yard talk to me. I learn something new every day, and, hopefully, the garden will teach me what it needs.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Waxing Moon First Quarter in Taurus
Saturn Retrograde
Mercury Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Rainy and cool
Celtic Tree Month of Alder

We’ve got a thunderstorm going with lots of rain. That’s a good thing — the ground needed it. All these plants trying to come up need a good, long drink. The Cape has rollicking good thunder storms — one boomer was so loud some of the little Easter decorations in the west window fell right out.

I’m changing my morning routine to allow myself twenty or thirty minutes to sit outside and listen to the yard before I start my first writing session of the day. It makes a huge difference. The birds chatter with the latest news, I can hear the trees rustling in the wind. I can just BE, and learn the garden and what it needs. I can read all the books I want, get more advice than I can handle, but I think, ultimately, I have to let the garden itself tell me what it needs.

People around here are mad for hostas, and I have to say, so far, I’m not feeling the love. Probably because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with last year’s faded leaves — should I have cut them back in fall? Should I cut them back now? Because I will NOT be happy if I see slugs in the yard. I have a feeling a call to the MA Master Gardner hotline is in order.

Inside, I repotted some plants on Monday (by my astrological calendar, a planting day). I started the chamomile and the lemon balm (inside). I put in the wildflower paper that I got from the Tower Hill Botanical Garden exhibit, and we’ll see what comes up.

Racer pumpkin

One of the Racer pumpkin vines has come up, and it’s living up to its name, doubling in size every day. I may have to pot it before it goes outside. The starter pots are biodegradable, so one doesn’t have to disturb the plant, but I don’t think this little guy will wait that long. Three of the Chucky pumpkins have germinated, too, but they’re growing more slowly. The Big King eggplant is getting enormous. I decided that I will keep it in a large pot, rather than putting it in the bed with the other eggplants. I want to keep it separate and see how it does.

I’ve got patio furniture now, so I can sit and enjoy the outdoors. Yesterday was even mild enough to eat lunch out there, until the temperatures dropped again. I hope it will dry up enough in the next few days, so I can get the extra sand out of the vegetable bed and put down more soil.

Now, not only do I have my eye on a pair of Blue hollies, but there’s a golden one that caught my eye, too. I don’t know whether it’s a male or a female, but, if I get the pair of blues, I don’t think it will matter. I’ll find out, won’t I? Because I am obsessed with hollies.

Devon