My parents spent the past week visiting and brought with them blissful, sunny weather. I didn’t do a lot of gardening while they were here but did spend some time here and there while the girls played and played and played. Plus, my dad and I did attack the monstrous shrubs at the front of our house. They look a tad sorry right now with their new haircuts but in the long run, they’ll look much better. I’m not a shrub gardener so they’ve gone a little wild.
The day that my mom and dad left the forecast was rain so I decided to race it to get a bunch of plants and seeds in the ground.
Last fall, I prepped a hugelkultur (hill mound) bed and I’ve had strawberries in mind for it. I put 25 strawberry plugs in with a row of spinach that peeked out within three days.
I noticed yesterday that after the rain, my little strawberry plants have been joined by these little mushrooms. I assume they must have been in some of the compost that I used last fall and unfortunately I don’t think they are edible. What to do?
We noticed that our little patch of peas, spinach, and radishes is coming along nicely from the planting a couple of weeks ago. Next to them, Cecily and I planted a lot of sweet peas; several rows with tender care of deep compost, mulching, bone meal while some simply dropped in the turned rows as we tried to stay ahead of the rain. I’ve never grown them before so we shall see what comes.
I’ve really been focusing on getting the market flowers planted this week; I’m a little behind but hoping that only means I won’t have a lot of replanting during the spring rains like I did last year.
In addition to the flowers that I usually grow, peonies, poppies, roses, zinnias and a mix of “wildflowers”, this year I’ve added gladiolus, ranunculus, craspedia, larkspur, amaranth and dahlias. I don’t know much about any of them but should they grow well, they will be some gorgeous and fun additions to bouquets. Hopefully later I’ll have plenty of pictures to share of what each one looks like but if you have a moment, look some of them up, especially ranunuculus and craspedia.
Now I need to turn to getting in the vegetables and herb gardens. The practical planting. But still, one of my favorite things to do.