A Cart Full of Favorites

Elizabeth at Garden Rant is having a contest to give away five Troy-bilt garden carts and I sure could use one. This is what I'd be using now if it didn't have a flat tire again. It was left as junk by the previous owner and John keeps repairing it for me. It won't be long before the plastic will have to be held together with duct tape.

So, the contest. I have five (5) to give away so your chances are good. I had a few ideas for possible comment tasks, including writing a classic sonnet and describing and solving the most important issue facing home gardeners today. But, in the end, I came up with this: list your five favorite plants (presumably that you could put in this cart) and briefly explain why they'd be the ones you'd rescue from your garden if it was threatened by catastrophe. Or just say why you like them. Troy-Bilt will send a cart each to the five best comments, as determined by me (representing Garden Rant).

I wouldn't have had a prayer of winning one if I'd had to write a sonnet but listing my five favorites plants can't be that hard, can it? Wait a minute - just five!?


#5 - Crocuses. They are the first plants I see here in the spring and give me hope that the snow won't last into June. They wouldn't take up much room in the cart - instead I'd use the cart to shovel off my flower beds into the cart and haul the nasty white stuff away. I could have blooms two weeks earlier like everyone in town!

#4 - Monarda / Beebalm / Oswego Tea. I love everything about this plant; the bright red color, the way it spreads without taking over, it's tall, lasts all summer and the mint scent is wonderful. It also blooms right around the 4th of July here and the flower heads look like miniature fireworks.

#3 - Daylilies. My goal is to have enough varieties to bloom all season long. The season is so short here that shouldn't be hard. I love the grace of the flowers and variety of colors. If I could save just one it would be this one that I have no name for. Why this one? Besides the great color combination, it was a gift from my sister.

#2- Peonies. We had very few flowers when I was growing up but we always had peonies. The flowers are huge and just scream "Happy Spring" to me. Even after the flowers are done they stay attractive for the entire summer and they are virtually care free. Mom's peony now resides in my garden and if I could rescue only one, that would be it. I do have several others however and some of them need to be moved so the cart would get a workout.


#1- Hosta. Even before I started gardening I had hostas. They grow in the shade but don't mind a bit of sun, weeds don't grow under them, they come in so many sizes that there is one for most any spot. I love the mounded shape and even though I'm not a big fan of the flowers they attract hummingbirds. They are quite hard to kill, although I have lost one called First Frost. A plant by that name probably had no business being in my garden anyway. I need to rearrange my front bed and the cart (and a small crane) would come in very handy for moving this hosta that is competing for space with the bleeding heart.

Heirloom Blooms

I spent my spring break in Michigan, researching my family history. The week before the trip I worked at getting my garden beds cleaned up as they snow melted. I was a bit upset with myself for leaving just as the weather was improving here and I found myself itching to be outside. I had planned to take a break from the library and visit the Matthaei Botanical Gardens at U of M. I never got a break while I was in Ann Arbor. Later in the week I wanted to get to Fernwood Botanical Garden in Niles, MI but spent my time lost on back country roads or tramping cemeteries for hours. You can read more about my trip here and here. Michigan is much like New York and the daffodils were blooming where ever I went.

The main reason that I went to Michigan was to look at a collection of letters written by various family members from about 1860 until about 1950. I wasn't expecting to find letters about gardening! As the family fanned out across the country and new homesteads were established they would write back to Michigan asking for seeds or describing the various plants and crops that they were growing in their new location. They sent peony toes by mail and if they didn't survive they would send more. One letter contained a part of a page torn from a magazine with a picture of plants that my cousin wanted to try and share with those back home. Another cousin wrote of her despair that her neighbors had no interest in flowers and how bleak she found the area without them. My greatgrandparents sent gifts of whippleberries as gifts. I'd love to know what a whippleberry is!

On my last day I visited the old homesite where my mother grew up. The house has been gone for years. Someone has just started construction on a new home. Some of the bulbs that Mom remembers from her youth were flowering while I was there and some daylilies were peeking out of the brush pile. There was no one around to ask if I could dig up anything so I had to content myself with a few pictures instead.





This was a very lacey looking daffodil. I'll be looking for one like it to plant here in my garden.

Spring has Sprung!

With no grass showing in the yard yet, I found this first little patch of crocuses in the garden quite exciting!

Blooms!

When I got home from work around 9:30 everything was still under snow. By the time I left to go back at 1:30 this is what I saw!

By the time I got home again the snow was gone from most of the bed and there were several more blooms and of course I took more pictures. Unfortuately blogger won't let me post any of them!!!!!

Also coming up finally are some glory of the snow and grape hyacinth.

I was quite excited to find a few delphiniums coming up. I planted these last May and they did absolutely nothing so I didn't expect to see them this year.

April Blooms Report

For this edition of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day I finally have have buds! The first three pictures are of the crocuses that I planted in the fall. The last is a snowdrop that I found growing out near the edge of the woods. I didn't plant it so it was a nice surprise. I took these pictures yesterday which was a good thing since the ground is covered with snow again this morning.

Country Girl has crocuses. And the galanthus are still blooming up her way.

Our Mom, in Syracuse, has had daffodil buds for almost three weeks now. They just don't seem willing to open up. I guess they know more bad weather is coming and are patiently waiting it out.







I checked my archives from last year. Since I only started my garden last year there was nothing blooming but we had done all of the yard clean-up both here and at Mom's. The new beds were being started. We had an outdoor Easter Egg hunt and the kids were already playing baseball in the backyard.

It was also about this time last year that John made my composter. Since the contents haven't turned into compost yet I must be doing something wrong. Hopefully next weekend I can finally get to work!

Somebody Loves Me

When I got home from work this morning the first thing I noticed was that John had shoveled off the front bed. He was very careful not to disturb any plants. There were two layers of ice in there that he had to chop through. The front of the house faces north and even with our easy winter last year the snow here had to be shoveled off. All of the snow that he rakes off of the roof lands here so it had really piled up.

This is how it looked on Sat., Mar. 31

Today

Butterfly Garden Today

The snow is mostly gone from the butterfly garden. The tulips that I thought had been eaten just after I planted them are coming up! Now I'm wondering what dug the big hole and why? Another clump of tulips, the daylily patch and crocus' are all showing signs of life. I have daffodils and allium coming up through the snow and ice. The hollyhocks look nice and green and I found one lenten rose in the snow out front.

There is snow in the forecast for later in the week but if they can come up through the ice I expect that they'll survive a little more snow. I don't expect to be able to do any clean up until late next week.

The seedlings are all doing OK. I wish more of the milkweed had germinated, only 4 so far but I'm not giving up yet. I just got some new seeds that I will get started. It looks like I'll have some plants to get me started so I need to get busy and figure out what I want to do with the new bed along the back of the house.

Spring Green

I was very happy to these coming up here where the snow had melted.
I was shocked to see these coming up through the snow! I almost missed them.