Bless me garden faeries, for I have sinned. It has been a good few weeks since my last trip to the gardening center at the local hardware store. I gave into my not-as-natural-as-one-might-think gardening urges, purchasing innocent plantlets DOOMED DOOMED DOOMED to a half life in the dread Gulag Garden. Amen.
Loads of Gulag Garden plants kicked it during the numerous minus 32 degree nights of this past winter. I was surprised some of the more delicate looking plants managed to hang in, while others, such as one of my columbines and all exposed bits of my potato plants died back.
Other plants bolted and died, only to have them reseed themselves, easy as you please! This pot of Garlic Chives looked like bedding straw one day, then a few weeks later was looking like a garden of omlette herbs.
My pansies, those in barrels or hanging pots, all survived. How? Tenacity on their part, I can tell you!
Winter's end I mentioned in a previous post, my blooming Fressias. No sooner were the Fressias and Nodding Onion's done, then the bright Yellow Monkeyflowers (a CA native) were up and sassy.
I also have some Cardinal Monkeyflowers in the same barrel but that delight seems to be off to a slow start this year.
In the Gulag Garden, sometimes the plant survives but the pot doesn't. This showy Apricot California Poppy was adorable in a rainbow stripped teacup pot, but the frost this past winter caused the tea cup to shatter until the whole thing was held up on a seed and a prayer. Even thought the pot was crap, I bought another one, this one just as colorful as the last. When winter hits I will pull the whole pot indoors where hopefully the poppy and its clever container can make it through the winter.
I'm throwing caution to the wind this year and will try to grow several types of veggies. The black sack of potatoes is looking well. The original baby Purple Viking potatoes I planted made eensie little potatoes that successfully overwintered underground, even as their green bits died in the frost above ground. I also added some red potatoes of the grocery store sort, just to see if they have it in them to grow as well. I'm crossing the fingers on having a cold baby potato salad in a month or two.
And in other vegetative news, I have a pot of 4 lemon Cucumber plants waiting on the sidelines in the pot they arrived in. Hope to have them bedded down in a barrel by week's end.... we'll see.
I am trying for tomatoes again this year, 2 heritage varieties I picked up as baby plants since as usual I'm too late for hoping to get seeds started. I hung a Heritage 'Marion' tomato in the usual upside down torture position. Bwah, ha, ha!
I have a Heritage 'Black Krim' a dark Russian tomato temporarily rooming with several cheeky Rainbow Swiss Chard. I think I need to fill up my raised planter bed with some soil and get it back into production for tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and cutting flowers.
Yesterday, I hit a local Fair Oaks Nursery with intent only to look, and as preordained I came home with 2 baby Butterfly Bushes and one strange little creeping plant.
The butterfly bushes are to be planted (better be TODAY that's all I gotta say) in honor of two pets buried in my garden. Dear old Rum-kitty, and long ago passed on Dog-in-a-box (Lizzie the Yorkie Terrier). One of them will have the Pink Delight which will grow to have lilac type bunches of fragrant pink blossoms.
The other will have this blue flowered Butterfly bush. Rum is really going to like his shrub. It will attract hummingbirds for him to haunt down and eat.
Last but not least is an oddball little plant that was so lush and bloom covered at the nursery that I had to have one. Happily one is all they had left! This 'Amazon Sunset' Parrot's Bill will go into one of my two coconut husk planters.
I'm told the Parrot's Bill plant will enjoy the semi shade of my covered patio. I suspect it is going to be awesome!
There are always garden surprises, and here is one, a coastal grass, "Rattlesnake Grass" that I had no clue was going to pop up in one of my wine barrel planters. Following a trip to the coast, I must have put the seed in the barrel at some point, but I don't recall doing so. What a beautiful Accident for the Gulag!
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