It may SNOW again this week on the east coast, but it was so lovely out this weekend (70s!) that I went to the local nursery and started my garden. I’m an apartment dweller, but I’m lucky enough to have a big ol’ wrought-iron fire escape the length of my bedroom windows. So I’ve started with a window-box full of petunias (dark red, white and purple) and two pots of lavender (hidcote and vera).
I’m sure they’ll all freeze their buds off this week, but I’ll be out there in my gingham frock and Loretta Young Gardening Hat nonetheless . . . What are y’all planning to do—if anything—in the way of gardening this year?
Nothing - the landlady has a green thumb and does all the gardening around our condo. Beautiful flowering plants, and lots of bees.
I however, have a rare species of Dracaena (Dracaena deadagain resurrectii). It will survive for several weeks without water until it is a just an obscene-looking stick; one rainstorm and BOOM, lots of green shoots and leaves all over the place. Repeat cycle. (Okay, it’s outside and I always forget to water it.)
Suffice to say, my gardening skills are best left to the professional (although I do have a Christmas cactus that is now a deep rich purple, at least what the cat has not nibbled – and yes, I have moved it out of her reach).
Just think–only 2 months 'til the days start getting shorter!
Anyway.
I think I’m going to try for tomatoes, ancho chilis, bell peppers, and some herbs this year… sage, thyme, oregano. Oh, and more mint for Mint Liqueur… mmm… The hops are perennials, so all I have to do is train them as they grow, and harvest in the fall. Maybe this year I’ll even brew some ale with them, rather than bag/freeze like I did last year.
I have a raised garden in my back yard, 10’ by 12’, with a pond at one end, and two quarter circles by the steps (about half as high as the garden) at the other end. Last year I completely ignored it, but this year I’m turning it into a mini formal rose garden. First I had to get rid of the 8’ high weeds. rjk suggested I burn them, but even though this appealed to my pyro soul, I think the city would object. Then I added 8 more inches of dirt, which is a lot more dirt than you would think! Thanks again to JimB and Grace for helping with this.
Then I got seven antique roses and planted 4 of them in a diamond in the center, and three in the corners. I haven’t got a rose for the 4th corner yet but I will. I got 4 miniature roses yesterday for the quarter circles.
The 4th corner is empty because there was a pipe in the garden attached to the sprinkler system that had a faucet on it and I wanted actual sprinkler heads that popped up and everything. So I took off the faucet, got some pvc pipe, fittings, sprinkler heads, and glue and dug a trench. I finished putting it together Saturday! I’m so proud of myself. I was going to let it cure for a day and test Sunday afternoon. However, I looked out the window Sunday morning and the sprinkler system was running. So I went and tested my work and it worked like a champ, except for pointing the wrong way. That fixed easily and now my roses will get watered without any effort on my part!
Next project - the holly bush must die.
So Eve, are you glad you live in an apartment now? (Also, what movie is the thread title from? And why do I hear it in a southern drawl followed by “really they are”?)
Zyada—I am indeed hapy woth my apartment and fire-escape garden. I wake up in the morning, sit up in bed and look out the lace curtains at a curly wrought-iron and banks of flowrs, and think, "Oh crap I gotta get up and go to that goddam job . . . "
“The calla lillies are in bloom again” is from “Stage Door” (1937). Katharine Hepburn was given that line as an in-joke, as she’d said it in a flop B’way show of the early '30s, “The Lake.”
Well, our miniature irises have opened, but I don’t think our forsythias are going to bloom this year.
I’ve been busy digging out the accursed moonseed vines from a neglected corner. When they’re out we have goatsbeard, variegated Solomon’s Seal and a couple monkshoods to go in.
If your forsythias are getting tired you can bring them back with some judicious pruning. When we moved into our house 4 years ago, there was an old, droopy forsythia out front that had very meager blossoms. Each spring, after it had finished blooming, I cut it back by a third, taking away the thickest, oldest branches first. It is much improved now, upright and covered in flowers.
I have a good sized vegetable garden in my back yard, where I grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, peas, potatoes, squash, lettuce, etc. The rhubarb is up, and looks as if it has spread nicely. The Egyptian onions have taken over one corner and will have to be reined in. Today I spent some time moving my 2 week old tomato seedlings into larger cells. I’ll start the peppers soon. I’m also starting some annuals to plant along our fence that will (with any luck) self-sow, as well as some perennials to go in the beds.
The species crocuses are on their way out; the jumbos are at peak. The wood hyacinths and grecian windflowers are just starting. I put in miniature irises last year-they are gorgeous! I also put a bunch of tulips into the perennial bed for early color; I’m feeling very impatient to see them. The rugosa roses (little more than sticks when I planted them 3 years ago) are covered in little green shoots.
I mostly have to do some weeding of the front yard. Mulch is a godsend. It allows me to pick out the weeds easier…and it keeps the sandy soil we have moister. I also need to cut back some things. Pruning was done last year, mostly because i got tired of my flowering plum having crossed branches, as well as branches that were too low.
My cannas are coming back nicely, so i’ll need to water and feed them a bit more. And my banana plant has come back. It’s in shooting stage now, but, when it gets a bit warmer, i should be seeing more leaves. I was afraid all the previous stems had died back, but a smaller one survived. Some of the bearded irises are blooming (they go from dark purple buds to light purple flowers). And my viburnum is starting to flower. Soon i’ll have big “snowballs” of flowers. That plant was rescued from my grandmother who insisted i keep cutting it back each year. I do have my eye on a certain type of palm, but i’m not sure if i can find one and how expensive or cheap it will be.
And also, the california poppies i cut back are coming back, and the native bush lupines are flowering with light purple spikes of flowers. The yard is coming along nicely.
My gardening is random and eclectic. I moved around some of the landscape shrubs that the builder put in - getting all the boxwoods together in a line. I had brought some of my daylillies from Virginia, and they’re about ready to bloom. The 3 varieties of hosta on the shady side of the house are coming along nicely. I’d also put in 4 different mums in the fall.
I got 2 elephant ears bulbs - one is coming up under the office window, and the other is in the side yard, tho I think I’ll move it. Oh yeah, and my 2 banana trees are about 2’ tall.
My daughter cleared an area around the mailbox, and we put in marigolds, portulaca, mini glads, something I can’t remember, and one canna. I cleared a corner where the sod wasn’t doing well and put in 2 pink azaleas, surrounding it with a random assortment of dusty miller, petunia, snap dragons, wax begonia, and half a dozen cannas.
Then there are the 6 planters - 3 with tomatoes (some have blooms already), one with 2 pepper plants (blooms there also) and 2 with cucumbers. I figured it’s be easier to keep them wet in planters rather than in the dry sand. The rest of the nation is snowy or flooded, and Florida remains parched…
This is making me sad :(. I have been gardening here, at this house, for the past six years and we are moving later this year cross country. So in anticipation of selling this house I am planning on changing some stuff…I have a 30’ long, 4’-5’ deep perennial border and that is getting re-done this spring, it was crowded last year and I will be dividing & replanting the desirable plants, chucking the zealous self-seeders & spreaders that are starting to take over, and filling the empty spots with annuals for color.
I have a small, terraced area that has a pond & waterfall, I am removing the large plants that usually cover the stepping stones through that area and putting sod down, repalnting a few areas in there, and painting the fence surrounding it.
Basically I’ll be digging and dividing perennials and replanting with annuals to get that boost of color that helps houses sell well. I’m sure going to miss my plants, but I am going to take my hostas with.
Question time: as a couple of you have mentioned ponds, I’d like to know: if I’m thinking of using a pump outside to give myself a waterfall, do I have to get an electrician to run a wire from the box out to the pump, or is there some cord I can run from one of the outside outlets that would do the trick?
I wish I could take some of mine with me. I have three roses, a surprisingly hardy ficus, and a little Japanese maple tree. I’ll have to leave them all behind when I move to Washington in a few months.
Here’s hoping my parents can mind my plants for me.
On a brighter note, my Iceberg rose has more than 10 blooms in the works.
I just dabble in gardening with mixed results. For instance, my cherry trees that were planted last year have bloomed proving that they not supposed to be annuals. (This is my third try.) My hardneck garlic looks lovely at about 10 inches tall or so and my small asparagus patch is poking up the occasional spear.
I’m planting some basil, parsley, and rosemary soon. Tomatoes won’t go in until May though to avoid those last cold snaps. Think I might put out some lima beans too. Yum.
I was going to let it cure for a day and test Sunday afternoon. However, I looked out the window Sunday morning and the sprinkler system was running. 
So I went and tested my work and it worked like a champ, except for pointing the wrong way. 
That fixed easily and now my roses will get watered without any effort on my part!