Testing Testing
As you might imagine, this post is to test if the post is posting.
To thank you for your visit ...
Here's a basket of Spring Beauties
Salsify seed head opens
May you pass all tests in Joyful Repose!
Freeze Protection in Place
Freeze Preparation & Protection
Instead of being late in planting, the gardener has fewer plants to protect in preparation for night time temperatures expected in the teens!
To ensure at least a few lilac flowers, here's a mini-pre-harvest of Spring flowers.
These blueberry leaf buds are at the top of the 2 year plant, so nothing but love can be applied to bring it through the freeze.
These garlic, planted in Fall '08 have lived unprotected all Winter. They may be just fine as is.
Lovely strawberry plants who have pushed their way up in the previous weeks' heat, will be covered over with a new bedding of straw.
My first over-wintering of Walking Onion, aka Egyptian Onion so I'm not certain what to do with it. Final answer? I placed some straw over the youngsters, separate from the main body, and let the others respond as they will. The green growth, as far as I know, is only since this Spring.
Last Spring, this garlic was planted as protection with the Tomatoes. It might be ready to harvest soon. Or I might just experiment with allowing it to produce a little colony, or whatever it will if left to grow.
Spring's first Asparagus shoot. Cute little guy. I didn't even cover him up as he looked so strong.
Black Currant (resistant to White Pine Blister Rust) has new leaves her first Spring in this garden, so she does get special treatment before the freeze.
There are lovely buds all the way up her branches.
Gently pile on the straw. Under these piles are 3 bush cherries, 2 white currants and 3 black currant plants. The wind was blowing so fiercely, that no other straw would stay in place. The chinese cabbage and bok choy planted in the garden soil will have to fend for themselves.
How do tulips take a freeze? I don't know, so in they go, to make a lovely little bouquet with the last hyacinths.
And here's today's photographic treat, a prayerful, about to open Salsify flower.
And for all hearts about to open, May we all Grow Joyfully.
(And stay warm through the night.)
Salsify Flower, biennial seed saving project
It is living in the greenhouse as part of a seed saving experiment. As a biennial, seed can only be saved after it flowers, is pollinated, makes seed and has not been exposed to other like-species of plant.
An intense schedule of getting outdoor beds ready has kept me from my books. It would have been smart to research in advance what to do with this flower once it blooms. Even now, I sit before the fire with this computer on my lap, too tired out to get up and look it up. If the experiment goes no farther, still the joy of looking into this flower has ben worth the effort of caring for it.
An amazing color to greet me today. March is lovely, but there is no natural source of bright purple in my yard. Others may have crocus to jump start the eye's ability to process brilliant pallet of joy, but this is the first, this year for this gardener.
On a tall stalk, it opened facing the sun, and then remained in that position during the day.
In the late afternoon, it closed up again. I don't know what will be next.
Three days ago, the bud looked like this.
Salsify and carrot (above) on 2/6/09. These are root vegetables which are both biennial. I took the best roots that were harvested in the Fall. Instructions say to keep them in a root cellar all winter, and plant them again in the spring for them to grow tops and flower. Not having a good root cellar, and not being good at following directions, I took them into the deeper greenhouse beds and planted them there, open to whatever happens.
The Salsify is big and bushy now, as are the invisible carrot tops right next to them. I promise, I will read up on the seed saving technique for them. Everything I've read says that salsify seeds are viable only for one year. I'm hoping to be able to save most seeds, to grow or to share.
The root itself is close to a white color with a very delicate flavor, and stringy roots all along it. I didn't love the taste that much, but it doesn't stop the pseudoscientist within from attempting an experiment.
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In the climate change department, I noticed today that the quince blossoms are opening. Checking the digital record from last year, there were quince blossoms on 4/5/08 . They are at the same stage today, 3/19/09!
Wishing for you, in your garden, that the climate of Joy only Grows Brighter!
