the garden: flowers blooming

So it appears we got exactly two days of spring. It's been cold and wintery for months, and then we had a beautiful spring weekend, but this work week has been hot! And the forecast for today ... 94?!

Jessi is not so pleased with Mother Nature. But Jessi's flowers? They're loving it.

Last fall, I planted some pansies in the front yard. In our climate, they're supposed to be beautiful during the fall, die back a bit in the winter, then bounce back to life with the warm spring temps. And they've done just that in the past few days.

In the tree lawn in front of our house, this was my plan:

• Crocus would come up first. (Check. They were here by mid-February.)
• Daffodils would come up next. (Well ... they came up. But I messed them up somehow because no flowers came out of the greenery. I'll have to ask my mom what I can feed them in the fall to give them some extra energy over the winter.)
• Then tulips would come up. (And they're here! The warm weather has prodded them along nicely. Those flowers should bloom any day now. And my medicated foot powder technique appears to have successfully warded off squirrel enemies.)
• And finally, five giant hostas would emerge from the ground, covering all of the decaying bulb leaves and filling up the garden bed with beautiful greenery all summer and fall. (All five hostas, which my parents divided from their own plants, are coming up, doing just fine, and seem to be loving the warm weather, too.)

Here's a shot from yesterday evening that shows an about-to-bloom tulip in the foreground with a hosta sprouting behind it. And lots of daffodil and crocus greenery all around.

The only other flower I have at my house so far is this sweet alyssum, which I bought over Easter weekend at Frager's. It smells awesome. I put it in a big pot by the front door, so hopefully it'll grow to fill the pot and smell great every time we walk past it. Here's a picture of the alyssum, which includes a bonus cameo of Francois, who came over to visit last night while Tony and I were working in the front yard:

Actually, Tony was doing the work, and I was taking photos. He sprinked some Holly-tone plant food around the evergreen plans in the front yard. I don't know what, exactly, Holly-tone is or does. I just know that my dad delivered a bag of it to us last fall with instructions to feed the evergreen plants twice a year. Yes, sir.

And I've been seeing all of these beautiful photos from the Tidal Basin of all the cherry blossoms. Seems our tree is a little cherry tree is a liiiiitle slow in blooming this year.

My herbs also have made a big resurgence in the past week or so.

Thyme and tarragon with my celery in the middle:

More tarragon and oregano with some strawberries in the background.

I thought the chives were dead all winter, but they're baaack!

I also have a great big rosemary plant, but that didn't die back at all during the winter.

And now that the garden bed is in the backyard, I've finally been able to plant my cool-season crops. Last night I spied some turnips, radishes, spinach, romaine and arugula coming up! Hopefully the hot weather backs off a bit, so the cool-season crops survive for at least a little while! And tonight I looked at the notes I made to myself when I planted my garden last spring and realized that I already had my tomatoes and peppers in the ground by mid-April ... so I gotta get on that. Maybe this weekend?

the garden: surprise radishes

Tony was working in the backyard recently, and when he came inside, he brought a radish with him. The radishes were ready to be picked, he said.

RADISHES. I totally forgot about them. Actually, I thought they never came up after I planted them in the fall. And then leaves fell and made a mess of my garden, and I totally forgot about the radishes.

Soooo, we had some radishes on our salad. With romaine, spinach and tomatoes, all from the garden. I told you I love this climate. We get all four seasons with an emphasis on the spring and fall.

<3

So, this was a blog post about my radishes, which I acknowledge is not the most interesting thing in the world. So, to reward you for making it this far into the post, I present you with a super cute picture of my cat.

the garden: fall planting

The other day, Tony was lamenting back-to-school time and summer's imminent departure. "It seems like summer just started," he told me. 

Um, no. See, he drives to work. For those of us who walk to the Metro every day, it seems to me like summer, the incessant 90-degree temperatures and the wretched humidity have over-stayed their welcome. Bring on autumn breezes and light jackets. 

So I'm happy to report that I've officially declared this to be "late summer," which is when you put fall vegetables in the ground. The cool season crops that you plant in the spring also do well in the fall. 

Tony and I usually have a salad with dinner, so I planted four different kinds of lettuce and one spinach. And I get a kick out of picking radishes, so I planted three different types. 

I always have had good luck with Botanical Interests' Freckles romaine, so I'm planting a ton of it. I've had fairly good luck with Burpee's Black Seeded Simpson, so I'm trying it again. The Burpee Big Ruffles Hybrid spinach got eaten by bugs when I planted it in the ground in the spring, so I'm planting it in a pot this fall to see if that works better. And I got two kinds of lettuce from my dad, which I'm trying for the first time: Botanical Interests' Speckles butterhead and some sort of baby romaine. (Lettuce seed packets have about 10 billion seeds in each one, but you only need a seed or two in each hole, so they're good for sharing with, like, your 100 closest friends.) 

As for radishes, the Burpee Cherry Belle did well for me in the spring, so I'm planting it again. Plus, I'm trying some new fancy pants kinds: Botanical Interests' French Breakfast and NK's White Icicle. 

By the way, I love those garden label sticks (which were a present from my parents) to help me remember which variety I planted where. 

Let's talk containers. I have most of my summer vegetables in terra cotta pots, which are great for amateurs like me because the clay absorbs excess water, so it's hard to kill your plants by overwatering them. But that's not such a good quality to have in the wintertime because the excess moisture in the pots will expand when it freezes, and the pots will crack. So, I planted some of my cool-season vegetables directly in the ground, in between the summer plants that I'll have to take out when the weather turns -- and the rest I have in indestructible plastic containers. If there's a light frost, I'll try to cover the lettuce and radishes or bring the containers inside to extend their lives for a little bit. But if I forget, at least the pots won't break.

And finally, another great planting tip, which I picked up from my mom: Put a coffee filter over the holes in the bottom of your pot to make sure dirt can't escape. 

the garden: the calm before the storm

Radishes. Lettuce. Herbs. Strawberries. Yeah, yeah, that's all been nice. But I'm ready for some substantial VEGETABLES from my garden. I was scoping things out last night, and I think this 100-degree weather has been good to my plants. It looks like it's only a matter of days now before we really start getting the summer harvest. 

My backyard is tiny. We'll call it "cozy." Which means I have to be creative about growing big vegetables that tend to spread, like cucumbers. I planted the cukes in pots, and they're growing up trellises. And it's working wonderfully. I'm about to pick the first one. 

And I have one cherry tomato that's about to turn. 

Oh, and I'm so close to picking these hot banana peppers.

Stay tuned in the next few days because it looks like I'll have some harvesting updates on my adventures in urban gardening.