Last year, as I recounted, I started my seeds too early, and ended up with sad veg plants not ready for the cold snap that lasted most of May, after an unseasonably warm April. I also had gallon pots of dahlias, salvias, and petunias to carry in and out every day until last frost. This year, I’ll work harder at it…putting off the temptation, that is, to have some indoor garden going in February. My goals are to spend less, spread out my “I want it” list over a couple of years, instead of getting everything at once, grow lots of aster family annuals (the most reliable for not being eaten by deer), and design with the principle I took to heart last year—don’t buy six different plants, buy six of one variety and plant them in close bunches. It’s a more workmanlike approach, so less exciting, but the result is a better display. 

Above, the (fairly) new petunia, Spellbound Pink. I think you can buy seeds for this at Burpee. It not only looks like a hibiscus, with flowers that grow four inches wide, it also performs more as an upright plant, so is good for beds rather than hanging baskets. Another variety from last year I loved and recommend is the Black Krim tomato. Really delicious! That one is available several places; I got mine from Seeds n Such. They also carry Old German, another I tried last year and reordered this year—one of the prettiest tomatoes, as well as tasty. Of tomatoes, I harvested as many as I could use last year, without needing much deer protection, just ladders covered with netting. I had great peas, but my beans, squash, and corn never took off. I bought melon plants that didn’t get an early enough start, or enough sun. Peppers do well for me, and if they didn’t take so long to bloom, my romanesco broccoli would have done well. The plants were still going strong when it got to be winter, but the deer couldn’t leave them alone. This summer I’ll be growing all my hoped-for and sometimes successful favorites, but probably no potatoes. I can’t get potatoes to do much in pots, and I don’t have horizontal space for them. 

The saddest thing that happened was a case of rosette disease on one of my roses. I dug it up, reported it, and now I’ll have to see if my other three roses are good. I get beautiful catalogs from David Austin, Edmunds, and Jackson Perkins, but I can’t afford to order.  

 

 

Here is an easy way to get a new bed to make itself. I just laid two landscape timbers along the side of my garage, and I’m allowing leaves and plant detritus to accumulate, along with flowerheads I cut from the garden and scattered in this space.  The soil-building and weed suppression will proceed on their own, and the bed will be more than halfway ready for augmenting with other things, coneflowers, rudbeckia, etc, that I dig up from the rest of the garden.

 

 

Here’s a happy find. I’ll talk more this year about my collections, and thrifting trips, and showcase things I’m selling on ebay. The green panther TV lamp has been in the family for decades; I got it about twenty years ago from my grandmother. But I was browsing the local antique mall and found a green panther planter. More of a blue-green, but very cool to have this motif in another piece!