May 2021 - Week 2

Mulch

This weeks focus is pretty dull I'm afraid.  Mulch.  This is something I've neglected over the past few years so this year I will endeavour to do better.

I know it's rather later than Monty recommends in the UK but our last frost date is May 24 and my perennials are only just popping their heads out of the ground.  Also, I mulch the beds with fallen leaves in October and don't like to disturb them until whatever is hiding under there won't meet a grizzly, frozen end when I remove all the leaf litter.

So on Saturday Tom and I called at the dump to see the status of the free compost and guess what?  it's all gone.  Sad face.

I went back anyway as soon as it opened at 7am today (Monday 10) and scratted about for what I could get, I felt like a minor character from Our Mutual Friend wandering around the emptied bays with my bucket and spade but I managed to fill the back of the car and when I got home discovered that it was only enough for 3/4 of the front pollinator garden (FPG) so I'll have to go back tomorrow and see if I can find some more.  Here's what I managed:

Front Pollinator Garden, weeded, trimmed and mostly mulched

What's poppin' in the garden?

• Nasturtiums in modules in the greenhouse germinating
• Also maybe a Culver's Root
• Some vernalized native plants ready to prick out:
• Pale purple cone flowers
• Anise Hyssop
• Prairie cone flowers
• Asters have true leaves but are tiny so I don't know
• Plants possibly lost in the FPG:
• Hosta Lime Rickey
• One of  the Geranium Rozanne - sad but a great excuse to buy some more
• Aster
• White perennial corn flower in the FPG has buds and is behaving like a brute again
• Wild geranium also has buds and is behaving nicely
• Creeping phlox in by the front steps flowering like crazy for the first time this year

Creeping phlox

• Visit from a coyote on Sunday (May 9) afternoon

I know this is a terrible photo, Jacob took it, I was too busy jumping about with excitement

• Mrs Dee has successfully hatched 5 of her 7 eggs.  The chicks are revolting and look like tiny demons with motor bike helmets on

New born chickadees - Chickadee box cam

Jobs for this week

• MULCH
• Front pollinator garden May 10 and May 13 with free compost and old top soil and some manure from a bag for the rose
• Rhubarb, black currants and both roses with composted manure from bag May 13
• Berry bed with old topsoil May 14
• Woodland bed with spent potting compost May 14
• There endeth the mulching because I've run out of things to mulch with
• Design a fence May 10 2021, Ta Dah

Design for a screen to hide the compost bins etc. and grow berries up

• Build a fence.  Or at the very least watch a YouTube video on how to and order a couple of posts and some quickcrete
• Get some grassn't in - see last week
• Organize my indoor seedlings into a cold frame and start hardening them off  May 11 2021.  Potted on peppers and moved them onto a theoretically sunny window sill with the tomatoes. Also potted on the millets, they seem to be damping off quite badly so I hope I've managed to save a few.
• Sow early May stuff May 13 2021
• White yarrow - 8
• Blanket flower - 8
• Lemon bergamot - 10 ?
• Little blue stem - 10
• Put rattlesnake master into the fridge for stratification
• Research some green manure for the minefield as compost is so difficult to get hold of May 11 2021.  How do I prove this then?  I did some research and decided that I'll order a couple of packets of buckwheat to sow when night temperatures are up a bit.  West Coast Seeds sells it.

Extra bits and bobs

May 10.  Found a couple of outlying wild geraniums while mulching around them in the FPG, popped them in 3" pots for replanting in the back garden or filling in gaps left by missing plants.

May 11.  Took most of the dandelions out of the front yard.  Made hundreds (actually 29) of little newspaper plugs for sowing more seeds.

May 12.  A lovely day outside so got a lot more done:

• Bought potting soil at Colour Paradise, it was rather expensive but came with 'free':
• lavender x 3
• butterfly weed x 3
• a geranium I've not got yet
• sage x 2
• lol
• Potted on some of the vernalized native wildflowers residing in the greenhouse:
• Pale purple cone flowers x 13
• Anise hyssop x 11
• Prairie cone flower x 3
• Made my own annual mix from the seeds below:
• Cosmos purity
• Calendula pacific beauty mix
• Poppies
• Zinnia
• Vesey's bee friendly wildflower mix from a cheerios packet
• California poppies
• Cosmos sulfur
• Delphinium
• Re-potted snake plant and peace lily for the house

May 13.  Moved the rose in the berry patch and mulched it with composted sheep manure.  After a strong start it is looking sorry.  Planted comfrey in the berry patch.  First of the geraniums has come out, oddly it's the mystery one that I got from the plant exchange on the street.  It has very dark purple flowers, almost black and would benefit from having something lime green behind it to show it off a bit.  Think that I've found a blanket flower that I put in the skinny patch of flower bed in front of the front steps so maybe I didn't lose all of them after all.

May 14.  Another list, it's a busy time of year.

• Put second comfrey in the berry patch along with a conflower 'feeling white' that I grew from seed last year.
• Also put geranium vivace 'Katherine Adele' in there.  Did not chop it back as it's scary but thinking it might be a good idea.
• Did first cut on bareroot apple trees.  Fingers very crossed that they are ok.
• Examined dead-looking blanket flowers in pots that I sowed as seeds last year.  They have very alive looking root systems so I put one in the front near the steps and 2 in the pond garden to grow up through the little blue stem.
• Threw around some of the annual mix that I made on the 13th in the berry patch where it is looking somewhat bare.  Also chucked in a few more sunflower seeds incase Jacob's don't all germinate
• Found 2 of last years butterfly weed.  Was sure that this had been an epic fail so will be really pleased if it came through.  Planted 3 more around it to provide maximum caterpillar food.  Put a fence around it to protect it from rabbits and squirrels.
• Tidied up some more old flower heads.