What I did in the garden this weekend

It’s the time of year when big changes happen quickly in the garden and it’s easy for me to forget about them. So I thought I’d do a weekend wrap-up post to just show you what I got up to. Most of these are tiny bits of bigger projects but if I wait until the big picture develops, I’ll probably forget these little moments.

The ostrich ferns in the woods are beginning to unfurl. They’ll be 6 feet tall in a couple weeks.

Much of the weekend was spent fetching some of the wood for the new raised bed vegetable garden. Most of the wood is being delivered, but it was much less expensive to buy the cedar for the bottom course of each bed elsewhere, so we borrowed a truck and spent what seemed like forever getting 30 4x4s. Why does everything take so long?

The plants haven’t been growing much, but the weeds certainly have been, so I spent a few hours chipping away at the weeding. There’s lots more to do, but I can only do what I can do so this falling under the “ongoing project” category. 

The greenhouse is at max capacity. Most of these are things I grew from seed (I reuse containers) and a few are annuals I’ve been picking up for containers.

I have a greenhouse full of plants and it’s likely to stay that way for some time. Obviously vegetables and herbs won’t be coming out until the new garden is ready. I’m not foolish enough to make any predictions on when that will be. There’s so much to be done. And it’s really too cold for annuals to be planted out here yet. Frost is not an issue anymore, but annuals do not like to sulk in cold temperatures and I believe they’ll perform better in the long run if they don’t spend a week or more shivering out in the cold. 

I did get two things planted, although I had planned to do much more. The first was Hydrangea serrata Tuff Stuff Ah-Ha. This was one of best new plants I saw at California Spring Trials so I was excited to receive a small sample plant from Proven Winners. Unfortunately in my haste to get some things checked off the to-do list I forgot to add some aluminum sulfate when I planted it, so I’ll have to go back and do that in an attempt to keep the blooms blue.

I also planted Syneilesis aconitifolia, aka shredded umbrella plant in a position at the front of the shade garden where I can enjoy it. I’m very excited about this plant so I hope it does well here. 

We spent a lot of time laying out the vegetable garden with baker’s string (not the preferred string of choice but what we had in the house), stakes and spray paint.

But most of the daylight hours of the weekend were spent laying out the vegetable garden. The area has been leveled, so we headed out with stakes, string (um, baker’s twine actually, because it was all we had) and spray paint, to lay out all the beds. The design is very symmetrical so I wanted to be precise with the layout. Anything askew would be very noticeable. It’s not in my nature to spend so much time on the planning portions of a project, but I’ve learned that I regret it when I rush things. It took us several hours to get everything laid out, but it was a worthwhile exercise. And it seems a little more real now, so it was a much needed shot of enthusiasm for a project that I really just want to have finished. The next step is to lay the first course of each bed and I expect that will be a bit time consuming but the hope is that we can move pretty quickly after that.

I love the Mayapples. I didn’t plant these and I do nothing to foster them, but they bring me immeasurable pleasure. The greenhouse is in the distance.

As usual, it was a weekend with not nearly enough time in the garden. Summer calls for longer weekends. 

Did you work in your garden this weekend?