Saturday, 3-May-2014, everything else

Yard

• We've taken out most of the big rectangular bed around the umbrella tree, leaving only a ring of stones (not yet complete around the tree. It's all mowed, and we'll have to do something to get the grass growing properly one of these days.
• On top on the first access hole to the fosse is a pot of mint, which seems to be doing better this year. Next to that is some sage that escaped the original pot and is growing in the ground. I'm leaving that there till I'm sure my pot of sage is going to take or I find another place for it. It's surprisingly handy to have sage available like this. 
• On top of the other access hole is one of the old stumps that litter the yard.
• The rosemary remains, although it needs to be trimmed into shape before too long. 
• Ed has made me a nice working surface on the back of the woodshed, with a shelf below, and some shelves for pots and stuff on the far end near the fence. Still getting this arranged, but it's handy so far. 
• Ed's trimmed the Horrible Hedge back to shoulder level. Now to keep it there. 
• The sumac tree died and we took that out before it fell onto the shed below. I liked it, but can't say I really miss it. The yard really has too many trees.
• The camellias bloomed very nice this year, but were ended by the recent rains.
• The rhodendrons are just starting to bloom and look nice.
• The azaleas are blooming at random, rather than in a concerted effort. I guess it helps to have a good cold winter to get them synchronized.
• On 25-Nov-13, I planted a bunch of mail-ordered stuff (some freebies) around the yard:
  • Above the lower quince, three roses de noel blanches Helleborus niger and one rose de noel "reine de la nuit" Helleborus "Queen of the Night". None of these made an appearance this year.
  • In front of kitchen porch, two groups of 10 tulipes triomphe "cassini" either side of center three panels (where bench might sit). These have bloomed nicely. One peony is trying to reappear in one of these groups.
  • In yard left and below of ornamental cherry, a mix of 20 muscaris blues (armeniacum) and 25 perce-neige/sneeuwklokjes/Galanthus nivalis. The sneeuklokjes didn't made an appearance; the muscarris did.
  • Along fence below lower shed, 5 lis des Incas en melange (Alstroemeria). No sign yet.
  • Above first camellia, in triangle with horrible hedge: 20 mixed naricssus. Some appeared. 
  • In front/left of rose by kitchen porch 16 Ixias. No sign yet.

Pots

• Most of pots made it through the winter quite well. A pot of oregano, which I thought was an annual has come back for the second year. Perhaps it's reseeding itself.
• Have three pots of thyme, one of which is lemon thyme, but my fingers were already lemony last time I looked for it, so I'm not sure which it is.
• The lemon and olive trees are looking nice. 
• The pot of fuschias has been blooming for a while.
• Bought some big pots for some chiles and lemongrass, although I'm a bit late getting them in still.

Salad garden

• We bought a big square box, lined with gardening fabric, looks like a big sandbox, and put it just above the rosemary plant. It came with a grid to mark out the space into sixteen squares, four by four, kind of like the square-foot gardening thing, although it doesn't mention that. We've had to cover the surface since the cats thought it was nice we put a nice big litter box out for them. I've currently got lettuces (red-leaf) in three squares (four each), and some basil plants in two. In one square I started a row of green onions; in a neighbor, a row of radishes. The idea is to plant a row every week or so. The radishes are up now, but there's no action in the green onion area. Will be time for the second row shortly. Not sure what I'll put in the open squares yet.

South Forty

• All parental grove trees doing well, except for Papa. But, Papa has a tiny sprout coming out, so we've got fingers crossed for a recovery here.

Entry

• The geraniums, fuschia, and abutilon survived the winter, although it's clear the abutilon doesn't get enough light. Need to move it to a better place. It's already had a flower.
• The clematis on the arch is blooming, but it really doesn't want to climb.
• The passion flower is starting to come back. It hasn't really recovered well from freezes for the two winters before this one, plus mashing in the driveway. Anyhow it's growing and we added two honeysuckles. The idea is to put some kind of support on that side of the conservatory and have that covered by honeysuckle and passion flower. One day, maybe. The honeysuckles are:
  • Lonicera japonica, Japanese honeysuckle Halliana, very perfumed, leaves semi-persistant, flowers May-September, height 6m. This looks like plain old honeysuckle, with white to yellow flowers.
  • Lonicera japonica chinensis, Chinese honeysuckle, perfumed, leaves semi-persistant, flowers May-September, height 5m. This one has pinkish flowers.

Saturday, 3-May-2014, the potager

Hmm, yes, well, I never did finish the post about the seeds I started in February or so. But since they all fried in our makeshift coldframe when the weather was unexpectedly warm, it hardly matters. And we let the potager really go over the winter, so there's no mulch at all. Ed mowed a few days ago, so things are down to ground level, and he moved the line for the tomatoes to the other side, so they'll have so new-to-them ground this year.

The wild strawberries are going great and trying to escape their allotted space as we try to contain them. Who will win? We munch a few whenever we visit.

Given our lack of plants for potting, Ed bought some tomatoes, an eggplant, and a pot of fava beans at a shop. I mail-ordered some organic tomatoes, but it was already too late to get what I wanted; instead I got three batches of five of potluck tomatoes. Planted thusly today:

• On the southeast end pole that supports the tomato wire, fève d' Aguadulce, three plants in the pot at that space.
• At the end of the angled support next to that, a tomato Voluptuoso F1.
• Next to that, a grafted tomato Supersteak. (I didn't know that tomatoes were grafted; something to learn about.)
• Next to that, a grafted tomato Corazan F1.
• Then the mail-ordered tomatoes (assuming that they are in the box in the same order as the label was printed), working on the same line back towards the strawberries. From the first box:
• rose de berne (round and pink, biggish)
• green grappe (I bet that's supposed to be green grape)
• marmande (a tomato local to Aquitaine apparently)
• beefsteak (big and red)
• andine cornue (the skinny Andean tomato)
From the second box:
• ananas (a yellow tomato)
• cerise (cherry tomato, of course)
• beefsteak
• gardener's delight (a cherry tomato)
The last tomato from the second box, russe, looked puny. (Should be big and red.) There was no more room on that row, so I turned around and put it next to a fence stake on the southish, near the end of the line of tomatoes.

• Starting at the southeast side of that fence side, by each of the first three fence stakes, I buried three seeds of haricots (sans fil), Cordon Bleu). 
• At the fourth stake came the punny Russe tomato.
• At the fifth fence stake, I planted three seeds of fèves, De Séville.

• Above the stake with the storebought fèves, I started a second row of veg, planting the storebought eggplant/aubergine, Bonica F1, 
• Next to that, I planted a "hill" with three seeds of zucchini/courgette, Verte non coureuse d/Italie. (Can that really be the variety name?)
• At the other end of that row, I planted three seeds of a winter squash Sweet Dumpling (Patidou), which are supposed to be small fruit orange-brown flesh and skin ribbed white and dark green. (I'm really looking for an acorn squash sort of thing, but these don't seem to exist any more.)
• There's a big gap in the middle for who know what.
   
• Along the opposite long fence side, at each stake, starting from the northeast corner, I planted the third box of tomatoes (a twin to the second one):
  • ananas
  • cerise
  • beefsteak
  • gardener's delight
  • russe (this one healthier looking)

Now we'll see how it all goes.