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| The lilac bush is budding |
Saturday was absolutely gorgeous here. Not too hot, but plenty warm and even a bit of sunlight to cheer up what started off as being a gloomy, cloudy day. Perfect weather for getting stuff done outside. I decided to make use of it by transplanting the broccoli and cabbage seedlings out, transplanting my berry bushes into much larger planters, and transplanting my still indoor tomato seedlings into larger pots as well. I also discovered another planter like I am growing my mostly indoor lettuce, so I decided to plant that with lettuce seeds to get a second planting going, this time outside. It was supposed to rain Saturday night, so I didn't bother watering my outdoor projects, since I didn't want them to drown when the rain started. It didn't rain. I put a little water on my sad looking broccoli and cabbage seedlings Sunday afternoon, which insured we'd get plenty of rain that night, which we did.
Come Monday afternoon, that rain had translated into a lot of plants having growth spurts! Not only did I notice a lot of growth on plants I had planted, but I discovered some things growing that the previous resident must have put there in that broken down planter in the front of the yard and some escaped plants from a mini-bed in the back of the lot by the garage that technically is the non-existent neighbor's yard, but the escapees were on my lot, so I figure those plants are mine now. I decided to relocate all the mystery flowers to a single bed in the very front of the lot that I put in for this purpose to hopefully help camouflage the vegetables I'll be growing further in the property, so it would be less obvious on a drive-by that I'm up to anything other than conventional landscaping.
So now that you know what I've been up to, here's a visual tour of the latest growth and development at the Trailer Park Homestead:
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| Chives gone wild on left, lettuce in the middle planter, spinach on the right |
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| Broccoli babies, planted much too closely together, since I'm sure some will be sacrificed to wildlife |
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| Original lettuce, outside to enjoy a day of real sunlight |
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| The bed I planted on St. Patrick's day is finally starting to come to life, with onions galore, and a few carrots and spinach to boot |
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| Cabbage patch babies, also planted too close together as sacrifices |
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| Anyone know what these are? The ones outside the designated area have been relocated |
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| My berry "bushes" (more like sticks sticking out of the soil) are showing signs that my neglect over winter didn't kill any of them! |
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| Relocated mystery plants. I'm thinking of putting a whole line of flowers in the front of the lot to hide my bounty. |
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| The tomatoes are getting bigger every day! |
One more thing I just discovered of note: many of the ground cherries have already sprouted! They were supposed to take 14 days according to the packet, but it's only been a week and more than half are already up! What a happy surprise!
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| Ground cherry sproutlets in the front and you can see my green pepper plants in the background |
Those mystery plants look like they might be tulips.
ReplyDeleteTulips don't spread by runners underground though, do they? That's what it looked like was happening here.
ReplyDeleteAgreed they look like a spring bulb coming up, most likely tulips. If you move them right now you'd kill them. They spread by means of the bulb dividing (just like garlic). You divide them when the top growth has died back (at that point they have stored enough energy in their bulbs). When they get too crowded they are competing so much for nutrients that they often don't flower.
ReplyDeleteModern strains of tulips typically produce sterile flowers.
When these die back, dig deep so you can get under the bulb and not damage them to relocate them. The bulbs are several inches below the soil. Bulbs do not generally last very long in storage (in other words, you can't store them for a few years like other seeds, typically it is a few months.)
They are a good addition to a perennial garden. You can also force the bulbs to have flowers off season. I wouldn't force ones that were taken from overcrowded beds as they don't have the reserves needed to flower well.
Enjoy!
Those look like day lilies not tulips. Day lilies have tubers not bulbs and you should still have plenty of time to move them if you wish.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dharma, it looks like day lillies.
ReplyDeleteGod bless
Heather Laurie
www.prudentpantry.org
I was gonna say, lilies or irises?
ReplyDelete