Seed starting 2017

Zinnias

I had some success with seed starting last year, so trying again this year - just for fun, nothing that I couldn't buy starts or just start outdoors later if I need to. I expanded my setup but that's now mainly outdoors. Indoors I'm still using my bay window area, which gets as much natural light as is possible in a house.

Seed starting window

I have cedar sage, forget me nots, rock cress, aquilegia and zinnias planted. Plus lemongrass that I plan to grow indoors in pots for the cats to nibble on. They are unhappy that they can't jump up on the windowsill and chirp at birds.
The forget me nots are not doing well, I think they need to be planted directly outside; everything else is ok. It has been really rainy and dark this year, so I'm sure they would benefit from artificial lights - but that's more than I want to get into. Surprisingly, the zinnias look the best and they were planted last.

Top: cedar sage; middle: zinnias; bottom: aquilegia

Outdoors, I'm experimenting with modified winter sowing. I don't have an easy supply of plastic containers, we don't buy gallons of milk or two liter soda bottles. But I came across a discussion about using "row shelter accelerators" from gardeners.com. They're basically sturdy row covers, but with mesh tops to let in water, and they fold up for storage.

Winter sowing setup

In the fall, I had started two flats of native seeds: harebell, beargrass, Roemer's fescue, Indian paintbrush, camas, iris tenax, large leafed lupine, fireweed and milkweed - plus non-native blue poppies. I've read that native seeds will grow better if planted in the fall, but I didn't want to leave them to the mercy of the rabbits, birds and slugs.

I initially covered each of them with a second nursery tray, to keep out the pests but let in light and water. That let in too much water because I accidentally left them in an area where water drips down from the second floor balcony. But, at least some survived.

Fall planted seeds at the top and bottom

When I got the row shelter accelerators, I put the flat of native seeds under one, and planted more of the same seeds. Then added rock cress, forget me nots, cedar sage, Jupiter's beard, peony poppies, foxglove, hollyhocks, aquilegia and zinnias.

Most of the seeds planted in the winter (February) are doing better than those planted in the fall. I'm excited that the fall planted camas are coming up though.

Winter planted seeds

Winter planted lupine

Fall planted camas

Now the trick will be how to slowly remove the covers, since I can't take the normal winter sowing approach of poking larger holes in the top. I'm appreciating how little work this has been so far though!

In bloom this week: March 28, 2017

Now that it's really starting to feel like spring, I can brag that here in western Washington, we have the longest spring in the country. Average high temperatures are above 50 degrees but below 70 degrees for about four months. We get a lot of rain too, but that just helps the flowers grow! Every time I go outside, I find more flowers.

First the bushes - my favorite bush, the native flowering currant, plus forsythia and (behind the forsythia) pieris japonica keeps on blooming:

Spring bulbs - crocuses, anemones, hyacinth, grape hyacinth and daffodils scattered all around the yard:

Plus, hellebores that have been blooming since December:

What's next? Oregon grape always takes longer to go from buds to blooms than I expect, so the Asian pear tree may beat it:

In bloom this week: March 19, 2017

Forsythia! - and pieris japonica

Spring officially arrives at 3:29 am tomorrow and it's finally starting to feel like winter is over, with a glorious sunny day today. Average last frost for my location is March 24, although I won't trust that this year.

My favorite area right now - hellebores and crocuses in bloom and aquilegia is growing

Crocuses

Anemone blanda

Hyacinth, so close

Unknown bulb in the bottom corner of the yard, finally not covered by weeds

Cheerful daffodil

This may be cheating since I just planted these, but I'm enjoying them and hope they'll spread.

Snowdrop

Fritillaria meleagris - see the colored bloom on the right

Here's a couple of weeds, but I'm even happy to see them after a long winter.

Purple dead nettle

Dandelion at dusk

What's next? 

My favorite spring shrub, our native flowering currant

In bloom this week: March 11, 2017

Crocuses are finally starting to bloom! These were a surprise, they're in the bottom corner of the yard where we planted bulbs our very first spring in this house, 13 years ago. We didn't realize how many large invasive plants were in that area that quickly grew over the bulbs. Now that the area is cleared out, apparently some of the crocuses managed to survive.

I planted more crocuses around the yard over the last couple of years and those are getting close to blooming. The squirrels really love to dig them up, but I've been sprinkling stinky cat litter around all of my bulbs and that seems to help.

Crocuses and aquilegia

The pieris japonica and hellebores continue to bloom, they are definitely the winners for long lasting flowers this winter. I'm slowly, finally, starting to find the early spring plants blooming.

Helleborus 'Cinnamon Snow'

Unknown variety of cedar

A pretty weed - lamium purpureum, purple dead nettle

Finally found one flower on the hazelnuts!

What's next? It's so hard to tell, the flowering currants are close, but I'm betting on the forsythia.

Forsythia

Hyacinth

Flowering currant

Front side yard

Santa skeleton hanging out in the mulch pile

The front side yard is my second outdoor project for the year that is progressing well. This area is a 13 foot strip on the south side of the driveway and running along the side of the house/garage to a fence that is above the new woodland garden. Overgrown yucca dominates this area - at least in my mind - but there is also a small pine tree, a struggling rhododendron, a few roses along the front fence, and the usual bit of scraggly lawn.

View from the street, looking east

Looking west

Looking east along the house/garage

This area is very dry in the summer and too far from either of my gardening hoses for easy watering. The light is mixed, I need to watch closer in the spring as the sun gets higher in the sky, but I think there's a fair amount of light except directly under the pine tree. Back further along the side of the house is close to the neighboring house, but there is a lot of light when the sun is higher in the sky. We have arborvitae right along the fence there too, which I'm not fond of but they're so huge, there wouldn't be any point in trying to remove them now.

Snow makes it all pretty

Poor rhododendron was really buried

My first chore was to finish trimming the yucca, which my mother started when she visited in the fall and I have to say really does make a difference. I trimmed the rhododendron to get the branches off the ground and it looks a little better; still to be determined if it will be able to stay in this location or if this is just too dry.

I had a load of wood chip mulch delivered in the fall, halfway in the driveway and halfway over the grass. I've been spreading it out (as well as hauling it down to various other places in the yard) and have started a list of plants to add when it warms up a little more. There was more moss than grass around the rhododendron and toward the street, so I'm covering that with cardboard to kill the grass. In theory, the moss will survive longer than the grass, if I remove the cardboard at the right time.

Progress

Slowly shrinking mulch pile

Trimmed yucca

I'm looking at native inside out flower to go under the pine tree, it's supposed to be able to handle dry shade and spread quickly.  Also sword fern and fringecup along the front of the yucca. I uncovered two existing sword ferns that I had forgotten were there while trimming the yucca. I've been browsing lists of California natives looking for plants that like dry but can handle clay, and may even plant a small manzanita next to the house where the stack of bricks is now.

Next step is to call for a utility locating service because our gas, power and cable lines all run right through here. They were marked last summer when the gas lines in our street were replaced so I know roughly where they are, but need to see exactly before I do any planting!