There were a lot of garden chores to complete today. I got a few of them done but left a bunch for tomorrow.

First up, I planted some seeds in the house–Silene pendula ‘Sibella Carmine,’ Nicotiana landsdorfii, Petunia ‘Old Fashioned Climbing,’ Heliotrope ‘Marine,’ and Dahlia ‘Bishops Children Mix.”

Next, I potted on seedlings of thyme, chives, basil, chamomile, parsley, dill, and the first round of Dahlia seedlings. There were hundreds of seedlings that got potted into four-packs, six-packs, nine-packs, and some 3-1/2″ pots (the Dahlias).

My favorite surprise in the greenhouse today was looking at the bonsai-ish Wisteria from brother Tim that I’ve had for close to thirty years. And I saw these:

They look suspiciously like flower buds! I think this plant has bloomed only once before and that was over twenty years ago! This is cause for celebration!

Additional good news came from the updated Clivia flower spike count. I didn’t realize that many of the mature plants were under shelves on the west side of the greenhouse and I looked through all of those today (as best I could, with a lot of twisting and turning in hard-to-reach corners) and found six or seven more blooming plants! So, my best guess is that twenty or more spikes will be blooming in the greenhouse in about three weeks. There are still a LOT of Clivia plants that aren’t blooming, so more work to be done there, but at least a big show to look forward to.

I did some clean-up in the memory garden today, too. That garden looks such a mess and like it will never fill out or amount to much of anything. On closer inspection, though, I can see some positive signs. I did a little clipping and neatening up, but time and a little warmth are all that garden really needs to shine. I took some “before” photos so I’ll remember my doubts on the first day of spring.

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While the garden has a long way to grow to be lush and lovely, there are a few blooming elements already that caught my eye.

There is also a clump of narcissi that are blooming near the greenhouse that is particularly graceful.

Spring is starting to snowball in the garden and the greenhouse. Here are some random updates from the last week.

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Today brought a perfect representation of March weather: sunbreaks with intermittent downpours, thunder, lightning, and then a quick deluge of hail! I started garden chores around 9:30am and got a lot done today despite the weather challenges.

I started out by planting some 3-packs and 4-packs with snap pea seeds. My hope is to give them away to neighbors when they sprout and get a little growth on. I may use some to fill in my own pea trellis if the seeds planted directly don’t put on good growth.

I also raked away some mulch along the front of the native garden and sprinkled thousands of native annual and perennial seeds in a band about 10″ wide. My hope is that a bunch of different types will germinate and grow and I’ll get a sense of what grows easily in this neighborhood so I can put some seed mixes together to share with neighbors. I’m hoping for a grassy meadow-type effect with lots of wildflowers thrown in. The seeds certainly got watered in well enough, and hailed-in, which may or may not benefit them!

I scraped a lot of debris and mostly Douglas fir cones from the sidewalk next to the memory garden and pulled some big fir branches out of there, as well, and moved them to the native plant garden so they can decompose there.

All the scrapings get added to paths and mulches around the garden–while it looks like dirt, it really is compost from the fir needles, leaves, bark, and other debris that drifts onto the sidewalk. There is more clean-up to be done in this garden, but it can wait a week or two. Blooming now, the tail end of snowdrops and crocus, Colydalis solida, Erodium pelargoniflorum ‘Sweetheart’, and Iberis sempervirens.

I moved from cleaning up the sidewalk to trimming way back a couple of Rose “Alister Stella Grey” growing in the raised veggie garden. I had started these from hardwood cuttings and they are doing really well, but are in the wrong place. I cut them down to stumps and may try to remove them to pots this year and give them away. I trained a thornless blackberry on the trellis the roses had occupied, so that should be a little more fruitful this year.

Already a bloody mess after tackling the roses, I moved on to the blackberry in the next bed over and pruned it back to a strong framework. It was a tangled monster, but looks a lot better after some courageous pruning.

Some more clean-up followed. I trimmed the Echinops ritro old stems down to the ground and cut the prunings into short lengths and left them on the bed, just in case insects were nesting in there. I also pruned the roses Bonica Improved and Collette a bit to hopefully increase the flowers this summer.

About that time a rain squall came in and chased me into the greenhouse where plenty of work awaited. The main project was to water everything. I pulled about ten watering cans full of water out of the rain barrel, but it was raining so hard, I don’t think the resident goldfish even noticed! The big project was to rearrange the plants and pull any Clivia from under the benches that are spiking so they will be front and center for their bloom show. I was very disappointed in the spike numbers I found this year. A large percentage of the plants do not have spikes and I don’t know why. I was more attentive to them than usual last year and they all seemed pretty happy coming into the greenhouse. I watered them all (first time since November) and am hoping some of them will spike later. I have one more shelf of Clivia plants to review next weekend, but right now there are only about a dozen spikes.

The good news in the greenhouse is that the Cymbidium orchids are spiking madly–at least six plants have a spike or two each, and opening the greenhouse door during the day seems to go a long way to keeping the humidity down and the aphids in check.

Yet to bloom are the Veltheimia bracteata bulbs. They slowed down during the very cold weather. Now they are stretching a bit every day.

When the rain stopped, I ventured out and deconstructed the plum tree and cherry branches that I cut a few weeks ago in the orchard garden. It takes a lot more time to cut them all in small pieces and spread them around the garden rather than packing them in yard waste, but I know it will be an investment the bugs and birds will appreciate. I chopped other pruned branches, too–and there is more to do in the coming weeks.

A highlight of the orchard garden is the Hellebore that sister Cate gave me a few years ago. It has quite a few flowers and seedlings all around it.

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The last task I undertook was to cut back the rose at the end of the driveway. My goal was to get it down to a nub, but I was mostly done removing all the long canes when lighting hit, then thunder, then Leon yelled at me to get my ass in the house. A minute after I stepped inside, the sky opened in a monsoon of rain and hail. It was awe-inspiring and a bit scary. The sun is out again now, but I’ve got dinner to make and housecleaning to do–the wayward rose will have to wait for next weekend.

Today, I cycled some of the seedlings from the heat mat/light garden to the greenhouse. Specifically, there were about 36 Incarvillea sinensis “Cheron” seedlings that I potted on into large six-packs and put in a tray in the greenhouse. I also transplanted about a dozen Heliotrope “Marine.” And there were twelve Stipa gigantea seedlings that were transplanted, as well.

None of the succulent/cacti seedlings are big enough to be transplanted yet–they will get moved to the greenhouse in their seedling pots and given a year to fill out their pots before being moved on. That includes Kalanchoe, Albuca, Lewisia, Gasteria, Lobivia, and Haworthia.

Some other seedlings are making an appearance after a couple of weeks. Heuchera seedlings are starting to show, as well as Fragaria vesca seedlings. And about six seeds of the Greenhouse Lottery Mix from Chilterns have germinated.

I spent today planting more seeds, as well, including native plants and herbs:

Valeriana officinalis

Armeria maritima

Aquilegia formosa

Aruncus dioicus

Allium cernuum

Sidalcea hendersonii

Sisyrinchium idahoense

Big Leaf Lupine (L. polyphyllum)

Erythronium montanum

Lupinus polyphyllus

Maianthemum racemosum

Armeria maritima

Aruncus dioicus

Fritillaria camschatcensis

Tellima grandiflora

Tolmiea menziesii

Sisyrinchium idahoense

Sidalcea hendersonii

Allium cernuum

Sambucus cerulea

Sambucus racemosa

Holodiscus discolor

Rhododendron occidentale

Oregano, Common

Parsley

Thyme

Summer Savory

Chives

Fennel

Dill, Bouquet

Chamomile

Dahlia Bishop’s Children

The herbs are in the house under lights; the natives are all outdoors in pots or six packs.

When all the seed planting was done, I decided to package up the extra seeds and offer them up for free on Nextdoor. I had already shared a bunch of seeds with brother Tim, so it makes sense to share the extras locally. Within two minutes of posting, a neighbor had responded. I’ll keep doing that as I plant all my seeds this year. It seems like a great way to share the love.

All of the transplanting and seed-planting took up most of my time today. I did get to glimpse a few bright things in the greenhouse, though, and tomorrow I will work in the garden proper to bring some order after all the winter storms.

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My favorite surprise today was finding the below Forsythia cutting blooming on a lower shelf. I took this cutting at my brother’s request and it is for him, so I will pass it to him soon. I had forgotten how cuttings carry the maturity of the wood they came from into their new life, so even very young plants can bloom.

I spent the weekend in Happy Valley, OR with good friends and new homeowners, Dean and Brian. They want to have some fruits and vegetables as part of their landscape. This weekend, we planted some fruit trees, raspberries, and blueberries. I’ve provided them with seeds, as well, to get the vegetables and herbs started. Below is the original plan. I’ve strayed already from it, but it will surely still be an amazing space.

Above is the garden as I left it yesterday. Another interesting before picture is the lot just behind their home, which will be developed in the next six months. I scoured the plants to look for gems, but only found some feverfew plants and dug one up to add to Dean and Brian’s herb bed. There was a bamboo spreading around that might have done well in a pot, but I decided not to try it. There was also a purple-leaved lilac-like shrub that had been covered over deeply in fill dirt but was pushing up from a stump. None of the suckers had roots within reach, so I left that one go, too. It may have been a Weigela.

Closer to home, the seeds I’ve planted are producing some nice results on the heat mat.

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The garden is showing signs of spring, though I haven’t done any clean-up and things are very rough and tumble at the moment. The crocus are blooming.

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