{"id":4075,"date":"2018-03-18T03:19:41","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T03:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/?p=4075"},"modified":"2018-03-18T03:19:41","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T03:19:41","slug":"memorial-garden-work-on-st-patricks-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/18\/memorial-garden-work-on-st-patricks-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Garden Work on St. Patrick’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>We had a perfect day for planting in Seattle, so I set about getting some of the perennial seedlings I started last year into the parking strip memorial garden on the south side of the house.\u00a0 It was difficult, slow work, but I\u2019m hopeful in a couple of months it will pay off in a boisterous, bloom-filled garden.\n

The challenge of planting is that there is an 8\u2033 mulch of wood chips over the entire parking strip, so that has to be scraped away from the landscape cloth.\u00a0 Then, I cut Xs in the cloth and use a trowel to create planting holes.\u00a0 Hardpan is only a few inches down, so it is a tough slog trying to get holes big enough even for 4\u2033 pot-sized starter plants.\u00a0 My strategy was to dig wider holes that needed, put Epic Starter Mix<\/a> in each hole, along with some half-composted fir needles.\u00a0 Then, I turn the plants out of their pots and pull their roots out into a flatter disk, then push them into the holes and add some soil on top and pull the landscape cloth back towards the plant.\u00a0 For the more robust plants, I\u2019m confident this treatment will work out.\u00a0 But for the more delicate ones, I\u2019m not so sure\u2026I guess we\u2019ll know soon enough.<\/p>\n

So far, I\u2019ve planted some of the following:\u00a0 Columbine, chaenorhinum, sedum, Kenilworth ivy, catmint, geranium, asters and Agastache.\u00a0 I will keep working on the garden tomorrow to get all of the plants I have so far into the ground.<\/p>\n

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There isn\u2019t a lot to see yet, but I got about a 6\u2032 length of parking\u00a0strip planted today.<\/p>\n

Below are some other things of note in the garden on St. Patrick\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

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A little pansy in a patio pot recovering from an unpredictable winter.<\/p>\n

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A tiny dianthus flower braving the March coolness.<\/p>\n

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Most of the primroses are pretty sad looking, but this blue one is a bit more chipper.<\/p>\n

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Pots of little narcissus.\u00a0 These are adding a bit of cheer to the front patio.<\/p>\n

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Close up.<\/p>\n

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My plum tree is full of flowers\u2013a much bigger bloom than it has ever had.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see any pollinators, but we should get a big crop of plums, anyway.\u00a0 I just need to figure out how to protect them from the critters!<\/p>\n

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Close up of the plum bloom bounty.<\/p>\n

The honey berry couple that I\u2019ve got growing in the orchard garden has done very little in the three years I\u2019ve owned them.\u00a0 But this year, even though they are still pretty small, they are blooming.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be surprised if any berries appear, but you never know.<\/p>\n

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Weedy Daphne showing off what makes it such a weed:\u00a0 very prolific blooms and berries!<\/p>\n

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That late winter blast we had a few weeks ago with snow and temps in the 20s zapped my camellia buds.\u00a0 They are brown and dead.\u00a0 A few good ones remain, but none of the flowers are open yet.<\/p>\n

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Anemone blanda in the Doug fir bed.<\/p>\n

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Hellebore in the Doug fir\u00a0bed.<\/p>\n

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Fritillaria imperialis lutea maxima is somehow happy in the dry mostly shady Doug fir bed.\u00a0 It is slowly forming a clump.\u00a0 Three stalks are up this year, and two of them have flowers.<\/p>\n

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Here is a happy surprise.\u00a0 The foxgloves I planted in the Doug fir\u00a0bed last year did almost nothing and I assumed they\u00a0had composted themselves, but instead, they came back really strong this year.\u00a0 These are Foxy, which is a really dwarf seed strain.<\/p>\n

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Masdevallia blooms adding some glamor and interest to the greenhouse.<\/p>\n

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A slightly different view.\u00a0 I love the way the flowers look head-on and from the side.\u00a0 There is so much movement in the shape!<\/p>\n

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More orchid blooms.<\/p>\n

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A closer view showing some of the rich designs on each bloom.<\/p>\n

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Another orchid in the greenhouse\u2026the first Pleione formosana flower has opened.<\/p>\n

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Another view.<\/p>\n

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This pot has six flowers coming on.\u00a0 I need to figure out the proper way to divide\/separate out the older pseudobulbs, as there are many that are not blooming that are blooming size.\u00a0 I will tackle this once blooming is over.<\/p>\n

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Wow!\u00a0 Look at all the flowers this Lewisia is attempting to share!\u00a0 I\u2019ve had no luck with these at all in the greenhouse, so if this one does open all these flowers I will consider it a victory.<\/p>\n

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Not a great photo, but this is the first honey locust seedling from the seeds I planted probably back in January.\u00a0 I expected these to be up a long time ago.<\/p>\n

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Nasturtium already blooming in the greenhouse.<\/p>\n

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For St. Patrick\u2019s Day, my purple shamrock is rocking the greenhouse shelf.<\/p>\n

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This Corydalis is blooming in a pot on the back patio.\u00a0 It is a bit less showy than last year, but still exquisite.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had a perfect day for planting in Seattle, so I set about getting some of the perennial seedlings I started last year into the parking strip memorial garden on the south side of the house.\u00a0 It was difficult, slow work, but I\u2019m hopeful in a couple of months it will pay off in a … Continue reading Memorial Garden Work on St. Patrick’s Day<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4080,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075\/revisions\/4080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}