Jamie's Nursery!

I have busy all week long, preparing for our move. Dividing perennials, digging up roses, rose of sharon, clematis, peonies. Planting grass seed. Trying to leave some for the buyer of our home, and take some for myself. So many things to do! I'm enjoying all of it, even the aching muscles! I can't help but laugh, it is starting to look like a nursery on my back porch. So glad I kept all the pots over the years.

Happy gardening!

A Few Blooms

Not having the brightest of times lately, ( even though things are looking up day by day, and my life is still full of many blessings), so when I saw this giant neon orange ranunculus at Walmart it was totally with the $3. Having this huge beauty on my front porch every time I come and go dims the sound of my fighting kids, and amplifies the sounds of the birds in the tree nearby. It's all about changing the focus. But I couldn't have her lonely- these creamy white beauties had to share a pot with the orange lady above. And I finally tried a Cyclamen. I hope to keep it alive through the cool temps, and I also plan on keeping the bulb over summer dormancy, and starting it up again in the early fall. Wish me luck. Even if I never see it blooms again, these electric pink blooms have brightened my spring! 'Laser Synchro Wine Flame' Some more crocus opening up. This stripey beauty is wonderful. As are these multi-hued pretties.

Happy Spring!

The Upheaval Begins

The weather's permitted me to begin digging up some of the treasures I am taking to Minnesota with me. We are fairly certain to be signing a lease on a rental house that encourages gardening- and has flower beds that need cleaning up. I am sooo the woman for that job, and I'm sure my plants won't mind sharing the beds with theirs. My husband sent me tons of pictures of the yard, and I'm really excited. The rental house has a vegetable bed, and I've decided to scale down the edibles this year to just cukes, maters, and peppa's, so I can put all my dahlias and zinnias in that bed. The owners don't minds if I dig up some grass for my roses, so I have two walkway beds in my head- with my arbors, clems and roses. Feeling so much better! So, I went outside yesterday and looked at my dormant roses and decided I should start potting some of them up for the move. I don't know why, but I started with Eden, I luscious, semi-hardy climber with pink and white blooms that reaches 10 feet here even after a hard winter die back. Here, I have maybe 6-8 inches of green cane on this girl, so I know in Minnesota, where temps go even 10 degrees lower, she could be toast. I love her so much, I decided she needs to be in a container, and get overwintered either in the garage, or basement. I began digging, and digging, and wow... these roots were deep. I thought I was hitting some sort of tree roots only to find they were Eden's root- massive- like 4 feet wide tap roots running in every direction. I nearly killed myself removing dirt, and pulling as hard as I could. I used the hose as a pully, and pulled under the roses roots and literally let all my body weight hang from the hose, and still- this stubborn Eden would not budge. I had to resort to cutting through the tap roots with my shovel. She's potted up in her new permanent home, and being watched closely for growth. No signs of breaking dormancy yet, so I'm worried. So, turns out being an awesome gardener, with really strong plants and roots, is sort of coming back to bite me in transition. lol. Let me just say, digging up your garden is significantly less fun than planting it! I was REALLY worried all my roses would be that large! I decided the next rose to pot up would be Sexy Rexy. Just purchased last year, he's proven to be super hardy with no die back at all! It also looks also to be the first rose breaking dormancy. I was so pleased to find a much smaller root ball on this one. Thankfully, I looks like some of the roses I'm taking with me are going to be easier than others. I also potted up two other plants I know will be overwintered in containers in protected shelters- my small japanese maple, and 'blue satin' rose of sharon. I stuck some less than hardy perennials in those pots, logically thinking wherever I protect these plants, the less than hardy perennials could sit along with. Feeling pretty smart. :) Today, if the rain holds off, I'm potting up a butterfly bush for the same treatment. I've also plan on continuiing the process of removing a few beds. The new owners of our home have never gardened, and I don't want them to feel overwhelmed and immediately turned off from gardening. I've been sort of collapsing a few beds, returning the space to grass by sprinkling seeds. I'm dividing the plants in those beds, and leaving some in the empty spaces left from things I'm taking with, and then potting up the extras to either take with me, or sell. I'm so not in gardening shape yet- and my legs and butt are hurtin'! I leave you with a picture of Castor Bean flower heads from last season. I have a packet of seeds to grow these again this year. They are poisonous, so I always keep them away from the kids and edibles. I find them perfect for the inferno strip along the front sidewalk. Excellent red foliage and obviously, great flowers!

Happy gardening!

Big Fussy Girls

A little late on the Sweet Peas

I usually boldly plant my sweet pea seeds March 1st or so. Yes, you read correctly: Here, in my zone 5a garden, I plant seeds, outside, in the freezing snow and cold, in March. I plant lettuce and garden peas then, too, and have incredible yields. I never protect them, and they always thrive. I urge you to try it!! This year, I did the usual hoarding of sweet pea varieties when the seed packets hit the store shelves, but it ocured to me that I won't be living here by the time they bloom... so I hesistated to plant them all. I know May 30th, when we arrive at our new house in Minnesota it will be too late to plant sweet peas, so I just stared at the packets trying to decide what to do. This week I made a decision. Containers it is. So a few nights ago I soaked my seeds overnight, tucking the plant labels I made under the cups so as not to confuse the varieties. I have 6 or so varieties here. I put one packet in the ground for our home buyers to enjoy on the trellises on the back of the garage (I will be taking the clematis from there, so I thought I'd leave something pretty to look at). I bought these uber-cheap pots from Walmart and put one packet in each one- I plan on adding some little bamboo sticks tied into tripods with jute for them to grow on. the pots are on my back porch in the cold now. I just have to stay on top of the moisture- sweet peas do not like to dry out. Hopefully, when garden move day comes, I'm able to just throw these in the truck, and take em' right along with me. You can bet there will be pictures of the madness then! Happy gardening!

New Succulent Container

My local garden center just jumped on the fairy garden bandwagon, and have been receiving huge shipments of all sorts of goodies for the fairies, including pint sized gazebos, benches, hardscaping... all very hard to resist for my fairy garden! I got a few accessories, but I jumped for joy when I walked in to find a shipment of colorful succulents! To say their selection of succulents has been, um, lacking, was an understatement. I have had to get my goodies on road trips to California, or at nursery about an hour and half away, until now. So, for my birthday this week (I guess I turned 32, I thought I was turning 33 until the day after when my husband corrected my always terrible math), I made myself a new succulent container. I've had this great wall hanging basket for years. I bought it at a flea market and filled with it ivy geraniums, overwintering it indoors. They gernaiums outgrew the pot, and graduated to a larger hanging basket, and the poor planter sat in the basement empty all of last year. I took it outside, sprayed it clean with a hose, and went to work. Ta Da! In the first pot we have Sempervivum 'Maria Laach,' Graptoveria 'Titubans,' Aeonium 'Silver Edge,' and some lavender hens and chicks I plucked out of my front yard. In the middle we have more aeonium 'Silver Edge' and an unnamed large silvery beauty (I think an aeonium, also), plus a tiny cutting of sedum 'red dragon,'' which I think will bring out the red in the Sempervivum even more.

Finally, in the third pot, I placed Pachyveria 'Royal Flush,' Echeveria 'Black Prince,' some cuttings from the another silvery aeonium I have, and some bronze hens and chicks from the garden.

I can't wait t hang this beauty up on a sunny wall outside our new house!

Happy Gardening!

Pray I Can Still Have a Garden

I have to apologize for the uncharacteristically personal post here, but with some confusing turns of events in the process of selling our home, and there is a very good chance I will not be able to garden anymore. More than likely, my family and I will have to rent, and I'm not so sure anyone will want my ripping out all their grass and planting a couple hundred flowers. Of course, the end result remains to be seen, so everyone please pray I can still have a garden for my flowers. This is so hard for me, and I'd like to share an snippet of the story I shared with my friends and family on my family blog regarding my garden, and possibly losing it:

I'm not a one bed of flowers kind of gardener, but more of a massive rip up all the lawn type. I'm unwilling to budge on the gardening thing... it's as much a part of me as my hair, or my kids. I know how childish and unnreal this sounds, but gardening is a part of me, and if I can't have my own patch a dirt, I don't want anything at all. Period. And I don't want to just keep my plants alive until we get a house in a few years, it's not that, I want to tend to them every day I want to kneal down and watch God's miracles as they evolve and grow, and share their beauty with me. I live for my garden- for the physical aspect, the teaching, the wildlife. Some people watch TV at night, I garden with my headlamp until I can't see. I spend a 100 hours a week, however I need to come by them, in my garden come spring. My kids grow their own stuff and are always out there with me. Dirt runs through my veins, and my kid's veins now, too. I feel like this- this not having a garden after having a massive, extensive garden with thousands of hours of labor and love, hundreds of roses, hundreds of perennials (most raised from seed), and shrubs- I feel like someone has stabbed me in the heart and left me bleeding. I feel like I'm drowning.

A few pictures from last May 18th 2010. I can barely look at them now, it hurts.