Peas at Platt

Wall of peas at the Platt garden site.

June Community Garden Pictures

Project Grow's 20 garden sites can't be covered in a single post but here are five from mid-June


Discovery Garden at County Farm

Dicken Elementary

Hillside Terrace

Hunt Park

Wines Elementary

Cut Flower Update

I have not posted much of anything since the weather warmed up because I have been busy working outside. Thankfully, me not posting does not stop the plants from growing.

Here are the lisianthus planted in early January.  Lisianthus plants are expensive and the reason is it takes months to bring them into bloom.  They are about a foot tall now and will probably flower in August.

This is how they looked four months ago.

The next picture is of snapdragons which were planted in March.  These are about a foot and a half or two feet tall.  That is taller than the ones I usually got for the flower business but they are in better soil.   A have another set I started in early May that are still in pots.  

Last are some sunflowers.  The ones on the right were planted in early May and the smaller ones were planted a couple weeks ago.  These are about 8 inches apart.  

Update on Plants from Seed

All those tiny seedlings I posted pictures of are growing up. Here are the primroses again, now in 3" pots and below that is the original picture.

Here are the lisianthus now in 3" pots and their original picture.

The plugs in the original pictures are about the diameter of a quarter.

Hellebores as cut flowers

Hellebores are nice to have in the garden.

• Deer, rabbits and ground hogs don't eat them.
• They grow well in partial shade.
• The flowers persist for weeks (though the color becomes a bit duller).
• They are as early as daffodils but don't look like spring bulbs.  
• The foliage is attractive and evergreen.  
• They are reliably hardy and live a long time

Hellebores used to be fairly hard to find but have recently appeared at big box stores like Lowe's and Home Depot.  Many of the newer ones are double but the singles are just as pretty and cheaper.

They also make good cut flowers and will look good in a vase for at least a week.

They sometimes don't take up water well after cutting.  The flowers in the above picture were cut last night and the red one on the lower right is having this problem.  It sometimes helps (except when it doesn't) to put them into hot tap water and let it cool.

Surveying the Damage

This has been a rough winter and enough snow has melted that took a look and some pictures. All the perennials  spent the winter under more than a foot of snow and they all look fine, though it is hard to tell this early.

The first picture is of Helleborus orientalis.  They look pretty beat up but they should show new leaves and flowers about the time tulips are blooming.  These are just the leaves that overwintered.  When it gets nicer outside I will cut them all off.

Here is a picture of some snowdrops.  They were not only under the snow but also under the ground so they're fine.  Behind the snowdrops you can see rabbit poop which is everywhere in my back yard.  I haven't discovered whatever they were eating yet but they seem to have been well fed.

Here is a picture of an oriental poppy on the left with two clumps of daffodils coming up to the right.  These look the way they always do in the spring, just a bit later than usual.

Now the stuff that doesn't look so great.

Here is a Blue Girl holly.  The green part, on the bottom, was protected by the snow.  The whole thing usually looks like that this time of year. I don't know yet if the top part is dead or just if just the leaves died..

This is a picture of a yew which now has no needles.  Behind it is an arborvitae which also looks dead. Both of these plants were added to provide some green over the winter.  Not any more.

This is a China Girl holly that looks like it has had it.  I was thinking of taking it out anyway since I didn't like how it looked, so no great loss.

This is an Ilex opaca or American holly.  It looks like it will survive but will lose all the leaves over the snow line.  

Thankfully, not all my evergreen shrubs croaked.  Boxwood has the reputation of being a bit miffy but these look great.  I think they are Green Velvet but I'm not sure.  I always bought the ones that were supposed to be hardy to zone 4 and this winter shows the wisdom of that.

Here is another Ilex opaca.  This one is a female, the half dead one is a boy.  This looks like it made it through the winter OK.

Lastly, here is a rhododendron on the east side of the house.  Except for this one in this spot, I have never had any luck growing these things, but I think this one looks great.  

If it is not obvious from their size, all of these shrubs have been in place 10 years or more, so the dieback is from the extreme winter, not from being freshly planted.

Plant Sale Seedlings

Don't worry if you have not started any peppers, tomatoes or basil because Project Grow's plant sale team has been doing it for you.  You can read all about the sale here.

Here are more pictures of our efforts.

Tomato seedlings started March 15th

Pepper seedlings started February 26th.

Basil seedlings with a few peppers in the front right.  All started February 26th.