I’ve been reading about plants and gardening stuff since the start of July. Our backyard and flower beds are kinda crappy: Colorless and weed-infested.
We tried combating the weeds by pulling them out manually. While we took out tons already, the weeds keep coming back, and with a vengeance. They’re now even growing on our mulched flower bed.
Looking back, I dug up some photos of the garden the previous owner left us. She was a very good gardener. She left us a lot of hardy perennials. It’s a good thing that I took photos of them. The garden was in full bloom in 2010.
Beautiful flowers.
Unfortunately, we didn’t know any better and decided to uproot everything on sight the following spring. That was in early April 2011, when the plants were still dormant and everything was brown and woody, unable to distinguish which ones were the real plants and which ones were the weeds. The flowers above were taken in July, when everything was in bloom. Magnificent, ei? I know! And I’m still kicking my derriere as I write this for being so ignorant about it. #$%&@!!!
So I started to read up on a lot of stuff. First was to identify the plants that the previous owner left us, and I was able to do that by searching the web and matching the pictures. For example, google: reddish-purple flower perennial bloom July attract bees butterflies. Click on the images and somewhere there I was able to match my photo and identify echinacea. Now I realize that we had (and lost) phlox, daylilies, peonies, black-eyed susans, shasta daisies, yellow loosetrife, forget-me-nots, echinacea, and we also had other hosta varieties, among others. I haven’t identified everything yet, but I guess I’m on the right track. What I’m trying to do is to bring those plants back either by buying or growing my own.
Second, I’m identifying the plants that we have now (I mentioned in my earlier post that I lost the tags). So far, we have lacecap hydrangeas, rhododendron, boxwood, weigela wine & roses, weeping caragana, diabolo purple ninebark. Identifying the names isn’t enough. I had to read and learn about its proper care and maintenance as well as the plant’s mature height and spread. I can plan better knowing this and I can tell you now that the plants we have at our front porch will easily outgrow its space in three years, learning that what were installed there are bushes that grow to at least five feet in height and width. There’s no way our front flower bed can accommodate those bushes. They will be transplanted next spring. Summer isn’t the right time to do that. The heat will kill them.
Third, I will be adding new stuff. I ordered seeds online. They’re cheaper than buying the plant itself. A pack of seeds costs only $1.35-1.99, and they contain more than enough seeds to fill an acre.
They say sow seeds in spring. I couldn’t wait, so I set up an indoor germinating station in the basement atelier.
Germination takes time, about 30 days, and it happens in spring because seeds need a period of cold season first then wait for spring when the ground gets warm, softening the seed coat in the process. Moisture will enter the seed, signaling the sprouts to emerge. I mimicked that using the baggie method.
Lupins take 25-30 days to sprout. What I did was to scarify the seed coat by rubbing it slightly on sandpaper then soak it in cold water overnight in the ref. After 24 hours, I placed the seeds in moist tissue paper inside a ziplock bag and left it in the refrigerator for two days.
Seedlings! Hopefully they’re strong enough to be transplanted outdoor in early October, that’s more than enough time for them to grow, and have enough strength to weather the winter season. Hopefully I have new flowers in summer next year. 🙂