LYNN AND JANSON'S GARDEN PAGE

Garden report from visit of 5/24/02 -- "A Pleasant Surprise":

We went up Friday afternoon, planted some seedlings and 2 little garden rose shrubs (which will get bigger). We were expecting everything to be pretty sad-looking after all the weird weather we've been having lately, but the parsely, dill, yarrow, marshmallow, lovage, balloon flowers and even some calendula and fenugreek that we started from seed are all coming up and looking good. We had a few of the sage seeds come up as well, but not many, so we got actual sage seedlings that we planted in that area instead. The sweet marjoram, summer savory, and garlic chives are doomed to disappoint us, I fear, by not coming up at all, but we'll wait another week or two before replanting that area since everything's still a little too small to be certain whether it's cultivar or weed. The rosemary and curry plants have just taken off and will probably need substantial pruning before long. The thyme is looking good, particularly the woolly thyme, which is adorable, and the English Thyme, which has about doubled in size. Also, the lemon thyme and common thyme have cute little flowers now. The basil plant that was looking waterlogged and pale has bounced back a bit, plus we planted 2 more seedlings so we'll probably have *some* basil to enjoy this summer.

The lima beans & bush bean seeds we planted last time are almost all up and look gorgeous. The corn is continuing to grow and looks healthy, if small. The peas, which have looked stunted and disappointing since March, flourished in the recent cold snap and are now looking pretty nice. The strawberries have about 6 more flowers than they did the last time Mike went up, so we'll probably be getting some actual berries.

We've got winter squash, radishes, beets, morning glories, nasturtiums, cucumbers, a couple of surviving artichoke seedlings, and I think a couple of other things all started from seed. The tomato plants, from various sources, all look pretty sorry, but I have no doubt at least some of them will bounce back now that it's getting warmer. The pepper seeds we planted haven't come up yet, but I think they take longer in general to sprout, and the warm weather will definitely be a help. There are even a bunch of potatoes (left over from Ed's plantings in previous years). We also planted some cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, canteloupe, watermelon, butternut squash and eggplant seedlings.

Can I just say the place looks great?

Janson did take a few digital photos, which I will try to get posted eventually, but they really don't do justice to how great everything looks. So many things are still so small that they really don't show up well, and even the stuff that's really flourishing is pretty low to the ground.

What looks absolutely gorgeous is the lettuces. There are, like, 4 different varieties and they look healthy and tender. Next week I'm bringing up oil, vinegar, a bowl and some plastic forks. We'll have fresh salad with fresh herbs in our oil and vinegar dressing. Soon we'll have radishes and peas to add, and cucumbers and tomatoes eventually. If we eat up the lettuce soon, we'll have time to plant more!

Oops. Am I rambling? I mean, "yes, the garden is looking nice". Aren't you glad you asked? Whew.

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Garden report from visit of 4/19/02 -- "Shaping Up":

We remembered the camera! (Picture & link to more pix below.) Went to Home Depot again & picked up more gravel, some big stone bricks, seedlings, and seeds. We got everything into the ground, too! Fleshed out the gravel path, put in a stone-brick path, edged some plots with remaining gravel, and planted a buncha stuff.

Janson & Mike did all the stone and gravel stuff. They also put up some chicken wire inside the vined plants' "cage" to divide the area and provide more climbing space. I played with the pretty seedlings. The perennial area now has the rosemary & curry from last year, plus lavender, oregano, common thyme, lemon thyme, and basil (Not a perennial, but who cares? It's basil!). Plus some blue balloon flower seeds -- we'll see if they actually come up.

We planted most of the area around the paths. What we put in last week, plus sweet marjoram, garlic chives, summer savory, dill, and sage. We'll fill in the remaining area with some seedlings -- probably something shrubby with flowers. I'm hoping for some lemon verbena plants to be available again, too.

The last thing I did was to plant some mixed winter squash seeds around the new interior climbing walls. There's plenty of space left for other stuff there, too. Mike transplanted some seedlings he'd started at home -- artichokes (yay!) and a lot of things that may be beans.

Garden report from Mike 4/16/02 -- "Clementine" (Another garter snake!):

Mike says: "When I was tilling up a small section of Plot#5 this afternoon--I must have disturbed this new garden snake. About the same size as Clem Jr, but (s)he had no stripes--just dirty brown with small light-colored yellow dots. What are they eating back there that they are all so hardy?"

Garden report from Mike 4/15/02 -- "Clemson":

A smaller garden snake (presumably Clem's offspring) was sighted and subsequently frightened off by Mike while he was using the lawnmower today. The smaller snake escaped to the safety of the neighbors' yard, but hopefully he'll return to have his picture taken.

Garden report 4/12/02 -- "Seeds, snakes, and walkways":

We weren't sure whether we'd be able to do any planting today. Janson's main goal was to create a path through the herb garden, using wood & marble chips (with plastic underneath). The path looks great, although 4 20-lb bags of marble chips turns out to be less than we needed. He also put down flagstones for a second, direct path through the other half of the herb garden, which we'll probably reconstruct to match the stone walkway. Home Depot, ahoy!

The excitement for the day was provided by none other than Clem (the garden snake Mike sighted last year). When Janson began to turn over the soil, he uncovered a big fat garden snake. Initially we were afraid he'd skewered and killed it, but it turns out Clem was just playing possum. Hopefully the new path won't disturb our resident serpent, whose hidey-hole now looks out over it.

Mike did some more planting. He'd already put in peas, morning glories, squash, canteloupe, cucumbers, and some other things. I'm not sure what he added on Friday other than radishes and such.

I was sleepy and planned on contributing mainly in a supervisory capacity, which I did with great panache (aided by Ed, who arrived bearing Xmas presents and stuck around to watch). Eventually I pulled some dandelions out of the tulip bed, helped get rid of some leaves & hay covering the herb area & turned over some of the soil underneath, and planned and started planting part of the herb garden.

Janson picked up turning over the soil & planting the herb garden when I faded. We still have rosemary and curry from last year, which survived the winter beautifully. We planted marshmallow, fenugreek, parsley, calendula, lovage, and yarrow from seeds. We'll have to wait until slightly warmer weather to plant rest of the herbs.

Rough map of the herb garden to come.

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