I know I’m a little behind the times here, but I was out in New Mexico for business on the actual Bloom Day. I got home after sunset last night and was so excited to see these Mexican plum (I think) blossoms on the little tree we inherited from the previous owners when I took the dog out early this morning. I love pink and these blossoms are fantastic! Yay, spring is HERE!!
Maybe tomorrow I’ll have some foliage shots 🙂
I recently planted the onions and leeks I ordered from Dixondale Farms back in November. I hope I didn’t plant them too late in the season to get a good harvest. Here’s a pic of the garlic planted back in November over by the roses along the deck. It’s growing quite well although I’m not sure the garlic harvest will be very delish as I just used grocery store garlic. At least the roses will get some benefit from sharing a bed with garlic.
I scratched some garlic chive seeds into the soil at some point in the past couple of months. Here is the progress so far.
They are only a few inches tall but quite strong. I’m sure they’ll grow up into fine specimens.
Here is the first harvested broccoli (4 plants went in and 3 have survived) and the second round of collards (six plants) from the October planting. I wish I could remember the variety of broccoli. Gypsy? I think that is right. And wonderful Georgia Southern collards. We’ve eaten a mess of ’em and have a few blanched batches in the freezer. Yum!
I went out to the Wildflower Center last October and noticed some wonderful shrubby boneset plants that were covered in flutterers. After a bit of research I realized it was the same thing that Jeremy of Bio-Gardener had recommended as a good plant for the still-unplanted butterfly corner. I found a few places that sold seeds and wondered if local nurseries carried the plants and then forgot about it altogether since is was getting to be fall and there was leaf raking to do.
We were raking and bagging leaves in the front yard when I noticed this bush by the front door…
I think it is a shrubby boneset and plan to transplant it to the potager section in February. It is in a pretty shady spot by the front except when the pecan trees drop their leaves. It started blooming and growing when it got some light so I think it will be happier in a sunny location in the back. I’m pretty psyched because it will help fill out an empty corner (I plan to put mistflower in the same area) and make the garden look more mature. This butterfly was nearby so that is a good sign.
I’d been told that much of gardening was digging things up and moving them around. I’m beginning to understand!
I spent the day clearing out cardboard and marking some path/bed edges. Here is a look at the updated garden plan. The shaded areas are the paths . My thought is to use mulch for a few years as a pathway material in case I want to change some of the dimensions or sections. 
The circle in the middle was originally conceived of an herb spiral (they are very cool!) but I have changed my mind and now plan to add a stock tank pond. Pam/Digging has awesome posts about these and the ones I’ve seen at the Wildflower Center are fantastic. Callahan’s has a 4-foot diameter tank that matches the planned dimensions perfectly so perhaps in February I’ll tackle water gardening!
The other changes since Chloe and I came up with the original design are the addition of roses to the back edge near the deck. I planted Zephirine Drouhin roses in October and have since added garlic since they get along so well. We had a Communist Cuba dinner party with roast pork (yum!) and I had tons of ordinary garlic from Fiesta around. I did the overnight soak with baking soda and a quick dip in rubbing alcohol and into the ground those cloves went (pointy side up)! They are growing well, but I am not harboring high hopes as they were leftover bulk garlic. I did try to order fancy-pants garlic but I was too late in the season. Alas, no pictures of that yet.
Here is some dill that was planted from seed over by the coral honeysuckle. It is there for the caterpillars.
Here is the coral honeysuckle. It is doing very well despite being ignored during most of the winter. I like plants that can survive on their own.
Mostly Weeds 