March Garden

A slow start this year, but it's a start . . .

I thought that outdoor garden season would never come, but here we are. I spent last weekend doing some spring cleaning (it’s still a bit of a mess as you can see), dragging out pots and putting them in their spring homes, scooping out the top few inches of potting mix around the perennials and replacing it with new potting mix and fertilizer. Pots are still covered up with chickenwire and cloches; the squirrels seem so hungry this time of year and I do feel bad for them, but not bad enough to feed them my precious bulbs and violas.

I kept hoping and crossing my fingers that I’d have flowers to show you, but everything is on a delay this year. I’m sorry; April will be beautiful, but the March garden is a little dull. At least it’s not as bad as last year’s! Still, even just seeing the garden infrastructure in place makes me hopeful. The roses, dragged out of hibernation, have new growth. The window boxes look sad and empty now, but soon enough they’ll be wild with flowers that I’ll be complaining about having to deadhead. Seriously, though, it’s kind of a pain to reach those window boxes, especially while holding dangerously sharp snips. Remind me not to plant cosmos there again.

Sowing

• Dahlias: This year I’m growing all my dahlias from seed, just as I have for the last few years. Tubers are just so expensive these days, and I don’t have the right environment for overwintering them. So like last year I’m growing Floret’s Petite Florets, though if I see a tuber of a really pretty variety locally I might have to cave.

• Nicotiana: Suaveolens and Lavender Cloud, again the same varieties I grew last year, but they were so pretty, floating in the breeze, and I do love the smell of them.

• Savannah Grass: Drew has been trying to get me to grow more grasses in the garden for forever, so here we go. I love this variety for the pink plumes; I get worried that grasses will look too modern, but I don’t this this one will at all. A nice compromise.

• Thunbergia: Another repeat. I think this is the third year I’ve been growing thunbergia Alba, and at this point I can’t imagine the garden without it. I grow it up a bamboo cane wigwam in a big pot alongside some other sort of vining plant; last year it was a climbing bean, but this year I’m trying out asarina Sky Blue.

• Aster: Not everything I’m growing is a repeat. I’ve been intrigued by annual asters and the chrysanthemum look they have about them, so this year I’m trying out some Salmon Janina.

• Annual Phlox: Another one I’ve been wanting to grow for a while. I sowed Crème Brûlée, and only got three seeds to germinate, but maybe that’s good. How many plants do I need, anyway?

• Salvia: I grew a pinkish annual salvia one summer in Portland, and it was so dainty and sweet, with blooms like little ballet slippers. I can’t remember which variety it was but it must have been similar to the Brenthurst Pink salvia I’m growing this year.

• Feverfew: I’ve never grown feverfew until this year, and I’m not sure why; I do love it in flower arrangements, and I think it will have the wild look in the garden that I’m going for. My pal Alison sent over some feverfew seeds in a seed swap we did, and the little seedlings are already doing so well.

• Blue Lace Flower: I grew these last year, but they didn’t do great for me. Maybe I planted them too late? I direct sowed them, but this time around I’m trying to grow them indoors under lights first.

• Cosmos: Alison sent me some Cupcakes White and Cupcakes Blush, and I’m so excited about them—the petals look like cupcakes wrappers! I was going to grow Rubinato again but decided to do Rosetta instead. It’s not as compact as Rubinato, but the colors will look better in the garden, I think.

• Looking at this list makes me worried that I might have sowed too many seeds, because this isn’t even half of what I’m growing. I sowed most of my seeds last month, and I still have some zinnias and celosia and sunflowers to sow in April. We’ll see how it goes!

Newly planted ‘Windermere,’ along with the snapdragons protected underneath the Dollar Tree cloche

Planting

Not too much yet, since I’m still on the countdown to our last frost date, which the Old Farmer’s Almanac tells me is April 4th. Is it really, though? I’m telling myself that it’s really April 21st to be safe, but even that feels too early, honestly.

But so far I have the violas and alyssum outside, and I planted out my snapdragons last week since they’re hardy plants. And I just planted a new rose! Last year I ordered Windermere but got sent Queen of Sweden by mistake, so the very nice people at David Austin sent over the right one this year. Do I really need three rose bushes on this terrace? Probably not, but I can’t say that I’m sad about it.

Finally some germination in the winter sowing bin!

Currently in the Cold Frames

So many things, but most of it’s my winter sowing, which, as I feared, requires a lot of patience. I keep looking for sprouts, but I think we just need some warmer days for everything to really get going. But I do have alyssum, larkspur, sea holly, and orlaya germinated, so maybe it’s working after all?

I’m already running out of grow light space inside, so I’ve been sticking plants out into the cold frames to harden off, even thought it might be a little early. Right now I have bacopa, asarina, and lobelia seedlings in the plastic bins, though I take them inside on nights when the temperatures dip below 45 degrees.

I can’t get over how big these cobaea scandens seedlings are getting.

Growing

• Cobaea Scandens: I had the hardest time getting them to germinate, but once they did they started bounding away. I knew I’d have to keep them inside on our windowsills and was worried that they might be annoying, but I have to say that I really am liking them. It’s also just so gratifying to have seedlings grow so fast that you have to pinch them every couple of days.

• Snapdragons: I sowed Chantilly Light Salmon and Potomac Ivory in February and hardened them off early this month and planted them out last weekend.

• Violas: So many violas! Most of them were grown from seed—I sowed Bowles Black and Antique Laeta last September, and Nature Antique Shades in January, and they’re all so close to blooming. But, again, I’m not very patient so I ended up buying some light blue violas at Lowe’s and some lavender pansies at the Greenmarket. I’m just starved for flowers right now, I guess. Just like the squirrels.

• Sweet peas: My sweet pea seedlings are growing and living outside and are just about ready to be planted into a big pot. I had a bit of a disaster when my January-planted sweet peas succumbed to the cold last month. Fortunately Alison saved the day, including in the swap some sweet pea varieties I hadn’t even heard of. So right now I’m growing Flora Norton and King’s High Scent that I re-sowed, and some Limelight, Raspberry Flake, Our Harry, and Nimbus.

• Lots and lots of perennials/biennials: I wasn’t sure how my perennials would fare with this cold winter we’ve had, but most of them have tiny little leaves peaking through the old growth. I’m also excited about the biennials I sowed last year—the honesty and sweet rocket are looking great, and the little hollyhock survivor is still surviving, fingers crossed.

Muscari and tulip bulb lasagna, oh so close . . .

Bulbs

So the only bulbs that are close to blooming are some muscari I bought at the Greenmarket. All of the bulbs that I planted last fall are really taking their time. Maybe it’s the cold winter we had? Anyhow I do have shoots coming up: some Apricot Beauty tulips, Baby’s Breath muscari, and some random crocus, so I can already promise that the April garden update will have more flowers.

I was at the Greenmarket again on Wednesday, and there are so many potted tulips and daffodils and hyacinths and muscari, inexpensive and so close to blooming, and part of me wonders if buying and planting bulbs in the fall and then trying to keep them going through the winter is even worth it. Violas/pansies, too. It’s true that the Greenmarket’s variety is fairly limited and not as exciting as the bulbs and seeds I can find online. But to be able to skip all of the sowing and potting up and protecting from rain, cold, and squirrels is awfully tempting.

I don’t know—I say that now, but I might think otherwise when my bulbs finally do come up.

Muscari and pansies from the Greenmarket