Peas update March 01

As many of you might recall I planted Super Sugar Snap Peas on January 26. Growing peas  we need to get an extra early start on them because it gets very hot by May here in North Carolina. I'm pretty happy with them thus far, Meg has barely seen them as she has long work days as a teacher.

Here is what one of the rows look like.

You just can not plant peas too thick. We had a few diggers that eat a few sprouts, but mostly we are going to have lots of peas!!

Bloomsdale Longlasting Spinach planted January 24, 2011

Almost ready to eat, we are still picking spinach planted last fall.

Crimson Candles camellia opened yesterday, it's third year here. The leaves have tiny brown spots and the blooms here are less than previous years, hoping fertilizer will help. Any tips appreciated?

Silver Moon hellebore with honey bee visiting before 8AM on March 01.

It was 80 degrees again today, much warmer than usual for this time of year. I also saw my first spring butterfly a Spring Azure.  Baby Eastern Painted Turtles lined the edges of the pond, the adults were out on logs sunning themselves. Tonight our first frog concert as the Spring Peepers are at level 4 on a scale of 10.

Planting for spring

On Sunday I started planting for spring. In the water garden by the driveway went in 12 Fondant and 12 Purple Sensation hyacinths. And also 12 Delta Pink Shades pansies.

Pink Shades pansy

On Monday I went shopping and found these beautiful hand tagged Johnny Jump Ups called Orange Duet, never seen these before. The local farm supply had them.

Orange Duet Johnny Jump Ups

Then I stopped at Lowe's (I'm not a big fan of Lowe's, sorry Tom) and got these beautiful purple Pansies, no name on them. They were tagged with the growers name, guess what they were grown locally and on the road I live on, can't beat that for local!

I think this is one of the Delta trademark pansies. Mixed planted 12 of these with the Orange Duets shown above in the garden next to the deck stairs.

Then on to my new favorite garden center Durham Garden Center. I picked up this camellia sasanqua called Kanjiro. I found out this camellia is long known in Australia under the name 'Hiryu". Anyway it is our first sasanqua, for now anyway.

While buying the above camellia I picked up these spring bulbs:

30 Crocus Pickwick they went in the driveway island.
30 Crocus Flower Record they went in the driveway island.
8 Daffodil Tazetta canaliculatus (more than 12 in the package!) Late spring, 8 inches, fragrant. These were planted beside the water garden urn
12 Daffodil Cheerfulness Mid spring, 16-18 inches planted in island
8 Daffodil Triandus hawera Late spring, 10 inches, fragrant (more than 12 in the package!)
12 Daffodil Mount Hood Mid spring, 16-18 inches planted next to driveway beside the water garden.
10 Iris reticulata Harmony Very early spring, 6 inches. Planted beside the rocks in the water garden.
15 Scilla siberica Early Spring 6 inches. Planted in the driveway island.

All the above were planted Yesterday November 09, 2009

Well since Meg interrupted my Durham Garden Center visit yesterday by requesting I pick up cup cakes at Wholefoods ( I hate Whole Foods, they do not sell local produce, mostly from California 2000 miles away and I'm all about reducing my carbon foot print) for a school birthday party. Today I was in town and stopped back at the Durham Garden Center!

The Camellia japonica 'Crimson Candles'. I wanted yesterday was my goal. The foliage and shape of the 3 gallon camellia really got me and the girl in the garden raved on and on about the one in her garden. So I picked it up. Then I saw Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide' in bloom and had to get it too.

Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide'
The owner of the garden center was so happy I picked out more daffodils an was making a terrible rainy day a bit better she offered me 25 % off all the spring bulbs since she was planning to do it next week anyway. So here is my bulb list( I called Brent and Becky's Bulbs and vastly reduced my bulb order with them that still have not been pulled since I ordered them a week ago Sunday)

16 Daffodil Baby Moon Late Spring, 10 inches and Fragrant
8 Daffodil Barret Browning Mid Spring, 16 inches
8 Daffodil cyclamineus Febuary Gold Early Spring, 10 inches
8 Daffodil cyclamineus Jack Snipe Mid Spring, 10 inches
8 Daffodil cyclamineus Jetfire Early Spring, 12 inches
25 Daffodil cyclamineus Tete Tete Early Spring, 10 inches
16 Daffodil Jonquilla Pipet Very Late Spring, 12 inches
8 Daffodil Jonquilla Quail Mid Spring, 10 inches
8 Daffodil large cupped Pipe Major Mid Spring 16 inches
4 Daffodil large cupped Salome Very Late Spring, 14 inches
16 Daffodil Tazeta canaliculatus Late Spring, 8 inches fragrant
8 Daffodil Tazeta Golden Dawn Mid Spring, 14 inches fragrant
8 Daffodil Tazeta Hawera Late Spring 10 inches and fragrant
8 Daffodil Tazeta Thalia Very Late Spring, 14 inches

Did I go overboard on daffodils? Several of these I planted yesterday, but most of these are for the back yard.
5 Hyacinth Blue jacket Mid Spring, 10 inches fragrant
5 Hyacinth Jan Bos Mid Spring, 10 inches fragrant
10 Iris reticulata Harmony Very Early Spring, 6 inches.

Think I've been feeling guilty about the plants loss when we remodeled and added on here at Paradise. We lost a 12 foot pink flowering dogwood, 6 foot gardenia, a 4 foot sweet pepper bush and 3-4 huge clumps of daffodils. I wonder what happened to the reblooming yellow daylillies, they are hard to kill.

OK so I wanted to show you the project I have been working on the past 10 weeks, it is now finished. Belladumus designed it and I built it.

Notice the huge trellis covered in Carolina Jasmine, that was there already.


This completely custom deck is 14 x 38, it has an under decking called Rain Escape over top the Willy's Jeep, so the jeep stays dry when it rains. There is the sunken hot tub and a 14 x 14 cedar wrapped porch with a 1 x 6 V grove cedar ceiling. Those hand railings are made with copper tubing too!
This is the second biggest deck I have ever built and the most custom porch I have ever done. The largest deck/porch I have built is ours with a deck 16 x 36 and a 16 x 16 screened in porch. Compared to this one just finished ours is pretty plain.

My next project is in the planning department in Chapel Hill. We'll be building a 14 x 30 second story deck with a 14 x 20 screened in porch with two 4ft x 4 ft skylites. her garden makes paradise look awful shameful. But I've been offered some plants from it.

Spotted Salamander invasion!

Last night Meg let the dogs out the front door while it was raining. At her feet she found not one but two Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) at her feet attempting to crawl inside the house. So I helped her coax them back outside while she managed the dogs.

A little history on these salamanders here. About 8-9 years ago I found 2 of them in the then new water garden (it's is gone now due to the addition), they laid eggs and the eggs might have made it. One was a spotless Spotted Salamander which is the only one I ever saw. They appeared in the water garden most every year in February to lay eggs (or feed the Bullfrogs eggs). Last year in mid summer while removing the old furnace we found a pair of them under the furnace pad, and later that week I found 2 more under some roofing tins I have in the woods for snakes to rest under.

FYI these are mole salamanders common to the southeastern US. Usually the only time one sees them is on the first cold rainy night in February unless they are found under logs rocks ect. And they are around 8 inches long the biggest salamander we have in this part of the country.

Last night was also the first night this year we had a frog concert, the Spring Peepers gave a mild performance, Meg told me about them late late night apparently my hearing is not as good as it used to be or Meg's hearing is better than mine. The new windows seems to insulate the sound from the outside pretty well. This Spring Peeper I took the photo along my pond in 2004, you can identify them by the X on the back.

Harbingers of Spring

I think I spelled harbinger correctly? Well to me they are butterflies Spring Azure and Falcate Orangetip. In the next few days or weeks these should be reported being seen here in North Carolina. More of my photos of these beauties see Spring Azures.

The bottom photo is a male Falcate Orangetip on Winter Cress a winter annual, bet that twists your brain a winter annual?

Mystery plant in my woods

Folks,

Normally I know most of the plants growing here in my Durham, NC woods. Yesterday Meg and I found this at the lower end of our property near the stream. Most of the plants were 6-8 foot tall and these catkins were hanging from them about 3 inches long or so.

Any ideal what plant this might be??