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.

Garden Planting update Feb 19

Folks,

This morning it was 26 degrees and it is expected to be the same tomorrow and Sunday I think. The seedlings in the garden are covered in straw and surviving thus far. The seven day forecast does not really show any growing days, but we are hopeful. Meg drew me a map of what is planted currently. This map is of the garden plot along our pond, the open areas are not planted yet. To give prospective on this plot, it is approximately 40 ft long x 10 ft wide.

The arugula, kale and meslin mix planted on 1/24 is up and looking good, see a photo on our first posting.

All of our seeds came from a seed company that grows all it's own seeds Territorial Seed, the onions we bought locally at the farm and garden supply in Durham. Can't wait for more 70 degree days.

A first look at the garden in 2009

Hi everyone!

Randy and Meg just north of Durham, NC. We started planting our vegetable garden on January 24th , 2009. Meg planted arugula, peas, mixed salad greens and kale.the seeds on the 24th, I amended the garden with top soil and sand then tilled in it a week or so before.

To the left of the garden plot is our small pond. The straw is covering the planted seeds and sprouting plants. In the center back there is the newest garden plot, not planted yet. You can see the make shift trellis that we green cucumbers on last year. Last year 2008 was the first year we planted in the main garden plot, the organic soil already looks pretty good.

Here is a look at the small plot where we grow morning glories up onto the porch. We just started this last year as the addition was finished last year. Those planter boxes were what the morning glories grew in, but keeping them watered in our droughty region is a huge task. Today I added 4 wheel barrows of top soil and a half wheel barrow of sand and mixed it all in then added the field stone edging.

Above is some of the greens Meg planted on January 24, 2009. Hopefully they will survive the 26 degree night expected tomorrow night. Meg added more straw for insulation just in case. On January 31th Meg planted more greens Then February 14th we planted Bright lights Swiss Chard, spinach, golden beets and red beets. On February 15th, Meg set out the onions, more peas and Easter Egg Radishes.

Here is the biggest achievement of the weekend, moving out the top soil pile and making way for the creek stone path between the ramp to the deck and the pond. I planted a Chinese Butterfly Bush, Buddleia lindleyana that was being nursed in the top soil pile, and a few other unknown plants hiding in it also. The dirt is mounded up about a foot and will be part of the butterfly garden.

At one time I used to get 30-40 or this dutch iris blooming in February, but all the garden and house renovation has scattered them to who knows where. Hopefully more with pop up. This was the first spring flower to bloom here this year.