Seeds, Transplants and Planting

For us gardeners the past few days have been a flurry of ground work. We are outside as soon as the coffee wakes us up and back indoors only for water, lunch or a quick break. Sleep at night is disturbed by being over-tired, if anything.

Today alone, we put 40-transplants in the ground, planted some vegetable and flower seeds and added a few trees to the back border.

The shade garden has several things blooming and also now has Japanese toad lilies from Bluestone Perennials in addition to the Virginia Bluebells planted last month.

A friend shared some toad lilies from her garden and I have no idea what they will look like when they bloom. That same friend gave me a peony today to replace the ones that were lost to a fungal disease a few years ago.

Because of an obsession with iris that lasted a few years, we planted more than we can actually care for. Right now we are in the season of having 100 in bloom on most days in spite of the number of buds that were frozen off over Easter.


Photo: Dragonwing Begonias at
Blossoms Garden Center in Muskogee

Weeding is a big part of spring. Weeds come out so easily when the ground is slightly moist and soft. In the heat of summer, Bermuda grass in the beds will be trying to take every speck of water it can grab.

Most of our shrubs and vines are beginning to produce a second set of green buds or leaves. They will need a few more weeks' growing time to let us know where to cut.

The fullness of all these plantings will be the reward for this spring's work with shovel, trowel, hands and sprinkling attachments on the hoses. The vision of how the flowers will look and how the vegetables will taste keep us going. Our memories of the failures and insect infestations of past years rarely occupy our minds in the spring.