Seed production and collection.

In my yard, everything is open pollinated. The bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies spread pollen from flower to flower. There's no telling what mix you might get from year to year. This is most evident in the black eyed susans. Early spring bloomers have started releasing their seed pods. Some have already been scattered around the yard. Some will be collected for trading. Most will be returned to the soil just before it rains for next year's plants.

Sweet Williams. I'm sending most of these to the backyard, especially the pink and white crape myrtle bed which needs some early color.



Columbines have already produced a lot of seed. Sown fresh, they will germinate this year and probably bloom next spring. I'm filling mostly shady spots with these plants.



Peonies. I've never grown peonies from seed, but I know it's possible. I might wintersow them, in summer.



Red Hot Pokers. There are a LOT of seeds on these two plants. I'll probably collect them instead of scattering them. People love these plants that start out looking like fine blades of grass. It takes 2 years for blooms from seed. Year three is where mine are now.



Poppies. I'll scatter them as soon as they are ripe. They'll germinate when it's time.



Mountain bluet seeds are hard to collect. These seedlings are beneath the current plants. Once they get a little size to them, I'll move them around this fall to areas that still need spring color. The parent plants need to be cut back soon.



Dusty Miller has just started to bloom. Planted in the fall of 2009, these plants have gotten huge. The blooms float about 2 feet above the soil. If I remember, the seeds are like dust.



Grown from scattered seeds, the annual Monarda citriodora is one of my favorites. After it blooms, it can be cut back for a repeat bloom. I did this twice last summer. The seeds are collected by shaking the spent blooms over a container.



Speaking to Cameron at Defining Your Home Garden, I've decided to scatter seeds as soon as they ripen. This seems the most natural method as it's what happens when there's no gardener present. Nature takes care of enough seeds to create a new crop each year. I'll save a few seeds just in case. You never know what could happen over the winter.

It's currently 81 degrees and pouring rain. Heavy thunderstorms are about to move through the area. The rain is expected to last a few hours.

Sunlight.

On a cloudless day, the colors are more vivid.



Every flaw, every weed, every nuance is highlighted. Texture is more visible with hard shadows. Fuzzy becomes apparent.



Red is true.



Orange.



In dappled sunlight, things are fuzzier. Weeds blend with the foliage of other plants making them less recognizable.



Backlighting is useful when photographing dark colors.



In deep shade, the colors are more muted.



Details are clear if you can focus.



But once in a while, the sun breaks through for just a few moments.



It's 57 degrees. The chance of rain has been downgraded to sunny and warm. The high will be in the upper 80s today.

The tomatoes are in.

48 plants went into the lower potager beds this afternoon. Here's Granny Cantrell.



The peonies are about to pop. These will be red. I also have pink.



The orange rose is ready to bloom. Yes, I have aphids. No, I don't spray. The ladybugs are here. I might hose them off with a jet of water at some point.



The 6th Street fig is doing well.



All that's left besides a container of hosta, 4 6-packs of impatiens, and some tree/shrub varieties still in the shade. I even planted out some Cornus florida today. 54 of these containers hold sunflowers for the upper meadow and butterfly slope between the potager beds. Others have 6-packs of pineapple sage, petunias, and celosia. I'm hoping to get them all planted by the end of the week. The long boxes in the front are my window box planters. I put them inside the wood boxes I built last year. I'm waiting to make sure I have plenty of growth before moving them to their permanent location.



The rain tonight will probably stay north of us. It's 72 degrees and clear. Great day.

It's raining.

The storms moved in around 8pm last night. We've got a few more passing showers coming through this morning. By noon, it will all clear out and the high will be back to normal, about 69 degrees. Everything is bright green now as I look out the windows.

Yesterday, the driveway was starting to look a little fuzzy. The oak trees are dropping their tassels. The gutters will need to be cleaned again next week.



The Confederate Jasmine on the chimney trellis is flushing with new growth.



Peonies are budding. This one should be red, possibly Felix Crousse. It was purchased at a steep discount without tags, but we'd only had the one variety in the store last summer when I found it stuffed in between hostas and ferns.



I also spotted my first iris bloom. I thought it was a leaf at first, resting on some Sweet Williams by the perennial bed arbor. I'll see if it's open completely this morning once I'm dressed and outside.



It's 57 degrees. The next few days should see temperatures back in the normal ranges of 70s/40s. After that, we head right back to the 80s. The scattered seeds of last week should begin germinating now that they've gotten some rain. Winter is over. I declare it. There will not be another frost. But you never know.



After the first cup of coffee - There are parts of the yard still dry. There wasn't even enough rain to refill the birdbath. But what did get rain looks great. The soil in the perennial bed is damp. The iris is nearly open.



There's a single rose blooming by the basement door. Yes, it's a knockout.



Green.



It's chilly at 55 degrees. The clouds are rolling by, but nothing is falling except the oak tassels. I'll be surprised if any rain makes it to the ground between now and noon.

Thundercloud

It's 45 degrees. The temperature will slowly rise to the low 60s this afternoon as the storms move in. We've got chances of thunderstorms and rain all evening and night.

In honor of the rain, the Thundercloud Plum has decided to bloom.





This plum tree has purple-red leaves and pink blossoms. It was transplanted in the fall from the perennial bed. It's about a week late in blooming this year. I suppose it could be the cold winter, or maybe the move. In any case, another few days will show it completely in bloom. Only a few scattered branches are showing any color yet.

The Belle of Georgia peach is still blooming away. The blossoms have turned a darker color. The leaves are coming on nicely.



Before work, I'll dig out the Lagerfeld rose in the Neighbor's Corner. I'm giving it to Marty, a customer at the store. She brought me beautyberry starts in the fall and seeds for a blue milkweed, Tweedia caerulea. I've already sown them. Soon, I'll start giving away the brugmansias to people who have asked about them. I also plan to sow the rest of my datura seeds in the new fragrant bed outside the basement door. I need to spread the broken bags of soil that have been sitting in the basement for weeks first.

9:11am - I've spread three bags of topsoil and a bag of pine mulch over the newest bed. For two weeks, I've been spraying the weeds and grass here with RoundUp. I'm sure the wire grass will continue to pop up through the season. It has in all the beds I've created along the retaining wall and basement door. I'll spot treat and pull whenever I see it. Datura, marigolds, and four o'clocks have been sown here.



A splash of rain passed through as I was digging the Lagerfeld for Marty. There was a bit of blue sky a few minutes later. The sun is shining now.



The "dead" Loropetalums are blooming.



The Eastern Redbuds are opening. They're pink. I don't know why they call them redbuds.



The first of 100+ muscari has pushed up a bloom stalk. There was supposed to be a blue stream amongst the daffodils on the front slope. So far, only a handful have pushed through the soil. This one is in the crape myrtle bed.



Peonies at the end of the driveway are up. I transplanted these from Virginia last March. I really hope they bloom a bit better this year. They don't like to be disturbed.



Larkspur by the perennial bed arbor.



It's still 45 degrees. We should start to climb soon. It's going to be a rough afternoon of storms from the looks of the radar.

Forgotten Camellia

Just beyond the top of the dead oak tree, there's a clump of shrubs that used to be part of the gardens here. They were likely planted years ago by Mrs. Russell, before the trees reclaimed the area. There's a stand of quince that bloomed even in heavy shade. I moved some of these to the yard two years ago, although mine haven't bloomed yet and seem unlikely to do so this year.

Surrounded by orange ditch lilies, crocus foliage, and mahonia, there's a single camellia. The blooms are the same as those on the shrub in the yard. I wonder if she took cuttings and propagated this one herself. I wandered out back yesterday to get a closeup. This spring, once there's new growth, I plan to take cuttings from this shrub myself. I'm thinking of planting a few along the back yard. Azaleas, abelia, and other blooming shrubs will be added when the time is right. I've already started propagating the spireas.







It's St. Patrick's Day. Wear something green. It's 36 degrees this morning. No frost. The forecast calls for 65 today.

9:33am - Spent the last hour "propagating" things. I've pruned some hardwood sticks and shoved them in the ground where I want them to grow. If it works, I'll have a backyard full of spring and summer blooms. If not, I've lost only an hour of time, outside, with a cup of coffee. I stuck Sweet Shrub, camellias, mock orange, forsythia, spireas, vitex, Korean lilac, weigela, althea, pussywillow, and crape myrtles. I think that's all.

New growth, new blooms, new foliage:

My fragrant, unknown spirea is starting to bloom.



The Korean lilac is leafing out.



Peonies.



My "dead" loropetalum isn't quite dead yet. Nell Jean was right.



Stuck cuttings of forsythia and mock orange. I may be too late for these to root, but the very wet soil should help.





Peach blossoms will be here by the weekend. The plums are smart, they're waiting.



New growth on the Oakleaf Hydrangea that I've tortured since finding it in the backyard in the summer of 2007.



Red Pussywillow is blooming.



And lookie here, my tulips are going to actually bloom this year. A testament to the cold winter we had. Only two out of the 40 bulbs I planted in the fall of 2007, but hey, that's two more than I had last year.



It's been a good morning already. I'm off to shower and work in a few.