Garden Update: Spring 2014

Over the weekend we tackled more garden planting around our space since the weather is finally getting to a point where we aren't worried about another frost. Today we're sharing a little spring update and "state of the garden" post for how things are coming along. It's been fun to watch older perennial plants that we put work into over the past couple of years return and give us motivation to plant new ones this season.

It seems like while we were away last week, all the perennial plants in our garden decided it was time to bud. We arrived home to beautiful buds on our grapevines and tiny leaves on our newly planted blackberry bush:

 

We also had new green growth on a rose plant we put into the ground just before heading out of town 2 weeks ago. After sharing this garden inspiration post in March, we've been planning to try growing climbing roses to add a little dimension and color to the corner of our yard where the garage meets the wooden fence. After a little digging (pun intended), I found these beautiful climbing orange colored organic apricot roses on Etsy. We'd never purchased a plant like roses online before, so thought it would be a bit of an adventure to try.

Less than a week after ordering, this little box arrived with our regular mail, perfectly encasing our new climbing rose plant. Just before heading out of town, Tim planted it in the corner where we hope to train it and we crossed our fingers for good luck:

So as you can probably gather, coming home to new growth, albeit small, was exciting for us:

In the herb department, we planted fresh lavender, something I've been wanting to try since my summer trip to Hudson, plus it's so bee-friendly. We even picked up a pot of peppermint. I'm excited for the peppermint since it's supposed to be a perennial, and thinking we might be able to try peppermint ice-cream and perhaps some tea this summer.

We planted a strong rosemary starter out in the front yard bed, hoping it might be the beginning of large sustaining bush.

Tim also pieced together a kitchen herb garden from fresh basil, oregano, German thyme, dill and flat leaf parsley plants:

He planted them in one of the larger enamelware finds we salvaged from the ravine during our last trip to Beechwood. It was the perfect container, because as Tim says, he can leave it outside if he wants, but bring it inside to pick from while he's cooking. Plucking a sprig here or there for cooking not only makes our meals burst with flavor, but helps prune the plants for bushier re-growth. Get all the details behind this new little kitchen garden of ours over on E.A.T. today.

There were lots of these herbs leftover, so we planted them in containers around the backyard to keep outside over the spring and summer.

In the vegetable department, we started a pepper and cucumber plant to see if they'd take (notice our turmeric plant made it back outside after surviving indoors over the winter):

We also transferred some arugula to our trough planters — we like to call this area of the landing "the salad bar" this time of year, ha. There's not much like being able to take a pair of scissors out back and cut your own fresh salad to go with dinner.

Our asparagus bean sprouts were ready to plant so we transferred them into a pot with a large trellis and have high hopes (sing it with me, HIGH HOPES) for these guys:

Our pea sprouts are already coming up in our front planters:

Also, our horseradish root has begun to sprout!

We have literally left this container in the garage over the winter after harvesting it back in the fall, only bringing it back outside a few weeks ago.

This root is one of the most low maintenance plants to grow and we were thrilled to see if peaking back up from the soil again this year. It's quickly becoming one of our favorite perennials and self sustaining edible plants.

Speaking of sprouts, we've got some heirloom Hungarian tomato and pepper sprouts peaking up from the seedlings we started back in March:

And to add a little color out back, I potted a few bright celosia blooms in with other potted bulbs and in containers around the new vegetables:

I was excited to try these since I have memories of my maternal grandparents' front yard scattered with them each spring. The blooms look furry and tapered — and were always so curious to me as a child.

So that's what we've got started and how we're looking at this point in the season. It feels really good to be back in planting mode. We're hoping to plant more and are looking forward to watching everything progress as the weather continues to warm up.

What have you got growing this year?

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