Weed and Seed (and Weed Again!)

Well, today was (yet) another weed and plant day in the garden, though I didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped due to the off and on threat of rain, which ultimately never materialized in other than a few light showers. We did get the "Black Magic" Elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) planted into a big pot with purple sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batata). These are plants you'll be hearing more about as they grow larger over the course of the summer.

I feel like we're really behind getting things in this year, and in a sense we are ... yet as I looked back into last year's archives to find these photos for tonight, I could clearly see just how far ahead everything else was at this time last year. That cold blast for three weeks in April really did put a big damper on the regular cycle of our garden denizens this year. No matter, since the planting has yet to be finished this year (as it will surely be within a week at the latest), I decided to just go with the flow and proceed as we usually do and what the garden will be this year is what it will be.

The photos here are from last year (July 1 and August 25, 2006, respectively) and are adult blooming specimens of two kinds of seeds I got planted today. The first is the lovely, ubiquitous (deliciously so!) California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) and though it's not back as profusely as usual, we had some leftover seed as well as a new variety ("Thai Silk Fire Bush") we purchased from a seed vendor this year. We're really looking forward to the new variety, because it promises to introduce a nice, fiery red hue into the mix with the other California poppies we have ... so stay tuned to see those when they come into bloom.

The second is the not too commonly planted, but still eye-popping "Blue Enchantment" Convolvulus (Convolvulus tricolor). This cultivar is often referred to as "Bush Morning Glory" because it has less of a vining tendency than its cousins and more of a mounding, creeping growth habit. In our garden (perhaps because they usually get in a bit later than other seeds) they tend to really come into their own in the late summer months, and these particular mounds bloomed last year right up until frost, when they still had buds forming on them.

Friday's projects are more of the same ... weed an area, seed that area, plant annuals here and there ... so much to do as the summer starts its inevitable wind up! I'm particularly eager to get several new annual poppy varieties planted ... "Danish Flag" and "Heirloom," two striking examples we also purchased this year for the first time ... we also got a free pack of "White Cloud Peony Poppy" seeds with our order, and we're going to mix those in with the Pink Peony ones we always have every year (and for those who know our garden, those are fondly referred to as "Frank's Poppies," due to the master gardener who first gave them to us years ago). We're also seriously considering moving our Oriental (perennial) poppies from the back corner (where they've been getting overwhelmed by other growth the past few years) to more prominent places in the front garden ... so as you can surmise, there's a helluva lot more work to be done around here! And I'll keep regular readers posted on all the blooming events as they occur ... Now, time for you to get out, get your hands dirty and bring some blooming into your little corner of the universe!