Last year I started my first cutting garden. I planted: several types of zinnia asters larkspur bachelor's buttons veronica foxglove ammi majus nicotiana stock delphinium cosmos coreopsis yarrow mexican hats sunflowers sweet peas verbena bonarensis lavendar carnations echinacea bellfower shasta daisy rudbeckia dahlias & glads Everything was from seed/bulb & I had mixed success. This year I'm doing a lot of the same plants, but wintersowing. My flower garden is in a 15' x 12' bed which gets morning shade on one side & some afternoon shade on the other. I had pretty good germination on my seeds. Most of my dahlias came up, but I didn't notice any blooms. Almost none of my sweet peas came up, & although most of my glads came up my mix from Lowes gave me only two colors (& not the ones I was hoping for). I'm a west-coaster still getting used to an east-coast garden. I saw plans from gardner's supply for a small cutting garden with the plants pretty tightly packed & thought that would work here, but we have a much longer season & more heat. Some things didn't do so well, & toward the end I had a lot of mold on my plants. The stand-outs were the zinnias, cosmos & the sunflowers. I'm hoping that the perennials that survived make a showing this year. Actually, the stock already is - it just started blooming last week! I thought the nicotiana was lovely in the garden but not good for the vase & I ended pulling it out. I'm not sorry I did, because not only did it re-seed like crazy, it spread by its roots & I'm still finding it poking up all over from little bits I left behind. Around Christmas I pulled out all the bulbs & moved some of the perennials. Then I planted a bunch of bulbs I got at Lowes at 75% off. They are coming up now & I love to go out in the morning & see if any new ones have poked their heads up. So far the dutch irises, freesias, paper whites, & ranunculas are up. The daffodils, tulips, bearded irises & glads are just starting to show. I filled in some empty space with two discounted flats (one dianthus & one violas) while I wait for my seedlings to be ready to plant out. I have some sweet peas up this year, & will be starting more this month. I read a post here on the gw about surface sowing, & I'm hoping that will help my germination rate with sweet peas. Currently I have I think all of the above mentioned plants sown in milk jugs, along with calendula, lupine, love-in-a-mist, bells of Ireland, snaps, & ballonflower. I don't really have enough space! I wish I had more friends here who like gardening. The thing that I enjoyed most was sharing the flowers with my dd. We were constantly filling little vases (made by my mother when she was a girl) for her & she loved having her "flowies." Next I loved seeing all the butterflies & birds, & even a hummingbird from time to time. The garden was full of butterflies - mostly black swallowtails. They then flew to the other side of the house & laid eggs on my parsley, & when the caterpillars had eaten all that they ate the leaves off my pepper plants. This year I am trying to plant some cat food in its own spot. We couldn't believe the number of cats crawling all over that small bed! I've read up a little on the butterfly forum to figure out what to provide, & will do my best, but boy - they show some dedication over there! I wish I were a better gardener, but I tend to go in fits & spurts, with other areas of life taking over my attention at different times. I'm great at planning & getting things started, not so good at the tending over the long haul. I envy all the lush gardens I see in photos on gw. However, I'll keep at it. One day you'll see my lush garden in photos here! :)

This is what I've sown so far..32 containers.. #1 - (pop bottle) : Callistephus - ÂBlue RibbonÂ, A, August-Frost, 8", Dark Purple #2 - (pop bottle) : Crested Celosia - ÂCockscombÂ, P, early summer, 40-48" Pink/Red #3 - (margarine tub) : Cerinthe - ÂPurple BellsÂ, A, Late Spring-Early Summer, 30", Purple/Blue #4 - (milk jug) : Passion Flower - ÂPassiflora caeruleaÂ, A, July-Frost, 13 1/3', Pale green/Purple #5 - (pop bottle) : Mesembryanthemum - ÂGelato RedÂ, A, Summer, 4", Pinks/Reds #6 - (margarine tub) : Aztec Nicotiana (Jasmine) - ÂNicotiana alataÂ,A,Summer-Fall, 36-48",Light pink-White #7 - (margarine tub) : Sweet William - ÂMixÂ,B, April-September, 18-24",Pinks/Reds/White #8 - (margarine tub) : Gaillardia (Blanket Flower) - ÂBurgundyÂ,P, mid June-Frost, 24-36", Deep wine #9 - (pop bottle) : DameÂs Rocket, P, May-August, 2-3', Purple #10 - (pop bottle) : Foxglove, P, June-September, 2-4', Purple #11 - (pop bottle) : Potentilla - ÂMiss WilmottÂ, P, early summer, 12", Color #12 - (pop bottle) : Monarda - ÂRed Bee BalmÂ, P, June-August, 36", Red #13 - (lg water bottle) : Butterfly Weed, P, June_September, 1-2', Orange #14 - (Chinese take out dish) : Impatiens - ÂMixed F2 HybridÂ, A, June-Frost,9",Pinks #15 - Giganteum Poppy, A, summer, 3-4', Lavender Pink #16/#17 - Bread seed Poppy, A, late spring-early fall, 24-36", Red #18 - Astilbe, P, summer, 18-24", Dark Pink #19 - Basil genovese o commune, A, summer, 18-24", Green foliage #20 - Salvia - ÂPurple RainÂ, P, June-October, 18", Deep Purple #21 - Rose Campion, P, mid-summer, 2-3', Magenta Pink #22 - Bells of Ireland, A, mid-late summer, 24-36", Lime Green #23 - Turtlehead, P, late summer-early fall, 24-36", Purple #24 & #25 - Papavier Somniferum - ÂPeony PoppyÂ, A, summer, HT, Black #26 & #27 - Papavier Somniferum - ÂThailand PoppyÂ, A, summer, HT, Pink & White #28 - Poppy - ÂOriental MixÂ, A, summer, HT, scarlets and oranges #29- Papavier Somniferum - ÂBombast RedÂ, summer, HT, Red #30- Foxgloves - ÂMixedÂ, BT, HT, Pinks, purples #31 - Summer Pointsettia, BT, HT, ??? #32 - Dianthus - ÂKing of the BlacksÂ, BT, HT, Black I still have some info to input in the last group of seeds I planted, I'll get to that, eventually.

I saw my first ruby throated hummingbird this morning....a female. She spent lots of time at the Salvia Amistad (by far her favorite), Agastache Acapulco Red, red shrimp plant and firecracker plant. My porterweed is just starting to bloom again so not much activity there. She never once used the feeder, which is fine. She has returned several times but it is too windy and dark to get good pics. Joe has never seen a hummingbird other than in print and on TV so he was truly amazed by the little gal. Now, he knows why I have been so anxiously awaiting them. Don't know if she'll stay, I hope so. Also, have Gulf Frit caterpillars on the passion vine so my garden is starting to reward me. Rhonda

Kim, If it is any comfort, hilling potatoes is not my favorite thing either. I don't do it. I just plant them 8-10" below ground in the first place, and then, once they have broken through the ground and it is time to hill them, I pile on the mulch instead. Inches and inches of mulch. Instead of hilling up a couple more times, I pile on more mulch. Insane amounts of mulch. If it means I don't have to hill, I'm all for it. I realize this works because my potato patch is small. There's no way at a place your size that you could mulch all those potatoes, which is too bad. I'd give you a 2 a.m. wake-up call except for the fact that I will not be awake at that time. Sorry. Hailey, Zinnias are great in our climate. I've grown them every year for as long as I can remember---dating back to my childhood in the 1960s. They love heat and tolerate drought well---I don't mean that they are xeric and never need water, but just that they don't need as much water as most other flowering plants do. They reseed prolifically. I just redid our zinnia bed this Spring after 15 years of letting it reseed itself because I wanted to add a lot of compost to the soil, and I wanted to start over with fresh seed in certain colors. After 15 years of reseeding, our flowers had gotten too predictable and were mostly the more common colors, so this year I added lemon yellow (a lot brighter than the yellow of other zinnias) and lime green. I think I added purple. Or, at least I added a mix that includes purple---let's hope that some of the plants from that mix actually are purple. Just be sure to give your zinnias good spacing. They need good air flow to avoid powdery mildew, which is about the only problem that I think zinnias have. Butterflies love zinnias too. Rebecca, Whatever you're going to do to the squirrels, we support you. More tomatoes, less squirrels, you know. Good luck with it. Go ahead and plant the cukes. I'd only hold back if powdery mildew is an issue with your peas, because you wouldn't want for PM to start on the peas as they near the end of their lives and then transfer to the cukes as they are sort of just starting out. Most years my peas don't get PM....so it isn't something I worry much about. If I see it starting up I just go ahead and yank out the pea plants to get the PM out of the garden before it can begin to spread. Amy, I'm laughing about Curious George. I loved those books. I probably wouldn't appreciate them as much now as I did when I was a kid. I think the violas will survive under the coleus. I just finished interplanting Lemon Yellow Profusion Zinnias with my pansies and violas today, with the idea being that by the time the now-tiny zinnia plants are taller than the violas, the weather will be heating up and the violas will be about done. My violas either come back every year or they reseed themselves....one way or another, they come back. I just saw seeds on a viola yesterday and was shocked. It seems too early for them to go to seed, but we have had some days with high temps at 88 or 89, so maybe the violas think summer is here and they are done. Yes, I think Elbon rye (or even just plain old winter rye grass like people use to overseed lawns) would crowd out the crabgrass if you plant it in the fall, but I haven't tried to do it. I do know that when we overseed the lawn with annual or perennial rye grass (both are annuals here, by the way) so we have a green lawn in bad wildfire seasons, all the summer grasses are late to appear because the rye grass shades them and keeps them from really getting going in the Spring time. I don't recognize your plant in the photo, but it looks vaguely familiar. Do the plants have square stems like the plants in the mint family? So what kind of gulls scour the Wal-Mart parking lot occasionally looking for food? Do we have a name for those. (grin) I love gulls. Feeding them at the beach was one of our favorite thing to do when Chris was a little kid. I suppose having our kids treat us like we are children is karma for the times we have treated our parents like they are children. Of course, we can look at it in a positive light and say that our children learned their nurturing behavior from us, but it does make me think "oh, he thinks we are getting old....". lol. Well, of course, we are getting older every day---all of us are getting older---us, our parents, our kids, our grandkids....our pets. I still maintain that getting older isn't that bad when you consider the alternative. Jennifer, Getting older is interesting. I don't like all the physical changes that come with it, but I do like the mental/psychological changes that occur over the years. It is funny when I look back at things I worried about in my 20s and 30s and now realize that it was just a waste of time to worry about them. I do think wisdom comes with age, so that's a plus. I know I am a lot more laid back now than ever before, and I think that's a positive. The body changes after menopause suck, but guess what? That's life. At least we're still here, still alive, still kicking and still gardening. I look at some of our older friends who are on the verge of being wheelchair bound and am so grateful that at least we still have our mobility (despite all the aches and pains that come with it). I'll probably color my hair forever. At least that's what I think most days. Then, other days, I look at my cousin who has lovely silver hair and think I wouldn't mind having hair like that. I think the hard part is to go from coloring it to letting it grow out to its now-natural shades of gray and white or whatever it would be. For me, that would be the hard part. Hailey, I agree with Nancy that your flower is an osteospermum. That particular one is Blue Eyed Beauty, sold by Park Seed. Osteopermums are cool-season flowers so generally don't last long here (at least in my part of OK) before the heat burns them up. They were in bloom down here in the Feb-Mar time frame...of course, March was warm, and then April turned back cold, so this year they're probably going to stay in flower longer than usual. Rebecca, Wear whatever is comfortable! Keep in mind that we'll be handling plants and eating, so white probably is not the best color to choose. (grin) Based on that reasoning, I ought to wear brown or black so that all the stains hide. I worked my fingers to the bone in the garden this week and planted, planted, planted. Weeded, weeded, weeded. Mulched, mulched, mulched. Still, in the end, at least it seems like I made progress. I hope to make more either next week or the week after. We'll see what life throws at us and what the weather throws at us as well. The problem is now that it is warming up, everything is growing like weeds----especially the weeds. I have been working hard to get the warm-season flowers in the ground so they can get off to a good start before the weather gets too hot. We still are rain deficient here for April, so probably will end April that way. It looks like May will bring more rain though, and with it, all the thunderstorms and stuff that we don't especially want. See y'all tomorrow. Dawn