Sunday, April 7, 2013

Great Gardening Weekend

We had a beautiful sunny weekend in DC. I'm sure everyone who was in town for the Cherry Blossom Festival appreciated it too. Just to remind myself of  how time passes, exactly one month ago, on March 6, it snowed!
The Snowstorm that Wasn't

On this sunny weekend I had the windows open in my house each day. It felt so good to have fresh air circulating through the house. The rest of my April weekends will be busy with out of town travel, a crawfish boil, birthday parties, and a going-away party, so I took advantage of the nice weather to get some yard work done on my free weekend.

seed starting 4:6
First, I started some sunflower seeds. (I am so woefully behind on seed starting in general. I only have some onion seedlings sprouting from seeds I started a couple of months ago).  I'm determined not to let the squirrels dig up my sunflower seedlings this year. We'll see who wins that war. I'm growing Teddy Bear sunflowers, Mammoth sunflowers, and Chianti sunflowers.

tulips 4:7
These are my Queen of the Night tulips. They're growing more every day and I can't wait to see those lovely dark purple blooms. I planted some peach colored alyssum seeds in the spaces between the tulips. I think the color combo of peach and dark purple will look nice.

onion patch before

My big garden task was weed work. Look at how these weeds have almost taken over my onion patch. Now imagine all of that on a 10x10 space. That's about the size of my backyard and it's all full of weeds. It's going to take a while to weed everything.

onion patch afterwards
But for now I managed to liberate my onion patch. This was a lesson learned for me. I will mulch better and/or plant some cover crops next fall to prevent this from happening again.

I also squeezed some shopping in this weekend. I treated myself to these cute pink shorts. I don't think I've ever owned pink shorts in my life. I must have spring fever. I can't wait for the weather to warm up enough to wear them.

Did you get any garden work done this weekend?

10 comments:

  1. Yes, it was a great gardening weekend here in the Midwest, too. The snow is almost gone and flowers are blooming all over the place, all of a sudden. When spring is delayed it happens way too fast. My Crocuses went from small wisps of grassy foliage to buds to open blooms in just two days! And huge flocks of songbirds are making their way back north. It looks like you have been busy--you're a good gardening role model.

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  2. I didn't get much yard work done, I'm hoping for a repeat next week-end. I've learned to mulch, mulch, mulch to help with the weeds. When did you plant your onions, lol? I just put mine in last week-end. I'm trying to grow sunflowers too. I wasn't successful last year either, so I started mine on the deck this year using the winter sow method. I'm trying Lemon Queen, Velvet Queen and Mexican.

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  3. I worked outside today as much as possible, too. Good luck beating the squirrels. :o) I wonder if sticking something sharp and pokey into the soil around the seeds who help deter them? Love the shorts! I have light pink pants from Boden that I love to wear in the spring. Hello warm weather!

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  4. Shorts look fun but quite impractical for weeding. I look forward to seeing all your sunflower photos.

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  5. How lovely to have good weather!

    Your tulips look great and that onion patch looks so much better. xxxxx

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  6. Those dark tulips with peach alyssum will be so dramatic and beautiful! I thought I was the only one with weeds like that! :) The weather here has been nice, but windy. I got some mowing done. Not too fun, but necessary.

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  7. So jealous....I think Spring Fever is going to be more like Spring Delirium around these parts. I can almost taste the insanity!

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  8. Oh your onion patch looks very happy now. Your tulips are growing beautifully and when the alyssum comes up that will be beautiful too.

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    1. The pink shorts are cute they'll be right on time for spring. We are warming up quite a bit here in South Carolina. Saturday on my day of I went to my local parks and took some photos of a few blooms to bring some spring time cheer to my blogging friends.

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  9. Wow you have been busy...I am hoping to get my onions soon to go in the new bed...lots of seedlings started and sunflowers going in the ground soon.

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