Newly stained trellis! Really relieved that this is done because painting this thing was a nightmare. Way too many surfaces to account for with a small paintbrush. And the nauseous odor drifting off the stain I'm pretty sure melted some of my neurons.
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It's that time of year where I play 'guess the perennial' and 'how did this get here'. The light brown twiggy stuff sticking up are peony stem stubs, but some kind of plant has colonized it's base, for years now. Can't seem to ever extract enough out to eliminate it. The other green clumps I suspect are decorative globe alliums of some sort, though I don't recall planting those in recent years. A new delphinium from last year has come up, bottom left. I have a new respect for delphs, for large flowering perennials they really seem to advance quickly after planting.
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VICTORY. Garlic bulbils are peeking through.
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Black Salsify, Blue Fiore and perennial onions of various species. Another sweet victory in the perennial seed adventure.
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I bought a variegated phlox at the tail end of last season, discounted as the season was over. Little did I know that some red veined sorrel must have gone to seed in a pot close by. Which is fine by me, it's another perennial veg I'm curious to try. Probably won't like the taste of it, but I do think it's pretty.
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I had a tiny little cluster of skinny stems last year, which I didn't think would get through winter. But they did and now I have a tiny little cluster of
fat stems!
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Another of the 2025 planted perennials that have really proved themselves, perennial poppies. Amazing how fast they bulk up. While that short bloom is always such sorrow for me, the magnificence of those huge blooms is such that I overlook that less than ideal quality. This is a 2nd year plant! It had 3 leaves when I put it in!
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The Egyptian Walking Onions came through winter so well, I'm quite pleased. My first batch of perennial onions that will be an eatable size by June. Joy! There are 2 onions in here (hidden by the green stems) sent to me by The Backyard Larder in the UK, and I'm not quite sure if they will make it yet. They haven't sprung up in green like the Egyptians, just a sort of sad looking yellow nub. Not sure if they're hardy to my zone.
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Hollyhocks continue to puzzle me. Said to be biennials - so these probably should not have grown back. They fully flowered last year from established plants? And yet here they are up again.
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Well, not super impressed with the oat cover crop experiment. Very little broke down through winter. Of course, this is probably somewhat my fault - letting the plants get too big. Will definitely need to use a tiller on the whole bed because those rootballs are very hard and clumpy.
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They are quite little for May 6th, so it's possible I seeded them too late. Hard to know when to plant these rarer type things. I made a guess and was probably wrong, but we'll see. Interestingly the red spots in the flower centres seem to parallel a little with the leaves, which are showing red markings already. Not easy to see in this light. Worst case scenario I put a plant in the greenhouse to try and rush it. (Wow, I never realized until tonight that 'centre' is not used in the US to mean middle, as its being highlighted as incorrectly spelled?)
. I'm thinking I may just break this up into chunks and plant them in pots in bunches. In the past at least I've found basil quite good at growing crowded. Not sure what else to do really. This is one of my lingering garden sins, ruthlessly overseeding.
my daughters would love that!
