Cages for Flowers

I had an Urban Adventure Day in which I visited Portland with my gardens foremost on my shopping list. I found a wire wastebasket at the Architectural Salvage store which I will upend to create a support for vines. This will be a flower cage in addition to the skirt around the metal chicken which is already assembled and waiting for May. In my fantasies, soil temperatures have risen, frost is past and I concoct the perfect blend of seaweed mulch and compost underpinnings and add to that nicked and soaked seeds. Morning glory, moonflower and nasturtiums should give me something to admire 24-7. The wire mesh will protect the seedlings from the deer and also from the slugs. The vines will flourish within their cages, climb and emerge, climb more and twine more and re-emerge, and, of course, blossom profusely. This is a dream and one is allowed to orchestrate those from beginning to end.

End of February, Many Plans Ahead

February 21, 2014
This blog is a place to put my gardening thoughts.

At the moment, my gardens lie beneath two feet of snow, a layer which has either been added to or melting depending on the day this past week. I have my Johnny's seed order fulfilled and sitting in my desk, and I have bought an odd packet or two in the drug store and hardware store. Pink alyssum, nasturtiums, and moonflowers (which I hope to germinate in baggies). My notebook has a list of plants and/or seeds to ferret out in nurseries in the Spring: Dutchman's pipe, goatsbeard, sea holly, false Queen Anne's lace, rosebay rhododendron, winterberry, agastache and speedwell. I also have a list begun for next Fall since I discovered too late that I would like to try alliums.

Let's call the geese official Compost Aides. I can't be sorry about resupplying straw and layer pellets every week when the soiled bedding and kitchen waste continues to heap into ever-larger piles adjacent to their Palace. Seeds and rotting compost comprise my hopes for 2014.