Lett uce peas not have a hard frost in April!

I have succumbed. It's official. all the seed is in the ground. Zinnia's, cosmos', cleome's, snap peas, hollyhock, larkspur and catmint. Today: lettuce. I tried to resist, but this weather is too much of a tease and they tell me that it doesn't look like any sort of hard freeze is on the way. Lettuce and Peas both like it cold anyway. As a matter of fact, my arugula continued to grow through the whole winter! I took a picture of it while tearing down the chicken wire over the tulips. Then, thinking I would be throwing it all away, I tore half of it up. Just for yucks I tasted some of it. This was not last years lettuce! The seed I had thrown in the ground last fall had grown through the winter and grew a whole new bed of lettuce. This arugula is soft, peppery and delicious! Totally amazing that it grew through the winter with no protection. New seeds are going in today though for red leaf and butter, and of course more arugula. The pile of arugula just waiting to be washed looked so inviting with that beautiful sun coming in the window. How often do we get a picture like that in the middle of March in New England? That Chicken wire is a whole other story. Never let a man squirrel proof your tulips. They hate squirrels. It took two hours of cutting chicken wire and pulling out industrial size staples to free my emerging tulips form the grips of this nasty chicken wire. I think he thought the squirrels were directly related to Godzilla! Next year I set up the chicken wire. Although it did have the intended effect. The squirrels were unable to get to the tulip bulbs for late evening snacks. It looks like all of the bulbs are still there and coming up.

Do we Dare?????

Who can believe this weather??? 70's and 80's in March for most of the month. insanity! But do we dare plant the seeds of summer and hope that mother nature does not return the act with mocking gestures of sustained freeze and early spring blizzards?

Hardened New Englander's have learned not to trust the tease of an early warm spell. But even we are being suckered in by this ridiculous weather. Well at least I am being suckered.

Today I planted 40 perennials. Now those of you who have seen my garden will say:

"where the heck is she going to put 40 more plants!". but the fact of the matter is, I will probably plant over 100 new perennials this year as well as lots of annual seed in the ground for all year annual color and filler.

How can this be? Well think of your garden as changing over every three to four weeks and you quickly see why 100 plants can disappear into the landscape in a flash. You really need 5 gardens a year to have a spectacular display from April 15th to Nov 15th. After eight years I am still planting and still working on this.

Of course the other issue is that perennial does not mean forever. Many perennials only live two or three years. Others, like peonies, roses and wisteria, can live for 100 years. But sadly, most do not. So in addition to planting for each garden interval, you also need to replace short lived perennials.

The most economical way to do this is to mail order bare root or small plants. They will be small for a couple of years but then just when you need them to start taking over they are large enough to make a difference in the garden.

If you don't preplan, you will find yourself running to the local nursery or big box store to fill holes and bare spots. This will lead to spending 10 x's what you would have spent if you had just thought ahead a little.

Seeds are another wonderful money saver, and so easy! I don't bother with all that indoor sowing nonsense. Takes way too much time and effort for not much different results. An alternative is to sow seed in early April. Seed will be fine even if there is frost and snow. Your plants will emerge about a month later than if you planted them indoors, however they will be stronger and grow faster because they were not transplanted. I have done this successfully for several years now.

Annual seeds that respond well to early sowing and fast growth are: Zinnias, Cosmos and Cleome.

Last year my zinnias and cosmos carried the garden into December and were just stunning. Those zinnias are just such complicated little beings. I have attached a photo from last years seeds. The Zinnias are the bright little flowers on the wall. The Cosmos and the Zinnias were the last blooming flowers in the garden.

Just buy some seed at your local hardware store or mail order it if you want (I mail order because i like to pick unique varieties. there must be 500 types of zinnias), lightly brush some soil away where you want them to grow, throw in a few seeds per square foot area and brush the dirt back on top. Water and you're done. How simple was that???!!!