Spring Food + Pollinators

I found this bee in a tulip! I tried this past fall to plant some spring bulbs and additional new flowers that pollinators would find useful to do their work in the garden. They need food sources in spring. I have a   40 + year old apple and pear tree that provide reliable nectar,but they are getting old. I use to have two apple trees last year, so I planted a dwarf one to replace the one that died.

Kale I planted last fall. The ones I planted this spring has been eaten by critters. This Russian Kale is very useful and will make it through the winter if it is sheltered. I have many microclimates in my backyard, which are protected from winter cold.

I did plant more Tulips last year....

red, blue, purple, violet...very pretty petals...

I also added some heirloom Daffodils that are quite dainty compared to the other daffodils and they are blooming later...

I added fencing this week to my Golden Snow Peas so they would not be damaged by the critters.

Spring Starts make for busy times!

Busy, busy, busy....is all I can say. I made a decision this year to start ALL my annual vegetables, herbs and
flowers from seed. What a project, we have an early spring which means everything is blooming and is gone before Easter. The weather is in the 80's some days, and it is too hot!

Last year I decided this forsythia bush was going to lose a place in our garden. If it did not bloom this year, it would not be a part of our spring. Well, she bloomed, and Mr. Mugwort decided to jump in, and enjoy her blossoms!

A tray of my first Calendula flowers which tolerate cool weather. Today it is in the 50's(after weeks of 75-80day time highs!) and they are just fine with cool weather. I germinated Calendula/Pot Marigold inside, and now they are doing well outside. Just as the daffodils are finishing their show for spring 2012.

Daffodils are gone, and they will not grace our table at Easter Dinner this year... We are had a mild winter, and now a warm spring.There is  still is a month left before our last frost date. Our zone 5 frost dates are from March15th to April 30th.

All the pansy and jump ups are out in the garden. I put containers together for people which they will be able to enjoy this spring. They will be blooming in May around Mother's Day. I read somewhere that pansies are nutritious. This makes sense since they are edible. I plan to use them in my garden salads this spring. Below is a  very good source for information about edible pansies.

http://www.garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=edible-month-violets 

Below is information to my blog about Palm Rae Potager Plants. I will be adding to it throughout the year as I post about growing various plants from seed. This post is about Pansies and how I started in January. Next year I plan on starting them earlier.

http://palmraepotagerplants.blogspot.com/2011/12/pansy-viola-x-wittrockiana.html 

Our weather has been uncommonly mild this winter. In fact, today it is just too hot! The daffodils are up, and it is a month early. I was busy planting spring vegetables and flowers today. I noticed some of my vegetables lived through the winter.

A bed of Grumolo Rossa D Verona + Grumolo Glondo Golden Chicory

I planted this bed last fall and we ate it until it was covered in snow. You can grow this Chicory as mini lettuce and add it to your mix. It looks pretty healthy.

I will let the chicory keep growing and see what happens. They are very pretty plants with red, green and dark maroon colors. 

Italiko Rosso Dandelion 

I planted this last spring! We were eating this in our salad mix until Christmas 2011. Once the snow and cold weather hit in December it was frozen!It looks as if it came back, and I suppose I will not  need to plant this again in my garden.

Corn Salad or Mache-Verte a Coeur Plein 2 

I planted this last fall and it did come in this spring which is typical of corn salad. I tried this one by Baker Creek Heirloom. This fall I will be trying one from Italy. It even survived the raccoons!

Red Mustard

What beautiful texture on the red mustard leaf. It also survived and is growing again.

The daffodils are blooming about 4 weeks earlier! It has been 70-80degrees for the past week. The normal temperature for this time of the year is 50 degrees! I presume that is why most of the fall planted vegetables survived the mild winter. 

Reticulated Iris

We have sunny days in the 70's this week! Everything is blooming and I'm busy preparing spring vegetable beds.

In Palm Rae Potager, most of the plants are left up for winter interest. Today we were busy cutting our tall grasses. They  provide a hiding place for small critters during the winter months. Clearing beds and setting out spring cole seedlings that were started under lights in late winter.

All the  flower and vegetable seedlings need to be hardened off for 7-10 days. Increase their time outside a few hours each day and they should be ready within a week or two. They need to get use to being outside. As I was placing the seedlings in beds, I noticed a bee enjoying a crocus....

Bees are attracted to purple, blue, violet, yellow and white flowers. 

I read some where they do not see the color red.

The new beauty of the day was the lovely Middle East Native...

Reticulated Iris which the bee did discover...

It is just about 6 inches tall and full of beauty...

Last year there were only a few and now they are filling in nicely...

It is as if God painted each petal with a delicate brush....

Spring Crocus

Yellow Spring Crocus

Today I was hardening off flats of spring vegetables and flowers for Palm Rae Potager. I noticed the crocus were up in the garden. They are so delicate. They are low to the ground, and they do not last too long. I decided to take some pics of the yellow and white crocus I planted a few years ago. By the time, I plant the spring cole crops the crocus will be gone.

All the snow melted today. It was in the 60's and these little gems were poking up through the fall leaves.

They are so tiny about 2-4 inches tall.

I planted these little flowers spring 2010. 

I like the white and yellow flowers against the fall leaves....

they appear to dance across the garden floor......

what beautiful little crocus flowers.... 

I hope we have an early spring it looks as if we might.......simply wonderful!

Winter Snow in Potager



The branches just capture the snow as it falls....



variegated red twig dogwood bush.......

It was a winter wonderland.....

a summer time lantern covered in snow....

This is our 70+ year old tree..she embraces the entire potager each season....

  spring season hoops....

it won't be long now...this is a quiet, gentle snow

This snow melted within a few hours...it was just a moment in time...

and it passed.....too quickly...

Mr Cardinal said....