Gardening stuff

It's been chillier and damp again the past couple of days, 52°F/11°C (or 40.0°F/4.4°C, from someone's weather station in Christiansburg, which sounds closer) right now, and a little cooler yesterday. Ah, the joys of spring! *g*

I ventured out a little earlier for a perusal of the yard, anyway. I'd noticed earlier in the week that the daffodils and jonquils were blooming nicely (never been able to tell the difference between the two, but people do make a distinction), but now they seem to be at their peak. Not the inherited ones in our yard, though; some got shaded to death by an overgrown shrub, and I got overenthusiastic digging up a bed a few years ago--the replaced bulbs expressed a great deal of displeasure at that treatment. I've never gotten around to replacing those, nor the grape hyacinths which suffered the same fate in another bed. I kept meaning to go out and dig some various bulbs from around where old houses used to stand--I know of some lovely ones around Snowville, and a little scouting would surely produce plenty more. Maybe my mom will; she's the one who suggested it. I ran across a good place to buy the "right" kind of grape hyacinth bulbs (very little is cheerier in early spring), too, along with rescued daffodils from elsewhere and plenty of rare old varieties of vegetable seeds--right here in Virginia.

Though I've neglected it here the past few years, I really want to plant a few bulbs this fall. Transplanting some of the similarly abandoned daffodils from the lot behind what will soon be my house too (an idea which still feels strange)--those of the daffodil water incident--might be a good start. Some research into the best time to obtain and plant such things there would be a good idea.

I was pleased to see that the soapwort, both Saponaria officinalis and S. ocymoides near the top of the steps are coming up nicely through the loads of dirt dumped on them when excavation was done to replace the curb. I think the Herrenhausen oregano on the other side is gone, especially after Sid put most of the moved paving stones on top of the dirt burying what was left of it. The Blanc Double de Coubert rose right near the street didn't get damaged too badly--bless their hearts, I think the people from the city were careful about it, and not just because of those rugosa thorns--and seems to be recovering nicely; it's starting into the leaf-buds-turning-into-real-leaves stage.

This was a relatively harsh winter, and the perennial herbs are just starting to wake up and tentatively send out new growth. The not-particularly-hardy rosemary made it through, thank goodness; maybe the snow and ice helped shelter it, besides its being planted in a warmer microclimate in the yard. Grûss an Aachen is persistently early leafing out, and I wouldn't be surprised if it starts blooming soon. Most of the other rosebushes look like dead twigs still. The azaleas are perplexing; I suspect the buds got nipped, but didn't see any great evidence of them.

The difference in climate between here and the London area was striking, brought home rather strongly by the difference in plants' growing schedules. There I was, managing to drink half a glass of daffodil water in mid-February, and passing by roses leafing out and even a few setting buds. (Not to mention the lack of a evidence of a hard frost in late December, before.) It's just another example of the sort of thing I'll need to adjust to and learn about. At least as I bumble along, I probably won't need to worry about locally expected late frosts, like our frequent "May 10th cold snap", after planting things. ;)

It did me some good to get out and poke around; I probably should have done some weeding while I was out there, since they're showing their annoying little heads now, but I was content just to look.

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More actual content should be coming soon, when I feel less likely to bore people with ranting and whining. ;)

In the meantime, snagged from beingjdc, here is a ( names meme )