Gggrrrrr......

 When you look out the window in the morning and the flowers are no longer in a neat and orderly row.  

 I deal with this in one spot or another every year.

The plants should be OK, but the coons will be back for another look.

They always want to make sure.

I'm just glad they haven't done this to the main Dahlia beds (yet).  Or the combination planters.

Or the tomato plants.  I'll sprinkle some Repels-All to see if that helps, but coons will eat any nasty thing so stinky stuff isn't much of a deterrent.

Status Report

 Yesterday I planted my single and 2025 Bee's Choice dahlia tubers.  I still have a tray of Bee's Choice from seed in 4" pots that I am planning to plant after peas like I did last year (in July)

The first planting of peas is not yet blooming.  I'm going to have to bump the Dahlias up to larger pots.

The cucumbers, summer squash and sunflowers are on the move.  My pickling cuke seeds were old.  I've reseeded what has not germinated.  I'll give that a shot before I reorder seeds.

In the beds, Cantaloupe seeds are up.

Sweet Corn seeds are starting

Tomatoes are planted and happy in their new home.

Peppers are also happy and starting to produce already.

The Sweet Potatoes are transplanted.

I am just doing one grow bag this year, to maintain my stock.

The Panola pansies are going gangbusters in the everbearing end of the Strawberry bed.  The Strawberry plants are also doing very well and the berries will start ripening soon.  Whatever weeds are still hiding in that riot are sure not bothering me.

I also have pole beans planted but since I am still trying to find a solution an ongoing pest problem with that crop, I will elaborate later when they start to come up.

Evaluating my Tomato and Pepper Plants

 Tomorrow, Memorial Day, is going to be Tomato and Pepper planting day.  The cold frame is full and needs to be emptied.  I will start delivering plants to family and friends who are expecting them and get my own in the ground.

Remember April 26th when I transplanted tomatoes from cells to pots and found that a lot of my odd colored varieties had been smothered by my Barlow and Amish Brandywine type varieties?  Well they had 4 weeks to get it in gear and they did fine. The Dwarf Plants survived, except for the cherry variety that did not survive transplant.  I replaced that one with a purchased Sun Sugar plant.

Below I placed the pots in the same order as the photo above.  The ones that survived are healthy and a nice plantable size.  The rest are MONSTERS.  I've trimmed the lower leaves in preparation for planting them very deeply.

Most of them show heavy scarring on the stem that I believe is from fungus gnats.  I tried a gnat killer that you water into the soil, but it didn't make a dent.  I caught hundreds on yellow sticky traps.

The ornamental pepper plants are blooming and putting out peppers

I planted the Bell Peppers and Hot Peppers and protected them with frost cloth.

The containers for the ornamentals are filled, and the supports for the tomato plants are driven.  All I have to do is plant.

I put shredded bark mulch in the raspberry/blackberry bed.

When I was weeding the grapevine bed I noticed that the white grape is sending out shoots from the root level.  The first two leaf nodes on the stem still have live looking sprouts, but the main growth is lower.  Because this vine appeared to be self rooted and not grafted, root level sprouts should be fine.  But I will try to keep both levels of vine growing to be sure.  I sent an inquiry to the company to try to verify.  Maybe I should just dig around and take a better look at the roots....

My Dahlias tubers are breaking the soil.

I have been working on annual containers.  This tall white planter contains the Proven Winner's Recipe of the Year Pixie Powder.    It is purely coincidental that I chose the Recipe of the Year.  I've had my eye on this combination for a couple of years because I love flowers in the peach color palette.  It may account for the plants being more readily available though.  Usually by the time I go looking for them, they are sold out.

When I saw these peach colored Esmay Begonias at the local Amish Greenhouse, I snapped them right up.  I didn't really know what I was going to do with them, so now I wish I had grabbed a couple more, but they will fill out.  Their mature width is supposed to be 22".  I'll try to over winter these.  I'm going to use my handful of leftover Profusion Apricot Zinnia plants along the edge of the neighboring landscape bed.

Garage Sale Score

 We like to do a little garage saleing this time of year.  The other day I picked up a like new Big Lots $15 planter (price tag still on it) for 50 cents and a free aluminum scoop, but today I hit the jackpot.  We ran over to a nearby sale a few roads away and I scored two sets of brand new in the package grow through grids from Gardener's Supply.  Only, these were a few years old... pre-Tariff.  There were four, actually of the large 24" size and a full set of three the 18"so she had obviously purchased three sets and only actually used two rings.  The best part about it was the pre-Tariff thing.  They are the old, heavier gauge wire from China, not the new flimsy version from India.

New flimsy version on the Left, Old sturdier on the Right

I already had left a review on Gardener's expressing my disappointment on the flimsy thing.  These grids are an essential tool for me.  I have accumulated dozens over the years.  Not only do I use them as stem supports for my taller perennials, but I place them as a roof over Hosta plants to support the bird netting I use to keep the deer from munching on my Hosta.  They keep the netting off the leaves so the leaves don't get mooshed down and caught in the net.  It also gives me something to clip the net too..  Finding older, heavier sets was amazing!

I did get some of the 18" this spring, but decided to make do with what I had on the 24" rings because they have gotten so darn expensive.  If I ordered one set of each right now, with tax and shipping, it would have totaled $95.  Just one 24" ring alone, without tax and shipping would be $10 if you broke up the set.  And that is what I paid for the whole lot.  $10.

Stop and Smell the Roses

 This time of year, in my bustle to get annuals and vegetables in the ground, it would be easy to overlook some of the more subtle spring perennials that I have spent just as much effort on in years past. So here are a few bright spots I have captured while running around the past few days.

my "Spring Garden" with Columbine (Clementine Red)  and Wood Hyacinths

Heuchera or "Coral Bells"

Brunnera Queen of Hearts

Geum Pretticoats Peach

Viburnum shrub in front of the Porch

Storm Cloud Amsonia

Weeding

 I finally got around to some weeding today.  I weeded the Cole Crop bed in preparation for mulching it with shredded leaves.  The Cabbages are beginning to form heads and the Romaine Lettuces at each corner are of a useful size with three or four smaller ones interspersed for later harvest.

Next I need to weed the Blackberry bed and mulch that too.  The thornless Black Raspberry plant finally arrived to join the thornless Blackberries that I planted last fall.

My Tickled Pink red grape vine is finally putting out some leaves thanks to those two days of hot weather.  The  white grape is alive and has tiny green buds on it but still no leaves.

I have begun prepping the bed for the Tomato Plants but will wait until this weekend to plant them.  I have two Perpetuo variegated Basil plants on the end, and Candy onions along the sides.  I have seeded more Candy onions for a later crop.

The first and second plantings of peas need to be weeded also.  Those are not all lettuce seedlings along the sides.

Many Peppers and Tomatoes still to plant and distribute and some experimental Marigold cuttings.

I seeded Cucumbers and Summer Squash inside and placed them under a grow light since everything is still set up in the workshop.  As soon as the cotyledons appear I will relocate them to the cold frame to grow in the sunshine.

Laster yesterday afternoon when I wend out to close down the cold frame I noticed that one of my transplanted Coleus had snapped, maybe in the wind.  I didn't notice any damage as I was planting.  I brought the "cutting" inside and put it in water to watch it root.  I can always use one more Coleus...

Bringing Dahlias Out of Storage and Planting

 This is one of those projects that can drag out over days or weeks.  In the past, I have planted all of my Dahlia tubers in one fell swoop.  That's no fun.  That's a lot of work.  This time I have stretched it out over several stages and days and I'm not done yet.  And I have found it to be very enjoyable.  I also stored the Dahlia tubers in more than one place in more than one way.  For several years now I have stored them in deep tubs with coarse Vermiculite either in the workshop or the big garage with a thermometer sensor to ensure that the temperature stays between 45F and 50F.  I am still doing that, but I am also experimenting with some other methods and locations.  One of the other possible locations is our basement.  The basement is "unheated" except for the furnace being physically located there.  It stays about 65F to 68F all year 'round.  I have seen on the Facebook Dahlia group that other people have successfully stored in these temperatures as long as it is dark, humid enough, and constant.

Last year I wrapped a spare tuber in Saran Wrap and stuck it in a basement cupboard and it did just fine.  It did not dry out, and it sprouted about the same amount as Dahlias stored in other conditions.  This year I stored quite a few tubers in the basement.  I wrapped some in Saran Wrap and put the rest in shoebox containers with coarse Vermiculite.  I tucked them all in a corner against the rubblestone wall beside the pantry cupboard where they would be humid and be as far as possible from the furnace.  This is the same place that I store my potatoes.  And they all kept just fine.

The tubers closest to the surface sprouted a little.  The tubers wrapped in Saran Wrap also sprouted just a little and they stayed nice and firm.  The only thing with the Saran Wrap method is that you have to trim them down to single tubers.  You cannot properly wrap an irregular clump.

The tubers stored in a dark corner in the Garage at a constant 50F sprouted the same amount.

I have several different planting beds for the Dahlias.  My main bed is rectangular, and to ensure that every plant gets enough sun exposure I have to carefully plan their locations by height.  The tallest ones have to go in the Northwest corner.  I have highlighted my layout in grayscale with the tallest being the lightest gray and the shortest being the darkest gray. Sometimes, I know a varieties growing habit is not going to be as tall or vigorous as the internet reports, and I adjust their location.

It is really easy to get mixed up when planting a grid of tubers.  Years ago a friend asked me "when you plant your tulip bulbs, how to you remember where you planted the bulbs as you are planting?"  Well there are two schools of thought.  Either you lay out your bulbs first and then dig a hole under each one.  Or you dig all of your holes and don't fill them in until you have them all dug.  ...and he was an engineer!  I have struggled to figure out the best way to get a neat grid of Dahlias in the ground.  It doesn't work well to put support stakes in at a later date because you risk piercing the tuber with the stake.  So this year I carefully laid out string lines, measured, and placed the first stake for each tuber.  I then wrote out tags for each variety and placed them on the stake.  Then all I had to do was plant each tuber on the east side of its designated stake.

The single tubers are easy to plant.

Some of the larger clumps are not so easy.  Each Dahlia tuber should be covered with 4 to 6 inches of soil.  In the past, I have occasionally had Dahlia plants that would wilt every day when they were a foot or two tall.  Eventually, the hair roots would catch up and keep the plant looking fresh all day.  Each time I dug one of these up at the end of the season, I found that they were planted too shallow.  There was not enough soil to protect the tuber from the heat of the sun.  Once the whole bed grew in and provided some shade for the soil, they would be OK.  But you risk losing the tub to too much water as you try to keep it from wilting.  If this starts to happen to one of your Dahlia plants it would be better to throw a mound of soil on top of it and up the stem to attempt to bury it to a safe depth.  **see note below regarding "hilling" like potatoes....

As I plant, I add a second and maybe even a third stake depending on the variety.  They may not be as straight as I'd like, but a safe location is marked and I can drill a straighter hole later.

After the tubers are all planted, I can plant the border plants - my Marigolds and Zinnias.  At first I keep them covered to slow down casual nibblers and curious diggers.

I am very pleased with the orange Profusion Zinnias.  Most of the flowers have dark highlights.  Some people may complain that they are not a pure, even color, but I really like it.

They will look great along side my carefully curated palette of copper, bronze and peach Dahlias.

I got most of the pink and purple bed planted on a hot sunny day.  I decided to wait on the full sized plants that I "woke up" in a tray of soil.  They hung out in the protection of the cold frame until the 90F and windy days passed and then came out of hiding this afternoon.  The one I did plant early I protected with a trash can.  In fact, when I finished planting the Marigolds and Zinnias on this side such a stiff, hot wind kicked up that I put trash cans over them too because they immediately looked wind blown.

I finished planting this bed this afternoon, bringing the sprouted tubers out and planting them as I would any other potted plant.  You can bury the stem quite deeply to support it, and, apparently, according to the Dahlia Growers Facebook page, the plant will send out additional tubers along the stem at the buried leaf nodes. Some people actually hill them like potatoes.  None of mine really need to be supported by a mound, but if it comes to that I will not hesitate to try it.

Now all that remains to plant are my Dahlias started from seed, both this year's plants, and last year's stored tubers.  I may even place some of these randomly in the landscaping for annual color.  This time of year my To-Do List every day is all plant...plant...plant.  Other chores, like weed....weed...weed, keep getting pushed to the bottom.   We are now expecting a week of cooler, wetter weather which will be better for transplanting my tomatoes and pepper plants than 90F (32C) and windy.  Today I seeded sweet corn and began warming the bed for pole beans.

a beautiful Aquilegia Songbird Blue Jay is flowering