Well, we’re heading into prime gardening season. Here in NC, we’re just two weeks away from the average last frost date (Zone 7B is April 15th). Normally, I’d be prepping my planting beds and getting amped to make a trip or two to some of my favorite local nurseries, but this year, I’m preparing for a baby, instead.
It’s hard to not plant things!
I went out into the garden today to get a feel for how things are going. With only minimal intervention (weeding, pruning, and one or two experiments) from me, there’s already so much that the garden is producing on its own and so much to be thankful for!
I hope you enjoy this early Spring tour of the Jubilee Garden! Scroll over pictures for the captions.
- Our “awkward patch”. This area between our front door and garage used to have 2 huge arbor vitae that blocked our view and were beginning to die. Since taking those trees down, I’ve added a hodgepodge of perennials and annuals, including two types of columbine, two or three types of coral bells (heuchera), mums, mustard, and a mystery brassica I planted but can’t remember what it is!
- Coral Bells (heuchera) is a great perennial for shady spots. I love the foliage year- round! You can see the old purple foliage from last year as the new, lime green growth comes in for this year.
- Columbine leaves emerging in a swirl pattern.
- Columbine flowers are so delicate and beautiful.
- Mystery brassica! Could be kale? Could be brussels sprouts? Can’t wait to find out!
- An asian mustard with seriously cool purple veining. I’m not really into eating mustard greens, but I love this as an ornamental plant.
- Freebie mum from last fall has a bit of an aphid problem (I think). Will have to spray this will some insecticidal soap to knock them back.
- Some “regenerative pruning”. I may have made a huge mistake here. Time will tell.
- Hostas are also great for the shade. We have several varieties and love watching them unfurl like little scrolls as they emerge in the spring.
- This sad cauliflower seems to be rotting. The smell of rotting cabbage/broccoli/cauliflower is potent – it almost smells like roadkill.
- Our transplanted hydrangea seems to be doing well in its new home.
- Another experiment. I pruned our lavender plant and am experimenting to see if the cuttings propagate into new plants. If they do, I’ll have a nice-looking lavender hedge as my garden bed edge. If not, no harm done!
- With the wonky weather, these cold-loving brussels sprouts are starting to bolt (flower). Once they do, the brussels will likely turn bitter and be inedible. But, fun fact, you can eat the flower buds like broccoli!
- Last fall, I planted brussels sprouts seeds, and now I’m just beginning to see little brussels coming out on the plants.
- Our side/herb garden is really doing well. I’ve had a few broccoli plants bite the dust due to rot, but overall, really pleased with how productive this space has been. besides broccoli and cauliflower, there’s garlic growing in front, cilantro, spearmint, lavender, chives, and hopefully my oregano will come back again!
- Picked some homegrown broccoli to go with dinner tonight. It was so tasty!
- This is a great example of how saving seeds from a hybrid plant (F1) results in a very different plant from the parent. This cauliflower came from seeds I saved from a nursery-bought hybrid cauliflower last year. This generation’s plant doesn’t form a dense head and is pinkish/purplish. Edible, but definitely different.
- More fun with genetics. From the same lot of seeds that produced the purple/pink caulifower, I also got this semi-normal looking one. Just goes to show that F2s are highly variable compared to F1 hybrids.
- I’m pretty sure this was one of the cabbages I planted. It looks like the plant is infected and rotting from the center outwards. Bummer!
- Carrots planted last fall are probably ready to be harvested anytime now.
- These wild violet “weeds” in the lawn are so beautiful to me.
- This is one of my experiments in propagation. If you prune your fig tree, you can apparently grow baby figs from cuttings. I’m testing it out this year and will let you know how it goes. So far, looks promising as the the buds are greening up!
- Another “awkward patch” next to our garage and side yard. This is where the fig cuttings are living for now, along with pink muhly grass, beets, and gladioli (yet to emerge).
- Did some heavy pruning of our holly bushes (I know, it looks really awful right now, but the plant was extremely unhealthy from years of using electric hedge shears). Around front are rutabagas, radishes, columbine, and kale I planted last fall.
- Rutabagas. It was fun to plant these, but now that they’re mature, I’m not really that jazzed about eating them.
- I let these radishes go WAYYY too long. You wouldn’t want to eat this. I may let it continue to go so I can save seeds after it flowers, though.
- Hard to tell since it’s just the seed leaves so far, but I think this might be a sunflower or another volunteer from last year’s garden.
- Some butterhead lettuces I planted last fall are still going strong!
- This is why you buy slow-bolting lettuce varieties if you live in the south. We haven’t even hit April and this lettuce is already starting to flower. The leaves are too bitter to eat at this point, but I may let it go to see and save the seeds for a fall planting sometime.
- After pruning our rose of sharon, it’s already happily budding out.
- More daffodils I forgot about!
- Not much to see now, but soon this place will be thick with greenery.
- Just a few weeks ago, this salvia was a bunch of sticks. As a member of the mint family, it grows and spreads like wildfire!
- I cut back last year’s growth nearly to the ground on this butterfly bush a few weeks ago. The new growth is already nearly half a foot tall and looking lush.
- Jubilee Garden for the win! I completely forgot about these daffodils I planted a few years ago. A beautiful surprise that I’ve been planting on top of in my zeal to put veggies everywhere I can fit them.
- Another relative of mint, lemon balm is really filling in, maybe too much so. Some parsley is mixed in near the bottom, too, which is handy to have. No more wasted, wilty bunches from the grocery store!
- Back in the fall, I planted fava beans. They’re beginning to flower and I just love the black and white flowers on them!
- Arugula flowers are beautiful AND delicious. Like most veggies when they flower, the foliage is probably pretty bitter now.
- Swiss chard.
- A spray of fennel (front), columbine (flowers on the right), and arugula in flower (back), plus some swiss chard sprinkled throughout).
- It may look barren, but all I can see is potential here. I can’t wait to see how this view changes in the next few weeks and months!
Coming up:
Sunday: Happy Easter!
Next Wednesday: Top 5 Herbs You Should Be Growing This Year