What's growing, January 2008

I was going to take some photos of the outdoor plants today. I was going to do a lot of things, including get some steer manure from Home Depot, and plant some seeds outdoors; instead, I woke up at 2pm and read until 5. I'm still recovering from a long cold/flu/thing, so when my body feels like a slow day I go with it, rather than get sick again. At least I can catch up with blogging!

In text-only, here's what's currently growing outside:

• In the container row in front of the raised beds:
  • One flowerpot of catnip
  • One large container with dormant dahlia and gladiolus bulbs and one bunch of living sweet alyssum, white. I took the bulbs from the other container indoors for the winter, fortunately, because that container was then accidentally smashed by one of the maintenance trucks. Unfortunately, the dahlia bulbs inside are sprouting and I am not sure what to do with them. I'm going to leave the rest of the bulbs out where it's cold.
  • One wicker basket containing dill and four cloves of garlic. It was going to be an indoor container; I just didn't have enough space to keep it inside. I'm sure the garlic will live; maybe even the dill.
    
  • The rest of the container-space is taken up with milk-crates of planting soil waiting for spring planting; one tub and one garbage-can filled with leaves-and-compost, half-rotted and lightly colonized by worms; and several sacks of leaves, moldering away.
  
  
• In the herb&flower bed (from left to right):
  • One root of perennial geranium, Kashmir Purple, planted in November. No green shows yet. I dug up one of the three last week and found that a shoot was starting, underground. That plant is now inside, and the shoot is poking up aboveground. I'm going to leave the other two outside and be patient.
  • The remaining stem of a Martha Washington geranium; it was still alive in a container in October, and although vandals smashed it, I replanted it to see if it will grow and bloom again in spring.
  • Oregano, spreading out close to ground and looking healthy.
  • Peppermint, looking straggly. I know it's put out runners underground already; I tore most of them up when clearing the remains of the basil out out in November.
  • Pineapple sage, also looking straggly. I have become very fond of the flavor in salad-dressing. I'm thinking of starting another one (or more!) indoors, transplanting it out in spring, especially if the plant doesn't bush up with warmer weather.
  • Garden sage, spreading out and looking very healthy. I got this plant free from the nursery, because it had long woody stems and looked straggly. I took it home, spread the woody length of the stems along the ground and mounded them with earth, and it has propagated and thrived.
  • Two rosemary bushes, still small. They never bloomed this year, either.
  • The other Kashmir Purple geranium.
  • Three lavender bushes, still small. Only one bloomed this year.
  • There are three or four little strawberry plants scattered through the bed, set by runners from the bed above, that I didn't notice until they were established. I haven't decided yet whether I will move them in April or just let them grow where they are.
  • There are also a few petunias, leaves still green, that I have decided to leave to see if they will bloom again in spring.
  
  
• In the strawberry bed:
  • I have not yet counted all the strawberry plants! I let the runners run wild this year. Next year I will pinch them off ruthlessly, aiming for more berries rather than any more plants. Strawberry leaves spread pretty thickly across the bed, most of them turned red.
    
  • Three thyme plants among the strawberries, still healthy but not very big.
    
  • One tiny borage volunteer that sprouted up this month!
    


• In the veggie bed:
  • Six onions. Several dozen onions from the nursery, both Walla-Walla and yellows, were planted the end of April last year. I pulled half-a-dozen through the year, for salads. They stayed salad-sized even into October, when I dug over most of the veggie bed, getting ready for spring. I left some of the onions, to see if they ever "grow up."
  • Four Red Russian kale plants, still putting out leaves. I pick off the leaves when still young, for salads.
  • A bed of mixed greens, growing slowly but still yielding salads.
  • Five cloves of garlic. I meant to plant more, but never figured out where. I have covered most of the veggie bed with a compost heap, inoculated with worms, and plan to add topsoil and compost across the whole in early March, to bring the depth of good rich soil in the bed up to at least 18".
  • Three "winter sowing" experiments: one plastic cookie tub, sown with spinach and covered loosely with a plastic bag; one plastic 2-liter bottle cut halfway through, folded back, sown with parsley, then "closed" again; one gallon milk jug, top half cut off, sown with White Russian kale, top half set back down inside the bottom half. The kale is sprouting already.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day and I will probably be at one celebration or another until dark. By Tuesday, though, I'll post photos of all this. :D