Amy in the Garden

Oh, my heart. What a long, long 12 weeks it has been, with only the seed catalogs to cool the fever. I can finally start seeds now without feeling foolish. I have started two varieties of seeds in my office, and I am prepping the greenhouse to receive the first seed trays of the season on March 5. That tick-tick-tick you hear is not a clock. It’s my heart, ticking away all of the non-gardening moments in my life.

One positive accomplishment this winter was deciding on a name for my garden. I won’t erect a plaque or a signpost. But I will know my garden’s name in my heart, and because you are reading this post, you will know as well. My garden is “Solace.”

So, welcome! Welcome to my place of quiet, of blossoms and weeds, birdsong, bees, some food plants, all connected with winding paths and lots and lots of Maine rocks.

Let me share a few things: First, a few pages from my garden journal, my inelegant heap of scribbles, plans, and drawings. You’ll see designs for a formal herb garden that won’t be built until 2018, earliest, lists of what I want to plant this year, and where. Cross-outs.  Pages x’d out with an elegant “Nope!” in the margin. And lists. There will always be lists. In order, please find Research, Resources, and Who Goes Where:

My garden is enormous and growing. My age is growing too. So my annual goal is to plant more perennials.  🙂  This year, my garden will see the first appearance of perennials I planted late last fall: 3 kinds of decorative alliums, 3 kinds of decorative grasses, and a summersweet bush.

This year the Perennial Roster includes purchased plants and purchased seeds. They are:

Plants: butterfly weed, cardinal flower, liatris

Purchased Seeds: hollyhocks, butterfly weed (Hedging my bets. If the plants don’t take, hopefully the seeds will!)

My potting bench is actually in my office — it’s where I work during the long Maine winters. Husband built it for me, and it is made even more beautiful by items made by friends, and little plastic farm animals (love the piglets, especially):

Here is a photo of the first two seed varieties I started in my office, verbena bonariensis and butterfly weed:

I have a large rocky area between two cultivated areas in my garden. There are some lupines there, but mostly that space grows cranky grass plants and rocks. I call it “Weed Alley.” But I have plans for this space, and am working to change its name to “Wildflower Alley.” So the Perennial Roster also includes:

Harvested Seeds: teasel, wild monarda, queen Anne’s lace, lupine, milkweed, asters, blue globe echinops, echinacea (2 varieties), rudbeckia (2 varieties)

Annuals are the instant-gratification of gardening. These ephemeral beauties are also workhorses. They only get one shot at producing next year’s players, and so they are quick to germinate, quick to flower, and hardy as all get-out. I love them.

The Annual Seeds are:

Flowers: celosia (2 varieties), verbena, zinnia (2 varieties), tithonia, sweet Annie, fennel (2 varieties), mammoth dill (for looks)

Food: 5 varieties of squash, 2 varieties of pole beans, 5 varieties of lettuce, 3 varieties of so-trendy micro-greens, parsley, basil, dill (for eating), kale, broccoli, tomatoes

I bought my seeds from three sources this year. Because seeds are my favorite part of gardening, and because I think the packets are lovely, I’m sharing sample packets with you:

It is so irritating to have to wait. All of our Survive-the-Maine-Winter-by-Doing-Home-Reno-Projects are wearing on me. I’m done with drop cloths. I want to be outside.

I hold on to March 5: the day I put seed trays out in the greenhouse. Remember that. March 5. March 5.

I’m coming for you.