spring keeps coming on: Bayberry, bellflower vine, cat thyme, meadowsweet, and tansy

I spent Saturday working in the garden. But first I went online and bought some perennials from a place I’ve heard good things about but haven’t tried yet–Lazy S’s Farm Nursery. Their plants are small; they come in what nurseries call a one-quart pot, which is really like a pint and a half, but I would rather pay less to get the plants at a small size and grow them on in my own soil. I got:

*a double-flowered version of meadowseet (Filipendula ulmaria), because I couldn’t find seeds and what the heck, why not get the one with the bigger flowers.:)

*Isla Gold tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), which I had at my old place and had to leave in the frozen ground–the leaves on this plant are an intense yellowish green, very striking

*cat thyme (Teucrium marum), not a thyme, which is poisonous to cats, but a plant cats like.

*bellflower vine (Codonopsis pilosula)–I started seeds of this plant, but the seedlings are so tiny and weak-looking that I don’t think they’ll make it, and this is one herb I want to learn about. Not to mention it has nodding, bell-shaped flowers, always a plus in my garden.

*variegated woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara). I’ve not seen this for sale before, so I had to have it. I have plenty of regular woody nightshade growing wild here, so it should do well.

*native wisteria (Wisteria frutescens Amethyst Falls). I’ve loved wisteria since I was a kid. In the town where I grew up, it was not uncommon to see the Chinese wisteria turned into a yard tree–always struck me as very Victorian. I get a lot of requests for wisteria incense for a particular ritual, so it would be nice to have some real wisteria flowers. Plus bees love them. This species is not as good-smelling as the Chinese one (and some consider it stinky), but it won’t pull your house down either.

*bayberry (Myrica pennsylvanica). Love the smell of this stuff.

*chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus). I started seeds of this plant, but they have not come up, so what the heck, I bought one.

Tasks for the weekend:

*start a kajillion more seeds! I’ve got a bunch that need warmth, like peppers and datura; some that need to be nicked, like a large number of morning glory varieties; and a few that just start at room temperature, like valerian.

*finish tilling. I was not going to till up my shade section, but I decided I might as well, since it looks like I might actually need the space. I have decided not to grow tomatoes or eggplants this year and to cut back greatly on the number of veggies I grow, because I feel like I am not doing what I really am good at, which is grow perennials.  And I will have a huge amount of work at the end of the season tincturing all this stuff.

I got almost all the tilling done–still have the borders in the front yard and the elbow on the south side of the house where the foxgloves are going to go. I got side-tracked by putting up a higher fence along about 20 feet of my yard to make a good extra space for growing tall peas and pole beans. My yard does not get much sun, so I have grab for all the sunbeams I can get. This entailed pulling down part of the decrepit fence that was there and digging up a wild grape (lots more where that came from), which had melded with the fence. What fun. Now, though, I have a lot more pea/bean room, and promptly took advantage of it by planting what I thought was the pole pea, Sugar Snap but was actually Sugar Sprint, which is a bush pea and does not require support. Doh! So now I get to go back and replant those parts, kind of like my Abramelin operation. It’s raining today and will probably rain tomorrow, so reseeding is not going to happen for a few days.

Meanwhile, I have got a ton of seeds to start and plants to pot up (a few to put in the ground as well). I also found that a few more things germinated, like the yellow gentian, which I had pretty much given up on. It’s basically impossible to get yellow gentian plants, and even to get seeds I had to send to the UK. This plant has a long history as a tonic. A number of other seeds haven’t germinated, though. The seeds mostly aren’t dead, just not awake. I was late starting the cold stratification, and our winter was milder than the seeds needed. I will probably put them in the fridge and re-do them next winter, so some things I will be doing without this year. But in fact, because I have taken off some (a LOT) of the pressure on myself to grow veggies this year, I have much more room and energy to devote to what I am growing.  It feels really good.