gardening notes

Victory! I counted at least six more tulips buds this morning — four of which are in a tight clump, so those are probably the naturalized ones. And the one that I had discovered earlier, pre-freak blizzard, has continued to grow, so probably it wasn't hurt by the frost. So far, though, all of the buds have been in that very narrow (maybe a foot wide) space between our front walkway and the stone retaining wall/hedge next door (we live on the steepish part of a hill, so there are retaining walls everywhere). I haven't seen anything in our front yard yet — which, granted, is still full of thatch that we haven't displaced, but surely something should have come up by now? So it is slightly worrying. Nonetheless, this means that I will definitely have (more than one) tulips, barring fire, high water, or acts of God. Whee!

I have also confirmed that the half-budding bulbs that I found (also in that narrow strip of dirt) are not tulips. I think they might be irises, actually — there are similar leaves now poking out of the soil, very light green and slightly pointy, almost succulent-looking — in fact, I would have thought that they were indeed succulents, if I hadn't seen the same type of leaves growing out of one or two bulbs that some helpfully destructive squirrel had dug up.

Normally I would have said daylilies, except there are no daylilies in that strip of dirt. The only other tall flower that I can remember our garden having are poppies, and those bloom somewhat later (and don't have leaves that look anything like tulips, irises, or succulents.)

If they are indeed irises, I am thinking of allowing them and the tulips to completely take over. It's not a big patch, it's against that retaining wall so that the stone will be nice, and they seem to like the dirt — besides the garlic in the backyard, they're the only things blooming right now. It might take another two or three years to fill it in, but it will be so nice. And anyway, I'm too lazy to dig up and transplant bulbs, and it's always a bit of a shame to kill a tulip just because it's growing where you don't want it to be.

(I have a soft spot for tulips. They're my mother's favourite flower.)

...
Yesterday — or the day before — I discovered that tarragon requires a dormant period. So I guess it wasn't dead after all, just dormant — which means I probably shouldn't have ripped it out of the herb pot during my cleanup. Oops. I was kind of wondering why it had suddenly died off like that, when it had been doing so well.

At least it wasn't one of the herbs I've ever actually used.

...
None of the seedlings I planted last weekend have sprouted yet. I'm not unduly concerned — it usually takes a week or two — but I am a bit worried that they are getting enough sun. It's been a bit overcast for the last few days, and that window is not the warmest window it could be.