We have a little farm in our basement. I started with sweet peas figuring that if I am successful with this lot, then I will start other plants from seeds as well. In early February I began my search for the most beautiful and lovely scented sweet peas. I ordered peas from Enchanting Sweet Peas, Fragrant Garden Nursery and Renee’s Garden Seeds. Plain and simple, I ordered too many – close to 300 seeds. So far, Enchanting Sweet Peas wins for most beautiful packaging. Planting 300 pea seeds all over our yard was challenging, however, I kept a record of which seeds I planted where so later I can judge flowering quality. Peter Rabbit mowed down about 2 feet of new plants a week ago even though I thought I had them well protected with little wire cages. Grrrr…

Purchasing and soaking seeds before planting.

After I soaked the peas, I used the sharp corner of a fingernail clipper to nick a little hole in the seed coat. Some of the seeds were so hard, I could not nick them. I put them to sprout in a separate tray and they did just fine, in spite of the “Bad Peas?” sign I posted.

It didn’t take too long for these seeds to sprout. Then I put them under grow light bulbs.

After the 3rd set of leaves emerged, I took a few days to hardened the plants to the cooler weather outside.

One of the numerous places in the garden.

Today was a good day. It was gorgeous and we kicked b*tt in the garden. Knowing that it is supposed to start raining again tomorrow, we wanted to get as much done today as possible. To start with, I planted 102 tulips and a super sak® of blue grape hyacinths from Brecks. I have a lot of details with pictures I will share later – including a, not so little, spider episode. There were many critters “helping” all day. While I was planting deluxe perennial tulips (which mostly means they are huge and have to be planted 9″ deep), Ken was filling a bed with our most recent purchases. It is a nice fall planting.

garden bed between the house, studio and driveway

I plan to make some sort of list of all the plants included – I can never remember their names. We did our homework, but one never knows what will happen with just the right light (or wrong light) and just the right nutrients (or wrong ones). The dogs can walk up the pathways on either side of this bed, so we are kind of worried they might want to dig in this bed. WE were digging so it makes sense. Hence, the fence! Ken calls it the tension fence. He wove these stakes together and by pushing them against each other, they are supposed to stay tight and keep the dogs out. Right. I hollered at Hugo that afternoon when I caught him digging up a few of the winter pansies. Big dog prints all through the garden. Helpful critter? I think not.

escallonia blossom

tension fence

The rest of our day was consumed with digging, moving and placing more plants. That evening, as we sat on the deck, we could really see the changes we made. Of course we came up with more ideas for future gorgeous days.

October is the month to plant garlic and today is another beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest.

killarney red

What an accomplishment – getting the garlic ordered – pulled apart (called popping) and then planted. Preparing the garden bed is no small task either. I’ve got 186 cloves planted which ideally (with no moles, cats or bad weather) will be the same number of bulbs harvested in July. Purple Italian, Premium Northern White, Killarney Red (I wanted Spanish Roja) and Silverwhite are the types that spoke to me in the catalog. Organic. The Premium cloves were HUGE. Garlic seems pricey to me in comparison to other seeds and starts ($16/pound plus shipping). I have yet to find a place to buy them that I could really recommend. You are supposed to plant only the larger cloves to get larger bulbs. Makes sense. With the little pieces left over, you can either cook them (duh) or plant them in a little spot in the garden and use them in the spring as little garlicky additions to your food. Yum.

Now that it is all planted, I’m ready for the rains. I know that harvesting in July will arrive quickly enough. Hopefully, the bulbs next year will be larger than they were from our hot, dry summer this year. It is the mystery that I enjoy about the garden.

bags of garlic cloves

garden tags

freshly planted garlic bed