weeding | In the Garden With Jera

We are in full swing spring bloom! Currently the work I am doing in the garden is simple maintenance. Weeding, fertilizing, trimming, deadheading, and watering have been the bulk of my to do list. We have a tent/garden party scheduled for May 7 and the goal is to have the garden in its best shape for it. Unfortunately, my irises are about a week ahead and the poppies are a week late, so there will be some bare spots in the landscape. I have been working very hard to keep up with the weeds. In addition, I have been using Scott’s Super Bloom fertilizer in every watering of pots and containers and window boxes to maximize the blooms. I believe that a healthy start assures a better bloom season. Once the containers are about a month old, I will fertilize once or twice a week.

Updates: The bog garden is slowly bouncing back and pitcher plants are forming roots. I still have one flat of winter started seedlings to find a home including scabiosa, salpiglossis, marigold, a six pack of vinca, and a few foxglove. I am still growing cleome, red and white double petunia, pineapple and chocolate mint coleus, zinnias, sunflower and silver falls dichondra.

New: This week a friend gifted me a Fleur Farm Dahlia gift certificate. I had watered her seedlings in her high tunnel a few weekends prior when she was out of town. While not necessary at all as she and I exchange plants often, it was a lovely gesture, I ordered 5 dahlia and am excited to see them in bloom. I ordered Zundert Mystery Fox, Jowey Martina, Arabian Night, Milena Fleur and Crème de Cassis. In addition to the dahlias I also ordered more dwarf zinnia seeds for the front of my summer borders from Swallowtail Seeds. I will start those as soon as they arrive. I love Zahara zinnias for their ability to fill containers, and spill, over the edge of my raised beds, so ordered a couple of those varieties.

All in all, the big work is winding down and the maintenance and enjoyment phase of the season is dialing up. Below are some photos of what bloomed this week:

In 2016 when my garden was started I was plant poor (no longer a problem I have due to seed starting and trading and a few purchased). I received a free wildflower seed packet and checked it for varieties, agreed that they were manageable, and scattered seeds with reckless abandon. Showy Evening Primrose was NOT listed. Sadly, the seed company assumed anything goes. This was not the case. I did not want this plant because it spreads on runners in dry areas and my garden is lined with several inches of Indiana pea stones on top of commercial duty weed fabric. A perfect substrate for this delicate monster. I did NOT want to constantly weed. But such is life. I thought I had removed all of them as they came up, but they hopped the bed, got into the stones and I have been weeding weekly for years removing bushels of this stinker. I regret ever trusting that seed pack and no longer buy mixes.

Above in the top photo you can see the primrose in my stones, and up into my mulch so thick that the stones are no visible. This was growth just from about August until January. The lower photo is where I weeded the stones. I just didn’t have the energy to weed the mulch. There’s no way without poison to get it all and I’m not poisoning my garden. So- I must live with it.

It IS a beautiful flower that goes spring until frost. It slows down in the heat with blooming but still spreads on aggressive runners under my stones so there’s no rest in keeping up. The goal now is to keep it from choking plants or covering stones. I’ve given up trying to keep it out of my straw. It chokes out other weeds and it is impossible to pull all of it out of straw-so I decided to let it stay there as some things are not worth the fight. Showy Evening Primrose has beaten me.

Below is the spring flush a couple years ago in a bed where it had gone nuts. It’s pretty- that is undeniable- and it’s one of the first colors of spring. But it’s a double edged sword. Equal to its beauty is its aggressive nature.