Planted This Week

This week I planted:

• Vincula (complete plants) among the boulders. These came from a neighbor a few blocks over (on our route to the busstop) who had evidently cleaned out a patch and left a big bunch on the sidewalk with the sign "FREE"!  I hope these will displace some of the grass and be more attractive.
• Sunflower (seeds). These are the little sunflowers you get by planting sunflower birdseed. My experience last year is that they grow into a variety of sizes, none huge but all nice flowers that the birds enjoy pulling the seeds out of. I spread some next to the fence where they'll be no trouble.
• Watercress (complete plants). Kris bought some live. They're "planted" in a couple of slightly chipped coffee cups half-full of rainwater.
• Dill (seeds) in pans of dirt to be transplanted when they are big enough, and the remainder among the boulders. This packet came from the seed swap at Seattle Community College where we stopped at Saturday. We bought a few bucks worth of stuff, but this packet was in the free pile of "last year's seeds" so it's a complete gamble. Dill's pretty tough so I imagine it won't mind the boulder/dirt environment.
• Bulbs from my sister Kat's. Frankly, I don't know what they are. One recent holiday (maybe Christmas?) she just handed some over. I put them in pots on the deck so they can come with us when we move.
• Cantelope. This is a total gamble. I unfortunately forgot the cantelope I'd bought last week, and it went squishy. I halved it with my shovel and buried it in two places near the fence. Hopefully at least one of the seeds will turn into a nice surprise for whoever rents this place after us! At the worst, we have merely enriched the soil.

That's it for now, but there's a lot more to come! The above were free or almost-free, which is always nice, but we also ordered a huge batch of heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  - all old varities, pre-GMO and dating from the time when taste and nutrition mattered more than shippability. We may have gone a little teensy bit overboard quantity-wise, but we'll plant something from each pack and swap the rest. We had so much fun with our small container gardens last year, and expect this coming year to be even better.

When we move to the Hummingbird House down the street, we'll leave behind everything but what's in pots, but we like to keep the grounds up and we'll enjoy seeing the results every time we walk by!