Hello Everyone,
Happy Mother's Day. jay is mixing things up again so I have to get this right.
1st. May 14th, Mother's Day, This is a one day only sale! All hanging baskets $10.00 off regular price. Did I mention that this sale ends at 5:00 pm Sunday May 14th? I promise, I had no idea this was coming.
2nd. Starting Monday May 15th, For every $50.00 in plant sales, you get one 1 cubic foot bag of Pro Mix potting soil free. This is a $10.49 value. This sale runs from Monday to Saturday May 20th. We use the Promix family of soils at the farm all the time. Our BK 55 2 cu. ft soil is a favorite with Heritage Gardens in Sandwich.
It has been very busy this week. The temperatures are finally warm and the tee shirts are coming out of storage. If you were up early Weds. in the morning you might have seen temperatures in the mid 30's. There was no frost warning so we didn't cover anything and there was no damage but mid 30's! I do remember the snowstorm of 1977 that dumped 9 inches of snow in the Boston area. All that snow on top of trees in leaf brought down more limbs than a hurricane. So let the sun shine.
Jay and James added another layer to my herb garden by hefting some heavy wooden ties up the hill and I back filled with our compost. So far it is pretty much a blank slate except for the chives. The few plants I had needed to be separated and moved to make way for the wooden beam. so in Feb and March I dug up the chives,divided them, potted some up and moved some back into the herb garden once the hardscape was finished. Some of the garlic chives didn't like the transplanting but most of the common chives did fine. There are a few of these older plantings in with the perennials. The ones in the herb garden are ready to bloom and I predict they will be a pretty site. The cover picture of Crocket's Victory Garden, 1st edition, was of chives in bloom. It was the only plant in bloom when they needed a picture for the cover. They do deserve a picture or two. https://www.almanac.com/plant/chives Common chives bloom in the spring but garlic chives bloom in the summer and they make a wonderful, dependable white cut flower. I moved a couple of plants from the herb garden to locations nearer to where we put up our cut flower bunches. I pay more attention to the garlic chive flowers so I have noticed that bees love them. The flowers smell nice but it is the leaves that have that mild garlic flavor.
It is going to be busy here for a few weeks. It is at times like this that we wish we had more space to start plants. We do the best we can with the space we have.
The kitten report. Our last kitten went to his new adopted home. Ziggy spent part of a morning looking into old hiding places and softly calling for her kitten but she soon settled down for a nap in the sun room. We still have Tux and she is still trying to figure out this rabbit warren of a house. Overnight she figured out how to go down two flights of stairs to find the cat door to the outside but she couldn't figure out how to get back in by the same door. She patiently waited by the upstairs kitchen door for someone to notice her and let her back in. The cats are great hunters and I haven't seen a rabbit in the garden this year.
That's all for now. Just a reminder that the hanging baskets are on sale SUNDAY, Mother's Day only. After that it is the deal on soil. Enjoy the spring and rejoice that the Sagamore Bridge is open again.
We'll see you soon,
Jay and Phyllis Sprout