easy-care garden

On my Bucket List (things to do before I die): Visit the world-renowned Chelsea Flower Show, being held this week May 25-29 at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, London (image below courtesy a BBC story on the Chelsea Flower Show 2010).

My reasons for wanting to see the show are twofold: Of course, the first is the opportunity to see the world's top garden and flower show. Presented by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) for 21 years now, the Chelsea Flower Show is known not only for its cutting-edge gardens designed by leading names but also for its showcasing of some of the newest, most exciting garden plants on the planet - kind of like the gardening world's equivalent of the Olympics.

According to the BBC article, this year's show has an optimistic, extravagant feel that's a stark contrast to last year's recession-inspired display with recycled exhibits and a lack of larger garden sponsors.

But second of all, I've been tracking down my family history and FINALLY tracked down my great-grandfather, Ernest Hutchurson, and the street – and even HOUSE – where he lived in West Ham, London (7 Addington Road - I Google Mapped it). So I desperately want to travel to London to see it and anything else relating to my family history.

Sadly, I won't be going this year. Tickets are sold out (unless I want to pick up one of the black-market tickets left selling for five times its original value). But I will be ordering the official Chelsea Flower Show DVD. If I did go to the show, however, I'd especially like to see the Chelsea gardens already in line for the gold, according British garden guru Matt Biggs. 

Of course, I'd also want to see the Tesselaar Plants in this year's show – Bluestorm Agapanthus and Tropicanna Canna (in a garden designed by Homebase – kind of like the British version of Home Depot). I just planted both on my deck out back (pics below, Bluestorm at top). But mine are just babies, with the Tropicanna canna shoots just starting to break out of the soil. So I'd love to see them at their peak, of course, in a professionally-designed garden at Chelsea! Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of the Homebase garden at Chelsea. But I'm working on finding some after the show opens, and when I do, I'll be sure to post 'em!

Bluestorm Agapanthus

Original Tropicanna Canna (tangerine bloom, rainbow-striped leaves)

Tropicanna Canna Gold (left) and Tropicanna Canna Black (right)

Can't wait for the day when my Bluestorm agapanthus looks more like this:

And my Tropicanna cannas look more like this!

Until then, I'll just wait for my Chelsea Flower Show DVD to arrive – and try not to check on my cannas every five minutes!

Spring is that iffy time of year … warm days and garden center plant displays make you want to get outside and start gardening right away. But is it too early to sow seeds or plant/transplant seedlings or starter plants outdoors? Too late? Well, in the interest of low-maintenance, easy-care gardening – even now in the planning and planting stage – here's a zone map and planting guides from Burpee that can help:  

(Just in case you can't see the color key on this map too well, grey means a last frost/outdoor planting date of June 15; purple June 5; green May 25; yellow May 15; red April 26; beige April 3; orange March 3 and peach February 25.)

Unless you live in the colder areas with a last frost/outdoor planting date of June 5 or later, it might be too late to start seeds for the flowers and vegetables listed above (broccoli, eggplant, pepper, swiss chard, tomato, coleus, geranium, impatiens, salvia and snapdragon). That's because the general rule of thumb is that seeds sown indoors should be started about eight weeks before the last frost date in their area. Otherwise, they won't be ready in time. It's probably a safer bet, if you want to grow these veggies, to buy starter plants at the garden center. On the other hand, I hate rules – and in the garden, they can – and will – be broken.

If it's not already past your area's last frost date (see map), you can go ahead and direct-sow these seeds into the ground outside. If you live in a warm area, however, you can still grow these veggies in a cold frame protected by a shading material like burlap.

After your area's last frost date (see map above), transplant into the ground outside the following seedlings (grown indoors or bought from the garden center): bean, cantaloupe, cucumber, eggplant, pepper, squash, tomato, watermelon. Seedlings grown by you indoors, by the way, first need a week or two to "harden off." Not sure how to do this? Check out this great post on how to harden off plants by About.com's Gardening Guide, Marie Iannotti.

Hope this helps! For planting and weather information that's more specific to your area, it's also a good idea to contact your local agriculture or horticulture extension office. See you here next time on Your Easy Garden by Tesselaar!

Woo-hoo! 84 degrees here in western New York last week! Warm enough for me to finally start gardening at the new house I moved into this past Thanksgiving and scouting the property for all the new plants coming up!

Bringing the "Plant Babies" out for the first time! Hardening off the veggie seedlings I started in the basement with my 2 1/2 year-old daughter, Maya (who calls them the "Plant Babies"). Drizzling some water on these poor babies before fertilizing … the plan is to transfer them to the Earth-Box self-watering patio container garden I bought for $50 at Wegmans (our supermarket). I know $50 is a little pricey, but I’m hoping to avoid more moments like this where I’m drizzling water over dried-out, half dead seedlings in peat pots because I got busy and forgot to water. Since then, I’ve also learned there are plenty of cheaper self-watering containers out there. But I admit, this was just an easy pick-up …

The "raised bed" I had been planning originally as an island within the lawn for the Flower Carpet^® roses, euphorbia, spring heath and Festival Grass^® cordyline I’m planning on getting. However, after I learned that an island the size I wanted to make would cost a thousand dollars or more in dirt (and after considering that my golden retriever, Buddy, rips up all my new plantings), I deweeded and cleaned up this pile of dirt (from the former owner’s pool excavation) behind the invisible dog fence in the back hedgerow and voila – a dog-proof, free raised bed! Maybe not the stuff of glossy magazines, but good enough for me …

Me amending the soil (I still have to do a soil test to find out the acidity) by working in a layer of organic compost … next comes the black pine bark mulch for moisture retention and weed suppression.

Maya takes a break from trying to climb up her slide to come help me …

Looks like we’re getting peonies … yay!

And irises …

And forsythia … here’s Maya with the very first bloom.

Can’t wait to see what this week brings! So tell me, did you get the same nice weather last week? How does your garden grow?