Sanctuary Gardener Update ~ 3/30/15

This was surely a week of extremes here in the Charleston, SC, area….again. I was quite concerned yesterday that I would wake to a late frost, but thankfully, the temperature dropped only to 35 degrees. Whew! I have a lot of new growth on my raspberries, elderberries, herbs, and even my grape vines. Plus, I’m beginning to harvest my asparagus. A frost would not have been good for the tender leaves. Fortunately, all is well in my Sanctuary Garden. Come take a look.

WHAT’S NEW

The Tom Thumb peas I planted along my front walkway and in the pots flanking my front door are starting to bloom. The plants are barely six inches tall, and they’re blooming. The most interesting thing is that, unlike other pea plant flowers, these are pure white.

Tom Thumb pea flowers

For the first time in three years, I have flowers on my rosemary plants!

Rosemary flowers

Speaking of flowers, my mustard greens are starting to bolt.

Mustard greens bolting

I thought my beautiful lily that I transplanted last spring was dead, but it is coming back!

Lily coming up

I have new growth on my raspberry canes.

Raspberry Canes

Two of my three grape vines have new leaves. The Concord grape has leaf buds, though.

New grape vine growth

IN THE GROW ROOM

My seedlings are doing great…even the new ones that I transplanted recently. Some of these got transplanted from the coffee filters (where they germinated) two weeks ago (the larger ones in the back), and the others got transplanted a week ago.

New seedlings

IN THE GARDEN

It appears that the large fire ant hill I had in one of my raised beds has been taken care of. I poured the organic killer mixture double strength, and I don’t see any activity. It could be because it’s cold; I’ll be digging into it later this week, to see.

No more fire ant hill???

My elderberry trees are full of leaves – and new canes growing. Check out the new growth in the front of the picture.

Elderberry trees

My herbs seem to have “popped” almost overnight! They’re growing and getting green and healthy looking.

Spicy oregano

Even my potted herbs survived the winter outside. The lemon balm looks wonderful.

Lemon balm

My hydrangeas are filling in with new leaves. Once the new growth has fully come in, I’ll prune away the dead branches.

Hydrangea

On Saturday, I heard a beautiful bird call from my sweet gum tree. It’s a call I’ve heard many times before, but I didn’t know what bird made it. I actually got pictures of that bird, and I believe it’s a red-bellied woodpecker.

Red-bellied woodpecker on a sweet gum tree

Yesterday, I saw my first Eastern bluebirds of the season, and they were checking out my birdhouse! I grabbed my phone and got these pics from inside my living room.

Eastern bluebirds

GARDEN BOUNTY:

I was too busy this week to begin the final harvesting of my fall/winter crops, but I did harvest 3/4 pound of lettuce and almost 6 ounces of asparagus. I put the asparagus in a glass of water in the fridge so they’ll last a while and stay crisp.