Spring in the Urban Garden

Lots of garden activity going on around here!  I snapped some pictures, and this is a long post.

The lovage overwintered in the big pot.  I added thyme and purple basil, as well as some flowers.

Two weeks later, it is lustrous and lush.  And I did add a chervil plant to the side there.

The pots on the front porch posts got begonias and winter savory (still haven't looked up how it's different from summer savory). 

And we got the casualties of potting for pretty:  a marigold and a twig of savory.  I am eternally grateful to A for giving me tiny vases.  I don't always have a big fancy bouquet, but I always have tiny ones.

The hen-and-chicks succulent is coming back in Ben's old sneakers.  

In the spirit of spring, I suddenly furbished up a wire stand I found in the trash several years ago.  Doesn't it look nice in red spray paint?  It holds the shoes now, as well as a baby bay tree (and a clay pot for some stability).  That's a pot of mint next to it.  The winter killed it off in the pot, so I dug some out of my bed and repotted it.  In midsummer, the mint in the bed struggles and gets spotty while the pot keeps going strong.  The bed is close to a black walnut tree, and it's also rather damp there.  

This is a praying mantis nest that our friend Harley gave us.  They will hatch any day now.  We glance at the nest every time we go in and out the back door.

I successfully transplanted an enormous (to me) rhubarb plant from my friend Naomi.  My neighbor identified the vine growing on the fence as a clematis, although it's a mystery to us where it came from. 

Naomi also gave me a big bag of cut rhubarb from another plant.  After several pies, a batch of chutney, and a batch of rosemary rhubarb jam, I am contemplating pickling the rest.

I had put the rosemary plant back outside into a garden bed, but it seemed to be getting powdery mildew.  After a little online research, I yanked it out of the bed and potted it in a clay pot and set it where it could catch the sun and breezes.  Fingers crossed.

And this is spinach, cut from our raised bed from a spring planting.  I absolutely love going out to my back yard and getting something good to eat.  I think I am getting the hang of this gardening thing so I can do that more often.