Gotta Love A Three Day Weekend

Mine should have been a 3.5 day weekend, but in reality it was more of a 2.5 day weekend.  I can't complain, I've had more than my fair share of quiet days this spring and job security is pretty important.  All of the photos I'm going to post today are from Friday to Tuesday, but all the work was done on Sunday morning and Monday afternoon.  Strangely I have often shared the patio garden and the perennial shade garden, but I'm not sure I've ever shown you a photo of how the two are connected by the herbs in containers:

 

Of course, in that photo (from Friday) you don't see all the beautiful irises that are blooming like mad now.  Here is a Siberian iris with one of the lavender bearded ones:

 

See:

 

Also flowering, and rather late in my opinion, is the rhododendron in the hosta/rhododendron garden:

 

We kicked off the holiday weekend by preparing for a very small gathering of family on Saturday.  We planned to serve pork tenderloin, grilled potatoes, and gingered green beans.  Lee wanted to make a marinade for the pork, so I gathered some herbs for him -- rosemary, lemon thyme, hot & spicy oregano and (not pictured) sage:

 

With a ton of garlic (olive oil, lemon, pepper and salt added after the photo) he slid the tenderloins into a ziplock bag and stuck them in the fridge for 24 hours.  The whole meal was delicious:

 

Just a quick mention of the strawberries which are producing like mad this spring:

 

I can't quite get the photo I want, but this is close:

 

100% germination of the beans in the planter table (Royal Purple bush beans), though one seems to have been snacked on by something and I'm not sure it will survive:

  

One lonely blossom on the hydrangea, but it will soon be joined by many others:

 

Sunday morning was all about hilling the potatoes.  Before:

 

And after:

 

Yukon Gold (leftover grocery store purchased potatoes that sprouted on us) on the left and Adirondack Blue on the right, before:

 

And after (and frankly they need to be hilled again already):

 

The red potatoes in the veggie garden are completely hilled, now we just wait and harvest:

 

Still a lot more room to hill here, but they're above the rim now.  I just hope we get lots of potatoes.  Oh, and the funky beans have all sprouted:

 

I'm showing you two things here -- one of my favorite spots in the garden and the fact that half the pots of potatoes here are completely hilled and the other half are almost there:

 

Really, how could you not love it?  I wonder if there are people who look at this and think, uh yeah, not for me:

 

I look at the whole driveway and say yum.  I also say I guess it's time to give up on the moonflowers sprouting and plant some more seeds, but otherwise, yum:

  

In case you couldn't see it in either of the two photos above, here's my new perennial herb hanging planter -- purple sage, golden lemon thyme, and a variegated oregano: 

 

And speaking of herbs...I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the raised herb garden:

Monday afternoon I came up with a design and just went with it:

 

Back row, L to R: tarragon, golden sage, and chives.  Next row, L to R: golden lemon thyme, rosemary, hot & spicy oregano, Hidcote lavender.  Front row L to R: cilantro/Tetra dill alternating.  The remainder is basils, three to a row, L to R: Genovese basil, lemon basil, purple dark opal basil, lime basil, and sweet basil:

 

Another viewpoint.  I also scattered a mesclun mix in the other bed between the zucchini and cucumbers:

 

But there were leftover basils, three Aton basil pots.  I'm sure I'll find something to do with them:

 

The original raised bed has onions, swiss chard, kale, and Detroit dark red beets galore:

 

 

Not to mention lots of volunteer basils and some beautiful variegated nasturtiums (not volunteer, very intentionally planted):

  

Another exciting sight is the first blossom on the habanero pepper plants:

 

I was amused when I spotted a flower on the ittle, bitty, tiny zucchini plant:

 

But I was excited to see this foxglove blooming on the shady side of the house:

 

How cool is that?!  They are beautiful inside: 

 

And there are a lot of them coming:

 

Tuesday evening I was poking around in one of the containers that overwintered in the basement and came across this insect wiggling its way out of the ground:

 

It kind of resembled a dragonfly, but I can't find anything about them hatching from the ground.  And then I thought it might be a praying mantis, but it wasn't quite right:

 

Do you have any idea what it is?  And in other news I'm all done with the garden, just a little fussing about from here on out.  Are you done?  Close?  Or can't even begin to see the end?

Comments

[Mummer]

I love your raised bed - what I could do with all that rich earth. But, not here in miserable,hot,dry Southwest Florida!
Your beets look especially yum - do you remember the time my beets were just ready to harvest? I waited 'til the following morning, and dismayed to find wilted beet greens, and empty furrows. A mole had tunneled under every single plant, and had a feast!

[Wendy]

I'm in the "cant' even begin to see the end" category. I've missed you, Heather, and am glad you wrote. Are you getting these thunderstorms right now? I watered everything just in case they missed us. A good storm can't hurt. I love this. Your garden is so much more ahead than mine. My hydrangeas are budding but no blooms. It might have something to do with the fact that my land was raped last year and I still have no earthworms. That's my next big project... nourish the soil. Your irises are gorgeous and your husband is a keeper. I'm reviewing your blog soon. I had a blast reading it. I think it will post in the next two or three days.

[Heather's Garden]

Mom -- Nope, don't remember the beet story, but there's a lesson there, don't wait!

Wendy -- No thunderstorms here. They started south of us in the Sound and then head east and missed us altogether -- phew! I watered today too. I am a good bit further south than you, so it's not surprising that my garden is a little ahead. Plus my hydrangea is very established now as it was one of the first things we planted when we started gardening -- four years ago now. It's difficult to believe that this is our fifth garden season and more difficult to believe that you went back and read all those posts!