Heather's Garden

THIS SAYS IT ALL

This article in the NY Times says it all.  Thank God this horrible gardening season is over.  I just keep imagining if this had been my first season gardening instead of my 3rd, but really I'm just glad I don't rely on my garden for more than the relaxation tending it brings me and the added benefit of whatever produce it yields.  I can't imagine what it must have been like to watch the rain fall and the crops fail if your livelihood depended on it.  Until yesterday we've actually been experiencing beautiful warm fall weather giving VPH some lovely days to get outside and get the leaves picked up: 

That photo was from day one of the clean up...he did get all of the leaves that were on the ground shredded and into the compost pile, but you'll see that quite a few of the trees around the house still haven't dropped their leaves:

And there are weird things happening all over the garden.  The petunias are hanging on:

 

Which is a good thing since I never got around to potting up the mums:

And I include this last photo so you can get an idea of how large the spider by the front door really is.  The post it's on is 4-5 inches wide:

 

Slightly freaky!  It's been raining solidly for 2 days now and we're supposed to head out to FL on Tuesday, so I'm not sure when we're going to get outside to get the dahlias into the basement for the winter.  We could take the chance that they'll hang on just fine until early December when we're planning to return home, but I think the ground will probably freeze by then.  Would it be worse to put them in the basement wet or let them potentially freeze?

DOES THE TITLE REALLY MAKE YOU READ THE POST?

I hope not, because I am having the hardest time coming up with titles these days.  I put off drafting this post for an hour or so while I tried to come up with a good title...no luck.  I considered NIMG (Not in My Garden - originally coined by Carol of May Dreams Gardens?):

Yes, those are topiaries, anchors, lengths of huge rope, and no, you're not insane, that's the Three Stooges in golf gear on the pedestals:

 

We pass it every time we go for a walk, but today was the first time the home-owner wasn't out there playing around so I dared to stop and take a few photos.  Then I considered a fall theme of some sort, but the only fall color I could find was this cinnamon fern in my garden:

 

A post about dahlias was a legitimate possibility, with these colorful specimens all blooming in my garden, and now decorating my kitchen windowsill:

And these beauties:

 

In the living room next to the couch, as viewed from the couch:

 

But nothing clicked.  It was nice to get outside for a little while on such a beautiful day.  I probably should have spent time cleaning up the garden, but our trees are all still green and no leaves have fallen yet.  Maybe by next weekend.

WOULD IT SURPRISE YOU TO LEARN...

That I've only had to water the garden twice since I planted in May?  And I grow vegetables in containers?  Just another example of the crazy summer we're having (or not having depending on your point of view).  But amazingly I have sunflowers blooming:

Granted not even half of them came up and the only ones that seem to have made it are the little short ones, but they're sunflowers:

The last day-lilys that I saw bloom (there was one more bud, but I didn't get to see it bloom, darn work and volunteer responsibilities):

Staying in the patio garden, but moving on to veggies...zucchini -- large on left, extra small on right (in front of the light next to the bird bowl -- seriously, it's there), and not a single zuke growing:

And the eggplants may not get much larger than this, but I'll give them a few more days before I harvest one and let VPH eat it:

The cheating garden center tomato plant has pretty much done its job by giving us 10 or so tomatoes and it looks just about finished:

Just in time for the heirloom tomatoes to be ripening, starting with the 'Perfect Plum' (we've picked one, but haven't tried eating it yet):

Switching gears entirely, I'm loving the deep purples in this gorgeous container, but I can't get them to reproduce correctly in a photo:

Can you spot the absolutely terrifying sight in this photo:

The dreaded tobacco budworm (I found 2 on this plant and crushed them both):

But I spotted a much more interested insect in the garden a few minutes later...is it calendar-worthy: 

And then I saw the weirdest looking thing...turns out it's a plume moth...who knew?  Would be calendar-worthy if I did a vertical calendar:

Then this dragonfly insisted on having a photo session:

Seriously, it kept flying away and coming back.  Wow that's a face only a mother could love:

VPH likes the detailed shot of the wings below.  I think it's cool, but I don't know if I like it as much as the photo above:

 

What do you think?

WHY WOULD I GO ON VACATION WHEN I CAN STAY HERE?

It almost goes without saying that I mean stay here and do nothing!  Which is pretty much what I did all weekend.  I did manage to take a bunch of photos though.  My beautiful Endless Summer hydrangea:

 

I'm sure you've noticed something's missing here:

We love having a huge vase of hydrangea blooms on the kitchen table:

 

The veggies benefited from almost a week of sun.  You read that correctly...a week of sun!  Of course, as I write this post we're in hour 12 of absolute non-stop rain.  The Kentucky Wonder beans on the trellis are exactly what I pictured when I planted them, well they're a little sparser than I thought they'd be, but maybe I'll plant a few more for a late crop once the rain stops:

 

Same with the Scarlet Runner beans:

 

I still haven't thinned the carrots, but I did pull a pretty big one and eat it (and yes, it was delicious):

 

My cheating tomato plant has given us a few tomatoes, but uh-oh, that doesn't look good:

I don't think it's late blight, but whatever it is, it isn't good:

And my last veggie photo...eggplant!   The Japanese eggplants are doing quite well.  In fact they're already about 3x the size they were in this photo:

The patio garden is making me so happy:

Especially the big yellow daylilies:

And at least one of the zucchini plants is flourishing:

 

The bee balm isn't blooming yet and I have to imagine it's because it's not getting enough sun, so I switched it with the dahlia that was on the little table:

 

But I am loving how this container is filling out:

 

Since the dahlias here are so tall I hope that the coleus will fill in down there:

 

But overall, I'm quite pleased with this portion of the garden:

 

I love photographing this container:

 

But I realize I hardly ever show you the other side of it:

 

My Mother's Day garden is looking great:

On Sunday we drained the little pool and rinsed it out (how does it get dirty so fast?), so to cool down while sitting in the sun I used the mist nozzle on the hose.  It was a little windy that day and a lot of the mist landed on this row of dahlias:

Photo op!  I think a bunch of these are calendar worthy.  My mother wants me to request opinions from readers on which photos should go into the calendar.  I suspect it's because she has something to say about it, but I will be a dutiful daughter and request that you readers comment on which of these photos you'd like to see in this year's calendar.  Number 1:

 

Number 2:

 

Number 3:

Number 4:

 

Number 5:

 

Number 6:

 

Please do let me know what you think!

ONLY A MONTH OR SO LATE

The rainy month of June put us behind on a lot of our garden chores and many of the plants behind in growth.  All I can say is we'd better have a mild fall to make up for it!  It took a while, but we've finished nearly all the garden chores and the plants are behind the norm, but catching up.  The hosta/azalea bed is done:

The hosta/rhododendron bed looks great:

He not only mulched, he made us dinner!  VPH and the perennial shade garden:

  

Yummy mustard glazed pork, grilled zucchini (wish we had our own zukes to eat), and brown rice:

 

The veggie garden on May 16th:

 

On July 9th:

Let me take you for a little tour...always left to right.  Bush beans, carrots, habaneros and Brandywine tomatoes:

Habanero, dahlia, lilac bell pepper, dahlia, lilac bell pepper:

Same lilac bell pepper, scarlet runner beans, carrots, habanero, carrots, Kentucky Wonder beans, purple bell pepper:

Black Russian tomatoes, bush beans, peppermint, lilac bell pepper, Perfect plum tomatoes, habaneros, and another dahlia:

The Green Zebra tomatoes are one of my favorite things in the garden right now.  They're so beautiful in their blue pots.  The planter table looks great too with Royal Purple bush beans, nasturtiums, and the one cucumber that survived the rain:

A close-up of the gazillion blossoms on the Royal Purple bush beans:

We have teeny tiny eggplants growing:

 

This nasturtium is blooming despite it's 2 relocations (note to self--a little grass seed here wouldn't be a bad thing): 

 

The marigolds are doing their job and attracting pollinators to the tomatoes on the gravel patio (calendar-worthy, no?): 

 

I think we'll have a daylily bloom on the other plant tomorrow.  I have this sneaking suspicion that it's yellow:

 

These are our old trash containers.  I hate to replace them, but both have gaping holes in the bottom and no longer do much in the way of holding trash or keeping the raccoons away from it.  Rubbermaid apparently would replace them (they're less 3 years old), but only if I had the receipt.  You'd better believe that I kept the receipt for the new ones.  We will drill more holes in these and use them for composting:

 

We're enjoying the garden and being able to spend time on simple maintenance like weeding rather than looking around and seeing all the things still undone.  We still have the shed project and a couple of other little things to do, but really, we're done.

OKAY, DON'T LAUGH

This is what happens when you ask your husband to plant while you're at the office.  Once I got home and we stood together staring at the 12 coleus plants in the ground, he said, "Yeah, it might have made sense to put the tall ones in back along the rocks and the short ones in front."  I added, "And maybe mixed up the colors a little?"  Well he's sweet to plant them regardless and they'll fill in soon.  Plus he mulched the whole bed, so really I'm not complaining:

 

Remember how it rained for June?  At some point during those weeks of rain, I decided that the sun would return and we would need a way to cool off.  But this is the summer of cheap and as you know we don't own this property.  4 years ago, before we started gardening, we asked the landlords if they had any objection to us putting up one of those big blue inflatable pools...they did, turns out their insurance premiums would have gone up.  Which is retrospect really worked out for the best.  We never would have started gardening if the yard was dominated by a big blue pool.  Do you see where I'm going with this:

 

Hey, it was only $20.12!  Though it's on clearance now for even less.  This is the sunniest part of our garden with full sun from about 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.  We put down a tarp we had on hand (luckily it was about the right size and blue) to try and protect the bottom of the pool since once the grass dies (sigh), there won't be much between the pool and the glass and rocks that seem to be the main components of our soil:

 

This is also about the flattest section of our garden, but it's still not level.  There will be a deep end of this pool.  I should stop calling it a pool.  The package called it an aqua lounger, which amused VPH to no end:

 

We also picked up a solar cover at a local overstock store for $33.  But even the smallest one they had was more than twice as large as needed, so we cut it in half and stored the rest for future use, so I'm only going to include $16.50 in the aqua lounger expenses.  (The directions for the solar cover recommended letting the cover sit for a few days to straighten out before you did the final trim to size and shape, lest you think we're just dumb.)  Another $7 got us a skimmer.  So that's a total of $43.62 -- well we already got an afternoon's amusement out of setting it up, in my mind that's money well spent.  VPH included in photo for scale:

 

I am so excited to see what color the daylilies on those tall stalks will be and still taking endless pleasure in the patio garden:

  

The Green Zebra tomatoes are definitely going to have the first ripe fruit, I'm just not sure how I'm going to know when it's ripe.  Lots of squeezing tomatoes I guess:  

  

The first beans are Burpee's Stringless Green Pod, though the Royal Purple Bush beans (not pictured) are running a close second:

 

See how much better the weather is (knock wood) -- basil that's not rotting: 

 

The mystery bush in a long weedy hedgerow on our evening walk:

 

We walked down to Dave & Dottie's house, which we do several times a week.  Remember them?  They gave me my first dahlias last year and serve as inspiration for all who pass by their home.  Walking by their garden these days smells like walking into a florist shop.  They have easily a hundred lilies blooming right now.  Their dahlias are all in, growing like crazy, carefully staked and labeled:

 

I love all the different types of hosta under the tree:

 

Some of the scads of lilies:

 

I don't know what this was (can anyone identify it? I remember seeing it on someone's blog not too long ago), but it was sharing space on an obelisk with a clematis.  Each bloom? seedhead? was about the size of a silver dollar.  Definitely calendar-worthy:

 

Nor do I have any idea what these Dr. Seuss-like plants were:

 

But the bees were loving them:

 

I have to go into the office on Thursday, so no time in the aqua-lounger for me, but VPH is going to complete the mulching and mow the lawn, so he said he might relax in it once he finishes if he and the weather are warm enough.  Remember, don't laugh!

I JUST CAN'T RESIST A SALE

Before I get started...this is the bush that I'm trying to identify.  I posted a close-up of the bloom the other day.  They're used as hedges all over our neighborhood and the blooms smell rather honeysuckle-like.  A little help, please:

Back to "I Just Can't Resist a Sale"...

But if I told you could get everything on the table and both chairs for a total of $24.34, could you?

 

VPH made chicken salad on Wednesday with some leftover grilled chicken (which had been seasoned with herbes de provence).  It was delicious (like all his food), but we both wished we had fresh tarragon on hand.  I know that at some point in the spring I asked him if we should grow tarragon and he said no, but I should have known better.  I also never got around to dividing the 2 eggplants and using the funky new box/planter for one of them (now that they're flowering I'm loathe to mess with them), so I had the brilliant idea of buying one of those nursery tomato plants with fruit already growing on them that I've been seeing all over the place (including the grocery store) so we could get a ripe tomato before August (even if I do agree with Carol that it's cheating).  I had a $15 certificate for Van Wilgens so off we went.  I used the $15 certificate to get tarragon, fernleaf dill, silver thyme, and fernleaf cilantro and paid $1.02 out of pocket (I know, I wouldn't normally pay $3.99 an herb plant either): 

You're wondering where the petunias and ornamental edible peppers came from?  The tomato plants at Van Wilgens that had fruit already were $25 each.  Well I may be crazy, but I'm not nuts enough to pay $25 for a tomato plant, so I passed and decided to go to Vaiuso.  I'm telling you, I love that place.  Remember the $1 perennial herbs I picked up there a few weeks ago?  Just about everything's a $1 now.  I got tired of waiting for this:

To look like this:

 

That's marigolds, coleus, parsley, and basil all $1/each.  I'll transplant my grown from seed tiny little plants into larger pots and see if they'll do anything for me, but like I said, I am tired of waiting.  Speaking of being tired of waiting I picked up this tomato plant for $8.  Yup, $8.  I love Vaiuso so much!  More on this tomato when I get it into a container:

 

I took a brief walking tour of the garden and found tiny little flowers just forming on the scarlet runner beans:

Then I sat down for a well-deserved hour reading.  Every now and again I looked up from my chair to the freshly mowed lawn, my humongous hydrangea, and blooming/nearly blooming dahlias: 

 

Then I'd look a little to the left and think about all the work we still have to do putting up the new shed, taking down the 2 old ones, a new project I'll tell you about soon, reorganizing everything...oh well back to my book:

 

Before I headed inside I did a photo session with a spider on the eggplant cage.  I can't decide which of these photos is more calendar-worthy.  A good close-up:

 

Or a more interesting composition:

 

Do let me know what you think.

OVERHEARD

I live on a small one-way street and in the summer we keep our windows open.  We don't get many people walking down our street so when I hear people outside my Mrs. Kravitz comes out.  Sunday afternoon I heard quite a ruckus and turned around to see what was going on outside.  It was a group of about 6 adults clearly enjoying the break in the rain with a walk.  And then as they passed the house I heard: "That's pretty."  I saw several of them turn and look back at this view:

"Oh, yes it is." 

Well my heart swelled. 

I also took advantage of the lull in the rain by walking my garden for the first time this week.  I really have no idea how much rain we've gotten, but I did just read that the area has received more than 2.5 times the norm for June already.  But even with only rare sunshine some things are blooming.  Lamium:

 

My first blooming dahlias!  It's the micro-mini plant:

But the Bay State Angel isn't too far behind:

There's nightshade in the bastard garden:

The hydrangea:

Which is just loving this weather:

It's funny that all of a sudden the Japanese painted fern is showing color since I was lusting after these on the garden tour last week in other people's gardens.  Who knew I already had one:

 

VPH can't get over the grass sprouting on top of the blue stone after the dirt and seed washed down in the first of the torrential downpours: 

 

I really must get mulch down, these beans turned, and string trellises up:

 

Something's eating the heck out of the scarlet runner beans, but I remember the morning glories were hit just as hard in this spot last year:

 

And the vegetable garden (complete with weeds) is growing like crazy:

 

If the rain is keeping me out of the garden, at least its not keeping me out of the stores.  Some new garden additions include glow-in-the-dark stepping stones (the white parts glow):

 

I thought it was cute that the moon glowed on this one:

This one is a little too cutesy for me, but buried under the grass the cheesy inscribed saying isn't too noticeable:

And the local garden center was selling perennial herbs for $1/each.  How could I not buy a few, or eight?  2 peppermints (one is for my friend Mary), 1 pineapple mint (which has one albino stalk), 3 purple sages, and 2 lemon sages:

And you think I'm kidding about the rain?  Any idea what this is:

Did you guess the bottom of my bird feeder?  Not sure what I'm going to do about this yet, I'd kind of like to see what plants we'd get:

 

How's your garden surviving the deluge?

UM YEAH, THEY'RE IRISES

As several people wrote to tell me (thanks, ladies), the plants with buds that I thought were day-lilies turned out to be Siberian irises.  Much to my and my friend Mary's surprise:

 

They're beautiful and a darker purple than they appear in the photos:

I still have to mulch the patio garden, but it's looking pretty good:

These petunias are almost obnoxiously pink and I'm not sure if I like them or not: 

 

But I'm loving these, a double petal flower?  I had no idea when I bought them:

 

And I liked the colors and textures of the bud on the perilla:

 

I stopped into Joann Fabric for a ribbon of all things and their garden stuff was 50% off.  I couldn't resist this adorable wind-chime for $9.99.  I can even drill drainage holes in the bucket and stuff a little plant in there.  Now what plant and where am I going to hang it:

 

It took visiting 3 different stores to find small tomato cages for the other 4 dahlias here:

 

The sunflowers along the wall are popping up, but something's eating their leaves:

 

I have Royal Purple Bush beans and nasturtiums in the planter table, but one of the cucumber seedlings didn't make it:

I'm pretty excited about all these carrot seedlings:

 

I wonder what today will bring?

A MARAUDER!

I walked outside on Friday afternoon, looked up at my container on the stump and gasped:

  

It was even worse up close.  What interloper would have the gall to dig up my hosta:

 

I replanted the hosta and filled in the other small holes.  I had clear plastic forks on hand and really hope they 1.) prevent any further attacks, and 2.) don't hurt any animals in the process:

 

You can't even see them from below:

I never tire of the fiddle-heads on the ferns.  Should I ever do a vertical calendar (doubtful) this would be calendar-worthy, I may even print and frame this pic I like it that much:

 

I suddenly realized on Friday morning that the tomatoes in the pretty blue pots by the fence on the side of the house weren't getting enough sun.  The sun hits the top of the fence around 9:30am, but doesn't get down to the bottom until nearly 11am and then the shadow from the house covers the whole side of the house by 2:30pm, so they had to move to the gravel patio. 

Friday afternoon we went out to Old Saybrook to visit Carole at Maynard Greenhouse.  After a pleasant but short vist (Carole was working and I had VPH in tow and he's not endlessly patient), we headed towards home with 2 Cherokee Purple tomato seedlings (you didn't think I could visit a greenhouse without buying something did you?).  We passed two Ocean State Job Lots on the way home, so of course we had to pop in to see what containers they had left.  Success! 

 

The two blue square ceramic containers on the ends were only $37 each.  Look at the size of the those things!  They each took 2 cubic feet of potting soil and a Cherokee Purple tomato:

 

I really like the splash of color they give the patio.  I asked VPH if he thought we should get a blue umbrella now.  He laughed and said we could put a white tablecloth on the table and celebrate the 4th of July all summer.  Note that the containers of beans are now inside the trellises:

 

The patio garden is growing like mad.  See the lupine in front?  I think it may actually flower.  The herb pots are all planted up now:

I love this photo.  If I had planted the cilantro and dill and taken this photo on Friday, I would have entered it into the GGW photo contest:

I have a feeling that variations of this angle will be a frequent subject this summer as the herbs fill in.  But I include another here so you can see all the herbs growing on the corner.  Back row left to right -- spearmint, basil, rosemary, lavender (goodwin creek); middle row left to right -- lavender (I gave this some fertilizer today, it has growth, but it's taking its sweet time to come back), fernleaf dill, lemon thyme; and at the front right -- cilantro (I picked up this pot on Friday too...hey at only $8 how could I not?):

And while I'm in the patio garden...the moonflowers are growing nicely with a new set of leaves and I was shocked to see the clematis growing down at the bottom of this photo (sorry it's out of focus), I thought for sure it was dead.  Now if I can just get it to grow towards the trellis:

We're still trying to get the grass to fill in before we put the chairs back in their normal spot, so for now we'll relax here:

 

The greenhouse went back into the basement today and the containers and furniture are in their rightful spots:

 

I'm quite pleased:

 

All of the dahlias are really taking off this year.  Small cages will go on each of these containers as soon as I can find 4 more:

This is essentially my to do list now.  The hose has to go on the fence so I can get running water to the vegetable garden, fresh mulch needs to go onto all the mulched areas, and the plants all have to be potted up (though I'm still not sure what to do with all the impatiens):

 

The new shed needs to be assembled and then the rest of the mess will be stored away out of sight.  We're close now.

THREE PEOPLE GET A LOT MORE DONE THAN JUST ONE

VPH and SS2 joined me in the garden this afternoon and started by planting my Mother's Day gift of an azalea, my recent hosta purchases, and passalong hostas from my friend Mary:

 

VPH dug up the rescued hosta from the bastard garden and I set all of them out in sort of a two line arrangement.  I went off to do other stuff and was called back to view the finished project, which will henceforth be known as the Mother's Day garden:

A little bit tighter grouping than I would have done and a little strange from above, but when I walked down the hill, which honestly is how I will normally see this garden...I like it!  Pardon the slightly blurry photo, the only one I had from this angle:

 

Can you see it all the way out there on the right:

I was right, the Elijah Blue Fescue (a perennial!) is perfect in that new container:

 

The "Oriental" eggplants went into the large container together, but I think they'll have plenty of room.  Two ever-bearing strawberries went into each of the two tall containers, and one in the little one.  More on the herb container later:

When I rearrange the furniture I may move the Green Zebra tomato pots.  They're shoved against the bench because the cages are just missing the petunias hanging on each post:

 

And as you can see, I should be putting the greenhouse away any day now and rearranging the furniture:

 

Oh, and I finally figured out what to do with the bee balm that Layanee gave me last year when I visited her garden.  I was concerned about what I read on-line concerning the propensity of bee balm to spread like mint, so I was hesitant to put it in the ground or one of my herb containers.  So I settled on a smallish container in the frog sculpture because I will always think of the frogs when I think of Layanee's garden:

Once VPH and SS2 finished the Mother's Day garden, I set them to work on the project that had been keeping me from planting the vegetable garden.  I asked them to take soil out of the containers leaving them two thirds full, mix in tasty tomato and veggie natural fertilizer to the potting soil in the wheelbarrow, and top off the containers.  I don't know if that's the best way to do it, but that's the method that we came up with.  All I can say is thank God they are so helpful.  I was dreading doing it myself.  The veggie garden is mostly planted now:

From left to right I planted habaneros in the hanging planters and Brandywine tomatoes in the trellis planter (note the new larger cages this year):

Lilac bell peppers:

 

Purple bell peppers in the green containers and Black Russian tomatoes in the trellis planter.  The trough planters to the left and the 2 brown containers are all prepped for beans, but since we're expecting lots of rain on Sunday, I didn't plant them yet:

 

This last container is new to the veggie garden.  I planted 2 Perfect Plum tomatoes and 2 habaneros in it.  I think there's enough room: 

 

Two Bandywine Pink tomato plants on the gravel patio again this year and the planter table will be full of bush beans and probably a cucumber growing from each end (again holding off on planting until after the rain).  You can just see 2 large round gray containers in back.  They will have more beans in them, but I was just too tired to lift up the trellises and place them inside:

 

You may have noticed that I didn't show an individual photo of the really big containers in the middle of the veggie garden.  I'm about 80% sure they'll have carrots in them, but I haven't actually sown any seed yet.

I've had VPH saving his coffee grounds for about a month to fertilize the hydrangea.  I'll throw mulch on top when we get to doing that in other portions of the garden, but it looked pretty like this:

 

I finally bought longer screws so if you're driving down a road in Branford and see this, you've found Heather's Garden:

 

I am quite pleased with these containers by the front steps:

 

Don't they just say welcome, a gardener lives here:

 

Walk around the corner and you'll know for sure that a gardener lives here:

But at least my potting table is nicely organized:

Speaking of organizing, I need to decide what is going in the herb barrel and what's going in the blue ceramic container.  I have creeping thyme, sage, chives (half of that huge clump is going to Mary), golden oregano, thyme, hot & spicy oregano, garlic chives (3), golden sage, lemon grass, golden oregano, basil, rosemary (2), and purple sage:

The problem is, I'm growing a bunch of herbs from seed and they're not big enough to throw into a large container yet.  The Cilantro will go into a small pot on the retaining wall, but I need to find a spot for the fernleaf dill and fennel:

 

Sweet basil, Purple Ruffles basil, and Cinnamon basil:

 

Two of the cucumbers will go in the planter table and two of the zucchini will go in the front of the patio garden to grow over the fading daffodil, tulip, and crocus foliage:

 

The marigolds will be planted in with the tomatoes and if the coleus ever gets big enough to transplant, I'll find a spot for them on the shady side of the house:

 

The shallow trough by the trellis will be home to more moonflowers, but isn't the rest of it looking good:

 

So Sunday will be spent examining seeds for about the 80th time, soaking beans and sunflower seeds to ready them for planting, and probably diagramming herb plantings, because yes, I am that obsessive!

ROLLING RIGHT ALONG

I'm still terribly behind in getting the garden going, but I put in another 3 hours in today.  Of course, not all of it was spent gardening.  Like the time I spent trying to photograph the fattest bee ever in the azalea.  I missed him, but I thought this photo was cheery and it captures the true color of the azalea a little better:

 

The seedlings are doing great.  I probably should have started them a week or two earlier, but if I'm ever going to get serious about growing my own seedlings, I'm going to have to get a grow light or six:

 

In fact, I thought the moonflowers looked so good, it was time to get them in the ground.  Plus if they fail after transplanting, I'll still have time to direct sow seeds:

Can you spot all four seedlings I planted in the patio garden?  Hint...they're in front of the trellises:

Lemon thyme joined the herb pots, leaving space for only one more herb.  I wonder what it will be?  Cilantro's still leading the pack:

 

Since I'm over on the shady side of the house, let me update you on this section of the garden.  I wish the hillside would look this good all summer, but alas, the marsh marigolds will die off soon leaving only struggling vinca.  Two hanging planters of impatiens will brighten up the area a little:

I plopped a fern in the empty spot in this container (you can see the rather large fiddle-heads).  It's either a Japanese painted fern or a cinnamon fern.  I guess we'll see which shortly:

 

The bare-root astibles are really coming along here, but I added a lamium (the label said pink flowering):

 

And I added another here, though I did find that the hostas I put in this container are slowly making their way to the surface.  I'm guessing I planted them too deep:

 

I added some dark salmon colored impatiens to the two containers flanking the front porch.  Don't you just love the cinder blocks under the porch?  I'm too scared of spiders to start pulling them out of there and I'm not sure where I'd put them anyway: 

 

More impatiens, but I need to charge the drill to rehang the planter hooks that were on the 3 trees that were removed and I was just too tired to walk the blue pots to the other side of the house:

 

I'm getting there slowly, but surely.  There's not that much left in the greenhouse (well lots of tomatoes, but I'm not ready to do those yet):

 

And that was my afternoon.  Back inside the lilacs are pretty much done and the wind and rain did a number on the bleeding hearts, so I trimmed off the bent/broken stalks and stuck them in a vase.  Certainly not the most conventional flower arrangement ever, but I like it:

  

If I can put in 3 hours every day this week I just might get all my seeds sown and seedlings planted by May 15th, which has been my goal all along.  Do you have a gardening goal that you're working toward?

THAT SMELL

The scent of tomato plants and herbs.  OMG, I'm swooning.  My friend Mary and I assaulted North Guilford Nurseries Saturday afternoon.  $119.78 will buy you:

 

Aren't they pretty:

 

The greenhouse is in full effect:

 

VPH brought the dahlias up from the basement today.  Three had significant growth including this one:

 

The others aren't so growy:

But you know what is: 

 

More details to follow on the specific plants as they go into the soil, but oh the scent of those tomatoes and herbs on my lap during the drive back to Mary's house from the nursery.  I missed that smell over the winter.

MUMS THE WORD (Blame VPH for that pun)

The carefully constructed annual containers were seriously lacking in color or excitement, so I ripped 'em out.  Remember how I put smaller, plastic containers upside down in the bottoms of the large ceramic planters?  Well I guess the annuals worked fine in an artificially shallow container, but they certainly were root-bound since they lifted out whole:

The zinnias were in a similar state and even stayed whole when I took out the upside down plastic pot:

 

The one thing I have blooming in abundance is dahlias.  The first Ebony Starr: 

 

 The Aitara Majesty in full bloom (and a pilsner glass for a sense of scale):

 

This has nothing to do with anything else, but I loved this tiny little mushroom at the base of my cherry tomato plant (that tree trunk on the left is what the cherry tomato stem looks like when I use my camera's macro setting):

 

So to bring this thing full circle...I needed some more color in the garden.  The 8 mums I bought not too long ago had to get into larger containers since I obviously can't remember to water them every day.  Note the new location for the birdbath and the lovely yellow mum in the former home of the zinnias:

I replaced the petunias in the hanging planters with mums:

 

And staked the dahlias more securely than they had been:

I know some people hate mums (Elizabeth), but at $10 for all 4 of the plants in this photo, you can't beat them for inexpensive late season color: 

I even put a mum in a hanging planter on the hook by the shed and filled up the bird feeder: 

 

Still to do...divide the creeping jenny and plant it and the 2 little rhododendrons, one each in matching containers on both sides of the front steps:

We still likely have a month until the first frost in this area, but with highs only hitting the low 70s and nights falling into the low 50s, it's definitely not summer anymore.  Windows closed, but no need for heat yet.  How is it in your neck of the woods?

ODDS & ENDS

It's been a busy week for me with not much time for gardening or photographing the garden.  However I do have a bunch of shots leftover from the weekend.  Wondering if I'll get sunflower seeds or not:

I love the pollen and raindrops on the dahlia petals: 

This might be a calendar shot, but is it too creepy with the bee all wrapped up in the foreground? 

Too bad this is a portrait-oriented photo or it would be calendar-worthy.  I may enter a photography competition this winter though and it might be a good shot to use: 

 

The ivy is nicely taking over this section of the fence: 

I took this photo to show how all the rain was splitting my tomatoes for the first time this summer, but now looking at it, I'm proud of my dirty thumbnail: 

 

Obviously I found this spider endlessly fascinating to photograph: 

 

I'm going to have to get back into the garden, not just to come up with new posts (and plant those darn mums), but also to recharge after this long week and get ready for another busy social weekend.

IT STARTED OUT RAINY

The holiday weekend started out with a rainy Saturday morning, but the remainder was glorious.  I took some photos of the garden mid-day Saturday and then spent the rest of the weekend doing nothing, which is what Labor Day is all about. 

The sunflowers are really enhancing the view from our favorite late-summer sunning spot:

The sunflowers also provide endless opportunities to photograph bees: 

That really tall dahlia finally bloomed, I'll have to check the label and see which one it is: 

The micro-mini is going strong:

I like how they look as they age: 

I realized I haven't shown you yet that the heather plant is thriving (not to mention the rosemary next to it): 

And the various shade plants in containers are also holding up quite well: 

That's about all the effort I feel like putting into anything other than grabbing the aloe to sooth my slight burn.  Hope your weekends were as lazy as ours.

CALENDAR-WORTHY?

Sunday was a beautiful day in the garden.  The bees were loving the sunflowers and so was I:

Now I need your help.  Which of the following photos is calendar-worthy?  Make sure to click on them to view full-size so you can make an informed decision.  Number 1:

Number 2:

Or Number 3:

  

I really need your opinions, readers!  Whereas I'm pretty sure this photo is calendar-worthy (I particularly like how the near petals are out of focus):

The rest of these photos have not been deemed calendar-worthy, but I thought you'd still enjoy seeing them.  I can't seem to stop shooting this dahlia (Hootenanny):

And these small eggs on the underside of a morning glory leaf begged to be photographed:

I thought you'd get a giggle out of how heavy the Brandywine Pink tomatoes are and how lazy a gardener I am for just letting the bent branches stay that way:

And lastly my Big Early Bell peppers are finally showing some color. Big, yes; Early, not so much:

Seriously, please tell me which of the sunflower shots is calendar-worthy.  I'm totally stuck.

PHOTO FRIDAY

It's alliterative and easy.   Here's a little lesson in the development of a sunflower along the side of the house:

Then you get:

And finally:

Next year I'll do a whole row in the ground here, cause the 3 are kind of sad (though you may remember I started with 6 seedlings in pots): 

This post needed some color:

And a little more:

 

Excellent news...the volunteers tomato plants have TOMATOES:

And the zucchini might get a last minute reprieve: 

Because if you look closely at the photo above there are female flowers forming.  Here I'll help:

Off to bring youngest step-son to college.  I'm going to be a blubbering mess later today.  How can the little boy who used to hold my hand in the Walmart parking lot be old enough to go to college?

BEE-TI-FUL DAY

I haven't figured out where to plant the bee balm that Layanee gave me yet, but I think something's wrong with it.  I'm thinking it shouldn't be covered in white spots.  I swear I didn't do anything to it.  I only cut off the spent blooms and put it on this table until I could decide where to plant it:

The rest of the bee theme is far better news:

It's just so much fun to take close-ups of bees on flowers:  

Now a few without bees.  The morning glories are both purple/blue and pink/dark pink: 

The pink flowers look so delicate:

Next year these towers will be planted with Kentucky Wonder beans and a second variety still to be chosen.  The morning glories will move to the trellis where the purple hyacinth beans currently reside -- more sun over there and beans can apparently take some shade: 

Which is not to say that I won't still find a spot for the purple hyacinth beans because they're too pretty not to grow:

   

Because I would really miss these flowers:

The red dahlia just keeps on pumping out the flowers:

And it looks like I may finally have a flower on this one in a few days:

Now, for the reason this post is titled Bee-ti-ful Day:

They're all over this dahlia plant: 

All kinds of bees:

Calendar worthy:

I was petrified I was going to get stung sticking the camera in that close, but definitely worth the fright.  Have you done anything dangerous to get a good photo in your garden lately? 

TOMATO LOVING

This post is a little delayed because I actually picked my first tomato on Saturday, July 26th:

It was an Early Girl and I'm rather disappointed that it didn't taste any better than the very expensive vine-ripened tomatoes that VPH has been buying at the grocery store.  Probably letting it sit around for 2 days until I finally got around to eating it on Monday with some fresh mozz and my grown from seed basil didn't help with the excitement of the tasting, but we had a crazy busy weekend.

I have another Early Girl ready to pick and a Park's Whopper too.  I hope these do more to wow me:

The Celebrity and Bonnie Original are a few days behind, but showing some color too:

The Sweet 100 cherry tomato is going to yield at least 100 tomatoes since I know I've taken at least 30 off already.  It's too bad that I don't like them as much as the Husky Cherry tomatoes (too sweet for my taste):

The zucchini plants are completely failing though and I just don't know why.  I should be harvesting more zucchini than I can handle and I think I've picked 7 since July 4th:

The Red Peter peppers are blossoming like mad and setting little peppers all over the place.  The sudden increase of pollinators in the garden is certainly helping to form all those peppers:

The Royal Purple Bush beans have the prettiest blossoms: 

Rapidly and awkwardly changing topics...I have been posting on veggies pretty heavily and have neglected to update you on the rest of the garden, though I haven't been neglecting it.  I had to cut back the evening primrose (and sadly only days after discovering what it was) because it was completely blocking the walkway to the side door:

 

Sure I could have staked it, but I missed seeing my little retaining wall, heather plant, rosemary thriving in a pot, and the calibrochoa that needs some more sun:

A nice shot of the wildflower patch last week:

You can just see the beautiful hydrangea flowers dragging on the grass on the right side of the above photo.  Here's the whole bush on July 7th:

After I cut off half the flowers and raised the wire support beneath it, VPH said "Who took away my hydrangea and left that baby bush?"  Note the sunflower on the ground behind it:

The roots of the sunflower grew right through the drainage hole into the ground throwing it off balance until it fell over:

Now they're all staked and forming flower buds, but they're still ugly:

The Parkland Glow is reliably giving me red dahlia after red dahlia:

And the Bay State Angel is covered in white blooms:

I'm loving this whole arrangement including the purple hyacinth beans, though I'm disappointed that the cutback petunias aren't blooming yet nor have the cutback osteospermums:

This container is also a little bit disappointing and I'm wondering if I should just deal with it (it's not butt ugly), cut it all back, or pull some stuff out and plant different flowers there:

Suggestions?  Advice?

SO CLOSE I CAN ALMOST TASTE IT

It's getting to be that time of year again.  Pillows are being dusted off, reviews written, nervous gardeners are watching birds, weather reports, and pacing back in forth in anticipation.  It's tomato time!  It looks like Early Girl is going to win in our garden:

I've already had a taste of summer with the 2 cherry tomato plants we're growing.  I am plucking about 5-6 tomatoes a day off of the Sweet 100 (and inserting them directly into my mouth), but this Husky cherry tomato is promising a nice little harvest tomorrow:

I've seen some amusing stories about first tomatoes, but this is the first time I've seen a First Tomato Road Trip (I may have suggested that Virescent bring that almost ripe tomato on vacation with her and let it sun ripen a bit, but she's the creative one who came up with the road trip slideshow). 

In other veggie news, we have the first Red Peter pepper growing (you think the eggplants have been phallic -- wait for these!):

I'm still trying to figure out how I will be able to tell that the purple bell peppers are ripe: 

The zinnias are helping to bring pollinators to the garden -- and they're pretty: 

I love how they're all slightly different: 

I caught this tiny little bee in action: 

I had about 50 of these shots and narrowed it down to 2 photos.  I think one or the other is a strong calendar candidate: 

I finally figured out what this is:

I wandered out to the patio last night around 8:00pm and saw the plants in full bloom.  One quick Google for night blooming yellow flower and I came up with Evening primrose: 

It's hard to capture these flowers at this time of night without the flash, but this is as close as I can get to true color (and not a blurry mess):

It's been insanely hot non-stop and we haven't had more than a sprinkle of rain in weeks.  Thank goodness VPH doesn't mind watering.  Any bets on when that Early Girl tomato will be ready to eat?  I'm taking the 25th.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE (THANK GOD) NOT THAT UGLY

I could stare at poppies all day:

They're just so fascinating -- even in the bud stage:

The Endless Summer hydrangea is doing fantastic.  So much better than last year:

The hostas are blooming:

Well, all but this one which is not long for my shade garden looking like this:

The morning glory leaves are being eaten by something (and I'm pretty sure they're not getting enough sun here and that's why they're not flowering):

This dahlia bud shows promise of some color for the garden: 

This may be October 2009's photo: 

 

I'm enjoying cutting flowers and putting them into these little vases on the kitchen windowsill:

Did you identify what was good, what was bad, and what was ugly?

ALL DONE!

Make sure you read that quickly in a little girl voice, kind of like AH DUN.  I'm amazed myself, but I got all of this finished today in the few hours that I devoted to gardening:

• Transplant passalong dahlias to plastic containers
• Transplant Brandywine Pink tomatoes into temporary containers
• Plant pentas
• Plant all the herbs

First up, I had to split those 2 Brandywine Pink tomatoes into separate containers while I still could.  Their permanent homes are the containers in which the peas are merrily growing.  So into these hanging planters the tomatoes went (these planters will be the home to the Red Peter peppers, which will hopefully be big enough to transplant by then):

I can't believe this hanging a string and pulling it to the soil then wrapping the sweet pea around the string technique actually worked:

The passalong dahlias from Mary all potted up in plastic pots joined the rose on the lilypad stepping stones in the wildflower patch: 

The wildflower patch isn't looking too bad these days:

Just in case you looked at the photos of the Adirondack chairs and said what's Heather smoking, those look fine -- see how the footstool is completely falling apart: 

And this is the seat that split and was gorilla-glued back together.  It's getting worse: 

The pentas are potted up.  With a little TLC, I hope they'll be attracting lots of butterflies soon: 

Now for the fun part -- the herbs!  I started off by grouping the pots together with the container in which they would be planted: 

Note the upside down pot in the large glazed container to save some potting soil.  I tried to make sure each grouping had at least one thyme, one basil, and one sage plant.  Each one also had to have some purple and some yellow:

This is the grouping for the herb barrel.  I figured the perennials that had successfully overwintered in the barrel should probably go back there plus some annual herbs: 

The cilantro went into this pot (formerly home to the oregano that was invaded by an ant colony): 

The glazed pot all planted on top of its stump.  The herbs here are lemon basil, sage, sweet basil, cinnamon basil, purple basil and golden oregano: 

I took another photo a few hours later when this area had moved into shade.  I found the blue tones interesting enough to share: 

In the hanging basket I planted rosemary, more purple basil, lemon thyme, sweet basil, purple sage, and creeping thyme: 

I picked up the basket to hang on a hook and the hanger broke: 

So instead the container will live next to the carrots.  Note the two Brandywine Pink tomatoes hanging on either side of the trellis planter: 

The herb barrel and neighbor herb containers: 

We've got lemon grass, parsley, golden sage, sweet basil, opal basil, chives (which I will cut back once it finishes blooming), purple ruffles basil (which I suspect is going to die soon), thyme, and hot & spicy oregano: 

The lavender is covered in buds: 

I can't decide if this volunteer at the base of the lavender is cilantro or parsley: 

I still have lots of sweet and cinnamon basil seedlings growing in the greenhouse so I'll use them where anything doesn't succeed.  But in essence I'm done.  I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself now.  I'm happy to be finished, but I'm sad that my long hours of puttering in the garden are over.

I'VE BEEN A BAD GIRL

I can't wait to see what kind of Google hits I get from that title.  I've been a bad girl.  I can't seem to stop buying herb plants.  In my defense, I needed an oregano plant.  When I pulled out my oregano plant to repot it I got a nasty surprise.  A colony of ants had moved in.  I don't know if the plant was salvageable, but I really didn't care to find out.  Off to the bastard garden it went.  It's not my fault that I came home with both golden and hot & spicy oregano plants and I have no idea why I decided to buy a lemon basil plant, except that it smelled so good!

If you've ever driven down I-95 through Branford, CT then you've passed Vaiuso Farms.  In the old days when 95 was a toll road in CT, there was a toll booth just west of Vaiuso.  I used to ride into New Haven every day with my parents and I spent a lot of time staring at their greenhouses and fields. I always wondered what went on there.  Turns out they are open to the public, though not the way that North Guilford Nurseries is since their greenhouses are for employees only.  Their plants are lovely and inexpensive and they have a great selection -- I finally found pentas:

So that's it for me.  No more shopping for plants (unless something dies on me).  After tomorrow I will have everything planted and I'll be able to relax and enjoy the garden.  Like the planter table that's so pretty right now: 

I did plant the morning glories much too early.  The second round of seeds that I planted on the 18th are already popping up (3 to date).  The one surviving seedling is developing true leaves and the one not-so-surviving seedling (at 12 o'clock) looks like it's trying to develop a true leaf too, but I have my doubts: 

 

It kind of looks like I'm torturing the sweet peas, but I've been mulling over how to get them to grow up the trellis.  I've come up with a solution and I will show an after photo once I've completed the project:

I divided my chive clump and gave half to my friend Mary in the green container below.  She returned the container with a dahlia root and gave me 3 more clay pots complete with dahlia roots.  I'll move them into some plastic pots I have (the clay pots just dry out too quickly for my half-assed watering habits): 

The first bean sprout is a Royal Purple bush bean:

I can't believe we have an eggplant flower already: 

This is an unidentified (as yet) flower in the wildflower patch: 

Pretty, but throw some afternoon light on that sucker and wow! 

I'm really enjoying my new container on the shady side of the house:

Tomorrow I will get all the plant-related items on the to do list finished up.  I can't wait to spend the day in the garden!

I CAN SEE THE FINISH LINE AND I'M A LITTLE SCARED

What will I do when I finish everything on the to do list?  Marked off this weekend:

• Weed around hydrangea, surround with coffee grounds and fresh mulch
• Weed, mulch and fertilize rhododendron/hosta bed
• Weed, mulch and fertilize perennial shade garden

Just look at that hydrangea, I put down so many coffee grounds that I didn't need to apply any new mulch:

VPH weeded this bed for me and I threw down a bag of mulch.  Now if only we could get the grass to grow below this bed (I've given up on the area by the bamboo fence):

I'm so pleased with the way the perennial shade garden looks.  VPH weeded here (lots of tree roots coming through the old stuff) and then I put down a bag and a half of mulch -- so not my favorite job:

The reverse angle:

I was so inspired by Layanee's post on her container combos that I went back to Ocean State Job Lot and bought the huge container that I had my eye on for the shady side of the house -- earmarked for the dirt slope where nothing will grow.  It was only $28 and I was so tempted.  It's freaking huge.  The citronella torch next to it is 4 feet tall to give you an idea of scale:

I brought home (clockwise from one o'clock) a hosta fortunei 'Francee', white impatiens (more on them in a moment), polemonium boreale 'Heavenly Habit', and heuchera 'Amethyst Mist':

The white impatiens came in cute little straw pots.  Note that the label on the plastic handle says "Sustainable Resource" and "Simply Plant":

That's all well and good, but then they throw the whole concept away and put the adorable straw pots in a plastic tray with a plastic handle:

I had VPH rescue the lysimachia from bastard garden (it landed there when I didn't feel like cleaning up the fall planter table arrangement and then thrived).  It joined the hosta and heuchera in the enormous new planter (I probably should have said earlier in this post that I blatantly stole Layanee's container ideas):

The polemonium boreale, white impatiens and the rest of the lysimachia went into the last hanging basket up on a maple nearby:

I stuck the rest of the impatiens into a few ceramic pots I had on hand and balanced them on some large tree roots.  The hanging planter on the left is the new one:

I couldn't resist a few other inexpensive planters.  I'm not sure exactly what will go in this one, but I know I like how it looks on that stump, so the frogs will have to find a new home:

This one (the smallest) became the new home of the rose that my friend brought me when she came over for dinner last year.  I may stick a few other pots on the lily pad stepping stones in the wildflower patch until the wildflowers fill in (cross your fingers that they actually do): 

The last big job that I have, and probably the one that I've been most looking forward to, is planting all of the herbs that I've been collecting:

I have to find a home for the lemon grass, 4 thyme plants, 3 sages, 3 different types of purple basil, 3 sweet basil plants, an unidentified basil, cilantro, rosemary, parsley, and chives:

I have the herb 1/2 barrel and a hanging planter to fill.  I may also use the pretty blue container on the stump.  The lavender will stay in the container it's in and the Mammoth dill has already perked up from being transplanted to this container: 

I'm going to have to find a place for these sweet basil and cinnamon basil seedlings:

Did you notice above that all 8 Red Peter pepper seeds that I planted have now sprouted?  I'm only going to have room for 4 of them and so far no one has wanted the other 4, but hopefully I'll find a friend who will take them.  Speaking of vegetables, I pulled out some plant stands and a little white side table for the pots containing the Royal Purple bush beans.  Can you even see that in the below photo?:

It's officially outdoor time in Heather's Garden.  The cushions are on the chairs, we had our first cook-out (with guests) today, and our first fire of the season (if you look closely you can see the burning embers in the fire pit):

I have a few new items on the to do list.  The Adirondack chairs and footstools purchased at Christmas Tree Shops last year (selling for $10 more this year), did not weather the winter too well.  To be honest, the paint started flaking off almost immediately and one seat slat broke last year, but gorilla glue got it back together again.  I bought some white spray paint and will see if I can salvage at least the chairs, but it's not looking good for the footstools.  I don't think storing them in the cellar would have made much of a difference.  I bought nice wood ones last year from an on-line service that I like which we never put together (they're in the basement in their original boxes), so getting them assembled and seeing if we like them is item number one because I don't want to sit in these filthy, flimsy things anymore:

I'm so excited about my self-coiling hose for next to the potting table, the gray hose is already attached to the other one and on the hose cart.  The chicken wire and posts are for to list item #2 -- a leaf enclosure.  Apparently VPH's leaf pile/bastard garden is leaning on our neighbor's fence and he wants it moved.  There's a spot between the big shed and the fence that will be perfect for a wire circle full of leaves:

All in all it was an excellent Memorial Day weekend and it looks like we may just get everything in before June 1st -- except pentas, which I haven't seen anywhere!  What am I going to do when there's nothing else to plant?

DON'T WORRY, I'M STILL HERE

I've just been incredibly busy with work the past few weeks.  It's amazing what walking outside to the garden will do for my disposition though.  I was a cranky brat after working non-stop from 10am to 6pm on Thursday -- literally taking 5 minutes to go to the bathroom and inhaling soup for lunch while I typed with the other hand.  I took a much needed break that day at 6pm and stepped out to the garden for the first time in almost 48 hours.  Before I knew it, an hour had passed and I had to head back inside.  It's warmed up quite a bit over the last two days.  Thursday it was in the 60s and today it was in the low 70s.  The plants are loving it.  Bay State Angel dahlia:

These 5 dahlias will make the cellar entrance (one of the first things you see entering our garden) a little less in your face ugly.  We'll have to be careful to keep the one on the right watered since the overhang kept the nice steady rain we had for 2 days from wetting the soil at all:

I can't decide if I like that little pot of pink petunias there or not.  Thoughts?  Keep in mind that the trellis will be covered with purple hyacinth beans soon: 

Moving to the veggie garden.  I can't believe how quickly the Brandywine Pink tomatoes are growing.  I think I may have to get them into separate pots soon:

The mesclun lettuce basket is already much taller than this photo from Thursday shows:

The first tomato blossoms of the year are on the Sweet 100 cherry tomato plant:

Ya think I needed to thin the carrots?:

Look at all those poor baby seedlings dying in a mass grave:

The Ichiban eggplant is really happy in it's new home.  Since the purple and green (my favorite color combo) is right in its leaves, I'll be photographing this plant a lot:

Did you notice these thorns on the leaves and stems above?  I had to look twice in real life to make sure I was really seeing them:

Moving over to the herbs.  The chives buds are opening up:

The warmer temps and nice rain are helping the herbs to explode.  L-R creeping thyme, spearmint, Mammoth dill, parsley, and more spearmint.  The zinnias are looking good in front too: 

 

I have yet to find the right mix of sun and angle to show you the planter table's true beauty.  The colors are striking and vibrant in real life with dark purples and hot pinks:

My friend Mary came over and took one look at the purple flowers in the wildflower patch and said, "False Phlox."  She's good.  Here's the info from American Meadows (I used their seed to start the wildflower patch last year, though other seed has since been added):

Dame’s Rocket is often called “Wild Phlox” since the flowers are phlox-like in clusters on tall stems. However, these florets have only 4 petals (phlox have five), marking this species as a pink/purple member of the mustard family. Dame’s rocket is spectacular in early meadow bloom, and also carries a delightful clove-like scent. “Rocket” reflects the super-rapid growth in spring before bloom. The “Dame” in the name marks this flower as a favorite of women and mothers in medieval flower lore.

It's sure pretty no matter what you call it:

The wildflower patch is getting there slowly.  It doesn't look too bad from a distance:

The heather blooms are fading fast, but it's got new growth all over it:

The maple trees throw the west side of the house into dense shade, but the late afternoon sun through the canopy almost makes the shallow roots that kill any ground cover we plant on the steep bank next to the house worth it:

Do you see the mushrooms on the foundation just above the hosta?  Remember them.  Without a flash I couldn't get a decent photo, so this blue hosta looks rather green: 

Here's one of those perspectives you would never see in real life.  There's no way I would have laid down in the mulch to see these mushrooms up close:

 

I'm hoping to bang out the rest of the to do list this weekend before we have friends over for a cook-out on Monday.  Then I don't know what I'll do with myself!

HELLO STRANGERS

I was so swamped with work that I wasn't able to garden at all this past week.  I know, I'm crying for me too.  I've done a little here and a little there, but today--today VPH and I banged out a good bit of the to do list.  As it stood before our busy Sunday:

To Do List

• Put together shade annual baskets
• Plant up herb barrel
• Transplant eggplant
• Transplant bell peppers
• Plant Royal Purple bush beans
• Plant Kentucky Wonder pole beans
• Plant hyacinth beans
• Transplant tomatoes/marigolds
• Transplant zucchini/plant nasturtiums
• Transplant cucumbers/plant nasturtiums
• Weed and mulch vegetable garden
• Weed, mulch and fertilize rhododendron/hosta bed
• Weed, mulch and fertilize perennial shade garden

After a hard day's work from both of us:

• Plant up herb barrel
• Transplant zucchini/plant nasturtiums
• Transplant cucumbers/plant nasturtiums
• Weed, mulch and fertilize rhododendron/hosta bed
• Weed, mulch and fertilize perennial shade garden

I guess the manufacturer wasn't kidding when they instructed the buyer not to hang the thermometer on southern-facing wall.  The real temperature was just under 70 degrees, not nearly 90.

I moved it to the shady side of the house over the perennial shade garden (dear landlord, please do note how badly the window frames need painting):

20 minutes later:

 

I did finally get the hanging baskets for the shady side of the house together.  As soon as the rest of the marsh marigolds die off these will provide some badly needed color against the dirt/root hillside backdrop:

You may be able to tell that I used double impatiens, coleus, and torenia in these hanging baskets:

Now it may seem like I hung this basket way too high, but it's the right height to see it from the living room window over the air conditioner when it goes in:

The plant labels for my records:

I also finally planted the calibrachoa over the retaining wall.  The heather is growing quite nicely in its pot (though the blooms seem to be fading) and I really like the little rosemary plant in that shiny pot:

I guess zinnias do grow quickly (planted on 5/11/08):

The lettuce box is doing great, it's almost ready to start cutting:

The mesclun basket is on the same schedule as the zinnias:

Today's big project was getting the vegetable garden in order.  VPH raked the mulch to kill the weeds that were poking through and together we put down another bag and a half of fresh mulch:

I will introduce the new additions from left to right.  In the first trellis planter we have a Park's Whopper tomato on the left and an Early Girl tomato on the right with marigolds in front:   

Purple Bell pepper:

Big Early Bell pepper:

I ran out of the Farfard potting soil, so the zucchini and nasturtiums will have to wait for me to make a nursery run tomorrow.  The two wooden troughs in back have Kentucky Wonder beans:

Ichiban eggplant:

On the left is a Bonnie Original tomato and on the right is a Celebrity tomato (the only determinate I am growing this year):

The 4 small brown pots (there's one more out of frame) have Royal Purple Bush beans in them.  The green container will be home to the cucumbers and nasturtiums as soon as I get that bag of potting soil:

One more shot of the full vegetable garden from a different angle.  You can see the peas on the right on the gravel patio.  If you're a really observant reader you will have noticed that I didn't plant the 2 Brandywine Pink tomato seedlings yet (too small).  I hope that by the time I'm ready to put in the seedlings the peas will be done and I can use those containers for the last 2 tomato plants:

Like I said before, the vegetable garden was the bulk of today's work, but I did get a few other things done.  The morning glory seedlings (all 4 of them) have been mysteriously failing.  I found something on-line that leads me to believe that the 2 weeks of wet cold weather we've had caused this:

I planted 8 more seeds today to join the one surviving morning glory seedling:

The purple hyacinth beans went into a planter at the base of a trellis.  Last year I only planted 3 beans, this year I used 8 -- I don't think we'll be seeing much of this trellis once the beans sprout:

Now I will turn my attention to the herb garden (and the poor neglected hosta/rhododendron bed in back of it):

The perennial shade garden doesn't need much other than a little raking, fertilizer, and fresh mulch:

Soon it will be time to put away the greenhouse (doesn't it look different than it did last week?):

I wonder when I became the kind of person who enjoys sitting and watching birds.  2 grackles sitting on the fence waiting to see if I will go away and leave them to eat in peace:

I hope to mark a few more items off the to do list tomorrow during my lunch hour, but I feel really good about where we stand.  I can't believe how much we have done this year compared to last year.  I didn't start blogging (or photographing) until late June last year, but I'm pretty sure we didn't have 1/2 of what we've done this year completed until at least a month later in 2007.

THESE LEAVES AREN'T LYING

I arrived home this evening from work and VPH met me at the door.  "Talk a walk around the garden," he said, "see if you notice all the things that I saw today.  There's a lot going on out there."  After yesterday's high winds and cold temps, it was a pleasure to walk around the garden in the late afternoon sun with the temperature at about 65 degrees! 

Trucking right along are the sugar snap peas (planted 4/19/08):

Lots of true leaves showing up all over the place.  Nante 1/2 Long carrots (planted 4/19/08):

Mammoth Dill (also planted 4/19/08):

Black Beauty Zucchini with true leaves and the Spacemaster Bush Cucumber is almost there too (both planted 4/16/08):

Sweet Basil (also planted 4/16/08), and the Cinnamon Basil is nearly there:

The Red Peter Pepper seedlings I mentioned yesterday:

This is the first sign of life in the sections of the seed tray where I planted marigolds: 

My little rose bush is only showing signs of life in 1/2 the plant:

I think Osteosperum hybrid Soprano Lilac Spoon (hereafter referred to as lilac spoon) will be one of my favorite flowers to photograph this year.  This one's not even fully in bloom and I already love it:

The gerber daisies will also be a frequent subject:

I got to thinking, maybe I shouldn't be training the birds to head towards the vegetable garden for food?  I present the bird feeder in its new location away from the veggie garden:

At 5:30pm today VPH saw a big fat raccoon on top of this fence leaning over and batting the feeder back and forth (and yes, that's hours away from dusk here too).  The damn raccoon has also knocked over our trash the past two nights.  The bird feeder may not be long for our garden.  But I am enjoying seeing all the birds come visiting, like these two perched on top of the fence:

Not too bad for a photo taken with the zoom on my little digital camera from a good 30 feet away.

I had hoped to take a vacation day tomorrow to knock a few things off the to do list, but I have too much work to get done and I'm afraid that either I'm having a wicked allergy attack or I've caught VPH's cold.  I'm going to bed right now and I hope after 11 hours of sleep I'll feel better. 

WEEKEND WARRIOR

How excited was I to have 2 days of nice weather forecast for the weekend and no social engagements on the calendar?!  I just didn't count on VPH catching a bad cold on Thursday.  My heavy-lifting help-mate was not available all weekend.  I had to haul all the heavy bags of soil around to get those annuals into pots by myself!

I did try to make the huge ceramic pots a little lighter (and save potting soil) by turning a plastic pot upside down inside each of them.  Apparently the annual flowers don't really need all that space for their roots.  If I were planting perennials in these pots, I wouldn't have done this:

Planter #1 which isn't quite doing its job of hiding the ick under our front steps:

I decided that I should keep some record of what I'm planting in each container.  In addition to the Gerber daisy and some leftover petunias this one has:

Container #2 (and my favorite):

This one has a Gerber daisy and:

Dave gave me a call on Saturday morning and said the dahlia roots were ready for pick-up.  I ran out and bought 5 new containers to add to the 3 appropriately sized pots that I had on hand and headed over to Dave and Dottie's house.  I neglected to bring my camera with me, so I don't have any photos of their fantastic garden for you, only pots of dirt with dahlia roots planted in my driveway (nor have I made it back to Kathy's beautiful garden yet -- too much to do in mine!).  I'm not supposed to water these dahlias until they sprout:

Dave suggested that I keep the two dahlias that had already sprouted out of the direct sun for a few days, so this guy is tucked under a chair:

And this one is under a bench:

These planters from IKEA (last year, don't know if they still carry them) will be the new home of my beans in a week or so:

I threw the old white Rubbermaid patio storage bench on Freecycle Saturday mid-day and it was picked up within 60 minutes.  It just didn't do the job I wanted it to, not waterproof, not insect proof, and not comfortable to sit on -- and frankly, it was ugly.  Taking its spot in the center of the vegetable garden are 2 new huge containers that will be home to my zucchini plants.  To the right and left of them along the fence will be the wooden troughs for the Kentucky Wonder beans (you can see the one on the right peeking out) and I'll throw netting over the fence again for them to climb.  In the empty spots between the stumps and the trellis planter on the right I'll put smaller pots with a few Royal Purple bush beans.  Note that the lawn is filling in a little:

The second lettuce planting:

Sweet 100 cherry tomato plant (in Fafard potting soil and Bradfield Organic tasty tomato & veggie fertilizer):

Husky Cherry Red (I'm using the same prep as above for all the veggies):

The planter table all done up.  I'm looking forward to everything filling out.  It looked so thin in spots that I stuck the leftover petunias in there, blue, purple and pink.  I'm not entirely certain that I'm happy with how this turned out:

I photographed all the labels from the plants in the table, but my camera ate about 30 photos (or it was operator error downloading Sunday evening -- I'm tired, give me a break) and I had already thrown the labels out, so I'm going to have to take a trip to the nursery to remind myself of what I planted.  Here's a shot that kind of shows how tall the peas are getting:

As does this one:

I put zinnia seed in the large pot in the front on Sunday.  The 2 lettuces are on the table and the rest of the pots are herbs that overwintered (with varying degrees of success).  I'm hoping that they start growing more quickly or my belated Mother's Day trip to the nursery is going to net 100% herb seedlings:

In the lost photos I showed how I put recycled screening from the destroyed gazebo into the bottom of the herb barrel, anchored it with some potting soil and then layered empty 2 liter seltzer bottles and Coke Zero cans in the bottom.  I did that to keep the barrel at a weight where we can move it if we need to and to reduce the amount of potting soil needed for the barrel by half.  So it only took 2/3 of a 2 cubic foot bag of potting soil.  I am dying to get some herbs in there:

I'm not sure if this one is going to work...I took the forsythia branches that I forced inside this spring and stuck them in a pot of dirt.  Supposedly they'll take root.  Maybe this time next year I'll have a new bush to plant:

The sweet peas are coming along.  They're definitely leaning in the direction of the sun.  I think I'm going to end up with sweet peas only on the front half of the trellis:

I was lamenting that only 3 of the morning glories have come up when lo and behold I have a fourth(in the center):

The wildflower patch is looking better.  They are actually some little seedlings coming up now if you bend over and look closely, however I was too tired to do that for you:

That mystery plant is blooming:

Can anyone identify this one for me:

I almost finished everything that I had planned for the weekend.  I didn't get to putting together the hanging baskets of annuals for the shady side of the house, though I did find time to pick up 4 matching hanging baskets and 2 needed hanging brackets. 

My zucchini and cucumber seedlings are showing signs of developing true leaves (another photo lost) so they'll be ready to transplant soon.  I saw the first Red Peter pepper seedlings on Sunday -- woohoo!  I'm still a little nervous about leaving tomato plants out overnight outside of the greenhouse, but the lowest overnight temperature in the forecast over the next 10 days is 44 tomorrow night.  Wednesday is supposed to be beautiful.  Maybe I'll take a vacation day and garden.

I've placed a to do list on my sidebar (in part to amuse VPH who says I make lists for everything).  What's on yours?

I MAY HAVE A BIT OF A PLANT BUYING PROBLEM

I did the bulk of purchasing my annual plants on Wednesday after I had lunch with my friend Mary.  She mentioned at lunch that she and her husband, Jeff, would be doing their plant shopping the following day.  My Wednesday purchases were made at Van Wilgen's and W-Mart (mostly at Van Wilgen's):

They may not look like much now, but come mid-June, I think I'll be happy:

I definitely stuck to a pink/purple/blue/white color palate this year:

With all that plant buying done, I was free to spend the afternoon on Thursday with Mary and Jeff with my camera in hand.  Our first stop was North Guilford Nurseries.  Family owned and in the middle of nowhere, they are mainly a commercial grower, but they'll let random off-the-street (dirt road) shoppers wander in and buy.  As you go through these photos, keep in mind that this spread is only 10 miles northeast from my house.  We pulled up next to these guys:

We walked into the first of EIGHT greenhouses and it was plants as far as the eye could see:

I was almost giddy:

I loved these organic heirloom tomatoes.  I couldn't resist getting 2 tiny little brandywine pink seedlings:

Even outside of the greenhouses there were tons of plants:

Did you spot the gold metal horse in the background?  The owner and his 2 sons use it to practice roping.  I heard water running as I took this photo and walked to my left to find this brook running by:

I could use one of these:

Would you ever have thought that there was a machine that filled pots with potting soil?  I didn't.  It starts with a huge hopper that you fill with potting soil:

You put the empty pots on the belt and away you go:

I want one:

Just think what we could do with all those bushel baskets:

I've never seen a hanging planter like this before, I didn't ask how much it was because I was pretty sure I would have bought it:

Lest you think it's all pretty flowers, streams, and baskets...it's old school male territory around here:

We regretfully left (I'll show you what else I couldn't resist buying a little later) and headed to:

I cannot find a birdbath that I like anywhere.  I thought this collection was particularly garish:

Luckily it was the only thing about this nursery that was.  I was a little tired after the last stop, so I sat down on a beautiful bench.  This was the view in front of me:

I'm not a little kid, but even I was drawn to this little purple playhouse:

I so want these pots -- they came in a bundle of 3 (large, medium, and small) for $39.99.  It was all I could do not to buy a set.  They're a really dark blue and you never know, I might break down and go back for some: 

Our last stop of the day was the Madison Flower Shop.  Really nice plants, good selection, and beautiful displays:

Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to walk away from this entire row of herbs looking all fresh and beautiful:

I finally know what kind of grass I have in the perennial shade garden (the one we bought last year didn't have a label):

3 hours of plant shopping later we were pretty much exhausted and overwhelmed.  Mary and Jeff headed home and I did too.  I was such a good girl only coming home with this: 

That's 2 flat bushel baskets (future home of our 2nd and 3rd lettuce crops), 2 rosemary plants (because last year's did not overwinter), thyme (it was just so beautiful I couldn't resist), 2 brandywine pink tomato seedlings, a package of zinnia seed, and a package of nasturtium seed -- only $15 total. 

The siding hanger worked and the thermometer is happily hanging on the wall over the wildflower patch:

Ever wonder what $150 worth of annuals looked like?  All tucked up in the little greenhouse because today's forecast called for downpours, heavy winds, and temperatures falling into the 40s:

The birdfeeder most definitely did not work in its former location.  The squirrels hit it hard (too easy to run up the tree trunk we think).  VPH actually watched 2 squirrels scare off birds while they ate the seed, so we moved the feeder to one of the hooks over the vegetable garden:

This will be a very busy weekend with all that stuff to plant.  I can't wait!

HAPPINESS IS 70 PLUS DEGREES

Today was the first really warm day we've had.  We actually sat on the patio in t-shirts and ate dinner al fresco.  I love this time of year!

I'm not altogether pleased with the size and location of the thermometer -- it's just too far away from the seating area to be seen.  Doesn't it look tiny over there to the left?:

Do you remember that I had 6 sunflowers growing along the foundation?  Do you only see 5 now?  VPH somehow managed to step on one when mowing the grass yesterday and smashed it to bits.  Better it than the hydrangea which apparently he was trying to avoid when he stepped on the sunflower pot.  Think I need to hit this area with the weedwacker much?:

I finally have teeny-tiny cinnamon basil seedings popping up joining quite a few sweet basil seedlings:

The maybe chives are growing like weeds:

But still nary a sign of a single marigold.  Looks like I'll be picking up a flat of marigolds somewhere:

I've got MORNING GLORIES!:

The peas are growing gangbusters:

I'm definitely going to have to thin these carrots:

We purchased a bird-feeder and a bag of mixed birdseed at HD.  Does anyone have any advice on how we can help the birds to find it?:

I just love this photo.  The afternoon light, the grill at the end of the walkway that started this whole garden adventure, my perennial plants that came back up like magic this spring, the yellow buds that have been falling from the trees, the pile of weeds on the walkway showing that I've at least started cleaning up the bed, the thriving heather plant, and best of all the knowledge that delicious chicken for my dinner salad was cooking on that grill!: 

Do you have a part of your garden that's making you really happy right now?

GARDENING IN THE DARK

We took a late run to HD last night and by the time we got back it was getting pretty dark in the garden.  I was not impressed by the selection of annuals at HD.  I was hoping to come home with all the plants I needed to get the planter table finished, but I only found some grasses and 2 Gerber daisies:

I did find these 2 huge cherry tomato plants though.  On the left is Sweet 100 and on the right is Husky Cherry Red:

I'm excited about this thermometer and hydrometer (humidity measurement) and I'm even more excited about the push reel mower beneath it:

In fact, after we put it together (silly easy), we took it outside and while VPH held the flashlight I tried it out.  Yeah, he was laughing at me too, but he's going to mow the lawn before I get home today and I didn't want to miss the first attempt to use the mower!

I finally got around to breaking up the hanging herb basket.  The golden sage is actually looking pretty good: 

The creeping thyme (I think that's what it was called) is looking kind of sparse still:

The other thyme has lots of really small green growth around the base, but it hasn't changed much in weeks.  Maybe being alone in a pot will help?:

 

I'll share VPH's review of the push reel mower when I get home.

UPDATE: VPH is reserving judgment until he mows again.  It didn't get the variety of really tall grass (in our lawn of many different types of grass) that was overdue for mowing (6-9 inches tall), but I suspect if we don't put it off again it will do just fine.  It took a little longer to mow because it's not as wide as our old mower, but not an excessive amount of time.  He also missed the neat lines that showed which direction he mowed.  Have I mentioned that he's rather particular about his lawn-mowing technique?

THE START OF A TREND?

What a fun weekend we had and almost none of it was garden-related!  VPH and I traveled up to Boston Saturday afternoon and spent the night at our favorite Boston-adjacent hotel, the Quincy Marriott.  Another fantastic dinner from room service and a quiet night of TV followed by an early morning on Sunday so we could head into the city proper to the Prudential Center where I had an audition for Jeopardy.  It was a really fun morning and if I ever get a call to go out and be on the show I'll tell you about it.

By the time we arrived back at home on Sunday afternoon, the sun had emerged and the thermometer hit 70!  I hung out on the patio for a little while and tried to only see the one blooming wildflower and not the mess in the wildflower patch:

There are, however, may of these tall plants:

That when you get really close look like they're about to bloom purple:

I hope this is the beginning of a trend -- a purple and green trend.  The lettuce box is jumping right in:

Can you believe I've had this camera for 2.5 years and I've only just figured out how to choose a focal point not in the center of the frame?  An insect's view of the lettuce:

I have lots of blooms on the vinca, which are, as their common name implies, periwinkle:

But this one is purple:

And although this one is periwinkle, its shape is completely different:

I can't remember if I mentioned that the lawnmower crapped out, but I threw it up on Freecycle and someone came to get it yesterday.  Meanwhile 2 days of rain and 1 of sun have given us ridiculously tall grass (where we have grass), so VPH and I will be picking up a push reel mower this afternoon.  I have a feeling I will also be picking up other stuff at HD, including a bunch of annuals. 

I will now go write minutes on my patio. 

THIS IS MAY?

Another cold cloudy day -- not even 50 degrees out there.  I thought I'd be planting up my annuals by now, putting tomatoes in and enjoying the patio.  Maybe next weekend...

We headed outside this morning because our landlord was coming over to pick up all the crap that VPH had pulled out of the bastard garden over the past year and do a dump run.  For those of you unfamiliar with the bastard garden -- it's the space behind the big shed at the back of the garden where VPH rescues the past their prime plants that I tell him to compost.  Our compost bins are back there as well as a gigantic leaf pile.  Previous residents of this home obviously used this space as a trash dump:

Much better:

Lest you fear that no plants are growing, I present PEAS:

And the tiniest, littlest, loneliest sweet pea (it's at 9 o'clock):

In seedling news: another basil popped up, the probably chives are coming up gangbusters, carrots and dill are looking great, another sunflower is showing signs of popping up, and the other peas are doing great too.  No signs of life with the morning glories -- I guess they really do mean 14-21 days to germination.

My next project:

No wonder the herb garden was always too wet.  I will be drilling LARGE holes in the bottom of the barrel (I'm embarrassed to admit that I did drill holes last year, but not until after I filled it with dirt and plants, so the holes are about 2 inches up on the sides).

You knew I would go back to the store where I found those great ceramic glazed pots and buy some more (l-r: $1.50, $5.00, $8.00):

I don't know what I'm going to put in that crazy reflective one or where I'll put it, but it sure is fun imagining  the possibilities.

I had a $15 credit from the garden club at Van Wilgen's (how could I have possibly spent $300 there in one year?) so I picked up this organic tomato and vegetable fertilizer for $10:

I think I'm resolved to filling the large veggie containers with 2/3 the potting soil from last year, 1/3 new Farfard potting soil, and using this fertilizer from the get go as recommended on the package.  I just can't afford to buy all new potting soil that's not Miracle-Gro.

And for the other $5, I got these pretty coleus which will brighten up the shady side of the house once I figure out what I'm planting them in and whether they'll have company:

I also hit IKEA with a friend for lunch on Thursday and couldn't resist two adorable lanterns (which hold block candles that I already have).  I particularly like the spike in the middle to hold the candle -- I can actually envision hanging them by the handle from an umbrella spoke or on a shepard's hook:

Their likely new home:

I'm itching to really get going.  This in between time is killing me!  How are you coping? 

WHAT'S THAT BRIGHT THING IN THE SKY CALLED?

4 inches of rain in less than 48 hours after nearly two weeks without a drop.  Can we do anything in moderation, Mother Nature?  I stepped out the side door and stopped dead in my tracks:

I remember those dark things on the ground...I think they're called shadows, which must mean...yes, that bright thing in the sky is the sun!  All kidding aside, it was nice to see the sun again.  The two previous weeks of sunny warm weather definitely made 2 days of cold cloudy weather and 2 more days of cold rainy weather difficult to deal with.

It was good to see that the newly planted bleeding hearts made it through the deluge unharmed:

As did the wildflower patch (not the weed strip, Layanee):

If you click on the above photo to enlarge and look along the foundation about two-thirds of the way up, you may see the flash of yellow that caught my eye.  What the heck is this?  UPDATE: It's a Siberian Wallflower:

My first sunflower seedling is poking up through the soil (though this is one of the 2 that didn't have a little sprout coming out of the seed -- what does that mean for the rest?):

I think this little guy is the first of the carrots, but it could be a weed:

I love this photo of the dill seedlings emerging.  I tried to focus on the one standing straight up at 6 o'clock or the one standing straight up at 12 o'clock.  I didn't see the one just emerging (and in focus) at 3 o'clock until I was reviewing photos on my computer:

Mr. Cucumber and Mr. Basil have been joined by 3 zucchini seedlings and 2 more cucumber buddies:

Lest the left side of the seed tray feel left out, we have a sighting.  It's a chive -- maybe, depending on what seed my mother really sent me:

This rhododendron isn't going to flower this spring, but Layanee tells me that's not unusual in the first year after transplant.  It is growing though, so I'm not worried about its health.  Note how much weeding we still have to do here, which is a bitch with the steep hill:

I still want to see if these weeds (tentatively identified as marsh marigolds) will die off some when the trees fill in since they're all but impossible to pull out of the ground with the rhizomes and all.  Oh who am I kidding, I just don't want to do it!

Do you have a garden chore that you hate and continuously put off?

G-- D--- WILDFLOWER PATCH

The original theory behind the wildflower patch was no maintenance, beautiful flowers next to the patio that would reseed themselves, but so far, I'm not loving year two.  I'm still debating whether I want to pull it all out and put in a perennial flower garden, but until I make that decision, I should at least tidy up a little:

Last year the flowers flopping over onto the patio drove me crazy, so I bought this cheapo fencing and lined the edge of the patio.  If I do end up tearing this all out, I will leave an unplanted strip along the edge:

There are some tiny little plants in there like this lupine:

And some seedlings yet to develop true leaves:

VPH and I had both completely forgotten about the ceramic lily pad stepping stones leftover from August 2006 when the patio was first installed.  If I had known then what I do now, I would have put down cardboard with mulch over it to prep the site for a perennial flower garden instead:

So you can actually see the fencing, which isn't that ugly for $10 total:

VPH and I were sitting on the patio relaxing -- me from an afternoon of gardening, VPH from a day of subbing in an elementary school.  He grabbed a non-alcoholic beer and gave me my favorite beer to drink when I'm sweating -- Red Stripe.  So I sat there, leaning back in my chair, surveying my domain and I just couldn't take another moment of staring at the ugly wildflower patch:

I had to do something.  I frantically pulled dead stems and leaves from the patch and sent VPH to the fridge for the seeds, then I giddily scattered:

Scroll back up and see how much debris is on the patio compared to before:

Stay tuned to see if the wildflower patch develops into something nice to look at or if I give in to temptation and plant a perennial flower garden instead.

I did do other stuff today...

Yesterday I receive an email notice that Christmas Tree Shops had a new flyer available on their website.  I had a pre-fab pergola that I could buy directly from an Ebay seller for $475, or I could buy the umbrella and umbrella stand at CTS for $80.  You know which one I went with:

The red is a little redder than I thought it would be from the flyer -- I was seeing more of a burgundy -- but it will probably fade a little in the sun and since there's not much color in the garden at the moment, we're kind of enjoying a shock of red:

I've decided that with the second trellis in place, this is definitely looking more room-like (and if you don't agree, please don't shatter my illusion):

My other Christmas Tree Shop purchase was a frog holding a rain gauge, because really, how can you not pay $1.69 for this adorable creature?  I had the spearmint sitting next to him on the bar and it was looking pretty chock full of roots.  I didn't know it was this bad though!  I'll be dividing it first thing tomorrow:

There's no frost in the 10-day forecast, so I decided it was time to pot up the petunias:

Using the planters from last year, I'd say buying seedlings and a little potting soil, each of these cost about $5 to assemble:

I did this one first and I think I might have been a little too rough with it:

Things are definitely looking up:

The last bit of good news today -- my first 2 seedlings have popped up:

And wasn't in considerate of them to come up next to each other and the plant labels?

Tomorrow I'll be attacking the herbs after a visit to the dentist -- social hour for me, torture for VPH.  Don't hate me because I've never had a cavity!

A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT

I've finished my seed sowing until it's time to get the beans started, but I'm not sure when that will be yet, maybe mid-May?

Today I planted the sunflower seeds that I soaked for 2 days.  I had little sprouts sticking out of 4 of the 6 seeds, I wonder if the two without sprouts will grow?  I lined up the 6 pots in sunny spot along the house.  The soil in this location is really crappy, so planting in the ground wasn't an option.  I am not sure this is going to work, but it's worth a try:

This afternoon VPH mowed the lawn and then fertilized with the worm poop.  He also over-seeded because the lawn is at best spotty and at worst, like here, totally missing:

Even after VPH mowed, I found little surprises in the grass.  I love violets:

They're such a scrappy little flower, they will even grow in the gravel driveway:

Speaking of things growing...only 7 days after planting the seeds, hello lettuce:

One of the projects that I teased over the weekend is well underway.  The supports for the gazebo have been lashed together with zip ties into a trellis and set over the pot of sweet peas (imagine it's not just a pot of dirt with seeds in it and the patio isn't surrounded by dirt and no grass for no particular reason): 

I had to run buy some more zip ties to get the other trellis together, but didn't want to miss the last light of the setting sun, so you'll have to imagine that it's already on the back left:

The other trellis will go over the morning glories I soaked for 2 days and finally planted today:

I've pretty much decided I can't spend money on a pergola right now, so I'm going to get a big umbrella for the table.  I think once there are plants growing up the trellises, the cherry tomato plants on the hooks, and the planter table is full of annuals, it will feel more like a room and less like a table plopped in the middle of the garden:

If the sweet peas and morning glories totally don't work (I am concerned that there may not be enough sun hitting that area), I have a bunch of purple hyacinth beans that I know will grow like weeds for me.

Now just a bit of weeding and mulching and then I'll sit back and watch my seeds grow.  Then a few seedlings from the good garden center and finally beans.

My new obsession is planning a perennial flower garden to replace the wildflower patch.  Suggestions are most welcome.  It's a rectangle measuring about 15 feet by 4 feet next to the patio.  See here if you're not familiar with the space.  It  is full sun.

WE ARE ON FIRE!

Today VPH and I spent 4 hours working in the garden (that's 4 hours each for a total of 8 man hours).  It was another incredible spring day, you know the kind where you can wear capris and a tank top and not be cold, but also lug around huge pots, bags of soil, and lawn furniture and not be sweating.  In other words, my favorite kind of weather!

VPH concentrated on cleaning up leaves along the shady side of the house and the front parking area.  I worked on emptying pots and filling them back up again!  I'm trying to do a lot more from seed this year.  I know I'm saving money, but for an instant gratification girl, it's tough to see all these pots of dirt and no plants as yet!

My first stop was the potting table, I had to get organized (I keep finding pots I don't remember buying).  It seems silly, but including all the emptying of the pots of old plants and such this job took hours:

Now I feel like I have a better handle on what's going where this year.  Yes, I still Have Miracle Gro products -- I will use them up on non-edible plants and don't plan to purchase them again.

The heather plant is safely potted up and where I'm pretty sure it's going to stay:

I think we'll grow calibrochoa over the retaining wall like we did last year.  This may end up being my favorite spot in the garden again.  I like the added height that being in the pot gives the heather:

Sugar snap peas are go:

As are the Little Marvel peas:

The two white pots are Nantes 1/2 long carrots and the blue ceramic pot is Mammoth dill (do we need to weed or what?!):

This next photo is something of a preview of coming attractions and I'm only going to tell you that the pot contains sweet peas:   

I should have soaked these seeds over night so I could plant them today.  First task for tomorrow and I'd better go stick them in a bowl of water while I'm thinking of it:

VPH is going to clean up the rest of the leaves tomorrow while I finish up planting.  One more hour of vegetable garden clean-up to complete the task and then I think we'll get 2 fun projects done.  Am I being purposely vague?  You betcha!

UPDATE: It's Sunday now and only 50 degrees and cloudy.  The garden is most definitely not calling me plus I'm a dumbass and forgot to soak the seeds overnight.

YEAR 2 IS UNDERWAY

First, I want to say again how sorry I am, Amy, that I couldn't make it to meet you yesterday.  Stupid job with stupid responsibilities!  I didn't get to do any of the things I had planned for my vacation afternoon on Tuesday.  No seeds were planted...no garden writers met...no fun had at all!

Today was another story altogether!  VPH and I took a trip up to Agway, our local garden center, and Home Depot -- hey they gave me a charge card, try and keep me from shopping there!  I spent the most money at the local garden center, though that could be because the prices are highest there.  Oh well. 

You know exactly how excited I was to sit down at this table and work:

See what a good girl I was:

In case you can't read the labels, l-r Marigolds (3 rows of seeds from mom, but I have no idea what color they are), Chives? (also from mom, first she told me they were onions, then she said chives, I guess we'll see), Red Peter pepper (a Christmas gift from mom, but this time she ordered them and had them mailed to me complete with label), Cinnamon basil, Sweet basil, Spacemaster Bush cucumber, Black Beauty zucchini (even though I was sure after last year's heartbreak I would never grow zucchini again).

I'm so proud of myself for re-purposing this old Zabar's tray into a lettuce planter (1/2 credit to VPH for suggesting it as a planter, 1/2 credit to me for thinking of what could go in this somewhat shallow container):

With all the running around, I got to planting a little later than I had planned.  It's still a little bit cool outside, about 65 and beautiful in the sun, but once it falls behind our neighbor's house it gets chilly out there.  I still have all of these to put into pots: 

The baggy is full of seeds from the purple hyacinth beans I grew last year.  The above photo is mostly for my reference so I can decide what I want to plant where.  I plan to buy the following seedlings: 2 cherry tomatoes, 6 tomatoes, bell peppers (last year we had 4 and it was more than we could eat, we're not sure how many we want to grow this year), and we're going to branch out and try eggplant.

Two new pots for the sweet peas and the morning glories and the re-purposed trellises from the gazebo.  And the heather in the pot purchased today at Home Depot that will be its new home.  I am trying to decide where I want to put it once the heather plant is safely transplanted.  Expect a photo montage and your opinion to be solicited:

VPH is being more patient with me than usual as I assign chores and ask silly questions, like how many bell pepper plants do we need and are you sure we don't want more than one cucumber plant...no I know you don't like cucumber as much as I do, etc.  I am so happy to be back playing in the dirt!

IS IT TIME TO PLANT YET?

Last year we didn't plant a single thing until May.  I know that we went to a Yankees game on May 6th and came home to a completed gravel patio and a seeded lawn.  Mother's Day was the following Sunday the 13th.  VPH and I are pretty sure that we planted the first of the vegetable seeds that week -- peas, lettuce, and garlic (in whole bulbs no less, I know but I had no idea what I was doing).  You can be sure that I will be documenting the date that I plant every single thing this year.

I know it's a good idea to plant peas and lettuce while it's still cool out, but I wasn't sure what else I should plant early.  So why not avoid the whole issue.  If I put together the little greenhouse I bought last year I can safely start all my seeds now!

Remember this thing:

But first, I did write that I was going to buy my very first pair of Felco pruners didn't I?  You know I couldn't go to the garden center and only come home with a pair of pruners.  As we headed home, VPH sarcastically said "You can't wait to get home and photograph what we bought today and write about your possibilities and dreams."  I replied, "Oh that's definitely getting blogged."  The focus of my possibilities and dreams: 

Yup, Heather's Garden finally has a heather plant again.  I'm not inclined to put it back in the same spot where I killed the first one last year and if we ever leave this rental home, I'd like to take my heather plant with me, so I'm thinking container -- a self-watering one in fact.  Here's the question of the day: Do you think I should put it in a large container with other plants or all by itself?

At $1.25 a six pack, I just couldn't resist purple, blue, and pink petunias.  I'm a little afraid that it's still too cold outside for them at night (though there are no freezes in the forecast), so I must assemble that greenhouse post-haste.  I bought the seed starter kit because I haven't decided what I'm doing about potting soil and I want to get my seeds started immediately.  I have a feeling that I'm going to be vacillating about this potting soil issue for a while. 

But first I want to cut things with those new Felco pruners!  I opted for the #5 and thank you mom for the gift certificate that bought most of them!  I pruned the rose:

I was having so much fun with the Felcos that I decided to cut some forsythia branches to see if the warm temperatures inside the house would force them into bloom:

UPDATE:  It worked!  Less than 24 hours later:

Then I put the greenhouse together.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised that the greenhouse turned out to be a little bigger than I expected.  I don't think this is its permanent home, but it was right next to where I assembled it and it was 6:30pm and 50 degrees (plus I could smell the lasagna that VPH was making for dinner), so I shoved it against the fence and ran inside:

Do give me your advice on the heather plant.  In a container solo or combine with other plants?  If you opt for with other plants, recommendations please!

A CASE OF THE NERVES

Do you ever feel like there's some horrible thing just about to happen and if you could just control everything around you maybe you could keep it from happening?  No?  Well then you're not crazy like I am right now.  I know it's anxiety, I know it's depression, but I just can't get rid of it!  I wonder if bloggers experience a higher percentage of depression than the general population or if we're just more open about sharing our mental state?  It seems like every few days I'm reading a favorite blog and finding another depressed person.

In an effort to shake it off I went outside at lunch time and snapped a few photos.  I was trying to wait to post again until the mystery plant bloomed so I could confirm that it was a cosmos (also my guess).  In answer to other questions -- I used 2 different kinds of wildflower seed in this area in the spring, but one was a cheapo from W-Mart and it doesn't really identify which specific flowers I should be seeing.  Yes, it is more fun to rake leaves in the warm weather, but still mostly green trees and not too much on the ground.  It could be an aster, but apparently this plant needs more than an hour of sunshine a day to be coaxed into flowering:

It's so close though and I'm see yellow petals I think.  I can hardly wait!

The weather man says that we had a frost on Monday morning (that's 10/29/07 for next year when I'm trying to remember).  However, my non-morning-person butt isn't out of bed before 8am, so I have no idea if we did or not.  I thought the impatiens would be toast if we had a frost, so maybe we were a little bit warmer just a mile from the water?  Because the impatiens look great:

The vegetable garden is a little straggly (I'll post in more detail another time).  I give you this photo so you can see the 3-car garage our neighbor a yard away is building at what may be the slowest rate ever!  Can you tell this is only 75 feet from my bedroom window and the pneumatic nail gun starts before 8am?  They started excavating for this project over a month ago.  I shouted over today for an ETA on completion and got 3 more weeks - OMG I am never going to make it!  Maybe that's part of why I'm so cranky.

Here it is October 31st -- Halloween in the U.S. -- but my veggie garden isn't following the same calendar.  Beans are blooming:

As are the bell peppers:

Tomatoes are ripening:

Along with actually doing a garden clean-up -- when we finally get a killing frost -- I'm going to be spending some time this fall figuring out what I want to do in this space next year:

This area is between the big shed and the fence and it doesn't get a ton of sun, but about the same as the bastard garden which is just behind the shed, and the cherry tomato grew quite well in there.  I think it would be a great place to try zucchini next year, so I'm going to ask VPH to clear it out and then I think I'll spread newspapers and cardboard out over it for the winter.  It can't be that hard to grow vegetables in the ground -- right?

ARE YOU SURE IT'S OCTOBER?

I'm trying to remember the last time I wore a bathing suit in October and laid out to read in the sun.  I'm not sure if it has ever happened before.  It was 80 degrees on Saturday and wonderfully sunny. 

The afternoon sun filtered through the planter table so beautifully:

The mums are finally blooming and I really like the way they look -- and they are purple thank goodness:

I had a ball photographing from different angles:

Just a reminder of what this same planter looked like on September 4th:

Since it looks like a completely different grouping of plants now:

Then  I had a late afternoon visitor on the cosmos:

Considering I had about 45 seconds and poor light I did pretty well:

It was a lovely lazy day and I'm so happy to have a photographic reminder of it to carry me through the winter, which I imagine will be here before I know it.  80 degree days won't last forever, it was 80+ on Monday too, but today it's raining and might hit 70, but thank goodness for the rain!

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

The purple hyacinth beans are blooming again:

Gardeners, plant and nature lovers can join in Green Thumb Sunday every week. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON HOW YOU LOOK AT IT

Most people who know me would say I'm sort of an optimist.  But the end of the summer is making it a little bit tough for me to see the bright side of things.

My Mother's Day gift from VPH is a little overgrown and probably near the end of its run, but not looking too bad overall:

Until you walk around to the other side:

Think the lobelia needed more water than the rest of the plants in the container during our "near-drought" summer?

The hot pink calibrochoa are blooming like crazy after I trimmed them back and fertilized:

But on the other side, like the light pink ones, all of a sudden they're starting to fail:

I'm just going to keep enjoying the good-looking sides of these planters for as long as I can!

Are you a plant half-alive or half-dead gardener?

VISITING THE FALL CONTAINER PLANTINGS

I don't think much narration is necessary here.  Remember the fall container plantings:

Yesterday I found a bud on the mums showing color (purple thank goodness) and I had a ball photographing all the light, shadow, and colors in the box.  I took special note of all the different greens.  Click to enlarge the photos and I hope you enjoy!

 

You'll notice that I'm not really identifying the individual plants by name.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I never read any of the plant tags (I just stuck them in a drawer) so I'm not 100% sure that I'm calling each plant by the correct name and I don't want to steer anyone wrong.

GOD I LOVE MY MACRO SETTING

I was in the kitchen this afternoon when I saw a huge dragonfly land on the fence.  Seriously, it had to be 4 inches long.  I grabbed the camera and ran outside.  Of course, the moment I moved near it with the camera the dragonfly flew away.  It buzzed me a few times, but flew up high into the trees and then disappeared completely.  Oh well, at least I got to enjoy seeing it even if I can't share it with you. 

While I was over on the sunny side of the house I realized that I haven't shared a photo of the beautiful calibrochoa post trim back and fertilization.  So without further ado:

Don't these two look great?

This one, however, is not doing as well and I really don't know why -- it has been treated exactly the same way as the others:

It looks so bad, I had to shuffle things around out there:

That's the little petunia and creeping jenny replacing the light pink calibrochoa next to trellis.  The dying calibrochoa is by the shed for the moment, but if it doesn't perk up, it will be tossed (not to the bastard garden or compost because it must be diseased to be failing so quickly out of no where).  The reverse angle:

 

Standing next to the purple hyacinth bean I decided it was time to pull the dried pods off and harvest the seeds.  I got a pretty good haul:

As I was picking the pods, I was ecstatic to see new growth and buds on the beans:

I was so sad to think that these plants were done for the year and had to come out.  I'm so glad that they're not!

As I was walking back into the house this buzzing bumblebee caught my eye and I just had to snap a dozen or so photos of it, but I'll only post a few here (click to enlarge, some have awesome detail):

I just love his pollen covered butt!  I hope that you enjoyed your time on the sunny side of the house as much as I did.

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

The weather did not cooperate with my gardening plans yesterday.  It was rainy and cold -- below 60 degrees in the shade mid-day and windy.  Hopefully it will be nicer today and I'll actually get some stuff done. 

Say goodbye to the zinnias.  They're looking pretty crappy.  The bottom leaves are dry and shriveling up and they've pretty much stopped putting out new blooms.  I'm going to let VPH plant them in the bastard garden.  Maybe they'll self-sow out there for next year.  I'm rather sad about relocating my belated Mother's Day gift from my step-sons, but nothing lasts forever.

UPDATE: Here's a less flattering photo so you you can why the zinnias are going to the bastard garden:

Keep in mind how prominently these flowers were positioned on the edge of the patio.  They were the first thing you saw when you came around the side of the house from the driveway.   If they were in the ground the stripped stems wouldn't be such a big deal, but in the container -- ugh. 

Gardeners, plant and nature lovers can join in Green Thumb Sunday every week. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

THIS JUST IN (updated)

It's raining!  Not just a passing shower either.  A long steady rain with sudden downpours (not so good), but at this point, I'll take any rain!  I never imagined that I would miss rainy summer days...gardening sure does change your weather priorities.

I'll add to this post when I get home from work tonight -- I can't wait to check the rain gage!

Update: 1.5 inches of rain today.  And it's still raining off and on.  At least the grass will be loving it.  With the veggies in containers we'll be out watering again before too long, but it's nice to have a few days off!

_______________________________________________________________

I don't have much to post on today, so I'll give you a few left over pics from the past week or so.

Here's a little garden mystery.  Is that more sweet potato vine or some sort of mimic weed?

I can't see the roots under the watering can lip, so I'm not sure what's going on:

These habaneros have already been harvested, but boy were they pretty on the plant:

This is the biggest one we got -- about 2.5 inches long:

There's something new on the pot rack tonight:

I read on-line that all you have to do is string up the habaneros with decent airflow around them and they will dry successfully.  I sure hope they do:

The cilantro's coming along, but I'm not sure we're going to be able to harvest any before the first frost -- mid- to late-October in this area. 

I'm almost ready to put together the little greenhouse I bought and I hope it will extend the growing season for us.  The cilantro, and many of the other annual herbs will be moving in and we hope to have fresh herbs through 2007.  Now I just need to decide where to put it!  VPH is going to make a batch of salsa to freeze tomorrow or Thursday, but I hope we get another 2 or 3 bunches of tomatoes to "put up" before the first frost. 

Are you all as sad as I am thinking about how close the first frost could be?

YUP, I'M JUST THAT BORING

Just a reminder of where we left off yesterday:

We took a trip to our local garden center on Saturday with 5 specific goals:

1. Buy a fern to replace the bleeding heart that was decimated by some sort of animal (perennials were 25% off).  Preferably a tall fern and not one that costs $20.

2. Get some annuals to fill the planter table because the current contents look like crap.

3. Do not come home with mums -- you don't like them -- even if there is nothing else at the garden center DO NOT COME HOME WITH MUMS.

4. Find some seedlings for the empty container in the veggie garden.  Not the ornamental kale that is advertised as on sale, get something that is actually edible.

5. Do not buy any herbs.  You don't need them, they're at the end of their season.  There isn't a lot of selection.  Just pass by without looking!

3 out of 5 isn't bad.  We got a great plant called a Branford fern which was developed right here in Branford, CT and it was only $6.50.  Then I left you hanging on which 2 of the other 4 goals we had accomplished.

Remember how awful the planter table was looking last week:

I had very lofty ambitions for this planter (which actually holds 4 smallish self-watering pots).  I was going to find some beautiful fall plants and put together something with lots of color and varied heights, foliage, etc. and so on.   Then we got to the garden center and found mums, mums, and more mums.  There were a couple of ornamental kale plants and a few ornamental peppers.  Yeah, this wasn't working out the way I thought it would.

I wandered around and finally found a few plastic patio boxes that the garden center had planted up and advertised as fall color.  No mums in sight.  VPH and I liked one of them very much and despite feeling like we were cheating, we decided to buy it.  It was a little bit smaller than the planter table, so I decided we would need a small plant on either side of the planter.  Yup, you know what I bought -- mums.  I couldn't help it, they were the only plant of that size and shape available.  And they're purple, well they were marked as purple, they're not in bloom yet, so we'll see.  Even with the mums, we are really happy with the way the table looks now:

The two end pots of the original plantings were still doing pretty well, so I snapped the bottoms back on them and, as you can see above, put them on either side of the table.  Here's a close up of the planter table:

See, the mums aren't that bad.  Unlike these sad, half-dead plants:

Which moved into the bastard garden:

So that's check on the fern, check on annuals for the planter table (though not exactly how I had envisioned it happening), and a big fat failure on not bringing home mums.

On top of that, the local garden center didn't have a single vegetable seedling, not one.  So now the question is what to put in the empty large container.  The only seed I have on hand is for lettuce (which we didn't eat in the spring -- it's off to the left out of frame of the photo above) and snow peas (which I have growing in two places already).  Any recommendations?  If not, the bell pepper in the smallest container is probably going to move in.

Our last goal was to come home without any herbs.  Unfortunately this one was rather easy to accomplish.  I guess it really is the end of the season, the selection was poor and what they did have looked awful.

Altogether accomplishing three out of the five goals isn't bad.  One was beyond my control -- the garden center didn't have any vegetable seedlings, who'd have thunk it?  And I only came home with 2 little mums and they're purple and green.  You know how I am about purple and green in my garden!

I'm going to take a couple of days off from blogging to enjoy what may be my last chance to sun with my husband and hang out with girlfriends at restaurants by the beach without a jacket.  Back on Green Thumb Sunday.

THE SHADY SIDE OF THE HOUSE

First, a quick update on items just hanging out there.

Today's harvest (4 tomatoes, 8 beans -- what do you do with 8 beans?, some purple basil, and our first vine-ripened habanero):

See honey, I told you that outdoor shower would come in handy!

I removed all the leaves from the sage plant that showed signs of powdery mildew.  I find it extremely odd that the pile of diseased leaves was larger than I had expected and that the plant didn't end up looking completely bald:

VPH mixed up a solution that I found on-line, which of course, I can't find again, but it was hot water, baking powder, and dish detergent.  I hope it works.  I would love to use neem oil, but I can't find it in a local garden center and purchasing it on-line doubles the cost with shipping and I just can't justify the expense to myself.  I'll keep looking for it and maybe I'll be able to pick some up during a fall sale on-line. 

The ugly tomato moved to the bastard garden:

I guess I haven't explained in a while that it only exists because VPH hates to destroy living plants.  So it's sort of a way station on the way to the composter.  Any time I say "Honey, please pull that plant and put it in the compost," -- because I can't bear to do it myself, he says, "Can I put it in my bastard garden?"  And since it's behind the shed and out of sight, I really don't care what he does back there. 

We took a trip to our local garden center on Saturday with 5 specific goals:

1. Buy a fern to replace the bleeding heart that was decimated by some sort of animal (perennials were 25% off).  Preferably a tall fern and not one that costs $20.

2. Get some annuals to fill the planter table because the current contents look like crap.

3. Do not come home with mums -- you don't like them -- even if there is nothing else at the garden center DO NOT COME HOME WITH MUMS.

4. Find some seedlings for the empty container in the veggie garden.  Not the ornamental kale that is advertised as on sale, get something that is actually edible.

5. Do not buy any herbs.  You don't need them, they're at the end of their season.  There isn't a lot of selection.  Just pass by without looking!

3 out of 5 isn't bad.  We got a great plant called a Branford fern which was developed right here in Branford, CT and it was only $6.50:

This is the time of year where the western side of the house gets about 20 minutes of sunlight right around the time I'm home for lunch so I finally got a decent shot of the shade garden:

Can anyone explain why the slugs love this hosta (I think that's slug damage):

And they totally ignore this one just feet away:

While I'm on this side of the house, the impatiens are doing a lot better (and I just gave them a little fertilizer so I expect more blooms):

This one's a little blurry:

 

I have to say I'm really proud of how the shade garden turned out and I can't wait to see the plants start filling out next year.  I think I may still add some astible for color in the spring in the shade portion of this garden, but I'm not doing anything more with it now and I kind of want to keep it a perennial garden, so I have more research to do over the winter.  I also have to figure out what's going in the sunny portion at the end of the walk over the retaining wall, but I have all winter to decide between herbs, vegetables, or flowers.  I'm not going to try heather again, I read that it's really finicky in my climate and I'm pretty sure my soil just isn't right for it.  Oh well, I knew not everything was going to make it through the summer.

Are you dying to know which 2 of the other 4 goals we were able to accomplish?  You'll have to wait until tomorrow.