Heather's Garden

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!

WHAT A TEAM!

VPH and I are quite the team.  On Monday morning he weeded the hosta/rhododendron bed (which could use a little mulch):

And weeded the hosta/azalea bed and put a circle of stones around it (which needs a lot of mulch...and don't laugh at his odd circle, he's going to adjust it as he finds more stones):

He finished weeding the veggie garden and driveway for me too -- that's love.  Once I completed my workday I went out and did my share.  Peppermint and a calibrachoa in the veggie garden:

 

It's tough to see, but those are marigolds in with the tomatoes and dahlias planted in the actual soil (gasp!) between containers : 

 

More marigolds in the tomato containers -- those with blooms are nursery grown, those without were grown from seed:

 

The rest of the herb seedlings I grew from seed went into larger containers cause I just couldn't bear to toss them.  This is about the sunniest spot in my garden (at 6pm):

 

The coleus I stuck in the empty spot in this container looks really red for some reason.  It's much more burgundy in real life:

Some really pink impatiens in the blank spots here:

 

White in this one:

 

I trimmed back the petunias, moved the basket of glaring pink petunias to another hook elsewhere and replaced it with a different hanging container with the 2 recently purchased and newly planted coral pink petunias:

 

One of VPH's tasks for Tuesday is to plant the rest of the coleus in a row along the rocks here, which involves pulling up the tree roots growing in a mat on top of the soil:

And that is it!  The table is clear:

Now we're down to mulching and tidying up.  For instance I want to come up with a better solution for the coiled hoses here.  Any suggestions would be welcome:

And the shed, we still need to do the shed project.  We've run out of more urgent tasks though, so I should be able to guilt VPH and SS2 into helping me get this done.

IT WAS A GLORIOUS DAY UNTIL...

Luckily there was no lasting damage.  A few pics from before the storm.  Royal Purple Bush beans:

 

I'm ridiculously happy to see dahlias blooming and bees in the garden again:

 

This is pretty close to what I was expecting the patio garden to look like, but not so much with the grass this early:

 

Not sure what happened here.  It's been sitting on the potting table for months without incident.  Could an animal have attacked?  I cleaned it up and put it into a large Ziploc bag:

 

And after the rain I'm even less pleased with the grass flopping all over the place.  I may very well go out and cut it all back tomorrow:

 

I really have a lot of planting to do tomorrow since my mental stop date is the 4th of July.  I'll be up and out there early, I just hope it doesn't rain.

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.

IT SMELLS LIKE SUMMER

The rain's back, but hopefully not to stay.  At least it's much warmer than June was, even on an overcast, rainy, cloudy day the thermometer's at about 75 right now.  These photos range from 1 week ago to today, but give a decent view of what's developing in the garden.  First up -- zucchini flowers!  Not likely that we'll be grilling our own zucchini on the 4th of July as we have years past, but at least they're flowering at last:

 

Beans!  I'm hoping it stays warm and dry enough to get the rest of my beans in this weekend, but all the bush beans that survived the rains are flowering: 

 

And the vining bean varieties are growing (and yes that's still the new shed under a tarp, hopefully this next week will see the shed project get underway):

 

I can't for the life of me remember what kind of bush my friend said this was.  Can anyone tell from the flower (it's about 3 inches long)?  It smells rather honeysuckle like and wafting in through the living room window reminds me of my childhood:

 

I was pretty excited to see hosta leaves at long last from one of the bareroot hostas I planted this spring:

 

The beautiful blooming lamium that I can see from the living room (and I don't care if it is practically a weed in your garden...it's pretty in this container!):

VPH has since raked this area, but I'm too lazy to go out and take a new photo:

 

And then today in the middle of the rain showers another daylily (this looks orangey on my monitor, but it's almost burgundy in real life):

 

And the first plum tomatoes:

 

The first Parkland Glow dahlia, but it's a much darker red in real life:

 

The eggplants are flowering!!!  VPH was very happy:

 

I wanted to get out into the garden today but it's so cloudy that the mosquitoes are out in force and I just can't do it.  Tomorrow, even if it is supposed to be "humid" according to the weatherman, will be better than spending days scratching bites.

IT'S AMAZING WHAT A FEW DAYS OF SUN WILL DO

I had a completely different post drafted with photos that I've taken over the past couple of days, but I went outside this afternoon and found such a different garden after 4 days of sun in a row (shh, don't jinx us) that I just had to start a fresh post.  My very first blooming day-lily (unnamed passalong from my friend Mary) in the patio garden:

 

The hydrangea is insane!  It's waist high and the blooms are bigger than my hand:

The Bay State Angel dahlia is blooming away:

 

And the Parkland Glow is about to pop:

The moonflowers suddenly decided to send out a scouting party:

Overnight one of my peppers was attacked, but I think it will survive:

 

The first heirloom tomato has set (and frankly I'm amazed given the June we had).  The winner of the race to first tomato is the Green Zebra, now the question is will it be the first ripe tomato:

 

The Kentucky Wonder beans are climbing the trellis quite nicely:

 

I hope I get a better spider photo at some point this summer because I don't think this one is quite calendar-worthy:

 

Now if I did a vertical calendar, I would consider this photo:

 

And who knew creeping jenny blooms?  Not me:

 

I'm loving this container...the colors, the textures:

 

I can't wait to see what a few more days of sun will bring!

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?

WELL THIS IS ALL MY FAULT...

It seems like without fail if I water, it rains the next day.  Yes, we had 3 sunny days in a row starting last Saturday, but I got a mid-range sunburn after sitting outside for 45 minutes that day reading with VPH.  No gardening for me the rest of the weekend.  Tuesday was the first rainy day of what is predicted to be 2 weeks of rainy weather and it brought absolute deluges at times.  Really good for the grass seed VPH put down on Sunday (that's the bluestone lintel in front of the little shed):

Once that dries out I'll re-scatter it.  Lest you think I'm engaging in hyperbole about the torrential downpours...clearly a river ran through here:

Much of the rest of the garden is looking lush with all the rain.  I think it would benefit from some sun myself.  The shade containers are lovely and full:

 

Well most of them are:

 

This lamium is staging a coup in the big square blue container:

 

Pull it back and you find some teeny tiny astible growing:

 

I'm loving this container with the Purple Gem rhododendron, creeping jenny, and impatiens:

But its twin on the other side of the steps is lagging behind (must be that this one gets slightly more sun):

I have to guess that the excess rain led this coleus to fail (the coleus is the single stalk in the empty spot):

And there are buds on this dahlia (micro-mini)!  Aren't they beautiful:

If the soil ever dries out at all I will move the purple fountain grass over a little to balance the container.  I took the few stalks of coleus left and stuck them in the seedling tray hoping that they would set roots in there:

And a few in the cup of water like the basil:

Which is almost ready to plant:

As long as I'm on this side of the house...every day I've had to empty the overflowing drain tray so my seedlings don't drown:

The dahlias don't seem to be suffering from all the rain and I found a taker for 1/2 of the pass-along plants from my friend Mary so I will pick 4 of these 8 to keep tomorrow:

I didn't think I would get the first ripe strawberry and sure enough the birds beat me to it.  But I cut off the very bottom to taste and it was delish:

Moving toward the veggie garden, the germination rate of the sunflower seeds along the house foundation wasn't great, or I just can't recognize the smaller varieties:

The hydrangea is promising many beautiful flowers:

Some of the beans must have rotted, like this container with a 0% germination rate:

I'm not stressing about it though, I'll just consider it unintentional succession planting.  That is, of course, provided the rain ever stops and I can plant more beans.  The scarlet runner beans have huge leaves and are already starting to climb:

The planter table containing the Royal Purple Bush beans must have flooded during the rain:

Lots of carrots, decent germination on beans (which I must remember to turn and give netting to climb up soon), and more signs of the rain that washed through (note to self - mulch ASAP):

Finally!  Blossoms on the Husky cherry tomato plants: 

 

And many of the heirloom tomato plants (though I didn't note which one this is): 

 

Continuing the tour, let's move on to the patio garden.  Bit of a jungle:

But not out of control.  The foliage from the tulips and daffodils is finally starting to yellow.  The moonflowers are starting to climb (and the clematis is still alive there in the middle):

 

The grass along the back is blooming.  Pretty:

This cracks me up.  I noticed that one half of the siberian iris clump second from the left didn't bloom, but I thought it was just an oddity.  Nope, turns out it was a day-lily after all:

  

The clump to its left has a single stalk coming up from the middle, so I guess there's some lily there too:

 

Last, but certainly not least, my new lavender is about to bloom!  I'm loving this spot more each day:

 

Saturday will be spent at the Guilford Secret Garden Tour.  Which reminds me, I'd better charge my camera battery now.  I just hope the forecasted break in the rain holds for long enough.

WATER FEATURE?

I couldn't help but laugh at myself for taking a photo of my 'water feature':

Sure a sprinkler's not much of a water feature, but I was pretty mesmerized by it and if it were 10 degrees warmer, I might have run under it!  I am aware that a sprinkler is not the most efficient watering method, but I'm only half way through getting the new hose on the fence down to the veggie garden and it was the easiest way to get my thirsty plants some water (the grass needed it too). 

See the hose is on the fence, but it's not quite long enough to reach to where it should and I have to cut the end off and replace a male coupling with the female one for the hose cart etc. and so on:

Can you see in this photo that something has been digging in the mulch like mad?  There was also poop there for me (not visible in the photo), though I'm not sure from what type of animal.  Do you think finally weeding and putting down more mulch will stop this bad behavior?  Yeah, I'm kind of doubting it too:

 

This is my next handy girl project: 

 

It's a gigantic wooden packing box that someone threw up on Freecycle as a planter:

 

So I'm thinking I'll drill a few holes in the bottom, put in some potting soil, and move an eggplant to it (I'm a little worried that 2 are just not going to make it in the single ceramic container where I have them currently).  But wait...what's that paper label on the side say:

 

Don't you love the DO NOT DROP line?  As if you would throw around a box marked ACID willy-nilly?  I did a little research and it looks like this box is at least 30 years old.  No signs of acid damage inside:

 

So this box is nearly as old as me or possibly even older...how do you think it was used for all those years?  It smells like moth balls, so I'm guessing it was in someone's attic, but why they saved the box in the first place is beyond me.  I'll be drilling some holes in the bottom and using a big black plastic bag as a liner--to both prevent 'acid' from leeching into the soil of a plant yielding produce that we'll be ingesting and also to try and prevent the bottom of the box from rotting out too quickly.

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?

HERBS!

We met some friends on Monday for a picnic (a lovely day and great company), and when we got home in the afternoon I just couldn't take the herbs sitting around the potting table unplanted any more!  I decided I would have three containers this year.  One grouping in a hanging basket, one in the funky blue glazed pot, and one in the 1/2 wine barrel, so I started to divvy up the plants:

I tried to include some yellow and purple in each container:

But when I got to the wine barrel I was out of purple plants:

So I ran over to the nursery around the corner and $2.12 later, problem solved.  It's Red Rubin basil for those of you keeping track:

Starting at 12 o'clock and going clockwise we have: rosemary, garlic chives, golden sage, creeping thyme, hot and spicy oregano, and the Red Rubin basil in the middle:

Same drill: Red Rubin basil, rosemary, sage, chives, creeping thyme, lemon grass, and in the middle golden sage (there's also plenty of space for basils as my seedlings mature):

And lastly I may have overcrowded this one a little bit: garlic chives, purple sage, golden oregano, thyme, Red Rubin basil, and Big Leaf Italian basil in the middle:

This is exactly how I imagined it would look here:

So pretty:

I bought a new bird feeder this weekend.  It is supposedly rust and squirrel proof.  I'm interested to see how the birds will get the seed out:

I also purchased 3 butterfly stakes.  VPH thought they were tacky (and that was before he knew they glow in the dark), but I think they look very nice in among the day-lilies in the patio garden:

 

Very subtle against the grass:

 

The day-lilies should be blooming any second now.  Could they possibly be purple?  We should see soon:

 

I was in love with the way the sun was hitting the heuchera:

 

Two firsts...first fire of the year and first Red Stripe chilling by the fire on my patio:

 

We were sitting quietly enjoying our patio when all of a sudden...well you have to hear it. And this was the best thing we heard, by far!  They finished at 8:00pm, but by that time we had long since given up and fled to the relatively quiet indoors. 

I did, however, take a few minutes to ponder the little shed and what we'll do with the space when the new shed goes up and don't need it anymore.  It's also pretty full of holes and not so functional anymore.  VPH suggested a hot tub, which isn't going to happen, but a kiddie pool very well might:

I'll share some photos of what's under the shed and measurements when we finally take it down. Someone out there might have an awesome inexpensive idea that hasn't occurred to us.

#@$^@$# THING STRUCK AGAIN

And this time I'm really upset.  What ever the fuck it is broke off two fiddle-heads in the largest shade container (now full of plastic forks, but too late):

And it went for the hosta in the upper container again (which now has even more forks):

Further annoying me, the loud, trashy neighbors put up one of those self-supporting blue pools today while we were out.  This is not good, not good at all:

 

But we do have two flowers on the rhododendron, so that cheered me up a little:

 

And man, those radishes do pop up quickly:

 

Whatever is attacking my shade containers had better stop.  I am getting really pissed.

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.

GGW: PICTURE THIS PHOTO CONTEST

I love that Gardening Gone Wild is hosting a photo contest.  I just wish I was allowed to enter more than one photo.  I had the hardest time narrowing it down between two photos, but VPH and I both liked one a little bit better for this particular contest. 

My official entry is of my favorite container grouping from last year.  This is also the site of my potentially favorite grouping this year, but alas Gardening Gone Wild decided to have a container photo contest in May, a little early for us northeastern gardeners.  In another month my containers will stop traffic...well, foot traffic at least.

Can you spot all three containers in this photo:

 

I really liked this one too, but in the end there were more interesting textures in my entry above:

 

Of course, dear judge, if you like the second one better, feel free to pick it!

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!

FAILURE

A complete and total failure to achieve my objective of having everything planted by May 15th.  Mother Nature and the corporate overlord conspired to keep me down.  It poured on Thursday but it didn't matter, I had so much work to do I couldn't get away from my computer.  Then it was absolutely gorgeous on Friday, but I had promised to stuff invitations at that non-profit arts organization for which I serve on the board of directors.  By the time I got home, the gardening day was over.  I did however, make some time this evening with VPH and SS2 to stop by a few locations that sell plants.

The green hostas are a passalong from my friend Mary, but I bought the white tipped ones.  I also had to buy the golden oregano, it's next to the one that over wintered and I'm just not doing a great job waiting for it to grow:

I'll be reading up on ever-bearing strawberries because I came home with six of them, along with a golden sage and a lemon grass:

I bought a blue fesco grass for a theoretical pot to complete this trio (remember it from the other day?):

 

The pot selection at Ocean State Job Lot was rather slim, but I was pretty happy with the 4 pots that came home with me (the 3 small blue ones will be used for strawberries) and the blue fescue grass will be perfect in that container:

 

You may have noticed that the shower is gone in the second photo.  I didn't use it at all last year.  Yes, a hose pointed up in the air does exactly the same thing.  So I threw it up on freecycle tonight.  If you're a local reader and would like it, send me an email: 

On the to do list:

• Plant azalea and hostas in new border garden (this is VPH's job)
• Plant the vegetable garden
• Plant zinnias
• Plant sunflowers
• Go through the gazillion seeds I have and see what I'm forgetting
• Plant up herb barrel and blue pot of herbs
• Get new shed up

I'm still behind where I was this time last year in terms of seed-sowing, but ahead in terms of planting.  My new goal is to have everything in by Memorial Day.  Fingers crossed, all!

YOU CAN GET A LOT DONE IN 3 HOURS

I was getting pretty sick of stepping over all of these pots:

 

Three hours later I'm down to:

I went simple and easy with the dahlias and emptied about half of the soil out of each container (the old soil went into large containers that will be used for vegetables), examined the dahlia tubers as I went, and then I topped off the containers with new Miracle Gro potting soil.  The five pots along the cellar doors went right back over there:

This container had annuals in it last year, but this year I decided to put the Ebony Star dahlia in it.  It was a very late bloomer last year, so I decided to put some calibrochoa in there too for some visual interest while I'm waiting for the dahlia to grow:

I like this pairing, but I really think I need a third container here: 

 

Looks good with three, but not this purple one...it needs a green (and I'm not sure what to plant in it once I buy one):

 

I can't really arrange these containers until I put the greenhouse away and the furniture goes into the proper location:

 

I even planted two dahlias in the patio garden amongst the irises -- a platinum blond and this hootenanny.  We'll see how it works out:

 

I also planted 2 calibrochoa in a hanging planter: 

 

Yet another addition to the shady side of the house.  This was the last container with a dahlia in it and the tubers had rotted.  Perfect vessel for the 3 tiny ferns I had growing on the kitchen table (on the left):

I have to say I'm pretty happy with the way things are looking over here:

And lastly...the first tomato has been planted!  A Green Zebra heirloom plant in a matching large ceramic pot on each side of this bench:

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

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?

NOW THAT WAS A SPRING DAY

I can't imagine a nicer way to spend Mother's Day than finally working in my garden -- can you believe we went 24 hours without rain?  The rain and Sunday's wind really did a number on the tulips:

 

But there are still some beautiful tulips blooming:

 

With the wind I had a hell of time getting this one in frame:

 

The birdbath is back in the patio garden now that I'm reasonably certain there are no more irises lurking under the mulch:

I've found that nothing grows really well in the ground in this spot.  Too much competition from the tree roots I think.  So this year I'm going to take advantage of the sunny spot and grown a bunch of herbs in small pots here.  Front row from left to right is lavender, rosemary, basil, and spearmint.  Back row will be cilantro and dill (both are still tiny seedlings), and all the way on the back right is the other lavender:

I like this visual representation of all that I planted on Sunday:

The husky cherry tomatoes are in: 

 

I purchased 2 "plants," but one of them had 2 tomatoes growing in it (chosen specifically for that reason), so I carefully divided the roots and planted them each in their own containers.  If you look very close, you can see all three containers in this photo:

I've started the side garden.  3 petunias in hanging containers and 2 large ceramic planters are done:

The large container on the right above may turn out to be my very favorite this year.  It has purple fountain grass, coleus, and sweet potato vine and that seemingly blank spot is actually the micro-mini dahlia:

But I like this one a lot too!  It also has purple fountain grass, sweet potato vine, perilla (very similar to coleus), and Marguerite daisy:

Here's another example of VPH saving a plant I've given up on.  This hosta used to be in the perennial shade garden, but I pulled it last year for an astible.  I told VPH to compost what I thought was the dead plant, but apparently he planted it on the hillside near the bastard garden instead:

 

Can you see it all the way over on the left:

 

My friend Mary is giving us some more hostas and SS2 gave me the best Mother's Day present ever!  So this azalea will shortly join a bunch of hostas on the hill:

I've still got all these dahlias and herbs to get organized.  All the herbs are either going into the 1/2 wine barrel or the large blue ceramic container like last year.  I have no clue what I'm going to do with all the dahlias:

All in all a great start, but OMG I still have so much to do!

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.

BEFORE MY ARMS GET SO STIFF I CAN'T TYPE

VPH really did most of the "heavy lifting" this weekend, starting on Thursday.  Luckily his school vacation (have I mentioned he teaches?) coincided with the first truly lovely days we've had this spring.  Call us wusses, but we're not gardening unless it's over 55 and sunny (or over 65 and cloudy)!

He got rid of all the leaves along both sides of the house on Thursday (believe it or not, we actually have more grass this year than we did last year):

For one reason and another I didn't end up helping very much on Friday despite taking the day off of work specifically to do so.  But on Saturday I jumped right in and cleaned up the Endless Summer hydrangea:

My next task for the day was to get this garden cleaned up:

 

First VPH vacuumed up the leaves for me:

 

But then I cleaned up all the old grass and day lily foliage by hand and weeded the rest of the bed (I hate marsh marigolds so much):

So much nicer, but I think I'll wait a little while to put down fresh mulch:

I also planted a bare-root clematis in front of the right-hand trellis.  I had planned on planting two, one in front of each trellis, but when I opened up the package only one was in there.  We'll see if the one I planted actually grows.  I may have to buy more mature plants down the road. 

I just love sitting on the patio looking at all the happy daffodils (the tulips look to be a day or two from blooming):

I did find a remnant of the wildflower garden, a lupine, growing in front of the row of bulbs and I decided to leave it and see if it actually blooms for me this year:

Speaking of unexpected flowers...this is right smack dab in the middle of VPH's bastard garden.  Anyone know exactly what it is?  About 6-8 inches tall and in such an awkward spot I couldn't bend over to see if there was a scent.  It sort of looks hyacinth-like to me:

 

The sad looking broken bamboo fence is now down, soon to be replaced with a 6' tall x 16' wide reed fence and VPH has cleared all the leaves from this area (the hostas are hiding under all the marsh marigolds):

The forsythia is in full bloom:

I think this mum is coming back, but I think it's highly unlikely that I will go to the trouble of finding a sunny place to keep it and waiting all the way until the fall for it to bloom:

The Branford fern is all fiddle-heads: 

 

The cute little astible (and yes, the perennial shade garden needs weeding and mulch desperately):

 

Today (Sunday) I planted up 3 new containers with shade perennials for the side of the house by the grill where the trees were removed.  Bare-root hostas and astible predominantly, though you can just see the creeping jenny that overwintered in a hanging planter on the top right (creeping jenny has turned out to be just about unkillable in my garden):

 

I can't say yet if I'm going to like this area or not.  I'm planning impatiens in any blank spots for all the containers and we still have to put the grill back.  In a month or so I should be happier:

There is much work still to do.  Including locating and probably transplanting all the perennial herbs like this woolly thyme:

Finally cleaning up the vegetable garden and prepping containers for new plantings:

And the biggest job of all...assembling the new shed, which VPH and I are both dreading.  It's in this box (now covered by a weighed down tarp), the foundation is in a box in our kitchen and its anticipated location will be the site of the current ripped shed at the back of the garden:

Our plan is to assemble the foundation on the gravel patio, get an accurate measurement and then build a simple gravel base surrounded by 2x4s just like the gravel patio, build the shed on our nice level concrete patio, and then move it to its final location (which will hopefully be level).  This will be our most ambitious plan to date and you can clearly see why we're not excited about doing it.  It may quite possibly be put on hold until SS2 comes home from college and can help out.

FINALLY, I'VE GOT SOMETHING THAT ISN'T JUST GREEN

The zucchini are blooming, but so far only the female flowers.  I see a few male flowers about to pop, but I have a feeling the female ones may be done by then:

I didn't realize that the Brandywine Pink tomatoes had such unusual blossoms:

No tomatoes on these plants yet, but lots of blossoms:

The Endless Summer hydrangea flowers are blue!!! 

The lettuce basket bolted before we even had a chance to harvest any, but at least it's pretty:

I cut back the sweet basil, purple basil, lemon basil, and cinnamon basil in a few of the baskets.  I wrapped the sweet basil in a damp paper towel and stuck it in the fridge, but I'm experimenting with drying the others.  Some rosemary and thyme are also on the table (and some lupine from my friend Mary from which I plan to save seed):

The sweet basil in the container I'll be calling "leftovers" is thriving.  I'm hoping that the cucumber plant grows considerably in the next week because it's got a bunch of little cucumbers and flowers already:

I know you're all dying to see the completely assembled chairs, footstools, and table in place: 

And yes, they are just as comfortable to sit in as they look.

THAT GOOD KIND OF TIRED

I got so much accomplished over the past 2 days.  Marked off of the To Do List:

• Plant astible in container and find a shady home for it

• Transplant the Red Peter peppers, chives, basils, and one lonely cucumber seedling into larger containers

First up the astible's new home:

Can you see it just in front of the large blue stone in the middle of the photo?

Think it's time for me to get this cucumber seedling planted?

It, the chives, and the sweet basil found a home in this container:

So you can see how big that freaking pot is (I almost fell over when I tried to lift it and carry it over to this spot): 

The Brandywine Pink tomatoes -- one in its new home so you can see the difference (I tore off the bottom few sets of leaves and buried more of the stalk in the new pot):

BTW, those "decorative" containers didn't have drainage holes, so I used a pair of scissors to put 4 drainage holes in each one.  I'm calling this my wall o' plants:

Remember the dahlia man, Dave?  He gave me a call and said he had several live dahlias (not roots waiting to sprout) that he wasn't going to be using and it wasn't too late to plant them.  So my friend Mary and I headed over to his beautiful garden.  He's just the most generous man...my share of the bounty:

My very first dahlia bud (on the plant in back of the row of Dave's latest gifts above): 

Only one of the passalong dahlia roots from Mary had thrived here and the little rose plant was a goner, so 4 of Dave's dahlias went into pots in the wildflower patch:

One replaced a rotten one in the row next to the cellar stairs (not pictured).  And the last one went into the other pretty container I brought home this week next to its larger twin:

Had I mentioned that my cherry tomato plants are covered in bird shit?  The guilty party:

The first cucumber male and female blossoms -- I can already taste cucumber! 

The eggplant blossoms are just so pretty: 

I gave the eggplant a small tomato cage for support:

If I were naming my photos I would call this one anticipation.  Look at all those buds on the zucchini.  They better hurry up because I killed my first cucumber beetle on this plant yesterday so I'm afraid its days are numbered: 

I got the Red Peter pepper seedlings into the hanging baskets:

But I forgot that I still had to install the hanger for the 4th one on the post above the zucchini.  I better go plug in my cordless drill battery charger now while I'm thinking of it: 

If you look closely at the base of the fence post in the photo above, you may notice that when VPH and I were cleaning up the garden this spring we left an interesting looking seedling to grow in the mulch because we both wanted to see what it was.  I didn't know until it flowered, but I'm pretty sure it's self-seeded chamomile from the hanging herb basket that hung from this post for a month or so last summer:  

Chigiy, would you like to identify this flower in the wildflower patch for me too?  It's a showstopper: 

Oh, and in case you're a really observant reader and wondered where the cinnamon basil seedlings went...I stuck them in with the purple hyacinth beans, which would grow up this trellis leaving the container looking kind of bare if I didn't put something else in there:  

Now VPH and I are going to laze around on the patio today since there's really not that much left on the to do list...certainly nothing that can't wait a day or two!

I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE BROKEN THIS INTO 2 POSTS

But since I haven't posted much lately, you're going to get it all.  VPH had promised our neighbor (whose fence is the one that figures so prominently in our garden) that he would move the huge leaf pile in the bastard garden off of the fence.  Said neighbor thought the weight of the leaves was pushing his fence over.  VPH and I disagreed about the weight issue, but I agreed that the leaves should be moved away from the fence.  In addition to moving the leaves about a foot away from the fence, VPH cleared the area next to the shed where we're planning to build a leaf bin with chicken wire and wood posts:

Along with the trunks of 4 Christmas trees past, VPH dug out this pile of trash including a jump rope, and yes, he thought it was a snake too:

Still protecting VPH's anonymity, but I was impressed with how dirty and sweaty he got back there: 

I wasn't sitting around on my hands while he worked.  I started off the day by taking down the greenhouse.  VPH has since weeded this whole area so it looks even nicer now than when I took this photo:

Then I went to work on the wildflower patch.  I just found out that Dame's Rocket has been deemed an invasive plant in CT and is banned.  Didn't know that when I scattered the mixed seed it was in over a year ago.  And I've seen it growing along the road around the corner, so I'm not too worried about it, but the blooms had faded, so I chopped them down (and left VPH a nice pile to shred for the compost):

I'm happy to report that some other flowers are blooming in the wildflower patch and it doesn't look that bad from the right angle:

When I started gardening that day this bud in the wildflower patch looked like this:

And by the time I finished it looked like this:

I love how this same flower looked next to it when I started:

And at the end of the day -- it almost looks like a different flower:

Then I attacked the herb barrel with my Felco pruners and scalped the chives, parsley, and thyme:

Did you know that if you stick freshly cut cilantro in a glass of water, it will stay fresh?  Did you know that you can freeze freshly cut chives and thyme without any prep and they'll come out of their freezer bags practically fresh?  Well that's what I read anyway, I'll let you know if it actually works:

The zinnias have buds at last:

The morning glories are finally taking off:

The hydrangea is showing definite signs of blue flowers:

Now we can turn our attention to the veggie garden.  I've got teeny tiny little tomatoes forming on the Sweet 100 cherry tomato:

And the Husky cherry tomato (or did I confuse the photos?): 

The Kentucky Wonder beans are doing great despite being nearly hidden from view by the zucchini.  I guess I'm doing the 3 sisters, but substituting the fence for corn:

This little guy startled me as I was trying to photograph pea blossoms:

I did manage to photograph the snow pea blossoms too: 

The peas are taking their sweet time and the Brandywine Pink tomatoes are making a break from their temporary containers, so I had to come up with a different plan:

These pea containers will instead be home to our second planting of carrots and I went out and bought 2 more containers for the tomatoes and I swear I will transplant them tomorrow or Friday at the very latest.  They'll all live together here on the sunny edge of the gravel patio:

Speaking of the carrots...they're out of control:

They got so big so fast that I couldn't resist pulling one out to see if they were actually carrots yet.  They are!  Little tiny carrots, but oh so tasty:

The whole veggie garden on Tuesday:

I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but we've been getting lots of downpours lately and after the last one, the cucumber and the Royal Purple Bush beans were a little on the floppy side.  I will use the wooden trellis from the peas for the cucumber and the bush beans weren't supposed to need staking, but bamboo and Velcro garden ties to the rescue:

And here's a handy little tip for you.  If you're using your very sharp Felco pruners to cut Velcro strips and you suddenly meet resistance, that's your hand.  At least my blood matched the handle (and in case you were worried, it was a minor cut that isn't even showing signs of infection despite my dirty hands when it happened and the fact that I kept working):

Along with the 2 new plastic containers I picked up for the tomatoes, I bought this gorgeous astible.  And it was begging for a new pot, so why not buy 3?  The plant was only $6 and all 3 glazed pots came to $41 -- how could I not buy them:

I don't have specific plans for the other 2, but I do still have this whole tray of seedlings to plant up:

And a potting table of other random plants needing a home:

We also rescued these purple rhododendrons from the red dot shelf at Home Depot -- 50% off of $6.99 each.  One will go next to the shed in front of the leaf bin, maybe 2.  The other might be squeezed into the rock-bordered bed of hosta and 1 pink rhododendron near the patio:

So there is my ridiculously long post on everything we've been up to so far this week.  If it ever stops raining long enough to let the seedling tray dry out enough for me to work with the plants I will be able to do some actual gardening.  Weeding is so boring!

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!

THAT LIST IS GOING DOWN

It was a red letter day in Heather's Garden -- my vegetable garden is done!  And I crossed two more things off the To Do List:

-Transplant zucchini/plant nasturtiums

-Transplant cucumbers/plant nasturtiums

I was shocked when I pulled the zucchini out of the seed tray -- look at the roots on those things:

Here's the other container with the nasturtium seed packet.  I planted seeds in four spots in each container:

I was not as impressed with the roots on the cucumber seedlings and I expect 1 or more to fail so I planted all 4 seedlings together in the middle of the container.  Nasturtium seeds were planted in three locations around the edge:

I wasn't happy with the way that the peas were growing anywhere but up the bamboo poles and I had been trying to come up a better system.  The problem with growing peas in containers is that anything that is narrow enough to fit into the pot isn't tall enough.  The wooden trellis was perfectly sized, but the posts were too thick for the peas to wrap around:

I stumbled across these metal wire trellises for $5 each and I jumped all over them:

I would have pulled the wooden trellis out, but it was good and stuck:

The Little Marvel peas are living up to the little part of their name, but they got new trellises too just in case there is a growth explosion:

Now I only have to wait on the Red Peter peppers and the Brandywine Pink tomatoes to get big enough to plant (which could be another month).  But basically the vegetable garden is the way it's going to be for the summer.  Woo-hoo!

I've been resisting giving into my favorite addiction -- buying herb plants.  I'm growing 2 different kinds of basil from seed and I have chives, oregano, spearmint, and sage that successfully overwintered, so I really don't need that many new ones, but I want them all!  I've been pretty good about walking past a small container of basil for $4.00, but when I found this sage for $1.89 and the 4 basils and 1 thyme below for a total -- that's a total -- of $4.19, I couldn't resist.  I'm pretty sure that the basil in the back row labeled Purple Ruffles is in fact African Blue (I'm 100% sure it's not Purple Ruffles), but for $.79 I didn't mind not knowing exactly what it is:   

Those six herbs join the rosemary, thyme, and actual Purple Ruffles that I couldn't resist buying already.  I have to plant up the herb barrel and I intend to do a hanging herb basket like I did last year, but I'm still mulling over what I want to plant where:

When we were cleaning up the garden last month I didn't feel like trying to separate the Goldilocks (Lysimachia nummularia) from the dead stuff in the container so I just handed the whole thing to VPH for the bastard garden.  Well it's thriving back there and I'm going to ask him to fish it out for me.  I think it will look great split in half and wedged into the planter table:

So you can see how the shade hanging basket up high on that tree is completely at the correct height when viewed through my very dirty living room window:

I gardened on Monday from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.  Remember that 7:00 pm end time.  I was cleaning up and putting away my tools when I heard a sound to my right.  I half turned to see which birds were attacking the feeder now and saw a big furry animal.  Wow, that's a big cat I thought quickly and then screamed when I realized that it was a raccoon about 8 feet from me.  It ran parallel to me along the fence towards the potting table and our cars in the driveway.  I carefully made my way to the front door checking to make sure it wasn't hiding under the steps waiting to bite my ankles and told VPH the raccoon was back.  I grabbed my cell phone to call the non-emergency line for the police and took some photos of the raccoon sneaking into my neighbor's yard from the safety of my front steps:

Did you note the BRIGHT sunlight that the raccoon is walking straight towards?  It was 7:00pm -- way before dusk.  The police asked if it was foaming at the mouth?  No.  Staggering around and tripping over its own legs?  No.  Do you know where it is now?  No, it ran into my neighbor's yard and I lost sight of it.  Well if you see it again during the day give us a call and we'll come down.  I can totally see me chasing the raccoon down the road telling the police dispatcher, "Now we're turning north on Main Street."

You can bet I'm not going outside without my cell phone in my pocket any time after 4:00 pm.

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?

NONSENSE ABOUT ME

Over 3 inches of rain on Monday:

I have peas (there are Sugar Snap as well):

Gina tagged me to answer a few questions and it's pouring rain, so here you have it:

What was I doing 10 years ago?

Getting ready for my rapidly approaching wedding in mid-June.  I was such a basket case that I actually slapped VPH across the face -- in public, in front of the kids -- when I felt like he wasn't being helpful enough.  Luckily he married me anyway and nothing like that has ever happened again!  He also started helping a lot more.  Now explain to me how my 10th wedding anniversary and my youngest step-son's high school graduation are falling on the same evening.

My to-do list/What I actually did

For today?  Go to work/went to work.  It's still raining and cold, so not much else on the docket.  Left to accomplish in the garden...don't get me started.

Snacks I enjoy

A better question would be which snacks do I not enjoy?!  My go to snack is cheese -- really good cheese -- smoked Gouda, a French triple cream, Havarti with dill, or a really sharp Cheddar.  YUM!  I'm also partial to Ruffles with ridges and Philly whipped cream cheese with chives (mostly when I'm drunk).  And every woman needs a good chocolate fix at least once a month -- I love Kit Kats, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and Godiva chocolates -- but no coconut.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire

I would quit working and finish my undergraduate degree, but on-line so I could travel while I did it.  I'd give the 2 non-profits I work with huge sums of money instead of my time like I currently do.  I'd buy a beautiful new house with lots of land and garden the hell out of it.  But I would want to spend ridiculously large sums of money on hardscaping.

3 bad habits

Being a lazy bum with a fat ass.  I'm constantly running late and driving too fast to get everywhere on time.  I procrastinate like nobody's business.  Everything gets done on time, but not until the last minute.  Ironically, most people don't know this about me -- I have a former boss who swears I'm not lazy and never procrastinate and I worked for her for 5 and 1/2 years -- though she would attest to me being a few minutes late every morning.

5 places I've lived

Great Falls, MT; Southington, CT; Ashford, CT; New Haven, CT; Guilford, CT; Storrs, CT; Branford, CT; but I've also spent considerable time over the years at my dad's houses at the time in MA, WA, AZ; and my mom's homes in Ft. Myers, FL and Marco Island, FL

5 jobs I've had

-Nanny -- which is hilarious if you know how much I dislike spending long periods of time with small children unless they're super well-behaved and fricking adorable.

-Kitchen helper/babysitter/Girl Friday for a really wealthy woman in the town I grew up in during summers in high school and college -- which is hysterical if you know that I don't cook, still dislike children, and am lazy.

-Administrative Clerk -- I have no idea what it is either.  It was the job I got through a temp agency when I dropped of out college.  Essentially I was the back-up for the receptionist.  Yes, the back-up for the receptionist.

-Executive Assistant to the CEO of a major manufacturer of stationery, shaving, and lighter products.  I'm sure you can figure out what company it was, but I'm not saying.   And how I got that job without a college degree and ended up spending 2 weeks in Paris during it is a whole post in itself.

-Office Manager for a 2 person office currently camping out in a sister subsidiary company's office which has its own office manager, so I don't really have an office to manage.

5 people who have interesting blogs that I'd like to tag (feel free not to participate -- no pressure)

Layanee at Ledge and Gardens

Kim at A Study in Contrasts (though I suspect Kim won't participate since she hasn't been posting often lately)

Genie at The Inadvertent Gardener

Michelle at My Grandpa's Garden (she'll probably make me tear up like she does when she writes about her grandpa)

Chris at Notes From the Trenches (She's really busy with 7 kids, and may not have time to do this, but she's a great writer and hysterically funny, so if she does, it will be worth reading!)

NOT SO LAZY SUNDAY

It was really cold and cloudy yesterday -- just 55 degrees.  I hemmed and hawed and whined, but bottom line we took Saturday off and there was garden stuff that had to get done.  First up I had to get that spearmint divided and back into pots.  I split it in half and put half back into the original pot.  Then I split the other half in two and put it into 2 smaller clay pots:

I've been planning for a while to empty out the large herb barrel.  If you're a long time reader, you'll remember that I screwed up and put heavy garden soil and a little potting soil in the barrel last year.  It never drained very well and most herbs like dryish soil.  So the chives had to come out.  I gave them a little haircut first and then realized the clump could easily be divided:

These pots are temporary -- just waiting for VPH to empty the barrel for me before I start a new herb garden.  I love that there are a bunch of buds on the chives already:

Excuse me while I have a ball photographing the chives:

The lavender is staying in this pot for good:

The parsley will hang here for a little while:

I decided to use the mid-sized pot I bought on Saturday for the 3 bleeding hearts I had hanging around.  I cut a piece off a screen from the gazebo to help the soil stay in the pot:

Last year I planted a bleeding heart in the perennial shade garden (pardon the native plants, I've been waiting for it to rain before I weed and put down fresh mulch), but it died not long after.  I read that bleeding hearts die off in the summer heat, hence the pot.  If these don't do well, I'm going to find something else to plant in that spot: 

I'm happy with this, in fact, I think the pot looks really pretty there...I'm just anxious for the fern to grow large enough to be visible:

I finally got around to drilling holes in the new metal garbage can.  Now we can start a new compost bin in it and let the other one finish turning into black gold.  I'm hoping that it will be ready in time to use on our tomatoes.  Now I just need to remember to pick up a bungee cord to hook from handle to handle through the lid handle:

I did sneak in a little work on Saturday after our walk.  I took down the dead bean vines from last year and the netting from the fence.  This is the last portion of the garden where VPH needs to clear leaves.  He also needs to find the bag of lime in the basement and get it down on the lawn.  And someone needs to weed over here -- any volunteers?  Not one of my favorite tasks:

We're supposed to have 2 days of rain -- for which I am very grateful after 2 weeks of none at all -- so I don't anticipate getting much done in the early part of this week.

The to do list is rapidly shrinking.  I keep telling VPH if we just get a little done each day we'll be finished before we know it.  I haven't told him that we'll never really finish, but I think he's already figured it out!

AND I CALL MYSELF A GARDENER

I know there are beginner gardeners, master gardeners, vegetable gardeners, herb gardeners, etc., but today I met my first show flower gardeners.  Remember last weekend VPH and I took a walk and I mentioned photographing an amazing garden on our route?  Well we walked that way again today and the homeowners were outside working the garden.  Since all gardeners are friendly people and love to receive praise, I shouted out "You have the most beautiful garden." 

Dave and Dottie were as friendly and lovely as can be and gave me permission to post about their garden.  This is the first view of their property as you approach it from the direction in which I live:

Big empty dirt area with poles, what could this be for?  If I give you a hint do you think you can figure it out?  In the summer all of the poles have clear plastic umbrellas on them.  Dave and Dottie grow show dahlias: 

But the rest of their garden is just lovely, even a week ago before they had finished bringing out the plants they overwinter in the basement: 

Talk about focal points:

They have about 1500 daffodils and 500 lilies (which will be up next -- you can bet I'll bring you photos):

Dottie told me that they cover this beautiful heather with burlap over the winter.  I so want to sit on that bench:

The reverse view of the garden from how we approached.  See the pipes from their gutters?  Today large rainbarrels were connected to each one.  VPH was fascinated by this setup.  Unfortunately the rental house we live in doesn't have gutters.  So while I envied just about everything in their garden, VPH envied their gutters:

This is their side yard after you turn the corner:

Dave took my phone number and said he'd call me when they have dahlia roots in a few weeks.  He said he's always looking for people to take them.  Apparently I can grow dahlias in containers. 

Which brings me to what I purchased today: 

Aren't they gorgeous?  The big one was $14, the middle $8 and the smallest $4.  So that's $26 for 3 pots and they're not small.  That's a full-size 2-person bench in back of them.  I almost want to go back and get more.  I'm not sure what's going in them or where they're going, but I had to buy them.

Back to our walk...

We continued up the side street by Dave and Dottie's house, which eventually loops back around to our house indirectly.  I had never been up this street and boy was I missing something.  First I saw this:

Then we got closer and went wow!  There's so much going on here.  You must click to enlarge the photo and look up on the hill to the left.  Can you see the telescope and chairs?

This is about when I noticed a woman sitting on the steps of the house across the street.  I turned and said to her, "Nice of them to plant all of that for you to look at."  Turns out she was the homeowner and extremely talented gardener resting on her neighbor's porch for a moment.  Kathy gave me permission to post about her garden and said if I got a good photo she'd love it if I would email it to her.  I sent along the photos, but I'm not sure if I captured how beautiful her garden is:

She promised me a close-up tour another time (I think she noticed VPH was a little bored with me talking to strangers) and I took one last shot -- a little bit closer now that I had permission:

We headed for home with one last pause for photographs.  This large vegetable garden is around the corner and down a hill from our house.  He got his peas in about 2 weeks before me:

I'm going to keep a close eye on his progress and base the rest of my plantings on his schedule.  He's been gardening this patch for all 10 years that we've lived in the neighborhood (and many before that I'd imagine) so he must know the climate better than I do:

I'm afraid today's post will be all about other people's gardens -- VPH asked for and received a garden reprieve today and rain is forecast for tomorrow morning.  Added to that, it appears that this week we'll be lucky to hit 60 daily, so maybe I'll just let things have a chance to develop without me hovering like a nervous mama for a little while.

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.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

It was so beautiful today that we just had to go for a walk this afternoon.  Our neighbor across the street has the nicest lawn on the block.  He has a garden in back, but I've never had the courage to take him up on his offer to go over and pick zucchini and cucumbers whenever I feel like it.  But his forsythia bush is screaming spring at us as we walk out the front door daily:

We walked a different route today, one that I've never taken on foot before (except during a big snowstorm one winter when the roads were awful and we were dying for eggs).  I couldn't believe how beautiful these trees were.  It's a little tough in the photo to see the huge magnolia in the background, but it was the largest I've ever seen:

The 10 houses before this one and the 10 after are big lawns and foundation plantings, so this one sticks out -- in a good way.  I imagine a sweet old lady has lived in this house forever and she loves her spring flowers like she does her cats:

There's one thing from our walk that I couldn't show you.  There's an amazing garden -- and I mean amazing -- that we passed by.  I took photos from the sidewalk, but the garden is obviously the resident's pride and joy and I wouldn't feel right posting about it without asking permission first.  I plan to walk down again tomorrow, so hopefully I'll catch the homeowner out and about and be able to share its beauty with you.

Back from our walk now...I picked up these clay pots (25 of various sizes) from my next-door-neighbor when he had a tag sale at the end of the summer for $3.00.  I'm having a wonderful time deciding what to plant in them:

And yes, you spotted the last bag of that horrible Miracle Gro potting mix in the above photo.  I'll use it for non-edible plants, like the sunflowers I plan to grow in those 6 large pots.  I know they may be kind of small, but it's an experiment.  In case you're wondering what I'm using for potting soil this year, purchased for the ungodly sum of $15.99 a bag at the good gardening center, I present:

And for fertilizer...I finally found WORM POOP!  It was at Home Depot of all places.  I even got lawn fertilizer so the weed and feed is officially not being used this spring (but maybe in the fall).  Genie will be so proud:

VPH spent all day yesterday cleaning up the few leaves he missed in the fall.  He is such a trooper.  Now I just have to weed the perennial shade garden and put down fresh mulch.  I also purchased 3 bleeding hearts to plant in here -- just above the 3rd rock from the bottom:

VPH also did some work on the wildflower patch.  Note the wire fence on the patio that will go in front of the patch to try and keep the flowers from flopping over onto the patio:

See why this area is problematic for me?  It's all coming in very sparsely.  And I wasn't that fond of the out of control flop over in the rain and general chaos last year: 

I've got two options here --

1.) Leave it be for a month and see what develops.  If I don't like what I see, I think we're going to rip it all out and put in a perennial flower garden, even bulbs for early spring development next year.

2.) Use the perennial wildflower seed and poppy seed I have to fill in the blank spots and live with the chaos for another year.

I'm definitely leaning towards option 1.

VPH also cleared the leaves from the perimeter of the yard exposing the day lilies:

And you know how much fun he has playing in the bastard garden!  He pulled all the garbage out of the ground and piled it to the left and pushed the yard debris pile back against the fence.  He plans to put grass seed on the bare ground and do a dump run soon:

 

My forsythia bush and the weeds in full bloom.  You can't even see the bed with hostas and the rhododendron in front of the fence: 

The opposite side of the forsythia, cause I'm just digging on it:

In case you were wondering why we let the poison ivy grow out of the stump -- it's for privacy:

The lights from the gazebo are going up on Freecycle:

I've been cleaning up the veggie garden bit by bit.  When I went to tidy up the trellis planter that had tomatoes in it, I found a little surprise.  At one point last year I had planted garlic in a row in front of the tomatoes.  It didn't do well and I ended up pulling them all, or so I thought!  I can't believe one survived to stand tall front and center:

You have to look really, really, really close to find new growth on the oregano, but it's there:

We have big plans for tomorrow.  Planting the rest of the seeds, building trellises, finishing the garden clean-up, over-seeding the lawn in time for Sunday's rain, etc.  What will you be doing in your garden this weekend?

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!