Heather's Garden

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.

OUCH

Every part of me is sore.  It's been so long since I could work in the garden for 2 days in a row.  I think I might have over done it just a bit.  But I got a ton done.  Not exactly what I set out to do, but all things that needed to be done.  First -- finally planting that box up!  I drilled large holes in the bottom of the box, put some large pieces of styrofoam in the bottom (didn't need to fill the whole box with soil, it's huge!), lined it with a large garbage bag (I cut big holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage), and trimmed the bag down to a few inches below the top:

 

I love it:

 

Those are ornamental edible peppers in the middle and clockwise from oneish: purple sage, silver edge thyme, Italian parsley, golden sage, Italian large leaf basil, and cilantro delfino:

 

I'm so happy with how it looks and hopefully it will be part of my garden for a long time:

 

I did a little work on the herb barrel too.  I cut back the chives hard, moved the creeping thyme over a little, relocated the nasturtium to the other side of the barrel (which will be its 3rd home) and added a golden sage: 

 

On the very left is the variegated pineapple mint (replacing the old spearmint which never thrived this year), front and center is French tarragon (I can already taste the yummy chicken salad), purple sage on the right, fernleaf dill went in with the ones I grew from seed, and more Italian large leaf basil in the back row (the other pots in case you don't remember hold rosemary, lavender, and lemon thyme):

 

I made zero changes to this container, but if the hot & spicy oregano doesn't do some growing soon I may direct sow some basil in the blank spot:

 

But look how the golden oregano is thriving here:

 

I have a few half-planted containers sitting by needing just a little more soil, some seedlings to get into larger pots, and then just this little bit left to plant:

My plan is to have this table empty of plants by Friday.  Wish me luck!

I JUST CAN'T RESIST A SALE

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

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

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

 

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

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

To look like this:

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

Or a more interesting composition:

 

Do let me know what you think.

OVERHEARD

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

"Oh, yes it is." 

Well my heart swelled. 

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

 

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

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

There's nightshade in the bastard garden:

The hydrangea:

Which is just loving this weather:

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

How's your garden surviving the deluge?

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.

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.

A MARAUDER!

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

  

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

 

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

 

You can't even see them from below:

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

I'm quite pleased:

 

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

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

 

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

THREE PEOPLE GET A LOT MORE DONE THAN JUST ONE

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Lilac bell peppers:

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

But at least my potting table is nicely organized:

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

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

 

Sweet basil, Purple Ruffles basil, and Cinnamon basil:

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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!

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.

TGIF Because Tomorrow I Garden

It's been a hell of a work week -- I spent the whole week prepping for a meeting that got postponed after I sent out materials for it at 5:30pm today.  Oh well, it's not wasted work because the meeting will still take place, I just don't know when. 

The few minutes I did spend outside on Thursday were a welcome respite.  I'm so pleased with how strongly the heuchera in this container is coming back.  I'm thinking a nice torenia for that empty spot:

 

At least one of the bare-root astibles is growing nicely:

 

The patio garden is everything that I had hoped it would be:

 

The double daffodils are finally blooming as the singles fade, and there's all hues and shades of tulips now:

 

This weekend will be all about gardening.  A trip to North Guilford Nurseries and transplanting all the herbs that successfully overwintered (including the bee balm from Layanee which I still haven't found a home for...I'm afraid that it would take over the herb barrel, so I'm thinking a nice container of its own):

 

I don't think the seedlings are getting enough light on the kitchen table and not that our evenings are warm enough, they'll be going out to the little greenhouse (VPH promised to get the shelves and cover from the basement for me tomorrow morning):

 

But oh the promise of all that basil:

 

I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt again!

THIS WILL BE SHOCKING...

But there are actual plants growing in my garden!  You have to keep a sharp eye out in order to spot them though:

Did you see the chives under all that dead lemon grass:

The chives that I grew from my mom's seeds last year are coming back too.  I was surprised to see these though because they never exactly thrived last year (please note the gravel in the pot from VPH's enthusiastic snow shoveling of the driveway this winter):

 

 Deep in the heart of this dried, sad-looking mess:

 

The oregano is looking pretty good:

 

I'm really excited to see the bleeding hearts in the container in the perennial shade garden coming back.  I wasn't at all sure that they would survive the brutal winter in that medium-sized planter: 

 

Now what the heck are these things?  I'll be watching closely to see what they develop into:

 

There are lots of them:

 

It's getting a little bit warmer out there.  Another 10 degrees and I'll be happy to get into the garden and do some much needed clean-up.  And I'm thinking strongly of planting peas in the ground along the base of the house where I grew sunflowers in pots last year.  I'd like to get that done this weekend to be sort of close to the traditional St. Patrick's Day planting date.

CREEPY!

On this last day of September there are too many signs of the rapid approach of Halloween in my garden:

 

That's a morning glory leaf the spider's hiding beneath:

 

It's a beautiful web:

 

This is some of the last planting I'll do this year.  Rhododendron 'Purple Gem' and creeping jenny in matching containers flanking the front door (don't you love the slope of our parking area?):

 

This is hysterical...I clipped some basil and left it in water in a container on the kitchen table.  For weeks we grabbed from it as needed until one day I noticed that roots had developed on the stalks beneath the water.  Well I wanted some to grow in the kitchen over the winter, so I potted up 3 stalks:

 

The large vegetable garden around the corner is looking pretty sad:

 

Their zinnias are large, but they just scream fall to me: 

 

Crafty people must drive by and covet those drying cornstalks:

 

Are the signs of autumn in your garden throwing you into a fall funk like me?

SO WHAT'S IT LIKE WORKING FROM HOME, HEATHER?

On a slow summer day my office is:

Please note the cell phone and home phone on the table so I'm always reachable.  I know, you still hate me.  In my defense, there have been few of these slow days this summer.  Most days I'm inside all day on the couch with the laptop typing away.  I look up and suddenly it's 4pm and the sun is gone from our shady garden. 

My co-workers:

I had to go back and look at a photo of this same container just after planting on May 29th:

This is a close up of the mystery basil.  It has short stubby purple buds with white flowers.  Really pretty:

Whereas the opal basil has tall, spiky, dark purple stalks with light purple flowers (different container):

This is the sweet basil that I grew from seed.  I've taken 3 large harvests from it already, and I expect to get one, maybe two more:

Now that the cucumbers are dead, the nasturtiums are thriving:

The Red Peter peppers aren't red yet, but VPH reports that they are quite hot (and my work colleague fears for any man whose peter looks like that): 

These tomatoes are slated for fresh mozz, tomato, and basil salad for the picnic we will be attending on Saturday: 

Have any zucchini buds ever been so eagerly rooted on?

The volunteer tomatoes are out of control, but I'm really rather enjoying seeing what will happen (yeah, I'll probably tie them up tomorrow):

The veggie garden's not looking too bad overall though it's really been feeling like fall here lately with beautiful days just under 80 and nights dropping to the low 60s: 

VPH says this is what San Diego feels like.  If so, sign me up! 

STATUS QUO

I've been having trouble getting motivated to post.  I don't really have anything to say about gardening...because there's not much gardening going on around here these days.  We're still harvesting a decent amount of tomatoes, eggplants, purple peppers and beans (though no beans today):

But I sincerely doubt there will be any more zucchini or cucumbers from our garden (this was Thursday, it's even worse now): 

I'll just have to live for the promise of more tomatoes:

 

I have plenty of herbs:

And enough lemon grass to "feed Thailand" according to VPH:

Speaking of feeding...I think we've finally found a recipe that helped me to enjoy eggplant.  I present ratatouille:

We sprinkled a little fresh grated Parmesan cheese on top and scooped up the yummy melted cheese and juices from the bottom of the bowl with fresh bread.  Our last zucchini, our own tomatoes, purple peppers, eggplants, and basil went into the dish along with store bought onions, garlic, and olive oil.  I gotta say yum.  The eggplant wasn't as cloyingly sweet mixed up with all the other veggies.  I'm blogging with a lovely aftertaste in my mouth.

VPH very sweetly prepared a B meal in case the eggplant once again threw me off.  The bread was the above mentioned scooper and the rest will be tomorrow's lunch:

Ratatouille left me dying for a frittata so tomorrow night VPH will make those yummy potatoes on the grill and Thursday will be a frittata.  Now I just have to go beg a zucchini from my neighbors.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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!

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!

JUST A TASTE

I had to hold the camera down to the ground to get you a shot of the fern coming up.  I'm giddy, in fact I'm having trouble keeping a smile off of my face:

The creeping jenny I crammed into a pot instead of composting it with all the dead plants from the container in which it overwintered:

The Endless Summer hydrangea is developing really nicely, the grass...not so much:

The oregano is now visible to the naked eye:

No time to write more, but figured I should post on Earth Day.

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!

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

First the worst news -- I had to cancel my trip to Logee's with Layanee again.  Stupid job with stupid responsibilities.  We have been driven to actually talking about going on a Saturday, or as Layanee calls it gardenday, so you know we're desperate to finally have our Northeastern Spring Fling.

This will be my second year gardening and my first spring to see what may or may not have overwintered successfully.  It's not all bad news.  But really, spring isn't quite here yet.  The forsythia isn't all that exciting:

And you know it's not really spring until the forsythia blooms.

Sadly the lawn isn't looking that good:

We always have a bumper crop of glass -- yes I said gLass.  Seriously, even when the lawn comes back (we're putting down a weed and feed as soon as we get 2 clear days in a row and then overseeding a month later), every time it rains you can look out and see the sun shining off the freshly exposed glass:

What little green you do see is this as to yet unidentified weed -- HELP ME PLEASE.  We'll have little yellow flowers blooming on this "native plant"  all over the garden soon.  I can tell you that when it dries out and the leaves come in on the trees (throwing most of the garden into shade) this plant is less prevalent:

The vinca is poking up through those weeds and even flowering:

I need your advice.  In the fall I sucked up all the leaves on the wildflower patch with the leaf blower into the bag (see Elizabeth's entertaining product review for if not my exact leafblower, a remarkably similar model) and then emptied the chipped leaves -- and hopefully any seeds I accidentally grabbed -- back onto the patch.  More leaves blew in from neighbors' yards and we had a pretty dry winter so these leaves didn't decompose quite as much as I thought they would:

Here's a closer view so you can see that wildflowers (and native plants) are poking up through the shredded leaves:

What should I do?  I don't think I can pull all the chipped leaves out without disturbing seeds and/or seedlings.  My thought is that this happens in nature too, so maybe I should just leave it be and see what is strong enough to poke it's way through like this little guy:

What do you think?  These guys are coming up just fine near the retaining wall:

I can't tell you how excited I am about this one -- the Endless Summer hydrangea is covered in new growth:

VPH is equally pleased to see that his rhododendron is present and thriving (though it appears that something has munched on a few of the leaves):

I think it's time to prune the rose plant which I'm pleasantly surprised made it through the winter in its not overly large container and very exposed to the winter elements spot:

My mom gave me a Van Wilgens gift certificate for Christmas and I think tomorrow she's buying me part of my first pair of Felco pruners.  I can also use them to cut back some of the dead stuff in the herb barrel.  The chives overwintered beautifully:

The parsley is looking good:

Only the tips of the lavender are soft and green.  Is this how they grow?

On the other hand the rosemary looks like a stick stuck in the dirt (but it still smells like rosemary).  It's kind of tough to see with the backdrop of dead lemon grass.  I was kind of hoping the lemongrass had overwintered, but if some green shoots do show up I'm not sticking them in my mouth like Kim:

The thyme is looking pretty sad:

Or is it?  Take a closer look at the base of the plant:

I love this adorable little green leaf on the sage (and I'm pretty fond of this photo -- maybe it will be April 2009?):

I have to admit I'm feeling a little more motivated to get out there and do some weeding and clean up. 

Please help me identify that native plant.  I think it may be dollarweed, but I'm not sure.  It has rhizomes, so no matter how much I pull each spring, it keeps coming back.  I've kind of decided I'm not too upset about it.  At least it's green and it flowers.

And tell me if you think the wildflower patch will be fine under those shredded leaves.  Or if that's a terrible idea, what should I do?

CONTENT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL READERS

Be forewarned.  This is going to be ugly, well some of it is.

Remember the gazebo?  July 18, 2007:

VPH and I distinctly recall reading in the assembly directions a particularly stern warning to remove the roof for the winter in areas prone to snow, but where the heck were we going to store it?  Plus we're on the CT shoreline, we really don't get a lot of snow. 

Are you prepared?  Really, this is going to be ugly.  The snow didn't do this:

It was the ice.  In early December we had an ice storm dump 3-4 inches of ice on everything that stuck around for weeks.  The poor gazebo just couldn't handle it.  I suspect that even without the roof on the frame would have crumpled under the weight of the ice.  As an aside, with the exception of that ice storm, we didn't get a storm that required salt or shoveling again until February.  And even that only stuck around for a few days.  All in all this isn't much of a loss.  Turns out we only zipped it closed twice and it wasn't all that effective when we did.  It did make the gravel patio into a distinct outdoor room though. 

I have no idea how we're going to get the thing apart.  It was a bitch to assemble in the first place -- thank goodness younger step-son is over 6 feet tall.  I know what you're asking me through the computer screen, "But can't you fix it?"  Nope, it's a goner.  The flimsy metal supports are completely bent (some in half).  My plan is to recycle as much of it as I can.  I want to use the screens to line the bottom of large planters to keep the potting soil from escaping and the corner trellises as -- you guessed it -- trellises.  I can probably fashion the waterproof roof into a cover for the firewood and/or firepit table and use the rest to patch the holes in the pop-up sheds (from the inside of course, aesthetics are important).  And I can use the unbent poles, if there are any, as plant stakes. 

We will probably still need a structure on the gravel patio to create an "outdoor room," so I'm thinking pergola.  I don't like the white prefabricated ones that are for sale at my local wholesale club and I don't want to spend $2,500+ for someone to put up a real wood one for me.  DIY would be lovely, but the only thing VPH can fix is lunch and while I'm handy, I'm too scared to use a circular saw or watch VPH try.  Also, remember we're in a rental, we've already splurged by putting in 2 patios.  I found a prefab pergola on Ebay that isn't butt ugly (I think it was formerly available at Sam's Club):

So I bid on one in NJ that I can pick up for less than the approximately $200 shipping they would charge.  We'll see. 

So you may have noticed that I got super lazy in the fall and didn't do a proper garden clean-up (I know you saw the dead tomato plants still in place in the photo of the dead gazebo above).  As long as I'm airing my dirty laundry I might as well go all out.  I knew there was a chance that the contents of the ceramic planters would freeze and they would crack.  I should have emptied them all or at least flipped them upside down for the winter, but I didn't.  Most survived the winter just fine, but the cheap teacup planters from Christmas Tree Shops bit it during the ice storm that took out the gazebo:

But the spearmint on the potting table is fine and is even showing signs of life:

The last casualty of the ice storm that I noticed today was the clock.  The thermometer arrived broken (it's hard to read below, but it registered 70 degrees and it was barely 50 as I took these photos.  It is now permanently 9:30 and 20 degrees hotter than it really is.  I still like the way they look even if they don't work:

So if I'm actually going to split this massive amount of work into manageable pieces my first task should be to complete the fall clean-up and clear the dead plants and used (possibly diseased in some cases) potting soil out of the containers (not to mention all the dead plants out of the hanging baskets and the Christmas Wreath off my front door):

Next up some of the things that are actually growing in my garden.  But feel free to confess in the comments about what you lost over the winter by not preparing properly for cold weather.

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

I've been gone from GTS for over a month -- sorry!   There hasn't been much gardening going on around here lately.  In fact, we still haven't done our fall clean-up and Thanksgiving is less than a week away! 

Most of the garden died off in a killing frost a week ago, but amazingly this rose plant just keeps going:

And I always thought roses were fragile plants.

Just to illustrate the death and decay here's the herb basket with dead basils (though the sage and thymes are holding their own):

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

THE HERB PROJECT

I was supposed to be working from home until Friday and I had all sorts of projects planned, but of course, my CEO decided to come down and work from our office this week and there went my schedule.  Oh well, it is my job to be there so I really can't complain -- though I want to!

This has actually worked out well because given more time to ponder it, I've decided not to undertake one of the projects that I had on the list.  I had planned to rip out the flowers growing over the top of the retaining wall (plus the dead heather, which I did finally pull out this afternoon) and replace them with the perennial herbs that I already have.  I had envisioned the 3 varieties of thyme trailing over the retaining wall and the oregano, rosemary, and lavender in the ground on the corner.  Then next spring I would complete the corner garden with annual herbs like basil, dill, and the like.  From what I've read, the mint and chives should weather the winter in containers, and you know I'm not planting that mint in the ground!

As I pondered this project I dug up some old photos to compare to current ones of the plants and locations in question. 

June 11th:

September 13th: 

Here's the herb garden on July 1st:

And on September 16th:

The herb basket 1o minutes after planting on June 28th:

September 14th:

Quite a few things occurred to me as I examined these photos:

1. I've lost some plants -- the heather and chamomile -- but for the most part things are thriving. 

2. I love my herb garden and basket and really don't want to tear them apart.

3. It would be a pain to dig up those calibrochoa and replant them and they look great where they are.

4. It will cost less than $25 to buy seedlings in the spring to replace the perennial herbs that may or may not die over the winter if they are not planted in the ground.

So I'm leaving things as they are.  When we get our first frost warning I will probably break up the herb basket into individual containers and put them in the little greenhouse to try and lengthen the season, but I think I'll let the 1/2 barrel stay as is and see what happens.  According to VPH the almanac is calling for a mild winter in our area, but already the days and nights are much cooler and I'm missing summer! 

LEST YOU THINK VPH DOES ALL THE COOKING

Remember the poor dill plant that fell over?

Well the bent stems didn't magically pop back up -- shocker I know -- so I trimmed off the broken parts yesterday morning.  I had a bunch of fresh dill and it was time for Sunday brunch, which is known as Big Breakfast in our household -- I'm surrounded by tough men who would never dream of eating "brunch."

VPH threw the bacon in the oven and we were off.  We highly recommend this method for crispy bacon and no grease all over your kitchen -- use cooling racks over baking sheets in a 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, flipping after 10 minutes.  VPH and younger step-son like their eggs sunny-side up and I like scrambled bouncy.  I'm very particular about my scrambled eggs and decided a long time ago that it was just easier for me to make them myself.  Elder step-son usually eats scrambled eggs with me, but he's back at college, so I knew I could throw fresh dill into my eggs without complaint about green stuff in his food. 

Eggs, fresh dill, and a dash of 2% milk into a small frying pan already holding melted butter:

VPH is left-handed and I'm right-handed so we can cook eggs at the same time:

They were awesome:

Yeah, I like my bacon just short of burnt.  I followed this up with a toasted English muffin with butter and strawberry preserves.  I wish I could eat breakfast like that every day!

At the very least I have eaten a meal containing fresh dill that I grew from seed once this year, so I'm a happy girl.  And you now know that I can scramble eggs and toast an English muffin so you don't need to worry about me starving if VPH can't cook for me anymore.

MORE FUN WITH PHOTOS

Yesterday I took 15 good photos and today I give you a post containing all of them.  I do so enjoy doing this.

I noticed something didn't quite look right on the snow peas in the center of the photo below (click to enlarge):

With the macro setting on my camera you can see what appear to be lots of little eggs.  Anybody know what kind of insect might leave these behind?:

UPDATE: I found this this evening:

It was a lot more attractive before the worms hatched.  I still don't know what they are -- some sort of inchworm?

I trimmed out the section with the rest of the eggs and threw it onto the grass just in case these little guys are something awesome, but I sure don't want them on my peas. 

I love this photo of the vegetable jungle (what I'm calling this section of the garden these days).  You can see habaneros on the bottom, tomatoes on the top, and bean blossoms just to the right of the tomatoes:

I realize after taking a closer look at this plant and it's companion on the other side of the tomato plants that I'm going to get another couple of strings of habaneros:

There were spiders all over the place.  This one was particularly colorful:

Take note of these native plants growing behind the shed:

Because they are all over the wildflower patch as well: 

I wondered if they came from the wildflower seed or if they snuck in on their own, so I did a little research and found out that these flowers are the Asiatic Dayflower.  Incidentally, I love this great gallery of CT wildflowers from the Connecticut Botanical Society.  You can sort by flower color -- so helpful!  I still don't know if this particular flower came in the W-Mart can of wildflower seed that I used to fill in the blank spots in the wildflower patch, but it's pretty, so I don't care!  The same goes for the flower below, the only one of its kind in the wildflower patch and so far unidentified -- a little help anyone?

The cosmos are so 3-D!

I don't think this sunflower bud is going to turn into a bloom, but I'll let you know if it proves me wrong:

Can anyone identify this plant -- I have two in the wildflower patch:

I had never seen a green florescent bee before, so I hastily took some photos -- this is the only one that wasn't completely blurred:

My plan is to transplant these flowers to the 1/2 herb barrel and then put herbs in here tomorrow:

Yesterday morning VPH called me outside with "We've got an emergency out here."  I think I need to train him on what actually constitutes an emergency though.  The dill did some how get knocked over and 2 stems were snapped and the rest bent, but hey, it's only dill and it will probably bounce back.  I'm more impressed that the ceramic pot didn't shatter or even chip on the concrete patio:

Just to show that the original annual plantings aren't doing too bad:

   

There you go, 15 photos, one day, one post.  Lots of gardening still to do.  Wish me luck!

THIS JUST IN (updated)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There's something new on the pot rack tonight:

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

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

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

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

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

Friday evening around 5:00pm I sat on the patio reading the latest issue of People Magazine (subscribing is my guilty pleasure) and I happened to look to my left at the herb garden in the 1/2 barrel.  Wow -- have to photograph that:

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

THE SHADY SIDE OF THE HOUSE

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

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

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

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

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

The ugly tomato moved to the bastard garden:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And they totally ignore this one just feet away:

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

This one's a little blurry:

 

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

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

WHAT MAKES MY YARD A GARDEN?

I had to start with this photo:

It has nothing to do with this post, but 1.) I love it; and 2.) Some people won't read a post that looks like it may be all text and no photos.  Stick with it folks, there will be more photos below.

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Sometimes I call my collection of plants in the area around our house a garden and sometimes I call it a yard.  What's the difference?

I love dictionary.com.  Some of the many definitions that they list for yard:

1. The ground that immediately adjoins or surrounds a house, public building, or other structure.

2. An enclosed area outdoors, often paved and surrounded by or adjacent to a building; court.

3. An outdoor enclosure designed for the exercise of students, inmates, etc.: a prison yard.

4. An outdoor space surrounded by a group of buildings, as on a college campus.

9. A piece of ground set aside for cultivation; garden; field.

10. The winter pasture or browsing ground of moose and deer.

Okay, the moose and deer definition has nothing to do with the question at hand, but it made me laugh.

The first three definitions listed for garden:

1. A plot of ground, usually near a house, where flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, or herbs are cultivated.

2. A piece of ground or other space, commonly with ornamental plants, trees, etc., used as a park or other public recreation area: a public garden.

3. A fertile and delightful spot or region.

I often feel as though my humble attempt at growing things on purpose doesn't deserve the lofty title of garden.  A garden requires planning, structure, and knowledge (all in short supply at my house).  But if you go strictly by the first definition for a garden, my collection of plants most certainly qualifies as a garden.  Notice they don't specify success in cultivation as a necessary component.

I've been experiencing some rather disheartening events in the garden (see how quickly I've adopted that term).  My sage appears to have powdery mildew:

Does anyone have any good suggestions for how to get rid of it?  Keep in mind this is an edible plant and I'd prefer not to ingest chemicals.

The cute little fern that I transplanted from the driveway has been eaten:

Heather's Garden is now without heather (the brown spot at the bottom center is all that remains of my beautiful plant):

The wildflower patch is sort of straggly at this point.  I'm not sure if I can deal with this much disorder for another year (though it does look better since I cut down the really tall non-blooming cosmos):

The spiders are taking over the vegetable garden:

Most of the annuals in the planter (especially the pentas) are dead or dying:

But for all the failures there are at least two successes.  Two of the cilantro seeds have sprouted:

And I'm amazed, but the basil that the june bugs were having so much fun eating is bouncing back:

Please do comment with suggestions for getting rid of the powdery mildew on the sage.  Or let me know I'm wrong and it's not powdery mildew and I don't need to worry about it!

BLATANT RIP OFF

Layanee's post yesterday inspired me.  Since I'm mostly gardening in containers it was a lot easier for me to photograph my plants from underneath.  By the time I get home from work the sun has long left the yard behind, so I didn't experiment too much.

A basil jungle:

Purple basil and golden sage:

Celosia:

More celosia (which I don't think I will ever grow again):

I just stuck the camera in the center of the plants near the bottom and shot.  I'm pretty happy with how this turned out and I think I'll do more of it when I have better light.

Today's harvest included beans at last.  But how do you know when they're ready?  Notice the size difference amongst the 4 that I did pick:

Like I said yesterday, we're dying to turn our extra tomatoes into salsa that we can freeze, so I picked the habanero at the first sign of changing color and I hope that a day on the windowsill will do the trick.  Not that we need it to be ripe.  I think they'll still be really hot green.

The 3 not so attractive tomatoes above are from this plant:

So I can finally pull it and dump the awful soil which created ugly tomato plant, rinse the container with a bleach solution, and plant something else in there.  Any suggestions?  We found that we didn't eat the lettuce that we grew in the spring and I've got lots of beans and peas going already.