Heather's Garden

ONLY A MONTH OR SO LATE

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

The hosta/rhododendron bed looks great:

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

  

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

 

The veggie garden on May 16th:

 

On July 9th:

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

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

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

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

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

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

We have teeny tiny eggplants growing:

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

OKAY, DON'T LAUGH

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

  

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

  

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Some of the scads of lilies:

 

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

 

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

 

But the bees were loving them:

 

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

WHAT A TEAM!

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Some really pink impatiens in the blank spots here:

 

White in this one:

 

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

 

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

And that is it!  The table is clear:

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

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

IT SMELLS LIKE SUMMER

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

And the first plum tomatoes:

 

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

 

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

 

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

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.

#@$^@$# THING STRUCK AGAIN

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

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

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

 

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

 

And man, those radishes do pop up quickly:

 

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

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!

WASN'T IT SUPPOSED TO BE APRIL SHOWERS?

Despite a brief break in the rain today (which was nice, but frustrating because I couldn't garden), we expect two more days of this:

 

But the rain's bringing great growth all around, even the bare-root astibles are finally doing something in the containers on the shady side of the house:

 

Saturday's supposed to be nice, but we have to go move SS2 home for the summer.  I am spending all of Mother's Day in the garden!

WRITING THIS WITH THE WINDOWS OPEN

And I can't tell you how much I'm loving it!  It's been absolutely glorious here since Friday.  I'm starting to get tan!  More importantly, I have completed garden clean-up and I've got a nice blank canvas ready for planting:

 

And VPH mowed the lawn/marsh marigolds:

And cleaned up the patio (I cleared out the herb barrel saving any perennial herbs that survived the winter):

All the better to enjoy our awesome bulb border:

And the pretty marsh marigolds in bloom until the leaves on the trees fill in and they die:

I'm so loving the tulips (now appearing in yellow and orange):

That I can't stop photographing them:

I find it so peaceful sitting on the patio staring at this border, listening to the wind chimes, and watching the grasses move in the wind.  I wanted to share the experience with you, so I've uploaded a short video here.

Someone still has to weed this bed, though you can see that the hostas have come back, and the fence is down.  The reed fence we bought was too see-through and we won't be using it.  I think we're just going to have to deal with seeing the neighbors since we can already hear them:

In the perennial shade garden I've got bleeding hearts:

 

And fiddle-heads:

 

VPH has lots and lots of stuff to cut into small pieces for compost:

 

The grill is back in its proper location, but I can't get over how different the space feels without those 3 trees.  Granted, the leaves and brush haven't filled in yet and the marsh marigolds have yet to die:

 

But just compare it to what it used to look like:

Much bigger now, no? 

I just watched the weather for Tuesday, 80s at home, 90s at the office (62 miles north).  This is just odd for CT in April.  Then we're back down to the 60s (normal for this time of year) on Wednesday and hopefully then I won't feel so much like I'm behind on my gardening.

BEFORE MY ARMS GET SO STIFF I CAN'T TYPE

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

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

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

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

 

First VPH vacuumed up the leaves for me:

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

The forsythia is in full bloom:

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

The Branford fern is all fiddle-heads: 

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

STILL NOT A LOT OF GARDENING GOING ON HERE

But at least we're taking advantage of the cold, rainy April weather to do our spring cleaning.  I'm firmly convinced that if we never had company our house would be a shit-hole, since the only time we reallyclean (more than dusting and vacuuming) is when people are coming over. 

VPH's ex-in-laws are joining us for Easter dinner on Sunday.  Think about that for a moment.  VPH's ex-wife's parents are coming to our house for Easter dinner.  I thought step-son #2 (who now lives with us full-time when he's not at college and will henceforth be known as SS2) would enjoy having them and when I ran it by VPH he actually agreed.  I quite like them, so I think it will be a lovely gathering. 

However, it's thrown VPH into a whole new level of anxiety about the state of the house.  His former mother-in-law has incredibly high standards and he's freaking out about the possibility of her taking one look at our home and saying SS2 is no longer allowed to live in these conditions.  Add to that her reputation as a fantastic cook and you can see why he's a little nervous about making a lamb/mashed potato/asparagus meal for her.  He's really being silly, but he does have something of a point because I don't think we've thoroughly cleaned since last summer. 

Last night I finally got around to hanging the prints I submitted to the photography exhibit.  Three 11x14 frames from Walmart did the trick (gotta love $5 frames):

 

You can see the stacks of DVDs on top of the entertainment center (placed there after they were opened on Christmas day) and the general mess on the kitchen table.  But the most important thing is that my photos are finally up!

I did take a quick walk outside to see what was going on out there.  The daffodils are about to open:

You can even see the day lilies poking up in the background.  I really must clean up this garden.

The hostas are all coming up now (even the one in the large container that was missing last week has joined the party).  I have the tiniest little fiddle-heads of the Branford fern just appearing and today I found astible:

 

Which I'm particularly excited about because I was pretty sure we had killed it last year by transplanting it twice.

What's joining the garden party in your area?

WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK

1. If I wait long enough flowers will come:

And they will be gorgeous:

 

2.) At night crocuses close their little blooms and sleep:  

3.) Bleeding hearts will successfully overwinter in a container:

 

4.) As will heuchera (though there's no sign of the hosta that should still be in this container):

 

Look at those adorable little leaves:

 

The hosta in the perennial shade garden is starting to pop out:

 

At this point in the day (Tuesday) I had gone inside and thought I was done taking photos.  Then I heard a ruckus outside and looked out the window to find:

 

And out the front door:

Yup, after 11 years of promising, the landlord finally arranged to have 3 trees taken down along the house:

 

I went out to run errands and escape the noise, but before I left I asked the nice tree men to leave me level stumps so I could put containers on top of them.  They certainly left a mess: 

 

5.) Tree men (or at least these tree men) don't quite understand the term "level":

 

Now before you get all excited that I'll be able to plant anything not specifically for shade, there's still plenty of tree canopy:

VPH says he's going to feel a little exposed grilling over here now:

 

But I've already started buying containers to fill the void: 

 

I can't wait until it looks like this again (last May):

It was nice enough outside today that I really felt guilty for not spending the day cleaning up the garden, but I just couldn't find the motivation.  Soon.

IT STARTED OUT RAINY

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

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

The sunflowers also provide endless opportunities to photograph bees: 

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

The micro-mini is going strong:

I like how they look as they age: 

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

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

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

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

I could stare at poppies all day:

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

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

The hostas are blooming:

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

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

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

This may be October 2009's photo: 

 

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

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

THE LITTLE THINGS

As in the little things that make me happy.  First up today...VPH and I went out to the garden to take a look around.  I walked back to the gravel patio and VPH trailed behind.  He suddenly said, "Don't make any noise and turn around slowly."  I anticipated a snake in the grass or something, but what did I see?  A bird -- in the birdbath!  And I even got a photo:

I've been spending a lot of time staring at the wildflower patch.  I'm dying to know what this one is:

One of its buds on Wednesday: 

The same one on Thursday (about 24 hours later).  Help!  Kim, you're good at this game.  What is this?

This is a huge poppy and I can't wait to see it bloom because it will be the first one this year:

The pink clover isn't my favorite thing in the wildflower patch (in fact it's a volunteer), but it's better than bare ground and this spider sure liked it: 

Again, I have not a clue what this is, but I enjoyed using my macro setting to get really close:

So you can see 1.) how dirty my thumbnail is, and 2.) how little the flower is: 

I think it's cool that when it rains a drop of water sits in the middle of the lupine leaves for hours:

I hope that when these 4-foot tall plants bloom I will be able to figure out what they are: 

 

Shifting away from the wildflowers and the many questions they raise...to veggies.  I think the peas will be replaced by carrots before the beginning of July:

I totally ate the peas in the nice fat pod below.  Next year more Little Marvels or other pod peas, fewer snow peas, and planted much earlier:

I was trying to get a picture of the tiny thorns on this zucchini leaf, but it didn't work.  I liked the photo though:

This is really exciting...our first eggplant:

The morning glories are climbing about 2-3 inches each day.  I don't know what will happen when they run out of trellis:

The hanging baskets on the shady side of the house aren't looking great.  This is by far the most attractive one of the bunch:

The Bay State Angel dahlia is about to bloom: 

This photo is already 30 hours old, so it should be any time now: 

The zinnias are showing signs of flowers coming any day now:

I was trying to illustrate that my tiger lilies are a good week or two behind all the others in the neighborhood (darn my shady garden), but this strange looking insect wouldn't go away.  Anyone know what it is?

 

Did you notice that there were a lot of "little things" pictured in this post?

THAT GOOD KIND OF TIRED

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

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

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

First up the astible's new home:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The eggplant blossoms are just so pretty: 

I gave the eggplant a small tomato cage for support:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MY BUMPER CROP

Before I start this post, I want to remind you that we rent this house.  And I'm not sure why I'm so in love with squares and straight lines, but there's hardly a curve to been seen in my garden.

This month on Gardening Gone Wild the Garden Blogger's Design Workshop topic is "Stone in the Garden."  I live in New England and as anyone who gardens in New England knows, our bumper crop is stone.  Strangely, most of the stone in my garden was imported, but maybe that's because I do most of my gardening in containers.  Actually stone got me started on this gardening adventure.  You can read more about that in my very first post here.  The walkway that started it all:

I have no idea why that huge slab of bluestone is where it is, but since we couldn't move it if we wanted to, there it will sit.  The beautiful rocks covering the bottom of the ugly concrete stairs were found all around the yard.  Our across the street neighbor's retaining wall is completely made of these stones too:

A view of the perennial shade garden from the ugly concrete steps.  There are 5 large stones between the plants in this garden because I thought they were beautiful.  Some are flat on the ground, some are standing up on end like monoliths.  The river of rocks on the right is to keep the hillside from washing onto the sidewalk.  It runs the length of the sidewalk and the concrete patio and so far it's working:

More of the river of rocks and the large stone where the IPOD Bose player sits when we're hanging out on the patio:

If you were to look up to the right here you would see the rhododendron/hosta bed surrounded with rocks that we found as we cleaned up the garden and started digging holes to plant.  I used large stones in front and smaller ones in back:

Now I know this post is supposed to be about natural stone, but even though the retaining wall is made of formed concrete blocks, I really like it.  Most of the stones in the perennial shade garden used to be in a first stab at a retaining wall in the same spot, but the concrete block just works so much better for such an extreme grade change.  Plus we don't have gutters on the house (more on that later), so there's often a river running down the mulch towards the wildflower patch:

On the other side of the wildflower patch I used some of the blue river rocks to create a border between the grass and patch.  You can also see the stone circle holding the mulch around the hydrangea (all of these were found as VPH dug holes to plant last year):

The opposite view reveals my solution to the house not having gutters.  All the water runs off the roof onto the row of river pebbles I put down.  Amazingly, this actually works pretty well.  And look how happy the sunflowers are:

We used to spend a lot of time walking from the little shed to the patio, so we put down a path of bluestones.  The fifth stone down is a large flat stone that VPH dug up from somewhere in the yard and moved to here.  The huge bluestone serving as a lintel for the shed was purchased and put down without sand under it which explains why it is now in 4 pieces -- my fault, not VPH's:

The path from the concrete patio to the pea gravel patio looks like stone.  But it's not!  It's plastic stepping stones.  They were so easy, we just placed them over what grass there was and they stay put because they have a plastic grid underneath to grab the ground.  VPH mows right over them.  I did poke a little hole in one wearing spiky heels, but I don't think anyone else has noticed.  When they wear out we will replace them with more bluestone: 

So you can see how it all works together:

These huge slabs of bluestone used to separate an asphalt parking space in front from the 2 dirt parking spaces.  Now they make a nice transition point from driveway to garden.  Note the 2 pieces of blue stone in front of the shower.  They feel really nice under bare feet instead of gravel: 

The gravel in the area next to the house is so much nicer than the dirt we used to have here.  Almost time for that greenhouse to go to the basement:

And last we have our strange front steps.  The bluestone slabs are beautiful, but they're propped up on cinder blocks and they're not even close to level:

I'd like to fix this, but remember we don't own this property and I'm not sure what we could use instead of cinder blocks to hold these up.  I'm not even sure we could move the stone to try to level it!

Do you have a lot of stone in your garden?

I'VE BEEN A BAD GIRL

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

The first bean sprout is a Royal Purple bush bean:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The reverse angle:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DON'T WORRY, I'M STILL HERE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ya think I needed to thin the carrots?:

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

HELLO STRANGERS

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

To Do List

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

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

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

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

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

20 minutes later:

 

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

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

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

The plant labels for my records:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Purple Bell pepper:

Big Early Bell pepper:

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

Ichiban eggplant:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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?

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!

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?

R.I.P. GAZEBO

Do you think it's a problem that I tell a lot of stuff to R.I.P. here?  On Monday afternoon VPH and younger step-son (both home due to April school vacation) helped me to disassemble the gazebo.  If you're wondering why we would disassemble the gazebo you obviously missed this post. 

The table's wet because it was covered in rusty water and sludge, so VPH cleaned it off.  When the gazebo collapsed, it gouged the table pretty good.  I'm trying not to let it bother me:

I didn't win the pergola on Ebay, and I'm not sure what to do.  I think a large umbrella might do the trick, but I really want a pergola.  The guy in NJ selling the previous pergola just put another up for auction, so I emailed him and asked if he has more and would he be willing to sell me one directly.  We'll see what he says.  But the poor table and chairs look so lonely now and it's sure not a garden room anymore:

I was right, the top of the gazebo is a good size for throwing over the firepit table.  After it dries off I'll clean it up and seal the hole in the middle:

I spotted a flash of blue off in the distance while the men did the heavy labor:

I've never seen these out there before, but this is the first year that the yard hasn't been completely covered in leaves come spring.  Can one of you knowledgeable readers identify these flowers for me?  [The answer was scilla siberica.]

They're not too far away from the day lilies, which VPH has promised not to mow this year now that we know they're there.  I suspect this portion of the yard was once a pretty little garden:

And most exciting of all -- I've got hostas in the perennial shade garden:

Both are looking good so far:

I have to admit that I squealed in delight when I brushed away the leaves to find actual plants growing.  Tax Day will be all about finishing the garden clean-up and getting my seeds started.

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?

THE IN BETWEEN TIME

I ventured outside last night and took a brief, depressing walk around the yard.  I see tons of weeds sprouting up all over the place, but no sign of my perennial shade garden.

I actually had to go back into my photos to verify there were plants there in September and it wasn't my imagination:

Elizabeth described what I'm feeling so much better than I could in her post today.  She wrote:

It may seem odd to admit to this, but every spring at around this time, I begin to wonder if my garden will completely fail to appear.

This is my first year waiting to see if the garden will reappear and I'm not handling it well at all.  Elizabeth further wrote:

At times like these, I begin to wonder what I could do if the garden really were gone beyond recovery. I guess there would need to be a major spending spree.

This actually brought me back to reality a little bit.  Most of my garden is annuals because vegetables and most herbs in this zone are annuals.  Shortly after I planted the garden last year I lost 2 of the plants in the shade perennial garden to some sort of pest:

 

So worst case scenario I'm only looking at replacing 2 hostas and a fern -- I can handle that.  I'll do a real post soon on the state of things outside -- there are some positives out there (like buds on the Endless Summer hydrangea).

Until then I will close the same way as Elizabeth did...with the last of the bulbs I'm forcing inside.  Would you believe that the paperwhite in the blue pot is finally growing?  I know I didn't:

In addition to the hyacinth above I've got one stinking up the bathroom in a good way:

I pulled another hyacinth bulb from under the counter, but it lost all of its roots in the transfer from container to forcing glass and it hasn't shown any growth since it moved into the light.  I even had to throw a stone in there to make sure it doesn't fall into the glass.  Note the long root floating in the water on the right:

Now there are five bulbs left under the counter, but I'm not sure if any of them will fare better than the one above:

I hate this time in between winter and spring.  It's almost warm enough that I feel like I should be out there gardening, but still cold enough that I don't want to be.  I guess I could be good like Layanee and start cleaning up, but I don't want to!

How do you handle the in between time? 

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.

ODDS AND ENDS (literally)

Once again, today I'm using all the photos I took Monday morning and gutting out a post.  I'm kind of enjoying the challenge.  First up -- the odds.

VPH has been pulling things out of the dirt again:

My best guess is that it's 1950s or so:

A Christmas ornament?:

Now to the ends, not really ends, but what else goes with odds?  Evens?  Nope, makes less sense.

VPH found this tomato on the ground beneath one of the plants.  Let's hope it continues to ripen on the window sill.  It's too pretty not to eat:

The second bell pepper is red on the side that sees the sun, but green on the other side.  I think we're going to have take it off the plant and expose the other side to some sunlight:

I can't wait to see what the habaneros will look like fully ripe:

I can't believe how quickly the beans are growing:

I have 100% germination on the snow peas beneath the Eiffel Tower:

Remember Ashley's rose?  It's doing great, lots of blooms and new growth.  I hope it survives the winter.  I bought a little greenhouse thing which I'm hoping will help keep the plants in containers from freezing solid and give me a jump on seedlings in the spring.  Or it might not work at all and everything will die, it was only $35 so my expectations are low.  And I may make VPH bury a bunch of containers for me.  Can you tell the weather has taken a fall-like turn?  Anyway, the lovely rose:

I still need to do a post on the shady side of the house and the shade garden, but it's really tough to capture with no sunlight over there.  The transplanted fern is on a rock in the middle of the photo below.  The blank spot in front of it used to be my lovely bleeding heart which some animal decided didn't belong there: 

I suspect neighborhood cats.  That same animal has also attacked the heucherella "foamy bells," but they seem to be made of sterner stuff and bounced back pretty well:

A close up of where the bleeding heart used to be and some lovely mushrooms that have come up instead:

Okay, I cheated.  Did you catch it?  I used all the photos from Monday, but the last two were from August 12th.  Hey, I needed them to fill out the story.

And that's the end of that post.

WEEKEND RECAP

Continuing to think about how I and others write our garden blogs, today I'm going to use all the photos I took this weekend and see if I can come up with a coherent post.

I'm still trying to show the scale of the yard.  Can you see VPH roasting himself on the far right? 

The reverse angle from the driveway just past VPH:

I like this slightly different view of the vegetable garden since I rarely walk to the back of the garden to look at it:

VPH can't stop telling me that the geranium is blooming in the bastard garden:

Speaking of plants growing where they are clearly unloved...this fern popped up in the gravel driveway, and I need one for the shade garden, so I'm hoping it will thrive now that I've rescued it:

I'm pretty sure that there's too much fertilizer in the stupid Miracle Gro potting soil, so I'm worried that the fern will suffer the same problems as the previously thriving beans seem to be:

The peppers are doing great -- one red bell pepper harvested:

It's been sitting on the window sill since Saturday and now it's completely red.  Two of the habaneros are showing signs of ripening like this one:

On a completely different topic...mom wanted to know how the hyacinth beans were doing:

Loving the purple there and loving the purple here:

This is hidden in the wildflowers.  Way on the bottom left of this photo (but I can't see it):

I love the sunflower front and center of the above photo:

And since we're on the topic of loving...VPH loves me and we both love the dish that he made us Saturday night.  We're trying to come up with interesting ways to eat our tomatoes -- I know, nice problem to have.   He made a lovely rigatoni with fresh tomato and basil -- yum!

So what do you think -- okay post for such random photos?

APPARENTLY I LIKE PURPLE AND GREEN TOGETHER

I noticed on Sunday that I have a bit of a color combo going on in the garden: purple and green.  Kim at A Study in Contrasts also likes purple in her garden.  She's a lot more adventurous in her plant selection and a much more knowledgeable gardener than I am! 

In a post earlier this month Layanee at Ledge and Gardens asked her readers if they had any echo color combinations in their gardens.  I guess I do.

I never get tired of looking at this herb basket and I'm hoping you don't either:

This basket of petunias smells almost as good as it looks:

My most recent combo:

Many of the flowers in the herb barrel are purple:

The purple hyacinth beans will be spectacularly purple and green (they're a subdued purple and green now):

I've managed to turn the hydrangea into a pale purple and green combo (though not intentionally):

Mary's passalong hostas are blooming:

Purple cosmos abound in the wildflower patch:

 

It's looking pretty bad now, but when the heather was in bloom it was awesomely purple:

The teacup planters are all about green and purple:

I wonder what else I will end up planting that's purple and green?  Any suggestions?

Our First Garden Dinner Party

I put this whole post together complete with photos, spell-checked, and then accidentally closed the window and lost the whole thing -- UGH!

Take 2:

We have the loveliest friends.  We had 2 couples over for dinner on Saturday night.  One couple, Mary and Jeff, are very experienced gardeners so I welcomed their sage advice, though I was frightened that they would identify something that we were doing completely incorrectly and we would look like utter fools.  All the gardeners that I have met have been the nicest, most helpful, generous, friendly people and Mary and Jeff are no exception.  The hostas in this bed are passalongs from them earlier in the season and they promptly started making a list of more plants that they could give us now that they've seen the garden in person:

VPH grilled lamb marinated in wine and a mixture of herbs from our own garden, potatoes in foil again with our own herbs, and our first 2 full-size zucchini seasoned with our own oregano:

Mary thought that the impatiens were getting too much sun (and this photo is from a week ago, most of the leaves have now turned yellow and fallen off):

Today they moved over to the shady side of the house in the hopes that they'll improve over there, though I have my doubts as to whether they'll survive with so little sun.

Replacing them are these cute calibrachoa (hot pink, white, and light pink) hanging planters:

Doesn't this look like the outside of an adorable little bistro?  VPH loves having his coffee out here.  One of his favorite spots to sit is on the bench watching me putter away at the potting table directly opposite it.

The other couple who joined us for dinner, Ashley and Ken, have been doing a ton of work in their yard.  Their house is on a wooded sloped lot and they have cleared a bunch of trees and built really cool raised beds around the house planted with hostas and other shade-loving plants.  Unlike us they actually own the property that they're slaving over and I'm awed by what they've done so far.

They brought us the cutest little rose bush, which is an awesome gift because I've really been wanting one.  The snow peas that are no longer producing vacated the green pot and the roses went right in today.  For some reason the white roses were glowing in the dusk and I must have been really shaky because I couldn't get a non-blurred close-up.

I'm joining Green Thumb Sunday, so here's my first official post:

 

 

For more information about Green Thumb Sunday visit As the Garden Grows.

I've read that if you say thank you for a gift plant it won't survive, so Ashley and Ken, you know what I'm thinking!

It is so nice to share the garden with friends and I hope we do it again soon!