Heather's Garden

VPH'S BIG DAY

Careful readers will already know that I've pretty much made up my mind to get rid of the wildflower patch.  But making that decision and actually pulling out the plants are altogether different.  Every time I went out to the patio the ever expanding wildflower patch threatened to attack:

 

It was so bad here that you couldn't sit in the chairs at the table: 

 

So I asked VPH to pull it out while I was at work the other day.  He started by pulling out the birdbath (could the bowl be any nastier?):

 

Despite lots of pouring rain, VPH, as usual, got the job done: 

So now I have this space that is 15 feet wide and almost 5 feet deep.  I'm thinking perennial flower garden.  My friend Mary has a bunch of day-lilies already dug up waiting for a home.  I have that bee balm from Layanee, an astible that really wants to be out of the pot it's currently in, and then I'm thinking I'll invest in a bunch of perennial grasses along the back of the bed to hide the ugly foundation (note how the stucco follows the old pitch of the yard) and allow me to reach all the way into the bed to weed:

VPH is so good that when I came home I found this...the last of the wildflowers:

And this...ratatouille with our own tomatoes, eggplant, and red pepper (only store-bought zucchini): 

  

He's such a good husband!

CHOW'S ON

I'm having a very busy week, so I'm not spending much time in the garden, but I did find a few minutes to take some photos tonight.  The wildflower patch is as chaotic as ever:

VPH told me this morning that he'd make me fresh mozz, tomato and basil for dinner and asked me if I could go outside and pick some tomatoes.  I was in a rush so I said, you can do it, honey, I trust you to pick tomatoes.  I called him this afternoon during my hour commute home to touch base and he reported that he had purchased 2 tomatoes for me at the store because he "didn't see any that were ready to pick," but I could look when I got home.  Seriously?  This evening's harvest (and what will most likely be the last zucchini we grow this year):

That's our first Brandywine Pink on the right above.  I can see why he might not have realized it was ready to pick, but what's his reasoning on the others? 

Because the momentous first heirloom tomato grown in our garden requires its own photo: 

All sliced up for my supper (and one of the little Early Girls to round out the right side of the plate) -- and yes, it was freaking awesome: 

VPH did make himself a big batch of pesto today:

He also used the leftover corn from Monday's dinner to make his world famous corn salad.  He tossed in a little bit of one of our purple peppers, so there was one home-grown ingredient on the plate to make it blog-worthy.  That's leftover barbecue chicken which is pretty darn fantastic too: 

What did you have for supper?

TOMATO LOVING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Royal Purple Bush beans have the prettiest blossoms: 

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

 

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

A nice shot of the wildflower patch last week:

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

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

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

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

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

And the Bay State Angel is covered in white blooms:

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

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

Suggestions?  Advice?

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?

HAPPY FOURTH! Yes, I'm completely aware that it's July 7th

I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but the weekend got away from me.  This post was started late on July 4th and then I blinked and it was Monday.  These photos date from July 2-7.  On the 2nd I spotted this creature which makes gardeners everywhere shake in their Crocs...a Japanese beetle:

Just the one hanging out on my zinnias.  I haven't seen anymore since and the damage on the zinnias isn't too bad:

Remember how I was trying to decide if I should leave the Asiatic dayflowers in the wildflower patch?  I couldn't take it anymore and weeded like mad (foot included for scale):

It looks a lot better:

And there are only a few thin spots: 

I'd be really grateful if a helpful reader identified these flowers in the wildflower patch:

This one is just because I just think they're so pretty:

I took about 30 macro setting shots of this tiny bee and only got one decent one (VPH said this could be a calendar shot):

Unfortunately I have had plenty of opportunities to photograph cucumber beetles:

None of these pretty blossoms have led to cucumbers yet and I'm getting impatient: 

The basil in the "leftovers" container is taking off, but the addition of a trellis for the cucumber has not yielded the desired result:

Some of the veggies are thriving though.  The Royal Purple Bush beans are getting some size and color: 

The Husky cherry tomato plant has tons of fruit, but nary a sign of ripening tomatoes: 

However, the Brandywine Pink tomatoes are finally setting fruit: 

Veggie garden early on July 4th:

Now it's not nearly the size of Carol's or Compostings' gardens, but I'm pretty proud of my weeding job (note that the volunteer tomatoes around the left-hand trellis container remain because we want to see what will happen):

Last, but certainly not least, our first real harvest on July 4th:

The carrots and zucchini were the featured veggies in our crudite and were declared "awesome" by all as we celebrated our country's independence the traditional way--with hot dogs, hamburgers, and potato salad.  Hope you all had a great holiday weekend! 

OH HAPPY DAY

Stuck in your head?  It is in mine.  Anyhoo...look at what I've got (you're not drunk, it's a little out of focus...well maybe you are drunk, but I had a martini tonight, so I'm a little drunk...it's still out of focus):

So you know your eyes are working correctly I present the other zucchini quickly reaching mammoth proportions: 

And this is all in spite of the cucumber beetles chewing the bejesus out of the leaves (you know I smashed it to bits after taking the photo): 

The eggplants are disturbingly phallic: 

Wait, so are the Royal Purple Bush beans: 

Swiftly changing topics...we harvested all the sugar snap peas tonight:

And some of the carrots: 

And VPH cooked up this Chinese salmon with veggies over rice -- you have no idea how delicious it was:

The zinnias are starting to bloom, but I'm a little disappointed by how small the flowers are:

I was distracted by these two grackles foraging in the lawn: 

But then I quickly refocused and took a photo of the rapidly improving wildflower patch: 

While I was doing that, this little guy visited the birdbath: 

And then rested on the hook holding a wind chime in the upper left side of the photo to dry off:

The moral of this story, don't have a martini before trying to write a post -- it's so much more difficult.

 

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!

I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE BROKEN THIS INTO 2 POSTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And by the time I finished it looked like this:

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

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

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

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

The zinnias have buds at last:

The morning glories are finally taking off:

The hydrangea is showing definite signs of blue flowers:

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

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

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

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

I did manage to photograph the snow pea blossoms too: 

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

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

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

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

The whole veggie garden on Tuesday:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

ALL DONE!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The herb barrel and neighbor herb containers: 

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

The lavender is covered in buds: 

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

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

I'VE BEEN A BAD GIRL

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

The first bean sprout is a Royal Purple bush bean:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The reverse angle:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DON'T WORRY, I'M STILL HERE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ya think I needed to thin the carrots?:

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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?

WHAT'S THAT BRIGHT THING IN THE SKY CALLED?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G-- D--- WILDFLOWER PATCH

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

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

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

And some seedlings yet to develop true leaves:

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

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

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

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

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

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

I did do other stuff today...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Things are definitely looking up:

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

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

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

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?

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?

STILL HERE

My mood is oodles better.  It must have been the Fall Frumps.  But I did get lots of sympathy from VPH and have been able to talk him into doing things that he normally wouldn't, like go to Christmas Tree Shops with me on a Sunday! 

Their recent flyer featured more things than I am usually interested in, like an amaryllis kit, a mission style bookcase, and an over the sink cutting board (perfect for those of us with little counter space).  I also loved the kitchen island on the same page, but if we squeezed it into our already overstuffed kitchen we would have had an 11-inch opening from the kitchen to the rest of the house and I just couldn't see that working long-term! 

Have you ever been in a Christmas Tree Shop on a Sunday?  I do not recommend it.  People constantly stop in front of you blocking the entire aisle with their cart.  How completely obtuse do you have to be to do that?  The aisles are so narrow that it's impossible to pass even if you don't have a cart.  It's 12 hours later and I'm still pissed about it.

Even with the idiots we managed to come home with good stuff -- some not even advertised.  Unfortunately they were out of the over the sink cutting boards, but here is the latest addition to our living room (we have dark wood bookshelves lining the opposite wall, so the dark wood works):

The bottom two shelves are full of board games -- mostly Trivial Pursuit and Scene-It, and the two top shelves will be for DVDs since we've run out of room in the entertainment center (1/3 of which is out of frame).  Maybe some time this winter I'll give you a full tour of the living room.

But here's a close-up of my amaryllis:

I'm a little concerned about the large amount of dried roots coming out of the bottom.  Is that normal?  I kind of thought there wouldn't be any roots  or what appears to be new growth from the top. 

I also picked up 4 hyacinth bulbs to go into the vase when the amaryllis conks out and another hyacinth bulb and a forcing vase.  I'm going to start it in 3 weeks.  With the inevitable red poinsettia for the living room at Christmas time, we should have flowers blooming through the winter if all goes according to plan.

I am still hoping to see the mystery flower in the wildflower patch in full bloom, but just in case we get a killing frost, here it is nearly there:

Cosmo -- right?

A CASE OF THE NERVES

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

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

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

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

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

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

As are the bell peppers:

Tomatoes are ripening:

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

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

TRYING TO MAKE IT A LITTLE LESS CHAOTIC OUT THERE

It's difficult to believe that it's October 23rd in Connecticut when it is 75 degrees and the trees in your backyard look like this:

I haven't been enjoying the patio very much because every time I walked out there I was greeted by this:

I took an early day from work on Monday (because really how many more 70+ days are we going to have?) and spent the afternoon chopping down the cosmos which had snapped in half during the wind/rain storm last week.  Then I decided to cut them all down because the joy of the flowers wasn't trumping their too tall gangly dominance of the rest of the wildflower patch.  Here's a shot of the project half way through:

I can't get over how much larger the patio looks without the cosmos trying to escape:

Did you notice the one tall plant in the center of the photo above?  I haven't been able to identify it yet (though one reader thought it might be ragweed).  It's finally just about to bloom and I can't wait to see what it is:

Another "after" photo because I loved the way the full wheelbarrow looked before VPH came home and composted the contents.

And lastly, just in case you thought I zoomed in on one green tree in that first photo and ignored the ones that were losing their leaves - this is all we've seen fall so far: 

This is going to be another one of those years where the leaves fall and then we get snow the next day.  I'd much rather be raking in 60 degree weather than 30!

THE HERB PROJECT

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

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

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

June 11th:

September 13th: 

Here's the herb garden on July 1st:

And on September 16th:

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

September 14th:

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

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

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

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

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

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

MORE FUN WITH PHOTOS

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

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

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

UPDATE: I found this this evening:

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

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

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

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

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

Take note of these native plants growing behind the shed:

Because they are all over the wildflower patch as well: 

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

The cosmos are so 3-D!

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

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

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

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

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

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

   

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

WHAT MAKES MY YARD A GARDEN?

I had to start with this photo:

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

__________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The first three definitions listed for garden:

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

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

3. A fertile and delightful spot or region.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The spiders are taking over the vegetable garden:

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

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

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

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

WILL I EVER BE GOOD AT COMING UP WITH POST TITLES?

These are the last of the photos that I took on Monday.  I did pick up the camera and shoot some new stuff today, but since you haven't been staring at these same photos for 3 days like me, you'll probably enjoy them!

Monday's harvest:

Which did not include this habanero (what the heck invaded this pepper?):

We tossed it in the compost pile, just not appetizing at all.  We've got so many tomatoes that we want to make salsa to freeze, but we really want to be able to use our own habanero peppers rather than buying some.

And this poor guy just rotted right on the plant:

Quick update on other portions of the yard -- bastard garden:

The geranium is really loving it there and the cherry tomatoes are actually ripening.  However, I hit this area with a mosquito bomb Saturday morning before the party, so VPH will never get to taste one of his cherry tomatoes.

These sunflowers are about 6 feet tall and I cut off the right-hand bloom yesterday -- man was it ever heavy, no wonder they fall over:

The third purple hyacinth bean is finally blooming:

And lastly, Ashley's rose is really looking good:

My draft folder actually contains 3 posts in various stages, so maybe, just maybe, the dry spell is over.

WHY DIDN'T I DO THIS LAST WEEK?

My calibrochoa stopped blooming a couple of weeks ago and though they still looked green and healthy, I just wasn't happy with them.  I had the party coming up and I wanted every plant to look their best.  A quick Google and the overwhelming recommendation was fertilize.  Most people also said cut back, but again I had the party coming up and if I cut back and they looked awful I would have been embarrassed.   Layanee chimed in with cut back and fertilize and then I knew I had to do it, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut back before the party, so I went ahead and fertilized and put off cutting back until after the party. 

Yup they bloomed a little more, but still not the way they should, and they got leggy.  You'll see a before cutting photo followed by an after.

Pale pink:

Hot pink:

White:

I also had to attack the petunias:

Which looked really ragged when I finished cutting them back:

And though I didn't take a photo today, I can report that the poor petunia is looking much perkier.  I know my hair always looks better the day after the cut.

Conversely the mini-petunias in this hanging basket are blooming fabulously after a little fertilizer:

These ?cosmos? are at least 7 feet tall and I'm going to cut them down a few feet soon:

Again, why didn't I do this last week?

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?

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

 

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

BABIES! -- MINE AND OTHER NOT SO NICE ONES

We did make it to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Friday, which was lovely, though full of very inconsiderate people.  Here's a photo of the boys examining the plaques in the actual Hall of Fame gallery.  Note younger step-son in middle scratching his poor back.  He was such a trouper!

Lots of parents letting their children run wild -- literally run around the museum without supervision, hitting each other, or blocking exhibits while they pushed each other into the walls.  I did speak sharply to 2 boys who looked to be about 8 or 9 years old, I said "if you have to do that [push each other into the wall], could you at least not do it in front of me while I'm trying to read."  I think it may have been the first time either of them had ever been reprimanded because they looked completely incredulous, but they did stop and move away. 

Then there was the mother with a screaming 10-month-old in the movie presentation at the beginning of the museum exhibits.  She couldn't have been enjoying the movie with the crying child -- does she not realize that it's disturbing the rest of us and she can leave the theater?  We had a similar experience at a very nice restaurant on our first night of vacation.  Literally every single person in this restaurant was turning around staring at this baby that cried for a solid 30 minutes, not just whimpering, but shouting its little lungs out.  The mother finally took it outside and managed to calm it down.  I've been out to meals with my girlfriends who have small children and they're always mortified if the child is making noise and immediately rush out to quiet it -- and that's in family-friendly restaurants.  Have there always been this many rude people who don't care if they're disturbing everyone around them or is this just a recent development?

Enough of me complaining!  Back to my babies.  We've had an explosion of beans:

I did not expect them to get up that pole or the fence so quickly.  What should I do now? Stick in another pole?

The other container is growing just as rapidly, but it's still yellow-tinted and some of the bottom leaves were dried up and yucky so I pulled them off.  I don't think it could be too much water because it's getting the same amount as the other container.  All I can think is maybe I didn't rinse it out well enough and it still has too much fertilizer or something in it from the old dirt.  Overall, not as full and healthy looking as the other container either, but if I didn't have something to compare it to, I think I'd be perfectly happy.

The purple hyacinth beans are doing great:

And I didn't entirely miss the blooming period which is yielding to:

I am beginning to think I will never have a ripe tomato.  If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you will see lots of green tomatoes, but not a single one even showing signs of ripening.  I took off a bunch with blossom end rot.  You'll also notice that I moved the cherry tomato plant which is just about done, and replaced it with the hanging herb basket. 

It's supposed to rain today and don't you think we need it looking at VPH's poor grass above!  We're neither of us big fans of watering lawns, but since it is all new, we decided that we would try to help it out this year.  Too bad the only time we would have had to water came while we were on vacation.  I hope it bounces back quickly or he will be very upset.

More update tomorrow. 

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

While we were gone the wildflower patch changed and now yellow dominates:

All is well in the garden, but no ripe tomatoes (except those with blossom end rot), and now we're going outside to go enjoy our yard.  I'll do a nice long update tomorrow.

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

I DON'T FEEL LIKE DOING ANYTHING

So instead of new photos of the flora and fauna at the vacation rental, here's a photo of one of the things that I'm most looking forward to seeing the progress of when I get home:

The purple hyacinth beans were just starting to bloom as we left for vacation.  I can't wait to see what they look like when we get home. 

I also finally know what this is:

As we were leaving I noticed that the top had flopped over sideways towards the sun and wonder of wonders petals were coming out -- it's a sunflower!  I had never seen one in advance of blooming before so I had no idea what I had.   I think I have 3 in the wildflower patch.  I had 4, but I lost one in the first rain storm when it fell over and the stem snapped.

Finally, I moved the sweet potato vine into this unused watering can the day before we left and I can't wait to see how it's responding to more space.

Not much hanging by the pool today.  Yesterday I said to younger step-son, make sure you wear shoes walking on the grass, he ignored me and stepped on a bee not 2 minutes later.  Then I asked if he had put on sunscreen...I don't need sunscreen he replied, but all night it was my sunburn hurts so much.  Today he's doing everything I suggest (take an antihistamine for the bee sting, drink water, put on aloe, etc.)...maybe he'll start listening to me when I tell him to study harder so he can get into a good college.  But between my mild sunburn, his bad one, and older step-son's cold, only VPH made use of the pool today.

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

July 27, 2007 -- I miss them already!

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

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?

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK

Hi all, we were up in Boston today looking at colleges with younger step-son (lovely landscaping at Northeastern, too bad I never took my camera out of my purse -- idiot!).  Thank goodness I prepared this post last night because I'm in the middle of my second migraine in less than 24 hours.  Thanks for the comments, but I won't be writing back to anyone until I feel better.

I've been loving the digital macro setting on my camera.  Imagine what I'll be able to do if I finish reading the manual!

The wildflower patch continues to offer opportunities to take a closer look:

I enjoyed watching this black-eyed susan go from bud to bloom:

And I would have much rather have seen a bloom on this flower than the nasty earwig that ate it:

I let one shoot on the oregano bolt because I wanted to see what it looked like in flower.  Tiny little bees are loving it:

Just for a sense of  scale, this blossom cluster is on the upper left in front of what's left of the basil -- nasty june bugs:

Still harvesting cherry tomatoes like they're going out of style, about 6-7 a day, and herbs as we need them, but without zucchini, we're waiting on big tomatoes and peppers, and beans are a long way off.  Hope you're getting more out of your veggie gardens than we are these days!

We've Got An Emergency Back Here

These were VPH's words to me as we both arrived home this evening and walked to the backyard.  A deluge of rain over less than 12 hours (most came in a complete downpour) wreaked havoc on our garden.  We needed rain, but that was ridiculous.  I had stopped by the potting table to check on a plant while he walked back towards the patios where we found this:

I can't believe the stem didn't snap.

It must have very gently leaned over and landed on its side.  There wasn't a broken stem or damaged leaf on the plant.  I purchased 5' wooden stakes 2 weeks ago because I knew those little wire cages were not going to do the job much longer, but last weekend was very busy and I just hadn't gotten around to reinforcing the cages.  All better:

I can see why Thomas Jefferson grew tomato plants as ornamentals.  Did you know that tomatoes were believed to be poisonous well into the mid-1800s?  Imagine never having tasted a tomato.  Crazy!  Don't know why one plant is so much fuller than the other, but they're both safely staked now.

I think it was just yesterday that Mom told me that I should stake my pepper.  "Seriously?" I replied, "I don't think I need to do that."  Sorry, Mom, I should have listened to you:

Thank goodness I had a bunch of bamboo stakes and velcro ties on hand:

As usual the rain beat down my wildflowers:

Nothing was safe from this torrential downpour:

I just shook the chamomile off and tucked it up into the hanging wire, so I think it will be fine.    I've got to start cutting back that purple basil (and using it) before it crowds out the golden sage entirely.  I'm still seeing a little junebug damage there, but not enough to keep the growth under control. 

Lesson learned, when Mom tells me to stake a plant, I will stake it.  I will not put off taking care of my tomatoes.  And I will remember that rain can weigh down even the sturdiest looking plants.

Mating ritual?

Tuesday as I took some photos of the herb garden I was able to capture this beautiful butterfly on my African blue basil.

Then after I frightened the butterfly away and was admiring my mad photog skills, he/she came back.

Then a pal joined him/her.

 

I feel dirty. 

Updates:

I cut back the hot pink blooming impatiens severely and the plant is looking quite good on the shady side of the house:

As is the red blooming one:

No more yellow leaves and no wilting.  I think I'll start working on a post about the shady side of the house.  So you can see why we have a hill of dirt.

The wildflowers are doing much better.  We have cosmos now:

I have to admit that I ate cherry tomato #2 without washing it or offering VPH half -- and it was good.  It was very good.

Wildflowers

I've really been enjoying the wildflower patch.  I love how one day you see this bent over bud that looks like it's about to collapse under its own weight:

 

And then the next the bud is defying gravity and looks like it will float away:

And then the next day you have this beautiful poppy:

I think I'm enjoying them so much in part because I don't know what's going to pop up next and there are too few surprises in my life.  VPH would insert here that I'm a bit of a planner.  Gardening is teaching me that no matter how well I plan or follow the directions, I still have no idea what is going to happen and very little control over the outcome.

SAD UPDATE: I wrote this last night during a heavy rainstorm and when I went out this morning to check the rain gauge -- 1.25 inches in less than 24 hours -- I found this:

The rain beat down my wildflower patch!  I am so upset.  We tried straightening them up with a broom handle, but they're just too wet.  I hope once they dry off they'll pop back up -- keep your fingers crossed!

Another view:

Planting begins

I'm notorious for forgetting to water houseplants and killing them through benign neglect.  VPH scoffed at the idea of me actually growing plants -- on purpose -- outside.  You see, for years, I have been avoiding the sun.  Even 15 minutes of summer sun would leave me with forearms covered in a rash, itchy, swollen, and hot.  I had incorrectly called it sun poisoning for 10+ years.  Finally last summer at the urging of a work colleague I went to a dermatologist.  He asked a few pointed questions: do you wear sunscreen -- yes, the highest SPF I could find, but I still get the "bumps."  How often do you go outside during the summer -- as seldom as possible.  He examined my arms which were still showing a third day version of the rash and came up with a diagnosis.  I have absolutely no idea what that diagnosis was (it went right out of my head), but basically it's a condition where the first time your skin sees sun, you develop a rash and then you're fine.  I kept getting it over and over again because I avoided the sun so carefully.  Every time I went outside it was like the first time.  I think part of my interest in gardening has come from my renewed presence in the great outdoors during the summer.

I've been doing a lot of research on line to try and figure out what I'm doing.  Most people seem to be seed or seedling people.  I had the best of intentions and planned to use seed -- I even purchased seed -- then I figured out I was 2-3 weeks behind schedule and it was really too late for me to grow anything from seed.  Plus I'm really an instant gratification kind of person and growing from seed, while gratifying, is just too slow for me.  Maybe this winter I'll experiment with winter sowing, but in late April/early May, tomato seedlings made a lot of sense.  Way back in late March/early April (I told you I can't remember when I planted anything) I guilted VPH and younger step-son into turning over the earth in the wildflower patch so I could finally sow the seed I got from American Meadows way back in the fall.  I believe I bought a 1/4 pound of the Northeastern wildflower mix...I'm sure it was their Northeastern wildflower mix and a 1/2 pound would have been overkill for the small 4' x 15' plot. 

Here's the wildflower patch on June 10th:

And here's a close-up from today. 

I finally have a flower in a color other than white!  The poppies are so close to blooming and hopefully they will pop any day now.

So I had the wildflower seed in the ground, let's call it the week after Easter give or take a week, and I was dying to get the rest of the garden started.  I had definite plans.  Remember the sketch from a few posts ago?  I had a vegetable garden along the fence on the east side of the yard.  After much consideration - oh who am I kidding, I sort of ended up throwing whatever I came across into whatever pot I had already purchased - I ended up sowing peas from seed, snow peas and the more conventional pod peas - a container of each.  VPH and I went to Van Wilgen's, which depending on your viewpoint, is unfortunately/fortunately only a 10 minute drive from our house. 

At Van Wilgen's I discovered my downfall...herb seedlings.  I literally cannot walk past them without buying some.  Last year I experimented with a water garden in a 1/2 whiskey barrel (a very long story, but it was a freebie from Home Depot because of a problem with the purchase of the grill that started this whole thing).  It was fun, but with the fish, algae, pump always clogging, etc. it was just too much work (we moved the 3 goldfish inside into their very own tank).  This year I decided to feed my addiction to herbs by filling the now empty 1/2 whiskey barrel with an herb garden.  I started off with chives, parsley, dill, spearmint, and lavender in the barrel.  I planted oregano and basil in their own containers.  Here's big mistake #2: I planted spearmint in a container with other herbs!  This won't be the last time I plant something without researching it first.  A week later absolutely panicked by the warnings I had found on-line about planting mint in its own container because it would spread unchecked, I decided I wouldn't be able to sleep another night with it in the 1/2 whiskey barrel with the other herbs. 

To be continued after some sleep.  Don't worry, I've already relocated the spearmint to its own container.

The Beginning

In early July 2006 we purchased a new grill. I sent my very patient husband (VPH) out the side door to clean up a space for a few concrete pavers so we could keep the new grill reasonably level and clean while we figured out what to do next.  I'm embarrassed to say that the old grill was leveled courtesy of a cinder block (not too ghetto).  The whole yard was on an insane slope, more on that later.  VPH did as requested and came back inside 15 minutes later. 

"You have to come see what I found."  With visions of rat babies dancing in my head (did I mention how ghetto it was on the side of the house?), I followed him outside.  Under about 4-5 inches of dirt and tree roots he had uncovered a flagstone.  "Wow," I said, "I guess someone else had a grill out here at some point.  Hopefully it will be big enough for ours."

The next day I came home to find him hacking away at the tree roots with an axe and a few feet of a flagstone walkway cleared.  Several weeks later we had a flagstone walkway that ran from the parking area in front of the house to about 2/3 the length of the house where it suddenly turned under the foundation.  We knew that the back half of the house was an addition, so our theory is that when they added to the house they decided it wasn't worth saving the walkway (which probably led to a patio that's under the house now) and covered it up instead. 

VPH added the big stones on the border and I added in river pebbles to finish the look.

This was lovely, but it only served to remind me that the yard was unusable.  My step-sons were no longer interested in throwing a ball around with VPH (they were 16 and 20) and we really had no grass.  As you faced the yard from the back of the house it sloped from right to left about 10 feet over 30 feet -- I hope you're envisioning a yard without a single flat surface because that's what we had. 

We solicited bids for a concrete patio, but were appalled with what contractors were asking for a 15' x 15' patio with a sidewalk to where the flagstone walkway turned under the house (about 15 more feet).  One wanted $3,000!  I can be an idiot, but even I'm not dumb enough to spend that kind of money on a patio for a rental!  A friend's boyfriend had just started a landscaping business and came through with a very reasonable price for us and we went ahead with our landlord's permission.  They graciously ended up splitting the cost with us and paid to extend the concrete sidewalk and put in concrete steps to the side door which you can see at the bottom of the photo above/right.  I know, I know, it's a rental, but what we paid for the patio was less than what we pay a month for rent and it's been nearly a year now and we've used the patio almost every day for 9 out of the last 12 months.

Shortly after the patio was poured in early-August 2006 we installed sod around it (leaving an empty rectangle between the patio and the house for a future wildflower patch) and then left on vacation for a week in Stowe, VT (great vacation spot summer or winter).  Our upstairs neighbor, who never used the backyard before the great adventure and still doesn't, generously watered the sod for us twice a day for a whole week!  We came home to green grass and then a week later threw a picnic. 

Here's my first trial and error glaring error: in a rush to prep the patio for company we put down river rocks the length of the concrete walkway from the side door stairs to the end of the patio -- here's the kicker -- without putting landscape fabric beneath them.  Huge mistake.  VPH and eldest step-son spent a whole day this spring raking up all the rocks, separating them from the dirt and weeds and then putting them back in place -- on top of 2 layers of landscape fabric this time.  I made other mistakes along the way (and am sure I will continue to do so), but that was the worst so far. 

The picnic was great and we enjoyed our patio for the rest of the summer, fall, and incredibly warm winter.  I read a book and drank a glass of wine on the patio on Christmas day, but winter returned with a vengeance in February and by Easter (typical Christmas-time sleeting rain weather), we were ready for spring.  But the yard was still chock full of weeds and sloped incredibly.  I spent the entire winter plotting for the spring.  I think if VPH had known what the spring would bring, he might have run away during the winter.