Heather's Garden

It's Going To Be One Of Those Seasons

More on that title later, but on Sunday Lee mowed the lawn and then we went to a little fundraiser open garden event.  The garden, really the grounds with 40 acres and 2 ponds, was extensive.  But it was a very hot day, bright sun, and full of people, so I didn't take many photos.  Lee loved this stone though, so I had to share it:

 

Swallows?  So funny sticking their butts out of the nest and pooping on the ground below.  There were slightly smaller ones in a nest on another light fixture:

 

We went to Guilford's Lobsterfest on Saturday, a fundraising event for Guilford Rotary.  Lee ate both of his lobsters, but I only ate one and took the other home.  Lee made me lobster salad on Monday.  A tiny bit of mayo and fresh dill from our garden.  I cut more dill than the needed for the lobster and decided to mix it in with the greens which were mostly store bought, but some fresh cut mesclun from our garden.  It was so delicious, I don't want another green salad this summer without some fresh dill mixed in:

 

Then Lee took advantage of the absolutely perfect weather and did some yard work.  He came in and asked me if he should harvest some of the potatoes.  Remember the ones that were turning yellow in the driveway and had been attaked by Colorado potato beetles?  I said, sure, go ahead, and he took out a tarp and started turning over the pots:

 

He did two of the ceramic containers and the large wooden box.  I love that it came out in the square:

 

So delicious boiled and lightly buttered.  Not a huge haul for 3 containers, but with the Colorado potato beetles I thought better to harvest now and enjoy.  It's going to be one of those seasons.  Maybe not everything will go prefectly, but we'll have to be adaptable.  We have three other mid-size containers growing and 4 huge trash cans, so I'm sure there will be many more potatoes in our near future:

 

And I harvested another big bunch of the kale.  This bowl is huge, so it's a lot more than it appears to be:

 

Lee is so loving his new grill and Monday's adventure was pork chops.  Look at those perfect grill marks (and ignore our messy table):

 

After work on Wednesday I grabbed my trusty Felcos and finally finished deadheading the irises in the patio garden.  Tough to see here, but the day-lilies are getting pretty close to blooming.  Mid-July is pretty typical for them:

 

I'm so enjoying the new raised bed:

 

This is the reverse view of the herb bed than what I usually show you.  All the herbs are doing well, but the chives (left) and tarragon (right) seem particularly happy:

 

And the back view of the zucchini and cucumbers with the mesclun mix beneath them:

 

The raised veggie bed.  The nasturtiums are blooming away, the volunteer basils look great, but the onions took a pretty hard knock in Tuesday's thunderstorm.  The Swiss chard and Detroit Dark Red beets are trucking along, but the kale...:

 

Let's just say I'm happy I harvested so much of it over the weekend because the cabbage worms have hit with a vengeance.  Again, it's going to be one of those seasons.  We just discovered that we love kale and the cabbage worms get it.  I picked off about 20 today and smashed them, but I doubt I got them all:

 

Since I try to always end with a happy thought, here's the best looking tomato in our garden this year.  In the driveway, definitely a smaller container, but clearly getting more sun than any of the other tomatoes.  A Lillian's Yellow tomato which is new to our garden, boy I hope we like how it tastes:

 

Maybe on Thursday after work I'll be able to get out and pot up some containers because it's supposed to be very hot over the weekend and I can't see me doing it then!  Do you have big plans for the 4th of July?

Well This Isn't Good

Remember the events that got us started gardening?  If you've gone way back and read my first post (though I wouldn't advise it, the early posts weren't very good) you know that we started on our garden adventure when we bought a new grill back in July of 2006.  The old girl held up pretty well over 5 years of heavy use, though apparently at some point this winter one of the doors fell off:

 

And there was some rust:

 

But she quit on us a week before Father's Day...while Lee was in the middle of cooking steaks for dinner.  It probably just needed replacement parts, but coupled with the broken door and the rust, we decided that it was time for a new one.  We worked a great sale at Lowe's and ended up getting a new grill for 20% off and after a delivery snafu, free delivery.  Here's Lee and SS2 on Father's Day with the new grill:

 

You may have noticed that it's on the patio and not next to the house anymore.  While it's terribly convenient to have the grill right outside the kitchen door, the shady side of the house is mosquito nation and frankly, we've really enjoyed have the walkway free (now we just need to clean it up):

  

And grilling has been a much more social activity for Lee since there is actually space for more than one person and chairs for everyone.  It will likely end up on the gravel patio and the wooden table and chairs down there will be reconfigured.  But the death of a grill after 5 years of heavy use was not the only problem in the garden over the last few weeks.  I don't know exactly what this is, but I found it on a potato plant:

  

And then these larvae appeared, which certainly look like Colorado potato beetle larvae to me.  I've found them on all but 2 of my potato plants and removed the sections where I found them and disposed of them, but I'm afraid I didn't find them all:

 

But the flowers on the Adirondack blue potatoes were truly beautiful (they're gone now):

 

And the smaller pots of fingerling potatoes along the drive looked great:

 

Until they didn't.  I think we'll be harvesting these shortly:

 

The container tomato plant I bought with fruit already on it is doing okay, but one of the early tomatoes had blossom end rot, so I disposed of it:

 

The foxgloves are all but gone now, this photo is from 9 days ago:

 

But there are some great things happening in the garden.  Flowering nasturtiums abound:

 

The raised herb bed looks great, even better than this week old photo shows:

 

The same with the zucchini, though I've already found 2 cucumber beetles:

 

I think it may be a banner year for the jalapenos:

 

We harvested some kale and Lee made a delicious kale salad from this recipe.  I went out on Sunday and picked a bunch more because we want to have it again, but this picture is from a week ago:

 

The weather has been weird, pouring rain, pouring rain, and oh, more pouring rain, then hot, hot, hot, and when it hasn't been raining and the sun hasn't been blazing, the mosquitoes have swarmed.  So I've had a bunch of plants sitting around waiting to be put into soil.  Many of the plants below are destined for the containers that will soon be emptied of potatoes, well hopefully the containers hold many potatoes:

 

As will these, except the marigolds that have to be planted in the tomato containers.  On the right are some cucumbers I picked up for a $1.  They look much better than the ones I've been growing from seed.  Also on that side are Scotch bonnet peppers, also $1.  I'm a little scared of them, but Lee loves hot, so I'll try growing them:

 

This week is supposed to be pretty clear and not too hot -- in the low 80s.  I'm hoping I can get some gardening done after work this week and get these poor plants in the soil.  What are your gardening plans for the week?

Guilford Secret Garden Tour 2011

It's been more than a week since we went on the Guilford Secret Garden Tour, but it's been a busy week!  Lee joined Jen and I on this one, but we had to move through it quickly because I had a baby shower to attend that afternoon.  The first house was apparently owned by a Fairfield County decorator who has a Fairfield County gardener come in.  Not a shock.  Lee thinks this was probably a pool at some point and wondered why it was filled in:

 

We loved this fountain at the end of the lawn:

 

Maybe this was a playhouse at some point?  It was certainly solid:

 

And had a cute little sign inside:

 

And provided a nice spot to take an aerial photo of the vegetable garden:

 

Lee loved the carrot sculpture.  I thought it was a little "cute" but not dreadful:

 

We both liked the sunflower sculpture in the corner of the veggie garden:

 

But Lee didn't like this rooster nearly as much as I did:

 

This was a beautiful little spot, but I think it needed two chairs or else it's just lonely:

 

Remember I said the owner is a decorator?  This was one of the kitchen's that was opened to the tour.  I wonder how much was the new owners and how much was already there.  Either way, not a fan of the kitchen.  You can't really see here, but there was only one over the counter cabinet.  The dishes were in an open closet to the left of the people in the photo.  Not convenient at all:

 

The next garden was the complete opposite of the first.  It was clearly a work of love.  I read in the program that they've been gardening here for 50 years.  This is Connecticut's oldest Ginko tree and yes those are staghorn ferns hanging from it:

 

There's the owner holding court surrounded by raised beds that her son made about 40 years ago -- now that's solid construction:

 

Lots of edibles:

 

And the mix of colors and textures was lovely: 

 

I didn't ask what these were, but I'm sure it was something very common that I just haven't come across before.  They were beautiful though:

 

The program also noted that the staghorn ferns live in coconut shells that the owner carved herself and she has tended them since she brought back small cuttings from Florida over 40 years ago:

 

We went next door to the Foundry, a mid-18th century brick building that has been converted into condos (one unit is available and if I recall correctly can be yours for about $650,000).  I wasn't wowed by anything here, but the dogwoods everywhere have been stunning this year:

 

There were varying degrees of gardening going on, but some people did quite a lot with limited space:

 

And provided cute little placards with descriptions:

 

The neighboring unit had this:

 

One of the only grills we saw, but the backyards were off limits, so maybe others had them there.  I quite liked this patio:

 

And the clematis was lovely.  I might try to grow clematis in a container since doing so in the patio garden isn't working:

 

People who've lived in Guilford for a long time will undoubtedly recognize this house:

 

Though I have to admit that I'd never walked down this street before or even driven slowly enough to notice that one owner added an octagonal garage too: 

 

They had some very nice raised beds of edibles by the back porch: 

 

And beautiful planters on a beautiful patio:

 

And the little wooden box at the base of the post says Provence, Fonde en 1887, reinforcing my desire to stencil something French on that box Jen gave me:

I was confused by the plant choices here.  Looked like impatiens and marigolds around roses and cosmos.  But nice:

 

And they had a back 40 through the back fence: 

 

We had encountered a man in brightly colored suspenders on the way to this garden who told us to cross the street and look up into the trees to see a beautiful shelf mushroom:

 

I'm glad he told us because we never would have spotted it on our own.  I guess it's a sign that this large tree has internal rot:

 

The next garden belonged to my good friends Mary and Jeff.  Mary has been my garden guru and has shared many a plant over the years.  She sells dahlias in front of her house, but gave me a bunch this spring.  Weren't her containers lovely:

 

I noticed they went well with the color and style of their home:

 

Unfortunately since I know this garden so well I didn't take many photos of it.  In fact, I went inside to find Mary (their kitchen was the other open one on the tour) and sent Jen off with Lee.  He showed her the chickens (nope didn't even venture back to take a peek):

 

You may have noticed this beautiful grape arbor above.  In the old days the Dudley family (an old Guilford family that owned the house before Mary and Jeff bought and restored it) sold "Arbor Produce" beneath it.  And if those hostas are familiar, it's because Mary gave us a bunch (our first hostas) and they're now spread out around our garden too:

 

It started to rain while we sat on their covered porch chatting with Jeff, so we settled in for about 20 minutes and waited it out.  Once it tapered off we took off for the last two private homes on the tour.  The next one was on the tour the first time I went back in 2008 (it was garden #4).  I still think it's too kitchy for me:

 

But it is lovely:

 

Apparently I still quite liked this spot 3 years later and love that the painted container is still there: 

This time I got a photo of the lovely lady's head:

Once again a beautiful honeysuckle.  I asked the owner about the plant and said I wondered where I could find one.  She suggested a nursery on 155 in Middletown that I had passed, but never visited.  I did this afternoon and I didn't come home with a honeysuckle, but I pass it on my way home at least once a week, so there's still a good chance that I will:

 

On to the last private home.  This one was stunning, but it was also the 15th or 16th garden I'd seen in less than 24 hours.  It was apparently all perennial shrubs and flowers, was mostly composed of divisions and propagations, and used free mulch from the stump dump:

 

Given the size of the property I can see why they garden on a budget:

 

I loved this little seating area with what, why yes, it was another honeysuckle:

 

This focal point was an antique chicken coop:

 

With its original door:

 

We left that garden, and Jen (who wasn't interested in making the last stop on the tour), got back in our car and headed over to the Medad Stone Tavern.  The Medad Stone Tavern was built in 1803 by Medad Stone to serve as a Tavern. As the Boston Post Road was not rerouted that way it never opened. The building has 14 rooms and 10 fireplaces. The Guilford Keeping Society inherited it from Len Hubbard in 2001. It was decided to restore it and open it as the "Tavern that opened 200 years late." The property also holds a barn, corn crib and extensive fields. I'd actually never been inside before, so we took a quick look:

 

Yup, that's about what I expected, and we headed back outside.  There were workshops on container and raised bed gardening going on, but those didn't interest us:

 

We wandered past the neat old barn:

 

And the funky old farming equipment:

And found the entrance to the newly constructed community gardens:

I spoke with the organizers and they'd been searching for an appropriate piece of land for several years: 

 

They were overjoyed to learn after testing that this land wasn't contaminated and just needed some compost added:

 

I believe there were 17 people gardening this year, a mix of people who have gardens, but not enough sun for veggies (a common problem in our wooded community), and those who were living in condos that had no land available for gardening: 

 

I particularly liked this raised bed with Japanese theme.  These taller boxes were reserved for those who needed the accessibility of a higher bed:

 

I coveted quite a few of the plants I saw, but remarked on the size of this Swiss chard compared to that in my garden.  See, they only started planting about a month before I toured, but it turned out these were starts from a nursery:

 

All in all Lee and I found this year's tour to be somewhat disappointing compared to last year.  And Jen and I found it disappointing compared to Stonington the previous day.  I just realized that I never got around to posting my photos from the 2010 Guilford Secret Garden tour, so you couldn't possibly judge for yourself.  Guess I'll have to get around to that one of these days.  I was getting a little jealous looking at the schedule for the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling, but it was just too far and too expensive for us to attend.  I feel a little better having toured so many beautiful gardens this month -- and visited new nurseries.  Are you going to the Fling?  If you're not, how are you dealing with not being able to go?

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - June 2011

Carol's been hosting GBBD for years over at May Dreams Garden, and now I'm a monthly participant after years of observing.  The garden is so different in June than it was in May, though how is it June 15th already?  The irises have come and gone since the last bloom day and the day-lilies haven't quite arrived yet, but there are plenty of blooms to be found.  But I think my absolute favorite spot right now is all the foxglove blooming on the hillside:

 

The individual blooms are so striking:

  

I wasn't expecting any of the lupine to bloom this year, but maybe it's some sort of annual variety?  Either way, it's quite cheerful down at that end of the garden:

 

There are some other little flowers blooming down there.  I didn't try to figure out what this is, but it's oh so cute:

 

Impatiens give a little bit of color to the shade containers: 

 

But in the sun the petunias that I splurged on at Walmart (a whole $12 each) have made the driveway so pretty:

 

I fell in love with the white fringe on these purple petunias:

 

The salvia that overwintered in the basement has finally gotten to bud stage.  I'll have some beautiful white flowers this week:

 

The hydrangea is going to be absolutely stunning this year:

 

But many of the blooms in the garden are on the veggies or herbs, which is as it should be.  Some of the potatoes are blooming:

 

The jalapeno peppers are blooming, and more importantly setting peppers:

 

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with the tomatillos:

 

I'm so proud of these marigolds because I grew them from seed!  I haven't quite figured out where I'm planting them yet, but they're doing quite well in the driveway nursery area:

 

This photo of the blooming sage is one of my favorites, mostly because I'm so impressed that my sage is blooming:

I started off on the hillside, so I guess it makes sense to come back to it.  I'm not the only one drawn to the bladder campion:

 

And the only astilbe in full bloom (the others are so close), but it definitely gets the most sun.  You can't see it in this photo, but the heuchera has a flower spike coming up and the creeping jenny has a bunch of flower buds about to burst into bloom:

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing what's blooming in my garden.  What's blooming in yours?

Gardens By The Sea -- Stonington, CT

This was quite a long weekend of garden touring for me.  Hang in there, this is going to be a long post.  My friend Jen and I took Friday off from work and trekked east along the shoreline to Stonington's Gardens by the Sea.  It was quite hot and quite sunny so the pictures aren't as good as they could have been, but here goes:

 

If you clicked the link above you discovered that the Stonington Garden Club only produces the garden tour every three years, but wow, do they do it well!  Great signage from the highway, people directing traffic, convenient parking, and then lovely markers like the one above at each stop.  A really good map in the program and a mile loop with 10 gardens made for a wonderful tour.  I think all the gardens had a few of these laminated hand-drawn diagrams, but I didn't take pictures of all of them:

 

I also saw a few differences from the diagram to the actual garden (if I was reading it correctly), but I imagine they had to prepare these pretty far in advance and you know that gardens are an ever changing form of art.  I loved this little corner of edibles:

 

And the almost hidden entrance to the shed:

 

She had some beautiful perennials blooming and some interesting sculpture, but there were so many people in the small garden that it was hard to take photos:

 

On to garden 2:

 

I love begonia escargot. If I ever find it cheap, I might add it to my garden:

 

This lovely arch led to a small edibles garden:

 

With a compost heap and the first stunning honeysuckle of the day.  It wouldn't be the last:

 

Garden #3, I love how all the containers are similar, but not exactly the same:

 

Another garden diagram, I suspect the owner of this garden may be the artist behind the diagrams, but that's just a hunch:

 

Based on the studio straight ahead as we walked in: 

 

This made me want to paint, and I don't know how to paint:

 

This is something I saw a few times, a hydrangea in a container.  I didn't think they would grow in a container, even in a large one like this.  Or could they be treating them like annuals:

 

I love this spot, everything from the bench to the watering can to the containers to the coleus in the bed:

 

And this hanging planter -- yum!  And the shelves with a grill tool, garden gloves, and hat -- yes please:

 

I'm always interested to see how people treat a fence.  Ivy and boxes of coleus -- I approve:

 

I'm not sure what this is all about, maybe masking a piece of equipment?  It's given me ideas though:

 

And on to garden #4 we went with the masses:

 

Get ready, this one's gonna be good:

 

I could tell I was going to like this garden right from the beginning.  Japanese ferns and dogwoods are two of my favorites:

 

And on the right side of the driveway a really lovely container planting (adore those black and yellow petunias):

 

And we weren't even in the garden yet!  Through the gates we went:

 

And there was the best part of this garden, the view: 

 

But it was rivaled by this pergola.  The shell sink, the large earthen pot, the face planter, it was all fantastic:

 

I even turned around and photographed it from below:

 

The rose people were really excited about this pretty little garden...not a rose person, so I didn't get any closer than this:

 

There were beautiful stands of lavender (much more my speed):

 

I walked out to the edge of the seawall and photographed this seating area from there.  If you were sitting in the chairs you'd be looking directly at the water:

 

Then I turned and photographed the neighbors' gardens too:

 

Back up by the house there was a wonderful stone patio.  The chairs were unique, the containers striking, and the fireplace just set me over the edge.  Not to mention the privacy screening:

 

The chairs were carried over to the porch.  The colors were so much bolder in real life:

 

I loved the containers so much: 

 

Even leaving the view was nice.  Privacy screening again with a perfect gravel driveway: 

 

Poor garden #5 had big shoes to fill:

 

This is how jaded I was getting, I took two photos of this garden and neither of them included the water view (well, any more than this pic does):

 

And the other is of this blessedly shady spot which I was too polite to invade:

 

We had reached the halfway point and were now heading back in the other direction.  But first we found a shady spot for me to sit down for a few minutes.  The sun was intense.  Garden #6 had better have a lot of shade: 

 

It did, but honestly I don't remember what else it had.  Some lovely perennials and this pretty water feature:

 

The other side of the garden was full sun and I was keeping my head down looking for more shade.  Luckily Jen was looking around because she spotted the most beautiful climbing hydrangea on the neighbor's chimney:

 

Garden #7 was another showstopper:

 

I think this diagram was done professionally, probably by the person who designed the garden, which if I recall correctly it was redesigned 4 years ago:

 

We entered to a line of people staring over the side of deck.  Huh?  What could be drawing their focus:

 

Oh yeah, that's stare-worthy:

 

So pretty from all angles:

 

Really stunning, but I did wonder how they harvest the middle, or maybe it's just ornamental:

 

Pretty box, but so formal:

 

Wow, the view before we walked down the stairs:

 

Down below to the left we found a beautiful bluestone patio.  Chairs, containers, and bluestone may all migrate to my garden now thank you very much:

 

Across the very large lawn was some very expensive stonework: 

 

This didn't photograph very well, but I loved the huge container and you can see just a bit of the boat ramp:

 

Back across the lawn you can see the whole house.  I think this one was for sale.  There is just no way this is ever going to be something I can afford, and frankly I don't know what I would do with all that space.  I did wonder why no pool though.  Or a hot tub.  Seems like there should have been one:

 

We reluctantly left and headed to garden #8:

 

Well actually, garden #9, I don't seem to have taken any photos in garden #8, nor do I remember a thing about it other than some espaliered trees, which just aren't my thing.  But I don't have a photo of the sign for garden #9, so the diagram will have to do.  Oh and this property is for sale.  I want to say the asking price was $2.4 million, but I do remember for sure that the property taxes were $26,000 a year:

 

I don't know...seems a little high:

 

Plus, if you're not a gardener, will you want or be able to handle all that garden?  Sure you can hire a gardener and would probably have to.  Regardless, I enjoyed it.  Especially this water feature:

 

I sat in the shade for maybe 10 minutes cooling off (it was so hot):

 

And then I walked over the stones through the pool:

 

Down the path to the next section of the garden:

 

I stood under the gazebo for a bit while Jen walked around.  Shade, blessed shade:

 

I took this photo because I loved the colors, but I'm showing it to you here because the blooming dahlias in the lower right portion of the photo summed up this garden for me.  Unless they have a conservatory in the house, there's no way that they'd have blooming dahlias in early June.  Yes, they're beautiful, but a not-in-the-know gardener would see this and think they could have blooming dahlias now or worse, wonder what's wrong with theirs because they're not blooming:

 

But this was quite lovely.  I wonder if in a few years the moss will cover the whole urn:

 

Walking down the street to garden #10, we came upon a photographer hard at work.  We watched her process (which was fascinating), and overheard her talking to her subject after capturing the image.  I googled her when I got home and she's actually pretty well known.  There's even been a documentary made about her:

 

I won't share her name because I don't have permission, but if her photo of this subject (she loved the umbrella) ends up hanging in a gallery we'll have an interesting story to tell:

 

And then, finally, garden #10:

 

I was absolutely wilting, but Jen looked great posing by yet another beautiful honeysuckle.  Ironically I've been thinking of honeysuckle to grow on the trellis in the patio garden since I can't seem to get a clematis to grow there, so I really enjoyed seeing all the honeysuckles:

 

This little edibles garden was right by their kitchen door, very pretty:

 

We saw a few of this type of bleeding heart, I'd like to get some for my garden.  The blooms definitely last longer since mine are completely gone:

 

And that was it.  It took us about 3 hours to do the tour and we finished with about 15 minutes left before the 'tea room' opened:

 

It was so tempting staring over that fence at the tent and tables.  We finally got in and settled down with ice water (iced tea for Jen) and cookies.  A lovely touch including this treat in the ticket price.  We left for a late lunch with a very nice feeling about the day's events:

 

We grabbed lunch at Azu in Mystic (highly recommend) and then headed back to Clinton so I could drop Jen off.  She asked if I had ever been to Shoreline Gardens, I hadn't, so she suggested we end our day of garden touring by visiting there.  Hey, I'm always up for plant shopping!  I'm glad we stopped.  I saw two plants that I very nearly bought.  A Golden Anniversary spotted dead nettle (or lamium) was a beautiful yellow color:

 

And a Golden Zebra heucherella.  I think I just crave yellow for shade for some reason: 

 

And in the herb house I got inspiration from this:

 

See, Jen gave me a present when I picked her up.  A beautiful wood box to use as a planter: 

 

I think I may paint "Le Jardin" or some other French garden-related phrase on the side of the box in a dark slate/black paint.  And I have just the spot for it:

 

This appears to be the sunniest spot in my garden, which is so weird.  The box will likely fade to a nice gray rather quickly.  So if you've stuck around to the bitter end, thank you.  And come back soon for a post about the Guilford Secret Garden Tour which we took on Saturday.

Looking Beyond Potatoes

Well here we are three days later and I still haven't purchased more potting soil or hilled the potatoes.  I have so many containers of potatoes growing this year and I haven't been as attentive to hilling them as I probably should have been.  There are a few that are already flowering!  I don't know if it's too late to do it now (some say don't hill once they start flowering, but I think that's if you're doing the traditional hoeing so you don't accidentally disturb the tender shoots), but I know I don't feel like buying any more potting soil this year.  I've got all these containers of potatoes that aren't going to last the summer because they'll be ready to harvest long before that:

 

So I started thinking about what I could put in those containers.  I was running errands today and decided to take a quick swing by Vaiuso.  Those plant prices will be dropping any day now.  The annuals hadn't, but there weren't that many veggies left, so I decided to pounce:

 

In addition to a small container of basil (I know, I have a problem, but it was only $2!) I picked up a Great White tomato, an Evergreen tomato, and a Mr. Stripey tomato.  I also grabbed a tomatillo.  I've never grown any of these before, so this will be a really exciting adventure:

 

And I just couldn't resist buying two butterfly bushes -- at $5 each who could?  I have no idea where I'll plant them, but I have them now:

 

And did you notice how big they are?  That's why I gave you the compost barrel for scale.  The other reason the potatoes might not get hilled is because Thursday is an office day (blessed A/C), Friday is Gardens By The Seain Stonington, CT (actually taking a vacation day and spending it with my friend Jen), and then the Secret Gardens of Guilfordin Guilford, CT on Saturday with Jen again and Lee will join us.  That's a lot of gardens over the next few days.  Hopefully I'll come home with some good pics to share with you.

Not A Lot Of Gardening Going On Here

But a lot of outdoor living!  I am stuck inside on weekdays, but I keep my camera on the couch next to me and when I see a cool bird on the feeder I snap it:

 

But more often than not a blue-jay or a grackle come along and frighten it away:

 

But the red-bellied woodpecker returned:

 

On a Saturday trip to Walmart I splurged and bought a new bird-feeder.  You can probably tell by the photo that it's a good bit larger than the last one, which is why I bought it.  We were so tired of having to fill it on a daily basis:

 

There's been a lot of good eating.  Pork fried rice and some incredibly expensive and tasty halibut that Lee poached in some sort of cilantro/scallion concoction: 

 

But basically I'm wandering around enjoying the garden.  The foxgloves are stunning in person and just not photographing the way I wish they would:

  

Actually this one's pretty good:

 

And I'm having fun trying to figure out what the various plants are.  I think this is the millet in the mix:

 

But while some things look fantastic:

 

Wait, what's going on with the creeping jenny in this container:

 

I'm so not happy about this:

 

Sawfly larva.  I plucked and smashed 7 that day and another 3 since, but there could be more:

 

Friday afternoon our little garden helper came by for the afternoon.  He's always up for watering the garden, but here he's helping Lee pluck debris from the raised bed (huge winds last week):

 

We're extremely lacking in the rain department (I'll be setting up the sprinkler tomorrow because everything's super dry).  Look at that golden oregano droop.  I think it recovered after I watered it, frankly I forgot to check:

 

When I went to wind the hose I spotted this guy: 

I'm pretty sure it's the bug I watched come from the soil in one of my containers last week: 

 

What is it?

 

So loving the fish container with the creeping jenny.  This was an inspired idea if I do say so myself: 

 

The strawberry patch is also making me extremely happy:

 

I may very well be picking and eating this strawberry tomorrow:

 

There are so many berries that we're hopeful we'll get a few before the birds hit them hard:

 

On Sunday Lee mowed and tackled his last project in the garden, getting the brick/much area for the double-lounger cleaned up.  He weeded it and at my suggestion turned the bricks on their sides for better stability:

 

We've been enjoying having the driveway clear of the Adirondack chairs, so I positioned them in front of the potatoes between the lounger and the raised bed.  It's probably the sunniest spot in the garden and pretty level (Lee wasn't pleased I was taking his photo in his mowing outfit):

 

I love being more in the garden.  I may very well move that tiki torch.  See the sun tea brewing?  It's delicious:

 

More of the view from my chair:

 

Zooming in a little, but the angle is correct from my chair:

 

I really need to deadhead the irises: 

 

The sage in flower:

 

Pretty, but too much distraction from the tomato plant.  I turned the container so the bloom was right in front of the fence.  Better:

 

And though this container is very pretty I kept thinking there was space for something small and wouldn't some basil look good.  So I put one of the mystery basils in there.  We'll see:

 

On Monday I will deadhead the irises while I run the sprinkler in the back of the garden and then shift it up when I'm done.  The grass is doing fine where it's established, but the blank spots that we seeded aren't doing so great:

 

Oh and I have to go buy more potting soil for the potatoes which need hilling again.  I swear, we had better get a gigantic potato harvest!

Gotta Love A Three Day Weekend

Mine should have been a 3.5 day weekend, but in reality it was more of a 2.5 day weekend.  I can't complain, I've had more than my fair share of quiet days this spring and job security is pretty important.  All of the photos I'm going to post today are from Friday to Tuesday, but all the work was done on Sunday morning and Monday afternoon.  Strangely I have often shared the patio garden and the perennial shade garden, but I'm not sure I've ever shown you a photo of how the two are connected by the herbs in containers:

 

Of course, in that photo (from Friday) you don't see all the beautiful irises that are blooming like mad now.  Here is a Siberian iris with one of the lavender bearded ones:

 

See:

 

Also flowering, and rather late in my opinion, is the rhododendron in the hosta/rhododendron garden:

 

We kicked off the holiday weekend by preparing for a very small gathering of family on Saturday.  We planned to serve pork tenderloin, grilled potatoes, and gingered green beans.  Lee wanted to make a marinade for the pork, so I gathered some herbs for him -- rosemary, lemon thyme, hot & spicy oregano and (not pictured) sage:

 

With a ton of garlic (olive oil, lemon, pepper and salt added after the photo) he slid the tenderloins into a ziplock bag and stuck them in the fridge for 24 hours.  The whole meal was delicious:

 

Just a quick mention of the strawberries which are producing like mad this spring:

 

I can't quite get the photo I want, but this is close:

 

100% germination of the beans in the planter table (Royal Purple bush beans), though one seems to have been snacked on by something and I'm not sure it will survive:

  

One lonely blossom on the hydrangea, but it will soon be joined by many others:

 

Sunday morning was all about hilling the potatoes.  Before:

 

And after:

 

Yukon Gold (leftover grocery store purchased potatoes that sprouted on us) on the left and Adirondack Blue on the right, before:

 

And after (and frankly they need to be hilled again already):

 

The red potatoes in the veggie garden are completely hilled, now we just wait and harvest:

 

Still a lot more room to hill here, but they're above the rim now.  I just hope we get lots of potatoes.  Oh, and the funky beans have all sprouted:

 

I'm showing you two things here -- one of my favorite spots in the garden and the fact that half the pots of potatoes here are completely hilled and the other half are almost there:

 

Really, how could you not love it?  I wonder if there are people who look at this and think, uh yeah, not for me:

 

I look at the whole driveway and say yum.  I also say I guess it's time to give up on the moonflowers sprouting and plant some more seeds, but otherwise, yum:

  

In case you couldn't see it in either of the two photos above, here's my new perennial herb hanging planter -- purple sage, golden lemon thyme, and a variegated oregano: 

 

And speaking of herbs...I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the raised herb garden:

Monday afternoon I came up with a design and just went with it:

 

Back row, L to R: tarragon, golden sage, and chives.  Next row, L to R: golden lemon thyme, rosemary, hot & spicy oregano, Hidcote lavender.  Front row L to R: cilantro/Tetra dill alternating.  The remainder is basils, three to a row, L to R: Genovese basil, lemon basil, purple dark opal basil, lime basil, and sweet basil:

 

Another viewpoint.  I also scattered a mesclun mix in the other bed between the zucchini and cucumbers:

 

But there were leftover basils, three Aton basil pots.  I'm sure I'll find something to do with them:

 

The original raised bed has onions, swiss chard, kale, and Detroit dark red beets galore:

 

 

Not to mention lots of volunteer basils and some beautiful variegated nasturtiums (not volunteer, very intentionally planted):

  

Another exciting sight is the first blossom on the habanero pepper plants:

 

I was amused when I spotted a flower on the ittle, bitty, tiny zucchini plant:

 

But I was excited to see this foxglove blooming on the shady side of the house:

 

How cool is that?!  They are beautiful inside: 

 

And there are a lot of them coming:

 

Tuesday evening I was poking around in one of the containers that overwintered in the basement and came across this insect wiggling its way out of the ground:

 

It kind of resembled a dragonfly, but I can't find anything about them hatching from the ground.  And then I thought it might be a praying mantis, but it wasn't quite right:

 

Do you have any idea what it is?  And in other news I'm all done with the garden, just a little fussing about from here on out.  Are you done?  Close?  Or can't even begin to see the end?