Heather's Garden

I Swear I'm Okay

My mother has been begging me to post, "People are probably worried about you."  And I just got an email from an on-line friend asking if I was okay.  I am, but this fall took a lot out of me.  From Irene to Hogwarts to work, I really didn't have any free time during September and October.  The only gardening I did in October was to pot up some of my herbs and bring them to the Blackstone Library to create an herbology station (photo credit Tricia Bohan Photography):

Here is an incredible video of the kids portion of the Hogwarts fundraiser created by Jess Smith on assignment for our local paper The Sound: http://www.shorepublishing.com/article/20111101/MEDIA0109/111109946/0/media0109

And a few of her amazing photos:

The full slideshow of Jess' photos can be found here.

And if you've always wondering what I sound like you can find links to the TV appearances I did to promote the event on the press page of the Hogwarts event site: http://blackstonehalloween.org/Press.html

I really and truly don't remember the last time I walked into the garden.  It's certainly been warm enough to be out there working, and I imagine there are some plants that think it's spring.  Maybe I'll take a few minutes and wander out there tomorrow.

Harvest Photo?

Today brought an excellent harvest.  A gigantic zucchini (really, where do they hide?), 3 oddly shaped cucumbers, 7 Lillian Yellow tomatoes (two were already sliced for my tomato/mozz dinner), 3 random black tomatoes, 2 jalapenos, 2 red onions, some basil, and a bunch of cilantro (not pictured because I couldn't figure out how to work it into the photo):

 

But I can't decide if I like it better on the kitchen table covered with a white apron above or on the grass outside below:

 

Comment with your preference, please.

Yum!!!

Gardening really isn't getting a whole lot of attention from us right now.  Hot temps, travel, work and personal commitments are all keeping us out of the garden.  But harvesting continues and excitedly so.  We've had tomatoes sitting on the table for a few days and on Sunday we finally got around to eating them!  With basil from our garden and fresh mozzarella of course:

 

Yes, they were just as delicious as they look.  I hope you're enjoying tomatoes right now too!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - July 2011

Carol's been hosting GBBD for ages over at May Dreams Garden, and now I'm a monthly participant after years of observing.  Once again some of my favorite blooming flowers have come and gone between bloom days.  You'll just have to take my word for it that the astilbe were stunning!  But at least the day-lilies are tall and proud:

 

I really love the yellow ones:

 

The old standards are doing the heavy blooming work in the garden, like the Endless Summer hydrangea.  It's a little bluer in real life:

 

All the hostas are blooming:

 

The volunteer sunflower will bloom shortly, but it's obscuring the blooming heuchera in this trio of containers:

 

And what would I do without impatiens in my shady dry garden:

 

The area between the veggie garden and the shed is giving us a new surprise flower every day.  If I could remember what seed mixes I scattered here I would share with you, but they were all Botanical Interests seeds:

 

And this is one of my very favorite things right now -- a very early blooming dahlia (none of the others show any signs of flowering yet, but good growth):

 

Did you see the blooming butterfly bush in the background of the dahlia photo above?  My arty shot:

 

And this is one that turned out almost exactly how I had envisioned it.  Nasturtiums and Swiss Chard:

 

Did you notice the empty pot to the right above?  Here are all the plants that I have to fill the containers that held the potatoes (long ago harvested and eaten).  This weekend, I promise patient little plants:

 

And this is one that I'm actually not too excited about.  The cilantro is flowering and we've only used it once -- ugh: 

 

But I am very excited about the flowers on the cucumbers.  Maybe I'll have a cucumber one of these days (2 zucchini already!):

 

What are you most excited about that's blooming in your garden right now?

Now That I'm No Longer Sweating

We had a bit of a heat wave here over the past few days.  Let's put it this way...I hadn't turned on the A/C (window unit in the living room) even once this year until Monday night.  I just could not fall asleep.  So I migrated to the couch and turned on the air -- BLISS!  But tonight the heat broke and I'm actually a little bit cold right now with no fans turned on and the TV heating up the room.  The heat has been fantastic for the garden though.  As long as we keep watering regularly (very little rain of late), we should continue getting nice harvests like this:

 

That's the first of the green beans and the first zucchini.  Plus a large bunch of tarragon and some hot & spicy oregano.  Since the harvest and the picture took place 2 days ago, they were eaten long ago and they were delicious!

What are you harvesting right now?

Breaking News From The Garden

We've had quite a bit of sun and very warm temps and finally some rain (I was getting tired of watering and frankly, not doing a very good job of it).  The garden is thriving!  I guess I was wrong about not getting beans while we still potatoes:

 

And that's an honest to goodness grown in my garden zucchini!  Long time readers will remember how much trouble I have growing zucchini which supposedly grows like crazy for everyone else in the world:

 

This may be the ugliest tomato plant ever, but it was only purchased for the early tomatoes and it looks like it's going to get the job done:

 

And the day-lilies have arrived:

 

They're so pretty:

 

Not all the breaking news is excellent.  The two rains we've had in the last 48 hours were strong storms and at least one appears to have been accompanied by strong winds:

 

But that was a blessing in disguise because the turned over leaves revealed cucumber beetle eggs on two different leaves (that I promptly removed):

 

And I was able to straighten up the plants (mostly):

 

The zucchini and at least one cucumber are sort of encroaching on the herb garden (note to self next year, plant the zucchini a little farther to the left).  We've been harvesting dill and cilantro and hoping they don't bolt in this heat (though I think I may have lost that battle already with at least some of the cilantro):

 

I think I successfully saved the kale in the raised veggie bed from the cabbage worms.  And the beets, onions, and Swiss chard are doing great.  Can you see the cucumbers starting to climb the trellis at the back:

 

One of the potato plants had what I have to imagine are Colorado potato beetle eggs on a leaf overturned by the storm.  I plucked it off, but not before capturing what may be one of my favorite photos so far this summer.  This is the best crop of the photo I could make, but it's still not quite perfect:

 

Another bright spot in the garden right now is the patch of flowers from the end of the veggie garden to the shed including the butterfly bush which is flowering like mad (note Lee's beautiful edging job): 

Nothing particularly special and some "native plants" mixed in, but pretty together:

 

And I don't know why this one dahlia is so far ahead of all the others, but it's really exciting to see it budding:

 

And I'll close with the biggest problem we've been experiencing this year.  Can you see it below?  I'll give you a hint, it's on the right-hand side about half way down the photo:

 

Yup, that's poison ivy in the middle of established plants in a container by the front door.  I don't know why, but it's been popping up all over the garden this year, damn birds is all I can think.  In containers (even containers of tomatoes in the veggie garden), in mulch all over the garden, the gravel driveway -- EVERYWHERE.  I've never had a reaction, in fact I didn't even know what it looked like until a few years after we started gardening, so I'm sure I waded through it often in the first 30 years of my life.  But not having had a previous reaction doesn't guarantee that I won't ever suffer the misery.  Lee can think of poison ivy and break out in a rash, so it's up to me to take care of it.  I have a two plastic bag system.  One on my hand like a glove, the other to hold the offending plants.  All is carefully disposed of in the trash and I wash my hands immediately with cold water and soap just in case.  Knock wood, it's worked so far, but I feel like I'm risking a rash every time.

What's the breaking news in your garden?

Loving This Trend

There is nothing like walking out to my garden with a bowl and a pair of scissors and walking back in with most of  that evening's dinner.  Lee's out of school for the summer and has actually picked up some landscaping work a few days a week.  He's so beat when he comes home that I couldn't possibly expect him to prepare dinner for us, so I've been trying to pick up the slack in the kitchen a little to avoid getting take out all the time.  SS2 is being a good soldier and helping me out in the kitchen and hopefully I'm sharing what little expertise I have with him along the way. 

After a long hot day of work Lee doesn't want a really heavy meal and we don't want to be in a super hot kitchen either!  Last week SS2 and I tried making gnocchi -- SS2 asked for gnocchi and I looked around for a recipe that would include some fresh herbs.  I found a recipe that had a butter thyme sauce, so we did it with our lemon thyme.  It was okay, but I'm not sure the amount of effort that went into making the gnocchi was equal to the enjoyment level of the dish.  But for Tuesday's dinner I had a very specific dish in mind.  I love a modified nicoise salad with seared tuna on top, so that's what we did (yes, I know Lee's presentation would be prettier):

 

From our garden: mesclun mix, dill, red potatoes, and in the red wine vinaigrette: red onion and dill.  I wish our beans were ready (currently just starting to flower) because I couldn't find green beans at any local store.  One grocer said that there had been a crop burn or something down south so even if I found some they probably wouldn't be the best quality.  Oh well, we'll do it again when we have our own green beans, but by then I have a feeling by then all our potatoes will be long gone.  This was also my first experience searing tuna which couldn't have been easier. 

Could I finally be learning to cook at age 36?  I welcome menu suggestions.

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?

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?

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?

I Sure Know How To Ignore A Budget

In some ways I've been really good at sticking to my self-imposed $100 budget for annuals.  I only bought a few things here or there and if you don't count the perennial herbs I bought -- which you shouldn't in the 'annuals' budget -- I was just at $100 and that included veggies.  Seriously, I've been good.  See, I'm patiently waiting for all this basil to grow (which would happen much more quickly if the sun would shine) instead of buying bunches of it though it's killing me to wait:

 

But I willfully and knowingly ignored the budget and spent $36 on petunias:

 

But I saw these deep purple ones with white edges and fell in love:

 

The pink is brightening my spirits considerably:

 

And I can't quite get this color to show up correctly.  It's a deep burgundy, wine colored, so lush:

 

Really, I had to do it, splurge and spend $36 on hanging containers, right?  The pansies were nice for some color through the cold, rainy spring, but they just weren't saying summer to me.  I'm trying to figure out where to put them though, because they are still pretty and I read that if they make it through the summer, they may re-bloom in the fall:

 

And I further exceeded my plant budget, but this was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up.  Groupon had a $15 deal for $30 worth of plants at a nursery about 10 minutes from my office.  I had never been to that particular nursery before, but I figured there had to be $30 worth of items I would buy at any nursery.  It was quite an experience.  It has changed hands and names numerous times, the staff were friendly enough, but had no idea what they had in stock or where it was on the property.  Let's just say I probably won't be going back.  But with my powers of persuasion and my groupon certificate I managed to walk out with a tomato plant, a golden lemon thyme (another one, I know, but I love it so much), a golden sage, a variegated oregano, and a rosemary:

 

The tomato plant was in the cutest trellises square container and has actual tomatoes on it already!  How could I resist?  It had two labels -- Mountain Pride and Husky Cherry tomato -- it should be pretty obvious quickly if it is a Husky Cherry tomato or not if those tomatoes don't get any bigger than they are now:

 

But that's it, I promise I won't buy anything else.  Really.  Well unless something fails, like my basil seedlings.  And once Vaiuso starts having their stock clearing sales.  Or if I find an incredible bargain.  Oh, who am I kidding?  Are you having trouble sticking to your garden budget or are you smarter than me and realize you'll never stick to one anyway?

Three Whole Days Without Rain!

This bright warm yellow thing appeared in the sky on Friday.  And no water was falling on my head.  Once I finished my work day I headed out to the garden.  First I stuck four impatiens into each of the containers flanking the front steps.  I also stuck three in the bleeding heart container for when they die back and one in a random pot up near the biggest stump on the shady side of the house.  I hope they grow quickly here since the rhododendrons look a little sparse:

 

Next I went around hilling all the potatoes.  This is one of the only spots where they were growing pretty evenly, so I could show a before and after (left is after in case it's tough to see):

 

I probably should have hilled the gigantic Yukon gold potatoes on the left even more than I did.  I still can't believe they're growing so quickly...from leftover store-bought potatoes no less!  And the blue potatoes on the right are absolutely beautiful:

 

I planted beans in the 6 containers in the veggie garden -- some Royal Burgundy and Maxibel Bush beans that Jennah sent me last year: 

 

One of the pepper plants snapped at the stem, no idea whether I did it while planting or if it was the pouring rain, but I picked up an eggplant to replace it.  I thought I was buying an Ichiban eggplant, but apparently I grabbed a Black Beauty instead:

 

The radishes and carrots are out of control.  I thinned them after taking this photo, but I scattered the seeds poorly as usual: 

 

And an interesting zinnia seed from Botanical Interests went into this large container on the corner of the patio.  I may also plant some in other spots in the garden, but I haven't quite decided yet:

 

I added a basil seedling to this container and am declaring it done:

 

I stuck a basil seedling and a piece of hot & spicy oregano in this hanging container of herbs and it is also done:

 

Saturday dawned, alright it 11:00 am'ed (I was out late on Friday night), beautiful, sunny, and warm.  Lee got out early and mowed and I wandered around doing random things. Like potting up the coleus cuttings that I rooted in water:

 

And I suddenly remember the very sad houseplant that Lee's mother gave us about 10 years ago.   Have you ever seen a sadder looking pothos?  I'm telling you, we can kill any houseplant, though this one is much tougher than most seeing as it has lasted a good decade despite our torture:

 

Wow, hardly any roots on those plants:

 

Hopefully the nice fresh potting soil and more frequent watering will have help it bounce back (and it's back inside out of direct sunlight, don't fret):

 

Two rows of Royal Purple Bush beans are sown in the planter table:

 

And the two wooden troughs and the ceramic pot to the left have Asparagus Yard Long beans in them.  Another interesting and new to me seed from Botanical Interests.  Oh, and if you're wondering why containers instead of just planting in the soil?  Because there is very little soil here.  You can actually see the asphalt and tree stumps poking up through the soil, so containers it is because it's one of the sunniest spots in our garden:

 

Lee did a great job of planting dahlias down at the end of the veggie garden where we're trying to grow flowers this year.  And I put the ones that we didn't plant down there into containers for future use elsewhere.  Not sure where, but I'm sure they'll get used.  Only three basil seedlings survived the first round of seed-starting, but I did transplant them into larger containers and added them to the top shelf of the wire shelves.  In contrast, the tarragon was widely successful.  I planted all four of these tarragon seedlings in a larger container and they will eventually go into the herb raised bed:

It felt like I did a lot more than that on Saturday, but I guess I didn't.  Rain loomed, but never arrived.  I went out to get some cupcakes for dessert and had to stop at Expect Discounts to see what else they had after that incredibly successful stop there a few weeks ago.  Not as great as the last trip, but I did come home with a 6-pack of coleus for $5.  Too pretty and inexpensive to pass up:

 

I decided to stop by Shelley's on Main Street in Branford to see if they had any unusual basils (they didn't), but I did find something really exciting -- a golden lemon thyme:

 

One last look at the herb barrel on Saturday because it would be Sunday's project:

 

I dug out all the perennial herbs except for the creeping thyme (barely visible behind the geranium).  I think it will look very nice here if it ever actually creeps.  Five of the coleus plants purchased the day before surround the Cranesbill Pink geranium:

 

Which was blooming before I transplanted it and will hopefully continue to do so:

 

The other coleus went into the empty green ceramic pot.  I must remember to pinch it so it's nice and bushy:

 

I transplanted most of the herbs from the barrel into the large black container on the driveway now cleared of spinach.  The sage (one of the first plants I bought when we started gardening five years ago) was a little floppy in the center, but it perked back up after a good soaking.  Parsley at 8 o'clock, silver thyme from midnight to about 4 o'clock, and golden oregano at 6 o'clock:

 

I also moved the second of the two lemon thyme plants I already had in the grouping by the patio garden to here.  It won't hurt to have some herbs close to the front door, especially the lemon thyme, we use it often in cooking:

 

I hemmed and hawed about putting the chives in the raised herb bed, but I think I'm going to do it and probably right where they're sitting.  I'm also pretty sure that the alternating row of cilantro and dill at the front of the bed is in my plan.  The other plants here are a purple sage, lavender, that golden lemon thyme, the tarragon, and a hot & spicy oregano.  But I really don't want to plant until I have a better idea of how much basil I'm going to have so I can actually design this bed, not just throw stuff in:

 

But I'm going to have to plant the dill and cilantro soon, they both have true leaves and roots poking out the bottom of the pots:

 

I did plant the zucchini and cucumbers in the other side.  That's two groupings of Black Beauty zucchini in front, three groupings of Spacemaster Bush cucumbers in the second row, and three groupings of a hybrid zucchini in back.  I'm still waiting to see if the Red Acre cabbage is going to do anything (small seedlings, just barely showing true leaves) and I may stick them in here somewhere:

 

I had more Black Beauty zucchini seedlings, so I decided to plant them in the veggie garden in front of the lovage with the mystery seedling:

 

I think it's a zucchini maybe?  It's self-sown and we've decided to leave it and see what develops:

 

And a row of Early Pride Hybrid cucumbers went into the raised veggie bed at the base of the trellis:

 

And here are the nursery shelves as they appear today.  The two grey trays are full of basil seedlings -- grow already!  I'm sure I'll be detailing my adventures with these plants over the next month or two: 

 

But that's it.  Other than the raised herb bed, I'm done.  Oh wait, I still have that row of beans to plant along the house too.  I want to stagger the bean planting so we can stagger the bean harvesting.  But there are lots of things to look forward to, like the irises just about to bloom:

 

Now I would like some warmer temps and days of sunshine to alternate with days of gentle warm rain.  Is that too much to expect?

And Now We Have A Vegetable Garden

Bet you expected me to start off with a photo of the veggie garden!  Nope.  Lee hit Home Depot early Saturday morning to get some more garden soil and potting soil and then got out into the garden while I was supposed to be getting a facial.  They messed up and cancelled my appointment, so I headed back home just in time to approve the placement of the new azalea SS2 got me for Mother's Day.  It had to be out of the roof drip-line, but not too close to the walk:

 

He did a great job and I'm very happy.  Now I just hope it thrives there: 

 

Then Lee headed off to do other things (weeding, sucking up more leaves, etc.) and I dug out those 6 Japanese maple seedlings I found in the driveway and added them to ever growing collection of plants on the wire shelves in the driveway:

 

While I was doing that I somehow managed to knock over the plastic container holding the Japanese maple in the middle of the lamium spilling it all out.  So I took the phlox that is barely holding on out of this ceramic container and put the poor spilled plants and soil in instead.  I don't have a home for it, so I just stuck it on the wood table on the gravel patio:

 

Then I went to work planting the tomatoes and peppers.  Lee helped out by following behind me putting the cages in the containers.  From L to R -- Purple bell pepper, 3 empty containers that will hold beans, 2 Lillian's Yellow tomatoes, Purple bell pepper, Soldacki tomato, 3 empty containers that will hold beans, Soldacki tomato, Lilac bell pepper, red potato, red potato, Lilac bell pepper, Brandywine tomato, 2 Hillbilly tomatoes, Brandywine tomato and then the two metal trash cans of potatoes and the small one in front of them has mint:

  

I was part way through the containers on the gravel patio when Lee brought me lunch -- chicken salad on rye/pumpernickel:

 

After lunch I got back to planting and Lee headed inside for a shower.  The gravel patio is all tomatoes, from L to R -- Black Krim, Black Carbon, Paul Robeson, Paul Robeson, Black Carbon, and Black Krim.  Nothing in the raised beds yet.  I'm thinking herbs on the right, probably a lot of perennial herbs too, and zucchini and cucumbers on the left:

 

And I wanted to point out our first attempt to grow tomatoes in the ground in the veggie garden.  2 Black Krims on each side of the Hillbilly tomatoes in the trellis planter.  People ask why we garden primarily in containers and tree roots is one answer.  This is our fifth year gardening and we can finally dig a hole here without a pick-axe to break up the tree roots.  I hit one big one on the left but was able to get through it with just the trowel:

 

I managed to come home with more tomato seedlings than I had containers large enough for them.  Two went into the ground above, but I didn't have another in-ground spot that would work.  So one Lillian's Yellow is in the pot that the azalea came in on the driveway:

 

And the other is in a largish pot on the patio next to the patio tomato.  I don't see this working long-term, but for the moment it will do: 

 

Here's another view of the gravel patio and raised bed from the patio.  I love this angle (the one I see most often):

 

I was so happy to be done with the tomato and pepper planting.  I forget how long it takes to plant 22 seedlings.  I sprinkled fertilizer on each container (the gray stuff in the photo of the wooden trellis planter above) and after taking photos, watered them in.  More on the fertilizer I'm using this year towards the end of the growing season.  I wasn't quite ready to call it a day because rain was forecast for the entire week, so I went over to play with my herbs:

 

In addition to rearranging them, I potted up the variegated ginger mint and sqeezed it in.  I think this is the final arrangement of the pots, but their contents may change a little:

 

I'm not very happy with the way the herb barrel looks.  I think I may finally give up on growing herbs in this spot and instead plant the barrel with some shade loving perennials because I just don't think it gets enough sun.  The chives do great, but the golden oregano is barely there, only one sage came back, the creeping thyme is okay, and the silver thyme is sparse.  Oh, and there's a bit of parsley.  I'll give it a few weeks to see if it's going to bounce back at all:

 

Actually I drafted this post on Saturday night and since then I've found a sage blossom and the rains have the whole container looking better.  But mostly I'm excited about the sage blossom:

 

I think I'll try to stick some hot & spicy oregano in this hanging basket, maybe some basil too.  The chives and creeping thyme look great, but again, another sage that didn't overwinter:

 

And I pulled the thyme and sage that didn't make it in this one and replaced them with more golden oregano and a lavender that I grew from seed that overwintered successfully -- in a tiny little pot no less!  Will likely also stick a basil in here:

 

And this is one of the things I'm most excited about this year.  Nasturtiums in hanging pots: 

 

Planted at exactly the same time as the other one in the same configuration.  Where are my seedlings?  I will give them another few days and if none appear I will plant more seeds:

 

I have mixed feelings about the 7 days of rain in the forecast.  We're two days in and I'm not going stir crazy yet, but I still have a little bit of clean up to do -- the beans along the house from last year. Ugh.  At least I won't have to water anything like I did last week.  Then when it stops raining and warms up again beans, zucchini, and cucumbers!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May 2011

Carol's been hosting GBBD for years over at May Dreams Garden, and now I'm a monthly participant after years of observing.  What a difference a month makes!  I just looked back at my April post and there were only hints of plants poking up through leaves and marsh marigolds everywhere.  Heck, even the spinach has bolted and will soon flower:

 

There's purple phlox in bloom:

 

And pink too:

 

The Purple Gem rhododendrons flanking the front door have a few flowers:

 

But the strawberries are doing great:

 

I love this photo.  I have so much fun photographing the chive blossoms and this one is poised to burst:

 

The azalea SS2 got me for Mother's Day is more flowers than anything else:

 

Technically this patio tomato is cheating, but at least it was grown in a CT greenhouse.  I don't know if the husky cherry tomatoes were CT grown, but they've also got flowers.  Unlike this plant they've already got little tiny tomatoes too:

 

Still have vinca blooming and still have marsh marigolds everywhere we haven't weeded or mowed, but they won't last much longer...too dry for them:

 

The bleeding hearts in a container in the perennial shade garden put on a show:

 

This self-sown lamium is the first to bloom by far:

 

This astilbe is the first to have buds although they all look good:

 

The pansies in the hanging baskets are not wowing me.  They're pretty, but I don't know, I think they're just not right:

 

Hopefully I will have irises to share next month.  And I wonder what else?!

What A Week

Except for the few hours stolen on Monday after work to get the new raised bed in I didn't get to do a thing in the garden this week.  Work, work, and more work, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  I did manage to get to Cyndy's garden club's plant sale on Thursday.  It was all of 5 minutes from my office so I was able to pop by before work.  I managed to find a spot to park and get in line just before they opened for sales:

 

Still in the line watching the swarm of people before me:

 

I knew I could only purchase what I could carry because I couldn't leave plants in the car on such a sunny, warm day.  But what a smart idea having a holding area for people so they can buy their plants and then go pull their car up closer:

  

As I said, I could only buy what I could carry, but I did find Cyndy to say hello before I left.  Two hardy geraniums and a little tray of hens & chicks came to work with me:

 

One of the geraniums was a gift for my boss, but the other, a Cranesbill Pink, is now patiently awaiting a new home in my garden and I don't have a clue where I'm going to plant it:

 

But I got the hens and chicks into that shallow ceramic container after work on Friday.  This is my first experience with them.  I hope I don't overwater them:

 

At last the basil seeds are finally sprouting:

 

And this one completely cracked me up...a Japanese maple seedling sprouted right in the middle of some lamium I stuck in a plastic pot until I figured out where I needed it.  I've actually found 6 Japanese maple seedlings growing in the gravel driveway and will try to get them out and into a more hospitable spot this weekend.  I'm going to let this seedling grow there and if it becomes a pretty container planting I'll transplant the whole thing to a ceramic pot:

 

Much like I'm leaving the random sunflower that self-sowed right in the front of the largest of these pots (directly south of the burgundy colored heuchera).  I know it's a sunflower because the seed husk was still on it.  I'm very pleased with this arrangement of plants and pots:

 

This will also be one of this weekend's projects.  Lee is going to dig a hole right where that pot of bleeding hearts is and plant the beautiful azalea that SS2 got me for Mother's Day.  It might be too shady over here for it, but I found a comment online from someone growing the same species in similar conditions and they said it blooms beautifully each year, but doesn't get any larger.  I would actually be very happy with that:

 

And I don't care what else happens this weekend, I am getting those damn tomatoes and peppers planted.

The Nitty Gritty

A lot of gardening isn't much fun at all.  Especially in the spring when it feels like all you do is clean up bed after bed endlessly.  So I try to find things to be excited about as we get the grunt work done.  Like lots of buds on the irises:

And the pretty pink flowers on the phlox:

 

Well, back to the work.  Lee's first task on Saturday was mulching the perennial shade garden:

  

Then the Mother's Day garden.  There are a few signs that the azalea isn't dead, but it sure doesn't look good:

 

I was so impressed by the speed at which Lee mulched.  He is now calling himself the mean mother mulcher.  I blinked and he had the hosta/rhododendron bed done:

 

While he did all of that, I surveyed the patio garden.  And then I started pulling the tulip/daffodil/crocus border in front.  It hardly bloomed this year (well the crocuses did pretty well, but the others not so much) and will definitely need more bulbs in the fall:

 

I have to admit that I got bored and had to take a break.  That rosemary that I picked up cheap at the grocery store will be very happy in this beautiful pot:

 

And it's looking very at home in the herb garden, but there's still room for one or two more pots:

 

Back to the patio garden...there were lots of marsh marigolds mixed with some other weeds.  And then I found a little baby lupine.  I wonder how many I weeded out before their true leaves appeared.  This one will stay:

 

There, isn't that much better?  I even mulched this one myself: 

 

I think Lee was scared of getting in between the irises, which frankly I was kind of frightened of doing myself.  They have lots of flower stalks beginning and I was sure I was going to break some, but I didn't:

 

We called it a day a little earlier than we normally would because we knew that we'd have all day on Sunday to garden too.  My first celebratory Red Stripe of the year -- and it's a 'light' one:

 

And here's Lee lighting the first fire of the year.  We didn't need it for warmth, we were trying to drive away all the little flying insects buzzing around.  Lots more this year than usual.  Probably the cool wet spring we've been having:

 

SS2 even came out and sat with us for a while.  We enjoyed it until a strong thunderstorm blew in, but the thunder and swiftly darkening skies gave us plenty of time to get ourselves and all our tools inside before the rain arrived.  Lee got outside early on Sunday, while I hid inside from the sun, and SS2 went to have brunch with his mom (who's in town for a few days).  By the time I got outside he had the veggie garden tidied up and mulched.  It's ready for plants:

 

I stood in the shade and transplanted the jalapeno peppers to the hanging containers.  Hopefully we'll actually get some peppers this year:

 

Then I was down in the veggie garden leveling out the containers when SS2 got home.  He brought with him an excellent gift -- a 'Hershey Red' azalea.  Now I just have to figure out where we'll be planting it (I think I have an idea):

  

Then he gave me the best Mother's Day present by helping to assemble the new raised bed without complaint.  Plus he's really good at it:

 

And here it is in place.  We were hoping that it would be level enough that we wouldn't have to dig, but it's not.  So Lee and SS2 will get there on Monday and get it done:

 

SS2 did one more thing for me before I excused him from garden duty.  He almost stepped on that little lupine seedling several times, so it's now "protected" from wandering feet by two of the butterflies on stakes.  Yeah, I don't think it will work either:

 

Then I headed back over to the potting area and transplanted really the only seedlings that survived my tough love...the marigolds:

 

I finally got around to potting up the dahlia tubers and I got the hose cart reconnected.  It's possible to garden without running water to the entire garden, but it's a whole lot easier with it:

 

I had two dahlia tubers left over, so I stuck one in this pot next to the purple fountain grass that I don't think is coming back.  You can see it just above the coleus that I brought out from the kitchen and stuck in there too:

And the basil from the windowsill went into a pot added to the herb garden:

The hot and spicy oregano went into the other big pot along the driveway as did another leftover dahlia: 

 

I'm not sure that the scattering the radish and carrot seeds together method worked.  They're all kind of in clumps around the container like this:

 

And that was the end of Sunday/Mother's Day...or was it?  Lee and SS2 did promise to get that raised bed in on Monday when Lee got home from work.  And they did!  First up was marking around the bed in place and scraping back the 'sod' which was mostly weeds:

 

I was helping too, so no more photos until we'd already finished leveling the spot...well mostly leveling it, nothing's perfect.  I take credit for the idea of filling in that little channel between the patio and bed with some river rocks we had on hand:

 

Items to note in the photo above: 1.) The soil looks pretty good, lots of worms, not too much debris, some glass, so we didn't line the bottom of the raised bed.  2.) The planter table is making getting to the back of the 4 foot deep bed a little difficult.  That's easily fixed...the new home of the planter table:

 

Oh, and while I'm over here, the two wooden containers to the right of the potatoes will hold climbing beans.  We need something to make that fence less ugly.  We really miss the ivy:

 

So here is the raised bed filled with soil and ready to plant.  Even once those pots have tomatoes I'll be able to easily reach all portions of the bed (and there's something funky about this photo, I swear it's all level, not slumping in the middle):

 

I'm very pleased with our progress in the garden.  One more push to get the tomato and pepper starts in and we'll pretty much be finished.  Now let's just hope that mother nature and my work schedule cooperate!

Where To Start

On Sunday I walked in the March For Babies with some girlfriends.  I had to leave the house very early and in my rush out the door (not accustomed to leaving the house before 9am) I neglected to assign Lee chores.  I didn't need to worry.  I arrived home some 6 hours later (we brunched after the walk) to a very tired husband and some weeded beds.  The Mother's Day garden:

 

The hosta/rhododendron garden:

 

And he got every single leaf out of the lawn (he had left a huge pile over the winter and they were a bitch to get up).  Now we just have to mulch the various beds and watch them grow.  Speaking of growing...the first of the Swiss chard seedlings appeared that day in the pots along the driveway:

 

As did the first flowers on the phlox.  Pink on one plant:

 

And purple on the other.  Love the funky shape of the flower buds:

 

I saved the wire trellis from the patio tomato plant that I bought at Walmart last year and luckily it fit the one I bought last week.  Now in its home on the patio:

 

The other plants I bought that day have not found a home yet, but I am playing around with potential pots for them:

 

Tuesday brought the first potato plant poking through the soil.  I think we have plants or signs of plants in every container now:

 

On Wednesday I managed to talk Home Depot into honoring the $2.48/bag price they had over the weekend for 1 cubic foot Miracle Gro Garden Soil for flowers and vegetables (regularly $4.97/bag).  We stopped in on Saturday to get it along with the mulch that we did buy, but they had sold out of the bagged soil.  I think someone made a mistake and posted a lower price than they were supposed to, but regardless, I got all 16 bags for $42.06 or 37% off: 

 

Unfortunately in order to get that bargain price I had to go to Home Depot in the middle of a pouring rainstorm.  And then I carried all 16 bags to the back patio by myself.  I was soaked:

 

And there they sit still.  Life has conspired to keep me out of the garden all week.  Luckily the garden has continued right along without me.  This picture doesn't really show how pretty the strawberries are with their little white flowers or how perky the tall growth is, but boy they're making me happy:

 

I did find some time to stop today and pick up tomato and pepper starts which will be planted over the weekend.  And we have the raised beds to build and fill -- I think SS2 can be counted on to help with that on Sunday as part of the Mother's Day festivities.

What Did I Do To Deserve This?

I had a wonderful weekend. Didn't get much accomplished in the garden, but thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine. It was back to work today, but the colder temps and rain forecast through Thursday made that more bearable. Until my laptop died this afternoon. No idea what happened, but I really hope our IT department can get the photos I hadn't gotten around to backing up off it for me. So no garden to play in, no laptop to work on, and I'm attempting to blog from my phone. After dropping the laptop off at FedEx I stopped by the grocery store. I happened upon a really healthy, rather large rosemary for $2.47 and I had to buy it to cheer me up!

So hoping I'm back on-line properly and back in the garden before too long.

Having The Best Time!

I have to admit I didn't get a whole lot done today.  I got a pedicure at 9:30am and I had to wait a while to make sure my toes dried completely -- I've ruined more than one fresh polish job in the garden.  While I relaxed on the couch, Lee got the mower going and cut the lawn, or rather cut the marsh marigolds and now hopefully the grass will grow.  Then around 2pm we headed over to Home Depot.  We needed mulch:

 

10 bags of it to be precise.  I also wanted to pick up some garden soil, but the silly low price garden soil was gone.  We stopped by Expect Discounts on the way home because they often have really well priced plants out front this time of year.  We weren't disappointed, but with two people in the car and a trunk full of mulch, there wasn't much space for the plants:

The patio tomato plant was $7.99.  The purple sage, lavender hidcote, and variegated ginger mint (new to me) were $5 each.  And the 4 jalepano peppers and 2 sweet basils were only $.99 each.  But do I need to count this towards my self-imposed $100 limit for 2011?  I'm thinking the $15 for the sage, lavender, and mint shouldn't count because they're perennials:

 

I needed that mulch out of my car, but where to put it?  Ah, piled in the location of the new project is the perfect spot.  Have you guessed what we're doing here yet?  None of this mulch will stay here:  

 

Okay, I'll take pity on you.  Home Depot had an insanely good price on a cedar raised garden kit:

 

I mean an insane price...$35/each!  So I picked up two and we're going to assemble them in the top middle configuration in the spot where the bags of mulch are smothering grass and weeds:

 

But I wasn't quite ready to deal with assembling them, so while Lee went inside to shower, I quickly weeded the perennial shade garden:

 

And then wandered around taking photos.  I love seeing all the ferns emerge:

 

The cinnamon fern looks so alien:

 

And of course I do so enjoy the chive blossoms:

 

But the cheeriest sight of all is the strawberries flowering already:

 

I am walking in the March for Babies walk tomorrow morning and then having brunch with my friends, so I won't be able to get into the garden until the late afternoon.  The walk is another reason I took it a little easy today.  But there are far worse reasons not to be able to garden!

It's Amazing What I Can Get Done During Lunch And After Work

I really want to get my annuals and plant them.  I'm reasonably certain that we've seen the last of frost here in southern CT, but though I'm ready, the cold, rainy April has affected our local growers.  I usually don't go until the first week of May, but last year the spring was so early that I went in the last week of April.  So after work on Monday I dragged Lee out the door.  It certainly looked different at North Guilford Nurseries.  LOTS of pansies:

 

But the herbs and veggies were tiny.  I'll try back in a week or two.  I have a feeling I won't be planting tomatoes until mid May.  Then on the way home we stopped by Vaiuso and at least they were setting up their showroom -- a clear sign that it really is spring.  They didn't have any veggies out yet, but their annual flowers looked pretty good.  I couldn't visit two nurseries without coming home with something, so this very pretty and fragrant Goodwin Creek lavender now lives in my garden:

 

Well that ate up the entire early evening, but the warm weather had me itching to do something.  I started filling up peat pots in the living room so I could try growing some herbs again (the last set of seedlings didn't fare too well with their leggy stems, excess wind, and rain) but then I ran out of seed starter.  I had to go outside to fill the last 4 little pots with regular old potting soil and realized it was practically windless and we hadn't had rain in a few days.  I could finally burn the grass!  I would love to do this for the grasses in the patio garden, but I'm afraid that the heat would melt the siding.  So this little blaze is all I get:

 

But it worked well:

 

Is anyone still spending like it's 2006?  I know we're not and I really don't want to exceed the $100 budget I have given myself for plants in 2011.  Since I successfully overwintered this coleus I won't have to buy any this spring:

 

I have two good size cuttings sitting in water making roots.  That's three plants for free:

 

And this basil and oregano, though somewhat sad looking, will be two less seedlings that I need to buy:

 

During my lunch break on Tuesday I brought the seedlings from the previous night outside to the wire shelves, watered them and crossed my fingers that they do better than the last set:

 

More free plants.  The creeping jenny in the two containers flanking the front door had rooted in the gravel in several spots.  I dug them up carefully and then left them sitting on the front steps for the rest of the afternoon -- not a great idea, but they're pretty tough plants, so they bounced back:

 

A few red and a few yellow tulips now blooming in the patio garden with just a few daffodils still holding on:

 

But the garden was full of my very favorite sign of spring...wild violets:

  

The bleeding hearts are in flower:

  

In the direct sun it was quite warm.  I was in a sleeveless shirt and shorts during my lunch break:

 

I wandered around and did a few things, but all too soon it was time to head back to my computer.  When Lee got home I took a short break and sat with him on the patio.  While he told me about his day I had him pull the very sad seedlings whose leggy stems had collapsed so I could plant a second round of seeds:

 

There were a few tomato and zucchini seedlings that were okay, so I just filled in around them:

 

After work I headed back outside and really got a lot done.  I topped off the pots on the stump, pulled the golden sage that didn't show any signs of life (though I did throw it in a plastic pot on the wire shelves just in case), filling in the blank spots in that large pot with creeping jenny since the phlox wasn't doing a damn thing, and fertilized all three containers:

 

I bought these three containers specifically to be grouped together.  The large one has potatoes (fingerlings I think), the medium size one has Swiss chard and nasturtium seeds planted, and the little container now houses that Goodwin Creek lavender I bought on Tuesday: 

 

I got the moonflower seeds in the long container at the base of the trellis and red cabbage seeds in a row in front of the moonflower seeds.  I think I know why this phlox did so well.  When I picked it up to move it the roots had grown into the driveway:

 

I hope ripping those roots won't hurt it.  I have no idea what color flowers it will shortly be covered in, but I'm excited to see:

 

That other container in that grouping came up from the basement.  I don't know yet if the silver falls dichondra or purple fountain grass successfully overwintered, but the salvia made it:

 

The Japanese maple survived the basement!  You can read here about how I found a seedling last year on the hillside and carefully transplanted it:

 

The spinach is really taking off.  We need to harvest and eat some soon.  Also in this grouping is one container of phlox that is just not looking good, the Japanese maple, and three containers full of soil waiting to be home to something, but I don't know what yet:

 

The pansies were standing up tall at attention just begging for a close-up, so here's my best O'Keefe impersonation:

 

I liked this one too:

 

The last thing I did on Tuesday was pull the lemon grass from the fish container.  I'm not sure if it survived the winter in the basement so I threw it in a container on the shelves too, but I decided that creeping jenny would make much more sense in it because I wouldn't have to worry about putting it in the basement over the winter.  Plus it can live in the patio garden until the bleeding hearts die back in the heat of the summer and then it can move over to that blank spot.  The ideas is that it will kind of look like the fish is spitting in the birdbath:

  

Most of the pots are in place in the driveway.  Well at least their place for the moment.  You know how I like to switch things up:

  

On Wednesday during my lunch break I got outside and planted up the raised bed.  From left to right: 4 rows of red onion starts, 1 row of Swiss chard, 1 row of Kale (Nero Toscana), and 2 rows of Detroit Dark Red beets.  Nasturtiums around the edge of the bed and space at the bottom of the trellis for cucumbers when the seedlings in the peat pots are a little bigger.  I fertilized and gave a quick water:

 

The large wooden planter beyond the end of the veggie garden now holds radishes (watermelon) and carrots (kaleidoscope mix):

 

This caught my eye as I walked by, but what the hell was it:

 

A colony of mushrooms:

 

So, as you can see, I got a lot accomplished in a relatively short period of time.  There's still mulching to do (great job for the weekend) and once I get those tomato, pepper, and whatever else plants, I will need to get them in.  But for now, just careful tending of the seedlings.  I'd like Lee to mow the lawn this weekend before it gets out of hand and I will clean up the last of the debris in the veggie garden so the containers are ready for the warmer season crops.  Oh, and the dahlias, I should get the dahlias planted too!  What's next in your garden?

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - April 2011

Carol's been hosting GBBD for years over at May Dreams Garden, and now I'm a monthly participant after years of observing.  My last GBBD post was in December, but hey, it's been a long hard winter here.  And spring hasn't exactly sprung.  There are hints of it...daffodils blooming (in a very messy patio garden that will be cleaned up soon):

 

The bane of our existence this time of year, marsh marigolds, but such cheerful little yellow flowers:

 

And the pretty little blue flowers on the vinca are blooming away:

 

Scilla siberica poking up through the leaves -- lots and lots of leaves:

 

While some forsythia in the neighborhood is in full bloom, ours isn't quite there yet, but hopefully will be soon:

 

And I just couldn't resist buying some pansies at Walmart the other day because I desperately want some color in hanging baskets along the fence.  Potting them up will likely be a late Friday afternoon job:

 

So not a ton blooming in Heather's Garden for April's GBBD, but May will be better.  Will the bleeding hearts still be in bloom:

 

Or the astilbe that's just poking up through the leaves:

 

And then there's the table full of leggy seedlings.  What will they be doing in a month's time:

 

What's blooming in your garden?  Or what are you eagerly anticipating blooming in your garden?

It's Seed Starting Time!

Let the record reflect that I started the herbs, marigolds, and coleus on March 22nd (the plant tags are the cut up mini-blinds):

I planted 6 each of Chinese garlic chives (Botanical Interests), slow bolting cilantro (Botanical Interests), tetra dill (Botanical Interests), purple dark opal basil, aton basil, sweet basil, genovese basil, lemon basil, lime basil, tarragon, true lavender, marigolds, and rainbow mix coleus:

I have a bunch of peat pots that still need to be filled with seed starter, moistened, and seeded.  Those will be 6 of red acre cabbage (Botanical Interests), 3 each of early pride hybrid cucumber, spacemaster bush cucumber, black beauty zucchini (Botanical Interests), a hybrid zucchini, and 2 each of beefsteak tomatoes (Botanical Interests) and better bush tomatoes (Botanical Interests).  UPDATE:  Got the rest of the seeds started on 3/26:

  

But I still have careful watering to do.  I was hoping soaking them in water would do the trick, but I'm sure you can tell which one pot I've actually watered:

 

And it's a good thing that I have all these seeds growing inside because it appears winter isn't done with us:

 

I finally gave in and admitted that my camera was done.  It kept switching itself to video.  I managed to swing an awesome deal and got this Canon Powershot for about $70.  Yes, I'd love a fancy SLR if someone with lots of money would like to buy me one.  It's going to take a little time and practice before I master it, but I think I like this first round of photos:

 

Calendar worthy?  Certainly one of the better photos I've taken in March, but that's not saying much:

 

I wish I had more interesting stuff in snow to photograph -- only crocuses and chives so far:

 

I really hope this is the last time I see the garden covered in snow.  Please, please, please let it be the last time:

 

And I feel totally justified posting this photo because there is plant material in it.  But really it's all about the awesome platter I painted.  Girls night out at the local pottery painting place brought out the anal planner in me.  I googled for a stock image of a bird on a branch (bonus points that it has two!), printed it out, cut it out, traced it on contact paper, cut out the contact paper, stuck it to the platter and painted around it like a reverse stencil.  And they even had a paint color to match the kitchen chairs!  Here it's on top of a bowl and shoved over towards the window because the table is covered in seed starting supplies:

I can so see it covered in tomatoes from the garden this summer!

Once Upon A Time

I had a really nice planter on the kitchen table filled with golden oregano, basil, rosemary, and edible ornamental peppers:

 

But it didn't do so well under my really inattentive care.  I don't know if I watered it too much, not enough, it got too much sun, or not enough, but it didn't thrive.  The golden oregano survived though and some hot & spicy oregano I stuck in there sometime in the past month seems to have rooted.  I forgot to do anything with the bulbs I so carefully saved last summer, but bare dirt, container indoors...I stuck a bunch of bulbs in here last week and so far so good:

 

At least there's something growing in the house!  I've been cutting up an old mini-blind making plant labels, sorting seeds, and making plans.  One of these days I might actually plant some seeds.  Where are you in your gardening process?

Could It Actually Be Spring?

Mother Nature is playing with us I suspect.  In February she sent us several days in the 60s, but today it was only 20-something.  I guess March will be a lion.  On February 18th my buddy Ryan came over to hang out and it was so warm I had to take a walk with him.  Massive melting gave him all kinds of puddles to stomp through and rushing water in all the storm drains.  He had a ball:

 

Luckily traffic was light because he was so excited he ran as fast as he could until I'd yell at him to stop and let me catch up.  It was heaven being outside just wearing a hoodie over a t-shirt:

 

The warm temps have led to a lot of melting, but man, there is still a lot of snow out there (the rest of these pics were taken 3/3/11): 

 

This is the north side of the house, so this pile (reduced by half -- it used to be all the way to the bottom of the windows) will be around for a while: 

 

I haven't seen these planters (or that chair) since December:

 

I have a feeling that this berm (did you know that the word for a large pile of snow?) may be around until May:

 

One of the reasons I haven't posted in ages is because Lee and I have both been down with a virus since last Monday/Tuesday, hence the cough drops below next to evidence that the indoor plants haven't exactly flourished:

 

Here's some more evidence.  The coleus is probably the most successful of the window plants, but one of the containers of strawberries failed completely.  Still it was a little green to get us through a very long winter: 

 

Lee bought me a very nice plant for Valentine's Day.  I'm not certain what it is because it didn't have a label, but I'm pretty sure that it's a peace lily:

 

Still in the container that it came in above, but Lee came home and suggested we put it in the "magazine basket" we had used for another plant years ago.  Good idea, Lee:

 

I suddenly felt like it was spring today so I went out to the garden to see if I could find any signs of it despire the 20-something degree weather.  I may have been wearing a heavy winter coat and boots, but sure enough there were signs of spring to be found.  A daffodil in the patio garden:

 

And a sure sign of spring, chives in one of the herb containers:

 

I was so excited that I bought a seed starting greenhouse kit today at Walmart.  It's definitely that time of year.  A few more weeks and we'll be springing ahead and tidying up the garden! 

How I Will Get Through The Winter Without My Garden

Yesterday I took advantage of what is predicted to be the last day of unusually warm weather to run some errands and finally get outside and transplant this winter's indoor plants.  See what nice sunny days we were having?  Note the black and white tins on the table, I bought them ages ago at Ikea specifically to line up on the windowsill above the sink:

 

You probably also noticed the brown ceramic planter in the middle of the table.  You may recall I potted it up a while ago, but I finally brought it inside.  The oregano in particular has reacted well, growing an inch at least in the week or so it's been there.  The basil and ornamental edible peppers are doing well too:

  

So I grabbed the tins, the basil that has been rooting for 2 months, another basil that's been in water even longer, and a coleus cutting that's just as old, and headed outside at 4pm.  Also on the agenda in the 45 minutes or so remaining before I knew it would be too dark to work was potting up some tulips.  I covered them with a few inches of soil after taking this photo, but later read that I was supposed to leave the tips exposed.  Oh well, let's see what happens.  I plan to leave them outside for a while too.  If you're not tough, you're not making it in my house.  I have other tulips and daffodils that I will chill and then pot up as the mood strikes:

 

All too soon I looked over and the sun was almost gone.  We've had incredible winds the past few days, so most of the remaining leaves are now down and you can hardly tell Lee cleared at least half the grass: 

 

Back inside I lined up my newly planted tins.  Oh yes, you might be interested to know that I did not punch holes in the bottoms of the tins (water plus windowsill equals rotted wood).  Instead I put about an inch of river rocks in the bottom of each one.  Hopefully that will keep the roots from drowning and the tins from falling over if they get top heavy:

 

You could see the big basils pretty well in the photo above, but here's a closer shot of the coleus cutting and basil perpetuo cutting (both long on roots, short on leaves): 

 

And one of the medium sized tins that each have 2 everbearing strawberry runners.  I don't know how this is going to work, but I'm loving this photo:

   

When I was out running errands I couldn't resist buying an amaryllis and some paperwhites.  The amaryllis is in its usual spot, wonder if it will bloom by Christmas this year (forgive the slightly blurry photo, I just didn't have the patience to keep trying for a good one today, a much cloudier day than yesterday): 

 

And I did fill two tall vases with river rocks and a paperwhite bulb in each.  One for the bathroom at home and one for my desk at the office:

 

The rosemary still has to be moved into the kitchen, but I wasn't kidding about the size of it, so I'm delaying moving it until I finish another project in the kitchen that requires some space.  Lee is taking Friday off to finish cleaning up the leaves and some other garden-related tasks, like moving plants to the basement for me.  While he's down there, I've asked him to find all the bulbs I gave him in the spring to store and dry out.  If all went according to plan I should have a bunch of hyacinths to force too -- that will make the winter fly by!

The Growing Season That Just Won't End

I really thought the season was over on Monday when I woke up to this:

 

It wasn't just a dusting that melted when the sun came up:

 

I took these photos at 11am.  Note that the basil is still looking great:

 

And the husky cherry tomato that the wind kept knocking over:

 

But no, the snow switched over to rain and the rest of the week was sunny and beautiful.  We had a great lazy day on Saturday, but on Sunday we had to take advantage of the nearly 60 degree weather and get some work done in the yard.  Still no killing frost, see, even the zinnias are still going strong:

 

You may remember that I had Lee clear out the back shed making a nice level spot for a compost pen of some sort.  But he couldn't move two really large chunks of concrete by himself.  We picked each one up together and moved them one at a time in the wheelbarrow to the driveway and then carried them around the house to the front.  The first one wasn't bad, but the second one was literally as heavy a thing as I can carry and my left arm is still kind of dead.  Look how huge it is over there:

 

Back to the project...I've had a roll of chicken wire set aside for a compost bin for years, I'm not kidding -- years!  First I unrolled the wire (with Lee's help), laid it wrong way down on the ground to keep it from rolling right back up, and figured out I had 20-25 feet or way too much for one enclosure.  So I cut it in half (roughly) and formed the first cage.  I just made a circle and folded over the ends over twice -- nothing complicated, and stood it up:

It was a little wobbly, but we figured the leaves would fill it out and we weren't concerned about it going anywhere so skipped stakes.  Lee had already filled up a trash can with shredded leaves (we have that sucking/shredding attachment for our leaf blower) so he started filling it immediately:

 

He went back to raking and sucking up leaves and I built the second, slightly smaller cage.  Here they are when we called it a day a few hours later:

 

I spent the rest of my time clearing the vegetable garden and starting the second compost pile.  Lee will top it off with leaves next weekend.  It's kind of sad how insignificant the veggie garden looks, but I didn't put any of the bean stalks in here.  The strings were kind of torn after a few seasons of use, but I didn't think they would break down in the compost, so they went straight into the trash with the beans still on because I really didn't want to try and unwind them:

 

But this is the first time I've tidied up the garden in the fall and I like it:

 

Lee did a great job of clearing leaves, but as you can see we still have tons on the trees, but at least they're not green so they should come down sometime soon:

 

Some bad news though.  Remember the beautiful ivy that covered a large part of the fence?  Here's a reminder:

 

See how pretty it was behind the hanging planters:

 

No more.  The ivy and the fence are actually our neighbor's property.  He said that it was destroying his fence and it was time for it to go.  Of course, he didn't tell us ahead of time and we just went outside one day to discover it was gone.  Oh well, he dug it up too, so I don't think it will be coming back: 

 

I am bringing some plants inside to try to overwinter them in the kitchen, more on that soon, but this rosemary must be pointed out.  I moved it to the steps to encourage bugs to exit before I bring it into the kitchen, but I can't get over how big it is.  We bought it last Thanksgiving in Florida and brought it home with us.  Sadly we're not going down for Thanksgiving this year, but this little piece of Florida will still be with us:

 

But I have to close with a shot of my beautiful new wreath.  I'm declaring it appropriate for Thanksgiving and if I'm really lazy, Christmas too:

 

It's sparkly and I love it!  What are you excited about these days?

The Nicest Fall I Can Remember

It figures, I gave up on the garden and it just won't stop.  I could have harvested at least 3 more go rounds of beans if I didn't let them get gigantic.  I haven't had the heart to rip out plants that are still bearing tomatoes.  But the only time I have spent in the garden lately is playing with my little buddy, Ryan:

 

I did take a few minutes between chasing him around (man 3 year olds have an insane amount of energy) to see if there were any interesting items to photograph, or at least one that would stand still for me.  Apparently the stevia actually has pretty little white flowers when it blooms:

 

And that's all I've got.  I am going to try really hard to get home from work tomorrow in time to do some gardening before dark because 65 degrees is just too nice of weather not to take advantage of in late October in Connecticut!  It may still be another few weeks before we get a frost, but there won't be too many more days I want to be outside more than I want to be warm and toasty indoors.

Harvest Time?

There was one last project hanging around the garden that just had to be taken care of...the harvesting of the Yukon Gold potatoes:

 

We put out a tarp and lifted and tipped over the container onto it:

 

We carefully went through the soil on the tarp and forked through the hole in the ground.  All the soil from the containers went into two garbage cans with covers for the winter:

 

I took some time to go around and gather up the tomatoes still on the vine.  We had one of the Brandywines on our salad tonight, but it was barely a step above a supermarket tomato:

 

The full harvest, well minus two tomatoes that we brought inside.  The potatoes on the right are from the right-hand container above, the left from the left-hand one.  I think maybe it wasn't sunny enough where we had them, so we're planning a sunnier spot next year:

  

I did enjoy getting my hands (well my gloves) into some potting soil again.  That lemon grass really needed to be potted up or it definitely wouldn't successfully overwinter in the fish container.  I was relieved when I pulled it out to fill the container with potting soil to see that it was sending new roots out:

 

I roughed up the roots and got it into the container and I'm quite pleased with the result:

 

Completely randomly the husky cherry tomato in the driveway is growing like mad and if the first frost holds off I think we'll get a bunch of tomatoes from it:

 

The first frost looks like it will hold off for at least the next 10 days, but there's no sign that the trees in our yard are going to drop their leaves any time soon.  We always end up out there in the freezing cold raking -- ugh: 

 

We finished up our projects for the day and headed back inside.  And Lee, love of my life, set out a snack:

 

We shared it and I headed off to a chick flick with some girlfriends.  I can't imagine a nicer Sunday.

A First For Me

Before last week I only had one memory of seeing a praying mantis in person.  I was a little girl, maybe 7, and we found one on the sidewalk in New Haven outside my babysitter's house.  But last week I went outside after a few days of rain to see how the garden was faring.  And there it was -- a praying mantis on the basil chowing down on a still wriggling bee:

 

None of these photos are perfect because it was silly windy:

 

So you can see just how big the mantis was:

 

This may be calendar-worthy:

 

And to show you how difficult it was to get a decent photo:

And then on Sunday I went outside to escape the never-ending football on my TV (love having SS1 come over and hang out, but I can only take a few hours of football before I get bored) and found the mantis over on the wire shelves along the fence.  I love this photo, I just wish I hadn't cut off the mantis' tail:

 

And predictably my camera battery died so I couldn't try for a better one.  I just hope the mantis gives me another chance if the rain ever stops.  I took this photo to show the one new, blue bloom on the hydrangea, but it's kind of tough to see with the yellow of the siding behind it, but at least the beans on the netting look awesome:

 

I don't know if you can see it, but there are nasturtiums growing int he raised bed again.  I don't know if they're self-sown or somehow remnants of the plants that I pulled (though I can't imagine how that would happen):

 

Another surprise, well actually two, the husky cherry tomato is getting huge all of a sudden for no apparent reason.  And that bush under birdfeeder was cut down to the ground early in the season, but it came back.  I can't decide if I want to keep it or will try cutting it down again:

 

And the wildflowers are finally looking half decent with all the asters in bloom:

 

Downright beautiful up close:

 

It's been quite chilly here, all our windows are closed, socks on, hoodies & sweaters worn all day (not just for the cool mornings), and the throws are out of the ottoman and covering us on the couch.  I refuse to turn on the heat this early in the season, but sitting around in a 64 degree room is a little bracing.  I imagine the poor tomatoes outside are even colder, especially at night.  I don't know how many more of them are going to ripen if October is going to be this cold!

I Blame My Mother For This One

Once upon a time my sister went to Italy and brought me back a murano glass fish.  We really liked the band Phish, so it was kind of a joke, but a really nice gift.  Then she went to visit our dad in WA and brought me back a ceramic fish from there.  A friend moved to Germany, my sister went to visit, you guessed it, 3 little glass fish came home with her.  Then my mother, queen of the thrift store and tag sale, joined in.  But unlike my sister, my mom thought anything with a fish on it or fish-shaped was fair game.  Fish shaped coin purses, wooden trays, sponge holders, tea towels, you name it, I bet at one point or another I've had one.  I finally had to ask mom to try and keep it to a minimum and for the past few years she's done a great job of finding fish items that I like and can actually use. Her Christmas gift to us was a beautiful almost abstract dip/chip set which we love and use often.  The first fish is all the way on the right on the top shelf in front and the chip/dip set is obviously on the left/middle of the next shelf:

 

So when I found a ceramic fish shaped planter at Christmas Tree Shops yesterday afternoon for $19.99 I just had to have it, but I blame it on my mom.  I instantly pictured my new planter with a grass coming out of its mouth like it was blowing water and when I got home and showed it to Lee he suggested lemon grass.  Perfect:

 

I had that lemon grass still hanging out in a small container so I just grabbed it and shoved it into the mouth of the fish and stabbed it through the center with a piece of bamboo:

 

Today I'll get it planted and then after the first frost (hopefully a full month from now), I'll move it to the basement to overwinter the lemon grass (cross your fingers), but also to protect the adorable fish planter because I think it might not fare well in sub-freezing temps.  Also on the agenda is Lee mowing the grass.  Can you believe how green and lush it is with how dry it's been in CT?  I can't:

 

But the most exciting agenda item for the day is harvesting the Yukon Gold potatoes.  I so hope there are many, many potatoes!  Of course, it's about 80 degrees, sunny, and muggy, so we might just end up hanging out in the sun instead.

Like Clockwork

It's the first day of Fall (partial or not), so guess what appeared today on my neighbor's steps:

 

Can you see them?  Pumpkins, on a nearly 80 degree day.  I can't stop laughing.  Back in the patio garden the one zuke is still hanging on, but I wish I had seen the male flower and the female flower before this afternoon so I could assist with pollination.  I'll try to remember to get out there early tomorrow morning:

 

I haven't shown you the herb barrel in a long time.  It's almost exclusively perennial herbs now, but that lemon grass in back won't overwinter successfully in my zone (6b).  I have two in small containers though which I will put in the basement.  They might make it:

I love it!  Lots of silver thyme, stevia, and sage dominating the front of the barrel:

 

Heading to the office tomorrow and I will miss my garden.  Don't know how many more truly lovely days I'll be able to spend enjoying it!

Meanwhile, Back On The Farm

Garden time these days is pretty much sitting in the garden and sunning.  Throw in a beer, a crossword, or a good book and I'm a happy camper.  75 degrees and sunny is my favorite weather:

 

My fall crops are enjoying the weather too -- kale, though this is an old photo and it's showing true leaves now:

 

The spinach also has true leaves developing:

The Chinese garlic chives are so cute:

 

Lots and lots of carrots:

I was pretty horrified when I found this potato beetle on the Yukon Gold potatoes and made Lee kill it as soon as I was satisfied with the photo I had (no gloves on or I'd have done it myself).  I'm glad I took the time to get a good one because after careful examination of the photo I figured out it was a false potato beetle and not really a concern:

 

Sadly this is the only photo I could get of the monarch butterfly that keeps visiting the garden:

 

This grasshopper hung around for a long time, but it was mid-day and so bright, it was difficult to get a decent photo:

I found this insanely large web next to the Black Russian tomatoes:

 

I'm having trouble deciding which of these is calendar worthy.  Weigh in with your favorite, please.  #1:

 

#2:

#3:

 

#4: 

#5:

 

I know some of you are squirming around and squealing (come on they're just photos), so I'll give you some cheerier subject matter.  The radishes are really coming along in the wooden box (must thin them soon since true leaves have appeared), but look at all those tomatoes:

 

And this beautiful little strawberry:

 

But increasingly I'm readying my mind for the end of the growing season.  Planning which pots will be moved to the basement for the winter or the kitchen to try and grow -- and I mean try with the dry heat of forced air and the too short winter days.  And the few weeks we're planning to spend in Florida at some point...going to have to keep it to a minimum so SS1 consents to water while we're gone.  So far, I've started rooting cuttings from the Basil Perpetuo and two of the coleus that I particularly like:

Don't forget to comment and tell me which spider photo you like best, and while you're leaving a comment, share how you are preparing for winter in your part of the country.

Some Actual Gardening

The weather was absolutely perfect on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday was the warmer of the two so I spent some time laying in the sun reading a book and took a few photos around the garden.  But first a few photos left over from the 1st.  Not very good, but I love the clearwing hummingbird moth:

Slightly better:

This spider is huge and I keep almost reaching right through her web to strip dead branches off the tomato plant: 

Lee loves that it scurries up into the dead tomato leaf and blends right in:

 

I did do a little work that day.  I cut the runners off the strawberry plants and stuck them all in the big pot:

 

The eggplants did terribly there this year (something kept attacking the fruit) and I don't think there's enough sun here for a tomato plant, so this pot is now officially all strawberries from here on out:

 

So Saturday became harvest and then lay in the sun day.  This is not the harvest photo -- this is the Kentucky Wonder beans I didn't get last week the other side of our neighbor's fence (he had a sprinkler going) and the pepper and tomato had something burrowing in them, so this is the compost photo:

 

But there were plenty of good beans and peppers:

 

There's tons of bees visiting the basils in the raised bed:

 

The tomato plants look pretty crappy:

But when you look close you can see tons of tomatoes.  Ripen already!  I think a week or two and we'll have more tomatoes than we can handle again:

 

The Yukon Gold potatoes are starting to die back, so I pulled the remaining foliage up onto the containers.  We'll 'dig' them soon.  I have some great seed mixes that Shayna at Botanical Interests sent me and I'm planning to use one along this fence in the spring.  To prepare a bed now or prepare in the spring is the question:

I have to come up with some fall interest plants for this area.  The clematis didn't make it and I think they're too finicky for my inattentive gardening ways (water?, oh yeah, I guess we should water): 

 

On to Sunday.  Sunday was perfect gardening weather.  Just about 70 degrees and sunny.  First job of the day was harvesting the fingerling potatoes, which meant taking the zinnias out of the pots too (Lee planted them in the containers on the gravel patio where we have removed dead/dying tomato plants):

 

We probably only got a little less than a pound of fingerlings in total, but worth growing (more on that later).  Then I went on a planting frenzy.  The rosemary had definitely outgrown its old container, so it was up-potted into a nice blue one which will look lovely in our blue kitchen over the winter.  In the smaller containers I planted some Chinese Garlic chives (also from Botanical Interests -- thanks Shayna!) and I stuck a leftover silver edged thyme in an empty spot in the last container:

 

The Japanese maple got a new home in a larger pot.  I'm trying to plan ahead and research how to overwinter it, most of what I find says that it will be fine in my zone in a pot outside over the winter, but I think I might sink it into the raised bed for the winter to give a little extra insulation.  Spinach in the large black pot:

 

I just love this box and the self-seeded ornamental edible pepper in the driveway, oh and I planted radishes in the box:

 

There are actual peppers on that plant:

 

And this pot got kale seeds:

 

Lee planted carrots in the big grey containers, Burpee A#1 Hybrid on the left and Danvers Half Long on the right:

A row of Detroit Dark Red beets went along the right hand side of the raised bed:

 

And all of the potted herbs moved to the raised bed because with the shorter days they weren't getting enough sun over by the patio:

 

I rescued the various edible ornamental peppers that popped up all over the driveway and in various containers, the two clay pots of basil from the Triscuit packages (the dill bolted already), and some golden oregano (clipped from another plant earlier in the season and now well rooted), and threw them all in a beautiful pot found at a friend's house where it was empty and buried in weeds (and will be returned to her when she moves back to the U.S.):

 

All together a full four hours of hauling potting soil, adding fertilizer, transplanting, tidying up, and finally we stopped and had a cook-out for three (SS2 came home for the weekend from school).  The basil has been so great this summer that we always have some in the kitchen, but this photo's about our green beans:

 

And dinner included our tiny little fingerling potatoes which were the most delicious potatoes I have ever eaten and yesterday's bean harvest with fresh ginger (I can't tell you how delicious those beans are):

Really, the potatoes were like popping a little bit of joy into my mouth.  We will definitely grow them again.  I hope you're all enjoying your Labor Day weekend as much as we are.  Now some Advil (I'm telling you, gardening is a full body work-out) and some more quality time with SS2 before we have to take him back to school.

Sure, Now That I Have Some Free Time

I finally have some free time and could entertain the notion of putting in fall crops and all of a sudden we get the dog days of August.  It's been a few days in the 90s here and pretty darn muggy.  So a few photos from Saturday are going to be all you get.  I think we'll grow beans here every year given this year's success:

 

The moonflowers have some gigantic seed pods.  I wonder how many seeds I'll get from these:

 

The edible ornamental peppers that self-seeded in the driveway have tons of flowers and are setting peppers:

 

They're very pretty growing next to the planter where they grew last year, though I have no idea how they're growing with next to no soil:

 

The plants on top of the stump are a success, but the wildflowers aren't stopping any traffic:

 

Though they're prettier a little to the left:

 

The veggie garden looks pretty good from a distance (it's not quite as pretty up close):

 

You may have noticed that we emptied out the raised bed except for some basils:

I discovered onions growing under the nasturtiums.  I guess they're the ones I missed harvesting earlier in the summer:

 

The rosemary is so big you can't see the tarragon, but it's looking pretty good too.  Planning what will come into the kitchen to hopefully grow and use this winter is one of my tasks for the near future: 

 

And when the heat breaks maybe I'll actually plant some fall crops though I fear it's already too late.

Meanwhile, Back On The Home Front

It was very difficult leaving our garden for five days just when temps hit 90+ and stayed there.  We hadn't had rain in about a week and there was none in the forecast.  But luckily SS2 would be home the entire time we were gone and he promised to water.  Since we grow so much in containers the instructions were a little complicated, but he did a great job and even the herb seedlings that were just starting when we left, were alive and thriving when we got home:

We failed to give him any instructions on harvesting though.  But a lost cherry tomato isn't much of a price to pay for our wonderful vacation:

 

And since there's always the chance that this will be the only zucchini we harvest (given my terrible luck growing zukes), it's okay that it ended up the diameter of a baseball bat: 

 

The beans popped up while we were gone:

As did the malabar (at the base of the trellis if you can spot it past the moonflower taking over anything it can reach):

   

I thought about bringing Elizabeth a lamium from my garden, but ultimately didn't (it felt weird to show up to her house on that first day empty-handed).  When I mentioned it to her, she said she wished I had and showed me how her lamium were spreading, but developing a weird white stripe down the center of the leaf instead of the normal almost entirely white leaves.  When I got home I checked my self-sown lamium and sure enough mine were doing the same thing!  Just as well I didn't bring any with me:

 

The wildflower patch is doing really well.  There are actual flowers blooming though they're tough to see here:

But there was something that looked a little off.  The Red potatoes never flowered, but the foliage appeared to be dying back:

 

You probably don't remember, but I planted 4 seed potatoes in this black plastic pot, but didn't bother with hilling them.  I just plopped the potatoes in the bottom of the pot and filled it with soil.  So my hopes were not high when we tipped the pot over onto a tarp:

 

But we found 6 good size potatoes.  Lee said this wasn't much return on our investment.  I disagreed -- it's a 150% return on our investment!  And they're so pretty:

 

Then Lee dumped the wood box over onto the tarp:

 

I'm going to let the two large gray containers in the veggie garden go until the foliage on them dies back completely.  We found a lot of tiny little potatoes on the roots of the plants in the wood box and I wonder if giving the others a little more time will yield more potatoes.  But this wasn't at all a bad harvest from 4 seed potatoes:

 

Lee holding the first tomato, a Purple Cherokee:

 

And today's harvest which included 2 more tomatoes, a Brandywine Pink and a Purple Cherokee, and 4 different varieties of beans, mostly Royal Purple bush beans:

 

We had a friend over for lunch today and while we sat on the patio the butterfly bush did its job.  We couldn't believe this guy could still fly:

 

This one stopped by about an hour later, but I still didn't choose the right setting for my camera, though it would still be a rather sad photo with so much wing gone:

 

And yes, lunch included potato salad made from our own potatoes (delish!) and fresh mozz, tomato, and basil (our own tomatoes and basil of course).  There are quite a few tomatoes that are almost ripe (Hillbilly, a new variety to us and we hope a tasty one) and we still have all those beans to use.  I love growing our own vegetables!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - July 2010

Carol's been hosting GBBD for years over at May Dreams Garden, and now I'm a monthly participant after years of observing.  But my garden is still not cooperating with the calendar and I'm trying really hard to get my Buffalo post(s) up.  I had beautiful hostas blooming before 2 days of pouring rain knocked all the petals off.  I still have day-lilies blooming, but who isn't going to post photos of day-lilies?  I did run outside for a few minutes between rain showers and saw the beautiful yellow flowers on the dill:

Then I looked a little closer and saw that wasn't the only thing on the dill:

Do you think it's a swallowtail:

 

I can't tell:

 

There were 4 in all and all had this white band in the middle:

 

So that's my rather unconventional GBBD post for July.  Hope you enjoyed it and the dill flowers since they're probably already gone!

Now I Really Am Done

Starting on Wednesday I finally got around to planting up the rest of the garden.  There's still something going on with the nerves near the incisions, but the doctor says it's normal up to 6 weeks after surgery and I'm just over 4 weeks post op, so she's not worried.  It's not keeping me from doing anything and my energy is back where it should be (though my stamina's not 100% yet), so I'm no longer limiting my activities.  What's the first thing I did?  Have a friend over to see the garden.  She couldn't come until teatime, so I made some sun tea and hit my new favorite place Sugar for cupcakes and cookies:

 

We had a lovely time together on a perfect day.  After she headed home with a rosemary and a lemon grass (I had a million herbs afterall), I wandered around taking a few photos here and there.  Habanero peppers have set on a few plants:

 

And bell peppers on a few:

 

I think the Roma tomatoes will be the first to ripen:

 

Though there are plenty of contenders in the wall o' tomatoes:

 

And how awesome does the planter table of Royal Purple Bush beans look?  There are tons of little baby beans growing, but I'm also digging how decorative they are:

 

The rest of these photos are from a few different days, but you don't really care and I know what happened when.  WARNING: These next three pics are a little gross.  Poor little bird embryo.  I have no idea where it came from though, since there are no trees over the veggie garden at all:

 

VPH was called in for the dirty job of disposing of it:

 

Oh well, cycle of life and all that:

 

But these photos are so much more fun!  Once again a dragonfly sat and posed for me.  I had about 30 good ones that I narrowed down to these three.  Please comment and tell me which is your favorite and why.  #1:

 

#2:

 

#3:

My mom sent me a pretty card right after my surgery:

I like the painting on the card so much that it might end up in a frame.  Doesn't my mom have the most distinctive hand-writing?  Not to be morbid, but some day she will be gone and I'm pretty sure just seeing it will make me cry: 

Since only one moon-flower seed actually grew, I had plenty of space for a climber in this container.  I planted cinnamon, opal, and purple ruffles basil (grown from seed with varying degrees of success) along the front and sowed a row of malabar seeds along the back:

 

I planted up two containers of herbs for my friends Jessica & John.  John said he'd take as much basil as I'd like to give him, so I put the sweet basil I grew from seed in the square container and golden oregano, purple sage, rosemary, and some big-leaf Italian basil from Vaiuso in the round container.  A pretty nice present for friends (who are loaning us their Tom-Tom for the drive to Buffalo) for way under $10:

I next turned my attention to the raised veggie bed.  I cut back the nasturtiums, especially the one vining up the trellis.  I decided the cucumbers didn't need the competition.  From left to right I planted lemon basil (from seed), big-leaf Italian basil ($1 from Vaiuso), and lime basil (from seed):

Here's the after.  Much better I think:

The herb barrel is probably over-planted, but I had a lot of herbs.  It took me a good 5 minutes to dig out the roots from last year's lemon grass, so I decided that this year the lemon grass could go in the ground behind the barrel, I just hope it gets enough sun, but if grass grows there, I figured lemon grass would.  Starting with the chives moving clockwise: I divided the chives and will give half to a friend, left the creeping thyme as it was (though next year I may plant a seedling of something in the middle of it early in the spring), a tiny golden sage overwintered but hasn't grown much, English lavender which I hope will overwinter for me, golden oregano, silver thyme, sage, and lemon basil.  In the middle there's red rubin basil, stevia, and parsley:

 

I still had herbs left (I know crazy, right?), so I planted up one more basket with purple sage, silver thyme, big-leaf Italian basil, and golden oregano:

 

The patio tomato was disgusting (I don't know what it had, but it went into the trash not compost), so these herbs will live on the bar on the patio.  I can't get over how huge the bar looks without the trays of seedlings on the bottom shelf:

A rare photo of VPH sitting.  He helped me put up the netting and had carried the chair over to stand on.  He didn't feel like gardening, so I asked him to sit and keep me company while I weeded.  I was on my way to get the weeding stool and snapped this photo without his knowledge:

 

And here's the same spot after weeding and now with Kentucky Wonder beans planted beneath the string trellis and behind the green metal trellises alternating Maxibel and Royal Burgundy bush beans (thanks Jennah!).  The green metal trellises are at staggered heights because I couldn't push the second one any further into the ground -- stupid rocks.  Luckily I think I like them better in that pattern than I would all at the same height:

 

I finally planted some white impatiens in the little blue pot and tucked it into the roots of the huge maple stump on the shady side of the house:

And this is kind of a funny one, but the bleeding hearts die back to the ground every summer when it gets hot (and it's been hot) and the container they're in is pretty prominent along the walkway.  I had a bunch of shade plants and an empty container, so I figured I might as well plop it on top of the "empty" glazed pot.  I used the coleus I grew from seed, white impatiens, lamium and creeping jenny.  I don't think it looks that weird:

 

So I'm left with only one shelf of plants.  6 containers of petunias which will be used to replace husky cherry tomatoes in the not too distant future, one lamium which could go anywhere, the Japanese maple seedling (growing really well!), a huge pot of chives for my friend, a lemon grass which could go into the ground next to the one behind the herb barrel if I don't find a better spot, a lemon thyme, one single lemon grass that I grew from seed that I can't bear to let go, silver thyme, an unidentified basil, lavender that I grew from seed, golden oregano, and hot & spicy oregano:

 

You can sort of see here that the cilantro and dill have already bolted, so they'll need to be replaced once they finish flowering.  I plan to replace the cilantro with the hot & spicy oregano and the dill with the silver thyme:

 

But really, I am done.  My goal was to get all the herbs in and the beans planted by the 4th of July and I beat that by a few days.  I've so enjoyed this spring/early summer and now I look forward to the first real tomato.  But first we're off to Buffalo on Thursday for Garden Bloggers Buffa10 and I can't wait to see some of my garden blogger friends face to face!  Now we just have to talk SS2 into watering the garden while we're gone.

Happy Father's Day -- Can I Go Out To The Garden Now?

I use that title as a little bit of a joke because VPH doesn't really care what we do on Father's Day as long as his boys are here to hang out, which of course they are.  But today is also our 12th wedding anniversary, so I do feel a little bad about spending the whole day in the garden or playing Mario Galaxy 2 (my other current obsession).  Yesterday we got up and out the door early to watch a friend's son ride in a Trike-A-Thon to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Killingworth.  The 2-3 year old class -- try to imagine anything cuter:

Then we took a nice leisurely drive on the back-roads with no clear destination in mind.  We ended up having a fabulous lunch at a restaurant in Centerbrook that SS2 had raved about last month -- Gabrielle's.  They had a beautiful greenhouse in back of the restaurant, but I didn't take any photos because I would have had to ask for permission to post them and I didn't want to get into all that.  We headed home to our now shaded garden which desperately needed watering.  We were feeling lazy, so yup, we dragged out the hose and sprinkler, but the over-seeded sections of lawn needed the water too, so it's not really that wasteful: 

 

While the sprinkler ran, I finally thinned the carrots and 'pruned' the climbing nasturtium.  I was surprised by how many carrots I had to pull.  I didn't think I had seeded them that thickly:

I'm loving the nasturtiums in the raised veggie bed.  The 3 rows of carrots are now nicely thinned and the cucumbers have more sun.  They're growing slowly, but 2 plants have little tiny flowers, so that's kind of exciting.  I still have that empty space for basil seedlings to be transplanted: 

The veggie garden in all its glory (gotta do something about the Yukon Gold potatoes falling over, but I don't know what):

 

And the wall of tomatoes and bean centerpiece:

 

I couldn't resist the newly marked down herbs at Vaiuso.  Seriously, at $1/each, who could?  I came home with a silver edged thyme, an English lavender, and a hot & spicy oregano for my garden.  But I couldn't stop there.  I grabbed 2 each of lemon grass, rosemary, golden oregano, purple sage, silver edged thyme, and big leaf Italian basil.  Then I started thinking about what I would do with all those herbs.  Some will get plunked into empty spots in some of my containers, but not all of them.  I decided to grab 2 inexpensive containers there too and plant up herb baskets for 2 of my friends.  I didn't realize until I got home that the containers were actually intended to be hanging baskets (there were no hangers or discs for the bottoms on the shelf with them).  But the drainage issue is easily solved by drilling a few holes in the bottom-most sections of the containers and the holes on the rim for the hangers are small enough that they don't really bother me:

 

Now the sun's shining and SS2 put World Cup play on the TV, so I think I can sneak out to the garden without detection.  Happy Father's Day!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - June 2010

Carol's been hosting GBBD for years over at May Dreams Garden, and now I'm a monthly participant after years of observing.  But my garden is not cooperating with the calendar.  The Siberian iris, lupine, and the Blue Mist clematis have come and gone since the last bloom day.  I am going to "cheat" and use some slightly older photos because I like them better than ones that I shot late yesterday afternoon.  My favorite trio of planters right now:

I'm especially enjoying the heuchera blooms:

This heuchera on the shady side of the house is putting on a show (thought it's hard to see in this photo).  And the baskets of impatiens hanging next to the walk are quite cheerful:

Nearby the impatiens on the stump look great too.  If you look very carefully you can see the white blooms of an astilbe in the blue pot on the right (look at the top of the fence).  It's much more striking in real life:

 

The same pot from a different angle to show you the pretty pink flowers in my neighbor's yard:

I carefully walked through the poison ivy in the back of their yard to get a closer look (in flip-flops no less...good thing I still appear not to have a reaction to it, or I just rinsed off my feet and flip-flops in cold water quickly enough to avoid a rash).  Isn't it pretty from here:

 

I looked it up and it's definitely an eutrochium or Joe-Pye weed.  The poison ivy was making me nervous though, so this is the best shot I got and I'm not sure which variety it is:

 

While that wildflower isn't precisely in my garden, this Bladder Campion is:

Of the many astilbes blooming or just about to bloom on the shady side of the house, this is my favorite:

 

Heading back around the house via the front door, the containers with the Purple Gem rhododendrons flanking the front porch have filled out quite nicely:

Strangely, this is where VPH and I spent most of our time hanging out in the garden.  Maybe it's because we have all these places to sit.  And those Adirondack chairs on the right are in one of the sunniest spots in the garden, from 10am - 12pm.  The hanging baskets of flowers are all calibrochoa:

And one of the brightest spots in my garden each day isn't even a plant that I bought!  Remember the Gerbera daisy that I brought home from a fundraiser ages ago?  I swear it's given me 10 gorgeous flowers already:

 

And the osteosperum basket that I picked up cheap from Walmart also makes me happy, though dead-heading it is already getting old:

 

I took this photo from one of those Adirondack chairs with VPH walking away (in his lawn-mowing gear) to show just how huge the Endless Summer hydrangea is this year:

It's covered in beautiful blue flowers:

And right next to it the peas still have some flowers:

 

Another older photo, but the lemon thyme in bloom is so beautiful (and fragrant):

 

The rest of the blooms in my garden are veggies in bloom, like this nasturtium in the raised veggie bed (so far only it and one other of the 20 or so nasturtiums I have are blooming): 

 

Lots of marigolds around my tomatoes for color and to ward off aphids.  Please note that this beautiful Black tomato plant that I grew from seed has flowers:

This is a flower on one of the Lilac bell peppers.  I hope it sets, the ones on the Ivory bell peppers didn't: 

This cluster of flowers on one of the Brandywine Pink tomato plants got me so excited!  I think it almost looks like a bouquet and I'm tasting those tomatoes already: 

And that's it for actual blooms in the garden, but I do have a few buds.  Like on the Royal Purple Bush beans:

The Yukon Gold potatoes: 

I'm astonished by this, but one of the containers of petunias that self sowed from last year's hanging baskets and I carefully transplanted are about to flower: 

All of the hostas are about to burst into bloom, but this one in the containers up on the big stump by the road is the closest to blooming.  I love the purples of the bud with the dark heuchera in back:

 

And probably the most highly anticipated buds in the garden are the day-lilies in the patio garden:

Let's see if they're still blooming by July 15th! 

Slowly, But Surely, I'm Getting Back Out There

We've had some fantastic growing weather, lots of sun and warm temps.  Everything's growing like mad.  Since I'm on super light duty, I had to wait for VPH to hill the potatoes for me.  And boy did they need it (note the lovage in the ground behind the small pot of mint growing very nicely too):

I couldn't scoop compost, but I was able to bend over and hold the potato stalks while he poured compost into the containers:

The two big black trash cans of Yukon Gold potatoes will both need more hilling, but the big wooden box of Red potatoes has been topped off completely:

The fingerlings aren't doing quite as well.  Both pots seem to have only 50% growth in them.  But this  fingerling, phlox, and basil grouping is still one of my favorite things in the garden right now (chair included for scale):

The most highly anticipated crop in our garden is, of course, tomatoes.  These are teeny tiny little tomatoes on the Black Russian tomato plant and I'm ecstatic to seem them:

This is one of the Black tomato plants I grew from seed (thanks again, Jennah) and though it's a little tough to see in this photo, there are little flowers on it and the other one (impossible to see in this photo since it's not pictured):

You wouldn't believe that this handsome little Husky Cherry tomato:

 

Is on this sad little plant:

Not nearly as exciting or eagerly anticipated is Ichiban eggplant, but I was still happy to see the first flower on it a few days ago.  It was getting hit hard by what I presume to be birds digging in the soil daily so I stuck some of the clear forks in it.  One day later and no digging, let's hope it stays that way:

In the raised veggie bed, the nasturtium to the left of the trellis appears to be a climber (it wasn't supposed to be), so I wrapped it around the trellis.  A few of the nasturtiums are just about to flower and now that I can squat, I think I'll thin the carrots some.  I did thin the cukes to 3 plants at the base of the trellis.  The two outside ones look great, but the one in the center is lagging behind.  I will be transplanting some basil plants to the empty space left by the harvested radishes as soon as I have the stamina to do so:

All of the beans are doing well.  In fact, I need to tear out the peas so I can use the netting on the fence for the Kentucky Wonder beans.  There are a few containers where only 50% or 75% of the bush beans germinated, so I need to go around and fill those spots.  That is not a problem in the table planter.  Not every Royal Purple Bush bean germinated, but there are probably too many for the space (I won't be thinning them though):

And here's the entire gravel patio and wall o' tomatoes:

Remember I said the weather was beautiful and everything was growing like mad...take a look at the veggie garden today:

 

Apparently the way to grow good basil is to put the seedlings in the sun and forget to water them (lavender, coleus, and zinnia too):

 

The pots of herbs are doing really well:

The lemon thyme is blooming (calendar-worthy?):

 

But it doesn't really count because I bought the plant this spring.  I was elated to spot flowers in this pot:

Because that's an over-wintered thyme blooming (not calendar-worthy, but still pretty):

 

Only one lonely moonflower in this container that keeps getting attacked by digging birds.  My mom sent me malabar seeds (also known as basella or Japanese spinach) which I'll plant along the trellis and some of the basil seedlings will go in front.  Again, when I have the stamina: 

 

The Japanese maple has a new set of leaves:

 

When VPH weeded the wildflower hillside I asked him to leave a few just about to bloom plants so I could see what they were.  One turned out to be Bladder Campion:

 

Pretty:

 

There are a few lupine plants in the wildflower patch:

I can't believe how many flowers there are going to be on the Endless Summer hydrangea:

And this heuchera is blooming so much

 

I've only been waiting 2 years to see this astilbe bloom: 

 

Whereas all the ones in containers are blooming nicely for me after only a year.  Should be a spectacular show soon: 

   

I'm one week post-op today, but I'd say I'm only 65% at the moment.  I've asked my friends who've had this surgery (a surprisingly high number) and most say 2-3 weeks until they were 100%.  Having limits is absolutely driving me crazy!

A Little Bit Of This...

Since we finished the garden ages ago I find myself wandering around weeding, watering, and taking photos.  There's no rhyme or reason to what catches my eye.  I liked the way the light was hitting the fertile frond of the Cinnamon fern (yes, I had to look up what the brown spiky thing on the Cinnamon fern was called):

 

I was struck by how you can show the good in the garden:

But simply turn the camera to landscape orientation and you get the bad (not our ladder, blanket or old bird's nest):

And turn 90 degrees to your right and you get the downright ugly (the wildflowers haven't progressed beyond seedlings and the weeds have taken over):

There are some really lovely things on this side of the house though...like this perennial shade container:

Which looks like a completely different container from the other side.  I think I may plant one of the "free" lamium plants I have over on the shelves in the driveway in that empty spot.  I'm just a little bit afraid it may take over the container, but creeping jenny wouldn't look quite right I don't think.  I do have those white impatiens still, but I think whatever I put here needs to spill over at least a little:

Okay, I thought about it for 24 hours and then went ahead and planted the lamium:

 

I just asked VPH what he thought we should do about the 8 million maple seedlings growing out of the stump.  "I'll cut them down," he said.  I said, "You'd better hurry because I can't see the baskets of impatiens on top of the stump anymore."  Which I can't:

Over in front of the house the containers on the huge stump are doing really well.  I think the creeping phlox is going to survive, the golden sage is growing like mad, and the astilbe are prettily blooming.  VPH says he's going to climb up the hill to cut back the brush around the stump so the containers stand out more, but he's been saying that for weeks now:

This is my view when I walk out the front door.  I'm quite enjoying it even if it does appear a bit drab in this photo.  I'm considering putting a hook on that post now that I chopped down the huge bush and hanging something from it:

Another of my very favorite spots in the garden right now.  You can't see it, but one lonely moonflower has sprouted in the container beneath the trellis:

The flowers on the heuchera make me think of Japanese watercolors:

One more shot from the driveway along the house.  I'm not sure why this creeping phlox is giving me a second bloom, but I'm enjoying it:

I really can't stop going to the nursery.  Lord help me, it's not even Memorial Day yet!  But I needed a replacement tomato plant for the Green Zebra which swiftly died on me.  I walked out with stevia (why not add another perennial herb to the mix?), lemon basil (my seedlings didn't do so well), June-bearing strawberries (because they already had berries on them), and the tomato seedling I actually went to pick up:

 

A Brandywine tomato seedling, to be specific, all planted and happy:

 

And those strawberries?  Two went in withe the eggplant, and the third in one of the strawberry pots that needed another.  It's been a few days and the berries are starting to ripen:

 

We finally have peas!  I had fun playing with this image in Picasa: 

 

And all the plants now have flowers.  This front petals of this blossom are the prettiest shade of pale pink:

 

I went around earlier in the week hilling the potatoes.  Here's a before:

 

And an after taken today, 4 days after hilling.  Clearly they're ready for more:

 

Same with the Red potatoes in the veggie garden.  Please note all the beans sprouting behind them.  Beans have popped up all over the garden:

 

The Yukon Gold are really loving the garbage cans:

I gave the raised veggie bed some attention too by weeding and picking two rows of radishes:

I had quite the little harvest:

Does anyone else start tasting fresh mozz, basil, and tomato when they look at all these Black Russian tomato blossoms?  I'm salivating:

 

The whole veggie garden late on Friday afternoon:

 

Our next stop on this garden odyssey is the patio garden.  I was deadheading the Siberian iris on Thursday when all of a sudden I noticed that the clematis was blooming!  See, it's not all that obvious:

 

But when you get close -- wow!  The Blue Mist clematis that SS2 gave me for Mother's Day:

 

And one last photo from late Friday afternoon.  Now that I've trimmed back those branches along the left you can see the shady side of the house, which isn't so shady anymore that late in the day now that the big maple tree is gone:

 

I'm so pleased with it all this year.  Now let's just hope this nice warm sunny weather lasts with rain every fourth or fifth day all summer.  

I'm Too Tired To Take a Shower

Day 2 of the marathon to finish the garden was another perfect day to garden--sunny, but right around 70.  I admit I slept until 10am.  Have I mentioned here that I'm a night person?  Unfortunately gardening at night requires too much equipment.  VPH suprised me by putting on gardening clothes right after we all had some bagels and heading right outside.  And SS2 shocked me by following him out the door even though I told him he didn't have to -- what a great guy!  He and VPH had the hosta/rhododendron bed weeded and mulched before I even came outside:

 

And the Mother's Day Garden too (though VPH still needs to fix those rocks on the upper right): 

 

When I came outside they asked me what to do next.  I suggested digging and screening some more compost and as we headed back that way I got distracted by the pile of tarps sitting on the gravel patio.  So we all moved our cars out of the driveway and laid out the tarps.  SS2 rinsed them off with the hose and we left them there to dry.  I just wanted to tell you this because it illustrates how easily I'm distracted in the garden and because I love that VPH insists on keeping this tarp that used to live under the big pop-up shed.  It stuck out a little on each side and he was forever catching the corners with the lawnmower: 

 

On to the compost...since I wasn't doing the heavy labor today I snagged a photo of the menfolk at work.  VPH is calling himself a dirt farmer now:

 

I added some of the finished compost to the top of the patio tomato plant since the soil level was rather low.  But now I'm a little concerned because the water just sat on top of it and it looks kind of clayey.  I hope it won't be a problem, but I'm going to have to keep an eye on it:

VPH and SS2 filled another 2 trash cans with finished compost and then came over asking for another task.  I set VPH to placing the big rock that used to be in front of the little pop-up shed in front of the shed.  He used some of the finished compost to build up because we wanted the rock to serve as a little ramp to make it easier to get the mower in and out of the shed.  I like this photo because you can just see SS2 laughing at his father right before he was excused with thanks for his hard work (and he even went inside and did the dishes -- love that kid!):

 

I think he did a great job getting it pretty close to level and building up the left side (the yard really slopes here and although we did our best, we didn't get the shed 100% level, but it's pretty squared up).  He even put down some grass seed.  Can you see the two patio boxes are in place on either side of the shed now?  So much better:

It's still not as neat and organized as I would like back here, but it's getting there:

VPH was then excused as well and I did fun stuff!  Four fingerling potatoes in the large pot and the basil perpetuo in the little container 'cause it's right near the front door: 

Four fingerling potatoes in the large pot and two more in the smaller one.  This is my little experiment to see if they grow better with the hilling method or a full container (just like I did for the red potatoes): 

 

Speaking of the red potatoes...they're coming up all over the place in the wooden box:

 

And the black plastic container:

At this point I really should have planted the marigolds in the veggie garden, but for some reason I just wasn't feeling that job.  I think it was planting the pesto perpetuo that got me thinking about herbs.  Before I knew it I was transplanting like crazy.  First I tucked some Red Rubin basil into this pot (everything else had successfully overwintered in it):

And some Large-leaf Italian basil into this one (you'll remember that the others were here already):

Then I went nuts with this year's configuration of the herbs in pots by the patio:

The golden oregano overwintered in the large container above and this is some that was spreading there (it creeps on top of the soil and roots as it goes), so I just ripped it up and planted it in a little potting soil -- free plant!  The rosemary came home with us from Florida in December and lived on the kitchen table for a few months then moved outside in March. The tarragon successfully overwintered in a pot outside (and started growing in March). The Bee Balm (a gift from Layanee when I visited her garden 2 summers ago) also overwintered. I grew the dill from seed started inside in March. I bought the lavender in March and planted it in April.  The parsley and basil are starts purchased a few days ago and planted today.  The cilantro was also grown from seed started inside in March.  I had a lemon thyme that overwintered, but I am going to use it elsewhere because it's growing too slowly and I want one here that's good-sized already:

I think this is now my favorite part of the garden with the herb pots, clematis from the boys, and lupine starting to bloom:

So now I have this left in addition to the lovage and basil seedlings (some of which are growing great, but others aren't doing so well):

And only the herb barrel to play around with:

I had just enough energy left to get one more job done.  The dead branches and leaves of the ivy have now been removed, its rapid new growth pointed in a good direction, and stapled in place until it affixes itself properly:

 

When I finished that I noticed that I finally have flowers on some of the peas.  This is the Snowbird variety and the package says 58 days to harvest.  They were planted on March 18th, but they didn't show up until the beginning of April, so I'd say they're right on schedule if I count from when the seedlings emerged:

 

I really was too tired to shower, but we got so much accomplished.  The to do list now reads:  

·     Plant marigolds and potatoes

·     Plant beans

·     Mulch: Mother’s Day garden, hosta/rhododendron bed, veggie garden,  perennial shade garden

·     Finish herb pots/barrel

·     Build compost cages

I should get the marigolds and beans in tomorrow evening, but I'm not entirely sure that the perennial shade garden needs any mulch and the compost cages may not get built this year (I've only had the materials for 2 years now, so there's not exactly a rush).  I will definitely get the herb barrel done, however I'm not too sure where the lovage is going (though now I'm thinking somewhere down near the potato cans at the end of the veggie garden rather than the herb barrel) and there has to be a significant redesign of the barrel planting.  I can't believe we're this close to done.  I don't know what I will do with myself after we finish.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May 2010

Carol's been hosting GBBD for years over at May Dreams Garden, and now I'm a monthly participant after years of observing.  And there's a lot blooming in my garden this month.  I'll give you a tour of the garden starting from the front door.  The Purple Gem rhododendrons in the two containers flanking the front steps are done blooming (well only one actually bloomed) and they're still leafing out, but the impatiens add color and along with the creeping jenny fill out the interior of the container:

English Daisy, a purple calibrachoa, and the few straggling flowers on the pink creeping phlox (the big black container is red potatoes and a Husky cherry tomato is tucked in the right):

 

I love how the shadow of the blooming white salvia was in such sharp relief on the fence:

A lavender creeping phlox at left and white calibrachoa in the near hanging basket: 

 

And on the table a gerbera daisy in a galvanized pail that was the centerpiece at a benefit dinner that I attended last week.  I wouldn't have purchased it, but I'm glad that my tablemates send it home with me because I'm enjoying it a lot:

A bunch of marigolds that will be planted with the tomatoes today:

Leftover impatiens on the greenhouse shelves, a purple calibrachoa in the hanging basket, and a few blooms left on a purple creeping phlox down on the right:

 

Hot pink calibrachoa in the hanging basket on the left, white salvia in the green container, strawberries in the little blue pots, and chives in the far blue pot:

 

A funky double-blossom dark pink calibrachoa in the center and chives in the brown hanging basket on the right:

 

The azalea in the Mother's Day garden is still blooming away:

 

And I totally cheated on this one by buying a "patio" tomato plant with blooms and actual fruit on it already at Walmart, but it was only $13 and we'll be eating tomatoes in June:

Moving over to the patio garden where a lot is happening: 

You may have noticed the iris blooming above.  Here's a close-up of the bearded beauty:

We planted the passalong rhizomes back in the fall of 2008 and this is the first time they've bloomed, so indulge me and look at another photo:

Another plant that I've waited two years to see blooming -- lupin -- and it looks like it will match the iris:

The Blue Mist clematis that the boys got me for Mother's Day is almost blooming...maybe it will be the same color too:

 

And the Siberian iris is very nearly there, but I know it's a darker purple:

The bleeding hearts (dicentra) are fading to a light pink, but they're still pretty:

Impatiens in the hanging baskets along the walk on the shady side of the house:

Another two on top of the huge stump (it's full of carpenter ants so I can't put anything heavy up there):

Just about to bloom is one of the astilbe that I bought bare-root from Home Depot last year.  I'm so excited to see it flower:

A few flowers on the white creeping phlox (I'm not feeling too good about the survival of this plant, it's not looking good), and the astilbe is blooming though it's tough to see with all the background chaos:

 

And that brings us full circle back to the front of the house.  I hope you enjoyed your tour...I know I enjoyed leading it.

How $.68 Cost Me $57

I did take the afternoon off today and I'm glad I did.  I stopped by an organic farm stand that I visit from time to time.  And what do I find?  Fricking fingerling seed potatoes!  I searched high and low for them weeks ago and gave up.  Well I couldn't leave without buying some.  5 red fingerling seed potatoes set me back a whole $.68:

 

Then I stopped by my favorite local nursery, Vaiuso Farms, searching for a replacement tomato plant for the Hillbilly I killed yesterday.  You know I couldn't just buy one $.75 tomato plant.  But I did manage to limit myself to just under $25 (not counted towards the aforementioned $57).  From the bottom left up -- large leaf Italian basil, Red Rubin basil, parsley, a Black Prince tomato, Pesto Perpetuo basil, lemon thyme, and a buttload of marigolds:

I want to highlight the Pesto Perpetuo basil because I haven't seen it before.  I love the variegated leaves and from what I read it's a non-flowering basil.  I've never heard of such a thing:

From the moment I bought the $.68 worth of seed potatoes I brain-stormed non-stop about where I could plant them.  I didn't have a single empty large container sitting at home, so it was either wait until I harvest the radishes and beets and plant them in the raised veggie bed (not ideal for a bunch of reasons, but mainly because it's only about 10 inches deep), forgo the Black Prince tomato I just bought and plant in its intended container (kind of small and not likely to yield as many fingerling potatoes as I would want), plant in the ground somewhere (but then have to dig them up--ugh), or buy some new containers.  Guess which option I went with?  I headed home, dropped off my plants, picked up VPH (now home from school), and off we went to my favorite place to buy containers, Ocean State Job Jot.  $57 later I have four new pots that blend nicely with two already in the driveway area:

 

But the two blue ones on the left were shaded by the bush to the left of them, so I grabbed my trusty Felco pruners and down it came.  I'm sure it will grow back if we don't dig the stump out (it has once before), but VPH is happy because now it won't be attacking him when he gets in and out of his car: 

 

This is what it looked like yesterday with the huge unknown bush intact and single pots:

I'm thinking the red fingerling potatoes will be spread out between at least three of the new containers, one is just too small, but oh so cute.  Just in case you don't know how to make your seed potatoes stretch a little further, here's a little info session for ya.  You can cut them into smaller pieces, but each has to have at least 2 eyes.  There are at least five eyes visible in this photo: 

 

The same potato sliced in two with plenty of eyes on each piece:

 

All five potatoes sliced in half and drying out to be planted tomorrow:

 

Some people say it's not necessary to let the sliced potatoes "cure," but I decided to error on the side of caution.  So that's how my $.68 purchase cost me $57.  I promise I will not go buy any more containers this year.  Really.  Well, probably.

Tomatoes And Peppers Oh My

With rain in the forecast for Friday, I was really glad I was able to get into the garden late this afternoon to plant the tomatoes and peppers.  Though they're rather difficult to see in this photo:

 

I'll give you some close-ups from left to right.  The raised veggie bed and one Black tomato I grew from seed (thanks Jennah!):

 

I still have beans to plant, but I want to wait until the forecast calls for a few warm days in a row before I do so.  The white container will hold bush beans of some sort.  The hanging baskets have habanero peppers, the wooden lattice planter Soldacki tomatoes, and the grey container is the other Black tomato grown from seed:

 

The big green planters have Brandywine Pink tomatoes and the other three will have beans (and more potting mix in those brown ones):

 

Ivory Bell peppers in the brown containers, red potatoes in the big grey ones, another habanero pepper hanging above, and tucked in back where you can't see them are two wooden trough containers for Kentucky Wonder beans:

 

My favorite tomatoes last year--Black Russian--in the trellis planter, empty brown pots for beans, and Lilac Bell peppers in the large green containers:

 

Roma tomatoes and habanero peppers in the big wooden planter, a habanero pepper hanging above and that's a container of spearmint on the plant stand:

 

And on the gravel patio Cherokee Purple tomatoes in the blue square planters, Hillbilly in the grey square planters (though I broke the stem on the one on the left, so I'll have to find a replacement for it, because I don't think it's going to magically heal itself despite me mounding soil onto it), and Green Zebra in the round blue containers.  The patio box will be moved this weekend and beans will go in the planter table:

 

And of course Yukon Gold potatoes in the black trash cans at the end of the garden, which I really hope are doing okay in that clay soil down there.  Maybe I'll dig down to one tomorrow to check on them:

 

The peas are doing well, but not a sign of a single blossom yet and I planted them on April 18th.  I'm getting impatient:

 

The Sweet basil is doing great:

But some of the other basils aren't looking as good:

But luckily the dill and cilantro are thriving:

I scheduled Friday afternoon off to garden, but the weather forecast isn't looking very good.  I might hit a few garden centers instead.  I still need marigolds to plant with my tomatoes and you know I'll find some other things I want!

UPDATE: Mom, just for you...that Hillbilly tomato is not coming back from this:

 

It was a rather sickly seedling anyway, which is why I think it snapped as I firmed the potting mix in around it.  Just gives me an excuse to go buy a different variety! 

Little By Little

Get used to seeing photo after photo of this container, I have a feeling it's going to be a favorite subject:

 

As will the raised veggie bed.  Six out of seven cucumbers seeds have joined the party:

 

The Purple Gem rhododendrons are putting out new leaves, the creeping jenny is growing quickly, and the freshly planted impatiens will fill out the container nicely:

Since the steps aren't straight I'm not really concerned about getting the lights straight:

 

I also planted up four hanging baskets of impatiens and put two on these hooks on the shady side of the house:

And the other two on top of the huge stump because it was so bare.  And honestly I really didn't feel like getting out the drill and putting the plant hangers up again (every time I attach them to a tree the landlord has it cut down):

I was a really lazy gardener too, I just threw the whole 6-pack in the center of the basket.  I usually break them up and plant them spaced further apart:

I split the two containers of Husky Cherry tomatoes into four separate plants as planned.  Two went in hanging baskets on the large shepard hooks on the gravel patio, one in a pot on the metal bar on the patio, and the last one in a black plastic pot which made me think to place it in the blue/black grouping in the driveway.  Since things always look better in odd numbered groups, I threw the decorative frog thing holding a purple calibrachoa into the mix, but staring at this photo I think I may switch it with the phlox container for better balance:

 

Then I started pulling/cutting down the bulb border and will finish the other half tomorrow:

 

Now that the lupine is standing tall front and center, I could see that it has flower stalks!  I'm beyond excited since I've been waiting two years to see this flower in my garden:

  

I wanted to see how the new containers looked from the grill area...nice:

My mom requested a "before" picture of the hillside where the wildflowers are slowly growing.  We've tried getting those weeds out of there, but we're not having much luck.  However this shot also shows just how high that stump is on the hill and that the guy who's been doing work upstairs took out some of my little wildflower seedlings and left some nice big tire tracks for us:

The herb seedlings are doing really well and I'm starting to think of what will go where.  You saw that I saved some space in the hanging herb basket, the herb barrel practically has acreage available, and I have six empty pots here: 

  

My to do list for tomorrow:

·     Cut down rest of patio bulb border

·     Plant moonflowers

·     Plant zinnia

·     Plant zucchini

·     Plant more nasturtium by trellis

What's on yours?  

A Good Start

Before I get to all the planting I did this weekend (and there's a lot), a quick check in on the patio garden.  The bulb border is just about done and I've decided that as soon as these last few tulips finish blooming I'm going to cut it all down to the ground.  We'll plant new bulbs in the fall.  I just didn't get enough bloom this year to make suffering through the leaves dying back to the ground for another month or so worth it: 

I'll miss beauties like this though:

 

First up on the to do list was getting the dahlias in.  Check:

The other 6 tubers went into containers with perennials, like with this phlox.  When it stops flowering I think the green foliage will still be pretty with the brightly colored pot:

And this nice purple combo for as long as it lasts.  Hopefully the dahlias actually grow:

And both of these blue/black containers have dahlia tubers in them.  I think they elevate the plain black plastic planter of red potatoes, of course I may just be fooling myself:

I think this is going to my favorite grouping once again.  The blue fescue is coming back nicely, the coral bells is glorious in that pot (there's a Hootenanny dahlia tucked in the back of it too), and the large pot with a white salvia, that funky coleus, purple fountain grass, and dichondra is a great combo.  I am going to try again to grown moonflowers up the trellis, which didn't work out too well last year, but I'm going to blame that on the terrible weather we had:

I did basically the same planting in this pot, but with a slightly less funky coleus.  I'm especially proud of myself for buying a container that had 2 dichondra seedlings in it and carefully separately them using one in each pot:

I decided that the big pot on the new huge stump on the hill would be home to the astilbe, heuchera, white phlox, and the golden sage that I dug out of the wooden box on Saturday:

 

However, I was not looking forward to climbing up to the stump to plant.  This really doesn't show how steep the hill is or how perilous one's footing is balancing on those roots.  Which is why I planted all perennials that don't need pampering.  And in fact, you can't really see the plants very much from this angle or distance:

But if you climb up there...well I'm sure the phlox will perk up after some time and tomorrow's forecasted showers.  The golden sage will get pretty big and give some brightness to the container.  VPH says he may go up and cut back some of that brush around it:

This chaotic photo shows you the calibrachoa are on the three hooks in the driveway.  I found a container at the nursery with 2 purple calibrachoa seedlings in it, so I carefully split it (2 plants for the price of one again!) and put one in a black plastic pot in the frog planter on the table:

The hanging basket in front of the ivy has a double bloom calibrachoa, which may be my favorite this summer:

 

And the hook by the raised veggie bed has the hanging herb basket with the purple sage rescued from the wooden box and the chives and creeping thyme that overwintered in this container.  The empty space is reserved for some basil when my seedlings get big enough to transplant:

 

The only veggie I got in this weekend was the eggplant, mostly because I had already filled the container.  I did carefully pull the two seedlings apart (more bargain goodness with two plants in the same container) and planted them about 8 inches apart.  The windchime was a freecycle pick-up and I've already written about the container of herbs and all the strawberry pots a million times:

Did you see the huge pile of bricks in the photo above?  Of course you did, you'd have to be blind to miss it.  After nearly a year we are finally getting around to using them.  VPH needs to mow the grass and then I'll hop on this project.  Feel free to leave any guesses on what we'll be doing in a comment:

 

A sign of summer...the nasturtiums are popping up in the raised veggie bed.  Even better two of the cucumbers broke through the soil today.  I love this photo for some reason:

The first butterfly of the summer, a painted lady which let me get really close:

I have so much left to plant: the impatiens; all the tomatoes, peppers; and seeds -- beans (crazy amounts), zucchini, marigolds, zinnia, moonflowers, and more nasturtium.  I hope to get it all done by Mother's Day, but I have a pretty full week of work and other obligations which will prevent me from spending too much time in the garden.  If I can just get 2 hours in a day I should be in pretty decent shape.  How's your spring planting going?