Heather's Garden

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?

I Can't Quite Capture It

This time of year the setting sun filters through the burning bush into the living room window and I ache to capture it, but I just can't:

 

Granted, I took that photo with my employer supplied Blackberry Torch (OMG it is so much fun to use!), but the photos I took earlier in the week with my real camera of all the birds loving the burning bush didn't turn out much better.  Tonight I ventured outside to see if I could do better without the dirty window, bad indoor lighting, and limited angle.  I think I did:

 

Well I think I got pretty close, but it's much more beautiful in person.

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!

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!

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.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - August 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 I actually have more than a few things blooming in the garden right now.  The wildflowers are looking good, but quite yellow:

 

I know some people hate queen anne's lace, but I've always loved it, so I was happy that it showed up in the wildflowers (intentional or not):

 

The osteospermum are blooming again:

 

The nasturtiums have been a bright spot of color all summer:

 

The marigolds are doing really well since the Black Russian tomatoes lost all their lower leaves:

 

But all the tomatoes have blossoms on them:

 

I loved the shadows on the fence and the zinnias are pretty too:

 

The hot pink impatiens by the front door are a lovely shot of color each day:

 

Lee and I spent a good 30 minutes sitting on the front steps taking in this view:

We were hoping to get a closer look at the doves that have been visiting the feeder, but alas, they wouldn't come down from the overhead wires.  What's blooming in your garden?

Dog Days Indeed

Cyndy of Gardening Asylum wrote a post recently about dog day strategies and it got me thinking about the weather.  For most of the past month here in CT we sweated and lamented that we would never be able to survive August if this is what July was like.  But all of a sudden, it's perfect weather.  Warm during the day, but not too hot, and nice and cool at night, perfect sleeping weather.  In fact it's so comfortable that once I have some free time I think I'll actually garden some.  I spent some time in the garden yesterday taking stock (and tidying up for visitors today).  The vegetable garden looks pretty good from this angle and distance:

 

The patio garden bathed in late afternoon light hides all the flaws:

 

A good long view of the whole garden from high on the hill:

 

From back by the shed:

 

Peeking over the hydrangea (which has turned a weird pinky purple and I've no idea why):

 

The hill of wildflowers looks pretty good and there are a lot of flowers that haven't bloomed yet:

 

And filling in around the perennial shade containers:

 

We've been spending a lot of time out here lately.  A lovely afternoon with a friend today and dinner with another good friend this evening:

 

I really love the process of planting the garden and tending it, but there's nothing better than spending time relaxing there with friends and family.  And thank goodness the dog days of July are over and the lovely days of August are upon us.

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 - 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!

The Long Weekend

Heading into the long weekend I didn't have any plans other than to enjoy my garden since I was going under the knife early on Tuesday morning...that pesky gallbladder had to come out.  But then on Friday schedules gelled and all of a sudden I had something to do each day of the long weekend.  But Saturday morning was spent tidying up the garden in preparation for a small cook-out on Monday.  VPH gets the He-Man prize for weeding the hillside

While he got started, I made a quick trip to Walmart for Borax and spray bottles to make a solution to clean the chair cushions.  But I couldn't resist a hanging container of osteospermum at Walmart.  Remember that post in the driveway that was exposed when I cut down the large bush to get more sun on the plants in pots?  Not empty any longer:

I mean really, could you have passed these by?  I don't think so:

This may be calendar-worthy:

Then VPH and I both worked on cleaning up the cushions.  Here they are drying just a little bit more:

VPH also washed the patio really well:

It's officially summer now:

The lamium is blooming so prettily in this container:

 

I imagine that's how the cute little lamium plants popped up beneath it...seeds thrown from the flowers above last year:

 

I didn't notice them until VPH weeded though.  He also went to town on the huge maple stump.  Much better:

 

Carpenter bees are all over the garden, but I didn't see the damage from this one right away.  The sawdust on the cobweb drew my eye:

 

This was my view on Monday evening.  Our guests had left, I was happily full (and on my 2nd beer), the garden looked beautiful, and I had my feet up and a big book to read: 

 

I'm recovering pretty well from the surgery, but I'm tired and still a little sore.  The most frustrating thing is not even being able to water the garden.  But it's limited activity for only one week and most people feel better by then.  Everything else has gone exactly as predicted, so let's hope that does too!

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.  

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?  

WORKING AGAINST A DEADLINE

Remember the spot where we took down the old pop-up shed?  In August '06, when we had the concrete patio put in, the installer kindly used some decomposed granite to give us a fairly level 5' x 5' area to serve as the shed's base.  At least I'm pretty sure that it was decomposed granite.  So we had a basically level spot with several inches of material that wouldn't be conducive to growth next to the vegetable garden.  Have you guessed where we're heading yet?  A raised bed:

 

On Sunday I went to Home Depot and bought a 2x12x16 piece of pressure treated lumber.  First tip -- bring a friend with you to buy large pieces of lumber.  I left VPH at home prepping the site and regretted it almost immediately.  I found an employee to help me try to find a straight piece of lumber that wasn't too beat up and he quickly tired of my pickiness, or I just felt guilty making him help me lift down and examine piece after piece.  Then I had the nice man cut it into four 4' long pieces for me.  Some exterior screws and an impulse buy of 2 Husky Cherry tomato plants later (but look at the 2 plants/container -- I can divide them into 4, so it was like buying them half-priced) I headed home:

 

I'm not going to bore you with how to build the box, there's any number of videos out there instructing you in different methods, and I'm not going to debate pressure-treated lumber and what terrible chemicals might seep into your veggies and kill you.  I think the risk is pretty low, but I did line the box with landscape fabric to be on the safe side:

You can see above that I took the rubber edging that used to demarcate the end of the veggie garden and turned it to incorporate the new raised bed.  We had one bag of mulch (very wet mulch) on hand, which didn't quite reach all the way behind the raised bed, and the rubber edging didn't quite reach from the back of the bed to the fence, but I think that when I buy more mulch I'll be able to cover that up pretty well:

 

We spent the rest of our daylight hours moving soil from last year's tomato containers into the new bed (no tomatoes or potatoes will be planted here) and ran out of daylight with only about 1/4 - 1/3 of the bed filled.  VPH was on spring break this week so I had a list of chores a mile long for him and first up on Monday was to dig out soil from the large cedar tomato planters and other spots and finish filling the new bed.  I stepped outside that morning to show him exactly which containers needed to be emptied and that's where things went off schedule.  Long incredibly scary story short, he managed to partially tear his calf muscle and is completely out of commission for weeks...well when it comes to garden chores he's out of commission.  He can limp around and hopefully will be able to work when school starts back up on Monday. 

So now it was Tuesday and I had onion sets sitting on my kitchen table that really needed to get in the ground along with cooler season seeds that really needed to be planted.  But I also had an injured husband who was having trouble getting around the house, a job they kind of like me to show up to, and rain in the forecast for Friday.  Obviously I wasn't going to be able to spend as much time moving soil around the garden as VPH would have, so I was going to have to buy some potting soil.   I was finally able to take some time late on Wednesday afternoon to stop in at my favorite local nursery and charmed the proprietor into selling me three 3.8 cubic foot bags of soil-less mix at cost, which just fit into my trunk (and probably saved me about $50 versus buying 8 or 9 of the largest size bags of potting soil available at your various box stores, not to mention my back loading them into the car all alone):

At first I planned to break up the compressed soil -- I know it's not really soil, but I'm going to call it soil from this point forward -- onto the tarp, but then I thought, uh wouldn't it save time to do it right in the raised bed?  One package should yield about 8 cubic feet, so I hoped I would be able to get by with one and 2 partially used large bags of potting soil I had near the potting table.  This is when I had the block about 1/3 broken up:   

 

And this is as far as I got on Wednesday -- onions in and watered, but no seeds planted: 

 

And here it is late Thursday completely planted!  From right to left are one row each of Detroit Dark Red beets, Beauty Mix radishes, Salad Rose radishes, Early Scarlet Globe radishes, Burpee A#1 Hybrid carrots, one and half rows of Danvers Half Long carrots, and half a row of Tonda di Parisi carrots.  Along the base of the trellis I planted Spacemaster cucumbers and I plan to grow them up the trellis.  And I planted Jewel Mix nasturium around the perimeter of the bed (I removed the seed packets once I documented what I had planted where):

 

So I met my self-imposed deadline of beating the rain and getting the cooler weather crops in by April 15th.  I did get the peas in way back on March 18th and now they're big enough that I had to get the netting hung, so I went out in 45 degree weather on Friday to take care of it: 

This is the one other thing I wanted to get done before the rain arrived -- dividing the yellow hakone grass and using part of it in one of the new containers on the big stump.  After I stole some (maybe VPH will be able to sit here and weed soon):

 

I also put a hosta that I had hanging around into the other small container on the stump and could not for the life of me get the containers level again, so I gave up:

 

The wildflower seed that VPH scattered on April 1st is beginning to sprout:

 

And finally, the ferns in the containers are putting up fiddle-heads -- this one is potentially calendar-worthy:

 

A Japanese Painted fern (I think):

 

And the Cinnamon fern makes an appearance:

 

I can't wait to see how the raised bed does.  And I'm so pleased that I was to meet the deadline since about 30 minutes after I finished it started to pour and is forecast to continue to do so all weekend.

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY, DON'T COME BACK FOR A WHILE, PLEASE

I really shouldn't complain, we didn't get nearly as much as other portions of the Northeast.  My garden's a little bit wet, but not flooded thanks to the slight hill we're on.  We drove by a house today less than a mile from ours with a swamp for a front lawn and could only wonder what their basement looked like.  Before the massive rain I took a page out of Layanee's book and burned my grass.  I may also cut it back since it didn't burn all that evenly:

 

But the rains brought some good things...peas!  There are still a few that haven't come up, but the ground is cracked above where I planted them, so I can tell they're pushing their way out.  I have a row of little pea sprouts:

I thought about cutting the Endless Summer hydrangea back hard (people around here do that for some reason), but opted not to (yes, I clearly need to fix that circle of stones, but am resisting running out in the dark with a flashlight to do it right now):

The crocuses are pretty much done flowering and the daffodils are not blooming as much as I would like, but maybe I'll get more soon.  I have high hopes for the tulips:

I'm still not quite at the point of dealing with the containers of herbs yet, but only one container seems to have cracked over the winter.  It will be sealed with liquid nails because it's one of my favorites:

But I still went to Ocean State Job Lots and bought more containers because really, people, I have a problem. But at these prices I couldn't resist and in fact, may have to go back for more:

 

Remember the fun slope that now will have at least partial sun because that huge tree was removed:

 

While I worked away on the most boring work-related stuff you could possibly imagine, VPH spent the morning raking it and cutting down last year's brush:

Then I filled a bowl with enough wildflower seed to cover 600 sq. ft. -- this area was 440 sq. ft., but I'm a fan of over seeding (that's VPH's hand):

Then since he did all the hard work, I let him have the fun of scattering the seed:

I had a few random old moonflower seeds from last year, so I planted them around the stump where I could see them out the living room window (that's my hand):

 

We have big developments inside too, almost 100% germination in the seed tray:

Even the tomatoes:

I think one of these might be calendar-worthy, but I'm not sure which is better: 

Leave me a comment and let me know which you think is stronger:

 

And I'll leave you with my other current obsession...hydrangeas:

 

This is the second of four pots of hydrangea bulbs that I've purchased over the last four weeks.  One will go with us to Easter dinner on Sunday as a hostess gift (not this one, another that's not quite blooming yet, but hopefully will just be on Sunday).  This one is behind me as I type and I'm loving the scent.  Please ignore our ugly blue carpet, remember it's a rental.  Those are all my seeds by the remotes on the couch.  Much time has been spent dreaming about what will go where.

Don't forget to tell me which of those seedling photos is calendar-worthy.

SAFELY HOME

The drive home was fairly uneventful and easy with one exception...apparently it was the last day of Bike Week in Daytona, which swiftly became clear as we passed through Orlando on 4 East heading towards Daytona and 95 North:

 

Traffic got really heavy and ended up coming to a complete stop and go for about 90 minutes, but I was a happy passenger with the windows open, sun shining, and lots of interesting things to look at.  I noticed this guy about 10 miles before and initially thought it was really his hair (at 50 mph it looked like it was), but when we ended up stopped next to him, I could see the mohawk was attached to the top of the helmet.  I asked permission to take the photo, got a nod, shouted out my admiration of said helmet, and received a thumbs up in return:

 

We got home on Sunday after dark and it was all I could do to wait until Monday morning to check the patio garden.  But I was very happy with the crocus, daffodil, and tulip sprouts I found:

Some are more advanced than others (and note the dreaded marsh marigolds -- I best get weeding):

 

Only one pot left out over the winter exploded and it was a cheap one from Walmart that I didn't much care for anyway:

And this was actually a big surprise...another tree was removed while we were gone:

 

It's the tree at the very far end behind the blue pots:

The view of the tree from the street last summer.  I don't know what will grow there.  It's the north side of the house, still pretty well covered by the other trees in that area, but it will get eastern sun for a good bit of the day.  Maybe a mix of sun and shade plants and I'll see what grows best for a season before making a final decision?  The two hanging planters and the hangers were carefully placed on the stairs to the side door:

And I suspect that this area will get even more weeds now.  I just don't think I care enough about this area I seldom see, full of maple roots, and on a pretty steep hill to garden here.  But maybe I should sprinkle some wildflower seeds at least?  Thoughts?  Recommendations?

UPDATE: I finally got to take some photos without the cars in the driveway so you can see just what we're talking about:

Note how steep the area is and it's completely full of maple roots.  You can see the giant roots a little better in this shot of the stump:

 
 
 
 

VPH'S BIG DAY

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

  

He's such a good husband!

CHOW'S ON

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

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

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

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

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

VPH did make himself a big batch of pesto today:

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

What did you have for supper?

TOMATO LOVING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Royal Purple Bush beans have the prettiest blossoms: 

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

 

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

A nice shot of the wildflower patch last week:

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

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

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

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

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

And the Bay State Angel is covered in white blooms:

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

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

Suggestions?  Advice?

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

I could stare at poppies all day:

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

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

The hostas are blooming:

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

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

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

This may be October 2009's photo: 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

It looks a lot better:

And there are only a few thin spots: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However, the Brandywine Pink tomatoes are finally setting fruit: 

Veggie garden early on July 4th:

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

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

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

OH HAPPY DAY

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

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

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

The eggplants are disturbingly phallic: 

Wait, so are the Royal Purple Bush beans: 

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

And some of the carrots: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

THE LITTLE THINGS

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

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

One of its buds on Wednesday: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

This is really exciting...our first eggplant:

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

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

The Bay State Angel dahlia is about to bloom: 

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

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

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

 

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

THAT GOOD KIND OF TIRED

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

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

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

First up the astilbe's new home:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The eggplant blossoms are just so pretty: 

I gave the eggplant a small tomato cage for support:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE BROKEN THIS INTO 2 POSTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And by the time I finished it looked like this:

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

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

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

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

The zinnias have buds at last:

The morning glories are finally taking off:

The hydrangea is showing definite signs of blue flowers:

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

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

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

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

I did manage to photograph the snow pea blossoms too: 

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

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

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

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

The whole veggie garden on Tuesday:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MY BUMPER CROP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So you can see how it all works together:

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

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

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

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

Do you have a lot of stone in your garden?

ALL DONE!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The herb barrel and neighbor herb containers: 

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

The lavender is covered in buds: 

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

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

I'VE BEEN A BAD GIRL

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

The first bean sprout is a Royal Purple bush bean:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The reverse angle:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DON'T WORRY, I'M STILL HERE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ya think I needed to thin the carrots?:

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

WEEKEND WARRIOR

How excited was I to have 2 days of nice weather forecast for the weekend and no social engagements on the calendar?!  I just didn't count on VPH catching a bad cold on Thursday.  My heavy-lifting help-mate was not available all weekend.  I had to haul all the heavy bags of soil around to get those annuals into pots by myself!

I did try to make the huge ceramic pots a little lighter (and save potting soil) by turning a plastic pot upside down inside each of them.  Apparently the annual flowers don't really need all that space for their roots.  If I were planting perennials in these pots, I wouldn't have done this:

Planter #1 which isn't quite doing its job of hiding the ick under our front steps:

I decided that I should keep some record of what I'm planting in each container.  In addition to the Gerber daisy and some leftover petunias this one has:

Container #2 (and my favorite):

This one has a Gerber daisy and:

Dave gave me a call on Saturday morning and said the dahlia roots were ready for pick-up.  I ran out and bought 5 new containers to add to the 3 appropriately sized pots that I had on hand and headed over to Dave and Dottie's house.  I neglected to bring my camera with me, so I don't have any photos of their fantastic garden for you, only pots of dirt with dahlia roots planted in my driveway (nor have I made it back to Kathy's beautiful garden yet -- too much to do in mine!).  I'm not supposed to water these dahlias until they sprout:

Dave suggested that I keep the two dahlias that had already sprouted out of the direct sun for a few days, so this guy is tucked under a chair:

And this one is under a bench:

These planters from IKEA (last year, don't know if they still carry them) will be the new home of my beans in a week or so:

I threw the old white Rubbermaid patio storage bench on Freecycle Saturday mid-day and it was picked up within 60 minutes.  It just didn't do the job I wanted it to, not waterproof, not insect proof, and not comfortable to sit on -- and frankly, it was ugly.  Taking its spot in the center of the vegetable garden are 2 new huge containers that will be home to my zucchini plants.  To the right and left of them along the fence will be the wooden troughs for the Kentucky Wonder beans (you can see the one on the right peeking out) and I'll throw netting over the fence again for them to climb.  In the empty spots between the stumps and the trellis planter on the right I'll put smaller pots with a few Royal Purple bush beans.  Note that the lawn is filling in a little:

The second lettuce planting:

Sweet 100 cherry tomato plant (in Fafard potting soil and Bradfield Organic tasty tomato & veggie fertilizer):

Husky Cherry Red (I'm using the same prep as above for all the veggies):

The planter table all done up.  I'm looking forward to everything filling out.  It looked so thin in spots that I stuck the leftover petunias in there, blue, purple and pink.  I'm not entirely certain that I'm happy with how this turned out:

I photographed all the labels from the plants in the table, but my camera ate about 30 photos (or it was operator error downloading Sunday evening -- I'm tired, give me a break) and I had already thrown the labels out, so I'm going to have to take a trip to the nursery to remind myself of what I planted.  Here's a shot that kind of shows how tall the peas are getting:

As does this one:

I put zinnia seed in the large pot in the front on Sunday.  The 2 lettuces are on the table and the rest of the pots are herbs that overwintered (with varying degrees of success).  I'm hoping that they start growing more quickly or my belated Mother's Day trip to the nursery is going to net 100% herb seedlings:

In the lost photos I showed how I put recycled screening from the destroyed gazebo into the bottom of the herb barrel, anchored it with some potting soil and then layered empty 2 liter seltzer bottles and Coke Zero cans in the bottom.  I did that to keep the barrel at a weight where we can move it if we need to and to reduce the amount of potting soil needed for the barrel by half.  So it only took 2/3 of a 2 cubic foot bag of potting soil.  I am dying to get some herbs in there:

I'm not sure if this one is going to work...I took the forsythia branches that I forced inside this spring and stuck them in a pot of dirt.  Supposedly they'll take root.  Maybe this time next year I'll have a new bush to plant:

The sweet peas are coming along.  They're definitely leaning in the direction of the sun.  I think I'm going to end up with sweet peas only on the front half of the trellis:

I was lamenting that only 3 of the morning glories have come up when lo and behold I have a fourth(in the center):

The wildflower patch is looking better.  They are actually some little seedlings coming up now if you bend over and look closely, however I was too tired to do that for you:

That mystery plant is blooming:

Can anyone identify this one for me:

I almost finished everything that I had planned for the weekend.  I didn't get to putting together the hanging baskets of annuals for the shady side of the house, though I did find time to pick up 4 matching hanging baskets and 2 needed hanging brackets. 

My zucchini and cucumber seedlings are showing signs of developing true leaves (another photo lost) so they'll be ready to transplant soon.  I saw the first Red Peter pepper seedlings on Sunday -- woohoo!  I'm still a little nervous about leaving tomato plants out overnight outside of the greenhouse, but the lowest overnight temperature in the forecast over the next 10 days is 44 tomorrow night.  Wednesday is supposed to be beautiful.  Maybe I'll take a vacation day and garden.

I've placed a to do list on my sidebar (in part to amuse VPH who says I make lists for everything).  What's on yours?

WHAT'S THAT BRIGHT THING IN THE SKY CALLED?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

G-- D--- WILDFLOWER PATCH

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

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

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

And some seedlings yet to develop true leaves:

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

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

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

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

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

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

I did do other stuff today...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Things are definitely looking up:

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

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

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

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

It was so beautiful today that we just had to go for a walk this afternoon.  Our neighbor across the street has the nicest lawn on the block.  He has a garden in back, but I've never had the courage to take him up on his offer to go over and pick zucchini and cucumbers whenever I feel like it.  But his forsythia bush is screaming spring at us as we walk out the front door daily:

We walked a different route today, one that I've never taken on foot before (except during a big snowstorm one winter when the roads were awful and we were dying for eggs).  I couldn't believe how beautiful these trees were.  It's a little tough in the photo to see the huge magnolia in the background, but it was the largest I've ever seen:

The 10 houses before this one and the 10 after are big lawns and foundation plantings, so this one sticks out -- in a good way.  I imagine a sweet old lady has lived in this house forever and she loves her spring flowers like she does her cats:

There's one thing from our walk that I couldn't show you.  There's an amazing garden -- and I mean amazing -- that we passed by.  I took photos from the sidewalk, but the garden is obviously the resident's pride and joy and I wouldn't feel right posting about it without asking permission first.  I plan to walk down again tomorrow, so hopefully I'll catch the homeowner out and about and be able to share its beauty with you.

Back from our walk now...I picked up these clay pots (25 of various sizes) from my next-door-neighbor when he had a tag sale at the end of the summer for $3.00.  I'm having a wonderful time deciding what to plant in them:

And yes, you spotted the last bag of that horrible Miracle Gro potting mix in the above photo.  I'll use it for non-edible plants, like the sunflowers I plan to grow in those 6 large pots.  I know they may be kind of small, but it's an experiment.  In case you're wondering what I'm using for potting soil this year, purchased for the ungodly sum of $15.99 a bag at the good gardening center, I present:

And for fertilizer...I finally found WORM POOP!  It was at Home Depot of all places.  I even got lawn fertilizer so the weed and feed is officially not being used this spring (but maybe in the fall).  Genie will be so proud:

VPH spent all day yesterday cleaning up the few leaves he missed in the fall.  He is such a trooper.  Now I just have to weed the perennial shade garden and put down fresh mulch.  I also purchased 3 bleeding hearts to plant in here -- just above the 3rd rock from the bottom:

VPH also did some work on the wildflower patch.  Note the wire fence on the patio that will go in front of the patch to try and keep the flowers from flopping over onto the patio:

See why this area is problematic for me?  It's all coming in very sparsely.  And I wasn't that fond of the out of control flop over in the rain and general chaos last year: 

I've got two options here --

1.) Leave it be for a month and see what develops.  If I don't like what I see, I think we're going to rip it all out and put in a perennial flower garden, even bulbs for early spring development next year.

2.) Use the perennial wildflower seed and poppy seed I have to fill in the blank spots and live with the chaos for another year.

I'm definitely leaning towards option 1.

VPH also cleared the leaves from the perimeter of the yard exposing the day lilies:

And you know how much fun he has playing in the bastard garden!  He pulled all the garbage out of the ground and piled it to the left and pushed the yard debris pile back against the fence.  He plans to put grass seed on the bare ground and do a dump run soon:

 

My forsythia bush and the weeds in full bloom.  You can't even see the bed with hostas and the rhododendron in front of the fence: 

The opposite side of the forsythia, cause I'm just digging on it:

In case you were wondering why we let the poison ivy grow out of the stump -- it's for privacy:

The lights from the gazebo are going up on Freecycle:

I've been cleaning up the veggie garden bit by bit.  When I went to tidy up the trellis planter that had tomatoes in it, I found a little surprise.  At one point last year I had planted garlic in a row in front of the tomatoes.  It didn't do well and I ended up pulling them all, or so I thought!  I can't believe one survived to stand tall front and center:

You have to look really, really, really close to find new growth on the oregano, but it's there:

We have big plans for tomorrow.  Planting the rest of the seeds, building trellises, finishing the garden clean-up, over-seeding the lawn in time for Sunday's rain, etc.  What will you be doing in your garden this weekend?

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

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

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

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

Sadly the lawn isn't looking that good:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The parsley is looking good:

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

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

The thyme is looking pretty sad:

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

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

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

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

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

STILL HERE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cosmo -- right?

A CASE OF THE NERVES

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

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

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

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

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

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

As are the bell peppers:

Tomatoes are ripening:

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

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

TRYING TO MAKE IT A LITTLE LESS CHAOTIC OUT THERE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE HERB PROJECT

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

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

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

June 11th:

September 13th: 

Here's the herb garden on July 1st:

And on September 16th:

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

September 14th:

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

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

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

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

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

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

MORE FUN WITH PHOTOS

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

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

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

UPDATE: I found this this evening:

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

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

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

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

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

Take note of these native plants growing behind the shed:

Because they are all over the wildflower patch as well: 

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

The cosmos are so 3-D!

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

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

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

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

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

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

   

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

WHAT MAKES MY YARD A GARDEN?

I had to start with this photo:

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

__________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The first three definitions listed for garden:

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

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

3. A fertile and delightful spot or region.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The spiders are taking over the vegetable garden:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday's harvest:

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

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

And this poor guy just rotted right on the plant:

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

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

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

The third purple hyacinth bean is finally blooming:

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

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

WHY DIDN'T I DO THIS LAST WEEK?

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

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

Pale pink:

Hot pink:

White:

I also had to attack the petunias:

Which looked really ragged when I finished cutting them back:

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

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

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

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

WEEKEND RECAP

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

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

The reverse angle from the driveway just past VPH:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Loving the purple there and loving the purple here:

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

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

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

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

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

 

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

BABIES! -- MINE AND OTHER NOT SO NICE ONES

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

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

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

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

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

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

The purple hyacinth beans are doing great:

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

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

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

More update tomorrow. 

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

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

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

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

I DON'T FEEL LIKE DOING ANYTHING

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

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

I also finally know what this is:

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

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

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

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY

July 27, 2007 -- I miss them already!

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

APPARENTLY I LIKE PURPLE AND GREEN TOGETHER

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

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

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

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

My most recent combo:

Many of the flowers in the herb barrel are purple:

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

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

Mary's passalong hostas are blooming:

Purple cosmos abound in the wildflower patch:

 

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

The teacup planters are all about green and purple:

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