Category Archives: garden

What’s Blooming

For real! A what’s blooming post! It finally feels like spring around here. Finally. The garden is changing every day now. I note from last year that we are about 2 weeks behind.

I can’t remember what kind of tulips these are. Early species – I think?

The close up at night and open in the sun.

Hyacinths! These are new this year. There are 3 colors coming up, but only 2 are open right now. The purple:

and the pink:

Lots of buds on the tulips, too. My garden club comes over next Friday and I will have blooms for them! Yay! I am doing the tippy pot demo and I can only show the structure because it is too early for any plants to be available to actually put in the pots (other than pansies). At least there will be some color.

This guy will probably be blooming:

This is the fritillaria. I really like these, but they are expensive and just not hardy at all. 3 bulbs planted last year and 1 came up. So, I replaced the 2 that didn’t come up and only 1 came up this year. Lame!

I can’t wait to see the flowers open. I shall show you my inner geek here. I have a map for my garden. It’s done to scale, too. 😳

You can see the line where the old bed border was and the new front curve I put in last fall. I just never bothered to erase the old line LOL!

Of course, I made notes to myself about where to put the new bulbs last fall.

I am really not sure why I thought I would be able to decipher this come spring…

At least it’s fun guessing. I know what I bought – I just don’t remember where they went!

What’s Blooming!

Okay, getting waaaayyyy ahead of the game with this, but I was just so excited to see these when the snow melted off my garden bed!

I actually yelled “SPROUTS!!!!” Dork.

The iris rhizomes appear to have survived the winter:

Need to do some garden bed clean up once it dries out a bit more and is not so squishy. It will be a while before the shade garden shows its face,though:

There was one bulb that probably got pulled up by a squirrel last fall. It is sprouting on its own.

The bulb is a little squishy, so I brought it inside and stuck it in some nutrient soil and will see what happens.

Grow little sprouts!

Another sign of spring are all the ice cream shops opening up for the season.

This is the one 1/3 mile from our house:

So, despite that fact that it was spitting rain and in the mid 40s, John and I walked down for inauguration 😀

Kiddie cone in peanut butter! We walked home and ate these in warmth. Too cold to sit outside!

It’s supposed to be 51 and sunny on Saturday. We will be biking 😀

Thinking Spring

It was so cold today! I think maybe it hit 20 degrees? Of course, in the dead of winter, what starts showing up in the mailbox but the garden catalogs! Ah yes, sweet gardening. While my garden sits under a blankie of snow right now:

I am busy planning. Of course, there is a little less snow than this because some of it melted, but no ground to be seen.

I am ordering the Pumpkin Patch Rose Bush for the new garden bed extension.

Plus I am trying to decide between a few of these fun plants:

Sea Holly

Some Bee Balm – the short stuff.

I am dying over Bluestone’s ecchinacea collections as well. You know I have that coneflower obsession thing going on. We may have to move so I can just have an enormous garden while we live in a little shack in the corner.

This one is called Secret Passion –

Although it really reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake’s bonnet. Does anyone remember that smelly doll? LOL

Normal people go out on Friday nights. I read through flower catalogs.

Is anyone else getting itchy to garden?

Frosty mornings

Cold start to the day. Cold!!! I had wanted to bike to breakfast, but the temp said 28 degrees. No biking at that temp, thank you very much.

We even had to scrape the windshield. Boo!!!

We do have a 1 car garage, but it is really awkward to get in and out of, so we rarely use it unless a big snow is coming.

I decided against a bagel today and had a blueberry scone instead!

It’s a little misshapen, but very tasty. They bake them on site. Looks like John was wasting some coffee there, too. For shame!

I worked for a while this morning and then did some mother/daughter time. Normally we get together in the evening, but I wanted to give her a few plants for the garden, so we got together during the day so I could get them in the ground on a sunny day (albeit cold). Now her little flower garden is tidied up for winter.

That’s one reason I like being an independent contractor with work. I can flex my hours like this to take advantage of the sunny day today. I am okay with having to work at night to be able to do stuff like this.

Then we headed out to lunch. Nothing like eating out 2 meals in a day 😯 East End Eatery and I had a wheat pizza wrap.

Yum! It was nice to spend an afternoon with my mom, although I think she mentioned that she preferred our usual going out for coffee rather than digging in the garden…

After working the rest of the afternoon, I wasn’t all that hungry for dinner. I started to munch on potato chips and was thinking that I just felt like having an apple with almond butter for dinner. John mentioned that I was an adult and could do so – so I did!

Sometimes feel like I should make myself eat a complete meal, but I was listening to what I wanted for dinner and this really satisfied me.

Back to work, but John made me one of these for the evening since I didn’t have one earlier:

Today’s pink item? The sponge thing for cleaning the inside of the car windshield:

We needed it to wipe condensation after scraping the car this morning.

What’s blooming!

Just when you think the garden is getting close to done and then new things pop up!

All 3 of my rose bushes are in bloom right now! Sunsprite.

The knockout:

Lots and lots of blooms on this one.

The scentimental also has several blooms on it.

Black-eyed Susan:

A few more blooms on the butterfly weed as well.

And not flowers, but a shot of dessert we had on our anniversary overlooking the circle downtown.

What’s Blooming!

We made it through another week! Did it go by really fast to anyone else? Guess that happens when you are busy.

We have had some beautiful weather here this week. Almost perfect fall. And speaking of fall – time to change the garden flag!

Guess I should iron that. If only I could find my iron…

Not much fall color here yet, but some leaves are starting to drop, so it will be coming soon.

My garden is in end-of-season mode:

Birds love to pick all the seeds off of the coneflowers heads that are all black. Goldfinches, especially.

My marigolds are still blooming now. They had better since they were so flipping late!

Along side another scentimental bloom. These marigolds are surprisingly fragrant. If I brush against them, the scent sticks to my skin.

Alyssum:

Plus some purple ones:

My knockout rose is in full bloom again.

Potted mums are really bloomed out now.

There are also a few straggler blooms on my clematis:

I have lots of bulbs to plant this weekend, but rain expected, so hopefully I can squeeze them in before it starts!

Have a great weekend!

What’s blooming!

I have a new flower to show you! First up, though, is the revamping of the garden bed. Remember this picture?

I labored away Labor Day weekend and made it a reality!

I still need to amend the soil as it is pretty sandy. Most of the planting will occur in the spring, but I will be putting some bulbs in and possibly moving a couple other plants over. I think I might have hurt my shoulder digging this bed, too. My clavicle looks a little odd. 😕

So the new flower? The flowering tobacco finally bloomed! Only one of the plants. Here it is.

It’s very pretty, but I have to say not worth all the fussin’ and a feudin’ it took to get this going.

My scentimental has a bloom on it.

However – my rose looks terrible! It got black spot, which is a mold and the leaves all fell off.

Eek! This is a disease resistant cultivar, but it was humid for a while and this is the result. I need to clean up all the dead leaves and spray the plant with a baking soda/water mixture to prevent any new mold spores. I will have to put that on my other 2 bushes as well to protect them.

I also have a sunflower that popped up from near the birdfeeder.

Gotta love that.

The butterfly weed blooming again, with some aphids.

And here are my 2 feral kitties. Boo and Lily. They don’t like people, but they like being by the garage because it is quiet. John and I are probably the only people that don’t shoo the kitties away, so they hang out here. I am starting to get attached to them, the little fleabags. I am now very worried they are going to get hit by a car as we live on a busy road.

There’s no room at the inn, though. I apologized to John for being such a sucker and he said “there is one born every minute.” Sigh…

What’s Blooming!

Friday time again! Boy the time just goes speeding by. It’s scary sometimes. Work was surprisingly slow today. I think maybe there are some last minute vacations from people and the physicians before school starts after Labor Day. That meant I was trying to get things done that I planned for later after I was finished with work. I’ll be spending a Friday night working, boooo…

Anyway, here is the garden and what’s been going on.

More snapdragons.

My sweet potato vines and half nicely done porch.

There is still half the porch to be finished to the left. Not sure I will make it by the end of the month, but I will try.

This is the other potted plant on the front porch. It’s called Calibrachoa – or Million Bells if you don’t want to figure how how to pronounce that.

My sedum continues to get darker.

I’ve almost got a marigold bloom!

Maybe this will be open by September?

A couple random asters here and there.

The shade bed where I talked about getting rid of the ferns? Here it is before I got in there.

Afterwards. All ready for planting!

I tried to keep as many lily of the valley’s as I could, but their roots were all intermingled with the fern roots, but that’s okay. They spread and will come back in short order.

I am getting some tall Astibles to put in place of the ferns. I am thinking Bressingham Beauty. It’s purple 😀

I also neatened up the rest of the shade garden.

It really needed some weeding.

I’ve got to work tonight to make up for all the garden fun today.

What’s blooming today!

Another Friday rolling around! It’s been a hectic week, but a nice cool front has just rolled in with rain and it is going to be a glorious weekend! Yay!

On to the blooms! These are some of the snapdragons I posted yesterday.

Love these! I found some other ones with a brighter color distinction, but it started raining before I was able to get out there with the camera.

Now my clematis is really growing. Took long enough.

This is the heliopsis with the yellow blooms. I have had some blooms, but not a lot this year. It really likes this spot, but it needs more support and I am thinking of moving it. We don’t necessarily like it climbing up the porch like this.

The teddy bear sunflowers popped out more blooms this week. I do like these.

I might just try direct sowing the seeds next year instead of growing them inside.

Allysum blooms that are close to the ground.

I have 3 hanging baskets. There is flowering tobacco and purple allysum in them.

I have a love/hate relationship with the baskets. They look good, but they are a pain to water – and they have to be watered every day. I don’t know if I will put them up next year or not.

Last week I had said the purple lirope hadn’t bloomed even though the white ones did. Now the purple is just coming in.

They look kind of like rock candy.

The sedum is getting darker and darker.

I still have some plants that haven’t bloomed yet. I have some marigolds that are just showing buds now. Nothing like a late bloomer, right?

Maybe before fall?? LOL!

There also is a stray black-eyed susan by my butterfly bush.

Those are persistent buggers, I have to say. They keep popping up all over.

Nice long rides this weekend and I won’t be sweating buckets! Just normal amounts 😀

What’s Blooming today – redesign

Midseason garden time and I am already making plans for some bed renovation. This all stemmed from finding a rose that I really, really want in my garden. This one:

Pumpkin Patch. I am very particular about my roses. They can’t be tea roses and they have to be hardy, disease resistant, rebloomers and be fragrant. This one meets all of those criteria! So, I had to do some thinking. BTW, Edmund’s has fantastic roses. If you don’t buy them local, get them from Edmund’s. You won’t be disappointed. They didn’t pay me to say that, either (although I would take a free rose bush!!)

I am going to expand out the front of the garden bed like so:

Thank you picmonkey! (I am having fun with that, BTW). I am a real arteest 😀

So, that means using spray paint to draw the line in the yard and then digging the ~~crabgrass~~ sod up. I will be using the lawn mower to decide where to make the curve. No point in making a garden bed that is hard to mow around.

I also am going to move those white cone flowers that are in front of my sign. Not sure quite where yet. Of course, that gives me more room with that extension to add other plants besides the rose! Yay!

My teddybear sunflowers are taller now. They have reached the 2 feet that they were supposed to get to and now have bigger blooms.