Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Brilliant Blooms













Can you name them all?

It is very hot this week.  Luckily we've had a good amount of rain so everything green is shooting up and out and blooming big instead of drooping down and shriveling parched.  Summer is in full swing here: fireflies, swimming, popsicles, and ZUCCHINI coming out our ears!  Just keep that rain coming.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Plant Them Well and Let Them Govern Themselves


It's good advice.  Especially if you started with good soil and it rains every three days.  But, even the best advice doesn't come with guarantees.  This is the last cabbage (and Brassica in general) I will plant in the Spring.  In the Spring those little white moths flit around laying eggs in tender leaves which hatch little green worms that feast feast feast on my heads.  

The number of Seven Dust applications needed to keep these cabbage edible is not worth the toxicity.

 Same cabbage, planted late summer/early fall will have no pest damage at all!!  If you live in a climate, where there are 10 growing months in the years you have this luxury.


healthy leeks take a long time to beef up.  i will harvest these for quiche and a potato leek soup this week.


peas are finally flowering



just as with people, some thrive and some seem so stunted for no particular reason.  growing in the exact same soil this little tomato plant is about the height of my hand, while the others from the same seed (see in the rear of the photo) are four hands high.  


Crookneck Zucchini.  I think these blossoms have the prettiest color.  Katy, could you make me a spring dress that flows and glows like a squash blossom?



I love these little bells.  They will get big and be perfect for some gumbo, or stuffed with spicy rice.


This little pod is a baby baby tomatillo.  my first try with these, I'll let you know how they turn out.


Was it the hail or is there a bug in the yard partial to the leaves of my struggling eggplant?  Hmmm.


Tomatoes!  Tomatoes!



If you plant nothing else new in your yard, may I suggest this Verbena Bonariensis?  It adds height and dreaminess to your garden scape.


Hollyhocks, bright and pale pink, another tall bloomer.


we love spiders



I love hydrangeas.  Add lime for pink, aluminum for blue.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Bring 'em in, Dude.








There is no sense in leaving all the flowers out in the yard.  Unless of course you LIVE out in the yard and can enjoy them there all day.   (Which sometimes, like when it feels like I'm being pecked to death, not by the chickens, but by the children, I am tempted).  I'm starting a movement:  BRING IN THE FLOWERS!!!  They make everyone happy, especially the mama.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Bring 'Em In!

They are messy, and pricey, and don't last very long at all, but there is something that cut flowers in a vase bring to a room no other decor can touch.  I noticed a lot of purple in our yard, so I used that as the unifying element and brought 'em in!!


tulips

chive blossoms

alium

false indigo

Salvia

Japanese Maple

and the iris, that are beginning to bloom all over town here



Tuesday, April 26, 2011

"That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet"


 Fertilizing really pays off when it comes to roses!  I took these photos this morning around the garden.  I can't take any credit for the planting of them and Dr. Gooch did the fertilizing, but I am enjoying their form and fragrance.  Wish you could come take a rose stroll with yours truly.

Another wonder in the garden right now is this Bells of Ireland that Dr. Gooch planted by seed two winters ago.  Here it is even overpowering the Hibiscus next to it.  My dad, the florist and gardener extraordinaire, said he had never even seen one growing "in the wild".  



When we were dating, he would give me flowers with Bells of Ireland (or Moluccella laevis) in the arrangement.  He loves them so tried his hand at them in the garden.  They are in the mint family and are native to Syria, Turkey and the Caucusus.  They don't like hot, humid climates...so we'll see how they fare through the summer.  For now, they are a delight to watch.


This is my new favorite flowering perennial.  It is Baptisia Australis or "False Indigo".  It is in the pea family.  And does well in drought and even heavy clay soil.  A winner!


 A little bit of the west coast on the east coast!  We scattered some poppy seeds a couple autumns ago and now have a couple of plants that pop out each spring.  My sister, Katy, would love these!


And here!  My first ever peony bud.  The ants are attracted to a sap on the bud but do no harm.  They also don't "tickle open" the petals as commonly believed.


Vegetables are well and nice, but in the words of Claude Monet, "I must have flowers, always, and always."