Summer Garden

Sunday Stroll

It finally feels like summer around here! Yesterday, as I spent about five hours standing in the sun watching the baby horse, I got really sun burned.  I hadn’t planned to stay that long, but visiting mom and baby has a way of making time disappear.  It has rained almost every day for the past three weeks, so my skin wasn’t ready for that much time in the sun.  All that rain helped the weeds take over my garden, too, so Ed and I spent yesterday morning catching up.  I ripped out the lettuce because it was all rotting on the bottom, I assume from so much dampness, but everything else in the vegetable garden is doing well.

One corner contains herbs that I started from seed last year and this year: chives, basil, lavendar, dill, parsley, thyme, sage and borage.

Dill in bloom

Bush beans- green, purple and yellow

Potatoes

Carrots

Snap peas

This corner contains tomatoes which are surrounded by sunflowers and marigolds.

I made an effort to add some flowers to the vegetable garden this year.  Johnny jump-ups are doing very well in the shade of the fence post.

I’m anxiously awaiting the blooms of hot pink and lime green zinnias.

Borage is attracting pollinators.

Speaking of flowers, the lace cap hydrangeas in the back garden are in full bloom, a gorgeous shade of purple-blue.

And of course, no Sunday Stroll would be complete without the showy mophead hydrangeas from our front garden.

What’s growing in your garden?

To see who else is strolling this week, visit the Quiet Country House.

New Beginnings

Sunday Stroll

If you look carefully, you can see the raspberries that we planted outside of the garden fence.  While we do have deer in our yard a lot, I’m not that worried about them eating the raspberries because of the thorns.  It’s the birds I know will get to the raspberries, whether they’re in a fence or not, so we put them outside to save room for the veggies inside.

Here’s a picture of the garden where I planted seeds yesterday.  It just looks like sticks for now, but I can imagine the lettuce and peas already.

The spring breeze kept the wind chimes playing throughout the day.  It was nice to listen to them as I planted seeds and any time I went outside.

The bleeding hearts in the back flower garden are starting to make their appearance.  These white bleeding hearts do very well in the back of the house, thanks to the shade in the afternoon.

On a related note, I’ve added a new Garden page, where you can see what’s in our garden currently and when it was planted.  I hope to add many more plants to the list and some pictures as the growing season goes on. 

To see who else is strolling today, visit the Quiet Country House.

Spring Garden

Heritage Red Raspberry

It was beginning to feel like winter would never end, but spring is officially here.  We got our berries in, and I spent this sunny Saturday morning out in the garden planting seeds.

Ed helped me get the soil ready, and I planted Johnny jump-ups along the fence, then got to work planting everything that could go into the ground now.  I planted many different varieties of salad greens but made sure not to plant too many lettuces that will all be ready at the same time, to avoid waste.  We’ll use succession plantings (I left room) so that we’ll have a nice supply of lettuce throughout the spring, summer and fall.  The salad greens planted include a baby lettuce mix, lamb’s lettuce, buttercrunch, four seasons lettuce, rouge d’hiver (a red romaine that we loved last year), Cherokee crisphead, green butterhead and red butterhead.  I’m daydreaming about those fresh salads.

I also planted some red, yellow, white and purple carrots, in addition to the traditional orange ones.  We love to eat roasted carrots and I can imagine how pretty the multicolored version will look.

A few red cabbage seeds filled in the row that the overwintered spinach occupies, and I’m imagining the cute little heads of cabbage coming in.  One of my favorite fairy tales has always been Rapunzel, and so I think the cabbage is fitting in my garden.  Rapunzel was named after the cabbage that her mother stole from the witch, resulting in the witch taking the baby…  I know, what an awful story! But I just liked her long hair.  Perhaps I’ll call my cabbage “rapunzel” from now on.

I planted some leek and scallion seeds, which I’ve never grown before.  I’m excited to see how they do this year, and thinking about the different recipes I’ll use them in.  The scallions will be great in my crab cakes or crab cake burgers.

Finally, I planted some sugar snap peas where Ed moved the trellis.  I had tried to move it myself, but I quickly realized that I’m not strong enough to use a sledge hammer with one hand while holding the post in the other.  I can’t wait to pick those green pods.