Flowers and a Surprise

The pink roses in the front garden are putting on a show.

This hydrangea in the back garden was supposed to be hot pink, but I guess nobody told her.  Good thing I like purple.

The front garden’s hydrangeas are still producing big, showy blooms.

In the veggie garden, the giant marigolds have started to flower by the tomato plants.

Despite beetle attacks, the zinnias are beginning to bloom.  The beetles are mostly gone, so I’m looking forward to lots of pink and lime green flowers.

Here’s the surprise! We decided to pull carrots this morning, since the ground was nice and damp which made them easy to pull up.  Thinking the potato plants were dead, I asked Ed to pull them out.  Turns out, the potatoes were ready! My mom had told me that when they looked dead it meant the potatoes were ready, but I still thought they were dead.  We got about 5lbs of potatoes from 3 experimental hills, so I think we’ll definitely plant them again next year.

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

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.

Buds and Anticipation

Sunday Stroll

So many leaves have popped since the last time I had a chance to post a Sunday Stroll, so this is a long one!  While I’ve got a few flowers, there are many more buds yet to open and I’m impatiently awaiting the show they’ll put on in June.

The bleeding hearts are taking over the partially shaded back garden, even after I pruned them back and picked a bunch of the flowers yesterday.  Believe it or not, this is only their second year in bloom.

Buds on the blue lace-cap hydrangea in the back garden.  This will be the first of my many hydrangeas to bloom.

The peony in the front flower garden has a bunch of buds, and I can’t wait to see those big pink blooms.

Our one and only apple blossom.  I’m surprised that the Jonathan tree got a blossom so soon after we planted it, but I’m happy to report that all six trees are alive.  I don’t expect an apple this year because there’s no other flower to pollinate it.  Unless, of course, a bee makes her way from my parent’s orchard a few minutes away. 

The mixed baby lettuce is doing well.

The spinach that overwintered is ready to pick.

The peas have started to climb up their wire supports.

One of the heritage red raspberries in our brand new berry patch.

Some wildflowers in the neighboring hayfield.

Our two sugar maples that we planted last fall survived the winter and are full of bright green leaves.

To see who else is strolling today, 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.

Victory Garden

In the last few days, our temperatures have gotten up to the high 50′s and I’ve been taking my seedlings out for some sunlight and throwing open the windows.  It feels so good to have fresh air flowing through the house, and I know the seedlings are appreciating the warm afternoon sun.

I sat outside with my plants today, my collection of seeds, a calendar and journal.  I’ve been thinking about incorporating more flowers into my vegetable garden, both as companion plants and for beauty.  I drew out my plans for the vegetable garden and chose which seeds I’ll plant this coming weekend: Johnny jump-ups, peas, lettuce, cabbage, mache, spinach, broccoli, leeks, and scallions.  I can’t wait to get my hands back in the garden soil.

Some of the raspberries that I ordered arrived today, and since they’re bare root, I need to get them into the soil soon.  Ed and I will plant them tomorrow in the spot we’ve chosen for our berry patch.

What’s going on in your garden?