garden@home

FRONT BEDS

Lamium sp. in the middle, Penstemon sp. in the back, English bluebells in the front

Foxglove, Digitalis sp.

Peony and tulips

Under the magnolia tree

Peony

The purple magnolia, which as of 5/2/09 is almost completely green and the white magnolia is fully green

FRONT YARD

FRONT SIDE

The forsythia is changing from yellow to green

Some daffodils still blooming, grape hyacinths, and tulips are up

Sweet girl

VEGGIE GARDEN

STRAWBERRY BED

1st strawberry flowers

BUTTERFLY GARDEN

BACK YARD

Rhododendron sp. first buds

Poppy (Papaver sp.) buds coming up

SHADE GARDEN

Finally, the first hostas have appeared

She is looking at birds and doing the bird sign with her fingers

Solomon’s seal is growing up

SEEDLINGS: basil, peppers, and tomatoes.

My tomatoes have (as of 5/2/09) have actually been planted into the vegetable garden.  The tallest probably had reached three feet.  I have around 10 pepper seedlings.  3 will go into my garden, the rest will go to the community garden.  All the basil are also planted outside as of 5/2/09.  I will still need to direct sow a few more.

Narcissus in it’s many forms.

FRONT BEDS

I gave this Magnolia sp. (I think it’s a saucer magnolia) a pretty severe hair cut and almost took out the power line.

Up close.

A purple Magnolia that blooms later.

Tulips

Grape hyacinths (Muscari sp.) and Fritillaria meleagris (Snake’s Head Fritillary, Checkered Daffodil, Frog-cup, Guinea-hen Flower, Leper Lily, Snake’s Head) grow under the Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum).

Closer…

Closer still.

EDIBLE GARDEN

Peas!

Spinach!

Walking onions!

ON THE SIDE

Camellia sp.

Camellia sp.

Lilac (Syringa sp.)

Calla lilies (Zantedeschia sp.) I forget to move the bikes off and forget to protect from the slugs EVERY year and yet they still come back and flower.  Now that’s a plant I love.

BUTTERFLY GARDEN

BACK BEDS

Hyacinth, that despite major slug damage came up very well

Plum tree – I’m unsure of the variety

Voodoo lilies

Brunnera

False Solomon’s Seal (Smilacina racemosa)

Husband sent me the Get Rich Slowly website for a cost analysis on home gardening.  This encouraged me to see how much we save (or lose) in a year in our edible garden.  I am going to try and post monthly with the cost and benefit.  This will in no way be exact or comprehensive, rather a rough estimate (mostly for my own records).

So far its all spending.  And I’m not recording the time spent very well, it is a very ROUGH estimate.

Since the beginning of the year we have spent (these are rounded off at dollars):

Seeds and plants $68

Compost $13

Trellis materials $37

Seed trays $5

Sluggo $20

TOTAL $143

Time spent: 5 hours

Note: We have an established plum tree, 2 cherry trees, 2 apple trees, a strawberry bed, a bunch of walking onions, a TON of leeks, and a whole lotta seeds already.  I will include the “profit” from these, but I will try to do so separately.  I will also do some seed swapping and this should be the last year of buying trellising, (hopefully) compost, and more than ten dollars worth of seeds.

FRONT BEDS

Overviews: you can see peonies, daffodils, violets, summer snowflake, and tulips (not in bloom).

Pink Viola.

A different type of Narcissus.

Yellow and orange daffodils are a rare treat in my garden. As can be seen, there are large clumps of white and lots of all yellow.

My hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) flowers are always underachievers.  The flowering stalks are sparse and spindly.  I don’t think I’d grow them at all, except I love the way the smell.

My first camellia flower.  I’ve seen lots of camellias in full bloom already.  Probably due to the extreme storm damage they received this winter, our blooms are tardy and may not be as numerous as in recent years.

Foxglove (Digitalis sp.)

Lamium and purple Viola, this is an incredibly easy combo to grow here.

Supposedly, the lilacs should bloom profusely with the heavy snow and frost we had. I’m hopeful, as these are one of my favorite flowers.  It has a lot of buds for foliage at least.

EDIBLE GARDEN

The leeks in the front are growing very well, as are the onions.  The compost is on, the early seeds are planted and if all goes well I should see some seedlings (arugula, lettuce, peas, spinach, along with a few others) popping up any day now.

BUTTERFLY GARDEN – an overview

PATIO CONTAINERS

The herbs that overwintered nicely.  Creeping rosemary and thyme (with a bulb of some sort coming up within them).

BACK BEDS

The plum tree has started to flower. I love it in full bloom.  And if you have any ideas about what to do with plums please let me know!  I have an abundance (think laundry baskets full) of tart skinned, yellow-fleshed plums.

I know I’ve already shown the gnome, but the whole clump of white violas are new.

INSIDE

My tomato, pepper, and basil seedlings are getting tall!  Soon it will be time to transplant them.  And so far only one was eaten by our cats, which I consider hugely successful.

Rose hips are a reminder of winter, but more importantly, a vase full of sunny daffodils are a reminder of SPRING!!

FRONT BED

Forsynthia sp.

Snow Drops (Galanthus nivalis) – starting to decline now

Summer Snowflake (Leucojum vernum)

Beard Tongue (Penstemon sp.)

Peony (Paeonia sp.)

Primrose (Primula vulgaris)

Hyacinth (Hyacinthus sp.) in Dead Nettle (Lamium sp.)

Short daffodils

White daffodils

Some daffodils (Narcissus sp.) are blooming, some are not quite, and the tulips (Tulipa sp.) are poking up

Bunch of crocus (Crocus sp.)

White crocus

Wood Violets (Viola sp.)

Magnolia sp.

VEGETABLE GARDEN

The cold frame. I’m hoping this will work, but I think I’ll need something for the sides.  Any suggestions would be helpful.

Columbine (Aquilegia sp.)

SIDE BED

Daylilies (Hemerocallis sp.)

BUTTERFLY BED

Catmint (Nepeta sp.)

Autumn Joy Sedum (Sedum sp.)

BACK BED

Flag Iris (Iris prismatica)

Rose (Rosa sp.) – I’ve just started pruning my roses this week and finally hacked my butterfly bush

Vodoo Lillies (Dracunculus vulgaris)

SHADE GARDEN

Happy Gnome

Welcome Gnome

Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum)

Hosta sp. – first I’ve seen

Brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla) – already blooming

Yellow crocus

TO DO:

I need to buy more slug repellent and get it spread so I don’t lose more tender flower bulbs to the slugs. (See the damage?)

And to do:

I have my garden plans done – I’m trying the square foot this year to see if I can increase yield – if you’d like to see my plans, here’s the link: garden10. Sorry, I don’t know how to have it open in a web window.

And I’ve also FINALLY got (half) the grape cuttings in the ground that I got from a friend

I still need to prune my fruit trees

I have yet to plant peas or spinach, or get the soil ready in my vegetable garden

I need to plant my summer bulbs (and those that are just sitting in a pot outside that I was supposed to deal with last fall

I should fertilize my rhodies and azaleas

And of course, I definetely need to do some seed swapping!  So I had a look-see around the web, because I have been wanting to make my own seed packets – and violá!

Daffodils poking up and I few tulips too.

Spring crocus.

Bees already – in February?!?  In my snowdrops.

Spring is on the way, and with a beautiful sunny day today I was able to get out and do some gardening!

A photo of my shade garden, it looks pretty bare, albeit sunny.  In the forefront (right) you can see a rhody branch that broke off and I tossed.  Other than that not a lot of green in the photo.  But if you look closer…

…bulbs are coming up

…the columbine has started to grow

(a close up)

…a rogue leek (already tall) sits among the violets back in this shady flowerbed

… and a tiny patch of lamium (center) that I transplanted last summer from our front to here survived the snows.  It should grow very rapidly now!

In my kitchen garden things also are progressing toward spring.

Yes, I did neglect to bring the hose in this year.  Yes, that does mean it won’t work as well for as long.  Whoops.  You can see the camellia trees that came down as a result of the snow and ice on the right.  I trimmed them back so I could take a good look at the garden.  You can also see the leeks lining the front.  I have so many of them and don’t know what to do with them.  I’ve tried a few recipes but haven’t found a way to use the abundance that I end up with every year.  Any ideas?  Husband doesn’t like them in replacement of onions (I’ve tried).  I was worried the two types of chives I transplanted this fall wouldn’t make it through the snow seeing as I only got them in the wet muddy ground about 4 weeks before the really cold weather.

So I was really excited when I saw the very ragged leaves (behind the leek but in front of the walking onion) of one set of chives!

And really, really excited to see my garlic chives!  Yum!  This can be thrown into almost anything.  I love their flavor, a combination of garlic (yummy) and onion (yummy).  In omelets, tomato sauce, any time meat needs kick these are a super easy addition!

Another plant I mentioned above, the walking onion, is also a favorite.  You can use the tops as green onions, the root forms a more traditional onion, and the little onions you see in the picture grew on stalks above ground last fall and will increase this patch of onions (or they could be eaten as is).

Some other shots around the yard.

These are summer snowflake bulbs.  They will bloom around March just as their smaller cousins the snowdrops are dying away.

Some bulbs I dug up last fall and left out.  I think I should probably get them in the ground now.  I don’t know what they are but I love surprises!

Some daylilies I transplanted last fall.  I really thought I got them in the ground better, but if you look you will see their roots just sticking out.  Hopefully with a layer of mulch it won’t matter.

And finally, the sedums.  I cut off the dead stalks about this time every year, and my reward for laziness?  The joy of seeing the little tiny green shoots.  I love that!

…or so it feels.

This is a view of our street yesterday. And today there was even more snow.  This does NOT happen here.  Thanks global warming ;D

And the ruling (or ahem, ruler) is… 13 and 1/2 inches.  Woohoo!!