Blooms

With the warmer temperatures and spring rains, the flowers and plants around the deck are really growing as is most everything in the yard. I thought today I would share a few blooms.

The first is a nasturtium. Each year I have grown these from a package of mixed seed. It is always exciting to me when one blooms since the color is a surprise. Here is the latest one.

I love how these petunias have little stripes of white on each bloom. In the background is Lucy overlooking her domain.

I cannot remember the name of these. I chose them mainly because they grow tall and will attract butterflies. The small purple blossoms are lovely.

The last blooms are the ones I am most excited about.....raspberry blooms. My new raspberry bushes are blooming. I expect I will only have a small handful of raspberries this year, but it will be a good start.

Vegetable Update

In addition to the tomatoes that I planted about two weeks ago, I planted two bell pepper plants last week. The tomatoes are already growing. I am sure the healthy amount of chicken litter I added to the soil has been an encouragement.

I like to start the zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, watermelon, and cantaloupe seeds in small cups which can be transplanted into the garden. The cucumber seeds are not sprouting well. All of the squash came up. Most of the remaining seeds sprouted. You can already see some plants that are larger than the others. Those would be the zucchini, of course. I can already tell that I am going to be searching for recipes to use those in.

The last picture is not a vegetable, but it is a definite sign of spring. In the south the legend is that once the pecan trees begin to bud winter is officially over. For the most part this has been true. While I am happy to see the cold weather end, I am not looking forward to the pollen that will quickly follow these first leaves. I suppose this is a small price to pay for the wonderful shade that will be provided.

Garlic

This year is the first time I am attempting to grow garlic. I was not certain where the best place to plant it would be so I chose two different spots in the yard. I put some by the herb garden and the rest in a sunnier location near the deck. As I mentioned earlier one area was growing very well while the other appeared to be stalled. Perhaps garlic bulbs enjoy a bit of friendly competition. The less productive set now appears to be outgrowing the first. I am sure the differing amounts of sun have something to do with that.

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By the herb garden (shadier)

By the deck (sunnier)

The Perfect Getaway

In the evenings the cats and I love to sit in the backyard. I take a book, magazine, or perhaps a letter and settle into one of the Adirondack chairs. The cats either gather around on the deck or in the grass. I think all of the plants help make the deck a nice little getaway at home.

I added a few new plants this year. DH picked out this collection of coral bells. The names of the varieties are delightfully delicious: Creme Brulee, Key Lime, and Mint Mocha.

While I have no idea where he picked up the two plastic stands and cannot even remember what the original purpose of each was. They make perfect plant stands. I am hoping that over the next few months the ferns grow full and bushy and hide them just a bit. The pot in the front has trailing verbena. The three plants in the back should grow one to two feet tall with blue and purple flowers.

Pictured below is JJ who was following me around the yard until he found something in the grass to stalk.

Can You Guess What This Is?

While I was wondering around the yard, I spotted this on the side of a building. Can you guess what it is?

I stepped a bit closer for this picture.

Have a guess yet?

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Finally I zoomed in and took this picture.

It is a large mass of tiny baby spiders. Fortunately I do not have arachnophobia. Instead I am imagining all of the bugs that will be eaten by this large family.

Spring Blooms

Yesterday's post contained a picture of a hanging basket of a chenille plant. I thought perhaps everyone might not know what it looked like. Here is the large plant that I took the babies off of a few weeks ago. This one needs to be repotted, but I have to purchase a prettier pot first.

Also here is the first Amaryllis bloom of the season. I have a bunch more buds, but this one opened up first. I think the coloring on the blossom is amazing. It is a true vision of beauty.

Hanging Baskets

Last year while at a large yard sale, I saw some unusual hanging baskets. It was literally a large round mass of a plant. A few weeks later I received a Better Homes & Gardens magazine with a similar idea. This is a bit of an adjustment from the two.

I took two round-ish coconut lined wire baskets. Out of one I cut a round hole in the center, and I cut three slits in the sides of each. I filled each with dirt and placed them together. They were secured with four zip ties. I then stuck a small plant sprig in each slit. The hole in the center of the top basket makes it easier to water.

If all goes well, in a couple of months, the plants will have grown and spread covering the baskets. I have four different ones. Two have different colors of sweet potato vine. One has petunias, and the one shown here has chenille.

A Much Needed Break

I spent most afternoons this week planting the rest of the flowers and moving most everything out of the greenhouse. I was honestly too tired to drag out my camera and take pictures. I have updates planned for next week though. I was happy with the rain we received this afternoon. It gave me a break from watering as well.

At church Wednesday there were many grunts and groans from everyone. Spring seems to bring that out in people. Muscles that go unused during the winter months get quite a workout as soon as the temperatures start to rise. I guess I am not the only one who tries to do too much too soon.

Front Porch

The front porch is still a work in progress. The plant I am happiest to share is the Japanese painted fern. These were really hurt by the very cold winter we had here in the south. Less than two weeks ago they started sprouting back out. This is what it looks like now. I am so excited to see it thriving and cannot wait to see how it looks in a month or two.

Butterfly Garden

My husband mentioned that he wanted to have a butterfly garden to attract more butterflies to the yard. That translates into "he wanted me to plant and grow a butterfly garden". I chose a spot beside the deck which unfortunately was covered with grass. I went to work on the lasagna method of gardening. I spread out several layers of newspaper, topped that with peat moss, added ashes from the fireplace went in next, spread out straw from my parents' pigeon nests, and topped it all off with some potting soil. The grass wants to be stubborn in a few spots, but for the most part it is working well.

I had several plants already that attract butterflies including the dianthus and petunias you saw yesterday. I was also happy that many of the plants I was starting in the greenhouse were also butterfly friendly. I was able to add in parsley, dill, zinnias, cosmos, and nasturtiums.

I planted this Firecracker butterfly bush that we purchased last month.

Finally I added in a couple of lantana plants purchased from the local nursery.

I actually added in some black-eyed-Susan-like plants that were growing in a pot. It looks sad now. I think in a month of so it will be well established and hopefully attracting butterflies.

The Deck

Today we move on over to the deck. First is the main step up onto the deck. It has the cat stepping stone I purchased last year and the two planters I won in my family's Dirty Santa game at Christmas. I do not remember the name of the plants in them. Dh picked them out on our trip to a local nursery.

This is another purchase from the same nursery. It is a henna coleus. I have given it a bit of a trimming as I have three stems in water so I can root some additional plants.

These petunias as well as a few more in the yard were left from last year. They were on the south side of the deck and were shelted during the winter. It is nice to seem them already blooming.

This dianthus is one of a few around the deck that is also blooming already. The recent warm weather has done wonders for them.

The ferns are just starting to sprout out at the corners of the deck. Hopefully within a week I will have good pictures of those to share.

The Raised Beds

For the time being not much is happening in the raised beds. I do have a good variety of herbs that are left from last season. They even survived the snow with no problems. I added in a few tiny plants. Currently I have marjoram, lavender, curled parsley, garlic chives, onion chives, basil, tarragon, sage, rosemary, flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, catnip, and mint. I am not sure that the catnip will make it. Paris ate three of the seedlings as soon as I set them out. I fear I will need to buy a few big plants to set out while I grow some new seedlings.

In the second section are some lettuce plants. I started these in the greenhouse and have just set them out. I have two stages of growth planted now and will start some more seeds tomorrow. I am looking forward to having fresh, organic lettuce that I can just pick rather than buying which is rather expensive. We love salad especially once the weather heats up.

I neglected to take a picture of the garlic bulbs that are sprouting. I planted some in the yard and some in the raised bed. The ones in the raised bed are doing much better.

Finally Some Progress

Sadly I have been so busy working in the yard/garden that I have not had time to blog about it. I took a bunch of pictures so for at least the next week I will have regular updates. I thought I would take everyone on a short walk around the yard. First up as we head out the back door is this tree.

It has white and pink blossoms on it as it is a plum tree grafted to a peach tree. We wanted a plum tree so we kept cutting out the peach limbs. For the last three years we have not gotten a single plum. This year we decided to let them both grow in hopes of getting something.

Next is the first vegetable I have growing - tomatoes.

I grow the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in five-gallon buckets. This is not a plant I started from seed. Those are still much too small. This was a purchased plant (3 for $1). I removed the very bottom leaves and then planted the tomato up to the remaining leaves. This helps give it a stronger stalk and a better root system. I added the tomato cage now only because I tend to put it off until I have to fight to get the limbs in. I will not have to worry about that this year.

Come back Monday as we head over to the raised beds.