Garden Blogger's Bloom Day August 2009

The summer continues to fly by at a frantic pace that shows no signs of letting up. At least we've had a taste of summer weather now. The plants weren't liking the coolish weather that we've had most of the summer, though I throughly enjoyed it.

After returning from a football scrimmage on one of the hottest days of the summer it suddenly struck me that it's already the 15th of the month again! I'd like to thank Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting garden bloggers bloom day on the 15th of every month.

I feel bad that I haven't had the chance to blog hop much this summer, but I've been keeping myself too busy once again what with health issues that keep cropping up uninvited and stuff. I hope this coming fall will help me to ease my schedule.

Now, on with the tour! I have a lot of plants that have not bloomed yet this year until after my last post. Those are the plants I will show you here.

I guess the cool nights and non steamy days have stiffled the blooming and growth of the heat loving plants. Now I've got fragrant stargazer lilies to enjoy.

As well as some unknown lilies. I had ordered lollypop lilies which are supposed to be pink and white. These are NOT the flowers I ordered.

The day lilies have also begun their nonstop show. I think I need to get some more colors to all to my collection.

Only one of the clematis has put out more than one set of blooms this year.

The tomatoes are still growing. So far still none to pick. Hopefully we'll have some when we get back from staying with great grandpa this week.



The coneflowers have also finally begun to bloom.

One of the hostas that Lisa gave me last summer is still blooming with it's neighbor featured last month. I never realized how much longer the pink astilbe lasted than the others.

The choke cherry tree put out tons of cherries this year. The kids helped me to pick a bunch of them, we got a pound of them this year. Not bad for the size of the berries. We left all of the ones at the top for the birds. Apparently the robins really like them.

At least the blackberries are on schedule. Soon I'll be harvesting more berries than I know what to do with. If you ask me, that's a good problem to have!

Which brings me to the pride of the garden! Okay, so I have more than one thing I'm proud of... The family, the shed with the shutters Cheesehead made for me, a newly added light. We have also put in some new landscaping around the shed, installed a flag, added river rock as mulch, and red granite to connect the turn around to the ramp in front of the shed. Apparently I cut off the landscaping and turnaround part though. I only have one battery for my camcorder so I used the old camera.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

July Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

Bloom Day is brought to you by our wonderful friend Carol of May Dreams Gardens. Thank you Carol. This post will include my veggie garden update as well since I haven't given you one lately. Busy, busy!

This is a coconut lined basket that I'm growing a tomato out of the bottom of. It combines my flower gardens with my veggie garden, so I thought it would make a great lead off picture! The growths on the top part of the stem I told you about have turned brown so it looks like the tomato is trying to put out more roots. Note to self: please stop over watering tomato plants.

I'd like to add before I continue, that I have decided to use the camcorder I bought about 5 years ago for my pictures for now. I almost forgot I had it! I love the zoom on this thing and got some great pictures at the zoo last week. Now, on with the garden tour!

Many of my flowers from last month are still in bloom, but I won't bore you with those again. So many other pictures to post anyway.

First, the food.

We've already eaten most of the peas. Only enough for one meal. Maybe if I hadn't eaten so many right off the bush.

The peppers have flowered and appear to have been pollinated.
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No flowers on the beans yet, but boy are they huge. Don't they look like they're holding hands? Broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, watermelon, radish, and zuchinini are still growing but not near being ready for consumption. Lots of hopeful signs in the garden though!

My cucumbers have just begun to put out flowers, the blooms aren't much to look at, but you can see the mulch. I am glad I finally got them mulched with the long grass from across the road. Our yard isn't big enough to supply me with large quantities of mulch. The kids were even kind enough to rake up the grass AND help place the clippings on my gardens. Will wonders never cease?
The wild blueberries are still small, but I love the pinkish huge they're picking up. Does that mean they'll be ready to pick before the other ones?

Look at all the flowers on the potatoes. I wonder when I'll be able to start picking potatoes.

The other blueberries are getting ready too. There won't be enough this year to make much of anything, but I'm hoping we'll have lots for next year. If I'm not careful the kids will eat them all right off the bush like they've done with the strawberries.

My paintbrush pollinated apples are falling off the tree right and left. It's been a dry summer so I won't have a bountiful harvest as I had anticipated.

We're down to two apples left on the tree now. It's a shame, we had so many apples too. So much potential just dried up and withered away.

The tomatoes are bursting with blooms. This one out front has a three small tomatoes growing on it now.

Gay feathers are beautiful. My BIL thought they were really pretty until he heard the name. He wouldn't change his mind either when I told him the other name was Liatris. I picked up a few different plants on sale a couple of weeks ago and planted them around the garden shed.

I forget what particular kind of potentilla this is, but I adore the yellow with orange streaks, I'd never seen anything like it before.

Angelina sedum produce some interesting blooms too. I like them for their ease of care and how easy it is to start new plants from them. This is the third area I've placed cuttings and they are performing wonderfully there.

The yarrow attracts butterflies to our garden. The flowers are so small and delicate. I love the fern like foliage of these plants too.

I have four kinds of Astilbe in my shade garden that I will move to the area behind our garage once it's all ready for the plants. It takes a lot of work to prepare new beds for flowers and plants.

The bumble bees were loving the lavendar. I tried not to get too close. Can you believe I was around ten feet away from this guy?

Past it's prime, but still a few blooms on this plant. I think it's some kind of dianthus though I'm not completely positive. I seem to remember something about fire being in it's name. I wonder if I still have the tag? This is a plant that came with me from my Big Lake garden.

The baskets and containers are really filling out too. I had a Martha Washington Geranium last year too, but I think the stones in the pot really help it to flourish more profusely than the plant I had last year.

My Beards tongue managed to bloom and pass it's prime since my last post. How could I have been too busy to get a picture of them? Geez, I guess I'm slipping this year!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day June 2009

Before I share my bountiful blooms with you, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting this wonderful event on the 15th of every month.

This last month has just flown right by. I think we once again managed to skip right over spring and bounded headlong into summer. Up until last week my plants continued on their almost nightly plant parade into the garage or under their covers.

I didn't have much of anything blooming last month, do you remember my pathetic turnout of exactly three flowers (not including annuals)? Since then the temps have soared, the heavens have poured out their mighty blessings, and all of my spring flowers have peaked and passed their prime.

I'll show you a brief review before moving on to what's still blooming today.

I brought these sensation lilac suckers with me from my old garden in Big Lake. I am now regretting the decision to only bring two of them with us. These flowers are so beautiful and they smell so sweet. I wonder if the new owners would let me grab a few more if I ever head back over there...

They were tightly closed still when mom was over visiting us, these lilacs just sped right on through their blooming period.


These lovely plants produced more seeds than I knew what to do with for me last year. Somehow the name is slipping my mind right now. Such a busy day with the painting the living room, redecorating and bloom day posting. I guess my mind is pretty slippery sometimes anyway.

One of the four apple trees that we planted last year was in full bloom. I sure hope we get lots of apples out of the deal. We got three more apples trees this year so we'll have a total of 7. Did I ever mention to you that we like apples? When we got them home and planted, they were still in bloom so I grabbed a paint brush and hand pollinated the flowers. I don't think they would have been close enough to leave it up to nature to cross pollinate them, especially since it was so cold.

Our choke cherry tree also has an abundance of blooms on it but apparently I didn't snap a very good picture. I really should get a new camera before we go on vacation. Who knows what I'll miss out on if I keep taking crazy shots. You should see the green fruits beginning to swell up now. Maybe this year I'll get to try to make that choke cherry jelly I wanted to make last year.

As I showed mom around town we got to admiring some lovely trilliums that some friends had. Mom recalled how they always had a bunch of them at her house when she was growing up. I remember admiring them in Grandma's woods when I went to visit her in the spring. We got two small clumps of them and transplanted them to our yard. I'm not sure how they'll do here with so many pine trees hanging around but I sure hope they'll thrive here anyway.

The wild blueberries and strawberries have also managed to slip by without getting their pictures taken too. I can imagine how wonderful they will taste though picked freshly off the bushes. We took a walk in the woods while my mom was here and found all sorts of patches of them all over the place. Just thinking about it is making my stomach rumble!

Now, on to what's still blooming. I didn't get many good pictures because I can't see a blessed thing in my camera's viewfinder. I sure wish digital cameras still had small viewfinders too just in case their cheap LCD screens cracked!

I ordered 25 Ozark Beauty Strawberry plants from a catalog this year. I know I was supposed to pinch off the blooms this year so the roots could grow stronger but I just can't help myself. Am I naughty or what?

The wild blackberries have just begun their show for the season. Many blooms left to unfurl themselves on these plants. Looks like we're going to have a bumper crop if I can keep everything from drying up on us. Who wants some blackberry jam?

These lily of the valley will look wonderful in my new deck garden I'm hoping to start creating tomorrow, won't they? I almost forgot they were here. I need to move my shade garden closer where I can remember to enjoy it a bit more often! The regular bleeding hearts were also blooming now but I only managed to get a picture of it's leaves. SIGH. Stupid camera.

Cheesehead and some friends from work picked out these lovely plants to add to our deck garden landscape too. They are awaiting my final design inspiration and bed preparation before getting settled into their new homes though.

Last, but certainly not least are my pansies. These self seeded themselves last year and and freely growing all over the place. I just adore these plants. They're cute, colorful, hardy, and cheerful. I don't have to worry about 30 degree weather killing them either. I love to look at the variety of faces that pansies have. I have loads of pansies around here, but not having a decent camera makes it difficult for me to capture their charisma and charm so I'll just leave that to someone else for now. In warmer climates these plants are perennials, but here they are treated as annuals because of our extremely cold winters.

I hope everyone has a fantastic bloom day wherever they are in this great big world. Glad you could drop by. Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

May 2009 Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Blooms, FINALLY! I've been looking forward to this day all winter long. Before I get too far into my post though, I'd like to take a moment to thank Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the 15th of each month. Seeing all of those wonderful colors in the bleak whiteness of a VERY long winter helps make it more bearable.

Now, off for the tour.

I don't have tons of flowers or anything, but I do have a few perennials and bulbs that have just begun to bloom in the last several days. Thanks to lots of rain and some wonderful warm weather, things have really started to spring to life in the last few days.


The tulip bulbs that didn't get gobbled up are showing me a cheery yellow color. I never knew the crazy critters ate the leaves of tulips, it's just plain crazy. Most of them have at least been snacked on.

My candy stripe creeping phlox is beginning to bloom. I think I will divide this huge clump into several plants in a new garden I want to plant in my back yard. I just love bi-color blooms.

My fern leafed bleeding hearts have begun blooming too. Somehow I thought that the traditional bleeding hearts started to bloom first, but apparently I was wrong. It's not the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last!

I like these because I think the foliage is more interesting than the others.

These garlic bulbs that had just barely begun to sprout and the nasty chipmunks (or squirrels, I don't think we decided) had eaten? Some of them escaped the smorgasbord and sprang into these plants. They're coming up everywhere. Hooray.



Let's not forget the annuals. The poor things have been hauled around so much that some of their hangers have started to break. Maybe I jumped the gun buying all of these beauties already. The 6 packs were only $1.29 each plus an additional 10% off with hubby's discount.

I think having them sit beside the snow blower is a nice touch, don't you? At least I haven't needed it this May!

I know they look pretty sparse right now, but they'll fill in later. I don't have a ton of money to make them look like those $20 baskets in the garden centers, but hopefully they will soon. I've been working hard on my patience over the long winter so I'm sure waiting a bit longer for thick, lush hanging baskets won't kill me.

Several of my containers are not mobile, so they don't get to go on parade like all of the others. I have to tuck them in instead. I have a lot of terry towels that have been retired from the bathing service. They have a much more important job to perform right now.

We have a frost/freeze warning for tonight so I got out before it got too cool outside to trap in some warmth. This is just one of my plants nestled in for the night.

I brought out my canvas painting tarp to cover the seedlings in the veggie garden. Yes, I know I started the tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers too early but I'm sure everything will work out great.

I hope I get going early enough to get everything uncovered before I go to work for the fourth day in a row. They need some sun. It's been a crazy week! I hope to break out and visit you all again soon. Wish me luck at the Junior High!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

GBBD April 2009

Before I start, I'd like to say a big thank you Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting the monthly garden bloggers bloom day on the 15th of every month. I like to see what's growing around the world. It's especially great when my garden is bloom less. I never realized how long I went without blooms before....

Now you're probably wondering what's blooming in my yard. Come, take a peek!

Umm, nothing. At least there are signs of life though....

The stores just got a scant amount of flowers in the other day but I had no money to buy any. I'll just have to be patient for my current plants to begin growing. There are only two perennials that have started to awaken from their winter slumber. This one is filling in wonderfully, but you could barely see the green of the bleeding heart even in an extreme close up so I left it out.

Well, I guess there is a pussy willow showing off it's fuzziness.

Another month has passed and the snow is finally almost gone. The temps are warming steadily and the yard is now no longer muddy. Hurrah!

Time to start putting in those new vegetable gardens in raised beds. Then there's the herb garden I want to start. Don't forget the back yard landscaping. I hope my plans aren't too overly ambitious. Something tells me that they are....


The tulips are slowly awakening and stretching into the warming sunshine.

Look at the ground near that tulip, do you see more evidence left by the Easter bunny? Or is that from the naughty bunny that lives under my shed?

Some of the buds are swelling a little. Usually they're a bit more full right now, but we're in a severe drought. Maybe I shouldn't have wished away all of that extra snow that was threatening us earlier this spring.

I sure hope it rains soon.

I'm a bit confused about the temperature.

This thermometer says it's about 70, but my other one seems to disagree...

it says the temp is about 40. Do either of them work?

At least my body can tell me it's warm enough not to have to wear a jacket. The flies were a buzz in the warm afternoon of sunshine. It seemed like the yard was alive with swarms of flies. I guess that means the toads should be fat and happy this year. A couple of them landed on one of the wooden tulips offering a wonderful photo op.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy