Picture time

Whoever heard of pansies still blooming in July?!?! I got these from Michigan Bulb and they are growing like wildfire!!!

These two of where my garden is now - holy zukes and cukes! I still have to train the cucumbers to grow up the trellis as opposed to growing into my neighbors evergreen bushes. The zukes and tomatoes are doing well too. So far I have cut two zukes and two yellow squash and hopefully more to come.














This is the first to bloom green envy coneflower - there is another one but it is being completely consumed by my butterfly bush.

These are the wildflowers that I got for free for joining the National Home Gardening Club and I must say they took nicely to this spot - it somewhat hides the neighbors unsightly yard.

Who said morning glories were annuals - these suckers have reseeded themselves and are making a very good home in my backyard.






These blackie sweet potato vines were from last year! They were in the window box never really doing too well and I brought them in this year and BOO-YAH I have a mini sweet potato shrub!

The season has begun!

So here is the first zucchini of the season! I let it get a little too big totally by accident. I didn't even realize it was there! The plants are growing out of control and it is hard for me to see under those massive leaves, but today it was rescued!

I also have a few sugar snap peas which I think are ready to harvest, but what do you do with 6 peas?!?! I have never grown these before so have no idea what to expect.

The tomatoes and cucumbers are doing pretty well, the Thai hot peppers are a complete wash. I guess peppers are just not my thing because last year the red and greens didn't grow well either.

Now the front yard is a different story. I bought 12 tradesentia from Spring Hill Nursery and only 5 have come up. The front walk looks absolutely ridiculous! Not to mention the unsightly daffodil foliage that refuses to die. And that is just salt in the wound because they didn't bloom either!

So my next stop after this post is to contact Spring Hill and take them up on their life time guarentee. Will let you know how that works out!

Not so Blue Girl Rose

This is the first bloom that came up on my newly purchased Blue Girl Rose. Blue? I think not! It has a bit of a lavender-ish color but this isn't even close to what I thought it would be. It does smell absolutely heavenly though. It has a rose scent but with an underlying scent of lemon - sitting on the back porch I can smell it even without a breeze blowing.

Now this beauty here is growing in the back! What a vibrant pink. Now if everything else I plated would pick up the pace.

The Salvia Plumosa is doing well and has started to spread. The dragon flower is growing like crazy - I just hope it flowers. I have blooms on the double decker and green envy coneflowers and a gajillion morning glories growing all over the place!!! Talk about an annual re-seeding.

The veggie garden is doing well. I have flowers on the cukes and zukes. Of course the zukes are all male right now, but I do see some females coming up shortly. I have four very small cherry tomatoes and two roma plum already coming up and even more blooms. They don't seem to bloom heavy, so I am hoping that I am going to get more as they grow. Right now they are only about 2 feet high - and still plenty of growing time!

Holy Heatwave!!!!!

Starting on Saturday it has been 90+ degrees!!! This from on Thursday being 50-60 - what a crazy climb in temperature. My tomatoes and cukes are loving it - but not so much for the lettuce. You know it is hot when the Rhodies start to droop! My roses started to bloom and MUCH better than any other year. Here is a picture of the two that are on my side yard. The one on the left was a spindly little thing last year and look at her now - almost the same size as her neighbor! I guess a little love and some "roses alive" from Garden's Alive really does the trick!


Even the rose bush out back that came up with only one bloom last year is doing well.


I wanted to capture my garden now while it is still in the infant stage. I did have to trash the sugar snap peas - they just didn't cut it. Only one survived and instead I plated a number of different bush and pole beans.



The first photo captures my cukes, lettuce (both romaine and buttercrunch) edamame, and beans. Keep in mind that I just plants the bean seeds yesterday so there really is nothing to see yet.



The second photo is of my Thai hot peppers (to deter the critters), yellow and green zucchini and tomato plants. I added some marigold seeds throughout the garden as well as in pots to hopefully help with the critters. I also planted some Nasturtium plants that will hang along the fence again in the hopes to keep the thieves at bay.

It's been a long time

I have been crazy busy in the yard that I have forgotten to write! Anyway, since my tulips have bloomed I have planted all my vegetables - and I think some a bit early - the edamame didn't really make it so I cut it back but it looks ok now - I'll just keep my fingers crossed.
I have planted my scallions and chives (grown from seed) out in the garden and around my rose bushes respectively. My window boxes and hanging baskets are all planted and this year I went with purple and white - hanging petunias, calibrocha, dusty miller and a few others. So far they are looking pretty good and it is only May!
The back garden is coming up nicely. The edelweiss took and bloomed though I though I would get more than one flower per plant, but maybe it is because they are newly planted.
I seem to have lost a few columbines, as they haven't come up yet, but maybe those three are slow to grow. The other columbines I have are looking pretty nice. One of my Christa's already has a bud.
I started using Neptune's seaweed fertilizer on my garden plants. I added it just this past weekend and will do it, as directed, every 2-3 weeks.
I was getting some serious leaf eating on my rose bushes so I applied some Crop Guard that I bought from Arbico. The spray is made with garlic and yucca and you mix with water to rid aphids, mealy worms, cut worms, etc from plants. So far in the past week since applying it I haven't seen one leaf damaged - and I have TONS of blooms!
I cannot wait for everything to come up to share the pictures.

Tulips in bloom

This is the first year that my tulips actually came up and I am so excited!!! Typically I have gotten a bunch of sterile tulips with lots of greens and no buds, but this is a new year - I just wish you knew what color the bulbs were before planting. The orange-ish one are called jimmy tulips that I got from Brecks and the other two are what are considered kaleidoscope and I believe I got those from Brecks as well.


The ones that are majority of red are on the right side of my front lawn and the purple ones are on the left. Like I said it would have been nice to mix them up a bit but maybe they decide in the ground what color to be?!?!

Before the magic

I wanted to post some of the before pictures now that I have everything planted. All the bare roots plats have already started coming up and any that arrived as plants have settled into theri new homes nicely.
The first two are of the semi-rock garden - everything right now is so small but at least they are growing! I think in the next 2 years or so it will really be a beauty.
There are a few from the back yard with my bird and butterfly houses and again it looks like I am growing popsycle stick becasue nothing is big enough to see - but just wait until the full bloom season.
The last one is of the weeping cherry tree out front with the giant hyacinths. I just ordered 24 more bulbs the other day so that I can complete a ring around the tree.