A Few Pics, Just Because

I went for a short walk through the yard this evening and captured the following pics.

If you can tell me what this is, please do.
I planted it last year as a bulb, but can't remember what it is.

"Three sisters"

Pear blossom (see the bug?)

Yay, Spring!

It felt so warm (outside) when we got home yesterday that I went out and looked specifically and carefully through all the front gardens for signs of tulips and daffodils. Nothing.

This afternoon when I went outside, I saw our first crocus. I love crocuses.

I looked at the gardens again: the tulips and dafs are about one inch high. Yay, spring!

Moods of my Sunflowers

Sad and crying

Dangerous

and dancing

It's been fun watching them change as fall is coming on.

What I Get for Complaining

Just a little thing, but I was bemoaning to my sister that I had absolutely nothing blooming when we had company this weekend.

The lilies were done; the glads finished blooming only days before; the sunflowers weren't out yet; the maximilians hadn't even started producing buds; the morning glories were merely vines; never mind the trumpet vines and bittersweet that look like they won't put out any blossoms at all.

And then the day after the fun is done, I come home from work and find that my hibiscus is blooming!!

Wow! What a treat.

Both plants came through their first winter and have grown to about 2 - 3 feet tall.

This is the first bloom but I see buds for half a dozen more.

Thanks again, Tom, for passing on your hibiscus "babies" last summer! Are these the same colour as your plant?

Signs of Spring

It's definitely that time of year. We've had some beautiful weather, and they've promised us more until at least Wednesday. The sunshine is making me feel human again. Mmmmm...

As for signs of spring, let me start with the absolutely obligatory first flower of spring:
One brave yellow crocus which has still avoided being eaten by local feral rabbits.

Second sign of spring:
I hung my laundry out on the line. [I blurred out the undies to protect my modesty. Ok, no, I'm kidding you, but I bet I got you to double check!] It's slightly disturbing just how much I love hanging laundry up. But I do. I guess there are worse things to be obsessed with.

And the third sign was the loud and raucous yelling and screaming coming from the neighbour children who put down their WII and XBox controllers long enough to get outside. If they were having what sounded like good harmless fun, I wouldn't mind so much. But it's all so mean-spirited and threatening, vaguely violent. Not pleasant to listen too. I laugh when people ask how I like living in the quiet country. Not quite.

But I will pay that price if it means I can sit in the sun on my south porch. I had myself settled in nicely yesterday with my knitting. It makes me sigh blissfully just recalling it...

-christina

Garden Update

Well, well, it has been a while since I indulged in a garden update. (This will be rather "picture heavy.") I must say I have not been in the garden much and most of it is a mess. What is blooming and growing is only the stuff that can stand neglect and the dry summer we've been having. Having said all that, I will dwell on the positive here.

My glads did extremely well. Most were around four feet tall, and I thought they were doing so well: strong and erect. Then we had the first rainstorm...and indeed a lot of them were flat on the ground. They were converted into a very lovely bouquet in a vase, though, and the rest kept right on doing great.

The arum italicum have shed all their leaves and are into the next stage:They put up these stalks with green berry-like seeds which slowly turn to red. They have been multiplying nicely on their own (I only moved three of them I thought, but have had more than that in volunteers) but I need to move them somewhere where they'll have a little more space on their own and a little less sun.

I put in some dahlias this spring as well. The one has smaller yellow blooms (up to 3") and although there are quite a few of them, they are nothing special. The one beside it has bigger blooms (at least 4") and just keeps on pumping them out. The red and orange combinations are so pretty.

Tom brought some new garden residents for me. I am really enjoying Gertrude and Antonio's company:
But if you're not careful Antonio will give you very suspicious looks. It takes a while for him to warm up to you. Gertrude tries to keep him in line, but you know how that goes...
Our vegetables are also only doing as well as they can with neglect. We have quite a few volunteer tomatoes in the front that are now making fruit; none of it is ripe yet. It is also the variety that Troy didn't like so I'm not really sure why I'm letting them get on, but I guess if I can let the crabgrass grow, I may as well let the tomatoes grow too.

Focusing on the positive, I picked five pounds of potatoes from Troy's plants the other day. They were de-de-de-DE-lish! Mmm mMM. Yukon golds; so so good.

And I guess the corn is coming along. I love the red tassel, but I have to say it keeps catching my eye when I pass a window and it is very distracting. Troy planted regular sweet corn and popping corn, but I do not know which this is. [ETA: Troy didn't plant any sweet corn; only popping corn. Apparently he told me this, but I forgot.]Now the mystery volunteer. These huge yellow flowers have also been catching my eye through the window. When I finally went to see what it was, I saw a melon (or squash?) plant bravely putting out flowers and fruit. We certainly didn't plant it and assume it came from seeds in the compost. If you can identify the fruit, please let me know!! I'd like to know what I might be eating!
[That's a bee diving into the flower head first.]

All for now...and it's quite enough.

-christina