Some Things Are Growing

My roses are way late, thanks to the rain and cooler weather, but at least some things are blooming and the flower beds are starting to look like flower beds again. This first is a Dwarf Gilardia. I love their bright orange/red/yellow colors and the fact that they bloom all summer long. Obviously the cold and rain has not slowed them down in the least.
One of the first of my miniature roses to bloom this year. This is called Green Ice. When the flowers first begin to open they have a greenish tint to them, but once fully opened they are white as snow.
This is one of a dozen hybrid lilies I have that was hybridized by a personal friend. He has a talent for this kind of thing. He used to hybridize tropical fish as well, but decided to change course several years back and began playing with day lilies. So far he's done rather well.
This is a spreading rose, called Apple Blossom. The flowers are very similar to the color of apple blossoms. This is just the first blooms. The entire shrub is covered in tiny buds getting ready to burst forth. You would be surprised if you saw how far back I cut this every Spring. But if I did not, it would overtake the entire flower bed by now.......LOL

At least something is blooming and growing well. It definitely is not the vegetables!! :)

Maybe No Veggies, But There Are Flowers

Planted late because I had so much other yard work to get done first, and then it was full of weeds that had to be removed before being planted, my little Butterfly Garden does seem to be off to a great start. From all the thousands of seedlings I can see sprouting, it is doing far better than my veggie garden without a doubt. I am sure that in a months time it will be blooming and the Butterflies can have a feast. I dumped the entire canister of seed in there.........hahahaha
A very nice lady that I correspond with sent me a packet of mixed seed for a shade garden. It is now my "Friendship Garden" I scattered the seed in the front of the house where it gets no direct sun until the end of the day. The seedlings are about 8" high and just now beginning to blossom. This is the first flower I've seen. Very small and dainty, but pretty. Don't you agree??

Several years ago I planted some tobacco plants (Nicotania). Their fragrance is amazing, and my hubby Lew really liked them. But they grew so tall they would fall over, and I don't care for plants with that characteristic, so I am not fond of them at all. But since they were first planted, every year they seem to make a come-back. They too are in the front growing in the shade garden, but they are all the way in the back, and not bothering the other seedlings yet.......I hope they don't. This one is the first to bloom. Rather pretty I think. Now, if it would just stay upright!

Have a great day. :)

One Month Later

On Memorial Day weekend, one month ago, I planted my small garden. Six tomato plants, 6 bell pepper plants, a bit of radishes, 6 cabbage plants, 2 cucumber plants, 2 rows of corn, a row of beets, and a zucchini. Since I had lots of space left, I planted 4 rows of mixed sunflower seed. Well, a whole month later, this is my garden. Have you ever seen anything so pathetic in your entire life? Well I have not! It has been too cold for anything to grow, shockingly that includes the weeds too, as you can easily see. And too wet for the seeds too, I guess, as they didn't sprout, other than the radishes, but even they are looking just plain horrible. The garden is a washout, and I am just devastated and disappointed. This has never happened before in my entire 67 years of life, and I hope to never see it happen again.
You saw how small the tomato plants are. I doubt any of them are over a foot high, if that. But they are all struggling valiantly. Every plant is now flowering, and this one, the first to flower, now has 3 tiny marble sized tomatoes beginning to grow. Whether they will thrive and mature is another matter. If they don't get some heat soon, that may never happen.
This is a Zucchini plant. Can you believe it??? it has 3 leaves! Amazing! And yet it is being so strong and brave. It is now covered with buds. More buds than leaves, and one lovely yellow flower. Anyone that has ever gardened knows that Zucchini grow huge very quickly, with lush green foliage. This poor pathetic plant is proof of how devastating our weather has been for gardeners in my area. I'm glad I don't have to depend on this garden to survive. I would starve for certain.

At Least Some Things Are Growing

For several years my Honeysuckle vine grew up the eastern side of the porch, providing lovely shade for about 1/2 the day. Then Lew decided he wanted to build a garage on that side of the house, so he dug up my vine and moved it. It was planted in a hole full of rocks, and for several years after being moved it didn't grow very well, and barely hung on. He never got to build the garage, and my poor plant was barely surviving. I went down behind the barn and got a wheelbarrow load of very old rotted down manure. Black gold. And I filled that hole up and over the top, and asked Lew to build a support for it. The next year it began to take off, and now it is doing very well again. I have no doubt that in time the support will be totally covered by the vine. The Hummingbirds love it.
Many years ago Lew built this raised bed, I would guess it is 4' wide by 8 or 10' long, to grow his strawberries in. He filled it with several loads of that "black gold" from behind the barn. For some reason the strawberries never did anything. So a few years later I planted it to herbs, and hoped to keep it as an herb garden. Most of them didn't survive our winter, but for one plant. It is the second from the right there, it is a Lemon Thyme plant. Other than that, the bed grows weeds. Three years back I cleaned it out and the spread mixed seed for a "Butterfly Garden." It was really beautiful, and the Butterflies did seem to enjoy it. They were all over it most of the Summer. The following year most of it came back on it's own. Rudbeckia, Poppies, Sunflowers, Snapdragons, and the like. I just weeded it out, and it was nice that year too. A little less dense but very nice. Last year I was too busy with Lew's doctor appointments and such, and it fell back to weed.

This year I bought another canister of mixed seed for a Butterfly Garden. I used the weed trimmer to cut them down and make them more manageable to digging out. I can't get my little Mantis tiller running, so I had to weed it out and turn it over by hand. So with my trusty EZ Digger (Korean hoe) I got to work late yesterday and cleaned it out, but for the Thyme plant. It was quite a job too. Some of those weeds were like bogs of roots running all over the place.

While out yesterday I found these lovely pots of Rudbeckia very reasonably priced ($6), and each pot had 3 plants in it. So after I got the bed cleaned out, turned over and well cultivated, I poured 25 lb of Miracle Gro potting soil and spread that over the top. Then I spread the seed from the cannister, and gently raked the soil to mix the seed in and under the soil. Then I divided the Rudbeckia and planted them accross the front of the bed, facing the house. So now, as I wash dishes every day, I can watch my garen grow! LOL I can't wait to see it in bloom. The seeds should get a good start, if they don't drown that is. They are calling for rain later today and for the next 3 days running. Keeping my fingers crossed my "Butterfly Garden" survives and thrives. If so I'll show you progress reports as the weeks go by.

Have a great day. :)

Rainbow On A Dry Day

Over the past few weeks we have been getting quite a lot of rain here in northeast PA. But for a nice change of pace, today has been totally dry all day long, allowing me to get a lot of yard work done. I had found a recipe in my Good Housekeeping magazine (Soy-Scallion Flank Steak) and I had picked up a London Broil steak to marinate for tomorrow. I don't have scallions, but out by the garden I have a really nice planting of chives. I substitute them for scallions all the time. To me there is little difference.

So I walked out to the garden to cut the chives, and I am caught by this light ahead of me. I looked up, and amazingly there is this gorgeous rainbow overhead. Coming from a very bright spot ahead, and going up, up, up and into a very dark cloud that was moving overhead. And not a drop of water in sight. I just had to share, it was so unusual but so very lovely.

:)

Rhododendron & Tomatoes

Today my rhododendron is looking rather drab, but last week and earlier this week it was absolutely gorgeous. My poor plant was in bad shape and had a lot of dead branches stealing from nutrition from the good ones. I gave it a good trimming, and when it blossomed, it was really worth all the hard work. The flowers were gorgeous.
This is my first tomato plant flower. I was so tickled pink when I saw this I just had to take a picture to prove it. Our weather has not been good for tomatoes. They like the sun and the heat, with enough water to keep them fed. They have been nearly drowned instead as we have had so much rain, on average 5 days out of every 7 there has been rain. And the rain has kept the temperatures below normal for the most part. So my poor garden has not been getting the sun and heat it craves. So seeing this flower brought me hope that eventually the plant will win out and there will be tomatoes. At least one! LOL

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend :)

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