The start of May and all is calm…

Hello! Welcome to my blog. Gardening always has its ups and downs, and that’s just the way it goes. I had some big fails with my seeds this year, and while I still have some plants that might grow, it is nothing compared to what I had at this stage last year. The good news is that I have lots of other plants (not from seed) that I’m so excited to have planted, and while the garden might look different than last year, I think it’ll look lovely in a new way. 🙂

It is always nice getting jobs done in the garden and this was a very productive week! My husband was tasked with figuring out a way to cover the strawberry plants to keep the birds out but also allows us to easily pick the strawberries. We’ve tried netting before, but it was a mess (and birds can get stuck in them). His design is not only functional and light weight, they also look really good. He did a great job, and I am very hopeful to have lots of strawberries this season!

Tulip season is still going strong with the late varieties just coming into their glory now. I have two different types in front of the playhouse and they are quite pretty. The jury is still out about these two tulips being paired together, though!

It is such a wonderful time of the year, with new flowers awakening and blooming all of the time. I am joining The Propagator again this week for his Six on Saturday meme, as I think it is a perfect way to sum up the week! Feel free to join in.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have had a good week!

In Peace,
Dana

Playhouse with tulips and bleeding heart
Tulip Lilac perfection and Tulip Mascotte
Tulip Lilac perfection and Tulip Mascotte with bleeding heart plant

1 & 2 – Tulip Lilac perfection and Tulip Mascotte. Ok, I think you can tell that I prefer the Mascotte tulips, although that might just be because they are a tiny bit further along than the Lilac perfection. I like the fringed edging. They are both lovely, and I’m happy with them, the bleeding heart and Japanese maple around the playhouse. Last year I pulled out a scraggly lavender plant that was in front of the playhouse, and I think that these tulips look much nicer. I now need to think of what to plant here for the summer!

Lily of the valley in May

3 – Lily of the valley. The scent! Oh how I love scented flowers. These are tops. And they have finally settled in enough to spread. That took a little longer than I’d hoped, but never mind, they are finally doing it. They are in the shade of an evergreen, and I really like them there.

Cherry tree with rapeseed in background

4 – Cherry tree. I know I showed the cherry tree last week, but I loved the contrast in this picture of the black cloud with the yellow rapeseed field and the sun shining on the cherry tree. I’m sure this is the longest that I’ve seen the cherry trees looking their best. They’ve had a super season.

Garden planters in May

5 – Freesia. This is more a picture of the planters that I tidied up this week than of the tiny freesia flowers, with bluebells and tulips in the background. I was so glad to finally have weeded the containers, put in some fresh potting soil and feed, and cleaned them up. Great to see some signs of life in the planters, too.

collage of strawberry bed covers
view of whole raised bed garden at dusk

6 – Strawberry covers. It wasn’t until my husband was nearly finished with the covers that I asked him if he’d taken any pictures along the way. So the best he could do was a picture of the painting side of things (a hassle in itself, I suppose). There are five sections, and they are light enough to lift with one hand. They will also attach to the base, which I’ll show in another post. The last picture was taken after I planted the squash/pumpkin plants that managed to survive their transition to outside. I have a few of them under a mini poly tunnel. We’ll see how they do. My sunflower plants are so teeny tiny! I’m not sure they’ll bloom this season! Fingers crossed.

Thanks again for visiting. I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour! 🙂

Another page is turned – Goodbye, April

Hello, and welcome to my blog! Today is the last day of April and the first good rain we’ve had in more than two weeks. The rain started this morning and has continued all day. While it isn’t a heavy rain, I think it is good enough for the garden (and farmers) to be quite thankful. I did very little in the garden this week (energy levels are still quite low following Covid), but it isn’t looking too shabby. We (read: my husband) painted the playhouse, and I’m absolutely delighted with it. Don’t be surprised, though, if the two front ‘windows’ get a facelift at some stage. 🙂

The mid-season tulips are now blooming, while the late-season daffodils are finishing up. I planted late-season tulips right in front of the playhouse this year, which will extend the tulip season. There are two different varieties and I can’t wait to see how they look.

The aubrieta is looking stunning, still. I have a bright pink color, that I’d describe as fuchsia. It is in two neighboring beds, and is supposed to be trailing down the wall. Mine like to grow inwards, though! Hopefully, it will eventually work its way down the wall.

The apple trees are in bloom and look beautiful. I’m pretty sure that there aren’t as many flowers as there usually are. We’ll see what the crop looks like. There are normally too many apples on the branches, anyway. Maybe this way there will be the perfect amount and no need to drop any due to weight. Fingers crossed! The pear tree’s blossoms have already withered!

The strawberry plants have been weeded (again), and fed and should be all set for a really good season. Plenty of little flowers already forming. I really do hope we get loads of strawberries this year – because I’m about ready to convert the bed into a flower bed if we don’t get loads of strawberries! It’s a lot of work tending strawberries. I don’t mind if we actually get the fruit, but I’m not doing it just for fun… They’ve been warned!

It’s Saturday, so I’m going to join The Propagator’s meme Six on Saturday. Feel free to join in, or visit the other gardeners!

I hope you are well. Here’s to getting my energy back so I can get back to gardening! 🙂

In Peace,
Dana

Bleeding Heart - Lamprocapnos spectabilis (old name Dicentra spectabilis)

1 – Bleeding Heart – Lamprocapnos spectabilis (old name Dicentra spectabilis). Mine is a delicate plant and usually gets knocked over by our strong winds. This year has been relativity mild (so far) so it is still looking good. You can see the late-season tulips at the front of the playhouse, patiently waiting to bloom.

Strawberry bed all weeded and ready for the season

2 – Strawberry bed. I had to have this picture since they look so neat and tidy. Long may it last.

collage of Arthur Turner cooking apple tree in full bloom

3 – Apple tree – Arthur Turner cooking apple tree. I love the deep pink of these flowers (the eating apple tree has light pink flowers). The daffodils underneath are finishing up, but still look nice.

collage of cherry tree in full bloom

4 – Cherry trees. While it seems that most of the world have pink flowering cherry trees, I have three white flowering cherry trees. I would have preferred to have pink, but there you have it. The white flowers are still very pretty. The top right picture also has the eating apple tree, where the light pink flowers look to be white. It is just so nice to have everything in bloom!

kalanchoe blossfeldiana houseplant with pink flowers

5 – Kalanchoe Blossfeldiana – at least I think that is the name of it. Here’s something new for me: a house plant! I’m usually very good at killing house plants. But I have been working on not over watering my plants, and it really does help in making them happy. This plant is completely covered in beautiful pink flowers, I had to take a picture. Honestly, though, I didn’t have a place inside that was worthy of a picture so I just brought it outside. I’m going to use the Covid excuse again. 🙂

Queen of the Night and Pretty Princess tulips in the rose bed

6 – Tulips: Queen of the night and Pretty Princess. I added more Pretty Princess tulips this year, as they faded more than the Queen of the night tulips had. But I think I can use even more, to balance them out. I’ll have to mark out now the area to plant in as the bed it getting quite full!

Rose bed filled with aubrieta and tulips (dark purple and bright pink) in full bloom

This is my favorite photo of this season. It captures the tulips, aubrieta, anemone, the roses and peony to come, the apple and cherry tree, the birch trees, the pink parrot tulips way down by the gate, and the top right corner is a field of rapeseed – all taken on a lovely sunny day!

I do hope you’ve enjoyed the tour. Thanks ever so much for stopping by! 🙂

June is for Allium, Peony, Iris and Hawthorn! And the last Cherry bloom.

Cherry Tree the beginning of June.

Cherry Tree the beginning of June.

The nice thing about going away … is coming home.  Missing two weeks of garden growth at the end of May and beginning of June is like missing a marathon!  So much is happening.

Cherry tree in early June.

Cherry tree in early June.

I quickly snapped away with my camera to capture the very last blooms from our cherry trees.  I was lucky to have a pretty sky too!

Cherry tree in early June.

Cherry tree in early June.

Pink is my favorite color, and I love to see it in the garden.  Our Hawthorn trees had a bit of pink in them this year.  They were lovely all in white bloom, with sprays of pink.

Hawthorn in full bloom.

Hawthorn in full bloom.

Sprays of pink in the Hawthorn blooms.

Sprays of pink in the Hawthorn blooms.

It’s funny how everything looks better in sunshine, but with too much sunshine everything looks bleached!  I won’t be complaining (ever!) about the sun, but I’ll have to work a bit harder trying to get the pictures right.

Allium posing in front of the Hawthorn trees.

Allium posing in front of the Hawthorn trees.

We were quite lucky with our Allium this year.  The wind has held off for the most part, and I’ve enjoyed their long showy splendor for a few weeks now.  Last year they were knocked completely over in their first week of blooming.  This one garden is transforming into a purple garden!  I think the Allium and Erysimum go really well together.

Erysimum Bowles' Mauve

Erysimum Bowles’ Mauve

My Erysimum (Bowles’ Mauve) plant is really showing off now.  It has a great spread, and is simply beautiful. It seems quite happy.

Another view of the purple garden.

Another view of the purple garden.

On the right of the purple garden I have a globe artichoke plant (Cynara Scolymus). You can just see the wire support.  I’m not sure how this is going to go, but I’m always hopeful!

Blue Geranium.

Blue Geranium.  This plant is in my “wait until I have a space” garden.  I will be moving it to my new purple garden as I love the color.  I might just  switch it with the pink Geranium I currently have there.  Or I might put  both there!

Tree Paeonia Renkaku.

Tree Paeonia Renkaku.

My tree peony had one flower this year.  It was truly a lovely flower, though!  It arrived last year as an eight inch tall stem. As in one stem!  It must be quite hardy, as it survived the winter, grew, and produced such a lovely flower.   It was worth the wait.

Tree Paeonia Renkaku

Tree Paeonia Renkaku.

It is rather delicate looking, but I think it is quite hardy!

Tree Paeonia Renkaku.

Tree Paeonia Renkaku.

My regular peony plants didn’t do too badly either!

Peony.

Peony.

Peony.

Peony.

Peony.

Peony.

Dutch Iris Blue Magic.

Dutch Iris Blue Magic.  I was trying to capture the Iris without having to go over the fence.  So I tried looking down on it.  I like the different look it gave!

Dutch Iris Blue Magic.

Dutch Iris Blue Magic.

As for fruits and vegetables, I’m pleased with the progress so far.  I know for some people growing vegetables and fruit comes so easily.  But it has been quite a learning process for me!  We planted too many strawberry plants last year, and they were too close to one another.  The netting was cumbersome to remove, which was problematic.  This year, I am hopeful (always!) that we’ll get to enjoy the fruit.  It looks beautiful now!

Strawberry plants.

Strawberry plants.

Strawberry plants.

Strawberry plants.

We added in some stepping stones into the strawberry beds, and a wee bunny.  I’m sure he’ll definitely scare any birds away…

The fruit orchard view in June.

The fruit orchard view in June.

Vegetable beds in June.

Vegetable beds in June.

Our vegetable beds are filling in!  We have newly planted main crop potatoes on the right. On the left we have fencing for our pea plants.  In between the pea plants, some potatoes have decided to grow from last year’s crop. I’m really not sure what to do with them!  I’ll probably earth them up when we do the main crop of potatoes, and see how they turn out.

Sarpo Mira Main Crop potatoes.

Sarpo Mira Main Crop potatoes.

We love beets!  But this is the second year now that only a few beet plants have come up.  I’ve tried a second planting, so maybe we’ll still get some more. (will I mention that hopeful word again???)

Organic Golden Detroit  Beetroot (beets).

Organic Golden Detroit Beetroot (beets).

My family thought we had too much chard last year, so I’ve scaled back on it this year.  I’m hoping to still keep it in our summer menu, but not too much that the family go running when they see it!

Rainbow chard.

Rainbow chard.

Swede (turnips).

Swede (turnips).

Now here is a vegetable that loves to grow in my garden – Swede!  Every single seed that I have planted has germinated.  I’ve thinned them out and passed the extras on to my neighbor James.  Thankfully, my family like swede. Good thing, too, as we’ll be having it a lot this winter!

Organic Yellowstone carrots.

Organic Yellowstone carrots.

My carrots are making themselves seen.

Cristo garlic.

Cristo garlic.

It turns out that most gardeners plant their garlic in the fall/winter and harvest in the summer.  I seem to have it a bit off.  This fall I’ll see if I can manage to get some in the ground.  It might be nice to have something growing in the winter.

A view of the back field.

A view of the back field.

This last picture was taken just a couple of weeks before the veggie pictures above.  So much growth in so little time!  You can just see the white from the Hawthorn trees lining the field.  It’s such a lovely sight (and site!).

I hope your garden is full of growth and beauty!

Dana