Barefoot Kitchen Witch - In the Garden

Sunflowers and Bees

Morning Stroll

Weekend mornings.  Early.  Cups of coffee in hand, Bill and I head outside before the kids are up to take a leisurely walk around the yard.  To check out the growing things.

Like the peas.  These won't be around for long.  And we'll have no idea how many the plants give us, because Alex and Julia will pick the little pea pods and eat them before Bill and I even see them.  Most of them.

But here are a few - proof that they existed.

I love the pea blossoms...

 

Nearby, in our little garden next to the driveway, the garlic is sending out scapes, or flower stems, which I'll be harvesting tomorrow, probably, and using in a variation on scallion pancakes.  Cutting the scapes is also supposed to increase the bulb size of the garlic, too, so it's a completely win-win plan.

From there, it was into the back yard to check out the various squashes, tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, and assorted greens.  And to admire the feathery asparagus.

Harvest time is past, and we allow the asparagus to grow tall and flower.

 

Now it's around to the front of the house...

This rose bush is HUGE this year.  We bought it ten or eleven years ago - before we bought this house and moved in here - from a guy in our neighborhood who had gorgeous flowering plants all over his yard - he nad entire green hands, never mind a green thumb.  Anyway, every August he had a plant sale - he'd pot up tons of plants, put them all out in his driveway and over the grassy areas of his yard, and people would come and shop.  Like us.  We bought a lot from those plant sales, including this rose. 

Moving along...we walk through the boat garden.  Last year Bill took over and added a bunch more perennials, like these lupines...

And this...which I don't remember the name of...

 

I bought this pink daisy a couple weeks ago.

Here's a view of most of the garden.  The irises are winding down, but there's plenty of other color to take over.

That's my cup of coffee there on one of the stepping stones.

I love early mornings.

Alien Allium

Several weeks ago I noticed a strange new inhabitant in the Rose-of-Sharon Garden.  We have tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, and larger hyacinths blooming there in the earlier spring, and then peonies, black-eyed-susan, poppies, roses, and I forget what else that comes up as the season progresses.

But this was a different creature.  Growing all alone, straight and tall, right near the Rose of Sharon tree.

It had a single bud at the end of the stalk, and it looked kind of familiar...

As the bud swelled, I realized that it looked an awful lot like the buds on the chives, only bigger.

And once the bud started to open, I was pretty sure we had some kind of ornamental allium.  We just don't know where it came from.

 

But I'm glad it's there.  I wonder if it will re-seed itself....

Flower Pictures

Yes, I've slacked a bit here.  Tomorrow I hope to rectify that, but I make no promises.

The following pictures were taken about a week ago, give or take.  Of course, just in that short span of time, SO many more buds have bloomed, and I even have som Iris buds out there.  This time of year is such a rush of color.  Every day there's more.

Anyway, first off, on April 16th...not exactly something we've cultivated, but I had to include it.  Alex gave me this when I got back from grocery shopping one day and stuck it in/on my car.  He's such a sweet little boy.

A daffodil right at the start of our front walk...

And another one closer to the house...

  The following day...April 17th...Oh - these aren't flowers, they're vegetables.  Asparagus, to be exact.  They're amazing plants - they grow an inch or more every day once they get going. 

And that daffodil that hadn't yet bloomed on the 16th?

Here she is:

Pretty, huh?

Next day, April 18th, and next up - hyacinths.

The pink ones had already started blooming earlier...and now the darker, purpley ones are blooming...

Those are in the Rose of Sharon garden beside the driveway....

This white one is right beside our front steps.  And it smells heavenly.

 

Oh, and, also in the front yard - the first tulip.

And, last in this batch, lilac buds.

And that's all I've got for now.  Which seems really strange to me.  I must have some still on my camera that I just haven't uploaded yet.

But still.  I really need to get caught up. 

Pansies and Violas - 12 April 2008

And this last one is a portion of the dark blue viola above...enlarged and softened.

   

More Flowers - 29 March 2008

I don't even remember what kind of flower this is, but I love the color.  We have these in various places in the front yard gardens.

And I can't resist water on plant leaves.  I don't know why - I just think it looks cool.  Above are some tulips in the Rose of Sharon garden...and below - a tulip in one of the front yard gardens.

All these were taken on Saturday.  Over the weekend we added some flowers to the window boxes and did more work in various gardens.  I started pulling the dead leaves and grasses off of the boat garden.  What a big project that is....

Rearranging, Watching - 26 March 2008

Yesterday was a pretty good day to work outside, except for the wind, which blew dead leaves and other debris out of my hands when I was trying to stuff it into yard waste (is that what they're called?  Lawn & leaf bags?) bags.  But other than that, things went well.

I moved most of the violas, or johnny-jump-ups, out of the western garden in front of the house

into the window boxes along the front of the house here....

and here.

We'll add other flowers eventually, but for now these little bits of color brighten things up a bit. 

The roses are doing nicely...this is one we got years ago before we bought this house...there was a man in the neighborhood who had a greenhouse and raised plants and every August had a huge plant sale - pots and flats with all sorts of outdoor plants all over tables and planks in his hard.  It was like a treasure hunt.  Anyway, the flower of this rose is a bright, peachy-pink color - I'm still not sure if I really like the color, but the plant is incredibly healthy, so I don't think it's going anywhere.

And this is Mr. Lincoln.  Mr. Lincoln is a hybrid tea rose, very hardy, very tolerant of New England weather.  Bill bought this several years ago when he was trying to keep his late mother's roses alive and I think he needed something he knew would survive.  (His mom's roses have survived, too, by the way.)  Mr. Lincoln produces beautiful, fragrant red flowers - it's my favorite of the bunch.

Mr. Lincoln has long and very sharp thorns.  I know; one of them broke off in the back of my arm yesterday while I was digging up the violas.  Gotta watch out for that Mr. Lincoln.

And here's one of the many tulips coming up all over the place this year.  Bill planted a ton of them, and I'm really looking forward to when they all bloom.  I like the spiral here...

And finally - one crocus (out of the three) blooming so far.  These were also planted last fall.  Hopefully we'll get more, but who knows how many the squirrels may have taken.

 

Not sure if I'll do anything outside today - it's supposed ro rain at some point,  But I've cleared out all the dead leaves and things from everywhere except the boat garden and along the eastern side of the house.  Not much growing over there anyway, other than an azalea and some day lilies.  But still - they need attention, too.

That's it for now.   

Forsythia Blossom - 24 March 2008

Just saw this when I got home from the grocery store a little while ago...

That white fluffy stuff on the right is leftover "spider web" stuff from Halloween.  Seems we missed some.