The Hostas' Progress

hostas 4-14-12, originally uploaded by Bumble Lush.

What a difference a few weeks make. These are my hostas on April 14, when the plant on the right started to emerge--much later than its friend on the left. (I was happy to see those little shoots, I didn't think it was coming back).




Here they are just 11 days later, on April 25.




And here they are on May 6. The plant on the right is fully grown, just 3 weeks after it popped out of the soil. Amazing.

Working for the Weekend

hostas 4-14-12, originally uploaded by Bumble Lush.

I'm sooooo glad it's the weekend. Work has been busy and frustrating lately, and I can't wait for this project to be finished (4 more weeks!)

These are a few odds and ends around my garden.

First, my second hosta is making a comeback. You can sort of see the shoots on the right of the photo above. I'm not sure why one sprouted so much faster than the other. That's never happened before. I was worried that the one on the right wasn't going to come back, but I'm glad it did. Although they're somewhat plain, I do love these plants.



I have a volunteer parsley plant! It looks great too. It appeared in our small yard patch where we're growing onions. Something bad happened to my container parsley, so I'm happy to see some in the garden.




Remember the saga with the pepper plants I tried to over winter? Only two survived--a jalapeno plant and a golden bell pepper plant.




The jalapeno plant already has a fruit. I'm sad we lost so many pepper plants to aphids, but we have a lot of pepper seedlings going so I'm hoping to replenish our pepper crops this summer.

I'm off to Baltimore this weekend to hang out with a couple of college girlfriends. Have a great weekend!

Spring Blooms

Spring has finally begun to show itself around here. We went out of town for a few days around Easter, and when we came back, everything was coated with a fine yellow dust. Tree pollen is everywhere, and I spent all of last week pumping myself full of medication so I could breathe. Ah. spring!

By Saturday morning I had pickled my insides with enough allergy meds that I was able to do some yard work and enjoy being outside in the beautiful sunny weather we had here in the DC area.  I had one empty pot in my front yard which I filled with these yellow and red/white petunias. Right now there's a lot of pink in my garden, so I was drawn to these lighter colors. 

My big chore was tidying up the backyard. Here are some Before and After shots of the ivy all over my goldfish pond. It had gotten out of control and I spent time Saturday clearing this up.  Some of the ivy roots had begun to take hold inside the pond, which is not a good thing. It looks great all cleaned up now! The water seems to flow much better too. Frogs are a sign of a healthy pond, so I was excited to see the frog this morning. Hope he's here to stay.

Back to blooms--The pink azalea bushes have really taken off. The purple, white, and red azaleas haven't emerged yet, but I see buds and am sure I'll have more color in the garden soon. I'm not sure why the pink looks so electric in these photos. It's a little more subdued in person.

The snapdragons I planted last year have made a comeback. When we left town before Easter there were a few buds on the plants, and I was so happy to see all this color when I got back. Again, they're a very electric pink, mixed with some red and a little yellow. 

Here's the last pink bloom in my garden--on my strawberry plant. I am looking forward to some home grown strawberries this year, if this net can keep the birds and squirrels off. And that's about it for the flowery things in my garden. I'll post an update on some of my veggies soon.

I'm linking up with Carol of May Dreams Garden's Garden Blogger Bloom Day. Head over to her site to see what's blooming in others' gardens. Maybe they'll have colors other than pink. :)

In Bloom This May

While I anxiously wait for my vegetable plants to bloom so I can play matchmaker and pollinate the blooms, I have these friendly plants and flowers to keep me company:

The azaleas are finally in bloom, a few weeks late thanks to a cooler 2011 spring compared to last year.

hostas, ~April 15

 hostas, April 24

hostas now

Look at the progress the hostas made! I went into the backyard a week ago and was amazed at how quickly they grew, seemingly overnight. So hard to believe that just a month ago they were little shoots barely poking out of the ground. I feel corny as I'm typing this, but isn't nature amazing?

Next to the hostas I have a Heuchera "Beaujolais" plant. The leaf colors are a pretty deep red color, like the wine it's named after! It needs a little more sun than the hostas. It's in a pot, and I can move it around as needed. I repotted it last year, and it's doing well again this year, so I think I'll need to relocate it into a bigger pot soon. Supposedly these leaves are supposed to get silvery, but mine never have. I think this plant would go nicely with a lovely Camembert.

Lastly, I added some dianthus to the pot of snapdragons in the front yard. They filled the pot out better and added to the bright red and pink colors of the snapdragons. 

That's it for floral blooms this month. The hydrangeas haven't bloomed yet, but I hope to have pictures of those flowers soon.

Weekly Garden Update

Weekly Garden Update 4/18/10 - Since my post 3 days ago for GBBD, the purple azaleas have started to appear. The white ones are not open yet, but I suspect by the end of the week they'll be in full bloom.

the purple azalea next to the pink one is also starting to bloom

The temperature this past week has been in the mid 60s/low 70s with evening temps below 55. For this reason we brought many of the seedlings inside rather than leave them outside with a cover. We put them in the office and created a bit of a greenhouse effect. We opened the shades so they could get plenty of sunshine and kept the soil moist, but we closed the door to trap the warmth and humidity inside the room. It really helped the seedlings grow. Check out the red sunflower seedlings! They're a rich reddish/purple wine color (the variety is called Chianti). I can't wait to see how the flowers look!

The oregano seedlings have sprouted.

We've got a strawberry! And there are a few more flowers so more strawberries should be coming soon.

In the backyard -- My hostas have exploded! I wish I had taken a picture last week for comparison when they looked like little green toothpicks poking out of the soil. I planted these last year, and they completely disappeared over the winter. They are perennials, so I was expecting them to come back this spring, but I didn't expect them to go from little sticks to full grown leaves within 5 days!

 variety: Halcyon

As for the garden animals--this is our little ant sculpture... :)

...and the fish are doing well. Sadly only 4 of the 5 survived the winter, but the rest look healthy. And the frog came back! We saw him a few days ago.