Great Gardening Weekend

We had a beautiful sunny weekend in DC. I'm sure everyone who was in town for the Cherry Blossom Festival appreciated it too. Just to remind myself of  how time passes, exactly one month ago, on March 6, it snowed!

On this sunny weekend I had the windows open in my house each day. It felt so good to have fresh air circulating through the house. The rest of my April weekends will be busy with out of town travel, a crawfish boil, birthday parties, and a going-away party, so I took advantage of the nice weather to get some yard work done on my free weekend.

First, I started some sunflower seeds. (I am so woefully behind on seed starting in general. I only have some onion seedlings sprouting from seeds I started a couple of months ago).  I'm determined not to let the squirrels dig up my sunflower seedlings this year. We'll see who wins that war. I'm growing Teddy Bear sunflowers, Mammoth sunflowers, and Chianti sunflowers.

These are my Queen of the Night tulips. They're growing more every day and I can't wait to see those lovely dark purple blooms. I planted some peach colored alyssum seeds in the spaces between the tulips. I think the color combo of peach and dark purple will look nice.

My big garden task was weed work. Look at how these weeds have almost taken over my onion patch. Now imagine all of that on a 10x10 space. That's about the size of my backyard and it's all full of weeds. It's going to take a while to weed everything.

But for now I managed to liberate my onion patch. This was a lesson learned for me. I will mulch better and/or plant some cover crops next fall to prevent this from happening again.

I also squeezed some shopping in this weekend. I treated myself to these cute pink shorts. I don't think I've ever owned pink shorts in my life. I must have spring fever. I can't wait for the weather to warm up enough to wear them.

Did you get any garden work done this weekend?

Spring Has Arrived!

Spring is here! Although you wouldn't know it from the near-freezing temperatures and snow flurries I saw this morning. There are several signs of spring around my garden, though. I've seen a lot more bird and squirrel activity, and my tulips have sprouted! I planted these Queen of the Night tulips back in November, and on March 10 saw the first signs of them sprouting.

 I took this last picture two days ago, and you can see the tulip leaves starting to unfurl. I can't wait to see these pretty dark purple flowers in my garden. I planted Queen of the Nights a few years ago with some red tulips, but this year I may add a different type of flower to fill in the gaps, maybe in yellow or cream. I  haven't had much time lately to write about my garden plans, I've been busy with work and am probably going to start a new job soon which may mean longer work days for me. I'm aiming for a low-maintenance garden this year, and I also want more flowers in my garden. I think more flowers may attract more pollinators, which could then help the veggie plants.

Has Spring arrived yet where you are?

A Love Note to Seed Catalogs

Remember those ground cherries I harvested last summer? I don't either, I only I harvested almost a full pint, not really enough to do anything with...

But now I have something to shoot for this year. My Baker Creek seed catalog arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I found this recipe in it for ground cherry crisp. I was debating whether to grow ground cherries again this year and when I saw this recipe, I got inspired to try again.  I hope to grow enough to make dessert.

Baker Creek is my favorite seed catalog. The pictures of food and flowers are so good. They're worthy of framing, I think. They certainly inspire me to try growing different things, which is probably why the company invests so much effort into making such a gorgeous catalog.

Look at that purple cauliflower! I'd love to see something like that at my farmers' market.

Look at all these carrots! Makes me want to try growing them again.

last year I grew a cucumber variety called Beit Alpha, which I ordered from Baker Creek. It did well. This year I have their Bronze D'Amposta red onions that I want to try. I need to get them started soon.

I can't wait to grow sunflowers again!

This time of year is probably very difficult for gardeners. As all the seed catalogs arrive we have to decide what our garden will look like for the coming seasons. The tough part for me is not getting carried away. I hope one day to have a real back yard with more space where I won't have to restrict my seed purchases so much.

May Blooms

White Azalea Bush, originally uploaded by Bumble Lush.

As I wait for my vegetable seedlings to get growing (and pray that my neglect over the last few weeks hasn't prevented me from having home-grown veggies this summer), I am enjoying a few blooms around my garden.
First up is the white azalea bush, a late bloomer (just like me!)



The sage plant is flowering with some pretty lavender flowers.





And two of the hydrangeas have started to bloom: the pink and blue Endless Summers. The Brestenburg variety (not pictured) is in a container. It has buds but no blooms yet...

I'm a day early, but I'll be linking up with Carol's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day meme (at May Dreams Gardens). I'm looking forward to seeing what's in bloom in other gardens this month. Happy GBBD!

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. :)

Feels Like Spring

 

Source: garden-photos-com.photoshelter.com via Angela on Pinterest

{sunflower garden}

Source: garden-photos-com.photoshelter.com via Angela on Pinterest

{beautiful tomatoes}

Source: garden-photos-com.photoshelter.com via Angela on Pinterest

{white flower garden}

Unseasonably warm temperatures have me thinking about spring. It's supposed to be as warm as 60F here today! Thought I'd share a few spring/summer-like pictures I found while wasting time on Pinterest.

Happy Weekend!

{all pictures via Pinterest}

My Spring Flowers

snapdragons '11, originally uploaded by Bumble Lush.

Spring has been beautiful in the DC area so far. Last year it seemed that we jumped from winter straight to summer with no transition whatsoever, but Mother Nature is making up for it this year. The past few weeks have been mostly rainy, but I like spring showers, and the rain is helping my plants. The few sunny days we’ve had have been warm and felt good on my skin.

I mainly grow vegetables, but in my front yard I have flowers.

I planted petunias and snapdragons in the pots in the front yard this year. For the last two years I had peppermint in the pot where the petunias are now. The pot sits on the dividing line between my driveway and my neighbor. One year, my neighbor thought they were weeds and yanked the mint out completely. She’s a bit batty and twitchy, a harmless but strange creature, and I know she meant no malice and probably thought she was doing us a favor. “Didn’t you think it was odd that the weeds smelled minty when you cut them?” I asked. “No, I didn’t notice that,” was her reply. She didn’t get ANY of my extra vegetables that year.

The peppermint grew back, and my neighbor left it alone last year. However, the company that does maintenance around the common property of my subdivision must have thought it was weeds too because I came home one day last summer to find that all the common area had been weeded, including my little mint. So that’s the story of why petunias are sitting there now.

(the peppermint in its glory days)

My hydrangea plants are growing quite nicely. The Endless Summer is shown above in the ground and the leaves look so lush and green.


And the Brestenburg is in a pot. I will try, yet again, to get these to turn blue. The best I got last year was a purple-ish color.


The hostas are making a nice comeback


And a surprise bulb popped up! I planted bulbs in a small patch in the backyard in 2008, my first attempt at flower gardening, and most of them rotted. I ended up starting that area over from scratch and planting blueberry bushes instead. But I guess one of the bulbs survived and here it is three years later!

Next post I will update the progress of my vegetable seedlings and list out what we’re growing this year.

Spring Fever

valentine cyclamen

Yesterday (Monday) was such a spring tease! Although it was extremely windy, the temps were near 70 and the sun was shining. It felt so good to be outside!

I got a cyclamen plant for Valentine's Day, which I thought was a nice alternative to a bouquet of flowers. I like the unusual petals, almost like they're upside down.


I like the hot pink color, it's very retro '80s. I also like that it's a plant--I can move it into my garden or into a bigger pot and keep for longer than a few days, as flower bouquets tend to wither and die in my house quickly. My research says that these plants can bloom through April? I'll see if I can keep it alive that long. I've done OK at figuring out how to grow vegetables, but plants and flowers are still a challenge to me. I've only really invested in some fairly inexpensive annuals to rotate out in the big flower pots in the front yard. I thought maybe this year I would like to try different flowers. I thought about all of this as I sat outside yesterday, soaking in the sunshine. It was such a treat! My yard and deck are small, but I thought about how I would like to make these spots not just spaces for growing my own vegetables, but for being a peaceful retreat from some of the stresses in my life that seem to be piling up. I wonder how to do that well in a small space.

I'll think about this a bit more over the next few weeks. Right now I am so anxious for spring! There aren't many living things in my yard right now (just a little pine tree and a very cute kitten)...