Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Garden Tour

I took my camera with me this morning as I checked out the plants in the various flower and vegetable gardens around my house.  Come along with me.

First, the container plants.

 This is a clematis.  It must have 30 blooms on it.  It is growing in a large container with a study trellis.  It's been in this pot for about 4 years and appears to be doing just fine.  It really is lovely and so nice to have flowers on the deck already.

Next to the clematis are the chives.  These are the regular onion chives and they have nice pinky-purple blooms on them.  These are edible as long as you haven't put chemicals on them.  Flowers in your salad!
 The blueberries are coming along nicely.  This is a dwarf bush, bred to grow in a container.  It's starting its 4th year.  Last year I got about 2 quarts of fruit from this small bush - a handful at a time.  It's just wonderful to go pick fresh blueberries for breakfast.  I got this blueberry variety at Park Seeds.  They will start ripening in late June.

Just to prove that my peach trees do bear, here's a tiny new little peach.  I will never get to pick it, because the squirrels will get it when it's about the size of a ping-pong ball.  It's a battle every year with those rascals and they seem to win most of the  time. Plus I'm fighting a wild grape vine that like grows in the peaches. 


Look what I found in the daylillies.  It's my cat, Poppie.  He like to sleep between the plants.  You can't even see him until you're right on top of him.  It's a good place to snooze.



Finally, I found an Iris blooming.  This variety is called Swazi Princess.  Some years it's much darker - nearly black and some years, it's more on the burgundy side.  I think iris are so beautiful, orchid-like sometimes and such great colors.  I saw more buds on my other colors, so more blooms are on their way.

I'm so glad to see color in the garden and green on the trees and in the yard.  Winter was cold this year and very gray and brown.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Spring Blooms

Spring has sprung in my yard.   We've had temperature in the 90's and the pine pollen is everywhere and covering everything.  We call it the "yellow haze".   The good thing is that with the warm temperatures, all of the trees have "let go" all at one time.  So it'll all be over with soon.

My cherry tree is covered in the most beautiful pale pink flowers.  This is a double weeping cherry tree.  I often see my neighbors riding down to my end of the street to take a look in the spring.









Daffodils are blooming.  This is an open corona type.














Grape Hyacinths.  Such great color.

















Yes, this is a daffodil.  It's kinda' hard to find these bulbs, but just look at that bloom.