Vegetables...

Today we went to Jesteadt's greenhouse and purchased vegetables along with flowers. I proceeded to plant the green peppers and yellow peppers, a variety of tomatoes (still need to find plum tomatoes which are my favorites). Basil... twelve plants will produce a lot of pesto. Parsley. Cabbage... a variety with beautiful leaves. Joseph commented that there's probably not a lot of people that buy cabbage based on appearance. I also planted lettuce seeds.

In the flower side of things... i purchased flax, bouganvillia, marigolds and salvia.

The pots are out...

This evening I brought out all of the plants that have been overwintering in the garden room. Trimmed them, watered them and started moving them around. Hopefully we are past frost time.
I seem to have an overabundance of plants once again. I'm hoping to share some of them.

Beautiful cool May Day...

I had the day off today and used it in the garden. I transplanted a trillium and an astilbe that were struggling in the southeast bed. They now reside in the south bed with the other native flowers. I thinned out some of the sweet woodruff that seems to be trying to take over the southeast bed. I culd rpobably take more out of it, but i'll wait until the flowers are doen blooming. I noticed a honeybee enjoying the flowers. The hummingbirds this year seem to prefer the columbine over the coral bells. More beds were weeded and mulched. And the vegetable garden is one step cloer to planting. I added lime (cause Dad said so) to make the soil less acidic. Joseph used the tiller and churned up the soil making it light and fluffy. I was surprised and delighted that worms can survivie a tiller.

Warning, warning, warning...

They weather folks are waning of a "freeze" tonight... not a light frost, but a freeze. It is really hard to cover the essentials and pray that the rest will be fine. This is when i would like to have a dome over the yard... something that i can push a button and the top comes over covering up the plants. But since i don't have a retractable dome over the yard, i had to resort to covering plants with boxes, buckets and pots. I covered the most tender of plants (the new ones) and the bleeding hearts that contain a lot of water in their stems.

One of the young plants that i made sure that i covered are three lily trees. I hope that they do well for me. They are supposed to grow to3-4 feet the first year, 5-6 the second year and 6-8 the third year... i'm looking to build a visual wall and i'm hopeful that these lilies will help.

Today we took our "mantis" tiller over to Dad's so that he could tune it up for us. Thank you Dad! He also showed Joseph the ins and outs of this piece of equipment. We plan on tilling the garden bed tomorrow.

Flowers currently in bloom:

• Clematis
• Columbine
• Dianthus (pinks)
• Violets
• Bleeding Hearts
• Heuchera (Coral Bells)
• Iris
• Lily-of-the-Valley
• Azaleas

Note: Plan on moving the bleeding hearts to the south corner of the property. With the black cohosh, green dragon and astilbe. Will do this in the fall.

A Mom's day gift to myself...

A Mom's day gift to myself...
Originally uploaded by pjslomer

Here's a pic of my new trellis!

New additions...

Today I went to the garden show at the Succop Conservancy. I only bought one plant while there... an old-fashioned orange Poppy... guess I was feeling nostalgic for the older varieties, ones that i've had before. The high-point of this show was the purchase of an iron-worked trellis! It is outrageously organic and ornate with curls and turns. It is an original piece of art that I feel priveleged to have in my garden.
After this garden show I went and purchased hanging plants for Mom's day... two red-purple geraniums and a fuschia... i think Mom will be happy. I also purchased a fuschia and lobelia for me... along with some dill and a really pretty ornamental grass callede Pennisetum orientele 'Karley Rose'. When i got home i planted the grass, poppy and dill.
I dug up more Freckles violas and gave some to Phillip to inturn give to Lori... and I plan on taking some for Mom tomorrow.

It's May!

The magenta tulips are really putting on a show. The dark queen of the night tulips are a nice accent. The violets and violas are having a grand time, along with the creeping phlox. The little lilacs are blooming. The lily-of-the-valley are lending a nice fragrance to the garden. The columbine are starting to bloom... and the heuchera are getting ready... none too soon , as the hummingbirds are back.
I edged the bed around the patio while the robins waited for the worms that i turned up. I also weeded the butterfly bed, the front crabapple tree bed and the front house beds. Still have plenty of others to attend to. And i'm contemplating the vegetable garden.