Early May -- Assessing My Gardens

May 4.

It has warmed up nicely here--not too warm, but warm enough for the dandelions to pop up everywhere (yeah, that's my back yard above...).  While Fernando started mowing the back yard...

I went to check on what plants have been growing in early spring--rhubarb, garlic, and strawberries.  I started with my rhubarb, because there were strange stalks I had never seen before growing out of the one large plant!

My rhubarb plant had actually flowered!  I cut them off at the stems so I could still harvest the rhubarb.  Yum!

I'm always late to the game when it comes to chives.  I always forget to use them in salads, burgers, and other dishes, and they end up budding and flowering by the time I finally remember.  See?

I just hack them down and wait for them to regrow.  Next I checked on the strawberries.  Amazing--there were blossoms everywhere!  I'm hoping for a huge strawberry harvest this year!

The front yard garden gets an assessment too, since I've got some herbs growing there.  I'm not much of a flower gardener; my philosophy is that if I can't kill it and it's halfway pretty, it gets planted in my flower gardens somewhere.

Here is my brick garden, as I call it, with flowers and herbs.  That huge bushy thing in the front is oregano, growing like a weed--which is good, in this case!

Another angle.

My English thyme (below, left side) also came in like gangbusters!  I love running my hands through the plant, then sniffing my hands.  I'm sure people walking and driving by wonder what I'm doing.  But I don't care.  Next to the thyme below is a green leafy lettuce-looking plant called French sorrel.  Yes, the English and French are coexisting nicely.  I found a recipe for sorrel soup which I can't wait to try.  Also, sorrel has a lemony flavor with a little tartness and it's really good chopped up in a raw garden salad or on top of fish.

English thyme.

My last stop is my front porch garden, with its little blue brunnera (Siberian bugloss) and the multi-colored coral bells (I think I have five varieties in there!).  The woodland hydrangea bush anchors this garden (that taller bush in the back), and there's also some astilbe still hidden there, along with a few hosta plants that keep coming back even though I've dug them up a few times.  Ha!

It's always nice to make a pre-planting trip around my gardens.  It gives me an idea of how things stand and what space will be available for this year's plants.  Now it's off to plan my veggie garden!


Back to life,
Christine

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Midsummer Flowers and Herbs

July 17.

No tasks or chores today, just a little time to enjoy my flowers and herbs!

After clearing weeds and dead-heading flowers.

Pincushion flower.

Threadleaf coreopsis.

Variegated beard tongue -- purple above and pink below.

Heliopsis -- false sunflower.

Hosta blooms.

Woodland hydrangea (lace-cap variety; doesn't flower in balls).

Here are the herbs in my front yard garden.

French sorrel -- wonderful in salads or paired with fish.

French sorrel leaf.

English thyme.

That's it!  More pictures, fewer words today.  :)



Back to life,
Christine

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That Perfect Time | In My Garden

July 12.

There is a very small window in time when my little garden spots are, well, perfect.  Today was that time for my "dirt pile" garden.  We never finished the edge off, so I just dig around it and make sure it keeps its shape.

There are no flowers in the little girl statue, since the pot she's holding broke in half over this past winter.  But she's pretty enough to keep in the garden, empty pot and broken toes and all.

Back to life,
Christine

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Front Yard Flowers

June 2.

Time to show you my flower gardens, up close and personal!  Enjoy these pictures of God's beautiful creation.

Variegated beard tongue.

Shasta daisies.

Coral bells, Champagne Bubbles.

Pincushion flower.

Coral bells Firefly.

Coral bells Champagne Bubbles.

Coral bells Marmalade.

I love zooming in and marveling at the detail in all the different flowers in my gardens.  Hope you do, too!


Back to life,
Christine

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Flowers and Herbs

May 19-20.

Time for a visit to one of my front yard flower gardens!  Oh--but not just flowers!  I've got some herbs growing in here, stuff the critters don't eat, and so far it's all doing fantastic!  Here's a picture of the whole garden:

See that light green bush?  That's oregano.  I'm going to have to harvest it really soon!

Here are three new plants for this garden:  next to my cheap $2 garden gloves (lost one of my awesome pair from last year, grr), you'll see English thyme, pincushion flower, and French sorrel, an edible leaf-herb (more on that below!).

I started with the flower portion of my purchase:  pincushion flower.  It has these bright, deep pink blooms that look like pincushions.  But I bet you figured that out.  They're supposed to bloom all summer with new blossoms popping up continually, so that sounded pretty good to me.  We'll see how it does this year.  I tend to love those flowers that require little maintenance, and which are hardy enough to keep coming back year after year, even with my neglect.  I'm much better with vegetables than with flowers!

There was an open spot by that rock, so that's where this flower would be planted.  Just to the right of that area, there is/was a purple coneflower.  Even now (July), it remains dead; it never came back from last year.  This makes me sad, as it was so very pretty.

On to the herbs!  You can see in the picture below that I've already planted the English thyme and French sorrel (extreme front right, and behind that), but I wanted to show you what I had done in order to do that.  I had to move all those other flowers in the picture.  Those are variegated beard tongue, and bloom the prettiest pinks and purples.  They also proliferate in this garden, which I love.  And not so love, since I have to move them to keep them contained.  But I have also given some to neighbors so they can enjoy them as well.  I really do love their color!

Below you can see the English thyme and French sorrel together.  Two European herbs!  I've snipped a few sprigs of the thyme already, and they've dried, hanging in my basement (you'll see that in an upcoming post, too!).  The French sorrel can be eaten like a leaf lettuce or spinach, chopped up in a salad or eaten with fish.  I thought it had a more bitter taste like arugula does, but when I tried it, it was positively lemony!

French sorrel, there in the bright green.

English thyme, with purple and pink beard tongue beyond.

I thought I'd throw one more picture in, of my sage plant.  This has come back faithfully year after year, but sadly, shortly after I took this picture, it mysteriously died.  I'm still upset about it, as I don't know why it happened.  I was really looking forward to fried sage leaves, which I had done once before the plant died.

Anyway, there's my front yard herb garden, with some flowers thrown in!


Back to life,
Christine

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