fresh

carrots
Originally uploaded by ingroid

I am so enjoying having the raised beds this year. It's been so easy to grow vegetables and keep up with it. The amount of space used is small, and it's easy to water because they're right next to the hose.

In return, I've been rewarded with fresh lettuce, and now the carrots are harvestable and the zucchini and yellow squash are growing like crazy.

I think I'd always been a bit skittish about growing my own food, thinking it would end up being gnarled and weird-looking and -tasting. But it's really delicious and fresh and more real than store-bought, which has grown stale in its travels.



I'm really looking forward to the broccoli getting big enough to eat. This teeny little florette is so tempting, though!



I let the cilantro go to flower, and at first was bummed, but then I remembered that you can get coriander seeds once it blooms, and then I was happy again.



Now that I'm harvesting certain sections, I can begin planting another round of crops. I'm thinking of planting some more radishes, plus corn and another round of mesclun lettuce. Not sure if I have enough time in the season for corn, but it's worth a shot! If nothing else, I'll have good Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations.

in bloom

st-johns-wort
Originally uploaded by ingroid

June is in full swing, and the flowers are popping up all throughout the garden. This yellow flower is a st. john's wort variety with smaller leaves than the norm. I bought this plant several years ago at the Arboretum plant sale, and planted it mistakenly under the eaves where it limped along for a few years with virtually no water.
Once I realized it wasn't doing well, I relocated it to a better shade garden spot and this is the first year it has flowered and looks happy. Thanks for hanging in there, guy!



These orange sassy twins are nasturtiums. I threw down some seeds a few months ago in a spot next to the patio, and they just took off from there. The flowers are great in salads, or just purdy to look at as is. They are easy care, too, needing not a ton of water or attention once they get going.

Here's one of my gaillardia's that is going nuts right now:



I have been watering this one regularly, and it has rewarded me with bushy growth and tons of flowers. This red gaillardia flower comes from a plant I haven't watered as much (read: not at all) and though it hasn't gotten lush it is still holding its own and sending out beautiful blooms.



I've got to say I'm a sucker for flowers. Though I might say I'm all into textures and architectural things like leaves or cool branches, I love a good bunch of flowers. So I'm in a bit of heaven right now. Sigh.

bee porn

bee-4
uploaded by ingy

One of the benefits of having a garden is being able to go out during the spring and summer months and pluck bouquets to give as gifts. I was going to a birthday dinner today, and decided to grab a bouquet of spanish lavender.

Today was sunny and warm, and the bees were out in full force. This lavender that I planted from a gallon pot has in a couple of short years grown into a beautiful mountain of a plant, and the bees today were very happily buzzing from flower to flower.

I became mesmerized, dropped my shears and all thought of making a bouquet and grabbed my camera. I started snapping pictures like mad, and after a while felt kind of like I was intruding on some sex act. Some hot bee on flower action. I didn't get stung thankfully, but it was kind of funny that I felt like a porn photographer snapping these pictures.

I think my favorite bee is the smallish fuzzy bumblebee with orange markings:


I like the backlighting of the bee on this one, and check out its gams. Mee-yow!



And this one's nice, because it looks like the bee on the left is buzzing away from a trist with that other bee and the flower:

first harvest

lettuce
Originally uploaded by ingroid.

OK, since I haven't ever done this much in the way of vegetable gardening, I'm totally excited. This morning I decided I wanted to bring a salad to work. So I went outside and plucked some mesclun straight from the beds. Here is a handful of it.

It's just amazing that you can put some seeds in the ground and they'll produce delicious fresh leaves of goodness. There really is a difference in the taste and the feel of this lettuce. It's just very happy tasting. Yay.

gardening days are here

CIMG2434
Originally uploaded by ingroid.

I spent the better part of yesterday out in the yard weeding and doing general garden-y type stuff. It was really luxurious to spend the day and enjoy doing that. Here's one of my gnomes, who has found a spot next to an archway with a climbing hydrangea which has just started taking off.



This is the shade/semi-shade garden. With things like hostas, sweet woodruff (which smells soooo good right now!), golden moneywort and lamb's ears, it's a nice happy gentle little garden. So the gnome fits right in.

The tomatoes are doing well. At least the ones I kept in my house. I think it was too soon to put the tomatoes into the greenhouse as the nights are still a bit too cold. Here is the difference....

Tomatoes that are still in my house:



Tomatoes that have had to brave the greenhouse:



They're anemic and just generally not too happy. It could also be that they're getting too much light. If anyone knows anything about this stuff, please do let me know. I should learn how to use my greenhouse soon, so I don't kill anything else. :-)

here are some chives I'd grown from seed last year. They came back without a problem, and are now flowing nicely. I love chives, because they're pretty, easy-care and you can eat them!



Speaking of eating, the square foot garden is doing very well. The seedlings are popping up. The radishes (in the foreground) came up the quickest, with the others following suit a few days later.



Mmm. Fresh produce. Yay.

greenhouse is up, seeds are a-planted!

The greenhouse is up and operational. It took my two construction worker friends a whole day to put it together. The instructions weren't terribly verbose (read, not at all), and none of the pieces were labelled, so it was like a 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Totally crazy. But now it's up and looks terrific:



While they were working on the greenhouse, I decided to risk any remaining days of frost we have left and plant some seeds in the square foot garden. Parsley, cilantro, bok choy, mesclun lettuce, green onions, petite carrots, golden beets, broccoli and radish were all planted in there. I planted the radish because I think they come up first and are easy to grow. So it'll give me something to watch while the rest take their time coming up. I don't particularly like radishes, but this might give me an excuse to dig up some gourmet radish recipe. Braised radish with a light saffron-creme fraiche sauce or something?

snow in April?

I spent the whole weekend doing fun things like shopping, go-carting and organizing the homestead. I meant to do some seed-planting somewhere in there, and when 6:00PM rolled around today, I decided that I may as well get outside and do it.

For some reason I clicked the tv on first, and saw the weather report saying it might snow tonight. I took that as a sign that I should instead kick back and take a break today.

Part of my shopping this weekend took me to Big Lots, closeout superstore of goodness. It's spring, so they've got tons of gardening kitsch. I weeded through the items that looked like they'd break after a few seconds outside the store, and things that were already banged up or dented. I found a couple of gems that will brighten up the garden.

First, we have the classic garden gnome. I think I've got like 3 gnomes now, and will probably continue peppering the yard with them until I get sufficiently creeped out or someone pulls me aside for an intervention:



Second, we have the ridiculous, yet delightful, duck in raingear. It makes no sense, but it totally makes me happy. I think it's just the cutest thing:



I'm thinking of waiting at least another week before doing any seed planting. I can't see waiting all the way until that safe date of 4/20/07, which seems just way too far away. But then, who knew Ma Nature was going to spring snow on us at this late date?