Harvest!

Yup, I'm harvesting respectable amounts of lettuce, the peas are popping, and we ate our first little mini strawberries! The rest, however, were eaten by little buggies. Booooo.

Unfortunately I suspect that their size is
actually due to them reaching for the sun
and not because they're producing more :-/

Check out the size of these pea stalks! And here I assumed they'd only get to 8" tall because I'd actually put the twine all the way up! I've already picked a handful of them!

My little accidental tomato is growing pretty spiffily...

May 17

May 25

I'm a bit concerned that I put him too far towards the stairs where he own't get enough sun :-/  We shall see.

Aaaaaaaaaand......

 

   BLACKBERRIES!!!!

   The bush is covered in them!

From above; so delightful! It is coming along. Happy, happy garden!

Front Beds

Have to make a correction - those beautiful flowers that came up are actually Freesia, not Anenome. We planted both and the Anenome, did in fact...never bloom. 😟 (I was digging through a box of old plant tags I had saved so that I could update and know exactly what I have in my here gardens...and there it was: Freesia!)

And just when I thought the Freesia were done - nope! They're still in bloom!

As for the rest of the front beds, what to do, what to do. They are such a work in progress....I mean, everything is, that's the nature of gardening, but it's always so hodge podge up there. Not my favorite spots.

What I think may be one of the biggest helps as I figure out what to do here is that I'm starting to treat it more like a shaded bed than the full sun I originally started planting for. We lost three Cherry Laurels in the first year of putting the beds in. Hence our adding Camellias last year (though the one is kind of sad right now too. Oh dear.) And moving all the spring bulbs out into the tulip border.

This year the Ascot is really struggling too; not sure what his deal is, he usually does so well. 😕

Ascot being held up by a stick :-/

Our lilies are always beautiful (and ready to pop soon!) and then I have gladiolas and calla lilies spread throughout, but they all have such a short bloom time.

So, slowly, but surely, I'm deciding and figuring out.
I don't want wildflower, messy-looking beds. Neither am I a perfectly symmetrical, square pruned, snooze snooze beds that most people have in front of their houses kind of gardener. (Death to junipers and Boxwoods!!)

Sooooo, happy medium of well put together and blooming in all seasons and low maintenance. In shade. That gets a few hours of beating, blazing, scorching sun in the afternoon. Totally simple, right?
Can't imagine why this is the 4th growing year of me being un-wowed and throwing my hands up?!


One thing I'm desperately missing, especially now that we're in the "in between" season is my pansies. 😭
I didn't get them in before we left for vacation in November and it was too late when we got back nearly a month later...no one had them in stock!

So I am greatly lacking color, that's for sure.

The left bed all a-green...


Here is the right bed last week with the dianthus and avens in bloom in the tulip border...

Well, I may be missing umph and order and pansies, but good golly, are those snapdragons ever spectacular!! The vibrancy of the red on the right and fuchsia on the left, I cannot begin to capture in photos. It makes me so happy every time I drive up to the house!

And the hardy geraniums have started blooming! (One didn't come back this year 😕, so had to grab another.)

I do also see signs of celosia seedlings coming back (they re-seed themselves, so yay for them returning again! I just have to make sure I only allow the real ones to grow. As stated last post, though I'm usually good about recognizing weeds vs. flowers after letting them go too long the year before, these guys are my struggle...I still have a habit of getting confused which they are every year and letting weeds grow while weeding out the celosia I wanted!)
I've decided they will be a staple in these front beds because, to me, they have a bit more "regal" or "formal" look than some other flowers and their gold and red colors are more what I want to transition my front beds to....oh except that the Knockout roses are vibrant fuchsia, the hardy geraniums are royal purple and the snapdragons are a mix of pinks, purples, yellows and reds!

So I really need to give up on this regal bricked out house with pristine black shutters, neatly stoned raised beds with ever-blooming flowers in coordinating shades of reds and golds!
Honey, that ship sailed when you got to the nursery and went, "ooooh, I like that! And that. And I'll have one of these. And these. And..."

Choas. That's what. Chaos!

But...but....um....pretty chaos...?! 😇

Wildflowers

The war on rogue cilantro seedlings is progressing well.

They are a nightmare to pull out...they're like flippin' tiny 2" tall, but with roots of steel!
However, when I pulled out the 20" tall plants from the original side of the sidewalk, they slip right out. What?!!

So I decided to leave the seedlings and let them get larger before removing them. It actually makes it easier because I can SEE them! I just have had to be vigilant about getting out there often so that I don't let them go to seed!!


I am very excited that my foxglove reseeded itself!!!

However, since it won't bloom until next year, I got him a friend!

And then I killed it!

Ok, I didn't actually kill it, I just left it outside in its nursery pot for one hot day too long and it was sadly wilty as shown here. I planted it, watered it and the next day leaves were perky and fabulous...although the blooms were destined to continue on their browning, shriveled state until such time as the next ones decide to pop.

Hopefully I can collect some seeds and get these guys on a continuous cycle to fill in their "off-years"...and so I can fill the border with their loveliness! :-D

Others are popping up nicely too...

The peonies had their 15 minutes of beauty (I failed miserably at propping them up this year! Didn't really matter all that much because a thunderstorm came through and turned them to pulp! It looked like someone plucked off all the heads and threw them on the ground directly below in a poof like a flock of pink birds exploded! Alas.)


And then there's this....


Oh, hello what are you and where did you come from?

Pretty sure all last year I had this random shoot with maroon leaves and spikes coming out. What? Weird. So I kept it around, but then would try yanking on it since, well...we know my affinity for leaving "pretty-looking" weeds in the ground and hating my life the following year.

And now here it is again.

It wasn't until looking at photos of my company's landscape and noticing a bunch of bushes that looked like strikingly familiar older uncles of this little pointy reddish fellow....wait a minute...

[scrambles to check the landscaping plan plant list]

It's a Berberis bush! Wait, what?!!
BUSH?!

A) What the...?
B) How the...?

I'm at a loss.
There were some ugly spirea and icky boxwood that got eaten down to the twigs by caterpillars every year in that spot before I viciously ripped them out and planted my wildflower garden.

No Berberis.

But here it is.

So there you go.

Anyone need a Berberis bush?!  :-D

(In all seriousness, I'm pondering another spot for it because...for the hundredth time, this gardener doesn't throw away plants. An occupational hazard when one is an accidental gardener.)


Sweet William that I shuffled to the right and back about a foot each so it was more centered rather than one of the tallest flowers being in the front leftover from the random sewing of years gone by.

It's in bloom with the Knockout roses.

Pretty sure the Hydrangea's ship sailed when it froze in April, but it's got little blossomy things showing up like it's trying. Sorry, guy, think your time is done. Very sad.

Oh and then there's that random, lone peony which is a completely different color than it's ever been in years past. (Deeper reddish fuchsia rather than bright pink like above.)

Okaaaaaay...

No one said it had to make sense!


Everything looks SO much better when I actually can keep up with the weeds.

I've tried to be so diligent about the cilantro (2017's accidental mass weeding) and the smartweed (2016's accidental mass weeding "aww, pretty pink flowers! I'll just let this clump stay because I hate future me!) and bunches of other kinds (2015's accidental mass weeding).

I'm the queen of "hmmm, don't remember what that type of plant looks like as a seedling", hence all the weed misery. However, I will say that once I make the mass weed mistake, I really do remember in the future, so am able to actually WEED IT instead of waiting to see what it becomes (pulling out 849 weed seedlings over 6 months tends to make you an expert in recognizing them).
(PS - fabulous website I just found to help!!)

So here's hoping that 2018 will be a glorious mostly weed-infestation-free year! ;-D


In other wildflower news, the pretty blue Nigella are coming up all over (pictured up close with the peony above); they're so light and feathery and just feel like they're floating!
(They're products of my original seed packet I started there....uhhhhh...and they also can look similar to cilantro after its leaves thin before going to seed, so that's special. Think I've got the hang of spotting the differences, though. Famous last words.)

The lilies are about to pop! The Daylilies have taken over a bit and need to be thinned, but at least they're covering the dying tulip greens (seen a bit in the lower right corner below).

And of course can't wait for my Shasta daisies!!!

Speaking of cleaning up weeds...I have a habit of leaving
picked weeds laying out on the sidewalk, a habit which
husband loves SO much! Sorry, honey!

My neighbor gave me some Black-eyed Susans she thinned out; a kind I'd been hoping to obtain at some point, so score for free!

And I finally put a trellis around the gorgeous pink-blooming bush with delicate, albeit long arms that fall 2 feet into the sidewalk every year. I've wanted something cute and whimsical and metallic (preferable a whitish or cream color) and antiquey so it will be just the most perfectest piece imaginable to compliment my perfectly planted and maintained bed....buuuuuut {shockingly!} have had ZERO luck with finding said perfect piece - ok or any workable piece for that matter! - and seeing as this was the 3rd  year I'd been looking and we were getting to critical "branch training time"...it was time to go with utilitarian: green stakes with green twine that will hopefully be hidden soon enough!

There are a few other things coming up that I {think} are flowers, not weeds, sooooo, time will tell, won't it! Stay tuned!

Accidentally Killed

This story featuring the mishap of a guest gardener is too humorous not to share. As another gardener put it, "We've all had those oops moments too!"


The following story is true; told using stock images...

The Shade Garden Part II

Because I had years to catch up on, I discovered that I previously failed to mention some of our favorite plants in the shade garden!

First, though, I found some photos of how it looked early May 2016; right when a few of my friend's plants were just coming up for the first time (teeny little tufts of Native Ginger in the front!) Wow how it filled out even later that year and especially this year since I divided plants in the fall! (Current photos at the bottom)...

Now then.    When first picking out plants for the shade garden in 2015, husband found a giant, ugly bulb he was very excited about...

An Elephant Ear!

Not entirely sure I was aware they can get to like 12' or some insane size like that when I agreed to put it in the shade garden, but boy was it incredible when it came up that year!

In what can only be described as moments of pure insanity, we have NO photos of it!
The leaves got huge and it was at least 5' tall! It was spectacular!


I even bought another variety (Colocasia Esculenta Illustris) with smaller, darker leaves to compliment it.          

Happy, happy year!

Unfortunately, when I went to re-plant the bulbs in 2016 (they have to be pulled out every winter), I hadn't stored them right and they fell apart and stupid me didn't look up how to re-plant them and I think I only planted the little finger tubers, not the main "heart" of the clump or some crazy dumbness like that....sooooooo they didn't get as big last year.  :-(    (And again, I just pulled out little bunches of tubers before the winter, not a big clump :-/)

So we shall see how they do this year; they're always late to come up and it freaks us out thinking they're not coming at all. Hope I didn't really, really screw it up this year!


* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

And then, I keep joking that I should call this my "friendship garden" because I've gotten plants from others and it's so fun! The plants from my friend who moved away are doing just fabulously! Everything is coming back very nicely.

The Columbines are gorgeously in bloom right now:

Last summer I also brought home some plants from my Mom-in-law's shade garden: another fabulous gardener I'm amazed by (ooohhhh...idea! A post featuring a guest garden by a non-accidental gardener...?! :-D).

We are actually 2nd and 3rd generation "parents" of these plants because they first came from my brother-in-law's mom (no idea where she got them from...maybe we're like the 5th and 6th generaton-ers!) One is this little baby daisy-looking thing that I just fell in love with! I plopped it in front of the bird feeder pole and it came back this year! I'm so excited for them to start blooming!
(After much back and forth and a million Google searches because the leaves are so unique with these little flowers, we believe it's a 'Plenum Chrysanthemum' {Tanacetum parthenium}. My buds have started, so we shall see when it comes up!)

The other is a 'Britt-Marie Crawford' (first time I'd ever heard of or seen it!) whose unique, large leaves have started up again this year! (It'll bloom with pretty yellow flowers...shown in the elephant ear photo above.)

And finally she passed on some really cool-looking sedum plants that she had gotten from her neighbor (the love just keeps spreading!) that I'd never seen before, but they add some neat shape and color to fill in spots.


I also [asked permission before removing from the premise] a rock from one of my favorite places: a retreat space in the mountains in PA I get away to each year.

That now sits at the entrance to one of my little unfinished pebble paths.

So yes, it is delightful and beautiful and doing quite well and filled with beautiful growing things that remind me of people I love!

Speaking of Weather...

Check out this month's weather...

In case you missed that...in 10 days we had a low of 36 (actually I heard 34 in some places...everything seemed to do okay except squash leaves :-/ More on that later.) and yesterday and today are in the 90's!

Welcome to a Maryland spring!

Knockout Roses

I don't know what it is about this year; I'm assuming weather, but man, almost every Knockout Rose bush I see in the area is just absolutely bursting with flowers. Mine are no exception!

I drive up to the house every day, see the bushes just exploding with color and literally say, "ooooh" or "wow!" or "soooo pretty" or something of that nature to my steering wheel or whatever other entity in my car is listening to me.

Absolutely stunning!

Harder to see from a distance and with the horrid heat pump
dominating the view, but the side bushes are spectacular as well. 

Even my little baby one in the wildflower border which has had a rough few years (basically brought it back from the brink of death!) is doing better than ever!

Typically the leaves on our roses get eaten to a pulp by little green leafhoppers before we remember to spray. This means we have scraggly, brown-edged and fewer roses. Still beautiful, but struggling.
But this year, I think the difference could be that the blooms started earlier because of the warmer temps; before the bugs had a chance to destroy the health of the bushes.

So they are just spectacular!
And husband sprayed once I saw the leaf holes starting!


In related news, was talking with a coworker, swapping stories and photos of our beauties and she loved my really light pink one I have along the side of the house. I told her I'd look for the color at the nursery I was going to that day. She says, "or you could just give me a cutting of yours".

[blank stare]

[brain sloooowly starts processing, "wait, this is familiar...cuttings of roses, planting rose cuttings...think it's a thing...]

"Are you serious?! You can really just plant a cutting?!"
"Yes!"
Google searching confirms: yes, of course you can.

So by golly, you're looking at {the writing of} a full-fledged gardener who made softwood rose cuttings (know what those are now!) and has passed them off to be planted! I mean, this feels like we've moved into Gardening 201 or maybe even 301!

Cross your fingers for them to take root!

Edibles on Purpose! (Mostly)

Check out the berries!

The raspberry bush is coming along just dandy.

And the blackberry bush is so pretty!

(Keep in mind that these are the mondo sized tomato cages that the bushes are coming out the top of, not the little guys.)

If you're just tuning in and wondering why we have bushes in the middle of the grass, well, here's why.



And I have an important announcement...

After years of reaping the benefit of the accidental cilantro, it has taken root and is spreading well enough in the edible garden for me to rip it out of the flower bed!!

(I also think I forgot to mention previously that the transplants which I moved to the edible garden were sections of seedling-infested earth I pulled up from the wildflower bed where the rogue seeds had gone mad! This stuff is indestructible!)

Now that area is just wildly taken over by the Daylilies that desperately need to be thinned.

(The cilantro plants were at least as tall, if not taller than the Daylilies! I kept going by and plucking off heads to avoid them going to seed and finally grabbed fistfuls to make cilantro lime rice for 12 people and then...away all the rest of it went!)

I am eager to reclaim that area for wildflowers, so this is exciting news. Also because, I've been so afraid I'll lose this precious cilantro; every new season it was still there seems like a gift!
So the fact that I successfully transplanted this crazy crop and moved it into a much more shaded place means - I did something right!!!

It's a miracle!

It's actually the perfect spot, right behind the grill where most edibles won't grow due to needing more sunlight. But not my wacko cilantro - it apparently grows everywhere!

So win-win - it's growing and it's growing in a spot that would otherwise be wasted. AND I get my wildflower garden back, win-win-win!!

Free to a Good Home...

{Just kidding; don't care what kind of home - you want tomatoes?!!}

'Cauuuuuuuuuuse, so this thing happened where I accidentally grew like 6 tomato plants.

How?

It's really quite simple. Let me walk you through it:

Step 1: get a tomato plant.

Step 2: watch it grow taller and taller and out of its tomato cage and spill over the empty pot next to it and fall to the ground by the end of the summer.

Step 3: chop down dead tomato plant - but make sure you wait until spring so that any bad tomatoes you'd left on the vine are able to fall into the pot below to rot to compost without your being aware of them.

Step 4: later in the spring, plant lettuce in empty pot in garden.

Step 5: realize that what's grow is not just lettuce...

Step 6: dig out what one hopes is are Better Boy tomato plants (or whichever kind you bought last year that you really can't exactly remember).

Step 7: replant the largest tomato seedling in the edible garden and put the largest tomato cage you have around it.

Step 8: pot the rest of the mini tomato seedlings in leftover containers and give to friends and coworkers with the disclaimer that you're actually not sure what kind of tomato it is.



Normally I grow dozens of mini tomato plants from the compost I spread around, however, since store bought tomatoes (that are treated with who knows what) of all varieties are mixed into compost with home-grown ones and so who knows what kind of freaks we might come up with (though, that logic makes no sense since it all has to do with the blooms, so I may have to reconsider this whole theory....I just don't think we'll get the best tomatoes second generation from the compost, okay?!)

However, these I feel quite confident about (famous last words) because I don't believe I put compost in there last year (it stayed empty pretty much the whole year).


So make sure you stay tuned for the adventure of the {insert tomato breed} accidental seedling growing in my edible garden right now!

Christmas in May

Look who randomly popped out to say hello...

Yup, the Christmas cactus decided to bloom.

Just one flower.

"Hello.
 Now I'm done."

Well, ok then.