Varmints

So after I posted the picture of my baby last week some varmint came along and snatched it. I guess we weren't meant to be together. But I've been sent a new little baby to help me heal. Here she is...she's covered in cayenne pepper, maybe that will keep away the baby-stealers.

These are my tabascos, there's a lot of them and I can't wait to eat them.

This is my herb garden. My dill is turning into caraway and I don't care for caraway. So I'm letting some of the seeds dry out and fall so they come up again in a couple weeks. The others I'm plucking off and composting (throwing under my deck) so that the dill doesn't completely take over.

Here's the veggie garden, it's coming along nicely. Some of the kohl rabi that the rabbits snipped off have come back, though they're all still pretty small - they're to the left just behind the marigold border. I only have one morning glory coming up on the trellis. My thai basil is nuts, I love it. The Love in a Mist are mostly done blooming for now, they'll be back though. Pretty soon I'm gonna start digging up the potatoes. Next week maybe...

Mama's So Proud!

Here's my first eggplant, isn't it beautiful?!

This is my second of these super hot red peppers, the first one was snipped off and discarded by a squirrel or rabbit.

There's two different shades of purple in here, they don't call them Bee Bombs for nothing. They attract SO many bees to my garden, it's fabulous because everything is getting pollinated.

These are my Love in a Mist.

Mean Rhubarb Lady

See below for a picture of the ridiculously large rhubarb. It's been pelted down by some hard rains and wind...but still?! Some of those leaves are honestly so big I could make a dress out of them. Lady, why are you not harvesting your rhubarb EVER? Why do you get mad when people even GLANCE at your lot filled with gargantuan rhubarb and creeping charlie. By the way, Lady, your neighbors don't appreciate your lawn of creeping charlie - it seeds itself into our yard. Take care of that, would ya?

This is the trellis my boyfriend, Jay, made for me. Isn't it fabulous? Jay is my hero.

This is my baby boy, Robbie. I just got him groomed because he had his Doggie Fair on Saturday. It was put on by the rescue organization that I got him from. All the adoptive families with their babies were there...and the purpose was for Robbie to see his foster mom - but I didn't see her there. But Robbie did find the biggest dog there and tried to hump him. It goes without saying but Robbie had a blast and can't wait till the next big dog comes along so he can try to hump him, too.

Summer Solstice

So today is Summer Solstice which means it's the longest day of summer. It's been mostly cloudy and muggy today, but I'm hoping that means we'll get a good downpour.

Here's the small flower garden next to our porch. About four or five years ago my grandma gave me some unknown bulbs from her garden and they turned out to be four different colors of Asiatic lilies. I planted them at my other house but split them when that house was sold. This is their second summer at this place and they're doing well. There's a big rose bush in between them that blocks out some sun. I don't even like rose bushes but I keep it in there just cuz. I want to dig it up this fall and move it over along the porch to extend this area a little, it's getting a little too crowded! In the back are the day lilies and in the front are the seedum, Coral Carpet, that I transplanted in early Spring. I love seedum.

Here's my veggie garden. At the bottom of the shot are the Love in a Mist flowers that are growing like weeds, but easy to control so I'm not worried about them taking over. In the middle of the flowers, kinda to the left, I planted a chocolate mint plant. They seriously smell just like you would expect by their name. My plan for them was to make a mojito inspired drink with them, I have yet to do it. To the far left along the rocks are the marigolds that I planted from seeds that I saved from last year's marigolds. My marigolds last year got huge! They were like big bushes defending my garden from rabbits. That is the reason I now love marigolds when I couldn't stand them before. The next row to the right are the jalapeños I planted by seed. They've been loving the heat and if they all produce by season's end I'm gonna have more jalapeños than I'll know what to do with. The next row which is accented by a big plant in the middle (store bought transplant) is my Thai basil. The ones I started by seed are still pretty small, only two leaves each. I'm guessing they'll be pretty big in a couple of months. The last, barely discernible, row on the right are my green onions. They're about 8-10" tall right now. The big plant you see in the upper right corner is a potato. I have five potato plants I think. They're huge and require more dirt than I have, so I've been just letting them go. They've been flowering so I'm hoping I'll be able to harvest at least a few potatoes from each of the plants since they're all different colors and kinds. There's also some kohl rabi in there that are still pretty small yet.

This is the other side of my veggie plot. This is all mostly perennials that were there before me. You can't really see the colors so much as they're all reaching towards the sun and away from me. In front are the buttercups and they've been dwindling down, they were crazy last week. There's also some day lilies in there, but those things are everywhere and so very boring. In the back by the door are the Chinese Lanterns. Then I have no idea what the rest of the stuff is until it blooms. I have a little rhubarb plant in there that I transplanted last summer. There's a plot next to our garage and the lady that owns it lets her rhubarb go to seed every year and never harvests any of it. They honestly get so HUGE, it's ridiculous. So that's how I got my little plant, it seeded itself in my yard and I moved it. So there, Mean Lady Who Doesn't Share Her Rhubarb!

And last but certainly not least is my little herb garden. You can see the dill has gone nuts! A few of them are already going to seed which means I'll have a new crop to harvest again in a couple of months. Behind the dill are the chives. To the right of the chives are the cilantro - the taller ones are the volunteer ones and they're going to seed already. Then I have the small ones in rows that you may, or may not see, that I planted by seed. In the front right corner is my sage. Back right corner is oregano. To the left of the chives, where you can't see, is my sweet basil. And hidden up front in the left is a sweet pepper plant, they're supposed to be little round red peppers. I can't wait to make salsa and pico de gallo this summer!

Well, that's how my garden is looking today. It's been a struggle trying to keep up with all the weeds. Once a week I dedicate some serious time to one of my four areas; the veggies, herbs, small flower garden, or the HUGE perennial area along the property line. It's been mostly maintenance since then and I generally don't mind weeding, but it gets old. And every once in awhile, without looking, I'll wrap my hand around a stinging nettle plant. Such is life!

Last Day of May

I don't have much patience when it comes to waiting for my seeds to germinate. So today I stopped by Linder's to get some plants. After I put them in and watered them I sprinkled red pepper all around them in hopes that it would keep the squirrels out. I put in six eggplants in the back behind the walkway. I put in a Thai basil, chocolate mint, orange mint, and five different kinds of hot peppers. It doesn't look much different than last time.

My dill has been going crazy and I'm excited for it to get bigger. My cilantro and basil have also been doing well. I've been pinching it back so it'll bush out more. I put a pepper plant in there, too. I'm all about an over-crowded garden. I MUST use all my space!

I also bought some ornamental grass I've been pining for; Variegated Silver Japanese Grass. I put them right up front by the sidewalk. Earlier this spring I put a few Selvia plants in there as well. The hostas and Jacob's Ladders and everything else was in there from the previous owner. Sorry for the off-color in these pictures. I'll do better next time.

Along the side of the house not much has been growing. There was a big hosta and a couple of small ones. When I weeded I found some Morning Glories so I put up this trellis the neighbor gave me. I haven't decided if I like it or if it looks a little corny. I'm going to wait to pull it out until I see the flowers growing up it. I transplanted some ferns in there just so it wasn't so bare. I left the dark purplish clovers in there because I like them. I also transplanted an Alpine Current bush in there that I had received in my Hort. class last spring. This picture is kinda dark, but you get the idea...not much to look at yet.

The perennials along the side of our yard and fence have been doing great. I found out from the neighbor, Karen, that the previous owner had a thing for purple. I can't believe I didn't realize this before she said it since almost ALL the flowers in this area are purple. And then I went and planted Selvia in there as well - which are purple. I must have known on some level.
Here's just a couple pictures of the flowers that are blooming now.

How It Began

I started my seeds indoors many weeks ago. When I transplanted them I was more than a little wary of what the squirrels and rabbits would do. The rabbits left my garden alone, while the squirrels didn't touch the plants for two whole days. Whereupon, they dug up more than half of my seedlings. So I pretty much had to start over. {BEFORE}

In the cage to the left in my garden I have my potatoes. I started these from potatoes that had sprouted over the winter (it's not recommended to plant your own sprouts because of diseases but I decided that it was worth the garden space and the risk). Not on purpose, we just didn't eat them and they sat out in our cold porch. Way to the right are all the perennial, native flowers that were in the garden when I moved here. So today I weeded and mulched and reseeded everything. I also put in a couple new things. {AFTER}

So, along the front by the rocks I seeded marigolds to, hopefully, ward off the rabbits. Behind the marigolds are some jalapeños. Behind the peppers are Thai basil and then green onions. Potatoes still in the back, all different colors, in mounds. To your left, you'll see a gap highlighted by mulch between the jalapeños and basil, I decided to plant some kohl rabi there. It didn't fruit at all for me last year, it just seeded. I decided to give it a second chance this year. In the way back behind the walkway I have eggplants and another hot pepper variety. To the right of the walkway, where you can't see, I have another hot pepper variety. All along the walkway, to your right, there's Love in a Mist flowers that reseeded themselves from last year.

My herb garden has pretty much taken care of itself this year. The chives came back, as they always do. I educated my upstairs neighbors, the Landlords, about chive flowers and how they're edible. He was skeptical at first but after he saw me eat one, he had to, too. I was surprised to see many dill and cilantro volunteers. I seeded a couple more cilantro, just in case. Also, last fall I didn't pull all my sage plants and one of those has been thriving thus far. A couple of my sweet basil seedlings have survived, but I seeded a few more today. The picture is before I weeded the bed, but I've tried not to weed TOO much as I'm afraid it would make my herbs the center of attention as far as the rabbits who live under my porch are concerned.

Tomorrow I'm having a BBQ for some friends and I want to have my gardens cleaned up a little more. But today I spent over four hours in both the gardens and don't feel like I got a lot done. We'll see how tomorrow goes!