Herbs

I harvested a lot of herbs today, with Rachel's help. We cut purple sage, Italian oregano, cilantro, and basil. The basil and cilantro were stored in olive oil in the freezer while I'm drying the rest.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lemon Balm

As I was weeding the back of the garden, which had become an overgrown nightmare, I discovered two happy things.

1. My raspberry plants are alive and happy.

2. I have Lemon Balm growing everywhere. I harvested a lot of it and it is now drying from being washed. I am 90% sure it is Lemon Balm and not Bee Balm, but I think I'll have to wait until later in the summer to see if the remaining plants bloom. My plan is to chop up most of it and store it in oil in the freezer. Some will just go into icecube trays as whole leaves.




I got a LOT of weeding done today. The herb garden and all the front yard flowerbeds are done. Even Rachel's garden is looking passable. We planted five more pea plants today. She has enjoyed pulling pea pods off and eating them. She has one watermelon and two cantaloupe plants as well.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Roses

The old flower garden also has roses in it.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Evening Primrose

To my delight, Evening Primrose has shown up in the main flower garden.

Hosta in bloom

One of the two Hostas in the old flower bed is blooming now.

Mock Orange Emancipated

Cleared out the tree/shrub at the corner of the garage so that the Mock Orange is more visible.  It was astonishing to find a 20 ft mock orange there.  I can't imagined how we have missed it for two years.  True, it was buried in a Hawthorn tree, but still.

I also got to get some weeding done in the herb garden and in the tomato patch.  I also started tackling the disaster of a flower garden in the backyard.

View the disaster....and the rhodendron in bloom and the Hosta that is the size of Godzilla.

All flower beds in the front yard got a feeding of Miracle Grow today.

I smite thee thistle

Finally got to do some weeding this week.  The temperatures have been quite high, and my mom has been here, so the weeding got put off until Thursday morning.  The thistles have taken over my vegetable garden.  I am waging war.  Hopefully tomorrow I can make some progress.

I put in the ivy plants this morning against the front of the house.  David will build the trellis for me and I'm going to add some decorative trellis higher up on the brick. 

Earwigs are eating my flowers...and bunnies...and snails.  I'm thinking of putting out a saucer of beer tonight to see if I can catch some of the varmints.

Got the two begonias planted in the terrace garden too this week.

All of which would be much more meaningful with photos.

Thistles Winning

The thistles are currently winning.  Because of cottage renovations and having a preschool age child, and having company visiting, my gardens unfortunately are a mess.  Perhaps this weekend after my grading is complete I'll have time to week.

Damn bunnies. They ate all the strawberries.

Peas!

Rachel's little pea plants put all their energy into making pea pods instead of vines.  So, now we have little 8 inch vines....with peas on them. :)  We will check them this morning to see if they are ready to pick.  Also, the strawberry patch has some ripe berries.  I'm sure Rachel will eat them on the spot.

Beginnings

The house had two main flower beds when we bought it and some additional plants (and rocks) around the trees. 

Front flower bed originally contained:

• Day Lilies, in overwhelming numbers.  I eventually dug up close to 1000 and still have a few left in the bed.
• Solomen's Seal
• A plant with varigated leaves that likes to spread.  I need to find out what it is.

Back flower bed originally contained:

• Snowdrops (lots of them)
• Crocus (spring...and just a few)
• Violets
• Tulips (a half-dozen)
• Buckthorn tree
• Two large pine trees
• Roses (two)
• Lilly of the Valley (in the hundreds)

I'm sure there were other plants, but the bed was so overgrown, it was hard to tell.

The yard in general has clusters of snowdrops, a couple of spring crocus, Soloman's Seal and Day Lillies around a tree in front, and Lilly of the Valley around the large tree in back.

Also, the previous owner like to stack rocks around the base of trees.  I think it was based on the idea that the rocks would leech minerals into the soil around the tree. 

There is also a gully in the backyard toward the back of the property.  It originally had a little bridge over it.

Gardening

It dawned on me recently that David and I intend to be in the house we are in currently for the rest of our lives.  I have always had such short-term views of just about everything in my life, that this was a revelation.   I realized that there was a possibility that I might be working the same gardens for the next 20-30 years.

Thus, I decided to document them.