Sunday, April 18, 2010

Would you like to see my garden?

Welcome. I'm so glad you're here. I have a cake in the oven.... What did you say? Would you like to see my garden? Oh good. Follow me.


These are my hostas. I don't have much shade around here, but where I do, there are hostas.... If I could fill the whole yard with them, I think I would.


What are those? Those are my ferns....

Oh how I love my ferns....
These suckers have taken forever to get established and start spreading, but I think we're finally onto something here...... there are about a zillion Lily of the Valley planted in amongst them, but we'll have to come back and see them some other day. They look like a bunch of weeds at the moment.....but when they flower.....oh my goodness....

Come over here, and I'll show you my new vegetable garden. We dismantled the swingset this winter and my husband constructed a new raised veggie garden for me.



This is one of my tomatoes. Don't ask me what kind.... I forget what they are the minute I leave the farmers market with them. I cheated this year and bought plants that were already started instead of seeds. We usually have quite the 'nursery' in our kitchen and I didn't feel like the mess or the pain this year. I tend to go a little crazy every year with the tomatoes....don't ask me why.... I don't really like to eat them. I counted them yesterday and there are 12 tomatoes out here. We're gonna have tomatoes..... lots of 'em.


Over here, next to the tomatoes, are my herbs.


Rosemary



Oregano




and Chives.... there are a bunch more. Cilantro, parsley, dill, basil (of course), and lavender. A very handy area to have, cause I always forget to buy them when I go to the grocery store...


Over here is one of my favorite trees in the yard.


Behold, the redbud tree. Usually this particular stage is accompanied by a huge swarm of those large 'furry' bumblebees, but this year I think the flowers came too early. A little too chilly still for the bees maybe. I haven't seen any.


Over here is my new spot to try out and experiment with perennials that I see while I'm out and about...


This one's called Arabis or Rock Cress. I fell in love with it at a garden center a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately it's not in love with me, or the spot that I put it in, cause it hasn't looked this good since, but I have high hopes. We'll see what happens.


If you look over here under these laurels..... you'll see one of my favorite additions to my garden...


These are the violas that I planted in the planter boxes on my deck several years ago. I killed the original plants long ago because any plant in a pot around me is as good as dead, but I digress...... These little guys could be considered a weed. They self-sowed themselves all over the area just below where I had the boxes, and have established themselves quite nicely here. I just love those little blooms. They bloom early when not much else is doing much of anything.


Speaking of blooming early when everything else is still dormant.......


These are my Helleborus. Definitely at the top of my list of favorite perennials. It's such a joy to look out my kitchen window and see these guys blooming in early March, and not only do they stay blooming through the beginning of June in most years, but they are evergreen. If you have a shady spot, you should definitely get some.


We're almost at the end of our tour, but I have one more shrub I want to show you......



This is my viburnum. I think they are highly under-rated and under-used as well. Most varieties can become quite the monster if given the chance, so you have to be careful which one you plant and where you put it, but if you have the room, I would definitely go for it. They have the most beautiful creamy white blooms that rival those of hydrangeas if you ask me. They bloom in the spring and the buds are present in the fall. So you can tell your husband not to go all crazy with the pruners and prune it up in the fall, like mine does, lest he cut all the future blooms off.........


I think that's about it for now. The rest of the stuff isn't doing much at the moment, so we'll have to do another tour a little later!

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