ticked and sicked

 I've started my seasonal baking for early summer...and what's better than homemade strawberry shortcake?!?  Recipe by Stella Parks, found in her amazing Bravetart cookbook.

I love highlighting the arrival of a new season.  And what's more appropriate for mid-May than some home-grown veggies, nearly ready for the garden?  They are so cheerful!

This year, I'm growing watermelon, zucchini, cantaloupe, 13 kinds of tomatoes, jalapenos, corn (!!), bell peppers, and lots of herbs...in addition to flowers and, of course, a ton of pumpkins.  I'm starting them off on heat pads, under lights, and then potting them up as they get bigger.  It will be time to plow the back field soon!

It's been slow going here.  Todd was sick with a terrible cold for over a week, and then promptly got bitten by a tick...the bite became infected...he had to start antibiotics...and they make him nauseous.  So I've had to do more of the "heavy lifting" work in the garden, and subsequently pulled a muscle in my shoulder and neck...barely able to turn my head for days.  I've had to limit myself to a daily single wheelbarrow of compost.  But I've been focusing on the garden directly behind the house, and I'm so pleased!

It's really coming to life.  Except for the tiny seedlings, ALL of these are perennials.  It's quite by accident that this bed turned out so well.  Long ago, I read that you should plant your garden by how the foliage looks, not the flower, because blooms are short-lived but the foliage lasts all season.  Vary your design and clump, clump, clumps of the same plants in scattered groups.  I did this quite by accident.  Too much of something somewhere, I'd dig it up and plop it wherever there was space without much thought.  Somehow, it worked.

A different view...

The paths aren't laid, but hopefully this week!

Ferny, spiky, rounded leaf...silvery, chartreuse, deep green...somehow, I ended up with a pleasing variety that comes up reliably year after year.

Coral bells, spirea, lamb's ear, yarrow, and cemetery moss...all foliage, all different shapes, sizes, and colors, but somehow it just...works.  

The delight is that as much as I love it now, in another month it will burst into bloom and be another garden entirely!  The front beds, too, have come alive on their own.  All perennials...all just doing their thing without any help from me...other than weeding and mulching, of course.

Just a few flowers right now...the cranesbill (purple flowers above), some columbines...

...and even anemones!  Yes, the anemones that I forgot about for an entire year but decided to soak and plant anyway are bursting to life.

It's nice to work in the garden with my usual pal, Claudia, while the kittens watch from their perch.

I mean, if they've got the time to watch.  Sometimes they're preoccupied with other things...

What a delightful time of year, ticks notwithstanding.  

Have a great week!  

...and then there were three

 It's getting warmer and things are popping outside!

Even though the only thing I've done in the garden is plant my anemones, ranuculus, and some poppies, everything is moving forward without my help.  It's gratifying to see the beds fill in with perennials.

There are weeds, too...quite a bit of them.  I'm going to have to tackle them at 15 minutes a day, every single day, to try to keep them in check.  I mean, starting today.  ;)  

Finally, I've gotten to start picking bouquets again!

It's not just outside where new things are sprouting up.  We've got a couple of new additions!

After the absolutely abysmal Tabitha cat introductions last year, I was determined to have a positive change this year.  After some research, I discovered that TWO kittens are best for an adult cat, because they'll play with each other, for the most part, instead of harassing the adult.  The adult is less threatened, too.  So, we talked about it and started looking around to see if there were any bonded pairs available.    Oddly enough, there's a bit of a kitten shortage here!  But I managed to find these two boys.

They're ten weeks old and both as sweet as can be, although slightly feral when they came to us - they'd been living on the streets for their first eight weeks!  I did not enjoy Tabitha's somewhat spicy kittenhood, but these two are full of purrs and cuddles.  We're still working on names (discards:  Orzo and Enzo, Lothar and Linus, Falk and Fisper, Klaus and Canute, Arno and Alistair), although we're leaning toward Arno (pronounced ar-NO) and Klaus.  We've got a ratty-carpeted spare room for them to romp in and kitten beds, towers, and toys.  Our hands are pretty full right now but we are loving watching these two play!💗💘  More updates soon!

Have a great week!

yarrow in my marrow

The garden is a never-ending delight right now.  Everything seen in the photo below:  yarrow, lupine, sedum, bellflower, Jacob's ladder, false indigo, obedient plant, coneflower, foxglove, wild geranium...is a perennial that I planted last year.  Perennial = comes back every year, bigger and better.

Columbines...another perennial...are starting to open up.

Little surprises cause a sense of wonder.  I was given a big clump of wild geranium last year.  It didn't look like much, but I split it in half and planted it.  Wilted last year, and covered with flowers this year...possibly tripled in size.

A spontaneous greenhouse purchase, the Japanese anemone huddled against the soil last year.  But this year, nodding bells open up into beautiful white flowers.

Hostas are coming up in places where I maybe, possibly remember tucking little bits of split-up hosta plants last year...

The huechera!  I selected them for their gorgeous leaves...

...and had almost forgotten about the delightful flower spikes that start nodding in early summer.

Did that little dried-up lily of the valley twig really come back?  Sure did, and then some.

Last year's lupine certainly didn't have any flowers...

...and I just don't remember planting FIVE foxgloves last year, but here they are nonetheless!

I remember buying two peonies last year, not five, but that's how many stalk bunches are coming up.  One is over three feet tall!  I have no idea what it will look like when it blooms, but looks like I might find out soon!

I was unimpressed with the pricy spirea I picked up at the Lowe's clearance rack last year.  A few sad, dried leaves clung to the spindly branches, and it looked dead...but for $3, I could afford to take a chance.  This year it's covered with bright, healthy leaves.

No matter how rough a plant looks, I remind myself, they want to live.  It's a good lesson to learn, because last week I got the opportunity to pack my car with new plants!  A local woman posted in a Facebook gardening group - too many plants, need someone to come and thin them out.  I was the fifth person to stop by, and even after loading up my car, the yard looked almost untouched!  I came away with hostas, ferns, toad lilies, surprise lilies, four or five different types of daffodils (all in big clumps), several different types of irises, daylilies, chocolate mint, sedum, and more.  In the end, I think I had over 500 bulbs/tubers.

It can be overwhelming to contemplate planting so many things, but I was determined to get everything in the ground.  I started a new shade garden under the pine trees by the driveway with the toad lilies, hostas, and ferns.  I've never been completely happy with the bare slope of lawn that terminates at the pond's edge, so I decided to plant most of the daylilies and irises there. I envision having plants on both slopes and a garden bench in between, under the big pine free. 

If you think those look sad, check out the tired heap of leaves in this 4-foot swatch of surprise lilies...maybe 50 in total planted here!  The daffodils clumps were split, mixed and planted in three big groupings by these same bushes.

They look awful, and they will look worse as the year goes on.  The leaves will never stand up and will turn yellow.  They will look dead.  But next year, I suspect I'll have a fantastic display in this area.  Because plants want to live.  They're just recovering from the relocation.  Next year they'll be ready to shine!

(so says prognosticator Claudia, my garden assistant)

Bosewichte promises to forecast good news too, if I let him outside.

But I already have some good news...two loads of compost have been delivered (only 1 shown in pic).  Now this field just needs to be plotted out...spread with compost...and plowed.

How is she going to fill a huge field?  You might wonder.  Well, I'm starting to experiment with propagation again...taking a bit of root or stem from various plants and rooting it in soil.  Then, of course, there's my thousands of seeds.  And happy reseeding from last year, too!  I noticed little yarrow seedlings in a front garden and decided to dig them all up and move them into a side holding bed.  In the end, I transplanted 55 seedlings.  I also saw quite a bit of reseeding around my white coneflower, and ended up moving 50 seedlings.  Total time investment:  1 hour.  Considering I spent $10 each for ONE yarrow and ONE white coneflower last year, it certainly seems worth the trouble!  When the field gets plowed, they'll be moved to a larger holding bed and then distributed around once they get large enough, and I decide where I want them.  They won't look like much this year, but should be amazing next year and especially the year after.  I look forward to giving a lot away to friends, too!

I hope that it looks quite different soon.

Have a great week!