peony power

Somehow I ended up with 5 peony bushes last year, colors unknown.  One by one, they opened up...

One isn't going to bloom this year and two others have big buds.  I'm tempted to try a new trick I just read about:  cutting budding peonies, wrapping them in newspaper, and storing them in the refrigerator.  They last for three months there!  Then, if you're feeling like a peony bouquet in September, just remove them...cut a bit from the bottom stem...and put in water.  In about a week, the peony will open up for a beautiful bouquet!  And I certainly love peonies in vases.

Peonies have one glorious week and then quickly become blowsy.  My lupines, too, have had their glorious time, blooming behind the false indigo...

...and are now slowly going to seed in a very interesting way.  Bean pods!

Now, if I were just interested in tidiness, I would quickly cut this stalk down.  The lupine would stop putting energy into seed production and potentially send up another shoot.  Do you remember my poor, frost-bitten wild geranium?  I sheared off the top half a week or so ago, and it's already sending up cheerful pink flowers.

So maybe I should cut down my ratty geraniums and my pale, bulbous Jacob's Ladder...but I don't want to miss those seeds.  And I'm still uncertain about which flowers rebloom after cutting.  Some don't, and I have such a mish-mash of flowers that I'm not sure what category they fall into.  So I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that two weeks of rattiness = bountiful seed pods.

Another big risk: invasives in the garden.  My obedient plants were frost-bitten too, but are forging ahead, now about 2 feet tall.  From 2 puny plants last year came this year's wide-spread crop, and they could prove to be a terror in the rich soil of my front bed.  But...I love them.  And I'm going to take the chance.  The same with evening primroses, with their weedy foliage and bullying ways.  I've got them spread in 2 large swatches, and they're slowly starting to open.

They're lovely!

But they are voracious spreaders, so I have to keep a close eye on them.  I've apparently planted several other "bullies":  black-eyed susans, morning glories, yarrow, coneflowers, lily of the valley, ferns, anemones, bellflowers, bee balm, daisies, veronica...but I like these flowers and if they spread too far, I'll just move them to another bed!  Right?  Well, we'll see! 

Speaking of bellflowers, mine are just starting to open...squee!

And the ox-eye daisies that I dug from our front field are starting to open up, too.

I love these daisies so much that I grubbed up another huge patch of them from the front field, which will hopefully be plowed this week, and planted them along the front fence.  They're so cheerful!

So many things are leaping out of the bed that I'm starting to feel a bit uneasy, like Mickey Mouse in The Sorcerer's Apprentice.  They have certainly taken on a life of their own!

That beautiful 'Moonbeam' yarrow is just the right touch in the center.

My golden loosestrife is blooming right next to bright purple salvia...another happy accident.

Somehow I ended up with this delightful half white, half purple salvia.  It's gorgeous from afar, but I love seeing the little open-throated flowers up close. 

I hit many a Lowe's clearance rack last year and snapped up several foxgloves.  This year, a beautiful yellow colored one is unfurling...

And I have one that's a delightful peach color!

My biggest patch of foxgloves...the two plants that might be sending up close to 15 spikes now...are starting to bloom, but only the top half. 

I hope they weren't frost-damaged...I want to see those full stalks covered with flowers!

One of the appeals of foxgloves is their height.  I love height in the garden, so Todd put together some large trellises last week.

In about a week, I'm going to plant some black-eyed susan vines on them!  I ordered a big trellis bench, too, but shipping has been delayed again.  Hopefully I can find another place to put these vines!

Claudia continues to share her meals with us...five mice in the past 2 days!

When she's not eating, she's lazing next to me in the garden while I work.

Bosewichte has been grumpy about this supposed favoritism, so I gave him a little treat.  See that little smudge on the left side of the photo?

I've been taking Bosewichte out and tying him to the apple tree while I work in the yard.  He eats grass, sniffs at passing butterflies, and generally enjoys himself. 

They certainly have a gift for relaxing!

Not us.  We've been swamped with work, both indoor and outdoor, these past few weeks.  We're both working hard to get the front field ready for plowing, taking turns clearing out the weeds...taking care to wear these snake guards, because the weeds are tall and the snakes are out!

We're hoping to get our flats of flowers, herbs, and veggies in the ground by Saturday...after several days of rain, the ground should be ready for them!  And excited, too, to see what blooms in the next week in this front part of the garden.  At least 10 flowers, just ready to pop!

Have a great week!

spring is growing on me!

It's almost harvest time!  About 5 weeks ago, our container gardens looked like this:

We're keeping it simple this year, because we might be moving.  So, I just bought a few seed packets:

And contributed some of my own, like these red bell pepper seeds, saved from the veggie itself:

 

My sister-in-law bought me these lovely garden tools for Christmas.

They're based on a William Morris design.

 

I love working with them in the garden.  It's made great progress and now the radishes and the lettuce are nearly ready for consumption!

 

I've got a little company in the garden now.  While Tabitha is content to lounge around the house all day in any spot...

 

...Bosewichte is only truly happy when rolling in the sun.

 

I haven't wanted to bring him outside because the yard isn't completely fenced in...but he finally wore me down.  I had to commit to keeping an eye on him.  He rolls in the flowers...

 

...peers through the plants...

...observes the world from beneath the lilac bushes...

 ...and stalks prey (i.e. shadows) mercilessly.

 

It's only after an hour or two outside that he's ready to come back inside and take a nap to recover from his strenuous morning...preferably in Todd's office!

 Our irises are coming up.  They're so beautiful!  First we had the stalk.

 

Then, the buds pushed through the crackly covering.

 

At last!

 

I think irises are so pretty.

 

 I added them, and columbines, to my usual lilac bouquets this week.

Gorgeous!

 

The salvia is spiking...

Yarrow leaves unfurling...

The wild strawberries are ripe, too.  The birds are very happy!

 Lots of worms around, too...

...including these little grub worms that I often unearth when working in the soil.

 

The carpenter bees are out and about...

...and I discovered something amazing when following him to his hollowed-out nest.  A praying mantis ootheca...just getting ready to hatch!  Last year the oothecas hatched in early May. 

 

You know it's empty when you see the sawdust-like streamers coming out of the bottom.

 

The ants are bustling about.

 

Leafhoppers are everywhere!

I love sitting and waiting for the little things to come to life.  At first, when sitting among the flowers, you won't see anything.  But if you're patient, little things will creep out of their hiding places, or at least become visible, like this gnat.

 

We're still walking at the park, too, which is greening up by the day!  

I don't have space for a recipe today, so I'll leave you with a photo.  Todd's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and I made Martha Stewart's six-layer salted caramel chocolate cake.   

 

I was originally going to cut the three layers into six layers like the recipe indicated, but I accidently put my hand through one of the layers to prevent it from falling on the floor.  No hope of sawing it in half, so I just made this a three layer cake.  Still delicious.  The icing contained a pound of butter and a pound of melted chocolate...so rich!  The recipe is available on her web site.  

Have a great week!