Garden Growing

Emma took this picture, love the angle on the rose




pink peony, too lovely

My weeding resolution is going reasonably well; I haven't quite managed to get out every day, but I'm keeping up with the perennial garden. I need to remember to handle the wildflower garden in front, especially since my beloved neighbor is an avid (and sort of obsessive) gardener who puts me to shame in the weeding category--he literally spends hours in his yard every day and no weeds are to be seen, so I get a bit embarrassed when he looks at my efforts! However, I kind of figure that once the wildflowers are tall and blooming the weeds won't be as noticeable--the cottage garden style lends itself to weed camouflage in a way that my orderly perennial bed does not.




roses the size of dessert plates



my lilacs seem to bloom later than other people's, even in my own town. Maybe they're a different variety?

The vegetables are coming along; we're picking snap peas and lettuce almost daily, and I'm trying to remember to use my herbs. This will be easier next week, after my greenhouse window is installed in the kitchen! Then they'll be in easy reach while I'm cooking...always assuming that the cats will leave them alone, of course. The tomato plants are getting taller, and the beets have great foliage; I was advised I can leave them in as late as December if I want the biggest beets possible (I only have 4 plants) and the carrots are coming along too. These I can't wait for, since I got a Carnival Blend with purple and white carrots as well as orange ones. Should be fun! One of our watermelon seedlings seems dead, but I'm frankly all right with only having one watermelon vine. I guess that's going to have to live in the perennial bed since our veggie patch isn't big enough to hold it.



can't resist a rosebud



pretty yellow roses

My climbing roses are doing wonderfully, which makes me really happy. There are blooms and buds all over it, and indeed, the roses in the perennial bed and at the side of the house seem to be thriving, too. My very favorites are the peonies and the lilacs. I'd really like to get more of those.



these pink ones are in the perennial bed



but these darker ones climb the back fence

New Year's Resolutions--Yes, In May!

I know, I know, it's May, not the time for resolutions. But really, I have a good reason, and that's my garden. You might recall that last year I overhauled the perennial garden in the backyard. When we moved into this house five years ago, I thought "perennial garden" meant that I never had to do any work in the garden, because after all, the plants are perennials...doesn't that mean they take care of themselves? That's what it should mean! I am the worst mix possible: I love having a beautiful yard and flowers to fill up vases in my house all summer long....but I really, really hate yard work! And after pricing out what it would cost to have landscapers do all the work for me....let's just say that if Matt had only cared about being rich, he should have saved himself the trouble of getting that Ph.D. and gone into yard work instead!

But I digress. I finally got tired of my formerly lovely perennial garden being an overgrown weed patch and last year I decided that I was going to do something about it. So I worked. HARD. And with practically no help from my family, I might add. Matt and Rachel gave me a bit of help when it came to buying the forty tons of mulch I needed and humping it from the store to the car and from the car to the back yard...but once it was in the back yard, it was up to me to heft it all over the garden. The kids helped a tiny bit, when it came to planting, and Matt dug a few holes when I needed a deep one for roses or peonies. He also worked with our neighbor's rototiller to turn everything over before I began. And the kids helped a bit collecting the three hundred thousand pounds of beautiful stones I collected from local beaches over the course of the summer, so I could ring the garden in (and hopefully keep the lawn from encroaching while I did it)...so okay, I STILL don't have that project completely finished...but in my defense, rocks are heavy, it's a pain in the neck to collect so many, and my garden is large--I'd say it's probably 30 feet long by 10 feet wide (but don't quote me, because I'm terrible at eyeballing measurements!)

My theory was simple. The former owner of the house was apparently a master gardener, or at the least she could afford to pay for people to do it for her. The perennial garden featured gorgeous flowers, but the problem was that I had a hard time telling weeds from flowers, so it all got very out of control. Also, she stuck to a pretty boring color palette of yellow, purple, and tiger lilies in orange thrown in--I happen to hate tiger lilies. I like them on roadsides, but I hate them in gardens. They are messy looking with their massive foliage and they don't make good bouquets because they wilt as soon as you cut them. I decided a better plan for my style of garden was to plant bushy perennials that might spread out...I used various butterfly bushes, coreopsis, roses, peonies, lavender, Montauk daisies and others of that nature (OK, yes, I've forgotten some of their names!) so that when weeds pop up, it would be easy to tell them from the plants I wanted. Then I could yank those troublesome little buggers before they became a problem. The fresh mulch looked so pretty, and I laid landscaping cloth underneath too...so really, weeds wouldn't be a problem at all. No sun, no growing.

Someone really ought to give weeds some kind of award. Really. I have had trouble many times in the garden--with veggies, herbs, flowers--I plant them and sometimes they just die. For no reason whatsoever. Really, no reason! And yet--I am a champion with weeds! Landscape cloth? Mulch? HA! Those weeds just come right through it. No trouble at all, don't mind if I do! I'd imagined that this year I could sit back and watch my beautiful garden, maybe spend three or four hours (all summer, as in three or four hours TOTAL) pulling out the weeds that would sprout, and finally finish up the rock collecting to border the garden at my leisure. All done. Finito. Flowers to enjoy and that's all. We bought a new hammock and I'd envisioned reading novels while I looked at that beautiful garden....I guess the lesson here is that gardening is a series of endless chores that make you want to stab yourself repeatedly. All those people who say they love gardening? I think they are either Stepford wives, compulsive liars, or are quite simply insane. What's to love about backbreaking labor that never ends? I just don't get it!

I should pat my kids on the back here and say that sometimes they are willing to help me. Emma and Julia, especially, will help me weed and plant things. They are all willing to pick things from the garden. And Ben can be counted on to pick yellow dandelions for me--at least that way they won't go to seed and make more of their horrible clones. Gardening is an area where I can say Matt is a terrible husband, however. (And this is not something I can say of him often; he is mostly a very good husband. But gardening? He is a jerk about gardening.) He mows the lawn, and will trim bushes if I nag him for a few weeks first. He will rake leaves in the fall (again, with the nagging) and he's aces at shoveling snow. But work in the garden? N-O-P-E. No can do. Never. Not in this lifetime. He tells me "I hate gardening, and I don't care what the yard looks like." I've tried pointing out that he enjoys vegetables and herbs that we grow. I've tried tantrums. I've tried the whole "if you LOVED me, you'd give me some help..." I've tried pointing out that this should be a family project, and by not helping me, he's subtly encouraging the kids not to help me....all for nothing. This seems to be the single area of life where I simply cannot budge him. (*sniff*)

This spring, the weeds have been really bothering me. Every time I went out in the yard and noticed new weeds sprouting in the garden, I wanted to punch someone. Every hour I've spent weeding has bred resentment in my mind, that I have to do all this alone, even though I already do so much for this ungrateful family....and every time I stop to buy four bags of mulch so that I can drag them home and dump them over the garden in the hopes that it will slow the growth of these pesky weeds (and I can only buy four bags at a time because otherwise we'll wreck the new shocks in the van that we had to put in because LAST year I supposedly wrecked them bringing home too many bags of mulch and beach rocks...blah blah blah...and by the way, four bags of mulch weigh about a million pounds and cover about nine square inches of the garden) every time I do this all I can think of is that it's going to take a hundred MORE trips to buy enough mulch to cover it all, and what's the point anyway because obviously the weeds grow right through it anyway...and so, here is the resolution part.

My resolution is simple and beautiful in its simplicity. Every day (assuming the weather is fine, and that I'm home, of course) I will get outside in the garden or yard, and I will weed. For half an hour, or possibly forty five minutes if we're home all day and I feel like it. I set the alarm on my cell phone and put it in my pocket, and I work like a machine till it rings. This is going to make all the difference in the yard and in my levels of psychotic rage, because it breaks the job into tiny pieces--rather than going out once in a while and spending hours working like a crazy person while the rest of the family does something fun--which is basically anything that doesn't involve yard work!--muttering to myself about how I'll never get it finished, how horrible it is, how nobody is helping me, etc. --I am working steadily and daily, and in short bursts of time. In half an hour, I can get a surprising amount accomplished, and more importantly, I know the job won't be finished, so I don't care that it isn't. I'll be back out tomorrow, and after I've worked for a month or so, maybe I'll even be scrounging around trying to find something to do. At least that's the hope. There I go, being terribly optimistic again....at the least, I can use it to make my husband feel extremely guilty that he's such a lazy sack when it comes to the yard, and maybe I won't have to nag quite so much when it comes time to trim the bushes again.

Working

We are working in the garden.


Yesterday, we used the rototiller to clear the big garden in the backyard.

Now, we're pulling roots out of the dirt.




The chickens are leaving little footprints all over the soft soil while looking for bugs.


Some of us are busy with other projects. (Like making a rock-smasher.)






Even the littlest are helping.








But just think: next spring, we'll have beautiful flowers like these.







I think it's worth it.

Fresh from the Garden....

We picked these yummy veggies tonight after weeding the garden. As you can see, there's a nice ripe tomato in the center of the photo, with some purple string beans and basil surrounding it.

Ah, delish.

Summer Flowers

We picked our first big bouquet of the summer on Monday and took a picture of it...I am just getting around to posting it, but better late than never, right?


Also, I wondered if any of you know what this flower is:








It was in one of the perennial or wildflower seed mixes I scattered in the garden. I absolutely love it--when you're looking at it in person it almost looks like it's made of paper. I am hoping there will be masses of them soon! So far I am very happy with the way the flowers are coming up, and am looking forward to more surprises like this little beauty.

--Jen

Uber-Chickens

Five chickens.

Two days.

Eighteen eggs!

Say what?????



---Jen

Chicken Proofing

Last week when I planted the primroses and Gaillardia dazzlers, I was worried about the chickens. And my fears were correct--I don't think they are messing with the plants as in eating them--but they walk everywhere and trample delicate plants. So I came up with an idea. I went through the recycling bin and took out soda bottles, water bottles, milk jugs and even an empty gin bottle :) and cut them in half. Then I put them over the baby flowers and dug them into the soil a bit--the chickens don't walk on them anymore! Plus I think they will protect them a bit if it gets cold at night, like a mini greenhouse. At least they protect them from wind, and if (horrors!) there should be any frost, it can't land directly on them.

Also, I was out there today looking around, and there are sprouts where I planted a lot of things--the wildflower mix, the perennial mix, the cosmos out front. Granted, they could be weeds. But I am hoping for the best! And speaking of the best, to our delight, the cutting garden I planted at the front steps last year seems to be growing back! Yay! At this rate I can make a roadside stand to sell bouquets....

--Jen

Planting Veggies

Today I got the vegetable patch planted! It took longer than I thought it would to prepare the soil and pull all the weeds, daisies, mint, and dig out the daffodils and irises....by the way, some bad news on that front. I had a whole bucket full of daffodils and irises to transplant, and I was excited by it, too--because last year we only had 3 or 4 irises bloom, but when I dug the patch I found about 50 tubers. My gardening friend told me that it was likely they just needed to be separated and would find new life once they were moved. Well, after planting the garden I went to find them in the shed. I knew I'd never get them all in the ground, but figured I might be able to get a dozen done. To my horror, they were gone! Rachel thought they were weeds I'd pulled--and the got them into the trash this morning before it was collected! She thought she was doing me a favor. Sigh.

Anyway, back to the veggies. When I went to Agway yesterday for new gardening gloves and some chicken wire for the tomato trellis fencing--the chickens can hop right through the squares, so we rigged chicken hex wire so they can't--I was surprised to find that they had some herbs already. The lady informed me that they should be inside for two more weeks, but my ace in the hole are those tomato sleeves I got last year--you fill the tubes with water, which warms in the sun and gives heat at night to baby your plants, so you can plant very early. If my patch had been ready we could have put seeds out in mid-March! So I'll use them for the basil and oregano, and then in a couple of weeks when I get pepper plants I may use them for those. They also had a variety of tomato at Agway called Siberian, which are the earliest tomatoes; they promise we'll be eating them by June.

I also planted more of the beautiful gourmet string beans we had last year. They are green, wax and dark purple, and we were upset the chickens destroyed so many that we never had more than a few at a time. Hopefully this year that problem will be solved. I planted a summer variety squash mix, cucumbers, and a strange thing sent free from the nursery because I ordered enough--it's called Vine Peach. The ad said it looked similar to a peach, but grew on a vine and tasted like a cross between a mango and a peach. So if that's successful I think we'll enjoy it. That's really all I have room for, though I will squeeze 2 or 3 pepper plants in when they are on the farms. Possibly another tomato plant too--we love cherry or grape varieties, and I am a sucker for the orange and yellow ones. So once I see how everything is growing I'll be able to tell how much room we have. If we run out of space I can plant the tomatoes in a container and leave it on the front patio, safe from the chickens!

--Jen

Saturday Work

Today Matt made waffles for breakfast and we had a leisurely time over coffee. After we finally got dressed, we scattered and started chores and yard work. Matt put the screens in the doors and the windows upstairs (the first floor window screens just go up and the storms come down, but upstairs you have to take out the storm windows and put in screens.) He had actually planned to paint, but that didn't work out. He planted my climbing roses at the back fence and dug out two hostas I have wanted out of the garden since last year.

We began preparing the vegetable bed by putting up fencing, digging up mint and daisies, and transplanting daffodils and irises to the flower garden--I have no idea if they will live next year, but I couldn't bear to toss them. Tomorrow we will finish weeding in there, add compost and plant the vegetables. We also weeded more in the flower garden and planted zinnias and one of the most gorgeous flowers I've ever seen--ranunculus. When Aunt Pat and my mom were here yesterday, we went to a farm to see if they had herbs yet (they did not) and were looking around. I was captivated by these flowers which I'd never seen before-- they sort of look like a cross between roses and a tissue paper flower. They don't have individual petals; rather, their petals circle the entire flower in layers. It's hard to explain, but so beautiful. I got 6 plants-- two yellow, orange, white, dark pink and light pink. Aunt Pat said she had them when she lived in CA and they were lovely year after year. So I can't wait to see them every year.

It was gorgeous weather again---Julia, Ben and Emma played in the sprinklers today for the first time! Their shrieks and games could be heard up and down the whole street....

Tomorrow we will focus on the veggies and planting the climbing roses in the front yard. Hopefully we will get to some kind of painting or at least prep work for the painting. It's the ugly truth that painting needs to start again...

--Jen

Flowers, again

Today I had less time in the garden, but I got out there because my primroses and Gaillardia Dazzlers were shipped live so I didn't want anything to happen to them. Planted those and some zinnias (not the entire package) in the west edge of the garden. I will use the rest of the zinnias to fill in places where it is sparse. I fell in love with zinnias last summer and can't get enough of them, and these are California Giants in an array of bright colors. So I am happy.

--Jen

Today's Plantings

I had a bit of time this afternoon, so I went into the perennial garden and prepared some soil. I had to chop out some more lilies, some weeds and onion grass, and some ground cover that is probably a weed but I'm not sure what it is, only that it is all over and doesn't flower. I am happy to note that I saw many big, fat earthworms, which says we have good soil.... After that work was done, I planted peonies, dahlias, and another perennial garden mix. I have to say, those seed mixes are my favorites! All you have to do is get the soil loosened up, sprinkle the seeds and flatten them in. They grow like crazy (at least, if last summer's cutting garden mixture was indicative!) and they come back year after year. How easy is that? I am definitely a cottage garden type--I know, you're shocked at that news--so I don't mind the profusion and confusion that these mixes provide.

I also planted the sweet peas over by the back fence, and a flat of pansies from seeds that the kids bought for my birthday in our little indoor greenhouse box. I was shocked, since pansies are such a hardy flower, that the seeds had to be started inside. However, although it's late in the spring for starting indoors, they bloom into the cold weather, so I think they'll be fine. Plus, by the time they're big I'll be able to see where I need fill- in plantings. I am really hoping the sweet peas do well, because I love them and they will hide the hideously ugly chicken-wire fencing that closes in the yard.

Still to plant: climbing roses (one in front, one in back), primroses, Gaillardia Dazzlers (red with gorgeous yellow centers, they are some variety of huge daisy) and zinnias. Then I think it's on to preparing the vegetable patch, including the fencing to keep scavenging chickens off. I can't wait to see everything start growing and blooming. I can't wait to fill the house with flowers again. And I can't wait to see if the cutting garden at the front walk will return....

A Productive Weekend

This weekend was unbelievably busy. We thought Saturday was going to be the worst day--it was supposed to be Little League Opening Day, where the kids get to parade in uniform and get applauded and cheered by their families, followed by Rachel's first game. We also were supposed to have a Brownie meeting for Julia--a nature hike through the woods at Indian Island. Well, that morning the phone calls began. Everything was canceled because of possible showers in the afternoon. Meanwhile, it was a splendid day--nearly 70 degrees, with sun and clouds. We did have a bit of rain and even heard some thunder, but it wasn't bad, and I spent the late morning to mid afternoon taking care of the dreaded Clothes Switcheroo. You know, where I reorganize the kids' drawers and closets, drag spring and summer clothes from the attic, and decide whether to keep clothes for next fall (i.e., the kid will still fit into this, so it goes in this box), save them for the next girl down, save them to give to friends/family with younger kids, or decide that it should go into the rag bag or be donated away. I also did my own drawers and closet, including shoes.

By the time I was done with that, we decided to head out to the yard for some outside work. Matt had agreed to dig up some tiger lilies I want out of the perennial garden so that I can plant more colorful varieties. While he did that, I decided to clean up the shed and the garage, which over the winter had become a complete and utter mess of things we weren't using. It was so cluttered that walking through was difficult. I decluttered, repositioned, swept, and got rid of things--such as the Little Tykes turtle sand box/wading pool that has served us well for many years, but now that we have a sprinkler system we really don't use anymore. The kids were upset to see it at the curb, but I convinced them all that they are too big for it. We also got rid of the gas lawn mower (we are using a push mower for exercise and to save the environment--and the kids love to use it, too!) and the washer and dryer from our old house that we've had stored since we moved because the ones here were better (and the dryer was gas powered, not electric!) These we put on freecycle and they were picked up right away, and the lawn mower was plucked from the curb also...
By the time we were done with all that, we went in for a quick, late dinner and were happy with our progress.

Sunday we went to the parade and Rachel's game--I left in the middle to drop Julia at our friend's house, who took her to the hike with the Brownies and then back home to play and have dinner. After Rachel's team won, 20-12, we came home and Ben and I went into the yard while Emma helped Matt make a fantastic dinner of steak and shrimp. Ben and I planted sunflowers around the A/C generator, wildflowers and a perennial mix in the perennial garden, geraniums in the front garden, pansies, marigolds, poppies and baby's breath in the window boxes (cross your fingers that they grow!), 3 orchid bulbs I got with my plant order, cosmos out by the pear tree and watered it all with Miracle Gro. Also raked out the garden (though I didn't have time to collect the leaves, so I left it in a large heap to be picked up later in the week...) Then after dinner I went grocery shopping and picked up Julia....

I still have tons of planting to do--climbing roses, dahlias, peonies, primroses, zinnias, sweet peas, the vegetables...also have to figure out how to fence off the veggie patch and make sure the mint and Montauk daisies I pulled out of the patch are truly gone, and decide whether I want to move the daffodils and irises that are in the veggie patch--I think I have to leave them there till fall, though. Also, I have to get netting for the blueberry bushes, rake out the winter debris from the bushes back and front...sigh. I still feel like I made a lot of progress over one short weekend.

--Jen

Yard Work

Today I spent nearly five hours working in the yard. I never raked all the leaves out of the yard this fall, because we got so busy with the painting. It has bothered me all winter that I never did that chore, along with the other major chore of not pulling up the lily bulbs. So today I decided to do it. Matt brought up the fact that the leaves are actually protecting the plants, but I had to counter the argument--we are going to have more painting to do in the spring, and if I don't tidy up the yard now I will be so far behind that I'll never get it done. Plus we have a whole compost bin full of good soil, so I will spread that over the now-clean garden and that will protect the plants.

One catch--we didn't have any lawn bags...so rather than go to the store (on Super Bowl Sunday--are you kidding?!) I used kitchen trash bags. I raked out the garden as well as around it by the fence, the patch by the shed door, under the Buddha bush, the patio around the chicken coop, by the garden swing, cleaned the chicken coop and the back patio, and raked up the giant pile of leaves in the middle of the yard that the kids raked in the fall but didn't pick up--so instead they have been jumped in and raked twenty times or so. Please note that this is only half the yard--albeit the most important half--I didn't get the whole side of the yard where the pine tree, rhododendrons, lilacs, rose of Sharon, spirea bushes are, around the compost bin and under the forsythia at the back of the yard or the holly tree. However, the yard looks much neater and cleaner.

Everyone joined me after an hour or so, which definitely sped the process up. Emma carried sticks to the fire kindling bucket, Ben tilled in the garden to get the bulbs loosened, Rachel and Julia held bags open, filled bags themselves, and hauled leaves to the curb, refilled the Buddha pond and pulled unwanted plants up by their roots. All the kids tidied up the outdoor toys and played with Sophie, who was excited that we were all outside. We also had the music going--the Beatles, Jewel, Paul Simon and even Madonna, so I was happy.

I have decided that the patch by the shed will become the vegetable garden. I don't know why this didn't occur to me before--it's small, but I can fence it off very easily and keep the chickens from destroying our plants, plus it gets wonderful sun. I pulled the daisy-ish flowers out by the roots, though I couldn't bring myself to dig the daffodil and iris bulbs out. I have asked advice about whether I can leave those in place along with the veggies. Since it's a small area I think we'll stick to tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, maybe one other thing. I have had so much more success with flowers and local produce is pretty cheap in the summer anyway. The vegetables are really more because I don't feel like a "real" gardener if we don't have some vegetables, plus the kids get such a kick of eating what we grow.

I can practically smell spring!

--Jen

Garden Dreams

I got a garden catalogue the other day, and now I am dreaming. I look at all the gorgeous flowers and think how wonderful they would be in our yard. Never mind that I am not particularly a good gardener, nor do I really love doing the work it takes! I love the idea of it...and maybe that's enough.

I am going to rework the perennial garden this year. The former owner of our house had far too huge a relationship with lilies, in my opinion. Tiger lilies are beautiful, but they are rather boring and common--and they are not good cut flowers, which is my heart's desire. I also don't enjoy their foliage much. My big plan for last fall had been to pull up about 1/3 of the garden--grub those bulbs right out so that when we layer on the compost in the spring I will have the perfect place for tons of different perennials in many colors....that is the other problem with the garden in my mind--Mrs. Carey loved orange and yellow with a few purple accents. I love those colors too, but I want a riot of colors--pinks, reds, white and blue added in.

My big plan went awry due to laziness and painting the house, however. We were very busy with all the painting (as I'm sure you remember! And we still have more to do in the spring, tra-la!) and when we weren't painting I wanted to be inside. I did try to dig up some bulbs at one point, which was really quite back breaking. I am thinking these lily bulbs may have been growing right there for twenty years or even more. Getting even one out took a lot of work..not my idea of fun. So now they have spent another winter in my garden and I will have to spend all kinds of time in the spring getting rid of them...also due to painting we never raked the leaves in the back yard. We did do the front yard for cosmetic reasons, but the back is quite a mess, and we'll have to rake out the garden, the bushes and a few big piles the kids have raked and jumped in over the past months.

Here are my dreams. Climbing roses! I found an assortment of these and they are so beautiful I can hardly take it. I envision these growing over the ugly chicken wire fencing we put up to close the sides of the yard. If anyone can comment about climbing roses--PLEASE DO! I would love to hear if they are difficult, if they need full sun, etc. One side of the yard would have full sun, the other is quite shaded by the maple tree. The catalogue insists they are a variety that's care free, pest and fungus resistant, etc.--but of course they want me to believe that....

Sweet peas! I want these growing over the arbor at the front door. However, if the roses won't grow in shade, I can put the sweet peas in the shady part of the backyard and put roses on the arbor, which has full sun. We currently have clematis there, but it was a problematic plant because we left it potted too long while we waited to close on this house. It did flower and grow last year, but it doesn't look like it will be enough to cover the arbor...unless I have to wait 20 years? I am way too impatient for that!

Strawberries! I am looking at the Ozark Beauties. I would love to plant strawberries, and again, if you have comments about that I would love to hear any tips. I am up in the air because basically they can't go in the back yard at all--the chickens will devour them instantly. In fact, if we are planting vegetables at all (which I want to) I have to find a way to keep the chickens out of the garden completely. Last year they decimated almost everything--peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, herbs, zucchini...basically they left the tomatoes alone, and the peas and beans grew a bit but not the way I thought they would....by the way, they also have thornless blackberries, raspberries and dewberries--yum! How great would this be to add to our blueberry bushes?

Gaillardia dazzler variety! These are basically large daisy-like perennials--"hardy, carefree, need no pampering" EXACTLY my kind of plant!!--that are red in the center and then as the petals head away they turn into bright yellow. Just shockingly pretty.

Rainbow dahlias---anyone have any advice? These are so pretty, mixed colors from pink to red to yellow to orange. But it doesn't say if they need sun or not...It says they make beautiful bouquets and can be planted along hedges, driveways or borders...comments welcome again!

English Primroses! Free flowering in early summer and again in late summer, thrive even in shady spots, hardy and beautiful. Anyone have experience with these beauties?

Peonies! I love, love, love peonies---but again, I need advice. I think I remember reading about them being difficult to grow or maintain or something...I am not good with needy plants. They are so pretty and the catalogue has a collection of giant double peonies in rose, red, white, salmon and pink...be still my heart. However, again it doesn't specify sun or shade!

Just for kicks, this catalogue (Burgess Seed & Plant Co.) gives freebies with orders...so if I end up buying all these I will also receive 3 Peacock Orchid bulbs (looks like an orchid, smells like roses, white with crimson center), 4 flowering Shamrock bulbs (rosy flowers from June-Sept also called Good Luck Plant), 1 pack of Trip-L-Crop climbing tomato seeds (allegedly produces 2 bushels of tomatoes from one plant! can climb to 25' with a trellis), and a packet of Vine Peach seeds (easy to grow, fast spreading vine, fruit is like a peach and a mango combined--yum!)

Anyway, these are my dreams. I would love to hear from any gardeners out there if you're familiar with these plants...I need perennials that are beautiful and impossible to kill, basically! (Don't we all...)

--Jen

Go, Chickens!

Today we gathered five eggs! That is the most we have ever had, and yet the last week has been really very cold...I am impressed with the girls in the yard. If they keep this up we can stop buying any eggs from the store at all.

--Jen

Sunflower

Just one more flower post. We waited for this sunflower for a few weeks (the fun thing about the bouquet garden is that I'm not really sure what's going to come up....we were pretty sure it would be a sunflower, and it took an appropriately long time to grow, but it was still a surprise when it finally opened) and were so happy to finally meet it! And how nice that it wasn't plain old yellow, too!

We thought about cutting it, but it has some more buds on it, so better to let it bloom.

Jen

Zinnias

What a glorious flower! I absolutely love zinnias. I don't think very many people appreciate how beautiful and complicated they really are. This cutting garden has yielded many, in luscious shades of coral, hot pink and red. Can I say again how much I love them?

Jen

Flowers--I'm loving it

When we moved into this house, I thought the garden was wonderful. I envisioned picking all sorts of flowers and filling the house with fresh blooms all spring and summer, maybe even into the fall. Well, I have picked many flowers from the existing garden this spring and summer, but the best ones have been from the simple bouquet garden that I planted with free seeds, and never thought would amount to much of anything. Which I suppose is how it goes.

Julia's Butterfly

Julia found this gorgeous monarch butterfly in our garden the other day. Pretty good photography for seven years old, I think!

Jen

Eggs

Those chickens!

Last week Julia and Ben were playing outside and found a DOZEN eggs in a nest in the garden. They were not rotten, but when we cracked them we didn't want to take the chance eating them either. I suppose Marie and Scarlett have come to see the coop and even Lila's cat house as too dangerous to potential babies and are trying to be sly. The thing is, we didn't even notice that we were "missing" eggs--these two hens really lay a lot!

So now the kids have to have an egg hunt every day...I have noticed that we haven't had as many eggs in the past few days, so I think they've found a new hidey hole. Another chore to tend to....sigh!

Jen