I'm back...

Well, it's been a couple of months.  This has already been a busy summer, what with getting married and all that.  It takes a lot of time and effort to plan a wedding, so I've been off doing that and then recuperating afterwards.

It's also been a busy two months out in the yard...the perennials have really exploded and the vegetable garden has taken off too.  The tomato plants are large now, and have green fruit on them.  We've been eating lettuce for weeks.  Bush beans and pole beans are thriving.  We also ate a lot of radish about a month ago (see above)

So here are some pictures that I've taken over the last two months and just haven't had time to blog anything about them...

MAY 30, 2010

 Here's the big raised bed for vegetable.  I took this picture because it shows my irrigation system that I got at my gardening-themed wedding shower.  It works really well and has made watering easy and fast and wastes a lot less water than when I used to stand there with the hose.  At the front of the picture, you can see some perennial herbs that are doing well, and at the back of the picture, you will see some rogue potatoes that survived the winter...we'll see how they do...

Three little tomato plants along the side of the house.  I put them close to the asparagus this year, as I think they will get more sun there.

Radishes on the left and pea blooms on the right.

Here is clematis 'Elsa Spath' continuing to flower abundantly.  In this picture you can also see that the dwarf buddleia survived the winter but is only growing up from the ground, and the mauve balloon flower also made it through the cold.

Here is an iris finally blooming from bulbs we planted last fall.

The delphiniums are up and are huge compared to last season.

 

I'm not sure what this is, but it's cute.

I'm so glad that these irises bloomed this year. Last year they just had leaves.

 

JUNE 7th, 2010

This is a couple weekends before our wedding.  The delphiniums are beautiful, and so far haven't been knocked down by heavy rain.

  

Here are some dark blue irises that flowered soon after the large ones.  And in the pictures below is the vegetable garden on June 7th.  I have added some tomatoes in the large raised bed, along with cucumbers, a squash, zucchinis, yellow watermelon and bush beans (just sprouted).

 

I will continue later with some more pictures from July...

April - May

So, I haven't written anything in quite a while, but things have definitely been happening in the garden.  All of the perennials have started to show themselves, and we don't seem to have lost many over the winter.

Here is a white "Bleeding Heart" that lives just under the Sand Cherry tree by the south side of the house.  It has grown quite large, about 3 times the size when I planted it last year.

April 23rd, 2010:  Alex's red and white tulips started to bloom.  The ones next to the house foundation are way ahead of the ones further out.  It looks a bit funny but we can't really do anything about it.  The ones near the house get warmed up first.

 These are the Leucojum "Gravetye Giant" that were also in bloom on April 23rd, when I took these photos.

This is the asparagus on April 23rd...getting taller and slightly bushier.

The next photos were taken on May 2nd, 2010.  There were quite a few tulips and daffodils in bloom.  The yellow flowers are a species tulip planted under the serviceberry tree in the back yard.  You can see in the last picture that the asparagus is getting much bushier. I think the asparagus planted in our yard will always be earlier than the stuff sold at the farmer's market because of the heat that comes off the foundation of the house.  The soil thaws much earlier.

These next pictures are from today, May 20th, 2010:

Clematis Elsa Spath has 3 large blooms showing already.

This is Aquilegia canadensis 'Little Lanterns'

Some more perennials:

Here are some black parrot tulips under the Sand cherry tree

Here's an update on the vegetables:  The peas are doing very well and will soon be outgrowing their little trellis.  I've been having trouble with lettuce, seems like getting a short cold snap every time the tiny lettuces get going.  The second picture is of 4 tiny romaine type lettuces which have proven to be the hardiest so far.  The radishes and carrots are sprouting well and the strawberry plants are already growing little green berries.  It's been quite warm this week, I'm already having to remember to water the seedlings...stay tuned.