Flowers

Lately I have been enjoying lots of flowers from the garden.

Storms

Today we had a serious heavy storm that dropped two inches of rain in about a half an hour.  It toppled over all the flowers for my cutting garden.  I spent well over a half hour staking and supporting the dilapidated flowers.  It's not cute but they are upright again and I will still have flowers for cutting.

I tried staking the borage but I don't think it's going to make it the stems are too brittle.

Flowers

Fresh garden bouquets one of the joys of gardening.

Summer Flowers

It is the end of May and time for the pansies to be retired as hotter weather sets in.

These are the beauties I carefully handpicked to use.  I told Andy it's like I'm painting with flowers.

I have some pots that will take lots of soil for just a plant or two.  So I first put crumpled up plastic pots in the bottom to take up space but still leave room for more than enough soil.

Peonies

The peonies are finally beginning to come in which always makes me smile!

Warm Winter Weather

Last weekend it was quite warm.  Warm enough for the daffodils to make their appearance.

It was also warm enough that the bees came out of the hive.  We were excited to see signs of life but it's obvious the hive is weak because a strong hive would have had much more activity.

Winter Arrangements

I love decorating the window box and hanging basket for winter.  You could pay a lot at garden centers for branches but I go and hunt them down for free.  The winter arrangements also mean I get months off from watering.  There is just something about the greenery and berries that just shouts out the holidays are here!

Unique Color

This winter I received a bag of randomly mixed zinnia seed from my Dad's wife.  I mixed the bag up and hoped that when I planted the seed I would get a good mix of colors.  Most of them are pink, yellow, white and colors of zinnias I have seen before.  But this might be the prettiest zinnia color I have ever seen.  It's not pink, it's not red, it's for sure a color of zinnia I have never seen before.  I am definitely letting this one go to seed and saving the seed for future plantings.

Morning Glory

The volunteer morning glories on the hive's fence have started to bloom.

Sunflowers

 

 I got these beauties at the farmers market for a buck a piece.  I would say that was a deal!

Prunings

I love it when pruning can lead to a pretty little arrangement!

Wordless Wednesday

Garden Progress

Things seem to be coming along with all the newly planted seeds and summer crops.

The kale has come up.

The zinnias and cosmos are chugging along.

The potatoes have been hilled up.

The provider beans came in with spotty germination.

The KY Wonder pole beans are doing really well.

All of the summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers have come up.  Soon I will need to thin down the hills to just one seedling.

Potted Up

I potted up all of the sunflowers.  They will probably have to be put into larger pots before they can go outside.  Every year our sunflowers get dug up or eaten by the squirrels.  I am hoping by allowing them to get to a more significant size the squirrels won't touch them once they go out.  

One and Only

This was the one and only tulip that bloomed for us this year.  So I had to cut it and bring it inside to enjoy before the deer get to it.

Bradford Pear Tree Branches

Sometimes I forget that the flowering trees can also make beautiful arrangements, not just cut flowers.

Happy Spring!

Today is the first official day of Spring!  In celebration I have cleaned the winter branches out of all the planters and boxes and replaced them with pansies.  I am definitely ready for colorful flowers again.

It might be the first day of Spring but it has been looking like Spring for awhile.  Even all of the trees are in bloom 3-4 weeks earlier than usual.  Here are the ones at our house:

They Are Coming!

I have been keeping an eye out, checking every couple of days to see if the peonies were starting to emerge.  And this weekend they finally popped out!  We will have peonies very soon.

Snowdrops

Look at what one of my coworkers did.  She picked snowdrops that were blooming right along the school parking lot and nestled them into old antique door knobs as centerpieces for our workroom.  ADORABLE!  

Zinnia Seed

I have been browsing my seed catalogs deciding what to get for next year.  In addition to veggies I also like to pick out a few flowers for cutting.  It helps to feed my love of indoor arrangements and curb my desire to buy some at the farmers market.  Last year the only variety that worked out really well for me were Zinnias.

This year I plan to try out a couple of different types from last year other than the Zinnias.  I was at my Dad's over the holidays discussing seeds when I found out his wife, Connie, saved all of her Zinnia seeds from last year.  So I was sent home with a lovely and large bag of mixed Zinnia seeds.  I am looking forward to planting them next year and seeing what pops up.  Now I just need to pick out all of the other seeds.