Sunday, May 29, 2016

The latest crop...

...of photos!

Orchid Macro - see the Tiger head?
Twilight Orchid

Unopened Nectaroscordum

Just-opened Nectaroscordum

Marigolds and cedar shingles

Allium macro
Backyard as the sun is setting

Geraniums catching the last light of the day

Monday, May 23, 2016

May 2-4 Weekend

It was a lovely weekend, thank god, so we managed to get a lot of gardening done.  We went to our favourite Greenhouse, Belgian Nursery, on Saturday and bought our plants and seeds (we had bought some vegetable plants at the local farmer's market earlier in the day). It was busy with fellow enthusiastic gardeners, but the check-out wasn't too bad, all things considered.



So much to choose from
Ready to go!

A very special Primula
Of course, Belgian Nursery always has a great selection of cacti and succulents, so I can never resist getting a couple of new plants for the house!

Crassula muscosa

Rhipsalis cereuscula

A friend very kindly offered a small corner of her family vegetable plot, so that we could grow some food.  We have a backyard full of Walnut trees, so it's impossible to do it on our own property. They are an Italian family who have been growing their own for many years, so the soil was beautiful to work with.  On the Saturday, we planted tomato, basil, hot pepper and kale plants, and beet (two kinds), radish and daikon seeds. Fingers crossed with the crops.

The trunk is filled with our supplies
Watered in
Come Sunday, we were ready to tackle our own garden.  We only bought a few perennials, as our garden is quite packed out , as it is. We found a very interesting Primula (see above) and a Japanese painted fern plus a couple of succulents for the rockery and boulevard (Corsican Stonecrop or Sedum dasyphyllum 'Major' and Blue Spruce Stonecrop or Sedum rupestre).

Sedum dasyphyllum
Sedum rupestre
In addition, and most importantly in terms of summer colour, we did our planters. We didn't have to go as crazy as other years because we kept a lot of plants and cuttings in the greenhouse over the winter. We did buy a large hanging basket for the front deck, large and small Marigolds, Portulaca, Browalia, and Geraniums with very colourful leaves. It was a beautiful, sunny day to do it, but we were both wiped out by the end of it - it's been a while since we've had to do that much bending!

Morning planting
Afternoon planting (note the hat!)
Upper deck

Friday, May 20, 2016

May 2-4 Weekend approaches...



About a month ago, the back garden looked like this. Most of the colour came from bulbs, and some early spring plants.

Scilla

Mini Daffodils

Anemones

Crocus macro
A few weeks later, the garden was much greener, and some other favourites had made themselves known.

Brunnera

Hellebore

Forget-me-nots and Epimedium

Cut Tulips in front of painting