I took a lot of pictures today, let's start with the garden. A couple of the pictures got cropped in the blogspot view, but if you click on them you can see the full picture.
Here's Bed #1 of our garden, which has a variety of greens, as well as the mammoth cabbage my son got from school and the volunteer brussel sprout with the beautiful yellow flowers. I left it there as a trap plant, but I really like it's flowers.
Here's Bed #2 of our garden, which has cherry tomatoes in front and a couple of types of bush beans and cowpeas behind them. The frost got most of the beans but they're making a comeback!
Here's Bed #3 of our garden, which has three different kinds of pole beans, although they've been ravaged by the same yellow striped beetles that have damaged the tomatillos, as well as little black beetles with red spots.
Here's Bed #4 of our garden, which has oregano in the upper left, tomatillos in the lower left, curled parsley between the oregano and the tomatillos, basil in the center (along with a few random parsley seeds I planted), and four different kinds of squash along the right side.
We tried to grow tomatillos last year and it didn't go well, so this year the man we bought them from gave us two plants to try again. Unfortunately some nasty little yellow striped beetles have ravaged them! I go out every day and drown the ones that I can find in a dish of soapy water.
I caught this picture of my husband checking out my mammoth sunflower.
Last year this bed was all flowers, but this year it's sunflowers and cucumbers, which are on the right end of the bed, so that we can build a trellis for them to climb (which we hope to do tomorrow!).
Our tomatoes are doing great! Some of them are even flowering. The ones on the left were purchased from a different person that the ones on the right, but I'm sure they'll catch up in no time!
This is the side bed my husband built beside our house last weekend. On the left is red and green malabar spinach, and the rest is cilantro.
This is the other end of the side bed, with mustard greens on the right, kale on the upper left, then dill that I planted to deter pests, then chard that I transplanted from Bed #1 because it was too crowded. I started the mustard and kale in pots on the deck.
Like last year, I'm growing some things in pots and planters on my deck. Hopefully they'll go better than last year, but either way I'm happy with my little projects!
These pots contain various things, but most notably the front planter is mustard and the pots on the left are peanuts, which we found at the greenhouse. They love the Mel's Mix soil we use! It'll be interesting to see if we get any peanuts at harvest time.
The big plant with the pretty yellow flowers is a kale plant that I planted last spring! It grew right through the deck and the root is as big around as my thumb. On the left is a daylily that I bought at the farmer's market last year; I can't decide where to put it. On the right in a tray full of winter savory seeds a friend gave me to try to grow. They're a couple of years old but I soaked them in tea, so I'm hoping they'll sprout *fingers crossed*
My husband built the box on the left, which is planted in lettuce mix and loose leaf lettuce. The other are planted with Drunken Wife, Deer Tongue, Red Deer Tongue lettuces, and peas. I'm hoping to grow salad through the year.
The planters in the back have lettuce and peas planted in them and my husband built the two boxes today, so I can grow my own salad. I'll plant them next week. I'm staggering the planting in the hopes of having salad always available!
I have a few herbs growing on the deck and next to the bed beside the house too.
We decided to put the mints and the catnip in pots so they don't overrun the place. The small pot is chocolate mint, which is new to me.
This poor little fennel lives off by itself because I've read that they don't play well with others. I'm mulching with mown grass in the hopes it will hold moisture in the soil during the hot summer.
The planter on the left is dill and the other has summer savory and tarragon. Summer savory has the most beautiful tiny little pink/lavender flowers! When it blooms I'll try to get a picture of it.
This is an assortment that I put in pots. I have high hopes for the salad burnet, which supposedly tastes like cucumber.
And now on to the various flowering things around the farm!
I created these two planters as gifts for two teenage boys to give their mother because they didn't have anything to give her and I was going to the greenhouse. I don't know what all of the flowers are (other than the marigold), I just picked things I thought were pretty.
I put these planters together for two teenage boys to give to their mother for Mother's Day. I really hope she likes them! I put the extra flowers in pots to keep, happy Mother's Day to me! :)
I found this at the greenhouse and I don't remember what the name of it is. The flowers are adorable, though!
I found this pink wishbone flower at the greenhouse. I'd never seen them before, but they're really pretty, and there's a deep purple one as well.
The tiny deep blue blooms of this lobelia are so gorgeous! I don't know the name of the mystery flower, I don't remember what the tag said.
I'm not sure what color this wishbone flower will be. I can't wait to see it!
A couple of clusters of these little pink daisies came up beside the house.
These beautiful columbines grow beside our house.
I relocated some of the deep purple irises from the patch at the end of the driveway to the butterfly garden, with no idea the while butterfly bush would get so big! I may relocate them, although they look beautiful blooming beneath the butterfly bush, which hasn't yet flowered.
This yellow butterfly bush grows so differently from the others. On the others, old growth regrows, but the yellow one is different. Only this one branch regrew, the rest is beginning anew from the base. Last year none of it regrew and it grew into a beautifully shaped bush.
I planted this pink butterfly bush over Jasper, our pot-bellied pig who passed away in March, 2010.
I bought these lantana last weekend and decided to plant them on Fantasy's grave. I hope they flourish!
I planted these last year and they were so tightly packed in their pot I had to cut it to get them out. They're supposed to be while with purple veining throughout, so I really hope they bloom next year.
Sorry for the long post, I had many beautiful pictures to share! I'm hoping to add more in the way of a garden journal as time passes.
