Quick Erev Shabbos Garden Tour!

These pics were taken at dusk yesterday so if they’re a little dusky, well… yes.

Death of a clematis.  The same Nelly Moser flower seen in its full glory just last week… here.

But this week, we have PEAS!  Well, okay, PEA.  A few are flowering, and if we can wait patiently, we will have peas.  If the weather doesn’t heat up again too quickly.

 

Back garden chaos.  This is the area just to the right (north) of the composter, and it shows, because everything in this strip goes a little wild.  Crammed into this picture, we have “Black Lace” Elderberry Tree (far left, slightly dark leaves, but new leaves are bright green, so it doesn’t show up well yet), a few hostas (freebie last year), a golden tansy (volunteer from the other side of the garden), lime thyme (mmm… smells delicious!), bee balm (freebie), sweet williams (freebie from seed), goldenrod (bought), a couple of daylilies and a bunch of ivy (there when we moved it, but boy has it SPREAD!).  Chaos, indeed, but healthy chaos.  Oh, there are also a couple of volunteer sunflowers starting from seeds dropped by last year’s volunteers.

And here are the square-foot beds!  You’ll notice they’re kind of leafy / junky looking.  I decided not to rake off all the leaves, but just leave it as mulch and dig through to plant stuff.  For the most part, it’s working well, but in a couple of cases, the leaves have encroached and smothered a small seedling (one marigold & two broccolis).

SFG #1 (aka the Cow Bed) – peas (starting), marigolds, a few lettuces, 2 x 3 feet of potatoes (still underground, but a few leaves are peeking out), beets (sprouting now from all the rain!), broccoli, struggling basil, two cucumbers, golden zucchini (storebought), onions – from sets, planted two weeks ago, still have not sprouted.  :-o

OMG, is all that planted in a 4 x 4 grid?  How did I cram it all in there???  And then there’s everything planted around it:  chives, chinese/garlic chives, thyme, daylily, bee balm and milkweed.  The bee balm is a little tall for my liking, probably because of the rich soil.

I have not quite stuck with the square-foot thing this year.  Well, I have, but the squares are not as clearly-delineated as in previous years.  We’ll live… I’m too lazy to fix it now.

SFG #2 (aka the non-Cow Bed) – peas (see pic above), a few lettuces, bok choy, onions (from sets, still not sprouted), wax beans (seeds planted this week), Blue Lake pole beans, 1 x 3 feet of potatoes (just peeking out), golden zucchini (storebought).  I think that’s it over here.

Plus, around it, a lot of THYME, a happy yarrow, golden oregano (that’s the yellow at the bottom – amazing stuff!), coriander.

Garlic gone wild (in a pot):

Raspberries… covered in flowers, hopefully fruit soon.  The alligator and cow guard over the various beds.

 

Kiddie playhouse planters:  I meant these to be symmetrical when I planted them last year, but the columbine and astilbe really took off in one while the other virtually died off over the winter.  So now they are asymmetrical.  I may try to fix that later on… or just leave it.  In the middle is a pot of hakone grass for colour and shade effect.  And a found-at-curb picnic table for colouring, crafts or snacktime!

 

My 4” freebie driveway garden – back for its second year!  The mint has spread quite a bit and now I feel sorry I planted this where it could creep into the neighbours’ lawn, because the new neighbours are a nice young couple.  Still, mint isn’t SO terrible; it’ll just smell nice when they mow.  The plants in here are striped lamium, gooseneck loosestrife, and hosta.  All free last year, and all thriving.  Yay!

  

Goodnight, garden!  (I love the glow of the golden hops as the daylight fades away…