July garden

In my preparations for Nerd Prom and surgery, I have been neglecting posting about the veggie garden, though I have not been neglecting the garden itself.

I'm mostly growing roma tomatoes this year, since last year I bought tons of them at the farmers market. And we ran out of the pasta sauce I made from them far too early. This variety seems to be quite susceptible to blossom end rot, but I think I've got it mostly managed now.

I've never grown cucumbers before. The one you can see there is about the size of my pinkie fingernail. It'll only get to be the size of quarter. Adorable!

I kept seeds from a mystery variety of winter squash that I got at the end of last year's farmers market. They're incredibly happy. If we can't find Kaylee one of these days, I'll be sure to check to make sure they haven't dragged her in.

Squash flowers at the end of the day.

Dill! I've made two quarts of refrigerator pickles with this dill and cucumbers from the farmers market. It reseeded itself from last year quite happily.

I had an issue with peppers this year. The ones I grew from seed all died. But I got some from Oakland that are doing very well. I like the two little baby ones still in their flowers at the top.

This is Ohio, so I grew soybeans. These are fancy-schmancy black soybeans, though. They're fuzzy-stemmed. I didn't know they'd be like that. Nifty.

Crossing my fingers that it will keep going so well!

Flowery-type things

It's cold and rainy, so something to remind me of when it was not.

Roses

I'm not a huge fan of roses, but these Peace & Love roses at Fellows Riverside Garden in Mill Creek Park are beautiful.

I went with my mom, grandpa, Uncle Chuck, Aunt Martha, and my cousins Anne and Emma (Martha's daughters). It was a lovely day and the sun was just touching the these roses.

There was still dew on the roses, but they were warm enough to smell wonderful.

I miss having a park like Mill Creek here in Columbus. There's just nothing like it here.

Another garden corner

A couple weeks ago, I showed you a corner of the vegetable garden. Here's a little corner of the flower garden in the back yard.

Sweet pea flowers

Yay! My sweet peas are beginning to flower!

So pretty. They're all this delicate purple and cream. Mom asked me to save some seeds for her, so try to remind me, OK?

Peonies

I always know when our peonies bloom: the last week of May and the first week of June.

How do I know? On our first spring in the house, six years ago, they bloomed exactly then, when Jeff and I were on our honeymoon. We got to see nothing but the dregs when we got back. Every year since then, I've always looked forward to seeing them, since I didn't get to see them the first time.

Compare & contrast

What I was looking at a little over a week ago:

What I'm looking at now:

Feel free to discuss.

One of the things I like to do when I go to California is to go to botanical gardens (luckily, wormie enjoys that, too). I like seeing plants I don't usually get to see. Right now, these count:

Granted, very similar ones will appear in my garden soon, but right now they remind me that, despite the covering of snow and ice on my car, one day spring will come again.

And while it's supremely boring to those who live in warmer climes, I just love seeing citrus trees all full of fruit.

To me, terribly exotic. To them, something you find in the backyard. :)

Front garden

I don't often show you the front garden. It's nice, but for some strange reason, I tend to think it's boring, even though it's not.

There was a big sale at Oakland Nursery this weekend, and we loaded up on stuff for the holes in the front, including some hydrangea.

We also picked up a small spirea.

I don't know if I mentioned last year that we replaced our smaller water feature with a 100 gallon water trough (purchased at a farmer supply store for about $50). It makes a wonderful water feature that's deep enough for our water lily to live through the winter. Jacques and Petrolina just went to work in there last week, and we got a new solar fountain, too.

And one patch of Jeff's bananas lived through the winter.

And, of course, we have snapdragons and portulaca, Jeff's and my favorite garden flowers, respectively.

So that's the front garden. Maybe another picture when the lilies bloom.

PS: Hi, Uncle Chuck! (My Uncle Chuck just let me know that he subscribed to my blog. He's my mother's older brother and he lives out in San Diego with my Aunt Terry.)

Eggplant flowers

The eggplants are doing wonderfully in the garden. Hopefully, all the happy purple flowers presage happy little eggplants down the road!

Gardening

Jeff and I spent several hours gardening this morning. I pulled up a whole bunch of wild onions, and there are still plenty more out there!

Our bleeding heart has really bounced back. This is what it looked like a couple weeks ago. Here's what it looks like today:

And our peonies are about to bloom. Normally, they don't bloom until the end of May/beginning of June, but these are going to be early. I always remember when they bloom, because our first year in the house, we were on our honeymoon and missed them.

The new job is going well. I like everyone I'm working with, and the work seems interesting.

I know I've been quiet

It's that whole new job thing. Ending of the old and starting of the new. I start next Monday with no real break in between. I wish I had one, but there's a really cool training session I want to attend at the new job, so I'm willing to just jump right in.

In other, less dull news, flowers! This is what it looks like when a hard freeze hits a big, old bleeding heart plant. It was about half the size when we moved in five and a half years ago. It's probably been set back a bit, but not totally. It's approximately four feet from droopy edge to droopy edge.

And these are Lily of the Valley, just about to pop. Maybe by the end of the weekend. The side yard will smell absolutely gorgeous. They're much happier since we pulled up a lot of the bishop's weed.

These are some flowers in our bog. I can't remember what they are, but they're pretty damned cool looking. You can also see a lot of other happy bog plants in the background.

And not all of our tulips melted. Some survived.