Tag Archive | petunia

Tuesday View 6.20.16

Jun20

I must say that participating in Cathy’s Words and Herbs Tuesday View blog was the motivation for getting the Memorial Garden ready on Tuesday of fest week.  

The Hill is buzzing with pollinators in the flowers and artists in full creative frenzy this week. Roland has been creating amazing field sculptures. 

The work on preparing the fields is nonstop. Mowing with every cutting implement we have available and can get running is the order of the week, followed by raking and moving the cuttings.  

My Memorial Garden mulch comes from our own tree limbs getting chipped up in a shredder. I think it looks super!

The memorial stone to Tex is placed between his yellow rose bush and the cannabis.  Fitting.

“You can stay as long as you like….“

Tuesday View 6.13.2017

Jun13

The Memorial Garden is ready to add annual, decorations and mulch. There is an unexpected patch of sunflowers coming up.  I made flower bouquets for my daughter’s wedding in 2013. There have been self seeded sunflowers all through the garden ever since.

Beulah’s giant yellow flowers are spurting up up up. They will take over this whole area if I don’t vigilantly keep them in place. Beulah is gone now and I miss her often.  She was 35 years older than me and we talked deeply together.  The little church where we worshipped and prayed with each other is closed now, but her voice and wisdom comes to me often. I sing In The Garden to her. 

Lilac time is over until next year. Now it’s time to prune them back.  I will greet you again next year, my sweet friends.

The flowering quince has leaves but did not flower. I am hoping next year it will be more established.  It was brought to the hill by blues man extraordinaire, Patrick and his magic daughter Erin.  

Zula is keeping an eye on the activity. She thinks the petunias and Sweet William area will look fabulous in a few weeks.  I agree, Zula doggy!

The Tuesday View is hosted by Cathy on her Words and Herbs blog.  I look forward to watching gardens from all over the world as the grow through the season.  I feel part of a garden community and it brings great joy to me.  Thanks to my garden comrades!

Tuesday View 5.16.17

May17

Not a lot but of new action this week.  We had days and days of rainy cold weather. I planted petunias and transplanted some sweet William and they made it through the chilly damp just fine. 

The petunias should cascade down the bank. I still need to haul the roots up to the top of the hill.  I’d like to put them along the boarder line up there.

Tex’s yellow rose has strong growth shoots this week.

The lupine is very happy and did grow some this week.

You wouldn’t guess to look at it, but this little shoot will get 7-12 feet high and produce copious amounts of yellow sunflower-like bloom. I’ve been digging them out hard but I know they will come up all over.

Cathy at Garden Dream at Chatillon suggested this might be helenium. It is certainly healthy! 

The lilac buds are a little bigger too!  Have to look close but there is a little bit of change this week

That’s it for the Tuesday View this week.  Thank you Cathy at Words and Herbs blog for hosting this project.  I’m looking forward to going looking at the other garden views!

End of the month garden view: April

Apr30

What a difference a month makes!  It’s been a long snowy season and I welcome spring.  It’s a time of discovery–greeting old friends in the garden and making room for new beginnings. There is a lot going on.  The Hill is greening up. Harry is pruning the Nanking cherry bush. Strawberries look promising. The nettle patch can’t be stopped and the garlic is coming up gangbusters.  Tax day peas have germinated.  Every day we can is spent outside, clearing, digging and in love with the land. 


Every sunny day there are new “daffy-dills” sporting their colors. 


The daffodils are a delight. They remind me of my mom. She would tell me I was born on a beautiful spring day when the daffodils were blooming.


Spring dug transplants and cuttings.  There is so much abundance and life around me.  Here are roses, Shasta daisies, comfrey, sedum, wild strawberries and rhubarb!


The south side hoop tunnels is now filled with petunias, alyssum, crazy daisies and pansies.  


The onions are looking great!  I’m growing Talon, Borretanna Cippolini and Ailsa Craig onions and Bleu Solaize leeks–all Fedco seed.  We will plant them as soon we get the plowing done.


Have I mentioned pansies? They will all be in the ground or in buckets soon!  I’m very impressed with the beautiful lavender flecked color in the Sorbet variety 


Saint Francis keeping watch in the flower garden. This statue is on loan for the summer. It belonged to my mother in law Mary O’Connor. She was my flower growing mentor.  Mary gave me a package of cosmos seed and said “Even you should be able to grow these, dear.” Thank you Mary.  I miss you and our garden talks.

I really have fun with this End of the Month Garden View project.  Check out other end of the month views at The Patient Gardener. 

Garden Tour April 2017: Meet the Seedlings

Apr6

Snow outside, but green and even some blooms inside.  Soon, very soon, the great transition begins and I will be moving all my green babies outside to their summer homes.

I’m enjoying the flower gardening blogs I’ve discovered on this new journey!  Kindred souls around the world. I found stunning kale ready for the compost shredder in the garden rumination blog from England. His blog inspired this seedling garden tour!

Let me introduce my 2017 garden babies.


Durango Marigold. Edible flower marigold for the Green Love garden. This is the first time I’ve grown this variety. The seed is from Johnny’s Selected Seed. I’ve had great success with Johnny’s varieties.

Garden Peach Tomato. I have three extra early plants that I plan to grow in pots to use in the Green Love Renaissance Garden. The yellow tomatoes, blush red when they are ripe and have peach like fuzzy skin. These plants are from my saved seed.  

Stevia. The saved seed is from my garden buddy Andy. It hasn’t germinated yet, but I am hopeful.  

Crazy Daisy. I love daisies. I pick our field daisies and sing an old Jud Strunk song I carry on my heart. This daisy has a whirly curly description.

Penny Mix Pansies. This variety is reported to bloom all through the summer. They are smaller plants and not as vigorous as the Majestic Giants. I’m hoping they work in the pots and planters.

Sorbet Pansies. I love the colors in this variety. My favorite is a light flecked that make me smile, smile, smile. 
More Durango Marigolds and Shasta Daisies. I am planning a border with calendula, Shasta daisy and something blue, maybe larkspur. 
Ailsa Craig onions. Sweet and sooooo big. These have been a main stay in my summer cooking garden for years. They don’t store very well, but even the small ones are big. 

Borettana Cipolini. The most beautiful onion for braiding. They are flat, button-like. I’ve made yummy creamed onion with the smaller ones. A super storage onion, too.

Talon Onion. A new storage onion from Fedco Seeds. We ran out of onions early this winter. I’m hoping to do better! 

Bleu Solaize Leek. They come alive with a shimmery blue color. The layering pattern of leek leaves is a close up fascination for Farmer Brown.

Majestic Giant Pansies. My old reliable stand by. Magnificent color. Large blooms. It is incredibly vigorous compared to Sorbet or Penny.

Cannabis. All legally grown. With gratitude, with love, with joy.

Master Kush. An indica cross created out of two landrace strains from different parts of the Hindu Kush region. 
Orange Crush. A sativa-dominant strain with California Orange and Blueberry.
Chronic. A hybrid cross between Northern Lights, Skunk, and AK-47 originally bred by Serious Seeds in 1994.

Rose cutting from my ancestor, Moses Patrick’s graveyard.  It has leaves!!!! 

Daisies. “More, more, more” said the garden mama.

Daddy Mix Petunia. Another old favorite of mine. The seed is inexpensive and there are so many colors.
Zowie Zinnia.  I’m growing Zowie in containers for the Green Love garden. It’s an AAS winner and the descriptions say “magnificent.”

Benary’s Giant Zinnia. For Farmer Brown it’s not a flower garden without giant Zinnia and he will make me bouquets with them until frost takes them out.

Seems like all this life
Was just a dream
Stella Blue