The Mid-June Update

 Music and German Extra Hardy garlic.  I just removed the scapes earlier this week.  They are doing beautifully in the raised bed.

 Winona strawberry bed after being renovated.  Old foliage was removed.  The middle and rear plants were removed to leave room for air circulation.

 Snow Princess sweet alyssum that was started from seed.

 Jacob Kline Monarda

 Navaho blackberries are developing.

 Tiki Torch coneflower.  This is it's third year.  Not a very vigorous coneflower by any means.  Still not much bigger than when I ordered it.  Disappointing.

 Major Wheeler honeysuckle is blooming its heart out.  Hummingbirds have been visiting it!

 My "shell" garden.  Heirloom, vining petunias are along the left side.  Copra onions in front.  Scarlet Nantes carrots and Salad Bush cucumbers are to the right.  Two Tango celery plants are ready for harvest in the rear.

An interesting comparison.  Above are my Copra onions on June 2nd.

 Exactly 14 days later.  It is a great gardening year so far!

 Salad Bush cukes on their compact 3 foot vines are already ready for their first harvest.

 I bagged blossoms a few weeks ago.  I'm considering leaving on the bag to see what happens.  I will probably have to cut it away at some point since this is a Kellogg's Breakfast tomato.  They're not tiny.  :)

 A Sandul Moldovan, Kellogg's Breakfast, and two Sun Gold tomatoes in one of the 3' x 3' raised beds.  THRIVING!  Finally a great tomato year....so far.

 Fat N' Sassy bell peppers are doing wonderfully.

 They are already producing a bunch of peppers.

 One of my favorites.  Echinacea purpurea.  Unimproved, and perfect.

 My Meyer's Lemon is taking off.  Too bad the Lime (in the green container) has been a dud since day one.  Strange.

I have my first lemons developing and more blossoms!
Happy Gardening!

Four of my 10 tomatoes.  Clockwise starting at the top left: Sandul Moldovan, Sun Gold, Sun Gold, and Kellogg's Breakfast.

My composters in back.  Mixed strawberry varieties in the raised bed in front of them.  The front bed is Music garlic and Kennebec potatoes.

 Caroline raspberry plants.  3'x3' bed.  I planted only THREE plants here in the fall.

My Fat N' Sassy (King Arthur) bell peppers.  This is a 3'x3' raised bed.  I placed one pepper in every square foot.  This spacing works beautifully for me each season.

Oh yeah!   It was just as sweet as it looked!  Best year for strawberries yet!

Winter came and went... Wait! Winter was here? We only had one good snow right before Halloween and perhaps two dustings after that. That was winter? I guess the strange weather had me preoccupied, and I didn't check in as much as I would have liked. To fill everyone in on what is going on around here on yet another warm, 70+ degree day......The daffodils visit is coming to an end. They sure are a dose of sunshine when they arrive though.
We had a new roof put on our house a few weeks ago. My relatively new (3 year old) Prairiefire Crabapple tree took quite a jolt. One of the roofers tossed something off the roof. It flew a good 15 feet out and caught one of the three main branches of the tree. Bent the end of this branch down to the ground and cracked it along the ridge. Poor thing. I thought the shovel tossed off the roof onto my Golden Zest rose or the three large garbage cans tossed on my blooming daffodils was going to be the worst of it. :(
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As you can see in the background, my hummingbird feeders went up a few days ago. According to the hummingbird migration maps, they're already north of us into New York. If you're interested, check out the link to the maps at http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html
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It doesn't look like much in the backyard right now, but in a month or two, it should be green and lush.
My Meyers Lemon plant that I purchased about a year ago. It developed its first blooms and just opened for the first time this morning!
Last year I bought a small ivy plant at the grocery store. It did quite well in my eastern-facing window. I decided to take an old wire hanger and make this topiary. The hook is buried under the potting mix. Then I shaped the rest into a circle and twined the vines around it. Although I'm not a big fan of ivy, I do think this makes a nice presentation.
Above is one of my Snow Princess sweet alyssum. It looks like there might be some blossoms starting in the middle of this one. I've never grown sweet alyssum before, but I'm still trying to add fragrant delights to the garden.
Old-Fashioned Vining Petunias. A fragrant annual that is new to me this season.
My tomatoes were planted on the March 11th. They starting germinating the other day. Here is one of the Sun Golds that my daughter is anxiously waiting on. Their flavor hasn't been beaten yet by any other cherry tomato. I know it looks sad, but it's amazing how they can transform into something spectacular within a few months.
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I would be remiss if I didn't mention my tomato list for 2012. What was going to include only 4 plants turned into 12. So much for self-control.
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2 Sun Gold - Everyones favorite cherry tomato around this house.
2 Celebrity - Dependable, disease resistant choice.
2 Kellogg's Breakfast - My dad's favorite. Superb flavor. Get small toward end of season for me.
1 Cherokee Green- Amazing flavor. Winner for flavor in 2010. Best green yet!
1 Cherokee Purple- Did poorly in a bad tomato year last season. Giving it another try.
1 Sandul Moldovan- Excellent pink.
1 Pruden's Purple- New to me. Despite its name it is a pink. I hear good things about it's production and flavor.
1 Marion- I had old seed, but never tried it. I figured I would plant it to get fresh seed...and to taste it.
1 Marglobe- Same as Marion. I've never tried it, but would like fresh seed to replace the old. Interested to see how it tastes and produces.
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Left: Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) from last seasons saved seed.
Middle: Tango Celery. A hybrid.
Right: Fat N' Sassy Peppers. Another hybrid which are now sold under the name King Arthur.
Dwarf Red Haven Peach. This is the first time my Stark's supreme dwarf RH Peach has had blossoms on it. They have such a beautiful pink hue to the flowers. Gorgeous. Since the tree is still quite small...even for a dwarf, I won't let it fruit yet. The scaffolds need to thicken up a bit and branch out before I will put that kind of stress on it. It is nice to see that it is doing well though.
Music and German Extra Hardy garlic which was planted last October. Off to a healthy start.
Caroline Raspberries. This is all from ONE bareroot plant that I planted last Spring.
Earliglow Strawberries. I went out this morning to find a blossom already! Last year my first Earliglow started to blush on May 19th. With all of this ridiculously warm weather the last few weeks, they are way ahead of schedule. I hope they hang on when the temperatures drop back down starting tomorrow. It'll be going from mid- to high-70s back into the mid-50s (where it should have been all along).

I went away on vacation last week. Unfortunately, the onions didn't enjoy themselves as much as I did. After a week without water in yet another intense heatwave the foliage had begun to wilt and flop over. The bulbs were forming quite until now. I watered them well on Saturday upon my arrival, but it looks like harvest time is quickly approaching despite my efforts. The onions partially shaded by my pumpkin plant are still doing very well.
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Copra and Red Zeppelin onions along with Salad Bush hybrid cucumbers harvested Sunday.Music garlic harvested Sunday. Portion of the border around the house:
Becky shasta daisies, dwarf barberry, Rosy Returns daylilies, mums, Navajo blackberry behind the coneflowers.Below is another portion of the house border:
Adonis Blue dwarf butterfly bush, irises (bottom front), Autumn Joy sedum (just forming buds) Lucifer crocosmia, purple coneflowers.
Another pleasant surprise I found was four Black Swallowtail cats on my Florence fennel. I planted tons of carrots in the same bed, but the fennel has always seemed to be their preference.

Spring Has Sprung!

Things are starting to show signs of life again. Here is a Heritage raspberry plant that was added last season. Off to the right is a Caroline raspberry added last fall that I ordered from Stark Bros. So far those are still dormant...I hope.I planted peas back on the 6th of March. They are finally starting to come up. I was really worried about these. Especially after seeing my resident mockingbird eating away at the peas on one very cold, frosty morning.
Below is my Frances Williams hosta. The first hosta to emerge this season.
Chives that I left out in this pot, unprotected, all winter. They didn't miss a beat.
My biggest disappointment. I really wanted this one to work out. :( I ordered this Black and Blue salvia last season. It got off to a slow start and then took off. It was absolutely gorgeous. The hummingbirds and bumble bees loved it too. I have a bad feeling about its survival. We're right on the border of hardiness. Although it was well mulched......
Hyacinths are in full bloom right now.
A Golden Acre cabbage that I planted last fall. I planted it too late and it didn't have time to produce a head. It survived unprotected in one of my raised beds...along with two others. I have doubts that it will produce a head of cabbage, but I wouldn't mind some free seed for next season from it.
German Extra Hardy and Musik garlic that was planted in mid-October. It is off to a great start. Very strong and healthy.
I just planted my onion plants from Dixondale Farms. Red Zeppelin and Copra again this season. They stored well into January...when I ran out. This time I ordered a full bunch of each. The only downside about growing onions is that the squirrels like to pull them out, so I have to replant quite a few of them each season. They tug them out. I put them back in.
Karl Rosenfeld peony coming up.
My Alberta Spruce appears happy. It is just starting to put on some new growth. That's a good sign.
One of my absolute favorite spring bulbs. My Tete-a-Tete daffodils. The cutest miniature flowers I have ever seen.