Let's play a game!

... find the humming bird!

Yes, I do know where it is. Take a guess though!

Jasmine

In the very corner of the back yard, barely visible from the kitchen window, is this:

And, by the way, it smells heavenly! I love the close up I took:

Can't you smell it?!

Container Garden

My hydrangea is gorgeous as ever:

I about 11 buds getting bigger and better everyday. I am so glad I bought this on the half-off rack in the corner of Fred Meyer's garden section.



My favorite hanging basket:

I keep accidentally "killing" it every couple weeks, but it comes back looking like this every time. :)

Two Sundays ago I visited a local nursery, Dancing Oaks, with my mother and grandmother. Great place! They do a lot of native and exotic plants. I picked up a beautiful yellow echinacea (that has a nice light fragrance) for $12.00. 

We also visited another nursery, Garland Nursery, and I picked up a small golden sage plant on a sale rack. It is planted in the same pot and there will be more pictures to come.




:)

Operation Fruits and Veggies

... this week's report.


Here's the garden!

In case you can't tell the difference from the previous post:

First cucumber bloom! A great improvement since one plant died. 

First red on one of our tomatoes!

Operation Fruits and Veggies

... last week's report.

 Last week:

 Here is an up close view of the corn!

CORN.

My boyfriend's friends gave him four small tomato plants (three yellow pears and one sweet baby girl). One looked near death, but I have hope it will turn green again. I planted them in this pot:

The one on the left is near death...

Plan B...

... peas!

I had planted some rattlesnake pole bean seeds in jiffy pots but only two made it. I took those two outside and they have been doing all right, although not as well as I hoped... It has been about a month, as documented in one of my very first blog posts and I am just getting this:

It's about eight inches high... and it's the tall one of the two. Now, when I was at the store buying my seeds I could not decide between these fancy green and purple striped beans and any old pack of peas. I chose the beans because I like beans and they had purple, which was something I wanted more of in the garden. Well, I should have gone with the peas.

A week ago I "happened" upon the seed rack at Fred Meyers and grabbed a pack of peas that "happen" to be good for staring late in the season. I planted them along with my beans and even more just outside of the bed that night. A week later: 

This one is outside in the clay soil and still going faster than the beans did.

So, beans no more! I have some magic pea plants instead. 

:)

Front Bed

Last week I spent some time wedding the front bed. Rascally weeds! But it looks so nice now:

You may notice in the above pictures that a lot, I mean a lot, of rose campion is missing. That's because I pulled it out for fear that it was shading my pumpkins and squash too much. Then I planted some petunias my grandmother gave me:

Most are this white with blushing and purple, but there is one red one starting to bloom.

I made a friend too:

And I am just as excited about my coreopsis as when it first began to bloom!

Earlier that morning I saw my first pumpkin bloom. Alas! By the time I got off work and took a photo it had faded.

But there are more to come!

Black Petunias!

This: http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/2011/07/petunia-black-cat-worlds-first-black.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MrBrownThumb+%28MrBrownThumb+gardens+in+Chicago%29  is a post from a fellow gardener.


 I'd love free plants from Burpee!

Container Garden

I also brought some friends back for my potted plants. More potted plants! Including my apple tree grown from a Granny Smith from Costco. and my geranium that defied nature and overwintered (compared to the other geraniums).

Also pictured is a hydrangea that looks a bit pathetic. :) I think I might plant it in the corner of the yard that is pictured in the upper left of this photo per my mom's suggestion. 

What else is in that corner? A pink mallow and a white jasmine that has just begun to bloom. Yum!

While I was back home my grandmother gave me a flat of petunias that I will plant in the front bed this Sunday. That means more pictures to come!

Bluebs!

Short for blueberries. Berries that are blue and scrumptious, such as these that I've been munching on:

Yes, those are my bluebs! I came back on July 5th and found this:

A few days later I had a handful's worth and now a colander! I had actually eaten a few handfuls myself before I took the picture.

Operation Fruits and Veggies Week "I don't even know anymore"

The vegetables are doing pretty well. Pumpkins are growing, tomatoes are flowering, bell peppers are fruiting.

Here are some visuals!

 So... the cucumbers actually don't look as hot as everything else. I'm just grateful nothing died on me while I was gone. :) In fact, the corn looks awesome!

Belated Post

This blog is in serious need of a new post. So here it is!

I went home to the coast for the Fourth of July weekend and brought back flowers from my mom's garden. How nice of her to let me pick! I threw them together the night I came back: