sunday, june 2

the garden is looking wonderful!  we have been able to take advantage of the cooler than usual temperatures to get things done.  the cool weather has also allowed transplants to adjust and begin growing.  the drier weather has also worked in our favor where seeds are concerned; we have finally been able to get seeds to sprout rather than rot!  

 the keyhole garden is humming along nicely.  the seeds are sprouting, the flowers are blooming and things look good.

 alyssum and marigolds planted in the outer blocks of the keyhole garden.  these are just two of the plants that will included in the keyhole garden just to attract beneficial insects.  alyssum attracts aphidius wasps and parasitic wasps while the marigolds attract hover (syrphid) flies and may help repel deer.

 a zinnia watching over the eggplants in the keyhole garden.  yet another of the flowers planted to attract beneficial insects; it will hopefully draw in hover flies and parasitic wasps.

 over in the rain garden, the yucca is getting ready to put on a show

 look closely at the passion flower bloom-apparently, stink bugs like them.

 the arbor is covered with blooms from the passion flower vine.  

 the logs in the herb garden are alive with mushrooms.  

 identifying feverfew and chamomile can be tough until they begin to bloom.  the petals on feverfew are  short and stubby and they stick straight out.

 the flowers on chamomile are considerably longer and they sometimes hang down like these in the photo.

 can you believe the square foot garden?  just look at all of the plants and how they have filled the squares.

 the cabbage is forming heads.

 marigolds are keeping watch

 the three sisters are hanging in there and filling in nicely.  

 in the raised enabling garden, the asiatic lilies are blooming like crazy!

 last fall, we had to rescue all of our hostas from the voles.  the damage was pretty extensive and to let them recover, we put the surviving pieces in pots and let them winter over in my carport.  now that they are recovered, smaller but stronger, we are replanting them in cages made of hardware cloth.  we dug holes and set the cages in.

 we filled in the gaps around the sides but made sure to leave a little above ground.  then we began filling the cage with soil.

 here we put the empress wu, filled it in and put a little of the hardware cloth around the crown as well. we covered the cloth as well.

 to make it look pretty, we covered the area with pine needles.  the empress wu is new to the garden and we wanted to make sure that we protected the crown.  we will put the rest in this week-a total of 10 crowns to be replanted and possibly 10 more to cage.

and always, a cake; mocha swirl bundt cake.  join us and you too can feast on cake...