cool weather makes for great gardening! 5/5/13 update

despite the wet weather and the dire predictions, we went out to the garden.  not a single drop of rain fell!  as a matter of fact, it was a little chilly and it warmed up slowly.  by mid-afternoon, the sun was breaking through.  all in all, it was the perfect morning to be in the garden doing work-after all, today was the day to build the keyhole garden and build it we did!  to see the photos of the process, check the keyhole garden page by clicking on the tab above.  

 according to the rain gauge, we had just over 1.5 inches of rain on saturday.

 the iris bed is in full bloom

 the little block herb bed is filling in nicely

 just look at the square foot garden; it too is filling in nicely.

 the old tomato garden is ready for the three sisters garden to be built.

 sedums are a vibrant yellow-green; they glow in the shade

 our rock star has returned from rehab with a new attitude.  let's help him keep it together!

and as always, cake.  today's offering was a semolina cake with almond flour, lemon zest and thyme.  it was tasty and we ate at least half of it.

garden update-3/11

things are looking wonderful in the garden.  we have several new volunteers and for the first time since i began working in the demo garden in 2008, we may have enough volunteers to help us maintain things at a comfortable pace.  since we are basically doing spring cleaning and preparations for the tomato trials, not much is going on in the garden besides a lot of weeding!  be sure to check out the help wanted page to see what needs to be done if you are heading out to the garden.  in the mean time, take a look at the garden...

now that his spring tour has concluded, our rock star has returned.  this little guy was the toast of the lawn and garden show.  and if you made it out there, you understand why we are so glad to have him back home.  he made a bit of a spectacle of himself out at the fair grounds. little girls grabbing him, ladies asking about him constantly, repeatedly falling off the hay bale into the bottle garden...for now it is a life of sobriety while hanging out in the herb garden and, oh no, look at all of those bottles!!!

 speaking of bottles, look at the lovely bottle tree that shirley put in the herb garden.

since it is early spring, not much is happening and the plants aren't putting up much of a show so you have to look carefully to find the points of interest.

 tiny blue speedwell blooming in the main garden

 gorgeous purple sedum reaching for the sky in the green roof garden

 hellebores in the shade garden

 gotta love the grasses when they put on this kind of show in the berms of the rain garden

 virginia sweetspire in the rain garden is just beginning to bud

 the sage has overwintered beautifully in the herb garden

 here is the japanese parsley sending up new shoots

 also back from the lawn and garden show, the pallet garden.  while the pallet itself is new to the garden, many of the plants came from the block beds all over the main garden and this will be a new addition to our display on vertical gardening.

 look closely, the asparagus is sending up it's first stalks of the season

 finally, the cabbages are forming heads

 the red cabbage is still thinking about it!

 then again, so are the weeds-henbit in all of its glory

 kale sprouts in the lasagna garden-hurry up and grow so we can eat you

 newcomer to the shade garden-fumaria officials commonly called fumatory and is considered a medicinal herb

pretty but uninvited, it will be given the heave ho along with the rest of the weeds!

wednesday evening in the garden, update-8/24

as summer winds down and the days grow shorter, you would expect it to cool off.  for the month of august, it only seemed to get hotter and even waiting until late afternoon to head out to the garden offered little relief from the heat.  i had hoped for a larger group of volunteers but only margaret and shirley were able to join us in the garden.  shirley brought a new friend to the garden and he has decided to stick around and keep an eye on the herbs for me...

this year, shirley thought it would be fun to make tin men with the junior master gardeners.  it was a lot of work and then i asked her to make a giant one for the herb garden.  he turned out great and we cannot thank shirley enough for making him!

 our main task for the afternoon was to begin removing the passion flower from the herb garden.  i confused two seedlings-passion flower and roselle(thai hibiscus) and the results were nearly disastrous.  that passionflower quickly spread and we will be removing it for some time!  we did want one for the arbor and i planted several roots into a huge pot that has been sunk into the soil near the arbor-lets hope that keeps it contained!

 after the digging we set our sights on the small bed near the herb garden and it was quickly weeded.

sugar bear also joined us in the garden and she didn't like the heat much either.  however, she did dig up and kill a mole first thing so we let her lounge in the dirt.

a look at what is going on in the garden:

 ailanthus webworm moth on flowering chives

 cinnamon basil in full bloom

 egg plants

 pumpkins in the compost corral

 honeybees in the sunflowers

 skippers like chive blossoms too

 so many cayenne peppers

 beauty berry loaded with berries

 black and blue salvia in bloom-a hummingbird magnet!

 the creeping jenny in the roof top garden glows

the dish is filling in nicely

but on closer inspection, it is obvious that the deer jump into the dish and eat the sweet potato vines!