April in the Garden

First iris to bloom in the yard

I love this time of year, when some of my favorite flowers are blooming, iris, lilacs, roses, apple trees... It seems the garden is bursting at the seams these days!

I have so many old bearded iris in the yard, these plain white ones and some plain dark purples are the early bloomers; later there will be a tall yellow and a two toned purple and lavender.

lilacs in bloom

I love my lilac bush, it smells heavenly. The scent of iris and lilacs reminds me of when I was a kid and mom would put vases of them around the house.

apple blossoms

While that late snow browned the edges of some of the petals, the apple blossoms seem to be ok.

the terrace garden

On the hillside terrace garden the poppies, cilantro and wild flowers are getting a good start.

patio garden, west side of house

The patio still needs some cleaning up.

Princepe Borghese

But the Princepe Borhese tomatos are blooming.

Sweet Magnolia, a purple snow pea

Between the crazy weather and some rabbits, there are only a couple of Sweet Magnolia plants left, but they are making peas.

Sweet Magnolia pea blossom

And their flowers are pretty too!

Bleushokker pea blossom

There are only a couple of Bleushokker peas left too. They were in the coldest spot in the back garden and the Dec. snows did most of them in. They do have pretty flowers and they are the yummiest soup pea ever!

weedy spot in the back garden

I tried to get this silly picture to be vertical, but Blogger doesn't want to do it so it's sideways. This is a corner of the back garden, on the east end. This is a narrow trellis bed where I had planted Sugar Snap peas. there were only a couple of plants left in there and they were pretty sad looking with the crazy weather we've had this year, so I pulled them out along with all the weeds and fed them to the chickens.

Most of the weeds are gone.

Most of the weeds are gone now. I will probably plant either beans or cukes here, haven't made up my mind which one. On the right of this picture you can see the Mammoth Melting Sugar peas, which just started producing. More about those on Harvest Monday!

brassicas

This is one of the two brassica beds. on the right side is the purple sprouting broccoli, in the center are the Romanesco and on the left are either De Ciccio or Waltham, the tags got lost so I'm not sure which. I weeded out all the hen bit and discovered the bed was pretty dry; perhaps that's why they haven't done as well as they should have. Either that or I'll blame it on poor soil, late planting and crazy weather! Behind this bed is the one with the Mammoth Melting Sugar peas and behind that, the trellis bed that I weeded out.

Red Pontiac potaoes

The Red Pontiac potatoes that I planted in January are sprouting up and looking good. Some of them were just breaking ground when the snow came a couple of weeks ago; I just piled a little dirt over their tops and they didn't get frost bite.

Cecile Brunner Rose

The Cecile Brunner climbing rose that I planted a few years ago has grown quite large. I spotted the first blossom this after, after catching a whiff of it as I walked by. While the blossoms are very small, they are very fragrant. I hate that modern roses have so little scent and refuse to buy them. I want roses to smell, what use is pretty if there is no fragrance?

bolting celery

In the greenhouse the celery is bolting. The cilantro is already there. I let it bloom all over because it's small fine flowers are good for the beneficial insects.

Cilantro/coriander blooming

snapdragon

The snapdragons are blooming in their wall pots. The ones I planted around the yard are a bit behind since the air and soil outside are cooler.

tomato plants on the shelves, peas in the background

The greenhouse shelves are loaded with plants; more small fruited tomatoes, Snow White, Currant, Princepe Borghese.

baby tomato plants

The large fruited tomatoes were started later and so are smaller; Amish Paste, Italian Heirloom, Black from Tula.

basil seedlings

Lots of Classic Italian and Lime Basil seedlings.

green strawberry

There are some green strawberries in the greenhouse bed.

old seeds sprout!

The greatest thing though, is those Hale's Best Jumbo cantaloupe seeds that I saved in 2003 had almost 100% germination in the greenhouse under their cute little Victorian cloche!

Chickens!

And here are all the chickens, my four hens and my young Buff Orpington rooster, standing tall in the center. He isn't crowing yet but I have seen him getting after the hens, so I think I'll set aside some money next month for an incubator. I'd like to hatch small lots of chicks at a time for meat.


These chickens are not as tame as my previous ones. My other chickens I raised from chicks when my grand daughters were with me all the time and the girls were always petting and playing with them so they were very tame. These were in a large pen with about 50 others and while not exactly wild they don't come sit in your lap either! In fact they are just now getting the idea that when I come up to the fence and call them they should come because it means I have a treat, either scraps, weeds or worms.

Varieties Growing in 2009 May 22, 2009

Varieties Growing in 2009

May 22, 2009 at 2:48 am

Well, I’m getting around to a few things, one is a list of what’s growing this year, this includes things we’ve already harvested and eaten as well as what’s in the ground now. But it doesn’t include things that I will plant in the future. Altogether I count 132 edible varieties. That number will grow somewhat as the rest of the summer planting goes in and later on when I put in the fall and winter crops.

VARIETIES GROWN IN 2009

This is a list of varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers grown in 2009. Items marked with * are from home grown seed.

VEGETABLES & ANNUAL FRUITS

BEANS
*Apache Purple Pod
King of the Garden Lima
Royalty
Yardlong or Asparagus Beans
BEETS
*Cylindra
*large mixed [yellow, pink, red, white]
CARROTS
Danvers Half Long
Imperator
Purple Dragon
COLE CROPS
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Purple cauliflower
White cauliflower
CORN
Chires Baby Corn
Bloody Butcher
EGGPLANT
Black Beauty
Neon Hybrid
*Neon F2
GREENS
Lettuce mix
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
*Swiss chard
Mache
Claytonia
*Red Russian Kale
Giant Red Mustard
Pak Choy
NZ spinach
Malabar spinach
Sorrel
HERBS & EDIBLE FLOWERS
Basil, Lettuce leaf
Basil, Spicy Globe
Basil, Thai
Bergamot
*chervil
*Cilantro / coriander
Chives, regular
Chives, garlic
Chaste tree, aka Monk’s pepper, buddleia, summer lilac
Daylilies
Dill
Hollyhocks
Honeysuckle
Lavender
Lilacs
Marigold, Lemon Gem
Marigold, Tangerine Gem
Marigold, Texas Tarragon
Mint, peppermint
Nasturtium, Alaska
Nasturtium, Empress of India
Oregano, Italian
Pansies
Rosemary
Sage, broadleaf
Sage, chaparral
Sage, Pineapple
Tulips
Violas
Violets
MELONS
*Hales Best Jumbo cantaloupe
Blacktail Mountain watermelon
Jubilee watermelon
OKRA
Burgundy
ONION FAMILY
-Leeks- the Student
-Garlic, regular and Elephant
-Onion-
Ebenezer?
Florence Red Bottle
Welsh bunching
Red Bunching
PEAS
*Sugar Snap
Blueshokker
*Dwarf Grey Sugar
*little Marvel
Maxi Golt
Sweet Magnolia
PEPPERS
Ancho Gigantea
Jimmy Nardello
Anaheim
Santa Fe Grande
Sweet Red Bell
Georgia Flame
Alma Paprika
POTATOES
All Blue [Peruvian ?]
Red LaSoda
Yukon Gold
Russet
RADISHES
Easter Egg
SQUASH
Baby Blue Hubbard
Trombocino
Kabocha
Delicata
SWEET POTATOE
Beauregard
TOMATOES
Super Italian Paste
Polish Linquisa
Snow White
Yellow Pear
Yellow Marble
*Princepe Borghese
Imur Prior Beta
TURNIPS
White Globe Purple top
MISCELLANEOUS
Jicama
Purple de Milpa Tomatillo
Ice plant
Honey locust tree
Poppy
PERENNIAL VEGETABLES
Jersey Hybrid Asparagus
Connover’s Colossal Asparagus
Elephant Ears
FRUIT
Sequoia strawberries
Thorn less blackberry
Blackberry
Blueberry
Granny Smith Apple
Anna Apple
Grimes Golden Apple
Summer apple [mislabeled, unknown variety]
Boysenberry
Heritage Raspberry
Baba Raspberry
Santa Rosa Plum
Wild Mexican Elderberry
GRAIN & SEEDS
Buckwheat
Winter wheat
Rye
Popping sorghum
Mammoth Sunflowers
Oil Sunflowers
Sunflowers, mixed kinds & colors
VOLUNTEER/EDIBLE WEEDS
Red root pigweed
Lambs quarters
Chickweed
INEDIBLE BUT OTHERWISE USEFUL PLANTS
Soapwort: roots make cleansing suds good for gentle cleaning of delicate or vintage fabric
Golden bamboo: useful small garden stakes
Madder: produces a long lasting red dye from the roots, yellow/tans from the tops. My chickens love it.
JUST STUFF
Vinca major, drought tolerant ground cover
Virginia creeper, Drought tolerant vine/ground cover
Bearded iris: flowers
Star jasmine: fragrant flowers
Trumpet creeper: draws humming birds