The spinach I planted last fall overwintered and produced a beautiful new crop this spring.
The plot is about 4 feet by 2 feet, and the variety of spinach grown is “Melody”. I’m going on my third season with the same package of seeds.This plot provided 5 large salads worth while the spinach was in [...]
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to harvest spinach
on Dec 31, 1969, 6:59PM
Posted by gremlin Reblogged by Old Roses to harvest, spinach on 2008-06-09, 06:32:58
Beginning of June- all roses in bloom. Too much RL life garden work to record it all, but worth it. I got a pat on the back from my husband for the huge advance in garden renovation. I couldn't have done it without him and the kids. Still a long way to go, but several garden spaces look like gardens again. . .
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to gardening
Posted by Ilona Reblogged by Old Roses to Gardening on 2008-06-09, 06:32:47
With only one quarter of the new vegetable garden and yet-to-be-named, blue and gold garden dug and planted, the Salvia planted last year is beginning to mature nicely. My goal with this perennial border is to plant it properly, that is....with 5 to 10 plants per clump of each cultivar. A planting style rarely seen in the states, or at ones home, but truly, the only way to achieve professional results. Simply planting 3 of each perennial is not enough, although, that is my minimum rule. Generally, I plant 5 in a 12 sq. foot lot. Between and underplanted, of course, with lilies and annuals, and, all withing the yellow, gold, blue and white color palette. . ..
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to weather
Posted by Matt Reblogged by Old Roses to weather on 2008-06-09, 06:30:14
It's been a busy week in the blogosphere. Veggie gardens are offering their bounty, perennials are in all their showy glory, and all of those plans we made during the...
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to blogs
on Jun 8, 2008, 6:05AM
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to blogs on 2008-06-09, 06:29:42
As water concerns in California continue to build, smart gardeners are embracing gardening which is not so reliant on water. Roger's Gardens, a premier gardening shop in Orange County, has been conducting seminars called Gardening Naturally on the weekend to learn how to garden with Nature.
Succulents are becoming more prevalent in landscape design. New installations showcase these hardy, drought tolerant plants.
I have a sneaky weakness for petunias and surfinias. They must be the only real rival to pelargoniums for the title of the ultimate balcony plant. Stick 'em in a container, give them the right amount of tender loving care and they'll grow, and bloom, and grow and bloom all summer. . . .
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Posted by Sue Swift Reblogged by Old Roses to petunias on 2008-06-09, 06:29:01
Manduca quinquemaculata.I noticed the damage yesterday on my Goose Creek tomato, and meant to find the bugger, but got distracted. Today it continued its rampage until I found it. Though very large (more than two inches long), these caterpillars are very hard to find, since they so closely resemble a tomato leaf. I find them by gently shaking the plant -- the hornworm "leaf" weighs so much more that it continues to bob after I stop shaking.
Given how quickly tomatoes grow, the damage they cause is pretty minor. I let the kids decide -- bucket of soapy water, or happy home next to the Swallowtail caterpillars. The kids gave me pollice verso and he's now contentedly munching on some tomato suckers I pulled for his delight.
Well, it's not everyday when a bus with fifty-five people in it pulls up to your house to tour your garden... in this case, it was the Master Gardeners of Polk County ( from the Des Moines area two hours west of here). Incredibly nice people, and fortunately our seemingly endless rain held off (though more rain is predicted tonight, and there is a strong possibility the nearby dam on the Iowa River will actually overflow in a couple of days and flood Iowa City as it did in 1993). Being wooded, our garden is primarily a spring garden, but I thought I was pretty good in not continually telling people they "really should have been here three weeks ago". A fine time was had by all; they laughed at my stories and were very kind in not commenting about all of the weeds in the flower beds. As far as I know, they all made it back on the bus, but I'll keep my eyes open the next few days.
We had a surprise on our front porch this morning. When my son opened the door he saw the turtle and called for me to come with my camera. This turtle was moving around pretty fast and my son called him "Zippy". . ..
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to birds beneficials
on Jun 8, 2008, 1:51PM
Today is a carbon copy of yesterday, hazy, hot, and humid, though perhaps a little hotter and more humid. I went out briefly to check on the garden and things aren't yet wilting in the heat, which is a little surprising. Much more surprising is that Garden Party has developed several large fat buds so despite my earlier expectations, the last of my roses should bloom relatively soon. The spring flush of Louise Odier is finally starting to fade, so I should soon be able to prune her back to free up space and, more importantly, light for her neighbors Garden Party and Moon Shadow. In the meantime, Lagerfeld has decided to make up for blooming rather late and is putting on a marvelous show of color and fragrance. While I can't share the fragrance, I can share the color and I've posted a bunch of photos of Lagerfeld and the other roses to the web site. Here's a sample of Lagerfeld.
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to roses
on Jun 8, 2008, 4:04PM
Posted by ToyTrains1 Reblogged by Old Roses to roses on 2008-06-09, 06:27:04
My peonies bloomed just in time for Green Thumb Sunday! I've been watching the buds growing larger and larger til they were almost bursting, so I knew they would bloom soon. They are beautiful this year! These peonies were planted before we bought the house, and there are 4 different varieties. The fourth is a deep red, but it's not blooming yet. Usually it's a few days to a week later than the others. Below are the three that are blooming. There fragrance is also lovely!
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to peony
Posted by Brenda Jean Reblogged by Old Roses to peony on 2008-06-09, 06:26:52
The way I see it, there are three main types of gardener - the Starter, the Finisher or the Maintainer. And while many of us well-rounded gardeners - ahem!! excuse my while I barf - think we are truly the embodiment of all three, each of us tend primarily to one of them. We may display characteristics of all three but when 'push comes to shove' we find that one of them truly characterizes our gardening behaviour. . . .
Here are the tomatoes planted about the 3rd weekend in May, on their "plant out" day. We are running a full 10 degrees below normal highs, so they are still tucked in their window frame cloches even now. I don't have a photo from today, but they have grown and one has a blossom. It is supposed to be warmer next weekend, although I doubt we'll see much sun until after July 4 . ..
If you happen to have a couple of brown thumbs and kill any plant you touch you may want to consider planting mint in your garden. These members of the mint family is so hardy that it can practically be planted anywhere and in many cases it can take over your garden without taking some precautions during your planting. Couple of low impact options is to grow it in a pot on your patio or even grow in a hanging basket and harvest the leaves as they grow over the side. If you wish to grow your mint at ground level you will need to create a root barrier to keep it from spreading over your whole garden. . . .
Poppies are so sneaky. They keep their buds closed so tightly, you think it will be weeks before they reveal themselves. And then: POP:
I woke up to find this red one has burst open in the front bed. I hope there will be many more soon.
We went on our first garden tour of the season this weekend. I almost fainted when I realized my camera was not in my bag. Talk about co-dependent....
Last year was a disappointment for hydrangea lovers when the late freeze nipped all the blooms. This year they are glorious. Michael is the hydrangea lover in this family and we probably wouldn't have as many if it wasn't for him. I have to admit though that I really love hydrangeas more than I used to. I really can't think of a more versatile shrub (they will perform well in various degrees of light situations) and they are colorful and dramatic in the landscape. All that, plus they are easy to care for.
We have hydrangeas all over our garden but the majority of them reside under a massive pecan tree.
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to hydrangea
Posted by Phillip Reblogged by Old Roses to hydrangea on 2008-06-09, 06:21:12
This weekend up in Mamroneck, I had a chance to visit a couple of the gardens in the surrounding neigborhood. The first was an outstanding vegetable garden. On arrival we were greeted by Bob, hard at work, notice the tools on the paving stones. He tells us that Noah's been on his case to get the place in shape. Noah is Bob's young teenage son who apparently is head honcho of this outfit. He creates his own potting mixes and starts everything from seed. This year he decided not to go to summer camp so that he could be more hands on with what goes on here. . . .
I missed making last week's post! Not that I didn't try, but I was doing so many other things that I just didn't get to upload any photos - and there weren't any plants really screaming at me to post them either. Really a quiet week - no blooms to speak of out of the ordinary.
Then in the middle of the week I happened to take a look around the side (very neglected area) and realised that my Adenium obesum was in bloom! I'm ashamed to post the plant so you'll only see the flowers - it's not even in a real pot but just a shallow tray in which a branch managed to root and grow.
Adenium obesum
It's jumbled up with Euphorbia tirucalli, Sanseviera cylindrica, Kalanchoe daigremontiana, and assorted cacti all sort of growing wild - some now in the earth and others not, in a narrow strip of earth alongside the house.
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to flowers
Posted by Jade Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers on 2008-06-09, 06:20:29
The poppies are finally starting to bloom, quite a bit later than last year. I find it hard to get good close-up photos this year, so the best photo I have is this long shot of the front garden porch display. The short, bright red poppies in the background are 'Carmen', new ones I just planted. The tall orange poppy is a well-established 'Allegro'. Other poppies are taking their time to bloom in this cold spring we've been having. (In the foreground is a potted 'Prince of Silver' heuchera, just starting to bloom.)
Poppies Blooming in the Front Garden
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to flowers
Posted by Karen Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers on 2008-06-09, 06:20:07
We have two Magnolias blooming now, several Magnolia Virginianas the native 'Sweetbay' Magnolia and a Magnolia Sieboldii aka the Oyama Magnolia.
I bought a Magnolia Virginiana tree several years ago but when I smelled the wonderfully fragrant blosssoms I had to have more. I managed to find some at a end of season sale and bought 3 more trees. Our home is surrounded by the small trees and this year the 2 and 3 year in ground trees have produced a bumper crop of flowers. . . .
via Cottage Garden in Albuquerque on 1969-12-31, 19:00:00
