Wordless Wednesday – 05/22/13

First full-sized Iris of the season.

Gardening or blogging

It is that time of year when I have to choose – sit inside and blog about gardening or go outside and actually garden. Real gardening wins every time.

We have a small family farm, and we all have our roles. Some are starring and others are supporting, but we all have several hats we wear.

I have the starring role when it comes to taking care of the perennial beds of which we have many. Probably too many for a person my age. The heart and mind are willing, but sometimes the body is not so cooperative.

I am learning to not expand and to try to narrow the focus so there isn’t so much dead heading, pruning, dividing and weeding to do. I’m still working on my plan to enjoy more and work less. If any of you have been successful at that be sure and let me know how you did it.

I also worked last Friday evening and Saturday morning at the Ask A Master Gardener table at a local plant sale. I love that plant sale – lots of experienced gardeners to talk to and hundreds of  beautiful plants they have nurtured for sale. It is fun to see the crowds line up in the driveway and wait for the church bells to toll so they can get in to buy their plants. This coming weekend I’m working my County Master Gardener plant sale – more great gardeners and beautiful plants.

It has been dry here in NH but we had some rain on Sunday and we have the potential for some more this week and that is a really good thing.

We still have cool nights so the veggies I have planted are either underneath some nice toasty clear plastic juice bottles with the bottoms cut off or under my vented plastic I bought last year from Fedco. That was the best money I ever spent on something for the garden.

So, here are a few photos of what’s going on in the garden. I hope your weather is cooperating and that you are having plenty of time to work in your own gardens. I’ll be checking your blogs in the evening to see how you’re all doing but during the day you can find me outside with dirt under my nails and a smile on my face.

Name ??

Lilacs

Peony buds

Robin taking a bath

Tulip

Apple blossom mulch

How does your garden grow?

The temperatures here in New England are still more early April than May, we’ve had no rain, but the sun is shining and the plants are growing.

Plants here on the farm are basically divided into two categories – veggies for the body and perennials for the soul.

I use some annuals but don’t break the bank buying them because of our short growing season and long winter if you attempt to over winter them.

I start some annuals from seed, pick up special varieties on sale at the local greenhouse, buy others as transplant slips, but I get really creative with perennials.

What colors are you especially enjoying in your garden this spring?

Have a great week of gardening.

Shared on Family Home and Life Say It Saturday.

 

Yankee gardening

I’m a Yankee by birth and a Yankee at heart – I was born in New England, and I repurpose, recycle and reuse in preference to buying new.

So, this spring I decided to see if I could keep my expenditures for annuals down to $0. For a person who gardens obsessively that was a daunting challenge, but I do love a challenge.

I had started seeds for Alyssum, Marigolds, Lobelia, and Zinnias. I had also overwintered my Geraniums so I had a good basic start for our many wicker planters and pots.

But, I needed more so I decided to use some of our many perennials. Perennials are work horses, but who said they couldn’t be show horses. I mixed Hosta in some pots, put Chives in front of the hoop house that had vegetables, and used a mix of perennials including Astilbe, several different Coral Bells, Lungwort, and Bishops Weed in other containers. But, I failed to take pictures of those containers.

Hosta planter

Hosta plantings after a couple of weeks in the container

Chive planting

They looked great all through the summer growing season. The pots were full and lush.

Once temperatures started to drop at night, however, they started to fade dramatically. Since I wasn’t going to purchase any Chrysanthemums, I needed to move something into those planters because the perennials were put back into the ground to live to see another gardening season.

There were some big, beautiful Marigolds in the vegetables gardens. Why not dig them up and repot them? If they could look great in the vegetable garden why couldn’t they look as good in the many containers.

Front entry urns

Entry planter

Porch Planter

Side porch planter

Planter

Swing planter

I’m happy with the results and feel quite a sense of satisfaction with saving all the money that normally goes to pay for annuals that I dig up and compost at the end of the growing season.

Will I do it next year? Probably. But I will start more seeds in the early spring and will sink pots of Marigolds that can be just lifted out of the garden.

It was also a good lesson for my grandkids – life is full of choices. Reuse or buy new. I reused and saved some money that I could spend on them – much more fun.

So just for conversational purposes…

Wordless Wednesday – 07/25/12