Notes for Garden Next Year

Vegetable Garden:

Stake tomatoes as soon as you plant them
Yellow cherry tomatoes were down by Borage, collect plants there, transplant
Radishes need a lot of rich soil. Plant radishes before carrots
MORE: Beets, carrots, potatoes, different varieties, sweet potatoes? squash, zucchini, summer squash
Black leaf kale, not so much chard, sweet peas, cauliflower, broccoli.
Less tomatoes... most delicious varieties: mortgage lifter, black master, orange zebra,red brandywine
Build green house around Tomato Bed (interplanted with Basil) before Thanksgiving.

Autumnal Acquisitions

So I'm Allium-ing it up this year, since I love everything that is onion :D

This is what I ordered form Garden Import:
Item: AL1400    3   Allium    LUCILLE BALL   $ 9.75
Item: AL1650    25   Allium    SPHAEROCEPHALON   $ 5.00
Item: AL1250    25   Allium    COWANII   $ 6.25
Item: AL1050    10   Allium    ATROPURPUREUM   $ 6.95
Item: GL2233    10   Gladiolus  Gladiolus  BYZANTINUS   $ 4.95
Item: TS6400    25   Tulip Species    TARDA   $ 7.50

 Take note of the quantity that's in each pack, cause last year "apparently" I ordered allium cowanii and lord knows that never came up... and really, what insect would eat an onion?!

I also just spent 30$ a Home Depot for their end of season sale, got:
2 Astilbes pink differetn shades
1 Red Campion, pictured above (flowers are actually pink... like every other flower that claims to be red... eye roll)
2 ground cover Sedums one yellow flowers, one pink
1 yellow violet or viola or pansy
and 1 mystery pink flower I need to remember to go back and look up (see below)
...its called "Pincushion Flower" Scabiosa Columbaria 'Pink Mist'

Where am I going to put all these?!

I'm a Sucker for the Underdog

Look at this poor disheveled little thing!

I feel awful, its all due to my neglect, or perhaps the racism of the neighboring "pink supremacists"

I think I should move him later in the season, poor chap. I mean look at the pictures from 2010!

Maybe Ill move him under the birch tree near the fritillaria, that little guy needs some company... that reminds me I need to get on that shiznat, clear out that section because the encroaching weeds are growing fast.

A certain Je Ne Sais Quoi...

Last weekend I came across this happy little fellow... and  have no idea what it is. I think its a rose mallow, I think my Dad planted it, but I can't be sure. These spy-like weeds that pose as flowers are rampant in my garden and since I'm not great a t keeping track of what I have planted I'm always skeptical when I see something like this.
The real problem is I don't have a great knowledge of what plants look like before they have flowered, when they are very young in spring, many a time I have mercilessly uprooted a young flowerling in early spring I planted with the utmost care and doting the year before. I almost pulled out my Dictamus for chirssake! The coveted Gas plant it took me years to acquire!
So I'll have to keep an eye on this guy, and see what ensues...
Here are some prime examples of young plants I didn't recognize earlier in the year:
Young Columbine

Young Bachelor's Button
Young Dictamus
Young Toad Lily
Young Campanula

June in the Garden

Well last weekend was just enchanting! The country has this ethereal quality about it; Miyazaki really nailed it in "My Neighbor Totoro". Its kind of like how you feel when your on vacation in Europe, sitting in the shade in some gorgeous Italian plaza, drinking wine or cafe latte at a cafe. You can just sit back and breathe for a change! And everything is making you feel pleasant and happy.
Also... I got a whole shopping bag full of fresh lettuce from the garden! That's enough lettuce for a week if I eat salads for every meal!!

Anyways moving on... more photos of the garden in June in the "photos" section. It was in top form this past weekend. That mulch I put down 3 weeks ago is paying off. I have realized that some wee slip of a plant that I added 3 years ago is now a towering behemoth, and some transplanting and dividing is going to be necessary.

We have also begun turning the front garden into a very respectable garden indeed! We planted canna lilies and sunflowers by the rhubarb. And I transplanted some morning glories I started from seed last week.
 Also callas, transplanted echinacea from the back garden and white gladiolas, and thinning out a huge bramble of black raspberries ... although they still need to be thinned out more and mulched, but I'm hopeful!

Fritillarias Hoorah!

I am SO happy about these little guys. Like so many other flowers this year I completely forgot I acquired and planted this... useless short term memory.

This was a particularly popular plant in Victorian gardens because of its checkered pattern I believe, I like it because it looks "fairy-like"... yes that's an incredibly gay thing to say but whatever. There's some disagreement in England whether its a wild plant native to England or a garden escapee, although it isn't very abundant in the wild anymore there are still places where it thrives, such as the meadows at Magdelen College, Oxford and the Oxfordshire village of Ducklington,[3] which holds a "Fritillary Sunday" festival. Sounds very PG Wodehouse-ish!

This photo was taken on the 28th of April (also late post)

A Cacophony of Daffodils

(I'm late posting this so lets just pretend its April 21st cause that's the date on the picture)

Spring is Here! Imagine my delight when I walked down the old familiar path to our "hidden" back garden to be greeted with this abundance of daffodils! I'd forgotten how much I planted.. or maybe they just have been breeding under the earth these long months...

Anyways I was never such a big fan of daffodils, I thought they were beautiful of course but always took a back seat to the more glamorous (in my opinion) tulip... but no more! I'm sold on their elegance and simplicity. Sure some guy may not have sold his brewery for a single bulb several hundred years ago, but there's something to be said about the pure yellows and whites of this flower siting atop the most elegant garlic-like, rich green leaves in early spring, such a welcome sight after 8 months of brown dirt and bleak snow!