All Gone...!

Alas....all the beautiful Stargazer Lillies are done blooming! They were so beautiful and fragrant, but they sure didn't last long enough! It'll give me something to look forward to next year along with those red Asiatic lillies! The back of the patch there is looking a bit empty now that I have cut off half their stalks to make sure they are not trying to put any energy into making seeds.

The home grown zuchinis are a bit tough skinned though as we found out the other night when we decided to cook two of them.

Other than that...not much going on. It's a bit dry. We could use a good downpour so that I don't have to pull out the hose. I haven't been able to pull the hose out due to the fact that bf is parking his car right in front of the spigot!

I just realized I could put labels on my posts....I wonder who reads my blog? Apparently quite a few of you since my visitor counter says so! :) I hope ya'll enjoy my posts as much as I do writing about them!

Another orchid in starting to bloom!

My baby Meyers Lemons growing! Woohoo! Can't wait to eat them!

My garlic patch in the backyard....they are ripening up. The zucchinis are finally starting to grow here amazingly enough! I thought it wasn't getting enough sunlight, which it isn't, but it is still growing some for me. Not many, but two is better than none!

Garlic

Harvested my first garlic today. The bulb wasn't too bad, but it wasn't super big either for such a big plant! I think I'll pull up the others later.

More Blooms

This is Phal. John Ewing. It was supposed to bloom last year and had TWO spikes, but I threw it outside with the other Phals in the fall and blasted the two spikes! :( So this year, to make up for it....it has given me one single spike. This has been a long awaited bloom since this is a SCENTED Phalaenopsis! Oh it is heavenly! Pretty to boot too!

Spider Lily I believe what this is called. Quite pretty, small flowers though. Apparently the bee in the flower the morning I took this picture agreed since it was drunk with sleep! I thought it was dead! It must really appreciate the food :D

Close up shot of the pretty small flowers. They are about 1" across.

Neofinetia X is in bloom!

Somehow this beautiful little thing has a tinge of purple to the petals even though Neofinetia is white and the other plant it was crossed with was named 'alba.' this is a first bloom for me. I got this plant off eBay. It is lightly scented at the moment, but I am sure it will get stronger as night falls! Grown under florescent lights!

Stargazer Lillies Are Open!

All four lillies are open! Actually, one is already fading. It didn't last very long....a week max? They all opened up during the heat of this past weekend. They smelled SO good! The rain storm late afternoon yesterday, Sunday, knocked a lot of the pollen off the stamens. I will definitely grow more of these since they are able to bloom in shade even!


8:29pm - It is pouring! WOOHOO!!!! The yard sure needed the water!

Stone Plant Bloom Progression

Is it safe to come out?

Hello?

Must be safe....?

Hello world! Hello tiny itty bitty bee!

Ahhh....the sun sure feels good!

Blooms!

I have six, count that S-I-X, orchids in spike under my light stand! YIPEE!!!! Some I have not seen some of them bloom since I bought it (years!) and some have never bloomed at all (few years or just bought) so it will be exciting to see what they look like possibly!

Outdoors, my stargazer lillies are about to bloom so I am excited to see what those actually look like! I hope I got the white ones because I really can't remember LOL

Just found out two nights ago bf put down weed and feed in the backyard....GRRRR....now I can't eat my garlic! :( :( :( He has been reminded that he is ***FORBIDDEN*** to use any pesticides/herbicides in our yard because not only is my garlic affected, but my worms and the dog since he didn't tell me he put it down. You are supposed to wait something like two days before letting pets or children onto lawns when you put down fertilizer, pesticides, or herbicides (read your labels!). Well...unbeknownst to me my dog was still being let out on that same grass and EATING on it! Ugh...

Visual Update

This is what my front yard looks like now that all the spring flowers have died back. Seems a bit empty now... I've gotten a lot of compliments though!

Baby zucchini! I have learned that these need A LOT of light! The ones planted in shade are blooming all male flowers like crazy, but absolutely, not even one single female flower! The three I planted in the pot and is sitting actually in my neighbor's yard (rental) is growing some baby zucchinis, but eventually they will outgrow the pot. :\ I learned my lesson....grow in pot only!

A little piece of my backyard....finally decided to plant my tuberous begonia back there with the ferns. The light requirements worked well and it looked nice to have some white popping up. the fern next to the begonia is a native maidenhair fern. It dies back every fall and comes up every spring! These are my most favorite ferns!

Mini Hosta "Gold Drops" in bloom. I thought the flowers would be darker than they are now, but quite pretty for such a tiny hosta! I planted it last summer.

Brad's Black tomato given to me by Doug Oster, the Post-Gazette's Backyard Gardener, who showed me how easy it was to go "organic" with his and Jessica Walliser's book, Growing Organic.

One of two Black Krim tomato plants I am growing....these are SO good! They are an heirloom variety and finally setting fruit! I can't wait to eat them!

Look how big my yellow peppers are getting!!!

This is one of those stone plants I keep killing indoors. Yes, you just heard it...a master gardener kills plants! I too cannot grow everything I love :) I bought this from Lowes and put it outside in a clay pot so it wouldn't blow over (just plopped it into the pot, plastic pot and all) and I haven't even watered it! All it gets in water is when it decides to rain. I can't believe it is blooming! Guess I have to grow these as annuals....

Update

It has been raining for two days now. Am I still in Seattle???

My red lillies were really short lived. There is only one left. One of my Stargazer lillies got blown over by the storm so I had to cut it down. I don't know if the bulb will survive since there are no leaves for it to gather food with. I guess I'll find out if it doesn't come back next year!

My garlic is starting to turn brown. Woohoo! :D The tips...we cooked one. It was kind of tough, but pretty darn tasty! Maybe I gotta cook them a bit more for them to soften up.

The habaneros still have not set fruit yet. I am worried they won't at all being on a windowsill. I think I will move them closer to the other plants for a day or two when they are in bloom next. My yellow peppers on the other hand, have two little baby peppers growing already! I hope it grows some more!

The weeds are growing well....like weeds! You won't believe how fast they really grow! Seems pretty tough to keep up after them, but they are so much easier to pull when they are about 4-6" tall. Of course, I am not that meticulous about the yard. If it looks good to me then it is fine LOL

My Neofinetia falcata cross is spiking!!! I am excited about that as I have never seen it in bloom. I also have a Phrag in bloom for the first time for me. Not too exciting, but quite pretty in its plain simple way. Seems like there aren't much of a color variation in Phrags...just red, pink, and some yellow. Pretty boring if you ask me! I think I will uh..."weed" those out soon.

Bletilla striata

Bletilla striata 'alba' in bloom!

The Story of Stuff

This is a great video on why we need to be sustainable!

More Stuff in Bloom!

Bletilla striata 'alba' in bud.

Habanero's in bloom.

Yellow peppers growing!

The Things That Grow While You Are on Vacation...

Besides the weeds that sprouted a whole 6" while I was gone for a week last week look what is blooming!

Phalaenopsis Lava Glow

Chirita 'Aiko' - Whoever said these types of African violet relatives don't bloom well clumped up is WRONG! I have TWO buds! Much more than I ever had with a single plant!

Look at my zucchinis! They've finally grown some! Guess I didn't need to move some. The garlic is amazing! The heads are really neat and twist around quite a bit! And oh the lillies! I forgot they were RED!

Close up of my Asiatic lillies in bloom. They are just stunning!

Summer is Here!

Even though it is not the summer equinox yet I think summer has arrived anyhow. All those spring rains have all of a sudden stopped and the last few days have been hot and humid. Temps are in the high 80s to 90s and the humidity I think is about 80% and above! My pansies are NOT liking this weather at all, but as long as I keep them watered they seem to hang in there.

Phipps has a chocolate exhibit that I have yet to go. I will just wait until I volunteer to go.

My lillies are budding up surprisingly enough! They are growing in full shade! I will need to move them this fall so they are more organized looking! I think I will cut them as cut flowers when they do bloom. Not a fan of how they look really in the garden.

The garlic is TALL! I didn't realize how big they can get physically! I hope this means that the bulbs are getting really fat underground!

The zucchini plants are finally starting to take off and grow some! It's about time! Hopefully I will get some zucchinis out of them before the squash borers get to them!

My herbs planted in my garlic bed has not done well at all. I think the slugs are getting to them. I will have to put some slug bait near them! The other herbs in the pots are doing GREAT! Just planted all my mints in the big black pot in my backyard with the Brug in it, but it was probably a bad idea since I put them on the edge and that is where the soil gets frozen first. I'll probably have to dig them back out or something in the fall. I wish I had more space!

The habanero plants keep getting aphids. It doesn't matter how often I spray them. They just keep coming back! GRRR!!!!

More Work

Some more plantings and moving around. Planted the Sambuca nigra 'Black Lace' and moved the Hyacinths, but I think I broke one so I may have a hyacinth pop up next year if I didn't just kill it since it can't store anymore food now with no leaves. Moved the bleeding heart towards the front since I needed something there. It was much easier to dig up than I thought! Really shallow rooted. Moved the black elephant's ear to the left side behind the burning bush (too small to see) and moved the succulent again since I didn't want to move the juniper. I really like where it is at the moment and there is plenty of space for it to spread. So far, I like it! We'll see how everything does!



Below are some of my finds from last Sunday, the last day of May Market. #1: Caladium, #2: Hakone grass (shade tolerant!), #3: Thai Caladium, #4: Jack in the Pulpit, #5: Sambuca nigra 'Black Lace' and #6: blue hosta.

Volunteering at May Market

So today I put in my 4 hours for Phipps at May Market doing the green room teaching visitors how to "go organic." Still need more Phipps hours though to get to my require 18 minimum! Prior scheduled volunteer time I arrived early (hours early!) so I could get a good parking spot and did some more shopping. Found a Sambuca nigra 'Black Lace,' two Caladiums (one freebie and one for $1!) and a Hakona grass (shade tolderant grass!). I also got a freebie tomato! Never did find my white Hellebore though :\ I got the required fondant dipped strawberries as I have each year since discovering them and this year they even had some of the fondant for sale so I bought a $4 brick to be used later! Mmm....! There were these GORGEOUS peonies that were a cross between the herbaceous type and the tree peony type, but required full sun, none of which I had! Hardy like the herbaceous kind, but colorful like the tree type! Someday...

Today's Results

It's getting there! See? I know it's kind of hard to tell, but once the plants have a chance to grow a bit it'll look nice!

My Finds

Mystery fern (below left) & close up of mystery fern (below right), toad lily (left), foam flower (right), Black Krim tomatoes (above, one in pot and one in ground), ostrich fern (above right) and an Allium bud (above left).

May Market

It was way too early yesterday morning, but I did get to May Market in time to not only get a good (FREE!) parking spot, but between my two neighbors and I, we cleaned out 5 of the 6 Black Krim Tomatoes! I took two and they each took one. They both bought many more tomatoes because they had more sun since they were planting in their front yard also. I did bring my map that my friend, Jen, drew up for me. Picked up a foamflower, which is really neat if you have never seen one! So delicate looking! I got two ferns, ostrich and the other one didn't have a name on the tag. Hopefully, when I go back tomorrow (Sunday) to volunteer I can still get the name. I also got a toad lily, not what I was thinking of at the time of discussion, but unique leaves! Quite fleshy and big... I also got two air plants and a jewel orchid on top of all that (that was probably the most expensive purchase at $28!). Would've bought more had it not been rainy, muddy and cold! My $40 super lightweight umbrella from the Tokyo airport broke while I was there! I was left to borrow my neighbor's umbrella since she had a coat on with a hood. That did not make for enjoyable shopping! Lesson learned: Do NOT bring an umbrella with you while plant shopping! DOH! There was also a Japanese Maple 'Filigree Lace' there for $40! Too bad it wasn't there LAST year when I went! I spent like $70 for the one I have and I'm not so sure it's the type that I had wanted! Not lacy enough!

So anyway...woke up late today and moved the succulent in the front yard, planted the foam flower, put the toad lily in, moved some saffron crocuses and placed the unnamed fern where it said on the map. Rain started falling so I didn't get to the fern, but it looks good where Jen said to put it! Just needs to get "taller" so that it can enhance the Japanese Maple as it gets lost with dark brick as its background. It's essentially the same color as the maple! I think I'll pick up a white hellebore tomorrow if there are any left. I really do need something in the middle up front. I think I also need some plants with winter interest too. I need to also get some pictures of the plants I bought so ya'll can see what they are.