More Pond Progress

 

Digging is in full swing for our new koi pond! It' supposed to be rainy and wet for the next week, so my husband worked really hard over the weekend to get as much done as he could. The basic shape and depth are complete. It's almost time for the liner to go in. Then it will seem like a real pond instead of just a giant hole in the backyard!

 

This Week in the Garden

 

After a very chilly Mother's Day, it's been a beautiful warm and sunny week. The garden is thriving in this warmer weather.

This is a great year for the pretty pink and purple columbine. The goldfinches like to eat the seeds from the dried flower pods and they must have scattered the seeds all over the yard. Columbines are blooming everywhere! And the hostas and ferns fill the shady areas with their lush, multi-textured blue and green leaves.

Fresh Garden Herbs

I cleaned up my little herb patch in the vegetable garden and it looks like everything survived the snowy winter. I'm usually able to keep picking fresh perennial herbs up until Thanksgiving and then I use mostly dried herbs over the winter. It's such a treat to begin using fresh herbs again in the spring. I made mashed potatoes for dinner just so that I could add fresh chives and a little sour cream. Yum!

My favorite herbs are basil, chives, cilantro, dill, oregano, parsley, sage and thyme. Most of these are perennial, meaning a healthy plant will grow back each spring. Basil and dill can be grown easily from seed. As for the cilantro, we have a sandy patch of soil in the garden and grow cilantro in that same spot each year. Cilantro doesn't seem to like our hot humid summers, so after it flowers and turns to seed, which is coriander, we just let it reseed itself and then we have a new crop when the weather cools a little.

You can find herb seeds or herb plant starts at most garden centers, but if you're looking for something special, The Cook's Garden has a nice selection of herbs to choose from. You can order online or request a free catalog here.

photos from The Cook's Garden website.

Tropical Color in the Garden

I love tropical looking plants in my garden! I love the big, textured leaves and the vibrant color of the flowers. Since I live in the midwest, we can only grow them as annuals in our backyard. We keep as many as we can as houseplants when it turns cold, or let them hibernate in the garage over the winter. I've taken a few photos of some of the unique details of these pretty plants, including hibscus, banana and cannas.

Then I made a simple collage using the photo editing software, Picnik. If you are not familiar with Picnik, it is a free photo editing software that you use online, in your browser. You can easily rotate, crop, resize or color correct your photos. Or you can get Picnik Premium for $24.95 a year and get the collage feature and many more advanced editing tools. If you are looking for a simple, inexpensive way to edit your photos to use online, or share in Flickr, Photobucket, Facebook, and more, take a look at Picnik.

Fresh from the Garden

After all the hard work of preparing the Spring garden - tilling, and planting seeds and tiny seedlings, it's wonderful to reap the rewards. Fresh produce from our own backyard! We had a delicious salad and some roasted asparagus with dinner last night.

It's fun to pick out the new packets of seeds at the garden center - radish, lettuce, cucumber and squash.

We usually purchase our tomato and pepper plants instead of starting them from seeds.

The first planting of romaine lettuce.

Tasty fresh radishes.

And this is one of my favorites -fresh asparagus!

What are you growing in your garden?

Let's Go Outside!

It was a weekend of unusally warm weather here in central Indiana. Fresh green foliage is unfolding everywhere and the sights and sounds of Spring beckon us outside!

The leaves are unfolding on all the trees.


The blooming trees are fragrant.


Bleeding heart, one of my favorite spring flowers.


This frog was enjoying the warm sunshine.

The hostas and ferns are lush and green once again.

Share Your Backyard Bounty

Plant a Row for the Hungry.
There are over 84 million households with a yard or garden in the U.S. If every gardener plants one extra row of vegetables and donates their surplus to local food agencies and soup kitchens, a significant impact can be made on reducing hunger.

Join the Garden Writers Association's grassroots campaign to fight hunger by cultivating an extra row of vegetqables for a local food bank or soup kitchen. To join a campaign and find out how to share your backyard bounty with more than your neighbors, go to gardenwriters.org. Just click on the make a donation link and find and find a donation site in your area. I was pleased to find two groups of Master Gardeners volunteer commitees in my county.

Beautiful Blooms

My amaryllis is blooming!

The beautiful trumpet shaped flowers and rich colors
really brighten a winter day.


Amaryllis are easy to grow from bulbs as an indoor house plant and most varieties start to bloom in just about 7 weeks.

I love the pretty warm pink color and the pale green throat.

I always see amaryllis bulbs for sale in my area around the holidays, just before Thanksgiving through Christmas. If planted in early to mid-November, you'll have blooms at Christmas time. You can also order bulbs online from a variety of garden sites to be planted from October through April. We didn't plant our amaryllis bulb until after Christmas, so ours is blooming mid-February.

Amaryllis are surprisingly easy to grow and come in a rich variety of colors! There is really not much of a plant once the blooms are gone. We just set our plant outside for the summer, in the pot it bloomed in, and keep it out of direct sun. Water and feed regularly and the leaves will stay healthy and the bulb will rejuvenate. In the fall, as the leaves start to yellow, I cut back the leaves and remove the bulb from the soil. I just keep the bulb in the garage where it is cool (40-50 degrees F) and dark for at least 6 weeks. After the bulb rests it is ready to be planted again! I plant it in regular potting soil and water it a little. Then don't water again until the leaves start to grow. Then gradually add more water and watch it grow! You can enjoy the beautiful flowers for several weeks depending on the variety. There is more information about planting and care of your amaryllis bulb at Amaryllis.com.

What a Surprise!

These flowers are what I've always called Surprise Lily. Some people know them as Magic Lily or Naked Lady. They grow from bulbs that just produce leaves in the Spring. The leaves are a thick clump that resemble wide daffodil leaves. After a few weeks, the leaves die back and the area where the bulbs are planted is bare for a while.

Then in August, surprise! About the time I have completely forgotten about them, suddenly new flowers start to emerge.

When the flowers open, they are pretty, pink, sort of exotic looking lilies.

What a nice surprise!

The Color of Roses

All roses symbolize love, but their colors have special meanings.
Use the list below to choose the shade that best matches your feelings.

Red - love, passion, respect, courage

Yellow - joy, friendship, freedom

Pink - happiness, gratitude, appreciation, admiration

Cream - thoughtfulness, charm, graciousness

Orange - admiration, fascination, enthusiasm, desire

White - innocence, purity, secrecy, reverence

I found this information on a bookmark. The rose is from my garden.

Bluebirds in the Garden

A pair of Eastern Bluebirds are building a nest in one of our nesting boxes!

They haven't used the boxes for a couple of years, so it's good to have them back. The nesting box is close to our screened porch so we have a great view of the pretty little birds.

They have a distinctly musical call and it's easy to tell when they are in the yard. When they are out in the sun, their backs are a deep blue, especially the male.

A Frog With a Tail

Take a look at this little guy. . . not quite a full fledged frog, he still has his tadpole tail!

He must have just emerged from one of our little garden ponds and hopped across the patio to sit on the edge of this fountain. I hadn't seen one at quite this stage before now, so I wanted to share the photo.

My husband put some big bullfrog tadpoles in our small garden ponds. This is one of the tadpoles in early Spring. You can see a few red leaves just starting to grow on the waterlilly plant, the tadpole is to the upper right of the leaves. We thought it would be fun to see the tadpoles turn to frogs and the frogs will help eat a lot of bugs from the garden and any mosquitos from the pond.

Virtually Carefree Cactus

There will be no stickers in your fingers from these cactus!

They are actually soft and fuzzy to the touch.

And they need no sunlight or water!

These cactus are made from felted recycled wool sweaters.
They each have a small felted flower and are softly stuffed with polyfil.

They make a wonderful, whimsical decorator item or use them as a pincushion!
Now available in my Etsy shop.

Awesome Asparagus

Asparagus spears growing in my garden.


Asparagus spears ready for dinner.

Asparagus plants mature very slowly. It takes three years from seed to first light harvest. Most gardeners buy one year old roots to plant and still have to wait two years to harvest the first spears. But, if you have the patience, it's well worth waiting. What a treat to enjoy the tender spears cooked on the grill, roasted in the oven, or added to salads and pasta dishes. The harvest season is April and May, then sadly it's time to let the plants enter their revival period.

Got Spring Fever?

Do you have Spring Fever? Boy, I sure do! Over the weekend, we went to one of my favorite local garden centers. They have a vast array of bedding plants, vegetables, perrenials and nursery stock. The best part is just looking around inside the fragrant, colorful, humid greenhouses. Have a look!