My Garden Today

My garden today is a place of pretty spring blossoms and hopes for a bountiful summer harvest. The garden has been a busy place. Now that the summer garden has been planted, I am hoping to find the time to get back into blogging. To my friend Kitty, thank you for the email push I needed to write a post! It means the world to me to know you missed my little blog. For now, here is an update on the garden.

This is the view from our deck and our den. To the left is the vegetable garden and straight ahead through the black arbor is my new little resting garden. I call it a resting garden because my vision for it includes an overgrown tangle of plants creating a private sitting area where I can escape in the shade. 

The little garden is coming along nicely. This area was cleared, and I started planting in October 2015. 

Oct. 2015, when the fences were placed. Those potted papaya plants in the photo are where the bird bath currently sits.

It has been an ongoing project since that time.You can read about the process of rejuvenating the area here.

Stepping stones lead to an iron bench which is tucked under the duranta and pink rose.  Finally I have place to sit and rest in the shade while working in the garden! I just love the birdbath that my son gave to me. The birds love it too, and if I sit still they will bathe with me sitting a few feet away. 

The fragrance from this pink rose is divine; classic old rose at it's best. Unfortunately I don't know the name. The duranta has a rich chocolate aroma which I also love, so sitting there tucked under the two plants is delightful.

Choosing a rose for the black arbor was not easy but I finally chose this bright beauty called Joseph's Coat. As the name implies, this is a rose of many colors. Red buds open to bright orange roses with yellow centers. 

Did I say they were bright? Let me show you.

Here is a more yellow rose from the same plant. 

The Romanesco zucchini is planted in this part of the garden because it has room here to spread.

Our little guava tree is growing well. I noticed small blossoms starting to form on it. See it growing to the left of the arbor?

Along the front fence, the purple alstroemeria and pansies look so pretty with the yellow flowers.

Toward the back are the fruit trees. They were planted as bare root trees in Feb. 2015. The dwarf nectarine reminds me of Cousin Itt from the Addams Family. Under all those leaves are three nectarines. Woo Hoo! I will cherish those little guys and hope for more as the tree matures.

The semi-dwarf Santa Rosa plum put on lots of growth last summer and was loaded with fruit until a bad wind storm knocked them to the ground. It looks like we will still have a few. 

I spy Bessie May, my sidekick.

One exciting idea I have for the space will have to wait until I have some strong manpower around to help. We have a claw foot tub in storage that the previous owners painted pink. As crazy as that sounds, the color will be perfect! It has a special place waiting for it in the garden where it will be a fountain and soaking tub.

Disgusting picture, I realize....but it will clean up nicely.

This post is getting long, so an update of the vegetable garden will have to wait. I can't leave you with that ugly picture in your head, so here are some pretty photos I took of the resting garden.

The view from my bench. Breathe in....breathe out....repeat.

Dewdrops on Pansies

There is something fascinating to me about dewdrops. They magically appear overnight like little acrobats, clinging in gravity-defying poses.

 Some are perfect orbs.

 Others are twinkling cabochon jewels.

I encourage you to click on the photos to view them full-screen for a closer look at nature's beauty. 

For those of you who noticed, I took a break from my blog over the winter. I decided not to put in a winter garden this year, so I turned my attention to other things. Now that spring has sprung, I have been working in the garden preparing the vegetable beds for planting. The bulbs and spring flowers are in bloom and these dewdrops beckoned me today. They inspired me to get out my camera and post some pictures on the blog. I've missed the garden, my camera and the blogging. Yay for spring!!

Bright and Cheerful Winter Window Boxes

This is not a subtle color palate, that's for sure. Bright and cheerful was the plan, and if this isn't cheerful, I don't know what is. Cyclamen are always the star of my winter window boxes, and everything else is planned around them. They bloom with a solid display of color until March when I redo the boxes. Some years I have done a red and white color theme for Christmas window boxes. This year I chose bright pink and deep magenta cyclamen. 

I just love how window boxes bring the garden into the house. Sitting at our little telephone desk, the flowers are so close you can really appreciate all of the details. Right outside our kitchen window, the flowers make doing dishes much more enjoyable!

When planting the window boxes, I follow the "Thriller, Filler, Spiller" idea. Choose something with some height and impact as the triller. Shorter plants are the filler, and the trailing plants are the spiller. The cyclamen are the "thriller" in the box, along with the dark pink stock which will grow taller. Yellow pansies and mixed linaria are fillers. 

Linaria

Stock and pansy

Linaria

Snapdragons in shades of yellow and magenta are also fillers.

The spillers are white sweet alyssum for the scent, and lobelia. 

 Cheerful, they are!

Sunflowers Brighten My Day