flowers

One of my blue hibiscus (hibisci?) survived a too early flowering and drastic prune and has come back strong (the other didn't make it). The plant is now about a meter high. I had no idea it was a tree when I bought it. I thought it was going to be short, like petunias or something.
The azaleas are starting to bloom despite being in terrible soil and abused terribly by the dog they are plugging along.
The southeast flower bed is looking a bit sad as the daffodils and irises are finished and the lilies have another few weeks at least until they start blooming. The pansies were starting to look pathetic and harbor nests of gejigeji. I have planted nasturtium, petunias, marigolds and a few other things but they aren't doing much yet.
The northeast flower bed is coming along. You can kind of see the blue hibiscus in the photo above, back left. Campanula look ready to bloom soon.
These are my pots of flowers along the parking area on the northside of the house. I just redid another two today, pulled all the sad pansies and found a huge ants nest. Yuck!
I don't know what this is, but it's quite pretty. It got really leggy, though, I will have to give it a good cutting back this fall.
The sunny lettuce has bolted.
I am going to try to grow mint on the embankment. We have been steadily pilfering it from the embankment upriver while walking the dog.

May 15 veg and mikan

Tomatoes are all in, 15 plants, starting to flower.
Tomato flower
Minitomatoes are also thriving. I think we have about 20 plants. It is interesting to see how different they all are. The golden currant are tall and gangly, the reisentraube are short and broad.
And the reisentraube have huge clusters of flowers. I hope this means lots of minitomatoes!
Zucchini is doing well and not being attacked so much by the dreadful orange beetles which seem to prefer pumpkin and cucumber.
Pumpkin closest the the yard is still intact.
Our baby mikan (clementine) tree flowered for the first time this year and seems to be producing baby mikan.
lettuce, lettuce, and more lettuce. Good thing my husband likes salad
Green beans and cucumbers. I am trying to get them to climb the netting rather than head for the south, which seems to be their natural inclination.

My 12, 2009

My husband took these photos because I was busy planting our final 9 tomatoes, well, not including the ones I've started from clippings which may or not make it. This was growing on the embankment. My husband says the leaves are edible (tempura), but I think it looks a bit like foxglove, which is used for making digitalis and is poisonous, right? It has fuzzy leaves. It is pretty.
My pumpkins on the embankment have been completely destroyed by those evil little orange beetles. Evil! Evil!
The nadeshiko (pinks?) which I got free last fall at Nagara park when they were changing their plantings are really outdoing themselves.
Our Japanese red maple has udonkobyo again. I think we are going to have to dose it with a bit of poisonous stuff this year, last year we tried natural remedies and they didn't work.
Our yamaboshi (Japanese dogwood) by the main back sliding door is now in full bloom.

gathering stones

Today, we went to the river to play (it was over 30c) and to gather rocks for the garden. As if we don't have enough of our own! But river rocks ARE prettier.
Helping Daddy choose the perfect rocks. M liked the pink ones which were all pebble size...
Helping Daddy lift rocks. A little overambitious.
And my poor husband got to haul all the rocks...
All the way up to the car.
And here they are! You will see them around trees and holding down black plastic in the future!

May 8 flowers and trees

Yamaboshi (Japanese dogwood?) flowers are coming along.




















Yellow iris. See, Mom, they do exist!




















Pink ostespermum and mystery blue flower. It blooms really prettily every morning and drops all its blossoms by early afternoon. Anyone?













The Japanese red maple is starting to turn a bit green. It starts red in the spring, turns green in the summer, and back to red in the fall. The magnolia (background) is already finished blooming. It was only a few days.












The green Japanese maple is starting to turn a bit red at the edges. It would be kind of neat if they changed colors and then went back again.

May 8 veggies

tons of snack peas, my favorite. I think I eat at least 100/day. Really!














pumpkins (Howden and Cinderella) planted















tomatoes staked




















cherry tomatoes, too















Salad bowl lettuce liked the rain and cooler weather. But it was hot today! Eggplant and peppers in the background.

rainy days

It has been rainy most of the past two days, but I managed to run out early during a dry spell and harvest a few peas and strawberries. Our yamaboshi (Japanese dogwood?) is almost ready to bloom.

flowers and trees from April 30

pink osteospermum. I pruned it rather severely so it was a late bloomer














our yellow magnolia









































red maple















nanjamonja (it's a male, so no flowers)




















my husband's baby trees that he has "rescued"

fruit and veg

The raspberries that my husband moved to the embankment are making buds.














M insisted that we plant the melon seeds from the melon we ate the other night, and of course my husband can't resist her entreaties. Where we are going to put it? Who knows?












Speaking of space issues, my husband bought EGGPLANT! I have declared our garden a no eggplant zone (though I do like the flowers) because my father-in-law grows bushels of eggplant. As it is I have to deal with 20-30 eggplant/week at the height of the season. What am I going to do with more? Not to mention we had no space left, everything already having been designated.








So my husband had to make an extra row next to some of the extra cherry tomatoes...














zucchini (forward) and okra (rear). The okra are really being attacked by the aphids.














watermelon. Once again, my husband couldn't resist. He says we can let them grow over the strawberry patch.














Tomatoes finally planted. Four are still on hold in larger pots.




















Cucumbers, the first planting. We had 4 or 5 plants last year and had to consume 10-12 cucumbers/day during the season, so why my husband felt that tripling that number was a good idea???












Our broccoli thinks it is a green cauliflower. Or perhaps a green brain. It is very odd looking.