Monday, April 19, 2010

Fast and Furious!

As you may have notice I've been taking a bit of break from blogging.... life just gets too busy sometimes. I won't even try to catch up since I'm so far behind but I hope to begin blogging more again more regularly.  While I was gone I have been lurking on your blogs and have been so impressed with everyone's garden! I just love this time of year!

About 2 weeks ago we had a wonderful burst of unseasonable warm hot weather.  It felt fantastic but was a bit of tease for all of us humans as well as the plant world!  Most of our spring blooms and shoots started coming up earlier than usual.  It was quite a sight to see azaleas blooming the first week of April and for peony shoots to be standing so tall. 





But now the seasonable weather has been back for the past week and a half, and it's been back down the 50s regularly and the plants are responding by slowing back down.  Thank goodness I say since although I do love the warm weather I hate to rush spring.

So here's a tour of what's been going around our place.






The daffodil below popped up unexpectedly. I love when plants naturalize (as long as they aren't weeds of course!).  I'm not sure what the species is.  Does anyone know?
 




The spring phlox has been blooming very early.  As you can see I haven't even had a chance to clean up this area yet.



One bleeding heart in red...

Another bleeding heart in white...



Amazingly to me the tulip bulbs I planted last December are getting ready to bloom!  This pic was taken a week ago and they are much taller now and ready to burst.




We've also been working hard on getting the veggie garden ready.  Here is our huge compost pile.  It's almost gone now because we've been spreading it around the gardens.



Andy also built me a large pea bed.  I hope to sow the seeds this week.




Andy is tilling the compost bed in the pic below.  I get a bit concerned with powerful, mechanical tillers because of what they do to the worms, but we didn't have the strength or the patience to do this by hand.




More tilling....   Ellie was trying to attack the tiller!  We kept her at a safe distance, but she was barking and growling like crazy.  She does the same thing with the vacuum cleaner.... true vicious terrier! Ha!


Of course ya have to have some nice manure to add...


The cold weather veggies all planted (except for the peas).  I've got broccoli, purple cabbage, spinach, and collard greens in this bed.



In this bed there are more collard greens, swiss chard, and several varieties of red and green lettuce.


These beds are reserved for summer veggies so I won't be planting here until after the last frost - except for the carrots - I'll be sowing them in the ground fairly soon.  Usually around Memorial Day in our area I'll plant the warm-weather loving veggies, but I'll start sowing some squash and cucumber seeds indoors within the next week. 

7 comments:

Elsa said...

Wonderful pictures. My garden is white because King Winter was visiting us yesterday. So all my gardening is going on in the greenhouse. Lots of plants are waiting to be planted out in the garden.

Jan said...

It all looks great, Jackie! You have a good compost pile there. My dog goes nuts w/the vacuum cleaner, as well. And you should see him when my son gets his remote-control car going! I've got veggies in pots on my deck this year...and the lettuce and radishes are up and I'm excited!

tina said...

Spring is looking mighty great in Massachusetts!@ Your veggie garden rocks! Such neat rows and all ready to grow-won't be long and you'll be harvesting some food.

Avalon's Garden and Mewsings of Garden Cottage Cats said...

Glad to see you're back! I know for me , this time of year is hard to keep up with the blog(s) being so busy outside. That crazy hot spell has caused everything to start blooming early. The lilacs are blooming already!!
(2wks.early!!) Now tonight Frost warnings!! crazy ....., Your vegetable garden looks Great!!I wish I could grow veggies in the ground, if I do, I won't see a thing!! My resident groundhog will eat it all!! I have to put everything in pots on the deck, up & off the ground! hahaha ... oh well, we all have to do what works for us. As long as we get our vegetables. Right now I already have lettuce for salad!!
Good to see you back :)
Have a great week!

Ellie Mae's Cottage said...

Jan - so funny that some dogs back at the vacuum... our Ellie is the first dog we've had that does that!

Tina - I hope I do better with the veggies this year than last... the weather was awful last summer so it was quite a challenge, but I'm looking ahead not back.

Angel - Thanks for the welcome back! We've been getting lots of frost warnings the past few days but thankfully no snow like in some places - jeez end of April I don't want to see a flake for 7 months at least!

Elsa - can't believe you have snow! Hope you get some nice warm sun soon! :)

Lemon Lane Studio said...

I love those bleeding hearts...I never have luck with them, yours are beautiful. And oh, those raised beds, better than a new pair of designer shoes...my heart just skipped a beat. My husband will be working on mine next weekend. Can't wait to see it all fill in. Patty

Anonymous said...

Hi Jackie, OOh that Ellie. She's scary all right. ;)

I can't give you any info on the double daff but it's a beaut.

Good luck with your raised beds. They look wonderful and full of promise for a great season.

Gorgeous blooms too.