Garden Friday

 

 

 

Welcome to Garden Friday,

where we share what's happening in our Piedmont garden.
 It's dry, folks.

It's been a while since we've seen any rain,

and the ground is cracking beneath our feet.

We are hopeful that by the end of next week

we'll get a few toad stranglers.

Fingers crossed.

 

This liriope, which usually does just fine without supplemental water,

is feeling the pinch.

I'll make sure to get some hydration to this little guy today.

 

Fortunately, with the drip irrigation in place,

the raised beds are doing fine.

This is the weekend we usually harvest garlic,

so that we can get our sweet potato slips in.

I have to say, that the garlic this year is not looking too good

and I don't have time to let it sit for another month to grow.

 We'll take what we get and be glad in it.

 

This parsley is going to seed

and I believe I'll just let it stay right where it is.

One reason is to encourage the black swallowtail butterfly

to call it home.

This is one of their host plants,

along with carrots, dill, fennel and rue. 

We have Walla Walla onions in this bed that will

start to be harvested in the next week or so.

We'll just pull them up as needed

and it does my heart good to know 

that I won't need to buy onions for a good, long while.

 

 

The potatoes are rockin'

underneath the shade of the snap peas.

I did lose one plant, not sure why,

but with flowers spied on these taters just yesterday,

we should be harvesting in a few weeks.

 

Speaking of snap peas,

we've been snacking on these sweet morsels all week.

I like them straight off the vines.

No dressing needed.

 

Our lettuce is coming along in a couple of the raised beds,

but I have to say that germination of some other crops was not great.

I'll just keep reseeding as needed and move onto other crops

as the summer season comes upon us.

 

 It looks like something is finding our green beans tasty.

 

So far, only one of our turmeric plants has come back.

It looks like the lemongrass didn't make it,

although we overwintered it in the garage.
 

 

The front porch flower bed is alive with color!

I am still hoping to pick up a few more perennials for this bed,

as we move toward irrigating it soon.

 

The pollinator bed near the vegetable garden is doing well

and I attribute that to the drip system.

I noticed a few of the mammoth sunflowers starting to pop up.

Last year, they were over 12 feet tall!

Shasta daisies

 

There are a few areas in the back of the house I've been working on.

This will be a new spot to add some hosta and maybe hydrangea plants.

This area is wooded, so I'll need to choose what I plant carefully.

 

A few hosta plants and Solomon's seal have been added

underneath our back deck.

I can see this area filled with hostas.

 

This area has a trail on the left of the photo,

that leads to our dear neighbor's back door.

I'd like to add to this collection of plants

to line the trail for both of us to enjoy.

 

These canna lilies were recently added to a bed

next to the front door.

They look a little worse for wear,

but I'm hoping with continued watering,

they'll settle in nicely and add some dramatic color here.

 

The lavender is coming into bloom and the scent is terrific!

I'd like to bring it into the house as much as possible,

so that we can enjoy the fragrance.

 

The hyacinth bean seeds have germinated around our teepees

out near the veggie beds.

 This climber displays a mass of gorgeous purple flowers

that last all summer long.

 

Today I hope to get all of the cardboard down where the grass has come up.

This is my method of dealing with unwanted grass and weeds.

A bit of wood chips or mulch on top, and you'd never know it's there.

 

Would you look at this amazing toad house a friend made for us?

I had the cracked terra cotta pots another friend had given me,

and I asked this crafty lady to paint them for us.

I think the toads will absolutely love it!

 

 

Speaking of critters,

Big K spied this guy crossing the road between our house 

and our neighbors'.

Although I know some folks are squeamish about snakes,

they provide a valuable service by ridding our property of rodents.

He was actually only about four feet long.

Here's hoping conditions are just right where you are.

Oh, and if you happen to have any extra rain you could send our way,

we'd appreciate it!

 

Be Blissed!