Experimental June Bloom Report

Yikes!  Bugs is the garden?
Last year was an abundant year for butterflies and this year looks good so far.  They love the ligustrum.

 All over the butterfly bush.

Ants on the pretty gold flower.  Our friend Gerri gave me seeds for this last summer and we have them blooming everywhere.

 Can you see the spider on the red zinnia?

If you love gardens you have to accept that bugs belong there.  Especially the pollinators.

We have two honey bee hives and appreciate the worker bees pollinating.

Thornless blackberries second year in the garden.  Hopefully they will do well.

 Same with the blueberries.

Baby carrots from a pot, yum.

The first cucumber, not quite ready to pick.  Give it a day or two.

 Cucumber blooms are so pretty, the honey bees help with this crop.

Green beans are almost ready to pick.

 The first tomatoes were picked green by the squirrels.  We are building a cage for the tomato garden to try and keep them out.  Wish us luck.  Last year they ate every tomato.

June is the most colorful time in the Experimental Garden. 

Think I will go sit and enjoy.

Experimental Garden May Bloom Report

Things are blooming in the Experimental Garden, things other than wild things and weeds.

Iris are blooming, and the yellow ones are going wild.

bleeding heart

We always like to put hybiscus in pots and enjoy the blooms all summer long.

The chives are through with this bloom and I will dead head them.

Husker red beard tongue (penstemon digitalis) Blooms attrack polinators, especially honey bees. they are about 2 feet tall now and the foliage is beautiful

This is our first year with thornless blackberries and if the blooms come through we should be enjoying the fruit.

First tomato blooms.

Roses

 Caterpillar buffet of parsley.  It you plant it - they will come.  More caterpillars, more butterflies.

Tadpoles have escaped the pond.

Just in case you thought they were big frogs on a boulder, compare them to a chive blossom.

May you enjoy blooms in May in your garden.

wild thing!

Don't you love free gifts?  Wild things that bloom unasked?
Dandelions attrack polinators and they are so yellow.  I have heard you can eat the greens but I have not tried.
 

These purple flowers bloom early in the Experimental Garden and look like they are intrusive but they quickly disappear. 

Wild purple grape hyacinths pop up in the Experimental Garden lawn.  You are never sure where they may be from year to year.  This year we got a good reward before the first mowing.

Then the Atamasco Lilies (Zaphyranthes atamasco for my daughter) appear, always some time after Easter.  But who can complain.  For a long time I thought they were called Easter Lilies but the Indian name is"Cullowhee"   The woods behind our garden have an abundance of these lilies and these are in the lawn.  My Wild Flowers of North Carolina book says they grow in wet meadows.  That would be our back yard.

 They turn pink as they age.

Sourgrass Oxalis, who doesn't like this little yellow gift?

Don't forget the lucky clover.

Some are edible.  Wild strawberries, yum.

Flowers are not the only Wild Things in the garden.  The pond is full of frogs and wannbe frog tadpoles.

There is much more to come in the Wild Things of the Experimental Garden.

Experimental Garden April Bloom Report

So much has happened in the Experimental Garden since the last bloom report. 



Each fall we plant several large pots by filling them half-way with soil, placing lots of bulbs around the edge and in the center, filling the rest of the way with soil and topping them off with violas and pansies.  That way we have blooms all winter and great surprises in the spring when the bulbs come up.

Of course azelas are abundant in NC and we have a few at the Experimental garden.

Have you ever wondered where marshmellows come from?  We grow them at the Experimental Garden.  Simply pick one complete with the stick, roast over an open fire, add chocolate and graham crackers.  Thanks to darling daughter for the marshmellow bush which she left for us to care for when she moved. 

We also grow frogs and toads at the Experimental Garden.  Things should be hopping in the water garden and we have several of the big tadpoles which I assume are bullfrogs plus hundreds of the small ones.

 The big experiment this year is growing veggies, herbs, and flowers from seed in the new greenhouse.  This greenhouse depends solely on solar heat so things started slow.  But you can see the tomatoes are growing. 
Several weeks ago.

Today. 


Do not forget the beautiful Dogwoods, watched over by the Barred Owl.

Happy spring.










Editors note:  Dates depicted on the photos are not valid, not to be depended on, not the opinion of the editorial staff, and will hopefully be corrected once the photographer learns how to change the date in the camera.  

Experimental Garden March Bloom Report

Here at the Experimental Garden Spring is blooming.  Yeah!  At Last!!

One of the first things to bloom is always the daffodils.  We have two versions.  One was planted here by the previous owner and has always produced Large blooms.  It was planted under a large hickory nut tree which was removed about 5 years ago.  At the time I was afraid we would loose them but they continue to come back each ear.  This year we have only about 5 blooms.  Could it be that we mowed down the plants too early?  Comments appreciated.  

The others were repositions (stolen).  For years on my drive to work I would see these daffodils blooming by an old abandoned  home site.  When I noticed they were getting ready to clear cut the area and possibly build on it, I rescued them.  They are much smaller blooms but have demonstrated their appreciation by multiplying and blooming every year.

Of course we are enjoying pansies and soon will have tulips.  We plant a variety of bulbs half-way from the top of large pots in the fall and fill the pot and top with pansies.  That way we have blooms all winter and the surprise in the spring when the tulips (that we had forgotten we planted) pop up.

Forsythias, another spring welcome.

Here is another experiment you might want to try.  Go to an Arboreum and pinch a plant.  Years ago my daughter and I were visiting a local one which shall remain nameless (even though the statute of limitation period has probably expired).  I saw this bush in bloom and it was still late winter.  They said it would bloom in the shade and be a ground cover.  Darling daughter said "You do not have to hide that you are taking a pinch, it is encouraged."   I pinched, planted and here is what I got.  Beautiful early red blooms that you can almost see through the remains of last years weeds.

Up close

Now I do not want you to get the wrong impression, I do not "take" all my plants, but free is free.

These sedum were a gift.  Really!I have them planted in the ground and in pots and they come up every year and will bloom later.

This is our first year starting plants in the greenhouse.  I started these late Feb. and here are the first tomatoes.  Think of all the $$$ I will save by starting my own seeds instead of buying plants. 

Here is another of natures gifts.  These two plants bloom like crazy early in the year.  They look so invasive but are gone once it gets warm.  So we just enjoy them.  The bees like them as well.

Speaking of bees.  They are out now on warm days.  Busy pollinating the experiments.

The brocolli does not look so good but we are hopeful.

The Camilla are about finished blooming.  For some unknown reason the deer did not find them this year. 

We thought the visiting heron had eaten all our goldfish but looks like he missed these and they survived the winter.

 Chives, nuff said, yum yum.

Let Spring begin!

Update:  There is a new kid in the neighborhood.