A feast for the palate

Leaving home, even for a few days, reinforces my love for it.  I also see some things in a new light.  I returned home yesterday and was anxious to see what had happened in my gardens in my absence.  There were a few surprises.

First of all, my tomato plants have exploded and I can look forward to a half dozen or more tomatoes in the next week...hopefully more in the weeks to come.

When I turned back toward the house, I was very surprised to see how much my lettuce patch had grown (see photo below).  I picked a bagful which we will enjoy for both lunch and dinner.

The lettuce was an afterthought, suggested by my husband, and I picked up a few plants at Lowe's.  The lettuce was "spring" lettuce so when the growth was slow last month, I thought spring was over for them.  Surprise!  My favorite sandwich is a BLT, and eating one with homegrown tomatoes and lettuce makes it doubly pleasurable.

My package of lilies arrived while I was gone and I will be back in the gardens on Wednesday to prepare the bed and plant them.

More later...

Spring revival

Today was "fertilize the roses" day, and someflowers.  I'm pleased with most of the growth so far, especially the climbers on the arbor in the back yard.  For the first year (out of three), not much long-stem growth appeared, but now the plant is quite leggy.  I hope it gets to the top this summer.

I also have been watching the slow re-emergence of the dwarf bougainvilleas, which looked pretty bleak after the long, cold winter. Until this month only green growth was evident.  They anchor quite a few gardens around the house.  And now the plants in the pool garden, which are under a screen and tend to bloom later, are showing their colors.  Below is the bougainvillea in the pool garden.

Not done yet

Just as I thought I was finished with the planting this season, I came up with more.  I'm planting mint around my tomato plants as I read that mint helped deter some insects.  Between the mint, parsely and marigolds, I hope the insects leave the plants alone.

The other new project is to dig out the area on the south side of the house and make it my lily patch.  There is nothing but weeds in it now and I had wondered what to do with it.  Then I saw an ad for many different lilies in one package so I thought that would be a good place to put them.  I hope so.

New light of day

My gardens are nearly complete for this year, with just a few elements of cleanup and encouragement (fertilizing) left.  One cleanup event was finally getting around (today) to pruning the overhanging tree in the back corner of our yard.  The neighbors have a carabola tree next to the fence and two branches have grown obtrusively into our yard.  The result has been cutting off the morning sunlight needed by the magnolia and other plants in that corner.  The branches also are heavy with fruit, already dropping some in our yard.  The rest of the tree is dangerously close to the utility lines above.  I recruited my husband to use his electric saw.  We maneuvered the 20-foot ladder carefully over and between the plants and tree and the branches were down in a matter of minutes.  They weren't huge, just long, and luckily not near the utility lines.  I'll be watching closely to see what results from the trimming. 

Magnolia and bougainvillea (behind)

Pretty in pink

I wish I could say I grew these lilies, but they were a Mother's Day gift from my daughter Aimee. They took about a week to start opening and not all are open yet. I'm enthralled with the color and size, though. And the heavy scent is delightful, too. I do have some lilies on the edge of my rose garden that are starting to emerge. I hope I have some great photos of those too one of these days. Meanwhile, enjoy the color.

No croaking here

Little by little, my front yard has become home to frogs.  Not the real ones but ceramic frogs that welcome visitors and highlight the flowers. Today, my husband raised the level of display with a water fountain that now sits in the middle of the roses.  It's an early Mother's Day gift because he knew I'd been looking in local stores and on the Web.  When I got home after my weekly Zumba class, he said "Let's go to the fountain place (otherwise known as Landscape Depot)."  What a surprise!  And the best part is that the frog fountain had just come in and was sitting in front.  When we got home, I couldn't wait to get it running, and add My Garden frog to the display.

The day I bought My Garden frog several years ago, I also bought the Welcome frog that sits at the end of the walk near the screen door.  

Then sometime after, I found another one that found a resting place inside the screen entry, underneath the hydrangeas. 

Then, a week ago, I was shopping at TJ Maxx and literally bumped into a display of garden staffs with various birds attached.  Looking them over, I discovered frogs!  There are two standing on a swing suspended from a lily pad (below).  How could I pass that by!

I never intended to collect frogs, or even other garden knickknacks, but these have caught my eye and my heart.... so be it!  There is a whimsical side to me that doesn't surface very often.  Mostly in my garden corners.

Immersed in scent

I love walking out my front door, or walking to the door from the car, and being enveloped in the heady aroma of roses.  Many years ago I experienced that at a friend's house and knew I wanted to have it too.  So my main rose garden is an island about 6 feet from the front walk that holds, right now, a dozen bushes. 

My favorite rose is Mr. Lincoln because not only of its beauty but the strong, heavenly scent it radiates.  Actually, I don't plant any rose that doesn't have a strong scent.  Too many hybrids have lost the true rose aroma. 

I picked a Mr. Lincoln rose last week (at right) that was just opening.  By the time it opened fully, it was at least 6 inches across.  I used to look for antique and heritage roses (my favorite was Othello) but the nursery stopped carrying them. 

I take no credit for the beauty or success of my roses -- it's all in God's hands.