Flowering Foxglove

I mentioned our volunteer foxglove plants a few posts back, when they were busy making new foliage.  Well, all of the colors are now at the peak of their bloom.  They’re truly spectacular.  This magenta one is the tallest, with that wonderfully dark yet bright color.  Whenever I think of these plants, it’s this one that comes first to mind.

My personal favortite among our relatively small selection is the light pink one, with it’s pretty freckling of light brown on delicate pink.  The first few blooms on this one appear almost white, but as they age a little and more flowers appear along the stalk, the pink coloring becomes more prevalent.

I don’t recall seeing this variation last year, but it does look very similar to the first magenta one, except that it has this awesome white ring around its lip.  The fact that the flowers point upwards a bit instead of hanging down is also very cool, expecially when observed from an elevated window.

In other news, the mountain laurel is starting to bloom.

The azaleas that we planted last year were very pretty, though I have very few pictures of them.  They’re so dwarfed by the old bushes, which bloomed much earlier than these colorful little guys.

My tomato plants are really outgrowing their containers.  I hope to get them in the ground today, if only the unexpected rain would just stop.

Explosion of Green

These past days have seen an explosion of green

Vibrant green buds and tender leaves

As flowers of color fade and drop

In favor of summer’s classy trees.

Watch the sudden, exponential growth

Bare bones of winter and delicate spring

See the new lushness of the world

As gaps upon sky and ground fill in.

See the changes in the light,

The ways of drowsy summer morns

Direct rays no longer pierce the sky

At horizon’s clearing by the sun.

Filtered through the thickening leaves

Diffused to dimmer, summer green

Summer of growth, and languid dreams

When summer storms rise and split sky’s seams.

All in the sudden greening of trees.

~Happy belated Earth Day, everyone.  Just think for a moment how immense the world is when you color everyone’s little garden and patch of home in with all the details you know of your own.  How many homes there are upon this planet, and how much each of them means.  It makes one dizzy.  A world, that immense and beautiful, is our gift to protect, consider, and look after.  Let us always keep that in mind.  And let us take green to mean life and growth and something much deeper than a chic new movement.  And let us always remember the miracle that this world is.

The Lyrics of Life: April 20, 2012

The days seem to rest on the cusp of late spring, with whiffs of summer in broad green leaves and enveloping warmth.  Our azaleas are blooming now.  The white variety is so fragrant and lovely that I had to make a bouquet with just a ball of the abundant flowers.

The magenta ones are beautiful as well.  I love the double ruff on these flowers.  Some of the annoying weeds are blooming, so I grabbed a few to complement the dark, heavy magenta.

A few weeks ago, I was walking in a section of unmowed lawn at the nearby elementary school. I noticed a popping, snapping sound every time I moved, but couldn’t figure out what it was since the light was going at the time.  As I was picking the flowers today, I checked to see if a certain weed was difficult to pull up or not (it was a new addition of our weed selection, so I wasn’t sure if it would come out easy of be a pain to dig out).  As I brushed the plant, I heard the popping sound, and noticed some odd curls by the plants.  It turns out, the seedpods were in the process of forming, and that a light touch will cause half of the seedpod to curl tightly (hence the little faded green curls) and fall off, sounding a snap as the little seeds all scatter.  Thankfully, it was okay that deducing this required setting off a great many seedpods, as a light tug gets these guys out.  And their flowers are pretty and welcome in really, really early spring.

This morning, as our bus passed the lake by the library, the sun had little strength and came glinting dimly upon the waking world through the branches and leaves.  Mist was rising off the lake in plumes, diffusing the early light.  The lake was utterly still, with a eternal quality to it.  A single man rowed an old-fashioned row-boat from one bank, gently stirring the water.  The scene could have been from any time in the history of the continent’s people.

A Midsummer Day’s Bloom

This midsummer weather certainly seems like a dream.  Mid-April, and it feels like July.  It’s not just the heat.  There’s something in the air, in the humidity, in the hazy sun, that is so utterly summer.  The drowsiness, a feeling I called “summer tired”, has arrived, too.  There’s a languid feeling to the weather, like someone took the essence of heat and sleepy humid air and infused you with it.

The rhododendrons bloomed on schedule despite the weather.  The purple one (not sure what either of these are called) bloomed spectacularly, but faded out before I could get a picture of it.  The pink one is on its way out, but stunning in its prime, as well.  I’m always amazed at how these bushes simply cover themselves in flowers.

The hostas are coming up all over the propery.  I love their lush, varigated leaves.

The healthy, blue-green mounds formed by the young sedum are also quite apealing.

The wild foxgloves always look so lush.  (more on them tomorrow).

I will leave you with some of the very typical but still exhilirating green leaves that are emerging.  Fresh life indeed does abound.

Day by Day by Day

Day by day by day.  It’s how homework gets pushed off.  It’s how blogs die.  its how gardens grow.  It’s how the seemingly endless spring break passes.

There seems to be a rule of the universe that says I cannot both garden productively and blog regurlarly within the same span of time.  This would explain the sudden halt last spring (around this time, actually) as well as the recent faltering in posts.  There are many things I should post about, seeing as so much has happened in the garden since my last post.  But spring is gardening season (what season isn’t), and I have been actually gardening.

My tomato seeds not only got planted (oh, only a month late…), but the first tray also sprouted and are working on their first true leaves.  (Finally added the pictures…the whole slow process of actually getting them onto the computer and then uploading and inserting them is the reason half my drafts don’t get published).

Two onion plants also came up.  I mostly planted the few seeds that I did to see if they do indeed sprout…(I know, I know, they must or they wouldn’t sell, but after not ONE plant emerged out of the fifty or so I planted last year, one has to wonder.)  Anyways.

The other container that I planted carrot seeds in seems to contain sterile soil, as it produced nothing last year, as well.  So I will be emptying it out in exchange for new soil to start a few squash in, as well as to try some lavender and snapdragons, which I may or may not plant in the unlikely event that they actually survive.

The garden fence mentioned some time back has been taken down, its perimeter weeded, and put back up again.  It now sags much less.

I also figured out (at last!) how I want to work the compost heap situation.  I’ve been trying for years to decide where on earth I want the darn thing, and if I want it in a container or not.  The final verdict, after discovering that under the pine tree creates a several inch thick covering of pine needles each fall, and that the southern yard is too sunny, and that composting containers are oddly costly and all my other attempts at containers fail, is to create a section in the northern yard.  I laid out a wooden frame using some pieces we’ve had hiding under the deck for years.  This way, I don’t lose half the compost due to messy turning.

The other major things I’ve managed to do are amend about half the garden soil and plant my peas (also late, so none have yet sprouted).  Though the first batch should really have come up by now…anyways.

I’ll end with this pretty bouquet of violets and a few other flowers stolen from an abandoned lot that I passed on a walk this morning.

Just looking at it as it graces our kitchen table makes me so happy.  🙂

Rush of Bloom

Time has flown so quickly.  (And so much of it without posts…)  The blooming of the daffodils, last year a subject I dragged out over weeks, seems to have occurred overnight.  They are so lovely this year, soming as almost a surprise.  Perhaps the warm weather has helped them to grow quickly, of perhaps I have just been too busy to really take notice.

The magnolias seem also the have bloomed overnight.  They’re really the neighbor’s, but we are treated to a lovely view of them.

I went on a walk to the library, and came across so many lovely blooms on the way.  This here is some manner of pink blossoms about to open.

There is also the magnolia tree at the library, a different species from our neighbor’s.  Of course, the sun dissapeared right when I wanted to take the picture.

However, those clouds which were forming and blocking the sun were a spectacle in and of themselves.  Just look at this cloud, with the sun backlighting it and showing all the different shades within it, and the light streaming out.

The other clouds were pretty too, against the trees.

As you can see there, the trees are blooming, with all their clusters of red and rust, with some of fresh green.  I’ve always noticed how it looks like someone took the veil of fall and thinned, until it was almost transparant and winter’s branches could be seen through it, and laid it over the trees.  Its particularly noticable by the highway, though I got this photo a bit after the phenomenon.  The light greens are a little too prevalent (as is the actual highway).

Upon returning home, I noticed again the interesting look provided by last year’s purple and aged leaves, a few of which survived the milder winter, amid the fresh green growth.

This is a bit outdated, but I still felt it should be documented.  That’s all for today.  Happy spring, everybody.

The Daily Paper: 4/7/11

We had a rather cloudy day today, but we were treated with some sun towards sunset, and the night seems to be pretty clear.  The daffodils up in the front planter finally bloomed today. 

They’re absolutely gorgeous.  I’ll probably cut one tommorow to occupy the vase that has held what is, in my opinion, a rather artful arrangement of grasses over the winter.

The forsythia bush has bloomed as well.  Okay, from here on, mouse over for descriptions.

Garden in April

Well, as I was saying last time…

It is a gorgeous, totally April-like day today, a cool, steady rain, with a touch of faint sun now and again.  I went out, much to my camera’s dismay, and took some pictures of the place getting ready to come into bloom and spring life. 

First, though, a cute little bouquet of wildflowers for your enjoyment.  This is a little thing, the vase isn’t more than 3.5 inches high.  (about 6 cm.)

Beautiful, growing, tomato seedlings.

And now…

(mouse over pics for short descriptions)

Oh, I just can’t believe that it’s April!!  Spring has come today.  It had come, then tentatively retreated briefly, but now it is April!  April!  The garden awaits…