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.  🙂