• Fruits & Veggies - Great plants

    The cherries are ripe! About 10 days early — why?

    June 22, 2009 - By 

    First, meet my little garden buddy, McKay. He’s our cute, smart, hilarious two-year old. He’s fun to have along in the garden, although I often need to clean up the messes he makes, like today, when I swept the sidewalk off after he shoveled dirt all over it from a nearby flowerbed. But no problem, really. I mean, who could get mad at a face like this??? All right, on to the cherries. I don’t know why, but one of my cherry trees is ripe before the other this year, and it’s about 10 days early. We usually see these…

  • Flowers - Great plants - Our Garden

    The first flowers of Spring 2009!

    March 8, 2009 - By 

    My crocuses are such tiny things, and the clumps are few and far between, but I like how they are the first heralds of spring. I have them next to the walkway to my front door so they’ll get our attention as we walk to or from the house. At this time of year, I always think of planting more of them, and then I forget later, when they are dormant. I should remember next fall to get a bunch more bulbs. While I was shooting these photos, I was happy to also see the first bees of spring! I…

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    Setting sun on crabapples

    November 10, 2008 - By 

    I walked out the front door a few days ago in the evening, and the setting sun was making the tiny crabapples on my tree glow and sparkle. I ran back in to get the camera! This is a Prairiefire crabapple. Sometimes I’ve called in Prairie Fire, but I think the proper name is one word. These fruit are “persistent,” meaning they stay on the tree well into the winter. The birds eat some of them. There are even some left in the spring, when the robins return.? These are a nice small ornamental tree. They’ve been in the ground…

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    Beautiful Hibiscus moscheutos

    September 4, 2008 - By 

    Now these are some *cool* flowers! Don’t you think? This is one of the Hibiscus moscheutos plants I have in large pots on my backyard deck. This one was much later to flower than the other this year, but it’s great to see multiple flowers opening up at once. My hunch is that they would flower sooner in the summer, but they get half-day shade on my covered deck, which may have slowed down the flower development. The guy who sent these seeds to me (from a trade on GardenWeb.com) said their parent was ‘Blue River II,’ but it turns…

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    Nectarines are ripe!

    September 1, 2008 - By 

    I decided this year to leave the nectarines on the tree longer, because many of them were a little too tart last year. They are really getting good now! I’ve harvested a few small batches of them in the past week, and there are many more still on the tree. Birds are getting to the them, and some fell off in the wind yesterday, so I need to get out there and pick the rest of them, I think. Perhaps there are still some hard ones that I’ll leave on the tree a little longer, but I think they should…

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    Corn harvest

    September 1, 2008 - By 

    Wow a whole month without posting! I am chagrined to have not posted here for all of August. I don’t have much time to put into it this year, since I’m working much of my free time doing construction in my basement (now shooting for finishing it within a month or so!). Anyway, here’s some good news from the garden — we harvested our first round of corn on August 24th. This is that Mirai corn I ordered from Parks seed in 2007 but didn’t plant till this year. I wrote about it when I ordered the seeds, and I…

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    Lavateras in the backyard are doing GREAT

    July 10, 2008 - By 

    These pink flowers are Lavatera tauricensis (see an earlier post with info about the name being in doubt). I transplanted them to this backyard flowerbed in spring 2007, I think. Now that they’re established, they’ve grown well and are flowering like crazy. I love this plant, because it keeps flowering all summer long, even when it’s producing seeds. I’ve given away a lot of these seeds, but people seem to have quite a bit of trouble getting them to germinate. I’ve done it before, but it did take some work and patience.

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    Other stuff blooming recently

    July 8, 2008 - By 

    Siberian Iris and Dianthus grationapolitanus, both from June. This Dianthus is a very small and slow to grow. I’ve lost a bunch of them and only have a few left. Salvia nemorosa ‘East Friesland’ and Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue.’ The salvia is awesome and will rebloom repeatedly when cut back. The geranium probably needs to be moved to full sun, because it’s leggy and weak in the shady spot I have it in. ‘Pink Simplicity’ rose and Dianthus deltoides ‘Brilliancy.’ The dianthus is doing quite well — I have perhaps 10 of these. I will write another post about the roses,…