Potatoes

Jim bought 4.75 pounds of seed potatoes for .49 a pound.  We are trying some new ones this year, Red Norland and Yukon Gold, as well as the ordinary russets, we usually get. Lynette helped cut them up to sets and Jim planted them April 28.  That was enough to fill our row completely.

We bought Pansies for .98 for 6 at Walmart, cheapest I've even seen and planted them by the gas meter in the front.  It's been so cool and wet, they should last a little longer than usual.

My mum by the mailbox looks like it isn't coming back.  I wonder if soil (hard with too much gravel) or dryness (doesn't get watered much) had anything to do with it.  It looked so pretty, I better get another one.

Evening Sun on the Tulips

In spring my flower gardens are just pieces of color throughout the yard and gardens. 

Tulips across the front of the flower garden.

These are the only tulips out now.  I think there are a few other colors yet to come.  I used to have much more variety, but they are gone, or turned to yellow.  I don't really know what happens there.

These beautiful little flowers are some I call wild phlox.  They are native Nebraska flowers and I don't think I can buy them anywhere.  I got them from mom. They re-seed easily, and are perennial.  I loved them as a child when they grew wild in our neighbor's lawn.  The enventually moved in to our yard.  I love flowers that have memories attached. 

April 25th, Monday

It's raining again today.  We had a high around 45 degrees. It has been windy, cold, cloudy, damp and wet all weekend.  I thought we had a slow start to spring last year.  This year isn't any better.

Jim planted sugar snap peas, swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, beets and onion sets on Saturday afternoon when the wind went down a little bit.  They made almost two rows.  This year we are trying to plant only as much as we will actually use.  We don't need 6 feet of swiss chard, pretty as it may be.

I put three more 3-cup bags of strawberries in the freezer, plus we are eating them as we go along.

April 22nd

Strawberries are on sale at Walmart for 1.38.  I bought a couple of pints to put in the freezer.  I saved some out to make shortcake.  I just love fresh strawberries with a little sugar on shortcake. They are better fresh than frozen of course, but fresh frozen strawberries are also better than those out of the grocery store freezer.

So, two more freezer bags in, with about 3 cups each.

It was sunny today after about three days of rain and cloudy weather, so I worked more in the flower garden, the Main Flower Garden.


I don't grow violets on purpose, they come up about everywhere on their own.  I try to do a little crowd control during the year, by weeding out several of them, but they still come up in the lawn and a lot of other places.  We only have three different kinds at our place.  There are some red-violet ones in the subdvision, and I've seen yellow ones...once.  We probably have some plain white ones on the place, but I didn't go looking very hard. 

These are so pretty with the purple streaks in their heart. 

These are a little bit darker purple than the ones below.

These little blue flowers are the earliest to bloom.  They are so pretty, really blue with white in the center.  However they quickly lose their appeal, when I remember I'm going to be weeding them out all summer.  They spread like wildfire, and have such thin stems it is hard to get it all.  I'm hoping to get quite a bit of it out before it goes to seed, to minimize some of the damage.

Main Flower Garden looking south. Jim built the arch, we bought the picket fence.

Viola, Johnny-Jump-ups, Baby Pansies, they have some other names, come up from seed, and I'm careful not to let these go too far also.   

Pasque Flowers



The first of the Tulips

 
I weeded the bottom half of the brick path.  At least once a year I turn over every brick to get all the weed roots out.  I think I'm going to be very sore tomorrow.

 

The Dry Garden part of the Main Flower Garden

South of the House.

The iris here does pretty well, despite my forgetting to water this spot.  I want to put more non-plant things in it, too.  There are hen and chicks, and spiderwort, than we dug up in sand near the Platte River.

Daffy-Down-Dillies

Flower photographs are also going to have a place in this garden journal.  I love these little jonquils.

These are "pink" daffodils.  I imagine I paid a lot of money for these bulbs once upon a time, and when they bloomed I couldn't find them since they didn't look the the picture of very pink trumpets. As they age, it gets pinker, so I can find them. Sometimes you have to look at them "just so" to see the peachy pink hue.

April 16th

After a glimpse back at winter yesterday, it was spring all over today.  Sunshine and mild weather make it easy to want to be outside cleaning up.  Jim mowed for the first time and fertilized this evening.  It was nice to have no wind.

East of the House

This is the wide view, showing the nice terrace and steps Jim put in going down to the patio, I'm looking from the top of the north deck steps.

 This closer view shows the iris on either end,  the violets should be blooming soon.  They aren't planted, but I like the so well, I let them bloom all over the place and then pull up most of them and let a few go to seed.  There are a couple of spots in here where the ground is carpeted with some very small plants, that I think are baby violets coming up, that will bloom next year.  Our rule is, if something is coming up as thick as hair on a dog's back, it is likely a weed. I've also planted some bulbs in here that my friend Juli sent me for my birthday, I don't know what they are.

Which brings us to this plant growing in the back of this spot.  I've marked it so I'll see what happens to it.  I don't know what it is.  It very well could be a weed.   

Under the North Deck Steps

I have three or four dianthus coming. One looks rather sick from being buried under damp corn husks.  When the field just south of us is combined, we get buried in corn leaves and husks.  I should have been out earlier to clean out.

My hostas are just poking their heads out of the ground, and I let my marigolds go to seed in here, so hopefully some of them will grow back, I have plumbago and some sort of ground covering sedum growing  in the little spot closest to the sidewalk.  It has been slowly but steadily filling in the spot. 

I've forgotten what this is, it never gets any bigger and has yellow flowers in the summer. 



These are the main flowers currently blooming.

My favorite flowers are the daffodils, my birth month flower.  So, I picked a whole gob, with a few grape hyacinths, to grace my table for Sunday dinner company.

I have other jonquils than the King Alfred daffodils.  So pretty.

April 15th

Strawberry season is here at Walmart.  They've been selling pints for weeks at $1.88, which is about the best they every get and still be good.  We've had strawberry shortcake, strawberry pie, plain strawberries, and finally jam. I just used the sure-jell recipe.  We haven't had any for awhile.  I also put 6 cups of sliced berries in the freezer. I like to have them for smoothies, or shortcake or ice cream topping later.

SNOW!! On April 15th!!  I didn't get any photos of the grass when it was covered, but it was at 10:00 this morning.   It rained all evening and last night, a good start to the gardening season.

April 13th

I decided I would not just take photos of the places I had flowers blooming, but some 'before' pictures of various places in the yard as I get them trimmed and weeded.

By the Driveway

 White Clematis by the Flagpole

I've tied it up a bit, so it isn't in so much of a lump like it has been.  I'll see how that works.  It needs a proper trellis, but I just used yarn. It is starting to green up and a few of my dark red dianthus have come back.

West Side of the House

Hyacinths, mini iris, and Grape Hyacinth, and I planted lettuce and spinach in the wet spots. I'm not sure what Jim will think, we've never tried mixing veggies and flowers together yet. There are more flowers to bloom in this space, and I need to put some annuals in the bare spots.

I planted parsely in a pot at my kitchen window.  Now I need to remember to water all these.

Garden Journal

For years, I've kept a journal with a little weather, planting, and harvesting info, and I've been wishing I had a place for pictures, so this year I'm going to blog my journal.

We had plenty of cold weather early this year, with quite a few snows, although they didn't make mounds of snow.  It seems like spring in getting a slow start.  But on the west side of the house, my early bulbs are blooming.

The pink ones next to these are nearly done already. Hyacinth's smell beautifully.

These "dutch iris" as we always called them are some of the earliest flowers out.  I got my start from Mom.

Grape Hyacinth are spreading all over the place!

The round area of the flower garden, hasn't been cleaned out yet, and the daffodils are just starting to bloom.

I love the color of these little scilla.  They are also called wild hyacinth.  They don't spread too quickly.

So far, I've had one cleaning out day outside, and cleaned out the strip at the west side of the house, and the little piece where the bushes are by the driveway.  It is has been cooler, cloudy and windy, and I don't like to go out and work on those days.