Garden Stuff

 Here's a first attempt to spend a quiet afternoon by the computer, as it's supposed to start raining soon.  I'm really enjoying sitting out in the garden in the mornings and the first thing I do is ride around sand get some pictures.

When I pull out onto the deck in the morning this is my view, with the Peonies adding a lot of colour.

I ride down onto the deck and toward the patio.  I feel surrounded by all the growing flowers.

These are the seed pods of Sweet Cicely, delicious to chew on when they are fresh. They have a slight licorice taste.

The Pinks are tiny but mighty.  They are the most fragrant plants in the garden right now.

We have our first tomato flowers.

And I found a single stem of light pink Columbine, growing off by itself.

Finally I was out front early one day and got a more complete shot of our beautiful white Clematis.

A Touch of Pneumonia!

It seems like I've been diagnosed with a touch of pneumonia!  It's the ,mild kind, labelled 'walking pneumonia' as II should be able to carry on with my usual daily activities.  But needless to say I won't be posting as much for awhile, or at least not as often.

But the weather is such that I can sit out of the back deck, moving between deck and patio as sun and shade shift.  The garden is doing wonders for me mental health!

It's Peony Season Here!

 The big Peonies we have squeezed into our garden have started to bloom.  They stand out because they are all in bright colours and they stand up higher than the other surrounding plants.  They stand out from any of our back windows, but they are fascinating up close too.

This huge deep pink one is the first to bloom.  Look at that colour!

They are a great flower for learning about stamens and pistils and such.

I liked this longer view, capturing the Peonies, Allium and Soloman's Seal struck me as really beautiful.

But there are lots of other flowers coming into bloom too, like the small Rhododendron we have.  Their blooms are quite amazing!

We have one Lupin which is both pretty and a gathering spot for all the aphids in the garden.

There's one small patch of beautiful blue Iris.

And one of Columbine, nearly white, with a bluish tinge, just coming into bloom.

Out front the first of the Clematis has gathered a busy crowd of blooms, but has forgotten to climb up the adjacent trellis.  It's another flower where the pattern of pistils and stamens is very obvious.

 

This blue flower is Camassia.

And last for this post in this cluster of Pinks which greets me every time I ride down the ramp and onto the patio.

Veggies in the Garden

Veggies don't usually have bright coloured flowers, but they are where much of Mrs. F.G.'s effort goes.  Specifically she grows all her tomatoes and  peppers from seed, and she is able to pick only those varieties she wants.  We get a delicious variety of these by late summer.

This is the 'salad bar', located on the upper deck level, right outside the kitchen door, and wheelchair accessible.  Here we have several varieties of lettuce, radishes and other delicious stuff!

You will notice that all our veggies are grown in planters, or sometimes big pots.  That enables Mrs. F.G. to control the soil quality, so  she adds a number of supplement to each bed.  We sit on ground made up of solid clay, so soil above the ground level is important! 

Both of these planters serve as effective 'railings' for the deck.

There are two other planting beds like this one. although this one suffers from a little too much shade.

Tomatoes are the highlight of the garden for me!  I love tomato sandwiches late in the summer.  On the other hand I don't eat many hot peppers, even though Mrs. F.G. loves them.  

She has also experimented with growing potatoes, sweet potatoes, and various types of squash.  But our garden is small and she finds you don't save much with those crops, whereas we do with tomatoes.  Keep in mind that we live in a landscape full of farm outlets; locally you may be familiar with Achy Back Acres, who often comment on this blog.

Besides the big veggie crops there are numerous others that Mrs. F.G. grows, like these onions.

Then there are the herbs, tucked in between the other plants.  This is Basil.  It's a never-ending experiment, with at least one new plant grown each year.

Transitions in the Garden

 We're in the middle of growth and change in the garden.  Daffodils are finished, the leaves just building strengh for next year's flowers.  The Primrose are nearly finished too.  But other plants are growing fast!  Hostas are virtually exploding out of the ground with their big leaves and our first Peony is in bloom, as well as several other plants.

This is the first of the Peonies to bloom, out in the front garden in full sun.  It's the very unusual Fernleaf Peony.  I love the deep red colour.

You saw the leaves of this one in the spring plant quiz.  It's Leopard's Bane.

We have both white and pink Bleeding Heart.

And a few Alliums.  Sorry about the neighbour's distant wheelbarrow.

I think the name of Coral Bells is most appropriate at this stage, when the tiny blooms haven't really opened yet.

This is an Azalea, but I don't remember it being so white last year.

Our Redbud Tree!

 There is no other tree that I love more than our Redbud tree when it's in bloom!  Redbuds are native a little further south, and they're a small understory tree in the forests of places like the Great Smoky Mountains.  But they do survive well here if they are planted and cared for.

It's feeling like early summer here as the world turns green and the leaves come out on the trees.  The garden is looking great!!

 

One of our two Redbuds is out in the front yard, in full sun, and it's been in bloom for a week or more.

The flowers are so tiny and jammed together, it's really hard to get a good picture.

But there's no denying the pink colour!

Flowering Trees

 The middle of May is the time for flowering trees here on the shores of Georgian Bay.  From Magnolias to Apples, the flowers come out and the bees are buzzing.  This is truly a beautiful time of year!

The very large Magnolia around a couple of blocks is the most spectacular that I have to share.  Gorgeous but its petals start to fall all too soon.

Our neighbours have a much smaller but deeper purple Magnolia.

Our own Magnolia, after several years of depredation by our resident rabbit, has started to bloom more seriously.  This is a star Magnolia.

Of course there are flowering Crab Apples all over town, perhaps the most common of our flowering trees.

Another neighbour's Serviceberry remains the only one I have seen in town, though you often see these in rural fencerows.

And the most extensive of all outside of town are of course the Apple trees, orchards and orchards of them.