Hostas, Bleeding Hearts, Ferns, and the Sweet Woodruff

Here are most of the plants that Gail will recognize quickly. The ferns, bleeding hearts and hostas are from her garden! The hostas are loving it in the partial shade under that tree. They're twice as big as they were last year. One of the bleeding hearts is as big as the hostas, as you can see in the first picture. As for the ferns, they're the same size as last year. The one on the left doesn't like the amount of sun he gets. I may move him to the far right. We'll see though. He may go somewhere else in the yard after it's "gardenable." The sweet woodruff (the low plant with white flowers) has doubled it size. It LOVES where he's at in the garden. He gets clusters of little star-shaped flowers. He also smells of vanilla. Apparently, the Germans use this herb to flavor wines. Matt says the woodruff is going to take over the entire bed soon! :)

The Survivors

Most of these plants are the ones that survived the basement over the winter. The first one is of Matt's Australian bottlebrush plants. We've been growing them for three years now. They still haven't bloomed. Three of those plants didn't make it over the winter. The second picture is of my lemon verbena. I love this plant even though he doesn't like to grow in a pot. When we're done spraying Round-up all over the yard, we'll put him in the ground. The third plant, is our sedum. He's been faithfully coming back year after year (in the same pot) and has even survived my old apartment basement (aka. the basement of death). The sedum had a bad insect infestation in March which he got from the wedding mums in the basement. He's much better now. The fourth picture is of the Narcissus we transplanted from the front yard. They didn't like the transplanting which is why they're all limp. We'll see how they turn out next year. The last picture is of my dear peonies. They're not very tall but at least they're alive. When we transplanted them last April, they didn't appreciate that and one turned black! I thought it was a goner. But both plants have shot up leaves this spring which makes me happy. They won't flower this year and I'm not even holding my breath for next year. Perhaps the year after that though they'll flower.

I have posted a lot today, but there are still more pictures that I want to upload. I hope to get them all up by this weekend. I have to get to bed though. Please check back later as well to see what I've got posted and for new things as they come up. Love to all!

Where the Vegetables Sleep

Here is our vegetable garden. We built a raise bed with the help of my mom and stepdad. We went with a raised bed because we didn't have time nor patience to dig up a place in the yard. If I remember correctly, there is 1200 pounds of dirt in that box! We planted edamame (green soybeans) which are the leafy sprouts. We also planted red onions, white onions, and garlic. Those are the grassy looking plants. All the crappy looking stuff are our maple tree's contribution - seeds! I'll be pulling those seedlings out for the rest of my life.

The Saginaw Brick

So Matt got a Saginaw brick for Christmas. I'm not quite sure of it's origin, but I know it's from where Matt grew up. We decided it would be a great starter to our yard. It now sits on the edge of the patio as a starter block to the rest of our yard projects. Here is also a picture of our blueberry bush with his first two blossoms along with a ladybug! How cute is that? These irises all budded at the same time. I took that picture on 05/01/10. There will be another picture of them all in bloom later.

The Red Irises

The first of these pics is from yesterday. The other two are from 05/01/10. These are the red irisis in bloom. They're a deep red with a deep yellow at the base of the petals. And yellow caterpillars. That's what Matt calls the fuzzy part of the flower at the base of the petals - caterpillars. I'm actually a little shocked at my amateur photography on the last pic. I don't impress myself too often.

And now we're getting somewhere

Here's where we're going to find out how many pictures I can post to this blog. Hopefully, more than just one. If not, there will have to be multiple posts or I'll have to throw them on to Facebook. So I can post five at a time. We'll see how it goes. All of my irises were passed down to me by my Grandma Jacobs. Of all the irises, it appears there are only two plants that produce this interesting yellow color. They are yellow with a splash of ochre and streaks of white. The fourth picture is of the flower garden with all the irises budding. The last one is of the flower garden and vegetable bed. I'll elaborate more on the vegetables later. This is just the start of very many years of gardening in the yard.