Images from today's garden.

88*, feels like 93*, 52% humidity, NW 2 mph wind, scattered clouds

I know I posted a bunch of photos earlier, but these ones are from today during our brief showing of sun. My red lily. I don't have a name for it as it was given to me by someone a couple years ago. It amazes me how fast they grow and how well lilies thrive here. In fact, once you have them you can't kill them. I have a darker taller red one as well. I liked this one better so I dug up the other and tossed it in the compost. Now I have dark red lilies everywhere, even where I thought I had dug them all up. What was I thinking anyway by trying to get rid of them? It was a moment's insanity. I'm glad I didn't kill them.
My rose today. See....you just can't get the real color to show up in photos very well. I guess you'll just have to grow it yourselves to appreciate the real beauty of it.

Don't ya just hate it when you underestimate how much a plant will grow? Crazy hostas. Now I have to move my Tiarella 'Pirate's Patch' somewhere else. It seems to like where it's at though. What a shame. I still can't believe that it survived. I bought it on clearance and it had one leaf on it. The nerve. The nerve of blueberries ripening one by one. The nerve of Mr. Hyper to eat the first one of the season. Grrrr. That's OK though, he stopped to rescue a snapping turtle in the middle of traffic this morning, risking life and a few limbs to move it to the other side so she wouldn't get run over, so I forgive him for the blueberry theft. But note to all other blueberry kleptomaniacs, you will risk limbs if you dare.

Happy shoes. This was so much better then tossing them in the garbage.

Rosa rugosa. I don't know why it's taking the red one so long to bloom for the first time. I was getting worried. However, I did find a bud forming on it so hopefully I will see it's true color soon.

Do you see the rhododendron leaves? I'm happy. You see, just over 2 years ago I bought a big expensive rhodo because I wanted one SO bad. It cost a pretty penny too. Then, one by one, the limbs started to die. It had been a nice sized bush. It would start putting on new growth, then it would die. Old growth and all to the base of the plant. Not this year. The two remaining branches are suddenly taking on new life. Perhaps there is hope after all!!

Larkspur, which reseeded itself from last year. :)

So many pictures, so little time....random photos from the last week or two.

72*, 91% humidity, WNW 2 mph wind, scattered clouds

It's finally decided to warm up round here. We may get summer after all! Unfortunately with warm weather usually comes BAD weather and the wind and rain has battered my garden a bit...not too bad so far though, considering what past years here have been like. The weather report one day claimed this year is the 10th wettest in recorded history here. To me, it seems much drier then the past 3 years. All the really bad stuff is going around us here to the north across the big lake and just to the south of us....leaving us in a little bubble of not so bad weather. last night though, my towering peas took a hit---the trellis is broken so they are leaning way over the cucumbers and the carrots. I guess they just got so big. Next year I'm going to use those steal green posts and wire I think instead.
Well, on to pictures. I've been very busy so haven't uploaded until today.

I have to pick berries and veggies every day, rain or shine. I have help though. This little one is obsessed with trying to get my strawberries that I put into this bowl. I mean, if she sees the bowl, she is an arrow to it and you get very distracted from the serious business that is berry picking trying to keep her from smashing them.

Jalapenos. I know what you are thinking. Already? When summer hasn't even shown up yet? Well, I was at the fruit market last week and I saw these big towering jalapeno plants for sale on clearance, covered in peppers for $5. Since I didn't plant any this year I said why not? I picked all the red ones off so it will keep producing the green ones.
Moonshine coreopsis has decided to start blooming, Sasha's grave site.
Woohoo! Already a chocolate bell pepper has formed.
This is a radish flower. The lore is that if you let radishes grow and flower near cucumbers and squash that you can repel certain naughty bugs.
Never mind the weeds in the onion patch. The rain we've had has gotten the weeds off to a very good start.
This is Russian comfrey. I bought the root cuttings off of someone on a forum I visit. I can't find it locally for whatever reason. Comfry is like the magic plant....It's leaves are potent with nitrogen and calcium which makes it an awesome plant for the compost and mulch for plants like tomatoes. Just harvest the leaves a few times a year (once established and big). I hear it makes a great plant tea for fertilizing the garden with too. It took a few weeks, but they are starting to come up now.
A red lily has started to bloom as of yesterday.
Lady Bird Johnson rose. Look how big the flowers are. :)
I actually managed to get a true to color picture with this camera. In the past the color has been very hard to capture. Too bad I can't capture the smell.
A neat poppy, this one is sporting stripes. A variation I haven't seen in my poppies before. I'm going to be saving seeds from all my favorites this year. Enough for myself and to share too. I want to keep growing them but not near my vegetable garden any more. They are soil robbers and take nutrients away from the other plants like you wouldn't believe. so even though I love them to death, I'm just going to have to keep them from growing there from now on.
Cabbage and broccoli from yesterday. Broccoli is funny...one second its just barely starting to head, a week later you have to pick all of it before it flowers so you are struggling to get it blanched and frozen as fast as possible.
More broccoli. These heads are pretty small this year for the most part. That's my fault. When the label says to place them 2 feet apart, you'd better plant them two feet apart. I got more broccoli from the 5 plants spaced correctly then the 20 plants spaced too close.
I have to pick peas daily. Sometimes twice daily. As soon as I'm done I turn around and there are more pees.
It's the same for strawberries. They are starting to slow down now though. I have loads in the freezer.
These are big heads from the well spaced plants.
More peas and strawberries.
A cool looking fly on a cool looking leaf.
I can sit on my patio watching the flowers grow. I feel like I sit in the middle of a meadow.
More poppies.
I like this frilly red one.
It reminds me of fancy red party dresses.
Peas getting too tall...this was a couple days ago. Do they stop growing, ever?
Larkspur are doing fabulous this year. Most are dark purple but I like this lavender one more.
My rose again. I swear, this year I will cover it for winter so it doesn't die to the ground again.
More poppies
Cherries. My big harvest was 7 cherries this year.
More broccoli....
more peas....
more rose....


Potatoes and spinach. I inter plant spinach in the bed when I plant the potatoes. Spinach is a good plant for growing before other plants. It's ready to harvest before the potatoes take over everything.
I THINK this is white sage. I tried growing it by seeds in pots and FAILED. So I threw a bunch of seeds out near my fruit trees in February (or was it march?) and I think white sage was in there. It's supposed to have big fuzzy leaves. These look like big fuzzy leaves. I hope it's sage.
Cabbage. I'll admit to using BT.....but only once. i was not going to have ruined cabbage this year.
more poppies...
Veggie garden view. Don't mind the weeds.....like I said I've been busy.
more poppies
Hosta view.
Far view.
The other day Mr. Hyper and I moved the couches around. Brandi was understandably upset as the couch is HERS. So she curled up in her normal spot....where the couch would of been in protest.
I took a roadside walk down the road and along road 700. This is the apple orchard, it's turned itno a turist trap and for me has lost it's charm. They are building a giant turist barn now.
Road 700.
Over looking one of the local farm fields. Lots of corn this year.
Crossroads at countyline and 700.
more corn
Countyline road.
A buddy i found in the garden. Very friendly.
A not so friendly buddy trying to cross the road. This was a BIG snapping turtle. She was likly looking for a place to lay eggs. They are everywhere this year.
The succulants I planted into my old shoes are loving it.

Harvesting....

Wordless Wednesday

Terrific Tree And Shrub Tuesday

58*, 80% humidity, NE 2 mph wind, mostly cloudy



Lets see what the woody members of my flora family are up to today.


First, we have the biggest elderberry. Still small, but growing well. It's going to bloom for me. Shhh, don't announce it to the birds.

Whats this? It looks like some kind of fruit. No, the birds didn't get this cherry. I did. I had to try it as it was nice and red on the outside. As this is the first time I've grown this one I don't know when exactly it will be ripe so I have to perform a taste test. Not bad...flavorful but sour yet. Not too sour but I don't think it's ripe yet.
I only have a few to play around with this year.
My poor apple tree is suffering this year because of the long cool damp spring. Not only does it have a case of the ceder-apple rust, but now apple scab. All the apple family plants in the woods seem to be suffering the same as well. I think I'm going to go ahead and pull the fungus infected leaves off, as the fungus will defoliate it anyway...at least I can keep it from spreading spoors for next year that way.
This LITTLE shrub is actually a native to the US azalea. It's supposed to smell really good but it's still a baby and therefore must be protected from rabbits.
The gray dogwood is growing in leaps and bounds.
The peach is doing well.
So are the pears. I don't expect to get fruit off of these for a few years yet, like apples.
Apricots on the other hand can have fruit quite soon. I think the difference is because of where the flowers form---on older spurs or on new wood. They sure are growing well.
Washington Hawthorn. I saw a lot of these in Mnoke Prairie the other day but they were a lot smaller, maybe knee height.
The second elderberry. This one was the surprise freebie. It was smaller and weaker then the other and is in a drier more ignored spot so I really didn't expect it to survive to this year. Well, it did and it's going to bloom too.
My happy little ninebark. I love it, love it, love it.
Tulip tree.
And now, trees from my Sunday walk.

I love tree lined country back roads. I love to walk along them, they send my imagination soaring who knows where. I often think how fun it would be to walk across the country on roads such as this in exploration.
A path through the woods.
Looking up a hill at trees.
Between field and forest.
A wild apple tree and the ONLY one that isn't afflicted by disease and fungus this year.
Bridge over the little calumet river.
Path through the woods to the river.
Tall, tall trees. How can you not feel relaxed when you enter into the woods like this? Trees are awesome.

A walk through Mnoke Prairie

I took a long walk yesterday and since it was overcast and not too hot, I walked through Mnoke Prairie to see what wildflowers I could find. Walking through the grass--sometimes knee high, sometimes taller, reminded me of walks along coastal bluffs back home.
There wasn't a lot of different flowers blooming but there were a few-- red clover, yarrow, raspberries, multiflora rose, a yellow dandelion like flower, spiderwort, and oxeye daisy.
There is a mown path through the prairie.

There were a lot of small young shrubs that resembled dogwood getting ready to bloom.
The yellow flower.
Multiflora rose.
This looks exactly like my Washington hawthorn.
The prairie goes on for about a mile.
Raspberry.
Some kind of moth.
Flowers and grass.

It's Ok, Deer. I'm just going for a little walk.

Ink's Favorite Hoe

Sleepy Eyes Saturday

Feathered Friends Friday

The starlings that have been visiting the feeder (mostly the suet) all spring have brought their youths to teach them to eat at the feeder. Teenagers are so demanding! Even with food right their at their feet, they demand the parents feed them beak to beak LOL. There are actually 2 families of starlings visiting now. I will have to make sure I have enough suet for everyone!