Busy as Bees

Peony Do Tell

Howdy sports fans!  I will tell that it has been spring madness around here for a few weeks now.  Non-stop gardening, interspersed with bird-watching and splashed with actual paid work.  The annual battle of trying to beat back the weeds in the flower beds and get fertilizer and mulch down around things to help them along and keep the weeds from regrowing is an ongoing effort.  Progress has been made with a truckload of compost spread and three truckloads of mulch.  But we've yet to finish the task.  I'm guessing I'm about two-thirds of the way through at this point.  About the time I get done with all the flower beds, it will likely be time to start weeding the ones I did first, again.  Such is the life of a couple of over the top gardeners.

In the veggie patch things are looking stellar.  I just peeked a couple of posts back and the potatoes pictured there are now knee high and the peas are almost to the top of the trellis and flowering.  Greens are lush.  We have been eating obligatory monster piles of salad and skillets full of cooked greens on a daily basis.  Glorious mixes of red and green leaf lettuces, red-stemmed Bordeaux spinach, arugula and cress for the salads.  Kale, beet greens, spinach, chard, mustard and turnip greens in the braising mix.  Love the first fresh greens of spring!

Summer garden is almost in.  I've planted 22 tomato plants, 13 peppers, beans, squash and cucumbers.  Basil and nasturtiums.  I still want to put out some butternut squash, sweet potatoes, more beans, tomatillos and a few more peppers. Also sunflowers and zinnias need sowing.  But I'm getting close.  We've been picking and eating sweet red strawberries this week and asparagus too.

Peony Raspberry Sundae

I've waxed poetic many times before about peonies.  They are just starting to open and the yard is hypnotic with their fragrance and that of the lilac in full bloom.  

Birding during the past two prime weeks for northern migration has been rewarding.  My extreme birding brother Chris has been out each morning and calling me once or twice a day with the bird report.  When I've been lucky enough to get out there with him we have seen some excellent birds.  Most exciting for me are always the warblers and this season was no exception.  I have seen prairie, pine, black-throated blue, yellow-throated, common-yellow throat, chestnut-sided, Canada, parula, black and white, hooded, Kentucky and blue-winged warblers.  Also in the warbler family; Northern and Louisiana water thrushes, ovenbirds, American redstarts and chat.  Veery and Swainson's thrushes have also been in the woods on their way north and the fluting and melodious wood thrush has been calling daily for several weeks.  Back for the season to breed are the scarlet and summer tanagers, indigo bunting, great crested flycatcher, peewee, and red-headed woodpecker.  It's a great time to be a birder.

I've also been working on promoting the new business and finally finished my website and launched it last week.  So hop over and check it out at www.playfulnatureconsulting.com  and if you are on Facebook, please like my page: playful nature consulting.  Thanks!  now I'm off to bed to rest off so I can do some more gardening tomorrow!

Close Encounters With Wildlife

I was in bed reading the other night when David called from the bathroom "you've got to come see this right now, and you might want your camera."  Perched on a giant peony that I had cut and brought in that morning was this gray tree frog.  He must have been wondering where he was after sleeping inside that flower all day.  I was grateful that David spotted the little guy before a) it began singing during the night and woke us from a sound sleep or b) it hopped off into the house, where it may not have survived too well.  I'm also sure the frog was grateful to be released back outside.

Heavy rains last night and today were rough on the peonies but I got this photo before these blooms got their faces rubbed in the dirt.  This pompom double flower is almost over the top!

Raspberry Sundae

It's Official

You might remember me saying one of my goals for 2013 was to complete my environmental educators certification.  And I did, actually back at the beginning of March, I finally finished, that means I completed 200 hours of classes, teaching and community service projects and finally, today, my documents arrived in the mail.  I'm kinda tickled about getting this done after 4 years of working on it, not sure what it will do for me exactly, but the experience did give me lots of great ideas for teaching EE and the opportunity to meet  many interesting and dedicated folks in the EE field. And there is that sense of accomplishment which isn't a bad thing when you're scattered in as many directions as I often am.

Some other highlights of the week:

• Baby bluebirds continue to chatter in the nest, I expect to see them fledge any day now
• Peas are blooming and there are tiny pods forming
• Peonies are in full bloom as a result of the high temperatures that finally came BOOM, from 70 on Tuesday to 90 today.
• Potatoes are blooming which means taters are forming under ground 
• Strawberries are coming in ripe and sweet
• And finally, another thing that's official.  I removed the last vestiges of the community garden from the Duke Energy site on James Street, a sad scene for me to see it end, but also, it was time and I'm very glad to be done with that project which was hard emotionally and physically.  Now I can concentrate 100% on the one community garden I am still managing. 

You know I can't help gushing about the peonies, so here are a couple of reasons why:

• the flowers and foliage are large and lush
• the petals are silky
• the fragrance can be spectacular; ginger, rose and citrus, all rolled into one
• the colors and flower variations are many

Gaze upon these and be a believer

Looks like a horseshoe wreath of flowers

Bowl of Beauty

Need I say more?  I wish you a good night!

Another month of garden madness

 Peony Festiva Maxima with Siberian Iris Gay Butterflies 

This past month- yes it's been an entire month since my last post- has been a month full of gardening. I know that comes as no surprise to you my faithful readers.  The roses and peonies have been the highlight of our garden over these past weeks.  First this vigorous apricot climber, named Crepuscule- horrible sounding- though it means twilight in French, was in it's glory for about 2 weeks.  It stretches across 30 feet of the fence, 15 feet in both directions from its base.  The only thing that would make it more glorious would be if it were more fragrant, but I'm not complaining.

 This rose starts out pink and mellows to apricot

As the crepuscule rose (reminds me of corpuscle!) was fading, the pale pink New Dawn rose on the west side of the house came into its prime, with the jackmanii clematis blooming in unison, an idea I got from the Wayside gardens catalog.  This combo is a treat and it drapes in front of the kitchen window making dish washing much more pleasant.

Another climber that we got from Niche Gardens is the Lonicera (honeysuckle) Goldflame.  It's mop top of multicolored fragrant blooms crowned the top of the entrance gate for many weeks and is just now shedding onto the walkway below.

In the vegetable garden we were blessed with weeks of asparagus and now we move into the full flush of spring goodness with peas, beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, chois, kale and onions threatening to produce more than we can possibly consume.  This is one of the thickest and tallest stands of peas we have ever grown.  When picking them yesterday they were so tall and so many that my arms actually started to get tired!  And wow are they sweet.

In the past two weeks I've also been working at getting the summer garden planted, tomatoes are in and staked, 2 dozen plants this year.  The slicers are: Bolseno, Cherokee Purple, Big Beef, Celebrity, Mrs. Benson and Georgia Streak.  Two kinds of plum tomatoes; Red Agate and Marianna and two cherries, Sungold and Sugar Cherry.  We are in a never ending search for a red cherry tomato that we like, sweet and not too tough a skin and every year we try a new variety, every year we are a little disappointed.  I think its hard to beat the sweetness of the Sungold.  If you know of a great red cherry- leave me a comment about it.

I also planted cucumbers, squash, beans, basil and sweet potatoes.  Still need to set out the peppers and eggplants and then we will be pretty well set for summer.  I just love having a garden that I can walk out into and ponder dinner or run to for a green onion, bunch of cilantro or handful of spinach for the morning omelet or dinner tacos.  It's work to keep it all going and there are days when I question our sanity in growing such a big garden, but most of the time, I'm grateful to be able to have this spot of earth where I can enjoy the green of plants, the blue of the sky and feel the sun that nourishes my body and the plants that feed us.

Ask and you shall receive?!

Yesterday I said I hoped the dry spell of writing and weather were coming to an end and at the last check of the rain gauge we had received 4 inches since yesterday afternoon and its still coming down with verve out there.  This is more rain than we've had in the past two or three months combined!  The creeks will be out of their banks for sure.  I'm very relieved, we had reached a critical point of dry in our garden here at home and all three of the community gardens were almost out of water with no source other than rainwater to rely on.  This deluge will definitely be filling up the cisterns and rainbarrels and hopefully carry all the gardens forward for a while now.

In respect to my reference yesterday to creating more time for myself, I gave my notice today at Camellia Forest.  After over 3 years of off an on work there, mainly during the busy shipping seasons of spring and fall, I made the decision it was time for me to move on and focus on other priorities, like writing and taking care of my own garden.  It's been an interesting chapter in my life, being able to walk to work through the woods, doing physical work outdoors, and learning more than I ever imagined about camellias.  I also added lots of exceptional new plants to my garden including some very special trees and shrubs.  I made some good new friends with my co-workers there and will miss seeing them on a regular basis.  I appreciated the flexibility I was given to take extended leaves to travel, but I won't miss working outside when its 95 and humid or 45 and raining!  Another work life chapter draws to a close.

On the home front I'm featuring some peonies today, I'm sure this rain will put the few remaining flowers in the mud but they are my favorite and so I have to share some pics from a bit earlier in the season.  At the top is a lovely the name of which I cannot remember.  Just above is a new addition called Moonstone. This photo does not do justice to the tranluscent quality of the outer petals upon first opening, the palest of pinks and almost transparent, like vellum.  I see where they got the name.

And last up another new variety, Raspberry Sunday. A bit gaudy and well, thats one of the reasons to grow peonies, is it not?  This one has an ethereal fragrance; a cross between rose and lemon, scrumptious.  My only regret about peonies is the shortness of their bloom season.  For about 3 weeks we crowd the house with vases of their giant fragrant pompoms, piles of silky petals fall to the tables and countertops, and we are sad when the last one nods its head for the season.  It seems the most fragrant flowers come in springtime; roses, peonies, dianthes, lilies of the valley, bearded iris.  The hedgerows have been heavy lately with the scent of honeysuckle, so seductive but sadly, so invasive.  If you can recommend any flowers with fragrance that bloom in the heat of a Carolina summer, please send your ideas my way. 

Garden Royalty

I'm sure I've written here before about my favorite flower, the one I consider to be the true queen of the garden. So sexy. Red tips push from the earth and unfurl in the early spring, going from phallic to fallopian, eventually changing into lush green lobed leaves with tight buds at the junctions. Crawling with ants who guard their turf, fattening, fattening until at last the round orbs burst open releasing their rosey fragrance, delicious soft petals, exuberant stamens. What's not to love?