Sally's Allotment
It seems that there is something new to see in the garden every day. And, despite living here for about 14 years, it seems as if I get to meet new neighbors every day. Being on a corner means we get quite a lot of foot traffic and it's nice to have a quick chat and sometimes share any pups or seedlings that I may be digging out. So far this year, I've given away loads of grasses, cosmos, rockrose pups, day flowers, lilies, and lambs ear.
For Mothers' Day, I asked for a day in the garden. Chris and I toiled in the back garden with occasional appearances from Tom. It was nice to have a bit of a rest and try to get some shots of this butterfly playing in the fennel:
The daisies in my garden always bloom a couple of weeks after all my neighbors. Each summer, I worry that mine may have not made it through the frost. Never fear, the daisies are here:
I've noticed the leaves of the sunflowers in the back garden have been eaten by some weird bug. I looked up online to see if there were any hints on the strange tears that I was seeing in the leaves. Then I walked outside one morning and saw this. Sniff:
Are these weeds? They are adding a bit of greenery and look interesting but I have a feeling that they aren't going to produce anything else of interest:
A selection of shots to end out April:
I can see some of the spots where I underestimated the amount of spring growth I would see at this time of year. In October, as I was planting seeds, I tried to recall where all the bigger shrubs were located. I can see from some of these side views that I miscalculated how quickly some of the shrubs (Pride of Barbados, Esperanza, American Beauty Berry, and Rock Rose) would grow. An added bonus to keeping this blog is that I will be able to look back and see where I can throw a few more packets of seeds:
In honor of the Georgetown Poppy Festival, here are some shots of the poppies currently blooming in my garden. The california poppies that I posted earlier are still filling the garden with bursts of orange, but this week a couple of more traditional poppies started to appear:
Well, Tom seems to love gardening as much as I did at his age. This weekend, however, he was a good sport while Chris was away. He feigned enthusiasm during a trip to the Wildflower Center plant sale (along with his friends, Ellie and Eva), and even helped out a bit by mowing (although he was saved by the battery going dead after a couple of stripes). What a trooper!
Well, buying a trio of Molineux roses seems to have been a good omen for the Wolves. And, it looks as if the bare root David Austin roses are happy in their new home as they are already budding some leaves. As suggested on the DA website, I've planted them in groups of threes hoping that they will look like one large plant when they grow. I'd cleared out the bed just for the roses and a surrounding wall of rosemary, but a few stray sunflowers, feather grasses, and bluebonnets can hang out there for a while: