Rachel: February 2008 Archives

Spring is well and truly here, and I'm finding it easier to notice its beauty in the details.  I see things sprouting where I planted seeds in the fall, long since forgotten.  From dormant branches that I'd almost concluded were dead, leaves are beginning to emerge.  If I had to find something to be disappointed about, it would be the lack of rain.  Our wildflower display won't be as nice this year as it was last year.

February 29th is an imaginary date, isn't it?  I took some time off to enjoy my garden and all the work I've done there so far, and I did some more work while I was at it.  Here are some of the tiny details that I observed.

























Mexican Mint Marigold is a new addition to our herb garden, which I should cover in another entry soon.

Poppy

Phlox
I planted this phlox inside the enclosed vegetable garden last fall. After being dormant and unobtrusive for months, it's now blooming happily.

New growth on our (formerly) bare-root peach tree ('June Gold')

English Pea

Pansy

Small bed of pansies




Pink oxalis




African marigold and Gerbera daisies

Our tree philodendron (Philodendrum bipinnatifidum), like many things in our garden, is an inheritance from the previous owners of our house.  It's big and prone to some unruliness, so it's not my favorite inheritance, but it does well in the part of our yard that's shaded by the neighbor's large ash tree, and I've come to like it.  I refuse to baby it, though, and even though our winter was mild this year, I wasn't sure whether it would survive the freezes.  Its huge banner-like leaves had wilted to a shriveled brown.

Over the past week, it has started to unfurl new leaves, each graceful and intricate.   The growth has been so fast that I almost think I could watch the progress.

I'm a couple of days late in posting for Bloom Day this month.  It's hard to find daylight hours to take pictures during the week, and yesterday, my garden was getting much-needed rain, but the dreary skies weren't really suitable for photography.  Today, fortunately, the sun is out, and I got out early this morning to take some pictures.

Very little is actually blooming in my garden this month, and this morning, everything was still a bit beaten down from the rain, so my pictures are relatively few.  Everything is sprouting and starting to bud, though, and I'm hopeful that Bloom Day March will be a beautiful one, indeed.  This month, we'll take a look at the glistening raindrops on the blooms and foliage in my garden.

I spent part of this gloomy, rainy Saturday morning at the nursery, looking for a few new things to bring some color into my garden.  I found several annuals, some ornamental and a few functional.

Snapdragons, like these, are a flower for which I have mixed feelings.  Very often, their colors seem diluted and washed out, but I picked up a few of these because they were so vivid.  I planted them in my front yard, in front of my roses, which have yet to start blooming again after our cold winter.  I planted some sweet pea vines in and around the roses last weekend, as well, as an experiment in multi-planting on a trellis. 



In fact, last weekend, I did quite a bit of planting of vines.  In our small yard, we have so much ugly brown fence, and I want to do what I can to break that up and utilize it as vertical climbing space, not to mention to help attract wildlife like bees, butterflies, and birds. 

This pansy in a pot got a bit beaten down by the rain, but I loved the textures the early-morning sun evoked from it.


I brought home several marigolds, some full mum-like ones like these, and some smaller ones.  I planted several smaller marigolds around our stand of potatoes on the side of the house, because they are supposed to be good companion plants for nightshades.  I'm thinking of saving these last few for putting around tomato plants later this spring.

Those are actually all the photos I have of the things blooming in my garden today.  I have oxalis, purple trailing lantana, and orange bulbine blooming, as well, but the light wasn't quite right for those as early as I was taking photos.  Thankfully, the textures and colors of the garden transcend blooms.

I was hopeful that the poppies I planted a couple of months ago would be blooming again for Bloom Day, but they aren't quite ready yet.  Perhaps they'll have blooms next month.

The climbing roses are developing new growth in the front yard, and buds are sure to be close behind.

It's lucky, isn't it, that vegetables generally have pretty foliage?  Our raised vegetable bed has no blooms at the moment (I saw a strawberry blossom a few weeks ago), but it's got growth in spades.  Here we have lettuce...

...and broccoli (green comet).


This quick abstract is from one of our new teak armchairs.  The light hit it just perfectly this morning, and it was beautiful - though less than pleasant to sit on.


In our new raised herb garden, the dill is ready for black swallowtail caterpillars to come for a feast...


...and my pot of comfrey is making a comeback after dying back and being eaten by caterpillars.  Comfrey is apparently a very beneficial plant for the garden, as it has good fertilizing properties.

And so it goes in my garden for the month of February.  It feels a bit bare at the moment, but we're laying the foundation for a wonderful spring.