The Forgotten Garden

After planting our lovely flower garden this year, we had an opportunity to do some serious traveling. In July we flew out to Colorado for a just-the-two-of-us vacation. It was great! We spent some time in Denver and then in Estes Park.

We returned from Colorado and two weeks later flew to France for awhile. Our daughter Ashley and her boyfriend Julien were already waiting there for us to arrive. We spent much of our time with Julien's parents when we weren't traveling around France and Switzerland.

Gretchen came often and weeded until she discovered she is allergic to the follage of zinnias! She broke out in a nasty rash so that ended that. She did maintain the front flowerbed for us. Fortunately the zinnias were densely planed so they survived the lack of weeding.

I have taken a few end of the season photos for you to see.

 

Here are the seed marigolds Dave planted inside in March. As you can see they choked out the cosmos this year! Personally I like the orange ones better than the yellow so we will probably just gather seeds from them this fall! The yellow marigold's blooms were not as large and didn't last as long.

 

 



 

The front flower bed really went wild! I never dug out the broad leaf weed in the photo before I took the picture - shame on me! There are several Coral Nymph Salvia and Lady in Red Salvia that came up from seed from last year. I just left them there to grow in.

 

 

 

 

This is what 95 zinnia seeds looked like by mid-October. Even during our absence and being totally unattended during July and August, they thrived. As you can see, one of the plants grew to almost 7 feet tall. I am 5 feet, 5 inches tall so that gives you an idea of the plants' overall height. They still remain my favorite cut flowers to plant each year. This year I am going to save seeds from selected plants to grow next year. We will see how my experiment turns out!

The Garden Path Bursts into Bloom

This weekend, the flowers went into the flowerbeds thanks to my youngest daughter Gretchen Muhonen and my husband Dave. Here is Gretchen setting in the plants.



Dave took the plants out of the cells for Gretchen, she and I layed them out and she planted them. Sudden beauty.

 In this front bed I have 36 Sage Blue Salvia, 5 Super Sonic Hot Pink New Guinea Impatiens, 36 Yang Rose Begonias, and 24 Snow Crystal Alyssum.

Here is a close-up of the begonias I chose.



This is the blue salvia. In previous years I have grown Coral Nymph Salvia. I decided to change things up just a bit this year will all different plants in the front beds. Thanks Gretchen for encouraging me to do this!

Leading the way down the garden path this year are the 4 wave petunias. I am hoping they totally fill in this area as they did a couple of years ago. Behind the waves are some the the blue salvia and behind them a total of 6 Sparkler Blush Cleome.

The large green plants on the left are my milkweed plants for the monarch butterflies. Right now they are blooming outside of our bedroom window and the fragrance is wonderful!

There is an additional 6 cleome planted here and 12 Varigated Cosmos.

In front of the cosmos, you can see 46 yellow and orange marigolds that Dave raised from seed and transplanted into the bed

 



Below, are 95 popcicle sticks marking where 95 zinnia seeds were planted! Remember what this looks like because in just a few weeks the bed will be in bloom.



Way Behind this Year!

I am way behind this year with my flower garden! That will all change within the next 24 hours - at least in the front flower bed.
In late April my son-in-law John and my husband Dave began remodeling my kitchen. Dave and I have never attempted anything like this before. The outside walls were gutted to the studs and half of the ceiling was replaced. Since I liked my cabinets and cupboards, I opted to paint them. A new floor was installed and a second wall of cabinets was installed. Whew! Next thing I knew I found fabric I liked and began making valances and curtains. Meanwhile the flowerbeds remained empty and the seedlings I had started were neglected.

Today our daughter Gretchen and I went to our favorite nursery and got plants - lots of them. This is unusual for me to rely on someone else's green thumb! Tomorrow we will be busy planting the plants we purchased.

So if you've wondered where I've been, I've been remodeling instead of planting.

The 2012 Garden Path Has Begun!

Welcome back to my Garden Path! In this picture you can see a new bed my husband Dave has created for me behind our house. I had transplanted some hostas two years ago but never did anything with them. I just can't seem to pitch out plants. I never did anything with the area...I considered it a holding area until I could decide what I wanted to do with them. Well Dave framed them in this morning and mulched them. Across from where he is you can see some dirt piled up. I am going to smooth it out and plant there also. Just beyond where Dave is, I always put a hummingbird feeder. Coral Nymph Salvia is always planted at the base of that feeder.







The Garden Path you watched grow last year has begun for 2012! This is always a time of expectant excitement for me. This year Dave mixed a truckload of rich compost into the beds. There is nothing quite like that black gold! If you look closely, you can see Dave at the end of the bed firing up the tiller for the first pass of the season.







This is the third pass through with the tiller. My husband retired December 31, 2011 and so he is spending more time with me in the yard and flowerbeds. We hope you will stay tuned to watch the beds unfold again this year. It is always nice to share with you.

Photos of Storm Damage

The storm blew across the salvia bed. It not only knocked down much of the Coral Nymph Salvia, it also uprooted some of the plants. The shorter plants did well since the denseness seemed to provide the necessary support needed to keep them secure.

At the side of the house, the neat and winding path is now completely gone. Zinnias, cosmos and milkweed obliterate the path completely in areas. I have to walk in the beds to get through!

Cosmos plants are very fragile. Under normal conditions they need to be stabilized. Since the blooms reach for the sun, they continue to bloom from the path twisting their stems accordingly.

The milkweed plants, grown for the propagation of monarch caterpillars, has been knocked down. I am still able to harvest caterpillars for teachers and friends who want to expose children to the life cycle experience.

Amid the losses, my rosemary plant is blooming! The hummingbirds really enjoy these delicate blooms. In true hummingbird fashion, they are fighting over who gets to enjoy the nectar of these flowers.

Hurricane Irene's Aftermath

I am having trouble uploading my photos right now but I wanted to let you know my flowerbeds took a serious hit by the hurricane. Many of the flowers were layed right over on their sides and to put them upright would have done more damage than just leaving them where they are. Since flowers reach for the sun, they are blooming away even though they are on their sides!

Hopefully I will be able to post photos soon.

Getting Ready for the Storm

We live in Middletown, Pennsylvania which is approximately 140 miles from Washington, DC and 155 miles from Central Park in Manhattan. We are to get heavy rain and strong winds as Hurricane Irene advances up the eastern coast of the United States. I went out to the flower beds today to assess what needed to be done before the storm hits.

It has been a very interesting week for us. On Tuesday we had an earthquake and now we must deal with the storm.

Normally on Saturday I go along the garden path and cut huge bouquets of flowers and do a fair bit of dead heading. I decided to do none of that today. I wanted as much weight as possible on the plants and keep them as dense as possible.

Of course I took a lot of photos since I'm not sure what the beds will look like after the storm has passed. I hope you enjoy another look and some of my comments.

This photo is of a zinnia at it mature prime. The center is fully exposed with the smaller ring of flowers inside. The outer petals are almost perfect. What a beautiful creation of God!

This is what I aim for every year when I plant zinnias - a sea of zinnias. It takes awhile to achieve this sight but it is sure worth it to me and the neighbors who walk by our yard.

This yellow zinnia is just about to open enough for the center to be seen. I sometimes pick a bouquet when the flowers are at this stage of development because they last a lot longer than when they are at their prime. In the next few pictures, you will see others at various stages of maturity.

The cosmos are spectacular right now. They are varigated in color which is NOT what I expected but I am still pleased with them. I have bouquets of them in almost every room of our home. Some of the blossoms have split petals. Very interesting!

The last thing I did was pick all of the nasturtiums that were in bloom. Some I placed in a ziplock bag for adding to salads this coming weeks and saved about a dozen blossoms to stuff as appetizers for tonight's dinner. I stuff them with softened cream cheese mixed with minced dates. They are so good and always a surprise for friends who have never had them. I pipe the filling into the throat of the flower with a piping bag made from a ziplock bag with a small hole cut in a bottom corner.