All posts tagged: Flower

sweet little garden additions

Published by

We did really keep our planting relatively (I do stress relatively) simple this year, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t add anything at all.  We can’t live without a few annuals and…okay…a few perennials too. We put the flower boxes out on the front porch.  Last year, I planted petunias and other various annuals that kept withering up and weren’t all that pretty.  This year, we kept the boxes really simple with red begonias and vinca vine. Last fall, we dug up our dahlia bulbs and saw how they had multiplied.  We kept them in the coolest part of our basement over the winter.  I can’t wait for them to bloom.  They make the most beautiful bouquets.  I planted the largest bulb clumps in very large pots on our back deck. The smaller bulbs were planted in the front flower bed and in a pretty little blue pot in a now-empty spot where the spring daffodil bulbs have withered up. My parents had given us gorgeous antique urns that my father refinished as a …

I have found heaven: Rosaly’s Garden

Published by

It has been a completely psychotic few weeks.  If I were to be granted one wish, I think I’d wish for life to slow down just a wee bit. I’ve been trying to convince Chris that I could be a great stay-at-home kitty mom, but I don’t think he’s buying it.  It is the most intense time in garden land and I haven’t written in over a week! When I was little, I wanted to be an author. Though that dream still lingers somewhere in my subconscious, I have a new dream.  When I grow up, I want to own my own vegetable farm.  I can imagine picking fresh veggies and herbs on Saturday mornings and working my stand at a farmers market, selling beautiful organic tomatoes, celery root, string beans, and more.  I can also sell herbs (both potted and cut) and gorgeous summer bouquets.  Not the overly-flashy types of flowers you’d see in a flower store.  I mean the true summertime flowers like zinnias, dahlias, amaranthus, loosestrife, black-eyed susans, sunflowers (I could keep going…calendula, Queen …

the very first bouquet of 2011

Published by

There is nothing like picking your first bouquet of the season.  The spurts of color around our yard such as creeping phlox, myrtle, pansies, and primrose are admirable, but unpickable.  Yesterday, I finally got to grab my pruners and head outside to cut flowers: a purple tulip, grape hyacinths, and a few sprigs of broom. Even Stevie is captivated by the colors.

a week of spring: forsythia

Published by

Thursday I really do despise television.  I’ve been called pretentious for saying those words but I can’t help it.  Sometimes I do watch old episodes of Law & Order or CSI (I’m a crime novel junkie, so these shows do appeal to me).  If I’m ill, I’ll watch really terrible Lifetime made-for-TV movies with the hope of falling asleep.  Normally, TV just makes me feel like I’ve wasted time and I’d honestly rather listen to music.  The last time I really got into a TV show, it was The Pillars of the Earth miniseries, which is based on one of my favorite books. Whenever people are talking about new TV shows, I usually glaze over…until my mother somehow recently got me hooked on American Idol.  Tonight, I found myself asking Chris to take a break from his hockey game so that I could see who got kicked off Idol this week.  He did it with a faux scowl (and all the sports-loving men reading this probably think I’m horrible) , but who can argue with …

cheating spring

Published by

Forsythia doesn’t meekly flower in spring.  It turns from a camouflaged brown bunch of twigs to a shouting ball of yellow.  “Look at me!” it commands.  Against a neutral world of hibernating life, it truly stands out and proudly announces that Spring has finally arrived.  I decided to cheat a little because I’m simply getting impatient.  I cut some Forsythia twigs that had been damaged by the heavy snow and put them in water on my kitchen windowsill.  A week and a half later, I have the happiest yellow bouquet. I also have a red leaf plum tree in front of my porch that has the loveliest red leaves in summer. I clipped a few limbs from this tree, which is nothing but grey and empty right now, and also put them in water.  Just this morning I discovered little pink blooms that normally wouldn’t be popping out until late April/early May.  Patience is a virtue, but why wait?  I get to see these blooms twice this year.

the inevitable end of harvest

Published by

Putting the garden to bed for the winter is a sad and daunting task.  Even though we have a small yard, we have managed to stuff it full of vegetables and flowers in both beds and pots.  We even planted a baby apple tree, though I have no idea how that will go over once it starts to actually grow. This past Sunday, we got up and did the “inventory” to see what is left to do.  We must have had a frost, as the tomatoes and peppers were officially gone.  To my surprise, there are a few plants hanging on for dear life and–shockingly–flourishing.  The amaranthus is going strong. We will still have carrots for a little while it seems. The mums are of course in their prime. The dahlias were still in full bloom and the red roses were (and still are) incredibly bright against the dull November gray background. Besides a steaming cup of coffee, crunchy leaves, and the time spent with Chris outside, what made me happiest was seeing the herbs green and growing.  The rosemary topiary went …