Category: gardening

I know lots of people already have lots of more impressive flowers than this. But these bulbs were only planted last fall, and it’s been a difficult March.

My downstairs neighbor and I cleared the weeds out of this part of the front yard last October, and I ordered bulbs. They arrived a couple of days after I broke the ankle, so she and her husband put them in.

I ordered a cheap assortment, because I wasn’t sure whether they would all get eaten by squirrels or rabbits, but they seem to have come up pretty well. There are other buds, so there will be better pictures in a couple of weeks.

Or at least a weed on the tennis court. It has been cheerful for the last couple of weeks when I take Maia to chase her ball on the tennis court, so I took its picture this morning.

The alliums do the best of all the bulbs I ordered the year after I bought the condo. I think the others all died out.

I’m hoping these seed and last forever.

These my mother gave me a few years ago, and they like it here.

This is a volunteer grass, which is quite nice when it’s blooming, but I’m going to have to pull some out or it will crowd out the rhubarb.

The rhubarb looks more enthusiastic than it has the last few summers; violets are regular volunteers; the Jack-in-the-pulpits (Jacks-in-the-pulpit?) are doing well.

We had a very hot and dry April in this part of the world, so we were all wondering whether there would be flowers in May at all.

Fortunately, we’ve had a cool, wet May, so there are not only flowers (a lot of the May ones bloomed in April, but we’re getting some of the June roses now) but these mushrooms sprung up on the sidewalk across the street from me.

I took all these
pictures yesterday, and hoped to go back this morning to
get a better one of Jack, but he was all withered. So it’s
good I got it yesterday even if it’s a bit out of focus.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

I’ve been nursing a geriatric German shepherd through some
intestinal problems, so I haven’t had lots of energy for
gardening. For instance, I didn’t prune the rosebush at all. The
one on the corner of the front yard that was growing into the walk
to the back yard got pruned accidentally by the Newfoundland
downstairs, but the one in my plot has some branches that are
really in my way. But at this point, I’ll wait and cut them off
when they have flowers on them.

As you can see, the alliums are in full bloom. The sedge is
blooming, less spectacularly. The rhubarb is more enthusiastic
than it’s been in the past, and less chewed on. And we have an
unusual number of snails this year.

One of my favorite gardens in East Cambridge has a grape
arbor over the whole yard. They can have a fairly large party
there, and when you walk by in the fall the smell of the grapes
is wonderful.

This year, although there are a fair number of green grapes,
there seems to be something wrong with a lot of the leaves. I
hope it’s not serious.