It has been a banner year, what with the warm spring, perfect amount of rain, and heavy dressing of manure in early April.
Come on along.....and wear your flip flops. There are lots of bees in the clover along the way and they will sting your feet if you step on them. Ask me how I know!
Every year those nasturtium climb down the wall. I just love that.I have many "volunteers" this year, all over the place, flowers that have reseeded themselves from the year before. Mostly I leave them. The garden becomes a tad chaotic as a result which happens to drive dear Robert a little nuts.
That's why we have separate gardens!
This is what I mean. But what can I do? I can't pull up a flower...
Here is the same view as the one in "The Home in the Garden" from last year. Definitely a little more "cottaginous" (cottage-like) this year.Moving along to Robert' magnificent garden (it's the best it has ever been)....
This isn't all of it, but it gives the idea...everything has filled in so much!Most of the wildflowers you see on the right side of the photo...well...that is really one of the onion beds.
But when I was weeding it 6 weeks ago, I left the wildflower volunteers and you almost can't see the onions. (They are very big, though, some are 6" across.)Robert has humored me here, but barely... ;-)
Ah, precision!
Here's a close up of some of the beds...from left to right are basil, poblano chillies, broccoli, and onions.
Robert took this picture of the poblanos, which are gathering steam fast.Anyone know an easy way to get the skin off them? Would blanching work? I don't want to roast them before peeling if I don't have to because there will be so many and that takes so long...
A small corner of the Tomato Plantation...Those Sungold cherry tomatoes are a total hit: sweet, fruity, and with an acid tang finish. YUM.
The plants are incredibly vigorous, too.
And finally, every year one corner of the garden just doesn't get done. We call it "The Corner of Shame".
Always a tangled mess...last year's leeks, catnip, poppies, and weeds, and an unplanted apricot tree, still in its pot after four months.But I have a weakness for allium flowers, so Robert had to leave them in. It's all my fault!
So you can see it is hard to get the usual amount of stitching in these days.
But I do have a little work to do this week-end....
"Bryant Family Cottage" needs its sleeve before I can send it off to Houston. I was so happy that it got into this year's show!I am using a translucent silk for the sleeve so that the lace edging will still show through along the top....
I hope you all are enjoying these precious, golden summer months!
16 comments :
Your His & Hers gardens are both spectacular! Obviously you've had ideal growing conditions this year and it shows....lovely.
Oh! I still remember the time I stepped on a bee at about age 11. Right at the ball of the foot. The reaction was excrutiating-that awful itch-pain. It only happened to me once. I hope the same with you. I like your approach to gardening as well as crazy quilting.
Beautiful, beautiful gardens. And congratulations on Houston. I don't think I'd heard that news, but I'm not surprised.
Both gardens look great!
Oh terrific! I am going to Houston this year and I will get to see it up close!
I'm back because I wanted to add that the amount of love and work lavished on these gardens is inspiring. I'm glad you included the "corner of shame". Otherwise you'd look too good to be true. :)
Congratulations on Houston! I'll have another opportunity to study your work up close and personal; becoming a regular, are you?
What a wonderful garden, and lovely to see when it is so cold and frosty here! I'm longing for flowers and leaves on trees again. Sue
Lovely gardens! I am green (pun intended) with envy!
Our spring was late and cool -- even snow in mid-May -- so everything here's behind. Now it's sunny and hot-hot-hot...and *dry*...but I have cherry tomatoes forming and my baby's breath is stunning!
I spruced up my postage stamp garden today. The lettuce and spinach are robust, and the tomatoes are beginning to flower. I enjoy the cool weather so much here it's hard to wish for more sun just for an earlier crop.
Here's the way to peel chiles: roast them first, either on the barbeque (keeps the fumes outside) or an a grill pan on the stove. You can also toast them by holding them directly over a gas flame. Then you put them in a plastic bag or similar sealed container, where the hot chiles will produce enough steam to loosen the skins so that they come off easily. When you roast the chiles, make sure to blister the whole skin because unblistered skin doesn't peel off easily.
Nice gardens, Allie. We have too much shade for veggies, so I am quite jealous of all of your tomatoes! We must think alike a bit as my post is garden photos at the moment, too. BTW how'd you do that lovely border around your quilt label? So neat that it's in the Houston show. Congrats!
What can I say, I am on Robert's side, grin, as a retired accountant I am a neat, organized person, makes it a bit difficult for the creative side of me, truth to tell as much as I love flowers I believe I couldn't resist pulling them out of my onions, grin.
I'm loving the garden tour!! Living vicariously with it, as poor Austin is bone dry, withered, and brown, and horribly hot. But then I remember last March when we had rain and everything was popping out in bloom and all green and pretty, and you were under snow and other assorted bad weather. I suppose we can't have it perfect all the time.
Allie, What a beautiful inspiration for your stitching the gardens must be. In the house we left 3 years ago, I had 7 flower gardens. I couldn't keep them up any longer and now have to settle for a patch front and back of our 55+ condominium. We have a beautiful neighborhood here as everyone has flowers so it's not a total loss. Reen
Congrats on Bryant Family Cottage -- that quilt has positive energy stitched into it's very being...I'm not surprised that it got in...YEA!!!
Those gardens are show stoppers!! It's no wonder you have time to do anything else! I would just like to be your neighbor because I'm sure there would be an extra eggplant or two...
Bountiful, beautiful. What a lucky life!
Thanks for your wonderful tour around your garden. They look beautiful.I feel happy that you succeeded well in growing your plants. I too had made mess of my garden because of huge amount of wild plants that grow in my garden. I too struggled a lot to remove it from my garden.
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