It’s a drizzly day today but I noticed that finally my Peonies started to bloom.  This is the first year I have seen so many buds on my plant but all of neighbors have had flowers for days.  I was afraid my buds would never open (not sure if that is even a founded fear but none the less it was real to me).  I have my first Peony this year.  I don’t know the type, it was here when we bought our home but it has such pretty shades of pink.

My neighbor to the South has all different colors of Peony plants along the fence line - so pretty.

This bloom inspired me to take some photos of the garden.  Not the best day for photos as it is overcast but the pictures are okay.  This is our vegetable garden - it was planted a couple of weeks ago and it doesn’t really look like it’s changed much - our weather has been so cool, hopefully it will warm up soon.  We are ready for summer.

We have Sweet Cherry tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes, Heirloom tomatoes ”Rainbow Mix Cherry”, Roma tomatoes, Rutger tomatoes, Big Boy tomatoes (we really like tomatoes) as well as basil, Jalapeno peppers, Melrose peppers and California Wonder peppers.  We also have an overflow of tomatoes and basil along the North fence, not sure how well they will do there.

In the containers we have oregano, chives, garlic chives, cilantro, rosemary, and parsley.  Off to the side we have a bean (not sure what it is but it was white) that  Ross planted in school).  I wanted to plant zucchini and some lettuces but ran out of room and time.  I am hoping to expand the garden next year.  We had planted peas in the spring but nothing came up (they were old seeds).

This is a giant Hosta that my friend Anita gave me a division of from her garden.  I hope it grows as large as hers, it’s just beautiful.  The orange ribbon along the fence and here and there in the garden mark where I planted last fall.  In this photo the orange is the Annabelle Hydrangea that I planted last October.  It was so tiny when it arrived - I can not imagine how long it will take to be of any size and substance.  I planted four of them along the back of the yard.  

This planter thingy was a must get rid of over the last few years.  I tried, but I couldn’t budge it.  It is set in concrete and is really set in the ground.  Last year I spray painted it and decided to try to live with it for now.  I am leaning towards glad that I did.  The Bishops Weed grows high on the bottom and I planted annuals in the top planters that will hopefully grow down.  The Potato vine in the middle should do so as well.   My vision was to have plants trailing down from the pots and then have plants on the bottom that were very tall so that the planter can’t really be seen.  Not sure if I have chosen the right plants for this but the beauty is that they are annuals so I can change them out.  I may grow some tall perennials at the bottom, it’s hard to say if they’ll come in as the Bishops Weed is so full and when it shoots up the flowers it gets a little tall.  I’d have to put something in that was already a decent size to survive, I think.

It gives some height to an area along the back of the yard that is in need of foundation plantings.  Right now there is an awful lot of green along the back of the yard. but soon the Peonies will be more visible and the Allium is starting to get buds.

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 There are seven little Allium buds peeking through all the greenery.

This little lovely was a pass along plant from my cousin Carols garden.  It is her “What is it?” plant, as she does not know what it is.    I have so much of the garden to share, but I’ll post it later this week.  I want to show you the side garden and the garden along the back of the house, as well as some of the container plantings.  For now, I’ll leave you with a closer view of the plants on top of the planter in the back. 

Potato Vine

Other assorted annuals (I have misplaced my tags - I need to find them to identify what they are).  I believe the middle ones are cone flowers and the ones to the side trail but I can’t recall their name.  I’ll find the tags soon and post their names.

Ciao for now, I’ll post more garden soon!