Tuesday, April 27, 2010

I've waited three years...

...for this rhododendron to blossom, and finally, I've been rewarded!
I've got a spot for another one, so I think I'll be off to the garden centre soon - I'm thinking a white one near the front door...

This past weekend was a garden work one - clearing out the detritus, and getting the boy's garden in shape for planting. If you ask him, he says "Dad grows grass, Mom grows flowers, I grow food". And he does. We get a good crop of green and yellow beans every year, and are hoping for a better crop of carrots this year - we've added sand to lighten up the soil in the carrot patch. There are peas planted with a trellis set up, some mesclun seeds sown, and we get so little sun in our yarn (tall cedar hedges make it more of a shade garden adventure), that we decided to sacrifice this patch of day lilies for a tomato / pepper patch. Two bushels worth of orange day lilies were dug up (they've already been claimed - 1 bushel for some people at work, another is going to the cottage for some fill in planting...)

And this guy was hanging around us, chirping quite loudly. Me thinks there is a nest nearby - there were a few dive bomb attempts as we dug and worked.

The deck also gets pots planted with fresh herbs (a necessity for me and summer cooking...)

There was also some moving of fridges (old one out, newer old one in), some kitchen cabinet cleaning (expiry dates checked, stuff chucked), and some getting together with friends.

All in all, a good one.

6 comments:

Sel and Poivre said...

Isn't it so affirming when something finally blooms? Gardening is so much about optimism and the timelines can be so long (3 years in this case)when a payoff comes it is just so sweet!

Acorn to Oak said...

It looks like it was worth the wait. The rhododendron is pretty. Sounds like you had a very productive weekend. Sounds a lot like the things going on around here...garden planting and yard work, spring cleaning, getting rid of things. Feels good, doesn't it?! :-)

Brendaknits said...

what a great clean up weekend. I love that feeling - occurring less and less often at my house - when the house, or the yard or the garage is totally cleaned up and ready for the next crop of detritus as you say.

elizabeth said...

Sounds like a great weekend! A little fun, a lot of work, but things you can feel good about. I wish I could get my son interested in growing (and eating) veggies! He's 14 and only wants pizza, tacos and chicken.

AlisonH said...

Very cool. One thing I learned was, buy rhodos (azaleas in our case) when they're in bloom--trusting the tags got me four lavendar and one white at the end of the row. Oops. Never got around to digging it up, and now it's just the way it is.

Saren Johnson said...

Mama Robin didn't look happy at all. Good luck on the salsa garden.