Posts tagged ‘Garden’
This week in the garden… Memorial Day 2012
I anticipate that this will be my last garden update from Illinois. Here’s what’s blooming around the house this week…
Another altar in the world…
Like this:
This week in the garden… Leap Day edition!
Apparently, this is becoming a tradition… 2010, 2011, and now 2012. I provide an update on our flower bed on the last day of February.
Actually, it turns out that we’ve had such a mild winter in the Chicago ‘burbs that I could have provided the update earlier – a week ago or maybe even two. I almost walked out of the house this morning without taking the requisite pictures, but at the last moment, I grabbed my camera. Without further ado…
It’s all the usual suspects, you know?
And look at the weather conditions this morning when I left for work…
But I’m reminded that we are currently in that muddle of time between winter and spring. Since mid-day, a cold front has rolled through, the temperature has fallen from a high of 60 °F down to 35 °F, and we have winds gusting to 45 mph.
Ah… such is the midwest!
Like this:
This week in the garden… 11/11/11
Yesterday, we had the first snow flurries of the year. Last night, we had a hard frost. So imagine my surprise this morning when I stepped outside and saw this:
We’ve got clematis blooming in mid-November!
Happy 11/11/11 everyone!
This week in the garden… 10 September 2011
It’s been a while since I’ve tried to capture the garden in pictures. This morning we has a really heavy fog, and this was the sight that inspired me to take my camera outside…
And while I was there, I decided to record some additional views…
Top to bottom, left to right:
Four varieties of verbena
Yellow and scarlet mums, hibiscus (blooming all summer!), purple lovegrass
False dragon’s head, climbing roses, black-eyed Susan
Lots of sunflowers, anemone
Hmm… (a little help?), our resident chipmunk under the rain barrel
If the gardeners out there would care to identify that plant in the last row, I’d appreciate it.
And here’s a little video of the spider. (Well – actually it’s one of its relatives.) Is it an orb-weaver, Dad?
This week in the garden… Boom! Bang! Pow!
We got our first taste of volatile summer weather this afternoon. A hail storm rolled through around 3:30 pm.
Below, I’ve put in the radar loop from about 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. (In order to see the animation, I think that you’ll have to click on the image.) Plainfield is the fat, black cross in the middle of the map. Watch how the storm explodes with lightning (black squares) just as it crosses over Plainfield.
(Click on the image to view the animation.)
This week in the garden… 19 May 2011
A little sun, a little warmth, and a bit of moisture… everything is off and growing!
First row:
- The first miniature iris are blooming…
- … as are the tall ones.
- Lily of the valley is spreading around the flower bed.
- Russian sage will take over if you let it.
- Delphinium was planted last year, but hardly grew at all. Now it’s going to town!
- Ordinary Spouse loves wave petunias.
- Astilbe is becoming a regular.
- Oldest Daughter likes her money plant.
- I don’t think that the lilac has had more blooms than it has this year.
- The sun sets over Plainfield.
This week in the garden… weekend edition
Yesterday, we had some bark mulch delivered. Ordinary Spouse transformed the front flower bed:
Now I’m sitting at breakfast contemplating my Saturday task list:
- Repair stairs from deck to yard
- Repair gate
- Place landscaping timbers around lilac
- Place landscaping timbers around the Mother’s Day garden
- Create a garden plot for tomatoes and other plants that want more sun than they’re currently getting
- Mulch other flower beds
- Trim the lawn in the back yard
- Ask my neighbor if she’d like me to do something about our mint that seeded itself in her yard
- Change the storm door to a screen door
- Update the family finances
- Bake bread for our small group meeting tomorrow
- Shop for salad ingredients for the same small group
- Shop for other general household supplies (gets its own line because it’s another store)
This week in the garden… 4 May 2011
We left for a weekend and the weather turned warm. Guess what happens next…
I have to mow.
But I also get to enjoy the gardens. Here’s what we have this week.
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This week in the garden: crazy spring weather
Remember that week of beamtime that I mentioned the last time I was blogging? It turned into two and a half weeks of work and worship craziness. But after yesterday’s worship service (which was fun, though stressful ’cause I was planning it – more on that in another post), I’m more relaxed than I’ve been in a while. Work is still hectic, but I won’t be here all hours of the day, and I don’t think I’ll have to take it home with me. So finally, I get to reflect on life again, get caught up with people who haven’t heard from me in forever (you know who you are), and do a little blogging.
Which means you get to put up with another set of garden pictures.
Illinois is experiencing run-of-the-mill spring weather craziness right now. Yesterday morning, it was 35 °F when I woke up. By late afternoon, we were up to 77 °F. Then last night, the thunderstorms rolled through (as you might expect) and the temperature dropped back to 44 °F. Of course, when the thunderstorms show up, so do the children who can’t sleep. Which has something to do with my stiff neck today.
Anyway, in the midst of gorgeous temps yesterday afternoon, I scampered out to take some pictures.
Ordinary Spouse planted the delphinium (2nd on the bottom) in the middle of last summer. She said that it didn’t do any growing then, but we concluded that it must have been putting down roots. It’s taking off now.
Our magnolia (last picture on the bottom) keeps growing. When we moved, it was a tree that obscured the entire front of our house. Dad and I chopped it down soon thereafter. But we didn’t remove the base of the trunk, and it soon started sending up shoots. We eventually decided to keep one, promising ourselves that we wouldn’t let it get as big as the last time. This year, it will probably reach a nice size. Every year, it gives us a few nice blossoms.
And of course, there is the regular assortment of spring growth.
This week in the garden… 28 February 2011
I had to resume my “This week in the garden” series today. Tomorrow, it will be March and these pictures need to be posted in order to prove that Spring is already showing up in February.* Ordinary Spouse first noticed these signs of spring a few days ago:
Iris, mums, croci(!), tulips, and the money plant are all showing the first signs of new life.
Last year at this time, Ordinary Spouse made her profound observation about this being the time for Lent. It bears repeating:
In my backyard the snow is melting, revealing last summer’s broken toys, leaf and twig detritus from fall, a winter’s worth of escaped bits of trash and spring’s first mud-holes. It must be Lent.
* Actually, I wouldn’t mind another major snow. I sort of enjoyed the blizzard. But spring will be nice, too. The hottest, most humid, most mosquito-infested days of summer are the ones that I struggle with.
