June Garden

It has been pretty amazing to watch the garden progress from May to June. It is finally warm in my area. In fact, I've been wondering where spring went, because the mild temperatures seemed to skip over us. In fact, lately, my hair has been super frizzy from HUMIDITY, which is a rarity in these parts. It seems to be a good preparation for the family trip to Georgia coming up in a few weeks.

Anyways, the garden. I didn't get many pictures this time around. Many things have bloomed, but even more are just on the cusp of blooming. For example, we have raspberries forming on the raspberry bush, honeysuckles on the verge of blooming, stargazer lilies, peonies, day lilies, gladioli, spicy basil, etc. We have also planted a new rose bush (lavender--my favorite!) so we're giving the other two a chance to recover from the shock of being moved to accommodate the new one. J predicts the garden to be in full bloom by August, but I suspect we will be in working order by next month.

As of late last month, we were past the last frost and could plant annuals. In addition to countless petunias, freesia, and pansies (which can be perennials here apparently) we managed to fill this pot with three types of lantana, chocolate cosmos (they really smell like chocolate!), and various other plants. They've been battered by wind quite a bit so far, but things are finally dying down and hopefully they'll have a chance to grow.

The delphinium are going nuts this year. They've come back a richer color than they were growing last year, so it has been a pleasant surprise.

I honestly didn't think we'd be successful growing food from seed. I wanted to try one kind of crop this year as an experiment, and it worked a little too well. We've been eating arugula, baby lettuce, and red bib lettuce for a while now and currently have more than we can handle. I will definitely be experimenting more next year, although we just don't have the room to experiment too much. This picture is after I cut a ton the night before.

Finally, strawberries! Meadow ate our *only* strawberry last year. This year, we've done research on how to handle the runners, and luckily we didn't have to buy new plants. The plants are well protected from the doxies this year as well.

I'll be back with a July update. I can't wait to see how the garden progresses this month!

Mega Picture Post!

I've been meaning to blog about our garden for a long time now. To be honest, there hasn't been much to blog about until recently. Our last frost date is May 15th and with projected highs in the 40s this coming week, it might be extended. We have been able to see progress with some perennials planted in the past couple of years, some bulbs, new perennials, and hardy lettuce/spinach in our very small back yard. We're even seeing things beginning to bloom in our front yard! Side note: I should let my husband, the photographer, take pictures from now on... please excuse my lack of skills with the camera!

Arugula and spinach

Chives are our only surviving herb from last year. We plan to plant some basil as well when the weather is warmer, but we don't plan on doing anything else. We cook a lot, but just didn't use the amount of fresh herbs that we thought we would last year when we bought a ton.

I loved this frog that we saw at a local nursery and my parents bought it for me when they last visited (and of course purchased one for themselves too). We filled ours with succulents purchased from the Denver Botanic Gardens spring plant sale.

For some reason, I hated phlox when I lived in Georgia, but think it blooms beautifully here (probably because it is the first thing to bloom). We have three different colors in our yard and I love seeing color in our yard even when there is snow on the ground.

This is a crappy picture, but this is a nice raised bed J made in place of a puppy sand box. There are all sorts of succulents, flowers, grasses, and one day there will be some beautiful sea holly.

This is the look at one side of the yard (why yes, we do indeed like mushrooms). There is a honeysuckle vine (not pictured), a peony bulb, a columbine plant, and a raspberry bush. And don't forget the dog who just loves to chew on wood chips...

Yet another wood chip-lovin dog... I am grateful for their sake that we don't get a lot of warm weather here. I would be panting like crazy with that coat!

This is delphinium row. We have three delphinium, (delphinia?) some plant with orange blossoms, a peony plant, (can't wait to see how it turns out!) and some gladioli bulbs popping.

Our rose bushes are coming back this year! One is doing well so far and the other is taking its sweet time. We paid an arm and a leg for these last year, so I have high hopes.

This corner of the yard comprises a clematis, some grasses, some red flowering thing that is really pretty late in the summer, emerging gladioli bulbs, emerging lily bulbs, and penstemon. I can't wait to see how these progress over the next month.

Strawberries, more spinach, and red bibb lettuce (one of these days)

We're really excited to see how the front yard progresses this year. We've planted some hosta bulbs and are seeing progress on many of the plants (almost all of their names are escaping me currently). Since our front yard is north-facing, it is taking things a lot longer to wake up, but we should see progress by the time June rolls in...

Last year we planted a ton of pansies and violas in widow boxes. Some of the seeds must have fallen below because a few have come back this year. I guess these guys can be perennials in Colorado if you're semi-lazy about your gardening!

J and I saw this plant yesterday in Denver and he was lamenting that we can never get ours to bloom. Lo and behold it is blooming this year after all.

I've also completed a few yarn projects!

This is my husband with the knit scarf I made him. It took forever, but I think I get the whole knit/purl thing.

This is my first big crochet project, an adult-sized granny square blanket for the house. I made the squares and found a joining method online. It is a very delicate blanket, which is not what I was intending, but I think it was fine for my first go.

Finally, I tried my hand at some dog sweaters! These were fun and easy, but I can't seem to get my real dogs to model them, so I had to get Pound Puppy to model for me.

Sorry I haven't been around much this year. I kind of vaguely referred to some stuff in an earlier post, but I will try to update more as my garden grows and I craft more.