Garden and Other Updates

Happy Friday! I haven’t posted garden photos in awhile for a few reasons. Mostly, I’ve been super busy with sessions. Last week, we had a wonderful two-day visit from my sweet friend Pamela. We’ve known each other in several iterations, having first met when we both lived in Santa Fe, NM back in 2002. Then we reconnected when be both lived in Monterey, CA in 2007, and periodically on my visits to Pennsylvania since she moved about an hour and a half away from my mom and sister. I think the last time we saw each other was here in Kalamazoo, back in 2018.

It was soooo nice to reconnect. If you happen to live anywhere near Philadelphia, Pamela gives the best massages of anyone I’ve ever known. Just a heads up: you’re in for a treat. No massage on this visit since she flew here on Reiki-infused planes, but we had a great recharge in a visit that stretched longer than linear time.

In addition to enjoying garden goodies, David, Pamela and I went on a history of Kalamazoo tour, and Pamela and I got some nature time the next day:

In and around her visit, I’ve been super busy with sessions related to all the intense astro energies affecting everyone right now. Things seem to be settling down ever so slightly, but I feel like they’ll pick up again soon. I either broke or sprained my left pinky toe yesterday, and that has forced me to slow WAY down. The injury came after I received that message in several other forms but kept pushing it back. Now I have no excuses and no guilt about moving more slowly. I should also have time to finish a portal painting commissioned over a year and a half ago but perfectly timed for right now.

The garden continues blooming like crazy. I love this late summer phase when the front yard looks like a busy airport. So many happy pollinators! Here are today’s photos:

I didn’t take any backyard photos this morning and don’t want to hobble back there with my phone now. Good harvests continue. I filled a huge colander with aronia berries from one bush. I’ll need to harvest the others tomorrow. I brought in five 16″ purple long beans (so much fun!), as well as a zucchini larger than my forearm. We’ve got all the ingredients for another round of ratatouille tonight or tomorrow, and I can’t wait to try some celery. Kalamazoo used to be famous for its celery farms, and I have to say, I’ve never had such beautiful celery success as I have here. We must have just the right amount of something here to make it thrive.

Other than that, I’ll be icing my poor foot, doing sessions and working on a portal. Wishing everyone a beautiful weekend!

Garden Update: Purples, Whites, Yellows and Magenta

Each day brings subtle and vibrant changes in the garden. This week shifted the purple spotlight from chives, sage, irises, and giant alliums to salvia and clematis. The backyard garden’s gone a bit nuts in its abundance:

That trough bed is overstuffed but looks like it will produce well. I’ve got a dwarf tomato plant, basil, two different types of amaranth, purple mustard, radishes, carrots, peppers, zucchini, some unknown squash, sugar snap peas, yard long beans, cucumbers, sunflowers, various greens, radish, nasturtium, celery, zinnias and soybeans in there. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. Some of these are nearing the end of their lives, while I succession sowed other seeds that are just tiny sprouts right now.

The lilies, echinacea and hyssop next to the trough will flower when summer gets going. Right now, dianthus and clematis wow with pops of color amidst the edibles:

For once, I’m glad to have part of the garden tucked behind the shed. I goofed! I bought plant starts for personal sized butternut squash, and for some reason, I thought the plants would also be “personal sized.” Joke’s on me: those squash plants are on the move! It doesn’t look good, but you can only see when you get close. I added makeshift trellis extenders to catch the vines trying to spread all over the lawn. In another week or so, that crate and those extenders will be covered in green.

Behind the first bed, you can see the white trellis has not gotten any sweet potato vine action. They’re not too happy back there, but the garlic, mustard, sunflowers, and lettuce are thriving. I keep telling those sweet potatoes, “Hey, if you grow UP, you’ll get more light. Stretch, baby, stretch. You can DO it!” But so far they haven’t. We’re supposed to have some 97(!) degree days soon. Maybe those sweet potatoes will console me for all the lettuce that wants to bolt.

Up front, I’m loving pops of white throughout the garden. These don’t show up well in photographs, but the arugula flowers, spirea blossoms, and chamomile make me so happy! The daisies give an idea of how bright the whites can get. I think these look like sunny side up eggs:

The “yolks” should match the lilies behind them once they bloom. The chamomile showed up a little against the evergreen and salvia. I’m not sure the mini evergreen to the left is supposed to be that color, but it complements the yellow centers.

The sedum surprised me with so many yellow blooms this year. Here you see it in front of button flower that echoes the form and color of flowering chives:

In addition to purples, bright whites and yellows, magenta yarrow and dianthus add so much vibrance to the front yard:

I have multiples of most plants because the eye likes to dance around the garden, seeking repeated colors and forms. It’s hard to choose which shots to share, but these bring a little of my garden to you. I hope some of the joy and relaxation transfer. If you were local, I’d give you lettuce, but virtual visitors get flowers. 🙂

Garden Update ~ It’s Iris Time

The irises have begun to bloom!

The columbine have also outdone themselves this year, blooming in different colors, too:

I saw our resident frog a couple weeks ago, so I bought him a turtle water dish on our recent trip. I put it near the area where I saw him. He does such a fantastic job patrolling for mosquitos and helps with the cabbage moth eggs on my kale. I wanted to show some appreciation!

The harvests have been tasty and colorful, too. This one formed the base of Tuesday’s lunch:

So far, this is my favorite year of gardening in Kalamazoo. I feel like I finally have “just the right amount of too much” garden again. It’s not nearly as crazy as my Goshen mini farm, but, wow, we’ve got a lot of produce hidden in plain view. I do love unusually colored foliage!

Crocuses!

The first flowers of Dra’Faven have bloomed:

Winter Garden Update

I miss gardening, so I thought I’d give a quick Winter Garden Update. Longer days and lots of worm compost finally triggered the window greens to start growing:

Unfortunately, these self-watering trays seem to breed gnats. We don’t have too many, but it’s a little annoying. Next time we get a day in the upper 20’s, I’ll probably put the trays outside for a few hours to get more light and hopefully discourage the gnats from hanging around in ideal conditions. The greens will handle the cold, but I don’t think the gnats will like it. I haven’t decided if I’ll repeat this experiment next year, or if I’ll do this easy peasy and perhaps more productive setup in the backyard:

Meanwhile, indoor gardening livens up the January house. Our Christmas cactus continues to bloom, and this succulent also offers a yellow blast of cheer:

Crazy Plant Lady loves her blooms! Wishing you some cozy cheer from gray and snowy Kalamazoo.

Last Evening’s Garden

Just some flower photos before last evening’s sunset:

Lush

Just a few garden pix today, plus a reminder. If you missed spring and summer planting, you still have time to plant cool weather crops like spinach, lettuce, mustard and bok choy. I started some inside today to replace lettuce and spinach that already bolted.

The Garden Tower 2 continues to produce loads of greens.

A few varieties of lettuce remain, and I need to harvest the New Kuroda carrots to see how well these shorties grew. I knew I wouldn’t have room for long carrots, but tried these as an experiment in the shallow top. Most of the tower filled in with collards, kale, basil, nasturtium, and chard.

Red hot poker compliments the Garden Tower 2:

As the orange daylilies fade away, echinacea (purple coneflower) and hyssop bloom in the same pot. The bees approve!

Recent Garden Photos

From the ever evolving garden tapestry …

… including the gardener with the largest shade hat she could find. Those are my glasses starting to turn into sunglasses outside, not black eyes, but you can see how much shade the hat provides. The glasses would normally be dark in sunlight, and my face is normally as white as my hand. This Irish faery doesn’t tan.

Early Spring Garden

Bright colors and cool, rainy temps look and feel like early Spring! Some shots from Dra’Faven:

hyacinths, weeping cherry and forsythia precede chive and daffodil blooms

hellebores and holly

dianthus and vinca

seeds sprouting indoors and outside …

Garden Tower planted on one side with cool weather greens

The spinach has doubled in size since Sunday!

It felt so good to get my hands in the dirt again. I started a bunch of seeds at the New Moon and then couldn’t resist filling 1/4 of the Garden Tower with lettuce and spinach starts. I also direct seeded gourmet lettuce and carrots in the top of the Garden Tower, as well as in the front yard beds, among hyacinths, green onions and chives.

I have yet to harvest, but gardening season has officially begun! How are things growing in your corner of the world?

Signs of Spring

I spent Easter Sunday clearing away old yard debris in preparation for the new Spring growth. That felt like a symbolic way to honor the energies of resurrection and rebirth. Now we’ve got some 70 and 80 degree days, urging me to plant seeds. I can probably plant some outside, despite us being over a month away from final frost date. I also figured out a new indoor seed starting and LED light fixture system, which I’ll set up on the New Moon.

Meanwhile, some photos from this morning:

hyacinths in bloom, with more shoots to come

daffodils blowing in the wind

sedum poking through last year’s growth, plus irises, onions and a pot of mint (still sleeping)

rhubarb

young nettles in a huge pot, getting ready for pesto

more daffodils bobbing in the wind

So many things seem so surreal right now, but Nature continues its cycles, bringing beauty, color and cheer. Enjoy each moment! All have purpose.