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.

Happy Lammas!

Today marks the official crossquarter day of Lammas or Lughnasadh, when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Leo. It’s the first of three harvest festivals (Fall Equinox and Samhain/Halloween) —  and a good time to count your blessings. I’ve just had a full morning harvesting and tending the garden. I love this late Summer time of butterflies, bees, fresh tomatoes, cosmos and hummingbird mint. Here are some shots from today’s garden:

Robinhood roses in fragrant bloom

Casablanca lilies

hummingbird mint, orange zinnias and coreopsis

Garden Tower 2 with newly installed plant nannies

As lettuce went to seed, I converted some of those pockets to plant nannies with Pellegrino bottles filled with hose water. I’d wondered if this would cut down on my watering time, and indeed, it has! The lower pockets stay as moist as the upper ones, now, which means less frequent watering and happier plants.

So grateful for a very productive and flowering garden this year, for all the magical bird sightings in our yard, and for the new (free!) iPhone 11 with the huge camera upgrade. I’m still learning to resize photos so I don’t overwhelm my WordPress storage or slow down site loading too much. Meanwhile, between that and newly installed fiber optic lines to the house, it feels like a new Universe coming into being.

Blessed Be, and be the blessing!

Hair and Garden Update

Whew, it’s hot and HUMID here in Michigan! Here’s a little photo update of the garden in mid-late Summer. This tends to be a time of fewer blooms. The trick is regular deadheading (popping off the spent flowers). Many plants will rebloom to complement new bloomers like hummingbird mint, hibiscus, hostas, echinacea and cosmos. Before long, it will be aster and mum season.

The garden continues to yield more produce for less work, so I’m liking that! Between massive amounts of greens from the enclosed Garden Tower 2 and cucumbers, squash, herbs, banana peppers, carrots and eggplant in the open beds, every day brings a sizable harvest. It’s not the over-abundance I used to need to deal with while quasi-farming in Goshen: rather, a steady supply of fresh flavors and nutrients.

Some photos from today:

dinner plate hibiscus

 

Happy Solstice + A Sky Alert

In honor of Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, I thought I’d post some sunshine yellows from the garden. Very soon after Solstice, we’ve got a Solar Eclipse at 2:41 a.m. Eastern US time, plus Father’s Day tomorrow. Sending heartfelt blessings to all.

For those interested in an in depth sky weather report, Astrobutterfly does a great job here. As usual, key spots in my natal chart and life get activated by this eclipse. It’s really uncanny how this keeps happening in such precise ways. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy these sunshine yellows:

Happy Summer Solstice!