I showed you last year’s kale already, but it is really blooming its head off right now.  

 

These florets are just like broccoli.  We add them to our salads and soups and everything else we can think of.  A couple of my friends say they don’t grow kale because they don’t like it.  But wait!  It tastes like broccoli when it blooms.  And our broccoli still has 6-8 weeks before we get broccoli florets.  That in itself is good enough reason to grow a couple kale plants in the garden.  Or, as pretty as it is, grow it in your flower bed.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The Dill from last year is coming up in this flower pot.  That tells me that it’s time to plant dill seeds in the garden.

 

We have had a few cool days and nights, but when last year’s dill starts coming up, I know that the ground is warming up and I can plant some seeds in the garden.

 

I have already planted carrot, radish, cilantro, and beet seeds in the ground, and they are all coming up.  I will show you when they are big enough to register on my camera.  Right now, they are tiny, wispy things.

 

Oh, and that heart shaped leafy thing in the picture is Morning Glory.  It is coming up EVERYWHERE!!!  I will leave it in the pot, next to the corner of the house.  I can train it up a string when it starts vining, and it will be pretty.  But the rest of it is getting weeded OUT as fast as I can.  I love morning glory, but not all over the garden where I am growing food.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I know you know this tree when it has leaves, but do you know it now?  

 

It is Sassafras, and they are blooming now.  The flowers are small, yellow, and kinda fuzzy-looking, all over the tree.

 

I hope you notice some in your travels.  

 

 

HAPPY SPRING!!!

 

This Lilac is in the Park.  There are several planted there, but this is the only white one.  We stopped and smelled them all, and each one is a little different.

 

If I were in a movie theatre and somebody sat next to me smelling like this, I’d have to excuse myself and move.  But outside, in the fresh air, this fragrance is divine.  

 

I will try to get another picture of a lilac Lilac when Nancy’s blooms.

 

 

HAPPY SPRING!!!

 

Imagine being able to grow in soil like this.  Well, Violets don’t care.  They will grow anywhere.

 

And right now they are blooming all over.  I hope you get to see some on your walks.  They are always good for a smile.

 

 

HAPPY SPRING!!!

 

I always get excited when I see periwinkle blooming.  This is just part of a hillside full of periwinkle.

 

It is perennial and pretty, and fun to say:  periwinkle.

 

 

HAPPY SPRING!!!

 

I just love the color of Creeping Jenny.  It is perennial, dying back in the winter, and coming back in the spring.

 

I don’t remember how I came upon my first bit of Creeping Jenny, probably a 4 inch pot from Home Depot.  But I love to transplant stuff, so now it is creeping all over the place.  There is some next to our steps, holding back the hillside, some in the flower garden, and some in this planter that I fill with marigolds.  

 

It’s not edible (that I know of) so I keep it out of the garden, beds with arugula and oregano, and pots with edible plants in them.  I usually go for edibles, but this is so pretty and so easy to grow, I just can’t help myself.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Now, we do NOT eat this, but Gizmo does.  I know that it is edible, and some people make tea using catnip, but I don’t like it.  It smells like soap to me, and that is not a flavor I want to eat or drink.

 

Catnip is a kind of mint, so you have to be careful where you plant it.  It will spread, and its seeds are prolific too.  But we have this perfect spot.  Gizmo can get to it easily, it acts like a foundation planting around the bottom deck, and best of all…the deer don’t bother it.  Furthermore, it is perennial and pretty.

 

Can’t beat that!!!

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I threw arugula seeds into this bed on February 9th, same day that I planted cabbages, kales, broccoli, etc.  

 

This is how it looks now.  We started harvesting little leaves to put in with our salad greens.

 

I love this time of year, when everything starts greening up.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are not from up north, but if you are, you probably recognize this plant.  It is Rhubarb just emerging after the winter.

 

Years ago, Hilda (who is from Ohio) divided her Rhubarb and offered some to me.  Of course, I love growing plants, so I took some and planted it in a shady part of the garden.  It has been growing there ever since.  I divide it once in a while, and offer the extra plants to my gardening friends.  

 

Jon remembers his grandmother in Seattle, when he was little, making rhubarb sauce and he loved it.  So I grow it, and harvest stems when they get big, and he makes a delicious rhubarb sauce (kinda like apple sauce) and has it as dessert.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!