[Cross-posted at
My Left Wing]
Good morning, and may your bulbs not be frost nipped. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging, First Anniversary Edition.
Yes, it was on a Saturday one year ago that I posted these fateful words:
The first daffodils are in bloom. Sprinkles of johnny jump-ups all over. It's a beautiful morning, still a little too cool to work outside, but I'm syched -- go out and clean up, plug some more bulbs in the ground, scatter poppy seeds, iPod blaring Grateful Dead in my ear. My 4th try at a daphne cneorum has survived the first year -- yeah! Gonna try taking air-grafted cuttings from my huge Carol Mackey daphne this year. Moonflowers are already started, tomatoes come next.
In the tradition of Friday Night Cat Blogging, how about some Saturday Morning Garden Blogging? I'll show you mine, you show me yours.
And we've been meeting here every Saturday since.
Well, today's weather will be not as good that of a year ago, with highs only reaching the 40's, and last week's blast of arctic cold has slowed the blooms on my spring bulbs down by a week or two (and some of the foliage is a little frost nipped). But yesterday we had highs in the upper 50's, and tomorrow we're supposed to get more of the same, warming into the low 60's by mid-week. I have bulbs up everywhere, including the back yard, which runs about a month behind the front yard. Is this a great time of year or what?
One thing my weekly appointment with all ya'll accomplished was to force me to do something I'd been meaning to do for years, but never got around to. Having a commitment (even if only to me) to keep up garden blogging got me out with my camera every week to document what was going on outside. I've also learned a lot from you, as well as figuring out how to use the damned camera!
The picture of the blue flax is one of my favorites from last year. And here are a few more:
I was reminded of this ladybug picture yesterday as I cleared out old achillea and came across an early-rising ladybug.
Who can resist peonies? I caught the early morning sunlight just right for this photo.
I really liked this picture of a zucchetta flower. Too often I forget that vegetables can be beautiful ornamentals -- which is why I'm considering putting the eggplant in the front flowerbeds this year!
Clary sage is such a magnificent plant -- and, with effort, it photographs very well, too. I took many shots before I got this one.
I've noticed that too many of my shots concentrate on single blossoms; this shot of a bed with blooming asters, monarda and daylilies was an exception.
Most of the summer's diaries included a shot or two of my garden helper-cats. Arwen the Terrible usually falls within camera range; one day, however, I got the rare treat of catching Schmutzige Katze posing prettily on the back porch.
And this was the best picture I took last Summer. I'd been shooting madly at a couple of swallowtails for a half hour or so, and always they were just out of range, or they'd fly off just as I got them in focus, or they'd flap their wings, or Arwen the Terrible would pounce on them. I'd given up when my son Ian noticed one that had landed on the butterfly bush just off the back porch, with its wings perfectly exposed.
I did get a bit of garden clean up done yesterday, and I'm so looking forward to the season ahead. And to many more Saturday mornings spent garden blogging.