This year’s Garden Party started off on an interesting note. I sent out one invitation for a Saturday Garden Party and my initial responses were “Regret that I can’t make it.” So I assumed it would be a more intimate gathering. But then I had to change the day to Sunday as I had a few kid related commitments I had forgotten about. Sunday seemed to work out much better for all the ladies, and as the RSVP date got closer, pretty much everyone who was invited said they could come!
But a few things happened that were putting a damper on my party preparations. The darn rabbits were eating all my flowers – just decimating them. Gladiola stalks chomped to the base. Stalks of roses with tons of buds mowed down, and huge dahlia stalks with buds cut at the base and just thrown aside. These rabbits were ruining my patch of flowers! Continue reading Prepping for our Garden Party 2016→
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” From William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. This is so true! Whether it is called a rose or any other name, it wouldn’t make a difference – a rose is a rose and it is gorgeous! No matter what the color, the variety, fragrance or not, there is something about roses that is pure floral joy. Continue reading “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose…→
Our veggie patch with our raised beds are prepped and ready to be planted with new veggie seedlings. It’s mid April already and we need to get started soon. We have been eagerly waiting for the Master Gardener’s Plant Sale this year as we had such great success with the veggie plants we bought from them last year.
Have you heard of Ixia? It is a little flower bulb with flowers the size of a black bean, and it blooms in the spring just like freesias and daffodils.
It’s early spring and all the plants are leafing out with fresh, tender new leaves. The garden is looking green, healthy, and plump with lush juicy flower buds all ready to bloom in a matter of weeks. I’m ready for the spring flower show!
The easiest bulbs to grow, freesias are spectacular spring bulb flowers just like daffodils. These bulbs are small, but the flowers are stupendous. They come in a rainbow of colors and have the sweetest fragrance. Freesias epitomize the ultimate cottage style flower. Freesias grow freely under any conditions. They do well planted in shade, a sunny spot, and even in pots.
2015 was the first year we had a veggie patch. And we planted tons of veggie plants. It was loads of fun for all of us to watch the plants grow and produce a boatload of vegetables. We even hosted a couple of veggie picking parties with our cousins. Here are a few pictures of our veggie picking party. Continue reading Veggie Picking with the Family→
After a month of planting seedlings and new veggie plants we finally saw the fruits of our labor. To celebrate our inaugural bounty of veggies, we had an evening of wine and cheese up in the veggie patch. Here are the pics. Continue reading Celebrating the First Harvest from our Veggie Patch→
We finally got around to building a vegetable patch last year on our hill. This little hill of ours has amazing views of the surrounding hills and mountains, and tons of sunshine; perfect conditions for growing vegetables. I asked my gardener to build the veggie patch, told him exactly what I was looking for, and after 3 months of flattening parts of the hill, tilling the soil, trucking in loads of compost and soil, the veggie patch was finally done. Here are the pictures of our newly built veggie patch. Continue reading Our New Veggie Patch→
Last year was the first year we had a veggie patch. And as novice vegetable gardeners we just went nuts buying a ton of seedlings, not realizing that those tiny seedlings grow into huge vegetable plants with tons and tons of vegetables!! I had so many vegetables I was giving them away to friends to the point where one of my friends said she didn’t want any more! It was loads of fun for all of us to go up the hill to check on our veggies, pick what was ready, and bring them down to cook or eat in a salad. We even hosted a couple of veggie picking parties with our cousins. Here are a bunch of pictures from our 2015-veggie harvest! Continue reading Vegetables from the Garden→
