While the kids were watching "Happy Feet" for the third time since last night, I ran outside to check on the peas and broccoli rabe, and anything else I might find in a hurry.
First of all,
No peas yet. We have six of these 5-gallon buckets, and Bill planted peas in all of them. This is the only orange one, and with the blue tarp to one side, it made at least a colorful image, even without anything green visible beneath the row cover. No broccoli rabe, either.
Some new leaf growth on our monster rose. The monster rose started out as a tiny little rose plant in a 5 inch pot that we bought at a plant sale years ago. There was this house near the tiny place we rented before we bought our current home... The husband had a little greenhouse in one corner of the yard and GORGEOUS flower beds covered most of the rest of the property. Every August he thinned out his gardens and potted up the overflow and sold it. We bought a lot of irises from him and two rose bushes. They were just little bitty things, and we had no idea what they would grow into. I thought they were mini roses, I think.
Well, there's nothing mini about this one. See the thick end that's obviously been trimmed? Bill trimmed that last year. It was NEW GROWTH last year. You know Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors?" Well this is her cousin, Wild Crazy Rose. No matter how much Bill cuts her back, she just spreads and stretches and shoots out a ton of new growth every year. If left untended, she would take over the block. Before lunch time.
I like her - she has a ton of small pink blossoms all summer - they have no fragrance, but they look beautiful, sprawling along the fence and planning a mutiny against Bill with the other roses.
And this is the other "mini" rose we bought way back when. This one doesn't sprawl - she's much more docile and content to stay at the corner of this garden near the driveway. Again, there's new leaf growth. The flowers are a funky orangy pink. Not my favorite color, but she blooms a lot and really brightens up the yard.
And while we're visiting roses, this is Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln is a long stem rose bush with beautiful dark red blooms. And they smell like roses. (Okay, duh. But - oh, man, these flowers smell like other roses wish they smelled. Yeah. I'm reaching. But still. Really. So very fragrant.) Bill bought Mr. Lincoln a couple of years ago because this variety is incredibly hardy and our climate isn't always the friendliest for roses. If I remember right, the other roses we'd moved from Bill's mom's gardens after she passed away still hadn't settled in and started to flourish, so I think Mr. Lincoln was mostly a gift from Bill to himself to keep from going insane about the other roses.
And it's truly hardy. I don't think Mr. Lincoln is going anywhere. Which is fine with me. Don't tell the others, but I think he's my favorite.
And this is Emmett. Our garden gargoyle. He's currently residing under one of the two forsythia plants we bought last year. He seems content.
This was supposed to be our first daffodil this year. Well, techincally it still is, but last weekend a small child (one of ours or possibly the little boy from across the street - he and Alex were running around through the yard with sticks and it's possible this is when tragedy struck.) But even with a nearly broken stem, this little daffodil bloomed anyway.
And finally (for today) - little bits of green peeking through the dead leaves and debris in our little strawberry patch. We planted new ones last year but weren't supposed to harvest any in order for the plants to get strong and established. This year we can pick them. Yay!
And that's it for tonight.
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