Crossed Poppies and Garden Changes

 The final blooms of the frilly poppies are underway now. There are crosses of frilly pink poppies with breadseed poppies, and they are huge! Even the poppy seed heads are huge as against my wrist in the above photo. That is the breadseed influence.

I am saving the seeds of the crosses to see what they do next year, since they will be crossed yet again.

 I finally got rid of the gravel in the garden. It used to be against the sidewalk and ran like an island through the middle of the yard. Walking on gravel is like walking on marbles in my book.  I hated it, and I so happy that it is gone.  It is one of those little things that I am glad that I can cross off of the list!

After the rock was removed, the area really opened up, so I decided to increase the larger circle bed by another foot in diameter.  It added more space to plant more vegetables! Dance of joy!

 The columbine seed that I picked from a flower from a trip to Taos, New Mexico in 2010 came up last year, but it was only recently when it flowered that I realized that it was the yellow columbine from Taos, and not the red and yellow mix seed that I had planted there since. 

 The iris are almost finished.  This is the last of the iris show.  It was magnificent!

Now as you can see in the photo in the white bed against the wall, the tomatoes are starting to come on strong, and they will be the focus of the garden for the next few months. I have 33 tomato plants this year!  

 Here is another shot of tomatoes in the bed next to the patio.

I have been looking for patio chaise lounge chairs for over a year.  I wanted something that did not have the planned obsolescence built into them, like so many of the chairs do now with the grasscloth type fabric used as the chair seats and backs.  That wouldn't last more than one season in my yard! So I found these chaise lounge chairs at Lowes, and I can still use the red cushions that I made a few years ago!

 Here is the current look of the new bed I that I am working on to beautify the area next to the back entrance gate (the personal development area of the Feng Shui bagua).  It is planted with honeysuckle, different cannas and a climbing Don Juan rose.  I have marked the wall for the installation of the wooden lattice, and that will be installed before long.

 This is they way the new bed ties together with the rest of the garden.

The lambs ears are flowering and they are so inviting with their softness.

Enjoy your day!

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Moon in Leo

The new raised bed is finished and you can see how it fits next to the patio.

Here is the vantage from another angle.

Husband and I moved the whiskey barrels by sliding them on rails made by tree stake poles.

Here is a pretty cool vantage point. Next will be filling the bed in with black dirt. Right now there are a half-dozen Mexican Primrose in the center of the bed. They need to be relocated but not today when the Moon is in Leo, considered barren and dry and there is to be no planting. But it is a time to harvest, cultivate, control pests and weeds, and build raised beds!

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Chi Happy and Free

Today was the day to start the new raised bed for the winter greens that are ready to plant out from the greenhouse. I consider the principles of Feng Shui when incorporating new elements into the garden. There are angles created by the shape of the box that were a consideration in it's design and placement. There would be no chards (cutting Chi) pointing to the door of the house or to the center of the pathways that approach the bed from various directions.

Even the length of the side board was considered so that it wouldn't feel as though it blocked Chi when walking along the curving path. The wood will eventually grey in color and visually become an extention of the patio. Originally I had considered redwood but the color would overwhelm this area of the garden.

The front board requires miter cuts before it can be installed and then the whole frame will be brought forward and settled in.

In the garden there are penstemmons with their rosey leaf tips preparing for spring.

And here is a Firecracker Penstemmon already in bloom.

Here is a Perky Sue and the leaves of California Poppy hinting at what is to come!

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!