May 24, 2012 - From the Ugly to the Pretty

Yesterday I showed the "ugly" in my garden.  Today I'll show some of the "pretty".


 There must be a thousand buds on the yellow lilies this year.


Blossoms on the potato plants are always a welcome sight.  I felt around underneath this plant and found a potato the size of a hen's egg, so it won't be long now!


 Carrots, cabbage, celery, beans, peppers, peas, squash, radishes, cantaloupe, corn, basil, strawberries, raspberries, beets, spinach, onions, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, garlic, parsley, marigolds, allysum, Sweet Williams, zinnias, cone flowers, Shasta daisies, hollyhocks, lilies, Johnny Jump Ups, morning glory, sweet peas......there's a lot going on in the north garden!


 Another view of the north garden, from inside the kennel garden.


I never get tired of looking at the east garden, with its potatoes, onions, chives and flowers.  I reached over the fence and pulled the neighbor's 3' tall milkweeds today, then took scissors and cut the tops off of her 4' high grass that was going to seed.  I hope she notices.


34 comments:

  1. I like the east garden too. So pretty. And it is really sad that your over the fence friend is gone (for so many reasons). Now if I can just get my husband to cut the 9" tall clover in the front yard. The grass is normal height, but the clover shot up recently.

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    1. Annie and Otto dictate when our lawn gets mowed. They are very short to the ground, so when their bellies are dragging, it's time to mow.

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  2. My grandmother has always been prim and proper- a real lady. One day she went out to my parents' home. As she was walking up the walkway to the house, she reaches down and admires the beautiful feathery plants. She asks my mom what they are. My mom just replied, " We haven't mowed yet. That's grass that's gone to seed." My grandmother had never seen such a thing. We had a good laugh over that.

    I have some white lilies open. I love the asiatic lilies.

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  3. Does the city not issue fines when someone doesn't mow their yard? If so maybe a phone call would help get her yard mowed.

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    1. Teresa, she does mow her lawn every week, she just doesn't mow the 3' wide strip along the fence. I kind of wonder if she leaves it as a barrier to keep her little dog away from the fence and away from my two loud barkers. She keeps all the rest of the property in very nice condition, she uses a riding mower, picks up the clippings, trims with a push mower.....just ignores the strip!

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    2. That doesn't make any sense that someone would go through all that trouble and not cut that little strip. My problem with my neighbor is he cuts his grass about twice a year. Once in the fall and once in the spring. Your garden looks lovely.

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    3. Thank you, Kris. My other neighbor uses yellow ropes to hold his fence up! LOL, at least I can grow a bucket of pole beans up the fence to hide it.

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  4. The lilies are very pretty and the potato blossoms are beautiful as well. Soon you will be able to harvest baby potatoes! Mine are just breaking ground. I love your expanded garden and you keep it so tidy. I would have difficulty keeping all that soil weeded.

    So strange that your new neighbor ignores the strip along the fence. I don't blame you for cutting down some of the invasive seeds that will blow into your yard.

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    1. Rachel, Mr. Granny and I were just discussing the expanded garden tonight. He actually complimented me on how nice it looks, as he thought it would be too much for me to care for. It's not at all. I find myself out there "puttering" (I can't even call it working) for a while every day, and it doesn't take long at all to work my way through the entire garden, from one end to the other. If I ever have to leave it for a while, it might get ahead of me. But as long as a spend a half hour or so on it every day, it's just plain enjoyable.

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  5. Your garden looks wonderful Granny! I so love those yellow lilies. I have to agree with the others about your new neighbor....so strange. I'm glad you did a little trimming of her weeds.

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    1. Thank you, Robin. I trimmed them over Mr. Granny's "dead body". He told me to mind my own business, and I told him that her weed seeds blowing into my garden IS my business.

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    2. Oh, and I poured some hot vinegar along the fence line too. I hope that kills something!

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  6. I just had a image of you sneaking over the fence to snip at your neighbors weeds:)

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    1. Haha, Tosh! When my friend Pat lived there, we had a gate put in. I used it today to get to the milkweed. The fence is only 3' high, so it was an easy reach to clip back the grass. I couldn't reach all the way across the width though, so there are still some grass seeds getting ready to invade my veggies. I so want to use the weed eater on it, but Mr. Granny put his foot down on that one. I don't normally pay much attention to what Mr. Granny says, but I think he meant business....I'd better keep peace in the family.

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  7. I feel bad about your 3 foot strip of hell. Neighbors can be so nice to have at times, but get the wrong one and it can be an endless source of irritation. We've had a problem with our "white trash" ones and their dogs barking NON STOP. Nothing worse than trying to work in the yard and listening to that all day long. We've asked them many times to quiet them to no avail. I'm at my wit's end. Just bark, bark, bark.Maybe that's why hubby wants to travel all the time??? LOL!

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    1. Sue, are you my neighbor? I've told those dogs over and over to just shut up, but they mind me just like my kids did! Actually, my yelling at them to be quiet is probably more annoying than their barking. I have at least, finally, taught them "GET IN THE HOUSE!!" And, to their credit, they are only barking at the dog next door who is on the other side of the fence barking at them. Different neighbor. The one with the weeds has a very sweet and well behaved dog.

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  8. You have gorgeous gardens................ I love to garden.....but I am forced to start from scratch this year so not too sure how this will work out but giving it my best shot...next year is another year/......


    Blessings to you both~

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    1. Rebag, the year I had to re-start from scratch turned out to be one of my best gardens, and it didn't even get started until mid July! Good luck with your garden venture.

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  9. Beautiful as always! can't wait to see your baby potatoes.

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    1. Jenny, I can't wait to EAT those baby potatoes!

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  10. I like looking at your pretty east garden too! My garden is coverd with a couple inches of heavy snow and more on the way, UGLY!

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    1. Oh, Elizabeth....snow? That's terrible! OK, I'll not complain any more about the bugs eating my garden. Snow in May would be so much worse.

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    2. Of course, I wouldn't want you to hold me to that....of course I'll continue to complain about the bugs in my garden. That's what I do best ;-)

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    3. I like hearing about your bugs, there's nothing worse than a garden blog where everything is perfect! I think July is the only month we don't usually get snow, but this is depressing, the snow is blowing sideways now. Its 34 degrees so most of the plants will be okay, but I didn't have my peas covered and now they have heavy snow on top of them so they may not survive, since we're supposed to have this weather all weekend. Blah! I'm going to get my winter hat and gloves out and take the dogs for a long run which should make me feel better.

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    4. Your poor garden (and poor you), I hope the peas survive. We are getting sunshine and temps expected to be in the 70s today, but the wind is blowing as usual, so it's drying everything out. Thank heavens we have irrigation water here.

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    5. Peas are so tough, I think they will be okay, I hope the temp stays out of the 20's. It really is nice to have irrigation water where we live also, I mostly use our well for my garden, but my husband uses the irrigation ditch to water his grass. I was reading a garden blogger in MN and she was saying that she MIGHT have to get the hoses out! I guess in MN it rains like every other day and you hardly ever have to water? I can't imagine it, growing up in CA and now living in SW MT, we can't grow anything without watering.

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    6. I had to LOL at your "my garden" and "his grass". It's the same at our house! Of course I have to water "his grass" and edge "his grass". He just mows "his grass" ;-)

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  11. Very pretty indeed. Good luck with the neighbor.

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    1. Stefaneener, she really is a lovely person. I just hate her weedy fence line!

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  12. Thanks, Mrs. P. It seems like I post the same pics over and over, but nothing else is happening in the garden right now :-)

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  13. I love that you cut your neighbor's weeds. I do the same thing. My neighbor has some sort of thistle going to seed right next to the fence on her side and I do not want it to seed into my garden.

    Do you divide your lillies? I inherited a single lily when I moved in, it has since started putting up 2 shoots but I would like for it to continue to multiple and become thicker.

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    1. Vanessa, I planted about 8 lily bulbs there, I think three years ago. I haven't divided them yet, but I'm going to have to as the clump is getting so large. When I originally planted these, my Annie dog dug them all back up. We were getting ready to leave for the winter, so I plopped them into pots of soil and left them outside. When we returned in the spring, I planted them in that spot, which was safe from the dogs. They sure did take off!

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  14. Your garden is looking great!

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