May Flowers...

The flowers in my garden are just as important and rewarding as the vegetables! I am all about having fresh cut flowers around the house as much as possible. I've managed to get it so that I have them for most of the year from cutting flowers in the summer to Holiday arrangements and then forcing flowering trees come winter.

Of course, I have a favorite... I wait for 11 months out of the year for my peonies! When I first showed up at this house & property it was completely overgrown and overwhelming. During that first spring I had one thought "thank God it isn't me keeping up with this!" Famous last words. As overgrown as it was, you can imagine my delight when come early June, I was rewarded with the most incredible peony border. There is a saying that peonies are no fuss, and the fact that they had been neglected for 8 years and were still incredible, shows that. I've tended to them, split them up some and added to them. It's taken a few years for the ones that I dug out to start producing many buds again. This year has to be a banner year - I'm cutting bunches and bunches about every 5 days. I'll be sad when they're gone, and then rewarded again as all the rest of my annuals and perennials start to burst open.

All those gorgeous buds ready to burst open around May 20 (which was very early!):

 

A shot as the early light pink ones are open and the fuchsia are starting to open - I do not know what kind they are. There were 3 varieties here and I added 2. 

One of the bouquets that I get to fill the house with for 3-4 weeks!

 

There are are 2 Siberian Iris here, this purple and yellow is in the main garden. Once I cleaned the garden out, it grew like crazy so I split it up all over the place! 

 Living across the street from a garden center/ farm stand has quite a few benefits! One being that Cindy, the owner, hates to get rid of the end of the season flowers so she ends up loading up my car! This was a flower that I never knew existed and now I don't know what I would do without it at this time of year! She gave me a flat 2 years ago so that I have it scattered about - I love the variegated flower! It's called Malva:

Not to be left out: my poppy! I get a good 6 or 7 buds now. This year we dug up my Mom's and put it in my garden so hopefully next year I'll have them throughout. 

About 2.5 years ago, we thought my parents would not be in their house for another season so we dug up as much as we could and transplanted to a variety of places. I was fortunate enough to receive all of my Mom's roses. We put most of them in my veg garden. This is my favorite. Finally this year I was rewarded with many of the gorgeous, bubble-gum pink flowers with the most delightful scent. Hoping I'll be able to get it to flower like this again later this summer. Roses are something I'm still figuring out. I have black spot all over them right now so they lost leaves. I've fed and treated them with a systemic, which was likely a little late hence the problems.

The vegetable garden is about 95% set. I'll post about what went in there along with some of the preventative measures I'm taking. I've already spotted a few unfriendly guests, which means I have my work cut out for me this season.

Asparagus!

FINALLY! It's been 3 years of waiting, but the wait is over. We have asparagus to eat!

Asparagus is one of the perennial vegetables. Once you put it in, it's there to stay. Which also means you have to select a spot that you don't mind losing. I chose an outer side of one of the vegetable plots - not along the fence. Why wait 3 years you may ask? Well you have to let it develop and grow strong - that's about as scientific as I'm going to get with it. Here is an article about growing it: http://www.gardeners.com/Growing-Asparagus/7343,default,pg.html I chose Jersey Supreme, which is a new variety. Traditional asparagus was called Mary Washington. You had to dig very deep trenches and wait for a while for it to grow. This newer variety is closer to the surface - you dig a trench about 6-12" vs. 2 feet down. You do still slowly fill the trenches as the asparagus grows in the first year. Here is a picture from the first year, 2010. By June the trenches were full and you just let the asparagus grow without cutting it.

Last year we were able to eat it for about 2 weeks. It wasn't much so we didn't really give it away. You eat the really fat ones and then let it go for the rest of the season. It does take up space as it grows tall and looks like bamboo stalks! So this is our first year of an abundance of asparagus! We can eat it until they start to be thin - I'm told once they're the width of a pencil to stop picking. I picked the first ones on Tuesday April 17. I only cut 3 down that day. I went away for a few days, had more crazy April weather - meaning warm - and came back to an asparagus plot growing crazy!

It's still very early in the season and they're just starting to come up. I think it's safe to say that we'll get our fill of asparagus and we'll be sharing lots! So come one, come all and get your asparagus! I can't wait to eat it.

One last little thing... look at what else I came back to:

Peonies gone crazy! This is a good 3 weeks ahead of any other year. It's a good thing I didn't plan a party in June with the peonies blooming!